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Arts

Disobedience

I was interested to see this recently released film directed by Chilean Sebastian Lelio as I had read the book by Naomi Alderman and I have family who live in the Hendon Jewish community in which it is set. The novel – Naomi Alderman’s first – won her the Orange Prize but was not [...]

December 7, 2018 // 0 Comments

“It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”

Whether one likes or loathes Bob Dylan and his music, there is no escaping the fact that he will go down in history as one of the greatest and most influential figures in popular music during the 20th Century – and quite possibly ever. It might be said that the mark of a great musician and [...]

December 1, 2018 // 0 Comments

Klimt and Schiele, Howard and Russell

Yesterday was a full-on day and evening of art. In the afternoon I went to the exhibition of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele’s drawings from the Albertina Museum in Vienna. Though 28 years divided the two artists they died in the same year (1918) and both their lives were dogged by controversy. [...]

November 30, 2018 // 0 Comments

Bernardo Bertolucci

The death of Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci has generated most interest in the infamous sex scene in Last Tango in Paris which is bit of shame as he directed several more interesting and worthwhile films. He won the Oscar for the Last Emperor but my favourite work in his canon was The [...]

November 29, 2018 // 0 Comments

Tombland/CJ Sansom

Historical faction has proved a popular genre but some are better than others and CJ Sansom in his Shardlake series is the best. Why so? In his Shardlake novels you get three things: (1) a murder mystery; (2) social and political history; and (3) colourful characters. Tombland is his 7th Shardlake [...]

November 27, 2018 // 0 Comments

Time for reflection

No apologies today as I return to a what is commonly known as The White Album, a classic and often under-rated Beatles offering recently in the news for being re-released in an anthology version. Here’s a link to a piece by David Lister, setting the album in its historical context as a [...]

November 22, 2018 // 0 Comments

Farewell to a class act

Today the Rust salutes the life and career of William Goldman, the highly-decorated movie scriptwriter, who has died at the age of eight-seven. See here for a link to a short appreciation piece by Andrew Pulver that appears today upon the website of  – THE GUARDIAN My purpose today is [...]

November 17, 2018 // 0 Comments

Beating up the BBC (again)

Today I opened my copy of The Times – chockful of Brexit coverage, natch – and at page 10 came upon  a report headed BBC paid £700m using tax loophole, apparently the latest development in the long-running row over BBC pay that has included elements of public outrage at the size of BBC [...]

November 15, 2018 // 0 Comments

Jackson WW1 documentary review

Last night, three days after its first broadcast on British television, I finally got around to watching my tele-recording of Sir Peter Jackson’s highly-acclaimed (colourised and modern-technology enhanced), six years in the making, 90-minute documentary THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD which was produced [...]

November 15, 2018 // 0 Comments

A musical milestone remembered

As a fiftieth anniversary ‘remastered’ anthology edition of the flawed but brilliant Beatles’ White Album is being issued accompanied by with all sorts of analysis, out-takes and different demo versions – I cannot help but reveal myself as owning an original issue of it [...]

November 6, 2018 // 0 Comments

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