Do you remember Andrea Bocelli? If you don't you're probably fairly young because if you shopped music stores in the mid to late '90s it would've been pretty hard to ignore his presence. He's an Italian tenor that rode the tenor craze that began with the Three Tenors (Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, and Luciano Pavarotti) during the renaissance of cl@ssical music interest that surged due to the popularity of the compact disc format. Although he did have his champions and adoring fans, Bocelli was never fully accepted as a quality tenor in the world of opera and mainly excelled at singing traditional Italian songs in an operatic manner. But despite the nagging of the critical world, Bocelli was insanely popular and eventually sold over 70 million albums and broke world records in terms of sales and popularity. What made him so popular that he regularly outsold his more respected competition?

One of his big selling points was that Bocelli was born with very poor eyesight and due to an injury suffered when he was 12 he became totally blind. But Bocelli was exceedingly intelligent, very musical gifted and despite this setback he marshaled on to compete in singing competitions and began winning them one after another eventually garnering him quite a bit of attention. Although bringing up the fact that he was blind as a selling point might seem a tad crass, trust me it was and it would be foolish for anybody to think that it didn't add to the narrative of his popularity...because brother it did. You know how I know...besides all the advertising pointing this fact out of course. It's because during his rise in popularity I either worked at, helped to run, or flat out ran a music store or department -- and not some little side effort mind you, but a department that did 40% of the business of a $7 million a year store. Anyhoo...pretty much every day, and sometimes multiple times a day, a little old lady would come in asking for one of Bocelli's albums and each and every time those little old ladies would end the conversation with the same statements. "Isn't he great? He's blind you know!" which though impressive and something which definitely added an extra hurdle to Bocelli's climb to success, it's not something you would think was that impossible to imagine for a human to achieve.

Then my mind would drift to somebody in the cl@ssical world that climbed to success around the same time whose struggle truly did impress me. The person who this blog is really about after that exceedingly long preamble. A Scottish percussionist by the name of Dame Evelyn Glennie.

Here is a common entry for the biography of Miss Evelyn Glennie that you can find at many a music site:

"Evelyn is the first person in musical history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist. As one of the most eclectic and innovative musicians on the scene today she is constantly redefining the goals and expectations of percussion. By combining superb technique, a profound appreciation of the visual and her astonishing musicality, Evelyn creates performances of such vitality that they almost constitute a new type of performance.

Evelyn gives more than 100 performances a year worldwide, performing with the greatest conductors, orchestras, and artists. For the first ten years of her career virtually every performance she gave was in some way a first - the first time an orchestra had performed with a percussion soloist, the first solo percussion performance at a venue or festival or the world premiere of a new piece. Her diversity of collaborations have included performances with artists such as Nana Vasconcelos, Kodo, Bela Fleck, Bjork, Bobby McFerrin, Emmanuel Ax, Sting, Kings Singers, Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Fred Frith.

Evelyn has commissioned one hundred and fifty new works for solo percussion from many of the world's most eminent composers and also composes and records music for film and television. Her first high quality drama produced a score so original she was nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards (BAFTA's); the UK equivalent of the Oscars.

Evelyn's recording career has been as illustrious as her performing and composing career. Evelyn's first CD, a recording of Bartok's Sonata for two Pianos and Percussion, won her a Grammy in 1988. A further two Grammy nominations followed, one of which she won in 2002 for a collaboration with Bela Fleck for Sony cl@ssical. Evelyn's twelfth solo CD, Shadow Behind the Iron Sun (BMG Records), was based on a radical concept and has once again questioned people's expectations. Despite working a relentless schedule Evelyn is in constant demand to release new recordings, twenty five so far.

Outside of actual performance the Evelyn Glennie brand is constantly exploring other areas of creativity. From writing a best selling autobiography, Good Vibrations, to collaborating with the renowned film director Thomas Riedelsheimer on a film called Touch the Sound, to presenting two series of her own television programmes (Soundbites) for the BBC, to regularly appearing on television across the world, which include The David Letterman Show (USA), Sesame Street (USA), The South Bank Show (UK), presenting and performing on Songs of Praise (UK), Commonwealth Games Festival Concert, This is Your Life (UK), 60 minutes (USA), PBS Profile (USA) and many more.

Evelyn's activities also include lobbying the Government on political issues, her consortium with Sir James Gallway, Julian Lloyd Webber and the late Michael Kamen successfully led to the government providing 332 million pounds towards music eduction. Other aspects include Evelyn Glennie Images which supplies photographs from a vast image library of Evelyn, Evelyn Glennie Jewellery, which is a range of Jewellery designed in conjunction with Ortak and based on her influences as a solo percussionist and Evelyn Glennie Merchandise. Evelyn is also an international motivational speaker to many diverse corporate companies and events. Evelyn also performs with Orchestras on the Great Highland Bagpipes.

After 20 years in the music business she has begun teaching privately, which allows her to explore the art of teaching and to explore the world of sound therapy as a means of communication.

In 1993 Evelyn was awarded the OBE (Officer of the British Empire). This was extended in 2007 to 'Dame Commander' for her services to music and to date has received over 80 international awards. She is brimming with ideas to improve the experience for the audience and continues to redefine the very format of live performance itself."

So if you bothered to read that I suppose you're probably reasonably impressed. But you might be wondering just why is it then that, other than perhaps a personal preference for percussion over operatic singing, just why is it I'm so much more impressed with Miss Glennie's achievements over Bocelli's? What that biography doesn't mention is the fact that similar to Bocelli Evelyn was born with a problem. You see her hearing wasn't so good and it diminished year by year so that by the same age that Bocelli went completely blind, at age 12 Evelyn became profoundly deaf. You read that right. One of the best and most highly respected percussionists in the world is deaf.

Despite her ever diminishing hearing Evelyn slowly began to notice that every tiny vibration that her percussive instruments made resonated and vibrated in different parts of her body depending upon the various pitches of the waves. Noting all these differences she became so attuned to all their differing wavelengths that she could tell the exact pitch of every note of music by how and where it resonated in her body to the point that even if she doesn't look at the drums she is striking she can feel exactly what she's playing to such an amazing degree of accuracy that along with her amazing playing level skill she has become...well all those things you read about above.

Evelyn Glennie doing her favorite thing. Playing the hell out of snare drum.

Unfortunately Miss Glennie often delves into somewhat formless sound projects that I'm not a keen fan of and so over the years I've sort of drifted away from her world. Recently on HuluPlus I ran across a little quasi-documentary called Touch the Sound which follows her wandering around the world playing with folks and unfortunately (for me anyways) a little too much of that aforementioned sound noodling. But one aspect of it was highly interesting to me as it documented a brief session in which Glennie was teaching a young deaf girl how their deafness can make them better percussionists than people with full hearing. It's really quite amazing to watch her face light up as she realizes that music is not really all that gone from her world of dominating silence.

So yeah...Bocelli was pretty neat and gosh was he popular. But you know who really impresses me...?

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Once upon a time there was a girl who had 7 invisible horses. People thought she was crazy and that she in fact had 7 imaginary horses, but this was not the case. When autumn came the girl spent a whole day washing all her clothes. She hung them on a string in her garden to let the gentle autumn sun dry them. Out of nowhere, a terrible storm came and its fierceful winds grabbed a hold of all her clothes and all seven horses (authors note: since they are invisible they obviously didn't weigh much). The girl was devastated and spent all autumn looking for each horse spread around the country, wrapped in her clothes.

Horse #1

Horse #2

Horse #3

Horse #4

Horse #5

Horse #6

Horse #7

All photographs and text courtesy of Ulrika Kestere

Ulrikakestere.com/

And be sure to stop by her daily blog:

Ulicam.blogspot.com

Norwegian Wood (2011) directed by Anh Hung Tran from Japan

It's always a tricky thing plunging into a movie adaptation of a book you've read, even more so when it's a book you're intimately familiar with by one of your favorite authors. Should I contrast and compare? Should I nitpick? Did it evoke the same kind of mood and fully represent the ideas of the book? Does it matter? In the end I suppose as a devoted reader of Haruki Murakami it does matter to me, but as a fan of movies I've found it easy to divorce myself from expectations and just take it as a different version of the same story...much like a movie remake in a way. That being said I can't help but make comparisons if I feel the movie suffered from its exclusion.

The story itself is a rather simple tale of Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama) a man looking back as his youth in the late '60s in which the tragic death of a close friend draws him into a relationship with his emotionally fragile girlfriend Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi) whom he eventually falls deeply in love with even as she emotionally begins to unravel and become withdrawn. During his back and forth with Naoko, Toru eventually begins to casually hang out with and eventually date the lively and vivacious Midori (Kiko Mizuhara) whose lust for life is attractive to Toru even though her tendency to play those typical youthful control issue games gives him some pause. Though on paper the plot looks to be set up as a love triangle, the characters are all kept fairly distant from each other so the sole focus really becomes about three very different people with very different needs and desires and if they can somehow learn to grow to accept each other and indeed learn what exactly it is that they want from life.

Tran's adaptation of Haruki Murakami's breakout novel 'Norwegian Wood' certainly is a moody affair which strives to convey a lot of subtext into its gorgeous and haunting photography hoping to infuse them with as much unsaid information as possible to make up for the lack of the book's constant first person narrative. For the most part Tran's sumptuous natural settings and tightly shot character interactions go a long way to successfully convey the intensity of the prevailing emotion or to betray the true feelings or nature of their character as every inflection is closely scrutinized. But though it's indeed a poetically charged film the characters, most notably the lead Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama), seem to be a bit too distant and kept emotionally too far at bay for the viewer to really become involved with their characters. Toru's particular problem with equating sexual interaction with emotional love while misunderstanding that others might not feel this way seems too muted and as a result his character lacks much of an emotional edge that the other character possess due to either their actions or dialogue specifically dealing with their issues.

But even with these issues in the end the film did succeed in emotionally pulling me into the characters even if the main protagonist is weakly presented. It's a flawed film, but a poetically gorgeous one that tries to convey a lot with what is left unsaid even though it takes quite a long time to do so.

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The Artist (2011) directed by Michel Hazanavicius from France

I suppose on the whole this film isn't really meant for odd folks such as myself who regularly watch silent films although there are certainly a number of things sprinkled throughout the film to delight fans of film history -- the use of historical theatre locations, Douglas Fairbanks footage of his Zorro films, the use of Mary Pickford's actual bed in Peppy Miller's house, George Valentin dressed up as the criminal mastermind from the Fantomas series of films -- are just a few of the gems to be found. Yet despite these winks for the film nerds the film takes careful pains to evoke the feeling and energy of that particular time in film history and not to waste energy wallowing in the actual history of a period that the more typical film-goer would know much of or even care much about.

To that end the film's characters are a sort of grand, sweeping pastiche of the general feeling and knowledge that most people tend to reactively create when the their thoughts turn to the silent cinema and those early days of film. Our lead character is George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) a paper-thinly disguised analogue for Douglas Fairbanks although there's a lot of Rudolf Valentino in his character if you pay attention to the smaller details. He's the biggest star in the world and he knows it, but his fall from grace is fast and profoundly harsh as the period of talkies sweeps him away like so much dust. His lead partner is Miss Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) a character supposedly heavily based on Gloria Swanson but really I get more of a Clara Bow vibe from her due to her rambunctious go-getter personality sans of course all of Clara's horribly tragic personal background issues. She's the star on the rise who quickly adapts to the new format involving sound and her rise is as quick as Valentin's fall. Thrown into the mix is Al Zimmer (John Goodman) as that sort of uber DeMille-ish ideal of an angry, cigar chomping director and the at times far too tall James Cromwell as Clifton, George's ever faithful chauffeur/butler who would do anything for him. Thus the film has created a cast that is at once familiar and somewhat expected from both the knowledgeable and the ignorant but with the ability to forge its own course unfettered by history.

Playing into people's expectations of the s+yle of the times the film smartly has its actors depict every action and reaction in a very broad and overly animated fashion. Although this was not always the done and there were more than enough actors and director who delivered a more subtle approach in those days, it certainly was a common device and one in which the actors take to like ducks to water in quite a delightful fashion thoroughly allowing the audience to fall in love with their characters. Dean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo really deliver an outstanding performance with their ability to deliver such initially hammy performances, but ones which are tinged with powerfully unspoken (or in this case unwritten) feelings of love, desire and sadness. What I really enjoyed was how the characters progressed and changed as the film moves ever onward into the period of talking pictures. It wasn't just the natural progression of the characters' development, but how their very body language and acting s+yle became increasingly more mature and subtle as things got increasingly emotional and tragic. The initial overly animated acting slowly gives way to a decidedly more mature approach as the film progresses as the herky-jerky motions and emotions give sway to prolonged moments of tragic and quiet clarity as reflected in the smallest of motions or quiet often in the eyes of the actors.

This is not to say all the early shots are nothing but comedic mugging, far from it. One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Peppy Miller first breaks into movies with small bit roles and sneaks into the dressing room of her idol George Valentin and ends up cuddling with his coat on the coat rack as she mimes a scene in which "George" devilishly makes advances upon her. George arrives and interrupts her private fantasy and although initially embarrassed, when she looks up at him just over his shoulder is a big poster from an earlier film of his entitled something along the lines of "He Instantly Captured My Heart" and just as instantly you can see the passion and love in the eyes of Peppy. But as George looks back at her during this moment with his character initially not making much of it, the camera slowly shifts just to the right causing her head to be framed by a round lit mirror in the background giving her an angelic halo causing her to seemingly glow and George immediately gives pause and realizes something very special and profound is occurring between the two of them. Really gorgeous stuff and there are little subtle moments like this sprinkled throughout the film from the director that impressed me a great deal.

But as the film progresses and charts the rise of Peppy's career from low bit role actress to headlining star juxtaposed with George's dismissal and refusal to deal with the oncoming popularity of sound pictures and his quick and dramatic fall from grace as he sinks all of his money into a big budget and oddly tragic jungle picture, the film seems to lose its focus a bit. The film ends up spending so much time kicking George when he's down over and over again that it becomes almost farcical as you wonder what new demeaning level of existence could the writers possibly have in store for him? How could people forget the most popular actor in the world in just a couple of years because he made one bad picture? You never really understand why he's so distant from his actual wife -- although her persistence in drawing on any picture of him she can find is an amusing running joke -- and the emotional bond between the protagonists just seems to get abandoned for such a long time that when it comes around again I found myself unsure as to what the nature of their relationship was. Lovers? Dear Friends? Father/Daughter bond? I dunno. The film also ends up striving to be such a vehicle for Jean Dujardin to demonstrate his abilities to emote that it goes perhaps a wee bit too dark with the only way out apparently is via a cheap inter-title joke in order to change the tempo of the film in a very abrupt albeit happy manner.

But despite these bumps along the road I must admit that I did enjoy the hell out of the picture and was mighty impressed with all the actors involved with the leads obviously delivering rather stunning performances. Yes I did mentally nitpick over the fact that there wasn't any color in the films (silent films were largely tinted), the fact that the happily sparse inter-title cards were sadly lacking in their use of excessive dashes as uber ellipses of their day, and that their posters for sound films stated it as "talking" and not "all-talking", yet it still managed to tickle my funny bone and make me care about the characters and deliver what is arguably the best performance by a dog (Uggie) in a film for quite some time. Who wants to bet how much work that dog's going to get? Really a charming film that manages to evoke the period of the time and the passion of the people involved and one in which even silent film nerds can enjoy along with the rest of the crowd.

Let the Bullets Fly (2011) directed by Wen Jiang from China

Taking place in the wild and fairly lawless days of pre-communist China in the 1920s, Wen Jiang directs and stars as "Pocky" Zhang the leader of a notorious group of road thieves who whilst robbing a passing train coach realize they have interrupted the plans of Ma Bangde (You Ge) a con artist and his wife (Carina Lau) to illegally take over the Governorship of the nearby city Goose Town. Zhang decides that he will take Bangde's place with Bangde serving as his advisor but their plans at executing a wealthy score become exceedingly complicated when they discover the town is in reality under the harsh rule of Huang Silang (Chow Yun-Fat) a warlord of considerable brains, ego, and firepower.

On the surface this sets up a highly rousing and endlessly amusing series of increasingly outlandish chess moves between Zhang and Huang as they match wits and battle not only for the power and money but for their own at times highly twisted moral ideals of what is best for the town and its people. But barely concealed beneath its darkly comedic and at times very silly slapstick detours into farcical fantasy, is a perfectly constructed allegory for not only the painful truth's of China's past social upheaval leading to the takeover of Communism, but also the current conditions under which they all live and how the masses and leaders interact in their strange day to day world mixing the harsh domination of a totalitarian government with the ever driving greed of a capitalistic society.

In much the same way director's in the USA during what is now considered the "golden age" of Hollywood had to come to terms with working under the awful Hays Code, after being banned from directing for 7 years in China by SARFT (basically the MPAA and FCC rolled into one uber powerful agency) Wen Jiang has learned how to temper his approach by taking a highly subversive approach in his didactic leanings by coating the whole affair in farce and delivering it all in an incredibly complex series of plot twists with a rapid fire delivery that compels the viewer not to look away lest they miss some vital piece of information the lack of which would result in confusion. The irony of course is that no matter what course is taken it always ends up breaking down into confusion and barely controlled chaos but with just an ever quickening revolving door of different players which leads you to question whether the result would really be all that different whether I shot my opponent or myself?

Let the Bullets Fly has since gone on to smash box office records in China by becoming the highest grossing Chinese film of all time. This seems an oddly huge leap to make for a seemingly former bad boy director who states that he "keeps his head down" and does what he wants and doesn't care if others understand his films or not -- a common accusation he has to address as many of his films are considered needlessly distant and difficult to understand. Yet it all seems to be some kind of horribly complex perverse sort of plan coming to fruition for Wen Jiang as not only did he have a team of writers (along with himself of course) writing and re-writing until the script was perfect, but he told them to keep Chow Yun-Fat in mind as they wrote his character and he reportedly approached Chow to take the role by informing him everyone would love him and that this film was specifically created to hit the box-office like a juggernaut.

Taking this in it seems a strange approach for a supposedly auteur director who has always followed his own muse regardless what the public or the government desires or expects. It makes me wonder if this isn't some all kind of horribly complex con pulled on the public to demonstrate the willingness of the masses to gravitate towards the guaranteed goal of instant gratification in much the same way the masses of Goose Town will not commit to either side unless they are guaranteed a win. Is this then the final endgame demonstrating in real terms that despite how big everyone likes to talk about saving face and not having to needlessly kow tow, in the end the masses are so tamed by the environment in their government approved world provides that they become all to willingly complicit in their own tyranny? Who's to say? Certainly not Wen Jiang as he is far too smart to make any sort of out spoken statement as the "true" meaning behind his film and simply states that people and groups will see what they want to see and nothing else.

So...in the end what does all this has to do with the entertainment value of the movie itself? Nothing and everything. On one hand it is an incredibly complex film with layers upon layers of assumed and not so obvious double-meanings behind every character, every action, and every aspect of the narrative. But on the surface it's still an incredibly funny film delivered with expert precision by not only the director but all the actors involved. Chow Yun-Fat hasn't been this good in years and it's wonderful to see him utilized properly in a humorous but meaty role and You Ge is pitch perfect as the third wheel advisor who has a bit more planned then you might expect. An incredibly enjoyable film, but the more I understand the more I can't but feel we are all just pawns in Wen Jiang's little world.

So it appears I've reached 100 blog posts and although normally I guess this might be kind of awesome, to be truthful I feel kind of embarassed as I've had tons of ideas and desires to post so many things over the years that I just gave up on or put off until it was far too late to be particularly relevent. But here I find myself and other than celebrating Louise Brooks' birthday by having a mini-marathon of her movies I guess it's nice to have a decent amount of work behind you even if it took a while to get there. Most immediate ideas as to what to do to celebrate this minor milestone seemed rather long (even by my standards) and unwieldy and so just for s**** and giggles I'll do one of those 100 question thingies since I usually ignore them when they're spammed my way.

100 Questions!

Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4.it, and neither will the one after that or the one after that. First of all, look at

Stretch your left arm out as far as you can, What can you touch? My Telephone

Before you started this survey, what were you doing?Posting about the Louise Brooks movies I watched today.

What is the last thing you watched on TV? The Daily Show

Without looking, guess what time it is 11:42

Now look at the clock. What is the actual time? 11:46

With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? Stephen Colbert rambling on his show

When did you last step outside? What were you doing? Yesterday. I walked down to the corner Walgreen's.

Did you dream last night? I rarely dream as I typically supress them...they're usually not pleasant.

Do you remember your dreams? I've trained myself to usually ignore and forget them so usually no. Every so often though...

When did you last laugh? Earlier today when I was watching W.C. Fields assault his tormentors.

Do you remember why / at what? I just answered that you idiot.

What is on the walls of the room you are in?
I have all sorts of paintings, photographs, sumo banzuke, and record albums covering most of my walls.

Seen anything weird lately? My brains transmits bizarre assaults of imagery into my waking consciousness the likes of which most people would define as weird. So...yes.

What do you think of this quiz? So far it's been kind of boring and I'm somewhat regretting my decision.

What is the last film you saw? Pandora's Box

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? San Francisco

If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy? Car, Bills, House, My Friend's Bills, Go to the Doctor.

Tell me something about you that most people don't know. I met RZA once and we ended our conversation with him gratiously giving me "respect". Which was awesome.

If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? Cause coconut to cease to exist. It destroys everything it touches.

Do you like to dance? No I hate it.

Would you ever consider living abroad? If it were possible I would leave in a heartbeat.

Does your name make any interesting anagrams? My name backwards is "Nomad" and I believe that's it.

Who made the last incoming call on your phone? My best friend that lives down the street.

What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer? The latest update to Firefox I do believe.

Last time you swam in a pool? Sometime in 1997 I think.

Type of music you like most? Alternative rock, cl@ssical and Jazz.

Type of music you dislike most? Light or Smooth Jazz...it's not jazz man.

Are you listening to music right now? Nopers.

What color is your bedroom carpet? I live in a studio so I don't have a bedroom...or even a bed really.

If you could change something about your home, without worry about expense or mess, what would you do? More storage room. I gots lotsa stuff.

What was the last thing you bought? I bought a PS3 controller for my friend's birthday.

Have you ever ridden on a motorbike?
Yes I had one for years as that was my only mode of transportation.

Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving? Probably not unless I were paid to do so.

Do you have a garden? I don't have a patio or yard.

Do you really know all the words to your national anthem? Sure. >_>

What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning? Pain.

If you could eat lunch with one famous person, who would it be? Renee O'Connor. :oops:

Who sent the last text message you received? I don't use text message technology.

Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Amoeba's

What time is bed time? Typically from 4am - 6am

Have you ever been in a beauty pageant?:lol:

How many tattoos do you have? None. I'm too indecisive and have too many interests.

If you don't have any, have you ever thought of getting one? Yes but again...too many choices and too many interests.

What did you do for your last birthday?
I just watched movies and then my friend came over and took me out for cake.
Do you carry a donor card? Nope.

Who was the last person you ate dinner with? My aforementioned friend from down the street.

Is the glass half empty or half full? It depends how thirsty I am.

What's the farthest-away place you've been? Detroit, Michigan.

When's the last time you ate a homegrown tomato? I don't eat tomatoes.

Have you ever won a trophy? Just little ones for playing various sports at a very young age.

Are you a good cook? Not at all.

Do you know how to pump your own gas? Explain to me how it is that someone could not grasp this knowledge?

If you could meet any one person (from history or currently alive), who would it be?
Hatchepsut would be ideal.

Have you ever had to wear a uniform to school? For a few years back in the '70s I went to a private school so we wouldn't be bussed.

Do you touch-type? Yup...using my fingers and everything.

What's under your bed? I don't have a bed.

Do you believe in love at first sight? No.

Think fast, what do you like right now?
Chocolate? Did I win?

Where were you on Valentine's day? I don't remember as I haven't had a girlfriend for quite some time so I don't pay attention to the date.

What time do you get up? Anywhere from 11am - 1pm.

What was the name of your first pet? I had a German Shepherd named "Duchess" back in the '60s.

Who is the second to last person to call you? Phones sales people.

Is there anything going on this weekend? I'm sure there is...you should probably check the local paper and see if there's something you'd like.

How are you feeling right now? A little annoyed as my TV Japan channel keeps going out.

What do you think about the most? Stuff I should talk about in public.

What time do you get up in the morning? You asked this already.

If you had A Big Win in the Lottery, how long would you wait to tell people? I'd tell the important folks in my life as soon as possible.

Who would you tell first?
My friend down the street.

What is the last movie that you saw at the cinema? Puss in Boots

Do you sing in the shower? Nopers.

Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? You asked this before too. What they hell kind of list is this?

What do you do most when you are bored? Watch movies or play a video game.

What do you do for a living? I'm typically a retail manager.

Do you love your job? Sometimes...it comes and goes.

What did you want to be when you grew up? A Paleontologist.

If you could have any job, what would you want to do/be? I'd like to run an independent movie theatre.

Which came first the chicken or the egg? The chicken.

How many keys on your key ring? Just 5

Where would you retire to? San Francisco.

What kind of car do you drive? I don't have a car anymore.

What are your best physical features? I don't really have any anymore. Maybe my eyes?

What are your best characteristics? I'm creative and pretty open-minded.

If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation where would you go? I suppose Japan so I could go take pictures of the sumo rikishi.

What kind of books do you like to read? Usually historical non-fiction.

Where would you want to retire to? You asked this before as well.

What is your favorite time of the day? Late at night when everybody is asleep.

Where did you grow up? All over Southern California and a few years in Utah.

How far away from your birthplace do you live now? Ummmmm....about 30 minutes.

What are you reading now? 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Are you a morning person or a night owl? Night owl. You can't trust morning people.

Can you touch your nose with your tongue? Oh if only I could.

Can you close your eyes and raise your eyebrows?Sure. Are there people that can't do that?

Do you have pets? No. I have a tiny cactus.

How many rings before you answer the phone?
Usually it's two but I don't really wait specifically for two rings.

What is your best childhood memory? Fishing and traveling the expansive roadways of the Western U.S.

What are some of the different jobs that you have had in your life?Oh...nothing interesting.

Any new and exciting things that you would like to share? Over the last month or so I watched the entire Xena series. Not much happens in my life.

What is most important in life? Friends.

What Inspires You? Nothing these days.

I'm not sure when I watched my first Bergman film as like most people in a fashion not unlike that of The Beatles in our lives he has always been there for us, a titan of the film experience, a living God among the pantheon of holy creators of celluloid dreams and nightmares that walked among us like common men. Well...at least that's how he and directors of his stature are typically presented to us although of course as youths we are often fond of belonging to groups of oddly like-minded iconoclasts willing to throw mud where others worship to demonstrate our haughty disdain to the ones we personally deem in our own foolishly narrow focus to be false.

But despite my general familiarity towards his existence, I didn't really associate Bergman as a creator with the films of his I had already seen all that strongly until Fanny & Alexander hit theatres when I was nearing my final year of high school. There was such a big hullaballoo about it and I suppose I only became more aware of it as I was only starting my directionless drifting into the world of serious cinema as my life became somewhat less chaotic. I remembered not being particularly happy with it although to be honest I couldn't exactly tell you why because that was almost 30 years ago and unfortunately my life would spiral even more out of control than I could ever imagine and so my memory of such things then sometimes gets a little hazy. I really should watch it again methinks.

But over the years having enjoyed many a film festival, discovered many a "favorite" film, programmed many a movie endurance runs, and explored quite a lot of strange areas in cinema, but looking back I find myself often dancing around Bergman films. Sure sure since shaking most of my self-afflicted, youthful mental shackles I've watched a film or two of his here and there enough to understand and recognize just why I don't deify some of his films the way some others do. But time flies when you're not paying attention and since it's been a while since I've watched most of his films and now more than any other time in my life even more of his films are readily available for the offering, I thought I'd just dive into his catalogue avoiding those I'd seen in the last 5-10 years and last week decided to watch a movie a day for a week. Will it change my impression of him or his films?

Oh...be aware that these are sloppy transfers of quick knee-jerk impressions that I had on a daily basis from my Facebook profile. So if you're expecting to see some long bits of introspection (which generally is what the films deserve but there's plenty of that on the internet) you're probably going to be disappointed. But to be honest if you're here you're probably used to disappointment aren't you? :P

Persona (1966)

Bergman film o' the day is 'Persona' of which I suppose it's fairly pointless to say that it's a deeply personal film (though it 'tis) as he has few that aren't. This one in particular though marks an important moment as his muse Liv Ullman comes into Bergman's life and thus begins their real life stormy relationship which would profoundly affect both this picture and its companion the nightmarish 'Hour of the Wolf'. Expertly crafted and passionately acted 'Persona' hit me hard on some particular personal issues as the film wrestles with the extremes of narcissism and the masks we give our personalities and how they clash with the masks of others.

Moved though I was I still find the nature of Bergman's symbolism a bit too obvious and somewhat stuck in the era of silent film German expressionism which, though I'm greatly fond of them, in his film their power to affect seems to diminish them somewhat in my eye. Perhaps I shouldn't feel this way as it would be easy to supplant "obvious" with "primal" or "iconic" and I suppose it serves to keep the film from sinking into the more abstract aspects of his films. Regardless...I would still watch it and highly recommend it just to watch the interplay between Ullman and Andersson.

Hour of the Wolf (1968 )

Today's Bergman film 'o the day is 'Hour of the Wolf' a companion piece of sorts to his 'Persona' film. It's another intense examination of the self and how murky the perception of this self can be when reality begins to break down for them as well as the difficulty and dangers that present themselves to those emotionally bonded to them. This time out it's quite a rougher journey however as his real life relationship with Ullmann had become exceedingly rocky and this issue is represented in exceedingly painful fashion upon the screen as Ullmann's character openly questions if staying close to her unstable husband in order to support him will end up not only twisting her own perceptions but possibly completely subverting her entire personality.

An incredibly brave film to make but also a fairly unpleasant one to endure as I can't remember the last time a film has made me feeling like I was truly mentally suffocating under the weight of a crumbling psyche. It almost feels childish to rate the performances because this is Ullmann and Max von Sydow in a Swedish film we're talking here...so there you go. My only negative observation for the film is that I felt the film emotional impact was somewhat undermined by the extreme nature of some of the more surreal aspects of the nightmare creations the protagonist must struggle with. Especially towards the end it seemed to go a little too far into overload with the oddness and while this did reduce the overall tension that had built up around my brain, it also somewhat reduced the emotional investment I had in the characters. Still...unlike some Bergman films this is my first pass as this particular one so I don't always weigh in too heavily on first impressions when it comes to films this intense.

The Passion (1969)

Bergman mini-festival continues on with today's being 'A Passion' which in my estimation seemed like decidedly lesser Bergman from what my feeble brain can recall (one reason for revisits) as the film seemed somewhat lacking in any kind of momentum or purpose and seemed more like Bergman having some more good ideas for making his inner demons dance on the silver screen but this time out not really putting enough in the boiling pot of creativity to make a whole meal. As always there were some very nice scenes involving profound bits of introspection which often presents a demonstration of the difficulties presented two highly emotionally broken characters whom eventually try to make a go of it despite their basic nature to curl up and retreat.

I liked the way in which Bergman demonstrates that just because a person can fully understand the difficult mental issues present in someone they love, the fact that their emotional issues are rooted in reasons so different from each other that it still eventually renders them incompatible and of course the reason why the nature of one character's problems reveals that they are also morally in opposition. Some nice and of course emotional stuff, but the scenes feel too disparate and so i felt it doesn't really come together in either a pleasing nor interesting manner.

The Serpent's Egg (1978 )

For today's Bergman film I've jumped ahead a bit and watched another film of his I hadn't seen entitled 'The Serpent's Egg' from 1977. Going into it blind I was a little shocked to find that Bergman was the sole writer on this film as the film really has little of his trademark personal and often painfully individual introspection. But in its stead is a film that appears to strive to paint a dark picture of the future of mankind as every aspect of modern society from social to political becomes slowly overwhelmed and completely controlled by fascistic tendencies -- whether they oppose it or welcome it, all are enablers or active participants. I say "appears" as the film really ambles around a lot attempting to convey this as there is scant relevant dialogue to bolster this idea and to further muddy the collective waters is a sudden surge in unexplained murders story angle that quickly moves far into the background and David Carradine's character wandering around basically just being the most unpleasant person possible at almost every opportunity. Although I'm certainly not unused to an unpleasant protagonist in a Bergman film, usually there is some solid dialogue that lets us into that character's head and helps to explain their behavior. Although the reason for this is actually explained in the last few minutes of the film, it didn't really make for compelling viewing for the length of the film.

Another big shock was to find Liv Ullmann's performance to be rather...lacking, and in a couple of scenes almost amateurish. Yet despite all the shortcomings this film has, I can say that I was absolutely riveted when the final scene comes into play as I found the reasoning behind so many things rather fascinating and a harsh comment on the way in which it represented a relevant concern facing us today in that people are all merely meaningless playthings for the larger forces at work that we have little to no control over. Dark stuff and some rather interesting points, but I just felt the presentation of these ideas to be poorly presented.

Cries and Whispers (1972)

Today's Bergman film was 'Cries and Whispers' a film which along with 'Wild Strawberries' I'm very much struggling to find any personal faults with the film as my initial impression is that there isn't any. Although I suppose it may seem odd to work to find and produce faults with renowned works of art, I find it best to recognize aspects that I personally find fault with and explore just why they bother me and understand whether it's a result of my own shortcomings or perhaps just insignificant to the work's goal as a whole -- and important bit of mental juggling for someone like myself that often traffics and is highly entertained by garbage films as well as good practice to keep the pointless snobbery away the the id likes to create.

Anyhoo...needless to say I found the film quite stellar and for the obvious realization that I could spend pages writing my thoughts I'll just let it go with a couple of impressions as I don't want to go on and on with the character dynamics...as fruitful as they are. Firstly I was a little surprised by the overwhelming use of red juxtaposed with the white of the two active sisters who greatly resist or otherwise are unable to come to terms with the passion and warmth that color represents. At first I thought Nykvist was making up for rarely engaging in subtle use of color, but then I realized it was just the inverse of his usual stress on the bleak aspect of many other of Bergman's films when he typically bleaches out colors or otherwise greatly subdues them -- in the context of this film it seems to fit well. I also found it interesting how profoundly sad the film left me feeling, not so much for the continuing problem betwixt the sisters and their inability to communicate, but the very obvious and simple nature of Anna's departure. For me it put me in mind of the ending to a couple of Kurosawa's films, an obvious one being 'Ikiru', in which a supposed lesser person manages to accomplish great things and basically be the sole arbiter of decency and yet despite all their hard work it seems to all amount to naught in this at times awful, cruel and indifferent world full of emotional cowards and social vampires. Such a powerful work I must admit it took a bit out of me and silly me went and watched 'Noriko's Dinner Table' right after this which probably wasn't a great idea.

Harbour City (1948)

Today's Bergman film 'Harbour City' AKA 'Port of Call' his fourth film from way back in 1948...an important note of interest considering the subject matters approached in this film. For those mainly familiar with Bergman's more notable works this film may come as a slight surprise considering its fairly basic trappings. There is little of the kinds of compositions and tight, almost claustrophobic, shots that he would later become quite famous for. Along with that the film is also fairly ordinary in its execution and somewhat hampered by its heavy tendency to lean too heavily towards melodrama as it somewhat excessively draws out the emotional plight of its protagonist Berit (Nine-Christine Jonsson) and the reactions of her love interest / source of emotional salvation Gösta (Bengt Eklund). That being said the actors are all pretty darn solid and Nine-Christine in particular does a good job of making her drawn out scenarios resonate with a bit more gravitas than it would in the hands of a lesser actress.

Of course it's also worth noting that considering the very frank and slightly disturbing manner in which this film deals with abortion, the plights of the undercl@ss and the rather dismissive manner in which the young are dealt with by the government system as well as the apathy of the parents who refuse to take any kind of responsibility or almost any kind of sympathy is pretty shocking considering the year this film was made in. Most of these subjects alone would make them taboo for Hollywood films at the time -- although another mental note would be that Hollywood was very close to becoming this frank on these very matters in the late '20s and early '30s before the dreaded Hays Code stopped it all. All in all it's a decent film if slightly uneven and melodramatic film which is still worth watching even if you're not a Bergman fan.

Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)

My Bergman film o' the day 'Smiles of a Summer Night' a period comedy film one in which Bergman was apparently completely unaware he was making a Gilbert and Sullivan play. Truthfully though that's a shallow and somewhat glib summation as similar though the pattern may be to 'ol G&S, the content itself is exquisite and moves with clockwork precision as it constantly radiates life affirming wisdom but in a juxtapozed manner as it flips from bitingly precise tongue-lashings to the warm and soothing comfort of kind words or a kind embrace.

I was tremendously impressed with this movie because as emotionally devastating and personally soul-searching as a great drama can be, the ability to make a comedy this good with this much precision is not something I take lightly even though it somewhat disarms my emotionally with its inherently amusing nature. The dialogue is a wonderful thing to experience in this and I found myself almost overwhelmed at times as the film is nigh infinitely quotable and though at times it seems to hit you with wave after wave of unending verbal poetry, it never feels forced and you never question of the sincerity of the actor who is delivering it. Speaking of which the acting is tremendous in this film as they not only are all delightfully amusing or appropriately emotional in their respective parts, but I was particularly impressed by their body language as their every movement and cock of the eye spoke volumes. These solid performances are especially critical in this film because though the cast is fairly wide, the construction of the movie makes all of their parts very important to the work as a whole and both director and actors execute everything with amazing clarity. Really a stunner of a film which not only put a smile on my face with the multiple aspects of comedy and the disarming approach to melodrama, but one which amazed me with its execution. Really a great, great film. Did I mention it's awesome?

It's strange to think about it just now but my earliest memory is actually of Hallowe'en. Well...more precisely I've always had this very vivid memory of sitting in a pumpkin on a small bench with my brother and sister in our little house in Pasadena way back in the '60s. It didn't occur to me for years and years just how exactly a child old enough to recall events could yet be small enough to fit into a pumpkin. I guess I didn't question it because I was still something of a smaller child and children pretty much just say strange things all the time at which few people bat an eye, but years and years went by as I occasionally shared my tiny observation of remembering having my picture taken and nobody ever stopped to question it, least of all me.

Then one day I happened to find the picture of that memory and it I suddenly found myself staring at myself as an infant, stuck in a pumpkin transfixed by my no doubt overly animated parent getting my attention. I don't know why I never thought about the whole logic issue of how I could have such a vivid memory and yet be just a blubbering infant, and I suppose that's why I never even entertained such an idea in the first place as the memory seemed all too casually familiar and real for me to consider the reality of the situation.

If it wasn't for the fact that I've always possessed such a solid memory of the action long before I made the connection with how literally infantile I was I would normally pass the whole thing off as a falsely confused transposition of events as perhaps I simply remember sitting on the bench as a slightly older child with that of the picture I discovered. But there it has always sat, that even present strong memory of the situation long before I knew what it really was. I remembered being put into that pumpkin and finding it definitely an odd thing to be sure but yet it somehow made me feel strangely happy to be doing something odd and changing my appearance. I've loved Hallowe'en ever since.

I suppose then it was the luck of the fates that I would be born somewhat prematurely on my favorite day of the year Hallowe'en! Well...okay that's sort of a fib and sorta not. If you know me a little better then you're probably aware I was born actually a few days before Hallowe'en (oh...those unfulfilled dreams) but because of the relative closenessness of the dates I grew up often waiting to celebrate my birthday on Hallowe'en, so much so that it often feels strange to do things on my actual date of birth and not on Hallowe'en and random people that I have encountered over the years are mildy pushed into action when All Hallow's Eve hits that they probably should give me a spirited (no pun intended) heads up.

Strangely when I do the celebrating thing on my actual date of birth it has this odd after effect of making me feel like Hallowe'en is over...somewhat a similar feeling when you are young and it's the day after Christmas. You're kinda okay with it but you feel oddly sad now that the anticipation is over. Another year. Some stuff. I'm still me. Yays. This feeling was somewhat assuaged when I used to go up to the Castro area in San Francisco in the early '00s with my friends/ex-roommates as there was always a lot of fun holiday stuff going on all the way up to Hallowe'en there so it was fun to keep busy going to the Castro Theatre to watch the old House of Wax movie in 3D (the old red & blue 3D) and perhaps attend a showing ofthe silent film Nosferatu accompanied by a local quartet...lots of fun stuff. These days I just hunker down in my abode with a bowl of candy on the off chance that some kids should stumble by (kinda random from year to year) and despite my decent collection of DVDs I flip through the channels looking for something spooky. TCM of course always serves up my favorite film The Haunting (1963) which still scares the bejeezus out of me in a rather primal way. This year for the West coast it's on at the perfect time...11pm, primed for a midnight crossover. Wish me luck! :shock:

Another happy coincidence this year is the long awaited release of the English translation of Haruki Murakami's newest work of fiction 1Q84...released just days before my birthday! So happy that I'm compelled to do a Snoopy dance if it wasn't for the fact that my right knee has messed up tendons. Just started reading it and of course it starts off with a bang! Actually I'm joking because if you read much Murakami then you know his books never come out of the gate quickly with a strong personal presence like a Gogol story or immediately with the strange like a messed up Koko Abe novel. For the most part they start off so ordinary with simple people going about their ordinary lives and bit by bit they find the world around them is not what they had at first thought or the seemingly simple things we assumed about the protagonist aren't quite so ordinary. Anyhoo I'm rather excited. After some years of a few non-fiction entries it's nice to see Murakami crank out a 1,000 page novel to tear into.

Whereas the Murakami book was a material gift, being an older and somewhat hermit like person whose friends are somewhat poor or lead problematic and at times disparate lives, I did received a couple of nice surprises one of course being my best friend Patrick coming over and not ony bringing me some much needed comestibles in a Thanksgiving sort of way, but taking me out to a nice diner for what turned out to be the two larges slices of cake I have ever seen! :o At first I was thinking perhaps I should buy an entree as well but I'm so glad I didn't as it took everything inch of my stomach to consume that titanic slice. Soooooo good though. Yummers!

The next day his sister, of whom I've actually been friends with longer, took me out to the movies for my B-Day and I was delighted to see her movie selection was Puss in Boots as despite my relative coolness towards the Shrek films, I had heard some very positive early words on the film and so bolstered with my love for cats my interest was definitely piqued. It turns out this time the positive word was well earned as I found the film not only entertaining but so bloody funny that I found myself helpless in its comedic grip as I literally became doubled-over with laughter towards the end. Usually I pay attention to the details but sometimes my random viewing habits are bourne out of laziness and opportunity and this was one of those cases otherwise I would have realized that Puss in Boots was directed by Chris Miller who directed last year's big surprising bit of animated awesomenessness called Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Anyways it was a greatly enjoyable film and I highly recommend it as it's funny and amusing on a whole lotta levels.

And lastly but not leastly as I slowly made my way through a Ingmar Bergman mini (but threatening to become maxi) movie marathon I was constantly peppered with well wishers on my Facebook which kindly reminds folks of the birthday of others if they so wish and so I kind of felt like I was having a weekend long birthday. It might not seem like much, but it meant a lot to me so thank you to the 30 friends of mine in my quiet corner of Facebook where I now can blather on and on in my movie posts now that the word limit has been done away with. Thanks again to everyone and to everyone else here it's a Happy Hallowe'en from me to you for YOU!

Now time for candy and scary movies.

Title: Drive (2011)

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Country: USA

I've slowly become something of a fan of Mr. Refn's works and although I was excited for his newest project Drive, my excitement was tempered a bit by the fact that this was the first film he's directed in which he was not the writer and I was not entirely sure whether that would have any effect on his efforts. Well I can safely report that in my opinion not only has his skills not only not been affected in any negative fashion, but my knee-jerk reaction is to state that his is possibly his best film to date as his skills happily appear to be constantly maturing and delivered quite an excellent piece of film.

I do however find myself in something of a quandary in that as I ponder over the movie I just saw I'm finding it increasingly difficult to talk about it the rather excellent aspects of the film without completely spoiling how the film unfolds. The film itself is constructed in such an economical and extraordinarily detailed manner that to pull too tightly on any given string would I fear cause the entire film to collapse. So...let's talk about the rough aspects of why this film is well worth your time.

Our protagonist is an unnamed driver played with violent serenity by Ryan Gosling who is outstanding in his role. The character is bar none the best driver around and with a stern and steady voice he enforces a strict his way or the high-way policy to the people that hire him to finish off their crimes of choice. He does his job, he does it well, but he does not associate with the people involved and although quiet and seemingly somewhat impassive, when even slightly provoked he will readily infer that a level of extreme violence will most certainly occur if the situation does not cease to his satisfaction. Away from these jobs the driver is quiet, somewhat meek and fairly dispassionate in his dealings of others. He just throws himself into his world of cars as it becomes increasingly obvious that is where he is most comfortable.

This duality of calm serenity mixed with seething violence is explored and dealt with in a largely wordless fashion but in the situations where it does occur it makes a great impact on both the supporting characters and the viewer. The driver initially begins a light relationship with his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her child as he finds out her husband is serving a prison sentence. Despite his demonstrated aloofness to others he immediately makes not only a connection with Irene but her child as well seemingly fine with just being in their presence. These scenes hint at a great and unspoken need for the driver to belong to something real and pure and Ryan Gosling plays these bits with a great tenderness that greatly belies his character's dark nature. Even with the sudden appearance of Irene's husband being released from prison, despite some of the obvious friction there is still a great tenderness exhibited by the driver as far from feeling pushed away, he still seems somewhat happy just to be near her knowing in ways conveyed only through their tender glances that they share something special.

But there is an element heavily revolving around the driver's every move and one which will drive a wedge between almost every character in the film and that's pure violence. Like many aspects of the film the violence is utilized sparingly, but when it is employed it is incredibly nasty, very much quick and to the point, and very, very brutal. The camera does not shy away from showing you what's happening but cleverly neither does it exploit nor stylize the violence. You see just enough to know how awful it is and how horrible it can be in such an unadulterated fashion. But there's no cool music beating away a tribal beat as our hero takes the bad guys out, no big close-ups of horrific wounds as they spurt arterial spray everywhere, no clever retorts or fancy moves. Just simple, raw, ugly, violence.

This ends up being incredibly effective as coupled with the very sparse use of music in the film, every sound is heard quite clearly and when violence happens you feel it and it hits hard. If somebody gets shot, you feel it and you're shocked even if it's just small character you barely knew. This nasty but effective use of violence also greatly emphasizes just how broken our protagonist might be as the more violence that happens and the closer it comes to affect those he cares about, the more ferocious and out of control he becomes. Yet sadly when others become aware of how intense and dangerous he can be when pushed, it's not nearly as awful as when the driver himself becomes aware of this aspect of his character...and it really just breaks your damn heart.

I very much enjoyed the entire mixture of often frustrating group dynamics that occurred betwixt all the supporting characters as they mixed with the driver. Despite being a fairly simple tale of a job gone bad and things getting out of hand, the way in which people react and treat each other doesn't always go exactly as you would think despite the obvious nature of their characters. When Irene's husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) returns from prison the initial conflict of a three way love triangle is quickly dispersed by not only their involvement in a situation beyond their control, but by some quick and simple scenes which both presents him as a wholly sympathetic character to the driver but to the audience as well thus deflating their initial desire to not see him stick around to muck up our ideal of how we want the romance to progress.

The antagonists in the film despite their outwardly simple caricatures are dealt with in ways you wouldn't quite expect. Albert Brooks is very good in his role as Bernie Rose an old producer of schlocky '80s action films turned small-time mob boss and backing him up quite effectively is Ron Perlman as Nino his go to boy and small-time hood that runs his rackets out of his crappy, generic pizza place. Albert Brooks in particular is remarkably effective as a character that can give off a sarcastic but even-handed fatherly figure type of advice vibe, and yet quickly he will simply and very violently dispatch somebody without giving it a second thought. The way in which he deals out the violence is very telling as well as it's very particularly to the person he is dealing it upon. Even sad Ron Perlman who is generally your typical lunk-headed guy who just sees the opportunity for a big score, manages to score some empathy despite his caveman like outlook with just a few short sentences which exhibit his frustration with how he sees the world.

All of this excellent characterization and violence and all that jazz is of course put together with expert precision by Refn to a level which greatly impresses. Despite the level of violence and despite the multitude of situation revolving around this film, it's all simmers along at a very cool and slow burn pace steeped in a heavy neo-noir atmosphere full of hopeful characters caught up in a fatalistic world. Refn of course injects the film with a heavy dose of s+yle by employing suffused colored lighting and a decent amount of negative space, particularly around Irene and the driver, in order to denote their state of longing and loneliness. I'm not usually fond of slow-motion in film in which it's not for the sake of making action more clearly, but here Refn uses it quite a number of times and yet it fits in perfectly with the mood by giving it this otherworldly sense of calm before the inevitable storm.

All in all I found it to be a great film very much in the s+yle of last year's The American or John Boorman's almost forgotten cl@ssic Point Blank. In that regard if you go in expecting a lot of fast talking, fast living and action, action, action you might be just a tad disappointed. But if you're game for a expertly crafted and highly reflective film about characters caught up in a situation beyond their control, you're going to have a blast.

Go see it.