Archive for June, 2020
A review of the 2013 film “Adore”
June 13th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
I guess that many people would call this a woman’s movie. It is based on a short short by a woman (the novella “The Grandmothers” by Doris Lessing); it is directed by a woman (Anne Fontaine from Luxembourg); and the leading roles are taken by two women (Robin Wright and Naomi Watts as Australian best […]
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A review of a 2001 biography of Winston Churchill by Roy Jenkins
June 9th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
In a public poll organised by the BBC in 2002, which generated more than one and a half million votes, Sir Winston Chuchill (1874-1965) was voted the greatest Briton ever. Certainly he was a remarkable man with some outstanding accomplishments, but he was a complex and controversial character. The son of a British Lord and […]
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A review of the film “American Made”
June 5th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
This 2017 film reminds me of “Charlie Wilson’s War” (2007) and especially “Air America” (1990) since all three deal with true-life covert American involvement in foreign wars which were so bizarre that the movies in question are a mixture of drama and comedy and, in the cases of both “American Made” and “Air America”, daredevil […]
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Most people have never heard of the Treaty Of Trianon – but Hungarians have never forgotten it
June 4th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
The Treaty of Trianon was signed on 4 June 1920 – 100 years ago today – at the Trianon Palace at Versailles in France. It was part of the settlement of the First World War and it was signed by representatives of Hungary on one side and the Allied Powers on the other. Why did […]
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Word of the day: exonym
June 2nd, 2020 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I had to look this word up when I saw in used by a friend in a Facebook posting (he’s a bit of a medical buff). It means: a name used by foreigners for a place (such as as Florence for Firenze or Londres for London) or a name used by foreigners to refer to […]
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The American tragedy: when black anger lashes out at the labour movement
June 1st, 2020 by Roger Darlington
A relative of mine in Seattle has suggested that I blog about the death of African-American George Floyd and the resultant protests and rioting. I hesitated because I’m aware of being British and of my white privilege. But an American friend of mine on Facebook has posted photographs of the Washington DC headquarters of the […]
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