Crudités

This to record an unusual lapse in my selection of cast-off DVD's from Bourne Hall Library, that is to say two DVDs which were both turned off after five minutes or so, their fascination with bodily functions (hereinafter 'BF') being not at all the thing for those of us who are old enough for such functions no longer to be a joking matter. Infantile even.

First a 2003 Irish adaptation of 'Ulysses' called 'Bloom'. Arty enough, looking as if a lot of thought & effort had gone into the making, but for us the preoccupation with said BF translated badly from the page to the screen. Furthermore, it was probably unfair to the text, which I do not remember as being anything like so preoccupied, although it is a long time since I have read the book all the way through, this despite owning two copies.

Second a 2012 Warner Brothers film about a North Carolinian campaign for Congress, 'The Campaign', a film which, according to the box was going to make us laugh out loud. And as well as being  awash with BF, demonstrating a considerable cynicism about the political process in the US. Once again, we found it odd that a film like this is OK, while any kind of human flesh on their regular TV is strictly taboo. All rather a pity, as I dare say with a bit less of the infantile self indulgence it would, indeed, have been a funny film.

Unlike 'Bloom' which, perhaps, was never going to fly. 'Ulysses' is a book of words to be read, a book about words, not to be done up as pictures in technicolour on a wide screen.

PS: Warner Brothers DVD also irritated by including a lot of advertisements at the beginning, advertisements which we did not mange to skip and had to settle for mute. Part of the point of a DVD should be that one is spared the adverts.