Urban landscape with water pipes

Urban landscape with water pipes, oil on card, 9.5 x 13.9 cm

There isn't much post-industrial landscape here- a pity as it is very interesting to paint.

3:10 to Yuma (2007): review: 6/10

A poor, one-legged farmer is hired, among others, to escort a gangster to a prison train: they have some difficulties because of the gangster's extraordinary powers and the persistence of his gang.

Everyone is grumpy except for Russell Crowe who tries to be friendly to the farmer and his son.

The film is nicely shot but goes on and on, becoming enervated, lacking the wit needed to lift it.

Foggy bay

*

Foggy Bay, Florianópolis oil on card, 11.8 x 9.5 cm - - available

Painted from the technology park: quite Whisterian, much rain.

Balmy day, yellow building, trees and yard

Balmy day, yellow building trees and yard, oil on card, 11.5 x 10cm - discarded

Painted near here.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I shall work at the business park again

Prozac Nation (2001): review: 1.5/10

A clever girl wins a place at Harvard to do journalism.

Unfortunately, her mother irritates her and her parents divorced many years before: these things have somehow made her into a narcissitic little worm, given to depression.

The film illustrates the commonplace that the central character to a film, however wicked, has to have some redeeming characteristics- even Hannibal, in Silence of the Lambs has charisma, wit and a definate sense of style- or the viewer will rapidly lose interest

The Wurtzel character here is merely a capable scribbler- this isn't enough to compensate for her being quite so boring and brattish, and I couldn't get beyond the first half of this one

Night of the Hunter (1955): review: 10/10

A man steals some money and, before he is given the death penalty, tells his young son to keep it hidden and its location secret.

A dishonest preacher, having shared a cell with the thief, knows about the money, but not where it is hidden. On leaving jail the preacher inveigles his way into the thief's widow's life, marrying her, with a view to locating the money.

The film is imaginatively shot and not humourless despite its dark themes. The acting, even of the children, is excellent.

A considerable amount of time is given to the role of women in small town society, and their relations with alternatively charismatic or subservient men. The film also dwells largely on the uses of scripture and of religious values.

Savage Grace (2007): review: 9/10

A wealthy American couple seperate. The wife becomes fixated on her son, the husband steals his girlfriend.

Alas, all these shenanigans end in tears.

This is a marvellous, claustrophobic celebration of an unusual family, brilliantly acted and very tense.