Wednesday 17 May 2017

Seen and heard: January to March 2017

Dreamfall Chaptersmost-anticipated adventure game of 2016, sequel to Dreamfall (2006) and the top-rated and much-loved The Longest Journey (1999).

Walter Murch, In the Blink of an Eye – collection of talks by the master film editor (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather(s), The Conversation), the title deriving from his contention that the psychological basis for why a film cut works, and is not simply confusing, lies in eye blinking.

Sound of Musicals, with Neil Brand – expert analysis of key numbers from the history of musicals, demonstrated at the piano with student singers, set within the shifting patterns of stage entertainment.

The Art of France – another fine art tour with Andrew Graham Dixon.

Milkmaid of the Milky Wayneat, simple (but not simplistic) adventure game, with rhyming couplet text (no voice acting) and pixel graphics. Plot summary: A Norwegian milkmaid runs her own dairy farm, selling milk and cream and butter, until one day a spaceship arrives and steals her cows, so she boards the spaceship to rescue them.

JLL Achieve Ambitions Launch Film – high production values promotional film, produced by my son Rauf Bayraktar.

John Berger: The Art of Looking – touching documentary about the radical art critic, made for his 90th birthday and shown again after his death. Still opening eyes, all those years after his eye-opening Ways of Seeing in the 1970s. (The TV programmes stand up well, except for the clothes fashions!)
The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (1990) – steampunk SF novel in an alternative Victorian Britain, in which Babbage’s prototype computers were perfected and the social hierarchy now has scientists and engineers at its apex. Just as nasty as what actually happened, in my reading.

The Book of Unwritten Tales 2top-ranking sequel to a top-ranking adventure game, funny, ingenious, and very very good value especially at App store prices.

Vera series 7 – we like Vera, oh we do like Vera.

Clouds over Sidra – striking short film (available in VR360, binocular and monocular) about a 12-year-old Syrian refugee girl in the Zaatari camp in Jordan.

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