Scott Walker: 30 Century Man

Tonight we see a film with my partner's parents. The film we see is 'Scott Walker: 30 Century Man', as her folks are big Scott Walker fans. The film tells the story of his transformation from teen idol Scott Engel, through his time with The Walker Brothers and then into his solo career. His records gradually got weirder and weirder and sales declined. Save for a brief Walkers reunion he disappeared until a record label finally let him do things his way. Even then his output was less than prolific, averaging about one record every ten years. His way turned out to be very avant-garde. It is described as exploring the boundaries between chord and dis-chord. I have to say that, although the programme probably overdid his later stuff, I found myself rather taken with the pretentious experimentalism of his material. Particularly with a song about the hanging of Mussolini, which for the recording required a percussionist to punch a slab of meat with his fists.



There are many gushing contributions from celebrity fans who you feel are courtesy of David Bowie's address book, he is credited as being as executive producer - Damon Albarn, Johnny Marr (yes him again), Julian Cope (no idea my favourite poet was a fan and even compiled an album of Scott's stuff), Marc Almond, Radiohead, Simon Raymonde, Jarvis Cocker and many more. Quite a cult following.

His songs are dark, depressing, daunting, discomforting and even disturbing, all the d's. My kind of stuff. I'm intrigued. I can feel a CD purchase or two coming on.

Fast Food Nation

Fast Food Nation is a bit of a disappointment. Even if you discount the short role that Avril Lavigne has in it, she is as bad as you would expect but at least she didn't sing and hers isn't the only bad acting in it. The dark side (is there any other side?) of the fast food industry is an interesting idea for a film but here it's very badly done. As soon as you think they’re going to get their teeth into a particular topic they abandon it and move on to something else.
It tells a number of stories that are linked but then doesn’t seem to connect them together. Instead the film jumps around and nothing is explored enough to become interesting. The film fails to add anything to what I already know about fast food. Although I admit I probably know more than your average fast food eater does, so it's perhaps an education for some.



Overall, it's a wasted opportunity. It is no Super Size Me. Most of the stuff in the film, immigrant workers, artificial flavourings, bad working conditions, animals being killed for meat etc are all common knowledge. The only two shocking parts of it were the fact that faeces makes it into burgers and that workers lose limbs in the factories but in the end both disclosures were brushed under the carpet. Disappointing stuff.

Last King Of Scotland

Tonight a night with Idi Amin and James McAvoy aka The Last King of Scotland.


It's a good film, although a little improbable. Yet again the plot catches me out, I'm not good with plots as you may have gathered, as I keep expecting Gillian Anderson to reappear as his love interest but she doesn't.

The ending is rather good. There is something rather beautiful about seeing Mr McAvoy strung up by his nipples, serves him right for the soppy ending in Starter For Ten. I turn to L to point that out but she has her eyes closed, hands over her face and her head buried in the seat. How women can take the cringe worthy mushy bits but not the gore I'll never know. All in all a nice romantic night out.

Volver

We actually watched this over three nights on DVD, which perhaps shows we weren't terribly enthusiastic about it..

Penelope Cruz plays Raimunda, who, finds herself husbandless, thanks to her own daughter. He came on to her and she stabbed him. Little is made of the attempted rape or the subsequent murder, by mother or Daughter; they just shrug their shoulders 'oh well' and get on with life. This sets the tone for the film as other things happen, everyone's dirty washing falls out of the cupboard and the plot gets weirder and more convoluted. Raimunda's sister, Sole thinks she's seeing the ghost of their dead mother, and... well there's just too much to go into.



I suppose it's a kind of film noir but it’s also like a soap opera, I can't really see why it got all the plaudits. It’s well shot, well made, Penelope Cruz is passable but hardly sensational. I suppose compared with her previous efforts she's a revelation but she still has to mime when she's asked to perform a flamenco number.

It all left me cold. It's a story about women sticking together with an almost all female cast. It's a film for girls but then I don't think L was that fussed by it either. Volver means 'to return'. Hmmm, not in this case.

Stranger Than Fiction

'Stranger Than Fiction' is about a novelist (Emma Thompson) struggling to complete her latest book. As the finale to her book she is trying to find a way to kill off her main character, a chap called Harold Crick. The thing is he exists in real life and can hear her words being narrated to him. So he tries to find a way to change her ending and so save his life. It's all a little too far fetched for me and, I think, rather silly but L and Daughter seem to like it.