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The Conqueror music by Victor Young

August 14th 2010 06:00
All hail Sylvia Lewis, Solo Dancer andBarrie Chase, Dancer in Wang's Palace (uncredited), for it is their dancing and the other astonishing musical moments that really pop out for me in this quite odd but strangely cool movie from 1956 The Conqueror starring John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead.

Directed by Dick Powell. Produced by Dick Powell and Howard Hughes. Written by Oscar Millard
it’s not exactly a classic.

In ancient times, the Mongolian warlord Temujin must do battle against the rival tribe that killed his father. Indeed some scenes come over pretty stilted and unpliable with John Wayne delivering the role of Temujin and Bortai the ranga Tartar prisoner whom Temujin has captured in a raid played by a scenery chewing Susan Hayward.

Few screen actors share the compelling ability Susan Hayward has of saying so very much, with no more than basic attitude and body language. Her little dance number is worth the ticket price alone. I picked this odd little film up on DVD at JBHiFi and it cost less than ten dollars. I have watched it a few times for the film itself. It is a grand epic. Obviously no expense was spared. It is an unfortunate cast, but not because of Wayne. Some cast members here were exposed to radiation, so the story goes, and eventually died of cancer.

Hayward truly is a knockout in this role, today I would like to see Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in the making of story. I would like to cast Stockard Channing to in the mother role, meaning she would play Agnes Moorehead not eliminating Shirley MacLaine, who has done such an admirable toast to Agnes in the bewildering Bewitched remake directed by Nora Ephron in 2005.


The Conqueror is a 1956 CinemaScope epic film produced by Howard Hughes and starring John Wayne as the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. Other performers included Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and Pedro Armendariz. The picture was directed by actor/director Dick Powell. The film was principally shot near St. George, Utah.

The picture was a critical and commercial failure (often ranked as one of the worst films of the 1950s) which is remarkable given the stature of the cast. Wayne, who was at the height of his career, had lobbied for the role after seeing the script and was widely believed to have been grossly miscast. (He was so "honoured" by The Golden Turkey Awards.)

Reportedly, Howard Hughes felt guilty about his decisions regarding the film's production (see Cancer controversy below) and kept the film from view until 1974 when it was first broadcast on TV. The Conqueror, along with Ice Station Zebra, is said to be one of the films Hughes watched endlessly during his last years.
wikipedia.org






The Conqueror (1956)








Music by Victor Young

Victor Young began as a classical composer and concert violinist but moved into the popular music sphere when he joined Isham Jones' orchestra. He studied the piano with Isidor Philipp of the Paris Conservatory. In the mid-1930s he moved to Hollywood where he concentrated on films, recordings of light music and providing backing for popular singers, including Bing Crosby.

His composer credits include "When I Fall in Love," "Blue Star (The 'Medic' Theme)," "Moonlight Serenade (Summer Love)" from the motion picture The Star (1952), "Sweet Sue," "Can't We Talk It Over," "Street of Dreams," "Love Letters," "Around the World," "My Foolish Heart," "Golden Earrings," "Stella by Starlight", and "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You."

Cinematography Joseph LaShelle
Editing by Stuart Gilmore
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date(s) March 28, 1956
Running time 111 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget 6,000,000
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Richard Williams’ expanded edition of The Animator’s Survival Kit

A manual of methods, principals and formulas for classical, computer, games, stop motion and internet animators. There’s not much more to be said about it really. The title says it all and Richard Williams is not kidding. He puts everything you need into this remarkable book.

Who else better to turn to when you need some coal-face support from an accomplished animator other than Richard Williams any way? This is the Director of Animation for the film Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, come on. The man is a meticulous genius. Williams has thought through pretty much every problem any less experienced animator is encountering in terms of position, movement, calculations and formulas, so he provides a veritable treasure of information including frame by frame versions of movements.

If you are learning Flash or some other animation program you will be able to read through some physical sequences and get a sense of what you need to do in order to create these effects; it is so much easier to have these types of images at hand, so although it is not an inexpensive book, although it does come in under one hundred dollars, it is a very valuable book to the animator given the amount of guidance it provides.

For example much is offered around the simple but difficult task of walking. For those of you who have never tried to create an animation, snigger away; making a ball bounce or a character walk is a taxing task. Obviously it is not impossible to create characters in animation who seem so very real they have their own pulse, body language and style. So developing a flair for creating characters who can walk seamlessly is going to be a useful thing to an animator.

We literally have pages of it here, normal walk spacing, weight shifting, jaunty walking, hops and leaps, drawn out image frame by frame. Bending arms, limp wrists, buttocks, floppy hair and perspective.

So many things need to be detailed in order to create something really special, so this is probably the most visually useful material you could find in one book. Think then about the universality of reference with this writer - he knows a lot - he is not going to chock up your head with a pile of useless information, maybe a few personal anecdotes about his career, but the bulk of what he is writing is an overview on animations historical development and then a good deal of very practical assistance in setting yourself up to work, and getting along with it.

If you are not satisfied with the book alone you can get an amazing16 DVD set animators survival kit movie with the work broken down even more I suppose. I think it’s a very practical and helpful book for the right person. The seriously involved animator or the novice who wants to learn a lot without having to carry too many books around.

David Jobling
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101 Must see movies for Gay Men

May 12th 2010 04:52
MATURE CONTENT
   


DICK on DVD

May 12th 2010 04:48
Columbia TriStar Home Video
PHOENIX PICTURES presents
A PACIFIC WESTERN production

A FILM BY ANDREW FLEMING

DICK


Kirsten Dunst
Michelle Williams
Dave Foley
Harry Shearer
Dan Hedaya as Dick


Why is Dick so funny? The buck rests with openly gay writer director Andrew Fleming it's much more fun than Threesome (1994) another of his films on video. I think it's his camp sensibility that lifts Dick up and holds it firmly in cheek. It is not the glorious comedy of stupidity like The Brady Bunch Movie, it isn't a satire, Dick remains truthful and as close to reality as possible, so the circumstances and characters are easy to accept. Seriously funny stuff. I'll call it queer rather than camp because it has the sort of edge The Brady Bunch Movie much as I love it, never even attempted.

The cast work very well as an ensemble and there are brilliantly colorful moments as well as brief encounters with deeply felt and expressed feelings. It would be a fabulous video to watch with Romy and Michele's High School Reunion and so cool to sit home and see with a group at a slumber party. It could even be useful to watch if you want to flunk a Modern American History class. I take my cap off to the whole team who have brought it to life.

I imagine if Marcia and Jan Brady were available they would have been cast in this queerly delightful film, I'm sure they had a part to play in the conception of it.

It's an excellent family film, full of extremely enjoyable moments that made films like Romy and Michele's High School Reunion and Cluless, so much fun. Using the same sort of conceit as Forrest Gump does, Dick gets deeper than Romy & Michele or Cluless, by placing the two blonde girls slap bang into the whole Watergate scandal, but only as a plot point to drive the story.

Rather than originating every major development in American culture (Run Forrest, run!) these two blondes simply assist in exposing one big fat silly Dick, Richard Nixon that is.

Kirsten Dunst as Betsy and Michelle Williams as Arlene are no less than brilliant as they scream, giggle, scream, secret-whistle, scream, stupefy and scream their way down the corridors of the Whitehouse in 1970's Washington D.C. Not since her steely characterisation as the child vampire in Interview with the Vampire have I seen Dunst hit the nail so heavily on the head acting wise. Michelle Williams (a regular cast member of Dawson's Creek at the time, pre-Heath and Matilda) is every part equal as the ever so slightly older, but none the wiser fatherless friend.

Together they seem like Marcia and Jan one moment, or fashionwise, a young Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone the next. All derivatives aside, these actors create likeable characters you will remember.

Dan Hedaya is Nixonesque enough to make Anthony Hopkins seem pale in the Oliver Stone feature not that you could otherwise compare the two. His hatred for the presidential pooch Checkers is a great running gag to watch and his mood swings seem truthful to a tee.

Costume Designer Deborah Everton dresses the two girls in fine 1970's fashion. I'm almost sure I've seen Jan and Marcia in those pyjamas.

I'm proud to say I even wore clothes like the studly young dude Betsy tries to seduce as the girls steal one of the tapes Nixon lost when I was his age. I couldn't say anything bad about this film, if you saw it on the screen, take it home on video and see it again because it's as sophisticated as classic queer comedy comes. If you wondered what I mean by queerly funny, substitute the word camp, but remember we have two teenage girls involved with the President, his dog, journalists from the Washington Post; I think it's fair to say this is better than camp.

Ten out of ten for biggest best value Dick!


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REVIEW * Iron Man 2

April 29th 2010 00:53
The review is at the bottom of the page.


Well the Press Kit certainly made a big splash on the bloggsphere. Quite a few folks are so excited about Iron Man 2 bursting into cinemas they simply had to report on how value packed the Press Kit was.

Evidently a full box, big enough to contain a portable television arrived, printed in full colour on the outside - the Iron Manhimself. Inside - lots of toys. Crap mainly, unless you are a kid, or a kid at heart - or a really geeky film buff who wants to salivate over the opening of a movie. I am looking forward to seeing the film myself, but I'm not getting too het up about it. I expect a good film based on the first.

Iron Man 2 will be a good film; it has no choice. The cast is like butter. Pure butter. Every one of them would melt in your mouth one way or another - but nothing will convince me, short of a really bad film, that Robert Downey Jr could possibly stay connected and involved if it were crap. He has had such a rocky career - good for him. Every difficulty etched into his beautiful handsome expressive face. The way he is aging at this stage of his life makes him all the more strong as a character actor, and he certainly is one great character actor. I'd put himself and Johnny depp up on the same shelf. Quite different in every respect, but both of them act well. Soapdish is my favourite Downey Jr film with Fur and Chaplin standing alonside. There's no way I can say there is one film that shines above all the others (that I've seen yet) individually. These three are my top favourites, and then seriously, pretty much everything I've seen him in, I've really enjoyed his work. Tropic Thunder is hilarious, I love it; I thought he was extremely funny. I didn't realise for most of the film that it was him. I saw it on DVD, not in cinema release. I'm expecting to catch Iron Man 2 pretty soon, so I'll post a review here later. Keep reading and see what you think of what I thought.

I'm glad they didn't go stupid and battle to push IRON MAN 2 into the 3D screen maze. It would be good if the series stayed away from all of that I think, however the market value of IRON MAN 3D is probably way too high to consider they'd steer clear of making us wear funny glasses and risk a headache for long, after all it's not the same, IRON MAN 4 in 3D would just look silly.



filmschoolrejects.com IRON MAN 2 Gallery


Well I had a feeling it was not going to be a bad movie and I was right. In fact as far as super hero movies go - I think IRON MAN 2 has lifted the whole game somewhat. It will one day be looked at by film buffs and writers as the shift in tone that provided a clue to anyone trying to crack the code of how to write a very good script for a blockbuster in this genre.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) spends the best part of the film trying to stay alive, but not because of bad guys - his own advanced life saving technology is killing him. This certainly makes for some tension, almost as much as you need really since Tony is such a crowd pleaser of a character. He is full of dry comment that simply stabs at the funny bone. Brought up in a wealthy environment, he knows nothing of waiting in line or being put on hold; his attitude rises every time anyone provides him with a reason to buck. The thought of him ending up dead so soon... well it is not a nice thought. He is however demonstrating a slightly too flippant devil-may-care attitude which does get him brought before a government hearing.

Sam Rockwell, an actor with a devoted fan base plays one of the sods who causes Tony to buck a little - Justin Hammer. Hammer leads the weapons race, well, he's just behind Stark Enterprises, until he manages to get hold of one of the Iron Man suits. His answer to bringing world peace is to create robot drones who will fight, but of course it's not his idea; Hammer is a man short on ideas but generally very amusing when it comes to the silly walk stakes (he pulls some beauties). Arriving pretty much out of the blue is Ivan Vanko (played to perfection by Mickey Rourke) who builds his own version of the Iron Man suit - but I'm not going to spill too much and spoil it for everybody so read on fearlessly.

Add to this already impressive collection of actors some extremely beautiful and talented women, Gwyneth Paltrow is back as Virginia Pepper Potts, and she is assisted to some degree by the astonishingly agile Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) a.k.a. The Black Widow. Here is where the script and overall story arc is really smart - so smart it makes many of the previously released series of films (Superman, Batman cira. 1980's and X-Men) look a little stilted.

We know S.H.I.E.L.D. exists, it's in the comic books, it's quaintly tagged on to the end of IRON MAN the first film... well now there's a real interaction between S.H.I.E.L.D. Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division and Iron Man - but wait there's more, and it will all come out later - in other words - the scriptwriters, producers etc. have kept it subtle - there's no big reveal, just a scent of more to come.

I have no doubt we will see more of these films, and I am already betting that a time will come when Tony Stark is played by Downey Jr as a special guest in a range of Marvel Studios pictures that will soon be rolling out covering the many many tales of S.H.I.E.L.D. - It's a hunch, but a good one; and you know what that probably means? At least one TV Series in the not too distant - give it about a decade or so - that is what I think it means.

This well devised plotting, and the ever wise cracking Stark are the main reasons why I think this is such a tight script. They are not trying to over feed us in one big sitting, (or blow all their biggest bangs at once) they are getting us hooked, or showing restraint in the roll-out of the series. I'm happily hooked. I think I was hooked the minute I saw Downey Jr all suited up and having a lot of fun.

The special effects are of course something to see. Pretty amazing. I was a little stunned that they could manage to set some of the action in the Grand Prix in Monaco seamlessly intermingled with their own action sequences, however don't watch the crowd (as if) or you may start to feel a bit tetchy about it all. Don't get me wrong, the big set action scenes at Monaco are great, and it's fascinating to see such well blended and edited real life event footage being combined with outrageously fantastic sci-fi action stunts, but as is most often the way with such things, some of the background 'extras' are not really all that well intergrated or combined.

I don't want to spell this little flaw out because it is a piffle, a little flaw. So go ahead, look yourself - don't watch the action (if you can take your eyes off of it) watch the crowds in the background if you want to know what I mean - but I do warn you it may water the whole thing down a little if you do, sort of snap you back into reality for a minute. You may as well just watch the action and ignore my comment until your second or third viewing of the film. Yes, it is worthy of more than one viewing as far as I'm concerned. It's a wealth of material cut together really well so you can easily watch it again and again.

The movie soundtrack is also somewhat restrained but very gutsy - so again, the movie makers here are really keeping things under positive control. They are showing enough restraint to keep me happy.

The main issues in this story, to be continued, are sensible understandable and well directed. The continuing of the franchise should do very well at least for one more Iron Man film (probably in 3D) and then the other stories will start to come out.

It's a little intense to think about, but S.H.I.E.L.D. have a load of super heroes ready to bust into action, a little like the Justice League of America, only crunchy... What I mean is, there's a gritty quality to all the S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff in the comics, so why not bring it? I'm sure they will.

I say this is a very good follow up to the first film. They will sit nicely together on the DVD shelf eventually. You'd have to be a bit of a humbug to not enjoy it - but don't let your expectations run too wild - just go and see this film for some good laughs, based on wit, and some great action scenes, and a tinge of romance, but the palest tinge - which suits me fine.

I like the laughs and the action, which is why I think it's so great. Sexual tension a la X Men, Superman and Spider Man... Who needs it?


superherohype.com's
Iron Man 2 Stills

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REVIEW | Pitch Black

April 10th 2010 05:46
UNIVERSAL PICTURES presents
PITCH BLACK


A film by David Twohy

CAST: Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Kieth David, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Claudia Black, Rhiana Griffith, John Moore, Simon Burke, Les Chantery, Sam Sari, Firass Dirani, Ric Anderson, Vic Wilson, Angela Makin

SCREENPLAY: Jim & Ken Wheat & David Twohy
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: David Eggby, A.C.S.


PITCH BLACK was produced on location in Queensland, Australia with the assistance of Pacific Film and Television Commission.

Running time: 107 minutes

A USA Films Release

As an attempt to explore the science-fiction and action-adventure genres PITCH BLACK falls into the 'too derivative' basket for my tastes, but for those who ache for more of the same it's almost an exotic hybrid of LOST IN SPACE, ALIEN, and that film with the vampire bats and the people in the underground science laboratory from the 1970's.

The story is set up with common place archtypes such as the crew being aroused from cryo-sleep, crash landing on a hostile planet and getting taken out by so many monsters that nothing really struck me as shocking or exciting when it all ended, not even the gender bend twist.

There are explanations for absolutely everything that may need explanation plus some quite amusing inferences that the main bad dude Riddick (possibly short for Riddickulous) played by steely contact lensed Vin Diesel was an 'abortion survivor' with memories of sitting in the bucket at the clinic.

The actors get to show limited promise due to a script that clumsily demonises menstruation, spirituality, justice, and male sensitivity while it attempts hip street speak by delivering "Fuck you!", "No fuck you!", "Fuck you fuck!" all too often.

I said when I first saw it, that it will have a market and it may even earn cult status in time, but you may have wondered, like me, how did all these people refrain from being drenched in sweat if the planet they crash landed on was so hot? Hmmm? (Five out of ten was what I gave it on release) Having looked at it a few times on DVD, I'll say they did an innovative job as far as budget and design went, I still think it's full of holes and only moderately entertaining.

David Jobling
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Review | DREAMING OF JOSEPH LEES

April 10th 2010 05:35
FOX SEARCHLIGHT presents in association with the Isle of Man Commission
and Midsummer Films

DREAMING OF JOSEPH LEES

Release Date: 30 March 2000 (Sydney & Melbourne)

CAST: Samantha Morton, Lee Toss, Miriam Margolyes, Frank Finlay, Nick Woodeson, Holly Aird, Rupert Graves.

This is a great film, beautifully made. Directed by ERIC STYLES. This gem of a film is yet another really good drama distributed by FOX SEARCHLIGHT who have brought us FELICIA'S JOURNEY and BOYS DON'T CRY. Hats off to them because so far I've really found a lot to love about each of these movies.

This film is set in Somerset, 1958. It's a very intimate story about a young woman Eva (Samantha Morton) and her relationship with Joseph Lees (Rupert Graves) as affected by her little twelve year old sister Janie (Lauren Richardson).

Even though Somerset has that end of the earth feeling about it and the most entertainment offered to the community is Friday night boxing, live in the ring with local lads gloved up and punching for blood Eva is a quietly spirited woman who seems one moment away from realising there's a change about to take foot for women's rights. She spends her time working at the local saw mill and taking art classes in drawing with Signora Caldoni (Miriam Margolyes) a wonderful charcter who is everything one would hope an art class teacher could be. The rest of the time Eva is toiling at home either sewing and mending, cooking, or
parenting her little brother and sister. She lives with them and her father (Frank Finlay) whom she works for as housekeeper and compliant daughter.

All the time Eva dreams of Joseph Lees a beautiful man who lost a leg in a tragic accident. He has moved to Italy somewhere, but no one is really sure where he is. Eva is sure what he is - her true love, despite the gradual seduction of Harry (Lee Ross) the local pig farmer who has lost his own parents, "Ma was gone and Dad was out there hangin', like I would be, 'cause I'm like him!".

The young sister brilliantly played by Lauren Richardson is quite a little meddler. She manipulates Eva at times in ways that are almost telepathic, other times she opens mail for Eva and reads the contents before she givs it over all re-wrapped, sealed with angelic eyes and fingers. She is never malicious, it seems that she really is motivated by love, but her actions are vital to the unfolding of the plot. A wonderful young actor to watch - I should think we'll be seeing more of her work in the future. This role distinguishes her as quite a contender.

This whole film is a story about people being motivated by love and people being manipulated by love. Eva doesn't take long to move in with Harry and start sleeping with him, even though, as her father says "People will talk" it doesn't move Eva away from getting some love and
passion into her bleak life. Harry the pig farmer is an emotional mess. He gets a nose bleed whenever he gets nervous. He would possibly be the perfect guy for Eva if it weren't for Joseph Lees. Eva responds to the reality that Harry is available, Joseph is away somewhere, and pitied by most as if being a one-legged man means you are half a man. Harry's
emotional self-assurance is very strong, he sweet talks and dances Eva into his bed pretty easily.

When Harry discovers that Eva is 'in love' with Joseph Lees he goes into a frenzy of playing out the dramatic pattern of his parents' tragic life. Poor Harry is such an extremist he eventually breaks in to the saw mill and makes a quick job of emulating Joseph Lees.

Eva is torn between true love, and the love she settled for because she hadn't imagined there were any other options available.

I don't want to let anything out about the rest of the story. I do want to say that this film really struck me as being something of a historical fact. It could almost be the way half of the women on the planet were tied to their husbands (defacto or married) at the time. The
manipulation would be far more obvious today I imagine. I doubt a woman would be quite as alone today as Eva is. The isolation of the place is very strong. She's pretty much a slave to her situation - but she does break free, and not only in her dreams.

It's a really good film and it may well reach out and grab you as deeply it did me. I could see my own parents (from the UK) sort of going along and doing what they think is right at the time, only to discover that this isn't what they want. Well, half of 'them' anyway. The masculine force is very strong in the film, and the social/emotional pecking order is really precise. The extreme male behaviour is very childish, while the female behaviour is always so down to earth and realist that it's very matter-of-fact when it gets anything close to extreme. Really stimulating stuff.

A good drama unfolds - by that I mean a complex story, even though some times you may feel you know what's about to happen (probably because of Hollywood programing) it is not predictable as such. It is deeply moving without being manipulative, by the end of the drama you will have options yourself, and that is what makes it such a great entertainment.

I left the screening feeling quite overwhelmed, ready to be sad about it all, but then someone pointed out that I wasn't entertaining the other strong possibility provided. I think this gentle but savage film is as good, if not better than 'Snow Falling on Cedars' - very much in the same category. If you enjoyed Scott Hicks' masterpiece you will enjoy DREAMING OF JOSEPH LEES.



Rupert Graves creates yet another character who is totally desireable. I admire his choices as an actor. He doesn't seem stuck in the same role again and again. Of course I think he's as hot as most other gay men, but he positively glows as Joseph Lees. His struggle, humility and
brilliance makes for a wonderful journey. Rupert's fabulous performance is matched by Samantha Morton who has played roles in PEAK PRACTICE, SOLDIER,SOLDIER and as the teenage prostitute in BAND OF GOLD apparently 'rocketed to fame' (in the UK).

Maybe the relationship between Eva and Janie is as good as it is because Morton is a young actor working with another younger actor Richardson, and she has been able to share some of her experience with the little sister... but whatever it is, the dynamic between these two will have many women pining for the days they had with their own little sister, and also probably reminding them of how they would have strangled her if they knew what she was up to. There should be a new category placed in the awards system - "Most distinguished performances in the role of siblings" - I nominate these two deft actors, fantastic job brilliantly
realised.

Screenwriter Catherine Linstrum, Director Eric Styles, Producer Chris Milburn all deserve credit for.... well will I say it again? A really good film!

David Jobling. 17.03.00
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Horrockses Fashions | Review

April 9th 2010 04:55
Horrockses Fashions
Off-the-peg Style in the 40’s and 50’s

Christine Boydell

This beautifully constructed book comes from V&A Publishing, always reliable for well bound treasures. If you enjoy the stylish cotton frocks of the time, this is a book you will spend hours with. There is enough information here to give you a great insight into whom was designing what, and how it looked.

The original introduction of beautifully printed pre-shrunk cotton fabric was something of a revelation for the fashion market of the day. Unusual designs at the time, classics now. Broad skirts, pleated or ruffled, with some wonderful Alastair Morton design were (and remain) bright and bold, as well as scoping in more classy subtle but sheik looks. Morton is an important element in the Horrockses story. Much of the material design is his; he was creating forty new designs for fabric a year from 1947 until 1955. In the mid 50’s there were times when they bemoaned the notion that so many people were now beyond Morton’s open flowery designs, so often the placed over horizontal lines possibly not really helping the natural line of many women. Other designers included Margaret Meades, Pat Albeck and Graham Sutherland.

Ready to wear was a breakthrough not only in its look; it changed the way women’s fashion was sold. It is amusing to read about the exploitation department linking movie stars with certain outfits, presenting a type of exclusivity that would obviously hit a nerve. It still does today by all accounts. Just look at the whole Sex and the City phenomenon. Branding and presenting outfits that were ready off the hanger became one stream while another was lifting the mood and class value of the product based on its elegance and line.

Also a fascinating insight is the Painting into Textiles exhibition in 1953 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. How striking these works by painters such as Eduardo Paolozzi are.

The work that has gone in to put this book together is obviously meticulous. It’s a fine reference book as much as it is an enjoyable tome for inspiration. The colour photography and reproductions of of the highest standards.

Christine Boydell, a lecturer in Design curated the exhibition Our Best Dresses: the story of Horrockses Fashions for the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston and continues to work on another exhibition for the company. This fine example of her work will be a great blessing to many wanting insight and entertainment from the theme and the time.
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Review | Blind Company

April 6th 2010 12:10
BLIND COMPANY

written and directed by Alkinos Tsilimodos
cast includes Colin Friels, Samuel Johnson

Blind Company is one of those movies that probably looked great as a synopsis; in fact it would be a pretty good short story if it were all put together within say 1500 words.

Blind Company is also one of those films that the film establishment want to call important, and include in Film Festivals. I do not think of it this way. It is neither an important film or even a good film. I think it is a throwback to the dark ages of Australian film making where a long shot of a beach or a wooded coastal terrain is considered to be breathtakingly beautiful and therefore really important. A throwback to the style of critisicm that says We must find reasons why this film is worthy.

The cast is good mostly. The script is weak as water even though it has some tricky ways of delivering. The direction of the actors is an over indulgent mess at times and the acting as good as it is, starts to seem pretty two dimensional. What this film desperately needs is a plumper story along the lines of a Robert Altman or P.T. Anderson film to provide at least a few characters who are engaging, to balance out the pretty dreary collection we are expected to sit with for 90 odd minutes.

SPOILER ALERT

Apart from the tediously slow pace of the film, and the drab cinematography that attempts to idealise a patch of Tasmanian coast (Ooh ahh), the content of the story is too smart for it's own good.

Geoff is a man going blind (Colin Friels) alone, with his three legged dog in a well made luxury house on the remote Tasmanian coast. He takes the dog for a walk along the beach. He sits making confessions to his wife into a tape recorder. The wife (Gloria Ajenstat) comes over on weekends to clean and cook for him. It becomes clear that he is very unwell, and not a very nice sort of person.

When the man's nephew Josh turns up (Nick Barkla) we get to see a string of pretty ugly behaviours acted out demonstrably. The man and his nephew do not like each other it would appear; either that or they are so deeply in love with each other they can not face the mysterious circumstances like adults, so they behave like a pair of singed lovers mid-fight.

All too gradually we learn that Geoff is indeed here to die, of AIDS no less, and it seems he has left a line of young men behind him who he has manipulated into fucking in the ass as Josh eloquently puts it.

One such young man has recently killed himself because he was HIV positive. The inference being he was infected by Geoff. The young man's parents turn up to the hidden away house to deposit their dead son with Geoff in the form of a neatly packaged plastic bag full of ashes which he asked to be scattered on the beach in a note he left before killing himself.

So in a short blunt nudge we discover Geoff, is suffering from AIDS, has a history of seducing gullible young men and has another little secret up his sleeve to drop on his ever stoic wife.

The wife (Ajenstat) keeps pretty steely through the film. There is one scene where she and Josh have a little argument.

Josh : Did you know you married a fag?

Wife : He's bisexual; I knew he experimented when he was younger.


Yeah. Geoff is a bit of a mess. He is basically a paedophile who has been spreading his disease among his victims and is now slowly dying.

That's not the end yet, there's the constantly aggressive Josh. What a thankless character. He spends most of his time completely unable to express any actual feelings; he is just an aggressive, meth smoking, Porsche driving prig who has been coming on sexually to his fag uncle as he puts it, and is now rendered incapable of anything like common sense or tenderness or even polite conversation.

The climax (I wrote SPOILER for a reason) is met when Josh digs a grave for Geoff, brings the now totally blind Geoff to the edge of it and pretends to kill him by slapping a shovel on the ground next to his kneeling-at-graveside uncle. Oh the drama!

I think it is a nasty little film in desperate need of some reality and dare I say it, facts. There needs to be some counterpoint to this story for it to even come close to a great story let alone a good film.

It looks a little like Swiss cheese to me - it is so riddled with holes; for over twenty years we have had a category of male sexuality called men-who-have-sex-with-men-but -don’t-identify-as-gay. Geoff’s wife says he is bisexual. Yet there are no stories of young women he has slept with or infected; I think it is a safe bet that Geoff is a gay man trapped in a heterosexual life (not all that uncommon). The wife just can not cope with that.

Once she explains Geoff started having sex with her wearing a condom after years of not wearing one (so he is aware of safer sex), she accepted that he did not want to get her pregnant? Okay, I think that is a bit thin, but okay...

Doctors, even in Tasmania, would be very quick to refer a young man with newly diagnosed HIV to a counsellor wouldn’t they?

A young man who is sexually involved with his uncle is going to turn up and harass said uncle as he becomes more decrepit from a terminal disease isn't he; I mean that's the best strategy to deal with such a complex situation isn't it?

Well if he's a meth smoking twenty-something it's the obvious way to deal with it surely. That would be a closeted young gay man wouldn’t it?

For sure he is going to be nothing but aggro towards this man he loves who is dying - makes sense doesn’t it?

After all he is a young gay man of the 21st Century.

I could scream.

Every once in a while a movie comes along that deals with HIV/AIDS and love triangles in a really interesting and engaging way; no one ends up completely demonised or giving the audience so little information they walk away with a whole set of perspectives that are based on some writer's ill informed fantasy of what it must be like to be in this situation.

I hate it when someone, anyone, important film maker or not, makes something that just basically says this is a really awful man and these are the really awful people around him, and isn’t it all so horrible?

I hated it. The script has a few moments where it's tricky and well written, if you are willing to accept a whole lot of crap. That it has come out of Tasmania is no excuse either. Maybe 30 years ago we would expect this sort of dross to spew forth from a remote and some say backward place, but not now.

For heaven’s sake some of the most politically active gay men in this country are in Tasmania.

So, Blind Company for what it is worth, is a crap little film made in a way that some film academics bolt to call it challenging, and some critics say it makes the audience squirm in their seats - well maybe it is the content that is making them squirm; it plays into so many ill-advised myths surrounding HIV/AIDS and ah hem Bisexuality. I think it's most likely the audience are squuirming because we've all seen a bit of beach and we don't really need to sit through this much nonsensical scenery. How about a few more stories, characters, points of view?

I definately think it's the bloody tedious pace, the ridiculous story and the misinformed characters who would be just as cosy in a 1950’s Douglas Sirk film that make the audience squirm. For crying out loud.

Pity it was ever made, hope it gets buried in the mire. What a load of rubbish.

David Jobling

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Sustainable Event Management
By Meegan Jones


Sustainable Event Management by Meegan Jones is a well researched and neatly designed guide to making your festival or large event the most environmentally friendly, leaving the least possible carbon footprint; making it a very timely book that will go a long way assisting those who are seeking to manage events, work in Community Development and apply necessarily thoughtful values and procedures in the process.

It has been a developing trend for quite some time for coordinators of big events to lessen the amount of rubbish and environmental impact on their sites. This is well evidenced in the book using profiles of Festivals such as the Glastonbury and Reading Festivals in the UK as well as Big Day Out and Peat's Ridge in Australia to name only a few. Other sites included are in the US, Denmark and Portugal so the considerations are not restricted to one terrain alone.

Bringing these concerns into one practical guide is a natural development of this trend to become more sustainable in business while being environmentally responsible and sustainable, and here, Megan Jones has done great work.

When you are dealing with groups of people that spiral into the tens of thousands all dwelling in the same area for any protracted length of time, taking stock of the way you do things saves a lot of money as well as time, energy, environmental impact, not to mention the comfort of that 85,000 strong crowd; and as time passes, if we are to see such things as Emissions Trading, increases of the price of water and energy resources, more Carbon Storing and other environmentally focused increases in costs, there need to be ways to practically implement the responsible checks and balances, you could almost call them ‘complementary therapies to your festival’. To use a simile, imagine the Festival’s good health were broken into the forces that give it life like it was a person, the finance to make it happen is its life-blood and the measures you take to sustain its life are the complementary therapies help keep it in good health.

Having this check list to go through, similar to the clip-board at the end of the hospital bed, you have something well thought through and clear at hand to double check and keep everything in balance I think it is brilliant and if I were trying to organise a huge event I would want it around to provide me with some of the wisdom it contains. Influencing the audience’s transport, socially responsible purchases, use of cleaning products in outdoor environments, recycling; everything I can imagine you’d need to know at this point in time has a credible representation here.

Jones describes it best in the Preface, calling it a journey towards sustainability with tips, production logistics, projects to undertake and practical solutions to common challenges I agree, I think it is a great practical guide to sustainable event management; an extremely useful book for students who would find it helpful in providing guidelines to sporting events, battle of the band events, music festivals and even school camps. So really it is safe to say it would be an excellent addition to all school and university libraries, as well as council and private libraries. Seriously, the standard set here is the highest I've seen in print.

David Jobling




31
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