Film Fest and Catch-Up

It's been busy here at Set Design Central...

But I took this weekend OFF.  (For the first time in six? eight? weeks.)

So - Film Fest!

I watched Argo and Cloud Atlas.  I can recommend both:

Argo is a very satisfying edge-of-your-seat will-they-make-it? flick.  Good characters, good acting, great based-on-truth story (though I understand our friends the Canadians deserve even more credit).  I have to admit that, at the time, I was head-down in architecture school and not following news as much as I should have been, but I do remember the dread and horrified sympathy I felt for the hostages.  A terrifying ordeal.  This story, of the six who escaped captivity, I missed entirely.  Worthwhile film version!

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, was a book that completely caught my imagination... one of those books you ponder long afterwards.  When I heard about this film version, I had to see it, though I didn't understand how anyone could possibly make a movie from it.  But it works!  My companion had not read the book, but was still able to follow the complicated, inter-locking, multiple plots.  In fact, I think the changes in sequence, using the same actors for multiple roles, and the cinematic/visual links of the film may actually tie the stories together even more.

Really good performances by a sterling cast that includes Tom Hanks.  Excellent... everything.

The story?  Hard to explain.  Impossible.  Go see the film and read the book please.

The only point I'd make first is that, this is not a time-travel story, but a series of stories set at different times - with different characters - which interlock.  Themes twist and continue throughout, also a few characters, objects, or visuals repeat in new ways in the different periods.  I was fascinated by the book.  Its subtle, often inexplicable, linkages create a satisfying whole.

Cloud Atlas is one of those rare books that you finish, close, and just hold for a minute as it settles into you.

Other than movie-going, I've been reading a lot of history.  (These movies are history too, aren't they?)



Oh!  And there's an historic sale on at my printer's if you'd like to stock up on Alice Through the Proscenium (my how-to on set design)... Stocking Stuffers!

Find Lulu.com on Alice HERE or just more on Alice in general HERE.  As always, Alice is also available as an epub virtual all-digital electro-book HERE at Barnes and Noble.

And in stage news: I've read the first review (I've seen) for The Beauty Queen of Leenane - terrific!  Rightly pointing out the excellent acting, particularly in the lead role of the daughter.  

(But ignoring the set - typical.)