PREFACE
This is the sporadically updated blog of reviews by Harriet, author of In the Aquarium: a londoner's life.
I have kept the reviews separate to enable them to be indexed and therefore more easily accessible (see listing below).
FAVE FILMS DEAD MAN What an idea, the man is dying for almost the entire length of the film, the music is fantastic, its black and white, ideology, mythology, funny, sad, Johnny Depp sex god...
THE DRAFTMAN'S CONTRACT The first Peter Greenaway film I saw and possibly the most accessible. Beautiful set, costumes, direction. Fantastic soundtrack.
MULHOLLAND DRIVE I knew exactly what was going on right up until the last 15 minutes and damn it but then I lost it.
NIGHT ON EARTH Jim Jarmusch made the only film with Winona Ryder worth watching and it had Beatrice Dalle (say no more)
O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? Roar out loud with laughter and tunes that make you love country music. My sister had to sneak out of the cinema ahead of our dad and me cos she was so embarrassed at our laughing.
ORLANDO Quiet, passionate, time travel.
PITCH BLACK Bails and I watched this with its bleached scenery and its whoar factor star. We LOVED him, Mr Diesel take a bow.
RESERVOIR DOGS Tight Tarantino gang heist gone wrong. Great soundtrack. And there's something about Michael Madson, dancing just before cutting off the cop's ear...
ROMUALD ET JULIETTE Truely lovely romance comedy.
THREE COLOURS TRILOGY Blue, White and Red. I liked them all. Quiet stories, beautifully shot.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS Its a story told. And the first time I saw it I didn't get the twist until just before it happened.
Seen The Reviews
24 November 2004 Robots in Disguise
I'm loving this advert. I've only seen it once but it had me laughing! Citroen C4 Transformers. Let it be real!
14 November 2004 The Tigerlillies Bloomsbury Theatre
Its been a long time since they played at the Kings Head on Upper Street, and many theatrical steps have been taken from a band playing raucaus music to a pissed crowd to the heights of acclaim for Shockheaded Peter.
I love the Tigerlillies though. I always have. I love their macabre, sick, twisted lyrics set to music reminiscent of circus, fairgrounds, french and polish sounds. I love the operatic falsetto of Martin Jacques the lead singer, the shouting screaming descent into chaos.
They have now introduced a lot more quiet slower numbers. Songs of sorrow, and great beauty, where Adrian Stout plays a saw with his bow, and Adrian Huge strokes his drums with a brush. Dry ice wafted around the stage and I was transported back in time to those heady days of old. They have grown into the full stage and a larger auditorium.
Turbine hall is empty apart from the voices played in bands across its width. You can just about hear them when you walk down the centre - different than the normal hubbub - more repetative and sometimes singing or chanting but undecernable. And then you walk along the edges closer to the speakers and listen to each specific track, the hubbub is suddenly a lot more recognisable, once each speaker has been listened to specific phrases keep jumping out at you even though you are nowhere near the speaker that emitted them.
The ones that lingered with me were snippets that went like this: feed me feed me I am an evil man You are an evil man We are evil men This is evil paper covers rock you may not want to be here get ou of of the room getget outout of my mind no emotional response to a situation no no no no no [as if being tortured] work work work workwork work Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence Pete fell off who was left Repeat peteandrepeat were sitting on a fence petefell off whowas left repeat... you may not be workworkwork you may be here workworkwork thank you thankyouthankew thank youthank you
We sat at the bus stop outside the Tate waiting for an RV1 doing our own version for quite some time.
Was a very interesting idea - the work while audio had volume and the people listening had a sort of globular form as they formed around the speakers and then moved on as if dripping from one standing place to another.
