Posted in cinema, France on Mar 5th, 2008 4 Comments »
I appear to be becoming somewhat of the obituarist about these parts. If only this ageing French population would slow up a bit on the dying ! During the latter part of February news came through of the passing away at the age of 85 of one of France’s better known postwar novelists - Alain […]
Posted in cinema, books on Oct 12th, 2007 No Comments »
Mikhail Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog is perhaps not as well known as his masterpiece Master and Margarita. Both feature animals who are partly human, or at least are animals who have characteristics that one considers to be human.
In The Master and Margarita, the companion of the visiting Professor (who may or may not […]
Posted in cinema on Oct 4th, 2007 No Comments »
I’m not much into interviews with actors. They always seem to be the same no matter what the film is. They usually contain a patter similar to the following:
Interviewer (with chummy familiarity): “What was it like working with X actor/actress?”
Actor: “Oh X actor/actress is great. Really supportive in the role/we had a blast. […]
Posted in cinema, Art on Aug 1st, 2007 No Comments »
I have to admit that reading the news today that the modernist Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni died yesterday at the age of 94 shocked me.
Not because his death occurred within a few hours of the other great European film director Ingmar Bergman, but because I realized I’d never seen any of his films. […]
Posted in cinema, Film, Media on Jun 3rd, 2007 6 Comments »
Si os dan papel pautado, escribid por el otro lado.
(“If they give you lined paper, write the other way.â€)
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Stories are not just part of the human condition: stories are what make us human. Our capacity to tell stories lies at the core of all that we are. Without them, we are nothing: […]
Posted in cinema on Mar 22nd, 2007 1 Comment »
I didn’t notice this on Slugger O’Toole yesterday but it seems that Ian Paisley has commissioned a biopic of his life.
Writing in Comment is Free, Malachi O’Doherty suggests that
“commissioning a film makes as much sense as Tony Blair digging out his old CND badge. And Tony was at least a leftie once; Paisley has […]
Posted in cinema on Mar 9th, 2007 2 Comments »
I often get uptight about the amount of time my daughter spends in front of the TV. She actually doesn’t watch that much but the anxiety is still there. I must have unconsciously accepted the current myth that if your children watch too much TV they’ll have acute ADHD by the time they’re seven and […]
Posted in cinema on Feb 26th, 2007 1 Comment »
We all have in the back of our heads, a nagging list of movies that we really have to see before we can call ourselves cinematically snobbish, albums we must hear before we can call ourselves musically smug, and places we must visit before we can leave our passports lying around for people to see. […]
