Sunday Summary 15/01

I do have some proper posts to put up later, but I know those of you only here after the closure of my other blog are used to the Sunday Summary and as such here ‘tis! (not that I make any promises to maintain the regularity or promptness you are used to, but I shall try!)

So:

Highlights of the week:

• A brilliant new focus which has me with a brimming folder of character profiles, new ideas, different ways of making old ideas work etc.
  
• I have developed a new resolve after whiling away some of the time I had allocated for not completing my tax return on calculating the costs of freebies over the last year – and as such sent a few people on their way. Odd to call this a highlight I know but in actual fact it’s a mark of a newly strengthened character, since the ability to say no has long eluded me (read into that what you will!)
  
• The re-enforcement of just how fantastic my girls are as they (the older ones, anyway) tried to persuade me that I should take the trip I was planning for the summer and broke down exactly how they would cope without me! (I’m not going, because I can’t justify the huge cost for just a week away, but regardless the fact they are so supportive is amazing!)
  
• I know I have said it before, but I have found the perfect house! And it falls in a location approved by the Dark Destroyer of Dreams, so even better! (oh and I will be in Wales in a few weeks; hopefully it will still be available then so I can go have a snoop!)
  And for relevance here:
  
• Some real moments of funny in:
  
  • Some time of reminiscence as well as a few laughs from my rediscovery of the hilarious Harold Lloyd
    
  • Obviously, The Rhod Gilbert Show which was absolutely hysterical this week – which great though that is, meant I was unable to work whilst listening as I usually do… but I needed to laugh more than I needed to write!
    
  • Stella, the fab new comedy drama from Ruth Jones
    
  • House of Rooms – this week’s brilliant channel four offering from Milton Jones
    
  • Some true old-school chuckles on Sky Arts in the form of Saturday Night Live episodes from the late ‘70s and the fabulous Monty Python films
    
  • The return to the Iplayer of series one of ‘What To Do’!
    

So all-in-all, a pretty good week as they go!

Now to complete the coding on those other posts and make them ready to upload…

Silent Movies Rediscovered

You know how every once in a while you stumble across something and it just re-ignites a dormant passion you’d long forgotten about?

This is where I am after a recent research journey for a commission piece on silent movies.

It had never occurred too much until a conversation with one of the child-shaped people, but when I grew up there were often silent movies on the television; nowadays they seem to never be on unless part of a clip-run during a documentary.

Laurel and Hardy were always lauded as the best during my childhood, but I never much liked them; possibly part of my anti-hype nature (Yes, maybe my hipster personality started that long ago!) but I really do not remember why now, nor is it particularly important; the films I loved were those of Harold Lloyd. And so it was that during my research for this article, I found myself whiling away hours watching and re-watching Youtube clips featuring some of the funnier moments of his movie career.

I am not going to analyse the whys and wherefores – it seems quite obvious really that with verbal comedy there is a delay as we wait for the build up to an inevitable punchline but silent comedy has to keep hitting to hold the focus of the audience hence we are given far more laughs per minute. Of course, being denied a punchline means we are also denied the big laugh at the end, with these films often just fizzling out but I personally think it’s worth the trade-off.

I do worry about the fact that there no longer seems the chance to view these films en masse; with the huge volume of television channels available to us, you would think they’d be shown somewhere and add that most cinemas nowadays have multiple screens so could surely show older films alongside new releases. When you think about the fact that an entire generation has absolutely no awareness of the existence of silent movies, not just the fabulous comedies but such aging classics as Ace of Hearts, Camille and of course the amazingly dark Nosferatu it makes you wonder what will become of these volumes over the next twenty years. Will anyone remember them or will they be lost forever?

But anyway… little whinge over!

And as a reminder of (or introduction to) some of the work of the utterly amazing Harold Lloyd, here’s a little clip video for you:



Incidentally, for those who are interested, there are a huge amount of 'proper' old films available in full on You-tube... Nosferatu being one! I know what I will spend my weekend doing!