in 'the conversation' a cagey surveillance man played by gene hackman is drawn into a murder plot which turns out to be dangerous for his own life. somewhere between a thriller and a character sketch- the latter worked better for me than the conspiracy drama. some great sequences – especially the one in the hotel room.
the film version of the virginia woolf novel was better than it has any right to be. tilda swinton plays orlando who turns from male to female over 4 centuries. the big changeover happens typically in the exotic east when he is disillusioned by the ways of men. the feminist subtext is played up here though the wit of the original is still there. an ending where orlando lives to tell her story is a little unnecessary but very forgiveable.
the graphic non fiction novel ‘palestine’ follows an american journalist through a series of horrors in the occupied territories. the stories of death and destruction, the displacement from homes, the friends and relatives lost are relentless and the book would have been unbearable if it was not drawn. when i started the novel i as not so sure of the technique that took real people and turned them into comic book characters. but somehow towards the end to me the technique worked in two ways- first it distanced us from the horrors to help us understand them a little better; and at the same time allowed us space in between so that we did not end up being purely disaster voyeurs.
i feel the same about the manga i am reading right now. ‘apollos song’ supposedly by the grandfather of manga osama tezuka. the story is a fantasy based on a the story of a boy who hates love and lovers and is cursed to forever lose the one he loves for all eternity. the comic book technique allows for the characters to stay representative and not truly ‘real’. the rest of the personality might be supplied by us as we read. the perpetually dark love stories end up being unreasonably effective. and of course it is beautifully drawn.
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