Family Affairs and other matters

THE VICTORIA REVIEW

If you are looking for somewhere splendid to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon after a brisk walk in the park (Richmond Park), somewhere you will find a spectacular menu – (I had their Sunday roast beef) then you should try The Victoria Gastropub in East Sheen.

Very relaxed. Excellent food. Log fires. Everyone welcome including dogs. Make sure you book though. Honestly, I’ve never had a more delicious roast beef – look at the size of that yorkshire pudding!  Walking distance from the park so you can work up a good appetite first!

and a lovely garden in the summer for BBQ’s and chilling:-

DECOY BRIDE REVIEW

My friend Sally Phillips has actually written a Hollywood film that’s going to be out in a couple of weeks (March 13th to be precise). I had the privilege of being invited to preview it last week. Just a lovely endearing film set on the remote Scottish island of “Hegg” where nothing much usually happens. [...]

Continue reading and leave comments...

ANIMAL CHARM FILM

what an unexpectedly unusual night I had last night. For reasons far too complicated to explain I inadvertently found myself in a chauffeur driven car with Sally Phillips and her 3 month old baby going up to a sparkly Chinese lantern lit West End hotel to watch a preview of a new short film called “Animal Charm” directed by Ben Charles Edwards that she and Sadie Frost star in:-

I suspect everybody thought I was the nanny – which was great although Sally was very lovely about introducing me to everyone who came up to her to tell her that they’d loved her “for like 150 years”. I chatted away with Sadie Frost’s mum who has a role in the film and with Sadie and her sister and they were all just lovely. Boy George has a make-up less cameo role so I didn’t recognise him. In the screening itself I actually sat in between Sally and Sadie in the front row. How bizarre was that?

Sally agreed to be in the film having looked at Ben’s website – I think he is still astounded that she agreed to be in it but I suspect it was because she recognised in him a very young raw talent with refreshing originality – very reminiscent of her work. He’s only 26 and is just beginning to ruffle his brand new feathers and flex his muscles, but it’s impressive that he has managed to produce a 30 minute film for £20K – the film as Sally describes it is “a fusion of Tim Burton mated with an Athena postcard. Very kitsch Goth”.

The synopsis is :-

FUR FOX SAKE, ALL ANIMALS ARENT EQUAL

During her performance in a tasteless musical based on Animal Farm, Ex fashion designer and fur fanatic, Anne Thrope (Sadie Frost) is kidnapped by a group of animal activists led by her nemesis, Audrey Hoober (Sally Phillips). However, have the activists bitten off more than they can chew? With the help and hindrance of Thrope’s put upon assistant, Verdell, the police close in on the kidnappers. But is too late? And is it Anne that needs salvation…?

It was sort of Eraserhead-esque to me – a spectacularly dark comedy with lots of practicing with different styles – funny but in a horror sort of way. Just weird. But an interesting project and as Sally said to Ben’s parents when they came up to thank her so much for “supporting their boy” “I can absolutely see people writing a PHD thesis about Ben’s early work one day.” “He is one to watch” she thinks – “a curates’ egg”.

Here’s a photo I took of Sally looking gorgeous, with Ben:-

and here is a photo Sally took for her baby’s photo album of his first film preview and DJ night – very cool. He loved every minute. However, probably it should have been her holding him, not me….and no I don’t think Ben actually took a bite out of his head even if it looks as if he really, really wants to:-

and here are a few more of us – some from the film – the gorgeous man to my left is Nat Wella – Paul’s son!:-

Continue reading and leave comments...

CHIMES OF FREEDOM: SONGS OF BOB DYLAN HONOURING 50 YEARS OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Just been sent details of the coolest album – look at this link and who is on the album:- http://music.amnestyusa.org/?utm_source=aiusa&utm_medium=email&utm_content=email+1+-+helen,+artist+quotes&utm_campaign=chimes&msource=W1201ESCHI1&tr=y&auid=10183091 50 years ago, Bob Dylan started his professional career by picking up his guitar and playing at a coffee house in Greenwich Village. That same year, British lawyer Peter Benenson launched a campaign to stand [...]

Continue reading and leave comments...

WE FILM REVIEW

I went with a friend to a cocktail party at Claridges for the premier of Madonna’s new film “W.E” all about Edward and Wallis Simpson and then on to the red carpet showing of the film in Leicester Square. It has now been released in the UK to lukewarm reviews. British critics were largely unimpressed by the Venice screening. Kate Muir, The Times’s chief film critic, awarded W.E. two stars and described it as “a mash-up of Mills and Boon and Homes and Gardens”. The Guardian’s one-star review called it a “primped and simpering folly, preening and fatally mishandled”.

I really enjoyed the film. Visually stunning. 83 costume changes for Wallis and some brilliant cinematography – including 35mm, 16mm and Super 8 to give the home video look when required. She did a Q & A at the end. It took her three years to research and develop the concept for the film and she read as many letters as she could find to try and get under the skin of Wallis Simpson herself – she is obviously fascinated in the whole concept of the most romantic couple in history and the huge and brave sacrifices both of them had to make and presumably also relates to the misunderstood strong American female abroad theme.

“What do you hope people will take away from the film?” she was asked as the last question and after a long pause she said “lots of things. It’s a complex story and there is no such thing as perfect love and if you think there is then you are in for a rude awakening. Real love requires compromise. Nothing is what it seems and it pays to investigate all angles before you reach your conclusions”.

Here she was at Claridges:-

She has the skin of a twelve year old:-

Here we are on the red carpet – he plays the adulterous “shrink”:-

She plays Wallis, but I was the wrong side of the red carpet to get a picture of her face!:-

Me on the red carpet!

Here is a picture of some of the paparazzi – what a hard job they’ve got:-

Her allocated seat – at least I think it must have been for her:-

Continue reading and leave comments...

HALF BLOOD BLUES BY ESI EDUGYAN

Book group last night. Just great. Love it. But we’re all getting old now. The glasses aren’t even covertly put on when looking at the books – they’re on all night. We have conversations about our failing eyesight and how cleverly designed human beings are – that as our wrinkles and facial hairs increase our [...]

Continue reading and leave comments...

LEONARDO DA VINCI EXHIBITION REVIEW – NATIONAL GALLERY

NO WAY was I going to miss this exhibition. In Hong Kong the school “house” I was in was called Da Vinci and consequently we all knew everything there was to know about the man. What an extraordinary person he was. Such unbelievable talent in so many different fields….

The exhibition is truly spectacular obviously. Arguably the most notable Old Master show this century. Just divine to be able to get up close and personal to such exquisite paintings. The fall of light. The detail. The expressions. The symbolic gestures, his ability to engage with the viewer. What a coup to bring together both versions of “The Virgin of The Rocks” in one room – fascinating to be able to analyse the differences between the two.

BUT in my view there were a few faults. Firstly, whilst I appreciate the impossibility of the Mona Lisa jetting in for the event it would have been good to have a replica of her somewhere on a wall to look at. I also would have liked to have seen more of his inventions – his flying machine, air balloon stuff and definitely more of his analytical drawings – or am I just being greedy now? I don’t think we really got the full sense of him being a famous painter, sculptor, architect, mathematician, anatomist and engineer.

AND ANOTHER THING whilst I’m at it. I bought the audio thingy to be fully informed about all that stuff you can’t quite be arsed to read on the wall and was looking forward to getting the details of when he was born, where, how, why and all that stuff that you know shaped the man. But there was none of it. No gory details at all.

Things they didn’t tell us which I think it would have helped to know:-

That he was born in April 1452
That he was illegitimate and that his parents gave him up and married other people. His father was a notary and his mother a farmer’s daughter.
He was brought up by his paternal Grandfather
He was gay, which must have been a huge big deal then and influenced his work massively. He was twice accused of sodomy.
He consequently was late in beginning his apprentice and by 30 had not done very much work of a genius.

ANYWAY, apart from that try and beg, borrow or steal a ticket to get in. It’s on until February 5th. www.nationalgallery.org.uk

Continue reading and leave comments...