In my quest to watch all of the greatest films ever made, I stumbled upon this 1954 stunning black and white, Japanese language action masterpiece. With a running time of 200 minutes, this is a truly epic film. Set in the Sengoku period of Japanese history (1467-1615), Seven Samurai tells the story of a small village which is besieged by bandits who seek to take the village’s crops. The plot begins with some swift background with some of the villagers overhearing scouts from the bandits saying aloud that they will return once the crops have ripened. From then, the villagers, knowing the clock is ticking, set about finding seven Ronin (masterless samurai) to protect their village from the bandits.
But only a true sensei of movie trivia can list all of the Seven Samurai — Takashi Shimura (Kambei), Toshiro Mifune (Kikuchiyo), DaisukeKato (Shichiroji), Yoshio Inaba (Gorobei), Seiji Miyaguchi (Kyuzo), Minoru Chiaki (Heihachi) and Isao Kimura (Katsushiro). Empire
This film is a work of supreme beauty. It scores in the top percentile for me across every metric by which I measure good films. It is visually staggering throughout, even though it is set in a small village in rural Japan. The script is relatively sparse given the often laconic Ronin but hits hard when warranted, including the exquisite scene where Kikuchiyo scalds his fellow Ronin for being judgmental of the villagers. The characterisation of the samurai is done richly and beautifully, by the end you have a full picture of each of them and their respective feelings towards each other. The film really takes its time in establishing these relationships and succeeds.
Here, Kurosawa one-ups Hollywood. Before 1954, even the most epic American adventures featured a lone hero and a stooge posse, or at best two brawling buddies. But here Kurosawa invented the now-familiar device of a heroic leader assembling a team of specialists to meet a challenging task. At well over three hours, the movie has time to give each of the Samurai rich characterisation: Shichiroji is Kambei’s long-term right-hand man; Kyuzo is the icy master swordsman; Gorobei signs up because he admires Kambei’s heroism; Katsushiro is the youth who yearns to learn from the masters; Heihachi is the second-rate sword, welcomed because of his cheery disposition; and Kikuchiyo (a hyperactive, star-making role for Mifune) is the crazy amateur whose insane clown antics mark him as the wild card in this otherwise dignified, professional pack. Empire
Once recruited, the Samurai set about fortifying the village and teaching the villagers basic fighting tactics. The film culminates in one of the greatest battles in cinematic history with the 40 bandits storming the village over the course of several days.
One of my favourite elements of post war Japanese filmography is that they capture the mood of Japan after the war and impose this on situations before the war. The shame of allowing an invading force to have power over them, themes of robbed sovereignty and the honour of fighting oppression are vividly deisplayed throughout Seven Samurai. At the time of filming the repercussions of World War Two will still have been felt and having US soldiers posted around Japan must have twisted the knife daily for the Japanese. Not to mention the Americans wrote the Japanese Constitution after the war therefore engineered their legal infrastructure. All of this is visible within Seven Samurai, although it was set some 400 years previously.
Overall this is an undeniable masterpiece which reflects a national mood and triumphs in every metric for cinematographic gold. I cannot recommend it enough.
Blue Öyster Cult (yes that is spelled correctly), otherwise abbreviated to BÖC, are an American hard rock band. Secret Treaties is their third studio album and was released in 1974. Interestingly, Patti Smith of all people was involved in the lyricism of this album. She was dating Allen Lanier at the time and almost joined the band herself. I am glad she did not or we may never have had Horses and Waves, both stellar albums by Ms Smith. Secret Treaties is comprised of 8 stellar golden tracks which, as the Vinyl District describes: “puts Blue Öyster Cult’s strengths to the forefront–their surprising deft touch and penchant for melody, their decidedly off-kilter sense of humor, and the virtuoso skills of both Dharma and Lanier”.
[T]he roots of the group date back to 1967 to a psychedelic group called Soft White Underbelly, which featured Albert Bouchard (drums), Allen Lanier (keyboards, guitar), Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser (guitar), Andy Winters (bass), and Les Braunstein (vocals, AKA Les Vegas) and operated under the guidance of manager/producer Sandy Pearlman. Braunstein departed in 1969 and was replaced by Eric Bloom. The band changed their name to The Stalk-Forrest group shortly after. Later, Winters was fired and replaced by Albert’s younger brother, Joe. The band released their debut album in 1972.
All the members contributed to the songwriting but lyrics were often provided by people outside of the group, including Sandy Pearlman, rock scribe Richard Meltzer, poets Patti Smith (Lanier’s longtime companion) and Jim Carroll, and science fiction author Michael Moorcock, amongst others. Eric Bloom served as the band’s primary lead vocalist, but Donald Roeser sang what are arguably the band’s most famous songs, including “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”, “Godzilla”, and “Burnin’ For You”. The Bouchard brothers also contributed lead vocals. Discogs
Career of Evil is considered the weakest track on the album, which is just as well as it is the first we hear and get out of the way. I thought the central repetitive riff was very nice indeed and the solo was unexpected and hit me across the face. The piano and drums, which are a common thread throughout the album, combine and play off of one another beautifully. One of the greatest parts of this album is the production value and excellent seamless transitions between tracks. This also highlights the deftness of the overall sequencing within the album, which thoroughly impressed me.
Dominance and Submission transitions seamlessly from Subhuman and provides us with a superb riff. The bridge before the final solo is excellent rock and roll. The solo itself is staggering.
But the most hilarious fact about the lyrics is that Blue Öyster Cult HAD HELP. No, not NEED HELP, you got it right the first time. And if that don’t take all, it was the fair hands of Patti Smith, “Crawdaddy” scribe Richard Meltzer and BÖC producer Sandy “Give The Clash Enough Mott” Pearlman what took part in collaborating with the Öyster boys on ‘em. In fact, there’s not a single song absent from one of the above-mentioned outsider’s input, and I suspect not only because Patti and Cult keyboardist/guitarist Alan Lanier were romantically linked at the time, but it also secretly afforded all parties involved the freedom to take even bigger chances than normal, figgering if it all blew up in everybody’s faces and it all waxed foolish for some reason there’d always be somebody else to finger for its failure. Head Heritage (Mr Julian Cope’s fabulous blog)
Let’s talk about the lyricism of ME 262, to which Copey alludes above.
Goering’s on the phone to Freiburg Say’s Willie’s done quite a job Hitler’s on the phone from Berlin Say’s I’m gonna make you a star
I found myself replaying these several times and muttering “what the…?”. The track title refers to the Messerschmitt Me 262 airplane, which can be seen on the cover of the album. The energy throughout this track is top shelf. Using the sounds of bomb dropping, goose stepping and war sirens is so wonderful. Thus endeth side 1.
Side 2 opens with Cagey Cretins. This track includes a wonderful segment of keyboard reminiscent of Dave Greenfield’s electrifying play style in the Stranglers. The lyricism, guitar mastery, flow and energy of this track is reflective of the symbiotic drive seen throughout the album as a whole.
Harvester of Eyes follows from the shocking transition of the former track, and provides eery vocals, guitar work and some stellar solos. The end of the track’s bridge and slowing pace followed by a music box (?!) – totally unexpected.
The final two tracks steal the show once again. The opening aggressive piano of Flaming Telepaths, above, marks the aggression of the overall track, which is carried on throughout.
I’m after rebellion // I’ll settle for lies // Is it any wonder // My mind is on fire?
Finally, Astronomy exemplifies the high level of BÖC’s musicianship. The track is in striking in how different the tone is from the other tracks in the album. It takes its time and languishes with us. In the end, the album culminates in a staggeringly energetic final floury and closes.
Overall, my three takeaways from this album are as follows:
This is a triumph of sequencing, every track is where it should be and flows together seamlessly
There is an amazing and consistent drive and energy throughout the album
BÖC exhibit a high level of competency and confidence throughout. It is clear they cannot believe they have been given the opportunity to make such music and are going to have maximum fun with them.
What you did was impulsive, capricious and melodramatic, but it was also wrong – Catherine O’Hara as Moira Rose
From Season 1 to Season 6, I find it difficult to encapsulate in words the immense love I have for this show. Comedy legends Dan and Eugene Levy have gifted the world with a golden collection of hilarious, heartfelt and lasting laughs. For the sake of brevity I shall only address the sixth season of the show in this post, and keep it as brief as possible to avoid spoilers. It goes without saying that Season 6 builds on the various happenings of Season 5 so there will be spoilers ahead. This post will be published some weeks after the extraordinary performance of Season 6 at the Emmy Awards. Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara won outstanding lead actor and actress in a comedy series, Daniel Levy and Annie Murphy won outstanding supporting actor and actress in a comedy series, and the show itself took home the award for best comedy series, and quite rightly too.
The general premise of he show is that a rich Jewish family lose their riches when one of their business partners screws them over. The federal government seized all of their assets aside from one small town called Schitt’s Creek. The family then moved to the town’s Motel where they remained until their fortunes improved. Season 6 of Schitt’s Creek picks up where Season 5 ended, on a dazzling finale showing the cast doing a performance of my favourite musical Cabaret (and doing it splendidly at that) and the announcement of David Rose’s engagement to his boyfriend Patrick. Season 6 follows the story of the wedding planning and the wedding itself, as well as Moira’s resurgence to television fame, the downfall of Alexis and Ted’s relationship and the expansion of the Rosebud Motel empire.
Without speaking at length about each episode, I shall give you a few of my season highlights. the first episode sees David, Stevie, Alexis and Patrick looking for wedding venues. They find the perfect venue, only to find out gleefully that the first Sunday of every month is heavily discounted. There is an opening coming up for the coming Sunday and David is on the cusp of accepting when the group hears the screaming wails of pigs being slaughtered on a neighbouring farm. The noise and stench prove too much for the gang who continue on their search for a suitable venue.
Another highlight for me was Episode 7, Moira Rosé, where Moira returns to Herb Ertlinger’s winery to have a specialist wine named after her, following the success of her recent film venture, The Crows Have Eyes 3: The Crowening. Mr Ertlinger appears first in Season 1 with an equally disastrous visit as the one in Season 6. A clip from the Season 1 episode, Wine and Roses, is featured below. The Season 6 episode is for me demonstrative of the reasons I love Schitt’s Creek. It is first and foremost a comedy. The writing is stellar, the story arc is beautifully executed but the crux of the show is to show simply and without prejudices an alternative way of life. This is keenly demonstrated by the touching scene where Johnny Rose and Patrick have a heart to heart while watching football on the television, something Johnny is clearly not well versed in. The scene conveys perfectly that Johnny loves his son enough to put himself in an uncomfortable position speaking to his soon to be son-in-law, and that Patrick loves David enough to poke fun at Johnny by partially ignoring him in favour of the game. Patrick knows that Johnny is too polite to interject hence Patrick can confront the inevitable talk on his own terms, which he does. In the end the two have a frank and almost tear inducing conversation which ends with the mutual understanding that both just want David’s happiness. All of this is done without an iota of preaching or suggesting the viewer should feel one way or the other, it just is. And that is the most beautiful thing about Schitt’s Creek.
Seeing Henry Czerny in Episode 7 as Alexis’ new lover and Johnny Roses’ stern talk with him was also a big highlight for me. Both he and Eugene Levy are actors I have a huge respect for and their performance is dazzling.
My final highlight of this dazzling Season is of course the final episode. Catherine O’Hara, when asked about her favourite episodes, said the first one (Season 1 episode 1) and the last one (Season 6 Episode 14). I can concur though I would highlight Season 1 episode 2 as one of the strongest in the show overall. This episode has everything, it has romance, comedy, plot finalising and a suitable cliffhanger making the viewer wonder about the future of the splendid characters in the series. It also has the most iconic Moira Rose outfit of the whole show but I will not spoil this for you.
Sadly the show ends its six year run here, just as it has garnered global recognition and suitable reward at Emmy level. In a way it is better for it to end now. It has fostered a love within its fan base which has been incrementally built up over the last six years hence its appreciation has solid grounding. It is poetic in a way for the show to end now at the peak of its fame. Please watch all the seasons if you have time. I am firmly of the belief that the sixth season is the best one. See below a highlights reel of the first five.
M and I are horror aficionados, and were pleasantly surprised with this 2019 offering. My first instinct when I have enjoyed a film is to check Empire for their invariably scathing review. This film did not fare well with the discerning male critics, and I do share some of their criticisms, but overall I thought this was a well wrought, impressively produced and tantalising piece of horror. The premise is this: six ostensibly random people meet and try to solve a series of escape rooms to obtain a prize of £10,000. It soon becomes apparent that they are in fact trying to survive.
After a flash-forward to a character in deep doo-doo, the set-up is a little mechanical, introducing us one by one to the (thinly drawn) key players as they are invited to the game via a little black box bearing the old Cannon films logo. So we meet shy but genius maths (physics, as it happens) student Zoey (Taylor Russell), cynical millennial Ben (Logan Miller), dedicated escape roomer Danny (Nik Dodani), scarred Iraq War vet Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll), blue-collar trucker Mike (Tyler Labine) and smarmy financial whizz Jason (Jay Ellis). Empire
I’m afraid that the character depth in this film does not go much deeper than the above block quote. However, what the characters lack in dimension and depth is more than made up for in set design. Without spoiling each wondrous room for you, I shall concentrate my praise on one room only. This was the enormous bar room with an oversized jukebox playing a distorted version of Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’ on repeat. This bar was not as it seemed however, it was upside down! The escapees had to climb their way through the room and solve the riddle as the floor/ ceiling was falling away beneath them. This made for jaw dropping graphics but also thrilling watching.
I do not necessarily agree with Empire that the lack of character dimension sufficiently hampered the film so as to lower it to a 2* rating. This is to be expected of this type of horror. With the possible exception of the first Saw movie (horror icon James Wan’s co-directorial debut, please note), the character development and backstory are always secondary to the elaborate torture scenarios devised for them. Overall this was a fast paced, visually staggering offering to the altar of horror and I would be remiss not to recommend it to you. It is streaming on Netflix at the time of writing.
Manet (23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernist painter often referred to as the father of modernism. He was a crucial figure in the change from Realism to Impressionism and was close friends with other pivotal figures of the time such as Renoir, Monet and Degas, meeting the latter as early as 1859, when the pair would be found together copying paintings in the Louvre as practice. Publicly, Manet was a divisive figure. He was rejected year after year by the Paris Salons, a professional art society which was seen as the quickest way for artists to obtain recognition. The Paris Salon first gave Manet recognition for The Spanish Singer (below) in 1861 but then steadily rejected his submissions. This was perhaps compounded by Manet’s scandalous 1863 painting Déjeuner sur l’herbe, which depicted a nude woman enjoying breakfast with two fully clothed men while a second is returning from a bath in a nearby stream, also not wearing very much. This and Olympia, a painting depicting a prostitute waiting for her client, nude, also caused considerable controversy. Together, these two paintings are seen as a watershed moment which marked the beginning of modern art.
By 1867, when his submissions were rejected both by the Paris Salon and the Exposition Universelle, Manet constructed a pavilion opposite the street of the latter in Paris, where his pictures were displayed for all to see. This was the same year Boy Blowing Bubbles was created.
Édouard Manet—the eldest son of an official in the French Ministry of Justice—had early hopes of becoming a naval officer. After twice failing the training school’s entrance exam, the teenager instead went to Paris to pursue a career in the arts. There he studied with Thomas Couture and diligently copied works at the Musée du Louvre. Met Museum
Boy Blowing Bubbles was painted in 1867. It’s subject matter is 15 year old Léon Koelin-Leenhoff, the illegitimate son of Manet’s future wife, Dutch pianist Suzanne Leenhoff. The boy may have been fathered by Manet himself, but this is the subject matter for an entirely new post. I love this painting. The nearly monochrome palette and dark background are almost a love letter to the Masters which preceded Manet, such as Murillo, Frans Hals and even Rembrandt, more on the latter below. I enjoy the free and direct style of this piece. The central subject is clearly defined, the contrast between the dark background and his light clothing propel him forward in a delightful way. This painting is consistent with Manet’s Realist desire to paint modern life.
The clothing is modern, by the standards of the time, and Léon is blowing a bubble of soap, a sign of brevity of life. This seemingly strange comparison is symptomatic of the Homo Bulla Est concept (man is bubble). This concept holds that while a person (homo) may look very solid and substantial, their life is as fleeting as a bubble (bulla), insubstantial, and completely fragile (History of Bubbles). These bubbles are most commonly seen in Vanitas paintings, loosely translated from Latin as the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity. A great example of this for me is the 1663 painting by Karel Dujardin, Boy Blowing Soap Bubbles, below. This is so wonderfully camp that I think I will have a fridge magnet made out of it. The child is standing on a bubble on a shell, doubly reinforcing the transience of his life. The surrealist element of the shell surfing is meant to remind us of the transience of happiness and the brevity of human life. The fabric, reflective bubbles, clouds, waves, and the depth of the perspective make this a winning painting for me. This is perhaps a silly painting but it is undeniably fun and depicted beautifully.
… the artist’s first champion, Émile Zola, had published a lengthy and glowing article about Manet. “The future is his,” Zola proclaimed. He insisted that the much-maligned Déjeuner sur l’herbe (which was included in Manet’s 1867 exhibition) would one day hang in the Louvre. Zola proved prophetic; it took almost seventy years, but the painting entered the collection of the Louvre (now Musée d’Orsay) in 1934. Met Museum
Finally, I would like to highlight one final bubble painting which I have stumbled upon during my research for this post. Cupid Blowing Soap Bubbles by Rembrandt, painted in 1634, serves as an early example of the Hommo Bulla Est concept. Cupid was the son of Mercury and, in Greek mythology, represents love in all its varieties. The bubble we have already covered. Therefore putting these together, this ostensibly cheery portrait is actually somewhat pessimistic about the longevity of love. I adore the depiction of the wings and the bubble itself. I also cannot help but notice that Cupid looks a little bit like Rembrandt himself!
I hope these three or four paintings have brought a small amount of joy into your day. Thank you for sticking with me through this soapy post!
“quod, ut dicitur, si est homo bulla, eo magis senex”
