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veronicaspaintbox
Reviews
Landscape Artist of the Year (2015)
Not as egalitarian as it seems
Impressive location. At Dunottar Castle as the contestants perch in a clifftop to capture the stunning scenery.
Alongside what they call, wild cards, the artists battle it out to produce a piece of work in just four hours
It appeared a mixed bag, there was a textile artist this time, as well as painters and a printmaker.
Most contestants achieved a pretty stunning piece of art but all is not as it seems...
Some have unfair advantage.
The winner, Kristina Chan, is already a well known international artist of repute.
Her relaxed attitude throughout was a bit of a giveaway.
At the end she blushingly smiled and said " It hasn't quite sunk in yet..."
This is the previous winner of multiple awards and fellowships , a summate professional .
Her work is exhibited in the V and A. The British Museum.
She really does not need a leg up the greasy pole of the art business.
Prior knowledge of her work was exhibited by Mr Schierenberg one of the judges. He extolled the ' sense of history ' in the work.
There was nothing in the work that particularly showed 'history'. A gloomy watery scene on a large piece of paper , it looked overworked. The artist had started off trying to monotype the drawing, failed ,and ended up painting.
Her usual , more famous style is photo etching.
The other contestants drew the short straw against an internationally acclaimed artist.
Schierenberg was really rooting for her...he said " I have never seen such unusual work before."
Maybe in the V and A? Sackler Gallery, Royal College of Art, U. K.
Or the British Museum or...
Gallery 46, Whitechapel, U. K.
Vault Project London, U. K.
Royal Academy of Fine Art Antwerp, Belgium
KoMASK Master Printmaking Salon, Belgium
Anise Gallery, U. K.
Or dozens of others.
This is why the contest annoys me.
Firstly, the should have a guest judge each series, instead of the same closed coterie.
It's unfairly stacked. Sure there can be professional artists...but artists with work in museums and who have had dozens of exhibitions?
There were very good painters on this show and I do absolutely love Kristina Chan's professional work. But not this particular painting. Or the fact the contest felt unfair .
Tales of the Unexpected: Run, Rabbit, Run (1982)
Very nice to watch if you love Leslie Caron
Leslie Caron plays an overworked housewife who is locked in a toxic relationship with her tyrranical husband.
Now this is a very old drama and it is a bit cardboardy set wise. I guess the budget went on Leslie Caron. My beef is not with her genuine French accent, but with her terrible wig.
I'm sure better rugs existed in 1982.
It turns out her husband was even worse than we suspected and was both a collaborateur and double agent.
Of course justice was served on him, and since then he has both a heart condition and a penchant for controlling his wife.
I loved the whole thing as it was both terrifically cheesy and like a rather good stage play.
My favourite bits : Caron repeating 'Run Rabbit run...' as Run, 'rabbits' Run. So cute!
I don't know why people slate these nice bits of period drama, personally I find them interesting and nostalgic because of the actors.
Her Obsession (2022)
Tanga with Lycras
A strangely slickly made movie which looks okay but lacks content. When a devastatingly fit Pilates teacher falls in love with her hot student, he fails to tell her he has an attendant stalker in tow.
In fact, communication between the main actors leaves us confused. They seem to speak in clichés throughout which makes it hard for us to understand the actual relationship between them.
There's a lot of dry humping, oh and a wet bit in a swimming pool.
The stalker, who appears to be a Valley Girl, terrorises the attractive Pilates teacher with pens.
Her obsession with hot rich guy drives her to murder someone who looks a bit like him. This is hard for us to assess, as it would be usual to murder the object of your obsession,on the whole.
"He even smelled like you! " she screams. Must have had short legs too, then.
Anyway if you want a right laugh, it's okay for that, but bear in mind the laughs are in the actors. Rich hot guy actor is struggling with the gormless plot, but methinks he cannot act anyway.
I have never seen a film that lingers on the lead actresses thrusting lycra crotch as she demonstrates that Pilates Bridge thing. It's all very unprofessional as she does admit.
I actually started to sympathise with the stalker because she was the only one doing any acting: even if it was drowning size 0 Pilates girl in the sea or bashing her. Or the whole ballpoint pen leitmotif.
I really wanted Pilates girl to find new strength and fight back, but truly, she was a drip in tanga briefs.
There is a really weird bit at the end where Hot Rich Guy is being ogled by a cougar type lady.
"Don't bother change your t shirt!" she winsomely calls out to him.
He replies "I had to, the other one smells."
Elle s'appelait Sarah (2010)
Excellent and well made, but upsetting
Sarah's Key is extremely upsetting and harrowing, but as in the title, the key to the film is allowing its layers to merge.
A Jewish family' simple life is torn apart by the Nazi occupation. Along with 670.00 Jewish men, women and children, in stages the Jewish community are herded by the gendarmerie, first into the Velodrome and then on to concentration camps.
A little girl has a secret, she has tried to hide her brother, a terrible mistake.
The unfolding events are told in a series of flashbacks as a modern day journalist played by Kristin Scott Thomas tries to unravel the secrets of the family apartment in Paris which her husband is redesigning.
Her journey leads her to uncover a shocking truth, a metaphor for all that is hidden and should be revealed.
The film is cathartic, but do be warned, the plight of families beaten and cruelly divided and of children sickening and dying in the camps is very very upsetting.
In amongst the cruelty are also acts of kindness.
One thing that let the film down was flat acting from some of the supporting cast,Aidan Quinn is hardly bothering at all at the denoument.
The best is from the child actors, notably the young actress who play Sarah herself.
Beyond the Fire (2009)
Giving it up for Lent.
A well made and well filmed account of the relationship between a devout ex priest, Sheamy and a trendy female band manager Katy,it lacked an existential edge and was too well rounded and glib in some way. Awkward moments abound where the couple seemed to be too old for the courtship scenes in the clubs and bars of Liverpool. Other strangely inappropriate scenes include the main female character teaching Sheamy about sex by drawing a diagram of a vagina and stilted dialogue were at kilter with the sophisticated appearance of both characters with their post punk Portishead scene clothes. I have never seen a recently defrocked priest look so cool and leathery with a double tat of angel wings. It's a bit of a female fantasy number, Thorn Birds not withstanding. The film is about traumatic abuse and forgiveness as well as sex and passion as a healing tool. The sex scenes are well acted and filmed and convey a loving chemistry between the couple. I don't want to spoil the story but the forgiveness of abuse was a bit hard to swallow and certain statistics at the end of the film focused on Catholic abuse of minors and not also rape, which was more than a bit annoying for a female viewer.