randomosity

Bruges at Christmas time. A lovely medieval preserved town with a festive spirit and now blessed with two hit men laying low at a quaint hotel. How can one react to this movie? In Bruges is a treat!!

Characterization and the characters are superb. Dialogue is witty and fast paced. The scenery of Bruges is shot magnificently. There are little 10 second vignette shots that work very well. The movie follows the two hit men taking refuse following a botched job. The hunker down to await a call. As Vladimir and Estragon, Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleason) adopt entertainly different approaches to their enforced tourism. Maybe its just the Irish way, but I feel some Beckett here.

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I just discovered at the HNN that George Macdonald Fraser, author of the acclaimed Flashman series of historical fiction novel, passed away yesterday. His ribald contributions to a true appreciation of the nuances of Victorian military and social history will be missed. I have always looked forward to the next installment of the Flashman papers. The obits remind that he was author, journalist and screenwriter. When Octopussy with Roger Moore as James Bond came out I remember thinking that it had a rather different feel than other bonds. The Indian scenes were exotic and there even seemed to be a different pace. Shortly thereafter I found out that Fraser had done the screen play and I should have sensed the familiar had at work.
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I was finally was able to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age today and was not disappointed. This a movie worth seeing at the theatre. The settings are sumptuous, superbly shot and Cate Blanchett seems to be able to do no wrong. She is Elizabeth.
I am staying away from historical commentary here. This is a story for the screen and I appreciate it as such. However, I will say that I enjoyed the first installment ten years ago more. The two installments shared the lavish settings that set Shekhar Kapur apart, but the web of intrigue in the first was much more taut and tense. In the second installment, there is far less of tension. Where tension exists, it seems weary or puerile. Relationships that may have been mined and explored such as that between Elizabeth and her cousin Mary Stuart are left docile and tepid. Mary, who I expected to speak with at least a French accent is unimposing and a mere dupe (certainly a faint shadow of Fanny Ardant’s Marie de Guise in the first). Although this fits in well with her role vis-a-vis Philip of Spain’s intrigue, this political and fratricidal battle between ‘princes who are female’ could have been mined and illuminated the ongoing struggle between free-thinkers and Roman Catholics. Kapur’s Mary is a stupid, unthreatening victim, and this doesn’t work well - far too simple.
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Information Aesthetics points to a great background article on the visual representation of taste in Ratatouille (a movie I absolutely recommend - great story, superb animation). I watched these sequences and didn’t think much about them - but what a great question : how can one visually demonstrate the sensation of taste? Additionally, how do tastes sound - the animations that Michael Gagne created for the movie were used as inspiration for the accompanying soundtrack. Is this a sign of sensory convergence? That flavours will combine and produce an entirely new visualization makes absolute sense, but how do you account for synergy or for catalytic behaviour. What a wonderful challenge to be presented with and to muse about.
There is a lot more to discover at Michael Gagne’s site. His work had appeared in a string of well known productions. Moreover, Gagne is a Québecois and Sheridan graduate - so wonderfully close to home.
I wonder what smell looks like?

VideoJug published a wonderful instructional video today on how to give a great man-to-man hug. It’s superb. The site provides many helpful (real) etiquette videos, but and even this one in its way is meant to be of social aid. The terse subtitles just add to the mirth of this little piece. For a few good belly laughs…

Here’s a hot movie tip. If you are looking for gratuitous violence and action stop reading right now. Instead, if you appreciate brilliantly composed shots, being submerged in a rich, enveloping, sensual, and splendidly conceived story, the Mistress of Spices a perfect movie, especially for Valentine’s Day. Paulette picked out this movie on the weekend and I have to admit to being absolutely engrossed for the duration.

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I finally got around to watching a documentary I had pvr’d a week or so ago. The Socialist, the Architect and the Twisted Tower documents (lyrically I might add) the design and construction of the Turning Tower in Malmo, Sweden. I am fascinated by the inspiration behind the design by Santiago Calatrava who sought to instill this kinetic human form to a 56 storey condominium office tower. The documentary itself (in a mixture of Spanish, Italian, English and Swedish) is a behind the scenes sort of production, but it captures Calatrava musing about such things as the passing of the seasons and the importance of customer service. The participants deal with attempts to change the design mid-construction to cut costs. The clients muse over the fact that the Architect is so sensitive to any criticism, and yet I was struck by how strangely accommodating he seems over what are huge alterations to the concept. Calatrava is pragmatic, hands-on and remarkably open - good line: ‘the blood will arrive into the sea’. The engineer-architect is an interesting mix. This is a fine production. The project in question is an intriguing one, and on which I have grown in appreciation for (the subtleties of the details) with this documentary. I am more familiar with his bridges and the Milwaukee Art Museum project although I have very often walked through his magnificent atrium in Toronto at BCE Place. Cost overruns led to the firing of Johnny Orback, the general manager part way through the project. Calatrava is frank and blatantly states his belief that Swedes are simply too used to only doing the comfortable thing and not being willing to risk or do visionary things as the GM did. Interesting reflection son Swedish culture.

I browsed around a bit to follow up on the project and came across this wonderful model of the tower itself that you can download in PDF form and assemble for yourself. Have fun! By the by, do check out the official site. Its a fascinating piece of interface design in itself.

On the subject of impressive focus on detail, comes this amusing exercise…Mapping the various timelines in the collection of back to the Future movies to allow for the creation of alternate timelines due to time travel. This Wikipedia entry charts the various characters, their ancestors and particular events and attempts to portray all the skipping around through time in a straight forward chart. The author does an great job…this is information distillation extremely well accomplished. The article is fun in its own right, but the imagining of the alternate timelines is particularly astute.