The Saturday briefing
IS THERE anything you are desperately yearning to know? Are there any pressing factual disputes you would like us to help resolve? This is the page where we shall do our best to answer any questions you throw at us, whatever the subject.
ONE of my favourite movie musical moments occurs in the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when Ferris sings Twist And Shout in a carnival parade. The excitement and delight of the crowd looks so genuine that I wonder if the scene was filmed spontaneously using the general public.
John Nicholls, Sedgefield, Durham THERE’S an old saying: “If you can fake sincerity, you can fake pretty much anything.” Much the same goes for spontaneity.
For much of the carnival scene in Chicago, including Twist And Shout, Ferris Bueller director John Hughes dropped the choreography and went for the spontaneous chaos of a large parade.
Local radio stations broadcast announcements asking people to come along and take part in a movie and about 10,000 turned up.
“We were just making everything up,” said Matthew Broderick, who played the title role.
As John Hughes explained: “It just happened that this was an actual parade, which we put our float into. Nobody knew what it was, including the governor.” IS it true, as a mate tells me, that Theresa May’s maiden name was Theresa Green? C Pope, Isle of Wight TREES are indeed green, in the spring and summer anyway but Theresa May was born Theresa Mary Brasier. I think your mate was pulling your leg.
DID Native Americans ever have beards or moustaches?
Chris Wakefield, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire IT’S certainly rare to see an old “Cowboys and Indians” film depicting an “Indian” sporting facial hair but it is not totally out of the question.
Neither Native Americans nor Asians have thick hair on their bodies but they do have varying amounts of soft, sparse hair on their faces which it used to be traditional to pluck out.
Some tribes have more hair than others and in the mid-19th century it was not unusual for Navajo tribal leaders to wear moustaches.
I HAVE just read a write-up of the 2005 film King Kong which refers to Andy Serkis in a dual role as the ship’s cook and “motion-captured creature”. What on earth is a motion-captured creature?
Mrs L Copping, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset MOTION-CAPTURE, which is also sometimes called “performance capture”, is a technique that has been used in video games and films since the mid-1990s which uses film of an actor’s movements as the basis for computer animation. It is easier and gives more realistic results that older CGI methods.
So when you see King Kong lumbering around in the 2005 film, the effect was achieved by filming Serkis acting the role, perhaps with devices on various parts of his body transmitting their position direct to a computer. The graphic image of Kong may then be animated to produce the same motion with the same camera angle.
Serkis was also responsible for both the motion and voice of Gollum in The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings films. FOLLOWING the Brett Kavanaugh saga, I should like to ask whether a member of the US Supreme Court has ever been impeached. P Rhodes, Leeds IT has only ever happened once. It was in 1804 and the impeachment was not totally successful. It concerned Samuel by Chase, who was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and, as a representative of Maryland, one of the signatories to the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Chase had been appointed to the Supreme Court by George Washington in 1796 but a growing power struggle between the judiciary and the presidency culminated in President Thomas Jefferson accusing Chase of demonstrating bias and letting his partisan leanings affect his court decisions.
The House of Representatives then voted to impeach Chase on eight counts but the Senate overturned their verdict and acquitted him. He then served on the Supreme Court until his death in 1811. CAN you tell me why women cover their mouths when surprised or frightened? Sue French, by email LIKE so many other things about male-female differences this is a bit of a mystery but it’s not just in surprise or fright.
Eating, laughing, yawning and practically any other mouthopening occasion tends to see women covering their mouths far more often than men.
One theory links this behaviour, especially when frightened, to an old belief that your soul may escape through your mouth if you don’t cover it. Another more convincing explanation is that many different cultures see it as rude to expose the inside of your mouth to others.
A general supposed brashness and uncouthness of males is also often given to explain the matter.
I AM annoyed by the total amount that the Government reaps from motorists. Quite apart from tax on petrol, there is Road Fund Tax, VAT on petrol or diesel, VAT on MoT tests and premium tax on vehicle insurance, all of which must amount to millions every year. What percentage do they spend on our roads?
Malcolm G Martin, Gloucester NOT millions, billions. According to calculations by the RAC Foundation, Road Taxation, Fuel Duty and Vehicle Excise Duty bring in more than £33billion a year while the amount spent on roads by public corporations, central and local government add up to only £10billion a year. So to answer your question, about 30 per cent.