Two films

This being notice of two films we watched recently, needing a change of diet from ITV3.

The first, 'Whiplash', is about a talented drummer who wants to be a great drummer and who falls into the hands of an obsessive and abusive teacher. A film which according to Wikipedia cost something over $3m to make and grossed near $50m. So a good investment for somebody. I'm no expert but it also looks low budget to me.

As regulars at London's classical music venues until the virus struck, we knew something of the pressures and competition faced by young classical players. Not helped by the supply of players standing up better than the supply of audience, which I suspect of getting thinner and older. So it was interesting to see this from a different angle, from the world of the jazz band.

But I found the story a bit difficult to take: the talented drummer who pushed himself too hard and the talented teacher who pushed his students too hard. All to the accompaniment of a lot of drumming, which does not interest me much. Maybe let down by my subterranean - not to say absent - sense of musical time. All to the accompaniment of a great deal of bad language from the teacher, which I found tiresome. Perhaps because I spent nearly all of my working life in the civil service where people did not scream and shout. Nor did they on the building sites on which I spent time before that. But I believe in the world of commerce, even here in the UK, people do scream and shout. Not my bag at all. I didn't want more money anything like badly enough for that.

Notwithstanding, an interesting film.

The second, 'Jenny's Wedding', is about a girl from an old fashioned family living in an old fashioned neighbourhood who wants to marry her girlfriend. Not knowing much about such matters, I was pleased to learn something about the pressures and difficulties all this presented. But also a feel good film: it all came right in the end and everyone lived happily ever after.

A film which, again according to Wikipedia, was made on a shoestring. Maybe $300,000, a tenth of what it cost to make Whiplash. But it looks as if it did badly on the circuit and attracted poor reviews from the film pundits. 

Notwithstanding, I was glad to have seen it.

PS: with the mouth of the abusive teacher demonstrating that it is not true that all celebrities have perfect teeth.

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiplash_(2014_film).

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny%27s_Wedding.