Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Cricketing concerns

It's really disheartening to keep hearing of Shane Bond's injury concerns - it is beginning to look like he may never play internationally again. Shades of Geoff Allot, unfortunately. Despite Fleming's comments of the bowling attack in the recent English Test Series, which I thought were a bit harsh, we did miss having a front-line strike bowler. Harmison was probably the difference between the teams.

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Some quick film festival blogging....

Control Room
A must see documentary that details the events inside the Al-Jazeera media organisation during March-May 2003. The journalists at Al-Jazeera are obviously conflicted with the war and their role in its reporting, but still attempt to do their job as fairly as possible. They are also very conscious of the absurdity and tragedy of the whole situation, and the shock and despair on their faces when US tanks enter Bagdahd is palpable. The film floats around the US military media centre during the months of 'major military operations', and there is a stark comparison between Al-Jazeera and the western media outlets (although CNN comes across well). It is interesting to see a US military media spokesman, an obviously intelligent man, gradually transform from a dogmatic parrot at the inception of the war to a more reflective, doubting soldier who begins to realise the power of information, perception and propaganda by the film's close. Control Room drips with irony, especially given recent events, as seeing Rumsfeld proclaim that 'truth eventually finds its way out' is an absolute hoot.

Porco Rosso
An earlier Miyazaki film (Spirited Away) for those not familiar, Porco Rosso is a wonderful, fantastical and whimsical film of a dashing aviator in the late 20s Mediterranean who just happens to be a pig. Cue pig/flying jokes. The animation is startling, with beautiful flying sequences and great attention to detail as Porco Rosso despatches air pirates. Some great fascist satire is worked into the film, as well as a moment that is, well almost transcendant (I won`t spoil it). Only a small tonal lapse in a scene near the end took the edge off of what is a brilliant, elegant and very funny film.

Animation Now!
A staple of my festival program for years, this year the collection was a very good one indeed. Featuring Harvie Krumpet, the Australian animation that won the Oscar this year (very good) and Pearl, Florrie and the Bull, a sweet NZ animation that seemed straight out of the School Journal . However the highlights for me were Flux, which distilled the essence of the circle of life into a very clever 8 minutes of inkblots that warp time and space, and an Estonian film Instinct, which was a highly imaginative, whimiscal, yet twisted creation fable, with some fantastic claymation.

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Corner of the square

I like the idea (announced this morning) of developing the Illott lawn adjacent to Wellington's Civic Sqaure into a music school for Victoria and Massey Universties. A building on that site would effectively 'complete the loop' of buildings around the square, and provide a more enclosed space, and hopefully the bulding will act as a counterpoint to the Michael Fowler Centre - I don`t mean this in a bad way. If music students are anything like architecture/design students in their work/sleep habits, then the activity generated from the music school will add a bit more life into the square in times when its normally quiet. Arguably it will be a safer space with students milling about, too.

I've no doubt the self-proclaimed waterfront watch will be making a fuss, but they really do miss the point sometimes. The Illott lawn, while a pleasant area of grass in the city, was never that well utilised, especially compared to Civic Square. In a busy, sunny weekday lunchhour, the square will be packed full of people enjoying the spectacle and the promenade, basking in the sun, and relishing being that little bit more sheltered from the pervasive breeze. Illott lawn was just a little too exposed to noisy Jervois Quay and a little too removed from the primary pedestrian routes to ever be a comfortable, successful urban green space.
Really, there was never a great deal of a vantage, let alone 'The View' from the lawn anyway, which is what waterfront watch seemed to be most concerned about. If one wants to look north across the habour to the Tararuas, which would have been spectacular on a day like today, then one can easily go up the steps to the City-to-Sea bridge.

The only variable now is: will there be a piece of quality architecture built on the site?

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Father and Son

The film festival has begun - one of my favourite times of year. I find the trick is to concentrate on films that are unlikely to receive a general theatrical release, thus films like Fahrenheit 9/11, The Motorcycle Diaries, and In My Father's Den, can safely be postponed without fear of missing out.

I watched Father and Son this evening, a film by Aleksandr Sokurov, whose previous film was Russian Ark - the stunning, yet difficult single-shot film through the Hermitage and 300 years of Russian society. Father and Son is a return to a more traditional format, yet it remains deliberate in the lack of narrative and celebration of the aesthetic. For the film is stunningly beautiful, lit as if bathed in a pale golden glow of a post-Renaissance painting.

Father and Son concerns the paternal relationship implicit in the title, and the film frequently features a highly charged eroticism as the two men talk, play, fight and exercise in their rooftop apartment. The son, a young military recruit, and his father, a military veteran who would barely be 20 years older seem to exist in a brooding state of melancholy, their emotions floating just below the surface. The acting is subdued, and the emotions of the characters tend to be communicated as much by their surroundings, their location in the frame, the background noise and music, and the lighting rather than what they say and do, as they say and do very little.

In these aspects, the film is a techinical marvel, and serves to heighten the textural feel and languid pace. The background chiming of a town clock, the squawking of seagulls, Tchaikovsky on the radio, the shape of a roof suggesting a greater space below, the pre-Raphaelite sky, the clatter of a tram along the street. Father and Son is a very internalised film in its use of space, much of it set in the apartment and on the roof above, and the camera rarely moves beyond a medium close-up and takes in a long shot of the location. Even during a sojurn out into the city, the details remain the focus - the junction of tram tracks, reflections of the city in the windows, the steep and winding pedestrian streets. The actual city was never identified - it was very Mediterranean in its architecture and topography (the credits name Lisbon), and so it becomes almost a non-place, transplanted from the fatherland to suggest the father-son relationship as being universal, free of time and space.

Sokurov does not allow much humour into the film, and the obtuse, mysterious approach to the subject matter does not always make an easy watch. I do not pretend to understand all of it, the biblical subtext ("A father's love crucifies, a loving son lets himself be crucified") is something that I am still grappling with - Father and Son demands a second viewing in order to absorb it all in. However, I don`t think this really matters - the film is lovely to look at and enaging to listen to, and there is a power inherent in the film that seems to triumph over complete comprehension.

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

La Grand Illusion

I would hesitate to call this film the cinematic equivalent of All Quiet on the Western Front, as that book had already been adapted into a film by 1937, when Grand Illusion was released. However, they are certainly contemporaneous; but Renoir utilises the possibilities and language of film to create a humanist, anti-war masterpiece that was both frightfully prescient and remains remarkably relevant today.

Set during the First World War, Grand Illusion tells of three French airmen interned in a German prisoner of war camp. Filled with a mix of gentle slapstick, social and political satire, witty dialogue, observational social realism and a surprising emotional heft, the film captures the inhumanity and sheer absurdity of war with hardly a shot being fired in the entire film.

Grand Illusion is a strikingly modern film in many ways - the camera moving elegantly around the spaces and characters, involving the viewer, as well as a carefully crafted mise-en-scene that utilises a deep focus, action in the fore-, middle- and background. It is not nearly as formal and distant as Renoir's next film, La Regle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game), and coupled with the lively banter between the characters is a much warmer film.

It is hard to describe what I felt after leaving the theatre, but I think it can be best described as a degree of elation, and this eludes to the humanist quality of the film that I mentioned earlier. This sense comes from the three lead characters, who despite all being from different social strata, still interact, converse and help one another, almost in defiance of the 'grand illusions' of state, class, and war that ironically placed them in such a situation to begin with.

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Gomez

There is always the hope when you go to a gig that the band will play your favourite song, the song that isn`t a single, the song buried in their first album.

Gomez didn`t play 'Tijuana Lady' last night, but that is small cause to complain over what was a fantastic performance. I saw Gomez once before, 4 years ago in Auckland, and their live show, while brilliant then, has improved markedly since.

There was a level of maturity not evident before, and they had the confidence to open with a track off each of their first three albums ('Bring It On', 'Love Is Better Than A Warm Trombone' & 'Shot Shot') before launching into the single 'Catch Me Up' off Split the Difference. They also played album tracks I certainly didn`t expect them to, such as 'Here Comes The Breeze' (particularly loved this), 'Free To Run', 'Fill My Cup' and the wonderful 'Bring Your Lovin Back Here' off of Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline.

Gomez's summery amalgam of blues, pop, country, three-part harmonies and psychedelia was transformed when the band rocked out into a dense, quite trippy sound, which reminded me of My Bloody Valentine of all things. The crowd also got into a reall groove, clapping and bopping along, and a good time was had by all.

My ears are still dulled, but my mind is still buzzing. Fantastic gig.

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Family Guy is back!

Just found this out, and am very happy. After being cancelled, the show has had a rebirth on the Cartoon Network in the US, and now a new series is in production. The NYT has the story (registration required, but its free and recommended).

Jab

It's good to see that the meningococcal vaccine is going ahead, and that it has the funding to ensure that it is done properly. I think that while the Immunisation Awareness Society makes a valid observation regarding the underlying causes of the disease (poor living standards, poverty, etc) aren`t being addressed here, they seem to be missing the point that the vaccine is a good thing and will save many lives. But then I don`t really agree with the IAS's stance on vaccination anyway.

Thus, one of the better parts of this year's budget was the increased funding to Housing NZ to build more houses to meet the shortage, especially in Auckland, as well as to upgrade existing houses. I recall there was more funding given to the EECA to retrofit older houses with insulation as well, although I can`t seem to find a link. New Zealand's housing stock really is shocking by developed world standards, and any improvements at all are beneficial to the basic well-being of society.

Saturday, July 03, 2004

The dining table book

Seriously, it's that big. Slate's Christopher Hawthorne undertakes a deconstruction of the new Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture. I wandered into Dymocks today to have a look - it was set up on a special display stand, with more copies stacked beneath, each in their own nifty clear plastic carry-case. $330.

It certainly is impressive, but with a surfeit of images and little text, the book paints in broad strokes. I imagine that the atlas will be looked back upon as a useful snapshot of the contemporary architecture scene - but more importantly I think that the way the book has been collated and the material selected & presented is a more precise comment on the way we perceive architecture than the actual architecture itself.

Sorry, getting a little academic there - anyway, only four buildings from New Zealand (out of 1052 in the book), and no Gibbs House! Still, I think the Architectus work deserves to be there, as does Thom Craig's house.

Oh, and the Wilco album is brilliant. "At least that's what you said" is the best Neil Young/Crazy Horse song they never wrote.

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Looks like I've been noticed...

Wasn`t expecting this, but I've been caught up in David Farrar's June census of the NZ blogosphere.

I had guess I had better finish designing this thing - delayed by a busy week at work, and taking on extra work in the evenings...silly me.