Les Diaboliques

Last night I was watching the movie Kick Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn, on TV. It's based on a comic-book by Mark Miller and John Romita, Jr. and tells the story of a New York City teenaged comic-book fan (played by Aaron Johnson) who, despite having no powers and no training, decides to become a superhero named "Kick-Ass". Despite the abysmal failure of his initial attempt he soon becomes an internet celebrity and attracts the attention of vengeful ex-cop turned superhero "Big Daddy" (Nicolas Cage) and his murderous 11 year old daughter "Hit Girl" (Chloe Grace Moretz). It is a really entertaining movie with plenty of humour and action.

Today I got some more of the Akira graphic novels by Katshiro Otomo delivered in the mail. Mostly I had a really quiet morning watching TV. In the afternoon I went out to the Filmhouse cinema to see the 1955 movie Les Diaboliques, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, with the Horror Group. The movie is based on a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, who also wrote the novel that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo. The film deals with the brutal and cruel headmaster of a second-rate boy's boarding school (Paul Meurisse) who is married to a fragile young teacher, Christina (Vera Clouzot), who has a weak heart, while openly carrying on an affair with another teacher, Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret). Tiring of his ill treatment of them both, Christina and Nicole decide to murder the headteacher. However, after the murder, the body goes missing and a succession of strange and disturbing events begin to occur. It is a really good suspense film, and features a memorable twist. Apparently it was one of the influences for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and Robert Bloch (who wrote the original novel Psycho) named it as his favourite horror film. After the movie we went out and had a couple of drinks. The movie is reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Natural Born Killers

Last night I was watching the 1994 movie Natural Born Killers, directed by Oliver Stone and based on a story by Quentin Tarantino. The movie deals with a couple of serial killers, Mickey and Mallory Knox (played by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) who go on a three week killing spree through the southern USA leaving fifty-two people dead, until they are caught and arrested. With the pair now a media sensation and international cult heroes, Mickey is approached in jail by sleazy TV producer Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.) to do a live on-air interview in prison. The movie throws pretty much everything at the screen with the film stock changing (seemingly at random), constant switches from colour to black-and-white, tinted scenes, weird filters, bizarre camera angles, on-screen captions, distorted images, stock footage, strange back projection, frenzied editing and even sequences shot like a 1950s sitcom. It was hugely controversial in it's day, and was a big sensation. The first time I saw it it gave me a massive headache, but I have seen it many times now, partly because, once you get used to the style it's one of those things where you see something different every time. There is a lot in it that is really good, and a lot that is absolutely terrible. I thought it was way too weird in places and I'm not a big fan of the second half of the film, once they get inside the jail, but there are great bits in it, although you do have to be in the right mood for it. It did seem to annoy a lot of people when it came out. I sometimes wonder whether Oliver Stone is on a personal mission to irritate as many groups of people as possible. Although it seems to have been a long time since there was a really controversial Oliver Stone movie. Still, there's time for him yet.

Today I went out with my Dad to the Ocean Terminal shopping centre. We had something to eat at the Costa Coffe there (I had a chocolate muffin and a mocha coffee) before we went to look at our own things. I got some books in a three for two offer: Money by Martin Amis, True Grit by Charles Portis and A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, the first volume of a fantasy series which I don't think has been finished yet.

After that we went to my parent's house. The new issue of Fortean Times (the Journal of Strange Phenomena) had arrived in the mail so that was pretty good to read. We had spicy fajitas for lunch.

That's another thing that is quite interesting about the Oscars that I just thought about: The look on the faces of the people who don't win, trying to smile for the cameras but so obviously fuming that they lost. It's kind of cruel in a way the way they keep the cameras on the faces of the losers. I won't be watching it tonight, because it is on too late, but it will be interesting to learn the results tomorrow.

The Creeper

Last night I watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "The Creeper", which was about a blue-collar New York neighbourhood which is plagued by a serial killer, called The Creeper, who targets women who are home alone while their husbands work nights. The story focuses on a woman left alone who spends a nightmarish evening dealing with her unsympathetic husband, sadistic ex-boyfriend, strange janitor and the completely evil woman next door, along with her own increasing paranoia about The Creeper. Despite containing no violence at all it was probably the scariest thing I have ever seen on TV, with a memorable shock ending. It had that feeling that the best episodes of The Twilight Zone had that anything could happen at any time.

It was another pretty quiet day at work. I got in at nine and left at half past five. Back home I had a microwave spaghetti and meatballs ready meal.

Shame the Devil

Last night I finished reading the book Shame the Devil by George Pelecanos, who is probably best known as one of the writers on the TV show The Wire. The book was published in 2000 and tells the story of the botched robbery of a pizza parlour which leaves several people dead, and the robber's return two and a half years later to get revenge on the cop who shot dead his brother. Like all of Pelecanos' books it is set in and around Washington D.C. and deals with themes of violence, betrayal, loyalty, family, friendship and the difficulty of doing the right thing in a violent world, as well as classic American cars, basketball and soul and funk music of the seventies. It's a good book and recommended for fans of crime novels and thrillers. There's a review on Permanently Weird.

It was the start of another week at work today. It was a pretty dull day. On the way home I stopped off and got a mince pie with fries for my dinner.

The Hidden Thing

Last night I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World on DVD. I saw the movie last year when it was first out, and I really liked it a lot. The movie was directed by Edgar Wright and based on a series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Set in Toronto, the film tells the story of 22 year old Scott Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera) who plays in a garage band and is dating 17 year old Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). However,he immediantely becomes infatuated with mysterious American delivery girl Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but in order to date her he must defeat her seven evil exes. The movie is really stylised with endless references to comic books and video games and so on. I think it's a great movie, with an awesome soundtrack. It's actually one of my favourite movies.

After the movie I watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "The Hidden Thing", about a man who struggles to remember key details after he witnesses his girlfirend being killed by a hit and run driver.

I was up at five o'clock this morning and in work for seven. The place was absolutely snowed under at work, so it was a really busy day. There was a baguette run though and I had a panini with roast beef, brie, jalapeno peppers and English mustard on it. I left work at three.

The Belfry

Last night I was watching an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "The Belfry". It was about a man who is in love with the local teacher and kills the man she is engaged to marry. When this fails to win her affections he goes on the run, but hides in the belfry of the local school, which also doubles as the local church, so he can spy on the woman.

I started writing a new story last night about a group of people who go to a new kind of virtual reality video game, only to esperience some strange after effects. This year I'm going to try to write more and read more, as well as watch more movies.

It was another average day at work. On the way home I bought some milk and the latest issue of Empire magazine, and also a steak pie supper for dinner.

When I got home the DVD of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World had arrived in the mail. So I'll probably be watching that tomorrow.

Bullitt

Last night I watched a one-off horror drama on TV called Whistle and I'll Come to You which starred John Hurt as an elderly man who has just put his wife in a nursing home and gone on holiday alone to a quiet seaside hotel. After discovering a wedding ring on the beach he finds himself haunted by increasingly disturbing supernatural occurances. The story was loosely based on a short story by M.R. James (called "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad"). In the original story the main character is an unmarried middle-aged academic who finds an old whistle on the beach and blows it, and then finds himself tormented by ghostly occurances. Also the original story was actually quite scary, but the new TV version cut out the scary bits. It was okay in places, and it had some good sequences, but just not enough. Mostly it was kind of a disappointment.

I also watched the last in the current series of Peep Show, which was kind of a New Year special.

Today I was watching the 1968 movie Bullitt, directed by Peter Yates. Set in San Francisco, it stars Steve McQueen as police lieutenant Frank Bullitt who is assigned to safeguard a witness from the Mob, on the request of a sleazy politician (played by Robert Vaughn). The movie hasn't really aged well and the pace kind of sags in places, but it does feature Steve McQueen in probably his most iconic role, and a cool jazzy score from Lalo Schifrin (which has probably been played at every wine bar and cocktail party for the past 40 years) and also one of the most famous and influential car chases ever seen on film. All that, and the presence of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Robert Vaughn, pretty much makes it a compendium of sixties cool. It's reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Tomorrow I am pretty much going to have to be up at half past five in order to get into work early so I can leave as early as possible. It's New Year's Eve so it's likely to be a really busy couple of days. To be honest I am not looking forward to going to work tomorrow at all. I love New Year, but to be honest I feel like I'll be doing well to make it to midnight without passing out.Anyway, Happy New Year!

Wrapping Presents

Last night I was watching the first part of the Red Riding trilogy on TV. They are a series of made for TV films based on the crime novels by David Peace. The first episode was based on the novel 1974 and starred Andrew Garfield as a young journalist who is drawn into a web of violence and police corruption when a child goes missing. It also starred Sean Bean, Warren Clarke and Rebecca Hall. It's good but unrelentingly grim and depressing. Not as depressing as the book, though.

Today I went out to the post office to pay a bill and get some more stamps and on the way home I got a sandwich, some sugar and the latest issue of Total Film magazine. This afternoon I spent my time wrapping Christmas presents.

It's my birthday tomorrow and so I probably won't be on much over the next few days because I will be very busy. It should all be good though, hopefully.

If I don't update befire then, Happy Christmas to anyone who is celebrating it.

The Beach of Agnes

Last night I was watching a Timeshift documentary called Nordic Noir: The Story of Scandinavian Crime Fiction which was very interesting, about the recent popularity of Scandinavian crime and thriller novels after the success of the Steig Larsson books and Henning Mankell's Wallander books.

I was also watching the 2008 documentary The Beaches of Agnes, directed by Agnes Varda. The film basically tells the story of Varda's life as she travels to the various places where she lived and uses performance art, art installations, archive footage, still photographs and extracts form her movies to tell her stories, including her time in Hollywood where she shot the first test footage of Harrison Ford (who the studios rejected saying that he had no future in the film industry), her involvement in the sixties counterculture and friendships with Andy Warhol, Jean-Luc Godard and Jim Morrison among others. It was pretty interesting.

Today I went out to the German Christmas market to meet Mom. We started off at the art gallery and had a coffee and chocolate cupcake. Then we walked around for a bit and had a bratwurst sausage with sauerkraut and mustard and ketchup with a cup of mulled wine, which was nice. I bought an ankh pendent and also a couple of candles, just to make my home smell a bit nicer.

Fahrenheit 451

Last night I was watching a French movie from 1947 called Quai des Orfevres, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, in which a cynical police inspector investigates a nightclub singer and her piano player husband about the murder of a sleazy producer. It was pretty good.

Today I was watching the 1966 movie Fahrenheit 451, directed by Francois Truffaut and based on the novel by Ray Bradbury about a future world in which reading is illegal and all books are banned. In the story, firemen are paid to find and burn illicit stashes of reading material. It was pretty interesting. Both of them are reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

Today is the start of my Christmas break and, although I have to work one day on New Year's Eve, I'm not properly back at work until 5th January.

Nineteen Seventy-Seven

Last week I finished reading the book Nineteen Seventy-Seven by David Peace, the second part of the "Red Riding" series. The book is set against the background of the brutal Yorkshire Ripper killings and tells the stories of a corrupt and violent cop and a journalist who is rapidly falling apart. Both of them become dangerously involved with the murders when they start to suspect that there is more than one killer on the loose. The book is tense, mesmerising and powerful, but it is extremely disturbing, bleak and violent. The whole series has been really good but the unrelenting misery can be a bit much at times.

Last night I listened to the first part of a Doctor Who story on the radio, which was really pretty good and I also watched a show called Worried About the Boy about the rise to fame of pop star Boy George, which was pretty interesting. I was never a fan, but I usually enjoy watching music biographies.

It was the start of another ordinary week at work.

1974

I was watching the latest episode of Doctor Who yesterday evening, and it was a pretty good one this week, where the Doctor has to fight vampires in 14th Century Venice. It really does seem like vampires are everywhere in books, TV and movies these days.

I also finished reading the book Nineteen Seventy-four by David Peace. The book is a crime thriller set in Yorkshire, England during December 1974, and tells the story of Edward Dunford, crime correspondent for the local newspaper. When a missing girl is found brutally murdered, Dunford immediately connects it to a series of similar crimes several years before and, hoping this will be the case that makes his career, he sets out to investigate it, however he soon finds himself drawn into a nightmarish world of police and official corruption and violence. The book is the first of the four volume "Red Riding" series. The book is good, but very bleak and depressing. My Mum came from Yorkshire and we often used to go down there to visit my Gran, so I could recognise a lot of the places that were in the book.

I went along to my parent's house today, for my lunch. We had salmon, boiled potatoes and peas for lunch, so it was really nice.

Calico Black, Calico Blue

Last night I listened to most of the CD of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold based on the 1963 John le Carre novel. Set in the early 1960s at the height of the Cold War, the story focuses on Alec Leamas (played Brian Cox), a burnt out British spy working in Communist East Germany, who returns to England in disgrace after his network is uncovered and wiped out by a ruthless enemy spymaster. Wanting nothing more than to "come in from the cold" (leave the world of espionage), Leamas is nevertheless offered one chance to redeem himself and get revenge: become the bait in a trap set against one of the most dangerous and cunning enemy spymasters. However Leamas soon discovers that the operation is much more complex than he could have guessed. The book was written by John le Carre (who was himself a British spy working undercover in East Germany for many years in the fifties and sixties, until he was forced to escape when he was named to the East German authorities along with many other British spies by a double agent) in part as a riposte to the James Bond novels which featured a very glamorous and action-packed view of the spy world which le Carre considered completely unrealistic: In his novels the spying world is bleak, ambiguous and cruel and the spies are neither heroic or glamorous.

I also read a couple more horror short stories: In the first one, "Calico Black, Calico Blue" by Joel Knight, a London businessman finds a doll outside his flat door and returns it to the owner, who thanks him by inviting him to her flat for a drink. However he soon discovers that he has walked into a horrific trap. In the second story, "This Rich, Evil Sound" by Steven Erickson, a lonely man is driven insane during a cold winter in the Canadian wilderness.

This morning I went along to Ocean Terminal with my Dad. We stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and a muffin, before splitting up. I bought some things in a "three for two" offer: A CD of the radio adaptation of A Murder of Quality based on the John le Carre novel and the books The Way Home by Geroge Pelecanos and Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (which was made into a film recently by Martin Scorsese). We went back to my parents house for lunch, and in the afternoon had a walk with my Mum, which was nice.

The Final Problem

Yesterday evening I was half-watching the movie Twilight, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer. The movie is about a teenage girl (played by Kristen Stewart) who moves to a small town in Washington, where she falls for a local guy (Robert Pattinson) who happens to be a 108 year old vampire. The movie was hugely popular and so were the books. Despite being a vampire story it's much more of a teen romance than a horror film, and the vampires have very little to do with pretty much any other interpretation of them (Meyer has said that she knew nothing about vampire stories when she started writing the books). I've never read any of the books but I thought the film was okay, though not great.

Later on at night I was listening to an episode of Weird Tales, which is a short series of one off radio horror plays inspired by the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. They are all original stories, not adaptations of Lovecraft's stories, but they deal with similar themes. In this story a man who has recently lost his job moves with his wife and daughter to a new house, however there are strange smells around the building and the constant sounds of rats scratching in the walls, and the house's last occupant vanished under mysterious circumstances. It was a pretty good story.

I also listened to a radio adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes story. This episode was called "The Final Problem" based on a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this episode Sherlock Holmes is on the verge of making the biggest case of his career against Professor Moriarty, the most dangerous criminal in London, however it's three days before Moriarty can be arrested, and so Homes and Watson set off on a journey across Europe with their deadly enemy in hot pursuit. It was a really good story. Conan Doyle had apparently got fed up of writing the Sherlock Holmes stories, because he thought they were distracting him from writing more "serious" literature, and so he intended this to be the last of them (hence the title) but, due to popular demand, he was more or less forced to write more.

It was another very dull day at the office, but apparently they are going to increse the heating slightly. My writing has been going pretty slowly recently, basically I'm kind of stuck with the story and don't really know how to move on with it. It feels like pretty much everything has already been done.

The Crooked Man

Last night I was listening to another radio adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes story called "The Crooked Man", based on the short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this story Sherlock Holmes is assigned to investigate the case of a woman who is accused of murdering her husband, but uncovers a dark story of jealosy and treachery stretching back over thirty years. It was a really good story.

It was another very quiet and dull day at work. There was a petition going around the office to try and get them to put up the heating.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the film of The Wolf-Man when it come out. I do find it interesting just how popular vampires are at the moment. In recent years it just seems like they've really taken off.

Soul Circus

Last night I was listening to a radio adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes story called "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" based on the story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this story a young man is accused of murdering his own father, but Sherlock Holmes believes that he is innocent, and determines to track down the real killer. It was a really good story, and one of the earliest of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

I also finished reading the novel Soul Circus by George Pelecanos. It's a crime novel, set in Washington DC, where private investigator Derek Strange is determined to protect a particularly violent drug dealer from getting the death penalty, not because Strange believes that he is innocent but because he doesn't believe in capital punishment, however as the tril progresses so does the tensions between rival street gangs. Added to that, Strange and his partner Terry Quinn discover that one of their clients has brutally murdered the woman that he paid them to find. It's a really good, tense and gritty novel, full of action, witty dialogue and laced with dark humour. Pelecanos wrote scripts for the TV series The Wire, and definitely if you like the show (which is awesome) then you should like the novel.

Later on I watched the 1992 movie Bram Stoker's Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. In 1897 a young English lawyer (played by Keanu Reeves) heads to the remote Castle Dracula in Transylvania to oversee a property purchase by the mysterious Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) who is planning to move to England. However while in the castle the lawyer discovers that Dracula is a vampire, a dead creature that has existed for hundreds of years feeding on human blood, and that Dracula has set his sights on the lawyer's fiancee (Winona Ryder) believing her to be the reincarnation of his long-dead wife. Despite some major changes the film is relatively faithful to the book. Visually it's very impressive and stylish and filled with visual tricks, for example in one scene where a character has to step through a doorway, they actually had to step over the doorway backwards and then it was played in reverse ro give it added strangeness.

It was another very quiet day at work and pretty dull. I left at five and got a suasage supper on my way home, which was quite nice.

Radio

I got in pretty late last night after the movie. I listened to a couple of episodes of the radio series of Sherlock Holmes while I was on the computer, they were really good productions and very faithful to the original stories. I managed to write about four hundred words of my new story last night, which wasn't much but I was quite happy about doing it.

It was another very ordinary day at work, and it was one of those days that just seemed to go on forever. I got home at around six.

Max Warp

Last night I listened to another Doctor Who radio play. This episode was called "Max Warp", and was set in the far future where one of the most popular TV shows is a spaceship show called "Max Warp", however when one of the presenters is killed when the spaceship he is testing crashes into a planet, the Doctor(Paul McGann) believes that it is more than just an accident, and that someone is trying to reignite an old interplanetary war. It was a really fun episode, even if much of it is a parody of the British motoring TV show Top Gear. Later on I listened to the fifth and final part of the radio adaptation of Murder at the Vicarage, based on the Agatha Christie novel.

Later on I watched the second episode of the new series of Peep Show, which was very funny. I was also reading a few more of the Just After Sunset stories by Stephen King. In "Mute" a man picks up a hitch-hiker and proceeds to rant about his unfaithful wife, and soon has cause to regret it. In "Ayana", a terminally ill man is miraculously healed by a mysterious stranger, however there is a price to be paid.

This morning I went out an walked to a shopping centre where I bought a new shower curtain, and on my way home I stopped off to get my groceries. While I was there I got the latest issue of Empire magazine. It had an interesting article about an aborted attempt to make a film of Frank Herbert's science-fiction novel Dune in 1974. It would have been directed by deeply eccentric Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky, art design by HR Giger among others, music by Pink Floyd and a cast including Orson Welles, Mick Jagger and Salvador Dali. It fell apart, but the book was filmed by David Lynch in 1984. Interestingly enough Jodorowsky is collaborating with David Lynch on his next film, a Western called King Shot, which will probably be more than a little weird.

This afternoon I have spent most of my time trying to clean my kitchen and bathroom. I think it went quite well.

Radio Dramas

Last night I listend to the second part of the Doctor Who radio story, "Human Resources". In the epsidoe the Doctor (Paul McGann) and Lucie (Sheridan Smith) discover that the mysterious "office" is actually part of a giant war machine on an alien planet where brainwashed humans target weapons and control robots, under the illusion that they are doing normal office work, as part of a war being waged aganist the Doctor's old enemies, the Cybermen. It was a good story. Later on I was listening to the third part of a radio adaptation The Murder at the Vicarage based on the novel by Agatha Christie.

Today was a really dull and quiet day at work. The most eventful thing that happened was that an unfortunate bird flew into one of the windows. I know that I have only been in work a couple of days this week but I am already looking forward to the weekend!

Human Resources

Last night I was listening to the first of a two part Doctor Who radio story called "Human Resources", In which Lucie (Sheridan Smith), the Doctor's companion who was kidnapped at the end of the last episode, wakes up to discover that she is in an office at her first day of work. However the office is very strange, in that no-one seems to know in which town they are, and no-one is actually able to leave. When the Doctor (Paul McGann) comes to investigate he discovers that the office is hiding a shocking secret and he encounters some of his oldest enemies. It was a good story. I also listened to the second part of a radio adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel called The Murder at the Vicarage, in which Ms Marple has to investigate, surprisingly enough, a murder at the local village vicarage.

I was reading some of the stories from the Just After Sunset collection by Stephen King. They kind of range from the more famous Stephen King supernatural horror stories to crime thrillers. One thing I like about short story collections is that you know that even if you don't like one story then there's another one coming along soon after.

Later on I watched the 1985 movie Brazil, directed by Terry Gilliam, on TV. The movie tells the story of a timid clerk (played by Jonathan Pryce) who lives in a nightmarish future world, but escapes into his own elaborate fantasy world where he imagines himself as a winged superhero. It's a very good movie, at times very funny and at times being genuinely horrific.

I was back at work today and it was another really dull day. Not much has changed there. One of the strange things about coming back to work after even just a very short time away, is that it very quickly feels as if you've never actually been away.