Posted in Irish Left Review, History, cinema on Oct 16th, 2008 No Comments »
Seanachie of Pleasures of Underachievement has written a great essay on contemporary French cinema, and says that the popular perception is fogbound in cliché.
One of the favourite punchbags for self-appointed francophobes is French cinema. Boring, dull and talky are the epithets one hears most often, to the extent that for many people, French cinema […]
Posted in Holocaust, Italy, cinema on Apr 8th, 2008 No Comments »
[ Primo Levi - c. http://www.filmitalia.org/ ]
During the last week, I managed to get to see Davide Ferrario’s documentary film ‘Primo Levi’s Journey’ in my local cine-club/
sanity preserver Montreurs d’images . The film’s premise is to follow the tortuous route taken by Primo Levi in returning to his native Turin on his release from […]
Posted in cinema on Apr 1st, 2008 11 Comments »
As I’m acting as editor of Irish Left Review I have the right to use this minor blog to blatantly promote those articles and essays that I think deserve more attention than the fledgling magazine can muster by itself at the moment. I hate to see good stuff go under the radar, so I’m taking […]
Posted in Latin America, Spain, cinema on Apr 1st, 2008 3 Comments »
In a perhaps extreme example of my reactivity and nose for what’s topical, I’m telling you about a festival that ended last sunday. Maybe that’s why this is Dublin ‘Opinion’ and that other lot are called Dublin ‘Event Guide’… In any case, according to the DEG, you have just had the opportunity over there to […]
Posted in Literature, cinema, France on Mar 5th, 2008 4 Comments »
I appear to be becoming somewhat of the obituarist about these parts. If only this ageing French population would slow up a bit on the dying ! During the latter part of February news came through of the passing away at the age of 85 of one of France’s better known postwar novelists - Alain […]
Posted in cinema, books, Russia on Oct 12th, 2007 No Comments »
Mikhail Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog is perhaps not as well known as his masterpiece Master and Margarita. Both feature animals who are partly human, or at least are animals who have characteristics that one considers to be human.
In The Master and Margarita, the companion of the visiting Professor (who may or may not […]
Posted in cinema on Oct 4th, 2007 No Comments »
I’m not much into interviews with actors. They always seem to be the same no matter what the film is. They usually contain a patter similar to the following:
Interviewer (with chummy familiarity): “What was it like working with X actor/actress?”
Actor: “Oh X actor/actress is great. Really supportive in the role/we had a blast. […]
Posted in cinema, Art on Aug 1st, 2007 No Comments »
I have to admit that reading the news today that the modernist Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni died yesterday at the age of 94 shocked me.
Not because his death occurred within a few hours of the other great European film director Ingmar Bergman, but because I realized I’d never seen any of his films. […]
Posted in cinema, Film, Media on Jun 3rd, 2007 6 Comments »
Si os dan papel pautado, escribid por el otro lado.
(“If they give you lined paper, write the other way.â€)
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Stories are not just part of the human condition: stories are what make us human. Our capacity to tell stories lies at the core of all that we are. Without them, we are nothing: […]
Posted in cinema on Mar 22nd, 2007 1 Comment »
I didn’t notice this on Slugger O’Toole yesterday but it seems that Ian Paisley has commissioned a biopic of his life.
Writing in Comment is Free, Malachi O’Doherty suggests that
“commissioning a film makes as much sense as Tony Blair digging out his old CND badge. And Tony was at least a leftie once; Paisley has […]
