From Here to Eternity (1953): review- 6.5/10

It's the eve of the bombing of Pearl Harbour...!

Mysteriously, Montgomery Clift, a wonderful buglar, maintains his enthusiasm for the US army despite being mercilessly bullied for refusing to participate in boxing matches. He meets a girl who is completely unmemorable but falls for her nevertheless.

Simultaneously, Burt Lancaster starts an affair with his Commanding Officer's wife. Given what a grumpy cow she is and quite how surly he is, the source of their passion is unclear but they roll about in the sea in long swimming trunks while the waves wash over them anyway.

Frank Sinatra wonders about buffoonishly, usually drunk. What he's doing as a private soldier in Hawaii is anyone's guess.

Messy, inconclusive film which tries to say something profound about masculinity and service but which fails- entertainingly enough, it might be said.

The Desert Rats (1953): review- 5.5/10

There is much of potential interest here- the relations between Australian privates and British officers; or the nature of courage; or of leadership; but these themes are passed over too rapidly for them to have much emotional impact.

Ergo, the virtues of the film are mainly in its celebration Allied forces and their sucess in resisting Rommel's forces.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2008): review- 5/10

An irreverent English journalist gains employment in a New York magazine.

Rapid, silly, and enjoyable film, but which lacks the satirical bite that is required to make it the intelligent farce that Toby Young's book deserves. This is, I think, because satrire needs more true anger behind it to succeed.

Birdman of Alcatraz (1962): review- 6/10

Well paced story of a convict that takes up bird breeding and becomes an aknowledged expert in the matter.

The film is further animated by an ongoing feud between a prison governor and the hero.

The film is nicely filmed, with very characterisitc tics from the time, and Lancaster is excellent, if unlikely, as the convict, being much too good-looking.

The film attempts, clumsily, to introduce a political message about crime. It argues that the prisoners are somehow victims of society- though the director indeed skirts any examination of the convict's crimes, or his motivations for them, nor those of his co-detainees.

A definate superficiality then, is sustained thoughout; this is particularly apparant in the relations with his mother and also his wife.

Crazy Heart (2009): review- 6/10

6/10

Impoverished but charismatic country singing dypsomaniac falls in lurve.

Bridges is good, but lacks shade enough for the role; Maggie Gyllenhaal likewise is bland.

WARNING: Country music, with it's atrocious lyrical and musical cliches, features in many scenes.

Tourist pictures

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Sunset, August, Florianópolis, oil on card, 12.5 x 10 cm SOLD

When I lived in London I had the idea of doing a series of tourist pictures.

These pictures would, in part, be a homage to Georges Perec's Bartlebooth, from, Life A USer's Manual , and a homage to the place itself (a slightly ironical homage, given the wryness or uninterest that those who live or have lived in London tend to develop toward the touristic places- a general capital city-dwellers attitude, indeed).

The pictures would feature the obvious places:

Tower of London,
Buckingham Palace,
Tower Bridge
The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben
St Paul's Cathedral
Trafalgar Square/ Nelson's Column/ St Martin in the Fields/ National Gallery
Picadilly Circus
Harrods
Regent's Park
St Jame's Palace
London Eye
British Museum
The Albert Hall

Have I missed anything?

When I lived in London I didn't have the idea of painting little pochades, each taking a few hours at most, so the concept daunted me, and never got off the ground. Now, with this marvellous working process it is all much more of a possibility, so when I am next in London, in July, I shall pursue it. 

Ten or twelve pictures is about possible in a week isn't it? Depending on the weather, of course.

I reflect also that I don't actually really like painting in public places, because having to chat to others is often annoying, and this is partly why the run of my pictures are of out-of the way places. It is also because the views of historical sights are very often highly familiar, and it's difficult to add anything to them.

Often the idea of a picture is more satisfactory than the reality: you arrive at a spot and it turns out that the view isn't as good as you hoped- traffic or tourists of road signs obscuring the view. So you end up painting something adjacent, looking in the opposite direction, having been unable to match your idealised image to the scene in front.

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Highway bridge over the creek

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Highway bridge over the creek, oil on card, 11 x 8 cm - available

In the background you can perhaps make out Florianopolis' central hill with it's broadcasting installations. Favela construction, vomit-like, is starting to speckle the hill.