QUOTE:
I watched 'London to Brighton' last weekend. What a nasty little shit of a film that is. It's 'underclass porn' designed for safe middle class types such as myself to watch and think 'what nasty horrible scummy people these are. I'm glad my life isn't like that'.

Really? It's a while since I watched it, but I remember thinking it was fairly good. I didn't think the people were particularly 'scummy'. The bad guys were bad, sure, but the others were sympathetically drawn, weren't they?

Ae Fond Kiss the other day.

Hmm. I always think with Loach that if we didn't have him someone would have to invent him; he does seem to fill a necessary kind of gap inbetween Mike Leigh and Shane Meadows and after Alan Clark etc etc. But I'm never *surprised* by his films in the way that I want to be. They're safe in their territory, I suppose. That's not to say they can't be funny and affecting and interesting and moving, but they just don't quite do it for me and to understand why I'd have to analyse a bit more how I feel about Shane Meadows and the Dardennes and Pavel Pawlikowski and so on.

Anyway the subject matter of this - Pakistani Muslims and their settlement in a Scottish community in Glasgow - is something that touches my own experience and films about this always reduce me to a weeping wreck anyway (see also My Son The Fanatic in particular). And I also often feel that trying to avoid stereotypes isn't what these films should be doing so much as attempting to analyse where they come from. In that respect this didn't do too badly, and even the character of the strict dad was rounded; and he was emotional in the way that I think Pakistani-English men of his age often actually are, which is kind of what I mean about stereotypes.

But in the end, I couldn't love it the way I love My Son The Fanatic. Could this be because Hanif Kureishi and Udayan Prasad really do understand what they're doing in a fundamental way that Loach can't? Normally I would reject this kind of thought, but here.. I don't know. Probably too personal for me, anyway.

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I watched 88 Minutes (Al Pacino) last night.

Flee.


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You, the Living. The new Roy Andersson film. Unbelievably brilliant. Så fantastisk.
It's just as good as Songs from the Second Floor, which I also loved very much. Amazing film.

I'm really pleased I stuck with Dexter. Absolutely cracking stuff. David off Six Feet Under is clearly better at choosing his projects than Nate off Six Feet Under. Dirty Sexy Money? Yeeurch!

Liam Neeson chasing Pierce Brosnan across america back in the cowboy days. I can never remember names of films but this one was bloody good.

I've got to get through the whole of Dexter series 2 before Wednesday. I'm hoping to manage to watch it in order, unlike series 1...

Is the Andersson film in cinemas or on DVD, Lyra? Songs from the Second Floor was indeed brilliant.

It's been and gone at the cinema, I believe; the DVD won't be ready yet (that's why I was watching it today) but I imagine it'll be out in a month or so. I can't get over how good it was, and I had high expectations after SFTSF.

Yeah, it came out in March I think. I couldn't persuade anyone to go.

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Saw My Blueberry Nights last night (I was forced). Very dull opening, and Norah Jones will never win an Oscar, I mean never. But it had some good things - David Strathairn as the obsessed, alcoholic, cuckolded husband, for instance(identification?). And it looks very good. In the end I kinda liked it.


*** possible spoiler ***


There are two very creepy moments, though: in both of them, Our Norah is slumped comatose over the counter of a café, bits of blueberry pie and cream on her lips, and Jude Law (yes he - awful) leans over and kisses them clean.

Ooh - a shuddering down the spine just thinking of it.


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I can't stop thinking about Marie Antoinette after having watched it over the weekend. I know I should start its own thread instead of using this one, but I have nilophobia. Would there be any takers for a separate discussion?

Me. I *adored* Marie Antoinette.

So over the last 2 days I have watched Dexter series 2. It was pretty enjoyable. Yes. I liked it a bit more than series 1. Apparently they didn't stick to the storyline of a book this time.

Since Channel 4, E4, and More4 became FTA last week I find myself watching a lot of Grand Designs, interspersed with the likes of My Name is Earl.

I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon enough.