Secret histories of code-breaking : #TheCodicoteCodex

Secret histories of code-breaking : #TheCodicoteCodex

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

17 May

Secret histories of code-breaking : #TheCodicoteCodex

In detective mode, presented with a very carefully composed photo, we have to suspect that there's more going on here than may meet the eye...

1) First of all, the purposeful lady in smart attire - immediately at the most natural point for us to register her.#TheCodicoteCodex pic.twitter.com/QasFvWKIU3

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 17, 2024

2) Yes, and maybe - because we naturally next look at the vehicles - we then don't ever think to notice the open window... ?

[The large window, in the property that abuts* the neighbouring public-house.]

* Or does it adjoin it, too ?#TheCodicoteCodex pic.twitter.com/tJzXLf592D

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 17, 2024

3) We are unmistakably told the date - 17 August 1935** - and it is possible that there may be good reason to credit it**.

** Except that it's given to us in exact reverse - '1935 August 17'.#TheCodicoteCodex pic.twitter.com/TK4oEJk2P9

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 17, 2024

4) At On This Day [@OnThisDaycom], they have more for us :

It was a Saturday, 88 years and 9 months ago,,,https://t.co/aUrujEHviA#TheCodicoteCodex

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 17, 2024

5) More importantly, we find that several significant events in world history had just occurred, including in Bad Tölz and Gdańsk (Danzig) on 6 & 7 August, in Rosenheim (11th), and Washington, DC (21st, 31st) :https://t.co/lZost7GfFBhttps://t.co/EP6mKw4pIR#TheCodicoteCodex

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 29, 2024

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

#ExamTime in, and at, an uncertain age : ai-powered approaches to question-setting

#ExamTime in, and at, an uncertain age : ai-powered approaches to question-setting

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

10 May

#ExamTime in, and at, an uncertain age : ai-powered approaches to question-setting

In memoriam, Charles Hunt, RIP

Discuss themes of despair and destruction, and how they are invoked, in this poem by William Carlos Williams.#ExamTime

1 / 3

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 10, 2024

If, instead, this poem had been written by Sappho (and this were a translation made by Robert Lowell in circa 1943), how - if at all - would your answer differ, and why ?#ExamTime

2 / 3

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 10, 2024

If, yet again, this were considered, by its author, to be prose (rather than, principally, poetry), and had perhaps been written by the lead examiner (who may be a published poet), how also - if at all - would your answer differ, and why ?#ExamTime

3 / 3

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 10, 2024

Maybe coming to a universe of examination-halls* near you (soon)... ?
/div>

'Alpha Papa was a better name, and a better overall piece of work, than Juliet Bravo.'

Discuss, with (if desired) reference to the unending mediocrity of #LizzyBoots, the Barthesian semiotics of this purported anonymous evaluation.

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

* You know the ones : where you're suddenly aware that you are still wearing your slippers, or pyjamas - or that you forgot to revise !


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

Some Twaddle about The Scottish Play...

Some Twaddle about The Scottish Play...

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

4 May

Some Twaddle about The Scottish Play...

Jacobean theatre (following Tillyard & Molesworth)

Thane of Cawdor : Is this a dagger which I see before me / The handle toward my hand ?

Groundling 1 : Well, is it - or is it a quarter-pounder with cheese ?

Groundling 2 : If it is, mate, chuck it here - I'm famished ! !

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 4, 2024

Groundling 3 : Nah, shut it, you two - can't you see it's a half-pounder, no cheese, but with a generous helping of tomato, red onion and lettuce and lashings of burger-sauce ? !

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 4, 2024

Groundling 4 starts arguing that burgers being mistaken for a dagger lacks any credence, but Groundling 3 retorts that it's dark in the castle corridors, Glamis doesn't want to be seen, and is high on the dopaminergic cascades of his heat-oppressed brain.https://t.co/7ShtY0nObN

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 4, 2024

Unsatisfied, Groundling 4 contends that, even when eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, by a dagger of the mind, the false creation must be a longer foodstuff that calls Glamis back to his room for a pre-murder snack - a duck wrap with hoisin sauce or a sausage-roll, say.

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 4, 2024

With any luck, popular acclaim won't require any more on this...


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

Thirteen Tweeets about Civil War (2024) : #CivilWarAndAlexGarland (work in progress)

Thirteen Tweeets about Civil War (2024) : #CivilWarAndAlexGarland (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)

Thirteen Tweeets about Civil War (2024) : #CivilWarAndAlexGarland (work in progress)

1) Even with a road-trip* (especially ?), a director should earn the right to behave as if a film's emotionally taken anyone somewhere else :

Hanging affectless exchanges in the air may make other, flat scenes seem pacy, but is unsubtle.

* Ostensibly.#CivilWarAndAlexGarland

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) April 26, 2024

2) Civil War (2024) establishes no more on-screen relationship or rapport between Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) and Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) than with Joe (Wagner Moura) or Sammy (Stephen McKinley), yet thinks us willing to behave as if it had done.

But...#CivilWarAndAlexGarland

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) April 27, 2024

3) Also from A24, but wholly unlike C'mon, C'mon (2021) - a different type of Jesse, and Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) learning from his nephew* in a process of the former's unmasking and self-realization.

* Very ably and effectively played by Woody Norman.#CivilWarAndAlexGarland

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) April 28, 2024

4) However, it has a reason *not* to be that type of film, which relates to why Joe, who is already accompanying Lee, is on the trip and – which seems plausible – to what makes him tick, but Joe is 'thinly written' and this feint does not earn its place.#CivilWarAndAlexGarland

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 1, 2024

pic.twitter.com/7xpsDoupp2

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 3, 2024

pic.twitter.com/wV1ChQlPEY

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 3, 2024

6) At first, maybe the lack of good or considered dialogue could be read as denoting the characters' fatigue*, but the misdirections also [need to] abound to make us not just want to quit.

* As well as a stultifying effect that tends to lead to ours !#CivilWarAndAlexGarland

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 8, 2024

7) (A film set in Austria (?) that Michael Haneke made in German – then, 10yrs later and with an American cast, re-shot in English – dares us to leave, too : it and a Peter Gabriel song [on the album Up (2002)] tells us all that Garland does in 109 mins.)#CivilWarAndAlexGarland

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) May 9, 2024

More to come...

At its conclusion, which took a fair old while to get to, the same disappointment as when Kubrick chooses to leave us with this image.

[Afterwards, it became clear very quickly that elements of The White Hotel infused a highly psychopathic version of The Wizard of Oz (1939)...] pic.twitter.com/ROJx8TP6jv

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) June 1, 2024

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

The 'Fits to the rhythm of Eleanor Rigby' Tweets : #EleanorRigbyRhythms

The 'Fits to the rhythm of Eleanor Rigby' Tweets : #EleanorRigbyRhythms

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

The 'Fits to the rhythm of Eleanor Rigby' Tweets : #EleanorRigbyRhythms

Lennon McCartney

Fits to the rhythm of Eleanor Rigby#EleanorRigbyRhythms

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) April 7, 2024

Fr. Ted Crilly

Fits to the rhythm of Eleanor Rigby#EleanorRigbyRhythms

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) April 7, 2024

Sheridan Morley

Fits to the rhythm of Eleanor Rigby#EleanorRigbyRhythms

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) April 9, 2024

Eric and Ernie

Fits to the rhythm of Eleanor Rigby #EleanorRigbyRhythms

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) April 9, 2024

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

The Totally New (and Gratuitous) #BeatUpBeatles Tweets

The Totally New (and Gratuitous) #BeatUpBeatles Tweets

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

26 February

The Totally New (and Gratuitous) #BeatUpBeatles Tweets

I am The Onion

Happiness is a Warm Walrus#BeatUpBeatles

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 26, 2024

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

On finding a DVD of Underworld (2003), understandably abandoned by an ex's ex

On finding a DVD of Underworld (2003), understandably abandoned by an ex's ex

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

24 February

On finding a DVD of Underworld (2003), understandably abandoned by an ex's ex

Michael S.'s part was clearly written for Rik Mayall, Bill N.'s for NE Other, and, when not stomping, Kate's repertoire, is limited to looking as if deducing, trap-hole descents and flinging doors open that she doesn't need to kick unlocked.

[Fans of these films needn't reply !]

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 25, 2024

If there's any reason to continue with it (is it so bad that it's just very bad* ?), maybe more...



* The buried non-treasure implied by the title.


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

#OldSawsAndSayings : A Useful Collection

#OldSawsAndSayings : A Useful Collection

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

20 February

#OldSawsAndSayings : A Useful Collection

It's better to be safe than sentient#OldSawsAndSayings No. 1

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 20, 2024

A bird in the hand is one sure way of getting it pecked, crapped on or both#OldSawsAndSayings No. 2

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 21, 2024

He who laughs last shall miss the bus (or boat)#OldSawsAndSayings No. 3

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 22, 2024

Foot loose - and fancy falling over ?#OldSawsAndSayings No. 4

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 25, 2024

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

Seen at Cambridge Film Festival 2023 / #CFF42 (work, desperately slowly, in progress)

TSeen at Cambridge Film Festival 2023 / #CFF42

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

26 October

Seen at Cambridge Film Festival 2023 / #CFF42 (work, desperately slowly, in progress)

A beautiful second film, and a credit to #CameraCatalonia - as Júlia ist (2017) had been, again in Cambridge, in 2018 !https://t.co/ABsLoG5Gh2

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

Key :

For a very rare change, for #UCFF, no films this year were not watched in full (although excepting, for example, the recorded Q&A for Mutt, which ran directly after the closing credits and when Th'Agent needed to be on the way elsewhere).

That being said, since there were occasions when quitting the film had been tempting (because of, say, a massive disjunction or clash of mood or quality with what had been watched beforehand), and that experience is denoted by Exit, although the film was watched to the end.

Similarly, in the case of film-titles denoted by Asp, there had been an aspiration or intention to watch that film quite soon after another, but similar reasons, tiredness or simply wanting to socialize (and not watch a film for the sake of it) supervened.


Thursday 19 October :

(1) 8.20 Typist Artist Pirate King (2022) ~ Opening Night Film + Q&A (Screen 1)


Friday 20 October :

(2) 12.30 In the Company of Women (2023) ~ Camera Catalonia (Scre3n 2)

(3) 2.25 Sprich mit mir (Talk to Me) (2023) (Screen 2)

(4) 6.00 Quest (2023) ~ Camera Catalonia (SCreen 3)

(5) 8.30 Poor Things (2023) (Screen 1)

















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

The #ChocolateIsNews ? ! Tweets - Well, news when Christmas is next month...

The #ChocolateIsNews ? ! Tweets - Well, news when Christmas is next month...

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

9 November

The #ChocolateIsNews ? ! Tweets - Well, news when Christmas is next month...

One's initial impression* didn't alter - so isn't this a blessing, not a blight ?

* I.e. Although The Ambassador was maybe 'spoiling us', it's a mini-landmine that, when penetrated, bears more than passing textural resemblances to another choc...

No. 1 of #ChocolateIsNews ? ! pic.twitter.com/XInIIWlPoV

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 9, 2023

The, well, story can be found here :https://t.co/U2hNNMuOZM https://t.co/PmWHLZe4sG

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 9, 2023

On the same day, even, there's yet more : it appears to be nostalgia-news about chocolate-bars of youth or yesteryear - likely just to create 'underground suppliers' for whoever sees these sucrose-laden snax as a fight for dietary freedom... ;)

No. 2 of #ChocolateIsNews ? ! pic.twitter.com/nwioJiPX8Z

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 9, 2023

Necessarily, here's the link to the slash-story, 'Second chocolate bar discontinued by Nestle following Caramac axe' :https://t.co/Xpq41MInmh#StashToBeatTheSlash https://t.co/TK0cKJqX4b pic.twitter.com/5Oity6sGdr

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) November 9, 2023

Ah, well !

Relieved fans can sigh a breath - or some such... :)

No. 3 of #ChocolateIsNews ? ! https://t.co/PmWHLZe4sG pic.twitter.com/0oPeVYDO3P

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

More content for #ChocolateIsNews ! :)https://t.co/39bVBklr7h pic.twitter.com/4iIfcdUzp6

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 8, 2024

Story / advert, headed 'Nab £10 off epic** Creme-Egg bulk-box, ready for Easter', at :https://t.co/PRtOci5yeY

[** NB Easter Sunday's 31 March, some don't bother much with Lent, so maybe three boxes *might* last that long ?]#ChocolateIsNews

2 / 2

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 14, 2024

Your reminder that, somehow, #ChocolateIsNews...https://t.co/gmYzlOfoNd

1 / 2 pic.twitter.com/PK8yqIdkvY

— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) February 24, 2024

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

A putative series of entries for The Enquiring Adult's Encyclopædia of Drivel : #BannedNames

A putative series of entries for The Enquiring Adult's Encyclopædia of Drivel  : #BannedNames

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

3 November

A putative series of entries for The Enquiring Adult's Encyclopædia of Drivel  : #BannedNames

From a chat with RPC this evening :

The Scalding Hot Swedes - alternative name for ABBA#BannedNames

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

For the unlucky and / or unwary, there will be more to come...





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

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)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

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)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

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

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)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

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)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

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)