Road, Itacorubi

Road, Itacorubi, oil on card, 12.2 x 9.5 cm

A beautiful day for painting: I've been looking at paintings by Whistler and Turner, admiring the magical way paint is used as an expressive element in itself. Painting the sea is especially enjoyable as a vehicle for this.

I"ve feeling very positive about these little pictures as if, finally, I have turned some sort of "corner".

Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008): review- 6/10

In LA, revolting thugs kill each other, usually using guns.

This, in itself, is certainly a good thing: it's hard to be upset about the gang wars- they are highly localised,and the people involved aren't really very nice. Indeed, it's a pity they don't kill each other more as then the rest of society wouldnt have to pay the cost of incarcerating them.

Lively documentary providing some interesting insights into the history of black LA, and interviews with gang members who speak a sort of English. I fear the film skirts some issues about moral breakdown within black communities, advancing the rise of gangs as necessary response to their situation.

Al di là delle nuvole [Beyond the Clouds] (1995): review- 2/10

The more desperately cinema tries to be an art form, the more firmly it lodges itself up its own anus.

Malkovich wanders around looking as if someone stole his toupee, introducing and occasionally narrating this insipid arty porn-kitsch which shows women taking their panties off in various cloudy European cities.

Sometimes this is quite diverting, but lord it does drag on!

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968): review- 10/10

The film shows the lives a run of people in a southern town in the late sixties. It gives particular attention to a deaf mute and the daughter of his landlady who wishes to become a musician.

Excellently acted and beautifully filmed, the film touches on a number of themes- anger, forgiveness, racism, love, poverty and despair.

The Way We Were (1973): review- 8/10

Pretty and just about credible film about the relationship between two different personality types- a political activist and and easy going screenwriter, who run into trouble during the McCarthyite witch hunts.

Extremely enjoyable: Barbara's nose is particularly impressive.

The Panic in Needle Park (1971): review- 2/10

A drug pusher-junkie (who chews gum continually) manages to seduce a young artist into his druggie lifestyle.

It is quite impossible to see what this female character finds in the Al Pacino character and so the film seems to be more an essay in moralism than a study of real relationships.

Gloomy and considerably too long, with zero chracter development and virtually no plot.

Frankie and Johnny (1991): review- 7/10

Johnny is an ex-con with a zeal for self-improvement. While working as a chef in an NY short order restaurant he falls for a waitress with a sour demeanor, Frankie; he pesters her into dating him.

Generally enjoyable.