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| Joanna Lumley |
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| Jennifer Saunders |
There
have been several highlights notably on Tuesday when around a dozen
of the Wed morning coffee group assembled at Patricia's house for a
New Year drink of bubbly and chat before removing upstairs to her
Attic Cinema to see Absolutely Fabulous. This is not a film to
recommend, lacking as it does, any coherent narrative [until, possibly, the
final half hour], tight, clever script or great acting. It is notable
only for its lush settings and extravagantly overblown portrayals of
'media people'. In fact, I guess the cast had the most
tremendous fun in making it; the actors are a bunch of good friends
with famous 'others', i.e. non-actors like singer Lulu and model Kate
Moss, also part of the totally unbelievable so-called story line. It
is all so extravagantly over-the-top that frequent guffaws from the
audience demonstrated that we all love to be really silly.
In that spirit, the group had been instructed to dress as for Ab Fab and we heroically did our best. The sartorial effects were varied but valiant; colourful, sexy [occasionally], improbable and in one or two cases, impressive. Our hostess was, frankly, the only one there who could have effortlessly merged into the film without the joins showing. Startling pink, floor-length kaftan, with matching pink tights and some similarly in-your-face fuschia scarf on her head, plus lots of clunky jewellery everywhere. An example to the rest, it must be said. The whole enterprise was a tribute to Having Fun, as we agreed at the super tea afterwards; something we all aspire to.
I
continued the week in that vein: nails done [now have Posh Nails on
the basis of burnishing
A
programme for the entire five days' festival contained a preface from
Philippe H. musing on Bach and his meanings. He wrote that Bach
cantatas cannot beguile the listener unless he has a smattering at
least of the Christian culture which produces empathy for the
underlying religious ideas. He wrote the letter in India where the
majority religion is Hindi. Hindus don't live in a world of guilt and
punishment; they don't hope to have their sins redeemed by the
martyrdom of Jesus. Instead, they strive for detachment and they are
thus deemed, by Herreweghe, therefore unable to understand Bach
cantatas. This is a huge assertion and I am now searching for a Hindu
academic who can refute or accept that; that is, the inability to understand Bach cantatas, not about the pursuit of detachment. Interesting though.
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| The birthday boy welcoming guests and introducing Who was Who. |
The
week finished with a couple of friends to stay, to attend, with me, 60th birthday celebrations where we had lots of hugging and
kissing, conversation, good food, wine and beer. The conversation I
joined was in English and it witnessed my usual mute admiration for
the cheerful ease with which people here jump from one language to
another. If only Britain were more European! There seemed lots of
little grandchildren among the guests; they remained immensely
cheerful and active during the three plus hours, listening to the two
guitarists, Alexander Makay and Simon de Cuyper, who sang Dire Straits and Sting, and otherwise running
round smiling and occasionally good-naturedly punching each other. It
was altogether a thoroughly satisfying occasion with the genial host, looking all of 50,
beaming at friends and family from his wheelchair. Privately, I loved the atmosphere and the music and fancied both of the handsome guitarists!
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| Alexander Makey |
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| Simon de Cuyper |
