A scanty month dominated by another bout of Depression. In fact a week of recovery at the beginning June has only punctuated an episode which began in May and from which I am far from recovered. The problem in writing about Depression is that it is miserably re-iterative, solipsistic and impossible to make interesting. Depression …
Category: movies
May Miscellany
Let's start with the best. May was a remarkable month for original television films featuring two absolute gems, and what is more gems of completely different kinds. I have already written about Compulsion (see blog of 14th May); here I turn my attention to The Unloved co-written and directed by Samantha Morton and screened on Channel …
A burst of Leigh
A little burst of Mike Leigh material - a lengthy Mark Lawson interview, a documentary on Abigail's Party, a reshowing of his 1976 TV film Nuts in May, and a viewing of his most recent film Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) - provide a chance for some reflection on this director's work. Leigh is a man who tends to …
April Miscellany (2009)
A documentary film first. Afghan Star directed by Havana Marking, which won a prize at the 2009 Sundance Festival, told the extraordinary story of the introduction of an American Idol/X-Factor type show in Afghanistan. Music was banned by the Taliban and the producers of the show (Afghan Star) obviously faced considerable problems when they decided to …
March Music, Movies, Mysteries
A few miscellaneous March events. First the musical. A stupendous performance of Britten's War Requiem at Symphony Hall by the The Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus. Everything about this was terrific; the conducting by Antonio Pappano, the soloists Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside and Emma Bell, the choral singing and, above all of course, the …
Waiting for Godot
No, not an introduction to some general musings on existence! Instead a note of a trip to see a very remarkable production of the play at Malvern. The cast comprised Ian McKellen as Estragon, Patrick Stewart as Vladimir, Simon Callow as Pozzo and Ronald Pickup as Lucky. It is, I would imagine, highly improbable that …
Slumdog
Looking back I see it is 2 years to the day since I last wrote about going to the cinema and seeing a really good film ( Dreamgirls - http://nickhay.blog-city.com/dreamgirls.htm ). Now while part of this is down to going less often, it is also true that virtually every new film I have seen within that …
Moving Toyshop 