Moonlight, Hidden Figures, The Great Wall

MOONLIGHT

 

(BBFC 15)


A story in three chapters that chronicles the boyhood, adolescence and young manhood of Chiron, a gay black character growing up in a rough, drug riven district of Miami. Moonlight is an achingly beautiful examination of life that transcends its settings to tell a story we can all find meaning in.

Like pebbles dropped in a pool people fall into our lives creating ripples and waves that shape who and what we are. Moonlight posits that we have no control over not only our skin colour, our backgrounds or sexuality but that we have no control over who will enter our lives and the effects they will have upon us. The themes are universal and through them director Barry Jenkins allows us to explore a life so alien and different to our own yet so similar. What is it that makes us “us”?

Centring your thoughts on Moonlight being a black movie or a gay movie is missing the point, the film asks you to look at your own life and the influences that subliminally and consciously have brought you to the place you are today. And what happens to us if we decide to create our own narrative. Whilst Chiron (in the third and final chapter, Black) has allowed his past to shape his present, Kevin finds his “happy” in, finally, ejecting his past and the people he allowed to shape decisions.


Everything about Moonlight is next level. Universally great performances; beautiful cinematography; understated yet powerful writing; a melancholy, yet uplifting, score and poetic and subtle direction all combine to create one of the most nuanced and (though I hate the term) “Important” movies of the year (or many years, for that matter). Where Richard Linklater’s wonderful “Boyhood” focused on a single life, Moonlight has implications for all our lives.

Saying it is a coming of age movie or a black movie or a gay movie or a “worthy” movie is missing the point. Yes, it is all these things, but those are “parts”, what make Moonlight so special is the “whole”.

 

HIDDEN FIGURES

 

(BBFC PG)

Hidden Figures tells the spectacularly fascinating, and yet little known, story of the black women who contributed to the early years of NASA’s space program. Unfortunately, it is told in an utterly pedestrian manner that embraces stereotypes and clichés, it’s like buying the very best ingredients and still ending up with egg and chips for dinner.

There’s plenty of solid work from the central trio of Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae, but the movie has so many problems it’s hard to know where to start in dissecting it: tonally, it’s all over the place never sure whether it wants to be serious or amusing; it embraces so many clichés about black people and black culture that it borders on its own racism; it lacks any focus wanting to tell three stories and only really doing one of them any kind of justice (barely any justice at all actually); nobody is ever called to account for their overt or covert acceptance of institutionalised racism and sexism (and even goes so far as to portray all the white characters as nice guys who are simply misguided or absolute straight arrows); about five minutes in you get the first of Pharrell Williams’ faux Sixties soul tracks which continue to jar and annoy throughout the movie.


Add to this, Kevin Costner chewing the scenery (and an endless supply of gum); Jim Parsons attempting to show that there’s more to him than playing a snippy science nerd in The Big Bang Theory (here he plays a snippy science nerd who’s also a bit racist) and a script so shallow you would struggle to get the soles of your shoes wet were you to step in it. It’s everything that was bad about eighties/nineties movies, more Cool Runnings than Selma, less The Right Stuff and more Spacecamp.

Such a shame as the story of these women genuinely needed to be told and admired. Hidden Figures is just not the film to do it.

 

THE GREAT WALL

 

 


(BBFC 12A)

The Great Wall, although beautifully designed, is such a weird mix of generic Western and Eastern action tropes, Chinese mythology and Communist ideology (yes, really) that it’s difficult to understand exactly where it’s coming from.

Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal play a pair of European mercenaries who travel to ancient China in search of the secret of gunpowder, only to stumble upon an ongoing war between men and monsters. Should the pair use the chaos of battle to steal the secret they came for or stay and fight?

There’s plenty to enjoy in the film’s design (including the creatures and the colourful costumes of the oriental army) and original ideas (especially the female warriors who bungee jump off the wall to attack the dragon-like beasts below and the well-thought creature hierarchy), less so in the story or characters. The Great Wall is an okay action movie, no more, no less. It’s only when you scratch beneath the surface it becomes ideologically troublesome.


Made by House of Flying Daggers and Hero auteur Zhang Yimou for the state-owned China Film Group, The Great Wall is pretty overt in its politics, ie the blind adherence to the state in the face of outside antagonism over individualism (interesting to see how that plays in 2017 America). The nobility is buffoonish and incompetent whereas the strength and sacrifice of those who hold the line for the greater good seems like a polemic straight out of a certain little red book. Admittedly it’s one hive-mind versus another, it’s just that the outside one wants to devour the other.

Yimou is a master of composition and large-scale action and, as propaganda, The Great Wall is not short of spectacle or subtlety, unfortunately it lacks enough plot or character depth to make it a memorable cinematic experience.

Andy Oliver

Colchester Classics – Classical Music Picks for February

OUR CLASSICAL MUSIC COLUMNIST LIZ LEATHERDALE, FOUNDER AND OWNER OF COLCHESTER CLASSICS, BRINGS YOU HER PICK OF FEBRUARY’S CLASSICAL MUSIC EVENTS IN, AND AROUND, COLCHESTER.

Classics

On Wednesday 1 February at 1pm the The Marenzio Singers will be performing at the first lunchtime concert in 2017 at Lion Walk United Reformed Church in Colchester. The Marenzio Singers are a five-part vocal ensemble and specialise in music from the 16th and 17th centuries plus music from more modern times.

Free entry with a retiring collection.

Last January the University of Essex Choir under the direction of Richard Cooke performed Mozart’s Requiem and other works to a packed audience at the Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall in the university.  Early next month, the choir will be back at the same venue with an intriguing selection of pieces.

The choir’s next concert does not feature one major choral work but instead Richard has chosen a wide selection of music.  I understand that the choir has been thoroughly enjoying rehearsing Holst’s hauntingly beautiful Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda (group 3), for female voices only, and Britten’s The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, for the male voices.  The concert also includes works for the whole choir in Brahms’ 4 Quartets (Op 92), contrasting with Folksong arrangements by Percy Grainger such as I’m Seventeen Come Sunday and music  by the sadly neglected 20th century Swedish composer, Stenhammar.  The choir will be accompanied by pianists Richard Pearce and Jonathan Beatty who will also perform music by Brahms, Debussy and Grieg.

This concert takes place on Saturday 4 February at 7pm.  Tickets: £22 (www.universityofessexchoir.org) By the way, a short walk from the Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall, Wivenhoe House Hotel is offering pre- or post-concert dining (01206 863666).

On Sunday February 5 at 2.45pm the Kingfisher Ensemble returns to Lion Walk United Reformed Church in Colchester performing Piano Quartets by Schumann and Beethoven.

Tickets: £12 and available on the door.

Colin Nicholson will be joining Ian Ray in Two’s Company in the second concert in the series of three lunchtime Organ Recitals given on the magnificent Moot Hall. A variety of organ duos will be performed on Tuesday 7 February at the Colchester Town Hall .

Free entry with a retiring collection.

Over in Chelmsford, Jeffrey Wilson’s Environ Music promotes creative musical initiatives including a regular Wednesday lunchtime recital series at the Cramphorn Theatre in Chelmsford. This month on Wednesday 15 February the “Sun Trio” (Carol Taylor, clarinet, Paul Arnell, viola, Alison Eales, piano) offer some engaging chamber music.

Further information (01245 606505)

Last year octogenarian Colin Nicholson celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his founding St Botolph’s Music Society in Colchester with his wife, Gill. This month Colin will be conducting the Society’s orchestra in its Gala Concert with a trio of concertos. International pianist Noriko Ogawa performs Grieg’s Piano Concerto – one of the most-loved piano works of all time. (Some of you may recall the classic Morecambe & Wise sketch with Eric attempting to perform this concerto while endlessly annoying conductor Andre Previn). Back to 2017: in the same concert, soloist Philip Smith will perform Schumann’s Piano Concerto and the solo violin part in Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole will be played by Sian Philipps. Saturday 18 February at 7pm in St Botolph’s Church, Colchester.

Tickets: £15 (01206 577905)

Colchester Classics is delighted to be at the Noriko Ogawa concert offering her CDs before her  CD signing in the interval.

The following weekend at the same venue, situated next to the ruins of the Norman priory, Colchester Bach Choir and Orchestra perform their annual concert in aid of the Mayor of Colchester’s Charities. On 25 February the choir will be presenting An Evening of Mozart to include the famous ‘Coronation’ Mass and the Solemn Vespers. Among other pieces, a highlight will be the delightful Flute Concerto in D with Mary Blanchard as soloist. Conductor Patrick McCarthy tells me he also has a Mozartian surprise or two up his sleeve. This will be the 23rd such concert the choir has given for successive Colchester mayors thereby raising many thousands of pounds for their charities.

Tickets £12 (£5 full-time education). Tel (01206) 282206

If you have a forthcoming concert of classical music, you would like previewed, contact Liz Leatherdale on 0800 999 6994.

Start your love affair with Classical Music at www.colchesterclassics.co.uk and take a minute to watch their company video: 

Liz Leatherdale

Liz Leatherdale

Hacksaw Ridge

 

(BBFC 15)


Calling himself a “Conscientious Co-operator”, Desmond Doss went to war. A Seventh Day Adventist, Doss refused to carry a weapon or work on a Saturday (the Sabbath in said church) and yet he managed to save the lives of seventy-five severely injured men from the blood-soaked killing field beyond the Maeda escarpment (the titular “Hacksaw Ridge”), Okinawa.

The movie begins in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia where we follow the childhood and adolescence of Desmond (Darcy Bryce), the son of an alcoholic, damaged WWI veteran Thomas Doss (Hugo Weaving). It’s an “Aw, shucks” upbringing straight out of The Waltons, tinged with moments of sudden violence (such as hitting his brother in the head with a brick) and the constant threat of his father’s belt. It’s another belt, though, that provides the momentum to push the story forward when the slightly older Desmond (now played by Andrew Garfield) uses his as a tourniquet to save the life of a man trapped under a car. Not only does this incident provide Doss with a calling, it also brings him into contact with nurse Dorothy Shutte (Teresa Palmer) with whom he is instantly smitten and becomes the love of his life.

When most of his town, including his brother, enlist to serve to fight in World War II Desmond is compelled to join up to become a medic despite/because of his deeply held beliefs and the protestations of his father. Basic training at Fort Baxter becomes pivotal to the story as Doss refuses to pick up a weapon, a decision that brings him into conflict with not only the platoon’s hierarchy (Vince Vaughn and Sam Worthington) and his comrades but with the army itself. Life is made hellish for him as he is forced into endless menial and demeaning duties, beaten viciously by his ‘buddies’ and faces a court martial and it is only through the intervention of his father, ironically, that Doss is allowed to remain in the army and go to war.


Which brings us to the literal meat of the movie, the battle for Hacksaw Ridge. Remaining behind after a savage attack and even more bloody retreat, Desmond pulls man after wounded man from the charnel killing field and delivers them to safety. Despite the threat of multiple Japanese patrols, constant danger and exhaustion he continues to venture out to save, “Just one more”.

In many ways, Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge is a proper, old fashioned “war is hell” war movie on a scale not seen since Stephen Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan or Sam Fuller’s The Big Red One, even. It’s a crowd-pleasing epic that tells of one man’s courage in the face of, not just, a relentless enemy but implacable bureaucracy and gung-ho bravado; it’s a tale of heroism that harks back to, and is akin to, classic Hollywood fare starring Gary Cooper or John Wayne or Jeff Chandler and wades through devastated landscapes of violence, action and gore to deliver a (mostly) true-story as inspirational as it is uplifting.


And yet, I found it deeply troubling. It works really well on a surface level but beneath that surface bubbles the director’s politick, a right-wing agenda that plays to Red-States America and the baser side of our nature. Gibson uses techniques perfected by the propagandist movie makers of the 1940’s, films used to drum up enlistments or demonise the enemy:  The movie opens under bucolic Virginian skies, good ol’ boys drinking beer and church choirs assert the way of life under threat; before we even see the Japanese they are referred to as unkillable animals and, when we do see them, they are a horde not unlike the CGI waves of World War Z zombies, faceless, unstoppable and relentless; enemy bullets rip, tear and explode American bodies in huge meaty gouts of blood where allied bullets kill cleanly, humanely, because, remember, atrocities are only what the other guys carry out.

Mel just can’t help being Mel. There is much of his Passion of the Christ in Hacksaw Ridge, the camera lingering over the suffering and pain, the blood and injury, the slow-motion hero posing. There are direct lifts from other movies (most obviously during the basic training section of the movie in which the woeful Vince Vaughn attempts his best Full Metal Jacket) and moments that could only have come directly from the bizarro-mind of Mel (such as a weirdly glaring moment when a soldier uses a dead comrade’s torso as a shield as he charges, gun-blazing, into the enemy).


Hacksaw Ridge
plays in entire counterpoint to Martin Scorsese’s Silence, a movie in which, once again, Andrew Garfield plays a man of faith venturing into the far east to find that his faith is tested. When Garfield’s Rodriguez asks of God all he receives is silence; when Garfield’s proto-Gump asks of God, God answers with explosions and the cries of the dying: “What is it you want of me? I don’t understand” BOOM! “This, you idiot”. Scorsese wants you to think about belief, to question, to find your own answers. Gibson wants you to know that his god is bigger than your god.

I didn’t like Hacksaw Ridge but that doesn’t make it a bad movie. It’s a great story and I have nothing but respect for Desmond Doss, there is nothing about Gibson’s film that you could ever call, “boring”, in fact it’s pretty exciting (albeit in a goofy kind of way). There’s much I don’t agree with in the movie but that doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining (which is why I gave it a 4-star rating). It’s a 1940’s war film made for a 2017 audience and that is its strength as well as being its weakness.

Andy Oliver

 

Learn All About Colchester’s Coat Exchange Initiative

The other day a clothes airer with a handful of coats on it appeared outside Colchester’s public library and the GO4 Market Cafe. It was the start of a simple coat exchange initiative to help those in need. Before long it was being featured in media outlets including Colchester’s Daily Gazette newspaper, The Independent, the BBC website, and even across the pond on America’s ABC News. Fay Sibley, the Colchester resident behind the initiative, tells us all about it.


A little over two weeks ago, as I embarked upon my train commute home from London, I sat idly scrolling through Facebook, pushing my thumb upwards, passing post after post. Suddenly something grabbed my attention, Spotted in Yorkshire had posted a photo of a coat rail with a few coats outside a shop and a sign that read ‘Need a coat? Take one. Want to help? Leave one.’ I shared the post – thinking this is fab!

A few likes and a couple of smiley faces later a friend got in contact saying she too thought the post I had shared was fab. We both agreed – this simple act of kindness was something we needed in our hometown of Colchester. We discussed the pros and cons of various locations including the Salvation Army and the town hall, deciding that the Salvation Army was too far out of town and the town hall too exposed. Eventually we settled upon the Library behind Holy Trinity Church knowing that GO4 Market Café was based there and already ran several initiatives for the homeless – including a ‘pay it forward’ breakfast scheme.

Galvanised and enthusiastic I told my friend I was just going to do it – I wasn’t going to ask for any specific permissions and if it was taken away ‘oh well what did it matter’. I did, however, contact Will Quince and advised him of what I was going to do, asking him to share it on social media once I had.

My friend and I, along with our families gathered up our old coats. Unable to find a clothes rail at such short notice I grabbed my clothes airer, some string and my freshly laminated sign and on Saturday morning at 07.30 I headed to town. After I had hung the coats and tied on the sign I took a picture and shared it on my Facebook and twitter page – imploring others to do the same.

The response was overwhelming, my post was shared over 900 times and I had never had so many twitter notifications in my life. Within an hour of sharing the photo a local woman got in touch to tell me she had a clothes rail, a short while later she had dropped it to the exchange and added some coats. Others started to get in touch saying they too would donate coats – sending messages of support and encouragement. We started with 12 coats Saturday morning, and by the evening had more than 30!


I think the success of the coat exchange exists in its simplicity – nearly all of us have an old coat or two at home that we no longer need or want. What the rail does is gives people an opportunity to put that coat to good use. It’s a simple gesture of kindness – which can mean so much to someone else. We have deliberately tried to keep the rules simple – anyone needing a coat is welcome to take one, whatever the reason for that need might be. I have met some wonderful people whilst I have been standing at the rail, some donating and others receiving, all touched by act of kindness that lies behind the rail.

If you have a coat or two you would like to leave you can find the rail outside the library Monday – Saturday. The rail is only taken in on a Saturday evening, it is brought back out Monday morning.

Fay Sibley

The Colchester Community Poetry Project

Alice Goss, one of Colchester’s historians, talks about her latest project to assist our town’s homeless guests.

The homeless situation in Colchester, as in other towns, is rising alarmingly and there are too many people living on our streets, all trying to access the few resources that are open to them. There are many people and organisations in the town who are trying to assist them, Beacon House, Emmaus and the GO4 café, along with many individuals who give up their time to help this sector of our community. Yes ‘our community’ as these homeless people are as important in our town as those with homes to go to. How would you feel if someone you knew or a family member was sleeping in a doorway in wet, freezing conditions? There is a small army of volunteers who give up their time to help homeless people, many professional people who help, and there are those through the church who help, with the St. Peter’s Guest House project is a success story now active in its third year. This project ensures that some of our homeless are kept warm and nourished, in a safe, sheltered accommodation over the winter months.

So why am I doing this project? I spent all of last year unemployed, which drove me into a severe financial situation, so much so that I could have lost my home and potentially been homeless myself. The thought of losing everything and then having to rely on the generosity of others to help me rebuild my life, was a situation I did not want to face, and the reality of my situation began to hit home. As I looked into the state of homelessness in Colchester I was struck by the limited resources available and by the generosity of the good people of Colchester in supporting homeless charities. I am now working (albeit part time, working nights) doing a job that I don’t want to do, but it’s a job and one which will keep me housed. I therefore set out to find some way of assisting the community to which I could have belonged, and as a business woman (self-employed for 18 years) I had all the skills to which I could utilise in devising and executing a project like this.

So, what exactly is this project?

This project is to establish a poetry book, which will consist of 100+ poems, all on a theme relating to Colchester (the castle, River Colne, churches, arts scene, transport, aspects of the town’s history, priory, Hythe, military, Roman Circus etc..) accompanied by photos of the town, articles, case studies profiles, an introduction, illustrations, a preface and a foreward. There will also be an index of poets and an acknowledgements section for those businesses who have contributed to the costs of the book. I already have two businesses who are contributing their resources and I expect others will follow shortly.

The finished book will be a hard back, of around 200-250 pages and all the profits generated will go to help fund homeless projects (through Emmaus – although the exact details of how the money will be allocated is still to be finalised) within the town to help our homeless guests.

What I’m asking of the good people of Colchester to please support this project in either of two ways. Either be one of the many who will contribute a poem if they feel able to write one or alternatively, people can support the project by making a financial contribution towards the production/advertising/marketing costs of the book by donating through the gofundme page.

https://www.gofundme.com/colchester-community-poetry-project

This is a bold initiative undertaken by myself, but with the help and support of Colchester’s people, then together we can make this project a reality. In my opinion, there is something very wrong with our society if we have people living on our streets. Homelessness is a nationwide problem which seems to be escalating and it’s time that our homeless guests were helped more by the housed community. Thank you for reading this and for your support.

Follow on Facebook.

Alice Goss

Overwhelming Support for Tollgate Village at Public Appeal

As I wrote in a previous post I attended and spoke at the Tollgate Village planning appeal last Thursday evening (12th January). I hadn’t planned to write up about the evening, but when I saw the coverage in today’s Daily Gazette I felt that their version did not accurately reflect the mood and tone of events at the meeting.


To briefly summarise events leading up to Thursday evening, the Tollgate Village plans were originally passed by the planning committee, then after a reshuffle of the committee they were thrown out. The Tollgate Partnership then launched an appeal as well as resubmitting their plans. The plans were thrown out again, so now the appeal process is underway and on Thursday evening residents of Colchester had their opportunity to speak in front of the government’s planning inspector Ken Barton. He will prepare a report for the Secretary of State to make a final decision in August.

As has previously been published in the Gazette, and its sister paper the Essex County Standard, there is overwhelming support in the town for the Tollgate Village development and the many benefits people feel it will bring the town, and this was very apparent at the packed meeting.

In the Town Hall’s Moot Hall 100 or so local residents had gathered to have our say, or just to watch others having theirs. Proceedings began promptly at 7.00pm and after a brief explanation from Mr Barton of how the proceedings would work I found myself first up to speak.  I talked of people flocking to Chelmsford, Freeport, Westfield etc because of the choice they offer, and how Tollgate Village would help provide choice and keep some of that money here in Colchester. I also stated that I was unhappy that Fenwick were allowed to be legally represented at the appeal. You can read the transcript of what I said HERE.

Councillor Gerard Oxford spoke and voiced his concerns that approving Tollgate Village would be to ignore correct process and the local plan, and therefore spoke against the development.

A member of the public whose name I didn’t catch, and Colchester’s UKIP secretary Ron Levy, who is also chairman of the Colchester Retail Business Association, also spoke against the development. Mr Levy was concerned about the effect the development might have on the town centre’s traders.

There then followed speaker after speaker making their support known, apart from councillors Dominic Graham (LibDem) and Tim Young (Lab). I’ll come back to them later.

A few highlights include:

Councillor Sue Lissimore (Con) told Mr Barton how the residents of her ward are sceptical about the reasons for the refusal of Tollgate Village.

Resident Charlie Palmer accused the council of being inflexible, cherry picking arguments to suit their narrative, and having lost sight of what the community needs.

Another resident, Jeremy Hagon spoke of the positive impact Tollgate Village would bring to the town and its economy and said he does not visit Colchester town centre often, preferring Chelmsford and Freeport. He cited the dirty streets and expensive parking amongst his reasons. He also made the point that it is cheaper to park at Heathrow Airport for three hours than in Nunns Road car park behind Fenwick for the same period of time.

You can read the full transcript of Mr Hagons’s speech HERE.

Mark Payne, resident and owner of a Tollgate based business, told Mr Barton that it wasn’t about Tollgate Village or the town centre, they can co-exist and both thrive.

Fellow business owner and resident Kim Adcock agreed and said the greatest threat to town centres was from supermarkets. She was also frustrated by the disappearing parking spaces in the town, with more recently lost in the remodelled Priory Street car park.

Resident Andrew Guest, who runs the Purple Dog pub in the town, also felt that Tollgate Village and the town centre had different appeals.

Scott Everest, a resident known to many online by his Twitter name Colonel Camulos and who has a son who is physically handicapped, gave a very powerful speech about the lack of access in the town centre for people with disabilities. These include a shortage of parking spaces and dropped kerbs, and St Marys car park being the only one in town with same level access. These are issues that Mr Everest feels the current Tollgate shopping centre does address and accused coalition councillors of not engaging with residents about such issues, with particular reference to the emerging local plan, and accused them of being ‘self-serving and professional politicians’.

You can read Mr Everest’s speech in its entirety here HERE.

A little over an hour late, at 8.07pm Deputy Council Leader Tim Young arrived. Unfortunately for him he missed his name being called by about a minute and would now have to wait until near the end of the meeting to speak. Mr Young didn’t seem at all pleased by this and sat in the front row with a face like thunder, glancing down occasionally to read his newspaper on his lap.

Colchester, and Essex County Council Councillor for Stanway, Kevin Bentley (Con) declared himself 100 percent behind the development and spoke about the need for infrastructure to cope with all the new homes that are being built, and are to be built, in the borough. Looking across the room at Mr Young this clearly did nothing to lighten his mood.

Councillor Chris Manning, Chairman of Stanway Parish Council, said his authority was 100 percent behind the scheme.

Brigitte Fraser, a resident who runs Simply Living, one of the town centre’s independant businesses, also spoke in favour of the development and the advantages it would bring to the town.

Councillor Fiona McClean (Con) echoed this and said that 82 percent of residents polled in her Stanway ward wanted Tollgate Village to go ahead and that the council is wrong to ignore them.

Tim Young then finally spoke and promptly ignored them, dismissing Miss McClean’s figures out of hand. He then spoke about the effect Tollgate Village would have, in his opinion, on the town centre’s thriving arts scene. He also made an interesting claim that Tollgate Village would stop people visiting Castle Park.

Fellow coalition Councillor Dominic Graham (Lib Dem) was up next and after using half his allocated five minutes to qualify his credentials and reasons for being there, as well as praising the council’s planning department to the skies, he then told Mr Barton how Freeport had destroyed Braintree’s town centre. Mr Graham isn’t from these parts so it would be interesting to know if he had ever visited Braintree before Freeport was built, but comparing Braintree town centre with Colchester is like comparing apples with oranges.

Tim Young left the meeting early straight after Dominic Graham had finished speaking.

The final speaker of the evening, before Kevin Bentley read out a written submission from MP Priti Patel within whose constituency Tollgate Village falls, was Pam Schomberg. Pam was born in a shop in Colchester and has lived in the town centre all her life where she still owns a shop – she’s also a close friend and former neighbour of my mum but enough about that – and she stated categorically that Tollgate Village would not kill the town centre. Pam blamed high business rates and parking charges for the town centre’s decline.

Pam was the third town centre business owner to speak for the development, and her speech perfectly rounded off the night, coming as it did from someone with lifelong and very personal knowledge of the town centre.

Council Leader Paul Smith’s name was called twice but he had not attended the meeting, nor had he sent a message to explain his absence even though had indicated during the afternoon that he would add his voice to the NO speakers. There was naturally quite an air of surprise at his non-appearance.

In total twenty-eight people spoke, five against the development, including the only member of the public opposed, and twenty-three spoke for it. Thirty people had registered to speak including Jon Manning, the former councillor who chaired the original planning committee that has approved Tollgate Village and voted against the planning officer’s recommendation to refuse planning permission. Sadly some of the thirty were beaten by the weather, and Jon Manning had to leave before he was callled to speak. I’m sure whatever he planned to say would have added a whole new level of exctitment to the evening.

Mr Barton must have got quite a shock at this level of support for a new development, usually people turn up at appeals to protest against them, not for them, but this showed just how much many people feel we are losing out on new infrastructure and facilities for residents whilst at the same time building thousands of new homes.

All we can do now is await the Secretary of State’s decision in August.

Simon Crow

Simon

 

Tollgate Village Planning Appeal

Last night residents of Colchester, and other interested parties, had an opportunity to speak at the Tollgate Village planning appeal in the Town Hall’s Moot Hall. Colchester 101 fully supports the Tollgate Village planning application which Colchester Borough Council originally approved then twice rejected, forcing the applicant, Tollgate Partnership, to appeal. Colchester 101 usually tries to remain neutral on local issues, preferring instead to promote people, organisations and events in and around the town, but also giving the council a nudge where necessary, such as our coverage last year of the gaps in our town’s tourism strategy. However, like a large number of Colchester residents we feel so strongly about Tollgate Village, and the benefits we believe it will bring to this fast growing town, that we threw our hat the ring and gave it our full support.


So last night I went along to have my say in front of the government planning inspector Kenneth Barton, legal representatives for the council, the Fenwick department store and others with a major commercial interest in the town centre, Tollgate Partnership and their legal team, and about 100 local residents. In total twenty-five people spoke to support the scheme and only five spoke against it, which included three councillors who are members of the council’s controlling cabinet. Speakers for included local business owners, some based in the town centre, four opposition councillors, and members of the public . I drew the short straw and was first up to speak in front of this packed house. This is the transcript of what I said, a copy of which is with Mr Barton for his perusal. A decision will be made by the Secretary of State on or before 1st August.

My name is Simon Crow and I run a small business in Colchester as well as publishing the popular Colchester 101 blog.

I would like to say the following:

We do not want to be dictated to by Fenwick.

This is our town. The people in this room who have come here to support Tollgate Village, we live here, we bring our families up here, most probably work here, and we do most of our shopping and spend our leisure time here.

We do not want an expensive department store and its associates dictating to us what facilities this town can have in order to protect their own interests at our expense.

This is our town. Not theirs.

I run a business in this town, as do others in this room I’m sure, and nobody is going to stop a competitor setting up down the road from me.

And why should they? Competition is a good thing. It makes everyone raise their game, which is good for consumers.

And we also do not want Colchester Borough Council social engineering our town by denying us choice and forcing us to use the town centre.

I love the town centre and visit it often, but if, as we are told, it is in decline then the council needs to stop blaming those who want to invest in the town and look at the exorbitant business rates and the sky high parking charges for starters.

Sadly, the truth is that the council has no vision for the town centre that they claim will suffer if Tollgate Village goes ahead, so their only answer is to try to force us to use it.

The sad fact is that this council that controls one of the fastest growing boroughs in the country has a small town mentality and they simply cannot see beyond the ends of their collective noses. Instead of having a vision for the town centre they drop to their knees and worship at the altar of Fenwick whilst tugging their forelocks to them in deference.

Thousands of new homes have been built in Colchester over past few years. Thousands. And with little spending on infrastructure to accommodate this fast growing population. We are literally bursting at the seams and Colchester Council have just pushed through plans to build two garden villages with thousands more new homes to come on the outskirts of the town.

One of these, West Tey, is just down the road from Tollgate Village. Yet the council have rejected £70 million of much needed inward investment on infrastructure right on its doorstep. Not only would Tollgate Village provide leisure and retail facilities for this new community, it would also be the source of many much needed jobs in future years.

Every weekend people head out of Colchester in their droves to shop at Lakeside, Chelmsford, Bluewater, Freeport and Westfield because they offer choice we just don’t have here. With Tollgate Village we can keep some of that money in Colchester, along with the money spent by all the new people who will move here over the coming years.

In fact, we should not even be thinking of Tollgate Village and the Town Centre as separate entities. Instead we should think of them both as essential parts of Colchester’s offering, because I believe that with Tollgate Village, with a clear vision for the town centre, and with the council’s leisure and sporting plans at Northern Gateway, we will have all the ingredients to make Colchester a major regional leisure and retail attraction that will bring people here in their droves from all over East Anglia.

We will be the pride of the region.

Yes, Tollgate Village could be the making of this town.

Surely that is better than trying to make time stand still and control what people do?

Please don’t do what Colchester Borough Council and Fenwick and their friends want you to do and deny us and our children choice. Please give us that choice and let Colchester and its people be masters of our own destiny.

Simon Crow

Simon

 

La La Land

 

(BBFC 12A)


Shivers running up and down your spine? Vision blurred by excessive tears in your eyes? Heart beating a little faster than usual? Face set in an almost painful, rictus grin? Don’t worry. You don’t need to see your GP or visit A&E. Don’t worry, you’re not ill, my diagnosis is that you’ve just been to see the wonderful La La Land, is all (unless you haven’t, in which case seek medical advice immediately) and the only thing you can do is turn around and go see it again. Straight away. You need this movie in your life as soon as possible.

It’s the story of two Los Angeles dreamers who have stalled out on ways to achieve their ambitions: Mia (Emma Stone) is an aspiring actress working as a barista on the Warner Bros. lot, attending endless, humiliating auditions and always an arm’s length from success; Sebastien (Ryan Gosling) is a wildly talented musician whose commitment to his art in its purest form keeps him from success and his ultimate goal of opening his own jazz club. As their paths begin to cross (in classic Golden-Age Hollywood fashion) they can’t stand one another, but slowly their antagonistic, spiky conversations become more playful and less snarky and infatuation begins to take root between the two. And infatuation, as we all know, is just a small step from love if only we are brave (or foolish) enough to take it.


I’m trying to stay as far as possible from the dreaded spoiler territory here (I genuinely think this is a story you need to experience for yourself) but La La Land goes somewhere with this story where few other movies are brave enough to tread. It’s a romance that exists to inspire the protagonists, definitely, but is it a romance that’s strong enough to endure? Mia and Sebastien share the kind of chemistry that has all the hallmarks of an all-timer romance… if only they can understand what destiny is trying desperately to tell them.

I hope that doesn’t make the film sound like a bummer because it isn’t. It might not be what you expect, sure, but that’s a part of its wondrous joy. Gosling and stone (in their third film together) have such a natural, likeable chemistry that they recall the great Hollywood partnerships (Bogey and Bacall, Hepburn and Tracy, Fred and Ginger), they’re full of charm, wit, fun and occasional melancholy. There’s great support from the likes of John Legend and J.K. Simmons, but, really, it’s the central duo you’ve come to see and the central romance is the one you’ll find hard to forget.


Director Damien Chazelle (who made such an impact with the brilliant Whiplash) seems to be one of those movie literate young guns, like Quentin Tarantino and Jeremy Saulnier, who have the ability to throw their influences up there on the screen but make them fresh and new and relevant. I’ve seen a lot of articles saying La La Land is the direct descendent of some of the great MGM musicals like Singin’ In The Rain, Top Hat, It’s Always Fair Weather and The Band Wagon and, yes, the DNA of these movies is very much in there, but it’s much closer in tone to the Jacques Demy and Michel LeGrand classics Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and – the criminally underseen – Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Ladies of Rochefort) and there’s more than a touch of Francis Ford Coppola’s One From The Heart in there as well. Don’t worry if you haven’t seen any of these movies, La La Land is strong enough to stand by itself and is entirely its own thing, I mention them only because after seeing it you’ll be wanting to scratch that “They don’t make them like that anymore” itch and these are the movies they don’t make them like anymore. (The more adventurous of you might want to track down the incredible Corki Dancingu (The Lure), a Polish musical horror about a pair of man eating mermaids who become cabaret stars. Really).


From the very first scene you’ll know that you’re watching a classic. And the second. And the third. And… Honestly, there are so many moments which are absolute movie magic that a whole Summer of blockbuster movies will watch La La Land green with envy, wishing they’d had just one of those bits.

Even if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool cynic (actually, especially if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool cynic) I’d urge you to go experience La La Land, not just for the music and colour and joyous bombast but, you might just find, it has something interesting and relevant, even profound, to say about life and love and loss that will affect you and your own story. It might be going a little far if I were to claim La La Land has the power to thaw a frozen heart of fix a broken one but it probably has. It’s not just a movie for fans of Strictly Come Dancing, it’s a movie for all of us.

Here’s to the dreamers.

Andy Oliver

Colchester Classics – Classic Music Events for January

OUR CLASSICAL MUSIC COLUMNIST LIZ LEATHERDALE, FOUNDER AND OWNER OF COLCHESTER CLASSICS, BRINGS YOU HER PICK OF JANUARY’S CLASSICAL MUSIC EVENTS IN, AND AROUND, COLCHESTER.

Classics

If one of your New Year resolutions was to join a choir, Clacton Choral Society has a taster session on 7 January where singers with some choral experience would be welcome.

Following the choir’s highly successful concert in December, accompanied by the Kingfisher Sinfonietta, its conductor Gilli Dulieu will whet your musical appetite for the choir’s next concert on 8 April with music by Alan Bullard (Wondrous Cross), Malcolm Williamson (Procession of Palms) and excerpts from J S Bach’s St John Passion.

To reserve your place the event at Christ Church URC, Carnarvon Road, Clacton, telephone 01255 424568

On the afternoon of Sunday 8 January, the Kingfisher Ensemble presents its first concert of 2017 at Lion Walk Church, Colchester with a charming programme of music by Grieg, Mendelssohn and Schumann.

Tickets are £12 and available on the door

Across the border there is a chance to hear music used in films and on TV, such as the themes from Lovejoy and Black Beauty (by Suffolk-based composer Denis King) and also Richard Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto from the film Dangerous Moonlight. Chris Green conducts the Trianon Choir and Symphony Orchestra at the Ipswich Corn Exchange at 7.30pm on Saturday 7 January 2017.

(01394 283170)

On Thursday the 10 January, Chris Green will be in Colchester starting a new series of Music Appreciation Lectures: Music and the British Landscape for the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) based at the Castle Methodist Church.

(01223 417320)

Colchester-based musicians will also be with the Essex Chamber Orchestra the weekend of  7 & 8 January for an intensive weekend course ending with a concert including Reinecke’s Flute Concerto with soloist Hazel Arnill and Schubert’s Symphony No.3 at 7pm on Sunday 8 January in Ingatestone & Fryerning Community Centre, High Street, Ingatestone.

Tickets £10 on the door.

Get your New Year off to a flying start with a concert of popular Viennese classics given by the Colchester Symphony Orchestra conducted by Chris Phelps.  Come and enjoy dance favourites including Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz, Thunder and Lightning Polka, the Radetsky March (with audience participation) and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.

The Viennese waltz is demanding for both musicians and dancers so were interspersed with short polkas and marches just to give the dancers a welcome break and catch their breath.  (Those watching BBC One’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ will appreciate that the Viennese waltz is quite fast!)

Tickets are £14 (01206 271128). Saturday 14 January at 7:30pm in St Botolph’s Church, Colchester.

This month the Bergen Philharmonic makes its Saffron Hall debut with its new maestro Edward Gardner. The programme includes Elgar’s iconic ‘Cello Concerto, performed by the young ‘cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No.1, evoking the landscape of Scandinavia and Bartok’s fiery orchestral showcase, Concerto for Orchestra. This concert is on Sunday 15 January at 3pm with tickets starting from £18.

Box Office 0845 548 7650.

On Sunday 15 January, Colchester Classics is delighted to be invited back to Saffron Hall to offer CDs at our pop-up CD stand.  CDs  at this concert will include performances by the Bergen Philharmonic and Edward Gardner. After the concert, Gardner will be available to meet the audience and sign the previously purchased recordings. Last month, Colchester Classics was delighted to offer a CD service and signing at Gerald Finley and Antonio Pappano’s recital.

Acclaimed as a pianist of “amazing power and panache” (The Telegraph), Clare Hammond, is recognised for the virtuosity and authority of her performances and has developed a “reputation for brilliantly imaginative concert programmes” (BBC Music Magazine, ‘Rising Star’). Recently she was playing on Radio 3 and also played the younger version of Dame Maggie Smith’s character in the film, The Lady in the Van.

On Sunday 22 January  Clare will be performing these works at the Constable Hall, East Bergholt: – Jacquet de la Guerre’s Suite No 6 in G major, Beethoven’s Sonata No 4 in E-flat major, Ashton’s Ornithology, Faure’s Nocturnes  Nos. 8 and 12 and Stravinsky’s Petrushka Suite.

Stour Valley Arts & Music Box Office and further information (01206 298426).

If you have a forthcoming concert of classical music, you would like previewed, contact Liz Leatherdale on 0800 999 6994.

Start your love affair with Classical Music at www.colchesterclassics.co.uk and take a minute to watch their company video: 

Liz Leatherdale

Liz Leatherdale

2016. The Cinema Year in Review

 

2016. A year, let’s face it, that will mostly be remembered for the people and things we lost rather than the quality of cinematic outpourings… especially when it came to the product served up to visitors of our own local Odeon. Yeah, there were bright spots but, in general, it has been a rather weak year (quality-wise) for cinema and the best described as, “Passable, must try harder”.

And yet, in terms of box office receipts worldwide, this has been a record breaking year so, surely, Hollywood must be doing something right, right? Well, the aggressive marketing to emerging markets (primarily China, though we wait to see what the Trump effect will have there), as well as audience familiarity with known and trusted “Brands” (Star Wars, Harry Potter, Marvel Studios and a new Disney “Princess” IP) have helped put bums back on seats. Also, a look at worldwide box office takings reveals that there are quite a few foreign movies doing rather well in their domestic markets (most notably Mei Ren Yu – or Your Name, if you prefer – hovering just outside the top ten and making the equivalent of just over $550 million in its native Japan).

It has been a year of “good enough”. Movies that are just good enough to attract audiences and make a small, but good enough, profit seem to have proliferated. Films that deliver on minimum expectation without ever reaching to be great have scattered the year and, as business models go, it seems to have worked. Movies like The Magnificent Seven, The Finest Hours, Don’t Breathe and Ghostbusters are all perfectly serviceable, good enough pieces of entertainment but lack “rewatch-ability”, once you’ve seen them there’s very little need to go back and watch them again. To a certain extent, good enough movies are critic-proof, they seem more than happy to be 3-star rated because that’s what they were designed to be, no more, no less. What this means for the future, only time will tell but, I suspect, with the continued rise of internet streaming and films released simultaneously in cinemas and on-demand what might be good for the studios may not be so great for cinemas themselves.

Which brings us to the prospect of not one, but two new cinemas opening in Colchester within the next year or two. Curzon is definitely going ahead, albeit slowly, in Queen Street on the site formerly owned by Keddies department store (ask your parents, kids) and Cineworld will be opening their doors to a 12 screen, 3083 seat multiplex (including an IMAX screen and a 4D theatre) though its location, due to legal wranglings and local government ineptitude red-tape (probably) has yet to be finalised. This would take Colchester back to being a three-cinema town, something not seen since the old Cameo Cinema closed its doors in late 1972, but, significantly, there were only three screens between all of them. Supporters of the Curzon project would hope that it will feature a more varied diet than that offered at the local Odeon, but a quick look on the internet at the fare being offered by Curzon’s other out-of-London theatre (Canterbury) shows their programme to be disappointingly familiar. Still, we live in hope. Curzon looks set to open late 2017 and Cineworld? Well, don’t go getting yourself an Unlimited card just yet, I’m thinking 2018 if we’re extremely lucky.

Back to 2016 and, I guess, in the time-honoured tradition of film critics everywhere, I owe you a list of my favourite movies of the year. Please bear in mind that this list is HUGELY subjective (I’m not trying to objectively countdown what was the BEST movies of the year here); these are all films that were on general release AND available to see at the Colchester Odeon; do not reflect the opinions of Simon or any of the other marvellous Colchester101 contributors.

10 The Hateful Eight – Quentin Tarantino’s epic who-will-do-what-and-to-whom? As much a polemic on contemporary America as it is a gloriously twisted, gory and goofy play on everything he has made before.

9 The Witch (or is that The VVitch?) – Definitely a horror movie (despite what some may say) and confirmed a life-long suspicion of goats. Wracks up the tension relentlessly with metaphysical angst and dread, left me glad to step out into the sunlight again (in a good way).

8 Hell or High Water – The Chris Pine/Ben Foster movie which wasn’t The Finest Hours and the film I wish Cormac McCarthy had made rather than The Counsellor. A contemporary Western in which all the hats are shades of grey rather than simply black or white. Also, Jeff Bridges best work in ages.

7 Room – What could have been a depressing wade through the darker recesses of human desire was, actually, one of the most hopeful and emotionally joyous movies of the year.

6 Hail, Caesar! – The Coen Brothers delivered with this tale of Golden Age Hollywood and reds-under-the-beds with typical Coen Brothers quirk, brio and laughter and I, for one, couldn’t have been happier. Still chuckling about the Ralph Fiennes/Alden Ehrenreich “Would that it were so simple” exchange.

5 Captain America: Civil War – Hands-down, not only the best superhero movie of the year but one of the best movies of the year. Solid story-telling backed with three-dimensional characters, moral complexity, stunning action sequences and respect for the intelligence of the audience.

4 Kubo and the Two Strings – It’s been a great year for family films, Zootropolis, The Jungle Book, Pete’s Dragon, Fantastic Beasts and The Secret Life of Pets could all have made my list, but I decided to plump for Laika Studios’ Kubo for its sheer technical brilliance and the importance of the message it carries. It’s a movie that no one seems to be talking about but deserves so much more attention. I’d urge everyone to seek it out.

3 The Nice Guys – A movie with a big heart, a dirty mind and everything you’d want from a Shane (Lethal Weapon) Black movie. And manages the seemingly impossible act of making Russell Crowe loveable. I loved every twisted, ridiculous minute of it.

1 = Arrival and Moana – I just couldn’t split these two for my favourite of the year. Arrival delivered one of the most intelligent and nuanced science-fiction movies in years and, like all the best sci-fi films, is so much more than the sum of its parts. In terms of pure entertainment Moana represented the most enjoyable 113 minutes of the year and the only movie I wanted to rush back into the cinema and see again.

Now, the bit I’ve been dreading, revisiting those movies that made me want to eat my own head: My most hated movies of 2016!

Yes, I disliked Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, hated Passengers and London Has Fallen and despised Bad Santa 2, but the bunny-currant on top of the dog-poop ice-cream has got to be the truly abysmal Dirty Grandpa. No other movie made me want to tear my own eyeballs out of their sockets and poke about at the squishy bits inside with a stick more than Dirty Grandpa. Hated hated hated it.

I won’t leave on that sour note. I’ve been fortunate enough to see a few of the movies coming in 2017 and I hope that they are representative of the year as a whole: terrific, intelligent and entertaining films like Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea, The Autopsy of Jane Doe and, the sublime, La La Land.

I’ll continue to try and point you toward the best and steer you from the worst and I hope that 2017 is the one that, against the odds, turns out to be a great one for all of us.

Andy Oliver