paul2001sw-1
Joined Dec 2002
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The formula for a horror movie is well-established: you tell the audience something bad is going to happen, something bad duly happens, and the audience squirms. Rarely can this formula have been more viscerally applied than in 'Fall', a film about climbers that even starts with a horrific accident, just to make sure we know that bad things really can happen. The movie was actually made for IMAX, but even on my own television screen I found it tough viewing, in spite of the blatant manipulation of the viewer. I have some criticism: the eventual ending can't quite do justice to what went before; and the prominance of female cleavage in the film is unnecessary. And I couldn't exactly say I enjoyed watching any of it. But it is undoubedly effective in delivering what is promised.
The Irish TV drama 'Kin' won some praise, but to me it felt a bit cliched, lacking in specifics, and presenting its tale of organised crime as a family affair that elided the moral responsibility of its protagonists. But it was loosely based on an actual crime family, the Kinahans, and it turns out their true story is a lot more interesting than the TV series. In this documentary, one sees something of what they did and how they did it, often in surprisingly full view of Ireland's media (with journalists who covered the story participants in the programme). One also gets a very clear sense of the Kinahans' moral awfulness, kindred or not, and eqaully grimly, of their seeming impunity from the law.
Paul Simon's album 'Graceland' was a major success at a time his career may have been thought to have been in decline, and combined his very American sound with an African flavour in a way whose radicalism may be hard to experience in the modern world. But he broke the cultural boycott on Apartheid-era South Africa to do so, making him politcal enemies. In this film dating from 2011, Simon returns to South Africa, meets up with the artists he worked with, and plays another concert. He also justifies his decision to break the boycott, and there's no doubt that the film is partial to his point of view (fundamentally, it's being made because Simon wants it to be). Caveats aside, it is a great album, and Simon is always interesting when talking about it. It's a shame that the concert he performs (as the supposed justification for his visit and the film) is such a low key affair; but I guess the album was always bigger in the first world, where it sounded so fresh, than in Africa itself.