Sunday 5 July 2009

European Fim Awards : 3 days of the Condor and TV Messiah

Three reasonable night's sleep in succession but a little later start than desirable around 9.30 so it is now 10.30 when I begin a week where the priority is to work on the house. First is the kitchen. I worked hard cleaning all surfaces and the room has been left to dry. I have the first of three washings in progress, the other two will be the covers for the settee. For lunch I had two salami and lettuce rolls, Pepsi cola and the vitamin tablet. Will get myself ready for going out later after lost which runs from 2 to 3pm although there has been strong rain most of the morning and heavy snow falls in the region. Elsewhere there is flooding in Yorkshire and other parts of the country.

The ironing has been completed and the day room floor ready for washing tomorrow. I delayed going out hoping the rain was ease or stop and watch 3 days of Condor for tenth time, yet there were aspects which were not familiar. Given the extent of private clubs associated with American universities it is natural for writers to project such gathering into adult life and the major institutions of the state, or in this instances states. I did not understand the nature of the CIA within CIA plot of the film or the naiveté of its ending although it was a post Watergate film. It was watchable. After the film I went to the post box and the refuse centre while it still rained and on to the supermarket. It was a good shop where I remembered almost everything. Bananas and three lots of grapes which are of high quality and inexpensive. Sweet and sour sauce and two more of the chicken breasts with stuffing and mini sausages. A beef noodles stir fry, some prawns in shell, Custards and butterscotch whips. Kitchen surface cleaner, foil, refuse bags and washing tablets non bio. Some salami, rolls, cheese slices, milk. Large bottles of water 2 containers at 74 pence each. Steam fresh vegetables frozen. Should have got a sliced loaf and some instant porridge oats.

No success in the Lottery although the Euro was not won and will £54 million on Friday. No Premium Bonds win for December or January adds to the disappointment. Hope springs eternal and there are some interesting properties in Gibraltar going for between £1 and £1.6 million.

Of all the events involving celebrity's and performers who undertake serious activity outside their comfort zone the ice dancing competition appears to be the most dangerous from the number of falls and serious injuries which they have from week to week. There is two months of learning and practice before they go on the ice in a dress rehearsal and the live performance, and then produce a new work with compulsory technical features week on week. The programme has achieved the right balance with clips on the week of practice, incorporating some information about individual families. I am tempted to watch the live show which is coming to the Newcastle arena.

In order to record the football this morning I had re configure the media system which present comprises of the 32 inch with the HD ready Freeview TV, the Sky Sat unit, the all singing dancing DVD CD player and the video tape player. The TV can also be linked to the PC and other media units. With difficulty and some trial and error I was able to get both the Video and the FVD player to work with the three scart links/ with two directly to the TV and with single line connections. The opportunity was taken to play the Diana concert on the desk top[ for a few minutes to see if the programme enabled anything other than play and pause as one day I want to go through to see if I am shown on any of the crowd scenes, someday. The day was unbalanced regarding food with hot cereal and then two slices of toast with the last slices of the Black Forest smoked ham under toasted cheese and then the roast chicken dinner and since then nothing. I will have tea and a banana now. Interestingly I forget to mention two cans of Pepsi cola and the first of the hard Turron. Work out Monday with the kitchen and ironing having done some washing and drying on Saturday before going to the match

The unexpected highlight of my Sunday evening experience was the 2007 European Film awards, now in its 20th year as this was not an Academy I had encountered before which shows the limitations of my knowledge. The awards ceremony paid tribute to Ingmar Bergman with the presence of Liv Ulman and the presentation of the white sea washed stone from his beloved Island home with ten given to the founder members of the Academy including Lord Putnam from the Uk and Jeanne Moreau who remains an Honorary Member of the Board along with Ben Kingsley and where the Actress Brenda Blethyn the UK actress is a current Board member. Win Wenders from Germany s the new President following the death of Ingmar, having been its first Chairman elected in 1990. Interesting the Academy is mainly financed through the German Lottery and the European Cultural Commission. The full list of 1800 members is available online and other honorary members include Sophia Loren, Deborah Kerr, Milos Forman and Eric Rohmer. In 1988 awards included Richard Attenborough for Merit, Marcello Mastroianni and Ingmar Bergman for Lifetime Achievement and Bertolucci for the Last Emperor, Max Vin Sydow was best Actor and Carmen Maura, In 89 the Lifetime award went to Federico Fellini In 1990 Kenneth Branagh got the Young Filmmaker award for Henry V and achievement award to Andrej Wajda 1991 Juliet Binoche the actress of the year and the Lifetime achievement to Billy Wilder. In 1993 the award went to Michelangelo Antonioni with a special mention for the film the Man who loves Garry Linekar. Nominations for best film 1994 included In the Name of the Father Ireland and Four Weddings and a Funeral UK an odd choice methinks as also nominated but not successful was Trois Coleurs, Bleu, Blanc et Rouge. In 1995 the film award went to Land and Freedom Ken Loach where one Sunday paper was giving away the DVD this morning but I decided against going for. Ian now Sir Ian McKellan was the best actor for his Richard III and the lifetime achievement went to Sir Alec Guiness. Secrets and lies was also a Best film nomination. 1998 The Full Monty was the best film, Bob Hoskins the Male Actor for twenty-four Seven and Jeanne Moreau the Lifetime award, and Juliet Binoche for the English Patient. Emma Thompson was nominated along with the English Patient as best film. La Vitta et bella was best film 1998 Jeremy Irons a specials achievement award. There was a special people's award introduced which went to Kate Winslet Titanic and Antonio Banderas for the Mask of Zorro. In 1999 Pedro Almodovar for Todo Sobre Mi Madre, Ralph Fiennes the make actor and a people's award went to Catherine Zeta Jones. And Sean Connery. Bjork and Dancer in the Dark were successful in 2000 with Richard Harris the Lifetime achievement among those also nominated in 2000 were Chicken Run and Billy Elliot also Julie Walters. 2001 saw Amelie take the film prize and Ben Kingsley best actor. Colin Firth was a peoples award choice for Bridget Jones Diary and Juliette Binoche for Chocolat. Ewan McGregor a special achievement and the Lifetime achievement went to the Monty Python team. Habla Con Ella (Talk to her) gave Almodovar his second film award along with best Director and Screen writer. The entire cast of 8 women were awarded best actress. Kate Winslet was a people's choice for Iris and Ken Loach an award fro sweet Sixteen. Goodbye Lenin was the film award for 2003 and five other awards. Claude Chabrol the Lifetime achievement and Charlotte Rampling best actress for Swimming Pool, In 2004 Imelda Staunton for Vera Drake. Liv Ulman for achievement and Penelope Cruz the People's Choice best actress. Sir Sean Connery the Lifetime award in 2005 Pedro Almodovar the Best director award in 2006 for Volvo with Penelope Cruz best actress and People's Choice best film. Roman Polanski the Lifetime award.

I watch Messiah, a two part bloody and violent mystery which did not impress because it failed to communicate the pain. The plot concerned a most unconvincing murderer who after an epiphany set about enacting words in Old Testament about the build up to Armageddon. The programme would have achieved more focussing on the weather with all day torrents of rain and several inches of snow leading to blocked roads and flooding. The implausibility of the plot was communicated to the actors who did their best to earn their money but I have not seen such a bad drama on the BBC for sometime. There was also some Big Brother House where I warmed to the characters who do the Big Brother Big Mouth and what came over is that they are better than the script created image they are asked to perform. Chanel 4 is yet to learn that appealing to the worst instincts of human nature while attracting viewers is one of the basic causes of the British malaise.

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