It looks great

.. and is well acted. Writing is high quality and so is the design, sound and fx. But 90minutes into watching the Dark Knight last night, the following niggling truth kept coming into my mind.

It’s still bloody Batman. Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Batman.

Even through it’s more of a crime film than a superhero one – I can see that and agree. Everything Bruce Wayne has is high-tech gear, no getting DNA crossed with a bat, or flying down from the planet, er, bat , or any of that. It must have been a hard job to keep it rooted in a believable world, and even that admittedly silly growl would probably have been what he’d have to do to stop people from saying Hang on, I recognise your voice.

And Heath Ledger was pretty good. But I turned it off after an hour and a half, although will finish it tonight. Not a total hatchet job, I’m still holding out for a dramatic and emotional ending. Time will tell I guess. So stay tuned, same bat-time, same bat-channel…

day 2, swimming with sharks

Cold. chilly. cool. brass monkeys. etc..

What to post? Well I’m going to stop watching the news for a while, MPs and parliamentary privilege?

What a bunch of sharks. Think it’s going to have to be Plaid Cymru for me in May. Note to Plaid people – don’t get pissed up and hit anyone like Mick Bates , or scurry away behind 16th century laws like David Chater, Eliot Morley and the other gits are trying to do. The only thing I have for politicians at the moment would be custard pies and eggs.

So, on a happier note, turned the news off and put the Kinks on.

So for starters, bel paese and where that comes from.

I don’t know really, is the honest answer. My mum has French ancestry so I’m not sure why I’ve grown up with an affinity for all, well most, things of an Italian nature. Was it watching Dario Argento films as a teenager? Not sure, but in 2007 I went to Rome for the first time, and was gently knocked off my feet.

Even though getting around by myself when I don’t really speak much of the language was a bit tricky, it was still such a great experience that I went back the following year. Gave it a break in 2009 but should be back sometime this year.

I love how they put family, friends and quality of life in front of working all the hours God sends. It does seem that the UK follows the USA , and to be honest I prefer the Mediterranean outlook. Then there’s the food. The trouble with Italian food is that 2 or 3 days later, you’re hungry again. Peppers, pesto, pasta, polenta, (San) Pellergino, and weird drinks like Chinotto, Crodino, Campari. And Fernet Branca. Lovely stuff although it is a bit like alcoholic cough medicine. And of course the coffee. Iesu Grist, yes the coffee. Yum.

Then there’s Monica Belluci, Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobridgida. Well exactly.

On that first holiday I also found myself in a bar on the day that Roma played Juventus, and it was a bit infectious. Thanks to Justin.tv and calciolink.altervista.org I can now follow the Serie A games (playing tonight actually).

A few links of stuff that I follow include –

Radio Italia (yes, although most of the current pop is a bit crappy really, through this national commercial station I’ve got into Giuliano Palma and the Bluebeaters (shit hot ska band), famous singers Laura Pausini and Renato Zero, and discovered Ornella Vanoni whose ‘L’appuntamento’ just says it all to me really.

www.rai.it – the state broadcaster who seem to be continually involved with spats with Berlusconi (who still is a media tycoon with his Mediaset companies) – yes, a lot of the TV consists of soaps and big variety shows featuring what could politely be described as bimbos – Italian telly is exactly what you imagine it to be like, but is fascinating in small doses. A bit of quality comes from the adaptations of the Montalbano detective books, like a Touch of Frost set in Sicily.

So yes, I’m not sure why I like all this stuff, maybe it’s the old foreign/exotic angle. Why Italy as opposed to anywhere else, I’m not sure, I just do. And with that I’ll sign off because it’s time to go and make tea, which funnily enough involves grilled peppers, spaghetti and tomato sauce. Buona mangare, I think.

A post a day for a month?

That’s a challenge, but maybe one that’s worth rising to. To backtrack, I haven’t really written anything for a few months, and it might be a good way back into it.

Maybe because work is busy (web managing editor for part of a certain devolved government…) or because the real-life stories that are coming out of the documentary (more on this soon no doubt) are incredibly interesting in themselves, but I think I want to get back into writing stuff.
So here’s a good start..finding interesting things to write about will be a good idea also.

Somers town brightens up a cold winter’s night

Another in an occasional series of what I’ve been watching ..

Got this from Lovefilm , is interesting in that it was funded by Eurostar – however they gave Shane Meadows and writer Paul Fraser creative control after seeing a first draft (according to the excellent DVD extras).

So whilst it is set next door to St Pancras station, and does involve taking a train to Paris, it doesn’t really have any other kind of product placement or glowing shots of trains. One character is working on the construction of the new station but it’s secondary really.

The main focus is on two young teenagers who form a friendship united over a waitress (who goes home to Paris, so they … )

Much lighter than This is England or Dead Man’s Shoes, it begins in suitably grim fashion as one of the guys gets mugged, although the way it plays out it reminded me more of The 400 Blows, which is a bit intentional I think. It keeps threatening to turn nasty (but it’s not a spoiler to say that it doesn’t really). Although you may guess the ending, there are one or two surprises which lift it.

Very affecting scene about halfway through, I won’t say any more but you’ll know it when you come to it. Recommended, particularly with the extras on the DVD which include a 70minute Q&A. The film itself doesn’t outstay its welcome at about 75mins , showing its origins as a short script which kept growing.

Although I like Meadows’ films, I enjoyed this more than I was expecting to, lots of lessons for low budget filmmakers in there.

On walking out one evening …

What a week so far. Freezing cold, snowing like hell, and a nice bit of Cecil B Demented stuff…

Chapter Moviemaker , you know the drill, first Monday of every month etc. I think I’ve been going for 4 years or so now since I moved to Cardiff, have showed several films there, met a lot of good people – basically it’s pretty good. And the variety of films is always pretty wide.

I always try to give everything a go, but have to confess to developing an aversion to what I can rationally call ‘Shit short films’. You might have seen some yourself , so I won’t go into detail. Filmmakers can do all sorts of things, slow, challenging, controversial, mainstream, story-driven and abstract, but a few things just piss me off –

Corporate interests, when Fiction Factory and people from the BBC arrive I just want to throw things. Oftentimes these are pretty pedestrian efforts which come and go , so it’s a case of grit the teeth and get the hell out.

Then there are people who are up their own arse. Assured (usually by their mates) that they are a godlike genius they come along and condescend to let us mortals glimpse a piece of their art. We’re all egotistical and a bit prone to, er, creative differences – but I’ve been getting bored recently when people just sit there in the audience not daring to criticise or say anything, or even display a reaction. I think in a past life I’d have been throwing seats at the screen in 1968 Paris.

So with one recent film I saw at Chapter which will remain nameless to avoid giving it publicity, although the director was one Michael Aaron (remember the name and run like hell. You lack weight and surprise.), after 15 minutes of smug examination of boredom, I’d had enough, Out I walked, surprised and pleased that it had wound me up to that extent.

Avant-garde? That’s not avant-garde. Fucking Whitehouse is avant-garde. Terence Davies, Andy Warhol, even Sally Potter has had her moments. Having seen it done a lot better in the past, I wasn’t prepared to sit there a moment longer, and out I walked for a coffee.

So, film watchers and filmmakers , a suggestion. If you don’t like, agree with, or otherwise beg to differ, let them know. And that includes anything I bring along for a screening also, the healthy back-and-forth of ideas, or artistic hissy-fit is surely preferable to ‘oh, that was ok .. ‘

So anyone reading this walked out in disgust of anything? I’d be interested to hear..

Quick! This is great.

Yes it is. It’s like the night in 2002 before I went to the Cannes film festival. New Cross Gate, South London and a pokey basement flat. My then co-conspirator Mr Richard Allison of Trickshot films arrived early evening, we proceeded to put paid to several cans of lager, [next bit censored since someone else was there] , and was also up at 4.30 for the Stansted express, getting us to Toulon by around mid-day, and Cannes around 4pm I think , but I was so tired time stopped registering…

Anyway, it’s not Cannes tomorrow, it’s Salford. On Sunday is a screening and book launch all about the late great Cliff Twemlow and company, and Mr Ninnis and myself will be there to watch films and do interviews. I’ll also be trying to stream video from my mobile phone via this link , which I think should also show up on Facebook.

http://qik.com/beynond

Yes, if you know me from work, that would fail the QA, but Fuck It.

so anyway, here’s to it all. I’m taking a flip cam, a mini-dv, my phone and Sony alpha DSLR. John’s bringing the XL1. Plenty of scope there to get stuff for the doco. We might be speaking to -
Brett Hutchinson. Professor Chris Lee. Steve Powell. Uncle Tom Cobbly.

So I’d better carry on packing. up at 6am tomorrow, yawning already.
Should be a good un.

Things I learned the over the last week or so

You can get Fernet Branca in Pontcanna.

Not that I didn’t think so anyway, but my friends and family are the most important things.

The Wilco revival has begun with Summerteeth. Jayhawks expected soon. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot followed on from finding out about the Conet Project. And all that old radio spy-numbers stuff from when I was a kid. Don’t know what I mean?

Fay Weldon co-wrote Killer’s Moon and her brother, Alan Birkinshaw directed it.

[deleted], but I can’t really say that in public !

Fireworks over Roath, cool.

New Apple store in the big Cardiff shopping mall. So I don’t have to go and see the smug ba$tards at AT computers anymore. They give the mac a bad name. Shave the feckign beards off.

Roma 2 Fulham 1.

Got Martyrs lined up for tomorrow , French horror/art film with the most fearsome reputation since Irreversible. Merci.

There’s a Diabolik video game ??!! I’ve sent for the DS version, wow.

Buy it on Amazon

That documentary so far

So what’s been going on ? The total interviews so far for the doco now stands at a mighty 4 , each one around 2 hrs. Probably another 6 or 7 to get, followed by clips, stills,funding, music, funding, editing, maybe a bit of funding. But to be honest if we don’t get any, we’ll finish it under our own steam, proper guerrilla style. Propriety dissuades me from mentioning some of the names involved, and the fact that we want to surprise the hell out of you

What else? Inglorious Basterds was great, bit of a return to form I think. Already want to see it again. Work is up and down , but mostly up. Hard fucking work though, ‘owever I am happy enough because I know far too many people who have lost jobs recently – may it be for the shortest time possible. What else? Off out with either the dslr or more likely new mobile camera I think tonight , set it on b&w and take some good pics. U2 were pretty bloody great last week and catching up with Mr Hoggan also. Right, it’s a bank holiday weekend so I’m finishing this glass of Chianto (‘the drink you can’t spike) and am off owt. Expect a sea of pink cowboy hats in town since the Mardi Gras is going on today. And no, whilst it could be misconstrued, pink cowboy hats isn’t a euphanism … :0

Should I stay or should I go ?

Yes, it’s a good old Clash song. Applies to a few different things though really.

As someone once said, things are going to have to change in order that they stay the same.