Graphic Passions: Snow Piercer

I be excited to read a review in the Independant of Part One of the two-part graphic novel - "Snowpiercer" - to be published over the next couple of months by Titan. It's the long awaited English translation of  "Le Transperceneige" - a 1980s French comic by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette.
In a post-apocalyptic  frozen future all that's left of humanity travels on a permanently moving, globe-circling train. The dregs of society get the rear of the train - furthest from the engine - whilst the carriages between reflect society's hierarchy as they stretch towards those of the powerful and privileged at the front. But people are getting restless and rebellion is coming...

The project looks to be a tie-in with the cinema release of Korean director Bong Joon-ho's film adaptation, starring Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton. But there has been controversy over the film's release date in the US and UK due to legal battles over who makes the "final cut". It has already been released unedited in Korea and France, I think.
Here's the French (appropriate) trailer for the film .... it's loud of course.

Wagner By The Hour...

OK. I am not referencing Wagner's Ring cycle with this hat. Sometimes I just need to wear my rabbit's ears hat.

So.... we do watch Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, and Siegfried .... (see previous post if you don't know what I'm on about...) Hours and hours of declaiming and singing and swording and swashing buckles. Nice scenery. Some very nice singing. Much as I don't Wagner... it does leave me hiyata-ho-ing around the place. Next is "Gotterdammerung" (again!). The finale.

But tonight "Celebrity Bake-Off" may just win out on the telly front.... (Blimey, just realised that this series beloved by the nation is made by the same outfit as outrage du jour - "Benefits Street". Jam for some but not for others....  I see.)

And yes... The Old Man do still have a hand like a bunch of sausages... we may learn why today. But meanwhile I shall wear my comfort hat.

The "Christmas Gift": Wagner By The Hour... "The Ring Cycle"

So Someone Who Shall Be Nameless...do give The Old Man a boxed set of The Met's Complete "Ring" Cycle on DVD for Christmas. (Very nice present some of you may say... which indeed it is.)

Now... I may not have mentioned this already but.... I am not a Wagner fan. The Old Man however is a passionate devotee (see this previous post as proof). And as he do sprout yet another strange medical condition the other day... one hand looking like a bunch of sausages... (so far a blood test taken but no results....) .... I do feel he may need a treat and do agree to the watching of said DVDs... In truth I am a great Lepage fan and as this is his 2012 production for The Met... I really do want to see them as well.

I am surviving. Some of the scene effects are magical... wish I could have been there to see them. And some of the singing is wonderful. (Don't that sound grudging?) The Old Man grumbles a bit. For some reason he decides to try me out (without my realising it) on the final act of the entire thing. So he be a bit disgruntled that the immolation wasn't immolating enough as far as he was concerned! But equally he do peer at me occasionally to see how I have taken a particular passage... and I can tell... that his eyes be full and his voice might be choked... as he waves his banana hand around.

The Old Man Vetoes Woody Allen Consumption

So I... I guess I'll have to call a halt to watching Woody Allen movies for a while. I mean....we watched "Manhattan" and The Old Man thinks it is the "best" Woody Allen of our season and he is very impressed with its Gershwin-only soundtrack. And OK... I did think it has more meat on its bones than some of the others we watched. In fact I would have liked to have shown you a trailer but.... everything in the trailer is so dark.....  like life.

But we watched Midnight in Paris ....in which Owen Williams plays...er.. well he plays Woody Allen ..who else? His character is a Hollywood scriptwriter engaged into the kind of family where the poisonous parents-in-law-to-be shower him with daily contempt.... He falls in love with a magical 1920s Paris.... and things get.... otherworldly.

Let me see... we also watched "Hannah and Her Sisters"... "Shadows and Fog".... "Radio Days"...."Annie Hall" "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex" and finished with "Manhattan".
I have to admit that Mia Farrow gets on my nerves after a while... Diane Keaton I prefer. I lerve Dianne Wiest. Both The Old Man and me were taken aback revisiting Michael Caine in "Hannah...". He do get an Oscar for it. I don't think so really when you see it again...
But like I say... The Old Man has had enough... so to speak...  Me? Well there are an awful lot of Woody Allen films out there... and I still want to watch more.

Meanwhile I am hoping to forget all about my existential angst and possible deathly illnesses by watching some thing else..... Like a "Popeye" retrospective... tell you more about that some other time.

Woody Allen - "Shadows And Fog" Trailer

I never saw this one before..... with Mia Farrow, Woody Allen, John Malkovich... and plenty more..... a tribute to 1930s German film I think... like Fritz lang's "M"....

Woody Allen - Annie Hall Trailer

 After which every girl rushed into trousers, waistcoats and ties by way of tribute to Diane Keaton's style.

The Woody Allen Thing

So I say to The Old Man...
"Guess who I am."
....Cos you know.... I like to dress up in different personas so to speak...
And he looks at me for quite some time.... and then he says:
"Brunhilde."

Never try to makes jokes with a Wagnerian.

The Perils Of Watching A Woody Allen Season...

...are that I too.... am full of angst at present....
You see...
I am very fond of a Woody Allen film.
And I... Well... I haven't exactly watched any for quite some time so... over the Christmas and New Year period I watched quite a few... so to speak. That is... alongside The Old Man... who... did not feel himself to be that familiar with Allen's films.....
Apart from "Manhattan" that is.
Which he insists we saw together... at the cinema... and at the time of its release....
I... I don't know... It's all a bit of a blur to me you see...
Oh God... What am I to do? I mean.... I don't feel too well... and the way the world is going... I don't know...
Perhaps I shouldn't watch too many more Woody Allen films.......