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The King's Speech
Jan. 29th, 2012 10:07 pmIt only took me a week to actually sit down to watch The King's Speech. That's another advantage of LoveFilm. Because receiving a new LoveFilm envelope through the post is such a nice surprise, you have a greater motive for actually watching the one that they just sent you. A week might seem "a long time" to get round to watching a movie, but, trust me, there are DVDs I bought more than a year ago that I haven't got round to watching.
The King's Speech is a good film. In fact, it's a very good film. Colin Firth is superb; Helena Bonham Carter is superb. Geoffrey Rush is superb. Jennifer Ehle remains as gorgeous as she was *ahem* years ago in The Camomile Lawn. I can honestly say that I absolutely loved this movie and, like everyone else, I got a lump in my throat when the by-this-time George VI gives his speech at the end of the film. The DVD also has a recording of the original George VI speech (which saved me looking it up on You Tube), and you can hear the musical beat in his voice.
However, it's surely a bit ironic that the music chosen in the film for Ggeorge VI to speak in time to was the second movement of Beethoven's 7th. A German composer. But, brilliantly done.
But, is it a great film? Which, of course, requires one to set out one's parameters for "great". Somehow, I think not. Like The Full Monty, or Gregory's Girl, it's a cracker of a British movie, but unlike, say The Crying Game, or The Long Good Friday, or A Taste Of Honey it isn't something radically sensational. It is, in a way, marvellously restrained, a very conservative movie both in content and in style/structure. It is not, in any way, shape or form, innovative. And I think that I require that last qualifier if I am to put a film in my own list of "the great".
+++++++
I've added significantly to the LoveFilm request list with just about every 1920s German movie I could find (of which there are quite a few). FW Murnau is the focus, but Dreyer, Lang and, er, Kiene? also get a look in. After that I intend to move onto the Russian 1920s silents (I've seen a couple of those already, as is the case with the Germans). Then we'll see if there's any French and Italian stuff on offer. After that, a move to the 1910s. I'm getting quite interested in the history of the "language" of film; the introduction of dialogue kind of brought a halt to the development of that visual and soundscape language, for a few years at least. But it reappeared soon enough, with film noir and other thrillers developing on from those 1920s developments.
So, it will be interesting to see what film turns up first.
+++++++++
Luckily I abandoned my start of year forex positions before it got too messy. A near-£500 loss would have been into four figures if I had grimly held on in the hope of a turnaround. Indeed, I actually made £70 on Friday (by 10.45am or thereabouts) just trading spot. Could have made more, but I wanted to go to the gym, and I don't like leaving spot prices open when I am not at the desk.
I still see €1.07 as a target, but the sour mood about the euro has gone away for the moment, and this means a number of the short-euro players will have to close out again. Its hard to call when the next shorting position will arise. Maybe somewhere around €1.34. Will keep my eyes open.
Elsewhere, the imminent release of QE3 and whatever the Americans call their quantitative easing make it look like it might be a good year for equities -- or at least half a good year. I've popped back into the equity market, reinvesting last year's dividends. I try never to publish particular stockholdings because that's making oneself a serious hostage to fortune when it comes to identity theft. But I followed my normal strategy of always going for at least 4% yield. I think defensive stocks will have a relatively good year, so the focus could be on utilities, supermarkets, established 'mature' technology companies, and so on.
++++++++++++
Went on a heater on Saturday night which pushed me into a small profit for the month at poker, after three weeks of bumping around at even. Four buy-ins in 90 minutes is always nice.
Needless to say Sunday morning saw an immediate complete reversal. 77 on a flop of 788 (and I put in a decent sized flop raise as well!) is no good when your opponent (limped under the gun) calls the raise and promptly raises you all in on a turn of 7885 double-suited. 85o was the obvious result and I buy in now.
And so it went on, usually with me having to fold hands on the river which looked good but which, when opponent bets the pot, really only beat a bluff.
I went nearly three buy-ins down but batter my way back to a couple of buy-ins down. So, a profitable weekend, and still up for the month. But Sunday remains the nightmare day of the year.
__________________
The King's Speech is a good film. In fact, it's a very good film. Colin Firth is superb; Helena Bonham Carter is superb. Geoffrey Rush is superb. Jennifer Ehle remains as gorgeous as she was *ahem* years ago in The Camomile Lawn. I can honestly say that I absolutely loved this movie and, like everyone else, I got a lump in my throat when the by-this-time George VI gives his speech at the end of the film. The DVD also has a recording of the original George VI speech (which saved me looking it up on You Tube), and you can hear the musical beat in his voice.
However, it's surely a bit ironic that the music chosen in the film for Ggeorge VI to speak in time to was the second movement of Beethoven's 7th. A German composer. But, brilliantly done.
But, is it a great film? Which, of course, requires one to set out one's parameters for "great". Somehow, I think not. Like The Full Monty, or Gregory's Girl, it's a cracker of a British movie, but unlike, say The Crying Game, or The Long Good Friday, or A Taste Of Honey it isn't something radically sensational. It is, in a way, marvellously restrained, a very conservative movie both in content and in style/structure. It is not, in any way, shape or form, innovative. And I think that I require that last qualifier if I am to put a film in my own list of "the great".
+++++++
I've added significantly to the LoveFilm request list with just about every 1920s German movie I could find (of which there are quite a few). FW Murnau is the focus, but Dreyer, Lang and, er, Kiene? also get a look in. After that I intend to move onto the Russian 1920s silents (I've seen a couple of those already, as is the case with the Germans). Then we'll see if there's any French and Italian stuff on offer. After that, a move to the 1910s. I'm getting quite interested in the history of the "language" of film; the introduction of dialogue kind of brought a halt to the development of that visual and soundscape language, for a few years at least. But it reappeared soon enough, with film noir and other thrillers developing on from those 1920s developments.
So, it will be interesting to see what film turns up first.
+++++++++
Luckily I abandoned my start of year forex positions before it got too messy. A near-£500 loss would have been into four figures if I had grimly held on in the hope of a turnaround. Indeed, I actually made £70 on Friday (by 10.45am or thereabouts) just trading spot. Could have made more, but I wanted to go to the gym, and I don't like leaving spot prices open when I am not at the desk.
I still see €1.07 as a target, but the sour mood about the euro has gone away for the moment, and this means a number of the short-euro players will have to close out again. Its hard to call when the next shorting position will arise. Maybe somewhere around €1.34. Will keep my eyes open.
Elsewhere, the imminent release of QE3 and whatever the Americans call their quantitative easing make it look like it might be a good year for equities -- or at least half a good year. I've popped back into the equity market, reinvesting last year's dividends. I try never to publish particular stockholdings because that's making oneself a serious hostage to fortune when it comes to identity theft. But I followed my normal strategy of always going for at least 4% yield. I think defensive stocks will have a relatively good year, so the focus could be on utilities, supermarkets, established 'mature' technology companies, and so on.
++++++++++++
Went on a heater on Saturday night which pushed me into a small profit for the month at poker, after three weeks of bumping around at even. Four buy-ins in 90 minutes is always nice.
Needless to say Sunday morning saw an immediate complete reversal. 77 on a flop of 788 (and I put in a decent sized flop raise as well!) is no good when your opponent (limped under the gun) calls the raise and promptly raises you all in on a turn of 7885 double-suited. 85o was the obvious result and I buy in now.
And so it went on, usually with me having to fold hands on the river which looked good but which, when opponent bets the pot, really only beat a bluff.
I went nearly three buy-ins down but batter my way back to a couple of buy-ins down. So, a profitable weekend, and still up for the month. But Sunday remains the nightmare day of the year.
__________________
