The Nutcracker (The Bolshoi Ballet)

The English Ballet did a version on BBC4 this Christmas but me and Anna went to the cinema to see the Russian company's version being broadcast from a French theatre. It was fabulous and seeing snippets of the English version on Christmas Eve I can safely say it is far superior than anything we can do.
Those Russians sure can dance! Ah, it was the Christmas show we needed to really get us in the mood! Beautiful costumes and sets, nothing artsy-fartsy, traditional, Christmassy kitsch!

The Bishop's Wife (1947)

Ah, another Christmas has come and gone. Another 352 days until Home Alone comes around again. Man, I know I said this last year, but as soon as it was over I couldn't wait to see it again!
The Bishop's Wife is another one we watch every year. It was extra special this year though 'Cause we watched the well loved video (taped off the tv in the late 80s, complete with weird adverts for 7-up and Stephen Fry silenty munching extra strong mints, oh and Henry from Drop the Dead Donkey doing the same!) after Anna cooked a roast dinner in the York flat for me, Maddie, Lawrence and Roger. We had a decorated flat and though there was still another week and a half until Christmas it was damn Christmassy!
Anyway, ignore the fact that Cary Grant is the sleaziest angel you've ever seen, Loretta Young's hat is hideous and Daivd Niven could do better. It is very Christmassy.

Les Emotifs Anonymes (2010)

Romantics Anonymous.
The ending falls flat but the other 80 minutes are super lovely and great.
I really REALLY liked this film.
If you are or have been in your past a socially awkward person unable to tell someone how you feel about them, as I am or have been or am, you should like it.
Also, if you like scenes of great sexual tension played by actors so normal looking but playing characters who are so endearing you find them both extremely attractive, you should like it.
He owns a chocolate factory that it going bust and she is a talented chocolatier hired under the misaprehension that she is a saleswoman. He can't touch anyone and has never been on a date and she is overwhelmed and brought to tears if anyone even asks her a question. When they kiss it is so hot.
I think the reason why it is so hot is that they are both 40+ and normal looking. There is nothing more bland than seeing Kristin and R-Patz make out, Isabelle Carré and Benoît Poelvoorde on the other hand was one of the best movie smooches I've ever seen on the big screen.
I look forward to buying the dvd.

Bored to Death: Series One

I watched this when I was ill as well. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Gentle and affectionate and silly. Lovely characters and so easy to relate to.
I watched all eight episodes in one sitting, I was scared at the end of episode one, I had this horrible feeling that Jonathan wasn't going to go on pretending to be a PI and that he'd be something different each week and it would never match the brilliance of the first episode. Phew! It continued.
Ted Danson is so good. You forget how good he is! Cheers was fantastic, remember?! It's just he then tried to go into films and some people are just made for TV and on TV he is gold, solid gold. Jason Schwartzman's character was a bit too whiny sometimes but with great supposrt from Danson and that other guy and Oliver Platt too, it became less about him towards the end and I loved it more for that. Can't wait to see the next two series!

X-Men First Class (2010)

I got the lurgy early November and my dad rented this for me to watch which was fun because I'd been meaning to see it, especially as I now work in a comic shop!
I enjoy the X-Men films, in fact I enjoy a lot of the Marvel films despite having no interest in any Marvel comics (apart from Frank Miller's Electra and Daredevil). I enjoyed this one too.
Fassbender's pretty damn good isn't he? If he hadn't have been in the film it would have been a lot of shite, the only highlight being Hugh Jackman's two word cameo. I liked Magneto and his past and his relationship with Bluey. The rest was pretty shite though, 'specially Kevin Bacon and his lame gang!
I don't know about James MacAvoy being miscast, I think he would have made a very good young Prof X if only the script hadn't been so awful! Why did the writers choose to write him as a cocky arsehole? It wasn't his fault. If they'd written him serene and wise and not a sexpest I'm sure he would have been very convincing.

The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

I saw it in 3D. I think I would have hated it in 2D as well. To me the thing about Herge is that his drawings are very beautiful, the characters are great and the backgrounds are great, it's good art.
The thing I hated most about the film was not the fact that hardly any of the voices seemed to fit the characters, Toby Jones was good but underused and Jamie Bell was fine, it wasn't that the whole thing looked like it had been animated around the idea that there would be a theme park ride based on it within the year, no, the thing I hated was how beautiful drawings had been transofrmed into utterly grotesque characters.
I could not get around how vile Captain Haddock was to look at, all the character designs, even Snowy, made me uneasy. Fleshy and horrible with tiny eyes, ugh. I hated it.

George Harrison Living in the Material World

I saw the George Harrison documentary at the cinema, of course I did, I love George Harrison, it's about thirty percent of who I am!
Anyway, this was in October, I have been extremely busy since then, a fun new day job, a big BBC drama art comish (ongoing) and a nice chap to see in my free time.
Let's see what I remember of this (and the other things I'm about to write about!)... It was four hours long.
I liked the photos and the music and George's letters to his parents during Beatlemania read by his son, also the bits where George's close male friends were talking fondly about him- even Macca.
I intensely disliked both his ex-wife and his widow and the attitude in which they spoke about him, Patti Boyd was shallow and self-obsessed, as you would expect of a model but Olivia Harrison was utterly utterly awful. I have never heard her speak and so always asumed she was nice. When you think about it though, in the ten years since George died she has released a lot of box sets, albums, books and films and has been cashing in ever so slightly the way George could never really be bothered with- as we learn through listening to his pals interviewed, he just didn't give a crap about the ol' material world.
Anyway, I was shocked at how blunt and open she was when it came to talking about George's death. She's Mexican and maybe over in America and the likes it's cathartic to talk about your husband's agonising slow death and terrifying stabbing, but in amongst the teary friends talking about how they miss him still every day it was just really really horrible to hear- and really I found it all too personal. Like, this was stuff we the public don't need to know and really, you shouldn't be telling us, it is very private and personal. It was the attitude in which she told it, like it was all about her, she was the same selfish shallow cow he married first time around just from the other side of the planet.
No wonder he had these close relationships with men- men who were so sad to be without him, no wonder you got the idea from the film that he was gay, all the women in his life were so fucking awful!!
I felt saddened to know he hadn't known any nice women and it made me feel such sympathy for Paul McCartney having lost lovely Linda and married that bitch having obviously only known nice birds and thinking that's what women are, anyway, this new one seems nice, I hope he'll be ok.