My new life starts here...

The lovely flowers and card with beautiful messages,
which I was given by my colleagues yesterday.

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. 

That's such a cliche, I know, but this expression describes so accurately how I'm feeling today. After a night out with my (now former!) colleagues from Finn-Guild and ScanAdventures, I did have a bit of a sore head this morning (Finns!). Even so, I'm bursting with energy.

We are off to Finland for a holiday next week, but after we're back, revamping this blog will be one of my first tasks. As I mentioned in my post a couple of weeks ago, I will be running a series, called 'Advice for New Writers'. First one of these will be up on this blog Friday 4th September.

There will be regular monthly book/film/theatre reviews - first of which will be up on 18th September. The novel I'll be reviewing is 'The Versions of Us' by Laura Barnett.

Other regular features will be Guest Bloggers, Book Offers, News and posts on Expat Life.

So I hope you'll be popping by often to read about my new life as full-time author entrepreneur!

Moomins on the Riviera - a new feature film

I was lucky enough to be invited to the press screening and interview sessions with the team of the new Moomins on the Riviera film yesterday. This is one of the bonuses of being Head of Finn-Guild, the Finnish-British society, and editor of our quarterly magazine. As a blogger, I have been invited to press screenings before, but this was particularly special for me because the Producer of this film is an 'old' school and university friend, Hanna Hemilä. Plus the film, which is a French/Finnish collaboration, features my favourite Finnish comic strip cartoons, the Moomintrolls.

Inspired by her own visit to the Riviera with her mother, Jansson created Moomins on the Riviera, a charming tale which addresses universal aspects of life such as finding joy in small things, the value of cross-cultural understanding and the power of optimism. This new hand-drawn feature animation  is the first time there has been an audio visual adaptation of Jansson’s original comic strip.

There have been surprisingly few full-length films featuring the Moomins, something I quizzed Sophia Jansson, the artistic Director of Moomin Characters Ltd, and niece of the creator of these popular creatures, about. 

'I'm surprised about this myself,' she said. 

Hanna Hemilä (left) with Sophia Jansson (right)

Sophia told me she'd simply not had many pitches where a film maker wanted to use the hand-drawn comic strips. She mentioned this fact to our mutual friend, Hanna Hemilä, a few years ago. 'But I'm a film producer,' said Hanna, and promptly contacted Xavier Picard, and together the two made a proposal which Sophia gladly accepted. As those of you who've ever been involved in film making know, it's a process which takes years, and there are many hurdles to be jumped. Sophia said Hanna warned her that the project would take some time, so she was prepared for the four-year time span, during which she was involved at every stage of the production, ensuring that Tove Jansson's original work was sympathetically represented. 

Director Xavier Picard

The French Director Xavier Picard told me that he had himself been introduced to Moomins many years ago, when working in Tokyo. He said the Moomin comic strips have never really been widely known in France in a way they have in Japan, or here in the UK. Since then, Xavier said he'd grown fond of both the artwork and the ethos of the Moominpappa, 'To live in peace, grow potatoes and dream,' and that a major reason why he wanted to do the film was to get people in France to learn to love Moomins as much as he does.

In the UK the  comic strips were first published by The London Evening News as early as 1954.  At the time, the Moomin characters were all over London, and advertised on the side of the double decker buses. So, it's quite fitting that the International Premier for the newest Moomin film should take place in London today.

When I asked Hanna about her biggest challenges in producing a Moomin film, she told me it was at first difficult to convince the movie people that a new cartoon strip film should be in 2D, and not in 3D. 'Tove Jansson's hand-drawn drawings would not work in 3D,' she said. Secondly it was difficult to explain that the Moomin characters have universal appeal; that the stories have sadness and humour, which works both on adult and children's level.


Here's  the short synopsis of the film:

The Moomins, Snorkmaiden and Little My, in search of adventures of their own, set sail for the glamorous Riviera. They arrive after a journey fraught with menacing storms and desert island dangers, Moominpappa (Nathaniel Parker) befriends an aristocrat and adopts a new name ‘de Moomin’, Snorkmaiden (Stephanie Winiecki) is dazzled by the attentions of a playboy, and Moomin (Russell Tovey) is torn between the simple life he feels comfortable with, and the luxurious movie star lifestyle that his beloved Snorkmaiden yearns to have. An exasperated Moominmamma (Tracy Ann Oberman) retires to the relative calm of their trusty old boat to wait for her family to come to their senses. For the very first time, the unity of the Moomins is threatened.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and particularly a little side story about a dog, who to his shame only likes cats. Moominmamma is at hand to solve the dog's problem by convincing another dog to be painted with stripes and so disguised as a cat. 'Is the paint water proof?' asks the ever street-wise Little My. And as predicted both dogs happily play together until the cat/dog goes for a swim...

Do go and see this wonderful film - apart from the humour and loveliness of the script, the Moomins on the Riviera is beautifully produced in a wonderful pastel colour palette, which leaves you feeling sunny and happy. Just as if you too had had a little trip to the Riviera.

Below is a clip from the film, where Moominpappa is chatting about 'de Moomins' with his new friend Marquis Mongaga.

Moomins on the Riviera will be showing at the London Film Festival
1 pm 11 October 2014 Hackney Picture House (Sold Out)
3 pm 18 October 2014 Odeon Leicester Square (Buy tickets here) 

Argo at The Electric Cinema

Once you've seen a film at the luxurious Electric Cinema in Notting Hill you just won't want to go anywhere else. For me at least, it's hard to beat the comfort of the plush armchairs, footstools holding blankets, excellent bar, even fresh doughnuts (although we've missed them every time because once they're sold out they're sold out).

It's just unfortunate that The Electric is not exactly around the corner from us in Crouch End. Having to take the tube across London is very frustrating for the Englishman (who loves his cinema) when there's a perfectly good Odeon (or the local a fleepit in my opinion) up the road in Muswell Hill. Sadly, I'm not one for compromises on the comfort score.

Apart from the location of the Electric vis-a-vis North London, the other problem is that the cinema gets very booked up. But the early bird gets the worm. I was wise enough to book tickets for Argo at the Electric a day before it won an Oscar. I wanted to see this film mainly because it's set in 1979, exactly the same year my spy story (to be published at the same time as Coffee and Vodka), The Red King of Helsinki, is set. It's always interesting and useful to see how the big boys treat a particular period.

As always, the Electric didn't disappoint, but neither did Argo. For the duration of the film, I was on the edge of my seat. The subject matter, Hollywoodesque escape of five US Embassy staff from under the Iranian revolution, as well as the cast were pretty impressive. Ben Affleck as both the director and the lead, did very well too. The Standard in its review said that the clothing and other props did most of 'the heavy lifting' as far as the period was concerned, but having myself struggled with setting a piece of work in this period, I disagree. It's important to get the physical period stuff right, but I think in Argo the script did its bit too. Amusingly for us now, most of the female Embassy staff were in their posts a) as subordinates to the male staff and b) in a relationship with their male superiors. This female subordination reflected the 1970's. The language was also very true to the period; no-body worried about being politically correct.

The plot was exquisite, although both the Englishman and I had real problem following all the dialogue. Somehow, however, this increased the tension in the film. In the same way as the 5 fortunate (or unfortunate, take your pick) US Embassy employees stuck in Teheran and not inside the occupied Embassy, were having to learn their roles in a Hollywood movie, a cover which might earn them their freedom, so did the viewers have to struggle keep up with the action.

Ben Affleck was brilliant as the bearded FBI agent, and should in my opinion have won an Oscar for his performance. I am struggling to understand how he was ever described as 'wooden'…

If you have a chance, go and see Argo. It's a seriously good film.

Here's the trailer.

Like mother like daughter...

Daughter, who's featured on this blog a few times before, has now become a blogger in her own right. (It feels very strange, I can tell you!)

Using her pen name, Shmonn, she writes about film, her great passion (while mine is theatre…apple not so far from the tree..) in a very fresh and modern way. Although I may be a little biased, I think she's funny and very talented.

Go and see how the second generation of bloggers do it on Music from the Motion Picture by Shmonn.

Headhunters DVD

I enjoyed the book Headhunters by Jo Nesbo much more than this Norwegian author's other titles, which include the debauched (and a little tiresome) detective, Harry Hole. Headhunters is a more grounded story set in 'normal' Oslo business world rather than in the murky Norwegian criminal underworld. (Bearing in mind we are talking Nordic crime fiction which itself seldom has much to do with reality).

So as a fan of the book, and having missed the film at cinema, I was looking forward to the release of the Headhunters DVD. I was also pleasantly surprised when I discovered it was a Norwegian production, rather than a Hollywood one, and one which stays fairly true to the book in its plot and characters.

The vertically challenged Roger Brown is a high-flying Oslo headhunter, with a beautiful (and expensive) wife and a dangerous art habit. Just as he's beginning to run out of money he runs into a charming, tall businessman who he thinks will solve all his overspending problems.

The film, just as the book is fast, furious, funny and completely unbelievable. But as Sunday night viewing, or as a hangover flick when you really don't want to tax your brain too much, it's perfect.



Axel Hennie as Roger Brown is excellent, his portrayal of the ambitious, desperate, mad, and at times hapless lead, is spot on. Both Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Synnove Macody Lund are equally good as the two 'lucky and beautiful' people. I also particularly like the two country policemen, who being used to policing drunken locals are more than out of their depth with the prevailing headhunt.

Have you seen this Nordic crime flick and if so did you enjoy it?

A Royal Affair - a new Danish film

A few years ago an award-winning Swedish novelist, Per Olov Enquist, wrote The Visit of the Royal Physician dramatising the true story of an illicit affair between the mad King Christian's physician and the English born queen of Denmark, Caroline Mathilda. In the early 1770's the love affair triggered one of the most dramatic series of events in Danish history. Enquist's book won many literary prizes and became a best-seller in Sweden, and I have been raving about it for years.

So you can imagine I was both sceptical and excited to be invited to a pre-screening of the first ever film version of the story.

A Royal Affair begins with an older Queen Caroline, sitting at a desk alone, writing a letter to her estranged children. Next we go back in time and see her at the age of sixteen, when she is preparing to leave her native England to travel to Denmark. She is delighted to be fulfilling the role of a Queen, something which she's been prepared for all her life - yet she's fearful she'll not be accepted in the foreign court.

Caroline is played by Alicia Vikander, who immediately charms the viewer with her beauty and vunerlabilty. Yet, you have a sense that behind this weakness lies a strong character. I very much liked Vikander in the role. She was given very few lines all throughout the film, but with her expressions and movements, she was able to convey how a woman in her position - a young, naive girl thrown into the murky politics of a foreign court - was little able to change her position. Until, that is, love of a great man, gives her hope and strength.

Alicia Vikander and Mads Mikkelsen

The other party of the fated love story, the Physician Johann Struensee, is played by Mads Mikkelsen (of Bond film, Casino Royale fame). Struensee is a man who believes in the Enlightenment. He has written anonymous papers on Equalitarianism and social welfare. Mikkelsen, who is supposed to portray the idealistic and kind Doctor, seems at first too rough and (dare I say it) too old for the part of the romantic male lead. But when Struensee falls in love with Queen Caroline and shows her what he is willing to do to reach his aims for a better Denmark, Mikkelsen's demeanour softens. He just exudes steamy sexiness as his desire for the young, unattainable Queen grows.

As the two lovers gain political power and begin to reform the Danish society, their combined sense of innocent hope is infectious - yet there's a strong feeling that all will not end well.

The script written by three writers, amongst them the Director Nikolaj Arcel, is composed well enough. The narrative hints at the historical events without being too obscure or patronising the viewer with too may facts and dates. The characters develop nicely, and more importantly they don't seem to be 21st century people stuck in 18th century costumes, as often is the case in period dramas.

However,  the pace of the two hour long film is slow. Arcel drew his inspiration for A Royal Affair from the great epic films of the 40' and 50' when 'films would often feel like literary works, which didn't necessarily follow an obvious screenplay roadmap'. This method, however, leaves the viewer at times without any direction; a lingering look at a sweeping landscape was probably acceptable some 60 or 70 years ago, but today, when we can download almost any film in minutes to watch on our iPads, it makes the viewer shift in his seat. I felt there were too many shots of Queen Caroline's graceful neck, and the camera was held for a little too long on the peaceful Danish flatlands.

But all in all, this is a very enjoyable film. It's atmospheric and smouldering, with excellent acting throughout. Even the predictably nasty old Queen Julianne played by Trine Dyrholm, was a wholly believable character. Her constant plotting against Queen Caroline gave the film its Machiavellian flavour, and kept the audience on its toes.

I predict (as far as you can ever predict) A Royal Affair will do well at the box office. How could it not? It's Danish, it has period costumes, there's sex, intrigue and even madness. Anyone who's been hooked on The Killing, Borgen or the latest, hugely popular, TV detective series, The Bridge, will love A Royal Affair.

Here's the trailer:

A Royal Affair
Zentropa Entertainment
In cinemas 15 June 2012