corollary

Listening to:

Beethoven, string quartet, Op. 131 in C sharp minor. Played by the Quartetto Italiano.

A recent movie:

House of sand and fog. Starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly, this is an impressive tragedy, featuring great performances by the actors (Ben Kingsley definitely deserved that Oscar nomination), some stunning cinematography, and an edge-of-the-seat plot. This is a tragedy where disaster ensues because of personal intransigence and stupidity. My view is that the film is a study of stupidity clashing with ambition.

The film opens with a brief shot that we later realise is a flash-forward to the very end of the film. It doesn’t give anything away, and the rest of the film’s story plays out with a straightforward sequential chronology. There are no gimmicks; just the story of four or five people in a terrible spiral towards doom. And though the characters have their flaws, they are also pretty sympathetic on the whole, which makes the “doom spiral” all that more compelling. Highly recommended.