The Rat and Rabbit

For a few years now I have been dumbfounded and dismayed about the society I currently live in. This past month I have found both respite in British comedy yet more increasingly bizarre signs that this country and some institutions across the water are, a bit fucked up.

I was scheduled to shoot a viral for a college in Newcastle this month. It supposedly would have featured Alain Robert free climbing the college advertising for ‘higher education’- tagline as , ‘climb higher’ or something to that degree. But the job got cancelled because the college was afraid there would be copycats.

What kind of society do we live in that we are afraid people are going to climb buildings with their bare hands after seeing an online advert, especially one that is aimed for fairly educated people wanting to go to college? Anyone hurt from trying such a thing deserves it really. This is parallel to an ad that Ricky Gervais saw and spoke of- reminding people not to rape women…

Christies is having an auction of Yves Saint Laurent’s art works from today to Wednesday. Among the items are two of the bronze animal heads which were stolen as part of the burning and looting of the old Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860 by the British and French. Despite the lawyer, Liu Yang filing a lawsuit, the French court ruled against it. Not only that, the judge has ruled for a EU$1,000 in fines each to the auction house and to the firm of Pierre Berge, the longtime partner of the French fashion icon. In a BBC article it states, ‘Mr Berge has said China would have to greatly improve its attitude towards human rights before he would consider handing them over’. When did ‘human rights’ of a country have anything to do with handing back stolen national heritage items? Does that mean it’s okay to steal from countries who the west deem as having poor human rights records? I guess that means it’s okay to go steal the (queen’s) crown jewels. I have always wondered about how many items we see in museums in this country were stolen as part of the past empires colonisation process.

China has five of them back, all of them brought for millions of dollars each. How does this world make sense to buy something back that already belongs to you? But such is this case, I think China should buy them back at whatever the price. As they represent the Chinese zodiac signs, there are still five more out there whose location remains unknown to us.

Slumdog Millionaire swept both the Baftas and the Oscars. For the life of me I do not know why. It was a decent film- and that is all. I like Danny Boyle too, but the film is fairly average. It’s not grandiose in ideas or execution. It doesn’t have powerful scenes or performances or dialogue. The Cinematography is pretty good but not awe inspiring. Maybe one or two awards but Best Film in both award ceremonies? I find it bizarre and a little off putting. Sure it’s been decades since a British film swept awards like this one had, and Danny Boyles very likable but that doesn’t mean the film is amazing or that it was due.

On a last note, I think Waltz With Bashir should have won Best Foreign film. I think this animation by was better than Slumdog by a mile. Here’s another alternative view on the much celebrated film:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/20/danny-boyle-india

Some of the comments are pretty rabid. One person commenting, ‘It’s just a film’. If someone made a film celebrating Hitler and the third Reich, I guess that’s okay too because…

Much of British comedy is something I love. Unfortunately, neither the Baftas or the ads I mentioned were being funny.

- J