Film Reviews

two movies I re-watched yesterday...

Double Indemnity...

this has to be one of the best movies ever made and that is one of those comments I am reluctant to just type but it feels totally applicable.... I love love love Barbara Stanwyck in her early and peak-career movies and she just shines in this. Was she not completely beautiful and her voice! Ah, for me, who I admit has a preference for English accent (in women) she has a gorgeous tone to her speech. (I can't say I care for her later soap acting but we'll forgive and at the same time embrace her longevity). She is absolutely delicious in DI. Infact I swoon over both Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray - I know little about him as an actor and would like to research other films as I am currently rediscovering many old b/w films and actors....

Edward G. Robinson as Keyes is an absolute joy to watch, so brilliant..... and for me the final moments of the movie are very telling and I cried again watching.... the love story of this movie is the love between Keyes and Walter Neff.... at the end of the day their relationship is the most bound with true love, not romantic love but love and acceptance of each other as friends and something of a father/son bond.

Just a wonderful movie to watch and re-watch. There is so much to get out of this one.

Blithe Spirit

the David Lean adaption of Noel Coward's play.... yes it has Rex Harrison as who I don't care for particularly but he plays the up-your-own-arse author to perfection in this one! Constance Cummings is lovely and polished, with a great voice and diction. As for Kay Hammond, she really cheers me and I like her voice too... Margaret Rutherford is the main delight in all of this stupidity though..... she plays a sincere if not exactly competent clairvoyant medium, oh yes eccentric stereotyping but not a stereotype. This is something to love about this movie beyond the quaint and charming Englishness of Coward's convoluted absurdity, and that is how the female characters interact with each other and how the manners of the day can be so easily usurped.... I love this film....

Okay, so next I'll write very differently about recent tracks/songs I've got on my pod.... later!

reviews - part two

Ok part two of my reviews, because I have a need to get this jotted down.... let's see, music....

I've decided to try to widen my music collection and listen to more current stuff - I can easily fall back on old faves (David Sylvian, Brett Anderson, Japan, quite a few classical cds) but really my music has felt a bit 'stuck' for a while...

It seems I am giving certain artists a rest, or am moving on from them for differing reasons - artists like Kate Bush and Tori Amos, and other long-term faves I don't feel like listening to them so much these days....

However, if you know, Tori Amos is releasing a new album pretty soon and so Emily and I decided to download the video and listen to 'Welcome to England'.... oh Tori what is going on in your world, dear? I don't know.... I felt this song was a little flat, a little directionless and lacking in moments of pleasure.... I've listened to it again a few times but am less than impressed. I hope that if I get the album I will have a better understanding of what is going on.... The video itself is shot on grainy handheld and features Tori dressed in 'symbolic' dresses.... something like Brittania and a stars and stripes ensemble... she appears as an alter-ego in blonde wig riding the London Eye.... nice moments for us are seeing the old Gherkin and the River and so on, but really what is this all about.... and Tori herself looking older but very much toned and dare I suggest cosmetically enhanced to the Max? She doesn't seem to be ageing as she should be, though what is should and who am I to tell her to tone down the mascara and hair dye:)

So new tracks on my ipod:

these are a few single songs I have downloaded that took my fancy.....

Yeah Yeah Yeahs... I downloaded two tracks from their new album after hearing 'It's a dull life' on the Mark and Stuart radio 2 show.... I really liked that one but then I heard 'Zero' and my ears popped and I started jigging about in the kitchen like a mad disco wife.... ah yes they are good.. so I have given in and this evening just downloaded the rest of the album 'It's Blitz!' - wish me luck.... I want to love this one

Morrissey has a new album and single and video, so I got the latter two.... the album I am not sure about trying out, what you think? I really enjoy 'I'm throwing my arms around....' oh dear yes it makes me chuckle for different reasons. Emily gives this one a big thumbs down - oh no Mum no! But hey we're not allowed to agree always. I like Mozz and his voice has stayed distinctively individual and remarkable for all these years...

Arcade Fire - 'Wake Up' - it's not a new track, it's something I heard on the radio and decided I own.... I just wish they would do an acoustic, pared-down version and then..... but that would be missing the point oI suppose....

Bat For Lashes - bought the whole album on the strength of hearing 'Daniel' and 'Glass' but after an initial couple of euphoric listens, and hearing so many influences in this young woman's music (Kate Bush, Toyah, Enya!) I have concluded it is rather patchy and some of the lyrics make me want to heave, a little..... The track I like the most, at the mo, 'Glass' is a gorgeous track musically but the lyrics are not my cup of tea at all...

Went over the sea
What did I find?
A thousand crystal towers
A hundred emerald cities
And the hand of the watchman
In the night sky
Points to my beloved
A knight in crystal armour

A bit too Toyah, a bit too Tolkien, whimsical Arthurian faerie crystal stuff for me... but I might be reading it wrong... anyhow I can still enjoy it...

Bob Dylan - 'Beyond here Lies Nothin''
I heard this track, again on the Mark and Stuart show - and really it made me smile and I love Dylan's older voice! He is so amazingly Bob:) This is a good song to twiddle about to and generally feel ok.....:)

Editors - An End has a Start' - I really like the lead singer's voice, despite their sameyness, I think they are an excellent live band (saw them on Glastonbury I think it was last time)... and although I wish everything was toned down a little.... ha... it's a simple yet very good song.

So now what?

I have hopes that Graham Coxon's new album will be good and have heard a few tracks on the radio and like what I hear.... So I will get that when I can....

Meanwhile I have just downloaded Marissa Nadler's 'Little Hells' - new album because I couldn't be arsed to pick two tracks and then decide if t he album would be worth completing... all the previews sounded good to me and with song titles such as 'Heartpaper Lover', 'Ghosts & Lovers', Brittle, Crushed & Torn'..... well it seems to be worthwhile a listen as a complete....

And I just completed the Yeah Yeah Yeah's album.....