Archive for December, 2022
A review of the 1927 novel “Steppenwolf” by Hermann Hesse
December 30th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
German-Swiss Hermann Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946 and “Steppenwolf” – one of his most famous works – was published in 1927. In an Author’s Note of 1961, Hesse wrote that “of all my books ‘Steppenwolf’ is the one that was more often and more violently misunderstood than any other”. He had […]
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A review of the movie “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”
December 28th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
“Knives Out” was a critical and commercial success and, while I enjoyed it, I found it overrated. Three years later, thanks to Netflix, we have a new murder mystery again written and directed by Rian Johnson. Of course, Benoit Blanc is back as the world’s greatest detective, but Daniel Craig is no better at effecting […]
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Sadly Ukraine is not the only war …
December 28th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
“A war is raging that has cost more than an estimated 600,000 lives. Its victims have borne witness to shocking human rights abuses and, tragically, civilians have been deliberately targeted. Tens of thousands of women have been raped. It has lasted two years and is happening today, yet the chances are you don’t even know […]
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A review of “Avatar: The Way Of Water”
December 23rd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
When in 2009 I enjoyed the original “Avatar” in 3D and IMAX on the largest screen in Britain (the BFI’s flagship screen), I never imagined that it would take 13 years before I would be able to see the (first) sequel, but I made a point of seeing it in the same format on the […]
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A sign of these economically troubled times
December 23rd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
A message today from the hotel in Milton Keynes where I’ll be sleeping this Christmas: “We’re so excited to be welcoming you to stay with us once again. But, much like many businesses across the UK, we’ve been experiencing supply chain issues across a number of different areas, including team shortages, which unfortunately puts some […]
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A review of the new Netflix film “Rogue Agent”
December 17th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
This Netflix movie is a small work in the sense that there are no special effects or great cinematography and no real action sequences, but it tells an interesting story which is based on a real case. Robert Freegard was an imposter and conman who pretended to be an MI5 agent and swindled a succession […]
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Are British strikers being unreasonable?
December 16th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
“The notion of “union baron”, boogeymen/women rallying workers to the picket line at a click of their finger, is wide of the mark by a country mile. When a strike happens, it is because any semblance of good industrial relations between workers and employers has failed. Legal strikes require a vote, a high turnout, and […]
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A review of the 2020 film “Let Him Go”
December 13th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I’d never heard of this movie until I can across it on Netflix. I guess its misfortune was to be released during the covid pandemic so I doubt that many people saw it at the cinema. Truth be told, I’m not sure that I would have bothered to see it a theatre but it is […]
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A review of the film version of “Seven Years In Tibet”
December 11th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
It took me 25 years to view this 1997 film and, by then, I’d visited China four times but never managed to reach Tibet. In fact, although there was some secret filming in the Chinese-occupied territory, most of the stunning scenery in this work was shot in Argentina. So the film looks wonderful and it […]
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A review of the 2018 Battle of Britain film “Hurricane”
December 7th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
What “Dark Blue World” in 2001 did for Czechoslovaks in the wartime Royal Air Force, “Hurricane” – which had different titles in Poland and the USA – in 2018 did for Polish pilots in the RAF, namely paid tribute to brave men who left their Nazi-controlled nations to fight for liberty but were subsequently erased […]
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