Frank, we did all we could for the man ~ Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

20 December

To be watching for 207 mins in a venue that I didn't know before (my first time at @RoystonPictureP - not my last !), I tried to make sure of booking an aisle-seat (only to find that I mistook the layout...) :

It really was no endurance for me whatever, as Scorsese knows pacing.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 27, 2019

The scenes when Frank Sheeran (De Niro) is being honoured at a testimonial, and Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino) presents him with his award, may not be the chronological centre of The Irishman (2019), but – placing those scenes, on a re-watch – the rest of the film spirals out from there...

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 7, 2020

With much hindsight, this is where Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) sees that tempers and tensions spiralled out of control - for the film, it's where the Bufalinos' and Sheerans' road-trip and this other narrative converge, and the long haul of De Niro's performance richly pays off.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 8, 2020

¹ Although reacquiring the means to get there was just before @camfilmfest (agonizingly too close not to be thoroughly exhausted by then...)

² First seen at @RoystonPictureP, now run and programmed by Saffron S.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 7, 2020

Need we really consider Joker (2019) as some sort of Scorsese film – or The Irishman (2019) as Scorsese’s contribution to the film universe of Marvel ? :

Todd Phillips, in 122 mins, outstays his welcome and wastes his chances in Joker (2019), whereas Martin Scorsese (in his film-adaption of Charles Brandt's book) stays the course in the 209 mins of The Irishman (2019) (another film with Robert De Niro), and makes the run-time tell

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 21, 2019

Meanwhile, in some other universe (when it is Phillips who grossly steals from Scorsese's films, but not in any way to justify the theft), does someone seriously suggest that the indebtedness is the other way around, in 'Why 'The Irishman' Is Scorsese's MCU Movie' !


[...]


Postlude :

'Kathrine Narducci, Kevin O'Rourke, Jesse Plemons, Welker White, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Gino Cafarelli, Marin Ireland, Michele Cannon, and Robin Kerbis in The Irishman (2019)'

Their agents must have been working over time to secure such a pointless accreditation ! ;)

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 27, 2019

If you want to Tweet, Tweet away here

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

The 100 greatest films directed by women : A critique of method and / or purpose¹ (work in progress)

The 100 greatest films directed by women : A critique of method and / or purpose¹

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

The 100 greatest films directed by women : A critique of method and / or purpose¹ (work in progress)

BBC Culture polled 368 film experts from 84 countries in order to find the best films from female film-makers – here’s the top 100

One had already heard that BBC Culture introduced its list this year by saying There was one stark statistic that jumped out from the results of last year’s BBC Culture poll to find the 100 greatest foreign-language films of all time : just four out of that 100 were directed by women :

However, despite at least one list with a deficiency, does it seem that BBC Culture has been intent, in setting up this new list of 100 films, in not learning lessons ? In other words, rather than a list that recommends as many as six films directed by the lately deceased Agnès Varda (and another five of Kathryn Bigelow's, so more than 10% of the 100 between them), maybe it could have been limited to just one film each (a maximum of two) by the best 100 or so female directors...

At #UCFF, with a paucity of film-writing¹ in 2019, we're instead astounded to realize that, when we saw Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) on release, or Sleepless in Seattle (1993), they would be nos 58 and 83 in @bbcCultureShow's new list², respectively :https://t.co/YlqO6QJ3UV

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 19, 2019

And, if one looks at the list by decade² (tallying them by release-date), how well is the history of film-making really represented ? As the second set of figures in square brackets shows below : 23% of these greatest films were released in or after 2011 (which rises to 43% of the films, when one adds those from the preceding decade) ; the majority are from the last three decades ; and only 16% were released before 1971.


By decade² (number of films chosen per decade, and an increasing / decreasing tally in square brackets) :

* 1910s : 1 [1 / 99]

* 1920s : 2 [3 / 97]

* 1930s : 2 [5 / 95]

* 1940s : 3 [8 / 92]

* 1950s : 1 [9 / 91]

* 1960s : 7 [16 / 84]

* 1970s : 13 [29 / 71]

* 1980s : 12 [41 / 59]

* 1990s : 16 [57 / 43]

* 2000s : 20 [77 / 23]

* 2010s : 23 [100 / 0]



[...]



Enough of the Tweets, etc. ! Here (with needful changes³) is the list of 100 films [as annotated⁴] :

1. The Piano (1993) ~ Jane Campion (1) [English, British Sign Language, Maori]

2. Cléo from 5 to 7 (Cléo de 5 à 7) (1962) ~ Agnès Varda (1) [French]

3. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles ~ Chantal Akerman (1) [French]

4. Beau Travail (1999) ~ Claire Denis (1) [French]

5. Lost in Translation (2003) Sofia Coppola (1) [English, Japanese, German, French]

6. Daisies (Sedmikrásky) (1966) ~ Věra Chytilová [Czech]

7. The Hurt Locker (2008) ~ Kathryn Bigelow (1) [English, Arabic]

8. Toni Erdmann (2016) ~ Maren Ade [German, English, Romanian]

9. Fish Tank (2009) ~ Andrea Arnold (1) [English]

10. Daughters of the Dust (1991) ~ Julie Dash [English, French]

11. The Ascent (Voskhozhdenie) (1977) ~ Larisa Shepitko [Russian, German]

12. Zero Dark Thirty (2012) ~ Kathryn Bigelow (2) [English, Arabic]

13. Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi) (1985) ~ Agnès Varda (2) [French, Arabic, English]

14. Point Break (1991) ~ Kathryn Bigelow (3) [English]

15. La Ciénaga ( The Swamp) (2001) ~ Lucrecia Martel (1) [Spanish]

16. Wanda (1970) ~ Barbara Loden [English]

17. Seven Beauties (Pasqualino Settebellezze) (1975) ~ Lina Wertmüller [Italian, German, Neapolitan, Spanish]

18. American Psycho (2000) ~ Mary Harron [English, Spanish, Cantonese]

19. Orlando (1992) ~ Sally Potter [English, French]

20. Clueless (1995) ~ Amy Heckerling [English, Spanish]

21. Winter’s Bone (2010) ~ Debra Granik [English]

23¹. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) ~ Lynne Ramsay (1) [English]

23¹. The Hitch-Hiker (1953) ~ Ida Lupino (1) [English, Spanish]

24. Lady Bird [IMDb page (2017) ~ Greta Gerwig [English, Spanish]

25. The House is Black (1963) ~ Forugh Farrokhzad [Persian]

26. Stories we Tell (2012) ~ Sarah Polley [English]

27. Selma (2014) ~ Ava DuVernay (1) [English]

28. Le bonheur (1965) ~ Agnès Varda (3) [French]

29. Monsoon Wedding (2001) ~ Mira Nair (1) [Hindi, English]

30. Zama (2017) ~ Lucrecia Martel (2) [Spanish, Portuguese]

31. The Gleaners and I (Les glaneurs et la glaneuse) (2000) ~ Agnès Varda (4) [French]

32. The Night Porter (Il portiere di notte) (1974) ~ Liliana Cavani [English]

33. You Were Never Really Here (2017) ~ Lynne Ramsay (2) [English]

34. Morvern Callar (2002) ~ Lynne Ramsay (3) [English, Spanish]

35. The Matrix (1999) ~ Lana and Lilly Wachowski [English]

36. Wendy and Lucy (2008) ~ Kelly Reichardt (1) [English]

37. Olympia Part One : Festival of The Nations (Olympia 1. Teil - Fest der Völker) (1938) / Olympia Part Two : Festival of Beauty (Olympia 2. Teil - Fest der Schönheit) (1938) ~ Leni Riefenstahl (1) [German, English, Italian, French, Japanese, Portuguese] / [German]

38. Paris is Burning (1990) ~ Jennie Livingston [English]

39. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) (2019) ~ Céline Sciamma (1) [French, Italian]

40. Boys Don’t Cry (1999) ~ Kimberly Peirce [English]

41. Capernaum (Capharnaüm) (2018) ~ Nadine Labaki [Arabic, Amharic]

42. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) (1926) ~ Lotte Reiniger [Silent]

43. The Virgin Suicides (1999) ~ Sofia Coppola (2) [English]

44. American Honey (2016) ~ Andrea Arnold (2) [English]

45. Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens) (1935) ~ Leni Riefenstahl (2) [German]

46. Near Dark (1987) ~ Kathryn Bigelow (3) [English]

47. An Angel at my Table (1990) ~ Jane Campion (2) [English, Spanish]

48. The Asthenic Syndrome (Astenicheskiy sindrom) (1989) Kira Muratova (1) [Russian]

49. Salaam Bombay ! (1988) Mira Nair (2) [Hindi, English]

50. Outrage (1950) Ida Lupino (2) [English]

51. Harlan County U.S.A. (1976) ~ Barbara Kopple [English]

52. Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro felice) (2018) ~ Alice Rohrwacher [Italian]

53. The Headless Woman (La mujer sin cabeza) (2008) ~ Lucrecia Martel (3) [Spanish]

54. Bright Star (2009) ~ Jane Campion (3) [English, French]

55. Monster (2003) ~ Patty Jenkins [English]

56. 13th (2016) ~ Ava DuVernay (2) [English]

57. The Babadook (2014) ~ Jennifer Kent [English]

58. Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) ~ Susan Seidelman [English]

59. The Long Farewell (1971) ~ Kira Muratova (2) [Russian, English]

60. A League of their Own (1992) ~ Penny Marshall (1) [English]

61. India Song (1975) ~ Marguerite Duras [French]

62. Strange Days (1995) ~ Kathryn Bigelow (4) [English]

63. Marie Antoinette (2006) ~ Sofia Coppola (3) [English, Latin, French]

64. The Rider (2017) ~ Chloé Zhao [English]

65. Leave no Trace (2018) ~ Debra Granik [English]

66. Ratcatcher (1999) ~ Lynne Ramsay (4) [English]

67. The German Sisters (Die bleierne Zeit) (1981) ~ Margarethe von Trotta [German, Italian]

68. Eve’s Bayou (1997) ~ Kasi Lemmons [English]

69. The Connection (1961) ~ Shirley Clarke (1) [English]

70. Whale Rider (2002) ~ Niki Caro [English, Maori]

71. The Seashell and the Clergyman (La coquille et le clergyman) (1928) ~ Germaine Dulac [Silent]

72. Europa Europa (1980) ~ Agnieszka Holland [German, Russian, Polish, Hebrew]

73. On Body and Soul (Teströl és lélekröl) (2017) ~ Ildikó Enyedi [Hungarian]

74. Chocolat (1988) ~ Claire Denis (2) [English, French]

75. Meek’s Cutoff (2010) ~ Kelly Reichardt (2) [English]

76. Girlhood (Bande de filles) (2014) ~ Céline Sciamma (2) [French]

77. Tomboy (2011) ~ Céline Sciamma (3) [French]

78. The Apple (Sib) (1998) ~ Samira Makhmalbaf [Persian]

79. Shoes (1916) ~ Lois Weber [Silent]

80. Big (1988) ~ Penny Marshall (2) [English]

81. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) ~ Ana Lily Amirpour [Persian]

82. At Land (Szárazföldön) (1944) ~ Maya Deren (1) [Silent]

83. Sleepless in Seattle (1993) ~ Nora Ephron [English]

84. Portrait of Jason (1967) ~ Shirley Clarke (2) [English]

85. One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (L'une chante l'autre pas) (1977) ~ Agnès Varda (5) [French]

86. Wadjda (2012) ~ Haifaa Al-Mansour [Arabic]

87. 35 Shots of Rum (35 rhums) (2008) ~ Claire Denis (3) [French, German]

88. The Silences of the Palace (Samt el qusur) (1994) ~ Moufida Tlatli [Arabic, French]

89. The Beaches of Agnès (Les plages d’ Agnès) (2008) ~ Agnès Varda (6) [French, English]

90. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) ~ Amy Heckerling [English]

91. White Material (2009) ~ Claire Denis (4) [French]

92. Raw (Grave) (2016) ~ Julia Ducournau [French]

93. Red Road (2006) ~ Andrea Arnold (3) [English]

94. News From Home (1977) ~ Chantal Akerman (2) [French]

95. Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) ~ Maya Deren (2) [Silent]

96. The Meetings of Anna (Les rendez-vous d'Anna) (1977) ~ Chantal Akerman (3) [French]

97. Adoption (Örökbefogadás) (1975) ~ Márta Mészáros [Hungarian]

98. Somewhere (2010) ~ Sofia Coppola (4) [English, Italian]

99. The Souvenir (2019) ~ Joanna Hogg [English]

100. The Kids are All Right (2010) ~ Lisa Cholodenko [English]



To indicate another absurd bias, a tally of language(s)⁵ spoken in the 100 list [five films are silent] :


English (only) : 37 [37 = running total]

French : 13 [50]

Therefore, one-half of this greatest 100 is, if not in English, then in French - very inclusive


English (as principal language⁵) + Spanish : 5 [55]

English + French or French + English : 5 [60]

English + Arabic : 2 [62]


English + other languages : 6 [68]

French + other languages : 3 [71]

Then, when one has added in where English or French is the principal language⁵, but others are spoken, one has accounted for more than 70% of the films


Silent : 5 [76]

Persian : 3 [79]

German : 1½ [81½]

Hungarian : 2 [83½]

Spanish : 2 [85½]


Hindi + English : 2 [87½]


Other sole languages, or combinations of languages : 12½?? [100]



Twitter end-notes :

¹ '100 greatest films directed by women', correcting a bias, in its earlier list of foreign-language films, of few directed by women - with one where just 19 directors made 56% of the films (Agnès Varda and Kathryn Bigelow = 11%)

² Since the decade doesn't end for another year

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) December 19, 2019

End-notes :

¹ Put another way, one suspects that BBC Culture polled its 384 people will little idea why, but to end up with a ranked list, because it could, and did not have one - this list seemed to acknowledge no joint placings, which would have been odd in one of such compromise and of such length, but the task of re-ordering has found two placed at no. 23 (and no no. 22) [again, one would normally expect, if this is not a typo, both to be placed at 22, with no 23].

² #UCFF is stubbornly insisting that, for example, the 1940s begin with 1941 and end with 1950.

³ #UCFF's needful changes :

(1) The preference for a descending list has been imposed, because an ascending list is a convention, which does not make sense when one can fully scroll through it (as against when one has, at least, to click a link to progress from, say, the section for films 100-91 to that for those numbered 90-81.

(2) It is not a convention to give the release-date as the original list did, so that has also been changed.

(3) The insistence on persisting in putting film titles IN CAPITALS, not italicizing them, is a mistake that has meandered on from when putting on the Shift key in copy was the simplest way to denote a title.


⁴ Directors' names are in italic, with the increasing tally of their films in parentheses afterwards (i.e. where they are from the 19 on whose work the list calls for 56% of its 100 entries). Where #UCFF has a review, the title links to it ; where it has watched the film and approved, TBC ???

⁵ These have been accepted as given by the IMDb-page for each page (to which the non-underlined film-titles link), the language (or languages) : IMDb confirms that the first language, where two or more are given, should be the principal language : it specifiesto those submitting this information that ‘If more than one language was spoken, please enter them in order of frequency such that the main language is entered first’.


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Michael Berkeley's Private Passions on Radio 3 - with Ken Loach (work in progress)

Michael Berkeley's Private Passions on Radio 3 - with Ken Loach

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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10 November

Comments on film, music in film, and film-making from Michael Berkeley's Private Passions on Radio 3 - with Ken Loach (work in progress)

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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Despite not liking what #UCFF heard, at least we know what Fauré Quartett's recording of Pictures at an Exhibition is

Fauré Quartett's recording of Pictures at an Exhibition

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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28 November

Despite not liking what #UCFF heard, at least we know what Fauré Quartett's recording
of Pictures at an Exhibition is : it may all become clear here...

Sadly, whosesoever arrangement that was, on @BBCInTune, of Mussorgsky's pf original¹, one's immediate response - having mentally placed what was being heard - was not to wish to hear it ever again !https://t.co/XouIEwcotB

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 28, 2019

*Not* meaning @BBCInTune's Sean Rafferty himself (who, one now hears, was billed at the top of the show - and not unfairly - as 'The host with the absolute most' !), but now eludes us [at 1 : 53 : 40], too...

Fauré Quartett with pf [Dick ??**]https://t.co/OSGD5dQDvB

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 28, 2019

** So we go in search of the new CD, and find the desired explanation on Amazon :

'More than 80 years later, Dirk Mommertz, a member of and pianist with the Faure Quartett, has arranged both of these works anew - this time for piano quartet'

Endlich ! pic.twitter.com/LsYNg9tMQ1

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 28, 2019

It may all become clear here...

To quote @eziolunedei's 'Angel Song' [Black Boots on Latin Feet], 'An empty head, when I go to bed, is all I'll ever need'...

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 29, 2019

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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Up here is where it really matters [?] ~ Amelia Wren*

Responses to The Aeronauts (2019) [as seen at The Light Cinema, Cambridge]

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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27 November

Responses to The Aeronauts (2019) [as seen at The Light Cinema, Cambridge]

Only Dreams are in The Cloud ~ Jung

But Carl didn't mean @AeronautsFilmUK

'Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones reunite to tell the story of balloon pilot Amelia Wren and scientist James Glaisher' :

Unlike The Theory of Everything (2014), a story in which Glaisher only existed

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 28, 2019

The early scene for Amelia and her sister's carriage - or later re-purposing locations (Lancaster Gate or Holland Park ?) to resemble the period - had been set up more carefully than the actual words uttered :

In 100 mins, trying symbolically what Locke's ambitions were in 85 ?

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 28, 2019

End-notes :

* An amalgam of people, there was no Amelia Wren as such - to quote the IMDb entry for the film :

With [James Glaisher's] co-pilot aeronaut Henry Tracey Coxwell, they broke the world record for altitude on September 5, 1862. Coxwell is omitted from the film, and replaced with the fictional Amelia Wren.


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

#UCFF's favourite moments at Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2019 (an accreting posting)

#UCFF's favourite moments (an accreting posting) at Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2019

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

24 November

#UCFF's favourite moments (an accreting posting) at Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2019

That list, started at a time when - rushed because of the risk of being timed out at any moment (and so panicked into pressing 'Tweet') - it was far from ideal, should've read, Tony ! :

* @AntonEger

* @BrassFunkeys

* @ElliotGalvin

* @Ivoneame

* @RollerTrio

* @tonykofi https://t.co/oQ1kzFixkZ

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 27, 2019

Absolute certainty of composure : The Elliot Galvin Trio :
Darwin College on Tuesday 19 November 2019 (after Sam Leak Trio as support from 7.30 p.m.)


[...]



Other mentions :

#UCFF heard some of their set - the sax-player to the right of that photo played an amazingly good solo !

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 28, 2019

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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Don't look - just go : Internally, Joker (2019) gives advice to those watching ?

Responses to Joker (2019) [as seen at The Light Cinema, Cambridge]

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

25 November

Responses to Joker (2019) [as seen at The Light Cinema, Cambridge]

Until the much-trailed scene where Phoenix dances down, and prances on, the steps*, Todd Phillips and Lawrence Sher (DoP) largely starved our eyes of visuals, let alone anything cinematic

* Heavy groan, when first presented with these steps as some gross symbol of upward battle pic.twitter.com/4ct8IPhAHt

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 3, 2020

Only 'a little' - not enough to make it :

* Feel like the best role by Joaquin Phoenix - which isn't even You Were Never Really Here (2017), Lynne Ramsay's film (on which this 'leans')

* Resemble a worthy successor to Roma (2018)

* Any more than Psycho (1960)'s insights

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 25, 2019

Or The Master ?

Or Peter Lorre (as Hans Beckert) ?

Or https://t.co/NyrFLwQB9G

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 19, 2020

The time is 11.10 - at the start / at Ha Has

Time on Murray Franklin show is c. 10.40

Don't look - just go, almost certainly a quotation from (or reference to) many a film (in a film that deliberately invokes Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver (1976)) and Norman Bates (Psycho (1960)) - yet does so with unimaginative cinemtography (deliberately)

There's something special about you ~ Murray Franklin to Arthur Fleck

P. Fleck (box 37 ?)
Penny / Arthur Fleck

Laboured and unsubtle as the solo** cello-line

** Doubling / electronics ?

Joker Light

A film with his name all over it (co-writer and producer as well as director), it is not as if @thetoddphillips repays even interest on the debt to Ramsay (and nor does Joaquin Phoenix ?) in @jokermovie, which hardly matches the psychological insight of Hitchcock's Marnie (1964). https://t.co/22yQr2IIGt

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 26, 2019

Lynne Ramsay - You were Never Really Here (2017) - be angry at JP for taking all her best ideas and doing them over for Todd Phillips ?


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

A de facto attempt at live Tweeting : Gods of Apollo at Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2019

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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23 November

Gods of Apollo at Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2019

Well, at The University Centre wine-bar - the venue for this gig, and run by Cambridge Wine Merchants* - the race was on (as well as The Space Race evocation from Gods of Apollo) to set up the laptop and the phone to make some notes : they ended up, being made on the phone, e-mailed, opened on the laptop and copied and pasted into Twitter - at which point, the connection with real-time reporting had been lost...

¹ The home of the @camjazz bi-monthly, regular gigs.

² Reviewed (work in progress) at :https://t.co/JTakxBahE1

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 23, 2019

Hints, on sax, of ragtime melody ?

Nightjars / cicadas / shriek-owls (the telemetry now having been processed up, to a prominent pulse)

Then that Presidential piece of poise, posturing and pose...

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 23, 2019

Hints, on sax, of ragtime melody ?

Nightjars / cicadas / shriek-owls (the telemetry now having been processed up, to a prominent pulse)

Then that Presidential piece of poise, posturing and pose...

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 23, 2019

In a through-in-one-sequence gig as Rob introduced (although, as a rule, he dislikes speech before the first number), preceding Armstrong's famous words, those other famous words of Mission Control : The Eagle has Landed

A sense of peace [Sea of Tranquillity], next take-off... ?

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 23, 2019

Postlude :

So, that's three gigs at @storeysfield on Sunday afternoon and evening (and closing with @BrassFunkeys), and that - as they say - would be a wrap !

[To-day was @Roblcope's Gods of Apollo (https://t.co/CnFej6Wd4b), then @MariusNeset's quintet gig, and ending up doing the merch]

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 24, 2019

End-notes :

* Also, no mean purveyors of Scotch, through their outlets on Bridge Street, Kings' Parade, etc.


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Riffing from the soul : Roller Trio at Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2019 (rough gig-notes)

Fairly unadulerated gig-notes for a review of Roller Trio at Cambridge International Jazz Festival

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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21 November

For those who want to try #UCFF gig-notes, fairly pure and unadulterated by further editing than decipherment, let alone turning them into would-be fluent prose, here are what should become this review :

This is a review of Roller Trio at Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2019 on Thursday 21 November 2019 at 9.30 p.m. (with support from Noya Rao)

Personnel :

* James Mainwaring ~ sax(es) / electronics
* Luke Reddin-Williams ~ drums
* Chris Sharkey ~ electric bass-guitar / electronics


Transcribed raw notes (more or less, as is) :

(1) Giant noise to open
Left-handed guitar
Wa)iling, full of energy and passionate life
Repetitions / iterations and effects
Modular
Riffing from the soul
Bass-and-drum iterations under
Free-flying sax
Slight decrescendo and fragments of melody
Slowed to the rate of a heart-beat, with floral and statementful sax
Always moving
Shimmering and exuding light, as if a live aqueous stream
An unanswered phone-call ?
Bass and drums in a jamming duo – pulsing, energetic
Metallic, howly sounds from effects-pedals
Sampling the horn + growls and mumble
DJing the audio
Really spacey, aquatic, submarine – expansive sax
-> flares and distortions as of a whale, dying
-> opening up, texturing
-> spectacularly large sound with attractive, gaelic-themed chord-sequences and mood
Falling, doubled-note bass-line + clear and evanescent sax-sound
Gtr solo – sounding clavichord or prepared piano
Interrupted statement – more and more like weaponry, strikes it down (small-arms fire)
Dulcimer (or mandolin ?)
-> genre-defying drum-solo (sounds like an ambush or incursion
Now it’s palpations and patting
-> Effect warbles and waves
Ground-bass of satellites or machine-language –
Into danceable rhythms and sax-overlay
- understated sax coments
- slight flare / blare
Sanitizig, good feel
-> segue into a danceable, Latin-style theme that mutates to North-African timbres and runs and repeats
- highly danceable, driven by whines and howls
Up, to intense
Applaud tune
- boppy??, then missed / re-arranged beat-patterns
2nd drum-solo + whoops


* * * * *


Wholly improvised [Reddin-Williams introduced Roller Trio, and told us that they were doing something unusual for them]


(2) Tenderness and insistent and / or staggered rhythms
- threads or filaments of material on which the sequence continues, as its seed or base
– or not


* * * * *


(3) Bluesy sax riff – laid-down ostinato with effects on sax to extend or broaden / coarsen the element of horn / tempo switch (dim.) and, with it, a change of guitar-line -> a more-usual free-sax style with rock gtr / drums -> multi-divided note-lengths, accelerating and with staccato sax-puffs or pouts – down into lower register – danceable again and compelling


* * * * *


(4) [encore] Bonkers cow-bells & electronic bubbles & tapping of cymbals – aerial bass + JB vocalize = keening / pleading – slow decrescendo and a heart-beat slowing



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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Those two were real class, at the end : Responses by Tweet (and not) to La belle époque (2019)

Responses by Tweet (and not) [an accreting list] to La belle époque (2019)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

20 November

Responses by Tweet (and not) [an accreting list] to La belle époque (2019)

* With so many (doubtful ?) Twitter-accounts that appear when searching by film-title for the authenticated account, which are claiming to offer free HD streaming of the film, this seemed the safest pick. :)

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 21, 2019

Key film-references (in order of significance) :

* The Game (1997)
* Midnight in Paris (2011)
* Westworld (1973)
* The Truman Show (1998)
* Les Beaux Jours (Bright Days Ahead) (2013)
* A Fish called Wanda (1988)
* Nathalie (2001)
* Souvenir (2016)


A film whose (unexplained**) opening, which we may have forgotten by the time of its descent into romantic comedy (which are usually either 'ardour cooled' [Le Week-End (2013)], or 'hate at first sight' [You've Got Mail (1998)]), promised more interesting fare, as if a significant riff on The Game (1982) and others (as just listed) :

In its own terms, it got us to where it wanted, but its ideas could probably have done with being thinned out, so that - some adept pacing and editing apart, which certainly kept the story's tick-over going in the important moments - it did not feel as if some strands had been mimetic of the possibility of something more, but essentially thrown out (but kept in) as misleading pointers (rather than feeling like 'true' misdirections) and / or ideas that had been sent down a dead end :

For a film, itself shot on a set, that is largely set on a set, it is necessarily likely to get quite a bit Sunset Blvd. (1950) [not to say Mulholland Drive (2001)].

[...]


Other references :

* Hope Springs (2012)
* Les émotifs anonymes (Romantics Anonymous) (2010)
* The Pornographer (2001)
* Le Week-End (2013)
* Absolute Beginners (1986)


[...]


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)

Absolute certainty of composure : The Elliot Galvin Trio at Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2019

A review of The Elliot Galvin Trio at Cambridge International Jazz Festival

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

19 November

This is a review of a gig by The Elliot Galvin Trio, who played during Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2019 at Darwin College, Cambridge,
on Tuesday 19 November 2019 (after Sam Leak Trio as support from 7.30 p.m.)

A gig by The Elliot Galvin Trio, as one very rapidly recalled from Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2018, is an immersion in nigh-flawless technique, and a wildness that, although studied (with, for example, Elliot Galvin’s palpable care in the use of discords or in the exact effect and execution of a placed, different dynamic), is nevertheless evidently and wholly authentic and spontaneous.

Personnel (alphabetically) :

* Corrie Dick [@CDPlayaa] ~ perc
* Elliot Galvin [ElliotGalvin] ~ pf
* Tom McCredie [@shiremac] ~ db


First 'set of tunes'¹ :

It was also to turn out that the trio was giving us, in one full dose, a seamless mélange of what constitutes the A side of a direct-to-vinyl recording that it made earlier this year in Haarlem², in The Netherlands : nothing about the brilliance of the playing or the interplay between the performers required us, in the manner of applauding solos, to recognize it until after they decided upon an end-point, which we preferred as much as they did, and then the appreciation was widespread and full.

There is not a dead or redundant moment here, but pure power in creation

Meanwhile, another affect had come in this EP of a set within a set, with the in-the-moment bells, chimes and peals as a fusion of the constituent instruments (which was our experience, whatever they played), which yet leaves distinct their special characteristics, and with riffs, patterns, and variations in delivery to match the Zeitgeist and mould the mood, from swinging to extrovert syncopation - but all with energy, commitment and self-belief.

The members of the trio were playing and toying - all at once - with the material, the physicality of the instruments, each other and us. As the matter had now become wholly pattern, after an almost-right-inside-the-piano segue, we heard the fluidity of movement as blocks of sound, and then it shifted again, into a witty, ironically trotting number, with synergy and symbiosis between Galvin and Dick :

Surprise me again, with your high-octane brilliance !, we probably all thought

Then, when we could have imagined no such thing (and we probably wished that the bursar wasn't listening), a massive explosion of bass-sound from Galvin - again, that employment of stunning technique in the service of the moment - followed by what can only be described as a hammering and leathering of the piano. In time, a decrescendo and diminuendo, and a repeat of that explosive bass-effect, brought to a close around twenty-five minutes without a break - keenly met by the audience with applause.


Second set of tunes :

In continuing with tracks from Modern Times³, after Galvin had re-introduced the trio and the concept of both the album and its direct-to-vinyl recording², the opening piece, at least, was a whole other side to poise and feel. With wistfulness (and a slight intimation of personal tristesse ?), Galvin had remarked that, fittingly for playing in a college named after Charles Darwin [as an example, mebbe, of the non-survival of the fittest ?], it centred around the captured cry or call of of a member of a species (a male), of which no other exemplars by then existed to heed (if not hear) it.

When that number was over (and, not having expected the bird-notation of Olivier Messiaen (e.g. Catalogue d'oiseaux), one did not spot the debt to ornithology), the group waited in silence for just the right moment : not, as we might have expected, unti the nearby sound of girls' voices had gone, but when Corrie Dick loudly proceeded. Other material in the first set of tunes had also lounged a little, but Galvin now gave us a very louche statement of a theme, and on whose cue there was an instant improvisatory pick-up by McCredie and Dick, and 'riding with it' - into beats, off-beats, transient time-signatures, and generally swinging / rocking the theme.

Energy, excitement and ebb and flow hook us willingly in - and keep us there

As the title of this gig-review says, in bringing back the ‘lounging’ tone, and pausing or pacing it, there was an absolute certainty of composure, of sensing the direction to go and / or be led in. (The contrast is with when a presenter of a (sometimes live) t.v. or radio programme claims (to be about) to 'explore' what has been determined, and thus even the listener's own exploration is at best by dubious proxy.)

That precision, again, from Galvin in what – in the moment – is aimed at, and in making each and any gesture be heard all of a piece : against a drone on bowed double-bass, Dick set up a groove for Galvin to join, all with looks of engagement and enjoyment exchanged, and then laid back on the beat in easeful expressiveness, before note-values, tempi, accents and dynamics were all delightfully a-shift once more.

As if in a kind of classical ternary form, this section of the second set of tunes moved between being energetic and full, and spare, tender and light, and with McCredie sliding tones and pulling the tonality. Keeping it fresh, and with no one with a nose in a score, the trio worked up a bluesy number, which they stretched out and beefed up, until that drone recurred, now with unreal touches worthy of Surrealist artist Yves Tanguy, what sounded like a Scottish tune, and a 'Philip Glass' riff on bowed bass to close.


Galvin announced the encore as 'Red and Yellow', and proceeded to play with the vigour of a Conlon Nancarrow composition for Player Piano (for example, Study for Player Piano, Op. 37). As ever, form and content were inseparable, pleasing in such a way that one was smiling to hear this music, and with an irresistible want to tap one's foot, nod along, and play the drums with one's reviewing-pen !

Sheer magic, in one intense set, and, although one can be reminded of 'the tunes' in the album Modern Times on CD, etc., this is music that one will want to hear live - more than once.


End-notes :

¹ As 'folkies' would typically say (if not 'jazzers' ?)...

² For more information, attend a gig, or read what Edition Records says here about this process :

Lovely review of our gig at @CamJazzFest Wednesday. We play our last gig of the year on Friday at #PurcellRoom @southbankcentre @LondonJazzFest alongside @LauraJurd trio. Only a few tickets left, so grab one while you still can! ⏰ https://t.co/HnMV4ckV5w

— Elliot Galvin (@ElliotGalvin) November 21, 2019

³ In conversation afterwards, Gavin agreed that the allusion to Chaplin is intended (he is on the cover, indeed).


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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)