The Last House on the Left

Last night I was watching the 2008 film of The Last House on the Left, directed by Dennis Illiadis, and a remake of the controversial 1972 Wes Craven film. The film basically involves a wealthy family who go on their holidays to their remote lakeside summer house. the family's seventeen year old daughter goes to hang out with her friend, however the two girls end up being brutally attacked by a gang led by a psychotic escaped convict. The criminals, seeking refuge from a storm wind up at the family's summerhouse. The movie is still pretty violent but is not as raw or shocking as the 1972 version. I have noticed that the recent glut of horror remakes tend to smooth over the rough edges of the seventies and eighties originals. Incidentally, the 1972 film was inspired by a 1960 Ingmar Bergman movie called The Virgin Spring, which was itself based on a 14th century Swedish ballad.

Today I went out to meet my Mum in the morning. We stopped off for breakfast and I had some pancakes with maple syrup and bacon. Then we went off to go to the building society. Then I went and got some books: 1980 and 1983 by David Peace (the third and fourth books in the "Red Riding" series) and Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

On my way home I stopped off for my groceries for the coming week.

The Keep

Last night I watched the first episode of the 1982 TV adaptation of Smiley's People on DVD, based on the novel by John le Carre. It's a sequel to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, although the book it was based on was the third volume in a trilogy of which Tinker Tailor was the first. The second book, The Honourable Schoolboy, was not adapted for TV mainly because most of the book is set in East Asia and it was considered too expensive to film there at the time, and also because the series' lead character, George Smiley (played by Alec Guinness in the TV versions) had a much less central role. In Smiley's People, a defected Soviet general has important information for Smiley but, on his way, the general is murdered and the information stolen. Against the orders of his superiors, Smiley is determined to investigate. The book was very good and the series is shaping up to be good.

Later on I watched a 1983 movie on TV called The Keep, directed by Michael Mann, and based on a novel by F. Paul Wilson. The film is set in Romania, in 1941, where a platoon of German soliders make camp in the keep of an ancient castle above a small village however, before long, the soldiers accidentally release a powerful supernatural force that starts killing them off one by one. The film is one of those movies that feels really bad when you're watching it, but there is something about it that lingers in the mind afterwards. It's very much a product of it's time full of billowing dry ice, slow-motion, laser beam effects and a synthesiser score from Tangerine Dream. The movie is definitely over-stylised and does suffer from indifferent special effects, including a central monster that looks line a plastic skull with a big red lightbulb inside it. It was a huge commercial failure when it was first released but it has since become a real cult film.

I didn't have chance to have much breakfast today except for some coffee and an apple. Work was really dull today and the day just completely dragged, which it usually does. I was very happy to get back home. I did mange to walk to and from work today though. I have been thinking of what I'll be doing for this year's NaNoWriMo, and I am thinking of doing a vampire story.

The Maiden Heist

Last night I was watching the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream, directed by Darren Aronofsky, and based on the 1978 novel by Hubert Selby Jr. The story revolves around four people in Brooklyn, New York. Harry Goldfarb (played by Jared Leto), his girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly) and his friend Tyrone Love (Marlon Wayans) are heroin addicts, who dream about making the one big drug deal that will set them up for life, while Marion's ambition is to be a top fashion designer. Harry's mother, Sarah (Ellen Burstyn) spends her time watching TV, especially a kind of infomercial-game show. One day she gets a call inviting her to be a contestant on TV. Sarah fixes on losing weight so she can fit into her favourite red dress and look good on TV. She goes to a doctor who prescribes her diet pills, to which she becomes increasingly addicted. Before long each of the characters find the dreams that sustain them, becoming increasingly sour and warped as they fall into their own personal addictions and demons. It is an unrelentingly bleak film, and very stylish. It is very faithful to the original novel.

Today I was up pretty sharply in order to get out and meet my Dad. We had to go up to the building society in order to do some banking business. Then we went out for breakfast at Cafe Rouge. I had sausage, bacon, poached egg, mushrooms, tomato and toast, with a cappuccino. Then we had a look around the shops before going our seperate ways. I went along to a jewellers to get my watchstrap fixed. It broke sometime last week, and I had to repair it with sticky tape. It worked for a few days. The strap took half an hour to fix and so I spent the time browsing in one of the book-shops. I didn't buy anything, becasue I'm trying to save money for moving to Canada, so that was kind of annoying, because there was a lot of stuff there that I really wanted.

This evening I went out to the Cineworld cinema to see The Maiden Heist, directed by Peter Hewitt. The movie is set in Boston and revolves around Roger Barlow (played by Christopher Walken) who works as a security guard in an art museum. He spends most of his time staring at his favourite painting, called "The Lonely Maiden". Roger is shocked when he discovers that "The Lonely Maiden" is one of a number of the museum's collection that is being sent to Denmark. Then he discovers two other museum security guards, Charlie (Morgan Freeman) and George (William H. Macy) are both equally obsessed by other artworks, which are also being sent away. The three decide to plot an audacious scheme to steal their three paintings, so that they can keep them. It's a very likeable, gentle comedy, and it is consistently funny. That is the last film that I have booked for this year at the Film Festival (it is the last day of the Film Festival tomorrow).

Of course there is a lot about Michael Jackson on TV tonight. I was never a fan, but of course I remember when his music was everywhere, and he was very talented. I really liked that song "Thriller" (which did have one of the coolest music videos and Vincent Price) and "Man in the Mirror".

Dracula

Last night I was watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory, which I thought was really funny, and a repeat of an episode from the latest episode of Peep Show. After that I listened to the first of a seven part radio adaptation of Dracula, based on the popular novel by Bram Stoker published in 1897. The story involves a young solicitor's clerk who travels to Transylvania in order to negotiate with the mysterious nobleman Count Dracula, who wishes to buy properties in England. However, before long he discovers that Dracula is not what he seems.

I got up later than I had intended, mainly because I really didn't want to get out of bed and start the day. The whole place was absolutely freezing, because my heating (which is on a timer) had already switched itself off. I usually have porridge for breakfast, but I was too late for that, and even too late to wolf down a quick emergency apple, so I had a cup of coffee to warm myself up and wake myself up. I didn't even have time to let it get properly cool enough to drink, so I almost had a burned mouth. I hate getting up in the morning on week days, when you're rushed and there seem like a million things to do, and you've got to get to work.

On my way into work I did at least find time to buy the new issue of Radio Times and the latest issue of Empire magazine, which featured a large article on the planned film of The Hobbit and a feature about the history and background of the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th series.

It was another really quiet day at work. I was told that I will probably still be staying in the current department for at least another week. Which is fine for me because the work is pretty easy and I can just listen to my iPod.

Miracles of Life

Last night I finished reading Miracles of Life by J.G. Ballard. Here's what it says on the back of the book:
"J.G. Ballard has been, for over fifty years, one of this country's most significant writers. Beginning with the events that inspired his classic novel, Empire of the Sun, in this revelatory autobiography he charts the course of his astonishing life.
Miracles of Life takes us from the vibrant surroundings of pre-war Shanghai, to the deprivations and unexpected freedoms of Lunghua Camp, to Ballard's arrival in a devestated Britain. Ballard recounts his first attempts at fiction and his part in the social and artistic revolutions of the 60s. He describes his friendships with figures as diverse as Kingsley Amis, Michael Moorcock and Eduardo Paolozzi alongside recollections of his domestic life in Shepperton - raising three children as a single father after the premature death of his wife.
Miracles of Life is both a captivating narrative of the experiences that have shaped this extraordinary writer's works, his distinctive outlook and his original visions of the future, and is also an account of an entirely remarkable life."
The book is very interesting, although out of the thirty-odd books that Ballard has published it only treats in detail The Atrocity Exhibition, Empire of the Sun which was filmed by Steven Spielberg and Crash, which was turned into a hugely controversial film in 1996 by David Cronenberg. Ballard writes quite movingly about his family life, however the main problem is that the 1970s onwards are passed over in a few pages, with nothing about his more recent novels, which are very different from his earlier ones.

I was off work today and I went out early to meet my mum at eleven. However the traffic was so bad that I had to get off the bus very early and walk most of the way, luckily I magaged to get there in time. We went up to Cafe Rouge, a French restaurant, for a continental breakfast, which was basically a selection of croissants and crusty bread with butter and jam. It was really nice. After breakfast we split up and I bought a couple of DVDs in the sales: The complete series of Spaced and a boxed set of series one and two of The Mighty Boosh. On my way home I bought a large bottle of Coke and a copy of Radio Times. So I will have plenty of stuff to watch this evening.

The Perfect Way to Start the Day

There was a bit of drama this morning when I was making my porridge for breakfast this morning. I must have been half-asleep because I put the oats in the bowl and put it in the microwave but forgot the milk. As I was getting ready in the other room I could smell a burning smell. I didn't know what it was so I went to investigate, but it turned out that the oats were completely cremated into a black smudge at the bottom of the bowel. It was very hot, and there was smoke everywhere so I had to douse it with cold water, until it was cool enough to scoop out and throw away. The steam shot up almost straight into my face. I managed to clean the bowel out and it was fine, so was the microwave and all the smoke and the burning smell weren't any worse than they usually are when I make popcorn, so there was no real harm done. I decided to make another bowl of porridge, because I didn't want to go into work without any breakfast.

It was another quiet day at work, which is of course nothing unusual. I got home at about quarter to six and made a microwaved meal of spaghetti bolognese which I ate with a glass of apple juice while watching an episode of The Simpsons.