Mon being the island in question, Plas Piggy being the country residence of course. Today new flooring has been fitted in the front bedroom. Top notch. I have been here for three days waiting for the work to be done - there was a hitch with delivery of the materials but all's well etc.
I have watched three films today and abandoned a fourth because it gave every indication of being rather crap. In the gap left by the abandonment I rewatched an episode of the excellent BBC Watergate. You couldn't make it up.
First up was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Martial arts films are not really my bag but I enjoyed this. The fighting is hypnotically balletic and the plot has a tidy confection of love, honour and destiny. I could see what all the fuss was about. 76/100.
Rather different but also well worth the effort is the small but beautifully put together 1932 adaptation of A Farewell to Arms. Assiduous readers will recall that I recently reviewed the source novel in these pages. This movie takes considerable liberties with the plot but still manages to cram the romance and sardonic horror of conflict into its seventy-five minutes of drama. 72/100.
The third and, by a small margin, best of these films was Munich, Steven Spielberg's worthy rumination on the state of Israel. The peg on which the picture hangs its questions is the massacre at the 1972 Olympics and a ruthless and clandestine Israeli response to it. It is a violent tale, of course it is, but the violence is never gratuitous and the overall effect is one of beneficial provocation. 80/100.
The crap film? I'm afraid that was The Eiger Sanction. I'm generally an admirer of Clint Eastwood but this is not his finest hour. No mark awarded.
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