Le Concert

This movie's plot piqued my interest that I went ahead to watch it without understanding any of the dialogue in its trailer. Le Concert is a French film which sets in Russia, on a janitor of the historic Bolshoi Grand Theater - Andrei Filipov.

Andrei, once regarded the greatest conductor in Russia, was the Maestro of the Bolshoi orchestra thirty years ago. During one of the performances at the height of his career, he was fired and accused of being a traitor for refusing to abandon his Jewish musicians in the same orchestra. That performance was thus disrupted halfway and they never got to perform the Violin Concerto in D major by Tchaikovsky, the Russian composer whose works Andrei is so passionate about, again.

Now a cleaner there, he happened to be cleaning the Bolshoi's director's room when he saw a fax from France's prestigious Chatelet Theater, inviting the current orchestra to perform there. Seeing this as an opportunity to perform once again, he gathered his old musician friends who are now having menial jobs and attempt to pass them off as the Bolshoi orchestra.

Minus the part about the performance being disrupted and the naming of the musical piece, this is what I interpret from the synopsis and trailer. However, I was in for a surprise as this story delves much deeper. Beneath the surface of a madcap comedy portrayed by Andrei's friends is a surprising tragedy and truth that connects everyone of them together.

It helps if you possess some knowledge on the stereotypical representations of Russians and Jews to get the humor but I feel that it just takes an audience who's willing to read deeper into what's shown to 'feel' for the characters here. Even though the middle part of this movie starts to lose some vitality, the ending with le concert makes up for all that it lacks with a brilliant performance of the Tchaikovsky's piece which I feel is like an explosive burst of the whole orchestra's sentiments throughout the thirty years.

on being a sub-editor

"The news is thrown at him in huge miscellaneous masses, which, but for his labours, would kill the reader stone-dead with mental indigestion. He has to cook this mass, having first trimmed it into reasonable proportions, keeping one eye on the probable accuracy of the facts as stated, another on the law of libel, another on various other considerations which crop up from time to time, such as the law relating to elections, and yet a fourth, which must be no less vigilant than the other three, upon the clock. Sub-editors, when I meet them, seem to have only two eyes just like other people; where they keep the other two I cannot say, but I know they must have them."

~ Edward Shanks (in Harold Evans, Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers)

This passage is a sharp observation on how a sub-editor, or a 'copyreader' in the US or a 'text editor' in Britain, work. I thought it presents the juggling of the various factors that comes with this job wonderfully in just a paragraph.

Edward Shanks, an English poet, writer, academic, literary critic and editor; describes the work of a sub-editor in its very essence like a true-blue journalist - short without missing any relevant or important points with a flair for witty, creative depictions.

shot by rosebullet

Always on the lookout for alternative clothes' brands, my best friend and I discovered Rosebullet a few years ago. At that time, this Japanese label has just been launched in Singapore, the first in the South-East Asian region. I remembered how exhilarated both of us were at finding a label wherein its style is just so, well, our style of dressing - simple and sweet while playing with every details. Plus, we were delighted at not always having to buy from the dominant labels.

Unfortunately, the style of its collections gradually changed to a more flamboyant one, perhaps due to the departure of its Japanese Manager whom I believed was in charged with selecting which apparels and accessories to be brought in here. Hoping that I would finally see a revert back to the original style, I would always be disappointed after stepping out of Isetan, where it is located. Eventually, I stopped going there for my fashion fix.

That was the case till I happened to pass by there again last Saturday. I had the exact feeling when I first saw its clothes that it is like a re-bonding session. I bought a cute navy dress with mini gold studs all over it and received its catalog that showcases its spring/summer collection. I loved the whole package of its presentation - the summer-vacation theme, the choice of colors, and the laid-back style of the clothes - that best encapsulates these two seasons: