I'm on my way into the city to meet The Stormbringer for a coffee, and as is always the case with him, he'll be there before I am. We'll talk about everything from guitar licks to classic cinema, rarely experiencing any prolonged moments of silence, and after about an hour we'll shake hands and say goodbye with a promise of lunch or another coffee during the next couple of days.
Two hours later, having bid The Stormbringer farewell, I'm on my way home. I'm watching the people through the rain-distorted glass of the tram's windows as they mill around under any available shelter. This time of year the weather can change dramatically from one day to the next, going from deluge to drought so suddenly that planning any kind of outdoor activity is more or less impossible. One of the things I've always liked about this country is the fact that the seasons are always clearly defined; the spring being fresh, colourful and green, the summers hot and lazy, the autumns bracing, wet and vibrant, and the winters white and crisp, but at this particular time of year the sun and rain seem to squabble with each other, locked in a shouting match that lasts for a month. The thing that takes the most getting used to here is that the winters last for six months, which means that the spring, summer and autumn are experienced as being over all too quickly. This does however make them seem far sweeter for their brevity.
My choice of movie for today is Martin Scorsese's brilliant Shutter Island, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kingsley. Set in 1954, it's the story of US marshal Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Ruffalo), whose investigation into the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Ashecliff Hospital on Shutter Island turns into something far more sinister, as he races to uncover the truth about what's been taking place there. Shot with breathtaking colour and contrast, it leaves you with the impression that you've just watched a piece of true classic cinema, each scene painstakingly arranged with an air of pre-digital finesse, from a time when Technicolor was the word on everyone's lips. Based on the novel of the same name written by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote Mystic River, the story itself is compellingly and intelligently woven, and has you hooked from word one.
Fine performances from a cast that includes a quietly enigmatic Ben Kingsley as the hospital's director Dr. John Cawley together with Scorsese's scalpel-fine directing sew this disturbing tale up tightly, as the viewer is drawn inexorably into the island's mysterious web.
DiCaprio is an actor who has accomplished a great deal, from being a bit-part actor in various tv series before bouncing onto the big screen in the 90's, his big break coming in 1993 playing opposite Johnny Depp and Juliette Lewis in Lasse Hällström's much-loved What's Eating Gilbert Grape. He is currently appearing in Christopher Nolan's Inception, a sci-fi action thriller about dream invasion, and is due to hit the screen next year in Clint Eastwood's Hoover as J.Edgar himself. Another project he is rumored to be involved in, although at the moment only in pre-production stage, is the film adaptation of the comic-book hero Aquaman. Sounds like fun.
Quentin Beck
July 31st 2010
Shutter Island scared the living Bejasus out of me. That scene between DiCaprio and that strange actor who was Buffalo Bill in The Silence of Lambs, where they are in a Jeep driving back to the hospital, is one of the best I've seen for a long time. You can't lose with Scorsese. have you seen his first film, Mean Streets? It's very much a first film, and it's technically limited, but it has De Niro and the masterful Keitel and it oozes class.
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