Minimalist - 35 movies

Can you name them all? I guessed 16. I'll post my answers later in the week.

35mm from Pascal Monaco on Vimeo.

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

"Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary."

Offred is a handmaid, one of the most important jobs in the Republic of Gilead. She's recently been assigned to a Commander and his wife to provide a child. In this dystopian future, very few women are able to conceive and bear children and so, after a military coup and restructuring of society, fertile women are enslaved and passed around to continue the new hierarchy. Offred is only one of these women, caught in the middle of a regime change, still able to remember her old life, unsure of her future.

The story is told as a recollection of Offred's, leaving much of her backstory to the imagination of the reader. We don't get a detailed description of Offred but this lends itself to the story. Handmaids have their individuality trained out of them but Offred spends the whole book trying to hang onto hers.

I think if anyone either than Atwood had written the book it would have collapsed on itself or gotten lost in the plot. This isn't an action-filled book. Much of the conflict comes from internal paranoia on Offred's part, wondering if or when she's going to be caught. The suspense comes from the slow but taut reveal of the history of Gilead, without a glut of exposition to bog down the book.

The ending is abrupt and ambiguous, leaving Offred's fate in the hands of the readers but it only feels right that Atwood should leave us unsure of the end. After all, the most disturbing part of this book is how unbelievable it is and yet she describes, step by step how entirely plausible the creation Gilead and handmaid's are. Why shouldn't the reader be left feeling uncomfortable about the circumstances of the book? The dystopian view of the novel gives readers something to think about.

Rating: 5/5

The new Old Spice guy

Something interesting happened on the way to YouTube today. The Old Spice guy started uploading videos, personally answering questions posed by people. I don't know how much more awesome this guy can get. Watch the video and listen for the point where he almost cracks himself up.

The Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay

"It was just past midday, not long before the third summons to prayer, that Ammar ibn Khairan passed through the Gate of the Bells and entered the palace of Al-Fontina in Silvenes to kill the last of the khalifs of Al-Rassan."

Twenty years later the land of Al-Rassan has changed. City-state kingdoms have sprung up since the fall of the Khalifate. Life continues, along with murders, poisonings and pillaging. In the city of Fezana, Jehane, a Kindath doctor, is preparing to see patients; Ammar ibn Khairan is in town to oversee his pupil, Prince Almalik receive dignitaries; Rodrigo Belmonte, a captain in Valledo's army is riding to Fezana to collect the tribute paid each year to his king. All three are soon to be drawn into a plot involving two kingdoms, political intrigue and religious fanaticism.

Kay has crafted an amazing story here with a rich plot that covers a lot of ground, both literally and physically. His world draws obvious parallels with medieval Spain as evidenced by the map included in the book. Religion also plays a strong hand, with the three main religions composed of Asharites, who worship the stars of Ashar, Jaddites who worship the sun-god Jad and Kindaths who worship the sister of the god, represented by the two moons. The allusions to Islam, Christianity and Judaism show Kay's obvious inspiration and allow the reader to gain an understanding of the conflicts and comforts of the three fairly easily.

The characters are richly described. As a doctor Jehane has sworn an oath to protect and heal others but at times this tenement is tested, most sorely after a village is raided by Asharites with many of the occupants put to the sword. As well, the reader gets to experience the conflicting emotions among the characters as they get to know one another despite religion and borders and duty to one's country. Kay really makes you care about them and their plight but there were times when I found myself rolling my eyes. When first introduced Rodrigo and Ammar seemed almost indistinguishable from one another. They are both smart and capable warriors and I felt Kay didn't do enough to develop them into two completely separate people. Ammar may be a poet and recite lines throughout the book but his dialogue, his attitude, his body language and tactician's mind all seemed very much in line with Rodrigo. And let's not forget about Jehane. She was consistently referred to as beautiful, almost to the point of distraction. Instead of using ambiguous terms, Kay could have described her hands for example. As a doctor her hands are extremely important, her tools for fighting infection and disease.

The story is action-packed but Kay plays the trickster when it comes to plot-points. There were several times throughout the novel where he misleads the reader, pulls at your heartstrings. It was cheeky the first time but after the third I was done with his maddening omission of pronouns and names. As well, while the story moved along at a quick pace, there were sections that were merely summarized which I believe would have benefited from an action scene. This is most evident at the end of the book where the climax of the plot is summarized instead of described in detail. By glossing over this Kay started to fall into "Lorna Doone" territory, something a book should never attempt to do.

Overall though, an extremely enjoyable read and a good introduction into Kay's writing. I will definitely be keeping this book in my library. I should also mention that Kay is one of ours, a home grown product of Canada!

Rating: 4/5

"The turtle market's been depressed since '81"

Alex P. Keaton, I love you.

The Scorchers - Summer Heat Movies

Warm weather has finally arrived here on the coast and I can just tell it's going to be one hot summer. In honour of the season I'll be reviewing one movie a week starting in August that has a heat theme running through it. I'm going to try to find either a drink or dish to go along with the movies as summer is for barbeques, picnics and cold drinks.

I've narrowed the list down to four selections, some I've seen, some I've only heard about but I believe there's enough variety to keep me satisfied. So without further adieu, here is the schedule:











August 1 - 7

Paris when it Sizzles


August 8 - 14

Fahrenheit 451


August 15 - 21

Rear Window


August 22 - 28

The 7 Year Itch

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

"The chapel showed no ill effects of its long neglect. The paint was as fresh and bright as ever. And the lamp burned once more before the altar. I knelt and said a prayer - an ancient, newly-learned form of words. I thought that the builders did not know the uses to which their work would descend. They made a new house with the stones of the old castle. Year by year the great harvest of timber in the park grew to ripeness, until, in sudden frost, came the Age of Hooper. The place was desolate and the work all brought to nothing. Quo modo sedet sola civitas - vanity of vanities, all is vanity. And yet, I thought, that is not the last word. It is not even an apt word - it is a dead word from ten years back."

Charles Ryder is a young student at Oxford University when a chance encounter introduces him to Lord Sebastian Flyte. Sebastian invites Ryder into his family home, Brideshead, and in fact, into his life. But each member of Sebastian's family is somewhat damaged if eccentric. Charles takes to them though as his own family life is less than satisfactory. The two young men grow close over one summer but all too soon things begin to change. Sebastian drinks, driving him far from home and away from Charles. Without his friendship Charles soon becomes estranged from the rest of the family, only returning to Brideshead many years later to find it much changed.

This was my first Evelyn Waugh book and he didn't let me down. The flow of his sentence structure and his description I would say were on par with du Maurier's "Rebecca" but of a different flavour. If this book were a meal it would most definitely taste of wood smoke. There is a certain visceral sensuousness to his writing as evinced by this paragraph: "The sole was so simple and unobtruse that Rex failed to notice it. We ate to the music of the press - the crunch of the bones, the drip of blood and marrow, the tap of the spoon basting the thin slices of breast." Waugh manages to make eating both a violent and erotic experience.

While I did love the writing in the book I found it nearly impossible to connect to and care about the characters. There was almost a vulgarity to their qualms about daily life. I couldn't wrap my head around being so rich as to be hard done by. I know that the reader isn't necessarily supposed to like the family and their decadent lifestyle but because I didn't care about the characters I didn't care what happened to them either. Perhaps it's the distance between writer and reader that makes this book feel so inaccessible to me. Waugh did write it more than 60 years ago but to be fair, I have no problem connecting with Cervantes or Austen and their works are far older.

My main beef with the book was the point in time at which it started. I know the book is about loss and mourning what has passed but this felt like entering a theatre after the end credits have started. I wanted to see everything from the beginning. I wanted to experience the descent of these people, not reflect on their already decaying family unit. "Brideshead Revisited" encompasses love and loss, religion and secularity, loyalty and infidelity, everything one could want in a book. It was unfortunately not the book for me.

Rating: 3/5