Once Upon A Time That Never Was

I've been busy lately, driving trains.  Train Sim 5 is pretty cool and lots of fun.  My runs for Southeastern and Thameslink between Dartford and Gillingham, Faversham and Rainham now run pretty much on time.  I'm providing "good service" now, as they say.  I'm still trying to get the hang of the high speed run between St. Pancras and Ashford International.  Once they are going those trains are hard to stop.  So far my top speed has been about 205 kph.  Different viewpoints are allowed during the journey, and I can even watch my train zoom past from any location.  So if I haven't blogged too much lately, it's because I have such a busy timetable to keep.  Deb and I had once built a small HO layout with a desert setting, and I would run trains there.  But this is much more realistic.  In fact it's quite scary how realistic it all is.  There is a very slow speed limit in and around Rochester station, especially crossing the rail bridge over the River Medway.  But in the background once can see Rochester Castle and the cathedral.  Great fun!

In film news, Deb has just released her latest short film.  It's a music video called "The Once Upon a Time that Never Was", and it has just received its first (of many, no doubt) film festival acceptances.  The singer is from Argentina, and has an incredible voice.  The film features Deb's usual assortment of stunning and very original visuals.

 

Deb's latest short film.  It can be found on her website (see upper left margin here). 

 

In film watching news, there are several to report.  Beginning with the earliest viewings, Deb chose two films from Criterion.  One of my choices was also from Criterion.  The Cry of Granuile had a promising premise, but the film ended up just getting muddied, muddled, and muffled.  From 2022 Irish director Donal Foreman, the film attempts to link an Irish-American woman filmmaker researching an Irish legend for a possible film, with the local scenery and folk that she encounters.  However, things just go astray, and the film ends up being about nothing, really.  Any truths behind the legend of Granuile (a 16th C. pirate queen) are unreachable, and the female filmmaker ends up using completely fictional stories about her from modern times.  The main reason to watch the film is for some very fine landscape photography.

 

Leaving Criterion May 31st. 

 

Demon Pond is a  Japanese fantasy film from 1979, and can be called the Japanese version of The Last Wave.  A village stricken by drought is fed up with a local custom of ringing a ceremonial bell 3x daily so that the village never floods.  Legends say that a nearby pond contains a demon that is pacified by the bell, and that if the bell is not rung the demon will escape the pond and flood the land.  With some usual bad choices made, the pond eventually does flood, and a catastrophe ensues.  A second plot concerns a man on holiday out exploring the countryside.  He encounters a long lost friend who had up and disappeared one day many years ago.  He is the current bell ringer, along with his enchanted female companion.  Her part is played by Tamasaburo Bando, a male Kabuki actor known for his female roles.  A very odd film and no doubt rarely shown until now, this is certainly one to look out for.  It is showing on Criterion.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Dario Argento's Deep Red is from 1975, and is almost a very good film.  David Hemmings plays a jazz pianist who witnesses a murder and then becomes involved in solving it.  The first half of the film is a masterpiece of composition, setting, and atmosphere.  The second half is filled with animal torture and more graphic violence than probably any other film from the 1970s.  While this kind of violence usually works fine in a manga, on the screen it becomes a bit much, even laughable at times.  And it quickly becomes apparent that the murderer (not revealed until near the end) would have been incapable of getting to most of the places where he/she does the killings.  And then getting in quietly and in perfect position to commit the murders, one time with a three foot robot!  How did they get behind that curtain?  How did they get to the mansion, and the school?  Anyway, the first half of the film is great, and likely, if the director had not been so warped, could have been a decent and perhaps masterpiece murder-mystery.  But then he would have only been half as famous.  Leaving Criterion May 31st.

 

David Hemmings makes all the usual horror movie mistakes, and the director puts in all of the expected horror movie tropes.

 

The weather so far in 2025 has been mostly uncooperative towards amateur astronomers.  Tonight looks hopeful; so have many other nights, until the time actually arrives, as do the clouds.  But I am eternally hopeful!

 

Mapman Mike.

 

 

 

Out Standing In My Field

Yes, it's astronomy season again.  Reading and sleeping have gone by the wayside.  This past week saw 5 clear nights in a row.  I was able to use three of them, as I need a day in between to recover from late nights.  Also, it is a 50 minute drive each way, which can be tiring.  But I have satellite radio and usually listen to NPR, CBC, or BBC World, so the time passes relatively quickly.  I might snag one more night before the moon is too bright.  Although we have a clubhouse and observatory slightly closer to home, the light pollution is so bad there now that I seldom even consider going there.  Instead, I park my self between two giant windmills on a narrow dirt road amidst soybean fields.  When harvest comes around I have to scoot elsewhere, or be blinded by combine lights.  No one has ever bothered me out there, not even the coyotes that often howl as they pass by.  I recently cleaned the mirror and reset it in its casing.  It made a huge difference this week to my observing program, too.  The mirror eventually gets coated by dust and loses some of its ability to gather light, so periodic cleaning is necessary.

 

As I said above, my reading time goes out the window during a run of clear nights like this.  At night I am under the stars, and my afternoon reading time is usually spent napping.  So I am still reading the first book, a non fiction by Silverberg. 

 

In other news, film festival weekend has arrived, and is now being spread over two weekends.  As things work out I get five choices in a row.  We began with a strange little 1960 Italian film starring Marcello called Il bell'Antonio, about a handsome man who attracts women to him.  He thinks he will never marry until he sees a photo of his supposed intended, played by Claudia Cardinale (21 years old in the picture).  He falls madly in love for the first time in his life and the wedding takes place.  However, because he is really in love with her, he is unable to consummate the marriage.  No problems with flirts and whores and even the maid, but not his wife.  This is really an oddball film, attacking society, the church, and marriage itself.  To Marcello, making love to his young wife would be like making it with a real angel.  He is unable to get past his sexual block when with her.  Of course annulment comes soon afterwards, and he is ridiculed.  There are several lighter moments, too, and the film was shot mostly in Sicily.  Well worth a look, especially the restored version.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

One of the house rules for film selection is that at least one choice must come from the "leaving soon" selection on either Mubi or Criterion.  I chose a 1943 comedy directed by George Stevens called The More The Merrier, starring Joel McCrea, Jean Arthur, and Charles Coburn.  Not only is there a shortage of men in wartime Washington, D.C., but a critical shortage of housing, too.  The film has a lot of fun with both shortages when Jean Arthur sublets a bedroom in her apartment.  Watch how Coburn walks past the long line of people waiting outside to interview for the room at 5 pm, and takes the place for himself.  Today, exactly the same gag could be done with people staring at their phones as they wait; in 1943 they are all standing there reading their newspapers.  This is one of many funny gags.  Coburn's missing pants provide another.  Coburn then ends up letting half of his bedroom to McCrea.  Quite a fun picture.

 

Leaving Criterion Sept. 30th. 

 

Lastly came out first viewing of Blow Up in five or six years.  Criterion just got it, along with La Dolce Vita (see next blog).  Antonioni created a cultural icon with his 1966 film, still one of the best looks at swinging London ever put on film.  Though the main story about a photographer that unwittingly captures a murder on film is still the central element, there are so many distractive scenes and sidelines that one always discovers something new.  Such scenes include, but are not limited to, the visit to the old pawnshop and the purchase of a giant propeller, the sexually playful scenes with the young girls who want to be models (Jane Birkin is the blonde; she was 20 but could easily pass for 16), and the brilliant Yardbirds club scene.  These all contribute hugely to the overall effect of the film, though not directly involved in the plot.  Because of being over budget many scenes relating to the plot and its explanation were left out.  Thank goodness.  The film is a masterpiece as it stands.  One of my favourite films of all time.  Can you hear the tennis ball at the very end of the film?

 

Now showing on Criterion in a beautiful restored print. 

 

Mapman Mike