Keen appreciation for Neil Brand's Laurel & Hardy show : Seen at The Stables, Wavendon, MK

Keen appreciation for Neil Brand's Laurel & Hardy show : Seen at The Stables, Wavendon, MK

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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31 October (additions, 5 January)

Keen appreciation for Neil Brand's Laurel & Hardy show : Seen at The Stables, Wavendon, MK

A great gig at @StablesMK in the company of Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel - @NeilKBrand, in engagingly off-the-cuff style, hosts the show that he's written about them, covering how they met, what they did before then and what makes their work special - for him and for us.

1 / 2

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 1, 2023

At @StablesMK, with Stan and Ollie letting Neil make a trio*, such a great night out - and a pleasant break from All Hallows' Eve ! :)

Knowing his stuff, but easy with his knowledge and skill, Neil played the silents, informed the early years and told us what to look out for. pic.twitter.com/lJIKFZ00U1

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 5, 2024

For L&H fans, new and in the making, well worth doing ! :)

[Sadly, the #UCFF write-up - started with the best of aims as ever - is no more than a stub, but hey !]

* Although arguably, as they were also with the perennial presence of James Finlayson, maybe almost a quartet ? pic.twitter.com/K4kByOL0lW

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 5, 2024

Yet, as with Neil Brand himself, always serving Stan Laurel's writing - and an ineffable magic wrought by Oliver Hardy with him on the big screen !

[Plus, and as some of those stills show, the image-quality now's so good - as against, years back, when L&H were on childhood t.v.] pic.twitter.com/vhtssxQDVH

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 5, 2024

Brand attributed his approach to improvisation - itself rooted in having long 'played' silent films and his ready knowledge of cinema-history - to what he learnt in having training as an actor¹, and demonstrated how he suits sound² to a character's look, mood and gesture.

2 / 2

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 2, 2023

It wlll surprise if more tour-dates with Stan and Ollie³ for 2023 and into 2024 don't get added, but here's what's been announced :https://t.co/eVLOjMHo5x

³ Liking the 2018 film of that name [and has his own https://t.co/BLrdegpaef], his desire's to show us the earlier years.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 2, 2023

¹ Of course, he also writes, composes, broadcasts...

² Another role is teaching improvisation at @RoyalAcadMusic [https://t.co/fg1cVy4Pus] - not necessarily, he says, so that students become silent-film accompanists, but to find what music they have within them.

Go hear :)

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 2, 2023

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

#UCFF's initial Tweets about Mutt (2023) (posting still under construction)

#UCFF's initial Tweets about Mutt (2023)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
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26 October (end-note expanded, 27 OCtober)

#UCFF's initial Tweets about Mutt (2023) (posting still under construction)

As well as Deux jours, une nuit (2014), that description reminds me of this film, from last decade's #CameraCatalonia :https://t.co/ylP3zy54zI

If Screen 1's running to time on Day 8, I *should* be able to give Mutt (2023) a whirl... :)

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 25, 2023

Mutt (2023) watched, which *may* be it for #CFF42 [although still not succeeded in looking at precisely what https://t.co/40kSEDf7u7 might permits Th'Agent to see] - great fun and a warm welcome at the Youth Lab stall* again this afternoon !

* More at : https://t.co/zvNYIvsDlS. https://t.co/uTHExAPJBQ

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 26, 2023

Some like saying 'oneiric'. Mutt was that, featured colour-grading and its gradients that reminded of what Edgar Wright did in Baby Driver (2017) and - as kinda predicted / guessed at the other day - most of all of this film from #CameraCatalonia 2015 :https://t.co/3WLBd4M3dG

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 26, 2023

Mutt is a tender and accomplished feature debut from Director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, who draws on personal experience to explore the complexities of post-transition life.

Screening at #LIFF2023 on the 5, 7 and 9 Nov at @everyman Leeds.

Book tickets via: https://t.co/YSagx3ENJX pic.twitter.com/2JQmtVuCCF

— Leeds International Film Festival - LIFF (@leedsfilmfest) October 24, 2023

En el marco del 21er Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia (#FICM2023), se realizó la función especial de MUTT, dirigida por Vuk Lungulov-Klot, como parte de las funciones especiales que tendrá el @MixFilmFest.

Leer más 🎬👉 [ https://t.co/zbl6guMQMd ] pic.twitter.com/ImpX1KkYMf

— Morelia Film Fest (@FICM) October 25, 2023

End-notes :

* The film seems to have no internal logic why it is so called.

However, #UCFF has since been advised, by one more likely to be in the know, that the word is used in the States synonymously with 'schmuck' (and referred to the authority of its being used in that way by Groucho Marx no less) : that being so, the pejorative usage in Yiddish [the link is to Wiki] adds colour, because, although 'schmuck' derives from the German word Schmuck (der Schmuck, which means 'jewelry'), its literal Yiddish meaning is a vulgar way of referring to the penis. (One can therefore infer that 'Dick' (or 'Cock') might have been more resonant titles in British English.)


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

Three initial Tweets about 20,000 Especies de abejas (20,000 Species of Bees) (2023)

Three initial Tweets about 20,000 Especies de abejas (20,000 Species of Bees) (2023)

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

Three initial Tweets about 20,000 Especies de abejas (20,000 Species of Bees) (2023)

Anton Chekhov met Samuel Beckettt's trio of novels of identity*, a start-time of 11.50 a.m., a run-time of 129 mins plus a constellation of families and their fractures / fissures to map out - not ideal circumstances for 20,000 Especies de abejas (20,000 Species of Bees) (2023) !

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 26, 2023

Let alone Day 8 of #CFF42 (whose preceding week had not been untiring / granted enough sleep).

Still, with an aspiration of Mutt (2023) [English and Spanish with English sub-titles), that'll be #UCFF's wrap.

* Molloy / Malone meurt (Malone Dies) / L'innomabable (The Unnamable)

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 26, 2023

Plus there's so much 'fitted in', even without Pygmalion allusions, 'the lost-wax method' (known from Michael Ayrton's novel-writing), lore of saints / bees, the question of who owns art when an artist dies and maybe employing worse than plagiarism to obtain a post...

Keep up !

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 26, 2023

More to come (D.V.)...

Beckettt and Bees, etc. :

Molloy, Part Two [Moran's narrative], final para.

'I put my hand in the hive, moved it among the empty trays, felt along the bottom. It encountered, in a corner, a dry light ball. It crumbled under my fingers.'#BecketttandBees

1 / 3 https://t.co/uTHExAPJBQ

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 29, 2023

Beckettt and Bees, etc. :

Malone Dies (Malone meurt), opening para.

'Perhaps I am wrong, perhaps I shall survive Saint John the Baptist's Day and even the Fourteenth of July, festival of freedom.'#BecketttandBees

2 / 3

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 29, 2023

Beckettt and Bees, etc. :

The Unnamable (L'innomable), opening section, 10th para.

'They say they, speaking of them, to make me think it is I who am speaking. Or I say they, speaking of God knows what, to make me think it is not I who am speaking.'#BecketttandBees

3 / 3

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 29, 2023

More to come (D.V.)...


























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Opening Night at Cambridge Film Festival 2023 : Carol Morley's Typist Artist Pirate King (2022) + Q&A

Opening Night at Cambridge Film Festival 2023 : Carol Morley's Typist Artist Pirate King (2022)

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

Opening Night at Cambridge Film Festival 2023 : Carol Morley's Typist Artist Pirate King (2022)

One of my favourite films of the year 👌🎬

— It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Chris Watt (@thechriswatt) December 2, 2023

Here is Andy who I met tonight at @LewesDepot after the screening of #typistartistpirateking . A little sound bite! @ModernFilmsEnt @BFI @Lipsynctweets Trailer ⬆️ in bio! 💕 pic.twitter.com/deqLOi8ckB

— Carol Morley (@_CarolMorley) November 6, 2023

The film's special part (and its closing credits) was seeing the art of Audrey Amiss* and - for want of a word to describe them - her visual journals and their commentary on resemblance and form in what she kept, but we'd overlook / discard.

* And a local road-sign for Amiss 2. https://t.co/ZpOpXo8FoR

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 19, 2023

It’s a wonderful film, we loved it.
It’s rare in that it’s a film about art that gets it right. But it’s also beautiful about siblings and mental health .. the paintings are terrific.

— Bob&Roberta Smith (@BobandRoberta) November 12, 2023

A member of the audience tonight after a screening talking #typistartistpirateking 💕 @showroomcinema pic.twitter.com/JPnqghyZMh

— Carol Morley (@_CarolMorley) October 31, 2023

The amazing @_CarolMorley & @MonicaDolan will be my guests @_theriverside on 23rd Nov 7:30pm for Carol’s wonderful new film TYPIST ARTIST PIRATE KING from @ModernFilmsEnt about artist #AudreyAmisshttps://t.co/tXhWIcH8or

Don’t delay and book today!#typistartistpirateking pic.twitter.com/dQJ7dKD8CG

— Neil McGlone (@NeilMcGFilm) October 16, 2023

Alongside which, disputing the notion that what's called 'a breakdown' is always a bad experience** and not, potentially, a creative, illuminating or even redemptive one that can give hope or restore trust.

More at : https://t.co/M2KK078sjm

** For some, it is or can be.

2 / 2

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 19, 2023

Yes, that *was* meant to read 'a good fit', but I was too quick to Tweet and hadn't noticed. :) https://t.co/LRkTH71w2f

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 19, 2023

In the way that film's a referential medium [if not uniquely so], what else did it remind of ?

En route, #UCFF thought of (date order) :

* A Canterbury Tale (1944)

* Calvet (2011)

* A Very English Winter (2012)

* Nebraska (2013)

* By Our Selves (2015)

* Youth (2015)

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 19, 2023

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

The Takács Quartet at Cambridge Music Festival with Haydn, Hough and Beethoven (uncorrected proof)

The Takács Quartet at Cambridge Music Festival with Haydn, Hough and Beethoven

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

The Takács Quartet at Cambridge Music Festival with Haydn, Hough and Beethoven (uncorrected proof)

Programme :

(1) Haydn ~ String Quartet in D Major, Op. 71, No. 2

(2) Hough ~ String Quartet No. 1

(3) Beethoven ~ String Quartet No. 8 in E Minor

In the very best way, at @cammusicfest, we kept having glimpses - especially with the second movement onwards - of how a contemporary audience might have reacted to music or its sound-world that we should never take for granted that we understand just because 'we know it'.

2 / 2

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) October 18, 2023

Personnel :

On the stage of West Road Concert Hall, the players of first violin (Edward Dusinberre) and viola (Richard Yongjae O'Neill) had elected to sit on piano-stools, and at opposite ends, with Harumi Rhodes (second violin) to Dusinberre's left, and cellist András Fejér to O'Neill's right (and next to Rhodes).


First half :

* Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) ~ String Quartet in D Major (1793), Op. 71, No. 2 (Hob. III : 70)

1. Adagio - Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Menuetto : Allegro
4. Allegretto - Allegro


(1) Haydn opens this string quartet in a very gracious mood, with the instrumentalists passing the partitioned line between them as if in a relay, but, of course, The Takacs Quartet does so in an effortless way that belies the concentration and skill involved. It was likewise clear from their smiles, to each other or to themselves, as they read what was on the page (especially Harumi Rhodes), that they were enjoying his wit, and the risk-taking modulation near the Allegro's conclusion.


The Adagio is the movement that feels to be the emotional centre of the work, and in which it became apparent that the attention of the audience at West Road Concert Hall was rapt. We might also have become aware of hearing the viola as 'an outlier' to the harmonic background that was given by the other instruments.

That being said, there is a reversal towards its end, and it is then the first violin that gives the incidental detail. However, it also proves to be very nearly the final bar, by which point Haydn's sensitive writing and the quartet's playing had wrung all of us out – we, and they, too !


From the Menuetto's spirited and lively introduction we pass into an in-between world, where Dusinberre (vn) and O'Neill (va) were playing exceptionally quietly. In this composition for string quartet, as a whole, it is noticeable that there is such great economy, with Haydn writing absolutely no more material than is necessary.


As in the opening movement, there is good-natured writing and fragmentation of the melody-line between the parts in the Allegretto, and with dance-rhythms becoming more prominent in the Allegro section. Haydn appears to indicate a coda (since it might turn out to be a late set of variations – or even a false ending ?), and we came to the end of this well-received performance of a gem of a piece.



* Stephen Hough (b. 1961) ~ String Quartet No. 1 (2021), Les Six rencontres

1. Au boulevard
2. Au parc
3. À l'hôtel
4. Au théâtre
5. À l'église
6. Au marché


(2) As Joanna Wyld's programme-notes imply, which quote extensively from Stephen Hough's own comments on the character of the rencontres*, and the music suggests, this set of movements is of a very cinematic nature : filmic depiction, and juxtaposition rather than 'development', is its mode of operation, but it also features what we heard in the Haydn, where fragments that make one musical line are passed around between the players.


The vigorous and colourful sound-world of Au boulevard was followed, in Au parc by the evening's first use (?) of Pizzicato, alongside what felt to be more than a hint of moto perpetuo, and a genial mood, but one perhaps tinged with Hitchcockian unease ?

Without intentionally listening out for the style of Francis Poulenc, it was À l'hôtel that most obviously reminded of it and his approach to melodic and harmonic invention. Until it proved to have a definite end, it seemed uncertain whether it might have been played without a break between it and Au théâtre.

However, that was not the case, and the latter's slide or 'tap' notes straightaway set it apart - was this, maybe, in the spirit of Arthur Honegger ? In any case, it continued with evocations of 'hamming' or stage horror, much use of tremolo, before a more serious and sad section (Tragedy after Comedy ?), and, with the viola prominent, a quiet close.


À l'église had wistful and phlegmatic writing, which was patently moving the performers (in this work's 'emotional centre'), and which might have had resemblances to Georges' Auric's cinematic score for Cocteau (La belle et la bête (1946)). Au marché seemed to have an incessant quality (and no bars' rest for any of the players ?), but yet a finality about it, marking its conclusion with bell-tones and their peals.



Second half :

* Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) ~ String Quartet No. 8 in E Minor (1806), Opus 59, No. 2 (the 'Razumovsky' set**)

1. Allegro
2. Molto adagio
3. Allegretto
4. Finale : Presto


Beethoven's moody and magnificent (3) quartet is very different from what went before, so it truly did need an interval beforehand, as well as nothing to follow it – although, at the end of a powerfully affecting performance (not to say, of course, evening as a whole), an encore was repeatedly called for.


In the Allegro that opens the work, the viola keeps the line going, and the musical ship afloat, with an alleviation of the other players' harmonies. Perhaps, for maximum effect, our performers allowed themselves distending the suspenseful rests per tutti, but they principally and aptly gave the writing its full due weight from pacing and their dynamics.

They fitly reminded us, too, by bringing them out, how the composer's dissonances might have been 'shocking' in Vienna in the early nineteenth century (as the embedded Tweets allude to).


Through having noticed it when a pianist, say, performs a complete set of Nocturnes or Études, the writer, at least, believes that there is largely more scope, in a less-familiar number within that set***, for deviating from what is expected in or from it : though simultaneously asserting that this movement is 'the emotional centre' in Beethoven's work, yet the Molto allegro's 'under-exposure', as it were, likewise gives more and / or different scope for individuation.


The Allegretto is, of course, very familiar, but this was glorious, and, with the playing of Rhodes and O'Neill to the fore, full of rich expectancy that led us on to the joyous fugato section, where we could again hear the delicacy of the viola's tones.

To come...


The Finale also sounded fresh and, and we could again see that the players had smiles at the writing's felicities. Those same elements could be heard, which had been there in the opening work, of fragmentation of the musical line : it is always a sign of good programming when compositions 'talk to' each other !

Entrancing and entranced, right up to the end that we knew was coming and which we were willing on, this was a fit conclusion to a compelling evening of fine music from The Takács Quartet.


End-notes :

¹ Although Hough refers to Les Six, it seems that the string quartet was commissioned and written for a recording by The Takács Quartet of works for string quartet by Ravel and Dutilleux (neither of them members of Les Six).

² All three works come to us through patronage, even if, in the case of Sir Stephen's composition, we now say that it 'was commissioned'.

³ Which, differently put, is to say that, unlike those that are often played solo, or with one or two others that have been excerpted from the set, one that is far more infrequently heard does not have a recording or performance practice that suggests how it 'should' sound. (The same principle applies to the excessively known or played sections of the Verdi or Mozart Requiems.)


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

#UnMissableTitles

#UnMissableTitles

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

#UnMissableTitles

Film Recommendations ~ Travis Bickle#UnMissableTitles pic.twitter.com/19TqyuScVj

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 5, 2023

The Joys of Venetian Church Restoration ~ Donald Sutherland#UnMissableTitles pic.twitter.com/4RRX7qCYLX

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 5, 2023

Disarming Fascist Thugs with Sheer Charm ~ Gustave H.

'You can't arrest him simply because he's a bloody immigrant !'https://t.co/1w293CSJYk#UnMissableTitles

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 22, 2023

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

Inception, dreaming and is Cobb 'awake' [whatever that is] when the film ends ? (work in progress)

Inception, dreaming and is Cobb 'awake' [whatever that is] when the film ends ? (work in progress)

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

26 July

Inception, dreaming and is Cobb 'awake' [whatever that is] when the film ends ? (work in progress)

Ignoring the complexities of 'Borges and I' (and / or of translating it*), why am I sure that, when I just typed these words, no one else has ever written them ? :

'Dreamers and Rules (or, at least, as Cobb represents them to Ariadne)'

* A text is at : https://t.co/2z0pP1PaOM.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 19, 2023

Michael Caine, as a lecturer in an unspecified discipline at a French academy (which, however, we may rightly assume to be La Sorbonne), graces a scene close to the start of Inception [which, thanks to this word from the world of insurance, necessarily sounds like the start of the start], and then does not reappear until the closing ones.

From their conversation, we learn that Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), whom he addresses as 'Dom', is his son-in-law and that he had once been one of his brighter students. (The credits tell us that Caine's character is called Miles, but we do not hear that name used.) Despite Cobb's seeming implication in the death of his daughter (Mal**, played by Marion Cotillard), Miles appears to have relatively few reservations about introducing Cobb to one of his current students, once he has first urged Cobb 'to come back to reality', and Cobb has argued both that, after what happened, he has to use what he was taught to do as he does (but cannot now be the architect of his own dream-deceptions), and, moreover, that the job that he is undertaking represents his only chance to be what Miles and Cobb want him to be able to be, a father to his children.

When Cobb asks for someone 'at least as good as' he was, Miles claims that Ariadne (Elliot Page) is 'better than' Cobb. (Apart from at the end of the film, where Miles meets Cobb at the airport, we see Caine do no more than effect an introduction to Ariadne. (If, that is, Cobb and co. have actually reached Arrivals...))


More to come...


























Appendix :

Clues to a re-watched film :

1) Dies irae

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 1, 2023

Clues to a re-watched film :

2) Non, je ne regrette rien

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 2, 2023

Clues to a re-watched film :

3) Cotillard

Any guesses ?

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 3, 2023

Clues to a re-watched film :

4) Arthur

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 5, 2023

Clues to a re-watched film :

5) 'Chambre'

Any guesses ?

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 6, 2023

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

Barbie Tweets

Barbie Tweets

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

Barbie Tweets

Star-billing for Fanny Brice (Barbra STreisand) at The New Amsterdam Theatre

A Warner Bros. marketing leader recalls the first splashy #Barbie teaser — an homage to "2001: A Space Odyssey" — that debuted over the holidays: "It made a bold statement that this movie isn’t going to be exactly what you think it is." https://t.co/G8nfnvCvQu pic.twitter.com/COCqJ9T05l

— Variety (@Variety) July 24, 2023

One might say that films like Funny Girl* (1968) aren't still made, but Greta Gerwig (and co-writer Noah Baumbach) shed new light on self-worth and reflected glory outside a mutual love-affaire.

* A species of An Affair to Remember (1957) itself, but without a deferred affaire. pic.twitter.com/W2IihKC52Z

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 10, 2023

* Suspicion (1941) may well have been seen first by the time that Funny Girl (1968) made it to t.v., but its ending, which would now seem very abrupt [just as does that of Vertigo (1958)], wouldn't have alerted one to what Hitchcock (and Grant) had meant to be the film's ending.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 10, 2023

For others who may be interested, the pages of The Barbra Archives appear to have a wealth of information about her Academy-Award-winning first film :https://t.co/w54yLjo1XNhttps://t.co/CMX63cAbzm https://t.co/mLjQ9LCKjb pic.twitter.com/EqEuRyxB8R

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 10, 2023

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

The #MakeDishesLessAppealing Tweets

The #MakeDishesLessAppealing Tweets

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

The #MakeDishesLessAppealing Tweets

Tarka the Otter dhal

Aromatic crispy Donald duck#MakeDishesLessAppealing

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 8, 2023

Fission chips

Murky peas#MakeDishesLessAppealing

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 8, 2023

Chicken and muskrat casserole

Steak and snail pie#MakeDishesLessAppealing

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 8, 2023

Haggis, teats and tatties

A fish snuffer#MakeDishesLessAppealing

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 14, 2023

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

Operas ruined (with one letter) : Th'Agent's efforts at demolition

Operas ruined (with one letter) : Th'Agent's efforts at demolition

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

Operas ruined (with one letter) : Th'Agent's efforts at demolition

I suggest a double bill, for audiences with stamina...

— Alexandra Wilson (@amwilson_opera) July 4, 2023

You could also stage Oignon at either venue...

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 5, 2023

Adam Butterfly

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 4, 2023

Better, though, would be this somewhat cheesy tale ? :

The Bartered Brie https://t.co/KxmIqbDJ9a

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 6, 2023

Bizet's Barmen

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 5, 2023

Catmen

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 4, 2023

Gounod's runaway hit, Fast

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 5, 2023

Massenet's Manson

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 4, 2023

Cherubini's Mêlée

[Changing an accent as well as a letter]

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 4, 2023

The Merry Window

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 4, 2023

Mosca

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 5, 2023

Handel's Tesco : Twilight of The Goods

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 4, 2023

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

On watching Asteroid City (2023) - and not giving a damn about seeing it again

On watxching Asteroid City (2023) - and not giving a damn about seeing it again

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

4 July

On watxching Asteroid City (2023) - and not giving a damn about seeing it again

In hindsight maybe it was, as Roman Coppola and Wes Anderson have taken being recondite too far for comprehension, in writing Asteroid's story** !

** Regular contributors Hugo Guinness and Jason Schwartzman are both credited with Dispatch [IMDb : https://t.co/Ii18b7D6Gr].

2 / 2 pic.twitter.com/bSH15N49dZ

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 5, 2023

No, #UCFF must take that back, having now, sadly, witnessed the new film, a lifeless piece of blubber, in the biggest screen available... :(

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 5, 2023

More to come...



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

Conflagration, Catastrophe and Christopher Nolan (work in progress)

Conflagration, Catastrophe and Christopher Nolan

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

30 June

Conflagration, Catastrophe and Christopher Nolan (work in progress)

Prescient conflagrations and the possibility of Earth-shattering catastrophe were foregrounded preoccupations of TENET (2020), so it seems likely that Christopher Nolan's preserved them in #Oppenheimer... pic.twitter.com/9h2LA7ElWo

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 30, 2023

Having soon recognized that Nolan's (ahem !) central conceit is part of, well, revolving his usual interest in cause and effect, the impetus to consider 'but for' (or 'what if') and how guilt arises, the idea of constructing a square of one's own became inviting.#UCFF offers... pic.twitter.com/Ek8f3CWoCQ

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 1, 2023

² From Wiki :

The word AREPO is a 'hapax legomenon' (i.e. it appears nowhere else in Latin literature).

Some academics believe it is likely a proper name or potentially a theophoric name, that was adapted from a non-Latin word or was invented specifically for the Sator square.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 1, 2023

All 'the best' word-squares, so #UCFF is told, rely on using trade-names and the like... pic.twitter.com/rSR4ffv4bA

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) August 26, 2023

More to come...




















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

Maria Bartuszová at Tate Modern : Show finishes on Sunday 25 June 2023

Maria Bartuszová at Tate Modern at Tate Modern : Show finishes on Sunday 25 June 2023

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

23 June

Maria Bartuszová at Tate Modern at Tate Modern : Show finishes on Sunday 25 June 2023

Facing problematic rail-travel this final weekend, this afternoon was the time for the last and comprehensively immersive set of visits¹ to Maria Bartsuzová's retrospective show at Tate Modern - more full of nature and insightful by far than the Forms of Life² show, also now on ! pic.twitter.com/dxUOFEoTfE

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 23, 2023

Here is the relevant wall-note (which is to be found in Room 3, the room that we are looking into, on Level 4 of The Blavatnik Building) pic.twitter.com/dQTYqPVAN2

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 24, 2023

This is just one of five or so other free-standing 'boxed' displays of groups of sculptural 'forms' that are towards the centre of the main room (Room 2), plus others that are along the long wall, and numerous fragile eggs or 'endless eggs' and photos of youngsters handling art. pic.twitter.com/oT6Jfqn6W5

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 24, 2023

The show closes on Sunday 25 June at 6.00 p.m.

¹ Since one's concentration lapses, Tate membership allows one in and out at will.

² Although going back in to see how, as one shifted focus or moved around the galleries, Piet Mondrian's mature work 'quivered' before one's eyes. pic.twitter.com/qxsIwiHsGG

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 24, 2023

Clumsy (fingers or) keyboard, so that should say :

Maria Bartuszová at Tate Modern - the show finishes on Sunday 25 June 2023 https://t.co/zCEv9mnYft

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 24, 2023

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

Esurientes implevit bonis, et divites dimisit inanes : Jesus' parables of abundance or growth (good and bad) (work in progress)

Esurientes implevit bonis, et divites dimisit inanes : Jesus' parables of abundance or growth

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

14 June

Esurientes implevit bonis, et divites dimisit inanes : Jesus' parables of abundance or growth (good and bad) (work in progress)

This afternoon's live broadcast of Choral Evensong, on Radio 3, was from a very familiar Cambridge college chapel, led by Revd Dr Stephen Cherry, Dean of King's, and one reading (from The Old Testament) was from part of the story that Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber and famously adapted as Joseph and The Amazing, etc.



More to come...



































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

#RoystonStationSnaps : Another, er, project proudly brought to you by #UCFF !

#RoystonStationSnaps : Another, er, project proudly brought to you by #UCFF !

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

12 June

#RoystonStationSnaps : Another, er, project proudly brought to you by #UCFF !

An Elton Johnny Cash / Oz co-production pic.twitter.com/n0J3lZ7Ybc

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 28, 2023

Replacement foot-bridge at Royston station :

It's really *not* as vertiginously perilous as Th'Agent has made it look ! ;)#RoystonStationSnaps pic.twitter.com/qnsWcsDCeT

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 14, 2023

More to come...




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

'Censorship' and cinema : Some Tweets

'Censorship' and cinema : Some Tweets

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

10 June

'Censorship' and cinema : Some Tweets

More to come...

I agree with Sasha on this one, people need to be able to make their own decisions. I'm glad to see there are still film critics out there speaking out. We need more critics to speak out. https://t.co/eXrn5Psf7K

— The Film Bee (@the_film_bee) June 10, 2023

Le pornographe (The Pornographer) (2001) won the 2001 International Critics Week award at Cannes.

Ostensibly far more explicit sex-scenes in La vie d'Adèle (Blue Is the Warmest Colour) (2013) were mitigated - so it's said - by using prosthetics, whatever appears represented... ?

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 10, 2023

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