Sunday, November 14, 2010

Swaab's new book

Bringing Up Baby, directed by Howard Hawks in 1938, is one of the greatest screwball comedies and a treasure from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Cary Grant plays a naive and repressed palaeosaurologist who becomes entangled with (and ensnared by) a wilful heiress (Katharine Hepburn). Chaos ensues
as romance blossoms and not one but two leopards are set loose in verdant Connecticut. All of Hawks's signature skills are to the fore: there is the wonderful ensemble cast, the characteristically refined but unselfconscious visual style, an endless succession of pratfalls, innuendo and jokes (written by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde) and, underneath the chaos and good cheer, a serious dream of escaping life's troubles by dint of nothing more or less than nerve and luck.

There are no human babies in Bringing Up Baby, but there are those leopards and the relentless terrier George – and, as Peter Swaab explores in his witty and original study, Hawks's film wonders profoundly why we want animals in our lives and why we sometimes need to behave as animals ourselves. Many screwball films have been seen as comedies of remarriage, but Peter Swaab argues that this one is not much interested in marriage and is instead more captivated by instinct, irresponsibility and the wild abnormalities of romance.

The film is in its way an American dream of independence, and believes the real way to get on in life – for film-makers as well as scientists – isn't by deference and respectability but by having sexy fun with the right people. A thoroughly American fiction of the 1930s, Bringing Up Baby is also a timelessly classical comic narrative, exploring conflicts between civilisation and nature, rationality and insanity, middle-class inhibitions and aristocratic blitheness. And it is the epitome of film comedy, an anthology of comic types and devices, and one of the most seductively funny films ever made.

The book is being launched alongside a showing of the film on December 6 at The Barbican.

No comments:

Post a Comment


(L to R) Stephen Frears, Andy Harries, Sir Ronald Harwood, and Peter Oborne having lunch at The Groucho Club in August 2011 to discuss the proposed feature film about Basil D'Oliveira. Photo by Paul Yule.

Tarry, Tarry Night

A fascinating debate amongst some members has emerged about the digestive effects of Guinness. It is an important discussion, given the increasing old age and Guinness consumption of many members, especially on Tour. It began when one All Star belatedly complained about the captioning of a picture of a tray of Guinness as "7 pints of spastic colon" on the grounds that it is "offensive to disabled people" and "generally unpleasant and disgusting". The blogmaster disputed the complaint, arguing that far from being an offensive term, Spastic Colon is one of the accepted medical terms for Irritable Bowel Syndrome and generally refers to erratic bowel movements – “such as one is pretty well certain to suffer after drinking large quantities of Guinness”. This assertion was based on his own experience and anecdotal evidence, particularly on the Irish Tour. He also argued, perhaps rashly, that this is understood by Guinness drinkers all over the world. Another member, asked for support by the complainant, could not comply and instead wrote: "I can confirm (both from experience and consulting with my surgeon uncle) that [blogmaster] is correct regarding the relationship between irritable bowel sydrome, a spastic colon and 7 pints of the black stuff. Hence the fact that I only drink lager on tour." The complaint appears to have been based on the irrational and fundamentally ignorant fear that other forces might use the term "spastic colon" against the mildly famous complainant.

Internet research demonstrates that "spastic colon" is a perfectly acceptable phrase, but what of the "Guinness effect"? How widespread is it? A fascinating blog site called "IBS Tales. Personal experiences of irritable bowel syndrome" (http://www.ibstales.com/men_and_diarrhea_3.htm) gives a clue, albeit implicitly: "I started a new job in the September of that year meaning I could move back to an area we knew. Things did seem to get a bit better (slowly) and I was not in as much pain. Slowly but surely I started to go to the pub with my team at lunch time, I even dared myself to try a Guinness! Heaven for 15 minutes, hell for three days! But by the November I was OK again, almost back to my pre-IBS days."

On the other hand, the equally captivating fartygirl.blogspot.com (http://fartygirl.blogspot.com/2011/04/ive-been-bad-bad-gluten-free-vegan.html) contains the testimony: “The thought of living a life without Guinness killed me. Then I read somewhere that some touchy stomachs can handle Guinness. This is because Guinness is wheat free, made from barley. I drank Guinness and I continue to drink Guinness. It gives me NO problems.”

(Incidentally, if you are doing your own internet research do not be diverted by a website called www.doodlekisses.com as that is about a dog called Guinness which happens to suffer from IBS.)

One member of the Irritable Bowel Syndrome Self Help and Support Group(http://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/topic/74144-alcohol-and-ibs/page__p__121147__hl__guinness__fromsearch__1#entry121147) says: “Guinness can give the most regular drinkers problems the next day also.” And in the website MedHelp (http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Gastroenterology/Re-black-and-tarry-stools--guinness/show/440172), under the heading “Black and tarry stools” a contributor writes: “I have found that drinking guinness causes me to have these foul things. Is this a universal effect of guinness or a possible indicator of something wrong with my insides?” There was no satisfactory response.

Members may also find limited further general insight into the subject on the Poopreport website (http://www.poopreport.com/Doctor/Knowledgebase/beer_and_poop.html). The man who had to shave his buttocks tells a particularly enchanting tale.

All Stars should email the blogmaster with their own experiences (whitecityallstar@aol.com). Their identities will be kept strictly confidential, if that is their wish. This topic could run and run.

Tarry, Tarry Night - addendum

- Mark Jones, whose wife used to be a nurse so knows her stuff, says that the link between Guinness and the gastrocolic reflux is proven.

- The original complainant is sticking to his guns (and perhaps other things) and feels that blogmaster must change the caption - to "7 pints of erectile dysfunction". Well, he should know...



Suitably arty pic of the Tate's dep director Alex Beard - 2011 tour

Athlone again, naturally - 2011 tour

Zoltan the Driver - 2011 tour

Nigel Whittaker 1948 - 2011

Nigel Whittaker 1948 - 2011
Nigel batting at a Victor Blank charity cricket day

Nigel Whittaker meeting Shane Warne, a cricketing idol

The Ruddock Cup

The Ruddock Cup
Purchased at auction Weds 9 June by Bill Coales, to be engraved and then fought over in an annual memorial match between the All Stars and Halverstown CC. Not to be confused with The Alan Ruddock Trophy (see All Stars news). This came from an inspired idea by Jesh Rajasingham and was quickly approved by all others, with much research put in by Alex Beard and Bill Coales.

Flying the Flag

Flying the Flag
Iinauguration of the White City flag, v Kerry CCC, August 2007: b row - J Rajasingham, W Oborne, H Snook, M Shenfield, G Dudley, Local Ringer; f row - T Razzall, W Coales, P Oborne, J Oborne, P Yule.

One from the photo archives

One from the photo archives
The Irish Tour line-up 1988 - (back) Shwab C, Beard T, Oborne P, Ruddock A, Shwab P, Coyle J (front) McCrystal D, Beard A, Stevenson P, Kiely J, Pressley C

More from the archives

More from the archives
Beautiful Mount Juliet

Cricket Tea

Titch: "This rhubarb tastes funny..."

Tim Kavanagh and Oborne P

Stevenson and Beard A in the tour bus

Rathmore

Rathmore
Ruddock (centre) with Stevenson and Beard, Rathmore 2008

Rathmore

Rathmore
Ruddock (left) with Coales, McCrystal, Stevenson and Yule, Rathmore 2008

Drenagh

Drenagh
Drenagh, Co Derry, 2009. Back row - Roger Alton, Martin Shenfield, James Jones, Bill Coales, Joe Saumarez Smith, Paul Yule; middle row - Danny Alexander, Conolly McCausland, Peter Oborne (capt); front row - William Sitwell, Will Middleton, Alex Kelly