Short film review: ‘Ark’

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2014, ark, edge hill, Grzegorz Jonkajtys, parkes, review, short film

Ark is the award winning animation of Polish production from Grzegorz Jonkajtys. I found to be fascinating, the intricate level of detail in the design was incredible. The strong plot of a world on the brink of ending from a disease, forcing mankind to set sail in skyscraper like ships, in search for new uninhabited lands, but with those on board who then fall ill, are then expected to take a ladder to the roof of the ship, and to commit suicide.

Despite no dialogue throughout the piece, the short film’s overall feeling and meaning was portrayed well enough, simply through facial expressions and character actions, with a fantastic ending, with the run time of seven and a half minutes simply flying by, leaving you with more questions than answers and an ending to interpret in a million different ways. By far one of the best short films I’ve seen.

View here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y6Hz-IDJw0

Last Evenings On Earth

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2014, LAST EVENINGS ON EARTH, review, ROBERTO BOLANO, SHORT STORIES

Roberto Bolano’s collection of short stories, entitled Last Evenings On Earth.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading through the short stories, with their Cuban and Spanish heritage influences, something in my reading I had yet to come across. I particularly enjoyed ‘The Grub’ and ‘Gomez Palacio’ in which a poet takes an interesting car journey with his new boss at his new job in a school, highlighting the cultures are a stand out here.. 

My stand out piece I found was ‘A Literary Adventure’ in which one author, named Author B, has reviewed another character, Author A’s book in a not too positive light, and is surprised at the Author A’s positive review of his book.

I enjoyed the ambiguity of the character names, therefore leaving the audience to attribute the character names themselves. In the lesson we discussed our favourite pieces of the book, many of my classmates were agreeing on different possible meanings of Bolano’s work. I also enjoyed learning more about the author and hearing some of his work read aloud, and I think to find out the full meanings of Bolano’s work, as an audience I would encourage anyone to read more into Bolano’s life and his past work.    

Waiting For Godot

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2014, blog, chris parkes, edge hill, WAITING FOR GODOT

Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett.

The masterfully written play, centered around the character Vladimir and Estragon, as they await the arrival of ‘Godot’. 

Unlike most plays, Waiting For Godot is uneventful, with even the characters telling us at one point that ‘Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful!’ with the play relying only on the razor sharp and at times witty dialogue to convey emotion and feeling, and at times pathos underlined with wit. The only events of the play are that of passerby’s on the road our lead characters wait upon. 

With some lack of punctuation in some of the character monologues, leave us as tired as the characters in the play must be. 

Many critics allure the character of ‘Godot’ as that of ‘God’ and that the two characters are awaiting God’s arrival. Though you’ll have to read and decide for yourself.. Overall an interesting piece of work, perhaps best portrayed on a stage with credible actors, such as Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, who have occupied the roles a number of times on the theatre stage.