Jazzy D's Soul Notes

One film I missed at the cinema was the Justice League movie. I just watched it on Prime. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman stars in it. Also includes Ben Affleck as Batman, and we also have Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg all trying to defeat Steppenwolf. It was a good film. not a brilliant one, but excellent movie bliss.

Sam Wasson "Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M: Audrey Hepburn And The Making Of Breakfast At Tiffany's" (Aurum)




I loved Audrey Hepburn In those classic movies she did. By the end, I found that everyone who knew her loved her - so no startling revelations here. Indeed, the author didn't set out to insult anyone: according to the subtitle, his intent is to position Audrey and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" as precursors to the "modern woman", although it's not clear who that woman is.

Audrey herself professed to put children and family far before her career and testimony from her son Sean and Robert Wolders, her longtime spousal equivalent until the end of her life, supports this. Apart from the flashy career she fell into and ultimately abandoned, Audrey was a firm traditionalist. Perhaps it was her character, Holly Golightly, the author had in mind?

The idea for the book surely came from Wasson's other book, "A Splurch in the Kisser: The Movies of Blake Edwards", the director of "Breakfast". He is the most fleshed-out character in this book, partly because of Wasson's access to him and his friends. He managed a happy, sometimes whacky set that presaged the zaniness of his Inspector Clouseau movies.

Most of the others involved in "Breakfast" have died: the two lead actors, the writer, one of the producers and the composer of the haunting title song, "Moon River" - Henry Mancini. The notes at the back cite lengthy input from Richard Shepherd, a producer, supporting actress Patricia Neal, and Hepburn's family. The remaining sources are magazine interviews with the principals and biographies of Truman Capote, Edith Head and others. So far so good until Wasson attempts to put words in his protagonists' heads as he does with Hepburn. Here she - supposedly - is as she waits in a car to begin the first scene in front of Tiffany's at 5 A.M.:

"What she had to do now was to forget that she wasn't anyone's first choice, and that Capote was dissatisfied (some said), and that no one seemed to know how much Holly was, well, whatever she was ... She had to forget about her fights with Mel (Ferrer, her husband) whom she missed as much as she was glad to be without. It wasn't something Audrey had put words to. Was it really true love? Or was it grown-up love, the kind they don't make movies about?"

This seems to be a monumental presumption. One of the magazine sources Wasson uses elsewhere in the book is "Photoplay", a popular movie rag of the 1950s and 60s and this pulpy item certainly reads the same way.

Truman Capote's Holly Golightly was based on his mother and some of his "swans", the New York socialites he palled around with. She was a dreamy-eyed girl who partied hard and supported herself by sleeping with men for money. In hiring Hepburn, the producers hoped to win over the production code people, and by blurring the reality of how Holly made a living, the movie manages to leave unsaid that she is, essentially, a hooker. The casting of everyone's favourite good girl helped sell that idea.

If Wasson's theory is that Holly (not Hepburn) signalled the "dawn of the modern woman", he also conveniently ignores the whole prostitute thing and apparently bases this on the fact that Holly lived alone and made her own way in the world. That girl is the one that Helen Gurley Brown celebrated in 1962 with "Sex and the Single Girl" and sassy as she was, Helen wasn't recommending prostitution for her career-minded readers.

In the end, it's enjoyable for the light-as-a-feather gossipy story it really is: part fact, part made-up stuff posing as fact. The author's attempts to make it some sort of comment on the dawn of something serious was off-putting and a little insulting to the reader's intelligence. Ignore the ridiculous subtitle: this is a story of how an entertaining movie was made, and some of the drama that went into hoodwinking the public as to what it was really about.

More productive than even I expected. Finished my last visit in Sittigbiurne again, which by my calculations makes six in all and a healthy £86 earned when I get paid from all the various companies.

I am waiting to get back home from the Bourne to sleepy Faversham but the barriers are down at the station and the rozzers have not gone yet so I guess it will be after nine that I can catch a train home. Not paying any more fucking money today after a discovery ticket.

I am typing this in a McDonalds which is not too far from the station. Same area as my last covert shop in fact.

At least I finished all my reports. This is because both ESA Retail and IPSOS has apps which makes the work available on the go so easy. So when I get home I can relax, put my feet up, turn on the hi-fi, get the pipe, smoke and relax to some music.

From my covert shop in Maidstone, I did buy this DVD -



It was part of my three quid spend at the supermarket that is owned now by Walmart.

I hope to watch it over the weekend.

Well, that was a fine day. Mucho sunbathing, music, some food, a good read, and vino. Just the sex and drugs were missing but we had the rock and roll.
And talking of antiestablishmentarianism I watched that hilarious movie last night called The Boat That Rocked (also known as Pirate Radio in the USA). This was in the sixties when the BBC ruled and pop only had 45 minutes per day on the airwaves. For that boomer generation who wanted music radio, it was supplied by the offshore pirate radios or Radio Luxembourg. Radio Caroline was one of the biggest offshore pirate stations.

The Boat That Rocked is a 2009 British comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis with pirate radio in the United Kingdom during the 1960s as its setting. The film has an ensemble cast consisting of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost and Kenneth Branagh. Set in 1966, it tells the story of the fictional pirate radio station "Radio Rock" and its crew of eclectic disc jockeys, who broadcast rock and pop music to the United Kingdom 24-7 from a ship anchored in the North Sea while the British government try to endeavour to shut them down. The soundtrack is fabulous with all these sixties grooves.




Full movie here --



Enjoy.

WOW! Awesome! Best film of the year. A rollercoaster of drama, action and emotions, tinged with awe, delight, and despair. Three hours is a long time for a film but there were no dull moments. Three hours went by very quickly. A perfect end to the series of 22 films.

( Spoiler alert for those not seen the film )

So, the next film to see will be the latest Spidey outing.

Some background leading up to this movie clocking in at around 180 mins!

Upcoming films I want to see are -

Avengers Endgame



Shazam! - sounds so funny and light relief from darker films.




and this X-Men film
Dark Phoenix



Further forward -
Spiderman Far From Home

Did not get round to doing Tonbridge today. Just did the cinema visit in Ashford.  It has been a crap cold rainy day too.
Luckily by not leaving early i did manage to take in the XMAS pressies from my brother,coming42 from the postman at around midday.

Due to the fact that the 666 bus goes to Ashford every two hours on  a Saturday I was too late for the 2pm showing of the film,so i caught the 3 pm bus down there and saw Aquaman at around 5 pm. The film was excellent in my opinion. The seating was very comfy in the auditorium  but thank goodness i do not have to pay for the visit.Well i did have to pay but will not get reimbursed till next month around the tenth.

I still prefer the Carlton at Westgate.  But this was the first day of opening for the new centrally located cinema in Ashford.

Picturehouse in Ashford is £11.20  for senior citizens , and a pound more for others, More expensive than Cineworld.

Carlton is only £4 max,

The scenario on the visit meant that i had to use the restaitant first,and then buy medium popcorn and medium soft drink for the cinema part,that was £8 each.

Halumi and aubergene wrap was £8 , half that in Wetherspoons.

At least the film was good BUT i am not doing this one again.

Been relaxing and watching a couple of DVD's, the first was Constantine, which I watched whilst having some pizza. The next was Magnolia.

Should finish before Doctor Who comes on.