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Arts

Uncut Gems and Ernst Lubitsch

Two film buffs I know well recommended to me Uncut Gems. One described it well as a New York Jewish Del-Boy film. Howie Rayner is a gem dealer living life on its edge. Up to his knees in debt because of his gambling he acquires a rock from an Ethiopian mine with an opal in it. A top basketball [...]

February 29, 2020 // 0 Comments

Dealers v auction houses

That the Donald B. Marron collection of classic and modern art worth more than $300m is to be sold by 3 leading American dealers (Pace, Gargosian, Acquavella) and not Christie’s or Sotheby’s marks a distinct break in a trend. In the last 100 or so years dealers like Paul Durand- Ruel, Amboise [...]

February 26, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Vietnam War /Ken Burns

One of the advantages of seniority, as most Rusters are, is our very personal memories of chronicled events. Thus in watching the 10 disc set of Ken Burns’ superb documentary on Vietnam my own memories flooded back. I can recall the school debates, the domino theory that all South East Asia [...]

February 21, 2020 // 0 Comments

GREAVSIE /BT SPORT

BT SPORT are beginning to make a name for themselves for their sporting documentaries. I did not see their documentary on the Stop The Tour – the demonstrations against the South African rugby tour of 1969/1970 and cancellation of the cricket tour led by Peter Hain but those that did liked [...]

February 20, 2020 // 0 Comments

Museum trips: British Museum and Foundling Museum

Yesterday our art course teacher organised a tour to the Sir John Soane, the British and the Foundling Museum. On arrival at the Sir John Soane we discovered it was closed on a Tuesday.  Normally one might be annoyed but we like our teacher so and – let’s face it – she is neither [...]

February 19, 2020 // 0 Comments

Reviewing the reviews of the Pale Horse

I  am going “off piste” by, instead of starting with my own review of Sunday night dramatisation of Agatha Christie’s The Pale Horse, I am examining the reviews thereof. There is a reason for this: I did not get the final scene in which Mark Easterbrook, the suave amoral antique [...]

February 17, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Directors/Joseph Mankiewicz

Although I was not that impressed by the first choices of directors in this new SKY ARTS series – Sydney Pollack and Otto Preminger – I certainly was by the third Joseph Mankiewicz. From this distance of time I do not recall when why or where I  saw his masterpiece All About Eve [...]

February 14, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Art of Presenting

As in sport the way the subject in art is presented is all.  Too highbrow and technical, you lose your  audience – too low-brow and you have not added value. I believe that enthusiasm is key and being over opinionated off-limits. I have already commented that I believe Mary Beard to be a [...]

February 12, 2020 // 0 Comments

Kirk Douglas, Otto Preminger and Paul Gambaccini

My favourite Kirk Douglas movie was neither Spartacus nor Paths of Glory but Cast a Giant Shadow (1966). This was the true story of David Daniel “Mickey” Marcus and it’s an inspiring one unlike the loosely strung “based on a true story” of many a contemporary film. Mickey [...]

February 8, 2020 // 0 Comments

In Our Time

Although the BBC has come in for a fair bit of stick on The Rust and elsewhere, I’m here to praise another radio programme – In Our Time on Radio 4. This is presented by Melvyn Bragg and each week a subject is examined by him and three academics. Yesterday’s subject was the French [...]

February 7, 2020 // 0 Comments

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