{ I watched a lot of films last month but I don't have time to talk about them right now. }

[delga]

I am trying to remember the many things that have happened since the last time I updated and, as ever, am coming up blank. I talked myself out of updating a couple of times because I was freaking out over a few things which, in the end, turned out to be ridiculous. But it's been a whole month! So.

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I saw En Kongelig Affære at the BFI, which was pretty standard historical costume romance, except in Danish. Mads Mikkelsen played Struensee with a kindness I hadn't expected, but I was most delighted by Mikkel Følsgaard, who played the mad king. I am not at all surprised that he was lauded at Berlin earlier in the year.

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Spent an evening hanging out with xanitia of whom I do not see enough. Went out for a very pleasant dinner, and then headed back to mine and watched Island which is very good, but also very odd. I'd seen it before, but had forgotten whole swathes of it. Sent xanitia on her way with Brick which she has never seen, wtf.

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The Mother and I made time for Snow White and the Huntsman which was visually very, very good, but lacked definition. We both felt that the ending was terribly anticlimactic - not because we knew what the outcome would be, but because there were key points in the final act where someone says something to Snow...and then there is awkward silence as she stares at them and doesn't answer. It wasn't entirely clear to me why we were supposed to root for Snow to take the throne - I mean, other than Ravenna clearly being unfit to rule. Charlize Theron was wonderful as the evil queen, and I loved the people they cast as the dwarves, but ultimately I came out of the cinema feeling let down. Something was lacking.

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That same week, I saw The Last of the Haussmans at the National Theatre, and then went to a lecture and roundtable discussion at the BFI called Career Girls in TV. Haussmans was entertaining, if not particular clear in terms of what it hoped to achieved. There were strong performances by the primary cast (Julie Walters, Helen McCrory and Rory Kinnear). I am biased, because I love McCrory anyway, but I felt she was the driving force in the story, and her performance crackled. Walters was on fine form as the somewhat lackadaisical mother, and Kinnear was very good as the washed-up son. I loved the set, too, which was a delight - a summer house of sorts, where the majority of action took place in the garden, bunting and fairy lights abound.

The lecture and roundtable discussion were excellent, but, in retrospect, it was a shame that it wasn't a series of lectures, and that we didn't have time to delve further than the surface of the topic. It charted the history of career women in television, from factory girls in 50s comedies, to magazine editors in the 70s/80s, and police detectives in more recent times. The following Q&A was interesting, but as I said, because of the forum, there wasn't time to grapple with the ideas brought up in enough depth.

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Did learn, however, that The Hour will be back in November of this year. From Abi Morgan herself!

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I completely failed to go to any of the Poetry Parnassus events, which I am irritated with myself over, even though I rationalised the decision to myself at the time, but I did manage to track down The Red Ball and some painted phoneboxes, so not all bad.

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I have seen the first two episodes of The Newsroom. I am enjoying having Emily Mortimer in a substantial role, and it's nice to see Dev Patel and Sam Waterston in regular rotation. There are times when I am genuinely invested in a scene, or a particular relationship. But there is a lot of shouting in this show, and I am not always sure why, and the script lacks a certain subtlety that other Sorkin works have had a better handle on (though: he's never really been particularly subtle). I will still watch because it's relatively easy to fall into the rhythm of the dialogue, even if at times it seems like Sorkin is playing being Sorkin, and I do enjoy the cast.

I really hope Maggie becomes less irritating. It's less the character, and more the way she's written/portrayed, but christ. What the hell.

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Did I talk about the last episode of Girls? I liked the series on the whole. I won't say that I didn't roll my eyes at some of the characters' expectations and the way they took certain things for granted, but I thought for six episodes it wasn't terrible television, and that some of the humour was spot on. I was most enamoured of the two characters who were most characters and not scarily-accurate portrayals of That Kind of Girl. (I do not mean the Brooklynite; I mean the school overachiever/RL underachiever who probably studied in the arts.) Which is to say, I loved Shoshanna, who was the only character with a full arc, and Jessa, who ran a full gamut of experience (from prospective abortions to impromptu marriage) and who I was rooting for until the final episode of the series, which, for me, didn't ring true in terms of what we had already learned about her. Shoshanna was fucking delightful. Most of the times I laughed, I did so because of her stream-of-consciousness reasoning, but I'm very aware that she was a caricature more than a character, designed to invoke the easier laughs. I'm not ashamed to say that she nailed it for me.

Marnie and Hannah I had more trouble with but I didn't get the sense from the writing that you were necessarily supposed to like them all the time, or that you weren't, at times, supposed to stand back and judge them harshly. The "argument" in episode 5, where they're both as egocentric as each other, was a prime example of that.

I don't know. I liked it for its surface value. I didn't like the protagonist. It did make me laugh. I kind of regret not having it in rotation any more. So. Yes.

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I just googled the show because I'd forgotten Marnie's name, and I discovered that all four characters have "alliterative" names. Hannah Horvath, Marnie Michaels, Jessa Johansson (CHRIST), and Shoshanna Shapiro. Holy cow, they are dolls. That's something right there.

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I bought some albums! I haven't properly listened to Metric's Synthetica just yet because I haven't been in the mood to listen to pop electronica. I have, however, spent a lot of time listening to Jesca Hoop's latest offering, The House That Jack Built, which is quirky and playful, and has a couple of stunning tracks. At some point I will share, but will have to save that for when I am not zipping through a month of stuff.

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I saw Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2 in preview at the BFI on Monday. GOSH. GUYS. Are you watching The Hollow Crown? Stylistically the "episodes" don't match up (different directors), but they're a great feat. Some truly wonderful performances, and the whole set has a very cinematic feel to it. Wonderful adaptations.

Afterwards there was a very interesting Q&A. I have notes! But I am not sure how interested people are, so will probably bullet point them on tumblr after Henry IV is broadcast.

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I taught Baby Cousin how to knit, and then bought her some supplies. She tells me she is going to make a scarf. Atta girl!

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This week has been sort of crazy because I've had a few things on, and because I've been working odd hours. The Olympic torch came through Deeping this morning, and we all came out to see it, despite the rain. Tomorrow I'm back at the Nash to see Helen McCrory and Rory Kinnear in conversation. Friday, hestia8 and I are going to see Raza Jaffrey as Billy Flynn in Chicago. Exciiiiting!

My sister is back from Spain now, and she's brought two Spaniards with her. She's been taking them around - Lincoln, Cambridge, London, and all their shops - and I've met up with them for lunch (or to help them buy tickets to Shrek the Musical). They were here when Spain won the Euro final, and they came with us to see the torch this morning. They're very sweet girls, and Baby Cousin is quite taken with them. But it's meant the house has been a bit crazy, because there are people around all the time, and I've had around 10 months of being mostly by myself. The adjustment has been odd.

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Work is work is work. Have had a few weeks where it's been a bit slow and then intermittently frantic because other people are horribly inefficient, but whatever. It is still going; I am still going. It's almost one year since I started, but I try not to think about that too much because it freaks me out.

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GUYS. WHAT UP.