Category: Film, TV & Radio

Tarantino’s 9th

Regrettably I was the only one on the oil futures desk who knew why Catholic parts of Europe had a holiday on 15th August; the Feast of the Assumption. In our increasingly secular society this year this Holy Day assumes significance for cineastes too.

Stan’s The Man

A few days ago I mentioned watching A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. My interest was kindled by a visit to the Kubrick exhibition at the Design Museum.

The Sisters Brothers

On EOMs (Election Observation Missions) we are asked to assess the overall conditions in polling stations; very good, good, bad, very bad are the choices. We thought they were mostly very good in Ukraine but decided to mark them as ‘good’ so that when there was an especially good one we could make it stand… Continue reading The Sisters Brothers

Walk the Walk

Michael Kidson’s gait is only too imitable; drop the right shoulder, stride purposefully, swing right arm vigorously.

The Fourth Wall

The fourth wall, as you know, is the space which separates a performer from the audience; or, if you will, the conceptual barrier between a fictional work and its viewers or readers.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Can you ever forgive me? sounds like the title of a Victorian novel. Of course I’m thinking of Can You Forgive Her? the first of Trollope’s Palliser series.

Company

I remember with nostalgia Elaine Stritch and Donald Sinden in Two’s Company on television in the late 1970s. She played a successful American author and he was her very British butler. The only other thing I remember is that she, in real life, lived in the Savoy.

Not The Favourite

Hatfield House stars in a sumptuous costume-comedy-drama coming to a screen near you (in the UK) soon. I saw a preview with Robert yesterday.

Going Solo

I saw Robert Vaughn (sic) in Twelve Angry Men in the West End in 2013. Also in the cast was Martin Shaw, of The Professionals fame,  who dined with me at the Ivy Club afterwards. We were guests of LAMDA, where he trained.