Harvey Krumpet

At home nursing a virus and feeling bored, I came across this delicious short animation.

It won an oscar and its well deserved, i love it. Particularly the Busby Berkeley inspired sequence with knocking wheelchairs.

folly for a flyover

For an hour I was transported to a mystical fairy land with flying horses, princes rescuing princesses and Aladdin's magic lantern. The sounds of the orchestra lifted us onto a floating carpet with bells and horns.

In the final battle scene between the sorcerer and the witch it felt like we were all part of a shamanistic ritual, as we shook our rattles and rang our bells.

 

The contrast with the concrete flyover that was our roof and the murky green canal made it seem all the more magical. 

The audience were all given different percussion instruments to create the different sound effects. It was a clever way of creating an enveloping cocoon and keeping your focus while we all suspended Hackney reality. 

This was a truly magical night out. It was created by the same people that made a beautiful cinema in an abandoned petrol station on Clerkenwell road where I saw Buster Keaton shorts and we drank beer in a transformed petrol shop bar.

notice the shadow orchestra blending into the scene

Apparently this is the oldest surviving animated feature film. I really loved its simplicity and beauty with the silhouette animation. A real work of art. And a great story.

After we enjoyed a beer in the amazing 'house' made of wooden bricks. what a brilliant invention!

Boys chatting football, girls chatting love

In the office while making a cup of coffee this week, I was impressed by a professional and serious discussion taking place about strategy by two of the few men in the office. They sound so serious, expert and intelligent discussing tactics and management.  It was only after a few minutes that I realised they were discussing football, a hobby. It was a way of having small talk and bonding (with the few other men around) but sounded more informed and intelligent than when they discuss work – their actual expertise. 

I am also amazed at the amount of chat by women about relationships, their love lives, family, parents, or friends. Not just in the office, but in the pub, over coffee, walking in the park. The analysis is often as in-depth as the football chat.

This is an old cliché. That men talk about football and women talk about emotions and relationships. Its obviously an absurd generalisation and stereotype. There are lots of women that love discussing sport. And I discuss relationships and love with my male friends just as much as with my female friends. Sometimes more.

What is interesting though is how these habits are ascribed gender characteristics. Apparently men talk about football because they don’t do emotions and are better at facts and physical strength. And women talk about love because they are better at emotions and relationships.

But I really doubt how much this is down to differences in men and women and whether these are ‘male’ or ‘female’ characteristics. 

I have a longstanding argument with my husband about the differences between men and women. I think that there are little or no differences except physiological and biological differences and everything else is a process of social conditioning and learning what it is to be ‘male’ and ‘female’.  I sometimes go even further and argue that women are ascribed characteristics that prevent them from succeeding in life. My pet hate is multitasking. I think women are told they are naturally good at multitasking because it means they are more conditioned to perform menial jobs that require juggling lots of small things, and gets men off the hook with domestic chores.  Multitasking is a useful skill if you’re a mother juggling a baby, cooking and your long list of things to do. Its useful if you have an administrative role at work. But its no good if you need to focus and concentrate – an apparently ‘male’ trait. 

Gustavo thinks this is absurd and that men and women are clearly totally different and have different clusters of characteristics because of their gender.

Well a new report out this week by the think tank Demos put this debate on the political agenda. In the report Yvonne Roberts argues that there is evidence to support my theory that it’s all largely learned and conditioned by parenting, schools, and the wider society. She does point out that the scientific evidence is confusing and could be used to draw either conclusion.  

But while the jury is out on the evidence, I think it makes sense to try to keep gender away from characteristics as much as possible because of the constraints that this can put on equality, success and happiness.  The report argues that confusion about what is masculine and feminine restrains women (it’s not feminine to be tough at work and push for promotion, and women are good at multitasking so take the lion’s share of domestic work) and it also constrains men (its not masculine to be good at communication – a skill required to find job where there has been a shift from manufacturing to predominantly service economy).
 

Roberts adds some evidence to my previous post about the lack of good female role models in film.  In a study of Hollywood films released from 2006-2009 out of 5,554 lead characters only 29% were female and out of these a quarter were eye candy (compared to 4% of men). Roberts asks the same question I’ve been wondering, ‘So where are the positive heroines?’

Female Warrior, Greek statue

Interestingly a worthy new group, the Man Collective, has been set up to help men redefine what masculinity is. They feel they are part of a generation of men who feel lost and confused about their role now that they are no longer the ‘breadwinner’. 

I have many male friends struggling with this inherited idea they should be the ‘breadwinner’, earning enough to ‘take care of the family’, while in reality their partners are earning more or they aren’t in a position to earn enough to be defined as the ‘breadwinner’.  And this is despite the fact that they know rationally this is absurd, that we don’t live in that world anymore, and that one of the reasons they are attracted to the women they are with is because of their ambitious or success at work. 

Generations of women, rightly, have been trying to redefine femininity. Men need to do the same. And together we need to try to loosen the expectations of gender and allow for men that enjoy gossiping and women that run companies.

So an ambitious woman who is good at negotiating is not masculine, she’s just ambitious and good at her job. Or when a man is sensitive or makes an effort with his appearance he’s not ‘in touch with his feminine side’, he’s just more balanced and making an effort.

One of my favourite quotes from Roberts paper is from Edward Glover who gave an influential series of broadcasts for the BBC, arguing that women were naturally weak, needed domesticity to impose discipline, without which they would fall to ‘an orgy of knitting. Failing such solace they are inclined to eat their hearts out.’ 

Harsh! Although I quite like the image of an orgy of knitting….

Where are all the heroes?

It is time for all the heroes to go home

if they have any, time for all of us common ones

to locate ourselves by the real things

we live by.

(William Stafford)

A Danish sub-titled drama, focusing solely on one crime throughout its 20 episodes, with Copenhagen city politics providing one of the main story lines, doesn't sound like addictive TV. But I've been hooked to The Killing on iplayer mainly because of the lead role, Detective Sarah Lund, played by Sofie Grabol.

I love the fact that she doesnt seem to suffer any guilt about not spending enough time with her family or son, totally immersed in her work in the 'male' stereotype. She's focused on her work 'because its important', but uses her feminine sense of intuition to stay ahead of her male co-workers. She's also rocking a casual I'm-too-focused-on-the-case-to-think-about-what-i-look-like look, while managing to create a fashion fuss about her awesome jumpers. But mostly I love the character because she's not there to be an aspirational role model even though you admire her stubborn focus and self assurance.  

Noticing that there is a season of heroic female leads at the BFI, perhaps we are slowly starting to realise there can be more archetypes in cinema that mother, lover, girl next door or psycho/witch. I like female leads not because they are the perfect role model but because they are an interesting, strong, unique and believable lead character. 

Sarah Lund in The Killing

Perhaps we shouldn't want female heroes any more than we think we want male heroes. An interesting article by Margaret Wheatley argues that its a mistake to want to be rescued by 'a hero'. Instead we need to realise that no hero can save us from either our own personal issues or by the many modern crises. She points out that solutions to problems will come from leaders who can bring out the ideas and experiences from a complex mass of people. These leaders need to be hosts rather than heroes. Because no one person can ever really be 'in charge' but only create the space for people to solve problems.

Heroes can only ever inspire from the grave. Living leaders inspire not by telling us what to do and how to live but by allowing us all to be heroic in our individually small ways.

Our
 heroic 
impulses 
most 
often 
are 
born 
from 
the 
best 
of 
intentions.
 We
 want
 to 
help, 
we 
want 
to 
solve, 
we 
want
 to 
fix.
 Yet 
this 
is 
the 
illusion
 of 
specialness,
 that 
we’re 
the

only 
ones 
who 
can 
offer 
help, 
service,
 skills.
 If 
we 
don’t 
do 
it, 
nobody
 will. 
This
 hero’s

path 
has 
only 
one 
guaranteed 
destination —we 
end
 up 
feeling
 lonely, 
exhausted
 and

unappreciated.


It
is
 time 
for 
all
 us 
heroes
 to 
go 
home
 because, 
if
 we 
do,
 we’ll
 notice 
that
 we’re 
not

alone.
 We’re
 surrounded 
by 
people
 just
 like 
us.
 They
 too 
want 
to
 contribute,
 they
 too

have 
ideas, 
they 
want 
to 
be 
useful 
to 
others 
and
 solve 
their 
own 
problems.




Truth 
be
 told,
 they 
never
 wanted
 heroes 
to 
rescue 
them 
anyway.



In fact Sarah Lund is a great example of why trying to be a hero is not something to aspire to. But you'll have to watch 20 episodes to understand that....So i'll leave you with a great shot of another great strong female lead on the big screen.

Jane Russell in The Paleface, on at the BFI

Yes Indeed....

One of the walls in my flat is covered in Edward Gorey illustrations I cut out from a calendar. I love every thing about them. So perfect. So funny. So poignant. Beautiful.

I still have a fantasy that one day someone will help me make a Gorey film. Not like Tim Burton, cartoon style, but crisp, black and white, Edwardian, slightly unnerving, surreal and funny atmosphere. I sketched out an idea for it when I was taking a film course at my cousin Daisy's film school, the London Film Academy.

Turns out there are some serious Gorey fans out there. Quite a few people have Gorey engraved onto their skin. Check it out!

So, anyone think we can make this film happen?

Quite!

green and barren theatreland

The only film I remember walking out of because it was so bad it was winding me up was Woody Allen's Match Point. So I dont know why Gustavo and I didnt both walk out of Greenland, a play he sweetly bought me tickets to as a birthday present, but which we both agreed was the worst play we had ever seen. And that's saying something. On our first date we bonded over some really pretentious physical theatre at one of the V&A's late night events.

Perhaps it was because we were at the National Theatre, it was my birthday, the tickets were expensive and we hadnt mastered a signal that we wanted to get the hell out and go drinking instead.

My heart sunk slightly when I heard it was about climate change. This has been my day job for many years now and I'm aware of the difficulties of making climate change interesting or funny. But I went with an open mind.

Analysing it afterwards we decided the only message, the only point, that it successfully communicated was how hard it is to communicate anything meaningful or interesting about climate change.

What most people have in common is a love of stories. Everyone can relate to emotions and a good tale. Climate change isnt a good story. Its a very complicated, technical science. How we react to it, or not, though can be interesesting. Our relationship with the planet, with nature, with understanding risk - these are all interesting to me..but to make good theatre requires a bit more respect for the audience than imaginative uses of multimedia. The only, tragically few, moments that drew you in were the personal stories of a scientists monitoring the birds in the Arctic and a political advisor and a climate modeller falling in love. But they left you hanging, only superficially skating over, like the birds flying around the theatre, film projections of the real birds.

I'd rather theatre inspired, made me laugh or created heroes. But a earnest attempt to dramatise an issue just because its important? I couldnt help feeling frustrated at the waste of time, talent, money and the audience good will. If anyone else has seen it and disagrees i'd love to know.

When we left the play we came across a fantastic photography exhibition of the beat poets. That made up for the visit. I had no idea Kerouac looked like a film star.

True Romance

One of the perks of part time jobs meant that on Valentine's Day we could take off for a lovely long walk in Hampstead Heath, browse a book shop with a coffee, duck into a pub at 4pm, and then relax into a film at the cinema. Lucky our choice was well rewarded. True Grit was a fantastic treat; to watch a film beautifully made, and a good tale well told. Although I love Jeff Bridges, and he was so enjoying playing Rooster Cogburn, he's really a supporting role to the fantastic Mattie played by Hailee Steinfeld. It was so great to watch a female character stealing the limelight, not because of her youthful looks or cynical wit that comes with age, but because of her intelligence, strength and sense of justice. I love the character and wish there were more like that.

Its funny that Gustavo and I met on Valentine's Day because we now mark that as the day we met, despite the fact that neither of us care that much about the concept of a valentine's day. Romance is a daily surprise to me and something I will try to write about without being gushing or bragging but because I think its something to celebrate and enjoy. And because its actually pretty rare to encounter in its pure, genuine form without some form of cynicism.

I've been inspired by the protests, from the success at protesting against forestry sell off to the Egyptian youth overthrowing their President. And it strikes me there is a common thread between pure passion for justice and pure expression of love (whether at the world or a person). Its a really refreshing change from decades of the dominant culture of cynicism. Dont get me wrong, there is a place for that, and for questioning and for laughing at absurdity and people who take themselves too seriously. But this surely must be balanced with passion for the truth and innocence? I think we need more of this innocence, of idealism.

simplicity

One of the nice things i've done at work recently, judging a film competition for young people. The winner, a beautiful animation by young children at a London school says it all really. We are all connected. Give the colours back to the earth people!