Mr. Holmes - film review

Last Saturday we went to see Mr. Holmes.

Not the person, but the film. The film was about an older Sherlock Holmes who had forgotten what happened in a certain case, and why he felt so guilty about it. He figured he must have done something very wrong.

For those who have not yet seen the film, I’m not going to tell the plot; I’m going to talk about the story telling in it, which really pleased me. Incidentally, the film partly talks about story telling, how Doctor Watson wrote the stories and how Holmes disagreed with the, in Holmes’ eyes, lies that ended up on the paper. However, at the end of his life, Holmes learnt something from Doctor Watson, and it translates into how Holmes decides to reply to a letter of a man he had recently visited.

I like how the separate stories are tied up together. To me it looked very realistic and not forced like you see so often. The woman didn’t turn out to be the long lost sister or daughter of the woman from the other story. Nor was the father the uncle or other relation to one of the women. There were none of those relations and yet the story connected them all up, without having any of them meet each other. That really pleased me. That’s what I mean with: “…it looked very realistic and not forced…”. Cause in real life, most people are not your uncle, long lost sister or even distant relative. Most people are not even acquaintances, but they can still be connected to you in some way. It’s the game ‘Six degrees of…’. That’s what this film does masterfully among a lot of other things.

The other things are the thoughtful way of portraying characters and situations, or the showing of relations between people, the situations they force by their actions and the resulting pain from those actions. This story is a story about how life tends to flow, more than a story of how Mr. Holmes is or isn’t coping with these situations. It’s definitely not your typical Sherlock Holmes film, in which Holmes is the master and everyone around him are just blindly, or in confused state, following him. This time Mr. Holmes is the student and all the rest of them are the teachers. To me, it made Mr. Holmes more real, more human, and more likable.

James

It seems I have a tighter grip on where my obsessions come from and why they wax and wane or flourish. However, a touch of mystery is always welcome.

I realized it a few weeks back, actually. Youtube must have come up with the suggestion of Dad’s Army, because in April they were still filming the new film. I followed through on the suggestion, because I was bored and sentimental, and there wasn’t a better suggestion.

The mystery part is why James Beck keeps attracting my attention. I still don’t know, and I’ve got the feeling I’ve got the wrong end of the stick about him…meaning that I think I know a few things about him, but those things might very well be wrong.

Then there’s Thetford.

Ever noticed the sun was always shining in Walmington-on-sea? Ever noticed that Walmington-on-sea only knows two seasons; a warm spring and a bit chillier, but still pleasant spring? That’s because David Croft not only reserved the locations to film on, but also the sun to weather the scenes in some sunlight. Bollocks, of course, but the sun always seemed to be shining when the Dad’s Army team was filming the outdoor scenes in Thetford.

Then there are the many stories about their times in Thetford, with the whole crew and cast including the extra specials. There are the stories of people roaming the cafes in Thetford in between shoots and the one big diner held at the principal cast’s hotel where crew and cast including the extra specials, would meet to eat, talk and have a merry old time.

It sounds rather idyllic, with the ever shining sun and all the good spirits (mental and alcoholic). So, you find it strange that’s the place and time I imagine to be at?

I tried different kind of scenarios; me just being a bystander, me getting mildly involved, me getting heavily involved. I leave it to your own imagination what “involved” means in these cases.

One thing never differs; I meet him.

None of the above I will ever be a part of. It’s a shame, but something I can live with. What I find harder to accept is, I will never have the chance to meet him. I will never have a chance to tell him I enjoy his performances, and that I’m very keen to see more of his work. Well, I can tell him, but I won’t ever be able to look him in the eyes while I do. I will never get an answer from him, or a reaction. There will never be, in any way, a connection between us. Because he died before I was even born. Mind you, he would be 86 if he was still alive.

Jamie (Alan Rickman) & Jimmy (as pte Walker)

One funny, weird thing, one of the main characters in the film Truly Madly Deeply is called Jamie, and the film is about Nina, his girlfriend, missing him terribly after he suddenly died. I find in my fantasies that’s the situation I fantasize up when I fantasize about Jimmy. I had done that a few times before I realized the similarity.
And this is where I see the weird connections: Halfway through the 90’s I saw Truly Madly Deeply for the first time and the film stuck with me. It was also around this time I saw Jimmy for the first time, and he too stuck with me. I say “stuck with me” on purpose, because it was them sticking with me, not the other way around; I wandered off and went exploring other interests. Now both Jimmy and Jamie are back in my life. Hilarious!
To get that last joke(?) you have to know the film. Oh, and I imagine they’re both actually named James. I know that of Jimmy, I’m guessing that of Jamie.

Soulmate

Typical subject and one that pops up from time to time. I always let it pass and get away from me. It wasn’t something I was very concerned with.


Maybe that had something to do with me not believing there’s only one person for each person. In other words, after ending a relationship with one person, be it because of death or because it simply ended, you can always start a new relationship with someone else which could be just as satisfying.

Something which always struck me about a ‘soulmate’ is the fact it doesn’t need to be your partner. What the person does need to have is a connection with you which you don’t feel with anybody else. That connection must be so deep, it’s hard to put in words; it’s more a gut feeling rather than a rationalized fact.

In conclusion it meant that the life partner could be very different. Here the statement ‘opposites attract’ comes in, while the soulmate has something deep in common.

Research on the Internet yesterday very quickly made clear that there is no universal definition for the term ‘soulmate’. Everybody has his own idea by what a soulmate is and when two people can be called soulmates. What strikes me is the high level of filosophy and, once again, gut feeling, that surrounds this term, hence the lack of an universal definition.

Of course this didn’t come out of the blue; my musings have its origin. This is where I slide back into the stupid and unexplained depths of my daydreaming and escapism. I feel a bit lost when I don’t have a means of escape. I feel a bit bored and down when there is no dream to escape in. The drab reality of day-to-day life doesn’t sit well with me. On top of that, the company I work for is very good at dumping shit all over you and then blaming you for it. Today I had to listen to several tirades from my manager about such shit dumping. Moments like these require very sturdy and engulfing daydreams.

These days I have lapses inbetween obsessions. I tend to fill them with work. The danger there is to drown; I nearly did last year. Now I’m straight into my new obsession. This one flings me back and forth and leaves a bit vulnerable. I’m closer to myself than I have been for a while, but it also means I’m more sensitive to other people’s vulnerabilities and sensitivities. This is the point where I come back to my ‘soulmate’ subject.

James Beck

As always I started with watching the primal stuff, in this case all episodes of Dad’s Army he is in. Then I went on the Internet and started looking for information; interviews (of which I only found one small bit of audio) and articles. Then I made the move to books and fictional representations of what happened back then. Now I’m at the point where there’s hardly anymore I could pick up about him. I constructed an image of his character out of all the tidbits and pieces found in articles, in interviews with his colleagues and in the one book I bought and which I’m still reading. I still feel like I don’t really know him; people seem somewhat protective of him and don’t tell all that much about him. I think Ian Lavender has been the most honest about him.

Thing is that I can’t judge him about the “bad” things that have been said about them; I do that and I understand very well why he did those things or behaved that way. Also his interests are very much like mine and on top of that, he had the same birth sign. And the last one was the one that threw me back on my most primal self. All that triggered the thought that he was my soulmate. However, I have no ground at all for that and I’m even a little embarrassed to say it. But it was the first thought I had when I realized I didn’t really need any explaination for any of his doings.

Another interesting and only slightly related fact, Alan Rickman is a pisces man too. I swear, I didn’t seek it out!

FYI: I’m a pisces woman.

Save Me

About one year ago I wrote this: “It’s a twisted, two-faced sentiment.”.


The piece that sentence was in, never saw the Internet light. The reason I tell you about it now is, it still feels true. The “It” in that sentence is my reflecting back on me watching television and films in my teens. Shortly before I wrote that, Rik Mayal had died and Robin Williams had committed suicide. I wrote that with Mayal’s death, it felt like the door to my youth got shut, and with the death of Williams that same door got firmly locked. No more Rik the poet, or Mrs Doubtfire.

This paragraph was supposed to lead into a piece about how I feel about someone. Instead I rambled on about watching tv in my teens, or the lack thereof. And once I managed to actually write about him it very quickly became one garbled mess. I just can’t seem to pull myself together, when it comes to him.

My feelings for(?) him have no ground, or are rather based on fairy tales. I have never met him, nor will I ever meet him. I hardly know anything about him, and all I know about him are simple facts, play, or hearsay.

He lived and died before I was even born. He’s supposed to be no more than an image on my television screen, or a memory of a comedy character in my head. And there’s nothing sensible I can say about him, but that he was an engaging and talented actor.

Then why do I feel so strongly about him? Is it the tragedy surrounding his death? Was it a very primal attraction I felt and still feel? Was it his performance, or that bit of personality shining through?

As much as writing helps getting thoughts out, or clearing your head or sorting your thoughts; every time I try to do so when it comes to him, my thoughts get stuck and my words become a jumble. There’s no relief, for the uncomfortable feeling has not dissipated. This is by far the most confusing and unsettling obsession I have ever had.

Maybe it comes down to me. Maybe my nervousness has everything to do with how I live my life at this moment. Maybe he’s lingering in my head and my heart like a wake up call. Don’t do what he did. You don’t want to end up like him, and you definitely don’t want to leave this world in 10 years time.

I don’t believe in an afterlife, but for my own ease, it’s calming to believe he’s watching over me from the beyond. It’s flattering to think he reignited my interest and took possession of my heart to save me. That’s all bullocks though. He’s dead. His soul has flown and there is no good reason why he would come back to save me, a girl who has no relation to him. Just another random lost soul. However, I’d be stupid not to listen. No matter who’s voice is really calling out to me to stop messing about. And to help myself, I will gladly believe it’s him.

Grin, Slap Forehead

Today I was rereading some of my blog posts and came across this: Data Integration.

*Slaps forehead*

A New Cycle

It’s been a while since I posted here. My life seems to revolve around work these days. That doesn’t mean it’s the most important thing in my life, it just means that’s what I spent most time in, or rather that’s where the really interesting stuff is happening. However, IT, and especially systems integration, what I work in, is not necessarily all that interesting to other people.


All my faithful readers, which/whom I don’t have, know most of my obsessions concentrate on entertainment based subjects, or persons…It’s like my cycle of life. Getting into something/someone new. Getting rather obsessed about it and soaking up all available information about it which usually results in excessive internet surfing and buying books about the subject. And then…excessively posting about it on my blog, or on a forum.

Over the years I’ve seen my obsessions getting milder and the involved actions getting more controllable, but unfortunately also less exciting. For instance, I never went to a Star Trek convention, or Doctor Who convention. Hell, I even never ever met another Doctor Who fan except for the ones I turned myself through my incessant talking about it. I don’t buy everything that’s associated with it anymore. I even don’t buy the DVD’s anymore, because, you know, internet, and sharing sites.

Last year my interest in Brent Spiner petered out, because he wasn’t doing anything. And the things he was doing were mostly repeats of what he’s done (and said) before. I remember getting a bit bored entertainment wise and I started to watch loads of Tony Robinson documentaries, because history never stops being made and there is a lot of it. I now know marginally more about the Romans and the middle ages, but it’s comforting to know there’s still a lot to learn about those periods and people. I’m sure when the time is right, and I got bored again, I’ll go back to learning more about history.

However, a new development in entertainment land leads me to an old comedy series I used to watch in my teens, I think. I can’t actually remember when I watched it, or how I came across it in the first place. I must have been TV zapping back then. Also the rediscovery is almost more fascinating to me than the actual thing and the actual people involved. I say “almost”, because the reason they still have my attention are them, they, the people involved.

It’s almost a bit like how my interest in Prince Alexander started. It’s almost like how Alexander grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let go of me. He’s still with me in some kind of way, but it’s not quite as intense anymore. Though I got a little excited and strangely nervous when I went visiting ‘het Loo’, the palace he grew up in. Inside I managed to take a picture of the statue of Maurits carrying Alexander on his arm. I’m still very happy about that.

Anyway…

It was a few weeks ago, right at the start of my two weeks holiday. I was surfing Youtube, like I once was zapping across TV land and Youtube threw the suggestion at me to watch some Dad’s army. I thought: “Yeah, all right. I suppose it’s been a while since I watched it.” It struck me how recognizable the starting titles were, or how familiar the characters were to me and the situation. I was surprised to find how well I remembered the cast, and that’s not just they’re characters names and idiosyncrasies; I actually vaguely remembered a few personal things about the actors.

The one thing my memory immediately harked back to was what I knew about that younger guy, not the kid, but that other guy who played a bit of a shady person. I remembered suddenly seeing him in the show while I had not seen him before, thinking he had come in later. Back then I must have been so intrigued by this guy that I did a little research on him and found out he had died while the show was running and therefore didn’t appear in later episodes. This also automatically meant I was watching the show in the wrong order, as usual. What I also remembered was looking out for him ever since I saw him first. And I remember being vaguely happy when I established he was in the episode I was watching, and even being vaguely jealous when he was snogging some girl. Interesting that.

What’s even more interesting is that after having finished the episode I promptly forgot everything I had learnt about him. Well, not really forgotten, rather pushed to the back of my head, because about 1 months ago, all those little facts came back to me. I had to wait for the titles to rediscover his name, but all else I still sort of remembered.

Another interesting thing was, like with Star Trek the Next Generation, I didn’t remember any episode, just a few scenes. Well, “remembering scenes” is really an overstatement; I remembered them sitting on a roof trying to extinguish a fire, or him snogging that girl. Or rather, I remember the idea of them sitting on a roof trying to extinguish a fire and him snogging that girl. Other than that, I could easily watch the episodes as if I’ve never seen them before. But there he was again, and my eyes automatically searched him out first before concentrating on the situation, like back in my teens.

Unlike with Brent Spiner, or should I say Data, it always was Walker for me, though for a few short moments, during my unawareness of Walker, it was someone else (Sergeant Wilson). That’s now two men that grabbed me when I was too young and I revisited after having grown up. The other one being Alan Rickman (first noticed as Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply).

One exciting, yet unrelated, news item: Jonathan Pryce has joined the cast of Games of Thrones and by the looks of it, he’s going to take over King’s Landing.

Averagenessesss...ssss

It’s been quite a while since I posted a blog or had an online rant. I’ve been so busy with work, most my rants were work related and done within the confines of space and time of work. However, lately I’ve developed some online activities as in watching some talent show stuff on youtube. I try to stick to the good stuff, but sometimes…


Anyway…

There’s one thing that started to really irk me: “People complaining about averagenessess..sss…”

I’ve been thinking about it because of my work, and no matter how annoying and time wasting it might be, I decided I could accept it. Why and how?

Not everybody I have to work with has affinity with what I do, or the knowledge and experience. I am the specialist and can and will help them as long as they will learn from it. In some cases I just wanted them to go away and be replaced by someone who, at least, will learn.

I’m not an expert in everything either, so I had to learn and did learn, to work together with people and have them do what they do best so I didn’t have to do it and screw it up, so we reached our goals. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s even very smart and it works well. This way all involved can concentrate at what they do best and what they prefer doing and the results are fantastic. That’s excellence….by people who are in certain areas average.

I figured most people won’t know much and won’t have much experience in most subjects and skills, but they will have skill, knowledge and experience in a few subjects and skills. This means, when you look at everything from a bird’s point of view, the masses won’t know much, or at least not the finest points, of any subject. But within the masses there are groups who do. That’s fine. That’s great, even!

Back to the talent shows. Most talent shows focus on music. Especially the televized ones attrakc a lot of people, the masses so to speak. It is watched by the masses. In other words, most contestants and viewers will be average in skill, knowledge and experience when it comes to music.

One act/contestant/auditionee takes the stage. The judges love it, the masses love it, the specialists don’t. Next thing you know, online, the specialists are complaining about the judges and the masses and about how they know nothing and in some cases should die because of it.

I mean, seriously? You expect everybody in the world to have an above average knowledge, skill and experience in music? Or even, you really think everybody should at least have an above average knowledge in music? Isn’t music first for entertainment? Then, if the judges and the masses were entertained, didn’t the artist at least reach that goal? Yeah, maybe the judges should know better. However, they’re in it for the entertainment value. As long it’s not hurtful and racist, I really don’t see why it’s such a problem.

In some cases it even doesn’t matter when it comes to important subjects like health. Yes, I think the average person should at least know something about healthy food, feeding habits and exercize, but I don’t experct everybody to be experts. That would be unreasonable, like expecting people to have a certain knowledge in music. In case of health, most important is to try and stay healthy. In music, it’s most important you enjoy it. Everything else is extra, but not mandatory.
The thing is, if you don’t like it, don’t watch it! We’re living in a world in which a lot is possible, a lot is happening and a lot of quality is reached. Maybe not in that show, maybe even not on tv, but it is in real life.

Also, I think this world has enough sing birds, what about the work horses? What about the beautifully talented people behind desks, or the ones in shops, or the ones in hospitals and in other services? They're f****** good at what they do and while they're at it, they're keeping life going so the sing birds can sing.