Sign o' the Times - Prince (the concert movie)

Watched the IMAX revival of Prince's concert movie "Sign o' the Times", thanks to a book worm friend ( who is also a movie aficionado) tipping me off.
Absolutely Amazing ! Amazing, high energy live performances by Prince and a host of truly talented musicians who make us appreciate the wonder of their craft.




But then Prince was always amazing. After watching Purple Rain several decades ago, this was most welcome, as some of us still have a hard time accepting that he is no more.

The live performances of the title track - Sign o' the Times, It's gonna be a beautiful night, Hot thing, I could never take the place of your man, If I was your girlfriend, and The Cross, I felt did justice by giving more variety to the studio versions, and possibly bettering the studio versions. Yes, the concert was mostly - almost totally songs from the Sign o' the times album (except a brief piano driven version of 'little red corvette, and a stellar performance of Charlie Parker's 'Now's the Time" in which Sheila E. shows her amazing and almost super human efforts with the drum kit.)  Later on, Prince and Sheila E. switch roles in "It's gonna be a beautiful night", in which Sheila E. does the rap vocals while Prince takes over the drums. To me, this version of  is better to the CD version - which too is a live recording. The version captured of  "U got the look" is simply the music video for the song mainly.

It is said that on studio, Prince performed most of the instruments himself for this double album ( the album back cover says "Produced, Arranged, Composed, and Performed by Prince.) However, on the concert he has a wonderful set of artistes playing live, almost deputed by Sheila E. Dr. Fink is at the key boards, Eric Leeds on saxophone, Atlanta Bliss on Trumpet - the two musicians on the horns add so much color to this show.

It was 1987, and a musical concert could possibly still be played this way. For example, in 'Hot Thing', Prince rips off Cat Glover's  (who sings, gyrates, and acts throughout the show) in a lecherous way, that may not have  gone well with the current woke era. Girl/Woman as a sex symbol in dominant in the show. But then again, we're talking about a man who showed his vulnerable side when he sang "If I was your girlfriend", so that he could pick her clothes, watch her undress, and a lot more, which he details in the studio recording (which is edited out in the radio edit), and is not sung about in this live version, instead of settling for a choreography of making out.

So who is this show for (if you get the chance to watch it again on cinema) ? No Brainer - All Prince fans. All connoisseurs of good live music performances, for the sheer energy and brilliance of these performances. Ideally, one should be familiar with the album, 'Sign o' the Times', (anyway Prince = the album Purple Rain, is such an ignorant place to be, if you call yourself a fan of great pop music), to appreciate this show, as one can pick up the variations off the studio versions.   

වාලම්පූරි (අධ්‍යක්ෂණය - ලක්මාල් ධර්මරත්න )

 ඊයේ හවස, මා බිරිඳ උපේක්ෂා සමඟ ගොස් 'වාලම්පූරි' නැරඹුවෙමි. ඔවු, එය නැරඹීම මට මෙතෙක් මගැරිනි.



මේ වන චිත්‍රපටිය ගැන බොහෝ දේ කිය වී ඇති නිසා, සහ චිත්‍රපටි විචාරයට තරම් ඒ පිළිබඳ දැනුමක් මා සතු නොවෙන නිසාත්, එක් කාරණයක් ගැන පමණක් යමක් කියා නවතිමි. ඒ මහත්තයලා සහ 'ගම් කබරයන්' ( පොලිසි නිලධාරී, සමන් ගේ හැඳින්වීම) අතර පරතරයයි. චිත්‍රපටියේ සැම පාත්‍රවර්ගයාම තමනට අයිති නැති දෙයකින් සල්ලි සොයාගැනීමට වෙහෙසෙන මුත්, ඒ අතර ද චරිත දෙකක් සුවිශේෂි ය. අයෙක් ප්‍රියංකරය - ඒ ඔහු තම නාට්‍ය කණ්ඩායමට මහත්තයෙකු වුවද, ඔහු හා එම කණ්ඩායම අතර වෙනස අවප්‍රමාණ කරලීමට ඔහු දරණ උත්සාහයයි. දෙවැන්නා සිඩ්නී ය. සැබැවින් ම අන් අය රවටා, අන්දවා මුදල් හම්බකරන ගමේ මිනිසෙකු වුව ඔහු හා නිමලසිරි, චින්තක, සහ ඇන්ජෙලෝ අතර වෙනසක් තිබීමයි. ඒ තම වටපිටාව කියවීම,  තමනට හුරු පරිසරයෙන් ඈත් කෙරුණු විට ද තම නැණ පමණින් උපරිමය කරලීම යන ගුණාංග අතිනි.  කිමද, සමන් නම් වූ පොලිස් නිලධාරියා සමාජෙට මහත්තයෙකු වුව ද, පෙර කී කපටිකමින් මුදල් සෙවීමට දඟලන ගැමියන් ට වඩා දරුණු මිනිසෙකි. ඒ ඔහු ට මුදලේ රස සිඩ්නිලා ට වඩා දැනී ඇති බැවිනි. ඔහුගේ බලය ද අහිමි වීමට ආසන්න නිසාය.  සිඩ්නි නිමලේ මාමා සහ අන් අය වාගේ බීගෙන පිහිණුම් තටාකයේ නටන්නේ නැත. සමන්, සිඩ්නිගේ පැලැන්තියට ගම් කබරයන් යැයි කීවද සිඩ්නි එතන සියයට සියයක් නැත. ප්‍රියංකර සමන් ට මහත්මයෙකු වුවද, ඇත්තෙන්ම වැඩිම මූල්‍යමය අලාභය අත්කරගත්ත ද, ඔහු සමන්ගේ පැලැන්තියේ ආත්මීයව නැත. සියල්ල අහිමි වූ විට ඔහුට අන් අය සමඟ ජහුටා නැටීමට ද පුළුවන. මෙම චරිත දෙක ඔස්සේ චිත්‍රපටියේ යටිපෙළක් කියවෙන බවකි අපගේ අදහස.

ශ්‍රේණිය: *****

Roma (directed by Alfonso Cuarón )

 Movies which have minimum a plot, but is more a cinema verite has its own beauty to appreciate. Roma is one such. We enter the story at one point, with Antonio about to leave the family, and we leave the story at another point, as the wife and the children get ready to continue life without their father. In the meantime, Cleo, the family's live-in maid of an indigenous origin, has her own personal troubles, while at one point saving two of the children from drowning. It is upon saving the two children that Cleo has a confession to make, and possibly that motivated her to save the two children with no care for her own life. In the background, lots happen as the story is set in early 1970s in Mexico City - including the Mexican Dirty War.

 The hustle and bustle of the city, the beautiful chaos that children bring to their home - and Cleo, who is more a parent to the kids, then their own, as their real parents try sort their own affairs, all make a beautiful, and an enjoyable cinematic experience.  At the time this movie tied in number for the most number of  Oscar nominations for a non-English movie (with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

Rating: *****
Oscar Award Winner, 2019 for:
Best Foreign Language Film
Best Director (Cuarón  for Roma )
Best Cinematography 

The Gathering - Anne Enright

The novel starts with  Veronica, our narrator claiming that she has something to say about something that happened, or she thought happened, back at her grand mother's place when she was eight or nine. The narration happens in the aftermath of her brother Liam's death, by suicide. It makes her reflect back on her early life with her family - her grand parents, her parents, her siblings - and particularly everything which was wrong with them. The narrator is unsure of her self, although she almost never contradicts herself. Things which happened a long time back, which she believes may have had an impact to the life of Liam, her brother, whom she loved the most among her siblings - and also possibly the most troubled, is the essence of what troubles her. Our narrator also fights her own demons, testing her husband Tom, with inconsistent behaviour upon Liam's death. Tom, who to all appearances as revealed in the book,  is a patient man, a workaholic who appears to be highly dependent on his wife for sex, irrespective of the nature or the pleasure derived by his wife. It suggests a crisis in her life, as she suggests a couple of times that she may have had sex with Tom for the last time, but the book ends with a suggestion that she looks for a reparation on their relationship. For, although bitter, neither of them have taken any drastic actions, which prevent restoring of  their marriage. The narration takes on a matter of six months or so, immediate to the death of Liam. Veronica tries to recollect what took place when she 8 or 9, and at one point even uncovers which may have happened, realising where a family friend of her grand parents, was really no friend. 

But the whole narration is presented from the troubled mind of Veronica, and as such is interspersed with her love-hate relationship with her husband, anger against her grand mother, dissatisfaction with her siblings, and even a scorn for the relative success of her own family which she seems to have caught from her deceased brother. This mix, when presented to the reader doesn't add up to an enjoyable read, or even an engaging one. The book, although concise in length at a mere 261 pages, takes the effort of a much longer one given the style of writing. True, the style of writing which suggests the mind of a frustrated, troubled woman, trying to get back to her life with her husband and her two daughters, is possibly what convinced the judges of a convincing narration to give this book the Booker award. Yet, this conviction of the authors mayn't necessarily mean an enjoyable read for an average reader like me. This I suspect is the matter with this book. There have been more harrowing books which have been page turners, narrated by multiple characters, or even by an omniscient narrator. But a direct narration by the troubled mind itself, may sound like this - and that is a learning for the reader, I guess. For example, Humbert Humbert, although a villain to the core is so sure of what he wants, and convinced of a concocted righteousness of his ill formed desire, the resulting narration is pure pleasure for the reader, irrespective of the subject matter. But narration from a troubled mind is possibly, like this. However, given that I set myself the task of reviewing the book as a reader, I can do no more than rate the book as I have done, while also citing the possible conditions which may have influenced the Booker Award panel.

Booker Award - 2007
Rating: ***1/2