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.

Watched a borrowed DVD last night that turned out to be a pirate copy. This one was filmed in a cinema, you could hear people coughing and sometimes talking. The little parasite must have been sitting near the back with the videocam, because the bassy loud bits drowned out any clarity so that quite a few passages of dialogue were difficult to follow  There was a hollow loss of mid-range sounds that is common in cinemas, but the colour was off key too. At first I considered that the film was shot in a nostalgic desaturated colour-space, with added grain.
Cinemas frequently show videos pleading for people to avoid pirate videos, but I don’t think they need to bother. What I saw last night wasn’t really a proper film, certainly nothing that could compete with the product that film producers are trying to sell. I don’t see any reason to buy a disks from a pirate dealer because the genuine DVDs are don’t cost much anyway.

New game: Far Cry 2, driving around in the African savannah.
Real life, cycling around Warwickshire for 65 miles. One of them makes you fit