greatest expectations

Dicken's much-adored novel has made it to the big screen, courtesy of David Nicholls, writer of One Day. Apparantly, it repeatedly made the top un-produced film scripts for years and it's made me very happy that someone got out of their comfy winter sofa and took this project on.. "Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There is no better rule

Animal Kingdom

I went to see this new Australian crime thriller yesterday and I am taking my cyber hat off to it and David Michod, who directed it. I thought it was your better-than-average thriller, dosed up with Polanski suspense and capable of fluttering the heart at gun shot intervals.
Read my full review of it here:

http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/2011/02/23/animal-kingdom-criminal-kingdom/

Monsieur chez le dentiste

At a particularly important dental check up, Monsieur is told that he must not eat solids for the following 24 hours and any liquids must come through a straw. His response is one of a concerned and obedient patient,

"Can I put cigarettes through the straw too?"

Monsieur on the winter social scene

After a pleasant but admittedly cold evening out to see Two in the Wave, Monsieur walks to the station in turmoil,

" I can't believe you thought going out in February was a good idea. And for that..."

Chevolutions

Mon 28 Feb / 7.30 / Bar / FREE

 Rich Mix have teamed up with Faction Films to bring Chevolutions, an evening of films,  discussion and insight into the world of indpendent film making.The evening will include an introduction to Faction and how they work; showing a range of the work from the early days to the present, including some shorts from young filmmakers.  They will show clips from  TV documentaries and Special News reports as well as some virals to explore the continuing evolution of their work as the media landscape changes.

 

Films included in event:
The Joneses
Year Of The Beaver
Resestancia: Hip Hop in Colombia
Love For Sale
Divorce: Sharia Style
Chevolution

Parisian progressive chefs who are not French

There is a new group of chefs based in Paris, who, as I understand it, have rejected all notions of haute cuisine and are very much anti-michelin in their style. So much so, that they have invented their own guide called Le Fooding (reminding me very much of the neither here nor there expression of le caravaning) which represents, in actual fact, the food itself along with the feeling it engenders.  Basically, they are the cheapskate version of all those posh and garlickyer than thou French restaurants which nobody can ever afford..
check out full info here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/feb/13/lefooding-paris-chefs-bistronomy

Theme of the month: Lighten up ...Johnny Depp is Rango

Rango movie trailer
Johnny is about to thrill us with his rendition of a chameleon named Rango who yearns to be a hero in a western town threatened by bandits. Johnny, are you harking back to your Dead Man days? I wish we had all known that role would lead to this one.....

Half Life by Lia Ices

For anyone whose wednesdays feel like a half life, have a listen to this echoing voice whose smoothness is comparable to how fluid her name sounds out loud. She also looks like someone related to Kate Moss...

http://www.myspace.com/liaices/music/songs/Half-Life-8386623

Two In the Wave at The ICA

These two men met in the 1950s at the start of their love affair with film and more particularly, La Nouvelle Vague. They became friends and then fell apart and this documentary delves into the reasons why, without making assumptions or interviewing today's "experts" but just simply collating clips and interviews from the time to show a somewhat tragic disintegration of Truffaut and Godard, directors from the same cinema family but from seemingly opposing worlds. At the ICA until the end of Feb

Francois Truffaut is back...

The iconic film director is back to spin us out with both his best known and more obscure films and they are playing until the end of March at the BFI Southbank. I love that he made films as an act of love...On that note, my favourite of all his films is The Woman Next Door which had me bawling not for hours but days... Tragic passion can do that sometimes.

Theme of the month: Lighten up

The days are getting longer at a snail's pace but it's there and on the horizon, more sunshine awaits us, more glorious basking in it until you fall asleep only to awake with a bee on you and your purse stolen from a park bench... no, I won't go that way. I actually think it's brilliant that it's lighter and that we have entered the shortest but by no means the worst month of all. Perhaps to celebrate this, I went to a screening of Just Go With It, a typical rom com, one you could predict with your eyes shut and your head in the popcorn but it made me laugh nonetheless. Besides, it was set in Hawaii and if you look past the tacky resort and the mini umbrellas floating in your drink and your hair, then it must be a pretty fun film set. Also, why have I not taken up hula dancing before? Jennifer Aniston and Nicole Kidman caused chins to drop to the floor in blissful unison.....

Read the full review here: http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/2011/02/01/reviewjust/

Things I wish I had

 The French movie channel on SKY..... which, according to them, "offers a window into french culture and lifestyle" but more importantly shows films with Romain Duris in them.

http://www.cinemoi.tv/

Anna Calvi...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZhAG01aDFg

Apparantly, she is into Edith Piaf and you can tell why here...