Film

Borsalino (1970)

My Alain Delon season continued with the only film in which he is paired with the other French box office star of the sixties and seventies Jean Paul Belmondo. They play two up and coming gangsters in 1930s Marseilles. Even though they generate a certain chemistry on screen, off screen there [...]

July 26, 2021 // 0 Comments

South Pacific

It was good after such a lengthy absence to see live theatre again. My last visit was possibly at the self-same Chichester Theatre to see Fiddler on the Roof. Similarly South Pacific carries a deeper message of racial prejudice. You cannot go wrong with this Rodgers and Hammerstein classic as it [...]

July 22, 2021 // 0 Comments

Hemingway & Ken Burns

A colleague of mine on the Rust sent me a revealing interview with Ken Burns on documentary making. See here – THE GUARDIAN He revealed that he can take 10 years to make a documentary and – though the funding is a problem as he operates in the public broadcasting sector – he would [...]

July 21, 2021 // 0 Comments

La Piscine (1969)

My Alain Delon season has been interrupted by the Euros but I saw this film last night. It reflects the best and worst of French cinema. The best? A beautiful villa location in St Tropez with beautiful people – Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Jane Birkin. The worst ? It has its longeurs and the [...]

July 13, 2021 // 0 Comments

En Plein Soleil (1960)

The first film in the Rosen Multiplex Alain Delon season is En Plein Soleil a 1960 adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel later made into an English film version by Antony Minghella starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett. I prefer this earlier French version [...]

June 8, 2021 // 0 Comments

A convivial lunch & a clearance

Monday took place my regular Xmas lunch with two brothers took place in English’s. This lunch first began in the late 1970s and only Covid prevented its annual occurrence last year. Since its inception two of us have retired and two divorced and remarried, whilst I remain outside the conjugal [...]

May 26, 2021 // 0 Comments

Hell Drivers (1957)

I came across this film listening to Doten Adenbayoh’s Up All Night radio programme. A film buff called in to recommend this film which I duly acquired on DVD. It is the story of short-haul road haulage drivers. Stanley Baker (Tom), lately out of prison, takes a job in a corrupt road haulage [...]

May 17, 2021 // 0 Comments

What’s worth keeping (and what isn’t)

In recent times I’ve had the opportunity to re-evaluate my past personal history with some fascinating results. Nearly thirty years ago now my first wife died of cancer and – for a change of scenery – my kids, then quite young, and I moved some seven miles as the crow flies to a new home in [...]

May 9, 2021 // 0 Comments

All the world’s a stage when you think about it

In common with something like twelve million other Brits, last night I stayed up well past my normal bedtime of 7.30pm in order to watch the seventh and final episode of Series 6 of Jed Mercurio’s highly-successful “police procedural” drama Line Of Duty [BBC1 9.00pm]. I have not long awoken [...]

May 3, 2021 // 0 Comments

A Taste of Honey (1961) and The Family Way (1966)

A Touch of Honey is based on a Shelagh Delaney play which she wrote when just eighteen. It’s set in the industrial landscape of Salford and was the first and acclaimed role of Rita Tushingham as Jo. She is the illegitimate daughter of Helen (Dora Bryan) a flighty woman first introduced as [...]

April 18, 2021 // 0 Comments

1 2 3 … 32 »

Fings ain’t what they used ter be …

August 6, 2021 // 0 Comments

There are those among the contributors to this organ – and probably also its readers – who are familiar with – and/or are even habitual visitors to – the [...]
IAN THOMSON RIP

August 5, 2021 // 0 Comments

There must be something in the Sussex air that inspires longevity as in 2018 five our of the last six surviving Test players wore the six martlet sweater of Sussex CCC: Don [...]
Thinking the unthinkable

August 5, 2021 // 0 Comments

Last week brought media reports of a new study undertaken by Professor Willie Stewart at the University of Glasgow which apparently demonstrates that professional footballers [...]
Write around the world/BBC4

August 4, 2021 // 0 Comments

I was attracted to this programme presented by actor Richard E Grant for several reasons. Firstly, I had seen his programme on the art of The French Riviera and enjoyed it. [...]
Olympic coverage

August 3, 2021 // 0 Comments

Like my colleagues on the Rust I find the back drop of empty seats in the stadiums a distinct turn off. In the week of track and field I miss the winning athlete draped in [...]