Although Picture 1 feature the play, rather than the film, the cast simply transferred in their entirety to the film. And the picture was better.All I can say about the film is "Go and See it." It was superb. A brilliant piece of writing, as you would expect from Alan Bennet, great casting and not a weak performance from anyone. If you are not a 'lover of words' and 'a lover of quotations' and 'a lover of needle-sharp humour' it might not appeal. A good grasp of French would also help because my 55yr old O level wasn't quite up to speed. Got the gist though! I used to find at work that an inappropriate quotation was an excellent de-fuser of 'bollockings'. Once I was being told off by a Chief Superintendent and I offered "You could say Sir, that it's a case of 'Minerva's owl flies only in the dusk'." It completely stopped his flow.
The 'boys' were excellent and there were powerful performances from both Richard Griffiths and Francis de la Tour who I've been a great fan of ever since Rising Damp. What Alan Bennet and Richard Griffiths together managed to do was to give one a great sympathy and liking for a character who would normally attract little sympathy. Namely a genital-groping, elderly teacher of teenage boys.Jill is to see a double bill next month of The Queen and The History Boys with a break for supper in between. I promise she will find both so stimulating and thought-provoking that one after the other would be too much for my personal channel capacity. Better than not seeing them at all though!
Regular readers might remember my point a couple of months ago that the only answer to the Iraq debacle is to bring Saddam back and ask him to sort out the mess and keep his beady eye on Iran like he used to. Corelli Barnet in today's Daily Mail has finally caught on to the same view. He points out that Saddam was anti Islamic extremism, the position of women was better, casualties and torture were less and the place was more-or-less peaceable. I've often thought that things would be better if I were in charge ! Ha Ha!
A contributor to WUforums suggested a solution to my Office 2003 address-book problem but it involved Microsoft Excel which I'm not really au fait with. But it sounded promising and I'll have a go.
I made a sort of fish-casserole for lunch and it was rubbish. Can't win 'em all.
No Art -no Films tomorrow. I've got some donkeys lined up..........
But didn't you think you could have ruled Russia better than Peter the Great?
ReplyDeleteAs for Saddam, it is never going to happen, is it? Apart from the ethical argument, which I will agree is confused, the US could not afford to lose face. No, what needs to be decided first of all, given that a simple withdrawal of all foreign troops (and, hard though it may be to accept, in this context WE are foreigners) would cause decades of mayhem and destruction (which is no doubt what will happen if we do NOT withdraw)is whether what we have at present is a TARFU or SAPFU situation. Of course, it would all sort itself out eventually, just like the Balkans, and those who might be left could then get on with leading normal lives (I nearly said 'again' but, of course, none of them will have led normal lives before).
I hope that didn't sound cynical?