Jazzy D's Soul Notes

I just watched one of the most hard-hitting Ken Loach films on BBC iPlayer. "Sorry We Missed You" which is a drama that shouts loud screes against the gig economy and the fact that carers are overworked.

In it, Ricky Turner takes a job as a delivery driver on a zero-hours contract, thinking it's a step towards independence and stability for his family. Instead, he finds the unforgiving working conditions and demanding schedule exact a heavy toll. With his wife Abbie needing to be at her job as a home carer and their graffiti artist son Seb's habit of playing truant, Ricky and Abbie find they always need to be in two places at once and give everything they can to try and help their family.

I would want to see every Tory grandee watch this with their eyes fixed wide open as Alex was in A Clockwork Orange to watch this film. Then they see the total hardship the working class has to deal with. Thanks, Ken for another in your face drama.

Trailer -




Well worth watching.

The Czechoslovak New Wave (also Czech New Wave) is a term used for the Czechoslovak filmmakers who started making movies in the 1960s. The directors commonly included are Miloš Forman, Věra Chytilová, Ivan Passer, Pavel Juráček, Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec, Jaromil Jireš, Vojtěch Jasný, Evald Schorm, Hynek Bočan, Juraj Herz, Juraj Jakubisko, Štefan Uher and others. The movement was sometimes called the "Czechoslovak film miracle".




The films touched on themes which for earlier filmmakers in the communist countries had rarely managed to avoid the objections of the censor, such as the misguided youths of Czechoslovak society portrayed in Miloš Forman's Black Peter (1963) and Loves of a Blonde (1965), or those caught in a surrealistic whirlwind in Věra Chytilová's Daisies (1966) and Jaromil Jireš' Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970). The films often expressed dark and absurd humour in opposition to social realist films of the 1950s.

The Czechoslovak New Wave differed from the French New Wave in that it usually held stronger narratives, and as these directors were the children of a nationalized film industry, they had greater access to studios and state funding. They also made more adaptations, including Jaromil Jireš's adaptation of Milan Kundera's novel The Joke (1969). At the Fourth Congress of the Czechoslovak Writers Union in 1967, Milan Kundera described this wave of national cinema as an important part of the history of Czechoslovak literature.

This year I hope to watch many of these films from whatever sources are available. The BFI has many and some can be found on YouTube. These films are among the most fruitful, fascinating, and radical from that period.

Here is a link to the 10 most Essential Films of The Czech New Wave.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/10-essential-films-from-the-czech-new-wave/

One of my fave animated films with the music of Luc Ferarri

Piotr Kamler - Chronopolis




Duration: 52 min.

Chronopolis is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Polish animator Piotr Kamler with music composed by Luc Ferrari and narration by Michael Lonsdale. This was Piotr Kamler's first and only full-length film apart from nine other short animations he had accomplished during the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1990s. The film won Best Children's Film for 1982 and was nominated for the International Fantasy Film Award in 1983. The film was shown out of competition at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.

It took animator/filmmaker Piotr Kamler nearly half a decade to make this fantastic animated 3-D sci-fi film that is set in a futuristic city inhabited by powerful immortals who are utterly bored with the idea of eternity and so begin playing with time. -- Sandra Brennan, (All Movie Guide)


Music: Luc Ferrari

Michel Lonsdale - Narrator
Maria Tataczuk - Special Effects
Diane Chretien - Special Effects
Babette Vimenet - Special Effects
Piotr Kamler - Screenwriter, Producer, Cinematographer, Production Designer, Director, Animator


ENJOY

It turned out to be a sunny day after the last few days of meh. So I went for a walk into town. Picked up some more mushrooms and did a favour for Mary at number 27. She wanted five copies of the picture I took of Anna and her friends when they did the Monday food fest.

Last night I watched two Marvel movies, one on a DVD and the other on the Disney Plus channel. The DVD was The Punisher, which is more of a crime vigilante thing similar to Gotham. The other was the martial arts supernatural thriller Shang Chi and The Legend Of The Ten Rings. Both are pretty good in their different ways.

Well that was a good day in town with Ewart. Five beers in total.

As Hepburn' said "it's all alcohol" - Desk Set

Yep, I just watched the new version of Suicide Squad or basically their second mission. It has Harley Quinn back in it. A new threat. Oh and the guy who did Dr.Who and The Thick Of it as an evil scientist. Lots of violence and blood as well. Great fun.

Suicide Squad 2 Movie Trailer



Thanks, OnionPlay!

I had been waiting to see the movie for a while and last night I watched it via OnionPlay on the laptop. Scarlet Johannson is back as Black Widow just after the events of Civil War and before her heroic sacrifice in Endgame and saving Barton instead (Hawkeye). The ending to this film has clues what might happen with Barton vis-a-vis Black Widow's sister. But that might be another movie.

So, if you have not seen the film then I am not giving away any spoilers. I will say - go and see or watch it on Disney or OnionPlay for free. It is action-packed all the way.

By the way, Loki is brilliant - the penultimate episode was watched Friday night. Recommended viewing!

I have just watched the 2020 version of Godzilla v Kong on the streaming film site I use. It was better than expected. Certainly much better than the original old sixties Japanese version.

Next, I will be listening to my usual BBC Radio 3 programme of night music. Then I might post some music here.

Watched a movie from 1945 that poliphilo mentioned. It is, as he mentioned, a precursor to the Twilight Zone - - but also, in my opinion, those Hammer Horror movies that are stories contained within one film where all the protagonists are dead reliving their nightmares leading them to be dead, like for example that movie Creepshow from director George A. Romero.

Creepshow is five tales of terror. The first deals with a demented old man returning from the grave to get the Father's Day cake his murdering daughter never gave him. The second is about a not-too-bright farmer discovering a meteor that turns everything into plant-life, and so on.

It is a trope that is well worn now.