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La Chiave (1983)

This film was directed by the controversial Italian director Tinto Brass. His critics castigate him as a porn producer but I think that is unfair. The story is of an ageing art historian Professor Nino Rolfe, an ageing sensualist played by Frank Finlay, who entrusts his sexual fantasies over his [...]

April 3, 2023 // 0 Comments

DHL Stormers 32 Harlequins 28

The narrowness of the final score should not disguise the total supremacy of the Cape side in this Heineken Cup Tie. Quins scored 4 tries in the closing minutes which brought a semblance of respectability to the score line and a game Stormers dominated. There was something of a carnival atmosphere, [...]

April 2, 2023 // 0 Comments

A Bridge Too Far

I nicknamed this Richard Attenborough film An Hour Too Long as length is one of its problems. The other is the assemblage of stars – Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Lawrence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins, Liv Ullmann, Robert Redford, James Caan, Elliot Gould, Maximilian Schell, Hardy Kruger, Edward [...]

April 2, 2023 // 0 Comments

Manderley Forever/Tatiana de Rosnay

My immediate reaction upon reading Tatiana de Rosnay’s biography of Daphne du Maurier is do we need another one? Margaret Forster has written the definitive biography. Justine Picardie’s Daphne covers a critical period in her life when the latter was under time pressure to produce a biography [...]

March 29, 2023 // 0 Comments

Saracens 34 Harlequins 26

Yesterday I made the somewhat arduous journey to the Tottenham Stadium with 55,000 other spectators to see the match billed as a showdown between the two great London teams from North and West London. It hurts me to say it but Sarries were worthy winners in an entertaining contest in which Quins [...]

March 26, 2023 // 0 Comments

Jerusalem/Simon Sebag Montefiore

The biblical rights to Palestine so interested me that – after  reading Israel – a concise history – I listened to an audio book version of Simon Sebag Montefiore’s history of Jerusalem. Jerusalem lies at the heart of the conflict between Israel and the Arabs countries. It [...]

March 24, 2023 // 0 Comments

The travails of the sport of Rugby Union

Regular readers will be fully aware of the Rust’s somewhat idiosyncratic approach to editorial matters which is why today I make no apology for returning to the subject of the current state of the sport of rugby union generally – and specifically some of the “take aways” from the [...]

March 23, 2023 // 0 Comments

Grace and The Gold

One detective series ended and another began last Sunday with ostensibly little in common. Both reflected how police investigations have changed, illustrating the ways the police go about their business. In Grace the detective invented by crime writer Peter James has to investigate assaults on lone [...]

March 21, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report: FA Cup quarter final: Manchester United 3 Fulham 1

Two minutes of madness undid 70 minutes of a professional performance. After 70 minutes Fulham were one up and, if not coasting, looking the likelier side to play Brighton in the semi-finals. At that point I felt confident enough to message Ivan Conway, but then it all unravelled hopelessly. [...]

March 20, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Six Nations

Unusually for me I was fervent for an English victory which might have happened yesterday in Dublin had there been parity on the pitch. Why, as I am a keen admirer of Irish rugby? Gone are the amateurish troubadours of the past like Moss Keane as nowadays the structure of the four provinces – [...]

March 19, 2023 // 0 Comments

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