But Mr Memory, what are The 39 Steps?

Acclaimed to be one of the first thriller novels ever written, John Buchan’s The 39 Steps has made it onto the London stage… as a comedy. A comedy?! Readers of the much loved adventure story won’t recall anything that hilarious about the tale of the unlikely hero Richard Hannay, who unwillingly becomes embroiled in a violent murder followed by a gritty chase across the Scottish Highlands, risking life and limb to protect British secrets before the start of World War I. Yet unbelievably, to my and other stage sceptics’ surprise, the theatrical transformation of the novel into a comedy play works, and what’s more, it had the audience chuckling away for the best part of two hours. Closer to Hitchcock’s 1935 film adaptation than the plot of the book itself, the cast of just four manage to play an astounding one hundred and thirty nine different roles, and with the clever employment of puppets manage to stage the famous plane chase over the Scottish hills to great effect.

As for the comedy element, well even the would-be shocking one liners managed to be funny (not least the comment ‘but it’s like Piccadilly Circus out there!’) and Hannay himself, played by John Hopkins, provided much humour in his anti-hero outlook on life. The theatre audience, as in the film, came to have a crucial role in the scenes set at the London Palladium for Mr Memory's show, where we discover that the man with his capacity to recall any fact is being used by The 39 Steps spy organisation to smuggle highly confidential secrets out of England. Whilst Hitchcock was able to exploit the film medium to make the cinematic audience merge with another audience to a show constructed by the director, on stage the imaginative use of spectator boxes on opposing sides ensured that we were as much at the Palladium show as at the Criterion production.

The 39 Steps is currently showing at The Criterion Theatre, Piccadilly

http://www.criterion-theatre.co.uk/current_show.html

To see Hitchcock's famous opening to the original 1935 film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzDiOyKz1ko&feature=related

V&A Ceramics

This fantastic exhibition is arguably one which you have to see twice in order to take it all in. The galleries showcase over 3,300 objects from the V&A’s collection showing exhibits dated as far back as 250BC to the present day, which include Ming Dynasty Chinese porcelain, Dutch Delftware and Clarice Cliff works. I was particularly enthralled by the contemporary works. Martin Smith’s geometric circular forms have an implicit appeal – their volume and circular shape draw in the eye, as does the contrast between the planes of silver and terracotta. Thiébult Chaqué’s primeval egg-shaped form was equally alluring. He describes the firing process as pushing the boundaries to the very limit of existence and this is powerfully represented in the fissuring and cracks that run over the body of the ceramic form.

Indeed, all the work exhibited has an implicit sense of time; a recognition that clay comes from the earth and has been a material for art for thousands of years. Pots have been studied by archaeologists as a means of unveiling our historic past and even now pottery can be used to tell a story. This is so in Stephen Dixon’s ‘Lacoön’. Lacoön was a priest living at the time of the Trojan Wars. However, when he tried to warn the Trojans of the wooden horse he was overcome by snakes. Dixon portrays this tale on the surface of his pot and at the same time juxtaposes it with images of modern times. The story of Lacoön thus becomes a metaphor for current political tensions between Europe and the Middle East.

Of final note was Lauren Ford’s piece, ‘Headthinker III,’ which showed a donkey’s head on a child’s body, the head resting heavily, wearily on a box. The text below explains the head as representing the weight of responsibility and knowledge that is thrust upon children today. However, my interpretation of the piece was far different: I found it reminiscent of a weary Bottom and the piece to me harked back to the idylls of forest groves in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dreams’. But, that is the amazing thing about art – every work has a story to tell and that story will be different for every individual.

See http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/ceramics/new_ceramics_galleries/index.html for more information on the Ceramics Galleries

British Fashion

On entering the V&A I was struck by the electric buzz in the foyer – it appeared that I had unexpectedly come across ‘Friday Late – British Fashion’ in which the V&A were holding a celebration of the 25th anniversary of London Fashion Week. Exhibits were featured all over the gallery and provided an opportunity to catch rarely seen glimpses of British fashion, from photography to films from the BFI archive. The highlight for me was a show laid on by Petra Storrs, a set designer, held in the Raphael Gallery. The performance was certainly unique: the audience stood in a large circle around dancers wearing simple wooden frames with dresses that opened out to be giant paper fans. Following this, a distinctly enigmatic personage entered the show, his tap shoes tinkling on the mosaic floor and his silver balloon and neck collar glinting in the light. Then the models came on, featuring the latest collections of up and coming British talent. Sheer lines, vivid and metallic colour and very high platforms were the order of the day – the drama of the show was fantastic!

BESTIVAL

Being the last summer festival, it was with some trepidation that I packed for Bestival – visions of mud baths and torrential rain somewhat overshadowed my excitement about the event itself. So, it was with glee that I first surveyed the Bestival site. Rolling hills, beautiful sunshine, brilliantly coloured stalls and people in fantastic space costumes were a warm welcome!

The music program, hand picked by Rob Da Bank, was hugely diverse, including acts such as Fleet Foxes, DJ Yoda and Florence and the Machine. Kraftwerk was a particular highlight: as a band that pioneered electronic music in the early 1980s, their rigid forms as they mixed their music on their laptops captured the feel of the whole event. In their encore, the curtain drew back to show mannequins of robots in place of the band, representing a fusion of futurism, electronic music and dance.

For me the highlight of the weekend was the DJs – 2 Many DJs and DJ Yoda both put on fantastic performances, mixing some great tracks with some hysterical video footage (a particular favourite was DJ Yoda’s mix of Sir Alan Sugar’s ‘You’re fired’!). But the ultimate atmosphere of sheer crowd elation was due to La Roux’s ‘Bulletproof’ and ‘In for the Kill.’

Bestival was also so much more than just the music – the vibe was magical as one wandered through wacky stalls, multicoloured flags and 10 ft high tulips. There were plenty of off-the-wall distractions in the daytime – one could even get married in a blow up church! Bestival 2010, here I come!

Inffinito and Beyond

London today will see the opening of the first ever Cine Fest Brasil in the city. The Inffinito Festival Circuit presents the weekend event and will showcase a range of over twenty reels from feature length films to short 15 minute comedies and documentaries. Fresh from the screens of New York, Cine Fest Brasil comes to London for a three day extravaganza, ending on Sunday, with the next stop for the tour in Rome during November . Catch it while you can!

Image from Chega de Saudade (The Ballroom) a film about the encounters of different characters one evening in an old-time dance hall in São Paulo.

Cine Fest Brasil is on at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith until 20th September

http://www.brazilianfilmfestival.com/eventos.php?type=evento&idioma=EN&id_cidade=15

The September Issue- out now!

For most people, the mysterious and aloof figure of Anna Wintour with her famously severe bob haircut remains impenetrable. Often ‘papped’ in the front rows of the London, Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks, or at the latest function in New York, the editor of American Vogue’s sunglasses-clad image has remained cold thus far. Whilst R.J. Cutler's highly anticipated documentary-style film The September Issue does not claim to reveal a hidden side to Wintour, the film is portrayed in such a way to allow the audience to come to their own conclusions regarding ‘the most powerful woman in fashion’. Indeed, Wintour exposes very little of herself, despite the filming in her various homes and the Vogue HQ (and keen viewers should note that the layout of her own office bares an uncanny resemblance to Miranda Priestly’s in The Devil Wears Prada, the film loosely based on Wintour).

The film centres around the production of the September 2007 issue of Vogue, the largest in its history coming in at 840 pages. Although the film is littered with the appearance of stars such as Sienna Miller (September 2007 cover girl) and the designer Oscar de la Renta (who is suprisingly advised on a fabric change for his A/W collection by Wintour), it is Vogue’s Fashion Director Grace Coddington who unexpectedly comes to the forefront. She modestly shows off her enviable talents which are most obvious in her innovative styling of fashion shoots.

A former model until a tragic car accident forced her to quit, Coddington arrived on the same day as Wintour at Vogue, and seems to be the only colleague of Wintour’s who, in spite of their tense relationship, gains the editor’s complete respect. Termed as ‘remarkable’ by Wintour (generous praise if there ever was), Coddington is no match in the personal style stakes for her superior yet her skills come through in other ways, not least when she realises most of the fashion pages of the September Issue were styled by her. When she dares to overrule Wintour in the photoshopping of the cameraman Bob’s stomach, her importance and centrality to the magazine is sealed.

It may seem odd to make a feature length film of the production process of a magazine, but like its employees, editor, and all the designers and models it features, Vogue is quite clearly a cut above the rest and certainly warrants all the attention it receives.

The September Issue is out in cinemas now

http://www.theseptemberissue.com/

Time to embrace another Almodóvar classic

Hannah Nathanson gets to grips with Almodóvar's latest cinematic offering

World Cinema has been coloured once again by Spanish Director Pedro Almodóvar and his trustworthy muse, Penélope Cruz. Their combined creative force has perhaps never been as vivid as in their latest collaboration, Broken Embraces. The film plays fruitfully around the concept of mise en abyme, as it cleverly strips itself bare to reveal a film-within-a-film.

At the core of all this is, of course, Cruz who plays Lena, an actress who entices and then falls passionately in love with her director Mateo Blanco, played by Lluís Homar. The plot gains impetus through a series of flashbacks and revelations. These uncover the intensity and finally the tragedy of the couple’s relationship, as they dupe Lena’s existing partner and producer of the film, Ernesto Martel, acted by José Luis Gómez.

The plot’s intricacies are punctured by humour, helped by an assortment of typically outlandish Almodóvar characters. This, along with the film’s passion, is set against a vibrant Spanish background, in which Cruz enjoys her cinematic element. The leading lady certainly shines and fulfils her role as a great seducer who is tainted by a doe-like vulnerability.

Critics have been quick to herald the tameness of Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces, compared to his previous works; although he confirms that this has been his most challenging film yet. Certainly no ground to miss out on this thoroughly enjoyable and sensuous watch, which at times tests your attention span but remains well worth it.

Broken Embraces is now showing at cinemas nationwide

http://www.brokenembraces.co.uk/

Creatures of Culture and the Culture Contributors

We'd like to extend a very warm welcome to our new team of Culture Contributors to the blog.

Watch out for some of their reviews to be posted soon!

As always, we welcome contributions, queries, or whatever you feel you want to add to this site so do drop us an email at info@creaturesofculture.com - we would love to hear from you.

C of C x

The Basterds Triumph

Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ has provoked very mixed reviews but, contrary to many, I found the film audacious, intriguing and highly amusing. Tarantino unashamedly rewrites the history books: the film has been dubbed as ‘kosher porn’ as the Jews get their vengeance on Hitler, Goebbels and Goering. It is a daring tale which is, on the whole, marvellously scripted and brilliantly acted.

Christopher Waltz, who plays Colonel Hanz Landa or the 'Jew Hunter,' steals the show. His effortless fluency in German, English, French and Spanish is incredible in itself but it also gives him the ability to completely hold a scene. In the opening scene his flip from French to English and back to French again mirrors the movement from ominous conversation to banal chit chat and back to the ominous again - it is utterly unnerving. Again, his perfect Italian greeting to the Basterds, exposing their own ineptitude at the language, is at once highly amusing and also terrifying.

Melanie Laurent also made a great performance as Shosanna Dreyfus, a true femme fatale. Tarantino’s ability to make cult movies is more than evident in the scene where Shosanna prepares herself for the grand finale, carefully adorning her makeup to Bowie's 'Cat People.'

For me, the only real bug bear of this film was Brad Pitt's acting which was wooden and uninspiring and the occasional looseness of plot. But don't let this deter - it's a great movie so go and see it!

'Inglourious Basterds' is currently showing at cinemas in the UK.

The MA Showdown at Chelsea

MA final projects were unveiled in early September at Chelsea College of Art, and the projects ranged from the categories of Graphic Design to Fine Art, via innumerable other media which continually push the boundaries of artistic terminology. Memorable pieces included the following:

In Memory, a forensic topology of the everyday life by Fanny Dolhain was an unusual project (seen in action above left) questioning how images have become almost indistinguishable from reality. Furthermore, Dolhain portrayed everyday objects as if they formed part of crime scenes, playing on the ‘public’s fascination in the spectacle’.

Samura Saleem’s Are there people living in the Maldives was a highly original and striking project made up of a book with strongly opposing images of the popular tourist destination. On the left hand side, true photos of the Maldives appear, versus the glossy brochure images promoting the islands in an unnaturally false way on the right. The artist appropriately termed her work ‘a perfect pseudo-event’.

The sketches of events taken from Dante’s Inferno by Richard Riefkohl in his Inferno Illustrations were also noteworthy; however, I believe that to create images which relate to the action and characters of the famous poem can only be truly realised in one’s own imagination based on a personal response, and therefore Riefkohl’s pieces are identifiable only insofar as they can be considered a personal interpretation.

Links:

http://www.chelsea.arts.ac.uk/

http://www.fanni.fr/

WarHorse

WarHorse is a stunning production well worth a visit. I came out of the theatre awe struck and deeply moved by a truly heartrending story and production thereof.

The play is based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo and highlights the omission made in history to the cruelty inflicted on horses during the World Wars. It is a scarce known fact that of the million horses sent from England to France to fight in the war only 62,000 returned. At the start of the war, horses were used in cavalry charges, a tactic that was inevitably to fail, as a cavalry charge was no rival to the barrage of shells that would greet them from the other side. That tactic was soon dropped but the horses were then used to pull weaponry and ambulances. WarHorse depicts the sheer horror and agony that these animals faced: they were wounded and maimed by gun fire, abandoned on battlefields to be ensnared by barbed wire and were completely emaciated.

Despite this, the story is also hugely uplifting: it is an emotive tale of the intrinsic bond between man and horse as Albert goes to war in the search of his beloved horse Joey. What makes the relationship between Albert and Joey so powerful is how realistic it is. The nature of the horses, their emotions and mannerisms were so remarkably portrayed by the puppets that one could easily forget that it was not a real animal one was watching. Each twitch of the ear, shiver of side, flick of the tail marvellously imitated the movements and emotions of a horse. Indeed, just the puppets on their own were a work of art. One not to miss.

WarHorse is now showing at the New London Theatre until 28th September.

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/warhorse