Random Rants...

I liked:

• 36 Quai des Orfevres: French thriller, starring Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu, as well as the lovely Valeria Golino, known unfortunately in the English speaking world only for Hot Shots! Depardieu might be more famous, but Auteuil can claim to be an even better actor. From The Closet to Hidden and now 36, he has the range and the chops to act anyone off the screen. Excellent film.
• Zappa presents Zappa: I didn't think I would get to see anyone competent ever play the music of the late, great Frank Zappa live. So, when his son Dweezil announced a tour including Napoleon Murphy Brock (from his phenomenal Seventies touring band), Terry Bozzio (from one of the better Eighties' lineups) and Steve Vai, I was on. Great show at The Royal Albert Hall, including two songs on the massive pipe organ! No Terry Bozzio, but as Dweezil said, a better show than the last time his dad played that venue. (For those less obssessive, in 1971, when Zappa played there, an audience member charged him and knocked him into the orchestra pit. A drop of 15 feet. The subsequent year or so that Zappa spent in a body cast and a wheelchair for a broken back did not increase his affection for playing live in London). Here's a review for the previous night's show in Manchester - London went off without a hitch and seemed to be even tighter. If I had one gripe, it was that Frank's arrangements were never as conventional as Dweezil's seemed to be - it was never obviously intro-chorus-solo-chorus-outro, but full marks to Dweezil for putting on a very good show. And Steve Vai has more charisma to burn than whole cities full of people ...

I loathed:

• Fanaa: Every once in a while, you can tell Aamir Khan's private banker has called recently. You want to know what this film is like? How about - there's one of those obnoxiously sweet Hindi film kids, with a full hour of screen-time ( at least it felt like an hour to me!) who insists on referring to himself in the third person. As in 'Rehan wants milk mama', or 'Rehan wants a colonoscopy, mama', or some such. Is that enough for you? What about the fact that this mediocre piece of crap goes on for three and a half long long hours?