Since my last post spring has come to Wellington. At least it came last week, and we had three warm sunny days, and then it rained a lot, and today was lovely again. But flowers are blooming everywhere and it's definitely warmer. The clocks go forward tomorrow night.
The news at the moment is all rugby and violence. The police in Christchurch shot a guy dead the other night - nobody seems very sure why - but it seems to me they don't really have a leg to stand on. Apparently the officer was in fear of his life and the man had a claw hammer and was behaving oddly, but police are being broadly supportive of the officer's actions. Can't help comparing to the Jean Charles de Menezes shooting post-July 7th. Now that got rightly criticised, but I think the Met had more excuse to fire (on the face of it) than the Chch police did.
Of course both deaths are a tragedy; you have to question sometimes the wisdom of police carrying weapons.
Oh, and Ruapehu erupted on Tuesday night, out of the blue. One injury - the poor guy's lost a leg and is still not out of the woods.
Friday 28 September 2007
Sunday 16 September 2007
Catching up
I had a catch-up weekend: a bit of tidying up, a bit of laundry, a bit of admin-stuff at home, and also catching up on movies as I haven't managed to get to the cinema much recently. Yesterday I saw Ratatouille, which was just adorable. Pixar at their best. I tend not to like mice and rats much (living with mice running round your studio flat does that to a girl) but I found Remy, the hero of Ratatouille, utterly wonderful. Okay, he's a cartoon rat, but he was very ratty while being very cute. A funny, warm, beautifully-produced film.
Today, after the rowing club's open day (erg races on the balcony as the wind was too strong to row), I went to see Perfume: The Story of a Murderer at the lovely Embassy. Definitely my favourite cinema. It's a compelling, disturbing, intriguing movie with a silly ending. Annoyingly silly actually, as I think it detracts from the rest of the film. It's adapted from Patrick Suskind's novel of the same name, which I read ages ago and seem to remember enjoying, about a young man with an incredible sense of smell. Somehow the smells do come over on screen, through gorgeous cinematography. Ben Whishaw as the protagonist Grenouille is amazing - doesn't have much dialogue, but his performance is very physical and he doesn't need words really. Good supporting roles from Alan Rickman and Dustin Hoffmann, lovely setting, and a really creepy story as Grenouille goes about finding the perfect scent and distilling it - let's just say he thinks the perfect scent belongs to a girl. Highly recommended, although it does lose points for the ending (I think Suskind is to blame).
Today, after the rowing club's open day (erg races on the balcony as the wind was too strong to row), I went to see Perfume: The Story of a Murderer at the lovely Embassy. Definitely my favourite cinema. It's a compelling, disturbing, intriguing movie with a silly ending. Annoyingly silly actually, as I think it detracts from the rest of the film. It's adapted from Patrick Suskind's novel of the same name, which I read ages ago and seem to remember enjoying, about a young man with an incredible sense of smell. Somehow the smells do come over on screen, through gorgeous cinematography. Ben Whishaw as the protagonist Grenouille is amazing - doesn't have much dialogue, but his performance is very physical and he doesn't need words really. Good supporting roles from Alan Rickman and Dustin Hoffmann, lovely setting, and a really creepy story as Grenouille goes about finding the perfect scent and distilling it - let's just say he thinks the perfect scent belongs to a girl. Highly recommended, although it does lose points for the ending (I think Suskind is to blame).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
