Thursday 16 May 2013

To improve and entertain, switch on the TV

Yes, it is true that instruction round here is done by sticking the kids in front of the TV. Tonight it is with the DVD combo, which takes 15 minutes of laboured button-pressing, accompanied by cursing and wheezing, to fire the damn pile of junk into life. But then! We are up and running!

I proudly press play on the latest film to arrive from lovefilm!*

Tonight in Film Family Fun Night, I am introducing my Grits Jnrs to culture: specifically the dark and shady practices of the press, and the ethics you'd expect to emerge from the relationships between publicists, criminals, and ruthless columnists with power to weild.

Yes, it's Sweet Smell of Success, one of my favourite films with a superb snapping dialogue, edgy camerawork, believable characterisation, and brilliant use of lighting to illustrate the murky world of the press and the depths to which we probably all would sink, given great gossip and a story.

I totally recommend it to your teens. We have Leveson Part 2 yet to come, and I have proto-citizens to educate. I can't think of a better story to illustrate the points to be discussed. And no-one comes out of it well.


Lovefilm is my most recent enthusiasm, and I recommend it too, unless I am the last person in the country to use the service (possible). I expect the romance will wear off. Maybe when they finally admit they can't supply me with Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierre Madre.

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