Category: Blogs about Art

The Breakfast Club

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On the day when the great John Hughes, director of one of my favourite films sadly passed away, Nat and I went to the Campbell Lace Beta Breakfast Club for Campaign bloggers and commenters. It was great fun, the food was delicious and we learned many things.

One, that you don’t need a fancy sign above the door to open an agency. Two, that Campbell Lace have a row of awesome little thinking pods, where, once installed, you’re on full display to all Carnaby shoppers while you brainstorm. And three, that ‘thumbs up’ and ‘double thumbs up’ are now back in fashion – according to fellow ex-BBHer, Mark Threlfall (pictured in action).

Thanks very much for having us guys. Nice to meet you in person!

And good to put a face to a name with Campaign’s Colin, our long-suffering web-editor, who has been there for us in times of techno-mares for over a year now (6th pic down on the left).

 


P.s. Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?

From Wordsworth to Withnail – postcards from Sleddale Hall

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News from the Withnail front – on a last minute easter trip to the lake district, I (lol) ended up in the only available accommodation in Cumbria – which happened to be just a slate’s throw from Penrith. So we went on a pilgrimage to Uncle Monty’s to see what old Sleddale Hall (or Crow Crag to fans of Withnail & I), is really like now it’s got a new owner.

Walking up there through the picturesque hills, the weather was all wrong. It should have been pissing with rain and cloudy like the film. Instead it was blindingly sunny, the water in the reservoir an iridescent blue. It was hard to recognise Crow Crag without the bleak backdrop of mud and stormy rain.

 

On the way there, climbing over quaint little streams and marshland, we met two locals who were on an actual hike around Wet Sleddale. They said that they knew the new owner – a gentleman of nearby Bampton, who goes by the name of Sebastian Hindley. Fittingly he is a publican, and his family wealth comes from owning BHS – so that’s where the money to invest has come from.  Luckily he is also a die-hard withnail fan, and wants to restore the place so it is fit to stay in. In his own words, he wishes to make Sleddale Hall to Withnail what the beautiful Dove Cottage in nearby Grasmere is to Wordsworth. He’s got his work cut out for him. As it stands today, it’s an absolute sh**hole. At best, charmingly dilapidated.

 

 

We certainly weren’t the first to visit – Withnail fans have clearly been there in droves over the years to have booze-fuelled parties – as the piles of broken glass lay testament to. As do the Abbey-Road-esque graffiti adorning the walls.


 

But aside from that the scenery is sublime – it’s well worth a visit. There’s even real-life farmers there to holler ‘shut that gate and keep it shut!’ at you. More on Seb, the new owner and his inspiring plans here (hare).

 

 

D. It is written – if a little strangely

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Does no one else think the marketing of Slumdog Millionaire is a touch misleading? 

 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m (lol) a die hard devotee of this film, and
have been raving about ever since it was first screened at the london
film festival in October. I’m glad it’s done so well, but I
do find it odd that they’ve taken such a dumbed-down approach to the
marketing. Every time I see an ad for it I have to double take and
remind myself it’s not the latest Richard Curtis. All the bus-sides and
posters portray it as a happy-go-lucky, fluffy Rom Com. When in fact
its actually a very artistic, beautifully shot and scored film that
makes you think and breaks your heart as much as it uplifts. what’s
more, when you leave the cinema, you are left with a resounding sense
of sadness at all the poverty in the world. Well, unless you subscribe to the belief that the whole thing is ‘poverty porn’ as some do.

‘Making Britain smile’, and the ‘feel-good movie’ of the year seem to be sneaky headlines that, when coupled with the big cheesy photos of Jamal and Latika, are bound to make the masses flock to the cinema in their droves. Only to find that it’s actually a much darker experience than what they expected, and might normally have seen. It’s a film that as well as ‘making britiain smile’, is also making them cry, grimace, recoil and (in that eye-gouging scene) look away in horror. Still, if that’s what it takes for this film to do well commercially as well as critically, then hats off to Boyle’s marketing team. It’s not what it says on the tin – but from a film that was about to sink without a trace until the festivals rescued it (as we blogged before), I guess it deserves anything which helps it get to as many people as possible.