Sunday, September 16, 2007
Today, the plan was that I was going to see "Shoot 'Em Up". In the end I didn't.
This morning I ran around like a maniac cleaning up the leaves our half of the front drive and then I went to have my haircut. It drained me. A ridiculous state of affairs. I ended up chilling in front of "Pimpernel Smith" (practically Leslie Howard's last film, and an absolute classic - if you don't believe me you should check out Leslie Howard's final, back lit monologue to the Nazi villain, which is a brilliant piece of cinema) and "The First Wives Club" (chick flick crowd pleaser, Lorraine loved it), on one or other of the Sky Movie channels. Then I fell asleep.
It's not right and it's not good. I shouldn't be so tired. I don't suppose I am very well, but I intend to carry on as normal. I do not want to panic anybody, especially Lorraine, who, by the way, is convinced that I am about to drop dead with a heart attack. I don't think it is anything like that. The last time I went down with something like this, it was eventually diagnosed as a non contagious virus and a course of antibiotics fixed it. Maybe if I can finally get to see the Doctor the current thing will be diagnosed as exactly the same thing?
It ain't gonna stop me going to the reception next week, though. You can bet on that. Good food and good rest. It will cure anything.
I did see a film at the cinema this weekend and that film was "The Serpent", or if you are French, "Le Serpent". (It really is called that. You can check it out on IMDB. I did.)
Shut your eyes if you are a prude.
First things first. Do not believe English language trailers for French films. They lie. According to the trailer for "Le Serpent" you are led to believe that Vincent's (Yvan Attal) life is perfect. That Vincent has a dream home, a dream family and a dream existence. Then, into this idylic fantasy lifestyle comes a man seeking to destroy it.... But why?
OK. So far, so predictible. Luckily the trailer was mostly utter nonsense and incredibly misleading. Vincent's life is not perfect. Vincent's life is a mess. He is in the middle of a bitter divorce. His soon-to-be-ex wife is trying to take his children to live with her in another country. She looks like she may win. Then, after a sinister turn of events, a man appears offering help and then... and so on and so forth.
I suppose that "Le Serpent" is a serviceable enough, if unoriginal, thriller, but I couldn't shake the niggling feeling that, despite some refreshing Gallic explicitness (Olga Kurylenko is extremely hot), it's true home would have been as one of those two part ITV thrillers they show on a Monday/Tuesday night, starring the likes of Neil Pearson, Robson Green and Jemma Redgrave. Not that there is a lot of obvious Englishness remaining in "Le Serpent", despite the fact that it was originally based on a novel "Plender" by "Get Carter" writer Ted Lewis, and was originally set in a English Northern town in the late 1960's. It's not a bad story. I would like to read that novel to see how faithful "Le Serpent" was to the plot.
"Le Serpent" is not bad for an afternoon diversion, but has nothing that will make it stand apart from a million other thrillers.
This morning I ran around like a maniac cleaning up the leaves our half of the front drive and then I went to have my haircut. It drained me. A ridiculous state of affairs. I ended up chilling in front of "Pimpernel Smith" (practically Leslie Howard's last film, and an absolute classic - if you don't believe me you should check out Leslie Howard's final, back lit monologue to the Nazi villain, which is a brilliant piece of cinema) and "The First Wives Club" (chick flick crowd pleaser, Lorraine loved it), on one or other of the Sky Movie channels. Then I fell asleep.
It's not right and it's not good. I shouldn't be so tired. I don't suppose I am very well, but I intend to carry on as normal. I do not want to panic anybody, especially Lorraine, who, by the way, is convinced that I am about to drop dead with a heart attack. I don't think it is anything like that. The last time I went down with something like this, it was eventually diagnosed as a non contagious virus and a course of antibiotics fixed it. Maybe if I can finally get to see the Doctor the current thing will be diagnosed as exactly the same thing?
It ain't gonna stop me going to the reception next week, though. You can bet on that. Good food and good rest. It will cure anything.
I did see a film at the cinema this weekend and that film was "The Serpent", or if you are French, "Le Serpent". (It really is called that. You can check it out on IMDB. I did.)
Shut your eyes if you are a prude.
First things first. Do not believe English language trailers for French films. They lie. According to the trailer for "Le Serpent" you are led to believe that Vincent's (Yvan Attal) life is perfect. That Vincent has a dream home, a dream family and a dream existence. Then, into this idylic fantasy lifestyle comes a man seeking to destroy it.... But why?
OK. So far, so predictible. Luckily the trailer was mostly utter nonsense and incredibly misleading. Vincent's life is not perfect. Vincent's life is a mess. He is in the middle of a bitter divorce. His soon-to-be-ex wife is trying to take his children to live with her in another country. She looks like she may win. Then, after a sinister turn of events, a man appears offering help and then... and so on and so forth.
I suppose that "Le Serpent" is a serviceable enough, if unoriginal, thriller, but I couldn't shake the niggling feeling that, despite some refreshing Gallic explicitness (Olga Kurylenko is extremely hot), it's true home would have been as one of those two part ITV thrillers they show on a Monday/Tuesday night, starring the likes of Neil Pearson, Robson Green and Jemma Redgrave. Not that there is a lot of obvious Englishness remaining in "Le Serpent", despite the fact that it was originally based on a novel "Plender" by "Get Carter" writer Ted Lewis, and was originally set in a English Northern town in the late 1960's. It's not a bad story. I would like to read that novel to see how faithful "Le Serpent" was to the plot.
"Le Serpent" is not bad for an afternoon diversion, but has nothing that will make it stand apart from a million other thrillers.
# posted by Pynchon @ 7:27 pm 
