On My Radar
One of the best parts of the weekend's newspaper supplements is the feature where artists, performers and writers chat about their artistic choices. Recommendations from people in the know can often provide sound suggestions.
They prompt me to list new films, recently read books or other activity that I would recommend and which are currently (in the Observer's words) "On My Radar." So here goes.
Cinema
"Parrallel Mothers" directed by Pedro Aldomovar and featuring Penélope Cruz in the lead role is a powerful new film. Set in Spain, it reflects the director's preoccupation with maternal themes and, unsurprisingly, women are the dominant force. Apart from its emphasis on the feminine dimension, the story takes its drive from the past and the atrocities of Spain's civil war in the 1930's. The narrative carries resonances beyond Spain where, even if smaller in scale elsewhere, the legacy of evil acts does not disappear into the earth unforgotten.
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| The Times 29 January 2022 Weekend Review |
"Belfast" is the latest film from Kenneth Branagh. Paraphrasing him, the Covid-19 lockdown inspired him to write (and direct) this memoir and screenplay based on his youth growing up in Northern Ireland's "Troubles," seen as an earlier lockdown when streets were barricaded.
Whereas people who lived through them can be instinctively uncomfortable with flashbacks to those bad times, this portrayal of survival - and escape - communicates its message in an affectionate way. For the most part the events are seen through the eyes of the director as a 9-year-old and his endearing relationship with his grandparents.
With the news of Oscar nominations for Parallel Mothers and for Belfast, I have to add "The Power of the Dog" to my radar. If Benedict Cumberbatch is anywhere near as good in this as he was in The Courier, I cannot wait.
Television documentaries
"The Brontës - An Irish Tale" illustrates the accuracy of Hamlet's line about brevity being the soul of wit. I stumbled upon this 30-minute programme by accident minutes before its broadcast. Residents of Northern Ireland are aware of the location of Brontë country in County Down; but few will know the detail and double Irish connection with the three renowned Yorkshire-born authors Emily Charlotte and Anne, the sisters Brontë. Their books are classics of English litterature - Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, for example.
The documentary was presented by a young lady speaking with an English accent as she interviewed experts on the family archives both in England and across Ireland. It was only at the end as the credits rolled that I realised that the presenter, Aoife Hinds, is the daughter of Ciarán Hinds (who played the grandfather in the Branagh film Belfast).
The concise thoroughness of the telling of this story sent me to bed happy.
"Ireland's Rugby Number 10" reveals the richness of an activity which unites a country in sport with reference to the pivotal position known as out-half. The documentary traces the seam of talent from the 1940's and the legendary Jack Kyle to now and Johnny Sexton, as well as the illustrious wearers of that jersey in between. Timely manna from heaven for sports fans, as the 2022 competition launches onto our pitches and screens in front of returning supporters.
Novels
In December when the weekend supplements began their annual review of the arts, an Irish Times edition invited well-known authors to pick their books of the year. A stand-out recommendation which seemed to be included in most of these experts' lists was "Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan.
Its receipt of the highest praise from Hilary Mantel, Douglas Stuart, Colm Tóibín, Sarah Moss and others meant that this is a must-have book. Set in mid-winter 1985, it describes in beautiful prose a moral tale of repression which Ireland has been facing up to ever since. As with the Brontë documentary, this novella's impact is magnified by its understatement and brevity.
"A Calling for Charlie Barnes" by Joshua Ferris, likewise, emerged onto my radar from another of those year-end reviews. It is a completely different novel, both in writing style and in themes. This one is an American story about a newspaper man and his self-styled capitalist outlook. I admit that it took me a while to acclimatise to the author's casual writing style - his accent using colloquial Americanisms.
The effects of economic recession, the subject's health and his family relationships combined to present a complicated lifestyle. Previews used words like hilarious, deeply funny and work of genius, leading me to expect something like a Harlan Coban crime thriller. While I did recognise its funny side, the tale of familial dysfunction was a bit distressing.
Music education
Evening classes like those organised on every conceivable subject by Queens University Belfast provide a welcome distraction from inclement nights. 2022's winter term classes have had to be postponed for about six weeks because of Covid-19.
Their return in early spring including my chosen subject - "The Great Life and Work of Russian Composers: Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Igor Stravinsky" - will be all the more welcome. And especially so with attendance in an actual classroom and hosted by a Russian teacher. Hopefully that will mark the end of two years of "remote learning" and Microsoft Teams.
Satire and debating
Everybody from cartoonists to stand-up comedians has been having a field day in the last few years poking fun at politicians whose handling of big events could not have been scripted even by the funniest comedian in the land. This applies to their handling of Brexit (1), to the pandemic (2), and other matters of public interest.
The cartoonists' artwork and script-writers' lateral thinking humorously expose the double standards of some people in high office.
The satirists' art remind us that recent Parliamentary debates together with Westminster's arcane conventions are not providing a good advertisement for the place which calls itself The Mother of Parliaments. The refusal by "Ministers of the Crown" to answer straightforward questions with direct and truthful answers besmirches its reputation.
There are also lessons to learn from what is now dubbed "the Partygate scandal" and its impact on public trust. One such is that the art of debating and, by extension, the place of democracy in the U.K. are being lost in the fog of "failures in leadership and judgement (3)."
The pledge to take back control seems like an idle and shattered promise.
My invitation is that you put satire on your radar with the following New York Times clip (best watched on a large screen). It provides 7 minutes of eloquent rant and comedic public speaking in favour of my proposition.https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1489566060328198148?s=12
©Michael McSorley 2022
References:-
1. https://michaelmcsorleyeconomy.blogspot.com/2019/04/brexit-lampooned.html
2. https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/08/humour-for-pandemic.html
3. BBC News 31 Jan 2022 "SueGray Party Report; What are the Findings?" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60201752
