Nowhere Boy
I went to see the film, Nowhere Boy last night. It is all about John Lennon growing up and was well worth seeing.
Whether Sam Taylor-Wood intended it I don’t know, but I found it an almost claustrophobic film as it was mainly set inside. Only in a few cases were Liverpool’s magnificent buildings and parks shown. Having been in Liverpool just a few years after the period of the film and visited several times lately, there are still a lot of places that have hardly changed since Lennon was growing up. I would have used these settings more.
But it is only a matter of personal taste and the fact that I knew Liverpool at that time and Taylor-Wood did not, as she is too young.
I wasn’t too sure where Lennon was actually brought up, but after looking it up, I found it was within walking distance of our first marital home at Rosehill Court in Woolton. Quarry Bank High School which gave the name to the Quarrymen, the forerunners of the Beatles, where he was educated is now Calderstones School. That wasn’t too far away either. But in those days of 1969, you knew the Beatles were good, but didn’t want to doorstep where they had lived.
I often think I owe a lot to Lennon, the Beatles and Liverpool. I wonder what would have happened to me, if I had gone to say Nottingham, Exeter, Southampton or even Cambridge Universities. I may not have acquired my robust attitude and could have wandered into research, which may have suited me, but then I don’t suffer fools gladly and there are many of them serving time in Universities waiting for their pension. I certainly wouldn’t have acquired my wife, who put up with me for over forty years.
I hope though that I wouldn’t have ended up a nowhere boy. But I know that I could have! Luckily I was rescued by Liverpool and my late wife.
Perhaps, I am frightened of ending up sad and lonely for the rest of my life.
Ian Dury
I used to work with someone who was a great Ian Dury fan. But as I said in the book of condolence for the singer.
Never met Ian. Never saw the band. Never listened to any record in full.
But! Ian left a deep impression on me! If anything nasty ever happens to me, then I’ll remember his attitude.
What an attitude!
All I did was listen to him talking eloquently about life (and death) on the radio.
Now there is a film about his life.
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
It’s one of those films that you hope is very, very good. There is this article in The Times, that gives some hope, that it doesn’t follow the usual route of biopics.
Life of Brian
I’m just watching a program about Monty Python on the BBC.
I still have “Always Look on the Bright Side” on my phone! Life of Brian is still one of the best films ever made.
Ipswich Film Theatre
The Corn Exchange cinema in Ipswich is to close.
Sad, but it was a place where my late wife and myself spent many happy days watching good films.
Moon
I wouldn’t say it was one of the very best films I have seen, but it was certainly one that I enjoyed.
In some ways the story was very much like those that you read in the 1960s from authors, who published in yellow covers on Gollancz. You used to go through public libraries looking for those covers.
I won’t say too much about the story, as I don’t want to spoil it for everyone, but it concerns a man isolated on the far side of the moon mining Helium 3. As with most science fiction stories it is fairly feasible and could actually happen. The mining of Helium 3 was actually covered in a BBC Horizon program.
It was also a very well made film, from Sam Rockwell’s acting to the sets and the special effects and models.
Go and see it.
If you look at Moon on the Internet Movie Database, you’ll see a post from the director, Duncan Jones, in response to the feedback. He says that he made the film for $5,000,000 in 33 days. It was money well spent and much better value than a lot of films I’ve seen.
One thing that spoilt the film was the BO of the man sitting next to me. It is much nicer going to the cinema with a fragrant lady!
You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!
I followed a real Mini yesterday, with this classic line across the rear window. It made me smile.
It comes from The Italian Job.
The Anonymous Widower 