Blue Mondays

Let’s face it: Mondays tend to get the better of us all. After a shambolic weekend simple tasks like getting up from the bed and facing the new week of fresh, exciting opportunities can seem an ordeal even to the most optimistic minds. Monday has not traditionally offered any great excuses to leave important matters from your ‘to do’ list until tomorrow in the same way as, for instance, Fridays. London’s nightlife is not packed with thrilling events on Mondays; you really need to research intensively to find something reasonable to do. Not to worry; there is a safety haven in the heart of East London for people who would much rather escape the unbearable reality of the start of the week. This safety haven, brothers and sisters, is known as the Rhythm Factory’s eccentric open mic venue Spoonful of Poison.

The concept is simple: those with any talent can perform whether it is stand up comedy, poetry, music or things beyond human imagination –as long as they arrive before eight o’clock and put their names down on the sheet of paper located at the bar. Spoonful of Poison is not destructive towards anybody’s finances either; entry fees will not be charged and beverages are cheap. If you are not an aspirant artist of any kind you should show up any time between half eight and half eleven as that is the designated time slot for top quality performances. The variety of performers is extraordinary; you could end up witnessing anything from trombone poetry to the resurrected Sex Pistols; from a guy playing his game console to rising stand up comedy stars. It is not only the performers on stage that will take your breath away; the audience occasionally consists of intriguing regular characters and amusing hecklers. The cherry on the top of this delicious serving is the pleasant master of ceremonies, Mr. Spoon whose cockney niceness is beyond compare. It is indeed worth seeing and wondering how he manages to keep the circus together week after week without ever growing bitter. The next Monday you plan to take your own life; why bother? Just head down to Whitechapel High Street, kick back and enjoy the show.

For more info visit www.rhythmfactory.co.uk

By Laura Rosten

Review: There Will Be Blood

As the camera presents the postcard-imagery of the Californian desert whilst discordant piano and strings blast out over the audience, it's clear this film is anything but introverted. And yet the entire narrative revolves around one man - oil prospector Daniel Plainview - and his inner struggles with bitterness, loss, anger and alcohol. This is an opera on the subject of psychology, an all-guns-blazing melodrama on the ramifications of greed.

We first glimpse Plainview mining for silver down a hand-picked mineshaft. As he claws at the rock for all he's worth, he seems a man possessed, and certainly the allegory that this is a fallen angel crawling back to hell is apt. Soon his attention turns to oil, and with it a tip (from the enigmatic 'Paul') of where he can find lakes of the stuff beneath a Californian ranch. He duly buys up the ranch, but comes into conflict with Eli, Paul's evangelical twin-brother, who takes a very different view of Plainview's intentions. As Plainview builds his rig, Eli builds his church on the opposing hill, the implication being that this is little more than willy-waving.

Both the Church and the oil prospectors are condemned in equal measure by director Paul Thomas Anderson. The message here is clear: the raping of America, both by money-men and churchmen, have caused irreparable damage. As revealed in the brilliant final scene, Plainview and Eli have far more in common than one might first imagine, and the assertion of both of them that money is the holy grail of human happiness is well wide of the mark.

As Plainview, Daniel Day-Lewis gives, as you'd expect, a powerhouse performance. What makes him so great is his unswerving commitment to the characters he plays. You know that when he winces, he is feeling genuine pain, and when he's dog-tired, he's dog-tired. There's something in his guttural roars that is truly 'from hell', yet his sinister charm works as well on the audience as it does on the ranch-owners he's looking to exploit. This is a lesson in film-making, evoking obvious comparisons with films such as Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind, Chinatown and Giant. There is something Shakesperean about the narrative that makes it all the more compelling - a reminder that the roots of modern-day capitalism are as tragic as anything the bard could dream up. Indeed, for me, the title provides an eerie reminder that the century which followed this black gold-rush was the bloodiest in human history.

For my rant about the UK release date of this film, click here.

UK Asian Music Awards

For the first time B4U Music, the number one Asian Channel in the UK has teamed up with the premier event for the UK Asian Music scene, the UK Asian Music Awards. With only a few weeks to go, the organisers have been busy putting together a fantastic show to celebrate and honour the best in the industry with exciting performances and great celebrity guests and hosts.

Taking place at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on Thursday 6^th March, the awards ceremony which promises to be even bigger and better than previous years will be hosted by West End star Priya Kalidas (pictured) alongside B4U Music VJ Salil, who will be flying in from Mumbai for the show.

Attendees to the event will be treated to performances by some of the UK’s finest Asian musical talent and also a few international artists. Performances on the night will include; North American hip hop artists Blitzkrieg, Roachkilla and Kidd Skilly with Surinder Rattan, D-Boy featuring Swiss and V Dubl E, Dutch singer Imran Khan, RnB sensation Jay Sean, Singer-songwriter Karen David, Punjabi singer Lehmber Hussainpuri, Punjabi Hit Squad featuring Alyssia, girl group Serese, the Shaanti Collective with The Kalyan, Sona Family, Bollywood producers Trickbaby and Rishi Rich will be closing the show with a special performance with Veronica, Mumzy and H Dhami.

After months of public voting via the official website www.theukama.com, the winners will finally be announced and presented with their awards by a whole host of celebrity guest presenters. Awards will be awarded for Best Album, Best Act, Best Female Act, Best Underground Act, Best Video, Best International Act, Best Newcomer, Best Producer, Best Club DJ, Best Urban Act, Best Radio Show and Best Website. Special awards on the night include Commitment to the Scene and Outstanding Achievement.

B4U Music is the official presenting partner for the event. The channel will be exclusively capturing all the excitement at the event; the big performances, the acceptance speeches and interviews with the winners and performers on the night for a special programme to be aired on B4U Music later in the month. On the partnership, Bala Iyer, Head of Business B4U Network Europe says, “We believe that B4U Music plays a pivotal role in the Asian music industry worldwide, therefore we are pleased to be involved in an event that promotes and celebrates the talent in UK and abroad.”

Promising to be an exciting event, with top performances, great music and celebrities, the UK Asian Music Awards is an event not to be missed. For tickets please visit www.theukama.com

One To Watch - Asa

Asa is a 25 year-old singer/songwriter from Nigeria who will soon be releasing a debut album in Britain. Her sound is a kind of acoustic raggae-pop which I can see being a big hit this summer.

Asa's currently undertaking an epic European tour which includes stops in the UK (London & Manchester to be exact). She'll also be performing on Jools Holland tomorrow evening - a move that always seems to mark an artist's entrance into the mainstream conscience.

So, check her out. Then be sure to tell everyone you heard it here first! Click here to visit Asa's myspace.

Black Watch On Tour 2008

The big hit of the 2006 Edinburgh fringe was Gregory Burke's Black Watch, and an extended international run has just been announced. As part of this tour, the play will run at several venues throughout the UK - but tickets are bound to sell out fast so get in quick.

Dealing with the subject of Iraq, the play is based on Burke's interviews with members of the legendary unit - what it was like to be there, and what it was like to come home. Directed by John Tiffany and performed by a superb cast, the play received unanimous rave reviews when it premièred two years ago. In 2007 it toured New York and Los Angeles, proving such a hit that it is to return to the States as part of this tour. I can't recommend this play highly enough, and recommend anyone to get their hands on a ticket.

Click here for further details

Best UK Indie Cinemas?

I'm very lucky in that my local cinema here in London is the Peckham Plex, arguably the best independent multiplex cinema in the UK (ok, so I may be slightly biased...). When I was at uni in Bristol, both the Watershed and the Arnolfini served up great programmes of arthouse film, and when I was a post-grad living in Newcastle, the Tyneside cinema was a second home.

Many blogs are bewailing the death of the independent cinema, drowning up in a sea of commercialism and over-priced popcorn. However, there are still many of them around, from the Duke of York's in Brighton (where I saw a fantastic live-score version of Nosferatu), to the Filmhouse in Edinburgh. In London, the Prince Charles continues to show a varied and commercial programme whilst keeping ticket prices as low as £1.50 (for members), although in order to cut costs it often receives films after they've done the multiplex rounds. However, in a world where the gap between cinema and DVD release times is narrowing to a wafer-thin margin, I'm not sure this matters so much anyway.

So, for me the leader of the pack is the 'Peck-Plex', which maintains a balance of showing early releases and still charging much less than Odeon or Vue. But I'd be eager to hear your thoughts on this - what's your local indie, and is it worth me venturing outside of SE15 to experience it?!

Links:

Peckham Plex
Prince Charles Cinema
Duke of York's Brighton
Tyneside Cinema
Filmhouse, Edinburgh
Watershed, Bristol
Arnolfini, Bristol

Gig Review: Beth Rowley At Cherry Jam

First things first - I'd never heard of Beth Rowley. So going along to Cherry Jam (Porchester Road, London) last Tuesday evening was a bit of a shot in the dark. The night started well with genial warm-up act Jon Allen, whose biggest claim to fame is having a song (called Going Home) which featured in a recent Land Rover ad. Allen's sound is reminiscent of a young James Taylor, and he managed to easily hold the attention of a sparse crowd. Unfortunately for Allen, the London gig scene is awash with twentysomething, guitar-strumming singer-songwriters, and as such he may struggle to stand out from the crowd.

After Allen's exit, the room suddenly filled to capacity with the entrance of Beth Rowley and her 8 piece band. She entered to a cacophony of whoops and cheers, and from the off it was clear to see her fans are onto something. Her whole persona is that of a rather shy, innocent girl who, behind the mop of blonde curls and coquettish hand gestures, knows exactly what she's doing. Her band were great, particularly Ben Castle (son of Roy) on the Sax. It's so refreshing to see a band of this number and this talent in a venue of this size - and the addition of a couple of backing singers worked wonders. For me, the highlight of the set was a cover of Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Released, a toe-tapper in the truest sense. Other highs included the first single, Oh My Life, and the stupendously soulful Led Zeppelin cover Nobody's Fault But Mine.

Beth Rowley is due to support David Gray on his new tour, a slot that is sure to swell her army of fans. She's a singer on the verge of big things, and as Duffy and Adele have recently proved, the public's appetite for soulful songstresses has never been stronger.

Beth Rowley's Myspace
Jon Allen's Myspace

Review of ‘The Second Plane’ by Martin Amis

Martin Amis’s political books have typically been the least well received of his oeuvre. His 1987 collection of stories ‘Einstein’s Monsters’ felt too contrived and naively over heavy on the big ideas (nuclear weapons) compared to the two satirical masterpieces - Money and London Fields, it was chronologically sandwiched between, and his 2002 Koba the Dread, a book to honour the victims of Stalin, was a bit of a hash of an exercise that strained too hard for effect, comparing, at one point, the screams of his infant child with the millions that perished under Stalin in the Gulag.

In this collection of essays and fiction, however, Amis has rather more success in mixing his personal life and concerns with the big political themes that affect us all. The book brings together a collection of Amis’s writings on the theme of September 11, and the myriad fallout from the events of that day: the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the wider concerns to assert American power more fully in the Middle East, and more generally (and this is Amis’s real concern) the subliminal effects that terrorism has on us all: ‘it’s mystery, its instability, and its terrible dynamism’.

The publication of this collection comes after a long running media spat concerning Amis’s views on Islam. Terry Eagleton, Amis’s colleague at Manchester University accused him of being tantamount to a ‘British National Party thug’; the satirical comedian Chris Morris tagged Amis as ‘The New Abu Hamza’. All this following an interview Amis gave to the Independent in which he mused that ‘don’t you feel the urge that the Muslim community must suffer in order to get its house in order. What measures? ‘Things like strip searching people who look like they come from The Middle East, or Pakistan.’

Clearly, the old saw about all publicity being good publicity has worked in this case, as The Second Plane is already on its third print run. But what is Amis actually advocating in his views towards Islam? The reality, now that these pieces are all bought together under the same cover, and not merely the disparate fragments of journalism written over a variety of years and numinous publications, is an interestingly thought out, rationally developed view on the burgeoning problem of Islamism. Amis starts the collection with the title piece written immediately after September 11, the almost hallucinogenic quality of the prose bringing back memories of this period when everyone in the world was dealing with the shock of the event. The long term ramifications were unknown, but even then Amis was perceptive in turning his attentions to the terrain, mental and physical, he believed would be most keenly affected – the hitherto protected western liberal worldview, and the wrecked, Taliban crippled badlands of Afghanistan, ‘they should be firmly bombarded with consignments of food, firmly marked LENDLEASE USA’, was his recommendation then.

Now, six and a half years on, we know a lot more. Amis states in the introduction that geopolitics may not be his natural subject, but masculinity is. And he uses this leitmotif to paint an interesting picture of terrorism as masculinity gone wrong, warped, banjaxed with religious and cultural strain. He traces this back to the figure of Sayyid Qutb, a young Egyptian man who came to America in the 1950s. Already semi-radicalised by the vestiges of the British Protectorate in Cairo, and the establishment of Israel, he found himself repulsed by the liberties that were established in America. With almost comical lack of self awareness he found himself threatened by the ‘bulging breasts and smooth legs’ of the young women. Raged and inspired, he embarked on a large corpus of work, prose and poetry, of which the following lines are indicative:

A girl looks at you, appearing as if she were an
enchanting nymph or an escaped mermaid, but as she
approaches, you sense only the screaming instinct inside
her, and you can smell her burning body, not the scent
of perfume but flesh, only flesh
Clearly, not a man at ease with his sexuality.

Islamism (at times Amis takes pains to distinguish this from Islam in general, at other points he seems to elide the two notions) as it is now, is at crisis point. The civil war within Islam has been won by the fundamentalists, Amis argues, the moderates have lost out, and now the dominant force is a retrograde, barbaric, misogynistic, homophobic, murderous ideology. This is the point at which Amis (like his fellow media cohorts on the left, Christopher Hitchens and Nick Cohen – or should that be, formerly on the left?) parts company with type of liberal who would far more eagerly bash the administration of George Bush than the address the human rights disaster going on in the Middle East. Amis spares no effort in using his full descriptive talents to outline the horrors. For example he describes a magazine picture of a Saudi newscaster beaten by her husband as looking like a ‘crudely cross-sectioned watermelon, but you could make out one or two humanoid features half submerged in the crimson pulp.’

Does he go too far in trying to draw a clean cut line between the moral West and the backward and barbaric Arab cultures? There is little in this collection to suggest that Amis is an outright Islamophobe. His writing is certainly too precise, stylish and intelligent to lapse into careless racist slurs, and he does devote a small amount of space to acknowledging the vast cultural contributions Islam has made to the world. But there are undoubtedly weaknesses in the collection. The number of actual, real life Muslims Amis encounters is very few. There is an encounter with a gatekeeper at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem: ‘I will never forget the look on (his) face when I suggested, perhaps rather airily, that he skip some calendric prohibition and let me in anyway’, and an anecdote from Pakistan when, travelling with Christopher Hitchens, they encounter a street stall selling Osama Bin Laden t-shirts. That is pretty much it. Most of the pieces are from the viewpoint of a man who has approached the issue on a purely cerebral level – buttressed by a whole raft of books (4 pieces in these 14 piece collection are, themselves, book reviews, and citations to other secondary sources litter almost every page), privileged access to the entourage of Tony Blair (documented at length in an extended piece of reportage), and a strong position as a highly regarded intellectual figure in the Western world with a tendency to epater les bien pensants de la gauche. It is a little like the people who proclaim loftily and radically on how to reform the education system or the NHS. Those with experience on the ground can usually supply key insights that the pure thinkers don’t have access too.

Further still, is a curious piece on Mark Steyn, a neo-con Canadian writer who most civilized readers can see through as a plain fascist in frontiersman’s clothing. Amis considers Steyn’s book America Alone and writes ‘Mark Steyn is an oddity: his thoughts and themes are sane and serious – but he writes like a maniac.’ After some fun poking at his style, Amis agrees that we should take very seriously Steyn’s prediction that the rising birth-rates amongst Islamic cultures may drown out the culture of choice and rights and entitlements in the lower birth-rate, Western European countries.

Such points are the low end of the wide spectrum of Amis’s us and them mentality towards Islam and Islamism. For the most part, he has devoted much time and intellectual rigour to this most vital of contemporary themes, and his writing is as vigorous and stylish as ever.

By Fred Bosanquet

Cloverfield Review

If Hollywood can be relied upon to produce anything it’s a disaster movie, and despite months of internet hype behind Cloverfield it was difficult to see how this offering would differ. Nevertheless, from the start things were unlike past attempts. Filmed from the perspective of Hudson Platt (T. J Miller), Cloverfield depicts the devastation caused by the untimely arrival of a giant monster in Manhattan. The reasons for the creature’s arrival are unclear, and it’s this fact, coupled with the Blair Witch-esque camera angles that give Cloverfield a sense of realness that it’s previous competitors have missed. Director Matt Reeves decided not to go with a star studded cast but instead opted for the lower-budget fresh talent of Lizzy Caplan and Michael Stahl David, something that he surely does not regret because both deliver solid performances.

Déjà vu is evoked at certain times (Godzilla anyone?), but nevertheless Cloverfield brings a certain intelligence that previous attacks on New York City have lacked. What is particularly striking about the film is the sense that you are part of what goes on, being embroiled in the chaos and dizziness seems to bring on a real sense of nausea. Add the clever juxtaposition of a past and present relationship by means of a video camcorder, and you’ve possibly pushed this genre to the limit of what it can achieve. Critics and commentators have drawn parallels between the unknown monster and the terrorist threat that New York faces but this sort of conclusion gives the movie a facet that it doesn’t possess. Instead it’s better to view Cloverfield as what it actually is, namely a cracking Saturday night at the cinema. So not quite a modern classic but well worth a watch.

By Lee Crouch

What Ails Us - A Review of ‘Affluenza’ by Oliver James

Sam is a New Yorker with a whole host of problems. He is heir to a billion pound fortune and is on his way to creating a similar one in his own name. He lives alone in a gigantic Manhattan apartment over five floors (with one bedroom). He frequently sleeps with stunning Russian models, specially procured for him, one so perfect she appears as if she is ‘hatched directly from an egg’. But his biggest problem is that he is an asshole and has no friends. He is miserable, bitter, and resentful and withdraws from personable society, choosing to fester instead in the self absorbed slough of his own vast wealth.

Oliver James would have us believe that Sam is indicative of the way in which life in Western democratic societies has slipped into some uncomfortable registers in the last few decades. We are obsessed by fame, money and our own image to the extent that we cannot enjoy the things that matter. He compares the plight of Sam with that of Chet, a Nigerian taxi driver also living New York. Chet is who is an amiable man holding homespun Christian beliefs and earns less than a thousand times Sam’s income. He is frequently attacked by his passengers and has serious health problems, and there is no safety net for him in the America he has chosen to live in as he is a semi illegal immigrant, not entitled to a Green Card. Yet for all this, Chet appears to be content, or at least, far more content with his life than Sam.

It is easy to be sceptical of such findings. As a well known American actress once said, I’ve been poor and miserable and rich and miserable and rich is better. But James’s prognosis is another addition to the large corpus of literature that diagnoses the curious mental state of the richest upper quartile members of the richest societies in the world. The novels and non-fiction of writers as diverse as J.G. Ballard, Will Self (who features prominently on the blurb of this book), Barbara Eichenreich, Bret Easton Ellis, David Foster Wallace, Dave Eggers, Joan Didion, Alain de Botton, Nick Hornby, Florian Zeller, Michel Houellebecq and Martin Amis have all chronicled the gnawing angst at the core of the Western European and American middle classes. Tendencies such as the fame surge, the susceptibility to addiction, the paralysis of choice, the inability to hold on to tender emotional commitments. James lays out his case as follows. People in ‘selfish capitalist’ countries –The USA, Australia and the UK, not Denmark or New Zealand which are ‘unselfish’ capitalist countries - are on a treadmill pretty much from the moment they hit puberty. Children are pressured to achieve high academic results at school, and are made to feel bad even if they achieve them as they could do better. University choices are increasingly predicated on choosing subjects that have some technical merit in securing a high paying job. Careers are chosen not for intrinsic job satisfaction but on grounds such as how well they pay or how much status or proximity to fame and celebrity they bring us.

This is a familiar life arc to many living in urban societies. Graduates will take frighteningly tedious jobs in things such as media sales, lured into them by the pious and fake promise that it could be an opportunity to break into bigger things in the media. A staggering 80% of UK graduates want to work in the media and many bright and talented people will forsake more rewarding careers in other sectors. A huge number of contemporary graduates seem to be working either in soulless City, corporate ladder jobs they hate, and are only doing it for the money, or in unstable, bitty jobs in the lower echelons of journalism, publishing or broadcasting with no guarantee of future progression. The majority of these people are miserable. Beyond this, adults are working longer hours than ever just to support themselves and their overstretched mortgages. The value of parenting and family life has plummeted as young women are increasingly reluctant to make the commitment to child rearing and instead choose pursue high pressure careers in a twisted fulfilment of the 1960s feminist dream. No wonder that mental anxiety and illness is far higher than it was than the far more austere 1950s.

What to do? James spends much of this chunky book (500 pages including appendices) adumbrating solutions. We must reject the mawkish psychobabble pedalled by the Orwellian ‘positive think’ merchants – those charlatan magazine columnists and psychotherapists (often American) who exhort us to put a positive spin on things and suppress negative emotions. When things are fucked up, it is time to face them directly. This means stripping away many of the materialist urges we are suffused with. Don’t spend your whole life pining for a bigger house, a faster car, a better looking partner, a higher paying job, a flashier set of golf clubs. Don’t think that the answer to emotional problems lies at the bottom of a bottle or in the release of toxins contained in a pill. Instead it is important to meet your needs, not your wants. This means closely monitoring your emotional needs as you go through life (which means doing a job that absorbs you intrinsically, irrespective of the money or status attached to it) and free time, which means making time for yourself and your interests, and bringing up children properly if you have them.

A word on the critical reception to Affluenza. It is, of course, impossible to write a bestselling book (4th in the WH Smith charts on the last check) about toning down desires for fame and status. The predictable attacks are as certain as those directed at wealthy and/or successful people who profess egalitarian sentiments. You will be accused of being a hypocrite, a champagne socialist, a Bolly Bolshevik. James bears the full brunt of such kneejerk rebarbative posturing. Amazon website reviews (always a reliable corkboard for ill informed opinion) accuse James of, variously: ingratiating himself with media figures, being a media tart, knowing all the answers before he sets the questions, being a self-publicist, having his book published by a capitalist publishing company (as if he could promote his work any other way), a self aggrandizing authorial style (this, to be fair does grate: there are nauseating tics of taxi driver telling you what is good for you guv type prose).

What about the long term context of the kind of thinking Oliver James embodies? There are signs that the culture is changing. Many schools now incorporate a large component of PHSE into the curriculum, with lessons on wellbeing and emotional intelligence. But progress will almost certainly be slow. The vast majority of people, it seems, are not yet ready to undertake what James asks of them: to completely reappraise the values and lights by which they lead their life. It is easy to dismiss such a polemic as psychobabble cynically manufactured to enrich another media psychiatrist. But the reality hits a lot harder. If you look closely, the signs of affluenza are all around: stacked up on the tube escalators are posters promoting holidays, beauty products, mobile phones, Mp3 players, personal computers, cars, bestselling books(including, of course, Affluenza - the slogan, with delicious lack of irony, proclaiming ‘this book could change your life’), blockbuster movies, the next bright young thing. For the average citizen, struggling back exhausted through the throng after a day at work which may or may not have been satisfactory, the daily assault of these images is bound to hold an unflattering mirror up to their condition, automatically lowering their self perception unless they have enough inner resources to fight it.

James explains that repeatedly comparing ourselves to others is a classic instance of modern life. Through the forces of the internet and globalization, we are aware of the lives of hundreds of people we do not know. This is something very new in human life. A far cry from the hermetic village cultures of most of human history. No wonder it is so difficult these days to form any kind of conception of a self, a soul. The affluenza virus is riddled throughout the modern political and media class. Every newspaper, from the formerly respectable tabloids to the piss poor free sheet rags handed out by benighted shivering anoraked figures on street corners, is laced with celebrity gossip –tales of people whose lives are perceived to have a lustre and gloss that far exceeds our own, lists of up and coming people – a new CEO, an up and coming actress, a billboard face. Of course, much of the wealth in the current economy ends up in the hands of this tiny group of people. Some may be genuinely talented and deserve it, the vast majority are photogenic mediocrities who have shaken out fortuitously at the top of a random lottery. The people who suffer most from all of this, as James points out, are those already vulnerable to emotional instability – people from poor educational backgrounds, from broken homes and so on. The gap between the wealthiest few and the poorest many, grows ever wider.

If we look to our elected politicians for some powerful gravitas, some statesmanlike derobing of all this hype, what do we get? Downing Street parties filled with the same celebrities. Peter Mandleson’s nauseating pronouncement that New Labour (the Labour Party remember) is ‘seriously relaxed about people getting filthy rich’. Towards the end of the book, James goes to the heart of government to find that senior New Labour figures are some of the worst afflicted of all! A very high powered female frontbencher on a thwacking salary and a job invested with huge potential to make a difference to people’s lives admits she can never be fully contented because she can now never be the first female Prime Minister. James reports that the daughter of someone at the very heart of the New Labour project recently made a suicide attempt. Gordon Brown is rumoured to be privately uncomfortable with this sham glitzy wrecked beach resort of contemporary culture, but he has done little about it in terms of pronouncements or policy.

We shouldn’t be seriously relaxed about all of this at all. And that is why Oliver James’s book, with his well researched diagnoses of the causes of the affluenza virus, and a route map out of it, deserves a close and thorough read.

By Fred Bosanquet

Affluenza

BAFTAS Reaction

So, Atonement was the best film of the last year eh? Well, sorry chaps but I beg to differ. Call me hyper-cynical, but I propose that every single other nomination was actually a stronger contender for the award (There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, The Lives of Others and American Gangster are all excellent, engaging films, strong stories told with technical mastery). However, this is the British Academy awards and I suppose we have to expect a certain Uk-biase. This biase, however, was certainly not in evidence in other categories, with Atonement only receiving 2 awards out of 14 nominations. Surely something doesn't quite add up here? How can a film that has failed to win in 12 of the categories it was nominated then be crowned the 'best'? It's like giving someone a gold medal as a consolation prize. Nevermind, there were certainly some deserving winners amongst the pack - notably Daniel-Day Lewis (I pity anyone that finds themselves nominated in a category with him) and This Is England (which beat Atonement to Best British Film!).

The night was of course never going to be quite the self-congratulatory schmooze-fest it has been on previous occasssions, with Heath Ledger's recent death and the Hollywood Writer's Strike both providing stark reminders that this is an industry riddled with troubles. But still, you can always bank on 'Dickie' Attenborough to restore some pride - the old headmaster presented Anthony Hopkins with a well-deserved lifetime fellowship award, dropping a few prize names in the process (Charlie Chaplin, Laurence Olivier and Alfred Hitchcock are all previous recipients). The mention of these great auteurs reminded me of the way the film industry has changed in it's relatively young life. As proved last night, projects of passion from mavericks on the industry fringes are increasingly usurping the studio blockbusters in the hearts of audiences and critics alike. And this can only be a good thing.

Winner's List:

THE ACADEMY FELLOWSHIP
ANTHONY HOPKINS

OUTSTANDING BRITISH CONTRIBUTION TO CINEMA
BARRY WILKINSON

BEST FILM
ATONEMENT – Tim Bevan/Eric Fellner/Paul Webster

BEST BRITISH FILM
THIS IS ENGLAND – Mark Herbert/Shane Meadows

THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer for their First Feature Film
MATT GREENHALGH (Writer) – Control

DIRECTOR
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN – Joel Coen/Ethan Coen

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
JUNO – Diablo Cody

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY – Ronald Harwood

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
THE LIVES OF OTHERS – Quirin Berg/Max Wiedemann/Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

ANIMATED FILM
RATATOUILLE – Brad Bird

LEADING ACTOR
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS – There Will Be Blood

LEADING ACTRESS
MARION COTILLARD – La Vie en Rose

SUPPORTING ACTOR
JAVIER BARDEM – No Country for Old Men

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
TILDA SWINTON – Michael Clayton

MUSIC
LA VIE EN ROSE – Christopher Gunning

CINEMATOGRAPHY
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN – Roger Deakins

EDITING
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM – Christopher Rouse

PRODUCTION DESIGN
ATONEMENT – Sarah Greenwood/Katie Spencer

COSTUME DESIGN
LA VIE EN ROSE – Marit Allen

SOUND
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM – Kirk Francis/Scott Millan/David Parker/Karen Baker Landers/Per Hallberg

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
THE GOLDEN COMPASS – Michael Fink/Bill Westenhofer/Ben Morris/Trevor Wood

MAKE UP & HAIR
LA VIE EN ROSE – Jan Archibald/Didier Lavergne

SHORT ANIMATION
THE PEARCE SISTERS – Jo Allen/Luis Cook

SHORT FILM
DOG ALTOGETHER – Diarmid Scrimshaw/Paddy Considine

THE ORANGE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
SHIA LABEOUF

Christopher Lee's Lessons In Delusion

If you ever want a really good laugh, watch The Many Faces of Christopher Lee. This is the hammiest example of an actor attempting to explain his craft that I've ever seen. Those familiar with Nigel Planer's creation Nicholas Craig will see many similarities here. Lee comes across as not only pompous, arrogant and lacking in all humility, but also as incredibly stupid and perhaps a little bit racist. Here's one of the clips that appears in the interview, of him singing a completely god-awful song about alcohol. He introduces this in the film by saying "I sang it as an opera, as a pop song and as a musical. I think my Grandmother (who was an opera singer) would have been proud."

Christopher, I beg to differ.



To see the full film in all it's glory, here are the links:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Burton/Depp Poll Results

Thanks to all of you who voted in the recent poll, asking which of the Burton/Depp films was your favourite. The results were as follows:

Edward Scissorhands: 35%
Sleepy Hollow: 21%
Sweeney Todd: 14%
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory: 14%
Ed Wood: 7%
Corpse Bride: 7%

Whilst it's unsurprising that the seminal Edward Scissorhands topped the poll, I was quite surprised by Sleepy Hollow's popularity. Perhaps it's due to the fact it had a much more high-profile release than say, Ed Wood, which while arguably a better film, still remains in relative obscurity.

Sweeney Todd Title Sequence Nominated For Best Film And TV Graphics By The British Animation Awards

Th1ng’s Sweeney Todd title sequence has been nominated for Best Film and TV Graphics by the British Animation Awards (BAA). The awards recognise the most memorable examples of animation in the UK and will be held on March 13th 2008.

The Sweeney Todd title sequence is a narrative led combination of live action and animation and was directed by Th1ng’s title director, Richard Morrison and design director, Shay Hamias.

Morrison, who has previously worked with Tim Burton on the memorable opening titles to Batman, said he was delighted at the news and hopeful that the sequence will help the Oscar nominated movie to be a major success in 2008.

“The making of the sequence involved an army of CG and compositing experts and took over three months. We are delighted that this has been recognised by a leading industry panel and look forward to the awards gala”.

Living up to the Burton legacy, the title sequence opens as a suspenseful and eerie narrative with blood oozing pictures. It foreshadows the film’s action and establishes the mood and visual character of the plot.

The sequence, a mini movie of its own, has initially functioned as a promotional trailer to the movie.

Dominic Buttimore, Th1ng’s executive producer said: “The success of this title sequence has once again brought Richard Morrison’s name to the top of the title directors’ league table”.

Read the EntsNews review of Sweeney Todd here

The Best War Films As Voted For By The Armed Forces

There is no better judge of a war film than a soldier. And with that in mind, a new survey by British Forces Broadcasting Service Television (BFBS TV) has revealed the favourite war films as voted for by members of the armed forces. The winner was Zulu, the classic 1964 film starring Michael Caine. The results are quite telling when compared with Channel 4's recent poll of the greatest 100 war films - voted for, of course, by joe public. They only voted Zulu a lowly 8th, while The Cruel Sea (ranked 7th by the soldiers) only managed to scrape 41st.

Much of these differences can be put down to patriotic feelings amongst the forces (six of the top ten films are British). However, it's also noticeable that 'arty' classics Apocalypse Now and Schindler's List are down at 13th and 16th respectively. The implication is clearly that battlefield realism is paramount among the qualities appreciated by the soldiers, and certainly the appearances of Saving Private Ryan and Full Metal Jacket in the top 5 endorse this.

It's also good to see The Longest Day make the top 10. Personally, I feel this to be one of the finest war-films ever made, both in terms of scope and execution, and rarely does it feature highly in critical polls. It's testament to the lasting appeal of films such as this and Ice Cold in Alex that, even though most of those surveyed were not born when they were released, they still feature prominently in the consciences of today's armed forces.

The full list is as follows:

1. Zulu (1964)
2. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
3. A Bridge Too Far (1977)
4. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
5. The Great Escape (1963)
6. Platoon (1986)
7. The Cruel Sea (1953)
8. The Longest day (1962)
9. Enemy At The Gates (2001)
10. Ice Cold In Alex (1958)
11. We Were Soldiers (2002)
12. Black Hawk Down (2001)
13. Apocalypse Now (1979)
14. Das Boot (1981)
15. Kelly’s Heroes (1970)
16. Schindler’s List (1993)
17. Cross of Iron (1977)
18. The Dam Busters (1954)
19. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
20. Battle of Britain (1969)

A Quick Note

As you may have noticed, Entsnews now occupies a standalone url - www.entsnews.com. It's former reincarnation of entertainmentnewsuk.blogspot.com will now redirect here, but please update any links you have to incorporate the new address.

Thanks!

Del Toro To Direct Hobbit Adaptation

Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro appears to have been confirmed as the director of the two forthcoming films of The Hobbit. His entry on IMDB certainly leaves little doubt as to the fact he will be at the helm.

Whilst an undoubtedly hugely talented director, he has a tough act to follow, and he'll have a hard job convincing the army of Peter Jackson-worshippers that he is equal to the task. Jackson showed such a detailed and passionate understanding of The Lord of the Rings trilogy that he is seen by many as Tolkien's representative on (middle) earth. But, as Avram Grant has proven, you don't have to please the masses in order to get good results! Personally I think del Toro is a great choice, and it will be interesting to see someone else's interpretation. With his eye for the fantastical and his ability to create such rich on-screen atmosphere, del Toro is the outstanding candidate for the job, and New Line have shown great boldness in their decision.