I've Loved You So Long

Not a lot happens in this film. Juliette is released from prison after serving 15 years. She moves in with sister who makes her part of the family and gradually Juliette's bitterness, and the doubts of her sister's family, are overcome. It is a story of acceptance and a woman rebuilding her life with the support of her loving, if initially estranged, family.

Perhaps the fact that this is a French film helps - I can't but wonder if I would be as accepting of such a slow building film if it was set in, say, Yorkshire. There is also the 'novelty' of seeing Kristen Scott Thomas give a magnificent performance in French - although she has been based in France for several years she will perhaps, in many people's eyes, be best remembered as the wonderfully bitchy, and very upper class and English, Fiona in Four Weddings and Funeral. However, you have to doubt whether she would be offered such a role in a British or US film dealing with such a topic.

Whatever doubts you may have about seeing a subtitled film telling the story of a woman being released from prison, put them aside. Kristen Scott Thomas gives an outstanding performance supported by an excellent cast in a film that tells a simple story beautifully.

Website of the week

One way of dealing with telemarketeers.

Milk

Milk tells the story of Harvey Milk the first openly gay person elected to public office in America - he was later assassinated, along with the Mayor of San Francisco, by another City Supervisor.

The film captures the atmosphere of the times well, mixing in some news footage in with the drama, and combines how Harvey Milk motivated various disparate communities in order to get elected along with the personal lives of those involved. However, this is probably the film's weakness.

It can't decide whether to follow the political story - which shows the huge victimisation and bigotry that existed in the States at the time (and there are some parallels with the recent California Proposition 8) - or the personal stories of those involved. Either would make a great drama, but by trying to combine both the film is perhaps weaker than it could have been. I would have loved to delve more into the political story, the personal stories of the characters interested me less. The film also barely touches on why City Supervisor Dan White felt he had to kill Harvey Milk and the City Mayor.

Sean Penn is excellent in the lead role, and Emile Hirsch and Josh Brolin are both good. However, the person who saw it with me said it was 'disengaging' and that is the exact word to use when describing this film. There is a riveting and relevant story to be told here - unfortunately this film fails to make the most of the opportunity given.

London in the snow

Often London is a great place to live - today showed that sometimes it's like living in the dark ages. Overnight approx 6 inches of snow feel on London. It wasn't a great surprise - it had been forecast since Thursday and the snow started to fall late yesterday afternoon. Yet despite this the transport system today was the worst I've ever seen it London since I moved down here over a decade.

None of the roads appeared to have been gritted. The local authorities are saying they did grit them - but on the evidence I saw today (and believe me I walked a great many miles in SW and central London) gritting looked to be minimal/non-existent. This meant no buses in London - not a single one! Six million journeys a day are made on London buses - how was that going to happen today? The really annoying thing was the main roads and bus routes were not too bad - the ones I walked along were certainly passable and on the whole pretty clear. Of course the irony is that had the buses actually been running the routes would have cleared even faster.

Quite how the tubes ground to a halt is a little strange. The Circle line - which is actually underground for its entire route - was suspended all day; as was much of the network regardless of whether it was under or overground.

As for the trains... Trains in London even on a good day can be pretty dire - today was carnage. No Southern, South Eastern or First Capital Connect services. South West trains was entirely random - I hiked a couple of miles to another station and managed to make my way into work but coming home was dreadful - not a scrap of information at Waterloo and the website described a 'skeleton' service that was, at best, largely aspirational and on the whole fictional. To top it all when I did get a train it got stuck behind one that had broken down!

I know 'adverse' weather will be difficult - but this weather was well predicted and not that 'adverse'. What really annoys me in this 'information age' was the simple lack of information. South West Trains, Network Rail and Waterloo station in particular should be thoroughly ashamed.

London is supposed to be a world city, the capital of a well developed nation, the next Olympic city. Today it proved to be 'third' world - and at times not even that.

On the plus side, with all the snow, today it did look absolutely stunning.

Website of the week

As much as I like the new T Mobile advert currently on TV in the UK at the moment - see below - I really can't help thinking they perhaps got 'inspiration' from the similar thing in New York Grand Central Station last year - also below.

T Mobile advertisment


Frozen Grand Central

Indeed, back in April 2008 I commented that I'd love to do something like it at Waterloo or St Pancras - if only I'd said Liverpool Street would I have got a percentage??

Have to say I still prefer the NYC version...