The Shows Must Go On

In spite of the on-going World Cup matches, I've still managed to watch a few films. I just watch snippets of the matches, so perhaps it doesn' t really count but these American commentators are really irritating. They tend to give a lot of advice about what's going on on field (and on the poor quality of refeereeing) and always end up commenting on the chances of the US team (They're painfully optimistic -- "Italy is definitely beatable ..."). I guess it's the nature of football -- low-scoring and not a lot of goal mouth action -- that causes them to talk about it in this manner. Also, the terminology is sometimes irritating. There was a player down in the box and the commentator was screaming, "That's a Pee-Kay! Pee-Kay!" It took me a while to work out that he meant "penalty". They also try to keep track of all sorts of statistics like win-loss-draw records, percentage of time on the ball and number of 'assists' (a la American football and basketball) and by doing so, they're sometimes late about commenting on the action.

Anyway. In spite of all that -- some films:

1. Lady Jane. Before Mary and Elizabeth became queen, one of their cousins reigned shortly. for nine days, actually. Helena Bonham-Carter as a very young and precocious monarch. Quite an interesting one.

2. Bride and Prejudice. This is part of the Jane Austen track that was started earlier on. The songs and dance sequences are a strange (and often painful) blend of Bollywood and ... I don't know what ... but it was nice to see all sorts of accents coming into the film and clashing with each other. And of course, there's Aishwarya Rai.

3. Cambridge Spies. This was a BBC mini-series which is supposed to be more historically accurate than 'Another Country', which was just inspired by the "Cambridge Four". It doesn't just dwell on the time they spent at school but actually traces their careers as spies for the Soviet Union. Some super acting by Tom Hollander in this and it was very atmospheric and beautifully shot. I guess it captures the tricky and tortured motives of anyone whose trying to break out of a sterile and complacent society very nicely. Jumping off bridges at the University buck naked , that sort of thing.

4. Happy Together. This Wong Kar Wai I'll place as better than "Fallen Angels" but still not as good as "Chungking Express". The masochism of desire, heart wrenchingly portrayed.