Piers’ Neighborhood

17:30 Good Bye Lenin! is

Rev Stan
2 hours ago
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17:30 Good Bye Lenin! is on BBC 4 tonight. It's a fab film, you should watch it. #
20:58 Am watching X Factor half an hour behind so I can fast forward through the crap bits. Will catch up v. quickly no doubt. #
14:43 Time for a bit of george and ewan. #

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One for the girls (or boys if that's your thing)

Rev Stan
9 hours ago
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Slightly disturbed by what appears to be Prince Harry and also Daniel Radcliffe included among these. Do you think there is something subliminal going on which makes certain faces stand out the most? Mine was Jake Gyllenhaal.

Today's Tweets

22:06 Blubbed all the way through Bright Star. Walked past Edgar Wright on way to Leicester Square. #
22:10 @adders Hope you got to Guildford OK and had a nice dinner. #
22:43 Off to bed. Exhausted by all the excitement #
08:44 Right, Bright Star blog post written, pancakes for breakfast I think. #
17:30 Good Bye Lenin! is on BBC 4 tonight. It's a fab film, you should watch it. #

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A sunny day

Rev Stan
Yesterday
1 comment

Woke up this morning to bright blue skies so I just had to make the most of it. I've been meaning to try and take some nice Autumnal shots so I walked up to Green Park to see what there was by way of subject matter.
Just a few of my favourites the rest are on Flickr

Autumn leaves in Green Park

Curious squirrel

The squirrel's are quite tame as they are used to being fed by the tourists. This little chap was looking to see if I had anything for him. I didn't but he and his Green Park buddies don't really look malnourished, far from it.

A tourist annoying one of the Green Park pelicans

Green Park has had pelican's since the reign of Charles II. I wonder whether visitors to the park back then were as annoying. I did get some non-tourist shots of the pelican after I pushed this man in (joke).

Leicester Square reflection

Leicester Square reflection, originally uploaded by Rev Stan.

I'll always remember taking this picture. Not because of the picture itself - Leicester Square after a heavy, Autumnal downpour - but because of what happened leading up to taking it.
I'd just cried my way through Bright Star at the Curzon and was on my way to the bus stop, hat pulled down low to try and cover my face, trying to compose myself and I passed Edgar Wright in the street and then I came upon this scene.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever

Rev Stan
Yesterday
2 comments

Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish as John Keats and Fanny Brawne

OK so Bright Star was in a win-win situation:

John Keats: check
Jane Campion: check
Ben Whishaw: check

The trailers were promising. Campion was going to have to do something pretty stupid for me not to like this film, for me not to love this film.

For those who don't know the story, it is told through the eyes of Fanny Brawne, the neighbour and object of romantic poet John Keats' affection and some would say muse. The two were unable to marry because Keats didn't have any money as his poetry was yet to gain mass market appeal and then his life was cut short by TB.

Keats wrote beautiful poetry and this is a beautiful film. The setting, showcasing the simple beauty of English nature is like a third character next to Brawne and Keats.

The script is kept simple almost with the attitude that less says more leaving Abbie Cornish who plays Brawne and Whishaw who plays Keats to showcase a more subtle side to their acting abilities.

There is one particular scene which cements Cornish as such a talent, I find it hard to believe that she could have produced such overwhelming emotion for more than one take. It is when Brawne finds out from Keats' friend Charles Brown that he has died in Rome, where he had traveled to for the good of his health to avoid the British winter.

The performance touches on such grief and heartbreak that it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. And it is up there with Juliet Stephenson in Truly Madly Deeply.

If I was to judge this film on tears alone, my tears that is, not the actors, it would get a very damp 10 out of 10 as blubbed the whole way through. And I wasn't the only one in the cinema.

Not that I particularly care but here are what some of the professionals thought:

Daily Telegraph "It’s by some measure the best film she’s ever made. It feels special without being at all precious. Eloquent, too, but not self-consciously lyrical or florid."

Time Out "A combination of unstuffy dialogue, wise casting, unselfconscious performances and sensuous but never pretty photography makes Campion’s version of the nineteenth century feel current but not anachronistic."