Although "Magicians Don't Exist" is the underlying message of "The Illusionist",this beautiful little film proves otherwise as Sylvain Chomet has created eighty minutes of pure magic that cannot fail to enchant all who go to see it. Beautifully drawn in pastel shades that capture Edinburgh in the late fifties, this old fashioned animation offers a poignant study of love,loneliness, solitude and loss without being unnecessarily maudlin and still managing to raise more than just a couple of smiles. The story (a screenplay written by Jacques Tati) centres around a once successful French conjurer (Tatichef) who, finding himself threatened by the progress of TV and Rock n' Roll, seeks pastures new in the UK.But even a remote Scottish Island is celebrating the arrival of electricity with a new Juke Box. On the island he meets a young girl who becomes a substitute daughter and accompanies him to his final season in a decaying Edinburgh music hall alongside a motley bunch-a clown, a ventriloquist and some acrobats. The characters are instilled with the innocence and naivety of a lost age and, whilst the recent fabulous Pixar offerings Up and Toy Story 3D left the audience sobbing uncontrollably, Chomet tugs on the heartstrings with more subtlety as we watch their tragedies unfold.I thought that we were going to see a film with subtitles but the film is,in fact, to all extent and purpose silent although it does have a haunting and melodic score. We had to travel to find a cinema showing this but it is certainly a film worth going out of your way to see.
Marion and I are on the final countdown to retirement and are into double figures now with just 97 days to go. We had better start thinking about what we are going to do with ourselves. I think a holiday is long overdue as we have not been away for more than a couple of days since the photo at the top of this blog was taken in July 2008. Marion fancies a cruise although it would have to be one for anti-social people as the thought of sharing my first weeks of retirement with thousands of others is not exactly compelling. I am used to solitude now and am so isolated here in the board room that I have an idea of what it might be like for the Chilean miners - write a blog lads it will keep you sane. I wonder what their bosses are thinking about their pay - "Now are they on normal time,overtime, sick pay or should we sack them for not turning up for work. Is there room to send a couple of picks down that tube to get them doing something worthwhile until Christmas?"
Craig emails me every day with the updated sales league table. It's a very complex spreadsheet (he's a clever lad) and the boxes turn green when we have hit our month's targets for different ranges. First to go green this month was our fabulous new wall mounted value range. These fabulous stainless steel boilers which come in 2,5 and 10 litre capacities are proving a big hit with the customers and offer an economic, stylish and reliable hot drinks solution for those on a budget. Heading towards green are the upmarket wall mounted boilers which have Eco friendly features such as built in seven day timers, thick insulation and half capacity Eco mode for quiet periods.
Olly Murs is performing his new single on the final episode of Magic Numbers which airs on ITV1 and ITV1HD on Saturday evening at 8.45pm. There's an enormous prize fund of £400k up for grabs and it would be a perfect finale if someone out there managed to win it. Sitting here in the board room I can hear the radio in the factory and it seems that the producers of Magic Numbers have an uncanny knack of picking star acts for the show as I keep hearing Alexandra Burke, JLS and Scouting for Girls' (all of whom had guest slots) songs over and over again. As for that Alexandra, I can't get that catchy tune out of my head since "oh here I go drip droppin way down low dah dah da da"
Final question of the day. Why does this never happen to Chris Kamara?
No comments:
Post a Comment