Posted by: Sally Ingraham | March 23, 2010

Movie Mayhem: March 1st-21st

Ah, movies. Lots of of good stuff so far this month!

The Road – John Hillcoat – USA – 2009
I watched this movie a few days after I finished reading the book . This could have led to a particularly nit-picky viewing, but to my own surprise I was able to keep my experiences of the story fairly separate. I felt that Hillcoat did about as well as he could have, considering. The movie seemed true to the book, minus a few unnecessary expansions of the story involving the boy’s mother, and a slight re-working of the ending that I didn’t appreciate AT ALL. I thought that visually it was well realized, and I liked that there was a fair amount of text taken straight out of the book. Overall decent, especially for being an exquisitely written book translated into the still somewhat awkward format of cinema. I wasn’t disappointed, but I wasn’t impressed either.

the young victoriaThe Young Victoria – Jean-Marc Vallée – UK – 2009
I watched this movie three times while it was playing at the theater where I work! Hehe – it was so delicious! Lovely costumes, pretty people – stellar cast! I’m totally in love with Emily Blunt right now – need to see more of her. And I’m fascinated by Queen Victoria. Has anyone read a really good biography of her? And finally, I feel that a viewing of Mrs Brown is in order, to complete the picture!

A Single Man – Tom Ford – USA – 2009
Colin Firth delivers an astonishingly good performance in this lovely film about how a man lives with grief. It’s a raw story told with tender strength, and a great deal of artistry. I love what Ford did with the coloring of this film! Excellent stuff.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs – Phil Lord and Chris Miller – USA – 2009
Every time I shelved this book while volunteering as a kid at my local library, I had to hid away in the stacks and read it real quick! I loved the illustrations. The movie was decent – funny and weird, but not quite as awesome as the book!

After the Sunset – Brett Retner – USA – 2004
Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, and Woody Harrelson make a very enjoyable cocktail, complete with umbrella. Ex-brilliant jewel thieves and a particularly determined FBI agent, stuck on an island paradise with nothing to do but match wits and soak up the sun…yummy. A comfy favorite of mine – not stunning film making, but an excellent way to escape a rainy March afternoon!

bruce campbellThe Evil Dead – Sam Raimi – USA – 1981
I was watching a lot of the TV show Burn Notice during February, which made me fall in love with Bruce Campbell – he’s so smoothly ironic in his role as the talented in his own right sidekick to a super spy. I had to see where Bruce started out – as the surprisingly helpless Ash (seriously, he spends half the movie just standing around watching as his friends battle the EVIL DEAD!) in the best campy horror film ever made. At least in my so far limited experience. I laughed way too much, considering it was “horror”, which I’m pretty sure was part of the idea. Impressive in it’s creative use of limited resources, and undeniably interesting camera techniques. Yeah, I’ll be continuing the journey – watch this space for The Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness mini reviews! 🙂

Iron Man – Jon Favreau – USA – 2008
Yup, that makes twice so far this year…!

Chocolat – Lasse Hallstrom – UK – 2000
This movie always makes me want chocolate – but not the kind you can buy in stores, since I know I won’t ever find “my favorite” as Vianne could make it! I love this fairy tale about what it means to be acceptable, and how to accept the extraordinary. Lovely movie.

this boy's lifeThis Boy’s Life – Michael Caton-Jones – USA – 1993
I was impressed with the faithfulness of this adaptation of Tobias Wolff’s autobiography of the same name. I was also impressed with Leonardo DiCaprio in his first starring role, much as I am reluctant to ever be impressed with him! 🙂 While every scene in the book didn’t make it to the movie, I felt like Caton-Jones had a good understanding of the text and was true to it in every instance. Even though I strive to keep literature and cinema separate in my mind, when they touch this closely I feel immensely satisfied.

Star Trek – J. J. Abrams – USA – 2009
Yeah. Yup, that’s twice for this one too…!! 🙂

When We Were Kings – Leon Gast – USA – 1996
Thanks for bringing this one to my attention, Richard! This was a great documentary about the epic boxing battle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire in 1974. I loved how there was so much great music mixed into the telling of the pre-fight action. I was blown away by the footage of Ali and his astonishing way with words. I had seen a little before, but never to this extent. I was mesmerized and totally entertained every time he opened his mouth. The fight was pretty astonishing too. 🙂 I also really liked how Gast gave a three-dimensional view of the event, touching on all kinds people who were around the two boxers at the time, and giving some impressions of the state of things in Zaire during that year. Interesting stuff.

Romeo Must Die – Andrzej Bartkowiak – USA – 2000
Unfortunately this isn’t even an interesting movie from a martial arts point of view, which is what I hope to get at the very least out of a Jet Li flick. There’s some weirdly simplified racial tension, lots of betrayals, and a hip-hop score as two families battle for control of some waterfront properties. Silly, badly organized, and one of the blandest performances from Li that I’ve ever seen. Oh well.

8 1/28 1/2 – Federico Fellini – Italy – 1963
I was hoping that watching the film that the musical and unfortunate disaster of a movie Nine were based on wouldn’t just equal me being a sucker for punishment. I screamed in horror over Nine last time I did one of these posts, but with relief I can say that Fellini at least had a better idea about what he was doing! Although 8 1/2 seems somewhat haphazard in it’s telling, Fellini’s use of dream sequences that blend into reality is far more effective than the horrendous musical numbers that substituted them in Nine. And while Fellini’s semi-autobiographical character – the famous movie director caught between the pressures of work and the relationships that are falling apart around him – does objectify women to some extent, it’s presented in such a way that you know that he is equally aware of this failing in himself. There’s far less overt sexuality, and the women in the film are much realer, and far superior to the pretty paper dolls of Rob Marshall’s version. The black and white visuals surpassed the artificial glitz of Nine by a long shot too. I’ll stop comparing now! Taken by itself, I definitely recommend 8 1/2 on it’s own excellent merits. 🙂

7 Comments

Posted in Adventure, Authors, Book related, Documentary, Famous People, Foreign Films, Frederico Fellini, History, Movie Mayhem, Movies, Non-sense, Novels | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Sally Ingraham | March 16, 2010

Wodehouse, Crowley, and the Acer “Aspire”

I finally received my new computer about a week ago – and that was a week later than I had hoped. My reaction to my unexpected computer detox was that when I got it back (the new version) I didn’t really feel like using it…! I have set the computer up, downloaded some programs, uploaded some pictures, rebuilt some of the dorky lists that I liked to keep, gotten online to check e-mail and scan through my Google Reader, but I haven’t really used the computer. No photo editing, music downloading, video making, or BLOGGING. Granted, I am making a surprisingly awkward switch from Apple, to PC and the Windows operating system. I have to learn a whole new set of programs, figure out where things are stored, try to comprehend how, if I was a PC, I would handle situations… (I still can’t figure out WHY Microsoft Works crashes every time I try to copy and past text from the Internet into a Works document!) Anyway, the good news is that I have a laptop again and I am learning how to use the perverse thing – even if the touch pad mouse makes me crazy, and the screen, at 17″ still shocks me with it’s clarity and brightness every time I open the thing…! Phew.

DSC00429 With Our New England Country Store opening for the season and work piling up around my ears, on top of pretty, pretty weather that drags me outside at every opportunity, and even without the time suck of a computer, I’ve only finished two books so far this month – my first dive into P. G. Wodehouse’s mad-capped world with Indiscretions of Archie, and John Crowley’s most recent novel, Four Freedoms. They were both very enjoyable – talented writers, taking on by turns the comic misadventures of a poor but cheerful, and very well dressed Englishman, and the quietly epic journeys of a few American men and women through the turmoil of the early 1940s. Both created worlds that leaped off the page and characters that I won’t soon forget – although in quite different ways!

Thanks to Frances of Nonsuch Book who passed the Wodehouse on to me, and to the people at Overlook Press who published the lovely edition and let Frances give a few of them away! Now, instead of reading, I will go back to trying to figure out how to use this damn machine. (My current mantra – “I’m smarter than this computer, I’m smarter than this computer…!”) 🙂

6 Comments

Posted in Adventure, Authors, Bar Harbor, Book design, Books, Famous People, John Crowley, Non-sense, Novels, P. G. Wodehouse, Personal, Technology, Weather, Work | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Sally Ingraham | March 4, 2010

Movie Mayhem: Feb. 18th-28th

My dear old computer died last Saturday night, after I had written my post about The Road, but unfortunately while I was in the midst of writing my Movie Mayhem post… Since then, in the scramble to see about fixing it, and the struggle to decide which new computer to buy, this movie review post has been weighing on my mind. Ridiculous. So here I am borrowing the work computer so I can post the thing, and have done with it…!!

I have some extremes here – an overall good collection of movies, framed by a great one and a really terrible one. Lots of interesting stuff for sure.

The Hurt Locker – Kathryn Bigelow – USA – 2008
This movie has been getting a lot of attention lately, since it is plugged into the Oscar race in a serious way, and as I found the attention is pretty deserving. It is a really interesting look at the life of a soldier, focusing on what makes a particular bomb demolition expert tick. I can’t say much about it’s accuracy or true-to-life-ness, but as a film it was relentless in its vision. While never being scary, per say, it was knuckle-whiteningly tense. Jeremy Renner’s performance was quite good. I wasn’t completely blown away, but it was certainly one of the more intriguing ‘war movies’ that I’ve ever seen.

nineNine – Rob Marshall – USA – 2009
The really terrible movie I mentioned? This is it. Based on a film by Federico Fellini that was turned into a musical and now back into a film (why??) this was an absolute disaster – garbled, nonsensical musical numbers with terrible lyrics and boring instrumentation, mixed with a who cares tale about a famous film director who’s personal life is falling apart while no progress is made on his highly anticipated new film. A pretty, and large cast, only made matters worse since my opinion of Penelope Cruz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, and Sophia Loren among others only plummeted based on their involvement in this production. I’m not incredibly feminist, but I found the portrayal of women in this nauseatingly degrading, and with it’s tag line – Be Italian – what, pray tell, is the film’s opinion of Italian women? Horrible movie.

A Far Off Place – Mikael Salomon – USA – 1993
This movie haunted me for many years – it was one that I vaguely remembered watching and thought about frequently for some reason, but couldn’t figure out what it was. Then I read A Story Like the Wind by Laurens van der Post, and it all came back to me. One of Reece Witherspoon’s earliest roles, it is an epic tale of adventure and survival in the Kalahari Desert, told fairly well. Now I just need to read the book, which is the sequel to A Story Like the Wind, and see how good a job Mikael Salomon actually did!

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus – Terry Gilliam – UK – 2009
I felt generally “meh” about this film. Granted, it was visually stimulating, but for all the pretty colors and bizarre storyline and Tom Waits as the devil, I found it pretty boring. I wanted to be more engaged with it, so ultimately it was disappointing. Still, I’m glad Gilliam finished it, and I do feel the need to re-watch Time Bandits for some reason! 🙂

orlandoOrlando – Sally Potter – UK – 1992
This was the great movie that I mentioned. Oddly enough, I liked it much more than the book! Under Potter’s direction it translated surprisingly well into a movie, and while I had worried that Tilda Swinton would be too chilly to play Orlando, I actually liked her very much. The music was great, and the way the familiar events of the book were strung together was perfect. There were some modifications that were not entirely justified in my mind, but I found myself less up-in-arms about that because the movie just worked so well for me. I finished it with a feeling of total satisfaction. Excellent movie making indeed! 🙂

Paths of Glory – Stanley Kubrick – USA – 1957
I’m getting ever closer to finishing watching all the Kubrick movies! This one was another very interesting look at war, this time through the eyes of a French troop during WW1. It showed how the gritty work of war, suffered by the men in the trenches, is often merely the political maneuverings of the generals and other top officials. It’s a sad, frustrating movie about the court marshal and execution of three soldiers picked at random for so-called ‘cowardice’ after a disastrous battle that makes the generals look bad in the papers. Told in a straightforward way, but with a careful build up of tension, the movie ends on a rather profound note. It lacks the Hollywood happy ending, for which I am grateful, and finishes with something so much better. Excellent work from Kubrick once again.

There!! Now my mind can be at rest. The new computer doesn’t come until next week, so if I don’t pop round to all my favorite blogs as regularly don’t imagine the fault lies with you! This break from the computer is good for me, right? So they tell me…! 🙂

10 Comments

Posted in Authors, Book related, Famous People, Foreign Films, Movie Mayhem, Movies, Non-sense, Personal, Stanley Kubrick | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Sally Ingraham | February 27, 2010

The Road

The Roadby Cormac McCarthy

I read this book in nearly one sitting. It sucked me dry, and left me with an indescribable sense of stillness.

McCarthy’s vision of a burned and wasted country was frightening at times, and yet (and this came in stark contrast to certain aspects of Virginia Woolf’s view of things in The Waves) the tenderness and connectedness of the man and the boy, traveling with desperate determination down the road toward the sea, was astonishingly beautiful.

I read the book because we are playing the recently released movie adaptation at the theater where I work this weekend, and I intend to see it. I was warned by people who had read and liked it, as well as by a few who had wanted to slit their wrists after reading the book, that it was depressing beyond all words. I did not find this to be the case at all.

Certainly there are horrifying aspects to a post-apocalypse story where the survival of the main characters seems highly doubtful. I couldn’t help flinching at some points, but I was newly impressed with McCarthy’s unflinching examination of the very best and worst in human nature. The heros of his tale were so imperfect and real, and his landscape was sketched in such vibrant black and gray. It made me ache, made tears come to my eyes, but it didn’t depress me.

I felt a profound sense of release when I finished The Road, but it was an exquisite moment – a long sigh of wind across an empty plain.

This is brilliant writing. I can’t imagine how the movie will capture even half of the emotional impact, but I am still willing to see what it manages. I am reminded that I want to read more McCarthy, but there needs to be a wide space between my experiences of his books! For now, The Road is enough.

15 Comments

Posted in Authors, Books, Cormic McCarthy, Famous People, Non-sense, Novels, Reading, Work | Tags: , , , ,

Posted by: Sally Ingraham | February 26, 2010

The Waves

Curl of Wave

by Virginia Woolf

I started to write something about this book this morning, but couldn’t get going. All day I have tried to think about what I wanted to say about it, but I don’t feel like I have anything fresh or particularly insightful to present. This will just be a collection of impressions then. Sufficient, I believe.

After reading distractedly to page 20 or so, in an odd funk I turned to the introduction (normally saved until I’ve finished the book) and sought some kind of flash of understanding. Then I set sail through the waves again, and this time I found myself riding them with ease, my yellow highlighter like a tiller in my hand. I have rarely, if ever, started a book over again but in this case it was the best thing I could have done.

With the idea of the ‘playpoem’ in my mind, and the thought that Woolf was writing ‘to a rhythm and not to a plot‘ accompanying me, I found the book opening up like, suitably, a red carnation, with layer upon layer of imagery and impressions carried, threaded through it. The six identities – for they are not so much characters as sections of a greater self – from the very beginning pick up images and run with them, the most obvious being Louis’ great beast stomping on the shore. Bernard mentions a ring, and Susan the color yellow, while Jinny voices the first of the ‘variations on four words’ that pulse throughout the whole piece – ‘“I burn, I shiver,”…‘.

I wholeheartedly succumbed to the language with this book, accepting the experimental quality and letting the craft sweep me away. I was fascinated by Woolf’s exploration of self, agreeing and disagreeing with her in, what else? in waves. I found the book infinitely aesthetically pleasing, but ultimately sad. It was full of lovely, lovely phrases – phrases that landed on their feet – and I loved them, even while being unable to love the six identities who supposedly voiced them.

Taken separately, Bernard, Louis, Neville, Susan, Jinny, and Rhoda are somewhat one-dimensional. Taken as a whole, or, as Bernard suggests, ‘as a symphony with its concord and its discord, and its tunes on top and its complicated bass beneath‘, I am left sitting in a room with a more complete person, but one who is unhappy in a way that I don’t understand, someone who has gone to a place within themselves where I can’t, and don’t wish to follow.

I could make assumptions, or do some research and state more truthfully that perhaps in this book Woolf was taking herself apart and examining the pieces. I don’t think that’s too far off. I feel that with this book I’ve come closer to her center, closer to her true being, and I believe that she unsettles me. There is a balance in that between good and bad that I find fascinating. I disagree with Woolf’s impression of the world more often than not, but I love her phrases. I’m okay with this. I’ll be reading more. ‘…in me too the wave rises.‘

woolf in winterAnd thus ends Woolf in Winter, with the final conversation hosted today by Claire. Easily one of the most rewarding reading experiences of my life. Many thanks to our fellow hosts Emily, and Frances. And thanks to everyone who has participated and helped make the last two months so expansive. When we’ve all recovered somewhat, lets do it again! 🙂

12 Comments

Posted in Adventure, Authors, Books, Famous People, Non-sense, Novels, Photography, Read-Along, Reading, Reading Challenges, Virginia Woolf | Tags: , , , , ,

Posted by: Sally Ingraham | February 21, 2010

Three Awesome Things

The WavesIt was quite warm yesterday, and the sun was beaming down on Mount Desert Island. I was inspired to go and read The Waves by Virginia Woolf within sight of some real waves, so I took myself down to Sand Beach with a blanket and a chair. There was a brisk wind, and even with the sun shining directly above I got chilled rather quickly. A sheltered spot among the rocks further down the coast was perfect though, and I sat soaking in sun, wrapped in my blanket for over an hour, reading. I am LOVING The Waves, and not just because of my surroundings yesterday! More about the book on Friday, as Woolf in Winter comes to a close.

Another AWESOME thing I did yesterday was ordering books for the first time in 2010. I needed the fourth volume of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, so I could start reading it in March in order to finish it by the end of April, when I will join Frances and Claire, among others, in discussing it.

I wanted my own copy of Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke translated by Stephen Mitchell, since when I was reading it in January I felt overwhelmingly compelled to take a highlighter to my library copy of it!

And then I got somewhat overly excited and went ahead and ordered the first four books I need for the reading plot my dear blogging friends Claire, Frances, Emily, Richard and I have been hatching for the past few months!

What is this plot of which I speak? We’ve decided that reading and discussing books together is just way too much fun. From the hilarious disaster of the Kristin Lavransdatter group read, to the astonishingly rich experience that Woolf in Winter has been, we will now move on to shared reading experiences that will keep us busy until the end of the year.

All are welcome to join us! We will post on the last Friday of each month. We’re not exactly hosting group reads – that would involve finding a name and making buttons and other dreaded bits of organization…and we’re all trying to be less organized about our reading this year! We’re simply getting excited (hopefully!) about the same book at the same time. And those books are:

March: The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams

April: Life A User’s Manual by Georges Perec

May: Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

June: Moo Pak by Gabriel Josipovici

July: A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe

August: In the American Grain by William Carlos Williams

September: Santa Evita by Tómas Eloy Martínez

October: Old School by Tobias Wolff

November: Vilnius Poker by Ricardas Gavelis

December: Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel García Márquez

Join us for the conversation about one or all – we will post about The Night of the Iguana on March 26th.

The final somewhat difficult but still awesome thing I did yesterday was to weed out a whole box of books from my collection which I will be donating to my library. Into the box went all the books I have already read but didn’t adore or didn’t like at all (I’m shocked that I keep these for as long as I do!), as well as books that I liked but don’t plan on reading again and don’t find integral to my collection. It was actually more liberating than I had expected, and I feel confident that aside from the books that I haven’t read at all yet, my collection is trimmed down to the books that are really important to me. Until I have space to build a library, I can’t afford to cart around books like…gulp…Kristin Lavransdatter!! That was a tough one to let go of – it’s so pretty, and it’s tied to some great memories. I’m never going to read it again though (I hope, please God, I beg you!), so why keep it…? I feel like two sides of myself are playing tug-a-war with the book. Ridiculous. Into the box it goes!! 🙂

Awesome.

23 Comments

Posted in Authors, Book related, Books, Local/Community, Marcel Proust, Non-sense, Non-Structured Book Group, Novels, Read-Along, Reading, Reading Challenges, Virginia Woolf, Weather | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Sally Ingraham | February 19, 2010

Movie Mayhem: Feb. 11th-Feb.17th

Since the Winter Olympics started last Friday my evenings have been filled with ice skating, luge, moguls, snowboarding, and all the other fun that I happen across during the prime time coverage. It you think that means I’ve watched any less movies, oddly enough you would be wrong. Lazy days with my boyfriend and the convenience of working at a movie theater help! However, watching the Olympics has definitely cut into my blogging time, so I’m rapidly falling behind with my mini movie reviews… I’ve been working on this post for three days now, and meanwhile I keep watching more – movie mayhem indeed!!

skinSkin – Anthony Fabian – South Africa – 2008
I was really excited about this film, especially after the annoyance of Invictus. Based on a true story, it’s about a girl with brown skin who, due to an odd genetic twist, is born to white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era. Her father spends much of her childhood fighting to maintain her status as legally white, only to have her fall in love with a black man and embrace the reality and the life that the color of her skin dictates in South Africa. Sandra’s story blew my mind, since the mentality behind the laws of her country during that time are so hard for me to even comprehend. However, the movie wasn’t as good as I had hoped. There’s no way that the story could avoid being blunt, and in-your-face with it’s racial issues, but in my eyes the film was full of scenes that seemed manufactured to hit you in the gut. I hate being tricked into feeling emotions, especially when I am already shocked and horrified. The film could have done with a little more subtlety. A fascinating story, but the handling of it was not to my taste.

Up in the Air – Jason Reitman – USA – 2009
I enjoyed this movie a lot, mostly due to the snappy dialogue and the ever pleasing George Clooney. The premise is a little odd – it’s about a man who is on the road (up in the air!) nearly 365 days a year, traveling around the country firing people. The movie has a lot to say about relationships and human connection and lifestyle choices and happiness, but it delivers this fairly heavy subject matter with smooth style. Just a spoonful of sugar, etc.

Gamer – Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor – USA – 2009
This movie had an interesting premise – live action video games where the person playing controls another real person in a real world setting via a chip that’s been planted in the brain. The game ‘Slayer’ works as a great way to get rid of inmates who were in jail for serious crimes – but when it looks like one player and the human he controls will actually win the game, things get way out of hand. I’m still disturbed/intrigued by the idea behind the movie, but it was poorly made and somewhat gruesome, and even Gerard Butler couldn’t really do much with it. Oh well.

me and orson wellesMe and Orson Welles – Richard Linklater – UK – 2008 (Movie of the Week!)

This movie was absolutely adorable. Zach Efron was surprisingly endearing as a kid who is cast in the Mercury Theater production of “Julius Caesar” directed by a young Orson Welles in 1937, New York City. The movie traces one whirlwind week full of experiences and encounters that will change Richard’s life. Christian McKay’s take on Welles was brilliant and totally believable. I was wowed. (I’m so eager to see what this newly discovered, astonishingly talented actor does next!!) The story is charming in the best sense, and Linklater handles both the joys and disappointments of the story with just the right touch of humor. I wouldn’t expect less from the director that brought Dazed and Confused into the world, among half a dozen other movies that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Watch this one – it’ll warm your heart. 🙂

St. Trinians – Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson – UK – 2007
This is a terrible movie, but I was in a great mood while watching it, and I can’t deny that I enjoyed it. Based on cartoons created by Ronald Searle, and the series of films they inspired that were made in the 50’s, this movie sends a vicious jumble of English schoolgirls gone rabid into your living room. The girls of St. Trinians are gamblers, delinquents, computer geniuses, and demolition experts, who can distill a mean vodka. Rupert Everett plays both their toothsome headmistress and the father of a quickly traumatized new pupil. The girls hate school, but when St. Trinians faces the duel threat of foreclosure and a Minister of Education who’s hit the warpath (played by the always welcome Colin Firth) they concoct an outrageous scheme to save the school. References to Firth’s roles in Pride and Prejudice, Girl With a Pearl Earring, and The Importance of Being Earnest provided an extra running joke (I love that he’s not above that!) and while the film was admittedly ridiculous, I had fun with it!

There! That’s done – back to the Olympics and ice dancing tonight. 🙂

2 Comments

Posted in Famous People, Foreign Films, Movie Mayhem, Movies, Non-sense | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Sally Ingraham | February 17, 2010

This Boy’s Life

this boy's lifeby Tobias Wolff

I suppose it’s a little backwards to read the memoir of an author who is otherwise completely unknown to you. I’ve never encountered Wolff’s short stories, which are said to be very good, or anything else he’s written. However Trever at The Mookse and the Gripes has been reading Wolff pretty regularly over the past few months, and each of his reviews have been intriguing. I found This Boy’s Life at my library and figured I would go for it.

Tobias insisted on being called ‘Jack’ for much of his childhood because a girl in school was also named Toby – and because of Jack London.

‘I believed that having his name would charge me with some of the strength and competence inherent in my idea of him.‘

This is a recurring theme in the life of a boy who believed he could be whatever he wanted to be. Traveling across the country with his single mother, in each new town he believed he would reinvent himself.

‘I could introduce myself as a scholar-athlete, a boy of dignity and consequence, and without any reason to doubt me people would believe I was that boy, and thus allow me to be that boy. I recognized no obstacle to miraculous change but the incredulity of others. This was an idea that died hard, if it ever really died at all.‘

Of course things never worked out as he envisioned, due mostly to his own tendencies toward running with bad crowds and being lazy in school. This is a book that brings to life the passion and puzzlement of youth, the crazy balance between what a kid wants from life and dreams of, and the reality that surrounds him.

Tobias’ reality was kind of tough. He had a loving mother who supported and believed in him completely, and their faith in each other got them through their wanderings from Florida to Utah to a small town in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. Then a very Dickensian step-father entered the picture, and Tobias’ life spiraled into a battle for survival and self-respect. Paper routs, Boy Scouts, fist fights that began lasting friendships, joyriding, the thrill of theft, the despair of unattainable love; America in the 50s, complete with the Mickey Mouse Club and the “Lawrence Welk Show” – all this makes up the life of a sometimes tough, sometimes clever, sometimes stumbling, sometimes crumbling boy with big, if somewhat fuzzy and changeable, dreams.

Wolff presents his childhood with humor and compassion. There’s a little of the, again, Dickensian voice of the older and wiser narrator examining the passions and whims of his younger self. While Tobias spent a great deal of his youth getting himself in trouble and making trouble for those around him, he won me over because I identified with the haphazard attempt to be the person you want to be, in spite of or because of your surroundings and your own destructive/constructive tendencies. That he makes it, eventually crafting a transformation so outrageous that it catapults him into a world of new possibilities and obviously, if you look at Tobias Wolff now, becomes the person he dreamed of being, makes the story inspiring.

I’m left still highly curious though, about how this unlikely outcome was achieved by Wolff, who ends his story with a brief summary of his tumultuous years at prep school and a hint that the next event to impact him was the Vietnam War. How did he get to be an award winning, fellowship holding, professor, and author of works that have been widely translated? I think the boy who thought taking on Jack London’s name would somehow transform him, never lost belief in a world where he could be whatever he wanted to be.

‘When we are green, still half-created, we believe that our dreams are rights, that the world is disposed to act in our best interests, and that falling and dying are for quitters. We live on the innocent and monstrous assurance that we alone, of all the people ever born, have a special arrangement whereby we will be allowed to stay green forever.‘

Maybe he did manage to stay green. I’m planning to find out – I’ll definitely be looking for more Wolff in the future!

6 Comments

Posted in Authors, Books, Famous People, Local/Community, Non-Fiction, Non-sense, Reading, Tobias Wolff | Tags: , , , , ,

Posted by: Sally Ingraham | February 13, 2010

Orlando

DSC00391by Virginia Woolf

‘Two things alone remained to him in which he now put any trust: dogs and nature; an elk-hound and a rose bush. The world, in all its variety, life in all its complexity, had shrunk to that. Dogs and a bush were the whole of it.‘

My co-workers can attest to the struggle I had while reading this book. As the long evenings of early February past at the movie theater, between infrequent customers I read Orlando, picking it up ruefully, heaving sighs, muttering nearly spiteful things…and moments later letting loose loud barks of laughter.

I quickly realized that Orlando was a different sort of Woolf creation, and I tried to embrace it. Everything about the book is somewhat fascinating. It’s the biography of a person who’s life spans four centuries, the story of a boy who is the pet of Queen Elizabeth, the lover of a Russian princess, Ambassador to Turkey. It’s the tale of a beautiful man with fabulous legs who mysteriously becomes an equally lovely woman, one who never ages past her thirties. It’s a book about the turning of centuries, one that asks questions about gender, about why and how people write, how art consumes and completes life.

Orlando, in Woolf’s own words, was her attempt to take a break from ‘these serious poetic experimental books‘. With it, she wanted to ‘kick up my heels & be off.‘ It was a love letter to her friend Vita Sackville-West, whom Orlando is closely based off of. Woolf also wanted to play with ideas about the role of the biographer, and indeed the anonymous biographer’s voice in Orlando is nearly a character in itself – one that seeks to present both the truth and the personality of its subject, using a blend of reality and imagination.

There’s plenty of room for imagination in this book, which smoothly combines elements of historical fiction and fantasy. Even as her seemingly immortal character changes genders at will, Woolf vividly brings to life several centuries of English life. Reality feels solid, and even Orlando, for all his/her quirks, seems firmly caught up in it.

Lots to like here. It was a day to day thing with me. Some days the voice of the biographer grated on my nerves and the bizarre events seemed to spiral into silliness. I felt myself smirking and coming close to rolling my eyes. Other days I found the whole thing highly amusing, and the dry wittiness seemed perfectly balanced. Throughout I wasn’t as struck by the style, even though there were some amazing passages. This book wasn’t so much about style though, of course.

With Mrs. D and TTL I felt as though Woolf was inviting me to participate – at times while reading Orlando I felt more like I was being left out. I wouldn’t say that I felt like Woolf was being a snob, because I know that for her the book was a joyous thing. I wanted to experience that joy with her, but instead I found myself closer to a kind of pleasant melancholy, interspersed with both genuine laughter and moments of indignant, ‘Oh come on – seriously?’

All of these reactions combine to leave me without a concrete opinion about my feelings toward the book. That’s all right with me, since I already know that with Woolf it takes a read or two. I still feel pretty strongly that I want to read it again, but not as immediately as I’ve felt with the other books. I feel a certain degree of annoyance toward Orlando, partially because I wanted to like it so much more. Like I said, there’s a lot to like, a lot that should appeal to me, but after this reading all I can summon up is a shrug.

woolf in winterThis review comes a day late for the Woolf in Winter party, hosted this time round by Frances. I spent some of my limited free time yesterday reading other reviews as they went up, and really appreciated the pleasure and insights I found, and the less enthusiastic opinions too.

My final word for the moment is, and I find this somewhat funny, that for me Orlando suffers from too much plot! I can’t wait to read The Waves (hosted by Claire on the 26th). I’m imagining myself sinking beneath the exquisite waters of Woolf’s prose once again, luxuriating in it, coming up for air only at the last moment… Mmm, delightful.

13 Comments

Posted in Authors, Books, Co-Workers, Famous People, Non-sense, Novels, Read-Along, Reading, Reading Challenges, Virginia Woolf, Work | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Sally Ingraham | February 11, 2010

Movie Mayhem: Feb. 1st – Feb. 10th

Shockingly, in the first 10 days of February I’ve only seen five movies. Between working, volunteering at the library twice a week, getting outside for winter adventures, and going out after work and actually spending time with real people, I’ve been busy lately. Yesterday I realized that the 12th was sneaking up on me and I was going to need to make a valiant effort to finish Orlando for the next Woolf in Winter party, so that will be filling the rest of my free time. While there is always time for a movie, I may not make any special efforts in that area for the next few days! Anyway…

Zombieland – Ruben Fleischer – USA – 2009
I normally steer clear of any movie that looks remotely scary. Thrillers I can take if they have an intriguing story, but gratuitously scary movies where the general idea is to freak you out don’t really interest me. This movie definitely skirted that line, but it’s version of horror comedy had a certain wackiness that appealed to me. Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, as two of the last men in a world overrun by zombies, were both awesome – Eisenberg with his adorable and always humorous voice-overs, and Harrelson with his…er, Woodyness? The movie didn’t really go anywhere, and the characters, once introduced, kind of just did their thing – killed zombies, continued to survive – amidst plenty of zombie slapstick action. It didn’t cause me to make plans to meander much further into the horror genre, but it was fun.

the sunThe Sun – Aleksandr Sokurov – Russia – 2005 (Movie of the Week!)
I’m still thinking about this movie a full week later. It is an impressionistic portrait of emperor Hirohito and the days surrounding the surrender of Japan to the United States in 1945, as seen by Aleksandr Sokurov. I was struck by how immense the film felt – immense in it’s historical content, immense in it’s vision of human turmoil, immense in it’s silence. I felt weighted down by the film, and yet kept on the edge of my seat. Sokurov is not necessarily sympathetic, but he presents a very human Hirohito, one who wears the mantle of the godhood he was born into uneasily, and seems to be navigating life like a gasping fish, out of his element, and yet always stately. His movements are precise, but often slightly confused, and even while he gently shoos his servants away, he has never opened a door by himself. In this sense Sokurov shows us the humanity of a man who seems quite alien. Simple camera use, near-silence, and a soft-focus style all lend themselves to an eerie but completely mesmerizing experience. This is really good movie-making at every level. It’s taken four years for the film to make it to the States – if you get the chance to watch it, do! (And while you’re at it watch all the other Sokurov movies you can find – I’m definitely going to watch Russian Ark and Alexandra again.)

Sneakers – Phil Alden Robinson – USA – 1992
I’m not really on a Robert Redford playing a spy kick, but I didn’t mind when I found myself watching him in this lighthearted (but kind of confusing) movie about computers and cryptography. A rather large supporting cast added to the fun, and I got to geek out over a decent hacker storyline. Nice. 🙂

True Lies – James Cameron – USA – 1994
The first half of this movie is hilarious – really priceless Schwarzenegger. He’s a spy with a wife who isn’t in on the secret, and when she gets tired of her life as a housewife and starts looking for adventure elsewhere, it’s all he can do to keep up with her – played by a smokin’ hot Jamie Lee Curtis, I must say! The second half of the movie gets a BIT over-the-top, with Schwarzenegger getting a little Terminatorish, but it’s still enjoyable. There are some must-see parts in the first half though! 🙂

an educationAn Education – Lone Scherfig – UK – 2009
With a screenplay written by Nick Hornby and the acting talents of Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, and Peter Sarsgaard among others, this movie was bound to be at least decent. I can safely say that it was more than decent. I keep going back and forth over whether I really liked it though. So much of what it was about resonated with me – a highly intelligent and curious girl in 1960’s England is bored with the life of a 16 year old school girl, and longs for the mysterious excitement of Paris and, at the same time, the more realistic freedom that she imagines will come once she gets to Oxford. She is suddenly swept off her feet by a handsome older man who ushers her into a lively world of jazz, horse races, art auctions, and exciting trips to the country with his glamorous friends. He is equally successful in winning over her parents, and it is only her teachers back at school who beg her to take caution. She has a lot of things to learn about real life before the end of the film, as the title of the movie hints at blatantly. I have personal experiences that help me to really relate to her, and which also give me good cause to be quite disappointed in the ending of the film. My first reaction was to be annoyed that the film seemed to encourage the idea that relationships between older men and younger women were never a good idea. As I’ve thought it over I’ve realized that I’m actually jumping to the same conclusion that I wish other people wouldn’t – and taking that angle on this film is simplifying matters far too much. It’s a really interesting movie, and the acting in it is brilliant. It’s kept me thinking for almost a week now too, which is one of the things I hope to get out of watching movies. I still can’t decide if I really liked it or not, but maybe that’s not what’s important at this point.

It doesn’t always have to be about ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ – it’s more about the experience. That’s what this last batch of movies has made me think about. I can watch and enjoy movies like True Lies or Zombieland and say lightly, “I liked that movie”. When it comes to movies like The Sun, however I can’t come right out and say I liked it, because my experience of the movie was so much more profound than that. I can’t say for sure that I liked it at all – it was an uncomfortable, disconcerting movie, beautiful in a way that hit me in the gut, and it made me want to cry, more for the release from an astonishing build up of tension than anything else. And yet, of the movies I saw lately, I’m going to say WATCH THAT, it was AMAZING.

While I will eagerly take the goofy with the good, I am always struck by how much of an impact a really great film has on me, and am reminded anew that for me watching movies (like reading books!) is much more than just a pastime. 🙂

11 Comments

Posted in Adventure, Aleksandr Sokurov, Art, Authors, Bar Harbor, Famous People, Foreign Films, History, Movie Mayhem, Movies, Non-sense | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »

Categories