Frederick Wiseman: The National Gallery

I've grown up with Frederick Wiseman being someone to look up to on the documentary stage. That was - until this.

bbc.co.uk

accessfitness.ie

This 3 hour blank canvas of mundane nothingness. It's like we're looking at rushes back to back. There was no selective editing of conversation, no pace, no additional audio, no name-straps, no music, no voiceover - essentially no production. Wiseman manages in three hours to completely starve the National gallery of the very thing it stands to hold - art. The documentary is literally the outcome of a man and his camera (sometimes 2) filming anything and everything with no direction. It is perhaps the dullest documentary I've ever seen on screen - and that statement comes after last week's Channel 4 broadcast of 'All Aboard: The Canal Trip'.

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I understand that yes, the 3 hour duration is probably representative of the time it takes to walk around the gallery itself. I understand that the documentary's aim is possibly to allow us to observe and experience the REAL National Gallery, rather than an authored one that is made to be more entertaining. BBC Four just please, for the sanity of us all, remind Wiseman that we pay our licence fees to gain something in return, and all I gained from this is an education in how NOT to make an observational documentary. It's as though even he got bored of it.

wikipedia

I was more interested in the janitor mopping the floors outside my own evening study room than I was in anything that the lady onscreen was attempting to relay to a very bored and tired looking trustee. At times I did feel I was studying the film as I would a painting, but watching on television is NOT the same as being there, no matter how much defendants of Wiseman attempt to persuade me that THIS TIME it is. If I wanted a three hour tour of the gallery I would go. I don't expect to turn my television on to such an empty exhibition.

There is no narrative, no structure - it almost echoes the tragedy of my early re-edits of film trailers using google images and windows movie-maker. The images might be a little sharper, but the edit is more or less the same.

Most critics seem laboured in offering an opinion on this absolute waste of everybody's time. So if they won't stand alongside the Guardian's Jonathan Jones, I will. He's right when he says it is 'crushingly elitist', 'smug' and 'patronising'. All evidence points towards the admission that Wiseman might be past it. It was rubbish. Bring me back the canals!!!



You can read Jonathan's review here: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2015/jan/05/frederick-wiseman-national-gallery-dull-elitist-jonathan-jones

Inside Harley Street

Inside Harley Street - in short, a total parody of high society. Where mums pop round to do the washing for their 30yr olds, where school girls are given designer watches for having braces fitted, where doctors buff their fingernails, where nip and tucks cost £30,000 and growing old gracefully is not an option. It is, perhaps, the most ridiculous three-part series I've seen on the BBC in a long time. Albeit that it lost its impact as the episodes continued and we were confronted with the same kinds of people, under similar circumstances.

bbc.co.uk - shoemaker's patient

The Harley Street estate is owned by the Howard DeWalden family and has been in the family for over 300yrs. It is valued at approximately £2.7billion - which goes far enough in explaining the clientele it attracts. On the most part, the documentary delivers exactly what we expect; rich aristocrats who couldn't tell you how much anything costs, stressed businessmen who are looking to find the key to rejuvenation, snobby old ladies who tell us they 'don't sacrifice anything for anyone' - the usual. However, there were moments that touched us too, like the story of a young Russian boy who had undergone numerous back passage operations and just wanted to live a normal life, a sponsored young middle Eastern patient with a brain tumour, or the story of an orthopaedic shoemaker who helps a charming elderly lady and a smiley young woman with cerebral palsy.

radiotimes.com

Part 1 was laughable. Vanessa Engle's frank and antagonistic questions were a dream to watch, the contributors even more so for squirming under her thumb. A particular favourite made it to the opening credits, as one of our doctors reveals, 'I have nothing to hide. If someone asks me what I earn, I earn x'. Vanessa's unique style delivers just what we'd expect in conversation with a lady about to undergo surgery to rid her of her ageing upper arms, as she poses the question, 'Do you ever think: actually, this is not important and I should go and find an orphanage in Romania or fight for world peace instead?' - met with just the kind of shifting eye contact and awkward body shifts that we'd expect. Yet not one of our contributors crumble.

I also enjoyed the fact that the music - including many the Eminem instrumental - was completely juxtaposed with the characters we meet. Although they go some way towards trying to seem approachable and humble, they just come across awkward and false. It's a tough game when you're set out against Engle.

dailymail.co.uk

In part 2, it wasn't just the interviews that spiced up the content, although one person's reasoning behind cosmetic surgery did seem a little over the top - 'People want to look good to keep their jobs'. I guess that means all of our politicians are out of luck for the general election then!

We even met one man who paid £7000 for a hair transplant - the price of holidays for seven years according to his mum.

I was particularly shocked by the visit to the Anti-ageing congress, where it felt more like a trip to the house of horrors than a place where people go to look good and feel young. In fact, I think the Guardian's Michael Hogan pretty much sums it up:

With a sad lack of self-awareness, one woman insisted she’d know when to stop having work done. At least, I think it was a woman. She looked more like a cartoon cat.

ebookee.net

Part 3, strayed towards the more weird and wonderful practices on Harley Street as we meet a therapist who cries because she loves her leeches and a Chinese doctor who prescribes herbs to help women to conceive. There were intravenous drips infusing vitamins directly to the bloodstream and just far too much weird, for far too much money, for my liking.

It was like a high-end cocktail of pompous hypochondriacs and over-paid private medical professionals but not for one minute do we find the contributors painful to watch. The scarce appearance of genuine patients seeking the best care and Engle's authored challenges, are enough to keep us engaged and entertained. It was a good insight into the workings of Harley Street, though I would have liked to have seen more of a focus on the patients journeys through treatment to see what private healthcare is all about.

One thing's for sure, I don't think I'd like to sit opposite Engle, if she's the one asking questions!

tvguide.co.uk

I Am A Girl

'I Am A Girl' is a 15min hybrid doc that embraces the life of transgender teen Joppe. It's different from other docs around the same subject in that rather than twisting it into an angsty/crisis story, film-maker Susan Koenen crafts it into a well-made film about beauty and teenage crushes.

The film celebrates Joppe's identity and her strength and confidence in her transition. She is absolutely stunning on camera and I envy her perfect skin like no other! I cannot help but find her energy infectious and her friendships touching. For a film I clicked through to on a whim, I was so glad to learn about Joppe, rather than about transgender issues. Of course, issues aren't shyed away from, but it is secondary to her story and instead, it is her confidence and energy that shines through. I really enjoyed the hybrid nature of this doc as Joppe hides in the bushes to spy on her crush and as she rides her bike in the sunlight. These scenes are beautifully shot with using well-muted natural sunlight and really emphasises the joy she feels at being allowed to be who she wished to be. Oh, and I have to say, Joppe you're not the only girl who wishes she had the figure of her friends!

If more docs were made like this, with a touch of personality and a focus on the 'people' over the issues, we may just be able to win around that corner of society that refuses to accept girls like Joppe for the beautiful, passionate people that they are.

The film is about embracing truths, loving without boundaries and being free to live the lives we choose. Leave a comment!

Nostalgia for the Light

newwavefilms.co.uk

There are 5 star reviews left, right and centre for this uniquely poetic Chilean documentary. Yet, for some reason, I don't share the same enthusiasm that everyone else presents. That is not to say that I disliked it, I just think it may be a little over-indulgent of the link between the two avenues the film explores.

hemisphericinstitue.org

I certainly can't argue that the film is not unique. It is filled with poetic description and transcendent comparison between the universal search for 'how our world began' through astrophysics and the search for human remains in the Atacama desert following the Pinochet regime. The film follows the work of astronomers alongside their desert companions - the women who search for the remains of their loved ones, sifting tragically through dirt for traces of bone and mummified human body parts - all in the hope that they may find some closure in discovery. The film also explores how both parties became thwarted victims of the Pinochet regime, as Chileans became slaves of the desert and their only escape, astronomy, was banned as authorities believed that prisoners could escape by following the stars.

vcdq.com

The themes of loss, longing and hope are ones that are present from start to finish but I feel that impact is lost in favour of unnecessary poetry.  The first 35minutes of the film is purely narrated, with lingering images of inanimate objects, landscape and ordinate machinery. There is a single contributor, who does not offer much by way of insight, that our narrator has not already inferred. I feel that the opening to the film indulges too much in suggestive meaning, without at first setting the scene as to why the search that these people dedicate their lives to, is so important. This first half of the film left me searching for meaning amidst a desert of description and I was left willing for some let-up in the narration to rest my heavy eyelids.

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Finally at 40minutes in, we were relieved of duty and were allowed into the story of the 'people' over the 'poetry'. We are allowed into the lives of those who survived the regime: of an architect who memorised the layout of the camps, of a young astronomer, of a female astronomer whose parents disappeared under the regime, of the women who search endlessly through the sand. We are finally given that insight into why all of this imagery matters so much and it moves us. It's just a shame that it took us so long to get there.

ww.mediafieldsjournal.org

The film is unique in the way that it presents its interviews too. Director Patricio Guzman does not conform to common interview edit practice. Instead he allows the responses to come naturally. There are no cuts to shorten responses, no cutaways to take us away from the people - the film's slow pace finally syncs with it's contributors allowing us the time to evaluate their words and be moved by their passion. I think THE moment of the film for me was when we meet the elderly women who speak of their search for their relatives. There is no need for elaborate name-straps to identify who these women are, we know immediately. 70yr old Violeta Berrios, moved me to tears as she is asked, 'will you carry on searching?' and answers, 'for as long as I can'. She conveys so passionately how people ask her 'why we want bones...I want them so much...If I found him today and I were to die tomorrow, I would die happy. But I don't want to die. I don't want to die before I find him'. She is remarkable. The edit does not eliminate her contemplation, questioning, passion or repetition, adding to its complete emotional authenticity.

pbs.org

The cinematography of the film shares it's moments of beauty also. In a desert, I would think it is quite the challenge to find unique and interesting shots of the vastness of endless sand but Guzman manages it well, merging it with shots of surviving concentration camp buildings, that are believed to have held approximately 300,000 people over the years of the regime (1973-1990). In 2011 the Chilean government recognised that over 35,000 of its people survived political imprisonment and torture - and that's just those who survived. The numbers are too large to comprehend and the secrecy surrounding where the remains of those killed during this time ended up, is still very much the norm. Slow panning shots of walls of the victims, clever editing between shots of the moon's surface and of imperfect human skulls, starry skies and sandy dunes, act as haunting reminders of the devastation of the past that continues into Chile's present. I will say that the stationary portrait shots seemed a little forced but with the poetic tone of the film, we manage to fill in the gaps ourselves.

ambulo.org

And so, for 90mins we have immersed ourselves in the slow and constant search for answers in the Atacama Desert. Poetry allows a tone that the stories of its contributors respond to. Although I believe that the first half of the film was unnecessarily long and over-indulgent, I feel that I appreciated the second half of it more, having sat through it. I do not believe that 'Nostalgia for the Light' is as masterful, nor as remarkable as other reviews have deemed it but that is certainly not to say that it has no value at all. It is painfully truthful and hopelessly unending, reflecting the torment that those within film face every single day. It is a memorial to those who were lost, and a tribute to those who carry on searching.

Day 18 - Lake Tekapo to Christchurch

It irritating that Kiwi had a no bus day on the 23rd or we really would have liked to stay in Queenstown one more day and then move on to Lake Tekapo today. But now we'll be in Christchurch two days before our flight lookin for things to do. I'm sure we'll find something but I can't help but think I could have done more in Queenstown if the buses allowed it. 

So anyway, today we move onto the second largest city in New Zealand - Christchurch, with a population of just 385,000 people compared with Auckland's 1.5million.

We woke up to the sun bouncing off the lake, and set off through Burkes Pass which sits at a higher altitude than Tekapo known for its astronomy. Burkes pass is known for its huge snow drifts in the winter (thank god it's autumn) then it was on to the Canterbury plains. 

The surrounding mountain range grows up to 10-20mm taller a year. The drift and debris from that push gets spread out over the Canterbury plains. Here, the river bed was extremely wide until the white man put flood banks in so it can't deposit rock and metal everywhere like it used to, leaving it almost dry. The plains used to be a colourful and diverse farming area, but they used to plough and topsoil would disappear with the high winds and pollute Christchurch. Now with animal farming and dairy there is less of that, as grass grows and doesn't leave unused topsoil. Although NZ only holds 2% of the world's dairy produce. Instead though, animal waste filters through to pollute water sources - so there's no winning game really! 4.5million cows, 30million sheep - that's a lot of unwanted waste!

Although interestingly, NZ are so short of farm workers, they are pulling in people from the Phillipines and all of their families to live as NZ citizens, in purpose built farm worker outhouses to help the industry survive. The next largest town south of Christchurch is Ashburton which houses the machinery and warehouses for all of the local dairy produce and farming. 

After a quick stop at Geraldine for breakfast, we continued on to Christchurch which is undergoing a 40billion dollar reparation and rebuild process after the 2011 earthquake. In sept 2010 there was an earthquake measuring at 7.1 that destroyed much of the foundation of the city. On Boxing Day there was another earthquake a little further south. In February 2011 at 12:45, in a city on one of the busiest days for shopping, 6.3 measuring 3km deep earthquake ruptured in Port Hills causing 185 people to die. Half of Christchurch was untouched but 2km down the road in Christchurch and on to Brighton the damage was huge. 5000 buildings, 10,000 houses destroyed. Another 10,000 liveable but needed repairing and reinforcing. Most of the tall buildings in the main city stayed standing, although their foundations were destroyed so one by one they have had to have been pulled down. There has been huge lint refraction, where sediment rises from the floor and sets like concrete. There's now a 6 storey height restriction on every building. They have pulled most of the destroyed buildings down but are repairing under the ground before they can build up.

Even the cathedral which once stood at the centre was destroyed.

Before

After 

There are a limited amount of places to stay in Christchurch for the same reason but I had a two hour drive to anticipate what to expect. And I saw the strangest thing - a dual carriageway - in New Zealand. After a month of single lane highways and one way bridges. Incredible. 

Christchurch is built on the Australian plate where it meets the Pacific plate on a volcano. There are two forced harbours where they meet. Christchurch is also known as Britain of the South - with settlers voyaging for three months to their new homes.

Stoats and possums are pests and it's even illegal to own them as pets. There are traps all over NZ in attempt to rid the country of pests and allow Kiwi birds (who nest on the ground) and other native animals and birds the chance to survive.

Christchurch, should have been built on the site where modern day Rolleston is but an Englishman came along and said the city was too far away from water source and they moved closer to the water. With the site being on a swamp, ships struggled to enter and bring supplies and the first settlers almost starved to death. If it wasn't for the Maori people, who looked after them, they would have died. 

Rolleston moved down the road and is actually growing well, especially after the 2011 earthquake. It's close to becoming a city - it even has traffic lights! The city was built by immigrants from all over the world to the English plans. There is a church in central Christchurch that the religious folk want to tear down and build a new one. The non-religious people want to keep it as part of the heritage of the city. One of the oldest buildings in the city.

A stroll around the city was more like strolling around a ghost town. The one thing I admired the mod though is how everyone is committed to the rebuild and even amidst all of the destruction they are set on keeping the life within the walls.

They also had a solution to rebuilding the old neo-gothic cathedral - they made a cardboard one. Along with Japanese emergency architect Shigeru Ban. Ban had already completed a similar project in Kobe after an earthquake there. This time the building was made with local wood, steel and cardboard as well as a strong polycarbonate roof. It seats 700 people, holds more than 750 services a year and is build to 130% of the new NZ earthquake code. It's designed to last at least 50yrs - by then they might have made a decision on what to do with the old one!

After a stroll around the cathedral we headed to the makeshift mall, made from shipping containers where I had to restrain myself from buying unnecessary pairs of leggings and some poy! 

Quite a cool little place but nothing but souvenirs and coffee on sale. So we turned around and headed back to our YMCA for some dinner before heading out.

The evening brought us a twenty minute walk to the nearest bar, where we were met with $10 a pint!! Mental! So we begrudgingly drank our overpriced pints in a deserted bar in Christchurch. We did meet a few nice guys from back home, two of whom became childhood friends through sheep farming. It was interesting to actually meet some highland farmers who are my age, and hear that they really are committed to taking over the family farms!

It was quite an early night as we headed back to bed through the streets of a ghostly christchurch. We passed the only nightclub which was busy serving its only two guests. It's hard to think it's taken the city this long to pull down all of the buildings that were harmed in the earthquake four years ago. Let's hope it's a quicker regeneration from here onwards!

Day 17 - Queenstown to Lake Tekapo

Goodbye Queenstown :( I want to stay and do more crazy things! And I will miss the nicest room we've had so far. Even had our own balcony.

We'll be back I hope. Tick the bungy off our list too. 

Anyway, no point in dwelling on it. We passed through the Waitaki district.

And passed the wonderfully blue and glacier fed Lake Pukaki, which has since been turned into a hydro-electricity source and damn. The man made canal that runs to nearby power stations can be seen to have lots of white water when there are a lot of people using their hair dryers and phone chargers. The water is so blue, it's quite hard to capture in a photo.

We just managed to sneak a look at 'the cloud piercer' Mount Cook as the cloud cleared over the lake too.

Then we pulled into our accommodation for tonight where Kamal and I have a romantic lakefront cottage just for the two of us at Lake Tekapo. 

Lake Tekapo is almost as blue as Pukaki and is known for its two observatories where you could pay $140 EACH to see the stars through their telescopes. Whilst pondering over whether it was worth it or not we decided to climb Mount John to get a better look at the ground below before we made decision on the skies. I even donned my most stylish outfit.

It took us about 90mins to climb and get back to the cottage. But my God, my knees are like an eighty year old's! 

We got to see some nice woodland as it approached sunset too.

The view from the top was great - even if both of us were puffing like we'd never walked before.

On our climb down I hurt my knee so ended up limping as well as puffing. Sorry sight! We walked across the beach where the plants still had fresh droplets untouched on their leaves. 

It got cold pretty quickly but it was soon sorted out by a shower, hot dinner and a glass of wine in our cottage, before heading out to stargaze. We opted not to pay the $280 for the observatory and instead stayed out snuggled under a towel in about seven layers of clothes on the beach for a good hour or so. I picked out three shooting stars before we took a starlit stroll into town to buy bottles of drink as we realised we'd run out of water. On the way back, I saw the most stunning shooting star of all, right across the sky. A good way to end a shivery stroll AND we're richer for it too.

A quick play in the park and Kat was a happy bunny. We even saw some bunnies!!

We went back inside to watch TV and spend some quality time together before falling asleep in all my many layers of clothing and waking up in the middle of the night realising that the toilet was outside in the cold. Brrrrrr. But Ahhhh sleep never felt better.

Day 16 - Milford Sound

What a miserable morning - and even more so with a 6am wake up. We began our drive past the mountains known as the Remarkables. The cloud was low and most rolling in bed thicker. We can barely make out the bases of some of the mountains, let alone the peaks. For a day where we're supposed to see some amazing scenery, I really hope the mist lifts! It's known for raining, it rains 200+days a year but the mist is just irritating.

We took a break for breakfast at Te Anau (after a 2hr drive) which has a lake with a coastline of 300km, the longest lake coastline in NZ and the biggest lake in South Island. Of course, Lake Taupo of the North definitely puts it to shame. We treated ourselves to one of mike's pies - oh my god the steak and cheese!

Then we continued on our path, passing the halfway point between the equator and South Pole. We drove down highway 94, which took 50yrs to build. A farmer needed access to his cattle and began building. Twenty years later the government took over the farmers brand new driveway and continued building it into a highway to Milford.

You used to only be able to access Milford Sound by water. When the sealing business was big, people would sell the fur and blubber whilst passing to Milford Sound. Finally, someone found a way into Milford Sound by land - by a four day hike and a lot of hills. So we'll stick to the water I think.

We past Lake Gunn, discovered by Sam Gunn, a farmer who drove his cattle over the hills and found the lake. His grandson Davey Gunn made the area more famous by witnessing a plane crash-land and trekking 90km to find help for their rescue. Three out of the four passengers survived.

William Homer put in a road through the mountain to the Sound, an avalanche destroyed the entrance so it's now shorter than it used to be - which filled us with confidence as we drove over the divide. A few nice waterfalls by the entrance though to take our minds off it - but still really misty so we can't really see above 30m.

We crossed through the tunnel and into the sounds, named by a Welshman as Milford Haven after his home port. It was then changed to 'sound' as it means a river carved gorge. That's wrong too though as actually they are fjords, but it's to late to change now everyone knows it.

And so we stopped briefly at the chasm before carrying on through to the sound, where we found some more of those characteristic giant ferns.

We got a brief let up in the clouds but not for long enough to really appreciate the view. It was a bit disappointing really. We drove for 4hrs there and 4hrs back to see A LOT of mist! Although we did at least spot some seals and saw some rather beautiful waterfalls..even if it was absolutely freezing cold.

And we saw some cheeky Kias!

And then to cheer us all up after the disappointment of not really seeing Milford Sound in all its glory, we came across this guy...

So we did see some cool waterfalls and some wildlife but it's such a shame the most didn't lift. We'll just have to come back....

We then rejoined the others for our last night with the Barney bus. There was a bronco - now my knee hurts - enough said.

See you around folks!