Just in

Arts

Yves Saint Laurent

The French Cinema has, over the past few years, produced some interesting biopics of their celebrated achievers: Piaf, Chanel and now Yves Saint Laurent. Although these are warts et tous they reflect a national pride which we do not  often see in British cinema Yves Saint Laurent was played by [...]

April 1, 2014 // 0 Comments

Bush matters – a female perspective

Yesterday it was announced that Kate Bush’s first tour in thirty-five years later this summer – now amounting to 22 dates – had sold out in fifteen minutes. Naturally, despite my reservations about the entire project, I had my secretary go online ten minutes before the tickets went on sale [...]

March 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

Of their time – maybe

Let me be frank. Generally-speaking, when it comes to the issue of ‘mature’ pop musicians continuing to make music and seeking to put it out in public, I’m a sceptic. Please don’t get me wrong – I’m denying neither the right of anyone to attempt to do whatever they want, irrespective of [...]

March 28, 2014 // 0 Comments

Michelangelo: His Epic Life / Martin Gayford

Martin Gayford is amongst the best of art biographers. I read both hisYellow House which depicts the time that Van Gogh and Gauguin spent in Arles and his life of John Constable and was impressed by both. His biography of Michelangelo did not scale the heights of these two as in it he was rather [...]

March 27, 2014 // 0 Comments

Judgement at Nuremberg

One of the claims one frequently hears of a contemporary American film is that is based on fact, even though – for example – Captain Phillips is being sued by eight of the crew he apparently saved. It was not always thus. Judgment in Nuremberg (1961) was based on hard fact. It did [...]

March 26, 2014 // 0 Comments

This woman’s work is not yet done

The sudden announcement that legendary UK singer Kate Bush will be undertaking her first ‘live’ gigs in thirty-five years (the Before The Dawn tour) took the media world by storm yesterday. As things stand, it seems that she will be playing 15 dates at what is now called London Eventim Apollo [...]

March 22, 2014 // 0 Comments

A tentative welcome to the BBC’s latest mock-umentary

This week W1A, the BBC’s new supposedly satirical drama-documentary series about itself, was launched on BBC1. It is produced by the same team – and involves some of the same actors – that came up with Twenty Twelve, an equivalent spoof on the organising of the London Olympics, written and [...]

March 21, 2014 // 0 Comments

Line of Duty reaches the end of the line

Last night the final episode of the second series of the police procedural series Line of Duty was aired on BBC2. As I have previously written, I originally came to this piece because of a favourable newspaper review and immediately became hooked. In recent weeks, I have found that many of those I [...]

March 20, 2014 // 0 Comments

Richard Hamilton at the Tate Modern

There are some painters normally to be found in the Royal Academy that stay safely within their comfort zone knowing what their patrons like and producing it almost formulaically. Richard Hamilton could not  be accused of this as he was forever trying new styles and methods of painting. He has [...]

March 19, 2014 // 0 Comments

Worthy recollections of WW1

In the early 1960s, the BBC made a documentary series called The Great War. Last week, on BBC2, as part of its WW1 centenary commemorations, the corporation put out a programme called I Was There: The Great War Interviews, featuring WW1 veterans talking about their experiences, many of them coming [...]

March 19, 2014 // 0 Comments

1 171 172 173 174 175 184