Fresh Meat

On my recent visit to England my sister introduced me to the excellent Channel 4 sitcom Fresh Meat, which started in 2011 and follows the lives of six undergraduate students flatting together while they pursue their university studies in Manchester. It's by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, the creators of the long-running and much-loved sitcom Peep Show, and features a talented collection of young actors, many of whom are experienced performers. The material is genuinely funny, harking back to the heyday of The Young Ones, but the acting ability of the cast is also a huge asset, because it's always challenging to play comedic scenes to full effect. There are six core cast members in the first series:

Kingsley (Joe Thomas, The Inbetweeners): Perhaps the most 'normal' housemate, apart from the lamentable soul patch. Is hopelessly in love with flatmate Josie but appears powerless to break up with his actual girlfriend, Josie's mate Heather.

Josie (Kimberley Nixon, Cranford, Easy Virtue): Welsh dentistry student who appears hopelessly in love with housemate Kingsley but who repeatedly fails to break up with her boyfriend / fiance back in Cardiff. He's a heating engineer, you know. Josie has a bit of a rough time in series 2, what with the whole leaving the keys in the door and getting the house burgled.

J.P. (Jack Whitehall, Bad Education): Somewhat posh comedian Whitehall plays the out-and-out toff J.P., an outrageously self-entitled big-head with major bedroom ambitions that unsurprisingly prove fruitless. Usually. An expert on life in the regions.

Oregon (Charlotte Ritchie): Reinventing herself at university, Oregon fancies herself the worldly-wise campus sophisticate, which works out fine as long as the housemates don't discover the car her mum and dad bought her, that her real name isn't Oregon, or the fact that she's shagging her English professor.

Howard (Greg McHugh, Gary: Tank Commander): Socially maladroit Scottish geology student Howard is a bit older than the others, but absolutely no wiser. Is always irked when people assume he knows Tolkien back to front. Famed for his legendarily poor dress sense.

Vod (Zawe Ashton, Case Histories): The most streetwise and savvy housemate, Vod (a.k.a. Violet) is the type of cool that Oregon has always wanted to be. She takes loads of drugs, drinks and swears like a navvy, and pays little attention in class. The drug intake becomes a bit of a problem when Vod has to take a urine test to preserve her lifeline, the RAF Bursary; she has to borrow some of Josie's supposedly drug-free wee, which leads to the following scene in the testing clinic - one of my favourites from series 2:

Vod's test results

Vod (Zawe Ashton) at the clinic

VOD: (Enters) Er, Violet Nordstrom, here for my test results.

NURSE: There you go.

VOD: (Reads) Hang on, what's this?

NURSE: It's beta blockers.

VOD: Beta blockers? And I'm on them for...?

NURSE: Stress, and anxiety.

VOD: Oh yeah, I forgot I was on those. Obviously work then!  Heh. If I was to stop taking them, which I can do very very easily, can I do a quick re-test?

NURSE: The results have already been sent off I'm afraid - to the RAF, is it?

VOD: Oh come on, you can't do that! What about patient confidentiality? 

NURSE: Drugs tests can't be completely confidential. Somebody's got to see the results, otherwise there'd be no point doing them.

VOD: Ohh, they're gonna take my money away... (Angry) What am I gonna do without my money - sell my fuckin' kidneys?  You'd like that wouldn't you?!

NURSE: I don't think those beta blockers are working for you.

VOD: I'm not taking the beta blockers! It's not my urine; I couldn't give you my urine because I smoke absolutely tons of weed. 

NURSE: (Writes on Vod's file)

VOD: Don't write that down, it's confidential! I know I shouted it, but I shouted it in confidence!

'Well what did you expect in an opera, a happy ending?'

The past two Mondays at Film Society have been taken up with a two-part screening of Fritz Lang's five-hour Wagnerian epic from 1924, Die Nibelungen: Siegfried and Kriemhild's Revenge. Siegfried in particular is a classic of silent cinema, with its hugely impressive special effects including a real live dragon for the titular hero to vanquish (let's just say it doesn't stay alive very long). The story itself was popularised in modern times by Wagner's mammoth opera cycle, the third of the four instalments in Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), and depicts the life and death of Germany's national hero Siegfried - who was in turn based on the Norse legendary dragon-slaying hero Sigurd.

Lang dedicated his two mythic films to the German people, attempting to revive the battered national spirit following the struggle of the post World War I years in which Germany was forced to make large reparations to its foes for its wartime aggression. In a 1974 interview Lang argued that in making Siegfried and its companion film he was attempting to recapture some of Germany's lost optimism:

In 1974, in an interview with Focus on Film, Lang said: “I would like to make a remark about [From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film]. In my opinion this book is wrong about a lot of things and it has done a lot of damage, I feel, particularly among young people. When I made my films I always followed my imagination. By making ‘Die Nibelungen’ I wanted to show that Germany was searching for an ideal in her past, even during the horrible time after World War I in which the film was made. At that time in Berlin I remember seeing a poster on the street, which pictured a woman dancing with a skeleton. The caption read: ‘Berlin, you are dancing with Death.’ To counteract this pessimistic spirit I wanted to film the epic legend of Siegfried so that Germany could draw inspiration from her past, and not, as Mr Kracauer suggests, as a looking forward to the rise of a political figure like Hitler or some such stupid thing as that.” 

Robert A Armour made an interesting distinction in his book Fritz Lang when he noted, “Kracauer believes that the climate that produced Lang’s version of German myth in 1924 was the same climate that produced the Nazi movement soon afterwards. Perhaps, but the Nazis tended to use only the part of history they found to work to their advantage. [. . .] Both Lang and the Nazis were shaping the myth to their own versions, but the visions were different and so were the purposes.”

However impressive Lang's cinematic feat remains - and it is a stunning work of film-making - some folk will always want a condensed version. So instead of the 286 minute silent picture treatment, here's a 403-second taster to give you a feel for the epic proceedings: Chuck Jones' 1957 Bugs Bunny short, What's Opera, Doc? It's actually rather more focused on the plotline of another Nibelungen opera, Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), but I expect if you're clicking on a Bugs Bunny link you're probably not that fussy. 'Oh Bunhilda, you're so wovely!'

Rising to the surface of a holy island

Cook Strait, uncharacteristically peaceful on a warm winter's day, as viewed from the south-west corner of Island Bay, around lunchtime today. (Steak and cheese pie from the Blue Belle Cafe, thanks for asking). Legend has it that the first Maori waka to arrive in this bay landed on the island deftly and was assisted to a safe mooring by a fortunate swell, so the island was given the name Motutapuaranga - which is something like 'rising to the surface of a holy island' if I'm translating it correctly. The canoe later went on to settle Whakatane. The Maori name for the Island Bay valley is Paekawakawa.

Wakakura

(Ex-) HMNZS Wakakura, Queen's Wharf, Wellington, 5 July 2014

An HDR shot of the former HMNZS Wakakura, a Moa-class patrol boat that served in the Royal New Zealand Navy from 1985 until its decommissioning in 2007, and now resting at Queen's Wharf in Wellington. (Click to enlarge)

See also:
Blog: RNZN 70th anniversary, 2 October 2011
Blog: HMNZS Taupo, 15 November 2009
Blog: Nauticalia in Portsmouth, 12 April 2007

Boys and girls don't understand the Devil makes work for idle hands

The Godfathers, a London pub rawk / alternative band formed in 1985, perform their best-known song, the excellently-named 'Birth, School, Work, Death', at the Town & Country in 1988. On the back of the track's not one but two riffological guitar solos the single went top 40 in the US in that year, on the slightly worryingly titled Mainstream Rock chart. However, the Godfathers did not achieve a top 40 hit in their home country, or in New Zealand for that matter. Maybe it was the suits? But those solos, they're still the ticket.
 

The Town & Country in Kentish Town is now known as the Forum. Next week it will be hosting the kawaii overload of Japanese girl-pop-metal trio Babymetal (another excellent name!) and two nights of the briefly famous Boston group Extreme (of More Than Words notoriety) playing their 1990 album Pornograffitti. You should definitely examine the Babymetal concert video Gimme Choco in the link above - it's metaltastic, in a wonderfully saccharine highly choreographed J-pop kind of way. If that makes any sense.  

See also:
Music: David Bowie - TVC15, 21 May 2014
Music: Blake Babies - Out There, 16 May 2014

Music: Three golden greats by the Screaming Meemees, 9 May 2014

Music: Red Guitars - Good Technology, 5 October 2013

Looking forward to the Film Festival

This morning tickets for the 2014 NZ International Film Festival finally went on sale, thereby setting the scene for the highlight of the winter months in New Zealand. And if I'm being honest, it's probably the highlight of the whole year for me. I don't go wild seeing dozens of films, but I know that whatever I do see at the festival is likely to feature in my annual best-of lists - because while there are some quality offerings in cinemas throughout the rest of the year, it's always the Film Festival that digs up some of the best cinema experiences, and some of the work that doesn't make it to regular cinema screenings.

This year I'm seeing 16 films - unless, that is, I fill up some of the gaps in the calendar with a few extras. That's two more than last year. And I'm pretty satisfied with what's on offer in this year's festival. On initial viewing online the list of titles didn't seem particularly enthralling, but it's really the festival guide itself that sells the films. Clearly we festival fans are a sucker for a well-honed Manohla Darghis or Mark Kermode quote or a deft endorsement from Jo Randerson.

Anyway, here's my running list in chronological order. The one I'm most excited about is Florian Habicht's Pulp documentary - can't wait! And the director will be there at the Embassy to speak before the screening, which could be entertaining.

 

The Skeleton Twins (dir. Craig Johnson, USA, 2014, feat. Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Luke Wilson)




The Noble Family (dir. Gary Alazraki, Mexico, 2013, feat. Gonzalo Vega, Karla Souza, Luis Gerardo Mendez)
Nosotros los Nobles


Pulp: a Film about Life, Death & Supermarkets (dir. Florian Habicht, UK, 2014, feat. Jarvis Cocker)



Jimmy's Hall (dir. Ken Loach, UK/Ireland/France, 2014, feat. Barry Ward, Simone Kirby)

Diplomacy (dir. Volker Schlondorff, France/Germany, 2014, feat. Niels Arestrup, Andre Dussollier)
Diplomatie

The Double (dir. Richard Ayoade, UK, 2013, feat. Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska)



The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (dir. Dayne Goldfine & Dan Geller, USA, 2013)

Frank (dir. Lenny Abrahamson, Ireland/UK, 2014, feat. Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Fassbender)

The Salt of the Earth (dir. Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, France/Italy, 2014)
Le sel de la terre

Boyhood (dir. Richard Linklater, USA, 2014, feat. Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Ellar Coltrane)

The Lady from Shanghai (dir. Orson Welles, USA, 1947, feat. Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth)

Snowpiercer (dir. Bong Joon-ho, South Korea/USA/France, 2013, feat. Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Ed Harris)

National Gallery (dir.Frederick Wiseman, USA/France, 2014)

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet 3D (dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France/Canada, 2013, feat. Helena Bonham Carter)
L’extravagant voyage du jeune et prodigieux T.S. Spivet

Show People (dir. King Vidor, USA, 1928, feat. Marion Davies)

Wild Tales (dir. Damian Szifron, Argentina/Spain, 2014)
Relatos salvajes