the flicker club film recommendation:
Don't get me wrong, 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' is a terrific, London based, gangster film and there are a few other I could mention that make the grade but, for me, none come close to the 1981 movie "The Long Good Friday" where, a never better, Bob Hoskins takes on the might of the IRA and looses. But, by God, does he go down fighting.
Mr Hoskins is ably supported by a magnificent cast including a brief appearance by the young Pierce Brosnan, the beautiful and talented Dame Helen Mirren and excellent Derek Thompson...Yeah, him off 'Casualty'.
The Film Score by Francis Monkman is sublime, the screenplay by Barrie Keeffe perfection and the director John Mackenzie is responsible for an all round modern classic.
It also has, at its climax, the finest close up in cinema history.
How about that?
the flicker club art exhibition recommendation:
The museum dedicated to showing art created outside the mainstream (and one of our top picks for 2009), reopens with a show based around the collections of objects, ephemera and memorabilia collected by celebrated British pop Artist Sir Peter Blake, featuring circus and fairground themes and Victorian taxidermy tableaux that once formed part of Potter's Museum of Curiosities.
the flicker club quotation of the week:
Insanity is dong the same thing while expecting a different result
Albert Einstein
the flicker club reviews:
HENDRIX: STILL REIGNING, STILL DREAMING by Fin Dac
Coincinding with the 40th anniversary of Jimi Hendix’s death, urban artist Fin DAC showed his beautiful 9-colour, hand finished screen prints at a one off event cum pop up exhibition in association with Red Bull.
Four main versions of the image hung on the walls while an art and music crowd including Goldie, mingled and sipped cocktails by the sponsors to the sounds of DJ Stuee from the Paddingtons.
Artist Fin did some live finishing touches using spray can and stencils to the £1,970 Copper edition, during which I chatted with his proud mum and aunt who were telling me he’s a quiet boy but he speaks with his art.
All images © Joel Chant
The show was put on by Beautiful Crime, formed in 2004, which boasts to being the first online gallery in the world to sell street art originals, also working for D Face, Sickoy and Pure Evil.
Joel Chant for the flicker club
MONUMENTAL MISCONCEPTIONS : A Journey Through Sculptural Budapest
The Gallery Soho, 125 Charing Cross Road
Award winning artist Liane Lang, beloved by Charles Saatchi, had new work shown at the Gallery Soho recently.
Large photographic prints feature bronze and steel monuments from the communist era in Budapest, Lang cleverly adds life-size models in some cases hanging from Lenin’s raised hand or under a massive foot. The juxtapositions are unsettling as the models look so lifelike. The seemingly simple ideas are cleverly observed and executed, witty and surreal.
The exhibition also includes a looped video reminiscent of 1980’s avant-garde channel 4 series “Ghosts in the machine” and an amusing zoetrope.
Good show!
Joel Chant for the flicker club
John Simm's HAMLET, Sheffield Crucible
As the lights went down I felt a chill creep over me. It was a full house at the Sheffield Crucible and yet the cold ambience created by Paul Miller and his team made me shiver. Stark black trees in a letterbox at the back of the stage caught snow as it fell. Oh how I love Theatre at its most visceral...And yet nothing could have prepared me for the tears that started to flow as John Simm started "To be, or not to be' or for the heart break I felt as he and Ophelia, beautifully portrayed by Michelle Dockery, were ripped apart by those around them, pushed into madness and then eventually to their deaths.
For me this production was peppered with humour and heartache. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern played by Dylan Brown and Adam Foster, bounced around the stage with such charm that the order of their execution was another blow to the gut. I felt well and truly punch drunk as I left the auditorium. This is largely thanks to John Simm pulling you in with both hands. His instinctual story telling makes you feel as he feels. I felt Colin Tierney's sanguine Horatio watch over us and therefore complete the full sensory stimulation felt watching this production.
Daisy for the flicker club
DANNY HERMAN: who’s that boy?
For the first in an ongoing series, hastily put together and rather snappily titled 'Goddamn, Why aren't I as cool as him?' the flicker club would like to present a new god in waiting, otherwise known as Mr. Danny Herman.
Obviously he's in a band, (he’s cool remember, do keep up). So lets give him his propers. Danny Herman and your band Audiovisuals (I know it's just too much ain’t it) We salute you. If you weren't at The Barfly on Friday night to witness this new takeover then where were you? It's like the night John Lennon died. I have no idea where I was and nor do I care, but it seems to exclude me from so many conversations with my muso mates, this time I was there. And all this from a man who's first gig was ABBA at Wembley Stadium with his Mum. I've come a long way Baby. Perhaps still a little way to go, but as they say "Them's the brakes" (?) Any ideas?
You can check out Audiovisuals online or you can just sit and think awhile about the times when you thought you were going to be in a band and instead you went and got yourself some shitty little job that was ruled by disappointment with the knowledge that its now too little too late. I'll leave you with that and pray God that it doesn't give too much insight into my tired little mind.
Apparently known for having the best breasts in London (according to this month's Tatler). Young Martha Freud invited us down to The Hospital Club to view both her amazing work, and by default those aforementioned breasts.
Everyone it seems wants a piece of Martha and it's no surprise really considering she's been voted one of London’s hottest new designers, coupled with the fact that she knows how to sling back an Espresso Martini or two.
Martha's intricately beautiful pieces were exhibited over 4 floors and it was difficult to know which piece to add to our Christmas wish list, only slightly helped by the assertion from one 'Grande Dame' that certain pieces would be 'a bugger to dust'.
flicker club Patron and North London's answer to many a woman’s prayers Benny Wong took to the decks and made sure we had no reason to be standing outside smoking like a bunch of reprobates with his usual mash up of tunes you never knew were great to dance to until given the opportunity. Lovely Retts Woods spent the evening picking people up from the wrong place at the wrong time and all in all it was, what can only be described as a hoot and a half of an evening. For the second time in one blog the flicker club would like to offer its salutes and this time they go to you my love. Good work young Lady.
Stephen for the flicker club
STEPHEN HAWKINS at The Royal Albert Hall
For my birthday the flicker club treated me to a visit to The Royal Albert Hall to see the great Stephen Hawking give a lecture about his latest book 'The Grand Design'.
Any excuse to go to the Albert Hall is fine by me. What a glorious building it is. It is a delight just to look at the architecture, let alone any given performance. After an excursion to the hateful Wembley Arena the week before, it made me appreciate Victoriana all the more.
The lecture concerned Professor Hawkins theory that the universe came into existence in and of itself, with no need or dependency of /on an all powerful creator. ‘God’.
Wow.
It is an extraordinary sight to see this fragile, ill man, apparently motionless in his seat, and to know that his mind has been free to delve into the depths of space and time in a way that makes the rest of us seem locked and bound in our own little skulls.
There he was alone on this vast stage incredibly vulnerable and at the same time captivating. We sat hushed and patient as his synthesized voice began.
Fortunately, for the likes of me, he took us gently at first across the stepping stones of his life, his childhood obsession with trains, family life, early school, penny pinching dad and so on. All this enhanced with amusing photos from his family scrap book.
So far so good.
I was sitting there feeling quite self-satisfied and clever. 'My goodness' I said to myself, 'I'm following every word!'
The he launched, full throttle, into the science bit.
My knuckles turned white as I gripped my seat in concentration, sweat glistened on my brow and I bit my lip refusing to allow my brain to dwell on Professor Hawking's appearances on Star Trek The Next Generation and The Simpsons.
'You will understand this,' I demanded of myself. 'If you ever want to grow up to be a big strong atheist, you must grasp the cutting edge of scientific endeavor so that, when you next find yourself bombarded with Faith you are suitably armored with Facts'.
Alas, try as I might, I must confess he lost me somewhere around 'The Triple Alpha Process'.
PRESS NIGHT OF LES MISERABLES at The Barbican
Press Night of Les Miserables? At the Barbican? Isn’t that the show that’s been running for about 65 years in the West End?? The Mousetrap of musicals? Ah, yes it is, and I have extremely fond memories of seeing it and loving it, and knowing the words to every single one of the songs when I was a mere ankle-biter of 8 years old (only a few years ago obviously). In all honesty, since then, I haven’t given the show much thought but how could I resist an lovely invitation to the press night at one of my favourites theatres to see what they’d done with the piece.
So, on the very stage where the world's longest-running musical opened under the aegis of the RSC 25 years ago, Les Misérables has lost none of its power, sweep or sentimental brutality in this spirited touring version. It is a slimmed down rendition of the original production, with new direction, sets (out with the revolve, in with projections) and I loved every single minute and much to the joy of my fellow audience members, found myself singing along, out loud. It’s amazing how you never forget some things. I’m thinking Les Mis karaoke for my birthday…
Wafting off to the Greenery at the Barbican for nibbles and bubbles before checking out the giant spiders on the art deco lampposts in the atrium on my way home. Sadly my camera didn’t capture the moment but next time you’re there, do have a peek...
Juliette for the flicker club
DOCTOR WHO LIVE at Wembley Arena
I must be a real Doctor Who fan to brave the ugly labyrinth of Wembley Arena. Never again I promise you. What a ghastly place it is.
Any way 'Doctor Who Live' proved to be a real crowd pleaser. The evening was an unashamed showcase for the music of the shows composer Mr. Murray Gold, enhanced with a small invasion of some of the Doctor's finest foes.
Alas the truly alien, and amazing, Mat Smith only makes a holographic appearance yet, even as a hologram, he captivates. Here's a bold statement: 'He's the best Doctor since Patrick Troughton!'
Discuss.
The great Nigel Planer made for an, ever so slightly, irritating host but the show rarely faltered.
The series producer, and magnificent writer, Steven Moffat, came up with the fiendishly clever idea of making the show a sequel to a Jon Pertwee era story 'The Carnival of Monsters' about a machine that collects savage and bloodthirsty creatures from time and space and displays them in a miniature zoo. Of course they escape and then the fun begins.
This premise was well worth resurrecting and worked a treat as an excuse to do a fashion display of all those lovely BBC cossies. We had Silurians, Ood, Clockwork Robots, the brilliant Weeping Angels, Cybermen and those ghastly redesigned Daleks. But even those looked impressive when hovering above the audience, lasers blasting. That was cool!
The audience loved every minute of it and even a hardcore fan from the sixties, like me, couldn't help but smile with pride at how this old TV show, that was all but forgotten five years ago, is now filling huge venues across the country with such rich and diverse crowds. If only the Daleks could have 'zapped' Wembley Arena the evening would have been perfect.
Clive for the flicker club
ENLIGHTENMENT: Hampstead Theatre
We were a bit proud and somewhat in awe, the other day, sitting in the Hampstead Theatre to see Shelagh Stephenson's new play 'Enlightenment'.
© Manuel Harlan
Now, the play itself is a fascinating psychological thriller about a bereaved and distraught couple who's teenage son has disappeared during a world tour. A strange young man turns up claiming to be their boy and thus mystery and mayhem ensue.
So far so very good.
However, strutting the boards in this fine production was none other than our own flickerette Miss. Daisy Beaumont. She was playing the part of Joanna, a opportunistic film maker, pushy, manipulative, strident but, at the same time rather vulnerable and sweet. We don't want to be accused of any sort of bias, we at the flicker club frown on such unseemly displays of partisanship, never-the-less Daisy was simply wondrous in the role and we all fell in love with her all over again.
The whole cast, we must confess, were really rather good with the young Tom Weston-Jones particularly splendid as the real or fake Adam. Amongst this sprightly cast was none other than the top notch Paul Freeman. I always feel particularly privileged at seeing this chap at work.
Although essentially a thriller in its construction, the play addressed a number of unsettling and disquieting issues and I was impressed at how these ideas: loss, alienation, self harm etc, were dramatically challenged and explored and made for an entertaining and thought provoking play, which was directed with considerable flair by Mr. Edward Hall.
Hoorah and rapturous applause to all!
...especially our Daisy.
Clive for the flicker club
