I've always wanted to put a non-Latin character set up as a blog title, so I guess today is the fulfilment of that dream. I've just finished watching Waltz With Bashir, which I watched in two halves over the last two days. Initially, I was somewhat confused generically by the piece - the films positions itself as a documentary (interviews complete with subtitles of the interviewees' names appear on screen) but seems a little more...ephemeral.

Obviously, I'm fairly late to the party with this one, as it was released in 2008, so I shan't go off and do a review or anything. I did think that it was an extremely effective production though. I particularly liked the brazenness of repeating the hallucination scene at the beach. Ari Folman can't remember what he was doing the night of the massacres at Shabra and Shatila. The viewer is compelled to be involved in the hallucinations which plug the gaps. Each repetition is identical. There is no concession for having seen it before. The haunting (but perhaps too self-consciously tragic - I think additive minimalism is a bit easy really) Max Richter soundtrack maintains itself identically in each facsimile too. I was very impressed. Glad I decided to watch that instead of Family Guy. Then ending was superb: emotive; compelling; and understated. The visuals are certainly ambitious, and in many scenes they are superb, particularly in scenes with difficult lighting. Otherwise, in terms of animation, movements can be a little regimented and clunky, or worse still, things often don't seem to move at all. It gives it all a bit of nightmare quality, a bit like a moving equivalent of a ransom note, all little pieces hinged unhappily together into a not quite homogenous group. Perhaps that's all part of it. But on the whole I found the dynamism of the animations more off-putting than praiseworthy.



I have also been reading through Book 1 of the New Arcadia, a feat which will undoubtedly not be impressive to anyone who hasn't tussled with Sidney. I remember it as good, but on second reading, I'm finding it really quite excellent. Whether that's a familiarity thing or whether I'm a more sensitive reader, I don't know. I hope the latter. I suspect the former. Also watched F1 qualis. Glad for the Aussie, sad for Kubica. One day Robert, you'll make it.

Labels: f1, film, revision

"The circle of human knowledge, illuminated by the pale, cold light of reason, is so infinitesimally small, the dark regions of human ignorance which lie beyond that luminous ring so immeasurably vast, that imagination is feign to step up to the borderline and send the warm, richly colored beams of her fairy lantern streaming out into the darkness ; and so, peering into the gloom, she is apt to mistake the shadowy reflections of her own figure for real beings moving in the abyss.

Sir James George FrazerThe Golden Bough

April 2010 / May 2010 / June 2010 / July 2010 / August 2010 / September 2010 / February 2011 / April 2011 / August 2011 / September 2011 /

Misc. stuff / Just to say. / Danny / Jude / Shakespeare exam / Historical Shakespeare. / Jesus back then / A trip to Cambridge / William Kemp day / local, but prized elsewhere / BA humbug - the perils of an arts degree /

The title of this blog comes from a poem by Coleridge, A Wish: Wriiten in Jesus Wood, Feb. 10th, 1792, Plus most blogs are moans anyway. Including this one. lol manuscripts

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I'm a 23 year-old student in London Cambridge London, studying English Literature Law. It's hard to really think of anything truly personal I can put here that might give you some idea of who I am, so I will just tell you that my favourite Shakespeare play is Richard II, my favourite chocolate bar is Snickers, and I have a bit of a thing for instant coffee, especially if someone else makes it for me.

I'm interested in Renaissance Literature, Higher Education policy, and libraries.
I'm completely in love with a Scottish girl.