An Overabundance of Spring

We seem to have entered a new (for this region) life zone.  We have always bordered, at times, on sub-tropical, but with the past extremely mild Winter and our very early Spring, it seems fitting to declare that Essex County is now about 300 miles south of where it used to be.  The only thing that remains the same is the hours of daylight we get.  Anyway, the lilacs and bridal flowers are over, roses are blooming, and grass is growing.  Our lawn will receive its fourth cut later today.  There is a kind of green on the leaves at this time of year that is very different from Summer green.  It's brighter and more cheerful in appearance, as the new leaves live their short lives to the fullest, before becoming next years' mulch.  Our maple tree has been deluging our driveway with keys.  There are two baby groundhogs that have been coming around.  One of them climbed the stairs yesterday and was scratching at the door.  I think the next door neighbour has been feeding them.

Baby groundhogs enjoying a snack near our driveway.

With the ground thawed in Sudbury, it is nearly time to be burying Dad's ashes.  One more epic drive lies ahead of us before things (hopefully) calm down for the summer.  I scanned some older pictures of Dad, and will share a few of them here. 

September 17th, 1952. 

 

Yours truly came along one year and 5 days later. 

 

Date unknown.  Probably taken at Copper Cliff arena, where his team usually played. 

 

In other news, Deb received her vintage Elmo 8 mm movie camera yesterday, and shot her first role of experimental film with it.  She built an indoor set on the theme of our obsession with images and photographed it under different lighting conditions.  The film now goes back to Toronto for developing and digitizing.  Results in about two weeks.

In film watching news, there are a few to report.  Most recently was Cryptozoo, an animated film by an American director from 2021.  The project began in 2016.  It hearkens back to the 1960s with its colourful imagery and save the world theme, only this time the saviours are out to protect actual live mythological animals.  They are being harassed by people, and so are placed, for temporary protection, in a zoo.  But when the animals are suddenly released, they go wild.  How can viewers tell if the animated film is for kids?  Well, if it has nudity, sex, and plenty of extreme violence, one should probably turn the Disney channel back on, and Mubi off.  It is a very bizarre film, and sometimes hard to watch.  Death by unicorn is not a pretty sight.  It certainly is a colourful one, though.

Now showing on Mubi. 

 

Before that came a newer film by Wes Anderson, called French Dispatch.  From 2021, the film is as clever as any Anderson film, and fun to watch.  Three short stories make up the bulk of the film, which describes the life and workings of a magazine produced in Paris and published Sundays in the Liberal, Kansas newspaper.  A somewhat odd premise.  The first story, about an insane artist, is the best of the three.  The second story, about a student leading a rebellion on campus, is less successful, as is the third, about the kidnapping and rescue of a young boy.  Bill Murray stars as the editor.  Above the door in the main office is a sign that says "No Crying."  This sign pretty much sums up Anderson's films, which are almost completely devoid of any emotional content.  The cleverness matches an autistic person's creativity, helping somewhat to move things along.  During the third story there is a very creative use of animation showing the pursuit and capture of the kidnappers.  One of the film techniques Anderson uses is to switch back and forth between b & w and colour.  I never understood the purpose of this.  Anderson fans should love the film; others can watch and at least gain much amusement.

 

We rented the film from Prime ($4.99). 

 

Deb's leaving choice was called The Mountains Are A Dream That Call To Me, a semi-documentary film from 2020.  Filmed in Nepal, it highlights the Anapurna Base Camp Trail, one of the most spectacular hiking trails in the world.  However, aside from the beautiful photography, which includes the trails, woods, rivers, sanctuary hotels and villages, and, of course, the mountains, there is little else to appreciate.  The barest thread of a story has a young guide voluntarily join an older woman who is climbing the trail.  He comes across her as he is descending, on his way to a job in Dubai.  He ends up following her for a time, but then she leaves him finally and he is on his own.  A yeti is seen from time to time, inexplicably.  As a film, this is not a great success.  As a coffee table photo book, it is quite amazing.

Screenshot from The Mountains...., leaving Criterion May 31st. 

 

We are currently amidst a long film starring James Mason and Ava Gardener, a technicolour film about the Flying Dutchman legend.  So far so good. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 
 

 

Mahler #9, and The Silent Age

The Mahler 9th Symphony is his final completed work in that genre.  He died before he could ever hear it performed.  Last night the DSO performed it, and we watched it live on Youtube.  I am familiar with several of the symphonies, but not this one.  Performance times vary between 75-90 minutes.  Our conductor, Jader Bignamini, performed it in 80 minutes.  In four movements, I could live without the first two.  We have heard much of it before in other symphonies.  However, the 3rd and 4th movements are totally incredible.  The third builds to a climax that only an orchestra that is at the top of its game should ever attempt.  It was a hair raising experience through our main stereo speakers, let me tell you.  From the back row of Orchestra Hall (which has the best sound), I doubt if anyone lived through the experience.  By contrast, the final movement ends so softly that one doesn't really know when it ends, exactly.  It represents death, and the final few bars are again a major test of an orchestra's ability to produce sound, but in such quiet tones that it is difficult to describe just how softly it ends.

 

The Silent Age is a short but effective game for PC from Denmark, 2012.  A janitor, Joe, must save the world from a pandemic, brought back by a time traveler.  It is an adventure game in 2D.  The player must figure out how to gain access to buildings, rooms, and scientific equipment, without arousing any suspicion.  Some of the dialogue is very funny.  The puzzles are mostly easy once you gain the trick of time travel.  It took us around 4 hours to finish the game, but it is worth a replay.  After finishing the beautiful Eastshade, and then Syberia 4, nothing much could compare with them, so this little game provided a nice transition from Syberia to wherever we go next.  Highly recommended.

Joe the janitor attempts to save the world in The Silent Age, a fun and short game for PC. 

 

We had a few very chilly days and nights lately, with wind and rain.  We were able to have a wood fire this past week, using up the wood I had chopped and prepared for our Beltane evening.  Beltane itself had been too warm for a fire, and Deb had been quite sick, too.  But it warmed the house for us Tuesday night.  Last night and this morning we resorted to turning on the wood pellet stove for a few hours, but the sun is now out and temps are on the rise once again.  The grass has been cut three times already.  Deb's coughing has slowed down a lot, too.

 

We've been close to home now since coming back from Sudbury.  Practicing, reading, some writing (I am attempting to get Valeria into a blog format, so that at least it's up somewhere on the internet; I also have ideas for a new novel), and Deb preparing her next film project have kept us busy.  Of course movie watching goes on, too.  Just this week Criterion started up a live TV channel, in addition to the streaming one.  Both times we turned it on for fun, it was showing movies we've seen and loved.

 

There are two recently watched ones, both pretty long.   I chose Julia, a French film from 2008 starring Tilda Swinton, as my going away choice for the week.  She plays an alcoholic woman who kidnaps a young boy.  They end up in Mexico, where the kid gets kidnapped by Mexican gangsters.  The script is something that sounds as if it was made up as the film went along.  I can see why Tilda would accept the part, as she is in virtually every scene.  More a horror movie than a crime drama, there are many scenes I wish I could unsee.  Some of these involve pointing a gun at the kid's head and screaming and swearing at him, while others involve tying him up and gagging him, rolling him in a carpet and putting him in a trunk.  There are other scenes similar to this, too.  Julia, the character played by Tilda, is not the motherly type.  Until the very end, when she has lost everything.  Suddenly her motherhood instincts kick in.  Quite a pointless film, with a very unflattering opinion of Mexico and Mexicans.

Leaving Mubi soon. 

 

Dealing with even nastier source material, but presenting it in as a virtuosic cinematic experience is Nobuhiko Obayashi's 2012 marvel, Casting Blossoms To The Sky  It is the first in an anti-war trilogy by the director of House. It takes place in Nagaoka, a city that was fire bombed on August 1st, 1945.  Is uses words and first hand experiences from that event, it which the city was completely burned and hundreds of citizens lost their lives.  The city now uses a fireworks display to help it come to terms with its past.  Special effects are child-like but very effective, as the local high school prepares to put on a play about the tragedy on the anniversary of the bombing.  It was written by an 18 year old unicycle riding high school girl.  Melding the past with the present in a very artistic and skilful way, the stories about that night become more haunting than a simple retelling of them could be.  Fireworks are essentially the same as bombs, but their ultimate use differs quite substantially.  Though a film with many quiet moments, it is not a quiet film.  This film is a must see, and I will be screening the other two films soon.

Showing now on Criterion. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Catching Up

So far I have been able to fend off the germs that Deb is giving out for free, as she battles a horrendous cold and cough virus.  She came down with something last Thursday (April 25th) that began in her throat and quickly spread to her chest.  She sounds like a two pack a day smoker when she coughs.  As a result she lost a lot of sleep, but seems to finally be coming around to something resembling normalcy, though she still coughs.

 

I've been getting back into a bit of film photography again, though the results won't be known until I've finished shooting the film.  I'm using my trusty Rollei 35 mm again, likely the best camera that I have.  Here are a couple of recent digital shots, just to help fill some space here.

 

We had a banner year for lilacs.  This is the neighbour's apple tree, which partially hangs over our yard.

Baie Comeau chugs upriver, as seen from the park across the street from our house.  Evidence of recent heavy rains can be seen in the brown water close to shore, runoff from small streams, as well as in the puddle at lower right. 

 

In film watching news, there are several to report.  I finished up my festival weekend last week with a film from Criterion and one from Prime.  The Prime one was another Screen Two film from the BBC, called Black Easter.  From 1995, it depicts the near future (1999), when the European Police Force (???) try to control the arrival of immigrants into Germany.  The bad European police have teamed up with the Russian Mafia to insure that there are no loopholes for entry.  With a truly horrible climax and very contrived ending sequence (I wouldn't have stopped at night on an expressway to help the survivors either), the film is often confusing in its story telling.  There are many unnecessary details added in, such as the 'good' cop's failed marriage.  However, the film does give a good indication of the scale of the refugee problem facing Europe and other civilized countries that normally accept refugees, such as the US and Canada.  At best it is unmanageable, and at worst it is a complete and total disaster.

Now showing on Prime.  

 

The festival concluded with Ida, a b & w Polish film from 2013.  It won the Oscar for best foreign film that year.  Usually the quiet ones have the most to say.  This film is European art house to the core, and could never be made by a big studio.  It is a nearly perfect film, in fact.  A young Polish woman is preparing to take her final vows and become a nun.  She appears to have no relatives, until an aunt is traced.  Mother Superior convinces her to go and visit the woman before her vows are taken.  She realizes that the girl has never really faced a test of her faith, as she was raised as an orphan in the convent and knows little of the outside world.  The growth of the relationship between the aunt, an alcoholic judge, and the young novice is a true wonder to behold.  It is handled minimally and perfectly, and we are able to piece together much that is not revealed.  

 

The girl wants to discover anything she can about her family, and the story gains emotional depth as it goes along.  The growth in the young woman is mesmerizing to watch.  She eventually learns all she needs, and much more, about her background.  She also meets up with a young sax player and they strike up a relationship.  The film is worth more than a single viewing.  Very highly recommended.

 

Now showing on Mubi.  Do not miss. 

 

Deb was too sick to take the effort to choose a film, so we just watched two more episodes of Detective Anna, a supernatural detective story set in Russia before the Revolution.  There are 96 episodes, each about 50 minutes long.  We are near the end, with about a dozen episodes remaining.  Besides a different murder mystery every two episodes, there is an ongoing story arc as well.  Pay little attention to the ongoing story, and just enjoy Anna two episodes at a time.

 

Deb did pick a going away feature, Repeat Performance from 1947.  A Hollywood Noir film, it stars the very pretty Joan Leslie as the murderer of her husband in the opening scene.  It's New Years' Eve, and she wanders the streets afterwards in her nightgown, wondering if she could have the year to live over again to avoid the murder.  Voila! It's New Years Eve the year before, and we get to live her life for the past year over again.  An interesting idea, but the husband is such a jerk that if I were the wife, I'd have shot him again on New Years' Day, not waiting a whole year to see him murdered.  Anyway, some things are different in her year, but events seem to lead up to the same sort of climax she was hoping to avoid.  The movie fails mostly because she is so dedicated to loving him, even though he truly despises her and doesn't mind showing it.  Who would ever put up with that guy?

A colour poster for the b & w film.  Showing on Criterion until May 31st.  

 

Back to my two regular weekly choices again.  My leaving choice was from Mubi, a Brazilian film from 2019 called The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao.  This near perfect film is hampered by one scene near the middle, a scene that is such a trope in films of this type that it really is unforgivable that it was included in the final cut.  Two very close sisters become separated when the eldest runs off with a Greek sailor to Greece.  By the time she returns home, she is pregnant, without a husband ("He was a scumbag"), and her younger sister has married and moved from the family home.  The father throws out the eldest sister, saying that he disowns her.  She is unable to find out anything about her younger sister, except that she moved to Vienna to study music (which she didn't).  To make a long story short, the two sisters spend the movie trying to find one another in Rio (it's the 1950s), and to no avail.  They lead very different lives, both unfulfilled without one another.  The scene in question has the women in the same restaurant at the same time, but of course they don't meet.  One happens to be in the powder room.  It is a frustrating scene, not a tragic one, and viewers cannot help but feel horribly manipulated.  The ending itself is far from satisfactory from an emotional point of view, though at least it is believable.  Recommended viewing.  Both sisters' acting is outstanding.  The deflowering of the younger sister on her wedding night has to become a classic of awkward cinematic moments.  Based on the novel by Martha Batalha.

 

Leaving Mubi May 15th. 

 

My regular selection was a one hour biography called The Adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson, produced by the BBC.  It is showing on Prime, along with a lot of other very fine BBC productions.  It is from 2005 and runs just under one hour.  With lots of photos, reenactments of parts of his life, and interviews with Stevenson scholars and writers, it is a fascinating watch.  He died very young (44) in Samoa, where he lived the last years of his life.  His first success was Treasure Island, followed by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  His family produced a long line of lighthouse engineers, and of the 70 or so lighthouses built by them, all remain standing and active today.  Pretty remarkable.  Stevenson was pegged by his father to carry on the tradition.  It was not to be.  Millions of readers the world over were glad he became a writer instead.

Now showing on Prime.

Mapman Mike