My ideal weekend….or why i love watching films so much.

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Natalie

A couple of weeks ago, on a very sunny weekend, I sat in a darkened room in London with around 50 other strangers and watched clips from films, most of them,  unjustly, long forgotten.  I was attending the Guardian Masterclass in Film Appreciation hosted by my favourite film critic, Danny Leigh (co-host of Film 2013), with other sessions presented by Xan Brookes and Peter Bradshaw the Guardian Film Critics (I must start listening to their podcasts) and Catherine Bray also from Film 2013 and editor of Film4.com.

We looked at the lives and works of 10 (and a half) giants of the screen*, and it was everything I could have hoped for and so so so so more.  I learnt so much.  About film-makers I didn’t know about, such as the French director Henri-Georges Clouzot, and cinematographer James Wong Howe.  I learnt more about directors I was already familiar with; Terrence Malick, David Lynch, Michael Haneke and Nora Ephron. I learnt there are some films that you know already, that have been part of your own family film history  but you never knew the director’s name, such as Douglas Sirk, and Imitation of Life.  A film viewed by my mother’s side as I began to fall in love with watching stories unfold on the screen.  Imitation of Life is about class and race and most importantly about the unfathomable depths of unconditional love a mother has for her child.  It was certainly a story that resonated with my own mother because she had recanted the plot to me hundreds times before.  Danny talked on a number of occasions about the emotional impact of films, how the editing can make your heart thump, or how a scene can remind you of falling in love.  How certain stories chime with you because of experiences in your life. This for me watching Intimation of Life with my mum (and other such wonderful  melodramas as Gone with the Wind, Mildred Pearce,Little Women) is cinema as an heirloom, as memories and emotions to be handed down from generation to generation as importantly as furniture or valuables.  This weekend I took my own son to the cinema as a treat for him finishing his SATs.  We went to the Everyman Cinema, newly opened in Leeds, and relished Star Trek Into Darkness (Benedict Cumberbatch was truly magnificent as always) on those delightfully comfy sofas.  Harry whispered to me during the opening credits that this was the best 3D experience he had ever had, and I thought on the way home, perhaps this would be a treasured memory for Harry too.  I guess that is up to time and Harry though.  It was certainly a wonderful experience for me.

Also on the weekend I learnt about the magical art of the editor and we were shown clips from Scorsese classics Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas, as he had a very close and creative partnership with Thelma Schoonmaker. It was so good to see these again.  The  chosen scene from Goodfellas’ was the one which so evocatively uses the ending of Layla, the wailing guitar accompanied by the melancholic piano whilst we are shown the gruesome results of double-crossing the mafia.   That music has stayed in my head all week, providing me with my own soundtrack, albeit to gentle rhythms of domesticity, making packed lunches and despatching the children to school, yet these images seemed incongruously inappropriate compared to those of wiseguys deep frozen in refrigerated lorries.  Martin Scorsese was one the first to use this juxtaposition of image and music, the gentle music seems to make the violence more intense, more graphic, more brutal.  He came up the idea simply because of all the music he heard playing in the street from surrounding apartments and restaurants when he was growing up.  Why do I spent any time watching films not up to this standard, maybe it was better to re watch masterpieces over and over than to watch junk just because it was unseen.   I guess there is a close analogy with food, the gourmet meal and Mcdonalds, I guess sometimes you just feel like a Big Mac (or should I say royale with cheese!).  This was brought home hard last night when I was made to watch Salt with Angelina Jolie, a nonsense espionage action piece. Eating the cardboard box the big mac comes in would have been more satisfying.

If you can’t remember just how sublime that scene is, here it is again, try to watch for the magical editing by Thelma Schoonmaker, but she is so good, it is nigh on impossible, it as her work transports you through the narrative.

It really does seem that way to me, it is done so well it appears invisible and yet it is in the editors’ suite that the film is made.  Danny Leigh said he saw the editor rather like the drummer in the band, there to give the foundations, the rhythm and pace of the film.  As with so much of the art of film-making my head finds it impossible to comprehend these concepts,  where does the director end and the editor begin, how does the writing on the script become a real world?  I can only marvel at the creativity and imagination of these people and be so grateful they produce these works that I can relish and enjoy so entirely. It is said Cinema is the newest art form.  For me it is the closest thing to magic being real.

All the speakers were so generous with their time and knowledge and very open (and kind) to our comments and views.  But the most fulsome praise must go to Danny Leigh.  Just as he is on Film 2013, he is warm, likeable and so incredibly knowledgable, encyclopedically so. His recall of movie scenes was at lightning speed.  A statement from the floor about any film would lead to a momentary hand to the head and then he would produce a description or analysis of that scene, always with extreme pertinence.   He is so eloquence too,  his own use of language, extensive, funny and so descriptive, verged on the lyrical, just hear his description of Marilyn Monroe as “Cinema in a Woman”.  That tells you everything doesn’t it?  Of all the millions and millions of words used to describe Marilyn, has she ever been summarised so beautifully or succinctly.

Cinema in a Woman

If you are ever stuck for a weekend’s entertainment I can’t recommend this weekend highly enough.  Danny took opinions from everyone about people working in film that could be used on the next masterclass.  Suggestions included Pedro Almodovar to Billy Wilder, from Jane Campion to John Huston, and lots of  world Cinema.  Every one sounds so tantalising, two more suggestions and Danny was creating the idea of a session comparing the films and professional rivalry of Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino.  Yes I want to rebook, before this course I thought I knew something about film and film-making, I realise I know so little, but I want to know so, so, so much more.  Right if you will excuse me I have some film watching to do, off to rearrange my Lovefilm list right now.

 

*  The full list of the 10 (and half) Screen Giants we looked at were :- Henri-Georges Clouzot, Terrence Malick, Douglas Sirk, Buster Keaton, David Lynch, James Howe Wong, Nora Ephron Thelma Schoomaker, Charlie Chaplin, Michael Haneke, Elizabeth Taylor and I have new respect and admiration for all of them.

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Frank Turner – The Refectory Leeds Uni Friday 19 April 2013

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Natalie

Last night I achieved one of my ambitions.

Ever since I started gigging at the tender age of 14 I have wanted to watch a band on the balcony of the Refectory at Leeds University, (one of my favourite venues along with The Apollo in Manchester and the Rock City in Nottingham).  Yes since I was 14, I have looked up at the people leaning over above my head, and wondered who they were and how they managed to be there.  I always thought they must be with band and lead glamorous and exciting lives.   And last night when we gave our names for the guest list, the girl said “These are for the balcony” almost as if we would be disappointed.  Of course I managed to walk away very nonchalantly as if this happened all the time but inside my 14-year-old self was whooping and cheering and clapping her teenage heart out.

So up to the balcony we went, and it was not a let down, in fact I think I am now spoilt for life.  It was amazing.  Front Row.  Perfect view of the stage.  I love the Refectory at Leeds Uni because it is large enough to create an exciting atmosphere and yet intimate enough to allow you to feel part of the gig.    And Frank Turner and the Stepping Souls put on a show that takes over you entirely until you are dancing, sweat running down your face, arms aloft with pure exhilaration.

I had been lent his album, England Keep My Bones and I must admit it didn’t grab me at first, but it was a true grower.  Somehow though those tunes, and then the words seeped into my head and my heart and drew me in.   Slowly at first but then very surely and entirely.  So by the time an offer of tickets came up I was very excited.

Frank Turner is an artist you need to see live.  The album is wonderful, but he is at his best live.   His music is folky singer-songwriter, a man in a white shirt, jeans and his guitar. There is a similarity to Billy Bragg in sound, but live the power and energy of the band is surprising.  It is raw, intense and infectious.  The bassist player rocked out in a way that could be described as freaking out, such was his passion.   There were quieter songs too, when it was just Frank on his own, just his voice and his guitar and he held the audience in the palm of his hand.

As I was above the crowd I watched the patterns they made.  The way they stood so patiently before the band came on, gave no clue to how much of a moshpit it would become the moment the first chord was played.  It was like watching storm coming, waves of people crashing into each other. But a very good-natured English storm,  a couple of times people were on the floor, but  hands were extended straight away to pick them up. You could imagine the “sorrys” “no no my fault”.  They would make massive circles, and then all run into the middle during a very rousing chorus, like an adult and quite physical version of the oke cokey!  They also all sat down during one song and then jumped up in unison.  Frank commented on the sitting down thing, so it must be a regular occurance at his gigs.

I don’t know all the songs but I recognised Peggy Sings the Blues, I am Disappeared, Recovery (the new single), Wessex Boy, Glory Hallelujah and my favourite If I ever stray.  They were on stage from 9.15 until 10.45 with customary 3 song encore taking it to 11 pm.

The music, it is folk,  but with the power and energy of punk.  The tunes made me think of sea shanties.  When the crowd were singing along with Frank, word-perfect, maybe an English Pogues is the closest description I could find.  There is something spine-tingling isn’t there listening to a crowd that love the artist performing so much and you hear the love and the passion in every syllable.  These treasured songs listened to over and over again, in the car, in their bedrooms, in the headphones.  As Frank says Rock and Roll has saved us, there is a song for every time we win and every time we lose too.  Frank Turner and the Stepping Souls certainly won my heart last night.

This is a version of If I ever stray recorded at Wembley, Frank’s voice does sound a little hoarse but it doesn’t detract from the performance.  Do download England Keep My Bones, you won’t be disappointed in these English folk songs, these lyrical ballards telling tales of our ancient and modern times.

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Amour

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Natalie

 

A couple of nights ago I watched Michael Haneke’s much-lauded film Amour, in the original French, without subtitles.  Now this wasn’t an act of great pretension, I hadn’t thought that after four series of Spiral, the gritty Parisian cop drama that my schoolgirl French could handle a two-hour examination of love in its own language.  No my wii box that has been hacked to play dvds  wasn’t up to the job and able to provide the English translation.

So with great intrepidation I proceeded, and of course I will have missed much of the subtleties just like my time in Paris as a youngster I could understand the greetings and the beginnings and ends of sentences, alloras, and the voilas, the je crois, et je pense but not much of the main dialogue in the middle.  The line I was most confident with was “no I am sorry Monsieur I couldn’t get you any tomatoes from the market.”  As plot pointers go, I am not sure how vital that was.    But it proved how much of communication is non-verbal.  That actions speak louder than words.  The plot was straightforward, the protagonists were retired music teachers, seemly happy and content, he told her she looked tres jolie,”(very pretty) after a night out to a concert, facing what we will probably face, a debilitating  illness of ourselves or our partner at the end of our lives.

But even despite lack of comprehension, I loved the film. Amour, Je t’adore.  It is a masterpiece.  For me the true test of a film is if you think about afterwards, and Amour has lingered with me for days and days.  I can’t get those images of the elderly couple and how the husband cared for his wife after her stroke out of my head.  Despite the immense hardship he was so gentle with her, so caring.   And it was not easy.  There was despair. But everything seemed to be dealt with a quiet fortitude and despite scenes where nothing happened apart from an old man was trying to get a very bedridden old woman to drink some water, the film was compelling and mesmerizing.  This due to the incredible performances by Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva and the unflinching script and direction by Michael Haneke.  This is a love story but there is no sentimentality here.

We are all so used to the Hollywood version of love, two youthful, beautiful actors meeting up, breaking up, and overcoming adversity to the happy ever after that to see a film where the average age of the actors was 86, where there was no “action” to speak of, no soundtrack, no flashy editing or camera effects, just a simple story told honestly and realistically and yet was the most sincere and genuine portrayal of love I had ever seen. But you just know that if they had pitched the idea in LA, it would never have been green lit in a million years.

But made it was in France, it won the Palm D’Or at Cannes Film Festival and was recognised with nominations for in all the major categories at the Oscars this year, director, script, best actress for Emmanuelle Riva and even nominated in the Best Film category (it won best foreign language film).  So I am happy to see that even if Hollywood couldn’t make this film they can at least appreciate it.

Have a look at trailer, there are subtitles.. you probably understand more about the film now then I do, but I really recommend Amour, even in French, but I warn you it will break your heart.

 

 

 

 

 

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Hello my name is Natalie

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Natalie

and I am a screenaholic.  I have become addicted looking at my screen, usually my phone, to being in constant communication with the world.  I get a thrill every time the text message pings, the inbox swooshes, or I see that  mark of validation that I might have said something funny, a new Facebook notification or news of a retweet.   It’s all so embarrassingly Pavlovian, especially how much I like the vibration on my iphone.  It’s so powerful, it’s almost muscular and it is heralding incoming messages, mentally I salivate every time.

I know I am not alone, everywhere I look I see fellow addicts.  I instantly recognise them by the way they are stood.  Hunched over, head bent downwards at a 45 degree angle,  I don’t even need to see the phone, or the tell-tale tapping.  I know the altered state.  It’s like the most intense love affair, you have eyes and ears for no one in your  physical company, you are completely in the thrall of the tiny light box in the palm of your hand.

I even find I can’t watch tv now without feeling the itch, just sitting down on the sofa I want to pick up my phone and see what everyone else on Twitter is saying about the tv show.  I don’t want to knock social media, there is so much good there, so many laughs to be had, connections to be made, friendships to be forged and treasured, insights to gained and valued.  It has enriched my life, but when I find myself switching from screen to screen, from Facebook, to Twitter, to Hotmail, to Pinterest, and ever more compulsively,  looking to see something new, I know I need to put some boundaries in place, at least I need to put my phone down, or even the unthinkable, turn my phone off.   This is even before I have started on mobile internet shopping.  A one click shop, so easy, so addictive and potentially so deadly for my bank account.

But what really worries me is the effect on my children.  They say if you want your children to read, they should see you read.  My children see me on my phone, it’s not so much of a stretch to realise they are going to want some screen time too.  To them it is part of the fabric of everyday life.  A touch screen is the norm.  Wifi internet connection is as commonplace as turning on the tap for a glass of water.   The children had friends over and we had a queue for the broadband password so they could all get connected to start gaming.

And there are so many games to play, even just on the iphone, (even I can see the appeal of Fruit Ninjas) and that is before you start on the Wii, the playstation or the xbox, the myriad of tablets, pcs and laptops, or even computers, televisions or the cinema.  The choice already to me seems infinite and like the universe its seems to be still expanding.

My son (aged 11) gets alot of his information on the world via YouTube it would appear.   I know I am on the wrong side of the generation gap now.  You Tube?  Mind you I think I got a lot of my own early world views from a band fanzine for the Stranglers, (they  had strong and surprisingly erudite views on a comprehensive list of subjects from the Shah in Iran to mastication, from nuclear disarmament to whether love really exists.  They were all over the book Holy Blood and Holy Grail in 1981 before Dan Brown had even heard of Leonardo Da Vinci).  So maybe I have to relax a bit on this and be happy he is drinking in information, and ensure the parental settings are on maximum.

But what really worries me is how much they want to play one game, Minecraft.  It is so addictive, every child over the age of 5 it seems is playing it.  To the uninitiated, Minecraft is a game where you build things, houses, farms, out of blocks.  Lego, who make THE blocks kids want to play with in real world must be kicking themselves that they missed this digital trick.  Again the generation gap becomes a gulf.   All parents are completely baffled by the appeal, but when Harry talks about Minecraft, it is like listening to Kevin McCloud on Grand Designs.  He talks about form and structure (well as much as you can get out of pixilated blocks) and he selects the materials as carefully as an architect.   So really what I am worrying about?  It’s age appropriate.  It isn’t violent.  There is no worry that the children are having interactions with anyone they shouldn’t.  But it the amount of time they want to spend playing it.  Just as physical world disappears for me, they all get so consumed by Minecraft that, when they are not playing Minecraft, which they would play all day if I let them, they are watching videos of people playing Minecraft on You Tube.  They are watching a video someone has made of themselves playing a computer game.   The pointlessness of it all makes it very hard to witness, especially when the sun is shining.  My son says that he doesn’t like outside, honestly I think I am rearing a battery child, except unlike the chickens, he has a choice and he is choosing to stay inside.

The real nub of my fear is that we are in unknown territory here.  We don’t know the effect on little brains from all the exposure to screens.  If I feel addicted to my phone, and it is a relatively  new experience for me, an adult, about as mature as I am ever going to get, how do we know if those developing brains are going to be hardwired in a different and potentially damaging way.  When there was the debate about mobile phones potentially causing brain tumours, before the research released concluded they were safe,  a friend said this is what it must have been like before everyone knew it was deadly to smoke.  That future generations would look back and say we were all crazy to use those cancer boxes so close to our heads.  Those fears have been alleviated but maybe they will look back at us and say “What were you thinking?  Were you nuts to let children play those games 24/7?” As everyone walks around in a big blobby body that hasn’t been exercised or breathed fresh air for decades but can play 4 computer games simultaneously with their mind.  I guess only time will tell.   So in the meantime I am going to get the kids away from their screens, I am going to step away from my screen, and we are going to play Block 1 -2 -3.  It’s like hide and seek but with a twist.  They love it, and I hope not just because it has the word block in it like their beloved Minecraft.

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Entranced

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Natalie

Question.. what do you do when you are an Oscar winning director and you have a part-time job as the Artistic Director of the London Olympics Opening Ceremony, a position that only occupies you on a Thursday and Friday?

Answer:  You shoot a mind-bending, time-shifting heist film set in London, on the Saturday to Wednesday.

Could that level of multi-tasking be successful on such an epic scale?  How could you devote your time and inspiration to two such mammoth tasks?  How could anyone showcase the very best of British to a watching world and then nine months later release a film that thrills and delights as the plot confounds and hoodwinks.  Only a man of Danny Boyle’s energy, passion, creativity and imagination could pull it off.

And put it off he does.  And how.  And then some.

Trance is a difficult film to describe without giving away any spoilers.  So I will be sparing with the details. It starts with trademark Boyle visual flair.  It’s London, it’s the art world and a painting has been stolen, by a gang possibly with inside help.  So far so entertaining. If you want to find out any more you need to go and watch the film for yourself. #Keepthesurprise just like for the Opening Ceremony.  But I will say I found it entertaining, suspenseful and surprising.  There are three protagonists and they all give very strong performances.  Rosario Dawson was captivating.  James McAvoy and Vincent Cassel as always were a pleasure to watch.

Trance has been compared to films directed Christopher Nolan, namely Memento and Inception.  I would agree but add the caveat that Trance is a film made by a man who is warm and engaging, who understands human nature and likes people.  I am not the biggest Christopher Nolan fan, indeed I found Inception to be cold, with less developement of the characters than a video game.

This is, as with all Danny Boyle films, an exhilarating, adrenaline rush of a film.  As he said in interview rounds a film can put you in a trance, when you are in the cinema, in the dark watching a story enfold on the 20 foot screen in front of you, you can be hypnotised,  the rest of the world can melt away whilst you are immersed.  It certainly worked for me.

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Massive Girl Crush Incoming….

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Natalie


I have a massive new girl crush. Oh my goodness it has got me bad.  But a little bit like the Duchess of Cambridge I have come very late to the party on this one, but judging the comments on Twitter on Oscar Night, many many girls were wanting her to be their new BFF.

Jennifer Lawrence, second youngest winner of an Oscar for Best Actress.  She can do no wrong in my eyes.  She breezed down the Red Carpet on Sunday night, giggled “(Emma) Stone, your ass is mine” down the E! ManiCam (for those of you who maybe haven’t watched as many Red Carpet events on E! as I have, a mani-cam is a camera especially set up to show off manicures. I am blushing as I type this).  She showed Piers Morgan her loser face on CNN, this girl is such a breath of fresh air she even made oily Piers likeable.  She then told another Red Carpet reporter that she was starving!  Starving.. What A list female celebrity ever admits eating anything, of course to get into those fairytale dresses nothing more substantial than a lemon squeezed into hot water has passed their lips for months.  To admit that she eat makes her a goddess to me, well actually that is not right is it?  These visions of beauty and youth are held up as modern-day Gods and Goddesses, and hear that Jennifer Lawrence eats makes her human.  Real. Normal.

When she had been announced as the Best Actress, she fell up the stairs.  She tripped up on her beautiful ivory Dior Couture gown and fell up the stairs on the way to receiving her Golden Statue.   She has so much life and spirit that she could say to the packed room of peers giving her a standing ovation something along the lines of you are only being kind to me because you feel sorry for me.  I fell in the mud on a Saturday morning run last week, in the woods, and I wept, and I was totally alone, not with the eyes of the world upon me, I have 20 years on Miss Lawrence and I still cried at the indignity of it all.

I will admit that despite loving films as much as I do I have never even seen a Jennifer Lawrence one.  Again I blush as I type.  She first appeared on my radar on the Red Carpet season two years ago in a stunning Calvin Klein Red body skimming dress that fitted her to perfection.  In the parlance of E!Red Carpet presenter walking skeleton  Giuliana Rancic she looked “Smokin’ Hot”.  Really you might not like the terminology but there is no arguing with the verdict.   She had been nominated at 20 for Best Actress for Winter’s Bone.  It went on my love film list week.  My son has the Hunger Games on dvd.  I am  already looking forward to a Jennifer Lawrence weekend

And if all of the above wasn’t enough to convince you that Jennifer Lawrence is fun, lively and would be a really great person to party with just watch this clip of her at her post Oscars interview.  She seems like my kinda gal.

and I can’t wait to see Silver Linings Playbook.  The look she gives Bradley Cooper on the dance floor melts my heart every time (around 2.25 in on the trailer).  I am even going again the word of Danny Leigh from Film 2013, the critic I normally hold in the highest esteem.  To say he was not a fan of the film is quite an understatement, but it’s testament to the power of Jennifer just this once I am going to overrule him.  I will let you know he is right after all.

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A Queen in A Carpark

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Natalie

Extraordinary and exciting as the news is that Richard III has been discovered, buried in a Social Services Car Park in Leicester for the past 500 years is, there is one detail of this story from this incredible story that defies all rational thought.   The discovery all stemmed from a hunch.

Phillipa Langley has become a new hero to me.  I absolutely adore that she raised all the funds for the dig and the dig itself on a hunch.  On a feeling.  In this age of computers and rationalisation, of research and scientific facts, she walked along that car park on a hot’s summer’s day when she felt it and she said she just knew.  ”I walked past a particular spot and absolutely knew I was walking on his grave,” she told the Sunday Times.”It was a hot summer and I had goosebumps so badly and I was freezing cold.

“I am a rational human being but the feeling I got was the same feeling I have had before when a truth is given to me.”

Now I have been forced to watch endless Timeteams on Channel 4.  Horrible dreary programmes with beardy men grub about in the mud for a bit of crockery or at best a piece of Roman coin.   Dull Dull Dull.  I bet too, when they heard about this project they all scoffed and sneered at the fanaticism of Phillipa Langley and her fellow Ricardians, determined to reveal the truth behind their much maligned, King.

I am sure all scientists and academics were very sceptical, I am sure if she would have come to me I would have been too (from my extensive knowledge of Timeteam I know archeologists normally never find anything ever).  So how did Phillipa Langley keep going? Keep persevering with nothing more than a sixth sense?  How sweet it is that she was rewarded so fully?   To not only discover his remains, but have done so within the first fortnight of the dig.

So Phillipa Langley, I salute you, I think you are proof in the believing power of dreams, of never, ever giving up and for listening to your instincts.  I am going to take heed. The way you discovered your King in a Carpark makes you a Queen in my eyes.

It started with a hunch, not a hunch-back

How Richard III would have really looked based on facial reconstructive techniques.

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Do you want the truth or something beautiful?

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Natalie

The words to Paloma Faith ‘s song “Do you want the truth or something beautiful?” came into my head as the credits rolled at the end of Life of Pi tonight.

As I lifted my 3D glasses to rejoin the grey world of the multiplex after 2 hours of being dazzled and shimmered and bathed in phosphorous lights and so completely immersed in a fantastical world, I admonished myself for not having read the best-selling book Life of Pi by Yann Martel, despite it sitting in my bathroom (of all places, for the past year or so).   I had dismissed it out of hand, what kind of plot was this?  A man in a boat with a tiger, adrift in the middle of the ocean. It was just preposterous, it would never happen, and so I missed the chance to read something, if the film is anything to go by, that is magical and enchanting, wondrous and wonderful.  It is the beauty of story-telling that makes it so compelling, I guess the ultimate visual metaphor, that life should be about the journey not the destination.

It is not a suspenseful movie, we know the protagonist survives as we see him retelling his tale to an ever more sceptical listener at the beginning of the film.  However the film is not short on drama and tension.  At one point it gave me the biggest shout out loud shock moments I have ever experienced in a cinema.

Ang Lee as a director is renown for his films looking very handsome, in Brokeback Mountains, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal had to fight very hard not to be upstaged by the Montana backdrop.  He is also known for his films being ground-breaking, those spectacular flying scenes, so original in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon have been copied many times over since.  In Life of Pi these two aspects of his film making have come together magnificently, every shot is exquisite with many take your breath away moments.  In Life of Pi, the 3D effect is not a cynical money making exercise, it does truly enhance the story-telling and make it even more glorious to watch.  This really is one of those films you must see in the cinema for maximum impact.

There is a charm and an innocent to this film I have not experienced in a very long time.  The story is told slowly and carefully, and after seeing so many films recently where I have despaired at the rising levels of gratuitous violence , even in supposedly family orientated films, it was very pleasurable to watch and very easy to enjoy, and I would recommend  Life of Pi whole-heartedly to everyone for a genuinely  original and different, uplifting and life-affirming experience.

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My Top 5 Songs of the Year

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Natalie

So here it is, my 5 favourite songs of the year, I am sure they will not feature on anyone else’s list but then they can do their own list  can’t they- this is really just an excuse to play my favourite songs of this year again.

At Number 5, and my memory is so bad I am not a hundred percent sure this was actually out this year. Ren Harvieu.  I love her, you can keep Adele Skkkkyyfaaaaaaaaaaaallling her way to the top of the charts, for me Ren’s voice is the true voice of pain and heartache, the sound of survival , of gritting your teeth and it making it through the other side. (Well after Amy of course).  Tonight also has the most amazing woozy sounding brass, the sound of a night spiralling out of your control, giddily exciting at first, but with more than a hint that everything could end in tears….

And at number 4, yes it’s that internet sensation, You Tube’s first million hit millionaire, Psy and Gangnam Style.  This is really one for my children.  They adore it, and really sneakly I do too, especially after seeing Damian Lewis “horsing” his way across the Green Room on Jonathan Ross.  I saw Brodie from Homeland in a whole new light.

So just in case you are the one person on the planet who has missed it, here it is… all together now.. “Hey sexy lady, Woop Woop Woop Woop”

Feel the Love by Rudimental is at 3.  I love this tune way more than I should.  Surely this is just a song for 16 year olds, but I can’t get enough of it.  How can anyone resist that soulful old skool vocal soaring over the dubstep?  One to be played very loud, especially out on a run, it makes me feel I never want to stop.

Jake Bugg is at number 2.  He is amazing.  When I first heard Lightning Bolt I didn’t know if it was a new track or just an unfamiliar old one.  For an 18 year old boy from Nottingham he sounds incredibly like Johnny Cash or Bob Dylan.  Simple, catchy tunes with lyrics that wise beyond their years.   The BBC used Lightning Bolt as the bed on a piece about Usain Bolt during the Olympics which made me ridiculously happy.

So here it is, my number one for the year.  I bet you can hardly care less.  But anyway I will press on regardless of the apathy.  In my best DeeJay Voice, at at Number One, Eugene McGuinness and Harlequinade.  And cut to everyone looking at each other and saying “Who?”  Why isn’t it Rihanna or One Direction or that nice Katy Perry, such a shame about her and Russell Brand.

Anyway it isn’t, it’s Eugene McGuinness.  He is the guitarist for Miles Kane.  He brought at an fantastic and very unrated album in the summer called “An Invitation to the Voyage”. It is jam-packed with infectious pop classics, just waiting to be discovered and played and made into ear worms in your brain.  Oh and the video is a masterclass in creativity on a budget.

So there you, my top 5 songs of the year.  I could have included the entire soundtrack to the Olympic Opening Ceremony, with special mention to Caliban’s Dream but then that would have to have been 6 songs of the year.. and well that is just ridiculous isn’t it?  Who has 6 top songs of the year, except hopelessly indecisive people?  Perhaps that should be another blog, my top 5 moments of the year but that would just been just one long moment; our glorious, wonderous, uplifting, never to be repeated summer of sport wouldn’t it?  So here is Caliban’s Dream.. enjoy… and if you fancy it, do let me know your tunes of the year.

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Christmas Shopping Tips:- Avoid Google, Starbucks and Amazon

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Natalie

I was delighted to see the European heads of these massive US corporations squirming under the gaze of the select committee  a couple of weeks ago.

I particularly enjoyed Margeret Hodge’s ascersion that what they were doing wasn’t illegal, but it was certainly immoral.  It was so good to get that view on all the news platforms across the country.   Why should the rest of us work and live in worsening economic conditions, whilst Starbucks can claim to make no profit in this country because the licensing costs of using the name Starbucks here in the UK costs the same amount of the profit they would have made?

So here is an idea when doing your Christmas shopping try and use companies that haven’t had to explain their balance sheets to Parliament.

May I suggest either John Lewis or maybe even Morrisons.  Both have been in the papers over the past couple of days telling the Chancellor that the unfair tax practices the huge foreign conglomerates take advantage of could put them both out of business.

And with Amazon marketplace traders who are small businesses paying their fair share of tax, please still use them,  you can find them on Amazon and then just contact them direct so that they don’t lose out.

So then when you are gathered in the heart of your family on Christmas Day and everyone are opening the presents they love, you can have a rosy glow you have found the perfect gift AND that you have kept money in this country to help our economy instead of sending it on a wild electronic goose chase to end up in some Scrooge like billionaires pocket in the Caymen Islands, and saving British Jobs to boot.

What could be more in the spirit of Christmas than that?!

Happy Shopping Everyone!

The John Lewis Snowman showing us the Way!

 

 

Posted in Mum Stuff, News and Current Affairs, Politics | 3 Comments