Archive for March, 2023
A review of a fascinating book on the making of the classic film “Lawrence Of Arabia”
March 12th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
“Lawrence Of Arabia” by Kevin Jackson (2007) The film “Lawrence Of Arabia” (1962) is my favourite cinematic work and to date (2023) I have seen it 12 times, so I thoroughly enjoyed this short (127 pages) examination of the making of the movie, which is one of the books in the British Film Institute Film […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Would you like to see inside the Global Seed Vault in the Norwegian Arctic?
March 8th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
“Jutting out of the permafrost on a mountainside on Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago, the entrance to the world’s “doomsday” seed vault is worthy of any James Bond movie. Surrounded by snow, ice and the occasional polar bear, the facility houses 1.2m seed samples from every corner of the planet as an insurance policy against […]
Posted in Environment | Comments (0)
A review of the new Italian film “Nostalgia”
March 7th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
My mother was from Naples and took us there twice as children, so the city has a special place in my heart. Naturally, therefore, I was attracted to this 2022 Italian film, co-written and directed by Mario Martone and based on a 2016 novel, which is shot mainly in the impoverished Rione Sanità district of […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
So, just how important are our friends?
March 7th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
“Building your life around close friendships rather than family or romance is a joyous and necessary act of rebellion, and governments should put in place ‘friendship ministries’ to radically rethink the way society is organised, a key French philosopher has argued. Geoffroy de Lagasnerie this week publishes a manifesto for friendship, ‘3 Une Aspiration au […]
Posted in Cultural issues, Science & technology | Comments (0)
A review op the 2022 Korean film “Broker”
March 5th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I admired and enjoyed the 2018 Japanese film “Shoplifters” which was written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. In this 2020 work – which again he both writes and directs – he switches both location and language to South Korea, although he reprises some familiar themes. The core of this story is the notion of a […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the 1975 film “Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai du Commerce, 1800 Bruxelles”
March 2nd, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Every ten years, the prestigious magazine “Sight And Sound” conducts a poll to nominate the top 100 films of all time and, in 2022, the No 1 was “Jeanne Dielman”. In spite of over 60 years of serious film-viewing, I’d never even heard of this work but, when the British Film Institute screened all 100 […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)