Touching the Void
A documentary set amidst a mountaineering expedition that goes tits-up. I was intrigued by the ethical situation that confronted the climbers, and the strength of their survival instinct.

Almost Famous Boring. Interesting story, on the whole well acted and filmed. I’m surprised that it won an oscar for best original screenplay. Like a cup of weak tea, bland and forgetable.

Seven Samurai Wicked. This is a fantastic action film (I’ve seen it called ‘arthouse action’). It is a riveting story of a poor village that attempt to hire samurai to protect them from bandits. The problem is that they don’t have any money, so need samurai who will do it for nothing. Dramatic and exciting, it has been a major influence on the western genre.

Frankly, I’m disappointed.

What’s eating Google? Kottke has this to say:

Google isn’t worried about Yahoo! or Microsoft’s search efforts…although the media’s focus on that is probably to their advantage. Their real target is Windows. Who needs Windows when anyone can have free unlimited access to the world’s fastest computer running the smartest operating system?

Is this the best blog entry ever ? No, but it’s interesting. By the way, this is the best blog entry ever . And that’s a fact.

I found this post on Barbelith which confirms that The Family Guy is back in production and will be on the air in the US for spring next year.

Watching The Graduate for the umpteenth time. I just found out that the director, Mike Nichols, also directed the truly diabolical ‘Wolf’ (which from memory starred Jack Nicholson?). How the mighty fall – The Graduate must be one of the finest films ever made, Wolf, one of the worst?

The Last Party 2000 – a gripping doco that anyone with an interest in the 2000 US presidential election should watch. Hosted by that Seymour Hoffman dude, it features interviews with Noam Chomsky, Jesse Jackson, various democratic and republican senators and representatives, movie stars and musicians, and Michael Moore (who shouldn’t really be mentioned in the same sentence as the Chomster, but there you go). What can I say? This is a fantastic doco – go to the movie rental joint and rent it ASAP.

This is Spinal Tap – ha ha ha! Really funny. Now I see where David Brent comes from – The Office has pretty much ripped this idea off (and not that I have anything against The Office – I think that it is superb, but now I know whose shoulders it stands on).

And lastly, Jane Campions ‘In the Cut ‘. Beautifully made and acted, but it is none the less routine. It adds nothing to the genre (a ‘thriller ‘ which revolves are a serial killer preying on young woman. Yawn.) as not only is the obligatory twist rather predictable, but the characters aren’t especially likable. I’m not a Meg Ryan fan, but this must rate as one of her better performances. This is typically gritty sexual Campionesque drama, but not a shade on some of here previous work.

The more i think about this one the more I laugh. It is a bloody funny film about a dog show and the lives of the owners and handlers of some of the dogs. A star performance from the director who also plays the odd ball owner of one of the dogs. Watch out for some comedy gold in deleted scenes too.

Rach’s birthday on Sunday – we went out to Leeds Castle (that is actually in Kent) on Saturday. The beautiful grounds were even more spectacular with the spring flowers and blossoms. Sadly, my old buddies Peter Ustinov and Alistair Cooke both passed away in the last few days. There seems to be an appropriate symmetry in this.

Fog of War is a fascinating insight into the life and times of Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defence in the Kennedy/Johnson era. I believe that it won best doco at the Oscars. Rob’s an interesting chap – charismatic, cogent, and yet he seems to carry the weight of a considerable guilt. He sounds important warnings for the US government of today, and his insight should be urgently heeded.

McNamara recited a quote from TS Elliot that struck me:
“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time” – and that is where he feels he is now. If there were more people in positions of power that had learnt from their mistakes (and what they’d done right) would the world be a better place? I think that the answer is obvious.

Quite a strange website – the Southpark Robert McNamara figure at the start is completely out of sync with the film – it is disrespectful. But, the teachers guide looks superb.

Recent Movies:

City of God – fantastic film – extremely vibrant, shocking, watchable.

The Barbarian Invasions – The first Denys Arcand film I’ve seen. It’s a thoughtful take on globalisation, death and change – moving and perceptive but it didn’t really ring my bell. It has prompted me to look out for Jesus of Montreal.

Lost in La Mancha – great doco about Terry Gillaim’s (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Fisher King, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas among others) attempt to make a film about Don Quixote. Everything goes wrong, a great insight into certain facets of how a picture is made.

Belleville Rendezvous – a creepy animated feature in French. Beautifully drawn, but, well, kinda creepy.

Can’t believe that I forgot to write about Gus Van Sant’s amazing film Elephant . Controversial and shocking – get thee to a movie theatre and see it!

Oh, and web geeks check out the web site source – ooh lovely CSS all the way – a product of Dreamweaver MX 2004 I suspect.