OHYAT: The Feast of the Sun

At long last, another update ... for ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY, the men holed up in their increasingly snowed-in hut at Cape Evans celebrated the return of the sun. It had been below the horizon since late April, but this was the day it was expected to crest the top of the Barne Glacier, which blocked Cape Evans' view of the northern horizon.

Unfortunately there was yet another blizzard on August 22nd, but they didn't let that get in the way of a good time. Tryggve Gran remembered:

We acted like a pack of schoolboys who had just been set loose on holiday. Nelson and I danced a 'mixed cakewalk Fandango.' [Silas] Wright was the judge of the dance, the last part of which ended as follows: a somersault by Gran knocked Nelson out of the dance, causing the judge, Wright, a paralysis of laughter which resulted in his making acquaintance with the floor of the hut. His hilarity was uncontrollable, and we the artists didn't find it easy to help in this situation. Wright was therefore carries off to bed where he laughed himself to sleep. ... It was 2 a.m. before the fun came to an end.

The next day, the weather cleared enough that they were allowed to see the sun skirt the top of the glacier. Spring was on its way.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

I saw Beasts of the Southern Wild a couple weeks ago – as it was a studio screening of a little indie film, I don't know if this review is well in advance of a wider release or hopelessly late. But I plow on, regardless!

For those who know nothing about it, which I suspect is pretty much everyone, Beasts of the Southern Wild is a story about a little girl named Hushpuppy growing up on an island in the Mississippi Delta which its zesty inhabitants call The Bathtub. She and her single dad live in the sort of abject squalor that would horrify most adults but which I suspect looks pretty attractive to children: Hushpuppy has her own house which is up on stilts in some trees, no one has to clean their room, there are friendly animals around everywhere, and she has free run of the island.

Unfortunately, things start to take a turn for the dire: Hushpuppy's dad has some mystery ailment which is rendering him distracted and occasionally incapacitated, and not long after that they get news that a storm is coming, which presumably is Katrina, though it's never namechecked. The island floods, the residents are forcibly relocated, all sorts of travails and traumas are undergone, but the fierce spirit of Hushpuppy and the Bathtub people always comes to the fore.

There's also an interesting subplot as (presumably) Hushpuppy's imagination extrapolates upon what she learns at the beginning about the ice age and icecaps melting, which both counters and compliments the main story.

( Observations, thoughts, and opinions )

One thing which I really must bring up was something neglected by all the reviews I read, but which had enormous influence on my enjoyment of the movie: it's all shot handheld. It's not gratuitously all-over-the-place like Cloverfield, but even the 'steady' shots left me feeling slightly seasick. I've experienced this in movies before, so I knew to avert my gaze to something stationary in the theatre for a while, so it never got too bad. I hate bringing this up, because strong independent films like this should be supported, but if you have any problems with motion-sickness you're probably better off waiting for Netflix than picking this up in the local arthouse theatre. I don't think the film will lose all that much on the small screen (though it would benefit from a good sound system), and you benefit from not losing your lunch.

I leave you with a piece of the excellent soundtrack: