the complete stories

the complete stories, by truman capote

you may not know this - i hadn't clicked - but truman capote wrote 'breakfast at tiffany's', which was turned into a classic film starring audrey hepburn. a classic film which, while i'm mentioning it, you should watch. all this, by the way, really doesn't have anything to do with this review, except as a piece of trivia about truman capote.

reading short stories is probably a good way of getting a taste of an author. from a literary study point of view they also often reveal the development of an author, because short stories are sometimes written as a kind of primer for novels.

out of this book i discovered for myself that capote had an extraordinary gift for description, and wrote prose that flows beautifully. unsurprisingly, when you know that he wrote the book 'in cold blood' (which the film 'capote' is all about), many of his stories have a dark edge - something which is known as 'southern gothic' in american literary studies.

the stories date from 1943 to 1982 and find a series of characters in odd situations of 'everyday' life. the characters themselves are usually unsettled to some degree. towards the end of the book capote writes about three autobiographical stories which are quite touching - especially the last one - a perfect ending to the book i thought - all about a visit he made as a child to his birth-father's house in new orleans. this carries added poignancy when you consider that the story was the second-to-last thing of capote's that was published during his lifetime.

i think i'll be reading more by capote in the future. highly recommended.

warandpeace-o-meter: 600/981 (volII, bookX, chapXVI)

3 + 1 movies

three excellent movies plus one that wasn't that great:











deja vu. an excellent movie. a time-shifting drama all about an investigator (denzel) who tries to stop a passenger ferry being blown up in new orleans. remarkably good acting and film work distracts from the usual questions and problems that time-travel films bring up. there are lots of nice touches - one of them was the fact that the film was set in new orleans and includes incidental footage of still-flood-devastated neighbourhoods. highly recommended.

capote. another excellent movie. very good. philip seymour hoffman does an incredible job of acting the lead role. all about how author truman capote came to write his classic 'in cold blood'. beautifully filmed. here's a screenshot:













although this film arrived randomly in the mail off my fatso list, the timing was fascinating because i'm currently reading capote's complete short stories. so there was a brilliant interchange between the two media. highly recommended.

little miss sunshine. less intense than the other two but still very good. the really strange thing about this film is that it would have been disney if it hadn't been for all the bad language, themes involving suicide and other random weirdness. an excellent comedy that parodies (i think) other feel-good family roadtrip comedies. highly recommended.

which brings us to the final film. i love sci-fi flicks - and there simply aren't enough of them coming out to satisfy my interest. so because i have already seen all the good ones (matrix 1, bladerunner, fifth element, minority report, brazil, space odyssey 2001, the island etc etc) i watched recent release, ultra violet. disappointing. storyline was ok. acting wasn't great. cgi was goodish (mostly) - but not enough to carry the movie. equilibrium, by the same director, was much better. and in the kickarse female futuristic comic-turned-movie stakes, aeon flux beats ultra violet absolutely hands down. both films were not well received by critics, but aeon flux was much cooler at every level. not very recommended at all (but do watch aeon flux).

on the heaphones: 'wake up' by arcade fire, from the album 'funeral'.

get a life

get a life, by dupuy and berberian

with a hour to kill while i waited for my tyre to be replaced and wheels aligned, i wandered into town to visit the library. they're renovating the library at the moment and that day the entire non-fiction floor was closed. this meant i had to browse the fiction section instead of the usual art and design sections. fortunately, the fiction section contains a small but rather well-maintained graphic novel shelf. so i ended up leaving the library with two new graphic novels and a book of truman capote's short stories (reviews to come...)

the next day, having decided to take a morning off church, i got some extra sleep and launched into one of the two graphic novels - 'get a life' by french illustrator/authors dupuy and berberian.

i have two basic criteria for selecting graphic novels: 1. drawing style and 2. not too much moral debauchery. this one seemed to fit the bill - especially on the drawing style criteria. dupuy and berberian use a classic french style that reminds me of certain books i read as a kid - one was called 'dustman dan' or 'dan the dustman' or something.

anyway, this is the first time i have come across the work of dupuy and berberian, but apparently they are quite well known. 'get a life' is a compilation of shorter stories about their character monsieur jean - a moderately successful author who is on the cusp of turning 30. according to the introduction, monsieur jean is how dupuy and berberian work out their own angst at having to grow up and take responsibility.

jean's existence is seinfeld-like, but the stories are told with french je ne sais crois. despite the trials of everyday life (insomnia, a dragon landlandy or rather concierge, past girlfriends, current girlfriends, annoying old friends and book signings), jean manages to stumble through life in quite a charming way that stops him from looking pathetic and ends in a nice little happy ending.

recommended.

warandpeace-o-meter: 553/981 (volII, bookX, chapI)