The past week has seen one previously experienced 3D film experienced on 3D TV and one 3D film which was viewed last year as 2D now also seen as 3D on TV. There was one new film State of Grace in the sense that I have a vague memory of having seen before and which because of its subject I will review together with the first three episodes of season 5 Sopranos. I will however begin with a new 10 part Italian Detective Drama Inspector Montalbano which although set in Sicily there has only been a momentary reference of the Mafia and which I rate alongside the Swedish Wallander, the French Maigret and the Dutch Van der Valk, Hercule Poirot from Belgium and Bergerac from the Channel Island Jersey,
Montalbano is also an individualist like the others who demands of his subordinates but protects and furthers their situations. As with all similar characters his private life has its ups and downs and is affected but his work as well as his inclination to be a law unto himself,
He has a long term relationship with a woman who lives on the mainland and which he and his colleagues refer as Italy, regarding Sicily as separate, and the couple visit each other by plane when they can and which appears not often given they both have demanding occupations. They both find the situation has disadvantages as well as advantages with his work affecting their relationship when she makes a special visit and then she questions if she is more than a sex object. A child encountered in the first episode has a significant affect on their relationship and the bond that been established over the greater part of a decade.
In the first episode a man is shot on a ship while at sea I cannot remember just within or outside Italian waters with one ship involved Italian but the man a citizen of a North African country. Montalbano is happy for the case to pass to others while he concentrates on the murder of businessman. I sensed the wife was guilty at the outset although she blames the man’s alleged mistress. The wife has an alibi that she left for a visit early that day and returned on hearing the news on In fact Montalbano proves that although the wife said she left early to visit she had never arrived and he then establishes that she got off the bus and got on another returning home, killed the husband and then left. This emerges later in the episode
Understandably Montalbano first thought is to find the mistress and visits the enclave of fellow countrymen and only later would have noted that she was of the same nationality as the man murdered at sea and of the country where was a dispute over responsibility. Visiting the enclave he makes contact with an old woman friend of the alleged mistress who has a son and both are said to have gone to stay with a friend of the old woman.
However the young woman and her son do not arrive at the friend and her home is found ransacked. The old woman shows where the alleged mistress had hidden her bank book which contained over 100 million lire which puts the series before 1999 when the euro came in and when such an amount was worth £50000, still a lot of money but not fortune. Although for someone with the background and living conditions of the young woman it was.
I say alleged mistress because her relationship with the business man is never clarified to my satisfaction
Montalbano also come across some people complaining about a young boy stealing snacks crisps and chocolate from children in a one neighbourhood on his way to and from seeing the old woman. This is also to have significance.
After placing information on the media a man comes forward to say he had seen the woman in a car at a bus stop arguing with a man. He had considered approaching but had refrained although he made a note of the vehicle registration number. Apparently in Italy at that time it was difficult getting an immediate trace even for the police. Here any police officer can get an immediate trace through their onboard vehicle computer. In Italy it could take days if not weeks so Montalbano has to pull strings to get a response which he then finds the information is blocked because of national security reasons.
His female friend is spending a few days with him. And it is something which she says which makes him realise there is a connection between the woman is seen in the car but without the boy, and the boy stealing the food. His female friend accompanies and it she who is able to befriend the boy when he is found. They care for the boy and the child brings out the maternal feelings in the woman who is getting no younger and where she has reconciled with difficulty that for various reasons Montalbano is not going to marry her. However his position changes when he too befriends the boy who reciprocates the affection. It is the boy who explains that when his mother saw the man in the car driving up she told the boy to run into the adjacent field and hide. Then the boy recognises the mystery man who was killed on the boat. It is her mother’s brother!
Montalbano is able to work out from other inquires that the brother was a drug smuggler and that the businessman was a front operation for the smuggling. This is why the office was more of a flat with a bed than an office. This suggest that the young woman was his mistress but not conclusively because the money appears to have originated from the drug dealing, although again there are issues which also makes this unclear,
When she had seen the news of the death of her brother she had gone immediately to see the businessman at his home. I am not sure of the sequence of events but I think that she made two visits. The wife who knew about a relationship between the young woman and her husband, but not his involvement in the drug smuggling had been incensed to find the woman was in her home although it may have been coincidental and she had planned to kill him that very morning and blame the mistress. What is certain is that the young woman had been in that flat in the morning as her scent and found the body and panicked and feared for her life thinking it was the same killer who had killed her brother.
She had not taken the bank book with her in case she was caught and the money taken from her. It as all that she could give to her son with Montalbano fearing she was now dead. In order to smoke the villain out, now that he had been refused the known information about him from the car registration he put out a media story that the boy was missing having arranged for the boy to placed with the relatives of a policeman in the country. He tells his female friend to leave and the old woman to go and stay with her friends. Unfortunately before he can communicate this to old woman she leaves to check that the boy has not returned home. She is murdered but has not given up the location of the bank book. Montalbano takes the book to the Public Notary for its safekeeping in order that it should become part of his mother’s estate. Unfortunately this cannot happen until a body is found.
Montalbano uses further deceptions to bring the security forces to his door and he arranged for a camera to be place secretly. As anticipated a senior official arrives who admit their complicity in the affair aiding another government but unaware the intention was to eliminate witnesses. The assassin had already returned to the home country. Montalbano then uses the video tape to blackmail the official to finding the body. He breaks the man’s glasses so that he cannot be immediately followed and stopped before taking the tape into the safe keeping at his office. Fortunately the threat of public exposure works and an unrecognisable body is found washed up on the shore but here are personal effects which identify the woman as the boy’s mother. It is presumed that this is not the real body but a fix to ensure that the boy inherits his mother’s estate. I say fortunately because when he checks the tape he founds that he did not start the camera!
His woman friend reveals her frustration at not being married and not having children is affected by the boy who has reciprocated their affection and says he wants to be with them. The programme ends with impression that the couple are to marry and adopt the boy.
It is during the second episode yesterday evening that Montalbano goes to visit the boy who appears to be afraid of him. The boy explains that he is very happy in his new home especially as he has ”brothers” Although torn in his feelings the boy wants to stay. When Montalbano tells his woman friend this she is very angry and thinks this is either him trying to get out of his commitment or that the foster family are trying to take the child away from her. As the episode ends she makes a secret visit to see the boy and had decided to leave without seeing Montalbano. What happened is the boy had been happy to see her and said he loved her but also said he wanted to stay and she realised this was true and that it was an important outcome. She is devastated but had been persuaded by the policeman’s brother of the family to see Montalbano and explain what had happened. She is too upset to stay and leaves. It is possible at that moment to believe that the relationship has or will end especially as the possibility of an exciting new relationship with a young woman emerges. What may be an answer is a feature of the second episode.
In the second episode Montalbano is a car passenger travelling at speed on their way to the funeral of a colleague when to avoid a chicken in the road they hit a parked car by a large gated property They discover that the property belongs to a wealthy family in Bologna which his wife is renovating, staying at a hotel in Sicily. The vehicle is registered to her so it is puzzling that she has not been in contact. The police receive an anonymous call that there has been a murder and they investigate and find that the woman naked and strangled. Montalbano covers her body with a bathroom which he had found laying on the bathroom floor. There is a jurisdiction problem because of the location of the property and the situation is supervised by someone, I believe a presiding judge, where Montalbano has no respect and the man dislikes him and takes him off the case and criticises he interfered with the crime scene by placing the bathrobe over the body. In this story there are several strands which take time to come together to resolve the position.
He believes the evidence points to a crime of passion, with the husband of the woman the first suspect for consideration. It emerges that the husband became impotent because of an operation and made the marriage of convenience in order to stop speculation. His wife had male friends to satisfy her passions which she was frank about to her husband and he loved her like a daughter.
The woman has a friend in Sicily, a school teacher of physics who is also beautiful and who tells Montalbano that she remains unmarried by choice because she has not met the right man. At first she is defensive about her friend but later she admits her knowledge of the situation and I believe it is she who provides the name and information about the latest man who Montalbano contacts by phone, and Art dealer in Bologna and says he as an alibi.
The main who is arranging the renovations is also a suspect and in particular his son who has learning difficulties and followed the woman as a puppy. The young man is shot dead by the local police when they go to arrest him living in a cave. They claim he had a bomb in his hand, a grenade. Montalbano is suspicious of this. The father and son were not registered gun owners and therefore they could not claim the man was armed. Montalbano insists on seeing the grenade which is of the Second World War and is aware that there is a museum of weapons at the police station. It begins to emerge that there is a connection between the anonymous call about the death, the killing of the boy and the mafia when Montalbano is sent a tape showing the head of flying squad plant the grenade to obtain clear finger prints. Montalbano visits and urges the police chief to act to prevent a scandal unfolding which affects everyone.
He has visited a woman to apologise for not being able to attend the funeral and she mentions that an internationally acclaimed violinist lives up stairs that no longer goes out but plays concerts for her. The episode has Violin in its title and Montalbano was surprised at the crime scene that an expensive looking violin case was opened when it was established that the woman did not play. The story emerges that the woman had passed by the accommodation one day and had heard violin playing and called and asked if the musician would given an opinion about a violin she had found at the property. It was an important instrument which he had arranged to repair and then to play. He had given the woman with her knowledge a good violin but not one of significant value. This suggests she was suspicions of her lover’s interest in the instrument.
The violinist explains that he has petite mal which had become worse and fearing an attack during a concert he had given up performing, except for his neighbours.
Despite providing an alibi Montalbano is able to establish that the woman had gone to the airport to pick up the lover and he had murdered. The episode opens with the woman late at night calling at a garage on her way to collect him.
He had significant gambling debts to the mafia and learning that she had a valuable violin he had murdered the woman and replaced the violin with a factory made one. His actions had been witnessed by the young man with learning difficulties who had then been killed by the police. He had developed a bad foot which had swollen so he had removed a shoe which was had held when he emerged from the case as requested.
At the police station there is a uniformed officer who appears clumsy and who Montalbano and his colleagues find a nuisance as well as a joke. When they are asked to send someone on a course to learn about computers he appears the ideal candidate. When he returns he presents his certificate which indicates he was the best student on the course and which appears to have been run on the mainland for forces throughout Italy. They are surprised and impressed by the achievement and see their colleague in a new light.
During the episodes there is contact between Montalbano and the attractive teacher who leaves a message at one point to say she has information which could of assistance. They live close to each other in a coastal town and she calls one evening to see him with the information. He does not invite her to stay because he is busy working on papers related to the case but before she departs she indicates she is open to his calling on her at anytime for anything signalling that she has found her man. As the case ends and his relationship with his long term partner at a distance has reached crisis point because they both appreciate that the boy has found somewhere he wants to stay, Montalbano seriously considers taking up the offer of the young woman and drives to where the teacher lives. We here his thoughts that the case had been one full of mistakes. He drives away deciding that to call however inviting would have been another mistake. He contacts his long term partner to say that he would like to come and visit that weekend. She is pleased with the news and will pick him up at the airport.
I wrote the following a day or so after Friday January 22nd 2010 when I watched the film Avatar at the 12.40 Cineworld Bolden first showing where my seat voucher was accepted plus £1.80 for the 3D and 80p for the special glasses which I kept.
“The film has been long in the making with an initial script
Held back when the Director James Cameron of Titanic appreciate that the technology was not yet available to realise the project as conceived. The film having reputedly cost half a billion dollars to produce and already raised a one billion presently running second to Titanic. Two sequels are already planned with the usual spin offs of books, toys, including computer games DVD’s special Director’s editions and so on. Others will also seek ways to use the new technology and Sky has announced it is bringing 3D to TV.
Two years later almost to the day I celebrated the first months of my 3D TV with a showing of Avatar on the Sky channel, something I had been looking forward to since the purchase. I was anxious to see if my original reactions to the film remained constant. I have not been to see a film in 3D theatre since acquiring the TV set so am unable to judge if the assessment made by others that with active lens glasses the TV process is better, I hope to make the judgement over the next week.
“Lasting two and half hour you are projected into a different world, actually onto a different planet and a conventional story of anti US militarism, colonialism and international corporation capitalism versus environmentalism and nature. Only the bankers were absent although greedy shareholders were not.
The concept was brilliant. A government supported with the latest weaponry mining corporation was moving over a planet stealing essential minerals by force of arms and exterminating the natives if they proved unwilling to get out of the way, but like the USA did to native Americans, the Brits to Africa and Asia, Australians to the aborigines, the Spanish to middle and Latin America, the Romans to Europe and the Middle East, China is doing now. The Russians and Germans were more ideological wanting totalitarian domination as well as economic wealth, as were the Catholics and the Muslims. And as with all conquering and exploiting races you begin with offering colourful beads and education. The brilliant part was create a creature with the same physical characteristics as the natives, a blue skinned lithe humanoid with a mane and tail and of great agility in terms of climbing and crossing the narrowest of pathways suspended at fantastical heights, but controlled by a human being who experienced everything that happened while encased in a communications pod within the breathable confines of the space station. The atmosphere on the planet is such that without breathing apparatus you not survive within a few minutes.”
“Sigourney Weaver is the Chief Scientist heading the contact project who before the film story commences had failed in an attempt to persuade the people to cooperate with the exploitation and semi destruction of their planet by through her own Avatar making contact and living with one of the tribes and learning each other’s languages. The tribes are primitive in wearing the briefest of clothing for functional purposes and film audiences, and use bows and arrow for hunting and protection from hostile creatures with which they share the planet. However they are sophisticated in their understanding of nature and its interconnectivity. They have a unique ability to bond with creatures, such as a form of horses and a prehistoric type of bird. They are also able to connect with each other and their ancestors through a special kind of tree and they have respect for all life so that when they kill a creature for food or in self defence they and give thanks and mourn the passing. I was reminded by the work of James Burke and his book Connections.”
The enterprise is run by a weak chief executive which is unlikely, and the worst kind of redneck general which is again unlikely, and the weaponry which includes large robotic vehicles for individuals and the helicopters and gun craft are all heavy metalled and cumbersome which is again unlikely. The story line is laboured and predictable and the script is basic. Some of the action sequences were self indulgent attempts to show what the latest film technological advances can do.
Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington, is a loyal American serviceman who has lost the use of his legs in a campaign and comes out to the planet to replace his twin brother who had been trained to use the Avatar already in preparation. He has no difficulty in accepting the request to keep the General constantly updated with intelligence about the tribe to which he becomes attached and he also quickly gains the confidence of the science director. His first trip into the new world nearly ends quickly in disaster but he is rescued by the daughter of the head of the tribe after he appears to have a special connection with the environment and about which she is anxious to report to her parents. Her brother and the man she is expected to mate are hostile to the new arrival especially when the mother who is a kind of spiritual mentor assigns her daughter to educate the Jake Avatar in their ways. He provides the kind of entree which the science director and the military have been seeking and both give him considerable leeway during a three month period to persuade the tribe to move to a different area as the corporation wants to mine the minerals which happen to be located under their homeland a giant tree within which they live. In order not to be under the daily control of the military and the corporation executives Sigourney moves the control centre for herself and Jake onto one of the floating mountains which is another of cinematic tricks in the film. Understandably working on daily basis in such proximity with the daughter of the tribal leader they become attracted and as is often the position of those who work undercover with a group or cult for any length of time they begin to identify with their comrades vales and objectives rather than retaining those of their employers or their own culture.”
“The situation comes to a head when the corporation starts to move onto the tribes immediate homeland without notice when their plea to be allowed to persuade the tribe to move is agreed but quickly fails, the General moves in to destroy the tree and then when the tribe supported by others resists, the General gets permission to bomb them and their home land especially the sacred tree of their ancestors. There is then a dramatic encounter between the highly organised and equipped military forces and the guerrilla forces led by the Avatar who has admitted his original purpose and been ostracised until he manages to bond and harness the greatest bird in the sky as a symbol that he has the will and the ability to help them combat the corporation. There is then a battle of skill and wits in which the tribe are supported by creatures previously their enemies. When Sigourney is fatally wounded there is an attempt to transfer her psyche into the Avatar to make it an independent functioning member of the society but she is too weak although her being is incorporated into the tree. After they have successfully beaten the earth force in battle and driven back to their dying planet Jake successfully transmute from his disabled body in a fully functioning member of the tribe as the consort of the leader’s daughter.”
In terms of the story I will add that that the indigenous people on the planet are not only taller than human beings but morally superior despite the gulf in technology and weaponry. Therefore the same arguments about the conflict because of the need for one theoretical advanced economic society over energy can bee applied to what is happened on the earth now between China and Africa the USA and South America, Europe and Libya, US and UK and Iraq, Iran and North Korea etc.
I also thought the visual trickery of 3D as excellent again and more effective in the close up experience of the Television
I was tempted to see the 3D version of How to train your Dragon after that it was highly regarded at the time of its release and went to receive several Oscar nominations as well as hatful in the animation industry awards. I then saw the film Sky’s premier release in June of last year as 2D and yesterday I watched the 3D. The film was a financial success grossing half a billion over three times the original budget. The film is not suitable for the very young but having said this it is designed as a counter culture for those films advocating violence and macho toughguyness. The film is set on a mythical Viking Island inhabited by a wide range of colourful dragons that are regarded as the great enemy and children of both sexes are brought learning how to become dragon fighters and dragon killers. The problem is that killing creatures does not appeal to the son of the village chief, Stoick the Vast. Hiccup, the name says it all, tries to design a machine which will bring down a dragon to prove his worth to his father who treats him with contempt.
One evening he believes he has hit a dragon flying over and goes out to search. The following day he finds the creature with a damaged tail which prevents flying. Given the opportunity kill the creature he finds that he cannot do so and gradually makes friends bringing the animal some food. He searches a book about dragons and work out how to provide a replacing tail wing to enable it to fly with the consequence he is able to fly with the creature. He keeps this secret from the rest of the village but uses information from the training of the creature to control the various small dragons used to help the young people in their training as dragon killers. The most successful of these will be given the honour of killing one of the capture dragons before the assembled village in the dragon arena.
On one of his flying missions he discovers that all the dragons on the Island are under the control of a super dragon that lives inside a great mountain and their function is to keep the creature supplied with food. They have no interest in attacking human other than in self defence. When he is attacked by another dragon his dragon comes to his aid and is captured by the village and against the pleas of Hiccup his father takes the dragon with the combined Viking force to locate the great mountain and the monster animal. The consequence is that the giant dragon become free and burns the Viking ships and generally threatens to kill the forces on the ground. They are saved by Hiccup and the other youngsters who have been quickly taught to also fly some sympathetic dragons and keep the monster busy until Hiccup is able to free Toothless. By some skilful and dangerous manoeuvres the two manage to get the monster to destroy itself but only with the result of Hiccup falling into the inferno created and Toothless trying to rescue him. The Viking chief finds the dragon badly injured and no sign of his son until the dragon reveals his boy injured but alive cradled within the wing of the creature. The picture ends with dragons and Vikings living in harmony and teenage Astrid and Hiccup becoming more than just good friends. Good fun for a family.
The 3D effects considerably enhance enjoyment of the film.
Montalbano is also an individualist like the others who demands of his subordinates but protects and furthers their situations. As with all similar characters his private life has its ups and downs and is affected but his work as well as his inclination to be a law unto himself,
He has a long term relationship with a woman who lives on the mainland and which he and his colleagues refer as Italy, regarding Sicily as separate, and the couple visit each other by plane when they can and which appears not often given they both have demanding occupations. They both find the situation has disadvantages as well as advantages with his work affecting their relationship when she makes a special visit and then she questions if she is more than a sex object. A child encountered in the first episode has a significant affect on their relationship and the bond that been established over the greater part of a decade.
In the first episode a man is shot on a ship while at sea I cannot remember just within or outside Italian waters with one ship involved Italian but the man a citizen of a North African country. Montalbano is happy for the case to pass to others while he concentrates on the murder of businessman. I sensed the wife was guilty at the outset although she blames the man’s alleged mistress. The wife has an alibi that she left for a visit early that day and returned on hearing the news on In fact Montalbano proves that although the wife said she left early to visit she had never arrived and he then establishes that she got off the bus and got on another returning home, killed the husband and then left. This emerges later in the episode
Understandably Montalbano first thought is to find the mistress and visits the enclave of fellow countrymen and only later would have noted that she was of the same nationality as the man murdered at sea and of the country where was a dispute over responsibility. Visiting the enclave he makes contact with an old woman friend of the alleged mistress who has a son and both are said to have gone to stay with a friend of the old woman.
However the young woman and her son do not arrive at the friend and her home is found ransacked. The old woman shows where the alleged mistress had hidden her bank book which contained over 100 million lire which puts the series before 1999 when the euro came in and when such an amount was worth £50000, still a lot of money but not fortune. Although for someone with the background and living conditions of the young woman it was.
I say alleged mistress because her relationship with the business man is never clarified to my satisfaction
Montalbano also come across some people complaining about a young boy stealing snacks crisps and chocolate from children in a one neighbourhood on his way to and from seeing the old woman. This is also to have significance.
After placing information on the media a man comes forward to say he had seen the woman in a car at a bus stop arguing with a man. He had considered approaching but had refrained although he made a note of the vehicle registration number. Apparently in Italy at that time it was difficult getting an immediate trace even for the police. Here any police officer can get an immediate trace through their onboard vehicle computer. In Italy it could take days if not weeks so Montalbano has to pull strings to get a response which he then finds the information is blocked because of national security reasons.
His female friend is spending a few days with him. And it is something which she says which makes him realise there is a connection between the woman is seen in the car but without the boy, and the boy stealing the food. His female friend accompanies and it she who is able to befriend the boy when he is found. They care for the boy and the child brings out the maternal feelings in the woman who is getting no younger and where she has reconciled with difficulty that for various reasons Montalbano is not going to marry her. However his position changes when he too befriends the boy who reciprocates the affection. It is the boy who explains that when his mother saw the man in the car driving up she told the boy to run into the adjacent field and hide. Then the boy recognises the mystery man who was killed on the boat. It is her mother’s brother!
Montalbano is able to work out from other inquires that the brother was a drug smuggler and that the businessman was a front operation for the smuggling. This is why the office was more of a flat with a bed than an office. This suggest that the young woman was his mistress but not conclusively because the money appears to have originated from the drug dealing, although again there are issues which also makes this unclear,
When she had seen the news of the death of her brother she had gone immediately to see the businessman at his home. I am not sure of the sequence of events but I think that she made two visits. The wife who knew about a relationship between the young woman and her husband, but not his involvement in the drug smuggling had been incensed to find the woman was in her home although it may have been coincidental and she had planned to kill him that very morning and blame the mistress. What is certain is that the young woman had been in that flat in the morning as her scent and found the body and panicked and feared for her life thinking it was the same killer who had killed her brother.
She had not taken the bank book with her in case she was caught and the money taken from her. It as all that she could give to her son with Montalbano fearing she was now dead. In order to smoke the villain out, now that he had been refused the known information about him from the car registration he put out a media story that the boy was missing having arranged for the boy to placed with the relatives of a policeman in the country. He tells his female friend to leave and the old woman to go and stay with her friends. Unfortunately before he can communicate this to old woman she leaves to check that the boy has not returned home. She is murdered but has not given up the location of the bank book. Montalbano takes the book to the Public Notary for its safekeeping in order that it should become part of his mother’s estate. Unfortunately this cannot happen until a body is found.
Montalbano uses further deceptions to bring the security forces to his door and he arranged for a camera to be place secretly. As anticipated a senior official arrives who admit their complicity in the affair aiding another government but unaware the intention was to eliminate witnesses. The assassin had already returned to the home country. Montalbano then uses the video tape to blackmail the official to finding the body. He breaks the man’s glasses so that he cannot be immediately followed and stopped before taking the tape into the safe keeping at his office. Fortunately the threat of public exposure works and an unrecognisable body is found washed up on the shore but here are personal effects which identify the woman as the boy’s mother. It is presumed that this is not the real body but a fix to ensure that the boy inherits his mother’s estate. I say fortunately because when he checks the tape he founds that he did not start the camera!
His woman friend reveals her frustration at not being married and not having children is affected by the boy who has reciprocated their affection and says he wants to be with them. The programme ends with impression that the couple are to marry and adopt the boy.
It is during the second episode yesterday evening that Montalbano goes to visit the boy who appears to be afraid of him. The boy explains that he is very happy in his new home especially as he has ”brothers” Although torn in his feelings the boy wants to stay. When Montalbano tells his woman friend this she is very angry and thinks this is either him trying to get out of his commitment or that the foster family are trying to take the child away from her. As the episode ends she makes a secret visit to see the boy and had decided to leave without seeing Montalbano. What happened is the boy had been happy to see her and said he loved her but also said he wanted to stay and she realised this was true and that it was an important outcome. She is devastated but had been persuaded by the policeman’s brother of the family to see Montalbano and explain what had happened. She is too upset to stay and leaves. It is possible at that moment to believe that the relationship has or will end especially as the possibility of an exciting new relationship with a young woman emerges. What may be an answer is a feature of the second episode.
In the second episode Montalbano is a car passenger travelling at speed on their way to the funeral of a colleague when to avoid a chicken in the road they hit a parked car by a large gated property They discover that the property belongs to a wealthy family in Bologna which his wife is renovating, staying at a hotel in Sicily. The vehicle is registered to her so it is puzzling that she has not been in contact. The police receive an anonymous call that there has been a murder and they investigate and find that the woman naked and strangled. Montalbano covers her body with a bathroom which he had found laying on the bathroom floor. There is a jurisdiction problem because of the location of the property and the situation is supervised by someone, I believe a presiding judge, where Montalbano has no respect and the man dislikes him and takes him off the case and criticises he interfered with the crime scene by placing the bathrobe over the body. In this story there are several strands which take time to come together to resolve the position.
He believes the evidence points to a crime of passion, with the husband of the woman the first suspect for consideration. It emerges that the husband became impotent because of an operation and made the marriage of convenience in order to stop speculation. His wife had male friends to satisfy her passions which she was frank about to her husband and he loved her like a daughter.
The woman has a friend in Sicily, a school teacher of physics who is also beautiful and who tells Montalbano that she remains unmarried by choice because she has not met the right man. At first she is defensive about her friend but later she admits her knowledge of the situation and I believe it is she who provides the name and information about the latest man who Montalbano contacts by phone, and Art dealer in Bologna and says he as an alibi.
The main who is arranging the renovations is also a suspect and in particular his son who has learning difficulties and followed the woman as a puppy. The young man is shot dead by the local police when they go to arrest him living in a cave. They claim he had a bomb in his hand, a grenade. Montalbano is suspicious of this. The father and son were not registered gun owners and therefore they could not claim the man was armed. Montalbano insists on seeing the grenade which is of the Second World War and is aware that there is a museum of weapons at the police station. It begins to emerge that there is a connection between the anonymous call about the death, the killing of the boy and the mafia when Montalbano is sent a tape showing the head of flying squad plant the grenade to obtain clear finger prints. Montalbano visits and urges the police chief to act to prevent a scandal unfolding which affects everyone.
He has visited a woman to apologise for not being able to attend the funeral and she mentions that an internationally acclaimed violinist lives up stairs that no longer goes out but plays concerts for her. The episode has Violin in its title and Montalbano was surprised at the crime scene that an expensive looking violin case was opened when it was established that the woman did not play. The story emerges that the woman had passed by the accommodation one day and had heard violin playing and called and asked if the musician would given an opinion about a violin she had found at the property. It was an important instrument which he had arranged to repair and then to play. He had given the woman with her knowledge a good violin but not one of significant value. This suggests she was suspicions of her lover’s interest in the instrument.
The violinist explains that he has petite mal which had become worse and fearing an attack during a concert he had given up performing, except for his neighbours.
Despite providing an alibi Montalbano is able to establish that the woman had gone to the airport to pick up the lover and he had murdered. The episode opens with the woman late at night calling at a garage on her way to collect him.
He had significant gambling debts to the mafia and learning that she had a valuable violin he had murdered the woman and replaced the violin with a factory made one. His actions had been witnessed by the young man with learning difficulties who had then been killed by the police. He had developed a bad foot which had swollen so he had removed a shoe which was had held when he emerged from the case as requested.
At the police station there is a uniformed officer who appears clumsy and who Montalbano and his colleagues find a nuisance as well as a joke. When they are asked to send someone on a course to learn about computers he appears the ideal candidate. When he returns he presents his certificate which indicates he was the best student on the course and which appears to have been run on the mainland for forces throughout Italy. They are surprised and impressed by the achievement and see their colleague in a new light.
During the episodes there is contact between Montalbano and the attractive teacher who leaves a message at one point to say she has information which could of assistance. They live close to each other in a coastal town and she calls one evening to see him with the information. He does not invite her to stay because he is busy working on papers related to the case but before she departs she indicates she is open to his calling on her at anytime for anything signalling that she has found her man. As the case ends and his relationship with his long term partner at a distance has reached crisis point because they both appreciate that the boy has found somewhere he wants to stay, Montalbano seriously considers taking up the offer of the young woman and drives to where the teacher lives. We here his thoughts that the case had been one full of mistakes. He drives away deciding that to call however inviting would have been another mistake. He contacts his long term partner to say that he would like to come and visit that weekend. She is pleased with the news and will pick him up at the airport.
I wrote the following a day or so after Friday January 22nd 2010 when I watched the film Avatar at the 12.40 Cineworld Bolden first showing where my seat voucher was accepted plus £1.80 for the 3D and 80p for the special glasses which I kept.
“The film has been long in the making with an initial script
Held back when the Director James Cameron of Titanic appreciate that the technology was not yet available to realise the project as conceived. The film having reputedly cost half a billion dollars to produce and already raised a one billion presently running second to Titanic. Two sequels are already planned with the usual spin offs of books, toys, including computer games DVD’s special Director’s editions and so on. Others will also seek ways to use the new technology and Sky has announced it is bringing 3D to TV.
Two years later almost to the day I celebrated the first months of my 3D TV with a showing of Avatar on the Sky channel, something I had been looking forward to since the purchase. I was anxious to see if my original reactions to the film remained constant. I have not been to see a film in 3D theatre since acquiring the TV set so am unable to judge if the assessment made by others that with active lens glasses the TV process is better, I hope to make the judgement over the next week.
“Lasting two and half hour you are projected into a different world, actually onto a different planet and a conventional story of anti US militarism, colonialism and international corporation capitalism versus environmentalism and nature. Only the bankers were absent although greedy shareholders were not.
The concept was brilliant. A government supported with the latest weaponry mining corporation was moving over a planet stealing essential minerals by force of arms and exterminating the natives if they proved unwilling to get out of the way, but like the USA did to native Americans, the Brits to Africa and Asia, Australians to the aborigines, the Spanish to middle and Latin America, the Romans to Europe and the Middle East, China is doing now. The Russians and Germans were more ideological wanting totalitarian domination as well as economic wealth, as were the Catholics and the Muslims. And as with all conquering and exploiting races you begin with offering colourful beads and education. The brilliant part was create a creature with the same physical characteristics as the natives, a blue skinned lithe humanoid with a mane and tail and of great agility in terms of climbing and crossing the narrowest of pathways suspended at fantastical heights, but controlled by a human being who experienced everything that happened while encased in a communications pod within the breathable confines of the space station. The atmosphere on the planet is such that without breathing apparatus you not survive within a few minutes.”
“Sigourney Weaver is the Chief Scientist heading the contact project who before the film story commences had failed in an attempt to persuade the people to cooperate with the exploitation and semi destruction of their planet by through her own Avatar making contact and living with one of the tribes and learning each other’s languages. The tribes are primitive in wearing the briefest of clothing for functional purposes and film audiences, and use bows and arrow for hunting and protection from hostile creatures with which they share the planet. However they are sophisticated in their understanding of nature and its interconnectivity. They have a unique ability to bond with creatures, such as a form of horses and a prehistoric type of bird. They are also able to connect with each other and their ancestors through a special kind of tree and they have respect for all life so that when they kill a creature for food or in self defence they and give thanks and mourn the passing. I was reminded by the work of James Burke and his book Connections.”
The enterprise is run by a weak chief executive which is unlikely, and the worst kind of redneck general which is again unlikely, and the weaponry which includes large robotic vehicles for individuals and the helicopters and gun craft are all heavy metalled and cumbersome which is again unlikely. The story line is laboured and predictable and the script is basic. Some of the action sequences were self indulgent attempts to show what the latest film technological advances can do.
Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington, is a loyal American serviceman who has lost the use of his legs in a campaign and comes out to the planet to replace his twin brother who had been trained to use the Avatar already in preparation. He has no difficulty in accepting the request to keep the General constantly updated with intelligence about the tribe to which he becomes attached and he also quickly gains the confidence of the science director. His first trip into the new world nearly ends quickly in disaster but he is rescued by the daughter of the head of the tribe after he appears to have a special connection with the environment and about which she is anxious to report to her parents. Her brother and the man she is expected to mate are hostile to the new arrival especially when the mother who is a kind of spiritual mentor assigns her daughter to educate the Jake Avatar in their ways. He provides the kind of entree which the science director and the military have been seeking and both give him considerable leeway during a three month period to persuade the tribe to move to a different area as the corporation wants to mine the minerals which happen to be located under their homeland a giant tree within which they live. In order not to be under the daily control of the military and the corporation executives Sigourney moves the control centre for herself and Jake onto one of the floating mountains which is another of cinematic tricks in the film. Understandably working on daily basis in such proximity with the daughter of the tribal leader they become attracted and as is often the position of those who work undercover with a group or cult for any length of time they begin to identify with their comrades vales and objectives rather than retaining those of their employers or their own culture.”
“The situation comes to a head when the corporation starts to move onto the tribes immediate homeland without notice when their plea to be allowed to persuade the tribe to move is agreed but quickly fails, the General moves in to destroy the tree and then when the tribe supported by others resists, the General gets permission to bomb them and their home land especially the sacred tree of their ancestors. There is then a dramatic encounter between the highly organised and equipped military forces and the guerrilla forces led by the Avatar who has admitted his original purpose and been ostracised until he manages to bond and harness the greatest bird in the sky as a symbol that he has the will and the ability to help them combat the corporation. There is then a battle of skill and wits in which the tribe are supported by creatures previously their enemies. When Sigourney is fatally wounded there is an attempt to transfer her psyche into the Avatar to make it an independent functioning member of the society but she is too weak although her being is incorporated into the tree. After they have successfully beaten the earth force in battle and driven back to their dying planet Jake successfully transmute from his disabled body in a fully functioning member of the tribe as the consort of the leader’s daughter.”
In terms of the story I will add that that the indigenous people on the planet are not only taller than human beings but morally superior despite the gulf in technology and weaponry. Therefore the same arguments about the conflict because of the need for one theoretical advanced economic society over energy can bee applied to what is happened on the earth now between China and Africa the USA and South America, Europe and Libya, US and UK and Iraq, Iran and North Korea etc.
I also thought the visual trickery of 3D as excellent again and more effective in the close up experience of the Television
I was tempted to see the 3D version of How to train your Dragon after that it was highly regarded at the time of its release and went to receive several Oscar nominations as well as hatful in the animation industry awards. I then saw the film Sky’s premier release in June of last year as 2D and yesterday I watched the 3D. The film was a financial success grossing half a billion over three times the original budget. The film is not suitable for the very young but having said this it is designed as a counter culture for those films advocating violence and macho toughguyness. The film is set on a mythical Viking Island inhabited by a wide range of colourful dragons that are regarded as the great enemy and children of both sexes are brought learning how to become dragon fighters and dragon killers. The problem is that killing creatures does not appeal to the son of the village chief, Stoick the Vast. Hiccup, the name says it all, tries to design a machine which will bring down a dragon to prove his worth to his father who treats him with contempt.
One evening he believes he has hit a dragon flying over and goes out to search. The following day he finds the creature with a damaged tail which prevents flying. Given the opportunity kill the creature he finds that he cannot do so and gradually makes friends bringing the animal some food. He searches a book about dragons and work out how to provide a replacing tail wing to enable it to fly with the consequence he is able to fly with the creature. He keeps this secret from the rest of the village but uses information from the training of the creature to control the various small dragons used to help the young people in their training as dragon killers. The most successful of these will be given the honour of killing one of the capture dragons before the assembled village in the dragon arena.
On one of his flying missions he discovers that all the dragons on the Island are under the control of a super dragon that lives inside a great mountain and their function is to keep the creature supplied with food. They have no interest in attacking human other than in self defence. When he is attacked by another dragon his dragon comes to his aid and is captured by the village and against the pleas of Hiccup his father takes the dragon with the combined Viking force to locate the great mountain and the monster animal. The consequence is that the giant dragon become free and burns the Viking ships and generally threatens to kill the forces on the ground. They are saved by Hiccup and the other youngsters who have been quickly taught to also fly some sympathetic dragons and keep the monster busy until Hiccup is able to free Toothless. By some skilful and dangerous manoeuvres the two manage to get the monster to destroy itself but only with the result of Hiccup falling into the inferno created and Toothless trying to rescue him. The Viking chief finds the dragon badly injured and no sign of his son until the dragon reveals his boy injured but alive cradled within the wing of the creature. The picture ends with dragons and Vikings living in harmony and teenage Astrid and Hiccup becoming more than just good friends. Good fun for a family.
The 3D effects considerably enhance enjoyment of the film.
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