One day...

Hullo ma wee blog,

My Lovely G and I went to the cinema the other day. We went to see ‘One Day’, the film based on the book by David Nichols. We saw him at last year's Edinburgh Book Festival talking about this book which he had just completed and on the back of enjoying the evening we both read the book. I thought the book was really good. I thought the idea of using one repeating day the across some two decades to catalogue and tell the story of the relationship between a boy and a girl/ a man and a woman was a unique idea.

The book is partially set in Edinburgh, where the two main characters meet during the University time and then follows on elsewhere across the years and a relationship where they are emotionally never too far apart but never quite together in one of those familiar tales where teenage angst develops into adult confusion, longing and the fear of having let something incredible slip away as you settle for an uncomfortable friendship rather than risk losing someone you need and love.

It's always strange watching a film set somewhere so familiar, as the way a cinematographer will cut shots of individual places together can be confusing, almost annoying even, when you know the place so well yet watch characters stroll down a street, turn a corner and end up a couple of miles away, turned yet another corner and find themselves (in reality) back with they started. Of course that's not something that affects the majority of moviegoers, most of the time anyway.

One of the main benefits, having read the book, was that the film stayed very true to the structure, content and style of the book. This is probably due to the fact that Nichols himself wrote the adaption to screenplay which gave the whole a nice clarity and continuity with the book and especially the characters, which is unusual in a film of a book rather than the book of a film. I've often gone to see a film made from a book and been disappointed because the screen experience doesn't measure up to the imagination. While I love cinema, I also love what a good book can create in your imagination. The two aren't always compatible and lots of movies I've seen have left me feeling disappointed and sometimes cheated. I think that this continuity was really important in this film because the book is about character predominantly and the author's touch was retained in the screenplay. Despite that it's not a patch on the book.

This film isn't high art, it's entertainment. It's a decent story well told, well cast, filmed and produced but it's not going to win any Oscars. Anne Hathaway for example, right for the part as she may be, sometimes struggles to maintain an English accent. Despite this the film kept me engaged, entertained and just as importantly for my lovely G – awake. One difficulty is casting lead roles and expecting actors in their thirties to play an age range from 18 to 40. Belief is stretched just a little thin, particularly in the teenage years. It's been getting mixed reviews too.

I enjoyed it. But then again I did write in my blog profile that I'm becoming scarily fond of chick flicks but maybe it's an age thing!

I'd still recommend it.

See you later

Listening to:

Favourite film scenes challenge.........

Hullo ma wee blog,

Recently at a children's hearing we had an hour without a hearing as key people had failed to turn up. Spending an hour with people you don't normally, the conversation turned as it often does to hobbies and interests. Almost everyone will espouse a keen interest in film and we had a short discussion on favourite actors or film scenes.

The moment came to me again just now as I was reading a news headline and was caught by a sidebar 'best ever film scene' note.

Intrigued I spent a few minutes looking at what the worthies interviewed thought were their favourite scenes and of course there were only a few surprises - apart from the ones I absolutely didn't know at all.

It made me think to ask you whats one of your favourite film scene - or OK then, scene or two - or scene featuring a favourite actor and why.

I'm not going to ask the definitive "whats your favourite film clip?" as if you're like me, you wont be able to get the list down to anything like that.

But go on and post a favourite clip in your blog and let me know so I can go and check it out.

One of mine is at the top. A scene from 'Good Will Hunting' and featuring the much under-rated actor Robin Williams, one of my favourites, who unfortunately has been tarred with the 'used to be a comedian' brush and has also made a few poor choices. On a good day however I think he is outstanding and this scene represents him well.

His character is a psychiatrist tasked with analysing Matt Damons disturbed genius character. This is their first meeting after Damon's character carried out an attack on Williams characters personality based on a painting he {Williams} had done.

And as I said one or two, here's another couple.


Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Bloody Peasants!

This ones self explanatory I think.

From favourite director Bill Forsythe's 80's film "Comfort and Joy".

Bill Paterson plays Alan "Dickie" Bird, a Glasgow radio DJ recovering from being dumped by his girlfriend. In this scene, he spots a beautiful girl (Clare Grogan) in the back of an ice cream van who smiles at him. He follows the van, purchases a 99 and gets involved in a war between rival ice cream companies.



So.........any takers?

see you later.

listening to Amy McDonald 'Caledonia'

A Cinema Sunday.............

Hullo ma wee blog,

Today we took off for Edinburgh to make best use of our 'unlimited' monthly tickets for cineworld. We enjoyed a couple of marvellous films and a decent wee lunch in between! All things said, its been a good day.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either of these movies to you. Both are a feast for the eyes, ears and heart. Both are brilliantly cast, superbly written and directed and credibly performed. Both are a couple of hours that pass in a flash.

Invictus tells of Nelson Mandelas use of The Springbok national rugby team to unite South Africa in overcoming the stranglehold of entrenched attitudes left by apartheid and in establishing South Africas international credentials. A great depiction of the ideal of politics.

The Last Station covers the last year of Tolstoys life and the tangled threads of love, greed and politics.



See you later.

Listening to Duffy 'Warwick Avenue'

Giggling in the dark................

photo - Alastair Sim, actor.

This afternoon I picked up the lovely G from work when she finished at 3pm.

We headed off across Edinburgh on a bright but blustery afternoon and parked the car at Kings Stables Road car park. We talked about whether we { or I} should take the big umbrella out of the back of the car as there were a few dark clouds about, but decided to leave it as if it should rain we would just dive into a coffee shop or a pub till it blew over. Anyway it was blowing a gale!

From there it was just a short walk up St Johns Terrace by the side of the castle to the top of the Royal Mile where we stopped at The Hub for a drink and to watch the tourists go hurtling past, battered by the wind, high percentages of them wrapped in those see through blue tinted plastic waterproof wrappers that seem to be made out of economy bin bags, as others, with varying degrees of success, struggled with umbrellas against the strong wind. There were a number of great photo opportunities but sadly I hadn't my camera as we were planning on going to the cinema a bit later.

Once the wind had died down a bit and we had finished our drinks we walked down the Royal Mile. It was absolutely crammed with tourists and we found it really hard to make any headway as people would just stop in the middle of the pavement to look into a shop window not noticing there was anyone else near and that there were streams of people trying to get past on one side or another. I was quite fascinated as usual with people watching and listening out for the various languages that come at you from every direction. American, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Swiss German { I can recognise some of the accents by now } and of course the ubiquitous Japanese, all vying to get into the shops and take advantage of the weak pound and buy all the tat that everyday Scots find most cringe worthy. You know the stuff, the tartan equivalents of the stuffed donkey and over sized sombreros that us Brits are so fond of bringing back from Spain: the Braveheart tee shirts and those beautiful little plastic Highland Piper dolls dressed in garish tartan and black and stuffed into a plastic tube sealed with a red lid.

Aye that's the one - made in China or India especially for us by five year olds being paid 50 pence a fortnight to work 14 hours a day so we can exercise our basic human right to buy complete rubbish!

G and I lost each other in the crowd for a bit - I wasn't paying attention of course - but found each other after a while.


So after that we headed to The Filmhouse to see 'The Happiest Days Of Your Life', part of the Edinburgh film festival season celebrating the work of Alastair Sim { photo at top } who was "born near here" according to a plaque on the wall of The Filmhouse itself.


The film was great - very funny in a typically british "jolly hockey sticks" kind of way but our enjoyment was increased by the presence of three lovely elderly ladies who sat in the row behind and had a fantastic time right from lights off when the adverts and trailers started. They "Ooh'd" and "Ah'd" as every product was revealed regardless of whether it was a well known brand of vodka or a designer car and giggled infectiously with each other and promised to buy each other one or other of the goods on offer and discuss who would best suit each one.

This continued through the trailers as they described their amazement with the actors, actresses or special effects and you could feel their excitement build as the main film started. G and I sat hand in hand and listened to their quiet banter and hoped we would be so full of life at their age. Like us they really enjoyed the film and its look back to simpler times and gentler humour. It was just hilarious and even more so as we saw it through their eyes perhaps just a little.


Thank you, Girls..........