More on Burial

Good interview with the mysterious Banksy-of-electronica/dubstep, Burial, here. I've been doing yoga with Untrue on the headphones the past few nights - it works quite well. Reading the interview reminds me of those nights after the club, queueing for Bagels at that place at the end of Brick Lane at 4am...

Our film club at Salamander watched In the Mood for Love tonight. What a gorgeously rich text! Even after three viewings, it is yet to reveal itself fully. Its funny how no one has compared Ang Lee's Lust, Caution to the Kar-Wai film (or have they?). Both are strongly influenced by Hitchcock movies (Lust, Caution by Notorious, Mood by Vertigo). Both feature Tony Leung being cool as ice smoking cigarettes. Both feature Maj-Jong symbolised as the game of exile. Both are period pieces, and on and on. I have to say, although Lee's film is a cracker, Mood is the better film for me. The mimesis of the Leung character and his forlorn neighbour - play-acting their partners' affair until it turns into a romance of its own, is a profound exploration of the relationship between identity and artifice. The slo-mo-to-violin sequences are just stunning, with the Maggie Cheung character sashaying up the stairs in her qipao being the essence of understated eroticism. And the end scene at Angkor Wat... well go and watch it (or watch it again) and you'll see what I mean.