Flotsam & Jetsum XX

 

Right then, chop, chop, pay attention as we have plenty to get through. This may well be the final post for a while due to circumstances that will become clearer later on, I’ll therefore cram in as much nonsense as possible. First of all some random film material, here is a reasonably interesting strange German Expressionist / Silent Movie serial mash-up to give us an early portrayal of that story which has dominated this years box office, although its clearly never enough. Give part two a whirl for footage from ‘The Man Who Laughs‘ which I think I’ve mentioned before was instrumental in Bob Kane’s conception of the man who laughs…

I think these are fascinating. Might have been more fun if they removed the titles and credits on some of ’em and presented them as a quiz – quite a few in there are so abstract you’d never get ’em. Zombies!! An entertaining timeline of all the unholy cadaver celluloid shambling which serves as a nice reference tool. Another bloody Wire link which you should of course skip if you haven’t seen Season Five, in this Simon fleshes out some details of his examination of the press and media. 

 

I’ve had the programme through for the London Film Festival and I can’t say I’m impressed after the crop of mostly good films I managed to see last year. I’m sure my limited knowledge means that many of the European and global film makers who have screenings are all beyond my puny cinematic knowledge but hey, even the opening and closing night galas don’t interest me. There’s no sign of the South American “Sleep Dealer‘ SF movie I mentioned a while back and most of the screen talks and interviews don’t interest me, with the exception of this dude being interviewed. Still, I have applied for tickets for Soderburgh’s ‘Che‘ movies – 2 two hour movies covering two parts of the guerrilla leaders life which has Del Toro Oscar 2009 written all over it and a new print of ‘Once Upon A Time West‘ which will be terrific.

I’ve decided on Oliver Stone for this entries director of choice of film makers who are currently operating due to his previewing this eagerly awaited political bio-pic at the London Film Festival. I think we have to concede that Stone is pretty much the pre-eminent chronicler of the American post War experience, exploring America’s wars at home and abroad, its most seismic political assassination, its political pariahs, its driving ideology, offending the media by way of mirror, courageously tackling recent extremely sore events (much better film than I expected that was), probing the national pass-time and finally delivering a cameo choked love letter to the small town B movie. 

  

For my last day of freedom (4:10 and see below) I decided to spend my time wisely and went down to the City to chuckle at the finance HQ’s and all their corporate logos which are sure to change over the coming weeks. My real purpose though was to jump on one of the tourist clippers down to Greenwich for a quick wander around the Maritime Museum – mission accomplished. I have to recommend the clippers, the tour guides oratory is well informed and they do point out genuine areas of interest. The best for me was the revelation that my local pub, ‘The Grapes‘ has a Thames facing attic room which was where Dickens finished writing ‘Great Expectations’. Wow. Greenwich always makes for a pleasant Sunday afternoon, now it’s time for a meditative bath, a late period Argento and an early night.

Well, that’s been quite a burst of blogging recently hasn’t it? I needed to get all these posts finalised and up as I suspect things may drop off considerably here (although I’m putting the finishing touches to my epic post on ‘Barry Lyndon‘ so keep an eye out) as I’ve finally secured a new assignment which begins tomorrow. The commute is frankly horrific (the role is based on Folkestone so we’re talking 2 hours door to door) but I’m sure I’ll get back into the swing of things. I have this to finish reading and a few other novels collecting dust on the bookshelf so have plenty to keep me entertained, I’m quite relived to finally get something secured given my Plan B of possibly returning to the private sector being somewhat overtaken by the recent financial holocaust. The project itself is unique and is something that my colleagues and Directors at the authority have never attempted before so it will be a learning curve for us all, I have until 2010 to get it right and it’ll look good on the CV so can’t complain. Wish me luck…..