End of Beginning of Summer

June, like many months before it, has swooshed past.  If I didn't write these posts occasionally I would never remember a single thing I did.  We finally got a good soaking this morning (Saturday), which was badly needed.  This was our first major rain in many weeks,  However, we paid for it with a very warm and extremely humid day.  Tomorrow comes actual chilly air, and with it (hopefully!) clear skies.  I plan to head out tomorrow night with the scope if it is clear.  I am doing some summer observing in Hercules and Ophiuchus this year.

 

I have decided to finally attempt to perform my year-old piano program, which I began learning last July 10th.  My right ear impairment put things off a while, as did our travelling to New Orleans for a week, and then twice to Sudbury for two weeks.  Getting back into shape after several absences is very hard work.  I wish my piano technique matched my self discipline.  I've just finished Week One of three to put final touches on the pieces.  A few of them actually improved, while others actually got worse (practicing them too fast--must slow down).

 

In movie news, it's my festival weekend.  After my usual two choices I get three festival picks.  We've watched one of mine, but before discussing that we'll have a quick look at Deb's two choices, and an earlier one of mine.  French Cancan is a Jean Renoir film from 1955.  It is a nearly perfect 'entertainment' film, in bright colour and filled with music, dancing, comedy, and motion.  If one is ever to use a lighter film for having great examples of mise en scene, this would be my choice.  The staging is wonderful, with the director having to handle so many complex scenes is smaller spaces.  There are many tender scenes, but the film will likely be remembered for its flamboyant style, especially the grand finale musical Cancan number.  Great fun, and highly recommended.  Gabin is a joy to watch, and he can dance, too!

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Deb's leaving choice was from Mubi, and Indian film called Trijya from 2019.  Many recent Indian films deal with individuals struggling within their meagre means to achieve some form of quality of life, though their lives are mostly pure labour with small reward, both financial and spiritual.  This film is quite different.  We follow a young man trained as a journalist languishing and wasted at a silly newspaper job in Pune.  We see him at a cafe table with a fellow worker.  He has to write the paper's horoscope column that week, as the normal guy is off.  The column becomes very popular, even though he dictated it off the top of his head.  His boss wants him to continue in the role, but he wants no such nonsense.  He ends up leaving Pune, going back and forth to visit his family, and then finally just going walkabout through rural India.  This is an extraordinary fine film, very different in its outlook from nearly every other Indian film I have seen.  Highly recommended.

 

Leaving Mubi soon.

Before that I had one more film chosen that has not been discussed here.  Ken Russell's Salome's Last Dance from 1988 is a fun-filled over the top version of Oscar Wilde's play, showing the author attending a private performance.  We first saw it in Detroit at the short-lived Tele Arts Theatre downtown.  Like Jean Renoir's film, above, this one is very colourful, quite funny, and unlike the Renoir, seriously demented.  Not for every taste, but if you like Ken Russel (we mostly do) and Oscar Wilde (for sure!), then this film will be found to be most enjoyable.  Lust as you've never seen it before!  And it's right from the Bible.  So it must be okay for families, right?

Leaving Criterion June 30th. 

 

Now we turn to our most recently watched film, a SF directed by Claire Denis.  High Life is from 2018, a French/German production.  If it wasn't for all the violence, the film would be worth watching more than once.  A crew consisting of death row inmates is sent on a suicidal mission to the nearest black hole, in an experiment to see if its energy can in any way be harnessed (I would submit that solar energy would be far more feasible and much cheaper).  Despite the stupid premise (would a government really spend billions on a space mission and then send out death row inmates to fulfill it?  I mean, there would be more than enough volunteers from society, would there not?  The hero of the tale was doing time for killing a friend who killed his dog.  Juliette Binoche plays a doctor who murdered her two children and her husband.  When the film opens the only survivors are our hero and his baby daughter.  The story of how the other crew members perished is told in flashback.  By the end of the film the baby has grown up to become a teenager who looks a lot like Juliette.  The film contains a plethora of shots of bodily fluids, another drawback to repeated viewing.  I liked the concept of the film, a man trying to raise a baby on an empty starship, heading towards a black hole.  Rather unique in my experience.  Recommended for SF fans, but watch out for the violence, which includes rape.

 

Leaving Mubi soon.  

 

I'll be back very soon with the June reading summary.  I am just finishing up a novel.

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Frozen In Time

 Well, frozen, anyway.  It is garbage night, so I had to go out and place the can by the roadside.  The snow has been squeaking underfoot for a long time now, indicating very cold temps.  We haven't been near 0 C for a full week now, with about 10-12 days remaining in this very serious cold snap.  I had three stops on Tuesday to make,and Deb had her eye exam on Wednesday.  We are now snug inside again, hopefully till next Tuesday.  The kids are back in school, our Covid count is down, and things are looking up, except for the temps.  We've had a tiny bit more fluffy snow on several days, and so far our water pipes seem fine.

Deb has been getting daily updates from the hospital about her mom, and she Skyped with her again today.  So far the ship is sailing steadily onward, but we still have no idea on what may happen once she is released, assuming she beats her infection and gets her body back in some kind of decent condition.

We watched a live DSO performance tonight, a contemporary piece filled with wonderful sounds, but we have no idea what the piece was trying to convey.  Usually the conductor speaks briefly about the piece, but this guest conductor said nary a word.  The piece was 30 minutes long, and used most of the percussion instruments ever invented, including harp and piano.  This was followed by a great reading of Prokofiev's Classical Symphony.  Tomorrow is a jazz concert, and Saturday comes Bach's Brandenburg #6.  These concerts replace our home listening program on these nights.

In movie news, Deb's farewell film choice last week was an odd one, but one I really liked.  Zama is an Argentine film from 2017, taking place in the late 18th Century.  We are shown a wretched colonial outpost in backwater Argentina, one which Zama, a magistrate, badly wants to escape.  His wife and kids are in another distant city, but his hopes for transfer are continually dashed.  This seems like one of the most honest looks at unseen colonialism, and the way natives are depicted is truly remarkable.  They serve, but are surly and mostly unemotional.  Zama signs up for an expedition to track down a criminal, and begins a hallucinogenic journey that is unparalleled in my motion picture experience, and caps this brilliant film perfectly.  Highly recommended, even if most of the time viewers have no idea of what is going on.

Leaving Criterion Feb. 28th.  Highly recommended. 

My regular choice this week was Clouds of Sils Maria, directed by Olivier Assayas.  From 2014, it stars Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart, and a large part of it is set in the Swiss Alps.  It's a fascinating account of a successful, middle aged actress and her young female assistant/secretary, as the actress prepares herself for a stage appearance in London.  She played the part of the younger girl in the production when she was 18, but now she is being asked to play the part of the older woman in the play.  The film gets at the root of what it is to be a famous actress (one with a large brain and a full set of emotions), and the relationship between the two women, young and older, is a fascinating roller coaster of high energy and deep thinking.  The film comes with three extras on Criterion, namely the 1924 b & w film on which this film is partly based, showing the clouds, sky, and mountains of the Alps in ever changing panoramas.  There is a 37 minute interview with the two lead female actresses, and another 37 minute documentary with the director.  It's refreshing to see a film based mainly on female characters, especially one of such high quality.  The scenery is nothing less than astounding.

Now showing on Criterion.  

It's late, and time for me to go to bed (and read until my eyes close).  Good night.  Winter will end someday, even if Covid won't.

Mapman Mike