Goodbye Solo

Goodbye Solo (2008) at Theatre Clwyd this evening is a little gem of a film that skirts away from every cliche and platitude when examining depression, suicide and motivations of friendship.
Solo ( Souleymane Sy Savane) is a warm natured, talkative and perceptive Senegalese taxi driver working in a unnamed American city. He picks up a morose 70 year old William ( craggy faced Red West) and takes a booking to transport him to a mountain view point, which is a well known suicide spot, The film then chronicles Solo's never ending attempts at finding out just what may occur on this journey and shows his efforts in trying to prevent it.
The strength of Ramin Bahrani's movie lies in the fact that the audience is totally unaware of both mens' motivations and pasts. We are not even sure that William indeed wants to end his own life, and are left guessing at every twist and turn of the plot, All we are "given" is the odd and difficult relationship between silent old man and soulful immigrant, which is underplayed and subtle to say the least.
Savane gives the character Solo the gentleness and loyalty of a dog who has an unexplained connection with his crabby master, and it is this unwritten connection that makes the film so terribly moving. There are no cliches of sudden revelation or bursts of emotion to satisfy the audience in a clean cut emotional romping kind of way, and the ending isn't wrapped up with satisfying resolution, all we are left with is a strangely effective story of a very odd relationship
9/10

Buzzard

This morning I have lugged tons of stones down to the pig pen, to create a platform free of deep mud. I know the pigs seem quite happy without it, but I guess I am bowing from pressure from a few locals who perhaps feel that wet mud may be a little cruel, if left untouched.
Anyhow, as I was talking to one of the villagers who was walking her dog, the guinea fowl started their usual cries of warning, and down dropped the bird of prey again, this time quite blatantly towards the hen enclosure further up the field.
I saw the cockerels run forward and as I hurried the 100 yards or so, I could see it was not Bunny or indeed Mary the buzzard was after but one of the old and sick black rocks which had been left to free range.
I had treated the droopy old hen for a while, and for several weeks she had become quieter and more lethargic, a case of old age I guess, and yesterday's attack I suspect was a first attempt at ambushing her and not the smaller bantams as I had suspected

By the time I had scared the buzzard off, the black rock had been killed, probably more by shock and surprise than by tooth and claw, and was stone dead by the time that Maddie raced up for a sniff.
Now I haven't got all upset about this, as it was only a matter of days for the old girl and at least the whole thing was a quick and speedy check out for an aged hen . Nor do I feel rather jinxed, given the recent guinea fowl disaster; it is,like life is sometimes, just the way of the world.

Woolly hats

The day has been cold again, so out has come the woolly hat and the extra thick socks, all of which remain tightly in place even when I am sat in front of the fire with my usual blanket of dogs. Today I have used up some Christmas gift tokens and have treated myself to a pile of quality seeds for planting in the allotments come March. French beans,climbing beans,hardy broad beans onions, shallots, beetroots, seed potatoes and a host of other veg, will supplement my usual seedlings that have been swapped with various individuals from the village and my sister's co-operative allotment, and I have bought a few luxuries, including a large packet of yellow poppies seeds, which I will sow by the reducing manure heaps, to add a little colour to the field later in the season
my favourite bantam Mary, (below) had a bit of a scare this afternoon, as she was on the receiving end of a potential attack by some sort of bird of prey. I heard the cockerels growling a warning (whilst the three remaining guinea fowl screamed and whistled from the Churchyard) and I saw the bird drop like a stone into my small enclosure which houses the more delicate pure breeds and Bunny the disabled hen.
I presumed it was perhaps a buzzard , swooping down onto Bunny, but it was a smaller hawk of some kind and it seemed to be after Mary, the smallest of the my bantam hens.
The attack, in fact, came to nothing. The hawk must of thought better of it all, or perhaps the cocky little bantam Cockerel, Roger, could have scared it off, but before I could even trot over to save the day, it had swooped up and out of the field, with only the scream of the guineas to mark where it had been.
My idea of having the guinea fowl as watchmen over the others, perhaps might of been a good idea.

The word is pronounced "Itttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!"

I despair for modern Britain sometimes.....
Take, for example these two "role models" Fooballer Jamie Redknapp and his model wife Louise waving the flag for Thomas Cook holidays.......
THEY CAN'T EVEN SPEAK THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH!!!
when I was at school , the word "it" was pronounced with an emphasis on the T........when on earth did it become just plain "i"?
I am a crabby old git

Thelma Ritter

The rain has lashed down all day.It has remained gloomy, dull and rather depressing, and the only brightness in an otherwise black day has been the welcomed return of the Churchyard snowdrops, which now carpet the wall boarders.
Chris has had to do some written work and has attended Church this afternoon, so I have become all Thelma Ritter- ish and have busied myself with cleaning the kitchen properly (whilst indulging in the odd wisecrack at Chris' expense)
The dogs have become somewhat stir crazy because of the weather, so I delivered eggs,collected coal and took them for a blast on the beach, which was a slight shock to the system given the icy rain and wind.
What I need is a good movie evening!!, so I have lit the fire, and tonight we are going to watch my cheapo supermarket dvd buy..the French Thriller Tell No One!
I saw it a few years ago (see old blog http://disasterfilm.blogspot.com/2007/10/tell-no-one-simple-pleasures-and-glen.html) and loved it......I haven't had the heart to tell Chris it is Subtitled,,,, (he hates subtitles with a vengeance)

Saturday joke

made me titter......
night in with reality tv....................
sigh

End of An Era

The last of the great British movie stars died today. Jean Simmons, that demure (though not-so-squeaky clean in real life), English rose of Hollywood, and movie star since the 1940s lost her battle with cancer at the age of 80.
To me Simmons was a bigger star than the unofficial "Queen" of the Brits Elizabeth Taylor, yet like Taylor, Simmons possessed a steely strength and talent under her considerable beauty, which kept her working steadily for over 60 years.
I loved her performances, and even in some of her more crappy films, she always stood out from the crowd..... who could forget her characters such as Young Estella in Great Expectations (1946),Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls ,Varinia in Spartacus (1960),Sister Falconer in Elmer Gantry (1960) and my personal favourite, Julie Maragon in The Big Country (1958),a film that she was famously quoted to have quipped "Who do I have to fuck to get off this movie?"
I am sure by blog friends Bel-Ami and Alex will have more articulate tributes to Miss Simmons, suffice to say, another great old dame of British cinema has disappeared forever

Up In The Air

Up in the Air is an interesting film, as it is a serious comedy of two interlocking parts. The first is a wry and sometimes painful look into corporate America (and the phenomenon of buying in a company to effectively "fire" your own staff), whilst the second is an affecting study of first love in middle age.
Juno (2007) director Jason Reitman wisely chose George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, the man that jumps from city to city to do the firing. Clooney quite effortlessly becomes the suave and likable, but ultimately emotionally bankrupt employment grim reaper and like his Nemesis Cary Grant, he is at his best whilst indulging in the sexy and ever-so-funny banter with Eva Marie Saint look-a-like,Vera Farmiga, who plays his female businesswoman mirror counterpart.
The two are quite lovely to watch together. and their chemistry is much more impressive than Clooney's wonderful turn with Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight.......Both Farmiga and Clooney are twin sharks in the corporate world with Farmiga purring "Think of me as yourself with a vagina," however the amusement of their laptop/mobile phone sexual relationship turns slightly sour when Clooney's character actually falls in love with her.
Clooney has never been better as the isolated Bingham, with Farmiga and the prickly Anna Kendrick as the new whizkid on the block being standouts in an excellent cast.
Praise must also go to the score of actors that play the employees on the receiving end of redundancy....their brief yet vital snapshots of shock and despair, are convincing and incredibly moving.Ultimately , the film has lots to say about how people view themselves; some people are defined by their job and status, others by the relationships they engage in, and some, hopefully like the majority of us, define themselves with a bit of both
I loved Up In The Air
8.5 out of 10