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There can’t be many films which would appeal to poetry lovers and rugby fans but that is what Clint Eastwood has set out to do with Invictus, his new release about Nelson Mandela and the South African Rugby World Cup. To see a poem take a starring role alongside Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon is quite something. And like Freeman and Damon,  ’Invictus’ does its job brilliantly.

People who are involved in Get Into Reading may know the poem because it’s been read in quite a lot of groups. It’s always a lovely surprise to see this Victorian gem, which might be considered a bit obvious, a bit corny, come to life in human hands. The poem has a  kind of magic about it, in that the more difficult the lives of its readers the more moving it becomes.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

I hadn’t realised that it was a key poem for Mandela during his years of incarceration (and wish I had, as some politically correct persons have occasionally  told me that they are  troubled by the undercurrent of colonial racism hinted at in Henley’s use of the word ‘black’).

The film is an old-fashioned move-you-to-tears and to-punching-the-air triumph-over-adversity story, which had me in tears within minutes, perhaps seconds. Mandela’s calm determination and belief is worth learning from, there’s a terrific performance from an actor whose name I don’t know but who used to be nurse in Casualty, Damon has found his niche as a lumpen inarticulate but courageous sportsman, and Freeman was born to play Mandela: the two are now one in my mind, as if they always were one and the same. Go with a rugby fan, take hankies for two, and be prepared to be inspired.

CLAPPERBOARD PRESENTS…

Frank Cottrell Boyce – 24 Hour Party People

Tuesday 1st December, 7pm at Picturehouse@FACT

Clapperboard Presents… Local award winning writer Frank Cottrell Boyce returns for the screening of his work 24 Hour Party People starring Steve Coogan, Shirley Henderson, Paddy Considine, Danny Cunningham, Sean Harris, Lennie James, Andy Serkis and John Simm, directed by Michael Winterbottom.

Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, this is the unbelievable true story of one man – the inimitable and very sadly missed Tony Wilson – one movement and the music and madness that was Madchester. It was also the winner of British Independent Film Award for Best Achievement in Production.

The Liverpool born writer started as a critic for Living Marxism Magazine and then went on to write episodes for Coronation Street and Brookside. In 1990 he first worked with Michael Winterbottom on the film Forget About Me and then continued to work with him on films such as Butterfly Kiss, Welcome to Sarajevo, The Claim, The Mayor of Casterbridge, 24 Hour Party People, Code 46, A Cock and Bull Story.

Frank has been dubbed as arguably the most original and versatile screenwriter in England by film critic Roger Ebert and has won several awards during his career including a British Independent Film Award for Best Screen Play – Millions.

Maureen Sinclair, Clapperboard creator and director:

Once again, it’s a true pleasure to have Frank’s support.  I’ve had the privilege of promoting Frank’s work since his first feature ‘Butterfly Kiss’ so it’s a honour to be screening his acclaimed feature ‘24 Hour Party People’ which will help to raise funds and the profile of Clapperboard Presents…

Frank Cottrell Boyce:

I love Clapperboard because it provides not just the opportunity but also the motivation to get out there and do something special.

Frank will take part in a question and answer session at the end of the screening.

Clapperboard Presents… is a new initiative by Maureen Sinclair to raise funds for the Clapperboard Youth Project.  It is also an excellent opportunity for new and established media and creative players to network ideas and support for the benefit of all.

Income raised from Clapperboard Presents… will go toward the Clapperboard Youth Project.  Tickets are £10 each, concessions £7.00 from FACT box office now.   Tickets include a complimentary after show drink sponsored by Alma de Cuba.

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Frank Cottrell Boyce will be also be appearing later in the week at The Reader Organisation’s annual Penny Readings, on Sunday 6th December in St George’s Hall, Liverpool.

The relationship between literature and film can be much like that of passionate but warring lovers – the two will forever be linked but are not always a heavenly match. I confess to being cynical when words and stories I treasure are transformed for the big screen, fretting that the parts I love will be sacrificed for the sake of cinematic spectacle. But when adaptations are successfully carried from paper to film, it is a joy to behold. A really great book-to-film crossover inspires audiences across the board, adding new levels of insight and meaning into the original works for those of us already familiar with them while encouraging people who don’t consider themselves literature buffs to begin enjoying and embracing it.

One such film which seems to be placed very firmly within the ‘good’ category is the newly released Bright Star, which puts the focus upon one of our most famous and beloved poets – John Keats. Written and directed by Jane Campion (The Piano) and partly based on Andrew Motion’s biography of Keats, the film centres on the famed romance between Keats and his muse Fanny Brawne and has attracted glowing reviews (here’s another) since its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In many ways, Keats could be considered the perfect subject for a dramatic and intense narrative – Keats’ poetic talent, growing body of work and personal love affair were all tragically cut short by his premature death at 25.

Despite the temptation to over-sensationalise, Bright Star appears to do justice to the beauty, elegance and soaring wonder expressed in Keats’ poetry. Just watching selected clips from the film, you cannot help but feel instantly overwhelmed by the breathtaking scenery which provides a visual counterpart to Keats’ sensual word imagery. A number of Keats’ poems feature throughout the film, woven carefully into the narrative rather than thrown in for effect, making them all the more moving.

To celebrate the release of the film, as well as to commemorate the recent anniversary of Keats’ birth, it seems fitting that this week’s featured poem come from the man himself. Choosing just one poem from the many superb ones on offer is not an easy task, so why not look to the source of inspiration for the title of the film itself? The sonnet expresses the notion that love and desire to love can transcend our time on earth, which is appropriate considering the fact that Keats’ work, love for Fanny Brawne, and indeed life transcended his own existence.

Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art–

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night

And watching, with eternal lids apart,

Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priestlike task

Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,

Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask

Of snow upon the mountains and the moors–

No–yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,

Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,

To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,

Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,

Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,

And so live ever–or else swoon to death.

John Keats (1775-1821)

VERSION FESTIVAL arrives!

13-14 November, Various Venues, Manchester.

Tickets are now on sale for the UK’s first adaptation-only film festival. With masterclasses from Frank Cottrell Boyce, Paul Welsh, Jane Rogers, Kate Jessop, and screenings and premieres of specially commissioned work, plus stacks of opportunities to get involved in next year’s projects. More info at: www.versionfestival.co.uk

The aim of the Version is to nurture an appreciation of narrative among developing filmmakers and to reassert the importance of the writer in the filmmaking process. Young directors and animators have been encouraged to engage directly with literary texts at the start of their careers – an opportunity not normally open to them because of publishing and authorial copyright. As a publisher, Comma (the organisers of the festival) have been able to bypass this obstacle by negotiating author permissions as part of the commissioning process, not only among its own authors but – through Literature Northwest, a network of independent publishers – among authors from across the region.

In addition to individual adaptation challenges, Comma has funded and produced four short dramas specially for the festival, based on short stories by Christopher Priest, Martyn Bedford, M Y Alam and Guy Ware. These have been produced under the auspices of award winning producer Caleb Shaffer and a crew assembled from Northern Film School graduates and Futureworks Media students, with support from production company Lions Eyes and the Granada Foundation.

Speakers at the festival include Frank Cottrell Boyce, executive producer Paul Welsh, Amir Jamall, Jane Rogers, Kate Jessop, Andrew Haigh (director of Film Four’s £50K adaptation of Comma’s short ‘Five Miles Out’), Carl Hunter (Grow Your Own), Alison Surtees and Mick Knowles (Made Up North Films).

More information on www.versionfestival.co.uk

To book tickets to Cornerhouse events click here.

Workshops and networking events are free (email ra.page@commapress.co.uk to book)

International Showcase, Fri 13 Nov, Cervantes, tickets on door. Please note new time: 8pm

Friend of TRO, Colin Farrell from Clapperboard UK, invites you to a very special screening tonight (20th October) at 7pm:

Rita Tushingham from Garston in Liverpool, started her career as an actress at the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre; her film debut was at the age of 18 in Shelagh Delaney’s A TASTE OF HONEY (1961) for which she won a British Academy Award for Best Newcomer.

Rita has also appeared in The Leather Boys (1962), Girl with Green Eyes (1963), The Knack… and how to get it (1965), Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Stretford Wives (2002), Being Julia (2004) and Carla Lane’s, Bread (1986-1991).

In July this year she received an Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University for her outstanding and sustained contributions to performing arts.

It has recently been announced that Rita is due to star in a documentary for Liverpool Football Club about their 2005 Champions League Victory.

Clapperboard Presents… is a new initiative by Maureen Sinclair to raise funds for the Clapperboard Youth Project. Maureen has known Rita for many years and has been a great admirer of her work. Rita said:

I always look forward to coming back home but this time it’s for a special fundraising event for the Clapperboard Youth Project. I think it’s very important that young people get involved in creating something wonderful as it can open up a whole new world for them. The whole process of filmmaking from script to screen stimulates their creativity and they can discover things that they may not have known they are capable of.

Rita Tushingham will participate in a Question and Answers session after the screening of A TASTE OF HONEY with the audience Chaired by Prof Roger Shannon, Professor of Film in the Department of Media at  Edge Hill University.

Income raised from Clapperboard Presents… will go toward the Clapperboard Youth Project. Tickets are £10 each, Concessions £7 – available  from FACT box office. Tickets include a complimentary after show drink sponsored by Alma de Cuba.

From Frank Cottrell Boyce’s short story ‘Accelerate’, which was published in The Reader 31, film-makers Carl Hunter & Clare Heney have created a short film.

From Carl Hunter’s ‘When is a film not a film?’:

['The premise of Accelerate'] is that the woman finds away of making time pass more quickly, by selling some seconds out of every minute so that her days become “the edited highlights of themselves”. It was the perfect marriage of subject and medium – after all, what is a still photograph but a moment pulled out of the stream of time. If you had all the money and time in the World, this would still be the best way to tell that story. Young people seem to photograph everything nowadays. If you go to a concert, the audience is watching it but also filming it on their mobiles. We’d found a story and a storytelling style that tapped right into that jumpy, digital way of seeing things.

Watch the film here.

To read the story, you can download The Reader 31 from our ‘Downloads’ page by clicking here.

We’ve published another of Frank’s short stories in the current issue of The Reader, which you can buy here.

I saw this the other night and just had to share. It’s from Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, a thirteen-part TV series by the science-writer and astronomer Carl Sagan, originally broadcast in 1980 but recently re-mastered and re-released as a gorgeous DVD box-set. I couldn’t recommend the series – or the book that accompanies it - highly enough if I had a thousand years and all the adjectives in all the languages of the world at my disposal. It’s a fascinating, inspiring and deeply poetic voyage of discovery through life, the universe and everything.

This clip is from an episode called ‘The Persistence of Memory’ (other episodes have such titles as ‘One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue’, ‘The Backbone of Night’ and ‘The Edge of Forever’) which looks at intelligence and the evolution of the brain. Luckily, some kind soul had posted it on YouTube. I apologise for the quality – but only of the picture!

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow—
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream…

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand—
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep—while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Edgar Allan Poe

As part of its Great Adaptations Season, Film 4 is showing And When Did You Last See Your Father?, the film based on Blake Morrison’s memoirs of the same name, starring Jim Broadbent and Colin Firth, tomorrow evening (Wednesday 29th) at 11.50pm. Yes, that is rather late. But it’s well worth a watch – and a read, of course – so either brew yourself some strong coffee or, if such things still exist, set the video.

Many thanks to all of you that have voted (or tried to vote) for Joe Cottrell Boyce’s film ‘Glue’ in the Documentary category at the  2nd Babel Gum Online Film Festival, which we brought to your attention back in early February. Unfortunately, there was a technical hitch on the Babelgum website and people trying to vote for ‘Glue’ we’re finding it hard to manage.

It’s fixed and you can do it at the click of a mouse… So please do!!

Watch and vote here.