Change Your Image
dr_sardonicus1
Reviews
The Stars Look Down (1940)
Beware the Wicked Lady
This appeared recently on BBC4's 'Coal night' - and seems an apposite choice given the subject matter.
My earliest memory of this story (I'm 42) is the 1974 serial produced when ITV still mattered and wasn't riddled with reality TV, puerile so called comedy and makeover shows. The 'drama' offered up by the third channel now is so lightweight the thought of the likes of the 21st century equivalent of Avril Elgar appearing it seems light years away from what could be described as reality (in the non vacuous sense). It was excellent, as I recall, but I didn't post this just to rant at the decline of ITV's quality standards, that's been done to death elsewhere.
So, the film - it's always refreshing and very pleasing to come across something 'new' from someone who has already earned their spurs elsewhere. Carol Reed needs no introduction to the cognoscenti of cinema - anyone who has seen 'The Third Man' or 'Fallen Idol' will testify to that! What's so good about this film is not only the beautiful evocation of a world long gone (it was made in 1939, just before the outbreak of WW2), but also gives an indication of just how difficult working class life must have been. If you did not work, you did not eat. Pretty much all the people who worked on this film are long dead, but watching it, and with an eye for the accuracy of how social history is portrayed, it's hard not to be moved by the grim reality of the inevitability of 'life down 'pit'. You're born into griding poverty, you grow up a friendly ragamuffin, you mine, you get old, you die.
Unless, of course, you're asked to mine Scupper Flats. The story itself is a strong one. In the days when mine owners swanned around in posh cars and deigned to show up at the pit once in a blue moon, the safety of being asked to mine a new face is called into question by idealistic young Davey Fenwick, who, having got his hands dirty down the mine, attempts a better life by breaking away and trying to earn a degree from the local university. Of course, a woman gets in the way, and the beautiful but manipulative and shallow Jenny Sunley (admirably played by Wicked Lady Margaret Lockwood) eyes an opportunity to 'better herself' financially and persuades Davey to drop out and become a school teacher. Eventually, Davey's idealism and pragmatic suspicions are proved correct, with tragic consequences.
Beautifully acted from a time when real craftsmanship went into British film making, the piece stands not only as great entertainment (though it won't engage 'movie' buffs with short attention spans who think anything pre 2008 isn't worth bothering with), but also as a wonderful piece of social history and a look at an age that's well and truly passed. The portentous voice over at the end reinforces this beautifully, and its idealistic call to action makes me wonder if we really have learned anything at all in the 70 years that followed.
The Meaning of Life (1983)
The salmon mousse!!
This was on Sky again last night and I took another look, having seen it many times already.
I read in the Python autobiography that the original intention was to make a final film based around the seven ages of man. However, because the team had become so generally disparate when they did this there was neither the time nor the inclination to undertake the additional work required to hedge the film within this framework. Several Pythons apparently resented Cleese's apparent indifference to this overall aim, and I get the impression that by this point JC had pretty much moved on and wasn't inclined to put more effort into the thing.
However, for my part, I still think it works. I was thinking last night that sometimes, general affection for the troupe and its best work, plus the cache these people have in the minds of those that hold their work dear, means that sometimes you feel you OUGHT to laugh at the material, rather than actually wanting to. Comedy draws its standing, like so much in life, from the propensity of the viewer to revisit it. Music is the same. Many people have heard Revolver or Abbey Road literally hundreds of times yet they come back to them again and again simply because they MEAN something. Comedy, in a sense, is also defined by longevity. Without wishing to rubbish a contemporary example, I wonder how many people will revisit 'My Family' for inspiration in twenty five years time. Yet, Python endures. Why? I disagree to an extent with another reviewer who said that by the early 80's Python generally was becoming passé and had been superseded by 'alternative' comedy like Ben Elton and Alexei Sayle. Personally, I never found that sort of aggressive humour even remotely funny, but leaving that aside, it's worth remembering that even during their swansong the Pythons were producing material, like the 'went wherever I did go' section that was hugely influential on the likes of The League of Gentlemen and many others who became famous and were cited for their originality years later.
Of course, given the sketch format, and the mercurial nature of the material per se, not all of it works. I found 'live organ transplants' not funny, just for-the-sake-of-it shocking, yet they trump you in a way because of course at the end of that you get the Galaxy Song, as catchy a number as Idle ever penned, upbeat, melodic, and of course hugely informative both astronomically and philosophically. They knew what they were doing, and the mixture of juvenile slapstick and cultural erudition is still there to be had for those that can be bothered to look, appreciate and laugh. Be warned though, some of it is pretty dark stuff.
Hole in the Wall (2008)
Truly puerile
I came across this by accident a couple of weekends ago and really do wonder if this is the best way for the BBC to spend their licence money.
The premise is simple - six half baked individuals stand around in shiny suits, waiting for a polystyrene wall to come at them with one or a number of vaguely 'human' shapes cut into it. The poor sap creaming off the licence cash and trying to stay in the public eye then has to contort to the shape to enable the wall to pass over him/her/it to avoid being dragged into the water.
That's it. There is nothing more.
Now as a child of the '80s, I am very familiar with the truly mediocre output that passed for 'entertainment' during those long Saturday nights before I could nip out for a raspberry tizer. Just hearing the words 'come on down' can set off palpitations even now, but this? Strike a light, even the brain dead will find they can die all over again watching it.
Why can't we just have DW doing 'In it to win it' every week. They've ever scrapped the lottery game show. Shame on you BBC. We're not all philistines you know, give us something to chew on.