Winter's Arrival, Sort Of

With the arrival of meteorological winter on December 1st we enter the dark days.  London UK is dark shortly after 4 pm, and we are dark shortly after 5 pm.  It would appear that next year this time we will be remaining on daylight savings time, which will lengthen the afternoons, but drastically shorten the mornings.  Apparently this has been attempted before in the USA and other countries, but the dark mornings became too hazardous for pedestrians, especially school children, and the move was rescinded.  So the experiment will be repeated, no doubt with similar results.

As I blog this morning the sun is shining brightly, but it is cold out there.  Our wood stove is burning merrily and the house feels toasty.  We now have three main heat sources--the furnace, the wood stove, and the fireplace.  The first two depend on electricity, however.  But we have a generator just in case, which runs the stove as long as the gasoline lasts.  We originally bought the stove after a bad ice storm several years ago.  There is no way to connect the furnace to the generator when the power is out, so we depended on the fireplace that time.  Next time, providing we can start the generator (it was overhauled last summer), we will be able to stay warm, and to heat water.

I say "next time", as I know that ice storms will become more common, rather than the old fashioned snow storms we now rarely get.  As our temperatures rise ever so slowly over time, we get more and more rain in winter, and less and less snow.  And a bit more of the in between stuff, like ice pellets.  This summer past we also bought a solar panel charger, which will charge our phones and other smaller electrical devices.  The days after a big storm are usually clear and cold here, so we should have access to sunlight.  Hopefully we will never have to try out all these ways of keeping warm, but it's good to know we are as ready as can be.

Every Sunday morning we have breakfast in the listening/living room, and select a different Bach cantata to play as we eat our servings of either pancakes/waffles/French toast.  We are now in the latter half of his 1724 pieces, and they are getting richer, bolder, and ever more beautiful.  It has been a lot of fun hearing the progress of both Bach and Beethoven as composers, as we listened to works from their youth and are now reaching their stages of full maturity.  It is a very engaging and magnificent journey! 

In viewing news, we have finally watched all 8 episodes of Wheel of Time, season one.  Based on what we have seen, there will likely not be a season two for us.  The show is very much a Tolkien ripoff, as well as 'borrowing' hunks of material from Guy Gavriel Kay.  Though so many people die in this series (including all the males of a major city), not one main character dies.  One does die, but is revived miraculously at the end, as other women stay pretty much dead around her.  The story is manipulative and tedious, basically high school stuff, though the settings, costumes, and effects are really quite good.  It is done, and we can at last move on.

Pierre Etaix's first colour feature was Le Grand Amour from 1969.  The rediscovery of his films is a major milestone, like rediscovering either Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or Jacques Tati.  Etaix is that good.  This feature is all about a married man who suddenly falls in love with his new and very young (18) secretary.  There are so many funny scenes about marriage and affairs, but it is the main dream sequence that really sets this film apart from all others.  Etaix dreams he is in bed and driving down a road.  The sequence goes on for a long time, and is rich in sight comedy and hilarious situations.  Another film not to be missed.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Next came a 70s vampire feature called Blacula.  That just about sums up the film, as we get a hip LA version of a black vampire who rediscovers a look a like of his long lost wife.  The acting is quite good, but the story is the same old one, I'm afraid.  With Gordon Pinsent, a Canadian actor, as the police lieutenant trying to stop the vampire.

Seen on Criterion, but it has now left that service. 

Lastly comes a film from Thailand called By The Time It Gets Dark.  From 2016 it is the director's 2nd film.  Here is the Criterion description of the film:

"The delicately poetic second feature by Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong weaves together multiple stories and characters to create a portrait of a beautiful country haunted by the lingering trauma of the 1976 government-sanctioned massacre of student demonstrators in Bangkok. A shape-shifting narrative around memory, politics, and cinema, the film weaves together the stories of several characters. We meet a young waitress serving breakfast at an idyllic country café, only to later find her employed in the busy dining room of a river cruise ship. And we meet a filmmaker interviewing an older woman whose life was transformed by the political activism of her student years and the Thammasat University massacre of 1976. With her tender, unobtrusive filmmaking style, Suwichakornpong allows us to get to know these characters slowly and deeply. At the same time, we see how their country and its troubled history inform their actions and identities in ways both overt and subtle." 

Though it is beautiful to watch, I found it quite confusing, and not nearly clear enough in dealing with the violence of the mid 70s.  It just flows (not seamlessly) from one story or character to another, almost in mid-stream, and leaves the story being watched as unfinished.  Which leads me to wonder if this could have been more successful as a formal small group of short films, which it essentially is, but without the form.  Definitely aimed at the festival circuit.

Now showing on Criterion.

And lastly, another Van Gogh painting currently visiting Detroit.  This is a favourite of ours from the Art Institute of Chicago.  Nice to have it in town.

The Bedroom, from 1889.  Showing in Detroit, visiting from Chicago.  Van Gogh. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Recent Film Viewing

 I'll begin with the most recent screening.  everything is from the Criterion Channel unless otherwise stated.  Because of clear nights last weekend, and Samhain on Monday, my film festival choices did not begin until today.  I have chosen to watch Chamisso's Shadow, a 13 hour documentary by Elrike Ottinger from 2016.  My festival allotment allows me to watch half of it, anyway.  It is a record of the Aleutian Islands and their inhabitants, as well as historical voyages of discovery there that were made in the 19th C.  So far we have only watched 30 minutes, but it seems quite fascinating and worthwhile.  More on that at a later date.

Before that we watched yet another oddball but highly worthwhile vampire film called Vampire's Kiss, from 1988.  Starring Nicholas Cage and Jennifer Beals, it chronicles the decline and fall of a New York publisher who is bitten by a vampire.  Beals is sexy and very scary as the vampire, and Cage is unbelievable as the man driven crazy by it all.  Highly recommended, we had never heard of this film before.

Showing on Criterion.

Before that came Madame X: An Absolute Ruler, from 1977 and directed by Ulrike Ottinger.  This Dadaist film started out quite promising, as women around the world answer a summons to join with the Chinese junk the Chinese Orlando, captained by a ruthless woman who is after gold, love, and adventure.  It's all highly stylized, and soon wears out its welcome once the women are aboard.  At 2 1/2 hrs running time, the film could be greatly improved by hacking off about 45 minutes.  It was a chore to get through, but we made it.  Tabea Blumenschein plays the animated ship's figurehead, as well as Madame X.

Showing on Criterion Channel. 

Turning now to two of Deb's recent choices, we watched Christopher Gans's 2014 Beauty and the Beast.  It is an extravagant retelling of the story, and it does pay hommage to the much preferred version by Cocteau.  The special effects are the best part of this film, which had its tedious moments.  There are some lovely scenes, however, and overall it is a pretty good effort.  The beast make-up was fine, and the story remains somewhat true to its origins, at least the pared down Beaumont version.  The addition of the thieves was not needed, however.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Wood and Water is from 2021, and has received positive reviews.  I found it empty, bland, and banal.  A widow gets together at the seashore with her three children every summer, but for the 3rd year in a row her son does not make the journey from Hong Kong.  She goes to see him instead, and finds herself adrift in the urban environment.  It is a gentle film, but I find that the woman, who is the centre of it, might as well be a piece of cardboard.  There is no expression to her face, her voice is a near monotone, and her character has no interests except for her children, especially her son.  The one original and effective film technique shows her driving from her home in the Black Forest of Germany, presumable on her way to the airport to travel to Hong Kong.  She enters a long tunnel with her car.  The shot goes on for a very long time, but by the end the tunnel has transitioned to tall buildings in Hong Kong, and we are suddenly there.  Certainly a nice way to travel, if it worked that way.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Finishing up, we watched Pierre Etaix's first feature film, called The Suitor, from 1963.  A combination of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Jacques Tati, and his own spin on things, Etaix is a comic genius ready for rediscovery.  We have enjoyed virtually everything we have seen by him, and there are still a few treasures awaiting our viewing.  In this film, our hero (always played by Etaix) seeks matrimony, and goes after various women with hopes of landing one of them.  Very funny, very creative, and with a great sense of timing.  Recommended.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Getting Caught Up

Summer heat blasted us until Sept. 21st, which was last Wed.  It was 87 F.  then someone literally pulled the switch to "Autumn" setting.  Boom.  Sept. 22nd it was 20 F cooler, and it has stayed that way, and will stay that way.  A really, really strange entry into fall, and exactly in tune with the calendar.  That never happens here.  Summer usually lingers into Thanksgiving weekend, the 2nd weekend in October.  We watched the house temperature drop all weekend, from 77 F Thursday afternoon (lingering heat in the house from the day before) to today, when it is 67 F inside, and a lot colder outside.

Our Equinox celebration went on for a few days, as it was a clear sky on the Thursday.  We changed our artwork around to autumn pictures, and changed the fireplace lights.  We took our final Tarot cards of the Celtic year, and finished up Wagner's Die Walkure.  It such an emotionally powerful opera, and the orchestration is among the heaviest ever written to accompany singers.  What a blast!  We also are continuing some readings from Tolkien's Book of Lost Tales 1, which contain the earliest versions of many of the stories from Silmarillion.

I share a birthday with the first day of Autumn (22nd), along with Bilbo and Frodo, so my mind always turns to Tolkien in the fall.  But for my birthday this year I bought a box set of the complete works of Haydn!  160 CDs!!  I have been gently dipping into it for the past week, and enjoying the performances immensely.  This means that I can now dispose of a huge number of LP record box sets, freeing up some space in the basement.

In the world of the mundane, I have three appointments this week, making it an unusual week for me.  Very early tomorrow morning I will bring the car to VW for some necessary work.  an hour later I have a specialist appointment regarding my injured shoulder.  I hurt it a year ago trying to pull debris from our creek, and ended up tearing a rotator cuff.  It's likely not serious enough for the surgeon to repair, but I have some questions for him.  And Friday morning it's another trip to the dentist, this time for routine cleaning and check up.

And then comes Saturday.  Philip Adamson, my occasional piano instructor, will play another all-Beethoven program, as he tries to push through to the end of performing all the sonatas.  Looking forward to my first live concert (other than my own) in years!

Meanwhile, Deb is preparing for her mother's Celebration of Life in a few weeks.  She is assembling a short film of stills that show her mom as a little girl and morphing through to recent images of her.  It's been an incredible amount of work preparing a two minute film of stills.  She will also be the main speaker.

We have been watching a lot of films (and episodes of series), I just haven't had the time the report on them.  I will list the ones I remember, with perhaps a comment or two about some of them.

Yoyo, by Pierre Etaix, is from 1965.  A funny and touching comedy of life about the son of very rich parents who suddenly lose everything and become poor.  He runs away and joins the circus.  A minor masterpiece of comedy and drama.

Milky Way, by Luis Bunuel, is from 1969.  His scathing attack on religion and dogma.

Niagara, from 1953, was directed by Henry Hathaway and stars Marilyn Monroe.  It's a tale of murder and revenge, all filmed gloriously in Niagara Falls.  Worth watching just for the scenery.

The Other Side of Hope, by Aki Kaurismaki, is from 2017.  It's a terrific minor tale of refugees in Finland trying to make a life.

Showing on Criterion. 

Swamp Water, Jean Renoir's first American picture, is from 1941.  Depraved doings in the great swamp in Georgia.  Lots of humid atmosphere.

Showing on Criterion. 

Paris Calligrammes is a film by Ulrike Ottinger, who spent the 1960s in Paris.  The film is a terrific documentary of the times and her personal experiences, and for any lovers of that great city this film is a must see.  We than looked up an early film of hers, and found Ticket of No Return from 1979.  Starring Tabea Blumenschein as the beautiful woman who goes on a holiday tour of Berlin.  She does it sumptuous evening clothes (chosen and designed by the designer/actress).  But this tour is soaked with alcohol, and mostly covers the divey bars and back streets.  Some very funny scenes and some very tragic ones, too.  Well worth gawking at.

Man of the West was directed by Anthony Mann, and is from 1958.  Gary Cooper stars as a reformed bank robber who gets caught by his old gang after a failed train robbery.  Very high drama, and many unusual scenes.

Deb chose some films from Prime to watch.  One was The Duke, a small but very fun film from 2021, about a man who plots to steal a painting from the National Gallery.  He plans to hold it hostage until the government agrees to pay for the TV licenses (a British thing) of seniors and veterans.  Highly entertaining, as it is whenever the little guy wins against the big guy.  Based on a true story.  The Man Who Knew Infinity is another excellent story based on a real person.  Released in 2016 it tells the mostly unhappy story of a brilliant mathematician from India who is brought to England to work.  He has to overcome incessant racism and professional ridicule, but with the help of Jeremy Irons and Stephen Fry, his short life is rewarded with several professional and mathematical victories.  Hard hitting but excellent film.

Lastly (but not leastly) is The Illusionist, a film from 2006.  It's turn of the century Vienna, and this story is about a great magician who performs there, but is soon censored by the local police and government.  He meets a young woman whom he knew as a child, who is far beyond his meager station in life.  They fall in love all over again.  This is a pretty decent film, and very easy to watch.  Can the little guy overcome the big guy?  You won't know until the very end.  Recommended.

Showing on Prime. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Recent Films

We're into our 4th day of temps in the 90s, with at least two more to go.  We are still working on railing segment #2, but only in the mornings, when it's shaded and less hot.  It's getting done, just real slow.  We continue to lead a mostly indoor life.  I was supposed to perform my piano pieces for a few friends this morning, but one of them is isolating due to Covid exposure.  The same thing happened last Monday with another friend.  I did perform them for Paula at least, and things went well.  I played on her grand piano, and it was a really fun experience!

A lot of films to report on.  I will begin with the most recent, which we were two of my choices.  Last seen was a 1949 western called Lust For Gold, starring Ida Lupino and Glenn Ford, along with a host of recognizable B character actors.  Filmed in the fierce and extremely rugged Superstition Mountains near Phoenix, it features some incredible stunt work near the end.  It concerns the Lost Dutchman Mine, said to be hidden up there somewhere, still.  Maybe I'll get lucky on my next trip to Arizona.  The mine is also said to be somewhere in western New Mexico, so we may stumble across it yet.  The movie actually encourages viewers to go in search of it!

Leaving Criterion July 31st. 

Before that came Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven In Hell.  From 1974, it is the 6th and final film in the series.  It's kind of like a samurai James Bond picture, on skis. The music is ridiculous. As usual there is some impressive gushing of blood, as well as newly headless bodies.  I remember many of the scenes, which were taken directly from the manga.  We also watched three short features about the film, created by Criterion.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Before that came Deb's choice.  It was a documentary about the Black director Melvin Van Peebles, called How To Eat Your Watermelon In White Company (and Enjoy It), from 2005.  It's a fantastic doc about a man who truly made himself, and had a mouthful to say about the Black experience in American in the 60s and 70s.  Highly recommended!

Leaving Criterion July 31st. 

For some reason Deb forgot to pick a regular film, so we move on to my two weekly choices for this past week.   From 2006 came Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, and animated version of a Philip K Dick novel.  It is a very odd film, a futuristic film noir on the same wavelength as a favourite British TV series called In Deep that I used to enjoy watching.  A futuristic undercover cop gets himself hooked on the drug he is trying to prevent infiltrating the public.  Parts of this film could only be done as animation, such as the cloaking devices used to keep identities of the police secret.  A great film, somehow missed by us over the years.

Showing on Criterion until July 31st. 

Finally, seen a while ago, came another two shorts a feature by French comic director/actor Pierre Etaix.  The shorts were The Anniversary, the Oscar winner for 1962 in that category, and Rupture, from 1961.  In the first one a man tries to get home to his wife in time for his special dinner with her, but Paris rush hour traffic has other plans for him.  In the 2nd one, a man tries to write back to his girlfriend who has just broken off with him, but his writing utensils do not cooperate.  Both are very funny.  The feature is called The Land of Milk and Honey, from 1971.  there are no actors or staged scenes.  Instead, Etaix went into the field to shoot an amateur singing event, and lets the contestants and others speak for themselves.  The feature caused a scandal in France when it was released (for ten days only before being yanked), and virtually ended the director's film career.  Seen as a devastating attack on French people at the time, it's a mostly harmless and sometimes very funny and satirical look at that society.  With people pretty much speaking and demonstrating their shortcomings all on their own, Etaix has created a snapshot of a certain time and certain people, demonstrating to us nothing that people of any country would demonstrate.  It is not French people; it is people everywhere that he satirizes.  He just happened to be working in France.  Definitely worth seeing, as it has been restored, and was out of circulation for decades.

Now showing on Criterion. 

We are now 6 episodes into Name of the Rose,and we have watched the first part of the newer The Prisoner series.  And in Wondrium news we are viewing two lecture courses:  Archaelogy of North America (24 parts), and The Theory of Everything (also 24 parts).  Some great viewing around these days!

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

Film Festival Time

We are running a bit behind n our viewing schedule, as we tackle several mini-series outside our normal weekly movie watching.  A normal week will see us watch 4 films.  But at the end of each month, a 3-film film festival gets thrown into the works, in addition to the regular schedule.  We are currently watching the June film festival offerings, chosen by yours truly.  I selected six short documentary films from Senegal, by director Paulin Soumanou Vieyra.  They begin with the 1955 short called Africa on the Seine, which takes us to Paris to see how blacks are faring at that time.  Next came the 1961 short called A Nation Is Born, detailing the history of Senegal.  Mol is from 1966, and is in colour.  A fisherman from a small village needs to purchase a motor, so he can go out further to find a richer catch of fish. The film details his efforts to find, fund, and transport his motor back to his home village from Dakar.  Birago Diop, Conteur, is a 1982 film about a Senegalese writer and poet, one who still influences the country's schools and thinkers today.  From 1981 comes his film about Ousmane Sembene's film Creddo.  The documentary is called Behind The Scenes: The Making of Creddo, and includes interviews with Sembene, his wife, his cameraman, and his editor, as well as many scenes of filming.  The hardships of African filmmakers are highlighted, including the 4 week wait for the rushes to be sent to Paris and returned to Dakar.  Eye opening stuff!  Lastly we watched Iba N'Diaye, about the Senegalese painter, a film from 1982.  The director died in 1987.  The films we saw give a glimpse into things African from an African perspective, and there is no better way to gain insight into that continent.

Before the above festival, I suffered through a 2nd viewing of Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth.  My views have not changed much; it is still one of the most sadistic films I have ever seen.  Though the fantasy elements are off the scale for their incredible effects and atmospheric renderings, the film is ruined for me by the violence.  Many viewers eem able to overlook this aspect of the film and move on.  I cannot.  Welcome back to modern films.  One of the main characters, who is the reason the other characters end up together in the film, is a fascist captain of the Spanish army, in 1944.  He is there to fight and eliminate the rebels.  Fine, whatever.  But del Toro goes way overboard with the character, making him a masochistic and ultra sadistic bully.  His portrayal and way over the top actions basically ruin the film for me.  No matter what eventually happens to him, he cannot ever be made to pay for what he has done (including shooting a doctor in the back and killing him, teasing and torturing a captured rebel, a stutterer, in a very long and extremely painful sequence, and shooting to death a little girl, another main character of the film).  Del Toro was a big fan of Dickens, and it shows, but now severely updated.  This film is not really entertainment, except perhaps for an ultra sadistic viewer.  But it is a reminder (if anyone actually needs one) of how cruel some people can be.  And if you really believe that this film has a happy ending, then go back to watching the Disney Channel.

Now showing on AMC. 

 

Pierre Etaix is a French director, kind of in the same category as Jacques Tati, a favourite of ours.  We watched 4 short comic films by Etaix, under the umbrella title of As Long As You've Got Your Health, from 1966, which was one of the shorts.  In it a stressed out doctor tries to deal with his stressed out patients.  The other three are Insommnia, about a man unable to sleep who picks up a bedside vampire novel and reads it; Cinema, about trying to find a good seat in a crowded theatre; and In The Country, about a picnicking couple, a farmer trying to put up fencing, and a hunter, all interacting in a hilarious way.  We are looking into more by this director.

 

Scene from Cinema, one of the shorts by Etaix showing on Criterion. 

 

In local news, the heat and humidity are back.  At least we had a few days of relief, though the sun is merciless this time of year, even on "cooler" days.  We are once again making progress on installing a second railing segment on the new stairs.  There are problems trying to match it to the first segment, but those are being overcome with new tools and lots of patience.  Concrete hole drilling should resume tomorrow afternoon.

I did a run through of my piano pieces when Amanda visited last weekend.  Next Monday I will perform them for three friends, and possibly for Jenn if I see her this weekend.  Even though we are now entering our 7th wave of Co-vid, this will be the first time we have had three people inside our house since before the pandemic.  The next day Deb and I will go to Windsor to receive our 2nd booster shot.  After that I will think about making my way north to Sudbury, possibly later that same week.  My brother Stephan retired from his job last week, a service manager at the local Ford dealer.  He should be in a good mood!  Meanwhile, tomorrow I report to my ear specialist for another hearing test and check up.  My hearing has fully returned again, so I anticipate a quick visit.  Dr. Ling is also a pianist, and we usually chat more about music than about ears.  And Thursday Deb returns to see her oral surgeon, probably for stitches removal and a final check on how things are healing.

 

Mapman Mike