Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
A review of the fascinating new film “The Beast”
June 11th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
It is 1910, we are in Paris, and Gabrielle is a celebrated pianist and society beauty. It is 2014, we are in Los Angeles, and Gabrielle is an aspiring model and actress. It is 2044 and Gabrielle is considering a process called ‘purification’ which, in a world now dominated by AI, will enable her to […]
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A review of the 1945 classic film “Rome, Open City”
June 4th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Italian Neorealism ran from 1943 to 1952 and this film is one of the earliest and most memorable expressions of that movement. Key features of the movement were a focus on ordinary working people and the use of non-professional actors, vernacular dialogue and real locations. For Italians in 1945, nothing could be more realistic than […]
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Word of the day: nyctohylophobia
June 2nd, 2024 by Roger Darlington
The word means: a fear of dark forests or wooded areas. It occurs in the English translation of the Chinese science fiction novel “Death’s End” by Cixin Liu. In the context of this novel, the ‘forest’ refers to the theory that, in the vastness of the universe, there are countless other civilisations. The ‘dark’ rests […]
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A review of the action-packed movie “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”
June 1st, 2024 by Roger Darlington
In the beginning, there was “Mad Max” (1979), “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” (1981), and “Mad Max Beyond The Thunderdome” (1985) – none of which I’ve seen – and then, an amazing thirty years later, we had “Mad Max: Fury Road” which was simply stunning. In “Fury Road”, Max was aided by the one-armed, […]
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A review of a wonderful new Italian film “There’s Still Tomorrow”
May 29th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
I was drawn to this film, partly because the central character is a working-class woman in a post-war Italian city (my mother was living in poverty in Naples at the time), partly because I love the work of the post-war Italian neo-realism movement (this movie is a kind of homage to that style of filmmaking), […]
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A review of the 1954 classic film “Journey To Italy”
May 24th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Director Roberto Rossellini is best known as a noted creator of the post-war Italian Neorealism movement with works like “Rome, Open City” (1945), but “Journey To Italy” is not a neorealist film (he had moved on by then) and, although it was shot in Italy with an Italian crew, almost all the dialogue is in […]
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A review of the new blockbuster movie “Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes”
May 23rd, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Following “Rise Of ..” (2011), “Dawn Of ..” (2014) and “War For ..” (2017), we now (2024) have the fourth film in the current series which makes a total of 10 movies in the whole “Planet Of The Apes” franchise that started as long ago as 1968 (I was in the cinema then). This work […]
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A review of the science fiction novel “The Dark Forest” by Cixin Liu
May 23rd, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Following “The Three-Body Problem”, this is the second novel in the ‘Remembrance of Earth’s Past’ trilogy by the noted Chinese science fiction writer. It was first published in Chinese in 2008 and then in English in 2015. While most of the first novel was set in the near future and concerned the threat of an […]
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A review the 1953 classic film “Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday”
May 17th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
In only his second film as a director, Jacques Tati introduced us to the character with whom he was to become synonymous. M. Hulot is the shy, gentle, unassuming, but constantly bumbling, Frenchman who is immediately recognisable with his long-stemmed pipe, his leaning forward awkwardly, and elbows pointing out with hands in the small of […]
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A review of the new movie “Challengers”
May 16th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
I have a much younger female friend who is a great tennis enthusiast and, when we saw the tennis movie “King Richard” (2021) together, she really enjoyed it. So I felt on firm ground when I suggested that we see “Challengers” – it features a considerable amount of tennis and has been both a critical […]
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