Any Chess Players Out There?

My computer came with an electronic chess board. I never really learned to play as none of my childhood friends enjoyed the game. The closest I came was when my by now long deceased cousin attempted to teach me the moves of each piece on the board. That was my first and last lesson. He was eleven and I was sixteen. That was a lifetime ago.

What brought this to mind, in addition to the electronic game on this iMac, was a French film. Entitled Queen to Play in English and La Joueuse in France, it was released in the U.S. earlier this year and features   wonderful performances by Kevin Kline and Sandrine Bonnaire.  Bonnaire plays a maid in a small Corsican hotel who chances upon a couple, played by Kline and Jennifer Beals, engrossed in a game of chess. At first startled to find them on the balcony of their room when she comes to clean, Bonnaire's character, Helene, finds herself entranced by the intensity she witnesses. She soon asks Kline, who plays an irascible American doctor, to help her learn the game. While he does so rather begrudgingly at the start, Kline's character soon realises Helene's quiet intelligence, something that isn't given much notice in her life as a housewife and mother or as a hotel cleaner.

The transformation that occurs in Helene begins subtly enough. She purchases a chess set and, unable to interest either her husband or daughter in the game, begins playing against herself after her family has gone to bed at night. Quickly reaching the limit of what she can learn on her own, She enlists Kline's assistance and having faced familial resistance to her increasing fascination with chess, meets with him secretly. As her prowess with the game increases, Kline is soon outclassed and he sends her to a colleague who is a master at competitive chess. She applies to play competitively and is accepted. The film concludes with Helene winning all the rounds with more experienced players than she and emerging as a champion. Her family and friends, who initially see chess as simply a silly game, come to realise the grueling nature of the matches and the mental effort and strategy necessary to complete competition. For herself, Helene begins to radiate a newly-found confidence and pride of accomplishment.  This little gem of a film is also the debut for director Caroline Bottaro and is now available on DVD.

While I don't see myself becoming a chess champion, the allure Helene experienced exists for me as well, so much so, in fact, that I am seeking a teacher or a club for adults.

Until Next Time...

Goodbye Netflix?

Have any of you ever watched a stock plummet while others were holding their own or going up in value and wondered what was going on within the falling company's ranks?

Netflix, a favourite company of mine for the last seven years, has, I believe, shot itself in the foot, not once, but twice. The stock, which had soared to three hundred dollars per share in July, fell upon announcement of a sixty percent rise in the cost of subscriptions. Those of us with the unlimited higher end plans did not see as high an increase as did folks paying $7.99 per month.

Unfortunately, a sixty percent hike in any cost these days is likely to be met with extreme rancor, something Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his team should have been able to predict. While he has since apologised for the way the announcement was handled, the change in pricing structure remains as company  stock continues to fall.  Additionally, however, while apologising to customers, Hastings also stated  that the streaming of films and home shipment of DVD's are soon to be divided into separate entities, each with its own website, billing and customer service teams. What was once convenient and seamless for customers who enjoyed both services, is soon to become yet another bill and service requiring time and attention.

When one examines the situation, it is apparent that Hastings sees the market for mailing DVD's eventually shrinking in favour of streaming content. At present, Netflix supply of DVD's outstrips its available content for streaming. A look in stores, libraries and websites such as Amazon would indicate that while streaming is the next frontier in online entertainment, DVD sales and availability are like to remain viable for some time.

People continue to tighten their belts in response to rising expenses, lacklustre employment and competition for their entertainment dollars, making me wonder at yet another case of poor timing on the part of a company whose services I and many others once enjoyed.

The markets were up today. Despite this, Netflix stock continues to take a thrashing. I sold the few shares I had at 143 this morning. As of this writing, the stock is at 130...

Until Next Time...

Nowhere Boy...

Have any of you seen this film? It is finally out on DVD in the United States and worth watching for anyone interested in John Lennon's youth and the birth of the Beatles. Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood, this biopic features Aaron Johnson as the teen Lennon, Thomas Brodie Sangster as the young Paul McCartney, Kristin Scott Thomas as Lennon's Aunt Mimi and Anne-Marie Duff as his mother, Julia.

The film focuses on the years 1955-1960 in John's life, the rivalry for his affections between Mimi who raised him, and Julia, the mother he was just beginning to know when she died tragically, his introduction to music and the formation of The Quarrymen, Lennon's first band and the predessessor to The Beatles.

Rarely have I seen a biopic so perfectly cast, and as Taylor-Woods' directorial debut, her comfort with the visual is obvious. No spoilers, if you want to know more, see the film.

I related to quite a bit in this film, which surprised me since it reflected more my mother's generation than my own. My first memory of John Lennon was at age 4 or so, listening to an album called Meet The Beatles on my mother's newly acquired portable Hi-Fi in our upstairs flat and singing to the refrain, "I Want To Hold Your Hand."  As a single parent and working woman on a budget, the record was a treat, and something she really liked. Generally, we listened to her 50's-era radio in the kitchen or hummed along to the car radio on outings.

Prior to moving to our first flat together, I had lived with my maternal grandparents while my mother, a young divorcee, resumed her university studies to obtain a teaching degree. She was in her early twenties then and loved the music of the era, especially the groups such as the Beatles which were part of the so-called British invasion.

Watching parts of Nowhere Boy also reminded me of some of the storms of my childhood between my mother and grandmother often preceded by the phrase, "She wouldn't do that if she were living in my house."  This was generally an attempt by my Nana to correct some perceived deficiency of parenting in my mother, while asserting her own superiority. I was caught in the middle, and also subjected to frequent bouts of grandmotherly correction---everything from remembering to wear much-hated eyeglasses, my posture to my behavior, friends and schoolwork---was fair game. While she was stern, she and my grandfather did a lot for me, and I always knew my grandmother could be counted on in any situation. If the portrayal of Mimi Smith in this film is true to form, then she and my grandmother were cut from the same cloth.

Until Next Time...

Film Break: Timothy Spall as Albert Pierrepoint

Released in 2006, the film Pierrepoint brings us the story of one of England's most prolific executioners, Albert Pierrepoint. Played compellingly by Timothy Spall, Pierrepoint assumed the mantle of family tradition, following in the footsteps of his father and uncle when he received training for and was placed on the list of executioners in 1933.

As the film opens, Pierrepoint and others are being instructed in the process of delivering a condemned prisoner to the hangman's noose, which we learn is a matter of precision and timing as well as physical condition, weight and height. It is this attention to detail and precision which later distinguishes the otherwise unassuming Pierrepoint,eventually bringing him to the attention of British military officials. One of these selects Pierrepoint to come to Germany to execute Nazi war criminals from the concentration camp in Belsen. But for the publication of this fact, Pierrpoint may have continued working anonymously.

While it might be easy to dismiss any hangman as brutish or callous, Spall's portrayal of Pierrepoint reveals a happily married man with neighbors and friends who sees his hangman's duties as service to England's home office. Furthermore, the specificity with which he renders his services leaves no room for the condemned to suffer, something Pierrepoint views as compassionate.

With his identity and reputation as a hangman exposed, Pierrepoint is initially widely cheered for executing nazis. However, as the hangman for English felons, he also faces contempt and the rising tide against the death penalty beginning in England.

The grocery delivery man turned publican also experiences a shock when one of his pub regulars, convicted of the murder of a former girlfriend, is to be hanged, and Pierrepoint learns he is the man's executioner.

Albert Pierrepoint resigned his post in 1955, later writing a book about his experiences as a hangman. Two footnotes appear as the film. One notes that Pierrepoint took part in 608 executions. The other is a quote in which Pierrepoint observes that the death penalty, rather than deterring crime, only satisfies a need for revenge.

The last hanging in England occured in 1964, and the death penalty for murder abolished there in 1969, although it remained in effect for certain other crimes until 1998.

As a viewer, I was left wondering why anyone would choose to become a hangman. The motive certainly wasn't money since hangman were paid little and sometimes nothing at all.

Tim Spall's performance makes this a must-see, one's views on capital punishment not withstanding. Other equally notable cast members include Juliet Stevenson as Anne Pierrepoint and Eddie Marsan as James "Tish" Corbett.

An interesting aside is that this film was titled The Last Hangman and in fact, Albert Pierrepoint was not the last at all, simply the most well known.

Until Next Time...