Confessions, a Japanese film by Tetsuya Nakashima, was bizzare...
It had a lovely soundtrack and some really nice shots of cloudy skys. Infact most of the film was shot really nicely... The quiet atmospheric music worked really well. Those were my visual highlights.
The content of the film didn't particularly inspire me. Consisting mostly of people killing each other in some kind of never ending spiral of revenge and psychotic rage. Sitting in the cinema without a sense of impending exam failrue was delightful. As was the lovely pint of Weinstephan afterwards.
So, overall, a sucess.
Friday, 22 April 2011
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Rebecca
Rebecca by Daphne Dumaurier was really great. I give it 9/10
The beginning was idilic... Driving around the French countryside with a lovely man and just having a great time. This only caused me acute distress when they arrived back in England to their charming English country home to find that everything wasn't going to stay so delightful.
I felt total empathy with our narrator...I felt myself experiencing all her emotions along the way... With her terrible sense of helpless awkwardness at the start; being out of her depth and feeling like her husband thought of her as nothing more than a pleasant accompaniment to the house and not as a genuine lover or life companion. Also feeling like some other woman had left such a great impression and she was living pathetically in her shadow. The relief when all her fears are proved unfounded was incredible. But at the same time such a sense of grief for all the time lost, and sense of regret for never confronting her feeling at the beginning - perhaps none of this would ever have had to happen. I wonder in life how many people miss out on things just by jumping to conclusions and deciding it's all better left unsaid?
It was a really easy read, yet unlike other 'easy reads' was really well written. The descriptions of Mauderly were really vivid and I felt like I was right there in the big old misty forest with the dogs. I could see the dusty old rooms of Rebecca and feel all the undercurrents of emotion and curiosity running through the friends and family who came to visit.
The novel gripped me throughout... There was the perfect balance of questions answered and thoughts left brooding to keep you reading more. There were twists in this novel that I never saw coming and genuinely sent shivers down my spine!
Reading this novel was a pleasure from start to finish.
A nice break from endless revision.
Execpt that it wasn't endless and I'm flying to Geneva tomorrow.
Sweet.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Radio
Have got the next two weeks off to revise for pending exams. Simultaneously discovered the Desert Island Discs archive.
Going to treat myself to a new person everyday during my lunch break.
First stop Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall...
Monday, 28 March 2011
Re:vision
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Fish II
.
Some more fish-on-hands
Stumbled across with my friend Hans whilst exploring the degree show of Munich Art School.
Some more fish-on-hands
Stumbled across with my friend Hans whilst exploring the degree show of Munich Art School.
Saturday, 12 March 2011
Cloud Atlas
Been a wee while coming but I finally finished Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.
I really like the structure of this novel with 6 different narratives spanning from the missionaries exploring the islands of Australasia to a post apocalyptic community living in simple rural community... The novel went forward in chronological order telling the start of each story set along these different periods of history. I really liked the first chapter, a narrative by a man on a mission ship in Australia. Adam was such a moral man, I really liked him. He liked exploring the islands and making sketches of whales whilst the sailors on the ships got drunk. It reminded me of a really quaint novel I read a couple of years ago called "Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish" also set in a similar time... Really odd period of history where 'missionaries' would go and impose themselves on perfectly happy native peoples. The pictures of the fish were phenom though!
The letters from a composer living in a lovely french chateau were delightful...until he started sleeping with the owners wife, that made me feel uncomfortable because I'm a bit of a prude.
I quite enjoyed getting to know new characters and settings in each new chapter...but then when it came to the concluding sections I found I had mostly forgotten what had happened in the beginning perhaps my fault for taking so long to read it.
The middling chapters I was less keen on, particularly the one set in the future with specially bred humans for menial jobs. Although it was an interesting idea the dialogue between this clone and a computer I found a bit strange.
Really liked the last part. A world which seems to be from the stone age, but is actually what is left of the earth after our civilisation has destroyed the earth as we know it. I found it quite poignant as it is probably going to happen some time...That something we have created will eventually be the cause of the end of the world as we know it. Even if it's indirectly, I suppose, like climate change or something.
Again I think I was attracted to this part of the story in particular because there was something innocent about these little communities, they lacked the corruption of modern technology. There seems to be a bit of a running theme here as I enjoy any story which has anything to with wandering about in the countryside looking after goats... It's not that I have anything against Ipods but I do wonder what would ever happen if we were left to our own devices again.
Was talking about something similar the other day...wondering if men are still evolving and decided that we probably aren't in ourselves but are developing through technology. Does that perhaps mean that technology will over take what we can control? Might sound a bit sci-fi fantasy, but I'm not sure it's such a wild idea...
I found in general the novel was really well written with interesting characters and all that, with the exception of one story about a man who gets admitted to an old folk home against his will and then plans to escape...found that all a little silly.
I was a little disappointed by most of the conclusions to the novelettes. All in all an enjoyable read, and found the structure quite fun. Lots of people, at least 4, have said to me that they really enjoy this book so maybe I'm missing something, perhaps some subtle part of the undertone was lost on me.
I am going to rate this book a 6.5/10
I really like the structure of this novel with 6 different narratives spanning from the missionaries exploring the islands of Australasia to a post apocalyptic community living in simple rural community... The novel went forward in chronological order telling the start of each story set along these different periods of history. I really liked the first chapter, a narrative by a man on a mission ship in Australia. Adam was such a moral man, I really liked him. He liked exploring the islands and making sketches of whales whilst the sailors on the ships got drunk. It reminded me of a really quaint novel I read a couple of years ago called "Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish" also set in a similar time... Really odd period of history where 'missionaries' would go and impose themselves on perfectly happy native peoples. The pictures of the fish were phenom though!
The letters from a composer living in a lovely french chateau were delightful...until he started sleeping with the owners wife, that made me feel uncomfortable because I'm a bit of a prude.
I quite enjoyed getting to know new characters and settings in each new chapter...but then when it came to the concluding sections I found I had mostly forgotten what had happened in the beginning perhaps my fault for taking so long to read it.
The middling chapters I was less keen on, particularly the one set in the future with specially bred humans for menial jobs. Although it was an interesting idea the dialogue between this clone and a computer I found a bit strange.
Really liked the last part. A world which seems to be from the stone age, but is actually what is left of the earth after our civilisation has destroyed the earth as we know it. I found it quite poignant as it is probably going to happen some time...That something we have created will eventually be the cause of the end of the world as we know it. Even if it's indirectly, I suppose, like climate change or something.
Again I think I was attracted to this part of the story in particular because there was something innocent about these little communities, they lacked the corruption of modern technology. There seems to be a bit of a running theme here as I enjoy any story which has anything to with wandering about in the countryside looking after goats... It's not that I have anything against Ipods but I do wonder what would ever happen if we were left to our own devices again.
Was talking about something similar the other day...wondering if men are still evolving and decided that we probably aren't in ourselves but are developing through technology. Does that perhaps mean that technology will over take what we can control? Might sound a bit sci-fi fantasy, but I'm not sure it's such a wild idea...
I found in general the novel was really well written with interesting characters and all that, with the exception of one story about a man who gets admitted to an old folk home against his will and then plans to escape...found that all a little silly.
I was a little disappointed by most of the conclusions to the novelettes. All in all an enjoyable read, and found the structure quite fun. Lots of people, at least 4, have said to me that they really enjoy this book so maybe I'm missing something, perhaps some subtle part of the undertone was lost on me.
I am going to rate this book a 6.5/10
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