What This Week #5

Despite the fact that the temperature has plummeted again here in the UK, the stretching light and the sudden explosion of daffodils have given a real transitional feel to the week. It may have had something of a false start, but spring is undeniably on its way as we rapidly move towards the end of February. Hope, potential, promise—a time of year to start leaning in to thoughts of all that lies ahead. Elizabeth Strout expresses this perfectly (of course) in Olive, Again:

“What she would have written about was the light in February. How it changed the way the world looked. People complained about February; it was cold and snowy and oftentimes wet and damp, and people were ready for spring. But for [her] the light of the month had always been like a secret, and it remained a secret even now. Because in February the days were really getting longer and you could see it, if you really looked. You could see how at the end of each day the world seemed cracked open and the extra light made its way across the stark trees, as promised. It promised, that light, and what a thing that was. As [she] lay on her bed she would see this even now, the gold of the last light opening the world.”

When not getting all misty-eyed about the February light, here’s what I’ve been reading and watching this week.

Reading:

Heather Morris’ The Tattooist of Auschwitz was this month’s book group read. Although most of the group enjoyed this one, it’s not a recommendation from me. I felt the writing style gave neither the love story nor the horrors described any real depth. It was interesting to read in the endnotes that Morris is a screenwriter and originally anticipated telling the story as a screenplay—that perhaps explains a lot.

I have also been reading, and thankfully enjoying, The Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie. This was pushed into my hands by my daughter, who’d started reading it in class and asked for a copy for Christmas to find out how it ended. The Nowhere Emporium is a magical travelling shop of wonders that no visitor can remember anything about the next day—like a middle-grade version of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. I’m fully invested, which is a good job as I’m pretty sure I will be tested on it when I’ve finished!

Watching:

Bad Sisters (AppleTV)—This is a brilliant dark comedy-drama about five Irish sisters, four of whom spend the series trying to bump off the truly awful husband of the fifth. Written by and starring Sharon Horgan, it’s apparently a remake of a Belgian series, The Out-laws. I saw parallels to Big Little Lies in that we know there’s a death from the outset, but we don’t know how or by whose hand it occurred. And just like BLL, it’s beautifully shot, with gorgeous houses aplenty and stunning coastal driving scenes.

Three Minutes: A Lengthening (BBC iplayer)—An absolutely fascinating documentary centred around three minutes of cine film taken by David Kurtz, on holiday in a small Polish town in 1938. A fragment of everyday life captured forever—people going about their business, some dressed up and filing into the synagogue, children giddy at the novelty of being filmed. The documentary, beautifully narrated by Helena Bonham-Carter, shows us the same footage over and over, in full, in fragments, pausing, replaying, zooming in, enhancing, as we learn how Kurtz’s grandson, Glenn, found the film in a closet over 70 years later and has tried to find out as much as possible about where it was taken and who is in it. The town is identified as Nasielsk, a Jewish community in Poland completely destroyed in the Holocaust. This poignant film “defines the loss of that world by detailing the little of it that had been preserved”. Highly recommended.

Honourable mention this week for the magnificent Matilda the Musical, which I paid to stream as a movie night treat (coming to Netflix in the summer). I’m definitely glad we saw it at the cinema first, but it retains its magic on the small screen—and still leaves me desperate to own a vintage mobile library van (mine will definitely have a revenge section).

That’s my what this week, time to tell me yours …

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Extra reading credit:

In the run-up to the Happy Valley finale a few weeks ago, the Guardian ran an interesting article about actors’ experiences of playing TV villains, and Claes Bang, who plays the vile coercive husband in Bad Sisters, was among those interviewed: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/feb/06/terrible-tv-villain-happy-valley-sopranos-bad-sisters-brookside-tommy-lee-royce

This article (https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/24/three-minutes-a-lengthening-review-helena-bonham-carter-documentary) came up as suggested reading when I was looking into Navalny a few weeks ago, I suspect because they are both part of BBC Four’s Storyville documentary film series, and it sounded so fascinating I put it straight on my ‘to watch’ list.

I also found this article really interesting, including an interview with the film’s director, Bianca Stigter: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/nov/24/a-small-victory-against-erasure-the-three-minutes-that-bring-an-exterminated-jewish-past-to-life

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