I’m also going to try and develop the language to describe my photos well, and I understand that an image’s “alt” text is very valuable to more than just people with sight-impairement.

All words are my own. As an exercise I took my alt-text and created an image from it using the Flux.2 Dev model on my own PC, and it actually came pretty close, so I figure the alt-text must be half-decent at least! There are the usual deviations. I don’t intend to post these routinely, but it’s a fun experiment. In addition to that, I had used an LLM to help me find the term I was grasping for where the layers of hills and trees are lit more diffusely with distance. This was what I was looking for!

The writing goes well with me trying to be more observant in general recently. Yesterday I was stood for half an hour watching birds of prey with my binoculars. There were four or five of them hanging around. I was attempting to concretely describe their features to myself in detail, and that helped when I went back in and was trying to figure out what they were. I have spent a lot of time looking at birds of prey, but never actually taken the time to truly identify them. They were red kites btw. I thought they were probably buzzards at first! I saw a jay fly past as well, which is very rare!

Anyway, this is my image of a sunset over The Skirrid, near Abergavenny. Captured from my back garden.

Here is my local-AI-generated facsimile with only the alt-text as a reference, not my photo.

I scrolled through my timeline, and it was the 41st entry that finally showed me something from someone on my friends list. Just four of the previous 40 entries were from pages I follow or groups I’m in. The rest were advertisements, antagonising political stuff and “promoted content” - just absolute brainrot.

I found out Netflix and others are in talks to buy Letterboxd, so I decided that my film log and reviews were no longer in a safe space. From now on, my own website is the source of truth. However, I’ll continue publishing reviews to Letterboxd for as long as the site continues to be good, not least because I enjoy reading other people’s reviews.

This is great to see and all, but the second half of the film which reconstructs/depicts the actual push for the South Pole was quite tedious and didn’t have much to offer compared with the incredible shots of the scenery and denizens in the first part.

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It’s an absolutely epic production with incredible sets on a very grand stage, and for a very significant amount of the film it can feel like being an audience member in a theatre hall. (Watched on 4k).

Anne Baxter’s performance was my favourite.

The green screen stuff is appalling; would much prefer painted backgrounds. I feel the same way with modern films.

“The story of the birth of freedom”…

The whole thing is highly preposterous, in so many ways and I mean that with a preposterously pronounced capital P causing spittle to fly out of my mouth.

“Moses took the rod of God in his hand”…

My previous viewing today was Carry On Screaming; very different vibe, and surprisingly it didn’t contain any double entendres nearly as fnar as that one.

“It is the noise of song and revelry!”.

Stop having fun!

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We have to wait for nearly an hour for Joan Sims’ hen-pecking performance after her husband, Sidney, comes back transformed by the Jekyll and Hyde potion. I absolutely love her!

“This ear?”, “Yes, that there.”

Very theatrical, and very entertaining throughout.

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Fun fact: the title of this film is also my review of the film On the Silver Globe.

Anyway. This is like a cross between Pierrot le fou and the Carry On films.

Unlike the former, it leaves you with no food for thought.

Unlike the latter, the “sauce” isn’t cheeky, it’s violently mysoginistic.

It really is beautifully filmed, but in every other respect it’s either empty or just objectionable. Distaste side, the way it was filmed was why I enjoyed watching it.

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It’s the next day and I’m still thinking about this film. When people watch films, they see different things. Below are some notes reflecting what I saw watching this film yesterday, and why I’m still thinking about it today, and why I love it!

Awesome symbolism coupled with the soundscape giving impressions of life’s building blocks’ ceaseless replication, growth, repetition, replacement. Really creepy tendril things on the leaf.

“Can you still do the thing with your eyes?”: terrifying!

The shot of the leaf falling from the succulent plant. It didn’t need to be there, but it’s a beautiful shot, symbolic of the shedding and replacement of old life.

Very noirish.

You get so much from the camera movement, the soundscape, symbolism, the tension building with disjointedness, crazy angles, grating violin and unsettling synths, and great editing, all working in pure cinematic unison. The performances are really great, but this film’s story is told through the language of cinema!

A new favourite for me!

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Second viewing. This film is thoroughly engrossing from start to finish. I was completely immersed throughout. The people and places feel absolutely real; it’s almost documentary sometimes, but pure cinema all the time!

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Haven’t finished the film yet, just recording some notes on the first act:

That was some unsettling, spooky fever dream shit!

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Pfft. Not for me. Felt like a BBC costume drama with a Hollywood blockbuster budget. I just found it tedious; not wholly tedious, but quite tedious nonetheless. I was going to give up half way through; managed to finish it but it was a slog…

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ESH

Honestly great. Full of great shots. The most 80s soundtrack ever!

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Great looking 4k; it really does justice to the visual style. Plot seemed a little incoherent. It’s cool and all, but I’m glad it wasn’t any longer!

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Definitely a cut above other horror movies of the time. Honestly a great watch!

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Seen on 4k.

Great to see and everything, but think it’s one to watch for the cinema history instead of being one I enjoyed in its own right. Enjoyed the wonky sets and the expressionist thing, but yeah, not my favourite.

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It was alright. It had its moments. I can’t see myself wanting to watch it a second time. I found the score a bit tedious.

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’kin ’ell…

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This is like meta, with reference to the meta of the meta…

I enjoyed this about as much as Le Mépris, which is to say “sort of”. I feel there’s potential for me personally to enjoy 8 1/2 more than Le Mépris on a second viewing, not least because I find the array of women in 8 1/2 so much more charismatic and delightful than Brigitte Bardot! More importantly, both films are completely self-indulgent on the part of the directors, and that’s rather the point, but I just enjoy Fellini’s self-indulgence a lot more! I guess I just like him more than Godard!

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Miss Cooper is one badass beotch!

This film has elements of Hollywood melodrama, noir and German expressionism.

The performances are very melodramatic; far from naturalistic, and I think the viewer should expect that because it might be a little jarring if you expect something else; as evidenced by a couple of other reviews I’ve seen!

It’s like a fairy-tale and it reminds me of The Wizard of Oz in a lot of ways, but with a much darker aesthetic.

People often talk about the underwater scene, which is undoubtedly beautiful and sinister at the same time.

The scenes of the kids drifting down river, with the dreamlike feeling, being sort of a montage with all the nocturnal creatures, making it feel enchanted but quite sinister at the same time. [It’s a hard world for little things]

The scene where he chases the kids up the stairs in the cellar is amazing, reaching out for them like Nosferatu, with the shadows and exaggerated expressionistic movement.

The profile tracking shot of Miss Cooper leading the kids away from the mob looks like a storybook, and I just absolutely loved it!

Powell riding across the landscape in silouhette.

Just so many great, memorable scenes!

The more I think about the film, the more I love it!

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Second watch. An absolute pleasure to behold from start to end.

This is an incredible looking film: The angles, framing, composition, lighting, contrast, camera movement. More than that though, it’s the storytelling that’s brilliant, and that’s the magic. It’s all very well having every frame be a painting, but this isn’t a painting, it’s a living breathing story and everything is working together in perfect unison to tell that story.

A slightly ridiculous example, but the infamous “crotch shot” of Inspector Lohmann. The investigation is going nowhere. He’s still physically there in the office, but he’s listless with a dishevelled look, undignified, eyes heavy-lidded. In the other, more tasteful angles, you see his desk is a mess. He’s just waiting and has nothing to do apart from drink coffee, smoke cigars and eat snacks. But then there’s a lead, and a breakthrough… everything about him transforms - his face, posture, clothing; he’s back in action! Great visual storytelling, just as with basically every other scene throughout this entire film!

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