Two years ago, Asghar Farhadi wrote and directed the extraordinary movie A Separation. It's a deeply moving film about a couple in Iran: she wants to leave the country with her young pre-teenage daughter to have a better life; he wants to stay because his father has Alzheimer's, and lives with the couple. She asks for a divorce from the court; the court doesn't think she has sufficient cause because there's nothing wrong with the man and it isn't as if she doesn't love him. From this somewhat unusual starting point the film wends its way through increasing complications as the husband tries to find someone to look after his father during the day, and winds up before the court again on a very different charge. To say how it all pans out in any detail would be to thoroughly spoil the movie if you haven't seen it.
There are lies at every hand, all seemingly small, but all causing further trouble for the liars. The trouble is, the truth is difficult, and sometimes it seems easier to lie in order to get yourself out of a difficult situation. Almost no one in the story is immune from this difficulty, though some try harder than others to avoid the lies.
The Iran in this movie is a very different one from that we generally see on TV in the news. Yes, there are issues over sin, and the women have their heads covered all the time, and the Quran is used as a tool to swear by on several occasions. But beyond that, these are ordinary human beings living in a modern society that has everything any Western society has. For me it was an eye-opener in these terms.
The justice system is different: the plaintiffs and defendants can shift place at the drop of a hat, and there is only one harried, though authoritative, man dealing with each case. No lawyers, and only one or two other court staff in each small room. Dozens of complaints are being heard throughout a large building simultaneously. This was also intriguing, though somewhat scary. The judge has power to condemn to death, and almost does. But he can be pleaded with too, and that's the amazing thing. None of this nit-picking over the minutia of the law. You have to speak for yourself and speak well, and may be interrupted by the person in opposition to you.
The large cast is uniformly good, from the older actors to the children. There isn't a performance out of place here. Camera work, intentionally, isn't always steady - it's right in the middle of all the action at all times, but that unsteadiness is never obtrusive. Catch up on this movie on DVD.
Showing posts with label divorce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label divorce. Show all posts
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Monday, January 06, 2014
Breathing Lessons
Finished Anne Tyler's Breathing Lessons last night. It's the fourth of her books I've read recently, and is perhaps a bit different from the others. In it a husband (Ira) and wife (Maggie) journey to a small village to attend the funeral of a friend's husband. The first long sequence involves the journey to the funeral - not actually a long distance - and the funeral itself. By the time Tyler has filled us in on a great deal of the couple's background, mostly seen from the wife's point of view (and she's not the most reliable character when it comes to the truth, we gradually discover) and the craziness of the funeral itself, we're a good third of the way through the book. On the return journey they have an encounter with an old man who's driving erratically. Because of Maggie's foolishness they wind up having to drive the old man to a garage where his son gives them all a few home truths. The last large section of the book entails Maggie attempting, on the journey home, to bring her son and former daughter-in-law back together again, by inviting the latter to come home with them for the weekend. Along with Fiona, the daughter-in-law (about whom we already know a great deal - or think we do) comes Leroy (a girl, in spite of her name). Maggie's continual 'interfering' and slight shifting of the truth causes havoc yet again, and the book ends on a somewhat sad note.
This brief synopsis of the book, however, gives little of its merit. Maggie is a wonderful character who drives both the reader and other characters mad - at times. She can be guaranteed to put a spin on things that will warp the way the world goes. It's all small-scale stuff, as it always is in the Tyler universe, but it's all stuff that's reflects other people's ordinary lives, away from the superpowers and wars and massive tragedies of the news. Maggie is loveable, but she's also irritating, contrary, quick to take offence and quick to realise it, and slow to understand her inability to leave things alone and let them get on with their own course.
Ira is a more down to earth person, disappointed in his life in many ways because his youthful ambitions were thwarted by a selfish family who has forced him to take over the family business and care for them. He sees the truth of things more readily, but has to contend with Maggie's version of it, and this often produces a clash.
Every so often someone stands up and says what needs to be said, even though it may be painful. Even Maggie manages this on a rare occasion. But for the most part the characters struggle through ridiculous misunderstandings, reversals, moments of affection and love, and crises so small that the world would never take note of them. Yet every one of these rings bells with our own lives, our own marriages. Tyler has a wonderful ability to make things recognizable. Time and again, you find yourself saying as your read...Yup, been there, done that.
And surrounding the main characters are a host of beautifully drawn and strong-minded minor players, from Leroy (a seven-year-old) who turns out not to be what we've been led to believe and has a mind of her own, to Serena, the newly-widowed friend who organises her husband's funeral along the lines of her wedding day, to the old black man, Otis, who rather than being appalled at the way Maggie has treated him, manages to agree with her at every point, making her situation even worse. Ira's family of crocks includes a father who's basically decided that he's too old and sick to bother any more, though he could be faking; his two sisters, one of whom perhaps has a mental handicap and the other who has a phobia about going outside - unless she's dressed as someone else.
Tyler can write wonderful scenes, rich in incident and character and atmosphere, scenes that extend over many pages without flagging. She has a singular skill with dialogue: words twist and turn even while the characters are saying them. And she can bring humour out of the most hopeless-seeming episodes, or thoughts. I'm tempted to get a Kindle copy of this book just so I can highlight all the wonderful moments when I almost laughed out loud.
This brief synopsis of the book, however, gives little of its merit. Maggie is a wonderful character who drives both the reader and other characters mad - at times. She can be guaranteed to put a spin on things that will warp the way the world goes. It's all small-scale stuff, as it always is in the Tyler universe, but it's all stuff that's reflects other people's ordinary lives, away from the superpowers and wars and massive tragedies of the news. Maggie is loveable, but she's also irritating, contrary, quick to take offence and quick to realise it, and slow to understand her inability to leave things alone and let them get on with their own course.
Ira is a more down to earth person, disappointed in his life in many ways because his youthful ambitions were thwarted by a selfish family who has forced him to take over the family business and care for them. He sees the truth of things more readily, but has to contend with Maggie's version of it, and this often produces a clash.
Every so often someone stands up and says what needs to be said, even though it may be painful. Even Maggie manages this on a rare occasion. But for the most part the characters struggle through ridiculous misunderstandings, reversals, moments of affection and love, and crises so small that the world would never take note of them. Yet every one of these rings bells with our own lives, our own marriages. Tyler has a wonderful ability to make things recognizable. Time and again, you find yourself saying as your read...Yup, been there, done that.And surrounding the main characters are a host of beautifully drawn and strong-minded minor players, from Leroy (a seven-year-old) who turns out not to be what we've been led to believe and has a mind of her own, to Serena, the newly-widowed friend who organises her husband's funeral along the lines of her wedding day, to the old black man, Otis, who rather than being appalled at the way Maggie has treated him, manages to agree with her at every point, making her situation even worse. Ira's family of crocks includes a father who's basically decided that he's too old and sick to bother any more, though he could be faking; his two sisters, one of whom perhaps has a mental handicap and the other who has a phobia about going outside - unless she's dressed as someone else.
Tyler can write wonderful scenes, rich in incident and character and atmosphere, scenes that extend over many pages without flagging. She has a singular skill with dialogue: words twist and turn even while the characters are saying them. And she can bring humour out of the most hopeless-seeming episodes, or thoughts. I'm tempted to get a Kindle copy of this book just so I can highlight all the wonderful moments when I almost laughed out loud.
Friday, September 09, 2011
Catching up on HitTail after a spell
It's quite a while since I checked out HitTail's results for this blog - I used to do it regularly (partly for something to write about), but I notice that they've got results going back to March this year which I've never looked at.
That's okay, we'll sort that in due course.
Meantime, I also checked the search words that people have used that bring them to my site. Amazingly athlete's hand continues to do well - it's at the top. One little post from I don't when - and a joke post at that - and this is the result. Crazy.
The second in line is a bit of a newbie to me: googleads.g.doubleclick.net. I looked at that and wondered what the heck it was, since it seems an odd thing for someone to enter in Google's search box. Anyway, doing exactly that, I find that it comes up with an explanation from Google's help desk itself. I began to read the explanation, got bogged down a couple of sentences in, and let my brain say, Pooh, don't get that - too difficult to understand without concentration.
Another curiosity keeps coming up on the list - it's currently third in line: Zirka circus. The post I did on this in 2010, has obviously drawn some people over and over. Zirka circus is a NZ-based group, with mostly an Asian cast. Some very good stuff in it too.
Surprise, surprise, my own name comes up fourth on the list. Wow, I must look for myself an awful lot, or else there are a lot of other Mike Crowl's out there doing the same thing. (One was a headmaster at a high school in the States who got himself into strife, being accused of harrassing his staff. He resigned, and I haven't caught up with what happened subsequently.) In Google.co.nz, by the way, this blog comes up first if you enter Mike Crowl as a search term.
Zirka Circus review gets fifth place, and The Great Divorce notes sixth. This latter search term has been one of the tops for a long time, although you won't ever find any 'notes' on C S Lewis' The Great Divorce on my blog. It's just the fact that the blog title has 'notes' in it that makes the difference!
Nintendo jewellery and Brent Stavig make seventh and eighth - again two items that have earned pride of place on this blog for their regular appearances (mostly because I keep writing about them because they keep turning up on HitTail - it's a bit of a Catch 22).
James Berardinelli and Frederick Buechner marriage are the last two in the top ten. I haven't mentioned Berardinelli for a long time: he's the film reviewer who has hundreds of reviews on imdb.com - not ibdm.com as I first typed: they have a site too, and it's also about movies. Cunning!
People must look for the quote on marriage by Buechner and find it on my site. Guess it's a helpful thing to use at your wedding...
The hundreds of other search terms that make it onto my list are often repeats of the above ones in some form or other, and all the old favourites are still there. Before I go I just need to mention some of the 'keywords' that have sent people to the blog; some quite intriguing ones...top heavy body builder, armwrestling my wife, [like that one] skinny ties versus normal ties, where to buy cigars in Dunedin, drugs corner cut off of credit card [what?].
It has to be said that if you went looking for any of these in an Encyclopedia it's doubtful you'd find them. Good old Google!
That's okay, we'll sort that in due course.
Meantime, I also checked the search words that people have used that bring them to my site. Amazingly athlete's hand continues to do well - it's at the top. One little post from I don't when - and a joke post at that - and this is the result. Crazy.
The second in line is a bit of a newbie to me: googleads.g.doubleclick.net. I looked at that and wondered what the heck it was, since it seems an odd thing for someone to enter in Google's search box. Anyway, doing exactly that, I find that it comes up with an explanation from Google's help desk itself. I began to read the explanation, got bogged down a couple of sentences in, and let my brain say, Pooh, don't get that - too difficult to understand without concentration.
Another curiosity keeps coming up on the list - it's currently third in line: Zirka circus. The post I did on this in 2010, has obviously drawn some people over and over. Zirka circus is a NZ-based group, with mostly an Asian cast. Some very good stuff in it too.
Surprise, surprise, my own name comes up fourth on the list. Wow, I must look for myself an awful lot, or else there are a lot of other Mike Crowl's out there doing the same thing. (One was a headmaster at a high school in the States who got himself into strife, being accused of harrassing his staff. He resigned, and I haven't caught up with what happened subsequently.) In Google.co.nz, by the way, this blog comes up first if you enter Mike Crowl as a search term.
Zirka Circus review gets fifth place, and The Great Divorce notes sixth. This latter search term has been one of the tops for a long time, although you won't ever find any 'notes' on C S Lewis' The Great Divorce on my blog. It's just the fact that the blog title has 'notes' in it that makes the difference!
Nintendo jewellery and Brent Stavig make seventh and eighth - again two items that have earned pride of place on this blog for their regular appearances (mostly because I keep writing about them because they keep turning up on HitTail - it's a bit of a Catch 22).
James Berardinelli and Frederick Buechner marriage are the last two in the top ten. I haven't mentioned Berardinelli for a long time: he's the film reviewer who has hundreds of reviews on imdb.com - not ibdm.com as I first typed: they have a site too, and it's also about movies. Cunning!
People must look for the quote on marriage by Buechner and find it on my site. Guess it's a helpful thing to use at your wedding...
The hundreds of other search terms that make it onto my list are often repeats of the above ones in some form or other, and all the old favourites are still there. Before I go I just need to mention some of the 'keywords' that have sent people to the blog; some quite intriguing ones...top heavy body builder, armwrestling my wife, [like that one] skinny ties versus normal ties, where to buy cigars in Dunedin, drugs corner cut off of credit card [what?].
It has to be said that if you went looking for any of these in an Encyclopedia it's doubtful you'd find them. Good old Google!
Monday, July 20, 2009
It's checking out HitTail time again!
It's worth going back to HitTail on a regular basis to see whether the things people search for and find on your blog vary much over time. I haven't looked for a while, but anyone who's read this blog consistently over the last year or two (the multitudes who have...) will probably find that this latest list isn't much different to previous ones. People plainly keep on looking for the same things, which is a bit unnerving for anyone wanting to be original.
Not only does athletes hand (sans apostrophe) have twice as many hits as the next item, but 
athletes fingers and athlete hand also both get in the top ten (as nine and ten, respectively). [The hand in the picture is a genuine athlete's hand. So I'm told.]
You may not be excited with what people look for on the favourite search engine directory, but I'm always intrigued. As I've no doubt mentioned before: if I wrote about nothing but these ten topics (or the variations within them) I'd probably get people checking out my site galore. But do I want to?
I should no doubt be inventive, and find ways in which to drop one of these names/phrases into each post. I'm not sure that it would help me climb to the top of the Google tree, but it would be an interesting exercise. Perhaps I should give it a try over the next ten posts, just for the fun of it (and add Chrissy Popadics - pictured at left being squashed by her then future husband - in for good measure!)
athletes fingers and athlete hand also both get in the top ten (as nine and ten, respectively). [The hand in the picture is a genuine athlete's hand. So I'm told.] My own name, Mike Crowl, is second, the great divorce notes and Brent Stavig come next; James Berardinelli, the film critic, is still going strong in 5th place, followed by our mysterious old friend, Nintendo jewellery (with jewellery spelt the correct way, you'll notice). Karl Maugham, the artist, with everyone spelling his name incorrectly - as I did for years - comes next. (It's Maughan.) And eighth, we have our old favourite, shrinking shirts.
It seems that the last time I checked this was late last year: as I say, things haven't altered much. Here's the latest list compared to the previous one:
athletes hand...........................athletes hand
Mike Crowl.............................Mike Crowl
the great divorce notes...........James Berardinelli
Brent Stavig............................Brent Stavig
James Berardinelli.................the Great Divorce notes
Nintendo jewellery.................shrinking shirts
Karl Maugham......................Nintendo jewellery
shrinking shirts......................Karl Maugham
athletes fingers.......................athletes fingers
athlete hand...........................Chrissy Popadacs
James has slipped a couple of notches, Brent has maintained his place. Karl has snuck up a place, and shrinking shirts have dropped two places. C S Lewis' book has risen, and so has Nintendo Jewellery. Interestingly, Chrissy Popadics has slipped off the radar completely - but she's still in 13th place on the top 100.
You may not be excited with what people look for on the favourite search engine directory, but I'm always intrigued. As I've no doubt mentioned before: if I wrote about nothing but these ten topics (or the variations within them) I'd probably get people checking out my site galore. But do I want to?
I should no doubt be inventive, and find ways in which to drop one of these names/phrases into each post. I'm not sure that it would help me climb to the top of the Google tree, but it would be an interesting exercise. Perhaps I should give it a try over the next ten posts, just for the fun of it (and add Chrissy Popadics - pictured at left being squashed by her then future husband - in for good measure!)Monday, December 29, 2008
A different Top Ten
A few posts past I wrote about the Top Ten search queries that bring up my site according to HitTail.
Curiously enough, the Top Ten on Google Analytics vary somewhat from this.
1. The Great Divorce notes makes it to the top.
2. Athlete's hand comes in second. No great surprises so far.
3. Here Lies Eric Ambler comes in third. It doesn't even appear in the other top ten, though it does turn up further down the list of queries.
4. Karl Maugham - the misspelt version gets to number 4.
5. The Great Divorce chapter summaries comes in at 5. But why? I don't think I've ever written about anything like this. Must be just another version of The Great Divorce.
6. Brent Stavig Starbucks is next. Not sure what Starbucks has to do with it, but there you go, our old friend Brent makes this list too.
7. Diana Crowl music. You won't find any reference to Diana Crowl in my blog. I have no idea who she is, but she keeps causing searchers to find me. Well, she's now in a post, so we'll see how popular we get from that!
8 & 9 are both covered by Nintendo jewellery, but with the two different spellings of the second word.
And lastly at 10 is 'new home ministries' - a total left-field one.
Curiously enough, the Top Ten on Google Analytics vary somewhat from this.
1. The Great Divorce notes makes it to the top.
2. Athlete's hand comes in second. No great surprises so far.
3. Here Lies Eric Ambler comes in third. It doesn't even appear in the other top ten, though it does turn up further down the list of queries.
4. Karl Maugham - the misspelt version gets to number 4.
5. The Great Divorce chapter summaries comes in at 5. But why? I don't think I've ever written about anything like this. Must be just another version of The Great Divorce.
6. Brent Stavig Starbucks is next. Not sure what Starbucks has to do with it, but there you go, our old friend Brent makes this list too.
7. Diana Crowl music. You won't find any reference to Diana Crowl in my blog. I have no idea who she is, but she keeps causing searchers to find me. Well, she's now in a post, so we'll see how popular we get from that!
8 & 9 are both covered by Nintendo jewellery, but with the two different spellings of the second word.
And lastly at 10 is 'new home ministries' - a total left-field one.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Updating the HitTail Top Ten
18 more posts to go before I hit the big 1000. The aim, as I said in an earlier post, is to do this before the end of 2008. I guess I could write a lot of idiotic, meaningless posts - one-liner posts, even - but I'm going to play fair and aim to keep up the extraordinarily high quality of my posts. (Did I hear someone say, Phooey?)
Anyway, it's a while since I checked out HitTail. For various reasons it's gone on the backburner in the last month, along with a few other things. (Partly because I've been more busy musically than I have through most of the year, and partly because of the prostate stuff which I've discussed in several posts on Workreport.net.)
I thought I'd see if there's been any change in the top ten search items that pick up on my site. And nope! They're pretty much the same as they've been in a long while. Here they are again:
1. Athlete's hand - the all time favourite; currently running at over 152 searches, but if we count all the variations on the theme, there'll be far more than that.
2. Mike Crowl. Well, there's a turn up for the books.
3. James Berardinelli. This film critic has been amongst the top for some time. Don't ask me why: I don't talk about him that much.
4. Brent Stavig. Another top name on the list. Extraordinary.
5. The Great Divorce notes. I have never listed any notes about C S Lewis' The Great Divorce. It's only the combination of having mentioned the book and having 'notes' in the title of my blog that brings this one up so regularly. Other books get the same treatment, but obviously not as often.
6. Shrinking shirts. Another one of those items that got mentioned in a post once and have kept this blog in the public eye ever since.
7. Nintendo jewellery. I sometimes suspect that I'm the only blogger to have ever mentioned Nintendo jewellery. I still have no idea what it is.
8. Karl Maugham. Due to my inability to spell Mr Maughan's name correctly, anyone else who spells it incorrectly finds my site.
9. Athlete's fingers. One of the other variations on number one in the list.
10. Chrissy Popadics. I mentioned Chrissy once many moons again - maybe mentioned her again briefly in a later post, and ever since then she's turned up trumps. Wierd.
Comparing this list with the previous one I did in August, there's only one change: The Great Divorce Notes don't appear there. Instead, my name comes up twice, the second time as Michael Crowl. Scary.
Anyway, it's a while since I checked out HitTail. For various reasons it's gone on the backburner in the last month, along with a few other things. (Partly because I've been more busy musically than I have through most of the year, and partly because of the prostate stuff which I've discussed in several posts on Workreport.net.)
I thought I'd see if there's been any change in the top ten search items that pick up on my site. And nope! They're pretty much the same as they've been in a long while. Here they are again:
1. Athlete's hand - the all time favourite; currently running at over 152 searches, but if we count all the variations on the theme, there'll be far more than that.
2. Mike Crowl. Well, there's a turn up for the books.
3. James Berardinelli. This film critic has been amongst the top for some time. Don't ask me why: I don't talk about him that much.
4. Brent Stavig. Another top name on the list. Extraordinary.
5. The Great Divorce notes. I have never listed any notes about C S Lewis' The Great Divorce. It's only the combination of having mentioned the book and having 'notes' in the title of my blog that brings this one up so regularly. Other books get the same treatment, but obviously not as often.
6. Shrinking shirts. Another one of those items that got mentioned in a post once and have kept this blog in the public eye ever since.
7. Nintendo jewellery. I sometimes suspect that I'm the only blogger to have ever mentioned Nintendo jewellery. I still have no idea what it is.
8. Karl Maugham. Due to my inability to spell Mr Maughan's name correctly, anyone else who spells it incorrectly finds my site.
9. Athlete's fingers. One of the other variations on number one in the list.
10. Chrissy Popadics. I mentioned Chrissy once many moons again - maybe mentioned her again briefly in a later post, and ever since then she's turned up trumps. Wierd.
Comparing this list with the previous one I did in August, there's only one change: The Great Divorce Notes don't appear there. Instead, my name comes up twice, the second time as Michael Crowl. Scary.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Meccano
Many people will no longer know what I mean when I write the word, Meccano. When I was a lad, it was the world's equivalent of Lego, but made out of metal and much more flexible. People used to build great models of engineering machines and such out of it. I wasn't ever much into it, because I'm not really a building-sort-of-person, (being creative in a different mode) but I've seen some extraordinary uses made of it. While checking out some info on a 1930s analogue computer made out of Meccano (I kid you not!) I saw a link to Meccano and Divorce. Obviously some people still horde their Meccano sets with a fervour that is usually only reserved for gold, silver and other precious jewels.
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