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| Paul Nash - World War 1 |
Kazuo Ishiguro......
in novels of great emotional force, [he] has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world"
I watched 'The Remains of the Day' yesterday, probably a second or third time of the film which was made in 1989. It is an incredibly moving film with Anthony Hopkins as the butler and Emma Thompson as the housekeeper. James Fox played Lord Darlington and Christopher Reeve the American.
Just as I was writing this the following piece of music to be played tonight came on, 'The Armed Man' - Mass for Peace by Carl Jenkins, as I listen to it and read the comments, lots of coughing and noise from the audience but I shall put up with that.
When all the kerfuffle of anti-semitism in the Labour Party came up and we did not know who to believe as to what, someone mentioned the figure for the number of dead after WW2, between 60 to 80 million, the larger figure being civilians dying from war related diseases and famine. Since that time we have lived in relative peace, at least our Western dominated culture has. As a child I remember all the films glorifying war and being totally against it, could not see the point of killing people. But it did put into context the deaths from the Holocaust.
Hindsight is of course difficult to justify after an event has occured, Darlington was way out of his league, a man probably of his class, we still see it today, and the day we become 'classless' will be blessed. What I find extraordinary though is that a Japanese writer, okay brought up in England from an early age, has caught and defined, the upper classes in the 1930s has caught the very 'Englishness' that makes our country something to be admired but also reviled for its nose in the air attitude to life.
Not a happy subject, but it is Monday ;)
I remember seeing that movie years ago and loving it. I must look on Amazon and see if it is available for download. It is raining here and would be a nice way to spend the afternoon.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very good story and the acting is marvellous. A romance never fulfilled amongst a very upstairs/downstairs scenario.
ReplyDeleteMy Mum has just sung The Armed Man. She's been singing for many years and this was the best thing she's done in decades she said.
ReplyDeleteArilx
Envious of her, could never sing, so I presume she was in the one I mentioned?
DeleteAs more and more women and more and more minorities become leaders the culture will slowly change around the world. I really believe this.
ReplyDeleteYes I think you are right there Tabor. The change is very protracted though.
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