Dear Dr.K,



Have you got a spare Comsat Angels shirt?



That's all really. Sorry.

Myself, I have only seen Miss Tatou in D Vinci Code and that experience in itself was traumatic enough for me to classify her as critical darling without the talent to deserve such praise (she is not the only one, if I read one more critic talk about Depps Oscar worthy performance in POTC I just might scream).



As ever, Dr Kermode shows that he is not just another hack like critic who copies and pastes the opinions of others but actually provides serious and independent ideas which are most welcome as an alternative and in my opinion, truthful voice.

Audrey Tatou is quite fit. OK, that's the on-topic part of my comment done with. Now for the rest of it.



Is the forthcoming over-trailed Loach/Cantona appearance on Friday going to be the usual BBC love-in for the old leftie director, or might there be a few challenging questions? For example, when Loach received more than half a million pounds in lottery funds to make an anti-British film he was very smug about it: "The fact that the film was part-funded by lottery money, care of the UK Film Council, to the tune of £545,000 (out of a total estimated budget of £4.5 million) has further irked some. 'That really gets up their nose,' Loach says smiling."



How does Loach justify that with his move to ban an Israeli film student from the Edinburgh film festival over a £300 grant?

I write and perform comedy for a living and I just want to state, for the record, it IS a good oneliner!

/Mike in Stockholm

When I was looking Tautou up on IMDB to glean a little extra info on the good Doctor's current nemesis when Paul Blart rode across the screen on a segway to advertise the DVD release of Mall Cop. It got me thinking...all things are relative.



Anyway, we Brits are liberal with our friendly xenophobia. We knock the French for their cowardice, their smell, their arrogance, the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road, their love of cheese, their phallic national monuments and many other things.



I for one don't really think they smell that different, I love their cheese, think the Eiffel tower is fine and think it's up to them whether or not they go to war.



I might even like Audrey Tautou. I don't, but I might.



The point of the matter is; even if you like Audrey Tautou, you have to pretend you don't. It's your national duty! Bloody French.

Yadda yadda... anyway, I've been thinking. Ewan McGregor: is he perhaps not trying to follow Michael Canes 'Do I get paid? I'll do it!' path of part selection, but wandered onto Sean Connory boulevard? I mean, let's face it, he was in plenty of stinkers but matured well.

Correcting people's grammar now, Doc?



I fear you might be creating a rod for your own back with that.



BTW was the mystery guest for the next live show going to be (Sir) Sean Connery? Just seemed like it from what you and Simon were saying.

Dear Mark,



Let me just start by saying I completely agree with your assessment of Ms Tautou's person.



Having had to sit through Amelie at least three times in French class, I have developed a solid disliking of the woman.



However, if she has the ability to not bring Amelie's "quirky" smile and annoying voice saying 'Monsieur Bretodeau' over and over again to mind in a future release, I would be willing to review my initial opinion.



It's a tough task for her, I know.

Amelie = nice. Tatou looks like Amelia from Talulah Gosh.

Comsats = artistically downhill after "Independence Day", and once bloke screwed his face up like that on OGWT it was pretty much all over commercially too.

A: Don't listen to people on the Internets.



B: Men love to look at beautiful women and will defend them to irrational extent.



C: include me in A.

On an unrelated topic I finally got round to seeing 'Let the Right One In' last night after a long delay. I sometimes struggle to see films that have been widely praised like this one and especially when they're described as 'the best film of the year' or similar. I still haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire, but I'm glad I finally got round to seeing this bleak but thought provoking film. I should point out that I'm going to discuss plot points here so (Spoiler Warning)



Even though I'm glad I watched the film I'm inevitably going to go right ahead and find fault with it as is my nature :) I suppose the only real criticism I have is that I had to skim through the Wikipedia page just to explain a few things I'd half understood or not understood at all. It was late though, I was tired and maybe I was just being dumb.



I had to confirm the allusions to child molestation, for example, and having confirmed that this was part of the original story I thought that the experience of the vampire works quite well as a metaphor for the experience of someone who unfortunately finds themselves in that situation. The feelings of being trapped, living in the shadows, the fact that victims can sometimes, through no fault of their own, become needy and destructive. Maybe the film should have just made this a little more obvious for dummies like me.



There was the shot of Eli's scarred nethers which didn't really make any sense until I read that it was relevant to a backstory that wasn't explained. I'm not sure why the director kept that shot in if they weren't going to include the backstory. I suppose he would say he was adding to the mystery of the character. Maybe the backstory was going to explained during the vampire mind-meld scene that didn't seem to go anywhere.



Watching the film my brain wanted to view it as others have described it, a coming of age love story, but really, although it contained those elements, it was much bleaker than that. After all we can assume that Oskar will age and Eli will not, presumably leading to a situation in the future where Oskar is the one searching for blood victims for Eli like her companion at the beginning of the film, bringing a whole new layer to the metaphor described earlier. Perhaps a sequel 'Snuff the Right One Out' could deal with how Oskar and Eli break the cycle using some kind of rebirth plot device to resolve the metaphor in a life affirming way... :) I thought it was a brave film, some lovely acting and I'm glad I watched it. My only criticisms would be on a couple of tiny holes in the story and the fact that it could have been a little less ambiguous about the darker themes.



The first scene in the car reminded me of this video I'd seen on YouTube. Someone's put a sinister soundtrack on top of the opening sequence to the cheesy sitcom Different Strokes....



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr-e3qGQ884

Dr K.



has everyone who has written about your comments forgotten that age old expression.



EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OWN OPINION!



Audrey Tatou has made good films and bad films everybody has, and some

actors have made a film that will haunt them for the rest of their career the da vinci codes is tatou's film.

Hey Near Dark, sorry to be a pedant but the people who complained about Dr K's comment are also expressing an opinion...

@Funk_le_Monk



I think watching thoughtful films like driving or operating heavy machinery is something you shouldn't do when you are tired. It's also unfortunate to watch a film after others have given it rhapsodic praise because it may not live up to the expectations they have set for it. I was fortunate to see LTROI before I had heard too much about it and feel that the subsequent accolades that have been heaped on it are well deserved.



Not aware of another backstory, I thought the shots of Eli's privates were to show that Oskar knew that their relationship would be only platonic but since he seemed to be pre-pubescent I don't know how important that would have been to him. I didn't really find any holes in the story although I do wonder why so many Swedish films use falling through the ice as a plot device. I saw Everlasting Moments more recently. You'd think Swedish people would know all about the dangers of walking on thin ice by now, wouldn't you?



@Near_Dark



I don't agree that movie stars are dogged by the turkeys that they have made. Look at Michael Caine. Also I don't think that Ron Howard's and Tom Hanks' reputations have been particularly harmed by dVC or A&D. It was said at one time that Phillip Seymour Hoffman had not been in a bad film. I am curious if Mark has changed his opinion about this after "Synechdoche, New York" [I don't want to hear any weasel words about how that could have been a better film, blah blah. Bottom line, it was a stinker]

I once got in trouble with my university paper for saying that Garden State was a film about Zach Braff's nose. It wasn't a comment on the auteur's ethnicity, just that the film was nothing bar a series of close-ups on Braff's hooter set to some Nick Drake songs. Several objections later, I did actually type a retraction, if only so I could underline that my complaints about Drake still stood. The Audinary Tutu business? Storm in a teacup.

@antimode



I know what you mean, mood and mental state can sometimes have a bearing on a person's response to a film. I've sometimes wondered whether that's the reason I didn't like Shaun of The Dead although I can't be bothered to watch it again to find out...



Like I said, really only a couple of miniscule things that weren't explained, like the shot I referred to, within a story that was very well told. Apparently it's something to do with his tackle being cut off by some ghastly evildoer in the past. It wasn't about the relationship being platonic because they kiss later on and they tap out kiss in morse code to each other on the train at the end. Lacke's response to his wife being attacked by the same kid that killed his best friend seemed a bit flat too, up until the point he's suddenly in the apartment with a knife in his hand. But I thought it was a great effort, don't get me wrong, and I'm perfectly willing to accept that other people don't see those things the way I do. I find it hard to say I 'enjoyed' it, though, considering how dark it was...



And the ice thing probably taps into a cultural fear. I guess Swedish children spend a lot of time on the ice and the dangers must be constantly drummed into them. That makes it perfect fodder for filmmakers and storytellers to exploit for a Swedish audience. Maybe it even happens a lot over there, I don't know...

I thought I might have got the wrong word, but apparently platonic means intimate and affectionate but not sexual. I don't think a kiss negates that. I was joking about the falling through the ice thing. In Everlasting Moments it could be a deliberate suicide or an accident caused when somebody is in a disturbed state of mind. Either way it's a convenient way of getting rid of one character and making another feel guilt. Being the sophisticates that they are I'd think the Suedes would get fed up with it after a while.

i think we should just put this whole audrey tautou thing behind us and focus on more important issues: has mark kermode watched curb your enthusiasm yet?

oops. Swedes, not Suedes. Still thinking about the entente cordiale

@Funk Le Monk - I saw it recently as well and I also found that it was perhaps a little too ambiguous at points. On the whole, while it was stylishly filmed, I didn't think it was quite deserving of the praise heaped upon it - although I do for some reason seem to have an aversion to anything with vampires in. My main problem was that it felt too much like something that was based on a book, and that you had to have read the book to fully understand. I've also heard some people comment that it expects the audience to be familiar with vampire folklore, which I felt was true as someone not well-versed in it.

Re - Antimode - Oh ye Gods please don't let Sean Connery be the special guest at the live show. I just wouldn't be able to stomach it. Can't stand the man. Yes, that's right, I can't stand Sean Connery. You heard me correctly. Sorry to be so defensive, but usually when I say I don't like Sean Connery, I get a wave of hysteria directed towards me, and comments like "But he's a national treasure!!" In fact, very much like the replies that Dr K received about dear Audrey T! : )

@wintera



I heard it is not going to happen anyway, so you can rest easy (but SC is going to be at the Edinburgh Film Festival, though)

@ Antimode -



Phew!! : )



Re: Edinburgh Film Fest - So this will be one of those rare occasions when Sean Connery is actually IN Scotland then? Oh, well I will be nowhere near so I can indeed rest easy! : )

You mean there are people out there who don't like Sean Connery...I musht be dreaming... :)

Good to see people - like tommus-jay, I should probably mention - have already started attempting to steer the blog affairs back on track after this whole Tatou detour. The only question is where to go from here...



How about that movie Up! It's not coming out in the UK until October. How ridiculous and silly!



Just a suggestion.

Stiff breeze: 1

Dax: 0

lol they are called internet white knights;)



as for audrey... she can be rather hot. you should see her in this slinky dress in Priceless that just drapes over her curves perfectly, its remarkable how sexy that was.



the film was cr@p though, which was a shame, but i guess something left an impression which is better than most forgettable actresses.

Oh, I *so* really don't care - as I believe young people say.



Enough already!

I find so it interesting that this non event caused such a storm (in a teacup) that I actually decided to join to comment....and it was then I found my answer to the most perplexing question of Dr K. Why does every comment get it's OWN "Do you wish to complain about this comment?" button?



And lo! Like a bolt from the blue I understood!



From a web design perspective, (one of my hobbies)it is no easier to have one or a whole series of buttons really, unless you receive a lot of complaints and don't want to go through them.



So, my hypothesis is this! People who use this site must like to complain. I bet 5 pound if Dr K makes a test snide comment about say, Tom Baker's scarf (Of Dr Who fame) next week, He will get more than the 28 comments attached to this post.

Where do I get a Comsat Angels shirt?



and for the record Joy Division are much better in every way but thank you for turning me on to the Comsat Angels.