Animated Discussions: Loving Vincent

I'm looking out for "Loving Vincent" - a film produced by Polish animator Dorota Kobiela and film director Hugh Welchman (who also worked on the 2006 animation "Peter and the Wolf"). They just got an Oscar nomination and the European Film Academy gave it their 2017 European Animated Feature Film Award.
The project was Kobiela's labour of love which everyone said could not be done: a film about Vincent Van Gogh animated with frames individually painted in the style of the man himself. "CGI it": they said. "No": said the team whose dream it was.

From a test run in 2012 they managed to tackle problems such as frame size vs varying canvas size of source paintings; film timeline vs depicted seasons in chosen image; varying styles of the painter (Van Gogh) himself... you name it.

And with a team of 80+ painters (including Helford-based artist Sarah Wimperis) and a method involving rotoscoping live-action filming ... They did it.

Take time, if you can, to watch the "making of" video at the end of Ashley Lo Russo's  Review of "Loving Vincent" on the Canadian Animation Blog.

Criminal Travels: Poland - Miloszewski & "A Grain Of Truth"

I am just back from immersing myself in the late arrival of spring to the picturesque town of Sandomierz, Poland - which I visited courtesy of "A Grain Of Truth" by Zygmunt Miloszewski, his second crime fiction novel featuring State Prosecutor Teodor Szacki. [Bitter Lemon Press, 2012.]
I read the first "Szacki" book - "Entanglement"- late last year and posted my thoughts on that one here. I certainly enjoyed it enough to want to read this second installment and I am glad I did....

"Like a china doll floating in the mist, thought Myszynski as he gazed at the dead body lying below the synagogue. It was unnaturally, unsettlingly white, shining with lack of colour."

April 2009: Nighttime, and from a high window in the Sandomierz State Archives, housed in a converted synagogue, a soon-to-be traumatised genealogist spots the pale, naked corpse of a woman lying below. The death summons Sandomierz's new State Prosecutor, Teodor Szacki, to the scene. But what is Warsaw-man Szacki doing here, living and working in provincial Sandomierz? Answer: mid-life crisis.
Visiting the area during an investigation of the murder of a prostitute in a Warsaw brothel, Szacki's solving of the case brought him fame in Sandomierz. The weather and surrounding countryside is beautiful. He thinks, why not start a new life here? Had they a post vacant? Well, in fact, yes. And so Teodor leaves his stranded marriage, his wife and child, his big-city ennui, for a fresh start and a new life in the bosom of a beautiful, historic town.
Except it hasn't turned out that way. Teodor finds himself to be, not the big, prosecutorial fish from Warsaw, central to the town and his own life, but an outsider in a provincial city, mistrusted, isolated and lonely. He misses night-life, good wine and the bouts of bracing sparring with his old police partner Oleg Kuzniecow.

The death of the woman in Sandomierz suggests ritual slaughter. Szacki soon suspects her husband, a respected Councillor, until he himself is found dead in an even more gruesome and bizarre ritualistic setting. Does the town harbour a serial killer whose pattern of murder has its roots in the town's difficult anti-Semitic past and myths? Jewish revenge or the misleading twists of an anti-Semitic nationalist? In order to find the killer before they kill again, Szacki must investigate both the past and the present of his country and community - a community whose inhabitants know their combined history like the backs of their hands.

Beautifully translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, "A Grain Of Truth" is a meticulously considered and well written book that builds a convincing portrait of Teodor Szacki. It also examines Polish history and Jewish relations from all angles whilst still managing to remain a gripping crime story which had me reading into the small hours, hanging onto its pages with clenched hands, despite my internal reader struggling with an imagined pronunciation of all those Polish names; that's a nothing... a small problem compared to the crime story told. I do hope there will be a third Teodor Szacki ... or rather a third Teodor Szacki translated into English. Miloszewski has a permanent place on my bookshelf.

Grey Doll's Criminal Reading Takes Her To Miloszewski's Warsaw

I won three crime novels a while back .... and the first one I chose to read was "Entanglement" by Polish writer Zygmunt Miloszewski. [Bitter Lemon Press, 2010]. Nice timing for me because, according to Bitter Lemon Press, BBC Radio Four is broadcasting a two-part dramatisation of the book - at 3pm on Sundays October 11 and 18th - as part of its "Reading Europe" season. There should also be a BBC Radio 4's "Front Row" interview with its author, former journalist and editor Miloszewski, at 7.15pm on October 9th.

"Entanglement" is Miloszewski's first crime novel featuring State Prosecutor Teodor Szacki and is set in Warsaw in 2005, during the political reign of the Kaczyński twins. It opens with the discovery of a body (naturally). The body is that of printing-business manager Henryk Telak, a participant in a tough, weekend-long, role-playing, psychotherapy workshop taking place in the rented rooms of a Warsaw monastery. The dead Henryk is found on the floor of one of these rooms with a skewer in his eye ... and the case lands on the desk of be-suited, prematurely white-haired, Prosecutor Szacki who, roused from his Sunday-morning bed by his seven-year old daughter, gives a bleary-eyed wave to his equally bleary-eyed wife in her faded "Disco Fun" t-shirt and makes his way to the crime scene. Szacki wonders how to play the interviews with the workshop participants. The Lieutenant Columbo method, let them stew? But he tells Police Inspector Oleg Kuzniecow to interview them now – as witnesses – careful questions, take good notes, soften them up for Szacki to get back to them a few times. Kuzniecow  bristles at the precise instructions but agrees to meet for coffee next morning to summarise progress and to work out a strategy. You're buying, says Kuzniecow. Can't afford to, replies Szacki....

The book that follows is in some ways a conventional police procedural in which Szacki is partnered by the ironically (we hope) savage police detective Oleg Kuzniecow as they interview workshop-participants, therapist, witnesses and other interested parties. But alongside this structured plot Miloszewski gives us subtle reminders of the changes undergone by Polish society during the late twentieth century and paints a detailed evocation of Warsaw's streets and buildings. (Us non-Polish readers must chose whether to master a mental pronunciation act or blast through the names and places with reckless speed in this smooth and convincing translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.) The plot deepens as clues lead back to another murder whilst Szacki's frustrations at marking time in his career and marriage push him towards the distractions of a young, attractive journalist.
Miloszewski creates his characters with an objective yet empathic eye and I love his dialogue. With psychotherapy, suspense, wit and the tensions of Poland's political history...  this is a book I greatly enjoyed.

I shall definitely be putting the second in the Prosecutor Szacki series - "A Grain of Truth" - on my Christmas List ... ready for The Old Man's wallet.

Grey Doll Boosts Her Criminal Reading via Bitter Lemon Press

Well, I don't usually win competitions but last week I do. Hurray.
I like to read crime fiction from foreign lands (as you may know) and in order to keep an eye on new releases I subscribe to a newsletter from Bitter Lemon Press... an independent publisher which specialises in translated crime fiction and "roman noir" titles.
I entered a quick competition in the last newsletter .... and did win three books of my choice! Thank you, Bitter Lemon Press.

I've picked Entanglement by Polish crime writer Zygmunt Miloszewski (translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones)... his first book (I think) in his crime series featuring State Prosecutor Teodor Szacki.

Hotel Bosphorus, (translated by Ruth Whitehouse) and first in Turkish writer Esmahan Aykol's "Kati Hirschel" mystery novels.

And... Nights of Awe by Finnish writer Harri Nykanen .... the first of his Inspector Ariel Kafka books. (Translated by Kristian London.)

Did you see what I just did there? I take my crime fiction addiction very seriously. If it is a series, I like to start at the beginning. Then I know there's plenty more to come, if it's for me. I'll let you know how I get on with them. But for sure, if you like crime in translation... take a dip in Bitter Lemon Press's catalogue.... it's a tempting box of chocolates for crime fans like I.

Grey Doll & Criminal Listening: BBC Radio Four, Cuba And More Foreign Bodies

A newsletter from Bitter Lemon Press... specialist publishers of translated crime fiction ....  tells us that those of us in the UK listening to BBC Radio 4 are due for a Cuban crime treat on Saturday afternoons ( 2.30 - 3.30 pm starting 15th November ) with a series of dramatisations of Leonardo Padura's "Havana Quartet".

What's more there is a tie in with a new series of Mark Lawson's excellent "Foreign Bodies". This time he looks at how crime fiction reflects different political systems.... starting with Cuba and Communism. These programmes will air on BBC Radio 4, from Monday 17th November, 1.45 - 2.00 pm. and will run daily in same slot until Friday 21st November. In addition to Cuba the episodes will cover political perspectives from USA, Poland, Australia and Nigeria.

Ooh! I gotta pin my ears back and enjoy this lot.

Animated Discussions: Kijek/Adamski - Shugo Tokumaru Music Video

Shugo Tokumaru / Katachi from Kijek / Adamski on Vimeo.

From Polish animators Kijek / Adamski. If my previous animation post sampled the impromptu, "simple" end of things.... this music video is a pearl of the more complicated kind. (Quote from their Cargo page: "...made with approx. 2000 silhouettes extracted from PVC plates using computer-controlled cutter.")

Graphic Passions: Rutu Modan's "The Property"

In "The Property" by  Rutu Modan (Translated by Jessica Cohen, published by Jonathan Cape, 2013).....

Regina Segal and her granddaughter Mica travel from Tel Aviv to Warsaw where Regina is hoping to reclaim a family property lost during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw in World War 2. The visit brings back painful memories for the elderly Regina and in turn her growing secrecy puzzles Mica. Events are further complicated by the apparently coincidental appearance of a friend of Regina's daughter. Distrust and cross-purposes veil this story of bitter-sweet memories and the possibilities of reconciliation.

I enjoyed this graphic novel greatly. Modan's drawing style is deceptively simple and "flat" but still gives expression and characterisation.
And Boy... do some of those characters irritate me .... proof of Modan's story-telling skills. Flashback passages are rendered in sepia monochrome, providing a clear narrative for this subtle, contemporary story.

Frozen Bird Video by Lukasz Rusinek

Frozen Bird - Bastards from Łukasz Rusinek on Vimeo.


Can't resist. For those who like animation, music... and thrillers.

Spotted on Animated Review blog. Music video for Frozen Bird by Lukasz Rusinek