Murakami, Ryu: In the Miso Soup

Just before New Year's Eve, Kenji, a freelance nightlife guide, is hired by an overweight American called Frank. As he takes him from bar to bar, we learn that high school girls willingly prostitute themselves as do housewives and it becomes clear that something is the matter with Frank. He says he has had part of his brain removed which causes him to 'freeze' at times and Kenji agrees to a second night with him. The close atmosphere of the seedier parts of Tokyo's night life comes across as the night unfolds with its culmination in a shockingly violent scene, all the more shocking because of the calm, matter of fact way it is described. Kenji is afraid he, too, will be killed but is unable to leave Frank even when the opportunity presents itself and he spends the night in a disused building with him. He tells Frank why 108 bells are rung at the close of the year and Frank talks to him of his childhood including almost throwaway admissions of murder. The book ends with Kenji united with his girfriend as Frank disappears in the crowd assembled to hear the bells. There is a flat unemotional feel to the book even though it deals with Kenji's reactions to what he thinks about Frank and then to what he witnesses. Both with the main characters and those they meet directly there is an air of isolation from the normal world with the sadness of those in the sex industry noticeably present. Not to be confused with the better known Haruki Murakami, this author takes the less savoury aspects of life as his field.

Hiaasen, Carl: Sick Puppy

Another in the series of books about environmental pollution and political corruption in Florida with the usual twists and turns in the plot. A very rich young man spends his time chasing and chastising litter bugs - for example, emptying a full
refuse truck on to an open sports car - before falling for the wife of a lobbyist who is the villain of this book though he is far from alone. Some amusing vignettes - as when the man and the errant wife are about to have sex but she insist on the dog being blindfolded before they start - and some nasty bits though the latter are never drawn out . Well up to the author's standard with sufficient variations in the story to make it fresh even with the same basic theme.

Morgan, Richard: Broken Angels

In the outer reaches of space, man in the 26th century is discovering the relics of Martian colonisation while showing that human nature seem unable to change with greed, violence, treachery and stupidity present to the full. Death can be a thing of the past as the top of the spine or stack can be transferred to a new body or sleeve which is done frequently in armies.
The book tells an involved tale of retrieving a Martian battle cruiser through a hidden portal with many visiccitudes on the way leaving only the narrator and a few others alive (or dead) on their way to a different planetary system. The science seems plausible though unlikely and is not all-encompassing - spaceships take years to cross the galaxy though there is both a
shortened subjective time and the longer real time - and working out the technology used by the Martians is slow and rather limited. A book of nearly 500 pages, it raises some interesting ideas about the environment, human nature and the way that multi-national corporations appear to be taking over from national governments without preaching against the backdrop of an adventure story within the science fiction milieu.

Driving Miss Daisy.

These days we rarely go to the theatre, partly a function of the relative cost compared with cinema and partly a matter of preference. There have been exceptions, more so in the past than now, to see some of the greats such as Gielgud and Guinness, James Stewart, Mickey Rooney and Anne Miller et al. The reason for going to see this film was that it is the only chance to see the great James Earl Jones on stage. While he was good in the role of Miss Daisy' chauffeur, the truly outstanding performance was that of Vanessa Redgrave as Miss Daisy. She, like Jones, is well past the age of retirement,
(he is 80, she 74) but she gave a performance of such bravura excellence that it was a true privilege to watch. Only a short play, some 80 plus minutes with no interbal, but one that will be remembered.

Faust: Alexandr Sokurov (LFF 27.10.2011)

Set in a mediaeval village this is the final film of Sokurov's tetralogy about spiritual shortcomings taking the traditional tale of
Faust. A long film with hints of Murnau at times and of Terry Gilliam at others, I need to see this one again to decide as the
length unfortunately defeated my attempts to pay continuous attention. It was highly recommended by a St Petersburg DVD
seller who had seen it a few weeks earlier so I should give it another go.

Dendera: Daisuke Tengan (LFF 26.10.2011)

This is a sequel to 'The Ballad of Narayama' in which the women of a village were taken over the mountain to die when they reached 70. The opening sequence sees Kayu being taken up to the shrine over the mountain in the depths of winter to die
but she is found and saved by older women who have themselves survived, the oldest being now 100 years old and the founder of this women only settlement. Kayu is the 50th which decides the matriarch that it is time to return to the village to kill the men. The film shows their life and their training for this but they are disturbed by a large bear which attcks them and ransacks the food store. They regather and set a trap for the bear but succeed only in killing the she-bear's cub. A further attack reduces the number of women but they do set out to carry out their attack only to be hit by a further setback - an avalanche reduces their number even more including the death of the matriarch. Dayu sets out to entice the bear to attack her and a companion - she does this by leading it to the village where it is joined by a male bear killing some of the men. The film ends abruptly with her facing the female, presumably accepting that she will be killed. The photography of the winter landscape is excellent and gives the impression at times of a painting rather than reality. All in all a well done film

Damsels in Distress: Whit Stillman (LFF 24.10.2011)

This was the BFI Members' mystery film, supposed to be a thank you for their support. Certainly that is how it was introduced by Sandra Hebron. Set in an American co-ed college which seems to have students who are well into adult life (Of the three leads who went to school together, one looks well over 30 while the other two look years younger) though this may be a deliberate attempt at humour referring back to the college films of the 30s of June Allyson, Peter Lawford, et al. How the film plays out is something I do not know as the first 30 or so minutes were sufficiently unentertaining and poorly put together for us not to want to see the rest. The only other review I have seen appears to bear out our thoughts. This was the first time we had opted for the mystery film and, on this showing, it will be the last.

The Monk: Dominik Moll (LFF 24.10.2011)

Based on the great Gothic novel by Matthew Lewis, the film tells of Brother Ambrosio, brilliantly played by Vincent Cassel, a charismatic monk whose fiery sermons have spread the fame of his monastery. Local gentry flock to hear his sermons. Then a young man with a masked face is brought to the monastery with a plea that he be accepted as a novice. Though there is
resistance from some of the brothers, this happens and the lad is allowed to dwell alone in a tower room. In the grounds is a
garden which Ambrosio has created which is not used by the others. Ambrosio finds the novice there who reveals that he is
actually a young woman whose bodily charms seduce Ambrosio. He does, however, force her to leave. Approached by a local lady to visit her sick mother-in-law, he does so but finds himself falling for her - he does have sex with her but is found doing so by her fiance - imprisoned, sentenced and punished, he is left finally to the torments of hell. Very well filmed, the
director combines both the fervour of religion and the temptations of the flesh and it is easy to see why the book is looked on as a proto-surreal one. I must read it. In passing, when Cassel strips for the consumation of his lust, his physique could claim to match, male to female, that of his wife!

The Artist: Michel Hazanavicius (LFF 22.10.2011)

Brining together again Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, the film is a loving portrayal of Hollywood at the time talkies came to
supplant the silent film. Dujardin plays a megastar adventure hero, something on the lines of Douglas Fairbanks, who takes
a shine to Bejo when she gets a bit part in his latest film. This propels her to stardom while he founders by not accepting that sound will change film-making for good. He tries to make his own great epic but this is a complete flop, outgunned in all ways by her latest film which premieres the same night. She saves him when he burns his archive in a fit of despair and nearly dies and, after the usual waverings, the film ends with the two of them dancing together in her new film. What gives the film its great charm is the virtual lack of dialogue though not sound which is used as to point and punctuate. It provides a celebration of that time in the history of the movies without really being an homage. The cast includes some Anglo-American veterans who perform well but the real scene stealer is, arguably, the hero's dog, his performance itself being a
reminder of the wonder dogs of yesteryear.

Last Screening: Laurent Achard (LFF 21.10.2011)

The lead, played by Pascal Cervo, is a quiet cinema manager which is about to be closed although he behaves as if this will not happen, telling regulars that there will be showings the following week. His unassuming nature, however, hides his real
character which is soon revealed. He is a serial killer. Cervo gives a convincing performance as a man in the grip of a deadly passion whil presenting a bland amiable face to the world and the director does a confident job while not hitting any great heights. Certainly he is someone whose future films will be watched.

Let The Bullets Fly: Jiang Wen (LFF 20.11.2011)

An action comedy set in rural 1920s China with fast-moving action, double-dealing and a duel role for the King of Cool, Chow Yun Fat. A notorious bandit robs a train containing the new Governor of Goose Town and his wife. The latter becomes the Bandit's mistress and he takes on the Governor's identity, making the latter his advisor. Chow is the Mr Big of Goose Town, and also his slow-witted double, who seems to be a willing co-operator in the renewed search for the bandit while actually trying to remove the Governor and retain control of the town. Much mayhem occurs in a series of scenes with the ending seeing Chow blown up and the bandit now deciding to go to Beijing for further advancement. A complete riot of a film which does not need or would bear any serious criticism - a film to sit back and enjoy.

Nobody Else But You (Poupoupidou): Gerald Hustache- Mathieu (LFF 29.10.2011)

A writer of crime novels goes to Mouthe on the Franco-Swiss border in mid-winter for the reading of an aunt's will to find that his inheritance is a stuffed dog which he leaves in a roadside dump. Checking in to a local hotel, he becomes intrigued by the recent death of a local beauty who was the weather girl on the local TV. Her body had been discovered in a patch of
land neither Swiss nor French, a 'No-Man's Land'. The film alternates between his seking answers and the girl's life in flashback which shows that she thought she was the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe. Definite parallels exist from her beauty queen days to her becoming the mistress of the region's leading politician, this culminating in her singing 'Happy Birthday' to him at a local award ceremony with a deliberate dress malfunction as the climax. The politician drops her but she threatens to cause a scandal which leads to her death. Although serious, there is a light comedic touch to much of the
action which does end up with the writer, who had been suffering from a block, telling her story with success. The snow-bound surroundings are well photographed but the tenor of the film means it should not really be compared with the other
winter thriller of recent years, 'Fargo'.

Tales of the Night: Michel Ocelot (LFF 18.10.2011)

A 3D animation from France in six disparate episodes, most of which I managed to doze through apart from the first "The Werewolf' which was more than acceptably done. Animated films from different countries seem to have very different styles and this one reminded me both of 'Kirikou and the Sorceress' by the same director and the work of Lotte Reiniger.

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai: Takashi Miike (LFF 17.101.2011)

A restrained remake of Kobayashi's film of a story which attacks the inhumanity of feudal Japan. Set at a time when the Shogunate had led to many samurai becoming unemployed, it deals with the consequence of one of them begging a local lord for funds to save his sick wife in return for his own ritual suicide. This is something that others have done without then
killing themselves but this time he is forced to follow the traditional form even though his sword is only bamboo. We learn this as it is told to another applicant wishing to kill himself on the same grounds. Like a Chinese puzzle box unfolds, we
learn of the ronin's life, then his enforced suicide and his wife's death with the revelation that the current request has been made by the father of the dead man's wife. A rather leisurely but beautifully filmed development erupts in the final reel into a fight between the father and the full complement of the lord's household with the inevitable conclusion. Quieter and more
thought-provoking than last year's '13 Assassins' but less enjoyable.

The Fairy: Abel, Gordon and Romy (LFF 15.10.2011)

The three directors also take the leads in this anarchic farce which combines brilliant physical comedy with surreal images.
Abel is a night manager in a small hotel into which Gordon checks telling him she is a fairy and giving him three wishes. He
asks for the first two but saves the third. She is hospitalised but rescued by him in a marvellous string of physical gags which are worthy of Keaton at his best. This is later topped by a brilliant sequence in which the two of them are trying to
recover their infant child off the back of a moving car. In between, a slightly drawn out scene in a cafe run by a very myopic Romy with the local ladies rugby team drowning their sorrows does slow things down without minimising the charm.

The Machine That Kills Bad People: Roberto Rosselini (LFF 14.10.2011)

A departure from the neo-realism normally associated with this director, the film is a satirical fantasy in which a photographer in a small Italian town is given magical powers. Anyone photographed by him against whom he has any
sort of grudge subsequently dies. Discovering this by accident, he uses it to remove corrupt and venial officials. A secondary plot has two American couples arriving in the town, one of whom has inherited a house from a dead uncle. They
are moved from place to place as the locals try to win favour from the supposedly rich visitors. Played very broadly, the film is a pleasant enough commentary on corruption in many forms - but surely not the lost masterpiece that some have claimed it to be.

The Goose Woman: Clarence Brown (LFF 13.10.2011)

Louise Dresser is the lead in this 1925 melodrama, playing an opera singer who has lost her voice and who now lives in semi-poverty in the countryside. A murder in the next farmstead gives her the idea of reviving her fame by claiming to have seen the killer. she is cleaned up and feted by the local DA and wooed by the press though the local sheriff has his doubts. A subplot deals with the romance between her son and a girl. Finally, she admits to her deceit and all ends well. Straightforwardly filmed, this is a tour de force by the lead who is ably supported by the other players.
The film was preceded by two Vitaphone shorts which remind one how much popular entertainment has changed over the years as neither feature would see daylight now even though those poerforming had long and successful vaudeville careers.
One must applaud the work of all those involved in restoring old films where the choice of what is restored is often one of
dealing with what is available regardless of overall merit. The shorts have some historical interest while the main film is worth the efforts taken to preserve the fine lead performance.

Hayder, Mo: The Treatment

Mo Hayder writes very well about the nastier aspects of life. This is a second book featuring DI Jack Caffery and the area of south London between Brixton and Dulwich. His life is blighted by the loss of his brother when both were children and his ongoing feud with a local paedophile who was involved. He has a girlfriend who was seriously hurt in the first book and the
relationship between them forms part of the novel with her wanting him to get over his brother and he wanting her to adjust
to the immediate past. The thrust of the book is the discovery of a couple near death with a missing son, the elaboration of what happened to them and the involvement of an extensive paedophile ring which includes the local one. As the tale moves to a sort of conclusion, the reader learns of Caffery's brother's fate though Caffery himself does not. Despite the unsavoury nature of events, I was not put off as the standard of writing is very good. The plotline was possibly a little confusing but so is real life though one does tend to expect a more straighforward exposition in most novels. I must find the first book though some of the limited references did strike a chord.

St Petersburg:7 to 10 October 2011

Over Pat's birthday, we went to St Petersburg for a tghree night stay. Having upgraded to business class on BA, the flights
were comfortable, the transfers at both ends went satisfactorily and the weather was reasonable for the most part.
The hotel was situated over a small shopping mall and was of moderate three star standard, nothing special. The location
could have been much better as the main reason for the trip was to go to the Hermitage Museum. This was a good 45 minute walk away - we did not try the metro system though it should not have been any problem ( there was a stop close to the hotel) but we were apprehensive of getting lost. I kept telling myself that the walk along the Nevsky Prospect was good for me but my feet, in particular, did not agree. The Winter Palace is a magnificent sight both across the square and close up. Many of the Palace rooms are splendidly furnished and works of art in their own right. One can but wonder at the craftmanship and expense involved. There are extensive collections of archaeological remains from various parts of Russia, a fine collection of Egyptian and classical works, as well as artefacts from the Middle Ages but our aim was to cover the art collection. While this is very extensive with some outstanding works, the overall impression was not as great as I was expecting - the 18 part series I have on disc led me to expect rather more. However, it is one of the truly great collections and I am gald we have at last sen it - I wonder what the recently opened outposts like the one in Amsterdam have to offer.
The Russian Museum was also something of a disappointment: the icons were striking but the spread of the collection was a
little too much to appreciate - possibly seeing it first thing rather than mid-afternoon would have helped. A real treat was the visit to the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, the interior covered in mosaics depicting various saints and religious scenes - again, the craftmanship left one speechless. The Nevsky Prospect which runs from the Winter Palace to the Moscow
Station is a broad, flat and straight boulevard with a number of historic buildings still standing despite the ravages of the Second World War and on both days we stopped for refreshments with, on Sunday, lunch at the restaurant frequented by Pushkin and others. Shopping was limited to a Russian atlas, some DVDs of Russian films we had seen such as Volga-Volga
and Kin-Dza-Dza. On the Monday morning we looked inside the Metro Station and went in to the church opposite the hotel which is dedicated to Saint Vladimir. Like the previous day's church, the outside is recognizably Russian but on a smaller scale and I was somewhat surprised at the number of worshippers, many of them quite young, that was there on a Monday morning. We also added to our DVD purchases in a nearby store including some recommended by the shopkeeper. We did
not see much of the city - the great Peter and Paul Fortress, for instance, - but that is true of many of our past city visits to some extent. One general comment which contradicts what we had been told beforehand is the vibrancy of the central area in particular though there are still places which need upgrading (just like parts of Oxford Street!) and the outer districts are typical of any major city. While well over a decade has passed since we were in Dresden and Leipzig, the contrast between the drabness in those two cities and the liveliness of St Petersburg is considerable.

Montanari, Richard: The Skin Gods

A serial killer policier set in Philadelphia with a male lead, recovering and only partly back on duty, and a female partner who
has sufficient seniority to head up the field team investigating the crimes. This is the second book with this pair, in the first
of which the female is a rookie, with a third featured at the close of this book. It provides something of a contrast between the normal slow routine of checking out leads, known criminals and limited witness statements with the use of informers - in this case a woman who had been badly hurt by one of the prime suspects in the current case - and flashes of inspiration, made mainly by the recovering male detective. He also becomes involved with the female informer. Relying rather on a mix of red herrings and coincidence, the book moves along fairly well but is not overly convincing in the end.

Isis, Justin: I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like

A series of short stories of varying length, some almost a novella, of which three have the same title as the collection. The cover blurb suggests the author is a combination of Oscar Wllde and Villiers de L'Isle-Adam moved to present-day Japan and
this may be a fairly reasonable description. There is a definite air of detached strangeness in all the stories both the long one and the short ones. This strangeness does make the stories hard to enjoy though the overall effect is not unpleasing.
The unfinished nature of many of the tales is a function, I suppose, of their episodic nature and the bleakness of the approach.

Frightfest 2011: Day 5 (29.08.2011)

The Caller: set in San Juan, Puerto Rico, presumably because of funding since none of the main cast have any connection with the island, this is a generational thriller where the heroine receives telephone calls apparently from the past. So-so.
Deadheads: a zombie road trip movie about which I remember less than nothing which was probably what I felt at the time.
Sennentunschi; a Swiss film with Roxane Mesquida in the lead which is based on a legend of a woman made of straw brought tolife by the Devil to cook and keep house for Alpine hunters. When treated as a whore by them, she takes a terrible revenge. This version has Mesquida kept captive by the local priest until she escapes and is taken care of by the local policeman. He takes her from the village to a hut on upper pastures where he leaves her in the care of a shepherd and his
simpleton son; they are joined by a killer on the run, tension rises and killing follows with an ending which harks back to an earlier tragedy. Apparently the first genre film from Switzerland, this is a well made and well acted film.
Inbred: a bunch of delinquents are taken to a lonly cottage in Yorkshire on a weekend away meant to improve their social
skills. Unfortunately, they upset the locals who are psychopaths whose regular entertainment seems to be watching different ways of torture and death. Sort of jokey apart from the resulting death of all the visitors.
A Lonly Place To Die: set in the Scottish Highlands not too far from Inverness, a bunch of climbers set out on a weekend trip but run across a Serbian girl trapped in an underground bunker. Having released her, they find themselves hunted by the
kidnappers who proceed to kill most of them as they try to get the girl back to safety. The girl's father is a Serbian criminal and he has his men hunting the kidnappers as well. The denouement is in a small town where some sort of midsummer festival is on the streets in the late evening. Rather implausible but well done and the best of the British films seen here this year.

Frightfest 2011: Day 4 (28.08.2011)

The Divide: A nuclear holocaust finds a mixed bag of survivors in a basement where Michael Biehn, the building's caretaker lives. Initally, he is in control doling out rations but his role is usurped by Milo Ventimiglia and his buddy who run the place as they choose. Rosanne Arquette plays a nymphomanic mother who is used and discarded. Not nice.
The Last Post: part of the short film programme, this stars Jean Marsh as a dying lady in hospital remembering her love who
returns to claim her as she dies - short and sweet.
The Innkeepers: the last days of a New England inn which is closing down. It has a history of paranormal activity and it is the
investigation of this and the subsequent outcome that make the film. Minor with the thrills a long time coming.
Saint; a Dutch film set at the time of the feast of Saint Nicholas who was not, it turns out, the kindly old man but a bloothirsty
pirate. He returns from Hell and sets about killing while his presence is only accepted initially by a student and a disgraced
detective. They eventually prevail after a number of adventures. Well made.
Kill List: considered the highlight of the weeked, this is a parson's egg of a film. Starting as a family drama with Neil Maskell and MyAnna Buring as a married couple quarelling about money who entertain his best friend and his girlfriend of the moment to dinner. It turns out that the two men are ex-soldiers who served together in Iraq who have become contract killers though their last assignment in the Ukraine seems to have not gone as it should have done. They are given new tasks and deal with these but Maskell is becoming unhinged at which point the film turns into a Dennis Wheatley thriller with a
black mass, the death of the friend and, finally, the death of Maskell's wife and son at his hand. End of film. It has been
well-reviewed by most national critics but undeservingly so. The first half or so are acceptably done but the incoherence that follows destroys any credibility the film might have had with the ending confirming this.

Frightfest 2011: Day 3 (27.08.2011)

Troll Hunter: a Norwegian film using found footage to tell the story. Not a process that I like as it does make for difficult viewing but there is sufficient 'proper' filming to offset this and the scenery is glorious. The title tells it all - trolls do exist and are kept secret and controlled by a secret Government department but three students stumble on this and are taken along by the eponymous lead. The special effects are well done with there being different types of troll.
The Wicker Tree: Robin Hardy has produced a variant follow-up to the unforgettable 'The Wicker Man' with a different variation on pagan practices. A born-again Christian evangelical singer and her boy friend embark on a Scottish tour and are
guests of a local laird in south-west Scotland where they eventually discover that all is not as they thought to the eventual
demise of them both. Possibly a second viewing may improve my feeling for the film but I suspect that the real problem lies in the cast. None of them hold a candle to the original cast, even the less important of the latter such as Britt Eklund and the two original leads - Edward Woodward and the great Christopher Lee - are so superior as to be in a different world.
My Sucky Teen Romance: made by an 18 year old and it showed though it is better than a lot of first efforts even with such a
silly story line.
Fright Night 3D: a remake with Colin Farrell, David Tennant and Toni Collette of the original with the 3D adding little to the film which is glossy, reasonaly well-made but a waste of time.
The Woman: a feral woman is captured by a bullying husband whose attitude to his wife leaves one wondering why he married except, possibly, to continue his species. He and his teenage son torture her and humiliate her until she gets free and turns the tables on both his family and him though not before a resourceful female reporter has also been killed by him. A stand out performance by Pollyanna McIntosh in a thoroughly nasty film.
Chillerama: the second compendium film of the weekend starting with a ridiculous episode about a sperm that kept growing;
made in the style of some horror films of the 60s, this was abad as it sounds. This was followed by an even worse sequence called 'The Diary of Anne Frankenstein' which we did not see to the end - the usual delay to later items on the daily programme meant this film started much later than it should have and the badness compounded this

Frightfest 2011: Day 2 (26.08.2011)

Rogue River: A girl drives out to the middle of a forested countryside to scatter her father's ashes. Her car is twoed away by the local police and she is befriended by a local man who offers to drive her to a hotel after stopping at his house to tell his
wife. The latter insists she stays with them which she does only to find she has really been taken captive. As the film progresses, so does the violence though the resourceful heroine does eventually prevail. Not bad.
A Horrible Way To Die: Trying to start a new life after finding her boyfriend was a psychopathic killer, Sarah's life is turned to one of fear when he escapes from prison and comes after her. She then finds that the man who has become her mentor at the local AA branch is a fan of the killer which puts her life in double danger but she finally saves herself.A fair idea which is rather spoiled by its execution.
Urban Explorers: an illegal visit to the tunnels under Berlin turns into a nightmare for the four tourists who take it in what is an interestingly plotted film reasonly done.
The Glass Man: James Cosmo hires a man who has been fired but who continues to behave as if still working to help him kill
someone which he agree to do. A number of twists and turns create an increasingly surreal situation in which the unemployed man loses sight of reality. So-so
Tucker and Dale vs Evil: a reversal of the usually expected characteristion with the hillbillies being the good guys and the city
folks the baddies, sort of. Amusingly told and well put together with some delightful touches.

Frightfest 2011: Day 1 (25.08.2011)

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark: The opening film of the weekend was a high budget Hollywood drama with little to commend it.
Katie Holmes plays the fiancee of Guy Pearce who is renovating an old house for them to move into together with his young
daughter by his first marriage. Like nearly all such houses, it is dark and gloomy and the girl is withdrawn despite Holmes's
attempts to become friends with her. A hidden room is discovered and the girl spends time in it being interested by the voices she hears - these belong to some ratlike creatures dwelling in the depths below the house but communicatins through
a barred grate. Pearce is wrapped up in his work but a major failing of the film is the complete lack of chemistry between Katie Holmes and him even when it is obvious that matters are going awry. Even the sacrifice Holmes makes to save the child produces a reaction on about the same level as finding the wrong newspaper had been delivered.
Final Destination 5 - 3D: I am not too enthusiastic about 3D films but the effects in this were, for the most part, well done and justified the use of the third dimension. The plot is basically the same as before - you cannot cheat death even though you may delay it. Starting with a college field trip in which an accident on a bridge results in a number if spectacular deaths while some of the students manage to escape, the film then produces the final death of all of them one by one up to the final
scene which takes us back to the very first film of the franchise. Enjoyable tosh.
The Theatre Bizarre: the first late night film we have ever seen at Frightfest is episodic with different directors telling six tales between them with an odd linking performance by Udo Keir. As with all such films, the episodes vary considerably. The first one with a young couple crossing paths with a voluptuous witch who is seen at first as a crone is one of the better ones as was that of the two lovers in a hotel room but the others varied between average and less than average.

Lackberg, Camilla: The Ice Princess

A writer, Erica Falck, has returned home after the death of her parents to sort out their possessions. She is out walking when she is called into a house to find the dead body of a childhood friend in what seems to be a suicide but is actually murder. One of the local detectives is an old boyfriend. During the course of the investigation their old feelings are resurrected and they fall in love. The book differs from many in the strong development of many of the characters, not just the central ones, so that it all but becomes a social history of the local area. This does lead to a number of threads in the story being left unresolved with one wanting to know what happens although the crime is solved by the end of the book. This does bring to light unsavoury events from the past which reflect badly on the parents of the dead woman among others though this is done without being too critical of their behaviour. There is a second book featuring the two main characters which may tie up some of the incomplete strands, particularly that of the disposition of the house that Erica and her sister inherited. A welcome change from some crime novels where the crime and its solution take precedent over the participants.

Pedro Almodovar: The Skin I Live In

I am revieing this now rather than the Frightfest films which precede it in time so a to place it next to the book on which it is
based. The differences are obvious. In the book, there is no housekeeper, the reason for the captivity is known more or less
from the start, there is no sub-plot ( the hard to accept co-incidence in the book) and the ending is decidedly different. That said, the film takes the basic premise of the book as the central plot with Almodavar adding his own twist. I was not taken with Banderas's performance which was almost that of a non-existent character but this was a minor blemish on a well made film. While there were flashbacks which did not quite gel all the time, the tale was developed more or less linearally which made the whole thng clear. The one thing that does puzzle me is the change to the ending of the book which does rather change the overall gestalt. A fine film but not a great one.

Jonquet, Thierry: Tarantula

This is the 1995 noir on which the new Almodovar film 'The Skin I Live In' is based, a review of which will follow shortly. The
book is tautly written (as with other non-English novels, the translator is to be congratulated) and developed in an unusual way. A celebrated plastic surgeon keeps his mistress captive and does take her out from time to time either to social functions where some consider her to be his second wife or to less reputable surroundings where he effectivelt pimps her out to punish her. why he does the latter is not explained but he does appear to be increasingly less happy with doing this. It turns out as the book develops that he has a daughter who is unbalanced to the extent that he finally agrees to give up the
regular visits he has been making. After the initial development, the focus switches to a petty crook with limited intelligence who has killed a policeman, having previously been looked after by his best friend who vanished some time back. While holed up, he sees a programme on TV featuring the plastic surgeon and decides that the wayout of his dilemma is to get a new face by forcing the surgeon to give him one. He watches him and concocts a scenario where he captures the mistress and uses the threat of her death to get the surgeon to comply. Naturally, the latter easily outwits him which leads to the
shocking denouement. The ending does rely on a hard to accept co-incidence but, provided this is accepted as possible, it
does not detract from the book. The standard noir formula does require a femme fatale which this book does not really have
so calling the book a noir is a misnomer - it is a tale of obsession and revenge.

Camilleri, Andrea: The Snack Thief

Another Inspector Montalbano mystery which is well up to the author's high standards. The underlying humour does not
detract from the darkness of the plot and there is, this time, something of an elegiac air. Having mentioned elsewhere that
so many detectives have flawed personal lives, deciding which characteristics of Montalbano are drawbacks is both easy and
hard to decide. He does not want to be promoted away from Vigato, enjoys his food rather too much, gets depressed easily,
does not want to commit to his long established lover who lives in Genoa and is, inevitably for Sicily, careful with his dealings with the Mafia. He does not suffer fools gladly and seems to play favourites at times (or rather, the reverse). All these traits do provide a lively and pleasing story. Camilleri has been praised for his sense of place which is apparent in the air of near
resignation at the ongoing socio-political environment and also, conversely, in the leisured pace of things.

Wilson, Robert: The Blind Man of Seville

Just as the previously reviewed book by this author (A Small Death in Lisbon) is multi-layered with different time strands, this
has an extensive back story both in narrative form and as diary extracts which the author has created extensively and then
used only parts of them. The present day story is that of a police inspector in Seville investigating a series of linked murders
to which he receives clues. He is convinced, rightly as it turns out, that the answer lies in the past and the book gradually
unravels the past links through his father's diaries. The latter is a celebrated painter now dead and the deciphering of his
past provides the answer eventually. As is so often the case, the policeman is flawed personally. As well as many self- doubts he is getting over a failed marriage which is not helped by his ex-wife having an affair with the instructing judge.
There are a number of set pieces some of which are background though one turns out to be another killing by the murderer.
Complicated but well written and an acceptable denouement which fits the overall story.

Stross, Charles: The Fuller Memorandum

Another adventure for Bob Howard and his wife Mo with her participation limited but vital. The continuing story of the secret branch of the British Secret Service that deals with the supernatural. Every bit as involving and well-crafted as the earlier books though the finale did seem a little over the top. The idea of a Lovecraftian world seen only by a gifted few is made a
perfectly reasonable construct and there is a definite consistency in its application. I have read and reviewed the two books which precede this. 'The Atrocity Archives' and 'The Jennifer Morgue', and this book maintains the high standards of those two
with a definite development of the characters.

Preston, Douglas: The Codex

Elsewhere in this blog is a review of one of this author's collaborations with Lincoln Child (as well as a review of one of the
latter's books) but this is the first solo effort I have read. There is no great difference in the style of this book from that of the collaborations with both requiring some suspension of disbelief as, come to think of it, do many adventure cum thriller
novels. A simple story - father calls his sons to the family mansion but he is gone as are the multi-million dollar works of
art and relics which he has taken back to the Mayan ruins of Honduras to be buried with him as he has but a few months to
live. The three react differently with the lead brother initially deciding to forget about it. He is persuaded otherwise by a
beautiful blonde ethnopharmacologist who talks him into going to find 'The Codex' which is a herbal dictionary of the many
plants used by the Mayans. One brother has teamed up with the man who had been his father's partner when he first went
to Honduras though they fell out there: this is the villain of the piece. Although going their own way, the three brothers do
eventually link up with a fourth brother who is part native Honduran. One has to accept the varied skills of the girl and the
main brother and the out and out villainy of the bad guy as well as the coincidences that bring them all together and lead to
the denouement. Well-written and equal to the collaborative works of which more as time goes by.

Maberry, Jonathan: Patient Zero

I read this after a teasing review in either 'The Times' or 'Time Out'. The hero seems to be too good to be true with lightning
reflexes and a lack of conscience when it comes to the bad guys. The premise of the book is the development of a drug which turns people into zombies, as does their then biting others, with a double villain. The money provider for the work
done in developing the drug is the head of a world-wide drug corporation whose intent is to capture the world drug market
but he is working with the talented wife of a terrorist Muslim whose aim is the destruction of the USA and the entire Western
world. Thus, there are two threads - one the efforts to contain and wipe out the zombies on US soil and the other the way in which the jihadist outwits the man with the money. The book moves along at a fast pace and there are no untoward leaps of faith required to follow the story as long as the basic idea is accepted. A sequel appears to be set up at the end but I will take my time getting to it.

Thompson, Jim; Pop. 1280

Thompson is probably the coldest and most spare of the hard-boiled school of crime writers. He has no standard formula or regular hero like Hammett's Continental Op but deals with the lower strata of human existence as he finds it. This book is
set in the early years of the 20th century and tells of a sheriff in a small town with a population of 1280. His aim is to do as
little as possible to avoid over-exerting himself but circumstances somewhat change this as it is election year and his lack of
effort has led to adverse comments and a strong opponent. In sparse language we learn that he eats a lot, was tricked into
marriage but has sex regularly with two other women, kills the two local pimps and then manages to point the finger of blame at another, kills the husband of one of his mistresses and a local black who learns he has done this and eventually gets rid of his wife and her live-in brother (or lover). There is a strong leavening of humour in the telling without this creating any
sympathy for the sheriff whose apparent dumb exterior hides a cunning, manipulative and psychotic mind. The end is a tad
sudden leaving matters unresolved. The book forms the basis of the film 'Coup de Torchon' which transfers the action fo
Franch West Africa with the lead role taken by the inimitable Philipe Noiret for whom one cannot help but feel sympathy,
misplaced though this is.

Grimwood, Jon Courtenay: Stamping Butterflies

I must have read the trilogy of 'Felaheen', 'Effendi' and 'Pashazade' some time before I started reviewing as it was my memory
of those books that made me choose this one which links events in 1969 Marrakesh with an attempted assination of the US
President in the present day of the novel and life on a distant planet in the far future. Gradually the strands come together with, understandably, the links between the former two more obvious than the final connection. The writing evokes the
different settings very tellingly and the complicated tale keeps one's attention throughout. The jumps from 1969 to now to
whenever do sometimes jar a little for this reader - I was almost tempted to read each part through rather than accepting the
developing interlinking pattern. Very inventive and very well written.

Hughes, Dorothy B.: In a Lonely Place

A masterly tale of a psychotic killer whose identity is known to the reade from the start. Dixon Steele, a World War II veteran,
has moved to Los Angeles to write, being supported by a monthly cheque from his uncle. He is living in an apartment which
belongs to a former Princeton colleague who is supposedly in Rio. His best wartime friend is now a sergeant detective with
the Los Angeles police and he uses this friendship to keep abreast of developments in the latest murder, the sixth in recent
months. His friend's wife is not altogether sure of him but the wartime friendship prevails. Steele takes up with a woman in
the apartments who, like him, is an opportunist but they fall in love though she does keep some distance between them. The
denouement, after more murders, results in his being caught with the twist being that all the murders had duplicated his killing of an English girl whom he had loved but then strangled. Tightly plotted and written, the book confirms Dorothy B.
Hughes' place at the very top of thriller writers of the period - if not of all time.
The book was made into a film a few years after its publication with Humphrey Bogart in the lead and Gloria Grahame as the
girl living in the same apartments. Although the names are the same, the plot is both simplified and coarsened with Bogart
playing an established screenwriter with a violent temper. The end result is the same though it would appear that he commits only one murder. Both Bogart and Grahame are on top form and Nicholas Ray's directing is competent enough to make the film a highly considered one but it is not a patch on the book.

Sucker Punch: Zach Snyder (with Hot Tub Time Machine and Your Highness)

I had intended to review only the first two films titled but, having seen the third before writing this, have decided to do a single review of all three. 'Sucker Punch' is a fantasy which is either the imaginings of Abbie Cornish which the closing scene suggests or a retreat from reality into a comic-book world involving Emily Browning who has the main part. Five girls are imprisoned in a mental institute for young ladies which the chief warder operates as a brothel with the house shrink, played by Carla Gugino using a weird accent, as the madam. Part of their duties is to dance for the selected customers and it is when made to do this that Emily Browning escapes into a different fantasy world each time. All wear costumes meant to arouse - schoolgirl with very short skirt, tight leather and so on - and each fantasy includes Scott Glenn as some form of father figure/guide. At least one reviewer has desribed this as soft porn for the teenage male which it might have been fifty or so years ago but hardly now. Taken at face level, it is a series of well-imagined and executed implausible adventures in which, eventually, three of the girls die as they do in the intervening reality. This leaves ... now broked in spirit and trapped but her efforts have helped Abbie Cornish, the only one old enough to be thought of as a woman, to escape to a nearby bus station where she is saved from police interrogation and recapture by the bus driver - Scott Glenn. Fast-paced enjoyable hokum.
'Hot Tub Time Machine' is much nearer to porn though not so described. Four male friends return to a ski lodge to relive their past with the weekend starting badly until they short-circuit the hot tub accidentally and are taken back to their earlier
visit where they try to repeat what happened in order to return to the present. A series of misadventures, mainly sexual, do
eventually get three of the four back, the fourth choosing not to return: this alters what the present has become but for the
better for all. A few amusing moments in a rather gross film in which John Cusack is wasted.
However, this is easily surpassed in grossness by 'Your Highness' which is almost a Carry On film with explicitness rather than
the innuendo the English series had to use. James Franco, who should know better, is the heroic older son of Charles Dance,
who seems nowadays to collect pay cheques, whose bride-to-be, Zooey Deschanel, is seized by the inevitable evil wizard just
as the wedding ceremony is all but done. He sets off to rescue her with his younger brother, Danny McBride, who has been a
foul-mouthes wastrel in his brother's shadow. The gallant knights with Franco turn out to be in the pay of the wizard which complicates matters as well as adding more vulgarity. Along the way they meet Natalie Portman whose near-nude swim in long shot is almost the film's highlight though she does have a good line in cgi assisted fighting. They do, at last, save the bride and kill the wizard returning hom in triumph. For no good reason, Portman seems to have a thing for Mc Bride but has
another quest to follow - however, she turns up at the end so all live happily. Utter rubbish but midly enjoyable.

Campbell, Ramsey: Scared Stiff

A series of short stories about sex and death by one of the leading writers of horror fiction which are explicit rather than implicit about sexual matters though rather tame. Although by a single author, the tales vary in effectiveness quite a lot with the best reasonably good and the worst rather trite. Not a great encouragement to read his longer works.

Evans, Gareth and Robson, Di (Eds): Towards Re-Enchantment

The full title continues 'Place and Its Meanings' which describes this collection of essays and poems about different parts of
the United Kingdom by various authors. Some are much better than others at evoking a sense of the place they are describing with the essays by Richard Mabey on Norfolk, Iain Sinclair on Springgield Park, Jay Griffiths on Ystrad Fflur being
especially good. Others which impressed were Ken Worpole on Essex and Kathleen Jamie on Rona while Robert Macfarlane on the Isle of Lewis rather extended the local to the more general. However, I found this final essay in the book to be one of the more memorable. A few were spoilt for me by the political undertones with which I did not agree and I wonder if this was the appropriate place to express them - the editors presumably thought it was. The editors run a production agency which provides a platform for artists to explore the nature and values of contemporary society etc. which does incline one to the feeling that radical/socialist thought is more likely to find favour than expressions of a more right-wing frame of mind. There is, of course, every reason to encourage this approach even though it is not one which I find quite to my liking.
Overall, I am pleased to have read the collection though I did sort of skip the poetry.

Fowler, Christopher: Demonized

A number of short stories published in 2003 by this author who is perhaps better known now for his Bryant and May books.
These stories reflect his imahinatively scary approach to a number of things with some stories ghostly, some with a twist a
la Roald Dahl (I prefer Fowler, though) and some, like 'Feral', downright nasty. The overall standard is high though some of
the tales were less involving than others - possibly a reflection of my own state of mind when they were read. Overall, a
highly recommendable collection which is well up to this excellent author's high standards.

Lansdale, Joe R.: Sunset and Sawdust

Set in the Texas backwoods which have become the regular location for Lansdale's novels, this tale is set in the 1930s when
oil was being found though the main activity in the area was lumber. Sunset kills her husband when he is beating her and
takes his place as the local constable much to neatly everyone's annoyance but her mother-in-law is the majority owner of
the lumber mill and has the final say. From being approached by a black farmer who has found a dead baby in a jar, the
story develops into one of murder with the discovery of the dead husband's dead mistress, the seduction of both Sunset and her daughter by a drifter, attempted fraud by altering the black farmer's land deeds to deprive him of oil and a violent and
murderous denouement. Incidentally, Sunset's father whom she never knew turns up and helps her stay alive and deal with
the villains. My recollection of Lansdale's earlier books is that they often had a supernatural element in them in some form;
here it comes with one of the villains having two distinct personalities which talk to each other. Very readable without being
memorable.

Bateman: Orpheus Rising

A successful one book author returns to the Florida resort where he had lived and married 10 years earlier before his wife had
been killed in a bank raid. The first part of the book alternates between his present life and the story of how he met and then married his dead wife.....except he sees her which creates problems with his life. He gets sufficiently drunk to hurt himself, starts an affair with the woman who had a childhood crush on him while continuing to see head people - but only he
can see them. The book has thus developed into a version of the Orpheus legend with those he sees having a physical presence for him alone. The author does not use a first name for some reason best known to himself. His writing is fluid and all parts of the book move along smoothly though he does commit the standard error of confusing 'prevaricate' with
'procrastinate'. I suppose, it being a retelling of the legend, it is reasonable for the dead to have a physical presence for him
though this is a little disconcerting. I think I need to try at least one more of his books before deciding whether this is an
interesting one-off or part of an ongoing theme (though I note from the front papers that he has two crime series as well as his other works.

Smith, Alexander McCall: The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency

This is the first of a very well-received series which I felt I should try. I have not, however, finished the book but have given up somewhere over halfway. The book is well written with some sentences describing the environment bordering on the poetic and there is a humourous undertone. Unfortunately, the overall effect is one of tweeness which I am sure is not the
intent - and from the reviews quoted, something that I may be alone in finding.

Liang, Diane Wei: The Eye of Jade

Although sold as detective fiction, the book seems to be more a relatively simple exposition of life in present day China. The
heroine is a private detective though such activity is illegal so she advertises as an information consultant. Much of the book is taken up with the background to her life and to that of some of her friends with the detecting element intruding only from
time to time. Even with this, the case she has is one given her by a family friend which turns out to relate to her mother's
past. Almost believable but not very good.

Taylor, Bernard: Mother's Boys

Published in 1988, the book has one advantage over most modern ones - it is relatively short with little expansion of the
background descriptions beyond what is necessary. Tightly written, I was drawn to it through seeing again recently the film
of the same name which stars Jamie Lee Curtis as the eponymous mother. Accepting the change of country from the UK to the USA as a given, the film does more or less follow the book until around half-way though one episode is greatly ( and
understandably) curtailed in the film. From then on the film veers into melodrama with the mother as a sort of villainous
dea ex machina whereas the book maintains the chilling overtones of the first part which is about the relationship of the
two older boys with their mother into the disturbing scenes which bring the story to a close. As one would expect, this does
provide a much more acceptable denouement. I do not know the author but will not be averse to reading something else of
his.

Harrison, Kim: Where Demons Dare

Continuing where the previous novel left off, the adventures of Rachel Morgan and her friends are developed in this novel in an interesting and well-written way. The emotional links Rachel has are expanded in several directions and her powers are
also expanded in a logically acceptable way. At 500 pages, this is a lengthy book but one's interest is held as Rachel puts
her soul at risk for her friends. The pacing of the book is well maintained through the earlier expositions to the dramatic
finale. The close does seem to bring things to a close though there remains the possibility of future tales.

Fforde, Jasper: Something Rotten

The continuing adventures of Thursday Next who has returned to the real world of Swindon from the realms of fiction. In what seems to be the final book, she is re-united with her husband and foils a plot to destroy the world while dealing with
Hamlet and his romance with Emma Hamilton as well as avoiding assassination attempts. Well up to the standards of the
prvious books, the story unfolds at a galloping pace even with the detours along the way. Entirely credible provided one
suspends disbelief not only to accept the world of this novel but also its conflict with the rules dealing with time travel in
other books. The final chapter which tidies everything up somewhat unusually is possibly the weakest part of the book but this does not really detract from the overall high standard.