I saw this film a few years ago on DVD and, after seeing it listed on BBC Four this week, I went in search of a Blu-Ray version. Currently a snip at £8.
The film itself is not the usual French style-fest, with a complex plot and a lot of action it more resembles a Hollywood movie in it’s style and delivery. Unsurprisingly, it looks like an remake is on the way. If Harrison Ford were younger he’d be a shoe-in for the lead role, requires expertise in ‘familial angst’…
Based on the novel Ne le dis à personne… by Harlan Coben, the film tells the story of a pediatrician 8 years after the murder of his wife as he starts to think she might be alive. Avoiding spoilers at all costs I’ll say no more about the plot other than to say it is as good as it is complex ( very much in the style of that excellent novel The Beatle Man ). And, unlike another film I reviewed here Caché, it does provide a more pleasingly complete dénouement.
Tell No One Movie Poster
Visually, being a city-based thriller, the film was never going to be a stylish beauty but the Blu-Ray print is excellent. Being a thriller, there is a fair bit of dashing around at times with some wild camera work that doesn’t care about image quality but, when required, most scenes pop off the screen very nicely indeed.
I’ve read complaints about the sound in other reviews but it didn’t trouble me overly.
A highly recommended film but not one that absolutely have to see on Blu-Ray ( but for £8 you may as well ). Of course, you should see if before the Hollywood remake so you can say “well, of course, I’ve seen the original French version mwhaa mwhaa mwhaa…<flounce>” and because I have a horrible suspicion that the plot may have to be simplified or heavily clued for the popcorn bucket test audiences.
Other reasons to watch it:
Kristin Scott Thomas is in it acting in French.
He drives a big Volvo.
Jeff Buckley is in the soundtrack. ( so are U2 but we can gloss over that )
Blogger announced tonight via email the end of their support of FTP. I started this blog way back in August 2006 and have been happily FTP’ing to this domain a fairly constant stream of drivel ever since. From 26th March I won’t be able to do this any more.
Now, Blogger are offering me free hosting on a custom domain. I suppose I could redirect to that but, and here’s the rub, I have so much content, particularly images, that are hosted on my domain already with full paths in the posts that I fear an attempt at migration could be, erm, long, laborious and perhaps ultimately unsuccessful. Maybe I’ll see if their migration tool helps with this, maybe not.
This is a bit disappointing really. Although there is much not to admire about this blog, I was happy enough with it not to tinker too much and I had chunks of custom stuff ( like the random header images ) and category support. So, I’d stayed loyal to Blogger despite beseechings suggesting I do otherwise.
Now Blogger have forced me to do what I should have done a while back and migrate the whole thing to WordPress. This won’t be entirely pain free (although I’ve done one Blogger to WordPress migration and it went pretty well ) but it’s not something I have much time to do right now. I’m hoping all my absolute paths to pre-hosted content will work well for me. So, for a while, I guess there will be a bog-standard WordPress theme here soon until I get some time to tinker.
I’m sure the good people of Blogger won’t cry to lose me and I appear to be in a bit of a minority so perhaps it makes some sense that they can’t be bothered with me any more. I should thank them really, I think the WordPress version will ultimately be better.
I may have a go at punting another of my Blogger blogs across to a custom domain just to see what happens…
I‘ve been watching all the iPad chat with only a passing interest. I’ve only recently got an iMac (which I love) but I don’t have an iPod/iPhone or any other Apple kit. I can, however, see why people like them so much.
I’m not going to add much to the glut of ongoing iPad debate other than to make one observation.
When I first watched the iPad videos I found it hard to see how/when I would use it. I’ve got a lovely wee Linux Eee PC which does everything I need on the move (and quite a few things the iPad doesn’t). The obvious occurred to me that most of the Apple techno-bling never has won the battle on function. Certainly, I’ve avoided the iPhone up to now because there were key things it didn’t do. And yet, massive popularity and the must have tag results.
So, when you consider the iPad, you can argue all day long about what it does and doesn’t do but that doesn’t matter. What Apple seem always to be able to pull off is to make people want their technology. I want an iPad and I have no need for it and I’m not really sure what I’d use it for.
There is undoubtedly something a bit primal at the heart of this. Whether it is a basic need to ‘keep up’ or to reinforce self-worth through possessions the desire alone is enough.
All Apple do is create the desire through glorious design and have a platform open enough for the useful killer app type stuff to come along later. If you create enough desire, enough people are interest in building the apps on the device. It’s all a little back to front, normally you shell out on high price tech because what it will do for you right away. Seems to me that people will buy the iPad just because they want it and knowing that they will find a use for it later.
Contrast with the desirable tech of my youth. When you were deciding whether or not you wanted a BBC Micro, Commodore 64 or a ZX Spectrum, you didn’t care all the much how it looked or what it could do, you were primarily interested in the software/games that ran on it.
There have been tablets before but they have never taken off because they weren’t sexy enough so not enough were sold so there wasn’t enough app investment to make them any kind of game changer. The iPad will sell plenty for being sexy alone and the rest will just happen.
We went in search of buried treasure. My daughter asked last night if you still got buried treasure. She looked a little surprised when I said I would take her to see some the next day. The Iron Age gold that was recently discovered is on display at the National Museum of Scotland for 3 weeks. So we had a very pleasant hour of a Sunday morning around the much reduced museum. Looking forward to its full return in 2011.
On a photographic note, if you have a Canon DSLR and you don’t have the Canon EOS 50mm/F1.8 Ef lens then get that on your Amazon wish light right away. For a prime lens it is incredibly cheap and is pin sharp in good light. In the low-light, glass covered world of a museum it at least gives you a chance, albeit on very high ISO (if you can avoid the people who insist on taking reflections of their flash in the glass). All of the images below were shot with it.
Treasure ahoy! One of the torcs we went to see. I call this one ‘Peter’.
I love these, very famous, chess men. Despite their age, you can see a definite ‘peace out’ message going on here. There is nothing new in the world.
Much to my daughter’s disappointment I was unable to confirm her assertions that these were pirate cannons.
It seems a particular quirk of history or historians that most female royalty are always allowed the suggestion (Anne of Cleeves aside) that they were beauties. If this image of Mary Queen of Scots (on her sarcophagus) is anything to get by then, well, decide for yourself.
This eagle head is part of a grand golden lecturn from a church. I picked out this detail as I thought it looked entirely gormless.
Museums are at their best, especially for kids, when they are interactive. This morse generator is good fun. As is required, everything should start with “hello world”.
…and then you can go on to explain how you send that message with one of these.
I watched Kevin McCloud’s excellent two-part documentary of his stay in the Mumbai slum of Dharavi last week. I’m a huge fan of Mumbai but this opened my eyes even further to parts fo the city I hadn’t seen. Kevin was at his honest and frank best and reflected the balance of the good and bad of Dharavi very well.
Clearly, in many ways, life in Dharavi can be seen as a squalid mess and Kevin didn’t shirk from any of this. But one aspect that was also covered was the inherent happiness of the people, fuelled by the closeness and extent of the community around them. Although Kevin quite rightly pointed out that community isn’t enough when you living in an open sewer, it was clear that was something there to be learnt in relation to the way we live, our city design and the architecture of dwellings.
Yesterday I did a presentation on Social Media at a technology workshop in town. As the excellent discussion progressed, my thoughts turned back to Kevin’s experiences in Dharavi.
So, the question is, what makes social networking so popular? Obviously, the most popular things are those which satisfy a fundamental need. If we draw a contrasting parallel between our modern life and the close community of Dharavi, we see what we miss, at a fundamentally human level, is the day to day interactions with the humans around us. We sit in houses, flats, cars, offices, largely cut off. When we are in public we are still secluded, hiding in the fog our of business, glumness, frustration.
What social networking gives us is a way to feel connected, to feel part of something, to feel we are close to people. Perhaps even to belong. The day to day, minute to minute, face to face interactions of the people of Dharavi are replaced my tweets, pokes and ‘I likes’.
So, could it be that the popularity of social networking is, at least in part, a product of a failure of urban planning and modern life that has has us feeling lonely and disconnected?
As Kevin also concludes, in the documentary, you wouldn’t swap the comforts of modern life to have a community spirit like Dharavi, but there is clearly something we can draw on to improve the way we live.
When you’ve nowhere to go and nothing to do the snow is a wonderful thing. Had a great couple of days out and about in the snow with the camera(s). Here is a quick selection of the photos. I’ve thrown in a (short) video as a wee test. It’s Full HD taken with a wee Kodak Zi8, quality looks ok but the camera work is a little ropey.
Day 1 – Edinburgh and The Meadows
A fairly standard shot of Calton Hill.
A very snowy Arthur’s Seat from The Meadows.
You can’t really resist the perspective of the tree lined avenue.
Works well in black and white too. This is a Gorman-Holbert conversion.
Day 2 – Botanic Gardens
It’s not easy to do this shot of the castle in any kind of new way. I tried. Didn’t really work!
I saw someone taking this shot through the trees. So I waited until they were gone and did the same. Thank you unnamed stranger. This is St. Mary’s Cathedral in the distance.
The wildlife was being very amenable. I saw this wee guy from inside the terrace cafe. I went outside to catch up and he not only hung about but set very close and very still.
This squirrel was happy to pose too as he had a pile of food to get through.
St. Mary’s again, this time with dramatic sky in the background.
And here’s a wee video. I need a steadier hand but the Zi8 seems to work OK and scores very high on convenience. Got a great film of the family snowball fight that broke out.
Many moons ago, I wrote herein about my tendency to flap about like a butterfly. The truth is, I never really conquered that, until now. The butterfly is dead. Finally.
Sorry pal… (click to download hi-res free from MorgueFile)
This isn’t a New Year resolution. Don’t do those. Leading up to New Year, I have been planning all the things I want to do next year. There is a list. Nothing else is allowed on that list until something completes (or I bin it in a big hissy fit). I will allow left-field antics to jump in on an opportunistic basis but only if they are clearly more desirable that the stuff on the list and I’m happy to bin something.
The only issue is that it is a pretty big list. It has to be, otherwise I’d let new stuff appear.
I’m mentioning this here purely so @manicmorff and @stuartamdouglas can keep an eye on me. And also because I just caught myself researching writing a REST API based widget dofer for 30 seconds and had to give myself a row. It worked. The butterfly is dead.
A final wee quiz for 2009. I generated this word cloud from the entire text of a novel**. If you can guess the novel you can win a copy of the book.
Second prize is 2 copies
If you like this kind of Word Cloud type quiz there are another EIGHTY over at www.bimbogami.co.uk based on music and movies. All free and fun. And if you play you’ll make @manicmorff very happy.
I‘m sure my reader would easily have guessed about 75% of these or more. I stayed honest and went for my favourites films to watch, rather than those I pretend to like for the purposes of appearing cool. It was a struggle, I think I need to know about 48 hours before I go as I’ve had to cut out too many good films.
The Big Lebowski You need to get off to a flier and I thought I’d start with probably my favourite film. I think there is a Facebook group called something like “I judge people by their appreciation of The Big Lebowski” – couldn’t agree more. If you haven’t seen it, well, come now. Get on with it. I need to know what I think of you.
Just to show how great the dialogue it, it still very funny performed by 3 animated rabbits. Obviously, contains very strong language.
117 minutes used so far.
…And Justice For All There are many great Pacino films to choose from, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico etc etc but this has always been my fave. Probably not as famous as his other performances (although he did get an Oscar nomination for it). It’s a slightly offbeat lawyer/courtroom thing with many great moments and a fabulous ending. Top (ahem) trivia fact, when I was starting writing The Beatle Man, I made Danny a lawyer because of this film.
119 minutes, 236 used so far. Star Trek II – Wrath of Khan When a film is this good when you are 12, it will stay with you all your life. And, here in the (pretend) last hours of mine, it is only fitting that it should take it place. All of us of a certain vintage have a soft spot for this film. And those that haven’t only say they haven’t.
Altogether now…
( you have totally ignore the fact that Kirk had no reason to go this radge coz, unlike the viewer, he knew he was getting out of the cave… oh, never mind… ) 113 minutes, 349 minutes used so far. Apollo 13 Yes, yes, I know, I’m predictable. I’m ready for your ridicule, I don’t care. It’s a great film of a great story.
140 minutes, 489 minutes used so far. I may get up and stretch my legs. Goodfellas You could easily go for a number of Scorcese films but this is my favourite (as measured by the number of times I’ve watched it).
146 minutes, 635 minutes used so far. Aliens Having recently seen Avatar, I was tempted to throw it in in place of this. But I have to stay loyal to a film I have watched a bizillion times and pretty much know off by heart. It’s flawed, looks a little dated these days but is still a lot of fun.
137 minutes, 772 minutes used. Zulu I think I was about 11 when I first saw Zulu. I remember being fairly blown away by it then. I suppose now it shows its age a little but it is still a great film. It is a great story although made bigger than it really was by a need to gloss over what had happened at Isandlwana the day before. To a certain extent, the film is guiltly of continuing this. No matter, still love it, one of the first films I got on Blu Ray.
138 minutes, 910 minutes used. Inglourious Basterds It is incumbent with all “Best of…” type things that they get skewed towards the now. There is no reason why this should be any different. One of my favourite films of the year (with A Serious Man and Avatar) but this makes the list ahead of them just for the Cat People scene alone. Just brilliant cinema. I would love to have gone with A Serious Man but, frankly, I couldn’t bring myself to watch it on my death bed. Not without a Rabbi handy anyway.
153 minutes, 1063 minutes used. Silence of the Lambs This is a firm fave of my beloved wife and I. It’s the romance you see? Anyway, dunno who many times we’ve watched it but she always wins the ’spouting the dialogue’ competition ( I can kick her arse with every other film in his list ). Personal reasons aside, it’s a great film. I totally loved the twisty bit first time I saw it and, more top trivia, it was the kind of thing I tried (and didn’t quite manage) in The Beatle Man. This film made me try though.
Pure West Virginia…
146 minutes – 1209 minutes used. Gladiator Another big fave of me and the missus. You gotta love that epic Roman romp thing. I just wish it had been made with the original ending. My name is Gladiator…
155 minutes – 1364 minutes used. Life of Brian I nearly had A Matter of Life and Death as my last film, coz it’s great. But it’s maybe a wee bit too much about heaven and the like. I liked the idea of “Bright Side of Life” being the song that sung me unto my death, so that had to be last. I also like the final irony of the fact that, as I’ve gone 18 minutes over 24 hours, I might die before the song. That’s not the only reason though. A few scenes can still make a laugh a lot, especially this one.
94 minutes – 18 minutes too much!
So, there it is, another list I’d probably change tomorrow. Really regretted leaving a large number out but I stuck to my guns and didn’t go all cool for the sake of appearances.
And with that, I sign off the blog for 2009. Happy New Year all.
They don’t make them like this any more. Except, they do. Well, Woo does. Epic is perhaps slightly overused when it comes to films. You can’t argue if it is applied here. Everything is on a huge scale, not least the 293 minute running time across the two halves.
Red Cliff is actually two films that were originally released 6 months apart. We’ll ignore the much shorter single film Western release. At a pathetic 150 minutes it’s not worthy of consideration.
The film tells the story of the Battle of Red Cliffs which took place in China in 208/9 AD. (The Wikipedia link contains spoilers for obvious reasons!)
This is film making on a very grand scale. Check out this spanking HD trailer, you’ll see what I mean and will give you a far better flavour than my attempts and finding more and more words that mean “big”.
Looks cool, eh? Well, it is. And in Blu-Ray it looks consistently great. The video quality is excellent throughout, helped by some excellent cinematography and vivid colours, especially in the customers. I’m almost certain at one point of the film you will say “nice helmet” with abandon. Sound too is very good although I found the soundtrack to be good not excellent. Not quite of the quality of a Tan Dun meets Yo Yo Ma.
Now, I understand that approaching 5 hours of subtitled Chinese history may not be for everyone. But you could easily watch this as a mini-series spread over 5 nights. You watched Shogun didn’t you? Bet you did. This is MUCH better.
Sometimes the plotting of ‘true’ events can be a little pedestrian, real life doesn’t always have the twists and pace to build tension or surprise – but there is enough artistic license allowed by the lack of known detail that the story entertains consistently. Although I suspect that much of the interesting detail was added by the historians much later.
Obviously, some of the fighting could be seen as a little silly. Single heroic warriors take on large gangs on baddies single-handedly in very choreographed sequences. You either like this or you don’t but it is entirely fitting with the genre and I’m sure it played very well with Chinese audiences. And, I suppose, post-Matrix, we have more of a fondness of it.
For a film that is essentially about a single battle, there is obviously a huge amount of depth around it. So battle lovers may drift off waiting for it to kick off. There are big lull’s between the 3 main battle sequences but these are just as entertaining in their own way. And when the final battles comes, you won’t be disappointed. It makes Helm’s Deep look like a square-go in the playground.
There is some pretty decent CGI woven in here too. The shot of dove flying over Cao Cao’s fleet is rather smart (you can see a short piece of this in the trailer) and I like the shots of the arrows flying straight at the camera.
All in all, it’s a cracking piece of entertainment and should be part of any Blu-Ray collection.
So, if you have a spare 5 hours to waste and you love great looking movies then get Red Cliff, especially as the full two-disc Blu-Ray is only £9 on Amazon.
Mr Woo, what shall I do? I’ll watch Red Cliff again for sure.
). And, unlike another film I reviewed here Caché, it does provide a more pleasingly complete dénouement.
lens then get that on your Amazon wish light right away. For a prime lens it is incredibly cheap and is pin sharp in good light. In the low-light, glass covered world of a museum it at least gives you a chance, albeit on very high ISO (if you can avoid the people who insist on taking reflections of their flash in the glass). All of the images below were shot with it.
is actually two films that were originally released 6 months apart. We’ll ignore the much shorter single film Western release. At a pathetic 150 minutes it’s not worthy of consideration.