Christian Aid has launched an emergency appeal for Haiti after a major earthquake struck the country. Thousands of people are dead, many are buried alive and countless have been left homeless.
We are releasing £100,000 for immediate emergency relief to help those affected, and we hope to send more.
Watch a video of Nick Guttman, Head of Christian Aid's Humanitarian Division, explaining what's happened in Haiti and why we need your help:
The quake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, struck 15km southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince just before 5pm local time on Tuesday. The Christian Aid office building collapsed and three people, including Christian Aid staff, had to be rescued from the rubble. They are shaken but safe.
Listen to our Caribbean regional manager, Judith Turbyne, as she shares the latest information from colleagues in Haiti, including the experiences of Haiti country manager Prospery Raymond and programme officer Abdonnel Doudou who had to be rescued following the collapse of the Christian Aid office: Listen to the audio*
Prospery estimates that in the area of the city where Christian Aid had its office, 97% of the housing has collapsed.
It is still too early to know the full extent of the damage, but Christian Aid is expecting very high loss of life, widespread destruction of homes, schools and other buildings, and major damage to key water, electricity and road systems.
Prospery is also concerned that there may not be enough food in the country to last longer than three to four days.
Christian Aid partners in Haiti are very experienced in emergency response work, and will begin emergency relief activities in the affected areas as soon as possible. The need is massive. People urgently need food, water, blankets, shelter and medical supplies.
Many colleagues from Christian Aid’s local partner organisations are dealing with their own personal tragedies, as well as starting to co-ordinate their disaster assessments and response.
Haiti is already the poorest country in the Americas, ranking lower than Kenya or Bangladesh on the UN’s human development index. Most people in Port-au-Prince live in flimsy slum housing, so an earthquake of this magnitude is catastrophic.
I have been working with Christian Aid taking donations (over the last couple of days). If you can help please go to their site and donate any thing you can.
Thank you.
Friday, 15 January 2010
Haiti Earthquake Appeal
Thursday, 14 January 2010
20 for 2010 - Inception
No countdown for 2010 could be complete without my number 5 choice Inception.
Christopher Nolan's twisty looking sci-fi thriller is primed to be a major contender in the '10 summer market. Not linked to a comic book franchise, save that of the auteurial connection to the Dark Knight, it's rumoured to have a budget north of $250m. This will make profitability extremely hard to achieve, although the fan boy anticipation is pretty high, and James Cameron's proved just this month that you don't need a tentpole title to make some cash.
The story, which is being kept very guarded, involves hacking into peoples dreams and stealing intellectual property. This metaphysical angle to the heist movie at least explains the gravity defying action, and folding cities we've been witnessing in the trailers. Nolan has also hinted in interviews that the themes of madness and lost love, as well as the thriller elements are indicative of how persoanl the project is. This is his small movie between Batman films - only it's not small. In fact he's proud to admit it's his biggest challenge to date.
Nolan has assembled a top notch cast with Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page leading the pack. This is also a good hint that either this script is fantastic, or there's enough goodwill towards Nolan based on his previous projects that Hollywood elite will sign up to anything with his name on it. Let's face it, whether this turns out to be masterpiece or a very expensive turkey, it's got must-see written all over it.
Don't forget to join in the competition to win chocolates with my countdown. Click on the Minstrels in the top right.
Emily Watson
Happy Birthday to
Emily Watson
43 today
It's hard to believe but Emily's film debut was in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves in which she earned the first of her two oscar nominations (the other being for Hilary and Jackie). In the fifteen years since then she has continually been involved in some challenging and beautiful projects, only rarely choosing the easy route. Over the next year we'll see her in the Ricky Gervais comedy Cemetary Junction (as Mrs. Ralph Fiennes) and making a sophie's choice in the Siberian gulags from Within the Whirlwind.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
20 for 2010 - Competition
When I started the top twenty countdown I promised a competition of sorts. Well here goes:
There are five films left to go in the countdown (which recommences tomorrow), all of them are very well known with quality stars and directors, and 3 already have UK (summer) release dates. I say that only to let you know I don't have any obscure choices in the number 1 spot.
All you have to do is guess what is my most anticipated film for this year.
The winner will get a bag of Minstrels - my cinema snack of choice - as pictured below posted to where-ever you are in the world.
The winner will be the first person to correctly guess the top film. You can guess in the comments any time between now and the number 1 post (on 18 January), if you wait until the day before you will know 4 more films it's not, but someone else might beat you to it, so the whole answer early or late gamble is in play. If no-one gets it right then the highest ranking guess (say the second most anticipated film) will win the prize. I hope that makes sense...
It's Complicated
2009. Dir: Nancy Meyers. Starring: Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski and Lake Bell. ●●○○○
The best thing about a nice romantic comedy is that all it takes is a simple story told reasonably well to make the film a tremendous success. After all we don't want much, just some touching moments as the protagonists slowly realise their feelings for each other. Unfortunately Nancy Meyers does her very best to take a simple story and twists in additional plotlines and characters to such an extent that it can no longer be a joy. It's Complicated, you see.
The basic premise sees divorcee Meryl Streep find herself falling back in lust with her former husband Alec Baldwin following a drunken night of passion. This leads to a torrid affair which must be kept secret from Baldwin's broody second wife, the couple's 20 somethings children and the architect currently vying for Meryl's affection (played by Steve Martin).
I actually quite like the premise, in the centre there's an interesting question about whether you can fall out of love with someone. Meryl and Alec have a shared history together and apart, they know the best and worst sides of each other's temprament, and yet they find themselves inexplicably drawn together again. Perhaps if we just had these two finding each other again then it would have worked. However we have to sit through interminable superfluous scenes. There's the divorced women's flan nights, the therapy session (I really hated that scene) and the long stretches at the Baldwin household. Even the tentative romance with Martin seems to be tacked on the side - perhaps only as a hint of a happy ending for Meryl.
There are some every funny moments - the hotel scene is done with a proper eye for farce and the set up for the family lunch is equally humourous. Both of thee benefit hugely from the performance of John Krasinski (as the future son-in-law) taking the audience surrogate role. Later the whole weed section is well played by all involved. But all of these scenes are so separated by extra rubbish that they are lessened. The whole maxim that every film benefits from cutting half an hour can only be proven by looking at It's Complicated.
There have been a large number of gripes from the critics that the characters in Meyer's work are so removed from relaity that it's impossible to identify with them. And whilst it's true that the porsche driving lawyers and extension building bakery store owners have little in common with me I find that I can easily grasp the dilemmas they have that are important to the thrust of the story. I honestly don't believe that the film would have benefitted if Meryl was fretting about the mortgage payments, in fact the additional struggles would probably have only made the film longer and less interestiong. This also goes for the annoying children - it's clear that their response to finding out about the affair is a critique on modern divorce, especially in wealthy society. These kids, who appear to have been spoiled rotten by both their parents, are merely reacting in the ways that fits their personas - however weird crying together in bed seems.
John Krasinski is clearly the stand-out performer, but that's probable because he always gets the best scenes (and does a great worried look). Alec Baldwin is also great as the philandering father. Meryl is deeply disappointing, opting to over-complicate her performance in order to match the film. We get that she's conflicted by the situation, but she never allows herself to simply say a line without her voice betraying those mixed feelings.
Overall this was a fun few hours, but with significant editing and a more focussed approach it could have been much much better.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
20 for 2010 - The Hereafter
Will number 6 on the list let us know what is in the Hereafter.
The closest Clint Eastwood has come to horror before was his first directorial effort Play Misty for Me, which was essentially a stalker movie. The main draw with Hereafter is that Clint will once again flirt with horror but this time with the supernatural.
To be honest it's hard to see why Eastwood hasn't tried this genre before, after all in a majority of his films there is a throughline of guilt, redemption and forgiveness the sort of concepts that would easily fit with an understanding of what death brings and ensuring you're at peace. I don't know what his personal beliefs are (there's a cynical view of Catholocism in many of the pictures) but it will be curious to see how the 80 year old is able to view death.
The script has some pedigree, coming from The Queen writer Peter Morgan and Matt Damon is returning to Clint for the second film in a row to play a blue-collar American dealing with death in a differnt way from a French journalist (Cecile de France) and a London schoolboy - the one in the picture who's name I don't know.
Tuesday Trailers - Valentine's Day
I guess I'm mellowing with old age, but Valentine's Day only just missed out on the top 20 films for 2010. Maybe it's the assured hand of rom-com maestro Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman), maybe it's because of the quality cast (Um where to start... Anne Hathaway, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, Shirley MacLaine and now Kathy Bates has started to appear in the trailer!), maybe it's because this looks like a more polished and diverse version of last years surprise hit hyper-link romance He's Just not That Into You, or maybe it's because this guy and this guy will be getting it on?
Valentine's Day opens on 12 February, which is apparently quite appropriate.
Luise Rainer
Happy Birthday to
Luise Rainer
100 today
It's a wonderful thing, reaching 100, and I'm sure you'd all like to join me to celebrating the centenary this complex and celebrated German star of the 1930s. She will forever be immortalised for being the first person to win back to back acting Oscars (for The Great Ziegfield and The Good Earth) although sadly the roles dried up soon after this extraodinary run, partly due to her own casting demands.
As it's a special birthday here's a couple of clips of Luise in action:
The first shows her tearful reaction to Florenz Ziegfield second marriage
And the second (spoiler alert!!!) shows her deathbed scene in The Good Earth
Monday, 11 January 2010
20 for 2010 - Alice in Wonderland
If the combination of "Tim Burton" and "Reimagining" makes you shudder then turn away from my number 7 - Alice in Wonderland.
There are few directors and subjects that go together as well as Tim Burton and Lewis Carroll's delightful nonsense novel Alice in Wonderland. The twisted logic of the original stories sit easily with the gothic sensibilities of the man behind Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow.
Taking an original slant on the story the films takes up with Alice (played by Mia Wasikowska) some ten years after her previous trips behind the looking-glass, previous trips which she, curiously, can't remember. Running away from a society where she feels seperate and unable to fit in she once again follows a White Rabbit (Michael Sheen).
The totally CGI Wonderland is filled with strange and incredible characters ranging from the gentle (The Dormouse) to the pshychotic (The Red Queen, played by Burton's missus Helena Bonham Carter). Allying herself with Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter and Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Alice must overthrow the Red Queen and end her tyrannical grip over Wonderland society.
It's the first time Burton has delved with CGI to this extent, so it's going to be fascinating what he makes of it, and the 3D seems to be acutely aware that it's job is to throw things at the audience. The trailer makes this abundently clear.
The strong, mainly British, cast also makes this a potential delight. How often will you get the chance to see Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee and Matt Lucas in the same film.
Sunday, 10 January 2010
20 for 2010 - Way Back
Back in more traditional territory my number 8 choice of 2010 is Peter Weir's The Way Back.
Based on the discredit memoiras of Polish solider Slavomir Rawicz this covers the escape and 6,500 km trek by a group of Soviet gulag imprisonees. Note the 7 in the picture above could be that same group of escapees. The book describes the details of his original incarceration, the escape during a harsh Siberian blizzard and then the trek south through th e Gobi desert, Tibet and the Himilayas, all the while avoiding the Russian Amry and large towns.
It seems unlikely that Mr. Rawicz actually did this journey, a recent BBC investigation has found evidence that he was released by the Russian Amry as part of a prisoner trade. That is not to say it won't be a fascinting plot line, even if the most outre elements (a pair of Yeti) are including.
Peter Weir is an excellent director who always makes beautiful and thought provoking pictures, so I'm expecting some great things from this. The cast isn't too shabby either with Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong and Colin Farrell (mmm) all with major roles.
The gulags might be a bit of a trend for 2010 as we will also get a chance to see Emily Watson going mad in one for Marleen Gorris' Within the Whirlwind.
