Alaska

I know it's pretty strange thinking about Alaska on winter's brink, but I came across some photos I took a couple of summers ago in breathtakingly beautiful Glacier Bay off Alaska's southern coast. If anyone has any doubts about the existence of God or a higher power that holds together the symetry of the universe, then go to Alaska. No one can tell me that the power and beauty of Alaska's glaciers, narrow fjiords, rushing waterfalls and snow capped mountain peaks were created randomly. There are no words to adequately describe the raw beauty of Alaska. None. No photographs can capture the powerful silence, nor the sapphire sky, nor the days that never end in the summertime. I hope these photos capture at least a little bit of that. Enjoy.

BB

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fjiord in Alaska 

Alaska 

An Ideal Husband

Who is the ideal husband of An Ideal Husband? Is it Lord Goring, the dandified (but deeper than he admits) Rupert Evert? Or is it Sir Robert Chiltern (Jeremy Northam), put on a pedestal by just about everyone and is almost ruined by a youthful indiscretion come back to haunt him?

An Ideal Husband is a well-acted and enjoyable movie, adapted from Oscar Wilde's play of the same name. The movie, made in 1999 was the second Sir Robert that Jeremy played that year, and with some of the same sets and both Sirs Robert giving passionate speeches in the House of Commons no less! Winslow Boy (the other Sir Robert film, that one based on Rattigan's play and directed by David Mamet) is a superior film, but An Ideal Husband is not that far behind. Julianne Moore plays the devious Mrs. Cheevley who tries to ruin Sir Robert; Cate Blanchett plays Gerturd, Sir Robert's very unbending and somewhat judgemental wife. She is right to mistrust Mrs. Cheevely, however. Minnie Driver is the only one in this film that seems to be out of place. I dont' really care for her portrayal as Sir Robert's younger sister. She comes off as too 21st Century for this play. I know Jeremy Northam has stated how he desires to stay away from the waistcoasts and wing collars forever at this point, but don't you agree he looks quite dashing as Sir Robert?

Sir Robert Chiltern

Sir Robert again

Voices From a Locked Room

Saw the little seen film Voices from a Locked Room last night. I understand the movie is not completely true to the life its subject(s) Philip Heseltine/Peter Warlock. As a film about living on the edge of sanity and as a showcase for the just emerging from stage to screen Jeremy Northam, it is a tour de force. Jeremy did this film in 1994, I think. Before the 'Net and Emma brought him to American audiences. Up until this point, he was mostly known as a stage actor for the RSC and National Theatres, having won an Olivier (Britain's equivalent of the Tony) for his performance in The Voysey Inheritance a couple of years previous.

Jeremy is nothing short of brilliant in this film, playing the music critic Philip Heseltine and his alter ego the composer Peter Warlock. Particularly in the scenes as Warlock, Jeremy exposes the raw edge that Peter dwells upon. Jeremy's Peter Warlock is a man of great sensitivity and musical genius. A shy and withdrawn man whose love for a woman cause him to lose the delicate balance he maintains between sanity and madness. For Peter's other self is Philip Heseltine, a harsh critic on the London music scene, who has fallen in love as well, and with the same woman. The inevitable crashing together of these two halves of the same man create the dramatic tension in the film.

The film doesn't entirely work on every level, yet there is something incredibly compelling in Jeremy's performance as Philip/Peter slide into depths of torment. Maybe it's the purity of joy and concentration when as Warlock, he plays his newly composed nocturne in a duet with the woman he loves, a singer. It is known that Jeremy Northam is a musician himself. The very modest Jeremy Northam would probably be the first to deny this claim, yet his musicianship was clear in the 2002 film Gosford Park, where he played piano and sang Ivor Novello's wonderful musica hall tunes. The musician in Jeremy is so purely expressed as Warlock that it is beautiful to behold. I do not know for certain whether that is Jeremy actually playing Warlocks pieces, including the duet, it certainly looks like he's playing and not just play-acting, but who knows.

Anyway, try to catch the film on Starz Cinema if you get digital cable or satelite. It's a difficult film at times, but Jeremy Northam's performance is beautiful to behold. Some photographs from the movie to entice you.

In torment 

Peter 

Peter Warlock