Quietness lately has a lot to do with nothing much going on. I’m not working this summer as there’s very little about arts-wise, and I’m still trying to work out what to do with my life. Updates when I have any.
I did, however, manage a double-bill at the flicks yesterday, catching a gorgeous digital presentation of Dr No, the first Connery Bond (and the first of what we all know and love as the “James Bond Films”, although it actually followed an ill-fated adaptation of Casino Royale by other filmmakers) and The Time Traveler’s Wife[sic].
Dr No was great for being a bit crap. It’s clearly not a bad film, but very of it’s time, it’s time being 1962. It’s got some Hitchcock-rivaling rear-projection for the most unexciting car chase ever filmed, although it did have the added comedy value of screeching tyres when the were driving on gravel. It’s also astonishing to see just how much of Dr No specifically Mike Myers lifted for the first Austin Powers film – I had always reckoned it to be a generic pastiche, but it’s closer to Dr No than any other Bond.
The Time Traveler’s Wife is a book I loved and a film I didn’t want to get to excited about lest it spoil it for me, as many adaptations do (just ask people who’ve read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). After a clunky, over-written first half-hour of some frankly stupid dialogue, the rest of the flick picked up a-pace and delivered all the emotional punch I wanted from it. It’s not beholden to the book, but manages to create almost the perfect adaptation by creating the same pitch and emotional feel of the book without being slavish to every single page.
We go away on holiday at the end of the month, so I’ve got a lot of late summer flicks to cram in before we jet off – that’s what I like to think of as using my time productively.