(Remember to see the film before you read or listen to any reviews but ...)

Following his recent mockery of Simon Mayo for pronouncing the first 'a' in Indiana Jones in the same way as posh people pronounce the 'a' in 'bath' (my hypothesis is that this might be to do with foreign word pronunciation, btw), I was really pleased to hear Mark Kermode starting his review of Wall-E by pointing out not only that it is not pronounced the same as 'wally' but that in fact anyone who's seen the film will find it hard not to say it in the same way as Wall-E himself does, before carrying on to talk pronunciation for large parts of the programme.

B-)

Another cultural highlight this week was a screening of Once at the NFT. It's a great film and was followed by a Q&A and then a live music performance from the two lead actors ('musicians who can half act' rather than 'actors who can half sing or play music' as they described themselves). It's a great movie. Hope everyone else realises.

B-)

Left all in the game in the middle, to make a pear and rhubarb crumble among other things, but came back for the end. The story was fairly predictable but there was some good writing and Ray was on top form swearing away. Could use this programme to explore the various meanings of the 'c' word (no, not 'cool, students).

But the really good film I saw this week was Enron - The Smartest Guys In The Room (yes, folks, that's irony). An amazing story, very well told. There's so much you could say about it but a few things particularly intrigued me.

First was to see how they started digging a little hole and ended up digging something big enough for the whole company to fall into, and to drag in Arthur Andersen, a whole pile of banks and the state of California with them. Hadn't realised they were responsible for the 'Governator'.

Second, was the connection they made between the Enron traders and the Milgram experiments (where more than 50% of ordinary folks turned out to be willing to electrocute strangers to the point at which they risked death just because a man in a white coat told them to). Funnily enough, I was just recently watching the start of Ghostbusters which was also inspired by Milgram.

Finally, it was that queasy feeling as you'd laughed at the evil idiots** for a couple of hours and were then reminded that it really wasn't funny at all, particularly when you saw what they did to Californians and to the ordinary employees who were completely shafted by them. As usual, the ordinary folk were left with nothing while the guys who caused the mess were cashing in their millions on the way to their cells.

B-)

**not including the guy whose suicide started the film

Yes, we're talking three movies in one week, folks. Today, Kiloh and I went to circus class with Apoa and waited in the cafe while she worked on the trapeze. Kiloh opened her little handbag and produced a giant hole punch, a staple remover and a stapler and set up an office in the cafe. We sat and worked on laptops and DS's, with a limited wifi connection while Apoa worked on her rope climbing and front balance.

Then we headed to Leicester Square and Chicken Little in 3D. The 3D was not hitech but it worked pretty well. It didn't add much to the movie, but there were a couple of nice moments when tentacles reached out to us from the screen. The movie was pretty good but not as gripping as some of the classics from recent years.

B-)

imdb - walk the line

Saw this with Apoa today. She wasn't sure but I persuaded her and she thought it was pretty good. I think some of the middle bits were a bit slow and grownup for her. I've been playing the kids 'Folsom Prison Blues' for ages so it had a bit of family significance too. I really enjoyed it. I'm a sucker for popstar biopics anyway and would agree with Mark Kermode that this is up there with the Buddy Holly Story and Slade in Flame (although, to be honest, I don't remember too clearly what the teenage me made of them). Without wanting to spoil it, I thought the two best scenes were the 'one song' bit and the 'I can't go down there' bit.

Meanwhile, we came first equal in the school film quiz last night. We'd have won if we could have listed the 20 Broccoli Bond movies in their order of release. We got the first 9 and the last 3 but the rest were a bit of a Roger Moore-Timothy Dalton soup.

B-)

imdb - good night, and good luck

Wonderful movie. Even the Holloway Odeon couldn't spoil it. I don't think it was just me who felt like the audience (who usually seem like they're really just out for a chat and just happen to have picked a cinema as the venue) were completely rapt. It had a really magical 'look-and-feel' - I felt like I was watching ghosts. Quite a Reithian message, which I always approve of (up to a point, Lord Copper). By the time it finished, I had a strong urge to chainsmoke and drink 'scotch' until 3 in the morning.

B-)

Saw a talk on Renoir the other day. The highlight was the unused footage from Une Partie de Campagne

I'm nerdy enough to enjoy hearing Renoir say 'coupez' and watching his son using the clapper board but I felt like I was dreaming watching the main love scene again and again, and then wakening up every time the scene was over and Sylvia Bataille switched off her rapture and laughed at the camera. It is of course the classic 'man-won't-take-no-for-an-answer' scene but I won't comment on patonamu's 'Romantisized rape scene fantasy of a Man' comment (at bottom of imdb page.

I left before the question session to go to the screen next door for Breakfast On Pluto followed by a Q+A with Neil Jordan and Cillian Murphy. As Neil Jordan says, the film is 'picaresque' and 'not plot-driven' so there is a slight sense that it's just a bunch of stuff happening until it finishes rather than having a sense of climax and resolution. But it's great, and Cillian Murphy really is awesome. All the other performers are great too, including Gavin Friday and his glam rock covers band.

B-)