Out of the box

Finally, I managed to catch the season finale of Gossip Girl – only a couple of months late, but something has to give. As I’ve had occasion to remark before, Gossip Girl is my one girly pleasure. Well, that and New Girl. I’ve been following it devotedly since Season 1, and I greeted the news that it was coming to a conclusion with mixed feelings.

Not that there is anything wrong with predictable with this sort of television series

On the one hand, I didn’t want it to jump the shark (refer to my column from last week if you have no clue what I’m on about). On the other, where else was I going to get my weekly fix of drama, bitching and fashion?

I started watching the very final episode with bated breath but I knew I was going to love it as soon as it kicked off with a cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s and Brigitte Bardot’s Bonnie & Clyde. I’m not usually a big fan of covers, bar some exceptions, but Great Northern’s version, while not a patch on Gainsbourg’s and Bardot’s sensuality, is not half-bad.

After watching the whole thing, I have to say that as conclusions go, this was a very satisfactory – if extremely predictable – one. Not that there is anything wrong with predictable, mind you, with this sort of television series. Long-term fans want the obvious couples to get together; we want karma to kick the obvious villians in the butt; but most of all, of course, we want the identity of the ever-mysterious Gossip Girl revealed.

For those of you who have yet to see the final instalment, I will not spoil the ending. As for the rest, I wonder if you too feel like the scriptwriters pretty much decided on Gossip Girl’s identity at the last minute. So many elements from previous seasons do not square off with the great revelation....

To give the writers credit, they did do a bit of panicked scram­bling to justify some of the situ­ations from earlier episodes that made the revelation pretty im­possible to believe. Did they suc­ceed? Not completely, but it’s a good enough attempt that I wasn’t left with a sour taste in my mouth by the time the end credits rolled up.

• And now for something completely different, with apologies to Monty Python – cult classics.

Earlier last week I received this extremely interesting letter from a reader – although s/he preferred to remain anonymous, the letter contains a number of good leads for those of you who enjoy them:

“As a regular reader of this column I was really intrigued about your opinion of David Lynch’s Inland Empire. As a Lynch fan right from the days of Eraserhead , and also considering that he has continuously been given the cold shoulder by local film critics, I’d appreciate if you were to publish some kind of review about this ‘woman in trouble’ story (this is how Lynch himself describes the film).

“Unfortunately, Inland Empire was never released cinematically here in Malta.

“Also, for those who follow films on Rai 3’s Fuori Orario, during the past few months Enrico Ghezzi showed some absolute gems, namely Alice in the Cities by Wim Wenders (1974), some great documen­taries such as Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Wener Herzog, and the astonishing L’Enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot, Serge Brom­berg’s documentary about the making of, and the abrupt ending of L’Enfer, which was to star Romy Schneider and Serge Reggiani. Both documentaries are must-sees for film buffs.

“Other good stuff shown on Fuori Orario in recent weeks include Ashes and Diamonds (Andrzej Wajda, 1958); the seven-and-a-half-hour-long (yes, I’m not kidding!) Satantango, by Hungarian director Bela Tarr (1994); and the film he directed right before his last one, The Man from London (2008).

“Satantango is a big challenge to go through, but it’s also one of the most rewarding cinematic experiences I’ve ever had.”

rdepares@timesofmalta.com