A Negro in Leinster House (Take 2)

Review: Words to Shape My Name by Laura McKenna

As promised, here it is. I liked Neil Jordan’s book a lot, but it was only an appetiser for this.

First, though, I have to comment on the blurb. What a load of drivel. If I had trusted the blurb I would never have read the book. It makes it seem like the kind of book read only by women and promises a heroine who “discovers” herself. Fortunately I had read a few reviews which saw past this lame summary and promised a lot more.

This is book that is hidden between the lines in Jordan’s book. This feels more believable. While I think Jordan probably got it right, it felt altogether more rose-tinted and I was left wondering was it a true story. McKenna actually tells the same story but she fills in the details and I believed her. And doesn’t she write well!! It was unputdownable.

Bingeing on Rohmer

Review: Éric Rohmer’s Comédies et Proverbes Cycle

• LA FEMME DE L’AVIATEUR
• LE BEAU MARIAGE
• PAULINE À LA PLAGE
• LES NUITS DE LA PLEINE LUNE
• LE RAYON VERT
• L’AMI DE MON AMIE

Le Rayon Vert

It looked like MUBI was going to remove this cycle from its library so I spent the week bingeing on it. It brought me right back to the 1980’s when I haunted the IFI in Dublin to watch Rohmer, Lelouche, Truffault and countless other French directors good enough to make Hollywood blush.

You either get Rohmer or you don’t. His films are wordy (worthy?), uneventful and very often the characters are annoying. But it’s all so human and frail, it brings out the romantic in me. So I’ve just had a terrific week.

The films in this cycle are each based on a proverb, possibly invented for the film. The most notable among them, in my view, were Le Rayon Vert and La Femme de l’Aviateur, both featuring a depressed and sulky Marie Rivière. In the former, the actors were encouraged to improvise their texts and the result is simply transcendent. Perhaps my favourite scene of all came from an actress in a minor role when Lena (pictured) gives Delphine a masterclass (in at least four languages) on how to chat up two lads. Mesmerizing!!