Quick Update

1) I met up with my Japanese pen-pal today- longer blog on this to follow! I had an amazing day and despite some lingual difficulties we cobbled together a very amusing and comfortable conversation! I had a really wicked afternoon!

2) I went to Camden and was ripped off by one fella who will be seeing me again next week, and given a discount by another lady because I was using a purse she sold to be ages ago! :) bonus! I wish I could have stayed longer there was a quartet on stilts playing instruments and singing, and generally it has been far too long since I have been there so it was nice to just have a wander around. Plus chinese pot for £3.50!? Have some!!

3) I have started my next essay reading- The role of the Virgin Mary in the Baltic Crusades of the 13th century. Can you get much further from Queen Victoria (my last essay)? I think not, but the reading is tres interesting and I shall no doubt try and keep you updated about all this jazz and interesting factoids I uncover.

4) I am really bad at texting people back. I will get on this. If you are one, my apologies. I am a shite friend.

5) It is Bank Holiday Weekend and I am looking forward to working. I am doing tours on Sunday and it is likely to be busy but they are the best tours. I have got some other factoids to throw in it as well to spice it up. My tours of late have been a bit lack-lustre. Of course, it does help that I am getting paid more this weekend :)

6) I am still poor. It is annoying but I am accepting it! I want a purple dress and since I am in debt anyway I am just going to go and buy it. It is £12 worth of joy I am willing to depart with.

7) I am getting back into cooking again, and it is all healthy!! I made Chicken a la Provincale (and that 'c' has a funny 5 underneath in). Tis French don't ya know... It was tasty and I am just nailing the juice/sauce factor at the moment. It was good, and I ahve some left for lunch tomorrow at work. Good times.

8)Hayfever- IT IS ANNOYING!! Apart from the fact that I can't afford to buy any more contacts, I can't wear them anyway because of the itchy eye syndrome!! Grrrr however I have blossom on my cherry-blossom tree. It is a sure sign of spring :)

9) After reading an Erica James book (one I have read a hundred times before) about a writing group, it has galvanised me to get back on the writing front again. Looking over some of my old stuff, it is good, but I can see where I ahve matured. Some of the descriptions surprised me, butthe turn of phrase in some parts was... to be honest cliched at best, bloody awful at worst. Still I am back on the writing front and venting all that fervour, the mental chaos in my mind. When I write, even here, I find that my thoughts seem to order themselves just by writing them down somewhere.

10) And finally, since I am poor- by the way did I mention this?- I am staying in a lot more but I am loving the fact that Jools Holland is back on TV. This is my Dad and I's favourite bonding moment of the week. We like obscure music, we relate to each other on two cultural things- films and music, though I am still trying to make him watch Blood Diamond and The Departed as two of the best films ever. He thinks I like them because Leonardo Di Caprio is in them. He is a hotty that I would happily stalk, but he is amazing in those films, a defo Daddy-friendly film.

And that is all for today, more updates as always to follow!!

Movie Blog: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

So, I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night with my brother, affectionately known as BFG (Big Friendly Giant). He is my Hagrid of the muggle world. We went out for a few bevvies, an all you can eat Chinese to placate the boy's growing hunger so he could concentrate in the film (and also as a kind of bribe for him having to sit next to me throughout it as I squeal and cover my eyes ten minutes before 'it' happens because I already know what is going to happen.)

Now, I had heard mixed reviews about this film, and many say it misses too much out, the plot is not as exciting, it just feels like a lead up to the last films etc etc blah de blah. As my Mam pointed out to me last night, Harry Potter has been a part of my life for ten years now and I have been more than obsessed by it in my earlier years. It got me through some difficult times and therefore I think I should be the harshest critic of the films. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for me is the best film yet. Each HP film gets better and better than the last. The stunts, special effects and CGI was terrific, incomparable to any other film preceding this. Yes, things are missed out but it is a FILM. It is impossible to have everything in. What I look at in book/film ratios is does it capture the atmosphere, does it capture the book overall and does it have the integral plot structures in place?

The answer (in the Half Blood Prince) is yes.


RELATIONSHIPS:
Dumbledore and Harry's relationship is nailed to perfection. I love the touches that the screenwriter put in (Steve Kloves). Dumbledore's memories are used and captured wonderfully, although there are some that are excluded. Understandable I suppose, but it would have been nice to have seen them. However, the film manages to progress along without them (but I do wonder how the next film will progress without them being included in this film... those memories help Harry, Ron and Hermione find the rest of the Horcruxes- hello? The House of Gaunt? Why the ring was chosen by Voldemort to be a Horcrux?)

As Dumbledore acknowledges that Harry has grown up, so do we the audience realise that they have all grown up in front of our very eyes on the big screen. I have grown up with them. It actually transcended the cinema/audience perspective and made it all the more real.

It is the relationships that really flourish in this film and really makes this film great. We see the trio (Harry, Ron and Hermione) go through some tough challenges (namely hormones and a lot of snogging) and then get closer together. Harry and Hermione have a nice purely friendship relationship and you can really believe they are just friends (although Albus questions this- I loved that bit!!). The scene when they talk about love being semi-unrequited and seeing your "love" as it were snogging someone else and the hurt... really nice touch- and I know how you feel guys!!

I saw an interview with J K Rowling about the third film way back when and she said that she had wished she had come up with some of the ideas that the screenwriter had- namely in the Prisoner of Azkaban the talking heads. I think JK would have loved the touches that were brought to life from her book. The subtleties of the book are hard to bring to life on film. The Hermione-Ron-Lavender love triangle was funny, touching and very realistic.

Harry and Ginny- well, I did have a little squirm in the cinema when they kissed. It was a bit too lovey dovey but then I am a cynic!! BUT FINALLY GINNY GETS HER MAN!! The scene where Ron first gets with Lavender was what was supposed to have happened between Ginny and Harry but there you go...


COMIC GENIUS: Now, the comedy factor must not be ignored. It was actually belly-achingly funny! Ron/Rupert Grint was the comic masterpiece in this to Draco's emotional turmoil. The contrast between the two ensured that we do get the idea that a dark threat is ever present but the comedy really does lighten up the situation verging at times to making the film seem like a great Rom-Com.
From Ron's tryouts for the Gryffindor Quidditch team to Ron swallowing the love potion and everything that entailed was used to its full potential. The entire cinema was laughing, chuckling and at times roaring with genuinely good fun comedy.

CONTRAST BETWEEN DARK AND LIGHT: As I have already mentioned the contrast to this is Draco and the dark cloud of evil always presence. The clever way the film flicked between darkness and light was really effective. Draco the poor lad (and yes you really do feel sorry for him) is falling apart in this film. Bellatrix is deliciously evil and Fenrir Greyback was truly terrifying but I think underused- I look forward to him in the next two films being used more. Small touches like the Death Eaters testing the boundaries of Hogwarts as they try to get in shows that the school is very much under threat. Larger touches such as the Weasley's house being burnt down (not in the book!!!) does show how easy the Death Eaters nearly got to Potter and how they can punish the "blood traitors" if they so wish. It was shocking but it did serve its purpose. However, what is going to happen in the next book when Fleur and Bill get married huh?? I am sure the film writers have it all worked out... well they better had!!

Just a few more points before I round off.

I loved the Vanishing Cabinets. Great design.
I loved Professor Slughorn- not quite as described in the book, but Jim Broadbent was marvellous- the complete epitome of an eccentric, academic English professor. He was charming, crazy, amusing and pathetic all at once.

The Snape-Dumbledore relationship- perfect! I shall not reveal anymore on that one though... I do not want to be a spoiler!! OH SOD IT!! You could see the conflict in Snape's face as he killed Dumbledore. It was perfect. He so didn't want to kill him, and the audience getting a peep of Snape struggling against what Dumbledore has asked him is effective- we get to know Snape on a deeper level and at the same time are still mystified about who he really is.

The ending did annoy me a bit though. I think Harry should have been made not to be able to help Dumbledore- I was angry for him for not acting, but then he did as Dumbledore said- trusted him and followed his orders to the word, but I think if he was able to he would have tried to stop Snape. AND WHERE THE HELL WAS THE FUNERAL? WHAT ARE THEY DOING HAVING THAT WAND IN DUMBLEDORE'S OFFICE??? HUH??? WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO IN THE NEXT FILM???

I also wished that the film makers could have explained briefly why Snape was the half blood Prince- I had to explain it to my brother (whoops if I spoilt it for you- sorry guys :S) It was a good ending after Dumbledore had died- Snape stopping Bellatrix from hurting Harry yet the venom he still feels towards Harry because he is James Potter's son. I also liked Ginny comforting Harry whilst kneeling at Dumbledore's body and all the students and teachers light their wands and raise them to the sky to dispel the Dark Mark. That was a really great idea. And it is here that I admit I shed a tear. (But where was the funeral??)


So what next? I think I will see it again and blog about the things I may have missed the first time round. The set from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes shop to Borgin and Burke's shop, from Slughorn's house to Snape's house, the details of each set were as close to the book as humanly possible and at points the world of Harry Potter came to life.

Out of ten? I give this film ten :)

But then I would, wouldn't I?

Twilight

I think I have a bit of an obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to books and films, I always watch and read the same books over and over again. I recently just got into this Twilight fad. ARGH!!! Bane of my existence. I am re-reading the entire series of books again for like the fifth time? I only got them two months ago!! Plus the film ahs been released on DVD so it is constantly playing in the background in my room!!

Mind you on reflection, 70% of book obsessions are in fact to do with topics that are out of this world. Twilight is about vampires and my other continuing obsession is Harry Potter. Wizards and vampires do not exost yet the appeal to me is absolute. I do not get it. I do not get me. Regardless I am going to blog my little heart about my current obsession....

The book/film critque of Twilight....

As with all problems with books being turned into films, there is never enough time to fit in all the little details that made the book great like developing the slow moving relationship between characters. You don’t get to meet the character and to learn to know them. You are constantly aware that time is short and is forced into a breakneck speed. This is the same case for Twilight.
The book has some wicked and witty human traits picked out by the author and used subtly throughout the book. The human observations are marvellous. You believe they are real characters. In the film, of course, we cannot get this. The awkward relationship between Bella and her dad, Charlie, the more-a-friend-than-a-mother/daughter relationship between Bella and her mom, the shaky start to Edward and Bella’s love followed by the growing sizzling romance... this is integral to the plot. It is why Bella goes off knowing she is likely to die to meet the tracker vampire James- to protect her mom, why she feels so bad about saying things to hurt Charlie in order to save him and why she loves Edward so much she does not want Edward to be distroyed by James from anger at her death. From what we can tell in the movie- it seems out of the blue. There is no real explanation. I think it is a film made for the fans who can fill in the spaces with their knowledge in the book.

(However having said that, a mate at work went and saw this film never having read the books and loved every minute of the film, saying it was one of the most romantic films she ever saw rating it up there with Brokeback Mountain- which incidentally I hate.)

BUT having said this I did get a kick out of the use of pepper can spray/fiddling with his rifle before meeting Edward as Bella’s “date” as a vehicle to show how protective Charlie really is over his daughter. It was humorous.

I was a little disappointed about the visual display of the vampire’s special abilities like Edward’s mind reading and Alice’s seeing the future. It was always hinted at but it was not used to the best of its ability. It would have inflated the plot and bolstered the relationships between the characters especially when Edward is spying on Bella through her friends’ minds.Now I did love the set.

The forest, the green beauty versus the damp descending dizzle. I liked it a lot. The meadow scene was gorgeous. The conflict within Bella for her love of Phoenix (hot and sunny) to Fork which is basically the American version of the north of Britain is not demonstrated very well. But I can overlook that because of the beauty of the scenery. It appeals to the treehugger in me!!

The stylisation of the movie was great. These perfect creatures are aloof and beautiful. The lighting was tremendous. From watching the behind the scenes section on the DVD I saw how they filmed it and how it was changed. The way it has been changed makes the film. The contrast of light and dark, green and grey. It is a far cry from other vampire movies. I also loved how they included a shot in the film that looked like the book cover (to hands holding out an apple). It was a lovely touch.

I love Jacob- I am looking forward to the natural grace and depth he introduced in this film. It was understated, not over thought.

Edward- I am in love with Rob Pattinson like every other female teenager in the Western world! Not only can he act and is gorgeously beautiful, but he is a musical genius. He added to the sound track- which was immense anyway because it had Muse on it... but Jeez... he is the best thing since- well I was going to say sliced bread- but for me it is the introduction of tea in Britain by Catherine De Braganza in the reign of Charles II. The Soundtrack is truly terrific!! Damn... I definitely need more realistic love expectations...

Overall, an obsession worth having... fab film viewing for two hours and a great gripping read.