Today was the first meeting of our new piano performance group. There are three of us for now, which is just about perfect, giving us time for discussion and time to play for each other. I played four of my Bach pieces; Nadia played a Theme and Variations by Beethoven, and Alde played the first movement of the Waldstein Sonata, also by Beethoven. Everyone was enthused to get together, not having performed in a good long while.
It was a cold day, but bright and sunny at least. Tomorrow we are expecting two new windows to be put in. Hopefully they will go in quickly, as it will be very cold at 8 am tomorrow, about 10 F (Wed). We will shut down the furnace until they are done, running the wood stove and a few space heaters instead. I'll get some photos if I can.
Deb's three-film festival was what I call a "ping pong ball" festival; which means that the films were not related in anyway (other than they are all showing on Mubi). The first was Journey of the Comet, a Mexican film from 2009. A man and his wife, later joined by their teenage grandson, travel from village to village in an old school bus with telescopes and other scientific gear, giving talks and demonstrations to people living on the outside of things. They visit schools, town centers, and just about anywhere a small crowd could gather. The school bus, a half-size one, is called Comet. They set out from their home in southern Baja, traveling north through beautiful desert country. When it's time to cross the bay to mainland Mexico, they find out at the last minute that they are not allowed to take their bus. The film begins slowly, and is not that interesting. But as it goes along the interest picks up, and the scenes of village life and people are really well documented. A slow starter, and slowly paced anyway, it was worth a look.
Next up was a restored b & w film from 1961 called Night Tide. It stars Dennis Hopper as a young navy sailor who falls for a woman who acts the part of a mermaid in a pier sideshow. Rescued as a starving child from a remote Greek island by a kindly captain, he runs the sideshow with her. It is a light horror film, on similar lines to Carnival of Souls, though not nearly as creepy. Hopper's acting style may not impress everyone, but it suits the movie well. Even though the mystery gets solved by the end, there is still the unanswered question of who the older woman was. Worth catching if you are in to odd little films.
Showing in a restored print on Mubi.
Lastly came a French epic from 2021 called Lost Illusions. Based on a novel by Balzac, it is an engrossing film based on a very decadent Paris in the 19th C, and on an even more decadent press. A young commoner/writer follows his high born lover to the big city, and for a time makes it big as a reporter for a newspaper. The way things worked was that whomever paid the price could garner favourable reviews of their performed plays, new novels, actors and actresses, and so on. If someone paid higher to give a bad review, then that is what was written. The society was totally brutal, and the film captures the hateful and horrible games that were played with people's lives. A big budget picture in widescreen format, it tells the tale of a young man with hopes and dreams, soon shattered and left in ruins. At the end, he must begin again. He is fortunate to have broken even, and to have another try at life.
Mapman Mike
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