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Arts

Chess and Casablanca

One of the features of chess is that it mirrors life. How long have we hung onto a relationship, job or even credo when it is hopeless?  Same in chess. In an internet game my opponent had a weak central pawn which I pressurised. He committed more and more pieces to its defence.  I saw an elegant [...]

April 2, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Art Mysteries (BBC4) Waldemar Januszczak

Every Wednesday evening on BBC4 Waldemar Januszczak unravels the mystery of a painting and last night it was Paul Gauguin’s Vision After the Sermon.   The picture depicts Jacob’s famous wrestle with the Devil in the bible, symbolises good and evil before a congregation in a small church. There [...]

April 1, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Malta Story (1953)

I recently watched The Malta Story for the third time. I was motivated by reading The Information Officer reviewed on The Rust. The film has a romantic sub-plot with the love affaire between Peter Ross, a flight reconnaissance airman (Alec Guinness), and local girl Maria (Muriel Pavlow). However [...]

March 29, 2020 // 0 Comments

Frank Sinatra Documentary

This documentary directed by Alex Gibney – fully titled as Sinatra – All or Nothing At All and available on Netflix – gives a full and fair account of the 20th Century’s most famous vocalist. In fact there are three Sinatras; the singer, actor and man. The trajectory of his [...]

March 27, 2020 // 0 Comments

Hanks For The Memory

Almost from its inception from time to time The Rust has featured a selection of lists. We love them. Most importantly, in times like these, they can be a reliable kicking-off point for conversations and arguments. Inevitably, in the nature of human things, nothing is quite as simple as you might [...]

March 27, 2020 // 0 Comments

Matisse all time favourite

Comparing artists of different eras is about as productive as comparing sports stars. The vagaries of fashion and that moveable feast that is reputation makes the whole process difficult if not unreliable. In this Me Too age female painters are generously viewed. Picasso’s reputation as the [...]

March 26, 2020 // 0 Comments

Ginger Rogers and dancers on screen

I’m watching the excellent.   Sky Arts  Discovering  series on Ginger Rogers on catch up. This programme was broadcast in early December. The first outbreak of the virus was at the end of that  month so it seemed and was a different age. It’s interesting to put Ginger Rogers’ career in [...]

March 25, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Mirror and the Light/Hilary Mantel

In these extraordinary times I feel entitled in reviewing a book that I have not read and am not going to read. It’s the third book in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy on Thomas Cromwell. Reviewers I respect have criticised it for being too long and needing editing. Why the fuss? It’s rather like [...]

March 24, 2020 // 0 Comments

Let’s get serious about where all this is going!

With some trepidation because I am steeping into dark waters today – if Tom H. and his crew on the Rust’s sports team will permit me –  but I’ve suddenly come to realisation that I’m sure will also have occurred to some of our astute readers about the position to which elite sport [...]

March 22, 2020 // 0 Comments

I Can’t Explain

“We are only of our time” is a principle that all human beings would do well to acknowledge, whether they are contemplating past events and historical figures, or indeed those of their own lifetimes and generations. As in Britain our higher educational establishments ban free speech, cover up [...]

March 21, 2020 // 0 Comments

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