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.
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.
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.
Mapman Mike
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