Hail! Caesar! - film review

Confessions of a Coen brothers fan

Hail Caesar!  Is one of the Coen’s satirical masterpieces?

This is definitely a film for film buffs who know their American screen history.

If you know your film history then it’s a giggle all the way through. There are so many "in house " gags, it is difficult to keep up.

From the parody of the sequences from North by North West, the gay rendition parody of ‘Nothing Like a Dame’ from South Pacific, Mickey Spillain film noir, the naughtiness goes on and on.

For me, the by funniest parody was of Busby Berkley’s sequences.  Busby’s girls didn’t ever do the contortions that were filmed by the Coen’s and the digital wizardry of fantastical water displays culminates in a mermaid, with attitude, diving into the centre of the display, it was hilarious. A truly fantastic visual joke.

Underneath it all was the Coen’s dialectic of communism versus Christianity so prevalent in the nineteen fifties and the McCarthy trials. Convincing and sensitive with humour thrown in.

This is the sort of film that would delight the film greats. A film with narrative, a conscience stricken dilemma, visual art and underneath a clever message,  questioned  Hollywood ethics.
This is very similar to the satirical eyeglass of a Stoppard play.

A must see.

Zoe Ainsworth-Grigg

Poem - Tribute to Sir Terry Wogan

Truly a Gentleman
he made you feel
with his melodious voice
he was in a chair
next to you and
as  a pair
you chatted together.

His whitty jokes resounded
around the country.

He didn't seek applause
as he raised the roof
for giving to a cause.

Let us all pause
And thank the Lord
for the gift of
a man like him.

RIP Sir Terry Wogan.

Life is NOW

I was travelling by coach to Belgium for a day in Bruges and this poem came to mind. I think there is always anticipation of the future when we go on holiday but I was thinking that we must be in the present moment  and enjoy whatever life has to offer in the now.

This video is a narrated version of my poem


https://youtu.be/48C3mw4z72c

To own and download my video poem

https://vimeo.com/153618021

Calling all Guardian readers!

The funding for newspapers to be avauilable for the general public at Taunton Library  has been cut by the Council.

Therefore the Friends of Taunton Library have been fundraising to provide this service.

Zoe Ainsworth-Grigg is a retired Civil Servant and a Friend of Taunton Library.  She is a writer and facilitates a creative writing workshop at Taunton Library on the first Wednesday of the month.

At a committee meeting of The FOTL she was horrified to realise there was only enough fundraising to pay for one national broadsheet newspaper.  After a vote, it was decided that, The Daily Telegraph was the choice 10/2.


She is a member of the Green Party and while she fully accepts our democratic process, she also  believes minority views should be catered for in a democracy and a balanced view provided by our public services.

She wondered how she could help, so she has started a crowdfunder site for The Gardian at Taunton Library.   If you feel you can contribute to two years of the paper being available at Taunton Library, please donate.

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-guardian-for-taunton-library-for-one-year


Zoe Ainsworth Grigg - The Guardian for Taunton Library,

Review of Bedroom Blossom, inspired by Somerset W.I.

Extract

"What would you like me to do". she asked

He smiled, and she flushed.

"First of all I would like you to pick up all these windfalls, there is a wheelbarrow over there."

______________________________________________

In 2014 the W.I. creative writing group in Somerset wrote a series of stories based on their response to "Fifty Shades of Grey".  They were very successful.

I also belong to a creative writing group,. Bedroom Blossom is my response.  Some scenes are a little naughty.  However, on the whole I adhere to my Quaker beliefs and my background in studying psychology.  We all have our shadow side (myself included) and the hero of my story is flawed, and so is the heroine.

It is also a thriller, when the heroine snaps under pressure.  It is a rattling read.

__________________________________________________________

Other stories.

Mr Turner - review

It is very often the case that our great artists have a wonderful talent but have a personality that has been damaged in childhood. We all carry scars from our childhood and Mr Turner is no exception. Timothy Spall gives a wonderful acting performance of Mr Turner the complex character.  It is often uncomfortable to watch.

However one of other best features of the film Mike Leigh faithfully reproduces Turner's most famous paintings on the big screen.  Those of us that know Tate Britain may find this delightful.

The love story, too, is complex and Victorian ill health and living conditions are responsible for Mr Turner choosing a woman  for her best qualities that of her spotless cleaning and caring nature, and indeed good health.

Well worth watching.

The Music

It was the wrong piece of music!

It was meant to remind me

Of what had gone before.

My feelings still sore.

Instead the music,

was soothingly melodic.

It lifted my spirits,

It calmed my mind and.

I realised I had been blind.

No one had been unkind!

The trick of the stereo,

The wrong number displayed,

Had subtlety changed

The oeuvre of my day.

And I will forget

and change the set of my brow

Feelings will mend,

Light is with a friend

and peace will grow.