Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle

I went along to an advance screening of this film last wednesday, and stayed behind for the Q&A with the Director Simon Miller and the lead actor Aonghas Padraig Caimbeul.

It is the first major feature film production in Scottish Gaelic. I went in to the theatre in all honesty with very low expectations, as with all Gaelic productions, the production values were minimal and the pool of actors to choose from is even more so!

But leaving the cinema that night i was shocked. Seachd is a stunning, moving film, which tells not a only a great story, but tells you the story in such a way that you believe it.

The film is set in modern day Skye, and tells the story of a grandfather and his grandson and how their relationship is affected by the death of the grandsons parents. It is described as being similar to The Princess Bride, but i felt it was much closer to Tim Burton's film Big Fish, which stars Ewen MacGregor. It also visualises the Grandfathers stories, showing us characters from centuries ago, giving a very fantastical feel to it. The segment with the spaniard and the gael who are shipwrecked is especially funny.

Another thing i liked about this film was the way in which the actors abilities developed, especially the lead actor, A.P. Campbell, who played the grandfather. Like a lot of the cast, A.P Campbell is not an actor, and this can be seen in some points at the start of the film, but as the films develops so does his performance, so much so that towards the end you forgive and forget his earlier scenes.

The controversy which is surrounding this film has been widely publicised in the Scottish Papers, and has even gone to Scottish Parliament, as BAFTA have neglected to put this film forward for the Best Foreign Film shortlist for the Oscars. Deciding instead that no film this year was worthy of the nod. I am personally disgusted by this decision.

Go watch the film, it is being shown on general release at all (i think) Cineworld Cinemas in Scotland, and also in select others.

MYSPACE PAGE: http://www.myspace.com/seachd

Reviews can be found in most of the major broadsheets in Scotland, and also articles about the BAFTA controversy.

Have you heard of...

Some things i'm going to recommend to you. Now, some of these things might already be known to you, but some won't, and some are blatantly obvious, and some aren't. Stick with me.

Arrested Development.

Best sitcom ever. Ever. EVER. Comes in 3rd in my list of 3 funniest things ever. (Trailer Park Boys and The Office occupying 1 & 2) It's an American Sitcom, which shows the life of the Bluth Family, and specifically the one sane member, Michael Bluth. The show follows Michael and the family as they try and recover their Property Development Company from failure as its President (which is Michael's Father) is jailed. It's colourful, fast, crazy, and it needs to be re-watched to get all the jokes, but it is TV Gold. How you can life your life without ever knowing GOB, Buster, George Michael and Tobias Funke, i'll never know.

Weeds.

It's just started a wee while back on Sky One, but this is a gem of a tv show. All i can say is it is Desperate Housewives but stoned.

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

Written and starring the man who was the computer technician on The Office, this is a comedy about a cancelled Channel 4 Horror series from the 80's which was created by the acclaimed (fake) author Garth Marenghi. There are no jokes. There is no slapstick, or sarcasm. This is just a shambles of a tv show, which to a passer-by would like something made by a child. The sets are wobbly, the dialogue is terrible, the acting is even worse, and the plots, my word, the plots, they are as ludicrous as a mouse with wheels made of cheese. The show is showcased to you in the modern day, with behind the scenes insights (again fake) given to you by the creators and actors. Hilarious tv show, even the opening sequences are funny:



Youtube has some of the episodes, there were only 6 in total. This is Episode 1 part 1.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nNfQ0ORwSDM

The Mighty Boosh

This may be an obvious one. But seriously, if you haven't already watched it, go now. Watch at least 3 episodes. You need to get into the humour, i hated this show myself when it came out, but re-watched it last year and fell into it. The final episode of series 2 is pretty much the finest episode of British TV.

Comadaidh Oir

Only joking.

The Office

The American version. It's shown on ITV2 in the UK which is scandalous. This should be on terrestrial TV as it's almost as good as the British original. It's funnier, seriously, it's funnier. It doesn't have as much depth, and the characters aren't as realistic, but you laugh a heck of a lot during each episode. Dwight Schrute especially, the American version of Gareth is outstanding.

The Day Today

And indeed anything to do with Chris Morris, including Brass Eye and The IT Crowd, which i think is AS good as Father Ted. Nathan Barley is something i've been recommended, so should i cut out the middleman (me) and recommend it to you? No. I'm sticking to my morals. I'll watch it first then tell you if its any good. The Day Today is great though, it's a mock news programme from the early 90's which is so close to the truth that its funny. The presenters are extreme, but still remind you of real ones, and the reports and features are pretty darn hilarious.

This one is my favourite:




Also in this list would be Dave Gorman's shows and Trailer Park Boys, but reviews of both those things can be found elsewhere on this blog.

The Legend that is Danny Wallace.

6 months ago, if you were to ask me my favourite comedy book, i would have replied almost instantaneously with "Are you Dave Gorman?" by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace. Now if that isn't enough for Mr Wallace i don't know what is, but no, he has gone and topped it.

I am currently re-reading his latest novel, Yes Man, which basically is a 6 month memoir of Danny himself replying to every invitation, offer, favour, advertisement, request, whatever, with the answer YES. If you have ever read anything by Danny Wallace or Dave Gorman, or if you've caught any of the shows created by either of the two, you know what kind of humour it is. Charming, childish and very sarcastic. This novel is as good as "Are you Dave Gorman?". It is hard to say which is my favourite, so i will say they are both equally my favourite. Good.

I started out as a Dave Gorman fan, through his original TV series "The Dave Gorman Collection" which was a spin-off of the book he had written along with Danny Wallace. I recommend anyone to buy this book. It documents Dave's attempt to win Danny's bet that he could not find loads (52) Dave Gormans. Next was his 2nd series, 'Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment', which basically comically picked out the flaws of Astrology through a 6 week experiment.

His last book/show was 'Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure', which again, based on real life, tells the story of how Dave tries to find Googlewhacks. What is a Googlewhack i hear you ask... read this: http://www.googlewhack.com/rules.htm

Dave Gorman has not done anything major since, but is currently working on a new book and a More4 tv series. He also features on TV Panelshows and also on some comedy shows and hosts his own radio series, 'Genius'.

Danny Wallace has, since his early days with Dave Gorman, written a book called 'Join Me', where he created his own cult/collective, and also created his own tv show called 'How to start your own country', which is similar to the other 2 tv shows he was involved in creating along with Dave Gorman. He also works on TV presenting and producing many tv shows.

Seriously though, read the books, and watch the tv shows if you can.

I've given up running.

I shall pick it up again sometime in the future, but right now all my fitness training is done by playing my brothers newly purchased wii.

Granted i'm only working my upper body, but imagine how buff i'll be in a few weeks of playing it!

Then again i'll probably look imbalanced. Maybe i need to run again.

Yes, i've just shouted to my brother. We are running tonight. Stuff Wii.

Oh, and i was on TV again on Thursday night.

BBC2, apparently, although i didn't see it myself.

Comadaidh Oir, if you haven't seen it, which is more than likely, is a Gaelic comedy show, where 5 writers compete against each other and write Gaelic sketches which are then performed on stage in front of an audience. I was one of the writers on it, and i loved every minute of working for them but its horrific to actually watch on tv. If you are interested here is one sketch. (it isn't my sketch)



If you are wanting some more Gaelic related fun, go here:

http://www.sgleog.com/

I am a contributor for this website.

oh, and before i forget...

I haven't even acknowledged this yet!!



I was there on Saturday to see them whip Hearts 'B', sorry Lithuania, and was there when they beat France at Hampden a year ago, but if only i'd been in Paris last wednesday, my oh my that looked good.

JAMES MCFADDEN, PAUL HARTLEY AND STEPHEN MCMANUS ARE LEGENDS.

Some foreign films...

Jean de Florette

An excellent film about a man who inherits a plot of land in rural France, who gives up his taxman job in the city and who moves with his wife and young daughter to begin a new life. Unknown to him though, the occupiers of the next plot have sabotaged his plans by blocking up the well. This film shows how a mans hope and optimism can be ground down, and how men will do anything for greed. Sandy Brown is the colour i would use to describe this film.

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Somewhat of a sequal to Oldboy, another film i've reviewed, this film is also about revenge, and made by the same director. It tells the story of a Korean woman who is imprisoned for the murder of a toddler for 13 years. Again, like Oldboy, the plot is full of twists, and has a great lead performance. Beautiful film, which actually feels more like Kill Bill than Oldboy. It has a very western feel about it, especially the fighting and the characterisation. White and Black is how i would describe this film. (although not in Grey-scale!)

A very long engagement

The most-recent film by my favourite Director, Jean-pierre Jeunet, is about a young woman, played by Audrey Tautou whose fiance has died while fighting in WW1. But thanks to clouded and contradictory versions of the story, she keeps searching for him, believing he is in fact alive. Fantastically shot film, with beautiful scenery and gritty battlescenes mixed together to show the two sides of the story: the war-time action, and the post-war investigating. Red and Yellow.




The City of Lost Children

Another film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, this one being his second from 1995. You can tell that he was given A LOT of money to make this film, and while it is probably his worst film, that is not saying much, as it is still much better than most films. Labelled a childrens film, (although it has plenty of violence and some partial nudity) it tells the odd story of a fictitious world where children are kidnapped so that an evil scientist can steal their dreams for his own use. Very good film, with Ron Perlman putting a good performance. Whatever you do though, and i suppose this goes for all foreign films, DO NOT WATCH THE DUBBED VERSION. I watched it for 5 minutes and couldn't bear it. Always go with subtitles. Colour: Dirty Brown, dirty green.