Babies, babies, babies. Everywhere. I'm experiencing that same strange association to babies that one has when buying a new car, suddenly seeing the same model all over the place. My wife and I are expecting our first baby (it's due today, actually) and for this reason I am noticing babies and pregnant bellies wherever I look. One thing that has definitely changed when it comes to these small, pink individuals is the way I relate to them being around me. There was a time (not long ago) when I would find the sound of a screaming child to be about as comfortable as an airhorn amplified through a tube screamer, but lately the sound of one of those plump, high-pitched tykes sends small ripples of anticipation through me as I picture myself (for the thousandth time) cradling one of these fascinating little sprogs in my arms, the image strangely enough always in black and white. This is probably something to do with the 90's, when every postcard stand was full of monochromatic pictures of oiled, naked musclemen holding tiny babies in dimly lit rooms. Not that I'd actually oil up for it.
I'm on my way to town to meet The Kingpin for a coffee and a chat about website design, something which I've lately become very interested in. There are a number of fairly decent programs available for those interested in building a simple website, perhaps the best of them being Rapidweaver, which I'm told is an easy-to-use program that allows you to design, build and run your own site, updating and changing it as you go. This is definitely going to be my choice when I put mine together. Perhaps I'll even include a blog on the site, just for good measure. Hmmm. The Kingpin's late.
My movie choice today is Fish Tank, which stars Katie Jarvis*, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing, and Rebecca Griffiths. Written and directed by relative newcomer Andrea Arnold, it's a brutally naked film centered around the life of 15 year-old Mia (Jarvis); a tough, mouthy girl growing up on a decaying housing estate in Essex, together with her unloving and often drunk mother Joanne (Wareing) and a younger sister Tyler (Griffiths) who is already showing signs of corruption from being raised in what can only be described as the wrong place for a kid to be. Things start looking up for the family when Joanne's handsome new Irish boyfriend Connor (Fassbender) arrives and wins everyone's hearts, but a secret lies in the wings that will soon throw everything into discord. Directed with a lot of heart this frank, moving film will leave most people feeling pity for its wretched characters, and distaste at the world in which they are forced to live, and yet Arnold manages to light up the darkness with glimpses of beauty in stark contrast to the grim, cheerless backdrop of urban half-life. Engagingly executed, with powerful performances from a well-picked cast, we can expect more good things from this director, her next endeavour being Wuthering Heights. If Fish Tank is anything to go by, it should to be well worth a trip to the cinema.
Quentin Beck
August 7th, 2010
*Katie Jarvis is rumored to be on the short list for the role of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's US adaptation of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, opposite Daniel Craig, who is (also rumored) to be playing the lead male role of the journalist Mikael Blomqvist. Fingers crossed.
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