Hmm. 2024 somehow doesn't seem so new. Major earthquake on the 1st day, with a weirdly connected plane crash. Increased bombing of Ukraine. Increased bombing of Gaza. Major wind storm and flooding in the UK. A devastating bombing in Iran. And I still can't seem to memorize piano pieces very well. So, not such a great beginning to a new year. But it can only get better. Right?
On Wednesday Deb and I had our first major outing of the year. Not exactly a cultural experience, as we were both due for blood work. We are able to book precise appointments in Kingsville, so that is where we go. Afterwards we went to a newish cafe downtown Kingsville, enjoying the espresso and vegan cookies a lot. Then it was back home. But wait! The day holds yet another outing. Tonight is the regular late evening weekly trip to the grocery store. Wednesday nights seem to be quiet nights for shopping, with hardly anyone else in the store. And best of all, we usually get right up to a cashier. Tonight, like most of the days in the past two weeks, was cloudy, dull, damp, and drizzly. It's been getting a bit colder each day, though, and we are finally just about right on the seasonal norm.
We celebrated New Year's Eve at 7 pm along with London, UK, greatly enjoying the very impressive fireworks display from the London Eye. For us there was champagne, a wood fire, snackies, and Act 111 of Siegfried. I actually managed to stay up till midnight, though I don't know why I bothered. Deb cashed in a bit earlier.
In film news, I have one choice remaining of my five picks. Mostly recently we watched a fairly dismal film based on a book by E. Nesbit I just read. The Treasure Seekers is from 1996, while the book is from 1899. The film boasts some choice adult actors, such as Ian Richardson, who is wasted as a Scrooge type money lender, Peter Capaldi as the editor of a major newspaper, and Nigel Davenport as a banker. Keira Knightley has a small role as a princess. The book and the film have little in common. In fact, the book as written is quite unfilmable without using voice over narration, which it doesn't use. The plot of both the film and the book is a cliched look at a family down severely in finances, which somehow miraculously regains their status at the end. No, it isn't the plot that makes the novel successful, but the manner in which it is written by one of the five children. And the two best chapters are completely left out, where they create a newspaper to sell, and when they try to sell mail order sherry. Major characters are also left out, replaced by others. While the film isn't a total mess, it does not do any justice whatsoever to Nesbit's novel. So read the book and skip this movie.
Before that came Brotherhood of the Wolf, a strange flic from 2001 that mixes French period drama, horror, fantasy, and kung fu. Very loosely based on true events from the 1700s, it's about a series of gruesome countryside murders that are blamed on some kind of rogue wolf. The King sends an investigator, and he brings his companion with him, supposedly a Mohawk Indian (Mani). Mani is the film's most interesting character, yet he is killed off with still an hour of running time to go. So it's not so great a movie after that. The fight scenes are pure Hong Kong theatre, as an unlimited amount of bad guys constantly appear, no matter how many are killed or maimed by the good guys. The Jim Henson workshop animated the ridiculous monster creature, who is tamed by the main guy (who is easy to guess despite the mask), and only kills women and children. Some great costumes on the ladies, and some atmospheric scenes, make this one recommended, but with caution due to an awful lot of violence and blood. The wolves turn out to be good guys in the end. Yay!
Unfaithfully Yours is comedy written and directed by Preston Sturges from 1948. A renowned conductor has undying faith in his wife, until he doesn't. And when he doesn't, he quickly goes off the rails. Once he is convinced that his wife has cheated on him with his handsome male secretary, his life unravels depicted in a series of fantasies he has while conducting a live symphony concert. With music to fit the actions in his fantasies by Rossini and Wagner, and later Tchaikovsky, the movie becomes very much a Looney Tunes cartoon. After the concert he tries to reenact the main fantasy, where he kills his wife with his straight razor, then manages to smoothly frame her lover, who is given the death penalty in his dream world. But the real life version doesn't go nearly as smoothly as the fantasy, and he ends up wrecking his house in the process of trying to arrange it the way he envisioned it. Rex Harrison is the mad conductor, and Linda Darnell is the innocent wife. Definitely worth a look. His performance is stellar.
It's run on Criterion has ended.
We are currently viewing my final pick, a Chinese martial arts film. Until next time.
Mapman Mike
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