The Virtual Stoa

My brother Michael, over here.

Another opera in lego has been posted on YouTube. This time it’s Philip Glass’s La belle et la bête, written to accompany Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film.

Preview.

Act One.

Act Two.

Act Three.

From my Balliol colleague Adam Roberts’ valedictory lecture, on retiring from the Montague Burton chair in International Relations at Oxford (and reproduced in this week’s Oxford Magazine):

Montague Burton (1885-1952), the great pioneer of mass production tailoring and the benefactor of the chair, was an incurable believer in modernity. In his extensive travels, his notes on which he published privately in two volumes entitled Global Girdling, he demonstrated a love of the modern and, with only a few exceptions, a dislike of antiquity. Visiting the Middle East in the 1930s, he hated the Pyramids and the Wailing Wall. By contrast he loved the railway on which one could glide from Cairo to Tel Aviv and thence to Jerusalem - a symbol of modernity to him that now seems to us to belong to an era long gone. He praise the Jerusalem Electricity Works - and he had no higher terms of praise than this - as ‘reminiscent of Bourneville and Port Sunlight. He was a passionate believer in the League of Nations: 6,000 of the employees at his Leeds factory belonged to the Montague Burton Branch of the League of Nations Union. His progressivism itself looks charmingly antique - as does his belief that if you put all men in suits you would deliver a body blow to the class system. Indeed, he developed ingenious schemes whereby customers could buy not just the suit but all that goes with it - the shirt, the tie, even socks and shows. This is almost certainly the origin of the phrase ‘The Full Monty’. I was tempted to entitle this lecture ‘The Full Monty’, but I don’t believe in encouraging false expectations, especially as by a perverse irony, thanks to Peter Cattaneo’s memorable 1997 film, The Full Monty now means the exact opposite of what it did originally.

In order to pretend to myself that it isn’t really admissions season, I’ve been going to the cinema.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is quite good. It’s not very good, but it is quite good, and it manages not to be dull, even though hardly anything happens, it all moves along very slowly, and you know exactly what’s going to happen towards the end. Beautifully filmed, and the acting’s not bad at all. It doesn’t, however, make me want to go off and live in Missouri. In the dispute between Norm and Adele and Sarah Churchwell on gender in the film, I think Sarah Churchwell edges it on points, with her shrewd remarks on the (d)evolution of the Western since Clint Eastwood showed up. (Do note the fine correction at the end of Churchwell’s piece.)

The Darjeeling Limited is quite funny when it’s being a silly film, but about halfway through it tries to become Meaningful, whereupon it becomes moderately tiresome, except for a couple of jokes towards the end and a brief appearance by a tiger. Ros K has more over here.

The trailer to The Golden Compass makes it look cracking, esp. the polar bear. But is it clear whether I should have a look at a Pullman novel or two ahead of time, or just wander along to see the film?

Oh, and, call me puerile (”you’re puerile”), but I did enjoy this advert.

There’s this piece on the weird Canadian film-maker Guy Maddin on the website of the London Film Festival. And he [Mike, not Guy] tells me that the interview he did with everyone’s favourite Czech animator Jan Švankmajer for Vertigo (whatever that is) earlier in the year is now freely available here.

I don’t think I’ve publicised this properly before, so here goes. Some Stoa-readers may remember my brother’s old blog, Mischievous Constructions, which doesn’t exist any more. Then he went off and wrote at Closely Observed DVDs for a bit about Czech cinema. And now he’s writing again at a new-ish blog, Kinoblog (”a survey of Central and East European Cinema”), and it’s turning out very nicely. So add it to your bookmarks. And, if you haven’t already, get yourself a copy of his Jan Švankmajer box set while you’re at it.

From Conan O’Brien [via]:

Stephen Pollard isn’t just an expert on cycling (”the team element is missing”, etc.). He also has sophisticated opinions on postwar European cinema. Here he is, for example, discussing the films of Ingmar Bergman. It’s already been labelled “the dumbest thing I’ve ever read” by one of the cinéphiles over at the Criterion Forum.

I should say that I’ve not seen much Bergman: Wild Strawberries once upon a time, and lengthy snippets of The Seventh Seal. So it’s just, just possible that I might agree with Pollard were I to see the rest of the oeuvre (which I’d like to do). But given that he lumps Bergman in with James Joyce and Harrison Birtwistle — my favourite novelist and one of my favourite living composers respectively — somehow I doubt that he and I are going to end up seeing eye to eye on this one, as on so much else. [Yo, bro.]

UPDATE, UPDATE: The same brother reminds me I’ve also seen Bergman’s Magic Flute (and it’s stupid of me to forget this, as I’ve got the DVD at home), which is just fantastic. And it probably has the best Pantomime Walrus in cinema history. YouTube clips over here, though I’m not sure they’ve got the PW in there.

2d UPDATE: And here he is, the darling:

[images nicked from over here]

From the end of what may be the greatest scene in the greatest film ever made: Rouget de Lisle teaches the Marseillaise to the people of Paris, in Abel Gance’s Napoleon:

The British Film Institute has just released its triple-DVD set of Jan Svankmajer: The Complete Short Films, and this is what Marina Warner has to say about it in tehgraun:

“26 extraordinary works so far, they unfold his artistry and his preoccupations with rare richness, and have been annotated by an admiring group of critics and film historians.  So this set of short films is a marvellous and invaluable collection.”

Yes, indeed, yes indeed - Svankmajer’s Dimensions of Dialogue may be the best short animated film that there is, and many of the others are not bad at all - and there are special reasons at the Stoa for celebrating the release of the set:  it’s been assembled, put together, produced, hand-tooled (I’m not really sure what the appropriate verb is) by my brother Michael. So well done him.

My goodness. They’ve been talking about me and boxing in last week’s Observer:

The film [Blue Blood] is effortlessly stolen by a cameo appearance from [Chris] Kavanagh’s philosophy tutor. ‘He asked if I could go and watch him get his face smashed in, but it was short notice and I was busy. Usually am,’ says Chris Brooke, who is also the author of the highly recommended blog Virtual Stoa.

‘Everyone who watches the film thinks he’s absolutely hilarious,’ says Kavanagh, ‘and the sort of person you only really find at Oxford. He’s from this incredibly aristocratic family yet is a socialist. He just wanders around being Chris Brooke. He’s a legend.’

And one who has now been immortalised in, of all things, a boxing movie which, thanks to Riley’s direction and the charm and passion of the contestants, is that rarity - a film set among a privileged elite that does not grate but inspires.

I’m glad I’m keeping people entertained.

There’s a fine moment in the film when I say something incomprehensible, and the camera cuts away to a shot of Chris K rolling his eyes. He can’t have been rolling his eyes at that particular comment, as there was only one camera in the room, but it’s nicely done.

[Thanks to dsquared in comments below for the tip-off.]

Over here [thanks , NB]

Oh, I’m very pleased to see this again:

He’s got a tapedeck in his tractor
And he listens to the local news
He finds out where the bass are bitin’
While he’s plowin’ to the country blues.
He was a cowboy and he knew I loved him well,
A cowboy’s secrets you never tell -
No, there’s nothin’ like the loving
Of a hard-drivin’ cowboy man.

He’s got a tapedeck in his tractor
While he’s plowing up his daddy’s land;
He’s got more horse sense
Than I ever seen in any man.
He was a cowboy and he knew I loved him well,
A cowboy’s secrets you never tell,
No, there’s nothin’ like the lovin’
Of a hard-drivin’ cowboy man

On Saturday nights we go dancin’ in town,
And all the boys’ll order up another round;
In the summertime,
We look forward to the rodeo.
On Saturday nights we go to town,
And all the boys’ll order up another round;
When he rides saddle bronc
I wait to hear that whistle blow.

He’s got a tapedeck in his tractor,
I can hear him when he’s comin’ home.
Then he holds me in the rocking chair
And sings me the love song.
He was a cowboy and he knew I loved him well
A cowboy’s secrets you never tell
No, there’s nothin’ like the lovin’
Of a hard-drivin’ cowboy man

No, there’s nothin’ like the muscles
Of a hard-drivin’ cowboy man.

Spotted at the IMDb Reviews of Borat section:

Cheap Kazakhstan propaganda! Borats claim that Kazakhstan produces the best potassium in the world is totally unsubstantiated. It is well known in the countries of the former Soviet Union that it is Uzbekistan that produces the highest quality potassium not Kazakhstan! His claim that all other countries in the world are ran by little girls is also easily dismissed. Many former Soviet Union countries are run by grown men! Although the U.K was once run by fire breathing dragon woman Margaret Thatcher you could never call her a girl! Borat is the possessor of a terrible singing voice. How can he sing great patriotic songs with a voice like that?

LONG LIVE UZBECKISTAN! Uzbekistan for all your potassium & patriotic song needs.

[via Michael]

The Departed: Jolly. Much better than the deeply crappy Gangs of New York.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley: Quite enjoyed it; made me want to see Michael Collins.
Borat: The reviews describe the good jokes pretty well, so you don’t actually have to go and see this.
La Tourneuse de pages: very well acted; great fun.

I suppose I’m really just marking time, while waiting for Casino Royale to open.

“… I’m saying that Stonewall Jackson was trash himself. Him and Lee, and all the rest of them Rebs. You, too.”

Jack Palance, RIP.

The Queen: Alright, but not as good as everyone told me it would be.
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait: Pretty good. Jolly interesting.
Heading South: Good. Quite a bit better than anticipated, anyway.
The History Boys: Not very good at all.

The best thing about going to The History Boys, in fact, was the 1949 Public Information short that preceded it, Handkerchief Drill. Lots more about that kind of thing (though not about Handkerchief Drill, unfortunately) over here.

I think that deals with contemporary cinema.

… to my brother Michael’s new blog, Closely Watched DVDs, devoted to the world of Czech cinema.

Hurry over there now to learn the handy Czech phrase, “Tomorrow I’ll wake up and scald myself with tea”*, and do remember to go back every day in January, when he’ll be presenting his Jan Švankmajer blog-retrospective.

[* The only Czech phrase I can really remember from the time I tried to learn the language is the equally handy, “I think there’s going to be a revolution in the West soon.”]

Click over here for the British Film Institute’s Jonathan Ross-narrated interactive interwebnet feature thingy on the history of the Ealing Studios. This may have something to do with what my brother Michael has been working on recently, in the increasingly lengthy gaps between blogposts. I’m not quite sure.

Virtual Stoa readers attending the Tribeca Film Festival (I’m sure there are thousands) may have seen me last night in a documentary about students at Oxford who spend their time boxing. I’m told that I featured in one shot saying that one of my students “said I could go and watch him get his face smashed in, but it was short notice and I was busy… I usually am…”. Anyway, the film’s over here, and I’m told it’s being shown again some time.

Over here. [via]

The post I put up the other evening about how cowboys are frequently, though secretly, fond of each other has just disappeared from the blog. (Nothing like that has ever happened to me before, in almost five years on blogger.) Retrieving it from the google cache, I’ll reprint it below; the original comments box still seems to have survived over here.

***

Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly (Fond of Each Other): There’s a Brokeback Mountain-themed video for the excellent new Willie Nelson song over here.

It’s much better than the original film, not least through being well over two hours shorter.

Three of us enjoyed Walk the Line last night. Lots of problems with the biopic genre, or so it seems to me, but I thought Joaquin Phoenix was astonishingly good in the title role .

(Maybe more later.)

UPDATE [11.2.2006]: I don’t think I’ll add much more, except to point out to people that when Cash first auditioned at Sun records, the song that grabbed Sam Phillips’ attention wasn’t “Folsom Prison Blues” but the rather different, “Hey, Porter”, which was his first single (with “Cry, Cry, Cr” as the B-side, not the A-side, as the film suggests)..