Whiling Away the Hours 2019 Edition

I recently had the privilege and pleasure of travelling to Europe. So I spent a lot of time whiling away the hours in economy. I was desperate to watch Fleabag, but Series 1 was not available anywhere sadly.

On the way to Helsinki I only managed one movie. I finally got to watch The Wife. I've been keen to watch this for a while, but never managed it, so enjoyed the opportunity to finally see it. I haven't read the book, but knew enough about the book and movie to guess the plot twist very early on. 

I'm not sure if it was the cramped economy watching, or the middle of the night feelings, but while Glenn Close was fantastic, a couple of the male actors really got on my nerves. Unusually after watching the film, I'd still be interested in reading the book. 

I really can't explain what else I did on the way to Helsinki, but I didn't watch anything else. 

I watched two movies on the way home. Both on my rather sleepless Hong Kong to Sydney flight. First up I watched Swimming with Men.

Which was perfect economy seat fodder. Light, fluffy, no surprises particularly (although perhaps how long it took me to recognise Jane Horrocks was a surprise), and actually laugh out loud funny at times. Always good for your neighbouring passengers. 

Then I watched The First Monday in May. I do so love a fashion documentary, and this one was particularly fascinating. I watched it twice back to back. I did manage my only sleep between Budapest and Helsinki during the first run through, so I rewatched it and managed to stay awake the second time. Indeed I was riveted to the small screen. 

The First Monday in May is a 2016 documentary looking at the year of preparation and planning for the 2015 Met Gala, the annual fundraiser for Metropolitan Museum of Art's Anna Wintour Costume Center. Each year the Gala is themed for the upcoming spring fashion exhibition at the Met. In 2015 that exhibition and theme was China: Through the Looking Glass. 

It was a fascinating peek into the amount of hard work that goes into creating a blockbuster fashion exhibition and event. Months of meetings. Trips to Paris and Beijing. I loved seeing Andrew Bolton (curator of the exhibition) wetting himself visiting the YSL Archive in Paris. 

Naturally there were tortured discussions and a lot of hand wringing about whether fashion is art- at this level it certainly is, and whether it belongs in a museum- yes, it certainly does. Even though the designers deny that rather strenuously. Karl Lagerfeld was still with us and he called what he did applied art, while Jean Paul Gautier said that he doesn't design clothes expecting them to be in museums. I well remember the sensational Jean Paul Gautier exhibition I saw in Melbourne (way back in 2014! Can that really be 5 years ago?).

The final exhibition looked amazing. Chinese art and film was displayed along with the fashion. The presentations of the rooms were incredible, every one jaw dropping, different, so imaginative. Glass poles lit from below creating a bamboo forest of light sabres! Definitely next level. 

I learnt about some topics that I'm keen to followup on. There was a focus on the impact of Chinese film. JPG was fascinated by a film called In the Mood for Love, he watched it over and over again and a year later produced his chinese inspired Autumn/Winter 2001 Couture Collection. The trailer for In the Mood for Love makes it look creepy, we will see. It seems to be available on Kanopy. I haven't used that platform yet, this seems to be a good excuse. Most of the designers featured were big names and I was quite familiar with them. I hadn't heard of Chinese designer Guo Pei, but am intrigued, and will be checking her out. 

A similar amount of work went into the production of the Met Gala. Anna Wintour is extremley impressive to see in action. The amount of thought that goes into the seating plan is phenomenal. So many egos to be massaged. "We should bury this table." And celebrities are "great carpet material". Whilst the little people, we the general public "will just come back next week" according to Wintour when she needs to close a gallery a day early for preparation for the Gala. Some of those people have travelled from around the world, and will be there for one day only, they can't come back next week. 

Anna Wintour was a walking ad for Starbucks. Someone needs to buy that woman a keep cup. 

The First Monday in May is highly recommended. 

French Film Festival

I live in a small town in rural Australia. We don't get a lot of foreign films here. The local film society screens one film a month at the local cinema. I can't always go though.

Of course all of Australia can watch foreign language films on the joy that is SBS. They've just started their SBS World Movies as free to air, which is fantastic. Well I'm sure it would be if I could access the channel. I haven't quite managed that yet.

Each year though there is the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival. And one weekend in winter we get 4 of those French films screened over two days as part of the travelling film festival.

I made it to two of them this year. I hadn't heard of either of them before this event.

Family Photo

The Trouble With You

I enjoyed Family Photo much more than The Trouble With You. Family Photo is an engaging family drama, covering 4 generations, a dementing nana, separated parents, three adult siblings with the daily problems of adult life, and at time tricky interactions with their own children. It was touching and funny, and set in Paris. 

The Trouble With You was a rather bizarre French farce. It was apparently the standout hit of Cannes 2018. Set in Marseilles, it tells a strange story of Yvonne, recently bereaved, and bringing up her young son. She is a policewoman, and her police captain husband died a hero. But all is not what it seems. There were definitely laugh out loud moments and situations, and I really liked our two leading ladies, Adèle Haenel and Audrey Tatou, but the action scenes were too violent for me, and there was a lot of cringing and squinting. 

I missed out on two films. 

Clare Darling

Girl

I'd really like to catch up on  both of those, but Clare Darling appealed more. 

Finding those trailers on Youtube I just discovered that there's already a movie of Heal the Living. Another book in my TBR that is already a movie.

The struggle is real. It's never ending...

Monsieur Chocolat

Tonight I went along to see my local Film Society showing of Monsieur Chocolat. I had never heard of it, and didn't know a thing about it, just that clearly it was a French film, and I remember Omar Sy from The Untouchables (which I remember fondly and should watch again). I wasn't too sure about the poster, and was nearly put off going, but am happy that I made the effort particularly after a friend who saw it yesterday encouraged me to go. I'm definitely glad I made the effort to get up off the couch. 

Monsieur Chocolat (Chocolat in France) tells the real life story of Chocolat who was the first Afro-Cuban star in France. Beautifully set in fin de siècle France (and Paris, aaah) it is a fascinating look at that time with glimpses of the Lumière Brothers at their work and the brand new Eiffel Tower. Chocolat (at that time working as a charicaturish cannibal Kananga in a rather impoverished provincial circus when he pairs up with Georges Foottit (played by James Thiérrée, Charlie Chaplin's grandson, Georges was in reality George Foottit, an English clown). It seems that the plot takes some liberties with the truth (if Wikipaedia is to be believed, and as always truth is stranger than fiction).

Chocolat finds great fame and wealth, but struggles with the downsides of his fame- the women, the gambling debts, the racism. The racial themes and the discrimination are particularly relevant for the cinema goers of today. There are powerful echoes to the current stories that fill our newsfeeds- a world where kneeling during an anthem is such a divisive controversy and unarmed black Americans are frequently shot by police. (Not that Australia is without racism it just seems to be done bigger and better in America, and we're having our own struggles with marriage equality). Whilst we must view it with our modern eyes it does seem that Chocolat did fight against racial stereotyping and the even more overt racism of his time. 

Monsieur Chocolat is well worth a look. 

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog  

Jasper Jones The Movie

Today I spent a lovely two hours of my Tuesday afternoon at the movies seeing Jasper Jones. I've been excited for this movie for ages. I'm a big Jasper Jones fan. I read the book some time soon after it came out in 2009. For reasons that escape me entirely I never blogged about it. I've always meant to reread it. I originally read a library copy, and I've since bought my own hardback copy, but haven't managed to reread it as yet. 

Last year I was so lucky and saw the Belvoir Street stage version, and absolutely loved it. See my review. Jasper Jones the movie was released last week so I made sure to go along this week so it wasn't whisked off the big screen before I managed to see it. Which happens to most of the movies I want to see. And it was $10 Tuesday! Bargain. Even so there was only me and two other old ladies in my session. 

Jasper Jones (the movie) has a slightly different take on the story than I remember from either the stage version or the book. It's beautifully shot in Western Australia with Pemberton becoming 1960s small town Corrigan. It's a largely white town, Jasper Jones is a local Aboriginal lad who is a good kid but blamed for anything bad that happens in the town. One night something terrible happens and Jasper calls on 14 year old Charlie Bucktin to help him, despite the fact that they don't really know each other. 

Much of the action of the story revolves around the young people- Jasper, Charlie, and Charlie's friends - Eliza Wishart and Jeffrey Lu. But in the movie version I saw more of the sadness of the adults, the secrets they hold, their lives of deep unhappiness, the awful things they do. Aaron McGrath was absolutely fabulous as Jasper Jones. I suspected he would be. I'm really not good at recognising most actors, but have really enjoyed him each time I've seen him. He inhabited Jasper Jones. He was Jasper Jones.  

Toni Collette and Dan Wyllie were marvellous as Charlie's parents, and Hugo Weaving masterful as Mad Jack Lionel. For me, Levi Miller came across as a little young as Charlie, which is perhaps unfair but I did see an adult play teenage Charlie in the stage version last year. 

There's a great segment on ABC's The Mix featuring Craig Silvey and director Rachel Perkins talking about the adaptation of book to screen. And somewhat synchronously Deborah Abela features too- I'm currently listening to one of her stories in the car! My first of her books- The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen (slight spoiler- it's fantastic).

RN has a great interview with Craig Silvey and Rachel Perkins. 

Now, I really need to reread the book sometime. So I can gush about Jasper Jones one more time. 

Macadam Stories/Asphalte

I'm not sure if two films counts as a Festival, but I was very pleased to at least be able to make it to a midweek session of one of the two films shown recently as part of the Alliance Française French Film Festival 2016 at my local cinema. Subtitled films don't get much of a run in rural Australia, so I do like to make it if I can, especially if they're French films.

I saw Macadam Stories, an intriguing move that I'd not heard a single thing about apart from the local ads. It's hard to describe really. Set in a run down apartment building on the outskirts of Paris, it predominantly features three sets of encounters between paired characters. The American astronaut and an Algerian lady of the poster, an ageing actress fallen on hard times and the teenage boy living next door, and a rather sad, lonely man who tries to woo a night shift nurse at the local hospital. It sounds odd, and it is, but it's done well and is also reasonably funny. 

More impossibly, the blurb suggests that "Director and author Samuel Benchetrit brings much of his autobiographical book Asphalt Chronicles to the screen as Macadam Stories, a series of interconnected vignettes set in a public housing complex on the outskirts of Paris". Sadly Chroniques de l'asphalte does not appear to be available in translation, I can only hope that the success of the film may make it available for us in English one day. 

Somehow the film makers have managed to render beauty out of the bleak and rather grim surroundings. The banlieues of Paris are a long way from the great Haussmanian Boulevards of central Paris. Samuel Benchetrit grew up in these banlieus and he treats the suburbs and their inhabitants well while exposing their sensitive underbelly at the same time. Recommended. 

Australian trailer, with subtitles

Or the French Bande Annonce if you prefer.

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog 

The Bélier Family/ La Famille Bélier

I knew as soon as I saw the gushing ads for The Bélier Family before Christmas that I wanted to see it. Rather desperately. Sadly I missed it at Christmas time. Finally I did get to see it last week. France's hit film of 2015, and even the print ads made it look enchanting.

The Bélier Family live on a farm in Normandy. They run dairy cattle and make cheese, selling it at a stall at the local marché. Paula Bélier is 16, and is the only hearing member of her family. Her parents and younger brother are all profoundly deaf. Paula is their voice to the world, running the farm business and being their voice at the markets. Gradually she discovers her own voice and a love of singing. Paula's music teacher is obsessed with the songs of Michel Sardou, a new to me French icon, sadly a little middle of the road for my tastes.

The plot is possibly a little predictable overall, but it's a gentle, sweet feel good film, with plenty of laughs- not always an easy thing for a foreign language film to have humour bridge the language gap. There are some things that happen that are clearly wrong for a 16 year old girl, but that is a minor quibble. The Bélier Family is still is a rather charming French comedy. Louane Emera plays Paula Bélier, Louane was discovered on a series of The Voice in France in 2013, she certainly has a great voice.

The Belier Family has come under fire from the deaf community, about the use of non-deaf actors playing deaf characters (the parents are not deaf, the younger brother is). The signing is bad apparently. I do wonder how different that it is to using non-Australian actors for instance playing an Australian character. In that case the accent is usually so appalling as to be laughable.

The trailer gives too much away IMHO, so beware. But if you've already seen it, it's nice to reminisce.

Or maybe watch it with French subtitles (if you can't read them).

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog 

Oddball

I hadn't heard a lot about Oddball before we went to see it the other day. But I knew it was about a cute dog and some even cuter fairy penguins. I knew that it was based on a true story. And what a wonderful story it is.

Oddball tells the slightly modified story of how an unconventional free-range chicken farmer saved a penguin colony from foxes. The fairy penguin colony on Middle Island at Warrnambool in Victoria had been depleted nearly to extinction by foxes who had learned to cross to the island- either by walking over at low tide or even swimming over. Baiting wasn't working, neither was trying to shoot the foxes.

Swampy Marsh used Maremmas on his chicken farm to protect his flock from foxes, so when he heard about the plight of the penguins he knew that his protective dogs could work wonders, and thankfully they did.

Of course there are other plot lines in the movie, some of which work better than others, but I'm really glad I went to see it. Shane Jacobson known to many from his sterling work in Kenny is endearing as Swampy. It took me a while to recognise Frank Woodley (yes I was just talking about him the other day as an author) as the dog catcher- he does sport one of the most unflattering hair cuts ever known. Naturally the dogs and the penguins steal the show. Warrnambool comes off fairly well too, with lots of atmospheric coastal shots, and I'm sure the movie will do great things for tourism there. Thankfully lots of Australians are heading out to see Oddball this school holidays.

Yes the movie is a little bit hokey. And it's a bit predictable. But it's sweet, and uplifting, and it's important. There aren't all that many good news stories on the conservation front. Polar bears are starving. The last male Northern White Rhino will die in the next few years. Tasmanian Devils are under threat from the devastating Devil Facial Tumour Disease.

But with this great program, just by putting a few dogs on an island to guard the penguins, that penguin population is making an incredible recovery. Sensibly there is a pozible campaign to raise money to train the next generation of Maremma dogs to stand watch over the penguins of Middle Island. Perhaps this is exactly what the Sydney penguin colony needs too?

Connasse: Princesse des Coeurs

Prince Harry has just spent the last month or so in Australia and New Zealand. He has been in the news a lot. Initially he was here for Army exercises, and then more holiday making. The pressure is really off Harry now. Fifth in line to the throne. He rubbed noses. He went to a pub trivia night. He charmed babies. He's been a bit everywhere. He even said he wanted to get married and have kids. Right now. The girls went wild.

So I was rather amused to see this article proclaiming Harry as the "unwitting star" of a new French comedy. I hadn't heard of Camille Cottin before, but it seems she is a French comedian and actress with a recent sketch comedy show called Connasse. In her feature film Camille decides she is sick of ordinary life and she decides to marry "the last bachelor prince who is not deformed (even if he is a redhead) and who is the right age: Prince Harry."

The format seems a bit Borat with hidden camera and real people, but there is enough Paris scenery and Cross Chanel rivalry that it looks a must watch.

I can't wait to watch Connasse: Princesse des Coeurs. I'm not sure when it will be available. It was released in France on April 29. Sadly I'm not in France. I can't find it on iTunes, and there doesn't seem to be any other international release dates as yet.

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog 

The Imitation Game

I went along to see The Imitation Game today without knowing all that much about it. I'd seen the trailer once, and it looked a nice British war piece. It isn't. It's a completely amazing British war piece.

I didn't know all that much about the Enigma Machine before today, or Alan Turing. It's an extraordinary story, made into an extraordinary movie.

Sometimes it's the people who noone imagines anything of who do the things that noone can imagine. 

Go see it. Don't search for too much information about it before you go. Just go and let it wash out over you.

I'm not a great fan of the Oscars, but I certainly hope this is best movie in a few weeks, and Benedict Cumberbatch best actor. Keira Knightley did a great job as supporting actress too. I've only seen one other movie nominated for best picture so far, The Grand Budapest Hotel, which I absolutely hated.

The Babadook

Horror is not my genre. I've avoided it for decades. I saw a few horror movies when I was a teenager, but I never really liked them, and gave it up as a bad idea very early. But sometimes when you have a baby you don't imagine that 14 or so years later your sweet baby will want you to sit down and watch a horror movie because that's what they like now. And so recently I found myself on the couch watching The Babadook.

I didn't really know anything much of the story. I'd worked out that it wasn't for me, and so had avoided it all really. And then Master Wicker pestered for long enough and finally got a copy of the DVD, despite me having not let him see it at the movies last year

The Babadook is your standard haunting/posession kind of story really. Single mother, Amelia, is raising her young son Samuel. She's doing it pretty tough really, they both are. Amelia is rather sweet, and works at a nursing home to make ends meet. Samuel is six years old, and has many behavioural problems to put it politely. He is obsessed with monsters, and wakes shrieking with nightmares every night. Neither of them are getting any sleep. Each night Amelia read a picture book to her son to resettle him back to sleep. One night The Babadook book is on the shelf, and that is when things start to get really messy.

Truth be told I didn't mind the first half of the movie too much. It was more a drama, family saga movie at that stage, and before the creepier events of the second half of the movie. Which naturally enough went a bit further than I would like.

Still overall I wonder if I want to entertain myself with such stories. No, no I don't really. Whilst I don't mind suspense or crime on tv, I think I'm happy keeping myself away from the horror genre. There are so many more worthwhile, nicer stories out there, I'd rather spend my time with them. Although I'm not thrilled that Master Wicker proclaims horror as a favoured genre, I am glad that my teenage son does still want to spend time with me, and show me things he likes. And I still like knowing what he is interested in, and professes to like.

Rather surprisingly the movie makers are crowdfunding a printing of the "children's book" The Babadook Pop-Up Book. I hope no one ever makes the mistake of giving it to, or reading it to a young child.

Paddington

I went to see Paddington on Boxing Day. It was a perfect opportunity for a Christmas movie outing with Master Wicker and Ma Wicker. I was also very keen having just read and adored the book for the first time. And I had laughed myself rather silly at the trailer. Possibly more than was seemly, but we can't always control what we laugh at.

Paddington is a good movie interpretation of the book. They had to add a bit more movie type excitement, and so there are plots and villains that don't exist in the books. The film begins with a much more detailed exploration of Paddington's origins in "Darkest Peru" than Michael Bond provides us with in A Bear Called Paddington. But the film's heart is a sweet, warm movie, about the search for home and family, feeling lost in a new culture, and the love of marmalade,  that is enjoyable and funny for movie goers of all ages.

Just in case you missed it.

I did enjoy all the main characters, and always particularly enjoy Matt Lucas on screen. Do watch out for Mrs Brown's shoes. They're rather special. I haven't been able to google what they are, but maybe they are something like these- coincidentally called Louise by John Fluevog. The soundtrack oddly has a rather Cabribean vibe, but perhaps that is close enough to Peru for the movie world. 

My Old Lady

I hadn't heard of My Old Lady before I saw a print ad in the newspaper. I saw it merely as a new Maggie Smith movie. She's made several lovely films in the past few years including The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Quartet. So, I thought it might be nice to go along. Then Mr Wicker told me it was set in Paris. Naturally, I went along ASAP.

And naturally, Paris doesn't disappoint. Filmed completely on site in Paris, I thought My Old Lady was better as Paris porn than as a movie really. If I wasn't quite so obsessed with reading every street sign and working out if I'd been in that particular park/cafe/street then I might not have enjoyed it quite so much.

Kevin Kline plays Jim Gold, a somewhat hapless thrice married, thrice divorced New Yorker who is left an apartment in Paris in his father's will. And don't we all want that to happen? There is a catch however, the French have a particularly arcane form of sale, called a viager, where you can buy a property for a reduced price, and the former owner will continue to reside in the property for the rest of their life, while the new owner makes ongoing payments to the former owner. No, I hadn't heard of it before this either. Naturally, Jim Gold arrives wanting to sell the apartment immediately, and obviously the occupants aren't that keen. Of course, Maggie Smith, plays the elderly tennant, and the delightful Kristin Scott Thomas is her daughter, Chloe.

Rather unusually they gave quite a specific address as the location of the apartment in question, 13, Rue de Payenne 75003. Which was rather exciting as it was very near where we stayed in Paris last month, and I spent many pleasurable hours wandering about the general area. Paris has famously beautiful doors, and if you leave them open even briefly someone with a camera and a blog will stickybeak. The location has a fascinating history. I do wonder if the work being done was filming?

Actually if you watch the trailer

you really don't need to see the film

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog