Quiet Chaos

Film: Quiet Chaos by Antonello Grimaldi
Rating: 9/10 … a modern classic

I remember when the world and his wife were talking and raving about La Vita è Bella (It’s a Beautiful Life) by Roberto Benigni. While the idea was nice – a slightly surreal and comic fable about getting through the horror and misery of a concentration camp – I felt that Benigni had not carried it off for me. I found him to be smug and rather misogynistic and I thus found the film to be flawed.

On the other hand, previous directors have achieved the fairy-tale-like world that such a film promises. My all time favourite in this genre is Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso. Now at last we have another gem to add to our list of the finest Italian films.

Nanni Moretti plays a bereaved husband with an astonishing reaction to his wife’s untimely death. Though a high-flying executive, he finds himself unable to return to work and instead he drops his daughter to school daily and waits in the park outside the school for her. Grimaldi unfolds a wonderful fable as this man begins to touch the lives of everyone who passes through the park. Few words are needs, and most of these are his own thoughts as he composes lists. Ex-colleagues drop by seeking advice, he is promoted in spite of his absence, and gradually he comes to terms with his life. The sound track is fantastic, including the hypnotic Pyramid Song from Radiohead.

The characters are wonderfully drawn, notably his daughter, his brother and his sister-in-law. The only false note in th entire film is the horribly misjudged inclusion of a sex scene which, in its violence, clashes with the serenity of the rest. A must see.

Psycho

Book: Opening Skinner’s Box by Lauren Slater
Subtitle: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century
Rating: 8/10 … an excellent survey for the neophyte.

Here’s a little experiment to try out on yourself.  Go to a part of the bookshop you never visit and choose a book on a subject you’d never usually consider.  Last week I tried it out by accident and I stumbled on this little gem.  Actually, I wandered into the psychology rows, looking for a book, Musicophilia by Dr. Oliver Sachs. I’d heard his podcast and the book sounded interesting.  Having located it, it struck me as rather dry. I changed my mind, chastised myself for wandering in where I didn’t belong and then I stumbled on Lauren Slater.  Her book, that is.

This is a little book describing ten advances in research psychology, but from a very human angle.  She talks about the experimenters and their subjects (animal and human) and herself.  The experiments were often controversial, using methods on the ethical frontier, and the conclusions disputed.  Slater herself is often present in the narrative, evaluating her own reactions, drawing examples bravely and even recklessly from her own life, and experimenting with herself as guinea pig.  She meets many of the protagonists and is blunt (and sometimes indiscreet) in her judgement and reporting on them.  She is balanced and open-minded about the experiments, setting out the pros and cons and letting the reader decide.

I found the whole a delightful and easy read for an utter novice in the field and I’ll be roaming unfamiliar aisles in my bookshop in search of more surprises.

Anti-Matter

Book: Matter by Iain M. Banks
Rating: 4/10 … the well is running dry.

I read somewhere recently that Iain had to drag himself away from computer games to work on his books.  I’m sad to say, it looks like he’s losing the battle.  Following on his The Steep Approach to Garbadale, this is the second effort in a row that just wasn’t worth the trouble.  For many years I considered him the very best science fiction writer on the planet and his recent The Algebraist was as good as they come.

Although packed with his signature inventiveness, this book fails utterly to deliver on plot which boils down to: wicked aide kills king, prince flees to seek his (Culture trained) sister and wanders the universe to find her, meets several of Bank’s fantastic (but mainly irrelevant) civilisations on his journey and returns to claim his inheritance after battling the ‘dragon’ who avenged him.

If you haven’t read Banks, don’t despair, there’s a treasure trove of his work available.  Avoid this one – it is the worst!

The Islamic Revolution

Book: La Maison de la Mosquée (The House of the Mosque) by Kader Abdolah
Translated from: Dutch (author’s adopted tongue)
Rating: 8/10

Kader Abdolah is a pen-name, constructed from the names of two of the author’s friends murdered in the troubles surrounding the Islamic Revolution in Iran.  This is my second experience of his writing, the first being Cunéiforme (My Father’s Notebook) and I conclude he will come to be recognised as a great and subtle writer.  Right now his books are slow to appear in English.

This is a book by an exile who loves the country he fled.  He writes with a light touch, spanning decades and giving us a view of the country during both the Shah’s reign and the Khomeini years from the point of view of the peaceful head of a household who is repeatedly drawn by family members into confrontation with the authorities.  The disgraceful conduct of America in supporting the Shah’s regime and in supporting Saddam Hussein’s savage chemical war gets a restrained and honest airing in the book.

It’s so easy to dismiss Iran, based on the country as reported to us in the evening news.  Read this book for an entirely new perspective on a dignified and cultivated people living under two consecutive intolerable regimes.

Desert song

Film: The Band’s Visit by Eran Kolirin
Rating: 9/10 … Egyptian treasure

This is the most amazing film about loneliness. Without much explanation we follow a morose group of policemen from Alexandria as they are stood up by their driver in a remote airport in Israel and attempt to make their way to an even more remote town to play a concert. Tewfiq, the leader, is a sad little man whose personal history emerges over the course of the film. All the others are deferential and obedient except Khaled, the jazz loving trumpet player. Under the prompting of sexually charged and equally lonely waitress Dina, the locals show an awkward hospitality until the band can be put back on track. That’s all folks!

This little party of Israeli and Palestinian actors have produced a film I hardly expect to be bettered in 2008. The situation, laughs and all, is totally true to life and the ending much more believable than the one we hope for.