WARNING: Fopp can be hazardous to your wallet

Fopp, as I was saying in a comment on progmeister’s LJ, is a wonderful shop. It reminds me of the record shops I used to frequent when I was at school and the University. What is even better, it has absolute shitloads of CDs at prices like £5, and DVDs at £8-10. Many of the CDs around the back wall are absolute classics, and some of the DVDs are ones you won’t find prominently placed anywhere else (such as Louise Brooks in Pandora’s Box or The Testament of Dr. Mabuse).

It is so difficult to go in there and not come out much poorer; the only sure-fire technique I have ever found is to go in there with no money (having previously shifted money out of the account you can use the plastic with!).

I had a close call today, though. I had money in the wallet and in the bank account and it took all the strength I could muster to reach into the back of my skull and throw the big switch marked Self-Control.

So I did not come out laden with CDs, and I did not even succumb when I saw that, at last, It Happened Here has been released.

It Happened Here, if you haven’t seen it — which is, frankly, highly likely since its reception on its release in 1966 was (euphemistically) stormy and it did not get a wide release; it has been shown twice on TV (on BBC2, I think), and once that I know of at the GFT — is a film about Britain under the Nazis. Hitler’s armies crossed the Channel, and England at least is firmly under Nazi control (Allied troops have landed in the West, but it is by no means certain that they shall prevail). This is not, though, a film where jackbooted Germans lord it over the subjugated British. The Germans are in Russia, invading the USSR: Nazi Britain is run by British Nazis.

The film took 8 years to make; it is filmed in grainy black-&-white; most of the actors are amateurs (in fact, as far as I can tell, there are only two professional actors in the whole thing: Sebastian Shaw, who was Annakin Skywalker in Return of the Jedi, and Reginald Marsh, who cropped up in a lot of British TV in the 60s and 70s), which strangely works to the film’s benefit; it was made on a shoestring, yet it is utterly convincing. The story follows an Irish nurse who is simply trying to do her job. Events unfold remorselessly until this chilling film ends, devoid of hope.

On its release, it was very badly received because of its portrayal of Britons readily collaborating with the Nazi regime; Jewish groups apparently were so incensed that it incorporated footage of a real British Nazi leader spouting anti-semitic bile that seven minutes were cut from the film. I have never seen that footage, it was not in the cut I saw on TV years ago, but apparently it has been restored to this DVD release.

And yet, I did not succumb. Which, for a cinephile like me, is saying something.

Rambling thoughts about the news

The Independent has a way with striking front pages, but today’s was exceptional. Under the headline Middle East: Who backs immediate ceasefire? were two boxes. One, Yes, contains the flags of 189 countries. The other, No, has only three flags surrounded by white space: Israel, USA, and... us.

It is enough to make you weep with rage.

Yesterday I was talking to a friend with whom I do not always agree on political matters. He thinks, for example, that the US Supreme Court’s decision regarding Guantanamo Bay was the wrong decision. He has consistently tended to be more critical of the Palestinians than the Israelis. Even he, though, thinks the behaviour of Israel at the moment is egregious.

Why can’t our government see that? Why does our government think that now, the time when Israel is bombing a country with nothing like the ability to stand up to them, is not an appropriate time to criticise them?

There is, apparently, an anti-war march tomorrow in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh. I gather fjm is planning to go on the London one, and I can certainly understand the impulse...

But what is the point? We have seen enormous numbers on the street protesting against the Iraq invasion, both before and after the assault on Iraq started. It made no difference whatever. Short of Knacker of the Yard arresting him for corruption regarding the honours system, he is secure in power until he chooses to go. While he is secure, he shows no inclination to listen to anyone he does not want to listen to. As the marchers are not rich Americans, media tycoons, etc., why should he pay attention to them? The news reports will underestimate the turnout, if they report it much at all. The only good thing is that people can say: We were not for this. Perhaps that is enough. But aside from that the futility of it all is depressing.

On a different matter: Wyatt Twerp was given a specially made cowboy outfit?

What?

Oh, for satire to be back... or at least Spitting Image.

There is a headline of a story in today’s Independent which caught my eye: Why are fewer students from poor backgrounds going to university?

It seems to me the answer is bloody obvious: the junking of the grant system. The words grant and grants are nowhere to be found in the piece.

Well, if I were at school now, I probably would not be going to university. Educationally, I am a product of a comprehensive school (a good one) and a university which I got to by means of the student grant. Without it, my parents could not have afforded to send me to university (although they might have tried to find the money, I have no doubt). When I was at school, we knew that if we had the intellectual ability, we could get to university. We did not have to think about accrueing thousands of pounds of debt in order to do it.

That was all a bit ranty, sorry.

My ribs hurt...

...and it is pickwick’s fault!

She has posted some of the stupid things viewers have called to say, either complaints or programme ideas. The one which finally cracked me up completely was this one: I think that the BBC should produce a documentary about Nazis that were hidden by people who worked in the public sectors.