Just a short note. I'm away from my books but want to recommend some film-related ones. The prompt is going to see Posy Simmonds' story of Tara Drew enjoyably turned into a film, albeit one which struck me and Penny as more 'TV-sized' than up to the big screen. We went to see it in its first week of release at the Leeds-Bradford Odeon in Thornbury. Do you know how many other people were in the cinema? Six. Guess how many giggles there were apart from our own, fairly regular ones? One. It was an interesting cultural experience which I haven't yet worked out. I'm sure it packs them in amid much hilarity at the Screen on Islington Green. But I think that it is a very metropolitan subject and world, seen with a very metropolitan eye, for all that its very metropolitan characters are operating, uneasily, in a region of great distinction, Thomas Hardy's Wessex; specifically Dorset. They didn't really seem to be there. The landscape was just scenery, and that would have been still more the case had Posy chosen instead our Northern Cotswolds such as the lush county swathes of the North Riding or parts of Lancashire's Furness.
There's a bit in True North about the way that Hardy's land is affected by superficial imagery as badly as the North, and Tamara Drew is further evidence. No offence to Posy. She, Penny and a colleague once played cricket for Cosmopolitan against the New Statesman, and the Guardian's then, delightful, film critic Derek Malcolm, also batting for Cosmo, wrote a poem which started: 'Penny, Pandora and Posy - a trio of which to dream.' I only dream of one. The match was also notable for Martin Amis's playing for the New Statesman and being determined to win at all costs, bowling at the heavenly trio as if they were Test players.
I can't help but comment on "I only dream of one." I love that! I am in a deeply romantic frame of mind today because it is Greg's and my 33rd anniversary and although he is in soggy NYC and I am in rather chilly Argenton Chateau, we each only dream of one, too! xxs
ReplyDeleteOoh, how romantic! Aren't we lucky to have been chosen/made such perfect choices all those years ago? Have a very happy virtual anniversary. Will it be reflected in your painting? With lots of love from your erstwhile flat-sharer in (nearly) Notting Hill before it was famous. Penny xx
ReplyDeleteWooo! The above says 'Martin Wainwright says' but I promise that it really is the lovely P commenting. And I wasn't sitting over her with a rolling pin either. Yes, we are lucky! Let's hope the same applies to the lovelies in the next generation. We are so pleased to have Abi in our family (plus a large percentage of Sri Lanka as a bonus).
ReplyDeleteNice to have some comments on this blog btw, even if they have nothing to do with the North. Or not a lot, anyway. My attempts to ignite a grand debate to kill Northern Grimness once and for all have been a glorious failure, I fear. Or maybe, just maybe, everyone agrees with me...
I'm reading this blog with interest now, I'm a 'Southerner in exile' (!). I can't help wondering along your lines, whether people 'up north' can identify with films like this.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, the trailer looked pretty awful to me, the American voiceover really told us who the film is for.
Hi there Mister_tmg. I had many forebodings about the film but ended up enjoying it. There's just enough originality in the plot to compensate for the cliches - the two evil schoolgirls are good, as is the put-upon wife of the novelist and the latter and Tamara D herself aren't bad. I feel rather mean being lukewarm about something which has involved a lot of creativity and hard work, but there it is. And it certainly didn't register much in Bradford! I'm planning to do a lot more posting now that I've stopped my moths blog for this season, so thanks for reading and I'm glad that the blog's of interest. All warm wishes, M
ReplyDeleteThanks for your message! I actually think British people just don't like British films. Sex and the City 2 packed out Sheffield's Valley Centertainment when I saw it. How the average girl from Rotherham can relate to it, I don't know. But maybe that's not the point!
ReplyDeleteInteresting point though - I'll check it on Monday when we're planning to see Made in Dagenham in Leeds. It may be that the escapism of Sex and the City is what appeals, though no doubt Rotherham has its own version of those spicey goings-on...
ReplyDeleteTamara Drewe went down well at the packed thursday morning pensioners' showing at Hebden bridge which I attended. I suppose Hebden is more Posy Simmonds' target audience area than Thornbury. I thought the paralles with 'FRTMC' were quite well drawn, and loved Tamsin Greig. (If they ever make a film of the 'Berringden Brow' novels she would be my choice to play Jess, the middle-aged put-upon advice worker; but let's not get carried away...unless there is a director/producer reading this, wanting a low budget film project set in Halifax...)
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