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A worthy television piece

Sunday nights in my household are set aside for doing nothing – well, apart perhaps from taking the shoes off, flicking through the newspapers, grabbing a bite to eat and watching bland television. Last night, finding myself in a bored mood, just passing time – unable to raise much interest in [...]

May 12, 2014 // 0 Comments

Tis Pity She’s a Whore.

Given this play was first performed in 1626 and written before then, it has as its theme one with which a modern playwright might feel uncomfortable – namely, an incestuous and passionate love between brother and sister. Antonella has returned to Parma with her tutor friar and her father [...]

May 10, 2014 // 0 Comments

Sporting films

Charles Thursby  has identified the main problem with sporting films, namely that you cannot suspend disbelief that the actor is the athlete. Some have crossed the barrier successfully, notably Robert  di Niro in Raging Bull or Russell Crowe in The Cinderella Man, but the boxing genre works [...]

May 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

The perils of authenticity

For some reason which escapes me, yesterday I spent some time contemplating Chariots Of Fire, the 1981 British Oscar-notching [seven nominations and four wins including Best Film and Best Screenplay] movie and specifically what disappointed me about it. Three decades’ worth of distance may allow [...]

May 7, 2014 // 0 Comments

Coming up on the rails

Much is made these days of the theme that modern youngsters are turned off books by the eternal march of new technology. We are told that social media, Twitter, Facebook, computer games and the fast-moving, busy, nature of life today have resulted in people being able to relate to the world only in [...]

May 3, 2014 // 0 Comments

Great Lives/Arnold Bennett

Much as I criticise the BBC, I do consider that their arts broadcasting on Radio 4 are of high quality and worth the licence fee alone. Saturday Review presented by Tom Sutcliffe and Front Row are consistent in their critiques. Another programme I enjoy is Great Lives, presented by former Tory [...]

April 30, 2014 // 0 Comments

What’s the bloody point of it all?

After reading Keith Lowe’s review of a new book War: What Is It Good For? by Ian Morris, I cannot help reflecting – against the raft of 21st Century conflicts and crises such as that now unfolding in the Ukraine – that maybe the concept of Western-style democracy is little more than [...]

April 26, 2014 // 0 Comments

Religious Film List

 I would term these as movies where religion, faith or lack of it, or a religious character, play an important role.   Of Gods and Men 2010 Xavier Beauvais A stirring tale  of a monastic order in a quandary as to whether to go or stay in the face of fundamentalist terrorists, in which the [...]

April 25, 2014 // 0 Comments

Revisiting the hammer of the gods

There are many plusses in being connected with the mighty publishing organ that is the National Rust. One of them is its policy of allowing its contributors to go beyond their given brief. In that context, today I stray from mine into the world of rock music. On match day at the Stoop – the home [...]

April 24, 2014 // 0 Comments

Blue is the warmest colour

I finally got to see this controversial film. I left it with mixed views. The story is of Adele who is unsatisfied sexually and emotionally until she meets Emma. She is a suppressed lesbian and this is drawn out by Emma a free spirit of a painter. The relationship is intense both physically and [...]

April 24, 2014 // 0 Comments

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