Long way down

Tomorrow night BBC2 shows the third in the latest series of Ewan McGreggor and Charley Boorman driving large BMW motorbikes from the top of Scotland down to the sounthern tip of Africa. The previous series showed them driving from London across Asia to Alaska and the US to New York – an impressive trip. One recurring theme from the earlier trip was their annoyance at being recognised and treated as celebs when they were yearning for anonymity and just being the two ‘mates’. This time, we see them with t-shirts with their names writ large and clear on the back, not the best route to anonymity. Its a shame the style of these shows is unmistakably ‘reality tv’ because this genre insists tediously on making more of things than there is. The usual way they do this is by talking up some personal tensions between the people they are filming and there is a liberal helping of this spread across Long Way Down. It makes Charley and Ewan just come across as spoilt: having set up this venture with large sponsorship and filming deals, we see them complain about the schedule, the support people, etc etc. The fun part, for bikers at least, is the challenge of the journey and some vicarious thrills about the lovely kit, but you have to survive the other stuff for a few minutes of that kind of pleasure. I wonder whether I will get through to the end of the series. The BBC website on the series is good with some nice links to the BMW site.

A dream of The Last Woman

In the dream I am lying in bed with a gay man and he starts to unzip my trousers. I decline this advance and get out of bed and am standing nearby. He says something like ‘Ah I understand, you are waiting for The Last Woman’. I say yes I am. The Last Woman will be the final fulfillment, the merging of the two women.

Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)

This is a strong film (see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765443/) both in terms of its physicality and blood – as a film about the Russian mafia that isn’t suprising – and strong in performances. Viggo Mortensen plays probably the central character a hard man and driver who is working his way into the elite of this organisation (they have tatoos of stars done on their knees to symbolise that they bow to no one). The lead female role is played by Naomi Watts (she is an ‘innocent’ midwife) and her perhaps rather wishy-washy playing is a deliberate foil to Mortensen. I was suprised that Cronenberg made such conventional and linear films nowadays after enjoying Naked Lunch and Videodrome but its no less powerful for that. For me it is the strength of character and depth of that central character and the way that, the morning after seeing it, I am remembering small points about his actions that I missed at the time that explain so much. There is also a gay attraction hinted at between the two leading men – quite a lot of hints, actually.

This is certainly worth seeing.