Posted in Eric Rohmer, Mortality, French, cinema on Jan 21st, 2010 5 Comments »
[ Libération cover from the day after Rohmer’s death ]
During the mid 80s Mozzer moaned about Channel 4’s late night programming in song - something or other about ‘plans for a future war’. I don’t remember that particular evening but I do have a (very possibly) distorted memory of there always seeming to be […]
Posted in documentary, Belfast, French, cinema on Mar 4th, 2009 1 Comment »
[ Sur la plage de Belfast poster from Director’s own site ]
A short film crops up fairly regularly on French TV that reminds me somewhat of Conor’s modus operandi on a couple of damn good posts on this blog (I’m thinking of his posts from about this time last year using old family […]
Posted in Turkeys, Twitter, Graham Linehan, cinema on Feb 13th, 2009 No Comments »
Always find something to chuckle at on Graham Linehan’s ‘blog’ - secondlast time we looked my kids and I were cul par terre (as they might put it) at 5 minutes of footage of some appalling American woman demonstrating a mouth exerciser (I kid youse not). Yesterday I took my weekly peek and […]
Posted in George Best, Belfast, cinema, football on Dec 18th, 2008 4 Comments »
Around this time of year, if you’re like me, you’re waiting eagerly for a wee bearded man dressed in red trimmed with white, hailing from the grim North - who weaves his special wee bit of magic - George Best, no less..
I have to thank my Derry namesake over here in the arse-end of France, […]
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 […]