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A coincidence of sorts

Yesterday – Tuesday 7th July 2020 – I happened to read fellow columnist J.S. Bird’s latest post to the Rust entitled “Just another notch on the ‘Strange Times’ belt”. In it he commented upon the wide variety of reactions from ‘special interest’ [...]

July 8, 2020 // 0 Comments

American Pastoral/Philip Roth

Readers may recall that I kept this book by my loo as an aid to constipation. Occasionally when a passage of writing engrossed me it moved location but before long was back in its place of residence. It’s problem is that it is long, over-detailed, wordy and there is no narrational time arc. [...]

July 7, 2020 // 0 Comments

Just another notch on the “strange times” belt

Mention has been made of it before on this organ but my subject today is the irony of some of the ‘interest group’ reactions, justified or not, to the Covid-19 crisis. Few would argue that the actions taken by the Government have been exemplary, timely or uniformly correct, despite its attempts [...]

July 7, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Directors/Sky Arts

I was so pleased that a further series of The Directors was being run by SKY. I happened to see listed under SKY Documentaries a documentary on Don Siegel, most famous for the Dirty Harry films with Clint Eastwood. In pushing the “Record all” button I saw there were further programmes on John [...]

July 4, 2020 // 0 Comments

Lives of the artist

When I studied French and German literature for my A levels our teacher had a rather pedantic view that little was served in studying the life of the writer. In fact as I soon appreciated it’s crucial. Michael Stuart was complaining to me that in his music course he learned far too little [...]

July 3, 2020 // 0 Comments

Kind Hearts and Coronets

This classic – which I watched on the Talking Pictures channel yesterday – passed with flying colours the Rosen test of excellence, namely initially deciding to watch the first few minutes of a film I have seen many times and staying with it right to its end. It’s known for the [...]

June 26, 2020 // 0 Comments

Das Boot : a historian’s view

Bernadette Angell (TV critic of the Rust) asked me to appraise the historical  accuracy of Das Boot.      I have seen the much-acclaimed 1981 film which Neil Rosen rates as one of the best war films ever. Aside from the accusation levelled by a New York Nazi, which may have been propaganda, [...]

June 25, 2020 // 0 Comments

Inside Monaco/Playground of the Rich/BBC 2

I  have enjoyed this three-part documentary on Monaco bringing back memories of the Cote d’Azur though I have always found Monaco too congested for my taste. I was interested to see Prince Albert had let the cameras in but I have the feeling that, wary of extensive filming and ruthless editing, [...]

June 23, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Professional/W.C Heinz

I can think of many excellent boxing films – Someone up There loves Me, Rocky and Raging Bull – and some great writers and writings on the Noble Art of Boxing, but it’s fiction is harder to find. This is why I enjoyed The Professional.  It’s the story of Eddie Brown [...]

June 19, 2020 // 0 Comments

Das Boot (episodes 3 & 4)

Das Boot is for me the most captivating series on TV and after 4 episodes I’m totally hooked. There are three locations each with their own story line and a different language. The first is the U-boat and this is truest to the 1981 film. A U-boat skipper has broken ranks and is about to defect. [...]

June 18, 2020 // 0 Comments

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