I’d like to write about the films I saw, the gigs, the books, and in general about these beautiful sunny days in London, but there are not enough hours in a day. Just one film, Joy Division: the documentary directed by Grant Gee; one gig, Mogwai at Queen Elizabeth Hall (my poor ears! it was great but so very LOUD. New songs sound interesting); one book, Let’s See: writings on Art from The New Yorker by journalist, critic and poet Peter Schjeldahl (no, I don’t know how to pronounce his last name). That’s all. For now. In four days I’ll be in Minehead for ATP curated by Explosions In The Sky. Can’t wait.
Last Friday I went to see Mike Leigh’s new film, Happy-go-lucky. Having read many good reviews (if a little puzzled by the light-hearted approach of this film compared to previous ones by Leigh) and a few bad ones, I was curious to see for myself what it was all about. The plot is simple, a few days in the life of Poppy (Sally Hawkins), north-London primary school teacher and serious nut-case. But a lovely, fun, and generous nut-case. In the opening scene the camera follows Poppy while she cycles through London and locks her bike before entering a little bookshop. Needless to say, her bike gets nicked but her reaction is unexpectedly jolly. There’s definitely something wrong with her. Or maybe not? Anyway the whole point of the film is that shit happens to everyone and what really makes the difference is people’s reactions to the aforementioned shit. Although Poppy has just hit 30, she’s still sharing a dingy flat with her best friend, she’s not bothered about pension schemes and she’s not in a stable relationship. In London people are so pressurised into buying properties, having the best job, best relationship, best holidays, and so on, that I doubt they (we?) find the time to enjoy all these things. So it’s refreshing to see that there is another way, and more than just one, to see life. It’s just fiction, but it could also be a source of inspiration. Oh, and seeing our house in a couple of scenes was a bit of a shock, but funny all the same!
2008 started with two very different films, Juno and The Savages. One deals with teenage pregnancy, the other with death, and both show how to accept life (sort of).
The last two months have kept me pretty busy, I travelled a lot throughout Italy and being back in the Big Smoke feels quite strange. I wasn’t on holiday, well, not the whole time! I was in Florence, then worked in Naples for two weeks, later in Parma and back in Albion. And since I’ve been in London I went to the cinema and saw a few gigs.
First of all films. It seems that a lot of music-based flicks are being released in these weeks, it must be a coincidence, or is it not? Anyway, I was disappointed to miss the preview of I’m not there at the London Film Festival, but what I really want to see is Heima, a documentary on Sigur Rós touring Iceland.
A film I managed to see is Control, a biopic on Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. The subject was a tricky one, waiting to be scrutinised by the band’s many fans, but director Anton Corbijn pulled it off wonderfully, thanks to a good interpretation by Sam Riley (Curtis) and Samantha Morton (Deborah Curtis) and thanks to the gorgeous photography.
And to close the chapter music(al) films I went to see Once, a sweet little film set in Dublin on the friendship/love between an Irish busker and a very young Czech girl. There’s a lot of singing and talking about lost love and all that, but the ending is refreshingly ‘real’.
Brick Lane, which has caused a bigdebate between the producers and Bangladeshi communities living in the East End, is based on Monica Ali’s well-known novel and although I’ve never managed to finish reading it I really enjoyed the film!
And finally I have a good feeling about French film Blame it on Fidel (now showing at ICA), it’s already included in this weekend schedule!
