Friday, March 23, 2007

The Yellow Houzzzzzzzzz

I would love to be enthusiastic about Channel 4's drama 'The Yellow House' last night, I so wanted to be taken into another time, feel the emotion, despair and electricity.
Alas, it was not to be!

I managed to watch approximately 30 minutes, at first waiting for the plot to take it's roots, then yearning for some kind of magic, watching...hoping that any moment things would fall into place and I would be lost in my television screen.

I woke up on the sofa at around midnight wondering where the programme had gone, I could hardly believe my eyes when I glanced towards the clock and realised I had missed half of the programme I had been so excited to watch all week...remember ...I am an insomniac!

Therefore, I cannot comment on the whole programme but the part I saw disappointed me. The story moved slowly and far from smoothly, the characters were flat and unemotional which, for me, was the most disappointing part of all. We are talking about Van Gogh here after all, to me his art speaks one language EMOTION something The Yellow House failed to achieve.

I have no real urge to watch the half I missed yet I have watched The Impressionists from 3-6am and could have pressed play and watched it all over again the moment it ended...This tells me all I need to know about the latter half of last nights 'drama'.

Such a shame!

Did you watch it?...I'd love to hear your opinions!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I only saw the last 30 minutes, and I'm afraid my opinion is pretty much the same as yours. I put it down to not having seen the start, but I guess not.

BTW, do you think there might be a link between your caffeine addiction and your insomnia? :)

E-J said...

I didn't catch it, but your review of "The Impressionists" has made me keen to track it down on dvd. I dismissed it at the time because after the brief trailer I saw, I imagined it to be full of gentlemen with very un-French accents coming out with stuff like "Hello there old chap, the name's Monet don't you know!" On the strength of your passion for the series I will have to give it another chance.

Anonymous said...

Seems Im the only one who ploughed their way from start to finish of the Little Yellow House on the Prairy - oh no that was the american sugary drama - but yes I was determined to see it through despites its gloom. Actually there was a lot I found of interest especially the backdrop colours of dingy greens as I have a student working on her version of the Potato Eaters at the moment and, guess what, all the darks are greeny/greys. The main feature of the drama was the tension they built up - which only goes to show how emotion comes through ones art work. You felt the struggle of Vincent trying to keep to his own impasto style while being badgered by his friend to work differently and what he called 'the truth'. Ah - what is that we all say??? Guess its being true to ourselves. Better stop here or I'll go all psychological on you ....Happy painting everyone - especially you oh great one of the art communication world our beloved Anita.

Joannie

Anita Davies said...

Oh well Dave, between us we watched it all! LOL! I much preferred the old film with Michael Douglas in...think it was him....and I think it was simply titled "Vincent" - Great film I would love to watch again!
YES, I imagine there is a deffinate link between my caffeine addiction and my sleep (or lack of) but if I were to go all decaff I would miss at least 4-5 hours of each day sleeping and that would kill me much faster than sleep deprivation...All that time wasted asleep, plenty of time for that when I'm dead and have no choice in the matter! Besides...There's nothing quite like the taste of good coffee!

Anita Davies said...

E-J I'm not sure if the accents will be convincing enough for you but the passion and inspiration portrayed throughout is nothing more than addictive!
Give it a whirl and let me know what you thought!

Anita Davies said...

Joannie I am so pleased you got something from it and I agree with your description of 'The Truth', being true to oneself is what gives us such a huge variation of art aswell as peace of mind at the end of all things.