Friday Film Fest: Dance Me To The End of Love. . .

It's February, it's cold and Valentine's Day is coming.  Ignore all the mushy stuff and immerse yourself in this hot duo instead.  I owe a debt of gratitude to Lloyd Jones' novel Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance as it triggered an immediate interest in everything to do with the tango.  It mixes a contemporary love story with one set during the First World War, and not only does this fiery dance feature in both tales, but Jones manages to convey a real sense of the changing history of the tango and how, for example, jazz influenced the traditional music, not without some controversy. And these are very unconventional partnerships, brought together by a love of the dance. I immediately went out and bought several CDs by musicians mentioned in the novel, loaded them onto my iPOD and it's now my favourite music to listen to during wintry commutes. For a complete seductively visual feast, you must rent Carlos Saura's 1998 film Tango.  (You can watch the trailer here. ) It's the story of a director trying to make a film about the history of tango but as with many of Saura's films, reality and illusion often get mixed up. The music and dancing is just superb and showcases all sorts of tangos, done in groups, in trios, with different gender mixes, and of course very sensual duets. Red wine would be a good accompaniment. Beats a corny American rom-com any day.

Friday Film Fest: Get Out Your String of Pearls. . .

Rosalyn has just given me a copy of a wonderful new biography of Coco Chanel by Justine Picardie, whose novel Daphne, a fictional account of Daphne du Maurier, I loved and reviewed here, a couple of years ago. I'm looking forward to reading Coco Chanel: The Legend and The Life; I spent over an hour in bed last night, just looking at all the gorgeous photos and artwork.  It's truly a beautifully designed and packaged book. And the author has a fun blog located here where she's detailing part of her book tour with lots of Chanel inspired photos.

I can't think of a better way to spend a chilly November weekend, then curled up on the sofa in some fabulously decadent silk pajamas with this book, a cup of hot cocoa (pun intended) and DVDs of two biographical films that explore very different aspects of Chanel's life.  Start with Coco Before Chanel with Audrey Tautou portraying the young Coco pulling herself out of poverty, and starting to design thanks to the help of a wealthy lover. Then move on to Coco & Igor that details the affair between the more established Chanel and the struggling composer Igor Stravinsky.  The interior set designs of this movie will leave you speechless - never has black and white looked so beautiful and glamourous. While I prefer the earlier movie, Coco & Igor does try to reproduce on film the opening night of Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring and the riots that followed.  For that alone, the film is worth seeing.

Friday Film Fest: Lady Chatterley on Trial. . .

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Lady Chatterley trial in which Penguin Books was aquitted of obsencity charges for publishing the unexpurgated text of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover.  There are a number of film adapations of the book, but I quite like The Chatterley Affair, a 2006 BBC production on the actual trial itself, which is available on DVD. The story follows two jurors who start an affair of their own during the trial, but while their story is fictional, the scenes set in the courtroom use the actual case transcripts. It's a fascinating look at the power of literature, the debates over sexuality and morality in the early 1960s and it has quite a few things to say about male perceptions of female readers and what they should and should not be reading. And yes, there's strong language and sexual content.

The Guardian has a piece on the censorship of this novel here.

Friday Film Fest: I Know Where I'm Going. . .

This week's movie pick is a tribute to my recent hiking holiday in the Scottish Highlands. If you found the book or movie of Eat, Pray, Love a bit saccharine, then Powell and Pressburger's charming 1945 movie I Know Where I'm Going is the perfect antidote.  Unlike Elizabeth Gilbert, Joan Webster, played by the indomitable Wendy Hiller, has her whole life mapped out and she knows exactly where she's going - up to Scotland by train and then by boat to a remote island where she plans to marry one of the richest men in England. Except bad weather keeps her on the mainland, and in the company of a naval officer who is determined to thwart her plans and change the course of her life.  But what these two works do share - and why travelling is such great fun - is the important lesson that one should always be completely open to chance and change, in whatever guise it appears.  The movie, though in black and white, has spectacular shots of the Scottish landscape; much of it was shot on the Isle of Mull and among the Hebrides.

Having spent a week bagging Munros and Corbetts in unseasonably sunny weather, I can attest to the utter beauty of this area from all heights. And yes, I ate (and ate and ate - salmon, lamb, venison, Scottish flapjack and lots of chocolate) and while I'm not particularly religious, how could you not climb up through the clouds to a view like this and not feel spiritual?

Not even a third of the way up Ben Nevis yet, but how beautiful is this?

As for love?  Well, that would be telling. Suffice it to say that Javier Bardem did not come riding out of the mist in a kilt. But then, he'd look rather foolish in one, don't you think?

Friday Film Fest: Re-creation for Recreation. . .

We all have moments or memories that we would love to relive.  Could they in fact be physically recreated?  And what would be the consequences? To say anything more about Tom McCarthy's wonderfully quirky and original novel Remainder, or Charlie Kaufman's equally strange and existential 2008 movie Synecdoche, New York would be to ruin the experience.  All I can say is that if you are familiar with one, you'll love to read or watch the other. In fact, I think it's almost mandatory. And if you can do it back to back, your mind will be delightfully spinning, and not just from the drinks you should have close by.  The film also has a terrific ensemble cast led by Philip Seymour Hoffman, with Samantha Morton and Emily Watson absolutely stealing the show.

Friday Film Fest: Relationship Mileage. . .

When I was originally selling David Nicholls' lovely, romantic novel One Day and talking about it at Dewey events, I said it would appeal to fans of the movie (500) Days of Summer and I still think both are smart, sexy takes on modern relationships. But the other film that also keeps coming to mind is one of my favourite comfort DVDs - Stanley Donen's 1967 movie Two For the Road.  Anyone who has ever been in love knows that the true test of compatibility is that first road trip you take together. This film is completely made up of European car journeys that Mark and Joanna, played by Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn, make over a number of years, from their first meeting through various stages of their marriage. They laugh, they fight, they cheat, have misadventures, and even have to endure travelling with an American couple and their obnoxious child. The cuts back and forth between the various time periods are very cleverly done and Hepburn's changing wardrobe is a scenic attraction all on its own.  

Friday Film Fest: On Chesil Beach. . .

Still, Edward was troubled by the call of the beach, and if he had known how to propose it, or justify it, he might have suggested going out straight away. He had read aloud to Florence from a guidebook that said that thousands of years of pounding storms had sifted and graded the size of pebbles along the eighteen miles of each, with the bigger stones at the eastern end. The legend was that local fishermen landing at night knew exactly where they were by the grade of the shingle. Florence had suggested they might see for themselves by comparing handfuls gathered a mile apart. Trudging along the beach would have been better than sitting here.

- On Chesil Beach

England has no shortage of landscapes evoked by its literature, and after reading Ian McEwan's novella about a young, sexually ignorant couple on their honeymoon in 1962,  Chesil Beach leaped onto my list of places to one day visit. It's the site of crucial scenes not only in the book, but also in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's terrific 1949 film The Small Back Room.  Set during WWII, David Farrar plays Sammy Rice, a bomb disposal expert who is struggling with his own personal demons: an injury that still causes him much pain, the resulting temptation to turn to alcohol (there's a surreal but fascinating scene featuring a whisky bottle that becomes almost larger than life), and how his insecurities are affecting his  girlfriend Susan (a much more sophisticated, though no less complicated relationship than Edward and Florence's). A key scene is set right on Chesil Beach when Sammy is called to diffuse a German bomb that has fallen on the beach. The suspense is gripping.  Every time he moves, the pebbles start to shift alarmingly; the bomb could be triggered at any moment.

The movie also showcases the beauty of the surrounding area, and this very unique strip of land that is a World Heritage site.  Just don't take any souvenirs home, as McEwan found out the hard way. And we can look forward to a movie adaptation of On Chesil Beach; McEwan is working on the screenplay.

Friday Film Fest: Train of Thought. . .

Every librarian I've talked to in the last year has told me that DVD circulation is way, way up. I'm not surprised - or dismayed -  by this; after all, I'm a film buff too. But I do think that books and films can complement each other wonderfully - after all, the former is often the inspiration for the latter.  And so I thought it would be fun, every so often on a Friday, to recommend an interesting pairing for the weekend.  I'm not going to plug the obvious - the book with its own film adaptation - unless there's a particularly good reason for it, but instead I'll try to suggest book and movie combos that evoke similar themes or share a sense of place or historical period.  I promise that they'll all be films well worth seeing and I'd love to hear about your own recommendations.

In honour of the Toronto Film Festival which is currently underway, I thought I'd launch this with a bit of a mini-fest of my own.  I have an incurable train fetish. It's my favourite mode of transport and train stations, especially those in Europe, are so much sexier than any airport can ever dream of.  So when the Guardian recently posted a list of the ten best railway journeys in literature, I was immediately inspired to come up with a list of my ten favourite films featuring a train.  And here it is. Happy viewing.