The Big One Did It Again!

The Big One made another awesome film this time with the incredible performance poet Polar Bear.

Clever chaps aren't they!

Just Watched...

Today I watched The French Line starring Jane Russell and it was great! She was so sexy! Beautiful in a striking, somewhat unconventional way, very leggy and very....curvaceous! 

Some of the numbers were down right provocative but after reading about her I discovered that Howard Hughes, who produced the film, was quite obsessed with her...qualities.

It was glamorous, great fun, made me chuckle, all in all a superb 'curl up and craft' movie to watch on a drizzly day in between rehearsal sessions...yes I was called back into rehearsals after all.

 

P.S. Tomorrow is a run of the play then costume fittings and hair and make up consultations which means...we're nearly previewing!

"Sometimes the photographers would pose me in a low-necked nightgown and tell me to bend down and pick up the pails. They were not shooting the pails."

- Jane Russell

A Drip of A Day

That's exactly what it is, a drip. The day here in Belfast is wet but not raining, just drizzling. Like the rain can't even be bothered. The sky is that kind of solid white cloud which makes you wonder if you exist anymore.

I was in rehearsals this morning and now have a few hours off...or maybe more. We may be doing a run later, we may not. You see what I mean, everything is - 'muh'.

So I have come back determined to turn this day around. After going over some lines, I shall knit, watch a lovely old movie, make myself all snuggly and eat popcorn.

That looks better already doesn't it!

Hope you're having a better, brighter day!

"Drama is life with the dull bits cut out."

- Alfred Hitchcock 

We Watched..

This weekend we watched two great movies, I highly recommend them both!

Bright Star was so beautiful, so romantic, so moving. The Big One and I were entranced by the end. The cinematography, the performances, the way Ben Whishaw recites Keats' poetry all combined to make this one of the most romantic films I think I have ever seen. Their burgeoning love was so realistically paced, it was a wonderful film and I urge you to watch it if you get the chance.

The next film we saw was quite a different genre and 'beast' altogether.

Pure nostalgia for me. I am an 80's child and this has such the Spielberg touch, I really enjoyed it. That's not to say it was perfect because it wasn't but it was highly enjoyable. 

The nostalgic element has potentially clouded my judgement on whether it's a 'good' film but I would watch this again. I jumped, I gasped, I laughed and I was entirely engaged. The end was a little humdrum for me but still, I loved reliving my childhood for the 112 minutes that this was on. I could have been at someone's 12 year old birthday party about to go and have pizza after the film before we stayed over and plaited each other's hair....thankfully though I wasn't and I got to go home with The Big One afterwards instead.

"Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity."

- Robert Morgan 

Brace Yourself - This is Amazing

Best Coast - Our Deal

Directed by Drew Barrymore

i wish you would tell me
how you really feel
but youll never tell me
cos thats not our deal

Adam and Paul

I watched this the other day and it was perfect. Just perfect. Funny, sad, thought provoking and beautiful. I highly recommend it. The performances, particularly Tom Murphy's are superb.

Pure class.

Bulgarian man: I had to leave Sofia

Paul: Right, was she pregnant like?

- Adam and Paul

Classic Hollywood Doppelganger

I just watched Affair With A Stranger, a 1953 film directed by Roy Rowland, starring the lovely Jean Simmons and Victor Mature.... or Chris Noth, I could barely tell the difference!

Victor Mature above, Chris Noth below...in case you're having trouble too!

"Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies. And be it gash or gold it will not come Again in this identical guise" 

- Gwendolyn Brooks 

There's No One Like Barbra

This always always makes me cry. One of my very favourite films.

"I am simple, complex, generous, selfish, unattractive, beautiful, lazy, and driven."

-Barbra Streisand

My 'Must-See Film' Queue Just Got Longer...

This looks good. I hope they haven't put all the good bits in the trailer....

Timberlake and Diaz....tres intriguing!

Plus the Louboutin Ronfifi's are LUSH!

"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater." 

~Gail Godwin

Somewhere, Somehow, Someday

I really want to see this...

      

“Everyone in my family is in the film business; I knew I wanted to be creative and it was important in my family to be artistic."

- Sofia Coppola

Catfish

I finally watched this the other day. I didn't know much about it before seeing it which was perfect. I found it really engaging and felt it raised some very interesting points about our modern day cyber social world.

I recommend it. Watch it if you can but then don't spoil it for others.

"And there are those people who are catfish in life. They keep you on your toes. They keep you guessin’. They keep you thinkin’. They keep you fresh. And I thank God for the catfish, because we would be dull and boring if we didn’t have somebody nipping at our fin." 

- Vince Pierce

Going the Distance

I'm on the way home! I am currently writing this in my stopover hotel in South Korea and it's preeeeety nice. Good shower, soft bed, free t'internet. I'm a happy lady.

So one 10 hour flight later and I have watched some rubbish films - for some reason I couldn't concentrate so opted for the crap -  don't judge me cos I'm about to share...

Step Up 3 - horrendous story and acting BUT amazing dance sequences which is really all you watch it for surely.

Morning Glory - I have NOTHING good to say at all.

(2nd half of) Eat, Pray, Love- I used it to help me sleep on the way out and the remaining half worked a treat once again. Self indulgent, sanctimonious blah blah.

However I watched one film that was quite lovely, not a mind blower, not a must-see, just a really charming film. It's called 'It's Kind of a Funny Story' and I liked it.

It's the same selection tomorrow so I decided to save certain films for the remaining 12 hour flight.

Stone - Edward Norton and Robert DeNiro

Jack Goes Boating - Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Conviction - Sam Rockwell

I think you can see what I've done, yup, saved the best for last.

P.S I watched this posts namesake film on the way out - funny and popcorn light plus Justin Long.

Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television. 

-Rita Mae Brown

Feathers, Beats and Ballerinas

Costume Design credit - Phillip Lim...but of course.

 I've been listening to his new album (on my amazing new headphones from The Big One), it's really dark but good.

I know it's wrong but...

I am not proud but I have a weakness for dancing and singing movies - particularly cheesy ones - and the up and coming Burlesque movie starring Christina Aguliera and Cher has got me all a flutter.

I know it'll be awful in many ways but it's also be great fun...hopefully.

I got so excited about Nine and that was one massive disappointment other then the constantly amazing Marion Cotillard.

Dogtooth

The Big One and I recently watched a brilliant Greek film called Dogtooth.

A fascinating and beautifully shot film about a couple who psychologically imprison their 3 grown up children in their house and grounds. They raise them to believe that airplanes are toys that drop out of the sky, cats are dangerous animals that kill, they even give them a new vocabulary.

Each child (they aren't named other then eldest, 2nd eldest and youngest) are told that once their dogtooth falls out they will be deemed ready to leave their parents and the compound.

I don't want to tell you about what happens as it will spoil the story but I hope you get to see it. It's beautiful, funny, shocking and horribly uncomfortable at times. I highly recommend it. It's haunted me since watching it, I love it when a film stays with you and keeps playing in your head, making you think and look at it differently every time it plays.

"Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes."

-Robert Altman

Birthday Gal = Spoilt Rotten

It was my birthday on Friday and I got spoilt RoTtEn! 

The Big One made me my very favourite breakfast - kedgeree and I ate LoAds of it!

He had planned a bike ride and a delicious Carluccio's picnic but the weather was not playing ball so we went for a local wander, got some bits and bobs for my birthday BBQ/Garden party the following day...

 

Choosing ribbon for my bunting

We then came home to eat the (enormous and scrummy) picnic on a rug in the living room while watching a movie we rented. I loved loved loved it! I could barely eat for grinning ear to ear.

The film we got, "Everybody's Fine', was filed in the comedy section - MIS-file - it was a lovely film but my giddy aunt how we wept! Cleansing though...

After mopping ourselves up and as much of the scrummy picnic and wine as we fit in our tums we put our spanking new breakfast bar together and pottered about. When you work as much as I do a day to do anything you want with no obligations is heavenly.

He had also booked a table at one of our lovely local restaurants for 9pm but by 8:45 we were both still utterly stuffed so decided rather then eating for the sake of it, to instead postpone it to Wednesday evening, stretching out my birthday celebrations - result!

Here's the fantastic present he gave me - I'm going to find the perfect frame and get it up asap.

"Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time."

~Jean Paul Richter

Make Yourself Comfortable and Watch Something Beautiful

written and performed by Kate Tempest

directed by Joe Roberts (aka The Big One)

"Cos nothing's more real then doing right after year's of doing wrong"

-Kate Tempest

 

The Big One's Premiere!

The Big One's very first short film, 'A Line in the Sand', is premiering tonight at Rich Mix on Bethnal Green Road.  It's a short, beautifully realised film, written and performed by the incredible performance poet Kate Tempest and directed by The Big One (although that's not his professional name).

I have been a witness to all the intense planning, creativity, dedication and downright hard work that has gone into this remarkable film, the result really is a thing of beauty.

If you are about, or know of anyone in the area who fancies a look-see then it'll be screened at 8:45 this evening and it's free entry.

The film is featuring in a night of performance poetry hosted by Apples and Snakes which all kicks off at 7:30pm. It's bound to be a great 'talk about it afterwards' night so don't miss out!

'Performance poetry is poetry that has been written specifically to be declaimed in public, as opposed to poetry that really belongs on a page and is simply being read out. The difference is a subtle one: performance poetry may rely more heavily on rhyme, insistent rhythm or a narrative thread. And the poet, too, will be aware that he or she has an audience and will make some concessions to them. For some poets, this means leaping about; for others, a little eye-contact can suffice. Performance poets, indeed, come in many forms: some have thoughts to share, whilst others wish to display their verbal dexterity, or simply entertain. You could argue, too, that they are perpetuating the oral tradition that is fundamental to so many cultures.'
- Apples and Snakes website