007 First Light

You know I'm a  James Bond fan, from the movies as well as the original books by Ian Fleming. With (shudder) Amazon taking over the Bond franchise and taking creative control, I often despair, doubting I will ever see my favourite hero any time soon on film, and very skeptical they can do him justice. That said, I got cautiously optimistic when I saw the teaser for the videogame 007 First Light. I generally don't play videogames, but this one seems to be getting at least a few things right: Bond's past and the death of his parents, for instance, as well as his scar, a signature in the novels. Sure, they may seem superficial, but it seems that the creators have done their homework. Now I don't own a PlayStation and I may never play the game, but it's nice to know it is being made. You can see the teaser below, in any case. Tell me what you think.

I saw an Aston Martin

 Well, as the title says. Yesterday, I saw an Aston Martin. We were coming back from a petting zoo, there was a car haead of us, it pulled into a driveway. I didn't recognise it at first, but right before it turned, I saw the name. And that was it, that was my encounter with the classic car. Of course, I know it because of  James Bond, especially Goldfinger. It was not the classic model, or indeed any I have seen in movies. The Aston Martin I saw did not look like a luxury car. All the same, it felt pretty cool seeing one "live", I mean not in a museum or on display in an exhibition, but being driven in a town close to home. So yes, it made my day.

Goldfinger for Spy Wednesday

 Today is Holy Wednesday, also called, more dramatically... Spy Wednesday. I prefer to call it the latter. It has nothing to do with real spies or spy fiction, however I take this opportunity to mention that a few days ago, last Saturday, was the 65th anniversary of the publication of Goldfinger. I learned about it on the official Facebook page of Ian Fleming. To celebrate its publication, they are selling a couple of cool fancy stuff, go check it out. I just thought the novel is a fitting read for Spy Wednesday. The film would make a great watch too, come to think of it, especially if you are not into Biblical things or fluffy bunny stuff. Butgive the novel a try.

Parodie de Goldfinger par Mozinor

J'ai trouvé il y a quelques mois cette parodie de la scène classique dans Goldfinger. C'est l'oeuvre d'un certain Mozinor (connais pas). C'est surtout du doublage, mais il y a aussi des images retouchées. Et ça a beau être bête, je trouve ça hilarant.

Happy Birthday Ian Fleming!

I was reminded of it today: 107 years ago Ian Fleming was born. Yes, you know him. He is the father of James Bond. As a Bond fan, both of the movies and the novels, I had to mention it on my blog and commemorate it. Fitting with the birthday, it has been announced today that Anthony Horowitz will publish this year a new Bond continuation novel, Trigor Mortis, set after the events of Goldfinger. I like the title, but care little for continuators. They are IMO glorified fanfic writers. Ian Fleming wrote James Bond, period.

And I thought you might be interested to learn how he came up with the name. Here is an abstract of an interview he did for CBC:

About bowler hats

On my way back to work, after I left the train station, I saw a man going to it, wearing a bowler hat. You see rarely people wearing bowler hats these days, except eccentrics, and this man looked very much like one. I had seen him from time to time, dressed like a Bohemian dandy, the bowler hat is his trademark. It struck me that I recently saw bowler hats: I (re)watched recently The Great Train Robbery, where they are featured a good deal. I associate bowlers mainly with another movie. I am referring of course to A Clockwork Orange. For Alex, who wears it in the movie, and for the Bohemian guy I saw, the bowler hat is now a sign of marginality, their refusal to conformity. Ironic, as it was maybe one of the most conform hat ever invented, worn through history by all social classes. It does have some sober elegance in it, and if hats were ever back in fashion it could go with everything. Except maybe my head: it would look far too round with a bowler hat, I think. But the bowler hat can also be a sign of oddity, even have sinister tones: Oddjob in Goldfinger wears one, it is both his trademark and his weapon of choice, as the hat's rim is doubled with a circle of metal that is strong enough to break a neck. Alex and Oddjob show that it can appeal to sadistic thugs. All the same, I wish bowler hats were back in fashion. I find it somewhat sad that it is now a sign of eccentricity.

The incipit of Goldfinger

An incipit, as people who studied literature know, is the first sentence of a novel. I quote them on Vraie Fiction from time to time, because some are simply great introductions to great novels. This one is from Goldfinger. It is a flawed novel from Ian Fleming, some people say the movie improved upon it (I think in some ways it did, in some other it did not), but it is nevertheless very well written, full of atmosphere and character. And here is the incipit: "James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death." What follows is a reflection about the murderous aspect of his job, triggered by the memory of fight a few days earlier with a hitman sent to kill him. The first chapter makes in itself the novel worth a read.

Bond girls I admire

I didn't know what to blog about tonight, but fate or chance has chosen for me. So after blogging about my own republican feelings in French, I was reading about Republicanism in the UK on Wikipedia and I discovered that Honor Blackman is a republican. She even declined a CBE. Now that takes guts and principle. Honor Blackman, aka Pussy Galore in Goldfinger.  That made my evening.

Bond girls have often a bad reputation, but I always thought that the classic ones, the Fleming characters, were certainly well rounded, well defined female characters, with genuine depth. The early ones were certainly like this and played by admirable actresses. Diana Rigg is of course an amazing actress recognised as such who was already established when she became a Bond Girl (and what an entrance she had in the series, heck, what an exit too). I admire Diana Rigg as an actress (little side note: she is my dad's favourite actress because of her role of Emma Peel in The Avengers). I also admire Joanna Lumley, who had a much smaller role in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Well, maybe not admire as much as really, really like her. She is a cat lover, which is good enough in my book. I know she did also an amazing work for the Gurkha veterans. But it is as a cat lover that I connect to her.

That said, I raise my hat to Honor Blackman tonight. She shows that one does not need a medal or a title to be someone. Honor Blackman is an underrated actress, she is also a great, great, great person.

Nothing beats the classics

Saw a bit of the Brit Awards last night, with the wife. I am no big fan of these kind of ceremonies, so I watched it very distractedly. But I was pleased to see Dame Shirley Bassey there, giving the Brit for best female solo artist (to Lilly Allen), or whatever the category was called. It is always nice to see her. She is indeed a real dame, a real artist with a great voice and stage presence, she is nothing like the manufactured, standardised pop stars of today. I was lucky enough to see her "live" at the Golden Jubilee. Well, not quite live as I saw her on a big screen meant for the mob around Buckingham Palace, but it was still nice. You can see the performance here.

I am a staunch Republican, very much anti monarchist (I went to the Jubilee to be with friends, just so there is no ambiguity there), but I love British cultures and James Bond is maybe the most iconic British character since Sherlock Holmes. Goldfinger is a monument of a song from the golden age of the Bond movies. It is also a great popular song. I suspect that, like me, the Queen preferred Shirley Bassey to the other younger artists that were performing that night (except maybe Macca). Goldfinger has the accent If it is the case, we would be sharing one more thing than a birthday. Anyway, I put here her performance of the classic song. Because nothing beats the classics.

Crime de la crime

"...the first sin I have to confess to you is gluttony."

Amadeus, Peter Shaffer

I have been wanting to use this quote. I might have done already, thinking about it. The title of this post, however, is from Ian Fleming's Goldfinger. I thought it would work for what I am blogging about this evening, as it is a creamy item. As you might have suspected reading this blog, I have a sweet tooth. I also have a homesick love for cream fudge, which is a traditional Québec sweet known there as sucre à la crème (see, cream/crème/crime, the title makes so much sense already, especially since eating something so rich is almost criminal). It's a great little dessert, nice, rich, filling, sugary and it is perfect comfort food. During the Christmas holidays, we used to make a cream fudge variety with Caramilk inbetween two layers of the fudge. It's a perfect fix for sugar addicts like myself and absolutely decadent. In another life, which means more than a decade ago, I tried to make cream fudge, but failed miserably. It turned into caramel, so my family used it to make a sugar pie. Not all was lost. So I have a bit of a love story with this piece of creamy sugar. When I feel homesick, which is the case very often these days, I get in the mood to eat something from home. I got lucky recently, as a sweet shop opened where we live and it sells a very good variety of cream fudges. Not as good as what I can sometimes find in Québec and it is a bit pricey for what it is, but I love it nevertheless and I often need it, so there it is. On a more selfish note, one of the good thing about cream fudge is that my wife does not like it much, so it is one of those desserts I don't have to share. I have the ambition to make cream fudge here one day, but given my bad experience the first time I tried and my bad luck with other desserts, I am afraid it might end up badly.