Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 (FILM)

Director: Francis Lawrence

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth.

So, I imagine you don't really need informing about this film. You probably don't even need the trailer above, or for me to tell you anything about this, because you've probably seen it already.

But I felt like it needed mentioning because it seems particularly relevant today.

The film itself is what you would expect from The Hunger Games series. Bleak in its cinematography, President Snow at his chilling best, and death, death galore. And it's at this last point that I want to speak. So this won't be a 'traditional' review in terms of the film as a whole. I want to purely talk about its message.

Currently, there are eerie parallels that can be drawn between the two worlds. Ours and this fictional one. Continually, throughout the film, there is the talk of 'death not being personal', the sense of 'they did this to us, so we will do it to them' and action that cries 'no mercy'.

'This is a war', we are repeatedly told. And with this comes the dilemma. At what cost? When does an eye for an eye end? As we all know it makes the world blind. That's exactly what we are blinded with here. Each side, recklessly attacking the other, without thought to the lives lost. Killing civilians, destroying people's homes and bombing each other is not the way forward. You cannot fight hate with hate. It breeds and spreads into this contagious disease that rots everything it touches. In the end, after whatever 'win', new hate will grow in the hole left behind. It's cyclical and will never end. Only if one party decides to fight a different way, to think about the consequences of each action and to not forget the lessons of the past. We have a funny way of glossing over history: easily forgetting the atrocities that happened.

Of course this is a Hollywood version of that. With fictional monsters. It is made for a 12A audience. But the message remains the same to the current state of the world we find ourselves in. Remember: hate only breeds hate. And in this film, we see lost lives of characters we love. We see homes destroyed. We see children die. We need to remember that at the end of the day, we are all human. Amazingly, humanity is so easily forgotten. If this film, based on a Young Adult fiction book reminds us of that, then it is worth a watch (and the extortionate price of the cinema ticket.)

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2015

A mention of something. Of secret art spaces in public Nottingham places. I'm so amazing at rhyming recently. The New Bloomberg Contemporaries has opened in Nottingham ahead of its launch at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in November. It's been open since the 18th September and closes this Halloween. (It's true I'm late on the mark but I'm here now!) You can see this year's selection of recent art graduates from across the country at these three artist run spaces across Nottingham:

• Backlit Gallery
• Primary
• One Thoresby Street

Have a click. Google a map. And have a gallery crawl.

Big Brother is watching you.

1984. A book I probably shouldn't admit to having never read. But I went to see the play anyway. And it was amazing. And now I need to read the book.

The acting was fantastic, backed up by some very clever staging. The bleak one room set for the majority of the play really added to the controlled nature of the material, creating an erie atmosphere that lingered from the get-go. This was wonderfully contrasted with a live screen that inhabited the very top part of the backdrop. (Bringing to life Big Brother.)

The whole thing was confusing, engrossing and scarily relevant. It seemed as if the book had been written for stage it felt like it translated so well. (But then I might be wrong, as I now need to read the book.)

If you can - go and see this! It is currently showing at the Nottingham Playhouse until 26th September. From then I think that it is touring. (This might need a google.)

Berlin Hamburgers

Very late post about this. Should have really arrived on your virtual doorstep a couple of months ago.  So please enjoy this late offering about Berlin Hamburgers.

Or as it's more commonly known, the Hamburger Bahnhof, a modern art museum in Berlin. This particular post is about the 'A-Z The Marzona Collection' exhibition. As the name would suggest, it's an exhibition that charts this collection from A to Z over the course of 2 years. During April, MNO was on display. The presentation is changed every quarter year in keeping with the sequence of the alphabet. Which makes this exhibition a little more interesting than normal, as you can re-visit the same exhibition within the space of a couple of months and be guaranteed to seeing something different.

This exhibition is a celebration of the conceptual art of the 1960s and 70s and illustrates the contemporary relevance of the works from this era. Now, although the display of the exhibition itself was something that wasn't particularly exciting or new, there was one thing about this exhibition that was particularly interesting.

This room here! What I'm just going to call the archive room. All the past letters and exhibitions are archived for you as the viewer to go and explore. You can sit at the table and search through the folders. There's even a photocopier to copy what you find interesting to keep. It's a really nice way of involving any letters (like ABC for example) you may have missed. Also allows you to still be part of the discussion conceptually if you weren't there physically at the time. Which I feel is the best way for the exhibition to exist past, present and future. (Because they have purposefully left empty shelves for the coming display. I feel this adds to the anticipation of the ever-changing show.)

I would definitely recommend you going to see this if you are in Berlin or just visiting like me. The only slight down side about this exhibition is that you do have to pay to get in and see it. Normally, I don't have an issue with this, but I feel like it is a little bit cheeky to demand that you have to re-buy a ticket every time that you go and see the new set of letters that are currently on display. I feel like they should have a special ticket or allow a discount of the production of your past ticket. Something to add the incentive to go and see this exhibition more than once, because I think that's the aim of this interesting new display.

And in any case the Hamburger Bahnhof is worth a ticket on its own (the ticket price does include the rest of the collection on offer.) So go on, treat yourself to some Berlin Hamburgers.

#perfectstrangers

This is just a quick little note/shout out to a lovely magazine that does lovely things. They are called 'Oh Comely' and you can find them here.  They do lovely things that remind you of the loveliness of people and the everyday. 

The above photograph is a collection of the things I was sent from America as part of the perfect stranger parcel exchange. You send a parcel. And you hopefully receive one back! You decide whether or not you want to send one over seas or simply within your own country. If they end up doing this project again in the future, you can find that particular website here.

A little reminder of the kindness of strangers and the pleasure of snail mail.

Persephone Books

This is just a little note about a lovely independent book shop in London. As the title suggests, the book shop is called 'Persephone Books' that reprints forgotten fiction and non-fiction usually written by women from the 20th century. The photo above is the swag that me and my flatmate ended up walking out with.

Their books are a little pricey (£12 each, or at the time we went 3 for £30 making them a tenner each), however you can forgive them for this for the beautiful versions they publish of these stories. (Also that, and the fact that they ain't no Waterstones, and need to survive somehow.) Each book has a beautiful grey cover, with a special painterly pattern inside, that somehow relates to the story. When you buy a book, you can pick up a free corresponding bookmark. They also have a free bi-annual catalogue that you can pick up in store which definitely helps with the decision making, as there are so many to choose from!

So if you're in the Bloomsbury area, have a little mooch around. I'm sure they'll be something you'd like the sniff of.

Review: Everyman (PLAY)

So I had the luck of seeing this play at the beginning of last month. (Like, right at the beginning. I think I saw this on the 1st.) And it only cost me £15. (A bargain.) Now at this price, I thought that I would be sat quite far back (in fact, I thought I would be sat right at the back) but as it turns out, I was right at the front. In fact, I was so close to the sat that I could have spat at the actors (as my mother would say.) My seat was A25 and that's where it was at I have to tell you! Somehow, a lot of the stage direction was pointed towards the area of this seat. So those numbers are worth booking!

Onto the play itself. The main thing that attracted me to this story that I had never heard of before was that is was a rewrite by Carol Ann Duffy. Got to love the Duffster. She reworked a 15th century play originally entitled: 'The Somonyng of Everyman'.

Here is a brief summary from the National Theatre website:

Everyman is successful, popular and riding high when Death comes calling. He is forced to abandon the life he has built and embark on a last, frantic search to recruit a friend, anyone, to speak in his defence. But Death is close behind, and time is running out.

It really is quite a journey that you're taken through. Visually and verbally. Duffy manages to balance her fantastic ear for the modern day voice with the original morals of the play. It felt as if she had rewritten this with a Shakespearean twist. And the mix of those two things worked fantastically well.

It's a fantastically choreographed moral spectacle, that leaves you thinking about it's themes long after the curtains have closed. (These being metaphorical curtains, as there were none.)

However, if you aren't lucky enough to be able to get into London to check this out (don't get me started on the London-centrism for culture that we have in the UK) but the National Theatre have this fantastic scheme in place. They broadcast live certain performances in cinemas across the UK. This particular play, 'Everyman' is going to be shared live on 16th July so check out your nearest cinema to see if they are showing it. I've already seen two other performances via this live streaming service in the cinema, 'A View From The Bridge' and 'Man + Superman'. And they were really enjoyable that you didn't feel like you were missing out too much at not being there. So definitely recommended!