Les Misérables & The Digital Thermometer Saga

Redmayne and the delightful Samantha Barks

Well I will start by outlining the good bits.

1. I loved the sweeping epic nature of the opening number "Look Down", where hundreds of convicts haul a warship into dry dock during a storm. Impressive and suitably grand.

2. Hugh Jackman throws his entire being into the Jean Valjean role and makes for a wonderfully sexy hero

Crowe is ok in the difficult role of Javert as is the delightful Hathaway in her much lauded role of Fantine but for me ( and this was a surprising fact) Eddie Redmayne stole the show with his angst and slightly odd looking portrayal of Marius, the young student.

3. The ensemble belted out the favourite show stoppers such as ONE DAY MORE and DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING? with suitable gusto and the riot scenes captured the drama of the Paris uprising quite well

4. I did shed a tear at Eponine's wet death scene...another surprise for me

BUT 

1. I just didnt enjoy the main characters' signature songs as much as I did in the stage production.

Now I know just why that is, for the answer lies in the main difference between a cinematic musical and the stage production...and that is the close up!

In the film every song showed every tiny emotion of the actor as they were singing. Sure that makes for some impressive cinema ( Hathaway's I DREAMED A DREAM and Redmayne's EMPTY CHAIRS AT EMPTY TABLES being standouts) but some pieces just do not lend themselves to this sort of cinematography. They need a big stage to offset a big voice. The intimacy of a closely watched actor reduces the dramatic effect for me, which was a shame

2. Sacha Baron Cohen is absolutely dreadful as the scheming innkeeper Thedarier and

Master In the House, a piece that gives the entire first half of the musical some well needed levity was just thrown away

3. The whole film felt just that little bit hurried...a thing I never really felt during the stage production.

By the time the girl from Mamma Mia started trilling A HEART-FULL OF RAIN, I did feel somewhat bombarded by it all.....and I found myself thinking " for fuck's sake die already!"

That's probably why I felt all a bit hot and headachey towards the end, almost as if I was coming down with something.And so when we finally got home (after all the ladies in the audience had given the entire movie a polite round of applause) I sought out the digital thermometer out of the kitchen cupboard and bunged it under my tongue.

As it turned out my temperature was fine.... I didn't take too much notice of exactly what it was

FOR I SUDDENLY REMEMBERED WHEN I LAST USED THE THERMOMETER

IT WAS MAY 3RD 2012

And in panic over a very sick Mabel the bulldog

I HAD SHOVED THE BLOODY THING UP HER BUM!!!

A QUICK WIPE OF THE THING WITH ONE PIECE OF KITCHEN ROLL

IS NOT  GOOD STERILIZING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wait for it

Now I wrote a very pithy review of Les Misérables last night and finished it with a rather disgusting story about the use of a digital thermometer.....
Alas IPad apps have lost it, so you all will have to wait until later to read both
The weather is closing in, Chris has gone for supplies and we await the snow

An Apology

Well, when you write a blog, not everyone will be happy with what you have to say.
Such is the nature of the beast.
In  yesterday's blog I talked about families ( amongst other things) who have been attracted to some of the housing estates in the village. I mentioned that they perhaps remain noticeably separate to the community in which they live, a fact which seems a factor of modern day life.
Unfortunately I mentioned one area in particular, and this fact upset someone who lives there and who has been part of village life for decades. For this upset, I am very sorry, on reflection the naming of one area over another was always going to be somewhat ill advised.
With me banging on about how people should invest in their communities, it was certainly not my intention to alienate villagers who quite clearly "make the effort "

I guess there is always an exception that disproves the rule so to speak and
I hope my words on village survival will resonate with all members of our small community
Hey ho

Have A Nice one

I think we are all in need of a smile on such a grey day

 

Survival

I think this is my favourite photo of the village
It is a long shot taken from the South West and shows Trelawnyd nestling safely in the shadow of Gop Hill, a hill that dominates the lower part of the valley.
Trelawnyd has evolved greatly over the years, every village does I suppose, but I think that the next decade will be pivotal in shaping the village's very survival.
when I say survival, I am talking about the survival of community here. Since we arrived here just six years ago, the village shop and post office have closed, the pub was boarded up ( and thankfully re opened) and many of the village elderly (always the backbone of any community) have died away.
The two chapels and the church congregations are hanging on by the skin of their teeth and the newer housing estates have attracted families that seem to remain insular and tight knit within their own little bubbles rather than feel they are a part of something  "slightly bigger"
One definition that could describe Trelawnyd and thousands of other villages up and down the country is that it is dying a very slow death.
Although some of me does believe this, another part of me emphatically does not.
I don't because of the work of a small group of individuals that battle tirelessly to keep "community" going.
The village Friendship group, the Memorial Hall Committee, The Church Council,The Carnival Committee and the conservation group all have their part to play as does our Flower Show and the Village Allotment open day and the one thing I have learnt about our fast modern world is the salient lesson that in general most people want ( and sometimes need) to participate in community ,they just are happy to leave the organising to someone else. Someone else that through hard work and some gentle bullying often gets things done.

Last year I didn't have the energy to organise my yearly OPEN DAY.
Emotionally I didn't have the chutzpah, after my brother's death
But I have thought about it, long and hard since a chance meeting with local farmer Basil who runs the last farm still situated within the village envelope
In his usual gentle way he passed the time of day with a few choice words when I caught him feeding his sheep
As I walked away, he called after me "are you holding your fete this year?"
" I think so" I said without thinking
"That's good" he said with a genuine smile

That's all it needed
I have five months to organise it

Avoiding disappointment

In 1985 I was lucky enough to see the original cast of Les Misérables perform in the West End. The only notable exception was Patti duPone who had just left her celebrated role as the tragic Fantine.
I was a very.young 23 year old whose experience of stage productions was somewhat limited to say the least, so it is not an exaggeration when I say that the production was somewhat pivotal in cementing my-life love of the theatre.
Of course show stoppers such as the rousing ONE DAY MORE and emotional jacuzzi manipulation of Eponine's ON MY OWN are the songs that most people remember, but for me it was the delicate and moving STARS sung by Roger Allam that had the most powerful effect on me.

For this reason I think I shall wait to see the new Les Mis movie when it is out on DVD
I worry that it will totally disappoint me
Anyone out there seen it yet?

Flipping eck (update)

I have wasted my morning waiting for the dog groomer to arrive.
She has been held up elsewhere and instead of ringing. she emailed me.
of course I have not checked my emails, and so I have spent a fruitless few hours watching the lane, sighing a great deal and winding myself up.
Such is life.
By 11am I was ready to beat a nun to death with her own ripped off arms, so in an effort to calm down, I went out to deliver some eggs in the village which for the first time in an absolute age was not rain soaked and miserable. Here are a few photos
Right.... enough of all this... I am off to clean some windows

siamber wen, one of the oldest houses in the village.It was once the old courthouse

A sombre looking Memorial Hall

The Church looking up the lane past our cottage

The view across the Valley looking south east

The Lychgate

The cottage always looks a little sad on winter days

A Very Danish Seduction

Norman Reedus in The Walking Dead

Well in the absence of redneck zombie killer Daryl Dixon and the other WALKING DEAD survivors of the undead apocalypse , I have been terribly in need for another group of interesting tv despots to hang my hat on so to speak.
Now this does not mean that I am being in anyway disloyal...no, not a bit of it.... But a girl needs to have an interest on these long, long nights of darkness and cold

BORGEN is that stopgap
for those that have not seen it. Borgen is a Danish version of The West Wing without the long corridors.
Instead of Martin Sheen and his Donny Osmond mouthed President , we have divorcing, mother of two Birgitte Christiansen as a feisty,black coated,and liberal as fuck coalition prime minister who is
not only a shit hot leader, she cleans her own house,works from home when the kids are ill! And shags her chauffeur when the need arises.
Yes , it's all very European.
Working alongside her delectable spin doctor, Kasper (Johan Philip Asbaek, below) Birgitte ducks and dives all manner of political shenanigans whilst under the watchful gaze of reporter Katrine Fansmark (Birgitte Sorensen) and the scene stealing alcoholic Hanne ( Benedikte Hansen , below) and throughout series 1 and 2 the story lines ( as they have a want to do) zig zag between political intrigue and the personal relationships of the main characters.
It's all very adult,
It's all very interesting
And it's all very entertaining
Oh, and there's not a bloody zombie in sight.