Fishtank: Raw, sharply realistic story of a mid-teens girl finding an escape from the dreadful estates around Rodney Marshes in Essex. What impressed me, apart from the almost Mike Leigh social-realism was beauty. There were moments in the film where it was more overt than others, sometimes beauty was just a prop in a scene. there must be something in the association between ugliness and beauty that makes the contrast more stark. Dipoles I suppose.
what about the scene where Mother is putting out the laundry, holding a cigarette while hurling verbal abuse at her daughter. the light in the shirts, the flapping fabric, all white and pure. Other moments- death is close, so is fear and violence but so is the will to survive in an oddly modern setting.
At times, my heart was in my mouth.
Beautiful.

 http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/JjZc9ayGlaM&hl=en_GB&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&border=1
Rosie did something funny today: on arriving home and jumping out of the car, she turned and ran across the green (this is very bad), but she galloped towards a cat under a tree. The cat didn’t run for it immediately, there was a pressing reason for that- she was in mid-crap! The look on her face seemed to day ‘NOT NOW! Can’t you see I’m squeezing one off?’. After a few vital seconds, the cat did make a run for it in that classic, centuries old traditionthat cats & dogs have always held.

John Crowley’s "Is there Anybody There?/ (2008): Set in the ’80s, a young lad who lives in an old folks home run by his parents. The Film’s colour space is filled with period images, music and conversation which forms a backdrop to the story of a lad and his friendship with an old man played by Michael Caine. that guy is a very fine actor, I hadn’t realised before, but he is. Anyway, a charming, odd and, at times, very funny story.

I’m not well, so an early night now.

It shows so much promise, Avatar (that film). The biggest could-have-been. Not that it lacks virtues, there were some touching scenes, they related to important world issues about the destruction of indigenous peoples and Gaia. Maybe some people will be influenced by this story, maybe they will dwell on it and consider what the meanings are. The trouble for me was that it started well and degenerated into an action film. It would suit me better if there could have been more time spent on the life of the forest, and how the peoples are woven into it by their ideology. Still, at least it will appeal to some and there is some tentative eco-message.
Next time, I will skip the last hour.

Lame I know. but I’m off to the cinema later and will need to wear opposite-polarised glasses. Yes, it’s Avatar night.
With some luck, they’ll have the clip-on version. The paper cutout ones are of no use, the lenses are always too close together..
I’ll let you know….

Re-watched Antichrist. Indeed it is a stunning film, beautifully shot and punctuated by an Handel auria that gives this post the title. Surprise surprise at the end, the dedication to Tarkovsky. Curiously, that appeared just after a shot that seemed like something from Ingmar Bergmann to me.

Antichrist: wouldn’t normally do this, but this film has made such an impression. this is an interim review because I have not watched the whole film yet. Beautifully shot, a slow build-up to disgusting events in the lives of two sole characters. There is Tarkovsky in this, maybe some of "Misery" by Clint Eastwood too. Okay, plus a bit of the Exorcist. the atmospheres are enticing but never without a sense of menace.

I shall return to this page after watching it again.

Seven: great film from a long line of thrillers in this genre.the film has: Silence Of The Lambs, The Abominable DR. Phibes, all those gritty New York distopia storys including Batman. It doesn’t matter that the story wasn’t desperately original, it was however, so well executed…
Besides: it’s damned cold tonight, -3°C and dropping. I am though, warm, acclimatised and well fed. Hope the car’s service doesn’t sting too much next week.
Schools’ are out: and I feel less daunted by christmas this year, can’t remember last time it seemed this way. Something that hasn’t changed is the winder holiday is certainly ruined by Christmas, but not letting that happen from now on. this Whisky tastes fine (Iona, from the Tobermoray distillery).
From yesterday: a very feint one

Poorly computer (again gasp): On Windows 2000, the System32system file is corrupt, meaning no bootup. I don’t know how this happens, but last night Kaspersky raised the alarm and offered to delete some infected files. It will be a few days until I can SFC file checker from the boot-up floppy discs. Last time I tried that technique, however, it failed- no repair worked.
What a pain, it’s all the time setting up the OS that’s at risk, no important files are in danger though. Just time- a precious commodity at this end of term.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas: Film about the son of a Concentration Camp commandant. I don’t mind giving key elements of the plot because the film is so bad that I urge you to avoid it. The kid is bored in the house where the Camp’s commandant is posted, he climes out and makes friends with a Jewish kid over the electric fence. Eventually he digs in to try to find the Jewish kid’s father, and ends up in a gas chamber himself. Sentimental, absurd and twee.
Red sky in the morning; you know the rest.