Lady Macbeth: Film review.

I’m not familiar with the Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk short story by Nikolai Neskov (not to be confused with Lady Macbeth by William Shakespeare) which he wrote as a novella in 1865, although it is inspired by the famous play.

The book inspired Shostakovich to write an opera based on it.

Now we have a British film that feels incredibly French (incredibly Michael Haneke, who I think is actually Austrian) to add to its cannon.

It features a career defining performance by Florence Pugh in the title role; although the men are magnificent too (most notably Christopher fairbanks as the intolerant Father in Law).

If you like Christopher Fairbanks through his Guardians of the Galaxy fame this is not the movie for you as it moves at glacial pace with very little dialogue, virtually no music and a LOT of fixed frames where you are invited to enjoy the cinematography in its most bleak and spartan Northernness.

“It’s grim up north” might have been the poster slogan for this movie because, set as it is near the North East of England’s colliery land, albeit on the moors (North Yorkshire I’d suggest), it is most certainly grim.

The story is murderously grim too and I’d expect this BBC Films production to be in the running when next year’s BAFTA’s are handed out with Florence Pugh a shoe in for best female actor.

Slow but sublime with excellent direction from William Oldroyd.

The Emmanuel Macron phenomenon.

Nope.

Me neither.

Never heard of him

But thank the Lord that Emmanuel Macron exists and looks likely to hole the fascist Le Pen, assuming France gathers its skirts effectively and closes ranks on her.

Meanwhile. in what used to be known as ‘Great” Britain before our Fascist Groove Thing, The Daily Mail fascistas are pouring scorn over his credibility because he has – GASP – an older wife.

Turns out he fell in love with his school teacher and married young to a lady 25 years his senior.

Here they are.

 

They look like a lovely 20 year married couple to me.  they’re holding hands for a start.

But not if you work for the Daily Mail.

(How do you sleep at night working as a journalist for The Daily Mail?  What must the Christmas party be like?  How could you?)

It’s an abomination of a medium.

Why, if I was English, I’d vote Labour.

Jeremy Corbyn is a beautifully stuck record.

His groove is about loving people and their predicaments.

I’m fortunate.  I have none (predicaments – for now).

Theresa May is a horrible devious monster who only wants to do well for her people.

The rich.

So I should vote for her. (I’m not rich but I am not poor.)

Fuck that.

Why would you vote for a horrible devious monster?

In Scotland we are OK.; we have the SNP.

A proper Social Democrat party.  So we don’t need Jeremy.

You English, need to vote for humans, not monsters.

But why?

To rid the world of this scabrous monstrosity that is the Tory party.

The most bling pub in South Queensferry.

These days it’s called The Ferry Tap, but in 1890 it was called the Forth Bridge Hotel.

Clearly, one can see  at 9 o’clock on this photo that it was “bling’ back then.

 

The Writer.

Berlin Fanny Alert!

The Sunday market at Maus Park.

The best thing in Berlin. If you visit in April/May you must go.

This is amazing.  It’s an old bank and is due for demolition in early June.

Somehow a 165 strong, mainly street art, art collective (including the rather splendidly named Ria Wank) has acquired the rights to convert every single room in the building (all 108 of them including toilets and stairwells) into art forms.

Each room is essentially a canvas and many of them are wondrous things.  Every inch of the building is painted or adapted in some way and will be demolished (along with the art) in June.

It’s called the Haus and you’ll find it at 68/69 Nürnbergerstrasse 10787 Berlin

We queued fior 2 hours but it was worth it.

Raw: Movie review.

Wow.  This is not for everyone.

I am reminded of the disappointment I felt seeing movies like Crash and High Rise (Both JG Ballard stories).  Like Raw they promised to be challenging and thought provoking, but both were vacuous nonsense.

This is anything but vacuous.

A case study in great acting, great tension, great music, revulsion and complete and utter oddness.

It’s a directorial debut by Julia Ducournau which is something of a coincidence because I very much enjoyed Alice Lowe’s horror debut, Prevenge, earlier this year.

It seems there is a female bloodlust going on in movieland just now and the two would sit as excellent companion pieces, although there are fewer laughs in this.

If blood puts you off give this a wide berth.  If genuine but well developed antiestablishment hokum (it is horror hokum at then of the day) is your thing you will love this.

Think early Cronenburg,

Think early Alice Lowe.  (She’s only done early so far.)

Think Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.

And think the best of Lars Von Trier (Kingdom specifically.)