Back in Highgate, having handed over the keys and a thankfully still alive cat to Claudia. Am confronted with my mountains of clutter again and wonder just how it is I build up so many things so quickly.
Currently packing for Fosca’s 36 hour jaunt to Sweden and back over the weekend, learning my lyrics, thinking if it’s worth going to bed. We have an estate taxi to collect three of us – plus Rachel’s boyfriend David, from our London homes at 4AM, so we can check in circa 5.30AM for a 7AM flight to Gothenburg. Tom makes his own way there from Hemel Hempstead and meets us at the airport.
I suppose a perhaps cheaper plan could have been to take the first Stansted Express of the day from Liverpool Street (0455), but that would mean members of Fosca struggling across London on the dreaded Friday night Night Buses with our instruments, at the mercy of, well, the sort of people I sing about in the songs.
Kate Dornan is playing a gig with another band tonight. So there’s going to be lots of sleeping on trains, planes and in waiting rooms.
***
The indie film Edmond is properly released in the UK this weekend. I reviewed it for Plan B Magazine a while ago:
EDMOND (dir. Stuart Gordon)
Too many stage plays lose their intimate sparkle when adapted for the screen; equally, too many horror movies suffer from bad dialogue. So here’s an inspired combination: David Mamet’s play – an uncomfortable look at one man’s dark night of the soul – adapted by the man behind the two best HP Lovecraft movies, Re-Animator and Dagon. The result is a truly startling and daring Dante-esque descent into personal hell, with a gripping performance from William H Macy recalling David Thewlis in Naked. With doses of pitch-black comedy and going to more uncharted places in 82 minutes than most films manage in 3 hours, Edmond is one of the films of the year.
After emailing the PR fellow in question (as you’d expect, PRs like to know if you’re going to write a kind or unkind critique, though you don’t have to reply), I was slightly orgasmic when the PR from Tartan Films asked if he could quote me on the poster, about it being one of the films of the year. Of course, the posters are out now and I can’t see any mention of my review. Though even if they did air my praise singing, I doubt it’d be under my name, just Plan B.
Thing is, a lead quote from Plan B might hint that they couldn’t solicit praise from better known publications such as The Guardian or The Telegraph or Lemur-Sexing Monthly. As it turns out this week, Edmond has received rave reviews from all the big name publications, so my praise is surplus to requirements. I’m slightly miffed that I’m not on the poster, but am pleased that the proper critics deign to agree with me. Like Mysterious Skin, the unsettling content rules out recommending it to everyone, but those that like to be taken somewhere they’ve not been before, however dark, should definitely see it. HP Lovecraft meets Glengarry Glen Ross. There’s a more unusual poster quote for you.
Ghost Rider is out on DVD this week, and the biggest quote on the adverts is one praising its special effects. Had the quote been for, say, Ladies In Lavender, it would have been a different story.
Some people watch movies to be transported to other worlds, better worlds, or exciting worlds, as long as they know roughly what to expect. Edmond is not for them. Which is high praise from me, but it does mean it automatically limits its own appeal. Say something new, goes the credo of the artist. But be careful it’s not TOO new, or you’ll put people off.
