The Datebook Winter & Spring 2016 | Page 30

By Richard Fitzwilliams

SPECTRE

T

he opening scene in this entertaining but vacuous movie is
amazing. Bond is tracking a villain during the Day of the
Dead Festival in Mexico. The dizzyingly filmed, vertigoinducing fight in a helicopter above the vast crowd is gripping
as spectacle and dazzling to watch.

Francisco de Goya
Self Portrait with
Doctor Arrieta
1820
Oil on canvas
114.6 × 76.5 cm

I had always wanted a darker, more realistic Bond. We saw this
developing in Casino Royale and Skyfall but here we have a brilliant
cast who are largely wasted in a movie which left me shaken by
some of the action but never emotionally stirred.

Lent by The
Minneapolis Institute
of Art, The Ethel
Morrison Van Derlip
Fund
52.14 © Minneapolis
Institute of Art

Daniel Craig is the perfect Bond, with the physicality and the
panache the role needs. A superb actor, he is invariably worth
watching. Lea Seydoux, an excellent actress, looks gorgeous but
her character needed better lines and the chemistry between her
and Craig is never convincing. Monica Bellucci’s appearance is all
too fleeting and once again the female roles have little depth. As
the villain Christoph Waltz exudes quirky menace. However the best
lines belong to Ben Whishaw’s Q who all but steals the show.
M15 and M16 in Britain are merged under a mandarin named C
played most convincingly by Andrew Scott. This is part of the
creation of a global intelligence agency at a time when terrorism is
targeting cities, which provides an interesting contemporary
framework for the plot. The action takes us from Mexico to Rome,
Austria and Tangier and every device imaginable is employed to
maximise their scenic beauties.
Director Sam Mendes has changed course with character
development clearly secondary to the thrills, but in doing so loses
the opportunity to get the best out of the actors and most scenes
are clearly geared to a fictional world. The script’s obsession with
Bond’s past will, however, undoubtedly appeal to the fans.
There are far too many scenes which are simply silly. Characters
just do what the script requires so that making sense becomes
secondary. Ferocious fights leave no marks on the victims. Real
tension is lacking from the set pieces since however surprising the
twists of the plot the result is always all too predictable. Mission:
Impossible – Rogue Nation made similar scenes far more exciting.
A James Bond film is an important event, especially for British
cinema. The photography is excellent and it is good, if absurd, fun
but far too much of it is meaningless mayhem.

GOYA: THE PORTRAITS
NATIONAL GALLERY

T

his is an opportunity to see over 70 of the portraits by one
of the greatest masters ever to use paint. They are a
testament to Goya’s versatility despite his deafness which
actually acted as a spur to his creativity. His terrifying Black
Paintings, the vividness of his large canvases, which depicted
notable historical events, and the joyousness of his
tapestries are also part of his phenomenal output. He only
began painting portraits in his late thirties and they are
characterised by their honesty and depth.
These are mainly monarchs and aristocrats, where the power
resided before, during and after the Napoleonic invasion as Spain’s
fortunes fluctuated. The skill with which he captures their character,
and seems to distil the essence of their personality, is remarkable.
He depicts the royal family as ordinary people given status by an
accident of birth and not by achievements, bearing or good looks.
His portraits of them range from his depiction of Charles III, who
was notoriously ugly and who is captured with bonhomie in hunting
dress, and Charles IV, a modest, rather mediocre figure also
dressed for the hunt, to Ferdinand VII, whose duplicitous nature
Goya clearly exposes despite the magnificence of his attire. Maria
Luisa, wife of Charles IV, is clearly ageing but is portrayed with
empathy and his portrait of the Duke of Wellington captures his
strong presence with rare sensitivi K