Black Mirror (1) Review: Piano Repertoire 8 Week Update

 A lot happens between posts, most of which does not get reported.  We added one more cold day, bringing our season total to 51.  Hopefully that is all behind us now.  We had some snowdrops blooming on the 28th of February.  Their numbers are increasing daily.  Crocuses and daffs are also on the rise.  Astronomy season has begun once again, after a three month hiatus.  Rain and clouds are in the forecast.  Sigh.  Deb also had her second and final iron transfusion.  It seems to be working and she is hard at work on her most recent short film.

 

We finished watching season one of Mlle. Holmes, a French series in 6 parts.  Four of the programs weren't too bad.  The worst one was the finale, called (of course) The Final Problem.  It was almost unwatchable, as a woman who had competently solved crimes for five weeks suddenly falls apart completely when she realizes that Mlle. Moriarty is framing her for shooting her grandfather.  The frame up is so bad and amateurish that sixth graders I have known could have easily got out of being blamed.  Supposedly part of a crime fighting police team, she goes it all alone, as so many TV character tropes do.  She hides evidence, she loses her ability to think, and she acts completely selfishly.  Of course she has no Sherlock blood in her veins; only Moriarty's and her mother's, after they had a brief affair.  Or something.  Moriarty would be ashamed of her.  Anyway, it was a bad way to finish the season.  Not to mention that she commits murder at the end.  Grandpa wakes up at the conclusion, after being in a coma throughout the entire episode, unable to tell anyone who shot him.  No trope there.

 

In addition to being hard at work watching the final ten episodes of Foundation, we watched a new film by a favourite (up till now) director.  Dracula is a 2025 film by director Radu Jude, who turns his creative block towards AI, chatting with it about the Dracula myth and letting AI come up with its own version of it.  Thus it is a series of short films connected by the director's chats with AI, and loosely connected to the Dracula myth.  The main story that seems to run through this very long film (170 minutes) is quite good.  A sort of Dracula low budget stage event sees Dracula and the girl he seduces performing in front of a group of tourists in Romania.  At the end of the play the audience gets to chase them around the village with long wooden stakes, after giving the villains a one minute start.  Other shorter films are less and less successful, finally becoming too comically raunchy to even sit through unless the viewer has a bad fever and is mildly hallucinating.  Anyone who has used AI for creative purposes has a fair idea of how badly things can turn out.  While the film has some terrific scenes, it also has far too many which are beneath most intelligent people's dignity to view.  I can recommend the first half, though it contains an overlong love story that ends in a bizarre enough way.  Another later story concerns the first Dracula novel published in Romania.  The movie goes downhill the longer one watches.  See it at your own peril.

 

Radu Jude and AI take on the undying legend.  

Showing on Mubi. 

 

Moving on to PC gaming, we replayed Black Mirror, a horror adventure game published by The Adventure Company in October 2003.  I first played it in December of 2005, though it took me four months to get through it (25 hours of playtime).  I remembered almost nothing of the game, other than it rained a lot, so this was like playing it for the first time.  Deb and I played it together.  Even so, we needed to look up some things.  More on that later.

 

Overall Black Mirror remains a pretty decent game.  It spawned two sequels (both played) and a new and updated version of this first game, still awaiting me in my Steam library.  Samuel Gordon returns to his ancestral home (Black Mirror Castle) upon the suicide death of William Gordon, his grandfather.  He soon becomes embroiled in a family curse, and works to solve a great mystery surrounding William's death.  The story is okay, at least until it is revealed who the killer is.  That revelation defies all logic.

 

The game plays out in six chapters.  Locations are gradually added as the game progresses, but it begins inside the castle and on the grounds.  There are several people to speak with, and many rooms to explore.  The first two chapters include the nearby village and a church.  Chapter 3 takes players to another ancestral home in Wales.  This chapter is like a game unto itself.  Chapter 4 adds underground locations including beneath the church and Black Mirror Castle itself, as well as an old mine.  Next come many chilling visits to the morgue, an ancient stone ring and a lighthouse.  Many locations are seen in late autumn daylight and during night and dark thunderstorms. I was correct; it does rain a lot in this game.  And yet Samuel never wears a hat or carries an umbrella--perhaps he is crazy).  Presentation is via an enhanced slideshow format, where Samuel walks across the view.  Sometimes the on-screen scenario can be extended by walking further or to one side.  Let's look at some images now.

 

 

Black Mirror Castle. 

 

The main entrance hall within the castle. 

 

The castle greenhouse.

 

Churchyard cemetery.  There are several cemeteries in this game.

 

Entrance gate to the house in Wales. 

  

The local map showing all locations (except Wales).  Once acquired players can click on the map and transport there. 

 

The very creepy Morgue.

 

To escape from the old mine we must shoot and kill a wolf (boo, hiss) in a timed sequence set up to make players fail. 

 

My favourite screenshot, taken beneath the parish church. 

 

Same cemetery as above, at night.  There are at least four in the game.

 

The final problem, so to speak.  This is close to the end of the game, in Chapter Six. 

 

As the images hopefully demonstrate, I have no quibbles with the graphics.  Again played in 640 x 480, Steam has done a good job of keeping this old game looking good.  Not having to constantly switch CDs is a good thing, too.  Anyway, the body count continues to mount during the game.  In addition to William and the wolf, the castle gardener is murdered, a young boy (boo, hiss), Samuel's uncle and his cousin (?) James.  Besides a few too many murders, what else is there to dislike about the game?

 

Well, there are very few actual puzzles.  Assemble a torn photo, unscramble some riddles, solve a 4 x 4 sliding puzzle, figure out how to open a jewel box with a puzzle along with a few other examples, this game is mostly about pixel hunting.  Hot spots appear red when the cursor is placed on them.  Very often spots that have been checked 101 times and not shown up will turn red later, after a certain conversation or action has taken place.  Inventory can become crowded at times.  Worst of all, some hot spots must be left clicked and right clicked, or else.  Yes, players can "die" in this game.  After Samuel gets killed a few times by a wolf, and his head sliced off, it is a good thing to save often.  This brings me to my main complaint.  If you don't save often you get a much more immersive experience in the game.  But if you don't save often and you die (not if but when) then a lot of replaying must take place.  If you do save often, you totally lose the immersive experience of being in the game.  Developers never really get this.  It seems a necessity to kill the player many times, to prove how stupid players are and how clever the developers are.

 

Things I liked were the fact that Samuel would not leave a place if there was still more to do there.  That was very handy.  And many of the map locations could not be visited if they were no longer needed.  Very helpful.  Sadly, however, the game lacked flow.  As soon as one puzzle was solved, one thought that the way ahead would be clear for a time.  Usually another obstacle was encountered almost immediately.  And now we come to the game's conclusion.  Once we know who the killer is, we also realize that it would be virtually impossible for that person to have committed all the crimes.  For so many reasons (no blood anywhere on him, for one).  Perhaps this will be explained better in the second game, which I've also played but forgotten.

 

I can recommend the game, though it falls beneath most games where players cannot die.  Good graphics and highly atmospheric locations, a decent enough story (until the end).  But beware that right click option. We played for a total of 24 hours, taking solutions where needed and seemingly stuck.

 

In piano news, the first 8 weeks are usually crucial to further development.  Practice is very slow, as the pianist attempts to teach his body what to do when and where.  Being a naturally slow learner, 8 weeks usually doesn't get me very far.  However, I can now play the Invention in D by Bach, and the Haydn sonata (a small one, albeit) is coming along nicely.  I have even began to memorize it.  The Bach Prelude in D from Book 1 is still very slow going.  Though mostly a piece for right hand, it has more tricky places than a typical mine field.  The fugue, though, is progressing well.  It should be ready to play in another four weeks.  I have yet to begin the final piece on the first half, a short work by Beethoven.

 

The second half of the program is dominated by a very difficult Chopin Nocturne, Op. 27 #2.  I nearly gave up during week 5, and I might still pack it in.  Despite getting 40' a day to itself, it still sounds like I am sight reading it.  If after another four weeks it is still going nowhere, I will switch it off for a different piece.  The pieces by Scriabin range in difficulty from fairly easy to quite difficult, are developing as expected.  One of them is fully playable while the other two slowly improve each week.  Lastly comes a difficult piece that I learned several years ago, March Wind by MacDowell.  It is coming back to me quite fast and should be memorized and playable in four weeks time.  I will report again at that time.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

Spring Woodland Wildflower Walk

This long-awaited event usually happens on May 1st, the day after Beltane.  This year it occurred on May 2nd, due to wet weather on the 1st.  Beltane itself was a pretty good party, with music, our final indoor wood fire of the season, and Deb's highly anticipated return to normal eating by ordering a pizza from Armandos.  They offer several vegan style pizzas, and Deb had her first chew in many months.  Her jaw, which had stopped her from all solid foods, seems to be healing now, enough at least to have the occasional pizza.  In general her health has improved nearly 100% since Spring Equinox, including her bladder and kidney issues and those nasty blood clots in her lung.

 

The woodland walk was at a nearby conservation area that encompasses a large woodlot just northeast of the town of Essex.  This is a favourite location for our Spring walks, as it is usually filled with wildflowers.  This year was no exception, and we saw acres of them, with huge amounts of both wild ginger and jack-in-the-pulpits.  Of course spring beauties were everywhere, and violets in three colours.  A lot of buttercups were also seen.  The only important spring flower that this site doesn't have is the trillium.  At least in our adventures here we have never come across any of them.

 

 

Spring beauties up close.

 

A carpet of beauties surround a stump.  They seemed to be singing to it.

A sighting of the rare red-headed forest walker wildflower! 

 

 

 Wild violets up close.

 

 Wild violets not so close.

Wild ginger flowers are remarkably beautiful, but they are shy.  They usually hide beneath the broad leaves.

 

Things were happening in the woods today.

 

 

Part of the trail is on a boardwalk.  There was a lot of standing water today in places, and the mosquitoes won't be too far behind.

A buttercup. 

 

 

Part of our trail as it skirts open farmland.

There were some beautiful mosses seen today, always a favourite of mine.

 

In movie news there are a few to report.  Grand Tour is a Portuguese film from 2024 and directed by Miguel Gomes.  A man in Burma is about to meet his fiancee, arriving on a ship from England.  He gets cold feet and heads for the hills.  He goes to Bangkok, then Singapore, then into Chinese back country.  Though the year is 1917, the director uses modern scenes to describe much of the story.  In some cases budget restraints work wonderfully well if creatively handled, as does this film.  There is very little acting to do in the film, which is as much a travelogue as it is a story.  The narrator and filmed scenes of various cities and their street life present the story, often with much humour.  The film, mostly in b & w, reminded us often of the films of Guy Maddin, though this director's vision is far saner and more easily viewable.  Just when one thinks that are no new ways left to tell a story, here is a brand new and very effective way.  Highly recommended viewing.

 

Now showing on Mubi. 

 

Next came five short films by Romanian director Radu Jude.  The Tube With A Hat is a heartbreaking story of a poor family trying to get their old TV set repaired.   From 2006 it features a father and son all day trek (in the rain) to visit a TV repair shop in the city.  They carry the beast all the way there and all the way back.  Hiking, hitch hiking, and riding the bus eventually get them there and back.  However, the man drops the repaired set as they near their home again, slipping in the mud.  Will the TV work when they get it back inside their leaky-roofed home?  The film is 23 minutes of pure father-son adventure.

Shadow of a Cloud is from 2013 and is 30 minutes long.  A Bucharest priest is called to the side of a dying woman.  He begins to administer the last rites, as the woman is clearly dying.  However, the daughter of the dying woman interrupts him and tells him no, they want a prayer of healing.  He complies and leaves.  When the woman dies shortly afterwards, the daughter blames him entirely for the death, and his second visit does not go well.  An odd but effective film, very slowly paced.

The Marshall's Two Executions is from 2018 and is 10 minutes long.  Using actual b & w footage from a 1960s 4-man execution by firing squad in Romania, the director pairs the actual killings (which were filmed at the time) with a later colour film that also recreates events as they happened.  Thus we get to see a very grim part of Romanian history not once, but twice.  Gruesome and sad.

Plastic Semiotic is from 2021 and is 22 minutes long.  It is an hommage to childhood toys, many of them plastic.  Instead of using stop motion, the director sets ups dozens of tableaux featuring the toys, including some hilarious ones of toys having sex with each other.  This is a very fun film to watch, and the toy variety and quality are astounding.  Worth many viewings.

Caracturana is a 10 minute film that highlights graphic works by Daumier in a very unique manner.  The director organizes the film around hand gestures of the characters in the prints.  Quite fun, especially the prints themselves.

The Potemkinists is from 2022 and is 18 minutes long.  More Romanian history is detailed, having to do with the crew of the Potemkin.  They were actually accepted into Romania during the revolution, thus thwarting Russia's attempts to bring them all to justice.  A giant monument to the men stands on a high hill overlooking the Danube canal in Romania, but the bottom parts have been vandalized and removed by scrap thieves.  The film is about the historical events, but at the same time we see a man trying to convince a female bureaucrat to get the government to fund a repair job.  She is not convinced at first, but he manages to alter his vision slightly and get her on his side.  A fascinating bit of forgotten history.

 

Following our enjoyment of his small films, we attempted to watch a feature called Do Not Expect Too Much From The End of Time, from 2023.  Despite its success in festivals and high ratings from critics, it was not our cup of tea.  We bailed after about 20 minutes.  I see a lot of positive reviews from male writers, but female critics (where I am looking) seem absent.  Small wonder.  The profanity and misogyny are off the scale here.  Sure it might turn out differently, but in the meantime who wants to sit around and listen to a "friend" of Andrew Tate spout off about what he "knows" about women.  Boys may laugh (though I sincerely hope not), but I highly doubt that girls would.

 

Mapman Mike