2401 AIDA 1989,2009, and 2012

I have experienced the Opera AIDA, live, three times although twice via a cinema relay from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. In 2009 and Saturday 16th December 2012. The other occasion was a large arena production at Earls Court in the 1980’s where we were so far from the stage at the back of the stalls that we quickly moved to the side with a view over looking the huge set from one side.

In 2009 I wrote  that “Yesterday I had one of the great cultural experiences of a lifetime, visually stunning, musical perfection and I still have the tingles from the rich power of the Metropolitan Opera House New York production  of Aida, relayed to the Tyneside Film Theatre in HD.

Then today I bought a subscription to the Library of previous productions, some 200, and watched the original production of Aida in 1989 with Dolora Zajick playing the same role as Princess Amneris as she had two decades later, yesterday.“

Now to these experiences I can add the 2012 production from the Met, viewed at the Cineworld Bolden at half the cost of that charged in Newcastle.

As a young man I had purchased an extended Play 45 record of the Rome Opera Chorus with the Triumphant march from Aida and after the mass audience performance at Earls Court had come to regard the opera as a spectacle with great interaction between powerful singers and a large chorus. It had taken  several decades to appreciate that this is a masterpiece for soloists and primarily a tragic triangle between two women and the man they  love.

This was a point well made by the new conductor at the Met Fabio Luisio in one of several interviews before and during the latest production which had two similar looking women with extraordinarily moving and powerful voices, the worldly experienced Russian Mezzo Soprano, Olga Borodina as the Princess and the mysterious Liudmyla Monastryrska in her debut role  outside the Latvian Opera House in the Ukraine, where she had toiled as a lead for many years unrecognised until now by the rest of the operatic world. Nothing appears to be published about this woman except that she had kept in contact with her singing teacher who was now ninety two. She needed the help of an interpreter for her brief interview..

The Opera is set in ancient Egypt as information reaches the court that the Ethiopians have invaded the country and Radamés, a favoured soldier, is entrusted with the responsibility of leading the army to drive out the enemy. The complication is that he in is love with Aida the Ethiopian slave assistant of the Princess  Amneris, the King’s daughter and heir, while the Princess is in love with him. The Princess urges her father to appoint Radames to defend the nation although she has suspicions that  her slave is also in love with her hero.

In addition to the three live performances I have also been fortunate to view via a Met Internet Subscription the 1989 production when the Princess was also played by Dolora Zajick, American by birth and who came to international attention as a top level performer with this role when in her late thirties and her voice with its power and range had fully developed. Then she also looked the passionate and jealous young woman so that in 2009, approaching her sixtieth year with the operatic frame to match, the first reaction was to be concerned at a portrayal of what is written in the libretto as a young Princes, especially if one did not know that she has sung the role to acclaim in a score of productions and some 250 performances and that it remains as strong and yet beautiful with a remarkable range. Her solo performances are breathtaking and rightly received the greatest applause in both performances experiences and applause which broke out in the cinema which is something I have not previously experienced since my childhood.

For the 2009 production the part of Radamés was played  by Johan Botha, a South African leading tenor who  has the build to match AIDA and Amneris and who then 54 was regarded as one of the great tenors of the present generation. However he cannot be compared with the 1989 production where the part was played by Placido Domingo then 50 and one of the most well known and loved tenor in the world, especially since the death of Pavarotti. Domingo has sung 128 roles, more than any other tenor, and opened the Metropolitan season 21 times, four more than Caruso.  In 1989 Aprile Millo played Aida when she was only 39 and proved she had a voice to match that of Domingo and Krajick and all three had a suburb dramatic presence which is often lacking in the productions which tour provincial theatres. The 2009 performance of Aida was played by Violeta Urmane, Urmanaviciute, a Lithuanian  aged 48.

Because of being the same generation the physical frames of the three singers connected in terms of passion and anguish  with its triangle of affections and conflict over nationality. What both sets of lead singers are able to accomplish is to make their performances so convincing that it should make young people rethink their attitudes to the older generation and their relationships. However having been excited and impressed by the performances of 2009 they were eclipsed by those of 1989 so I went to the Cineworld questioning if I was going to be disappointed.

In the present production the part of Radamés, the appointed army commander, is played by Roberto Alagna a man approaching his sixtieth year but who looks ten years younger with an extremely passionate and tender tenor voice. Used to powerful singers in the title role he was booed by some when he performed the role at La Scala Milan in 2006 and to the horror of the management he walked off the stage not to reappear. After the death of his first wife he married the great soprano Angela Gheorghiu but their relations became stormy to the extent that she refused to perform with him in the 2009 Metropolitan Production of Carmen which I also saw live and in truth felt he had  been miscast. The marriage has continued after separation and contrary to the audience reaction in Rome I thought he brought an important new dimension to the role and one which echoed the approach of the conductor. It has become more an opera of two parts

The second act tends to be that for which the reputation of the opera became established because of its visual spectacle. There is a vast cast of several hundred deployed to great effect. In addition to the Chorus there are about 100 individuals used  to represent the successful army and then the prisoners of War.  There are also dancers and animals in this instance horses specially trained to cope with the loud music, the singing and the marching. The tall, vast and cavernous stage at the Metropolitan is changed several times with scenery, weapons and uniforms which fill 17 pantechnicons. There are 150 stage hands required and the advantage of the relayed Met productions is that cameras show what happens in the two 30  minutes intervals. There are also some 40 to 50 make up artists and dressers also required, plus the stage management team and the full orchestra. Ticket sales account for half the production costs so on going private sponsorship and donations becomes essential as there is no public funding as in the UK.

Back to story and with Radames off to lead the army consecrated by the High Priest Ramfis at the Isis Temple  Aida is torn between anxiety for him and for her father the Ethiopian King, a fact which is unknown to the Egyptians.

In the first part of the second Act the Princess, having grown more suspicious of Aida tests by saying that Radamés has been killed and as a consequence Aida reveals her position, but hides her distress on learning that her people have been  defeated.

There is then the Triumphant March scene famous all over world because of its spectacle  with the climax when the prisoners are brought in and Aida sees her father, the king, in shackles. The Egyptian king offers Radamés anything he wishes so he pleads for the freedom for the slaves who are allowed to return home with the exception of Aida and her father who has said the King had died. The Egyptian King then throws the proverbial spanner in the works by giving Aida to Radamés in marriage, a gift which cannot be refused and which is to the great pleasure of Princess Amneris.

While there are half hour intervals between the first two acts, the changes between the third and fourth acts are made with the audience remaining in their seats. A feature of all Met Relays is that during the relays the lead singers are interviewed, by Renée Fleming, her  a lead soprano at the Opera house, followed by periods of 15 and 20 minutes where the audience can view the scene changers, followed by further interviews, in this instance a look at museum pieces of former productions of AIDA and a look at future productions in this 12 event relay season.

The final two acts are in major contrast to the second, concentrating on the relationship between the trio.  Amneris goes to Temple to pray until dawn and thus is in a position to overhear when Radamés and Aida meet in secret and he is persuaded by her to run away together after she has met up with her father and persuades her to try and find out the battle plans because his countryman have risen up and invaded once more to free their King and his daughter and gain revenge for the defeat and plundering of their country. Radamés, not aware of this aspect suggests they travel in a different  direction from the Egyptian army, unaware what he is doing as a consequence.

As soon as Radamés reveals the route plan, Aida‘s father reveals himself and he and his daughter beg Radamés to flee with them. He is horrified at having unwittingly given away the battle route information and when confronted by Amneris who has summoned the High Priest, he surrenders to their judgement. Their decision is for him to be entombed in the vaults below the temple, and this constitutes the final act after Amneris pleads with him to give up Aida and she will plead with her father to save him.  When he refuses she turns away from him, momentarily.

In the tomb Radamés finds that Aida having learned of the verdict has not accompanied her father and hidden in the tomb to wait for him. She explains that they will face death together in each other’s arms.

Meanwhile above them and unaware that the couple are together, the Princess is beyond consolation for having given Radamés over to the judgement of the Priests. While everything beforehand was outstanding it is the dramatic singing of the last act which for me  has taken operatic singing go a new height. There have been few  cultural experiences of a similar impact in my life, hearing traditional jazz first time in a Soho cellar,  hearing Verdi’s Requiem Mass at a Royal Albert Hall promenade season both when seventeen years old.  There have been other magical moments from the Live Aid Concert, to  the stage musicals Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, to the Bruce Springsteen concerts and to hearing Louis Armstrong playing half a century ago at the Davis Theatre in Croydon. I suspect that it was only from the accumulation of these and more general life experience emotional highs and lows than one can appreciate the magnificence of the voices and their emotional intensity.

“Then to be able to experience the original production using the same set and costumes and libretto added an even greater dimension to the experience. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity and to now be able to experience more,” was how I the writing in 2009.

It is therefore against this benchmark that I most judge the latest production Borodina is good but no one can approach the emotional intensity of Zajick. I will need to experience the performance of the 1989 and 2009 roles of Aida again to compare with that of Liudmyla whose voice I thought matched that of Olga. For my Christmas present to myself  I have purchased the two DVDs which have become available together with the 2008 performance of Madam Butterfly.  Stefan Kocán was the priest, George Gagnidze played father and Miklos  Sebestyén the King.

It is because of the use of the camera close up that one is able to judge the emotional expressions which adds to the appreciation of singing where the exceptional artists are able to communicate emotional intensity through the voice as well as their technical abilities. Not therefore as good of  the performances of 1998 and 2009 but a very good experience.

2400 Tears for the 26 plus 1,sharing the emotional pain and the reality of the American Dream

I will remember Sunday December 16th and the early hours of the 17th for the rest of my aware consciousness. In the evening I celebrated again the wonderful summer of sport with the BBC review of the year and the public award of personality of the year and then switched to the news and learned that the President of the United States was to speak at a vigil organised  by the interfaith community  of Newtown where twenty children attending the Sandy Hook Elementary school aged between six and seven were shot and killed several times in a planned massacre of  the innocents by a twenty year old man Adam Lanza, who had first killed his mother and is known to have also killed the school principal, the school psychologist and four teachers and support staff who are understood to have tried to stop him.

The personal statement by President Obama should  be listened to in full, if possible as part of the whole interfaith led vigil and which attempted to include those of no religious faith because only by doing so and witnessing the way the residents in the community applauded and hugged the first responders as they entered the hall of the High School, greeted their local community leader, the state governor and their President together with the tears of the local leaders who will understand the potential significance of the way this community is responding to the shock and horror of what happened.

This was no ordinary politician saying what was expected of him but an individual parent moved by what had  happened and able to immediately identify with his immediate audience and many in his country and across the world. He spoke of the responsibilities and duties of parents to provide security and to protect, accepting that this is something which parents had to share with others as the children grew, and with their community. Turning to the role of politicians, legislators and governments he spoke of their primary responsibility in this respect and of their failure. He said that arguments about the complexity and continuing political viewpoints and perspectives were unacceptable. There had to be change and he would use all the power and time of his office to assist in this process, arranging to meet leaders at all levels in the coming weeks. He promised unconditional support to the bereaved families and to the community.

The state governor was one of a trio of other interests who received spontaneous applause from those present with the loudest when he mentioned the local community leader who had rushed to the School as soon as she heard the news, who while thanking everyone for their support including the media, emphasised the strength of the local community and how they would support each other and get through rather than be crushed.

There was something remarkable about the way the vigil was conducted with everyone, the clergy, civic leaders and the President sitting with the rest of the community and  then going to the dais on the stage to contribute sometimes alone but usually in twos and three of all the local churches with Ministers and congregations. The most moving was Jewish hymn of mourning, a wail of grief and also the  Muslim adolescent who sung from the Koran with the Muslim leader standing part with tears and did others bringing comfort to everyone and themselves. It is one of ironies of this happening that it occurred in perhaps one of the stronger and integrated and previously safe communities  of a country divided by ethnic origins, religion and politics.

I was and remain distressed by what happened although I am no longer surprised or shocked as throughout recorded history children and babies have been slaughtered by men as they waged war and with individual men singling out the young to kill, injure and harm. Sometimes the massacres are deliberate acts by nations and  their leaders  and during the first five years of my life German people and their collaborators murdered an estimated one and a half million children, predominantly Jews but also Romany children and also German children with physical and mental disabilities.

Nor are attacks on primary school children a unique event for in 1970 twelve children were  killed and  some twenty five injured in a school bus in Israel by Palestinian militants, believed to be in retaliation for the unintended bombing of a school in Egypt a month before by the Israeli airforce killing forty six children and wounding of fifty others, more than half the school pupils.

Four years later a small group representing the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine took hostage a  school in Israel, killing twenty six children and injuring over fifty others.

However in terms of numbers in 1994 an Angolan Pilot misdirected a bombing attack which killed eighty nine children and the worst, the Beslan massacre where the numbers remain censored by Russia whose military are considered to have provoked and caused the majority of the killings where the total dead is reported to have run  into hundreds.

In the UK we have Dunblane where Scout Leader Thomas Hamilton murdered eighteen children injuring another fifteen.

All these events occurred outside the USA and indeed on the same day as Newtown a man stabbed twenty two children in a  village school in China although it is believed none have died. However previously in China there have  been a number of incidents where children have died  12 in 2006, 7 in 2010, 4 in 2004  and 2  in 1998 with others where the children were injured. Other child deaths  at schools during in my life time  include  Brazil  with 13,  Germany 8,   The incidents in Japan with 8 children in one instances and one each in  Hong Kong with 3 child deaths,  Latvia  3, Thailand 3 and Belgium 2 Japan 1 and Phillippines1 together with many other incidents involving the deaths of teachers or other adults in school with children present or where children were injured without a death being reported.

It is against such a background that what has happened in the USA  in Newtown has to be considered. There have been attacks on primary schools within the country before although fortunately only single deaths in 1940 1944 1984 1988 and 2000 although others were sometimes wounded and there were two incidents where 3 children died in 1959 and 2007.

It is therefore important not to single out the USA because of its second amendment to the Constitution, the right for individuals to bear arms.

I have  also looked at the  number of weapons and people trained  to use weapons  by States although in many of these countries the weapons are held in secure conditions rather than  in private  homes.

This is latest available information about countries where over a million people are officially  trained  to use weapons at the request of the state is (1) North Korea 9.45million (2) South Korea  8.69m  (3) Vietnam 5.49m (4) India 4.76m (5) China 4.58m (6) Iran 3.83m (7) The USA  2.92  (8) Russia 2.23m  (9) Taiwan 1.96m  (10)  Pakistan  1.43m   (11) Cuba 1.23m  (12) The UAE ) 1.21m (13) Brazil 1.67m (14) Egypt 1.34m  (15) Ukraine 1.21m   (16)Turkey  1.19m (17) Iraq  1m (18) and Indonesia.98m in comparison to the UK with 410000 of which only half form the standing military and where to keep an unlicensed  is a serious offence.

The first general conclusion I would make is that the training to use and possess guns and other weapons  by one nation compared to another is not factor  why children are targeted.

Those where the killings are ideological and sanctioned by the state are the most horrendous in terms of numbers or where they are a product of war such as bombing of Coventry by the German High Command or Dresden by the British and where what has happened in Israel and Palestine has always to be placed in perspective.

The engagement of adolescents in violence involving killing and injuring of others of a similar age has always been a feature of urban areas sometimes because of race, religion and politics but more often related to territory and over the past two to three decades  with drugs,

Going into a school, including primary schools and kindergartens by individual to harm children is also not unique but in most countries rare and even in the  two nations with the greatest number of attacks, China and the USA the number of deaths has been comparatively small with in China the main weapon used being the knife.

What happened in Newtown, Connecticut on December 2014 had several distinct features, but also with similarities to Dunblane. The first is that a man entered the school with planned intent to kill children. The second is that weapon(s) were legitimately purchased, registered and held although I have read reports that in relation to Newtown they were owned by the killers mother. Since Columbine in the USA and Dunblane in Scotland the entry to schools has become more controlled so  at Newtown I believe the killer blasted his way through a window to bypass the official entrance.

Why he did so may emerge from the Inquest and subsequent enquires, especially with the help of his brother and those who knew his mother with the suggestion that she was part of  supported a sect who believed the world would end with a cataclysmic event on December 21st  and one of my regular emails  comes from the authority of one such group whose beliefs are  tied in with the last day of the Mayan Calendar. It is true that within  the past weeks  a large mass bypassed the earth  which id directed would have  destroyed the planet. The recent extremes in weather condition is also to do with heating the planet  by man made gasses. I suspect we will find that the young man acted from some distortion of thinking and belief than a hatred or anger, Understanding why the action was taken may not help to ensure that action is taken to try and prevent a similar happening again. That the President‘s call for change may be answered could prove a good thing in general terms with or without changes in gun laws in the USA,

However I believe the slaughter of twenty six and seven year olds in one school  has already had impact within the United States and the world at large, especially as the killings happened within a few Days of Christmas and where schools with a Christian tradition hold nativity plays, and most arrange concerts and events involving parents.

However it should not  be assumed, especially in the USA that this will not lead to any significant reduction in the holding of personal hand  weapons or such horrors being perpetrated in the future

The only likely development is  an inter state agreement to ban the sale of automatic machine gun style weapons and  for ammunition clips of 30 rounds. The more likely development is the proliferation of schools hiring or making use of community volunteers, former police officers and ex servicemen to patrol grounds and man sit in the school lobby’s in civilian clothing and with a discrete weapon but available.  The media will move on to the next war, weather disaster, financial crisis or human tragedy. The Political Party masters will assess the polls and weight up competing interests and move on tot he next dominating issue. The emotional pain will continue, the psychological scars will become life long.

2399 Christmas rush and Rowlings Potter film number 2

I commenced to write on Monday December 10th   2012 There  were  lots of things I should be doing and lots of things I want to do but by 11 am I was  drinking my first cup of coffee at the start of an important week for getting things done, or not. It came over very dark just but passed quickly with blue sky and fluffy clouds of  different sizes and densities.

It is  now approaching 8 pm on Tuesday  the 11th and I will switch between Bradford Quarter Final league Cup game with Arsenal and a Chanel Four Programme on the Weather, has it changed?

This reminds to mention the death of the Astronomer Patrick Moore, an eccentric man with a monocle (a word I struggled to spell correctly) who did so much to bring the reality of the heavens to  modern man, woman and child.

I have been trying to create a cocoon around myself from the reality of the world outside and its political disappointments. On Sunday I watched four James Bond films with Roger Moore while I checked and registered over 100 new work sets but there are  another 200 to complete this month if my new monthly target is to last more than one month.

Earlier this evening I watched on the i player the second of three programmes about Claridges where although it is possible to get a room for £300 a night the hotel features those at the upper end which appears to average around £4000 with the best suite at just under £7000 and which should even make eyes of most Premiership footballers water. The pleasant manager of German background admitted that prices were those of the market for luxury rooms in London and other similar locations according to size, facilities and personal services.

The management company have gutted and recreated a dozen new suites at around £4000 to £4500 a night at a  cost of £400000 a  room although  they should recoup this in under 3 years to 5 years according to my reckoning. They are also planning to raise the height of the building by two floors. Maintaining the outsider fabric of the existing building is to cost £3 million with hand cut bricks.

Among the guests featured this week were the Emperor of Japan and his wife plus entourage who occupied 24  rooms. The Emperor is one of only two  surviving heads of state who attended the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth, and the King of Yugoslavia who was born in room 212 when his parents became exiled in London during World War II. Other personalities including Joan Collins who  pressed the need for everything to be perfect, the cost of luxury. Stephen Fry an over rated personality in my estimation commented that he would not mind living in the hotel when he got older in preference to an institution for the elderly, adding if he could afford it..

Another feature of the series in the life of the staff with  in this episodes the half a dozen staff members who have worked for the hotel  for thirty years and more. There was also a new young man of Italian background starting as a dining room waiter. There are some 400 staff roughly one per room. One  of the former Doormen returned with his children and grand children to mark his 70th birthday with tea at £50 a time but dos include a glass of champagne. Another East End former villain comes for his breakfast most days ever since he popped in one day when his wife ran a shop around the corner. I cant wait to witness the revelations of the final programme when perhaps we might get some admission of the comprehensive nature of personal services arranged.

I have been keeping one eye on an important programme about weather conditions in the UK in the context of world changes in arising from  the increase in sea temperatures because of the increases in man made gasses. What I had not previously understood is that with such a comparatively small increase, and an increase which is forecast to continue over the coming decade. The impact is on more moisture in the atmosphere which in turn creates additional energy which in turn fuels more extreme weather, so that while we do have the condition for small tornadoes, around 30 a year it is only recently these have become more intense such as the one that cut through a Birmingham suburb last year.

The increased moisture was caused this year. The wettest for 100 years, by the Northernmost Trade Winds from West to East shifting southwards for the greater part of the summer than its usual location to the north of our islands and for a reason why is yet to be explained. In terms of water movement from the south via the gulf of Mexico passing along our West Coast and which  helps to make the UK warmer in Winters than Scandinavia this also appears to be changing although whether this is  temporary or longer term change and of what nature remained to be determined. This could bring Scandinavian style Winters to the land. There is also evidence of the more prolonged intense heat waves  similar to that about five years ago.  This is all not good.  This all sounded ominous to my ears.

At last the 2011 census information has been provided    England and Wales and for individual local authority areas. The most significant change is in London where  under 50% of the population  (45%) describe themselves as part of white groups compared with 86% in the UK. 37% of usual residents in London were born outside the UK compared to 5% in the North East. The total population of England and Wales has increased by just under 3 million  with the overwhelming percentage of the increase coming from  migration. I have kept the site reference and will take another look in the New Year.
The changes were discussed on news night, welcomed by a Professor from Oxford and Bonnie Greer who lives in Oxford Street, while a young academic tried to make sense of the information and a youngish representative of Toryism tried to sound the protest of middle England without sounding racist. He made the valid point that the changes had taken place despite the main political parties saying they were taking control of immigration. One additional piece of information is that the number of people from Poland has increased from 50000 to 500000 and where the majority were now living outside of inner London. A different stat emerged  from the news over the day that only half the available visa to live and work because of having a  skill urgently required had been taken up.

It is just after 8 am on Wednesday  I hate the mess that is around me in this room with piles of paper which does not quickly fit into one volume. I will force myself upstairs after completing one put off task to get me going to get the material and then shift the bed piled high with boxes from one side of the room with built in floor to ceiling cupboards on three sides for the clothes and possession of the previous owner  and which continues to serve me so well. I need to get hold one cases as I need additional for the travels. I may change my mind and finish the Christmas cards and  letters.

I have the Harry Potter film to write about although I am including the second film at the end of this piece.  I have started on the Olympic and Paralympics DVD’s having watched the Paralympics Opening Ceremony again on Monday night and sporting event highlights yesterday morning followed by the closing ceremony which I attended this afternoon.  I was more impressed with the closing ceremony than at the time because the sound was better and close ups provides a better appreciation of the action. I also understood why the three Paralympians included in the nominees for Sports Personality of the Year on Sunday were selected-David Weir, Ellie Simmonds and Sarah Storey while others were not, although these are  destined to be honoured in the Queens New Year lists. I switched away from the football on Sky last night as Newcastle went down again, to Fulham away, although I liked their style of play and will be amazed as well as disappointed if they go down while I fear the worst for Sunderland. However last night Sunderland won their against Reading 3.1 which took them out of the relegation zone. I missed this event watching Arsenal lose on penalties to Bradford which is now a Second division team and who reached the semi final of a Cup competition for the first time in their history.

Violence from the football terraces erupted over the weekend as Manchester United scored the winning goal in extra time on their visit to the Manchester City Stadium. Those involved are being dealt with by the club and the police. The Players representative is calling for protective netting in key parts of  the ground. This is an over reaction and he should instead have criticised the Manchester players for going over to celebrate directly in front of the  City fans. Players provoking the crowd in this way is also not excusable.

And there are the political tracts to write and the Leveson report to read and The Winds of War reading and writing. all have been abandoned together with the George Smiley writings on the radio plays as I flit, float is a more appropriate expression, from one choice and inclination to another.

At least the discipline of the CPAP use continues at 7.5 hours a night average for three and half months although maintaining the level remains a constant struggle.  \On Monday after drinking the coffee I had  intended to go upstairs and bring down the work required to complete the 500 new sets target of Artman Artwork for the month, However by the time I deleted  56 of the 57 Spam file as for some reason the Shields gazette daily notice gets put in this file. Together  with dismissing 14 other emails from the new file  without reading and  completed my GKF media report for the day, my mood changed and I started to write Christmas card, deciding on who should get the 10 best cards from the 25 purchased from Clintons who  always have an excellent selection of distinctive boxes at this time of the year.

 My GKF media report covered an excellent programme on BBC 1 on how Satellite technology is revealing the location of a great deal more of  how Rome controlled its World Empire. The main finding  is evidence that along the 15000 mile great wall in North Africa the evidence that this comprised a series of forts perhaps with 100 men with the wall marking the difference between uncultivated land to one side and hundreds of new communities springing up on the other with perhaps 20000 people occupying one large valley. One archaeologist had spent thirty years looking for such evidence while the most exciting find was the discovering of the foundations of the great Lighthouse known to have existing at the entrance to the Alexandria and which was discovered underneath a vehicle knackers dump close to an airport outer runway land, again something which has been searched for in vain for decades.

I also watched James Arthur from Saltburn and the Boro win the X Factor on Sunday and The Andrew Marr show was disappointing mainly because I did not like the messages and I decided not to watch the Manchester Derby apart from the closing moments. I did watch Merlin on Saturday and just the  two songs by the three X Factor Finalists  as they were reduced to two for last night. I enjoyed the visits to their home towns. I gave Strictly a miss but may catch up on the I Player along with the Antiques Road show although the way the week is shaping up i doubt if I will have the time. It is now time to give attention again to J K Rowling’s Harry Potter.

The second Harry Potter, film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was, as the first, a self contained film which can be enjoyed in isolation from the first and subsequent films by is also an integral part of the master story as well as a chronicle of growing up feeling different from the majority of  humanity, an  experience with which I can  identity although unlike Harry I missed out to a significant extent on sharing my experience with those in a similar situation. True I did have some Muggle friends for a time during my adolescent years, but it was only as  a young adult that i enjoyed the regular company of those with a similar interest, traditional jazz and then as part of the non violent direct action movement against weapons of mass destruction. For Harry Potter the world was also divided between good and evil and a fight to avoid domination and potential total destruction,

As with the first  film we find Harry at home with his Muggle relatives, the Dursley’s  isolated all summer as he has had no contact with either Ron or Hermione or others from the school, not even one letter.

He then finds a number of unexplained happenings which he learns are caused by a House Elf Dobby intent on stopping Harry returning  to Hogwarts school because he knows an attempt will be made to kill him. House elves are to be found the  homes of the established households of Wizards and Witches and in effect House slaves who much obey every command from their masters and can only become independent if their master present them with clothing. Their lives in service is monitored by a special branch of the Ministry of Magic which has issued guidelines on  their treatment and has a unit which allocates elves to individual homes and will organise their reallocation.

In this instance it is only later in the film that we lean that Dobby is the House  elf to the Malfoys and therefore his behaviour is not only unusual but dangerous for him risking the severe rest punishment for disloyalty and disobedience. The film does not explain why Dobby is acting in this way, something which may happen in the book. The impact of Dobby’s well intentioned but misdirected behaviour  has the impact of making Harry’s life at the Dursley’s even more difficult than usual, especially when his uncle is entertaining a potential business client. The consequence is that Vernon takes decisive action to prevent Harry leaving their home for Hogwarts, locking  him in his room and placing bars on the windows.

It is Ron who drives up across London in the flying car  with his elders brothers to rescue Harry attaching  the car to the bars at the window to pull them  off and to load Harry and his trunk and then takes Harry to the family home, the Burrows. This is an extraordinary creation on several floors in a countryside setting which I understand to be Devon, effectively run my the matriarch figure of Molly played by Julie Walters with her adventurous husband, an unassuming man played by  Mark Williams. The Burrows becomes Harry’s second home where he establishes a friendship with Ron’s younger sister Ginny who is to commence in her first year at the school as Harry Ron and Hermione commence their second.

During  the stay they visit Diagon Alley to re stock on supplies using Floo powder which looks like fire ash and which involves entering the fireplace below the chimney but because Harry is nervous his flight is slightly off course and is separated from others and ends up in a store selling black magic products and spots the father of Draco Malfoy there who boasts his support for Voldemort. Harry also attends the book signing of the famous Gilderoy Lockhart played by Kenneth Branagh who appears  as something of self interested showman and who is to become the new Professor of Defence against the Black Arts at Hogwarts.

When Harry accompanies the Weasley’s to Kings Cross Station for Platform 9 ¾ they find they cannot enter so Ron uses the flying car to try and catch up the train  arriving at the school they land on to one of the Whomping Willows, an aggressive tree which attacks anyone coming within its orbit and their arrival is witnessed by Snape to declares they should be expelled for using the vehicle and being late. Profession McGonagall supported by Dumbledore argues that as head of the House she is responsible for discipline and the punishment will be detention.

In this second film the opportunity is taken to present more the schools activities. However before this Ron receives a Howler from his mother. A feature of letters in the series usually delivered by an owl is that they contain oral and visual messages in this instance a hologram of Molly berating her son for taking and wrecking the car with the missive delivered in front of all the students at Breakfast.

The first lesson involves Herbology(Professor Sprout!)  where in  a green house they learn  how to transplant the Mandrake plant, a plant which is not only living  but with human aspects and a personality, The plant has important properties when mature and which has a crucial role later.. The second class concerns Transfiguration  beginning with changing the shape of objects although the process also applies to humans (Shape Shifting was a feature of Star trek and other fantasy books and films.  Ron has problems because his wand was broken in the car crash and it is repaired with magic tape with good and bad consequences The third class is with Lockhart who seizes the opportunity to increase his publicity by attaching himself  to Harry. Ginny Weasley who has a crush on Harry  is also a member of his fan club.

The next development is Quiddich practice for Griffindor but they find that Slitherin has also been sent out to practice with Draco now a leading member after his father has equipped the team with the very latest competition  broomsticks. Draco insults Hermione calling her a Mudblod and Ron tries to put a curse on Draco but because of his damaged wand it misfires and it he who starts to vomit in uncontrolled fashion  slugs. (Because of the wet summer it has been an extraordinary good year for slugs who have flourished). Ron is taken to Hagrid for the spell undone.

These are all preliminaries to when during detention  Harry becomes aware of a voice,  threatening, and ice cold and Hermione finds  a message  on a wall announcing that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. The legend is that when Salazar Slitherin graduated he provided the Chamber as a gift which when opened would release a creature capable of destroying students who were of Muggleblood to which he and the those in the House became opposed.

Caretaker Filch’s cat has also been petrified, a dark form of transfiguration and Filch finding Harry with the animal blames him. McGonagall and Dumbledore intervene and we learn that only an heir to the founder of the House of Slitherin has power to open the chamber, and Harry is convinced that this is Draco. The teaching staff emphasise that this is only a legend and that they have searched the school many times and no trace of he Chamber has been found. Soon as the attacks continue everyone changes their minds

The Trio believe that there is a Chamber and that Draco is responsible for the opening because of his hostility towards Hermione and those like her. To try and  prove this Hermione, the brains of the trio, especially in relation to potions, suggests they create  a Polyjuice potion which enables them to transform themselves temporarily into someone else and to trick Malfoy and his associates to revealing their secrets. The potion will take a month to prepare and some of the ingredients have to be taken from Snape’s controlled store.

During the month a Quiddich match between Gryffindor and Slitherin takes place with Harry and Draco fighting it out to catch the snitch. During games all the players have to avoid another flying object called the Bludger but in this instance it attacks only Harry suggesting someone has intervened. Harry triumphs again. However his arm  is damaged and Professor Lockhart offers to fix it but manages to remove all the bones from the arm. This is treatable but Harry finds himself in the school hospital again. The skill of Lockhart is first questioned.

A new feature in the school this year is the establishment of a duelling involving the use of wands and spells,  under the auspices of Lockhart and Snape and where the key match is between Harry and Draco. Draco conjures a snake and Harry uses his ability to communicate with snakes to pacify. Hermione discloses that this was something applicable to the founder off Slitherin which has the unintended consequence that the rest of the school believe Harry is the Heir and responsible for the opening of the Chamber of Secrets. The trio get their opportunity to use the Polyjuice potion during the Christmas holidays when they find that Draco and his henchmen are staying in school so Harry and his friends also sign up to stay. The plan misfires because they find that Draco is not the Heir involved in creating the opening.

In order to make the potion the trio had used one of the girl’s toilets which is not entered by anyone because it is also the location of a young ghost, Moaning Myrtle who screams and rants about her lot. She was killed by Slitherin‘s creature  on orders of Voldemort, why I  not certain although I assume because like Hermione she was born of two Muggles. Myrtle had also become isolated and teased at he school because of her appearance which included the wearing of spectacles. It is in the lavatory that Harry discovers a book, an enchanted book, from fifty years before belonging to one Tom Riddle and it is this book which  appears to  incriminate Hagrid as the true Heir and therefore responsible for the opening of the Chamber some fifty years before and it is assumed more recently.. Shortly after this development the Minister of Magic arrives accompanied by Draco Malfoy’s father  who is a leading member of the school Board to announce that Professor Dumbledore is being suspended and that Hagrid is to be arrested and taken to the prison centre of Azkaban, an Island in the North Sea where those  imprisoned are guarded by black spirit creatures called Dementors who cause suffering and drain their victims of all happiness. By this time other school members have become petrified with the last person Hermione which understandably causes Harry and Ron great distress. The school is threatened with closure.

Before Dumbledore leaves he tells Harry to follow the spiders to discover the truth. Harry has noted spiders leaving the school every time there has been an attack which leaves someone or thing petrified. Given that Ron hates spiders that he agrees to accompany Harry, this is a measure of his growing attachment to Hermione.  First Ron and then Harry enters the underworld of the Forest where they encounter a giant spider creature which fifty years before had been involved with Hagrid in incidents which led him to be accused of Opening the Chamber of Secrets. The creatures declares that Hagrid was not in fact responsible and that although the Credit was taken by Tom Riddle for naming Hagrid this was false.
However far from enabling the boys to leave and make use of this knowledge, the creatures decides that they will  become food for all its offspring and their families, The boys are only able to escape by using Ron’s car which has survived the  confrontation with the Whomping Tree.

On return there is a further turn for the worse in that they find that Ron sister Ginny Weasley has disappeared, presumed  into the Chamber while a piece of paper clutched in Hermione’s hand reveals that the Chamber is guarded by  a snake like creature, a basilisk, Professor Lockhart, responsible for the Defence against the Dark Arts is expected to deal with the situation but he says he needs to first return to his room.

When Harry go to provide the information found in the possession of Hermione  they find the man packing to make a quick get away as he is forced to admit he is a fraud having used memory erasing charms to pinch the ideas of other Wizards and Witches to form the basis of his published writings.

Harry had previously commented to Moaning Myrtle that the first incident of the petrified  cat  had taken place outside the lavatory and Tom Riddle’s memoir had also been found  there, the scene also of her death by the creature subsequently. From this Harry concludes the entrance to the Chamber is in this area and force Lockhart to accompany them who loses his memory after using Ron‘s broken wand in attempt to use the spell on them.

The truth emerges that Tom Riddle exists  as a memory in the book and is in fact  the young Voldemort who now in the Chamber summons his creature to attack Harry but when all looks lost Dumbledore’s  familiar arrives, a Phoenix, and gives Harry the Sorting Hat under which is the sword of  the former founder of Gryffindor which Harry uses to kill the creature  but who before this manages to get a fang into Harry’s arm and poison him. Harry takes the embedded fang which he sticks into Riddle’s Memory diary, an act which destroys its creator, and Ginny regains consciousness to witness the dying Harry being rescued by the curative tears of the Phoenix. The Phoenix is able to also rescue Harry and Ginny from the Chamber where they join Ron and Lockhart whose memory loss has become permanent.

With this development the immediate threat of school closure is averted and Dumbledore is reinstated in a coup against Malfoy senior with the assistance of the other governors. This  because they that Malfoy senior had  given the diary to Ginny via his son as a means of opening the Chamber as part of his plan to get rid of the head and Hagrid, and close the school. Ginny was unaware of all this until regaining awareness.

Dumbledore  arranges for Hagrid to be released and while this is cause for everyone to celebrate, Harry growing concern about his  position dominates and he queries with Dumbledore if he should be in Slitherin  and not Griffindor. The Professor explains that only a true son of the Gryffindor would have the power to summon and use the sword.

When Malfoy seniors plans are thwarted Dobby, the Elf is at his side and Harry understand why the creature was so intend on stopping him returning to Hogwarts. Realising that the creature had the best intentions and is now in deep trouble he tricks Malfoy into giving Dobby a small item of clothing which is all that is needed to free him from servitude thus Harry gaining his eternal gratitude which is to have an important consequence later.

Hagrid arrives back at the end of year Feast and embraces Harry meanwhile back in Diagon Alley Lockhart’s latest book ins on sale with the title  Who am I? Featuring  the man in a strait jacket suffering from total memory loss. As with the first film, it ends on a high note, making the audience feel hood despite the black deeds, sounding alarms and information about what is to come that has been introduced,

2398 Films about Romance, The West, the police, for the family, for teenagers and fans of Sherlock Holmes December 2012

I have watched a number of films of varying quality in addition to James Bond and Harry Potter and I begin with the Romantic film of the week turned out to be Love with a Proper Stranger  I have  seen before without giving due attention. A film about a  jazz musician always interests and it was only after the opening frames that I remembered the story but decided to view again, a decision I did not regret, even though there is no jazz  music, even as background,

Steve McQeen was 36 when he made the film with Natalie Wood who was 24. He plays an family Italian background jazz musician looking his age, and experience, dependent on work through the union, out of touch with his parents and living hand to mouth when Natalie, part of another Italian family approaches to ask for his help with information about an abortionist having conceived his child in a one night encounter which he does immediately remember.

I have considered if a character such as that played by Natalie would go with a jazz musician  she had just heard play all the way, to use the language of the sixties, and if McQueen given his character would not have remembered such a recent the experience. I conclude  yes to the former but have reservations about the latter because McQueen had a regular girl friend and the impression is given that he spent most days out of work. Leaving these issues aside the film deals with what happened when girls from Catholic homes become pregnant and the dodgy nature of  the back street abortion at that time.

Until the sixties it remained common for a teenage girl to be played by a mature actress and I assume this was the case here with the girl living with her mother and brothers who attempted to keep a 24 hour watch on her behaviour when she was not working as a sales assistant in a departmental store.  The girl character is credible as a sixteen to 21 year old in that environment but would have been  otherwise married and not on the shelf at 24!

In fact the difficulties faced by young people from  active tribal traditional Mediterranean cultures living in communities in other countries was and I suspect  has become even more intense than those now back home. I am not surprised that Natalie’s performance earned her Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. She communicates  in subtle and understated ways the mixtures of emotions so although she approaches he man for practical help[  it is also evident  she hopes he will remember the experience with great affection and want to marry her  not because it is the right thing to do but because he wants to. She communicates her horror and desperation at the predicament, especially with the abortionist but also her continuing hope for a the kind of resolution she has dreamed about.

I also thought the performance of McQueen was outstanding as a mature agent where the thought of a family life is furtherest from his mind but finding that she is both attractive and able to communicate with him he falls in love and the film has the expected happy ending. Before this there are somewhat stock scenes when the girl agrees to have dinner at home  with a  suitor who is being pushed by her brothers and the man gets money from both parents for the abortion and meets up with a former girl friend now married to a former close friend.

The Family Film of the week is Journey to Mysterious Island 2)  which I watched in 3D at home. I was interested in seeing the film because Journey to the Centre of the earth was the first 3D film I ever experienced  back in 2008 on a visit to London at the Millennium Dome’. There are key aspects of this first film which helps to understand the casting of Josh Hutchinson in the same role four years later as Sean Anderson,  as well as the hostile, resentful and insubordinate relationship with his mother and step father. At the age of 3 Josh’s father disappeared, a Vernian, that is someone who knows everything there is to know about the writing of Jules Verne and a believer in the concepts created by the writer. 

His mother deposits Josh with her husbands brother,  a volcanologist for ten days who then takes John with him to investigate a development  reported in Alaska. Josh who is already a rebellious uncompressing teenager takes an interest in his uncle in order to learn more about his father and is fascinated by a copy of Jules Verne’s book Journey to the Centre of the earth and his fathers obsession with the writer’s works. The two go to find another Vernian who worked with the  missing brother and find that he has died but his daughter is familiar with his work and activities and shows them the radar station at the top of the top of the volcano  which has suddenly given off a special signal, only for a collapse of the cave into mine working after taking shelter because of a storm This results in them falling into a tube down to the centre of the earth and into a lake where they discover a world within a  world. After coming ashore they find evidence of a character mentioned in the original book and then the remains of Josh’s father who  they then bury. They find the journal of his father which reveals how much he cared for his son and regretted  being unable to get back to the surface to be with him.

The  uncle works out that if they cross the underground ocean they could be able to reach the  surface again using a geyser before it evaporates which gives them only 48 hours and during this  perilous journey in a makeshift raft with sail they encounter prehistoric creatures and John becomes separated from the adults. The  adults encounter carnivorous plants and  the Uncle has to rescue the young woman, After this he leaves her to search for his nephew while she prepares to escape on her own if the other two do not return.

There is a further adventure invoving a dinosaur  before they are able to escape asrising from a set of extraordinary events which stretch  any remaining credulity and which shoots them up through Mount Vesuvius where they manage to destroy a vineyard and use one of the diamonds they have brought back to compensate the vineyard owner. Later Josh visits the now  couple who have married, establ;ished a laboratory after the brother and a new home from the other diaomnds brought back and Josh  notes the book Atlantic The Antediluvian World by Ignatious L Donnelly, signalling the subject for the next  adventure and which surprisingly took three more years to complete.

Before explaining the links and problems  created by attempting continuity with the second  work in the series I will break one of golden rules about not making reference to situations involving real people where publication  could lead to an identification which has not been agreed in advance and where one or more of the individual involved could still be alive. However when it comes to credulity the mention of Vesuvius reminds me of an  event which still 50 years  later I find difficult  to believe happened as just as it was  amazing at the time.

Fifty years ago I undertook a round Europe adventure with a work colleague by car visiting Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France and on our way to visit the ruins of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius from our hillside campsite near Sorrento overlooking the Isle of Capri and we gave a lift to two hitching Wrens going  to Brindisi and Malta where they where stationed having failed to meet up with the parents of one in Sorrento. Pompeii is now a huge tourist centre which thousands of visitors each day whereas then we had the site to ourselves.  My companion found out from a local that it was possible to reach the top of the volcano by a back road which  avoided paying tolls and while again we found ourselves eventually  at the top on our own we had encountered one vehicle on the back road travelling in the oppsoite direction, ,a Jaguar car, compared to my Mini traveller and by amazing coincidence the car was being driven by the parents of one of the Wrens. I turned the car round, chased and caught up with the Jaguar, no mean feat and with flashing lights persuaded it to stop where the girls were greeted with delight and amazement and my companion and I were invited to have lunch at their hotel the following day.

We had found our campsite  from by two Enlish roses, the boot of whose car we had mended at a campsite in Rome. Although they and come from the site to spend a week in Rome, they said they would return if we took them to see Capri which they had not manage visit. Both girls were engaged  one to married on her their return.

By coincidence they returned after the Wrens left and during the Sorrento Film festival with the gable evening to be held on the Saturday evening and my friend  impressed me and them by  announcing that he had obtained four tickets. The girls then amazed us by appearing  with full make up looking glamorous in evening dresses while I had at last a jacket and tie which my friend did not. On arrival the official from whom he have blagged four free tickets claiming to be President of the Oxford Film Society/Festival was horrified by his appearance, and to less  extent my own  because  everyone else was in dinner jackets and I suspect it was  only appearance of our “wives” who looked starlets got us our seats in the front row of the circle, although I did break into  a cold sweat when in the interval before the main feature Von Ryan Express dubbed in German with Italian Sub titles the principal guests including from the Venice and Cannes film festival were called  to take a bow and say a few word on stage.

A couple of days later he had to be loaned a  jacket and tie  when staying with a college friend of mine in Geneva who  boss  took us out for drink where a round used up most of my spare cash and hen drove us across the border to a  casino in France ( we had been warned to bring our passports with us) and where I watched  an Asian man win and lose £4000 pounds at roulette with minutes giving away £100 tips to the croupier and to his “daughter” which I reckon would be worth at least ten times as much today and this all happened within ten days of our thirty.  The rest for another time.

For me stories and acting have to be credible giving the amazing reality of  my real experiences throughout life. This is where  Journey to the Mysterious Island fails. The problem is with the acting especially the decision to bring in a known personality, the former professional Wrestler, The Rock, as the legal step father of Sean Anderson who is played by the same actor who played the original 13 year old now meant to be a  student  I would guess seventeen eighteen years of age about to or already at university college

Emotionally he  plays the part of a child brought up without his biological father  who he had buried at the centre of the earth and resentful of his step father despite being provided with a large wealthy middle class home, unlimited technology and books, including first/library editions and whatever else he wants.

The Rock is wooden as a character actor, and as unlikely a pairing with the young widow as any I have seen in all my film going, The other problem is that although Joseph Hutchinson did well playing an adolescent teenager in the first film he looks out of his depths in the  second episode of what appears to be at least a  trilogy with a Voyage to the Moon promised as next.

Having said this I thought there was an excellent use of 3D giving depth with a good and clever use of coming out of the screen moments were which timely and  not always expected, While the film is based on the Jules Verne book and features Jules Verne fanaticism, the film argues that Maps provides by Verne, Gulliver’s Travels by Swift ( and which is still on my list of books to reread having seen the awful film adaptation, also in 3D), and the perennial Treasure when combined by overlaying locate the real Mysterious Island. The Volcano on the Island vents not ash but gold to be become the Treasure of Treasure Island, and in a homage to Shangri-la when the adventurers get of the cold, storm laden rocky beach they find a beautiful inner world although the golden city which the uncle takes them to visit  turns out to be a derelict Atlantis

In terms of the acting the film is rescued to a degree by  Michael Caine as the Grandfather and  an attractive young female lead played convincingly by Venessa Hudgens as the daughter of a Palauian who own a dilapidated helicopter for flying tourists between  the  two hundred and fifty islands which makes up this previously unknown to me real Pacific community with a  population smaller than Gibraltar. Her father is played by Luis Guzmán the Puerto Rican actor as the funny side kick devoted to the welfare of  his daughter but  not as convincing as she as a Palauian, although admittedly the locals are a polyglot people from bordering Asian countries.

Sean gets a feint coded radio message which he assumes is from his adventuring grandfather who has not been heard of for over two years. The film opens as the boy is running away from the authorities after breaking into a local Satellite reach centre in order to try and boost the signal of the coded message. Fortunately among the various talents of the step father is code breaking which he recognises as Morse code and it is also the step father who works out from the translated message that combining the three maps will reveal the shape and the coordinates of the location of the  island with the nearest habitation the Palau Islands. Faced with the boy taking off on his own he persuades  his wife to let him take the boy and  to bring him back. His wife is clearly as irresponsible as everyone else for having lost her first husband, and placing the boy  in the care of the brother and with father in law who is just as mad and irresponsible, she agrees.

On the capital of Palau they cannot find anyone willing to take them by ship to the location because it is notorious for weather and loss of ships (Bermuda triangle properties) despite the offer of a  thousand dollars and it is this fact which the helicopter owner hears that prompts him to accept despite the opposition of the daughter and  getting the fee doubled and then trebled. He wants the money to enable her to go  college although he does not insist that she remain behind on what is known to be a dangerous journey.

It is his desire to enable the daughter  to go to college that  leads them to drive into the eye of a hurricane which appears to destroy the helicopter in mid air although somehow they managed to land on the beach rather than  the sea and survive. The contribution of Swift’s book to  the film is that what is big in reality becomes small and vice versa commencing with a good joke moment as the loud trumpeting of what appears to be a normal size elephant turns out to be a tiny creatures the size of a small dog.

The party then quickly find themselves walking on top of the huge eggs of a lizard who they wake and who gives chase and are rescued by the Grandfather who amazingly is on hand and has available  a number of  swinging pieces of wood to disable such a creature. He has been on the island for two years having been ship wrecked and taken three months to create the radio which connects to the Satellite every two weeks although he does not explain why it has taken so long to try and communicate with his grand son except one can only assume he wanted the boy to grow up a little more and because he works out the island is due to sink below the waves.

The Grand Father lives in a tree house and takes them to see Atlantis  which he argues  was pushed to the surface  in a Volcanic explosion in century and half  cycles which he calculates will again occur shortly and was the precipitating cause of wanting his  grandson to see the place before it disappeared again. rather than send out a general emergency signal, or contact his other son, who one can assume the actor was unwilling  to  participate in this second commercial venture, The first film made close to £180 million and the second close to £250 million.

The problem is that the step father explains that shortly becomes a matter of days as surface water has become salty. The only way for them to escape is to locate the Nautilus which the grandfather hopes is mentioned in the Journal of Captain Nemo Twenty Thousand Leagues below the sea whose Tomb is nearby but where he cannot get through the available aperture which fortunately Klani, the daughter is able  to do and to recover the journal. Fortunately also the grandfather can read Hindu as Nemo came from India and also knows the location, a  cave on the coast  on the other side of Island.

The decision is to go along the coast or the short route across the island  avoiding predators and getting across a mountain chain. The way across the mountains is to fly on the backs of large bubble bees which proves a great success until they are attacked by insect eating birds. The grand son plays a crucial part in saving the daughter from certain death and then in getting rid of the last of the birds. The party  find a place to sleep only to find that the speed of change to the next phase has dramatically increased and they only have hours. They find another problem in that the girl’s father has gone off to find some gold to provide for the future of his daughter. The grandfather elects to go with the daughter to persuade her father to return while the step and father and his step son to find and make ready the submarine.

Unfortunately they arrive to find that the island has sunk 100 metre with the only solution to use makeshift breathing apparatus for a once only dive, locate the vessel and open an entry hatch while evading the advance of a large electric eel. Unfortunately despite a little juice in the batteries the energy cuts  immediately  out and  the step father hits own the idea of a harpoon with an electric lead to attach to the eel and jump start the batteries,

Meanwhile the island is breaking up including the large piece of cliff rock on which the others are looking out to sea in vain for the submarine. Miraculous the Nautilus gets going at the right time and they are able to rescue the others. There is then a knife edge move to get to free water away from the exploding island and which involves using a torpedo to break up a rock about to crush them.

The films  ends six months later on the birthday of Sean with his girl friend and presumably fellow college student with his mother and step father and where the big surprise is the arrival of his grandfather who had sent a postcard from across the globe.  Meanwhile back on Palau the girl’s father is successfully and profitably using the Nautilus  to take visitors on  underwater sea trips.  There is reference to a journey to the Moon. I cannot wait!

The War Film of the week was The Enemy Below with Robert Mitcham the star of the Winds of War my bedtime reading and Curt Jurgans. In both films Mitcham plays USA Naval captain and in The Enemy Below he has lost his wife but his response is professional and not personals. Jurgans plays the commander of a German U Boat determined to get his crew back home after a along and successful series of missions at sea. The two men become engaged in a protracted  cat and mouse battle in white the strains tell on both crews. As the tension mounts Jurgans works out the tactics and in a final desperate attempt to get away launches all four torpedoes in a read pattern knowing that failure will to lead to being sunk or surrendering. His ploy works and one torpedo strikes the destroyer midriff which leads Mitcham to make his own final ploy pretending the ship is more badly damaged and sinking quicker than it is, and which enables him to drive his ship onto the deck of the submarine which has come to the surface for the kill.

Mitcham is about to leave after all his crew are in life crafts when he notes that the German Captain is trying to get a wounded colleague to safety knowing that he has set the detonator for the submarine to self destruct. He goes to the aid of the captain and their respective men in a lifeboat seeing those go back to help the to escape. The final scene is on board a USA rescue craft that answered the help call as the Germans bury at sea their one  dead.

The film can be described as part of he War Reconciliation genre. The film is not sentimental about war with the crew of the German Submarine singing a Nazi brotherhood  to keep up their morale and defy the Americans. Mitcham is prepared not just to risk his men and craft but send the submarine to the bottom irrespective if this kills all its crew, The film recognises and applauds the respect which professional fighting men had for each other. In the book on which the film is loosely based the destroyer is British and the reconciliation \nd respect aspect is not present.

The Western of the Week is Tall Man Riding made  1955 when Scott was 57  although he  continued to make films for another seven years as a younger sharp shooting bare knuckle fighting trail and ranch hand. The story has echoes in  the  Big Country and Giant, the TV series Dallas where powerful cattle men attempt not just to control  their  areas and who may or may not share some of the land but also who their daughter may and may not marry.

In this saga Scott was badly bullwhipped by the father of the girl he is courting when riding for the owner who had heard rumours that the couple have become lovers and who does not accept the man as good enough for the daughter. Scott goes off for several years in order to earn the money to pay for a lawyer to help him to gain revenge. This is achieved by finding out that the rancher did not properly stake his original claim and the lawyer obtains a Presidential decree dispossessing the owner and arrange for his  land to be part of a land grab in the rest of the valley in an open competitive race  organised by an agent of the Secretary of Sate and controlled by the Army.

Meanwhile the girl has married a nice man to give her father a son to take over the estate( the boy doe not appear in the film) and father son in law appears to have been willing to fit in with the father in law’s situation, Dallas style. In addition the local saloon owner of Pearls Palace wears smart suits and use a heavy Cologne as well as running Saloon girl and songstress Reva  (Peggy Castle). She is a surprising riding friend of the Scott’s former girl friend played by Dorothy Malone  and who shares the background about Scott.

Scott comes to the rescue of the husband who is being attacked in effect on behalf of his father in law who has not been seen off the ranch for several years, the reason, unknown to the town is that he has become almost blind. The husband had been defending the rights of the new settlers who had flocked into the town for the new land grab (arranged before the dispossession order is announced) and where the saloon owner hopes to extend his control of the town by taking control of all the best new sections of land and where he has the deputy, the judge etc all in his pocket and the only threat to his potential complete power is the  ranch owner and his son in law, He employs the sharp shooter, the Peso Kid to  lead his dirty dealings.

When the husband is framed for a murder he did not commit his wife  begs Scott to intervene which he reluctantly agrees before being bushwhacked by the Kid and another of the Saloon owners men to prevent him giving evidence at the Inquest. Scott is saved by the intervention of Reva who is out riding but he is in no fit state to ride on and by the time he recovers the inquest is over and her husband is beings sent under escort with the deputy Sheriff to the County Jail. Scott sees the Kid leaving town shortly after this and follows in pursuit but not quick enough for the Deputy and the Kid to stop the stage, kill the driver and the husband and  then blame the killings on Scott.

He has meanwhile confronted the Ranch owner and had a shoot out in a back room without windows to even the odds.  Fortunately he  only wings the rancher and is shocked to learn the man  is blind and begins to feel guilty about his stance especially when the man and daughter are required to leave the ranch and take lodgings in town before the land grab race.

When Reva learns that her man is going to use the Kid to kill the rancher when he makes a bid to regain his land as well as use his men to stop the others and Scott she attempts to reach him with a note via a third party. Her man already suspicious when  three of the bullets from her  side riffle were found to be fired the same day that she thwarted  the bush whacking of Scott he beats her up severely.

Scott has a shoot out with the Peso Kid and then beats up the deputy until he admits to the townspeople that it  was the Kid who killed the husband and he also is made  to tell the truth to the rancher and his daughter, The saloon owner is not the only one double dealing on race day as Scott has punched and sacked the lawyer for posting the news of the land grab and the dispossession before Scott is ready, The lawyer then throws his lot with the Saloon owner and goes early be a quiet route to take possession of the ranch for the saloon owner by avoiding the military. When Scott sees one of the Saloon owners men knock the daughter of her horse he goes to her rescue and then stakes out the ranch in the name  her father in an attempt to undo the damage. He kills the lawyer and then the saloon owner in shoot outs and the father regrets his decision to horse whip Scott and offers him the job of running the property. The daughter also says yes and  everyone is happy with the town rid of the baddies. This  is therefore a classic B movie Western where the only problem is the incongruity of Scott playing a much young man, although in opera such incongruities are forgiven and  he plays his roles well. I saw many such  films on Saturday morning movies session at the local Odeon in Wallington.

The Private Eye film of the week is The Woman in Green  involves Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr Watson. When several young women are murdered in different parts of  London apparently for no reason as robbery or sex is ruled out as motives  but the same forefinger is surgically removed Holmes is contacted by the yard in desperation

This is the third Sherlock Holmes film with Rathbone and Bruce where the adversary proved to be Professor Moriarty who IN each film falls to death but is later proved to have survived.

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In this film Moriarty arranges for Watson to be out on a fake call for help while he visits Holmes to taunt him and gain information on the set up inside the flat. He then hypnotises an ex solder to kill Holmes from an opposite window. Holmes sends Watson across the way to apprehend the potential killer but Watson appears to arrive too late but on returning to their flat he finds that Holmes has used a bust  similar to his frame to give the killer the false idea he has been successful. Later the service man is also killed when he goes to see Holmes to reveal who is behind  the situation,

In what is the only credulity stretch of the film Holmes accompanies the Inspector to a drinking club in the West End when they spot a well known figure, Sir George Fenwick.  entertaining a much younger women dressed green We know that the woman invites Sir George to her home for a nightcap  but not what  happens immediately next. In the following days when Holmes and the Inspector fail to find any leads  Holmes  and Watson note another young women approaching their residence with a handbag that Holmes tells Watson must be containing something she is bringing to him because it does not go with fashionable other clothes she is wearing.

This young woman explains that she found her father going out in the middle of the night after having stayed out one night and she then digs what he has buried which she now hands to Holmes and he opens the box to reveal a severed finger. Homes notices that the girl was being followed so he insists on making his way with her immediately to the home of the father, contacting Scotland Yard to  join them. Unfortunately when they  go to talk to the father, they find that he has been murdered evidently to stop him revealing what happened to him.

Clutching in one hand is the pocket matches from the drinking club where Holmes had seen him before Sir George Fenwick with The Woman in Green. Holmes suspects that the woman with him  plays a  significant role and sets out to trap her suspecting that she is lured to get wealthy men to her rooms where they are hypnotised to believe that they are the killers of the women after they find a finger in their possession. They are then blackmailed by the woman and Moriarty and Sir George had withdrawn all the savings from the bank account shortly before his death,

Holmes then befriends the woman in green who takes him back to her flat and appears to hypnotise him and one of her men  uses a knife to cut Holmes to check he her is her under control, after which  she then orders him to write a suicide note,  and go out on the window ledge and jump to his death,

Watson and the police arrive and it is revealed that Holmes had taken a pain killing substance so he could give the impression of being hypnotised, Moriarty who is in  the building escapes from the police and appears to fall to his death as he jumps from the building to another.

The Police Cops and thriller film of the week is Jenifer 8. Arriving in small town rural California for a new  job recommended by a friend and  police colleague, John Berlin ( Andy Garcia) works out that there is a relationship between  the body part of young woman in a garbage can, a severed hand, and an unidentified murdered girl which remained unsolved despite a six month investigation. Berlin notices that marks on the hand indicate that the girl used Braille and could be assumed to have been blind. He discovers there were also other unsolved cases which convinces him they are looking for a serial killer. Under pressure from a long standing colleagues who was passed over for promotion to make way for Berlin the local police chief refuses to accept there is any connection between the new and previous cases.

It has become a cliché that once the police  on both sides of the Atlantic have a suspect who they believe is guilty they do not explore other possibilities.  In total there were eight girls within a radius of 300 miles who were killed or disappeared and had sight problems. He names the unsolved case Jennifer 7 and the latest Jenifer 8, hence the title of the film. He then meets a blind young woman (Una Thurman) and is convinced that her room mate is Jennifer 8 and because she has knowledge of the voice of the person with whom the girl came to associate she is also at risk. Because the girl resembles his ex wife Berlin becomes attached to her.

There is then one of those situations which is not uncommon, Berlin arranges for the wife of the friend, who arranged the transfer to look after the girl while they keep watch on her accommodation believing an attempt will be made on her life. When investigating what looks like  movement in the girl’s room Berlin is knocked unconscious and his gun taken and used to kill his colleague and friend. He is then accused of the murder and questioned by the FBI special agent, John Malkovich in a brilliant cameo performance, egged on by the colleague who was passed over for promotion.
Berlin becomes convinced this is this is situation and gets into an understandable panic after being freed because the passed over colleague is on his way to the home of the widow to take the witness  back to the residential centre the blind to go over what happened in relation to her friend Jennifer 8. We the audience are not immediately aware that the widow has switched positions with  the witness and  accompanies the killer who is under the impression she is blind. When he attempts to kill her, she turns round with a gun and shoots him dead thus bringing the story to its successful conclusion.


The spoof films of the Week was the first and second of the Scary Movie Franchise. Scar Movies  1  and which came out in 2000 and 2001 and where number 5 is to be released next year. The  first film boasted that that it was a one off and unlike the genre it parodied there would be no sequel. The opening of the second admits that the team which includes two actors who were/are also the writers, lied. The films  are intended for the weekend teenage audience which adores films about teenagers experimenting with sex, making jokes about masturbation,  lavatory humour and lots of gore a well as those who are appalled at the genre and welcome a film which  attempts to ridicule.

The basics of the first story makes constant references the film “I know what you did last Summer.” with in this instance the killer phoning  the group of college students (I know what you did last Halloween).

 A college girl is brutally murdered and the following day another college girl is warned that she will be next after which there follows an increasing number of murders of her friends. She survives at the end of the film  which also reveals that the murderer is the someone who has been the goofy moron allowed to go around with the police because he is a goofy moron who uses the tube of a vacuum cleaner to masturbate and poops in his pants. The girls are frequently seen in their bras and pants, there are intimations of oral sex and the spoof horror includes a decapitation of a girl who continues to talk and the removal of a breast implant which occurs at the immediate opening of the film.

The point of the film is the parody, The opening follows Scream I and is quickly followed by a  reference to  I know what you did last Summer as  previously mentioned. There is also a  replica scene where the whole cinema audience takes it turn to kill a girl who has spent the opening part of the film watching giving a loud running commentary and which was the enjoyable moment of wishful thinking on my part given my hostility to those who insist on having a conversation during the main feature. Other references are to the Blair Witch Project,  a film which I did not  get or found engaging at any level and, to The Sixth Sense, which I did; the Shining and the line from Psycho, “We all go a little Crazy sometime.” The cinematic tricks of slowing down fast moving action is taken from the Matrix and the final scene is from The Usual Suspects while the sex scene is from American Pie.

 I agree with the parents who complained that the film should have been rated 18 and not available for 14 years olds although there is only nudity is the back view of a male together with shots of an obviously fake penis, going in one ear and out of the other and none of the killings appear real or scary. My complaint is that provides a false impression of how college students behave.

Having got away with the first the second concentrates on packing in as many references as possible including The Haunting, The Exorcist, Hollow Men, The House on Haunted Hill. Hannibal, Save the Last dance, Mission Impossible II The Amtyville Horror, Dawn of the Dead Twister, Scanners, The Rock Horror Show, Poltergeist, What Lies beneath (a great film), Rocky, Wishmaster and several others.

The main story line involves the students being selected by a researcher and his assistant because of their previous involvement in mass killings in a stay  at a House for the weekend where there have been murders and known ghosts. They have been promised A grades for participating. Before this there is an opening scene at the  House from  Hell in which a girl pees  on the floor for several minutes and another scene of an exorcism the Exorcist priest, the local Priest and the possessed girl explode vomit at each other with increasing ferocity. The Lavatory humour, the swearing and the fake sex is notched up or down depending on viewpoint with increased vulgarity

The first film made around $250million more than costs while the second only £100 million.