Flinders Street Station

Andrew recently made mention of the new lighting of Flinders Street Station in Melbourne and I had the chance to see it myself last weekend. It is indeed an impressive sight.

The Eastern Suburbs

A view of Sydney's eastern suburbs shortly after take off from Sydney Airport on a sublime winter's day.

The green area upper left is Centennial Park. The green area to its right is Queens Park. The beach at lower right is Coogee with Coogee Oval the green circle to it's left. The long street running down the middle (with an angled left twist midway) is Carrington Road.

Paddington Town Hall

Foxtrot

Two Jewish themed films in two days. Coincidental.

'Foxtrot' is an Israeli film in three sections. In the first section, the parents of an Israeli soldier are visited with the news that their son has been killed in the line of duty. The father is initially stunned by the news and then suspicious about what actually happened to his son.

In the second section, the film reveals the nature of the duty the soldier was engaged in and in so doing portrays the wasteful, demeaning and destructive impact upon not only the soldiers but also the civilians with whom they come into contact.

The final section of the film shows the ironic and tragic truth of what has happened.

Slow and often static but worth the effort.

✮✮✮

Disobedience

Ronit (Rachel Weisz) returns to London from her workplace in New York following the death of her orthodox Rabbi father. Her reappearance sparks antagonism and suspicion amongst her friends and associates in the tight orthodox Jewish community which flares into outright anger when she is drawn into a forbidden relationship.

'Disobedience' contains excellent performances but it is a slow burn which won't appeal to everyone.

✮✮✮½

‘Saint Joan’

(Sydney Theatre Company)

My previous exposure to George Bernard Shaw's plays has been of furtive glances to my watch as hour after hour of dense dialogue passed by. Concentration and patience waned through plays seemingly intended to outlast time.

Against this background of experience I ventured to 'Saint Joan' with some degree of reluctance. In the event this adaptation considerably shortens Shaw's work and, I gather, considerably tightens the traditional staging.

The settings may be a bit static but the performances are powerful with Sarah Snook exceptional in the title role.

I enjoyed it.

✮✮✮✮

‘The Ice King’

'The Ice King' is a documentary about the life and career of British ice skater and performer John Curry who was one the first openly gay athletes.

Despite a sometimes stellar career and major achievements Curry's life seems a tale of missed and thwarted opportunities and ambitions. Quite an interesting film yet somehow like the subject's life,  I have the sense the work fails to adequately reflect the talent.

✮✮✮

‘Three Identical Strangers’

A student arrives for his first day at a new College and is astounded at the warmth of the welcome hugs, kisses and endearments he receives from complete strangers. When he meets his new room mate and receives a similar welcome he realises something everyone is confusing him for someone else. A few enquiries ensue and he is stunned to find he has an identical twin he never knew anything about. When this extraordinary occurrence receives national attention the 'twins' are further astounded to discover a third identical sibling. All three were adopted as babies to separate families.

This story seems fanciful yet this really happened. What is more this documentary about the triplets reveals extraordinary and troubling circumstances to their adoption and childhoods.

'Three Identical Strangers' is a fascinating, humorous and troubling documentary.

✮✮✮½

Two is a Family

Samuel (Omar Sy) is suddenly a single father. A former 'one night stand', Kristin (Clemence Poesy) dumps a baby daughter he didn't know he had fathered with him and disappears. Samuel tries to locate Kristin without success and raises the child himself. Eight years later Kristin re-enters their lives.

'Two Is A Family' is a bit of a mess. Apart from the dubious morality of the plot line, the film is not particularly interesting. The daughter is the only remotely endearing character.

✮½

Hamer’s Hall

Hamer Hall is Melbourne’s impressive concert venue. Spread over multiple levels, four of them below street level, it can be a bit of a trap for the novice or the unwary. I was both these on my recent, first attendance there.

Arriving there early for a concert I ventured down various levels by escalator in search of a food outlet I assumed to be there from the evidence of others munching away in the foyer levels.

Four levels of escalators down I discovered a small sandwich selection on one of the bars. Having purchased some food I looked around in vain for an empty chair but all were taken. Go back up I thought but the question was how. I realised all the escalators were set to travel down. No escalator was travelling up.

There were stairs and so I trudged up one level at a time until I could find seat on the first level I started from. Not good for an almost septuagenarian! It was only when I got my breath back that I noticed the elevator in a corner.

By the way, at concert's end all the escalators were reset to travel up.

The power couple

The 2,000 seat auditorium is filling fast. Two minutes or so to go before the start of the concert. All the seats in our row are occupied except for the two to my left which adjoin the side wall so their occupants, if any, will need to squeeze past the full row to reach them.

Late arrivals are streaming down the aisles then doing the sideways crab crawl to their seats.

Then they appear. The power couple.

He is in his mid-twenties, growing a thin moustache which is barely hairier than his 8pm shadow. He is wearing a skinny suit, slightly crimped behind the knee joints from tightness and day long wear. He has slip on shoes and is either stocking-less or wearing skin toned socks. He looks like lamb posing as debonair mutton.

On this winter’s night she is dressed for a balmy summer’s evening on a verandah wearing a loose short sleeve pastel coloured blouse, light skinny jeans and towering stilettos.

Both carry auditorium friendly tiny plastic cups containing red wine. As each of us in the row stands in turn the couple slides by careful not to spill a drop of wine. They are not so much protective of our clothing but of the minuscule amount which surely won’t last till interval.

They take their seats at the row’s end and, entrance made, they share a whisper.

Fifteen seconds pass by, 105 seconds now to performance time. Nothing has happened yet, so she decides it is time to make her way out minus the plastic cup and wine. I decide on a semi raise rather than a full raise and she exercises additional caution to avoid my protruding knees. The others in the row take my cue and follow with semi raises of their own. She ambles off casually into the flow of other latecomers, smaller numbers now, who are almost racing down the aisles to reach their seats.

Another fifteen seconds passes. Although no-one in my hearing has said a word, it seems he feels the need to make an announcement. Apparently speaking to no-one in particular but everyone in general he says ‘I saw Ramin in back to back concerts in New York last year and he...is...ah...may...zing.’

‘Oh really?’ is the response from the row behind.

‘Ah...may...zing’, he reiterates.

‘And I saw Anna on her opening night at the Regent’, he adds.

No response from anyone. Maybe nobody is interested in Anna?

Sixty seconds to performance time.

She has reappeared and the audience member on the aisle decides not to rise; not even a semi rise. Each of us in turn, as though by unspoken concensus, follows suit. This slows her progress but undaunted she continues with ostentatious care to ensure her summery skinny jeans make no contact with the roughage of our wintery apparel.

Thus reunited, the power couple is ready. The auditorium lights are extinguished. The concert can commence.

No bliss

I had tickets to see 'Bliss' at Belvoir Street but felt anything but blissful as I drove to the theatre. My nose was running, my throat felt like sand paper and I was coughing regularly.

I sat in my car thinking that somehow I would be able to get through the performance but that was wishful, not blissful, thinking. Apart from spreading my cold across the audience I would be a complete nuisance for those sitting around me.

I didn't get out of my car. I drove home where I should have remained all along.

No bliss for me.

‘Aurore’

'Aurore' (retitled 'I Got Life!') is a woman in midlife who is separated from her husband and whose daughter is pregnant. She is about to become a grandmother. Having lost her job after a row with a snooty cafe owner, Aurore runs into an old schoolmate with whom she had a school romance.

This French language romantic drama is is quite delightful with Agnes Jaoui sparkling in the title role.

✮✮✮½

‘The Marriage’

I would be pretty sure that 'The Marriage' is the first film I have ever seen made or even set in Albania.

It opens with a long, somewhat obscure, scene. A man and a woman are waiting with a number of others for some arrivals. Eventually a line of vehicles arrive and as do numerous people wearing white hazard protective clothing. It seems that the people have been waiting to identify and recover the remains of relatives; victims of war.

The man and the woman are engaged to be married and a friend of the groom arrives from France where he has been living for four years. Initially the three of them socialise but strains emerge as the true nature of the groom's friendship with this new arrival begin to surface.

A rather slow film which I imagine is more daring in its native country than it comes across in Australia. Provides an interesting glimpse into Albanian culture and life.

✮✮✮

Tea with the Dames

'Tea with the Dames' (made for television under the title 'Nothing Like a Dame') has four British actors, all of them honoured with Damehoods, sitting around a table discussing their lives and careers.

The situation comes across as a little artificial but it is variously a humorous, revealing and sad reflection of four artists in the twilights of their careers. I don't think there are first time revelations but a bonus in the film comes with flashbacks to their youthful days; a reminder of how they appeared  at the height of their freshness and beauty.

✮✮✮

Water feature

The water feature facade at Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria is a constant fascination for adults and children alike.

Winter sun

Melbourne's winter sunshine over the Arts Centre

Oklahoma!

(The Production Company)

Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'Oklahoma!' premiered on Broadway in 1943 and to this day is widely regarded as the landmark introduction of the 'musical play' in which the songs are relevant to and progress the play's plot.

Set at the dawn of the twentieth Century as the Territory of Oklahoma approaches statehood, the musical depicts twin tales of men vying for the affections of their love interests.

A quaint plot but the tuneful songs and rollicking dance numbers carry the day.

✮✮✮✮

Up, up and away

They look like five tiny dots in my photo; just off centre to the right in the upper half. But if you can make the photo larger you can can see balloons poking through the cloud just north of Melbourne (Christmas Hills?). The baskets, possibly containing passengers, are not visible. I guess any passengers were still below the fog line.

Hail

A sudden hailstorm today