Sunday 29 April 2012
Salmon Fishing Movie Review
SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN
Starring: Emily Blunt, Ewan McGregor, Kristin Scott Thomas and Amr Waked
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom
"Mad dogs and Englishmen/go out in the midday sun," wrote British playwrie and composer Noel Coward many years ago. But in the film 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' the main characters aren't mad, just slightly weird. For they try to implant salmon and salmon fishing in the Arabian country of Yemen. Yemen sits just below Saudi Arabia and is one of the hottest places on earth when the midday sun shines. This is not a salmon friendly place. Think coastal B.C. instead.
Ewan McGregor plays Dr. Alfred Jones, a Scottish marine scientist whose marriage to an ambitios technocrat is on the rocks or sinking fast, without any hope of being hooked. Then he meets Emily Blunt, playing an assistant to a Yemeni sheik, played by the Egyptian actor Amr Waked.
Christian Scott Thomas fills an important role as the driven public relations aide to Britain's Prime Minister. She can be foulmouthed too. "This is your f----ing mother," she shouts to one of her three children when he challenges one of his mother's early morning orders on the way to school. Thomas sends McGregor to Blunt, who then introduces the uptight scientist to the sheik.
McGregor, like the sheik is a fishing freak. And he's also invented a number of fishing flies to catch salmon. "Faith," the sheik says in effect to the scientist, who doubts that a massive river full of salmon can be planted in the sun-scorched Yemeni desert. "We need faith Mr. Jones."
The interaction between the three main characters, the beautiful camera shots of Arabian deserts and British green hills, plus the sometimes comic interludes in British government offices, hinge the picture tog
ether. So do the few love scenes.
Of course, there's another Yemen out there too. In the past grinding poverty, civil wars, assasinations and a revolution or two, have killed many Yemenis. Only a small slice of this Yemen finds its way into this film. We're often shown a dream Yemen, invented in part by the talented director Lasse Hallstrom and based on Paul Torday's book "Salmon Fishing in Yemen".
But I enjoyed the movie especiall near film's end, when a huge salmon streaks out from the river into the desert air. For a few moments I thought I was in British Columbia and a sunny coastal B.C. too.
Correction: In the review of the movie 'Bully' I stated that this film was nearly not releases by U.S. censors. This is not true. The censors at first gave the film an R or restricted rating. This would have stopped many teenagers from seeing the film because the documentary contained swear words.
Thankfully, many young people protested this rating, and the censors then scrapped the restricted rating. So "Bully" can now be seen by young people - which is good.
Saturday 28 April 2012
A Journey to Rebirth
Can an ageing man find happiness in the central American country of El Salvador? If you're my friend, whom I'll call steve, the answer is, "Yes youcan"
Steve lives in Vancouver, a city that seems to be coloured grey most of the year. Then there's the politics of B.C. Steve is a committed progressive, who strongly believes that trade unions should organize the unorganized.
Unions don't seem to want to battle the bosses anymore, Steve points out. "Union leaders just want to collect big salaries and not stir up any trouble."
Meanwhile, progressive groups from Steve's younger days have shrivelled away or vanished.
When he was young, Steve sailed around the world in rough tough boats. He was a merchant seaman. He nearly died from a hernia in East Africa. He fought for workers' rights and social justice in Australia, Britain and Canada. But at the age of 82, he needed a new lease on life. Far too many of his friends had passed away.
The great painter Paul Gauguin in the 19th century went to Tahiti to find a new world. Steve chose El Salvador. He forked over more than a thousand dollars to go and oversee an election for the country's national assembly.
El Salvador has had its problems. This tiny central American country of roughly 6 million peoplehas endured two civil wars in the 20th century. In the second civil war over 30,000 poeple died, as leftist guerillas battled the U.S. backed ARENA party. The guerrillas grouped themselves around a group called "The FLMN". The war started int the late 1970's and ended in the early 1990's. Both sides laid down their guns and signed a peace treaty. "Thankfully, after the treaty process," says Steve, "the ARENA-backed death squads disappeared." The FMLN and ARENA then turned themselves into electoral parties and swore off violence.
But problems remain. Youth gangs armed with all sorts of guns, have kept the country an armed camp. El Salvador's crime rate is one of the highest in the world. And as Steve notes, "There are many poor people there."
On the journey to El Salvador Steve waited for three hours at Houston, Texas at the George.H>W> Bush airport. "It was tough staying in an airport with a name like that," Steve said. But after a three hour flight to El Salvador, Steve's mood markedly improved In the country he toured schools, retreats, and community-driven projects. He went to the wall on which were written the 30,000 names of the civil war dead..
And he met people. "There were incredible people down there," he says. He met progressive Americans, many of them from the U.S. northeast. They were mostly women, medically-trained, who were rebuilding the country's shattered or nonexistent health care system. He met a woman, a Catholic unun from New Jersey, who had helped build a retreat for poor people.
The progressive El Salvadoreans impressed Steve no end. "They were just incredible," he says. "They faced tremendous odds but they were committed to helping create a progressive country."
The country's poverty sometimes overwhelmed Steve. Side-by-side with a terribly poor slum, sat one of the biggest shopping malls in the Americas. Armed guards with macine guns patrolled its aisles and armed guards were everywhere Steve went. They guarded rich homes and private property.
On the day of the election, a submachie gun-toting guard casually strolled into the polling place that Steve was helping oversee. Outside, ARENA people sat in cars playing songs that siad, "Kill the Reds",
meaning kill the FMLN.
Alas, the FMLN lost the election. ARENA and another right wing split off from ARENA won more seats in the assembly that the FMLN. This means that ARENA is back in power. But this hasn't dampened Steve's enthusiasm for EL Salvador. In two years time there's going to be a presidential election "It'll be a hell of a time," he says. "And if my health holds up, I'll be there."
Steve lives in Vancouver, a city that seems to be coloured grey most of the year. Then there's the politics of B.C. Steve is a committed progressive, who strongly believes that trade unions should organize the unorganized.
Unions don't seem to want to battle the bosses anymore, Steve points out. "Union leaders just want to collect big salaries and not stir up any trouble."
Meanwhile, progressive groups from Steve's younger days have shrivelled away or vanished.
When he was young, Steve sailed around the world in rough tough boats. He was a merchant seaman. He nearly died from a hernia in East Africa. He fought for workers' rights and social justice in Australia, Britain and Canada. But at the age of 82, he needed a new lease on life. Far too many of his friends had passed away.
The great painter Paul Gauguin in the 19th century went to Tahiti to find a new world. Steve chose El Salvador. He forked over more than a thousand dollars to go and oversee an election for the country's national assembly.
El Salvador has had its problems. This tiny central American country of roughly 6 million peoplehas endured two civil wars in the 20th century. In the second civil war over 30,000 poeple died, as leftist guerillas battled the U.S. backed ARENA party. The guerrillas grouped themselves around a group called "The FLMN". The war started int the late 1970's and ended in the early 1990's. Both sides laid down their guns and signed a peace treaty. "Thankfully, after the treaty process," says Steve, "the ARENA-backed death squads disappeared." The FMLN and ARENA then turned themselves into electoral parties and swore off violence.
But problems remain. Youth gangs armed with all sorts of guns, have kept the country an armed camp. El Salvador's crime rate is one of the highest in the world. And as Steve notes, "There are many poor people there."
On the journey to El Salvador Steve waited for three hours at Houston, Texas at the George.H>W> Bush airport. "It was tough staying in an airport with a name like that," Steve said. But after a three hour flight to El Salvador, Steve's mood markedly improved In the country he toured schools, retreats, and community-driven projects. He went to the wall on which were written the 30,000 names of the civil war dead..
And he met people. "There were incredible people down there," he says. He met progressive Americans, many of them from the U.S. northeast. They were mostly women, medically-trained, who were rebuilding the country's shattered or nonexistent health care system. He met a woman, a Catholic unun from New Jersey, who had helped build a retreat for poor people.
The progressive El Salvadoreans impressed Steve no end. "They were just incredible," he says. "They faced tremendous odds but they were committed to helping create a progressive country."
The country's poverty sometimes overwhelmed Steve. Side-by-side with a terribly poor slum, sat one of the biggest shopping malls in the Americas. Armed guards with macine guns patrolled its aisles and armed guards were everywhere Steve went. They guarded rich homes and private property.
On the day of the election, a submachie gun-toting guard casually strolled into the polling place that Steve was helping oversee. Outside, ARENA people sat in cars playing songs that siad, "Kill the Reds",
meaning kill the FMLN.
Alas, the FMLN lost the election. ARENA and another right wing split off from ARENA won more seats in the assembly that the FMLN. This means that ARENA is back in power. But this hasn't dampened Steve's enthusiasm for EL Salvador. In two years time there's going to be a presidential election "It'll be a hell of a time," he says. "And if my health holds up, I'll be there."
Saturday 21 April 2012
American bullies.
At the opening of the documentary film 'Bully' we hear a father talking about his dead son, Tyler Long. " "As he grew older," the father says as we see photos and video clips of Tyler, "I knew he would be victimized at some point in time. Some kids told him to hang himself."
So Tyler did kill himself at the tender age of 17.
'Bully' has one main character, Alex Libby, a 12 year-old boy of Sioux Lake, Iowa. Then there's Kelby Johnson, a lesbian living in small-town Oklahoma, and Ja'meya Jackson From Mississipi, the only black teenager in the film. Other youngsters show up in the film too.
All these young people are constantly harassed, hit, beaten, poked and abused by their classmates. High schools in 'Bully' don't come off as havens in a heartless world or quiet places of learning. They're more like William Golding's novel 'Lord of the Flies'.
"I'm not your buddy," one of Alex Libby's bus seat neighbours says to him. "I will end you. I will cut your face off."
Kelby's classmates threaten her, hit her, and isolate her. Some school students aim their car at her and hit her. But Kelby's lucky in a way. She has supportive friends.
Ja'meya Jackson finally gets tired of being put down and reacts violently. For this act, she nearly ends up in prison for a long time.
Near the film's end, parents band together to stop the bullying. "I will fight bullying forever," vows one father at a rally.
In 'Bully' director Lee Hirsch zeroes in on smalltown bullying. Bullying in big city schools doesn't show up on the screen , which is too bad. The bullies who drive their classmates to suicide and despair, don't get much time on the screen either, except to bully. But maybe they shouldn't take up too much of our time either. Still, 'Bully' is a powerful film and is also a great argument for home schooling.
But it nearly didn't get releases. It seems U.S. censors thought there were too many f---- words in the movie. At last, some of these words were taken out and so we do get to see the hellish lives of some very young Americans.
So Tyler did kill himself at the tender age of 17.
'Bully' has one main character, Alex Libby, a 12 year-old boy of Sioux Lake, Iowa. Then there's Kelby Johnson, a lesbian living in small-town Oklahoma, and Ja'meya Jackson From Mississipi, the only black teenager in the film. Other youngsters show up in the film too.
All these young people are constantly harassed, hit, beaten, poked and abused by their classmates. High schools in 'Bully' don't come off as havens in a heartless world or quiet places of learning. They're more like William Golding's novel 'Lord of the Flies'.
"I'm not your buddy," one of Alex Libby's bus seat neighbours says to him. "I will end you. I will cut your face off."
Kelby's classmates threaten her, hit her, and isolate her. Some school students aim their car at her and hit her. But Kelby's lucky in a way. She has supportive friends.
Ja'meya Jackson finally gets tired of being put down and reacts violently. For this act, she nearly ends up in prison for a long time.
Near the film's end, parents band together to stop the bullying. "I will fight bullying forever," vows one father at a rally.
In 'Bully' director Lee Hirsch zeroes in on smalltown bullying. Bullying in big city schools doesn't show up on the screen , which is too bad. The bullies who drive their classmates to suicide and despair, don't get much time on the screen either, except to bully. But maybe they shouldn't take up too much of our time either. Still, 'Bully' is a powerful film and is also a great argument for home schooling.
But it nearly didn't get releases. It seems U.S. censors thought there were too many f---- words in the movie. At last, some of these words were taken out and so we do get to see the hellish lives of some very young Americans.
Henri Matisse the Master
'Matisse the Master' by Hilary Spurling. Penguin Books, 512 pages.
You have to like modern art to enjoy the work of the French painter Henri Matisse. But if you like modern art then Matisse is the artist for you. From about 1900 to his last years in the mid-1950's, he turned out one great painting after another.
Only the Spaniard Pablo Picasso could at times produce work that equalled Matisse's.
Matisse was a great colourist. His subjects of female nudes, and rooms full of coloured rugs, curtains and walls, usher the viewer into a world of enchantment. He must have had a wonderful life, I thought, when I first saw his work. This wasn't true at all.
Hilary Spurling's second volume on Matisse shows him living a life full of troubles. "Matisse was never easy to live with,"writes Spurling. "He could be almost unbearable at close quarters." Matisse's wife, born Amelie Paraye, gave her husband all her support and then some. But she and he had children who had problems. Their daughter Marguerite, breathed through a damaged windpipe. Only several operations kept her alive.
Pierre Matisse, one of the couple's two sons, married a Corsican woman, who didn't get on with her new husband. Pierre fled to the United States, scared of being killed by his outraged in-laws. Later Henri and Amelie split up.
Matisse was constantly plaged by ill-health. In his 60's he had a colostomy to cure his stomach problems. He told people he wasn't sick but wounded. "I'm like someone hit by a shell blast," he said, "with the wasll of his stomach blown away."
In his lifetime, German troops thrice invaded France. The third time around in 1940, Nazi troops conquered France and occupied it until 1945. His daughter Marguerite joined the French Resistance. She was captured by the Nazis and tortured. But luckily she survived.
Through all of this, Matisse went on living and kept turning out some beautiful work. Unable to paint in his last years he cut out painted paper and created some lovely abstract and figurative works. When he died in 1954, he was rightly hailed as one of the 20th century's greatest artists.
Hilary Spurling has written a geat book on this great artist.
You have to like modern art to enjoy the work of the French painter Henri Matisse. But if you like modern art then Matisse is the artist for you. From about 1900 to his last years in the mid-1950's, he turned out one great painting after another.
Only the Spaniard Pablo Picasso could at times produce work that equalled Matisse's.
Matisse was a great colourist. His subjects of female nudes, and rooms full of coloured rugs, curtains and walls, usher the viewer into a world of enchantment. He must have had a wonderful life, I thought, when I first saw his work. This wasn't true at all.
Hilary Spurling's second volume on Matisse shows him living a life full of troubles. "Matisse was never easy to live with,"writes Spurling. "He could be almost unbearable at close quarters." Matisse's wife, born Amelie Paraye, gave her husband all her support and then some. But she and he had children who had problems. Their daughter Marguerite, breathed through a damaged windpipe. Only several operations kept her alive.
Pierre Matisse, one of the couple's two sons, married a Corsican woman, who didn't get on with her new husband. Pierre fled to the United States, scared of being killed by his outraged in-laws. Later Henri and Amelie split up.
Matisse was constantly plaged by ill-health. In his 60's he had a colostomy to cure his stomach problems. He told people he wasn't sick but wounded. "I'm like someone hit by a shell blast," he said, "with the wasll of his stomach blown away."
In his lifetime, German troops thrice invaded France. The third time around in 1940, Nazi troops conquered France and occupied it until 1945. His daughter Marguerite joined the French Resistance. She was captured by the Nazis and tortured. But luckily she survived.
Through all of this, Matisse went on living and kept turning out some beautiful work. Unable to paint in his last years he cut out painted paper and created some lovely abstract and figurative works. When he died in 1954, he was rightly hailed as one of the 20th century's greatest artists.
Hilary Spurling has written a geat book on this great artist.
Saturday 14 April 2012
Ignatieff's the author.
Some of the books of Michael Ignatieff.
Michael Ignatieff has written many books on politics. But as a poltical leader, he was a disaster. In the federal election of May 2011, Liberal leader Ignatieff led his party to a third place finish. The Liberals finished not only behind the winning Harper-led Conservatives, but also the usuallly third {or fourth or fifth} place New Democrats.
Never before have the Liberals finished in third place. "They're the natural governing party of Canada," pundits used to say about the Liberals. They're not saying that anymore.
Ignatieff resigned as party leader after the election. He now teaches at the University of Toronto. He's back in the news now, as a play based on his novel 'Scar Tissue' just opened at the Arts Club Theatre on Vancouver's Granville Island.
Part of the reason for Ignatieff's inept leadership role, were the ruling Harper Conservatives. As soon as this jounalist and academic headed up the Liberals,the Tories sprang a series of t.v. attack ads. They painted this son of a Canadian diplomat, as an arrogant out-of-touch elitiste American, who had no idea what Canada was about.
"I found it absurd that people thought of him as a cold calculating intellectual, somehow less than human," Dennis Foon said to 'The Province' paper, about his meeting with Ignatieff. Foon was the man who turned'Scar Tissue' into a play. I think Foon is right here, and I don't want to give points to the Tories for their hatchet job on Ignatieff. But after reading some of Ignatieff's books, I think the author has or had, an image problem.
For who after all was or is Ignatieff? Each of his books gives a different answer.
If you read one of his early books namely "The Needs of Strangers' you'd think he voted for the left-leaning British Labour Party. At that time, in the early 1980's, Ignatieff lived in England and taught history at a British university.
In the 'Russian Album' he visits post-communist Russia to see where his Russian-born father once lived. The Communists had taken over the Ignatieff ancestral home. Ignatieff comes off as Russian aristocrat here.
This is quite a stretch from 'True Patriot Love'. This book came out in 2009 and here Ignatieff was saying in effect:"I'm a Canadian, a true Canadian born and bred."
After a 30 year absence from this son otf a russian-born diplomat now claims his ancestry on his mother's side. Her brother was the well-known philosopher George grant who wrote 'Lament For A Nation' in l965. In this book, Grant claimed that Canada would soon be completely absorbed into the American Empire.
Ignatieff disputes this. But 'True Patriot Love' reminded me of U.S. President Barack Obama's work called 'The Audacity of Hope'. Both books struck me as election campaign books written to win votes in a coming election campaign.
In the l990's, Ignatieff risked his life flying to conflict-ridden Yugoslavia, Rwanda nd other dangerous places. Out of these experiences, he wrote 'Blood and Belonging', 'The Warrior's Honour', and 'Kosovo and Beyond'. These books combined Ignatieff's now jounalistic skills with academic knowledge, and attracted attention.
But a great change swept over Ignatieff aftere '9/11'. Ignatieff had now moved to teach at the Kennedy School of Government on the U.S. east coast. Once upon a time Ignatieff and his longtime friend and rival Bob Rae had marched against the U.S. war in Vietnam. Now he endorsed and supported the American invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. The British journalist Robert Fisk has claimed that these invasions have killed close to 1.8 million people. Over 150 Canadians died in conflict in Afghanistan. At no time has Ignatieff ever said, "I'm sorry. I made a mistake suppoting these wars."
In any case Ignatieff's support for these wars left a bitter taste in my mouth. A one-time peace loving liberal became a U.S. defence policy intellectual. Ignatieff wasn't the first person to make this switch. Nor will he be the last.
But do read also his fine novel 'Scar Tissue'. Here a son watches dementia overtake his aging mother. And thankfully there's no politics in it at all.
Michael Ignatieff has written many books on politics. But as a poltical leader, he was a disaster. In the federal election of May 2011, Liberal leader Ignatieff led his party to a third place finish. The Liberals finished not only behind the winning Harper-led Conservatives, but also the usuallly third {or fourth or fifth} place New Democrats.
Never before have the Liberals finished in third place. "They're the natural governing party of Canada," pundits used to say about the Liberals. They're not saying that anymore.
Ignatieff resigned as party leader after the election. He now teaches at the University of Toronto. He's back in the news now, as a play based on his novel 'Scar Tissue' just opened at the Arts Club Theatre on Vancouver's Granville Island.
Part of the reason for Ignatieff's inept leadership role, were the ruling Harper Conservatives. As soon as this jounalist and academic headed up the Liberals,the Tories sprang a series of t.v. attack ads. They painted this son of a Canadian diplomat, as an arrogant out-of-touch elitiste American, who had no idea what Canada was about.
"I found it absurd that people thought of him as a cold calculating intellectual, somehow less than human," Dennis Foon said to 'The Province' paper, about his meeting with Ignatieff. Foon was the man who turned'Scar Tissue' into a play. I think Foon is right here, and I don't want to give points to the Tories for their hatchet job on Ignatieff. But after reading some of Ignatieff's books, I think the author has or had, an image problem.
For who after all was or is Ignatieff? Each of his books gives a different answer.
If you read one of his early books namely "The Needs of Strangers' you'd think he voted for the left-leaning British Labour Party. At that time, in the early 1980's, Ignatieff lived in England and taught history at a British university.
In the 'Russian Album' he visits post-communist Russia to see where his Russian-born father once lived. The Communists had taken over the Ignatieff ancestral home. Ignatieff comes off as Russian aristocrat here.
This is quite a stretch from 'True Patriot Love'. This book came out in 2009 and here Ignatieff was saying in effect:"I'm a Canadian, a true Canadian born and bred."
After a 30 year absence from this son otf a russian-born diplomat now claims his ancestry on his mother's side. Her brother was the well-known philosopher George grant who wrote 'Lament For A Nation' in l965. In this book, Grant claimed that Canada would soon be completely absorbed into the American Empire.
Ignatieff disputes this. But 'True Patriot Love' reminded me of U.S. President Barack Obama's work called 'The Audacity of Hope'. Both books struck me as election campaign books written to win votes in a coming election campaign.
In the l990's, Ignatieff risked his life flying to conflict-ridden Yugoslavia, Rwanda nd other dangerous places. Out of these experiences, he wrote 'Blood and Belonging', 'The Warrior's Honour', and 'Kosovo and Beyond'. These books combined Ignatieff's now jounalistic skills with academic knowledge, and attracted attention.
But a great change swept over Ignatieff aftere '9/11'. Ignatieff had now moved to teach at the Kennedy School of Government on the U.S. east coast. Once upon a time Ignatieff and his longtime friend and rival Bob Rae had marched against the U.S. war in Vietnam. Now he endorsed and supported the American invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. The British journalist Robert Fisk has claimed that these invasions have killed close to 1.8 million people. Over 150 Canadians died in conflict in Afghanistan. At no time has Ignatieff ever said, "I'm sorry. I made a mistake suppoting these wars."
In any case Ignatieff's support for these wars left a bitter taste in my mouth. A one-time peace loving liberal became a U.S. defence policy intellectual. Ignatieff wasn't the first person to make this switch. Nor will he be the last.
But do read also his fine novel 'Scar Tissue'. Here a son watches dementia overtake his aging mother. And thankfully there's no politics in it at all.
A film called "Footnote"
'Footnote' starring Shlomo Bar Aba and Lior Ashknazi. An Israeli film in Hebrew with English subtitles.
There's conflict in the land of Israel. But the movie Footnote doesn't show Israeli troops clashing with Palestinian fighters. Instead Footnote gives us a father, Eliezer Shkolnick, played by Shlomo Bar Aba, feeling outdone by his son Uriel Shkolnick, played by Lior Ashkenazi.
Both men are language experts and I guess, archeologists. But the son Uriel wins fame, honour and prizes from his peers. Meanwhile, the father, sulks and stews in frustration, as the acadeemic world either ignores or puts down his past work.
Both men live in dysfunctional families. "I want to see you suffer so I can gloat," Uriel tells his son {played by Daniel Markovich}. Unlike his very competitive father, this young man is a drop out slacker. His grandfather on the other hand, sleeps alone and usually ignores his wife.
Suddenly the old man, Eliezer gets awarded a big prize. But this just sets off another round of quarrels. In the background you can sense the Arab-Israeli conflict. Guard dogs sniff luggage for bombs. Security guards scan people's bodies with electric search rods. And the film is chockful of armed guards holding submachine guns at checkpoints.
But director Joseph Cedar shows us only one scene of minor violence. This very fine fil focuses instead on academic rivalry and the passions it can unleash on families, fathers and sons.
There's conflict in the land of Israel. But the movie Footnote doesn't show Israeli troops clashing with Palestinian fighters. Instead Footnote gives us a father, Eliezer Shkolnick, played by Shlomo Bar Aba, feeling outdone by his son Uriel Shkolnick, played by Lior Ashkenazi.
Both men are language experts and I guess, archeologists. But the son Uriel wins fame, honour and prizes from his peers. Meanwhile, the father, sulks and stews in frustration, as the acadeemic world either ignores or puts down his past work.
Both men live in dysfunctional families. "I want to see you suffer so I can gloat," Uriel tells his son {played by Daniel Markovich}. Unlike his very competitive father, this young man is a drop out slacker. His grandfather on the other hand, sleeps alone and usually ignores his wife.
Suddenly the old man, Eliezer gets awarded a big prize. But this just sets off another round of quarrels. In the background you can sense the Arab-Israeli conflict. Guard dogs sniff luggage for bombs. Security guards scan people's bodies with electric search rods. And the film is chockful of armed guards holding submachine guns at checkpoints.
But director Joseph Cedar shows us only one scene of minor violence. This very fine fil focuses instead on academic rivalry and the passions it can unleash on families, fathers and sons.
Saturday 7 April 2012
Lights Out at the VAG
'Lights Out'! Canadian Painting From the l960's. At the Vancouver Art Gallery: Feb. 18th to April 29, 2012. Reviewed by Dave Jaffe
"It was the decade when man walked on the moon," says the handout from the Vancouver Art Gallery or the VAG, as it's called. "When make love, not war was the mantra."
And the word "groovy" it tells us, was as good as it got.
That's how many people think of that long ago decade of the l960's. In those years most of the elite Canadian visual artists embraced abstract art. And in this art show those who came on the art scene back then, have their works shown again.
From Quebec, Guido Molinari's and Claude Tousignant's works dis[play their brilliant colour. I liked aga
in 'Accelerator Chromatique', a big round circle full of brilliant colours.
The late Roy Kiyooka, poet and painter, did some brilliant work. One of them, a huge painting is chockfull of blue and green ovals. It shows why Kiyooka was a trend setter in 1960's Vancouver. And then there's interesting work from Ontario, including pop art by Joyce Wieland, Michael Snow, and Greg Curnoe.
Realistic work shows up too, from B.C.-based E.J. Hughes and the satirical works of Maxwell Bates. Bates's painting called -what else? - 'Beautiful B.C.' with a blonde woman in the back seat, made me smile. Jack Shadbolt's 'Transformation' set me thinking. Was this a poltical message, noting Canada's shift to being an American colony from being a British one? Maybe but maybe not.
Painters Eleven works from Toronto get displayed too. Here are some of the work by Jack Bush, Harold Town, and of course the pathbreaking William Ronald. Town's work didn't turn me on. But Bush did turn out some eye popping stuff. His paintings still posess pwer.
"Jack Bush has assumed more and more relevance to the younger painters in Toronto," wrote art critic Denis Reid in l973. True the, but not now.
Alas, the political and social protests that roiled the 1960's get small notice from these artists. Only Claude Breeze has one painting here that has a social theme. The U.S.-based civil rights movement, the protests against the Vietnam War, the counterculture and other groups don't show up here.
A display of t.v. news clips at the show's entrance site, fills us in on the political issues of the day. But that's it for politics.
So this is a shiny display of mostly Canadian abstract art, empty of any politcal events. The decade that followed, the l970's, produced art that was much more political. Most of the art here, was done by men, who steered safely away from politics. Yet as this show of 67 works reveals, these artists did turn out some very talented work.
"It was the decade when man walked on the moon," says the handout from the Vancouver Art Gallery or the VAG, as it's called. "When make love, not war was the mantra."
And the word "groovy" it tells us, was as good as it got.
That's how many people think of that long ago decade of the l960's. In those years most of the elite Canadian visual artists embraced abstract art. And in this art show those who came on the art scene back then, have their works shown again.
From Quebec, Guido Molinari's and Claude Tousignant's works dis[play their brilliant colour. I liked aga
in 'Accelerator Chromatique', a big round circle full of brilliant colours.
The late Roy Kiyooka, poet and painter, did some brilliant work. One of them, a huge painting is chockfull of blue and green ovals. It shows why Kiyooka was a trend setter in 1960's Vancouver. And then there's interesting work from Ontario, including pop art by Joyce Wieland, Michael Snow, and Greg Curnoe.
Realistic work shows up too, from B.C.-based E.J. Hughes and the satirical works of Maxwell Bates. Bates's painting called -what else? - 'Beautiful B.C.' with a blonde woman in the back seat, made me smile. Jack Shadbolt's 'Transformation' set me thinking. Was this a poltical message, noting Canada's shift to being an American colony from being a British one? Maybe but maybe not.
Painters Eleven works from Toronto get displayed too. Here are some of the work by Jack Bush, Harold Town, and of course the pathbreaking William Ronald. Town's work didn't turn me on. But Bush did turn out some eye popping stuff. His paintings still posess pwer.
"Jack Bush has assumed more and more relevance to the younger painters in Toronto," wrote art critic Denis Reid in l973. True the, but not now.
Alas, the political and social protests that roiled the 1960's get small notice from these artists. Only Claude Breeze has one painting here that has a social theme. The U.S.-based civil rights movement, the protests against the Vietnam War, the counterculture and other groups don't show up here.
A display of t.v. news clips at the show's entrance site, fills us in on the political issues of the day. But that's it for politics.
So this is a shiny display of mostly Canadian abstract art, empty of any politcal events. The decade that followed, the l970's, produced art that was much more political. Most of the art here, was done by men, who steered safely away from politics. Yet as this show of 67 works reveals, these artists did turn out some very talented work.
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