Bridge

Tonight, 38.40%, 12/13, poor bidding.

The Great Gatsby 3D

Baz Lurhmann's version of 'The Great Gatsby', the fourth movie based on F Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel has been received mostly coolly. Lurhmann has a reputation for excess upon excess and I certainly felt his style overwhelmed his previous two films 'Australia' (in particular) and 'Moulin Rouge!' (to a lesser extent).

However, I am at odds with the critics this time. I was impressed with this Great Gatsby. It is far more interesting than its 1974 predecessor and better acted. Yes, it is lavish but not unreasonably so given the era and social class the story portrays. Unlike the critics I didn't find the musical score over the top apart form the scene where Gatsby himself is introduced to a burst from 'Rhapsody in Blue' with dazzling fireworks backdrop.

Joel Edgerton is impressive as Gatsby's hard nosed rival Tom Buchanan and Elizabeth Debicki is a real presence in the key supporting role of Jordan Baker.

Lurhmann's film is a much clearer exposition of the newly wealthy and mysterious Gatsby's efforts to win the affections of Daisy Buchanan from her mansion, and husband, across the lake. I liked it.

We saw it in 3D but I doubt the 2D version would lose anything by comparison.

★★★★

Fiddle-dee-dum, fiddle-dee-dee

This is Barry O'Farrell, the Premier of New South Wales. I generally don't like to ridicule people by posting odd looking pictures of them but, really, politicians just ask for it sometimes.

Mr O'Farrell led his party into Government a couple years back after decades in the wilderness of the Opposition benches. He did so with a thumping big majority. He deserves credit for that achievement which his numerous predecessors failed to achieve even if the constituency was so desperate to remove the other party from power that we may well have elected Kermit the Frog had been the only choice.

Anyway, Mr Farrell has that huge majority and he had the goodwill of the constituency to effect change and improvements but he has proved a huge disappointment. He would rather send a matter to a committee for endless consideration than make an actual decision. He seems afraid to make any decision that might not be popular. He has made the mistake of trying to be all things to all people.

At the moment he has a problem with one of his Ministers who had to be helped out of the Parliament the other evening when it appeared he was too drunk to participate. Now, this is not the first time a Member of Parliament has been found to be drunk in the house. Most have survived to continue their prosperous public careers.

This situation may prove different. The Minister has since been accused of making many interstate trips, at taxpayer expense, apparently to attend major sporting events. This may have been understandable if the minister's responsibilities were for sport or a related field but they are not. It seems the Minister has been rorting public funds. Significantly, said Minister is the Minister for Finance!

So what has this to do with Mr O'Farrell? Well, he is the Premier of the State. He is the leader of the Government of which the recalcitrant Minister is a member. Asked today, what Ministerial responsibilities apply in this situation Mr O'Farrell stated that he didn't know - an astonishing admission for the State's leader - and that a reason why did not know is that he, himself, has never been a Minister - a rather silly excuse in the circumstances.

Politicians are only human but, gee, they can be very stupid - even at the highest levels.

Yet more Vivid Sydney

Some further moments from the Vivid Sydney display on the Sydney Opera House;

More Vivid 2013

The sails of Sydney Opera House provide a wonderful backdrop for the Vivid Sydney light displays. Here are some from this year's display;

Vivid 2013

This is the last weekend in 2013 for Vivid Sydney, the city's annual festival of light. We joined the crowds, shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow, to view some of the displays. There must have been hundreds of thousands in the precinct tonight. A few snaps are below with some more to be posted over the next few days.

We are the last to disembark a ferry at Circular Quay arriving from Darling Harbour. Hundreds wait on the other side of the barriers for the signal to enter the wharf to make the reverse journey.

The authorities urge sightseers to travel to Circular Quay by public transport (bus, train or ferry) yet hundreds of cars continue to crawl north down Macquarie Street to the edge of the Opera House where all they can do is drive around the roundabout and return back in the southerly direction away from the precinct.

The creation of Earth depicted in traffic cones

Customs House is brilliantly lit again this year. Here are several moments from that display;

Sun breaking through

Sydney Harbour this morning

Happiness Never Comes Alone ('Un bonheur n'arrive jamais seul')

A woman literally falls into an instant attraction with an exuberant musician.

This French romantic comedy follows the classic 'boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy etc' formula so there are few surprises in 'Happiness Never Comes Alone'. Nevertheless this is a charming and vibrant film. The leads are attractive in their distinctive ways and the film contains a wonderfully diverse musical score. Throw in the the background scenery of Paris and New York and what's not to like?

★★★1/2

Bridge

Last night, 50.60%, 6/11 (pity about the last board).

The Other Son

In 'The Other Son' two men approaching their eighteenth birthday discover that they were switched shortly after birth. This discovery would raise extraordinary problems for resolution under any circumstances but when you consider one of the men is an Israeli Jew and the other a Palestinian in the Occupied Territories the religious, political, cultural and personal ramifications appear insoluble.

I've read that such a situation did occur in reality but I'm not certain whether the events portrayed in the film are based on fact or are fiction.

Either way, this is a fine film, very sensitively played out by an excellent cast. The scene where the two sets of parents receive confirmation of the switch is most moving; certainly it drew tears from me as the parents, mostly wordlessly, portray the shock, bewilderment and confusion of the situation in which they find themselves.

The film is presented in French, Hebrew, Arabic and some English.

★★★★

Dead Man Down

A man seeking revenge for the murders of his wife and child is coerced by blackmail to assist a woman seeking her own revenge against another who damaged her in a car accident. This set up would have delighted Alfred Hitchcock who might have filmed just such a plot in the 1950s in his distinctively sophisticated style using perhaps Cary Grant as the hero and a tastefully disfigured Grace Kelly as the heroine. The dialogue would have been witty and expletive free and any violence would have been hinted at but not seen.

But this is the 21st Century and high technology, sprinkled with bursts of crime with grime and gore are de rigueur. That is how this Hitchcockian setup is handled in 'Dead Man Down'.

I had no foreknowledge of this film and wasn't very hopeful whilst viewing its opening ten minutes or so but when the plot finally emerged I was pleasantly surprised to discover quite an interesting, if occasionally fanciful, action story.

On the surface this is just another modern blood and guts noisy mess but in the quiet moments that intervene lies a story sound enough to attract performers of the standing of F Murray Abraham, Isabelle Huppert, Terrence Howard and Armand Assante, as well as current 'names', Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace and Dominic Cooper.

★★★1/2

Parklands

Beauty on an autumn afternoon in Sydney's Centennial Park.

A quarter for entertainment

This morning at the Entertainment Quarter nee the Royal Agricultural Showground, late Fox Studio.

Tent tops for the current touring circus style show on the EQ reserve

Saturday market day at the EQ

So...that was Autumn

Traditionally winter commences 1 June in Australia, so today was our last day of Autumn. Overall, it was a very mild Autumn in Sydney, especially during May which was historically one of the warmest ever. Fittingly, today our maximum temperature was 24.9ºc (76.8ºf) which the Weather Bureau informs made it Sydney's warmest May 31 on record.

Roll on winter.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

In 2001 a young Pakistani, bright and ambitious, is living his dream in America as an up and coming financial executive. He is admired, envied and accepted by his peers and elders. Then the events of September 2001 and their consequences bring a change in attitude towards him and by him.

Told in flashback in the context of a highly charged political environment 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' is an interesting and well performed take on current world events and sources of tension.

Riz Ahmed and Liev Schreiber are standouts respectively as the 'fundamentalist' and the journalist interviewing him.

★★★1/2

I'm a twit....

...at the moment.

I'm falling behind in my blog reading at present because I have become addicted to following twits making their comments on a certain social media site. The more I follow, the more I follow...if you get my drift.

Many of the comments I read are inane although few are as puerile as my own contributions. Still I read and I follow. I'm so attentive to the site that I pull out my phone to catch up with the scrolling conversation in between arriving patients at the hospital. Very unprofessional, I know.

It is an addiction and I know I will tire of it - eventually. Until then my blog activities remain tardy.

A foggy morning....

...in Sydney town. A second consecutive morning of fog disrupting ferry services and closing the airport for hours.

The lights of cars in the fog in the street below my apartment

Bridge

Last night, 37.50%, 12/12, not our finest hour.

Rainy daze

Not a psychedelic painting. The view through my car windscreen during heavy rain as I wait for the downpour to ease so that I can make a dash to my friend's front gate.

Guys and Dolls

The Waverley Lugar Brae Players are an amateur group who stage musicals. Their longevity, celebrating 54 years this year, is impressive. It's been years since I attended one of their productions and this year Cs and I went to see their 2013 presentation, 'Guys and Dolls'.

I'm not sure what aspirations the participants have for a theatre career or their level of experience but judging purely from what we saw last Sunday my guess is that most are enthusiastic amateurs.

The lass who played the role of Adelaide was the standout amongst performers who otherwise generated a level of entertainment without achieving sustained professional standards.

The audience seemed to be stacked with friends and relatives of the participants some of whom may not be accustomed to attending mainstream theatre. This could account for the level of restlessness and inattention from the auditorium including the gentleman sitting next to Cs who decided to play games on his tablet during the performance. Needless to say, this greatly distracted and inflamed Cs who had words with said audience member at the interval.

Amateur the production might be, but the quality of the book and music of this classic musical still shone through.

★★

The Place Beyond The Pines

Three short stories presented sequentially and linked by key characters is the structure for 'The Place Beyond The Pines'.

In the first story a fair ground motor cyclist turns to crime to support a child he didn't know he had fathered. The second story features a policeman hailed as a hero in dubious circumstances. The final story features two troubled young men connected by historic events.

Ten minutes into the first story I doubted I would enjoy this film but by the start of the second story I was right into it. These tales of dubious morals and corruption prove to be unexpectedly interesting.

★★★★

Sails

Autumn morning sun

I know I keep posting photos of this particular view from my home but I find it endlessly fascinating in its various moods.

This time I am entranced by the Autumnal morning sun but sun so strong the reflection off the harbour is almost unbearably glaring. The sliver of water visible beyond the strip of land in the far distance is not the harbour but the Pacific Ocean on the far side of Sydney's seaside suburb of Manly.

For the largest image, click on the photograph.

Bridge

tonight, 52.40%, 5/13, good result but partner faced barrage from opponents when she forgot one of our conventions. The director rebuked opponent for his outburst. Who said, bridge is a genteel card game?

The Call

A Police emergency call centre operator takes a call from a young woman who has been abducted. 'The Call' triggers memories of an earlier call which ended in tragedy.

'The Call' contains much interesting footage and details about the Los Angeles Police Emergency Call Centre and its high tech operations which I assume reflect the real thing. These scenes made me wonder how Australia's 000 service stacks up in comparison.

The rest of the film is a fairly routine thriller handled competently but without much surprise. I should warn, however, that the film contains several horrific moments of violence from which I had to avert my eyes. They are brief thankfully but not very palatable.

★★★

Fury

(Sydney Theatre Company)

The Sydney Theatre Company is staging 'Fury', a new play by Joanna Murray-Smith.

A couple, she a scientist about to be awarded a major international prize, he a renowned artist, find their beliefs and past tested when their schoolboy son is accused of responsibility for racist graffiti.

This modern piece is packed with ideas such that Cs and I debated for hours afterwards the intended main message of the playwright. The fact that we were moved to discuss the work to that extent suggests a play with plenty of ideas even if they are fragmented to the point we couldn't reach a conclusion on our assessments of it.

This production is enhanced by some fine acting.

★★★1/2

School daze

The exclusive girls' school Ascham is, at a guess, about 500 metres down the hill from my home and I noticed an unusual level activity there this cool, sunny autumnal Sunday morning. Additional umbrellas and some girls playing tennis suggest perhaps an Open Day, a Sports Day or more likely a fund raising day.

I snapped this photo from my apartment using a zoom lens.

Like several inner suburban schools in Sydney, space is at a premium. The tennis courts sit atop several levels of school rooms.

The squeals of young girls at play can occasionally be heard here on the hill when the wind blows in the right direction.

Radio daze

This is my latest toy, purchased yesterday afternoon with minimal forethought after leaving the movies and detouring to the super shopping mall on a whim.

Three 'levels'(?) of radio - AM, FM and Digital - a cute little remote control and an add on dock for my iPhone and iPod. It cost a bomb.

It has excellent sound. Well, as excellent as sound 'sounds' to me with my one totally deaf ear. Now I have to buy a table or stand for it to sit on. Isn't it odd that you have stands for things to sit on?

The Big Wedding

The adopted son of a divorced couple is to be married and his birth mother has been invited to the wedding. A problem is that the birth mother, a devoted Catholic, is not aware the adoptive parents have divorced. Not only that but the adoptive father is living 'in sin' with another woman. In a plot line reminiscent of 'La Cage Aux Folles' the divorced parents are asked to pretend that they remain married.

'The Big Wedding' plays like a French farce at times and not surprisingly it is a remake of a French film, 'Mon Frere Se Marie'; albeit with many of the details of the original changed.

There are humorous moments but I suspect the French might have done it more subtly with their version.

★★★

Yep, it's as cold as it looks

Bridge

last night, 51.30%, 4/13, strong play despite some difficult hands.

The Hunt

A Kindergarten teacher is accused of inappropriate sexual dealings with a young child in this harrowing, often bleak, Danish film.

Mads Mikkelsen, the human metaphorical target in 'The Hunt', delivers a fine performance as his life spirals out of control. Mud sticks and there are no happy endings.

★★★★

Enjoying the view

Two Kookaburras enjoying the view from my balcony in the cool morning sunshine.........

Star Trek Into Darkness 3D

More than two hundred years into the future and the goodies are fighting the baddies in the Universe and on Earth. If you don't know who will win that battle again, then you have never seen a movie before.

Star Trek Into Darkness, however, is a cut above most of the rest. It has a smart screenplay scattered with some dry humour. Its characters have some depth and are not just cardboard cutouts. Visually it is outstanding and its 3D version is a minor triumph in its simplicity.

★★★1/2