Tuesday, 26 December 2017

Cinema-going in 2017, an illustrated round-up

#UCFF's most-esteemed films, as seen during 2017

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

Christmas Eve

#UCFF's most-esteemed films, as seen during 2017 :
or, available here in a plain-text version


Dedicated to Neil White of everyfilm.co.uk (as pictured)




In alphabetical order (with date of viewing), and - unless stated otherwise - seen at The Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge (@CamPicturehouse) :


* A Quiet Passion (2016) ~ 12 March




* Baby Driver (2017) ~ 3 July




 * Becoming Cary Grant (2017) ~ 29 July [seen at The Watershed* / @wshed]




* Cameraperson (2016) ~ 8 March




 * Citizen Jane : Battle for the City (2016) ~ 8 May




* Elle (2016) ~ 10 March




* Happy End (2017) ~ 1 December




* Jackie (2016) ~ 22 February




* Missing (Sarajin Yeoja) (2016) ~ 24 April




* Prevenge (2016) ~ 31 March [seen at Saffron Screen / @Saffronscreen]




 * Silence (2016)





 * Souvenir (2016) ~ 28 August [seen at Saffron Screen]




* The Villainess (Ak-Nyeo) (2017) ~ 11 September




So, March turns out to have been a good time to be at the cinema (not just because it is the time of year for bait for BAFTA, or The Academy Awards)...



Honourable mentions :


* Aquarius (2016) ~ 23 November



* Chi-Raq (2015) ~ 5 February [seen at Saffron Screen]



 * Dispossession : The Great Social Housing Swindle (2017)





* Freesia (2017) ~ 26 September



* Half Way (2015)



* Loving Vincent (2017) ~ 10 November [seen at The Watershed]



* On the Road (2016) ~ 9 October



 * The Seasons in Quincy : Four Portraits of John Berger (2016) ~ 18 July



 * The Journey (2016) ~ 16 July [seen at Saffron Screen]




End-notes :

 * In conjunction with Cary Grant comes Home for the Weekend Festival (@carycomeshome).

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
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Sunday, 24 December 2017

Cinema-going in 2017, a round-up

#UCFF's most-esteemed films, as seen during 2017

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

Christmas Eve

#UCFF's most-esteemed films, as seen during 2017 :
or, available here in a jazzed-up version






Dedicated to Neil White of everyfilm.co.uk (as pictured)




In alphabetical order (with date of viewing), and - unless stated otherwise - seen at The Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge (@CamPicturehouse) :

* A Quiet Passion (2016) ~ 12 March

* Baby Driver (2017) ~ 3 July

 * Becoming Cary Grant (2017) ~ 29 July [seen at The Watershed* / @wshed]

* Cameraperson (2016) ~ 8 March

 * Citizen Jane : Battle for the City (2016) ~ 8 May

 * Elle (2016) ~ 10 March

 * Happy End (2017) ~ 1 December

* Jackie (2016) ~ 22 February

* Missing (Sarajin Yeoja) (2016) ~ 24 April

* Prevenge (2016) ~ 31 March [seen at Saffron Screen / @Saffronscreen]

 * Silence (2016)

 * Souvenir (2016) ~ 28 August [seen at Saffron Screen]

* The Villainess (Ak-Nyeo) (2017) ~ 11 September


So, March turns out to have been a good time to be at the cinema...



Honourable mentions :

* Aquarius (2016) ~ 23 November

* Chi-Raq (2015) ~ 5 February [seen at Saffron Screen]

 * Dispossession : The Great Social Housing Swindle (2017)

* Freesia (2017) ~ 26 September

* Half Way (2015)

* Loving Vincent (2017) ~ 10 November [seen at The Watershed]

* On the Road (2016) ~ 9 October

 * The Seasons in Quincy : Four Portraits of John Berger (2016) ~ 18 July

 * The Journey (2016) ~ 16 July [seen at Saffron Screen]


End-notes :

 * In conjunction with Cary Grant comes Home for the Weekend Festival (@carycomeshome).

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
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Monday, 18 December 2017

When Bergman rejoices in opera's absurdities...

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

18 December












Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
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Friday, 15 December 2017

Courtiers of Grace : Delightful euphony and intimacy from exceptional voices in their own right

A partial response to the ensemble Courtiers of Grace at Trinity College, Cambridge

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

15 December

This is a partial response, at first by Tweet, to the concert-programme 'A rose there is...' as given for Cambridge Early Music by the ensemble Courtiers of Grace (with Stephen Wilkinson as reader) in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, on Friday 15 December at 7.30 p.m.




Somewhat arbitrarily (if it is nonetheless conveniently pat), the Baroque period in music is sometimes considered* to begin, in 1607, with Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (or La favola d'Orfeo), SV 318, and to end with the death of Johann Sebastian Bach (in 1750). But what about this painting (now housed in The Kröller-Müller Museum, in The Netherlands)... ? :


Stilleven in een kast (Belgium, 1538)


As on the topic of the quirky precision of such still-life paintings, and especially in the case of the instruments (other than the two (principal) human voices, of whose origins and nature we could learn, by implication, from the programme-notes), it would have been nice to have some information about them. However, with a programme that ran very well, in two thankfully uninterrupted sequences (for that, one can rely on an audience at Cambridge Early Music (@CambsEarlyMusic), where would that have been done in person ?

 Unless, gracefully, details and / or corrections are forthcoming from the members of Courtiers of Grace (@gracecourtiers), and since this is not intended to be a full review (for which purposes, sufficient notes were not made), here, for the moment, are the remaining observations that were recorded...


Personnel of Courtiers of Grace :

 * Gawain Glenton ~ Cornetto (and recorder)

 This was adept playing of an instrument that seemed beautifully made from a piece of wood that was light in colour, and which fitted so well into the ensemble, with its well-matched festive sounds of pure tone and significantly engaging affect

 * Jacob Heringman ~ Lute

 Confident and expressive lutenism (from a performer with a standing tradition as a guest of Cambridge Early Music) – Jake’s delicate instrument seemed to have double-strings (and yet seem nearer the lower part of the range of development of the number of courses in the history of the lute ?)

 * Kirsty Whatley ~ Harp

 On an instrument that seemed to be a wire-strung harp, with a case made from a darkish wood such as cherry, Kirsty sat next to Jake (on lute), and her playing often blended to suit his, whereas both had very pleasing opportunities to play solo, and with a different manner of attack and delivery to accord with that role

 * Clare Wilkinson ~ Soprano

 Singing in several languages and modes with assurance, Clare's familiar voice was beautifully warm and resonant in the acoustic, and inflected by the heart's motions, as she exchanged glances and smiles with her fellow musicians

 * Stephen Wilkinson ~ Reader

 A conversation at the venue earlier had turned to Jonathan Swift, so the satire or ironic assertion that Luther also proved to have employed in some of his writings was very timely – the tension between surface and actual meaning was nicely brought out, in readings that were both well timed after the preceding set of pieces, and (with the aid of very good amplification) compellingly and clearly pronounced




End-notes :

 * For example, in the entry for baroque music in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Often enough, a matter of pigeonholing the past by reference to the bits that [we believe that] we know remain from it, even if we may, circularly, assume that we understand why they came into being or survived, because of what they are (or what we assume that they are ?)...

Apart from the fact that, at the level of the sort of composition that is pictured in Stilleven in een kast (compared with that of works in Il palazzo ducale (The Ducal Palace) in Venezia, or, in Roma, The Papal Apartments of Il Vaticano (The Vatican)), the written evidence of the artist being commissioned (or of patronage) is unlikely to exist (when we do not even know who the artist was), is it also improbable that we really know enough why such a work should have been created in 1538 at all ?

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
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Tuesday, 12 December 2017

From Ibsen to Kafka to Camus and Sartre to Lynch to Burton to Dogville : community and re-watching Edward Scissorhands (1990)

This is a reappraisal (work in progress) of Edward Scissorhands (1990)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

11 December
This is a reappraisal (work in progress) of Edward Scissorhands (1990)

 We need not fear that, because Edward Scissorhands (1990) is entertaining – with its sub-Lynchian palette of pastel hues for homes and clothes within which those drawn to conformity in their estate* express their minor individualism – it cannot also be an outline argument how such societies and their norms marginalize both disability and any proper understanding of what it means to identify as disabled (or LGBTQ, or as from an ethnic or religious minority, or as needing or having treatment for cancer).


Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter (first edition, 1845)




 More to come...

End-notes :

 * The inhabitants of Tinsmith Circle, Carpenter's Run, Lutz, CA, are credited.


Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
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Monday, 4 December 2017

A couple of Tweets about Menashe (2017)

This is a couple of Tweets about Menashe (2017)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

4 December

This is a couple of Tweets about Menashe (2017)

Despite the old, old mistake of being bitten by watching a trailer, one fell for what that of Menashe (2017) had to show one of the named principal character and his relations with his son and views on life and marriage - it just is not representative, and this film is not, as one might imagine, some sort of more genuine response or retort to the world that John Turturro and Woody Allen show us in the former's Fading Gigolo (2013)...








 Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
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Friday, 1 December 2017

Elle parle que d'elle¹ ~ Eve

Some responses (by Tweet) to Happy End (2017), as seen on opening night

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

1 December

On opening night at The Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge, some responses (by Tweet) to Happy End (2017), as seen on Friday 1 December 2017 at 8.50 p.m.





 What connects screenings of these new films : Sally Potter's The Party (2017) and Michael Haneke's Happy End (2017) ?



With Happy End (2017), which was on general release from Friday 1 December 2017, perhaps (as alluded to in the Tweet above), it is not just the title, but also the folded A4 lobby-material [i.e. a card that is A5 and presents in landscape format], which has the (edited) image that appears above, occupying the front - under the caption A handy guide to Calais' favourite dysfunctional family². [Can we honestly conceive of this as Haneke's caption³... ?]

The shot has been edited in that, by removing the intervening window, it relocates an indoor scene (as shown, in context, in the Tweet below) to a balcony, which then, perspectivally, appears not just to overlook the sea, but also to give directly onto it.










End-notes :

¹ Abbreviated for texting-type communication, the words translate as She only thinks about herself. [Starting with several annotated video-sequences, at the top of the film, there are more examples, but this phrase is taken from the first, and turns out, read alongside the others, to be the most significant.]

² Judging by this lobby-card³, could one not be forgiven for thinking that there is going to be a comical take on a family and its oddities - in the style, perhaps, even of The Addams Family... ? (As, also, with The Party : is the clue, surely, to expect a party in respect of which it is readily apt to invoke, ironically (the film's plot and script are so weakly conceived), Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party ?)

³ As with trailers, they are almost never the work of the people who made the film. (Even if, when trailers are made, they clearly use footage (including deleted scenes or other images that you will not see, if you watch the film), and re-order it to suggest a story - not unusually, quite misleadingly.) Trailers and other publicity are, rather, largely the handiwork of the film's distributors (with, obviously, some assistance from the film's producers) : a special knack for making good films look bad (and vice versa) is required ? !

Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
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Wednesday, 29 November 2017

Truly, this man was the Son of God ! ~ Mark 15 : 39

This is a review of The Joyful Mystery : Praetorius, Biber and Schütz at St John's

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

28 November

This is a review (first part complete, as an uncorrected proof) of a concert of works by Praetorius, Biber and Schütz, given under the directorship of Graham Walker and as a programme under the title The Joyful Mystery*, at The Chapel of St John the Evangelist, St John’s College, Cambridge, on Tuesday 28 November at 8.15 p.m.




Personnel :

 * St John's Voices

 * Newe Vialles

 * Combined Conservatories Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble

 * Kinga Ujszászi and Persephone Gibbs (violins)

 * Anthony Gray and David Heinze (chamber-organ)

 * Graham Walker (director)





The initial draw to hear this concert had been the so-called 'Rosary’ Sonatas* of Heinrich (Ignaz Franz von) Biber (of which the first three were to be played). However, it soon became clear that the whole programme in which they had been set was attractive and well proportioned, with one half pairing them very relevantly and sympathetically with Motets by Michael Praetorius, and the other – after a breather of an interval – led up to in Die Weihnachts-Historie of Heinrich Schütz.



Programme


 First half :

 1. Michael Praetorius (1751-1621) ~ Wachet Auf à 7

 2. Praetorius ~ Ingressus Angelus

 3. Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704) ~ Mystery Sonatas*, No. 1 - The Annunciation

 4. Praetorius ~ Übers Gebirg Maria geht

 5. Biber ~ Mystery Sonatas, No. 2 - The Visitation

 6. Praetorius ~ Uns ist Ein Kindlein heut’ geborn

 7. Biber ~ Mystery Sonatas, No. 3 - The Nativity

 8. Praetorius ~ In Dulci Jubilo à 8



At the start of (1) the Motet Wachet Auf (1607), from [according to the ChoralWiki catalogue] Musae Sioniae, Part V, and set for choir in seven parts, Michael Prateorius has them enter in very quick order - with a text that we may know very well from Bach's Cantata, BWV 140 (and the Chorale Prelude, BWV 645). We were soon luxuriating, in the chapel at St John’s College, in the sound of around thirty voices plus, from their Ensemble, the now more familiar ‘Christmassy textures’ of sackbutts and cornetts (with chamber-organ continuo, variously provided by Anthony Gray and David Heinze).

 Not for the last time in the evening, these forces were well blended with those of Linda Sayce (on theorbo, who elsewhere plays viol as part of Newe Vialles), the bowed strings of the remainder of those present from that group (Henrik Persson and Caroline Ritchie), and of violinists Kinga Ujszászi and Persephone Gibbs [from whom we would hear in the first half as soloists in, respectively, (3) the first, and (5) the second and (7) third, of Biber’s Mystery Sonatas*].


In its introductory role, this was a lively rendition, but perhaps just one slight thing was lacking : in the part of the Motet that starts with the words Wohlauf, der Bräut’gam kömmt (‘Indeed, the Bridegroom [i.e. Christ] comes’), did we miss more sense of apprehension of and excitement at this mystery ? Uninterrupted (as the whole first half was) by superfluous applause, it was followed by (2) the Motet Ingressus Angelus (1607), a short a capella setting in five parts, in which St John's Voices, under Graham Walker, creditably brought out the reflectiveness of a text on The Annunciation, ready for the first, so entitled, of Biber’s Mystery Sonatas :


Amongst (3) Biber's Mystery Sonatas, No. 1 (The Annunciation) begins with a strikingly sustained pedal-note from the organ, plus, initially, the violin (before the theorbo momentarily joins them). In this first Sonata*, the violinist is not directed to tune differently from normally (E-A-D-G, unlike the ones that were performed later, where scordatura is used – please see below), and Kinga Ujszászi played with graciousness and a perfect sweetness, as well as virtuosity. (One can therefore credit the programme-note, which says that Biber was 'regarded as one of the finest violinists of his time'.)

 Despite the conventional tuning here, the combination of instruments, which included Caroline Ritchie on viol, at some moments still seems pregnant (even threatening ?) – as if enacting the moment of overshadowing, by the power of the Most High, that Luke 1 : 35 talks of ? [The verse when Mary has questioned what has been announced (i.e. giving birth not only to a son (Luke 1 : 31), but also to a most remarkable one (Luke 1 : 32-33)), because she is a virgin, and the angel (Gabriel) replies.] Though, from Linda Sayce (on theorbo), there then emerged a delicate joy that, as in a round, passed to the violin, before developing into what resembled a passacaglia - with the delicacy of the lead Instrument and of its accompanying voices. At the end, these clear sounds disappeared into nothing – as if Gabriel (or the Holy Spirit ?) just vanishes**.


The next work by Michael Praetorius, (4) Übers Gebirg Maria geht (1609) [from Musae Sioniae, Part VI], is the first of two in German (rather than Latin), and sets two paragraphs (with a four-line Chorus) that deal with Mary, visiting her relative Elizabeth** [The Visitation, treated of afterwards in (5) the second of Biber’s Mystery Sonatas]. Hence the title, which refers to Mary, having to cross the mountain into Judea (although even The King James’ Version of Luke 1 : 39 only refers to ‘the hill country’).

Certainly compared with the style of (1) Wachet Auf (1607), its four-part setting is very different, and lightly metrical, as Graham Walker and St John’s Voices showed, minutely dividing the title-line into half-lines, i.e. ‘Übers Gebirg’ and ‘Maria Geht’ (as we were also to find in (6) Uns ist Ein Kindlein heut’ geborn, from the same year (and collection)).

 Having the background timbre of the sackbutts and cornetts here, in the closing couplet, was lovely, expressing a mood that was both festal, and displaying the solemnity of restraint. At the end of the second paragraph, Praetorius repeats the couplet, to underline the importance of this element of fearing God, but also of looking to God for mercy and as a saviour [from the text of the Magnificat, Luke 1 : 46-55] – before the sound falls away into the acoustic :

 er ist mein Heiland, fürchtet ihn,
er will allzeit barmherzig sein



In (5) No. 2 from the Mystery Sonatas, there was a different approach to and in the violin part, which (as part, again, of a well-balanced ensemble) this time was played by Persephone Gibbs (as, also, in the third / final Sonata) : straightaway, she was sounding 'full on' in a way that Kinga Ujszáski had not done, and – as if to accentuate the effect of the scordatura tuning – somehow more rounded. (The strings that, from top down, are normally tuned E-A-D-G become E-A-E-A in this scordatura tuning, so the lower two strings are both tuned up, by a whole tone, for this Sonata - each, apart from Nos 1 and the Passacaglia at the end, has its own scordatura.)

 Biber gave us another circulation of melodic / rhythmic material, but seeming not to rely, now, to the same extent on virtuoso violin-writing, but on sound-painting – so, a tone of quiet jubilation in phrases and responses between the violin and Henrik Persson’s lower-pitched (bass ?) viol, perhaps representing the dialogue between Mary and Elizabeth ? We also heard the quieter sounds of the organ and theorbo, and the material more gently inflected to suit its character. Almost gigue-like, a short and more lively final section (not a movement as we would know it*) concluded this wonderfully atmospheric work.


Praetorius' (6) hymn Uns ist ein Kindlein geborn was another excellent collaboration between St John's Voices and the other performers, with a glorious opening brass chorale. As we had heard (4) in the preceding setting (Übers Gebirg Maria geht), there is a light metricality, but the choir gave emphasis to Gott mit uns ('God with us' [the meaning of Emmanuel, one of the names given to Jesus]). It appears on its own in the second line, and then, for further effect, repeated as two accented half-lines in the fourth line, making a pattern, for the whole four stanzas, that concludes more lyrically with wer will sein wider uns ? ('Who would want to be against us ?').

 As Ujszászi provided a prominent melody-line for the second stanza, Graham Walker brought out the light beat of the opening of the first line, i.e. Auch ist gegeben, and showed how it makes a half-line with uns ein Sohn (the sense runs on to read 'We have also received a Son [...] From the heavenly throne'), reminding us from where the Christ-child came to Earth – so that the remaining stanzas can be in glory and praise of the crucified and risen Jesus. Another chorale of cornetts and sackbutts for the next stanza illuminated All sein Herrschaft und Majestät ('All his dominion and majesty'), and, in the final stanza, we heard the choir at a triumphant full volume. After a momentary pause – to stress the closing pair of lines one final time – so finished this joyfully resounding performance :

 Gott mit uns, Gott mit uns,
wer will sein wider uns ?



(7) The Nativity, No. 3 of the Mystery Sonatas, has a slow and thoughtful introduction, which also gently serves to get us used to the new scordatura timbres of the violin (now tuned quite differently****) against those of the other players. Then, after a faster section (where the violin is slightly jarring with Caroline Ritchie's viol), another with dance-like rhythms, but they are held back, and where the principal line is brought around to show a different aspect, before a return – but not exactly to where we started.

In another faster passage, gorgeous multi-stopped miniatures from Persephone Gibbs, with a content purely heavenly and divine, and with light accents. The Nativity does not quite drop away to nothing here, but ends with a telling closing reflection, which may be on the humanity and frailty - even unto death ? - of the Christ-child. As with all of the Mystery Sonatas that we heard, this was a fine performance ! It showed, in how it was executed, that performance of the piece had been conceived (or even choreographed) as a whole.


Again, to close the first half, there was a nice match between what could be heard of the voices and the other musicians with (8) the Motet In Dulci Jubilo à 8 (1607) [from Musae Sioniae, Part II]. With the gentle sounds of Linda Sayce (on theorbo), and the gorgeous tone-colours of the Combined Conservatories Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble, it was especially pleasing to hear this very familiar music by Praetorius at this point :

 Not only in the context of his preceding works and with Advent approaching (starting on Sunday 3 December), but as he might have known it. (Rather than, say, in a modern choral arrangement at Christmas, e.g. that by Robert L. de Pearsall and familiar to us from Nine Lessons and Carols, from King’s College.)



Second half :

 9. Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) ~ Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi, SWV 435



End-notes :

 * The Rosary Sonatas are also called, as in the programme for this concert, Mystery Sonatas (as well, it appears, The Copper-Engraving Sonatas - since it appears that, in MS and taken from the Lives of Christ and of The Virgin Mary, each is introduced by an appropriate engraving). With titles from the devotional practice of the Rosary, they are from the first cycle of five Sonatas, depicting 'Joyful Mysteries' (the second set of five being 'Sorrowful Mysteries, and the third 'Glorious Mysteries', plus a closing Passacaglia).

For the work's time of composition, we should not expect Sonata to mean what it does later, i.e. a work for one or two instruments, and with a distinct musical form, divided into a three- or four-movement structure – the notion of a ‘movement’ as such, at this time, may even be wholly anachronistic.


 ** For Mary, one imagines that the experience must have been at least ‘troubling’ (Luke 1 : 29-30), as well as not, until confirmed, seeming utterly real : for her, part of that confirmation (Luke 1 : 36-37) is her kinswoman (or 'cousin' ?) Elizabeth becoming pregnant*** (the visit to see whom was the subject of the following piece by Praetorius, (4) Übers Gebirg Maria geht).

[For Mary's betrothed Joseph, as (in the second half) the libretto to Weihnachtshistorie by Heinrich Schütz makes clear, the first of several dreams (Matthew 1 : 18-21) fortunately offers him reassurance and guidance about Mary and Jesus - though this one occurs before the scope of what the work tells.]


*** There is a theology that says that there is an objective difference between the following reactions (respectively, by Zechariah (when Gabriel tells him that his wife Elizabeth will give birth (Luke 1 : 11–17) – to John the Baptist), and Mary (Luke 1 : 26–37)) :

 And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this ? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years [Luke 1 : 18]

 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man ? [Luke 1 : 34]

 The former apparently earns a briefer explanation (1 : 19) than Mary receives (if only of who it is whom Zechariah has not believed), but then a rebuke for not doing so and a form of punishment (1 : 20), whereas Mary both has her question answered (1 : 35), and is directed to the example of what has happened to her ‘cousin’ Elizabeth (1 : 36–37) (with no punishment). Yet they equally seem to advance factual reasons (age or virginity, respectively) that question how what they have been told can happen ?


**** The usual tuning of E-A-D-G is transformed into D-B-F#-B, which is the first of several uses of scordatura technique where all of the strings are tuned differently - the upper string is tuned down, by a whole tone, the next one up (by the same interval), and the remaining two also up (but both by two whole tones, i.e.a major third).




 Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
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Richard Brody [@tnyfrontrow] is spot on about Call Me by Your Name (2017) for The New Yorker

Tweeting about Call Me by Your Name (2017) - to which #UCFF gave scant time*...

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

29 November
Some Tweeting about Call Me by Your Name (2017) - which #UCFF did not have the will to watch much of*...






Armie Hammer (Oliver) and Timothée Chalamet (Elio), after Elio has taken him on a cycle-ride to town for the bank (a town that Oliver already seems to know pretty well... ?)


End-notes :

 * Walking out of the film after around 30-35 minutes was a gut feeling that it was set in its path, and one that Richard Brody's review for The New Yorker well puts, for #UCFF, into words : The elision of the characters’ mental lives renders “Call Me by Your Name” thin and empty, renders it sluggish ; the languid pace of physical action is matched by the languid pace of ideas, and the result is an enervating emptiness.







 Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
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Wednesday, 22 November 2017

Jazz in Cambridge - November 2017

These are responses to some gigs at Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2017

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2017 (19 to 26 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

21 November
These are responses to some gigs at Cambridge International Jazz Festival 2017

Black Top at the Unitarian Memorial Church, Emmanuel Road - Wednesday 15 November at 7.30 p.m. :






Camilla George Quartet (supported by Cj-Pbs) at Fitzwilliam College Auditorium - Tuesday 21 November at 7.30 p.m. :






Get The Blessing at The Mumford Theatre, Anglia Ruskin University - Wednesday 22 November at 7.30 p.m. :





Trish Clowes, leading Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra at West Road Concert Hall on Friday 24 November at 7.30 p.m. :




New Generation Jazz - The Music Marathon at The Corn Exchange from 12.00 to 11.00 p.m. :







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