Tenet (Christopher Nolan, 2020)
complexity. their of because follow to impossible almost are that thrillers intellectual producing for reputation a gained has Nolan Christopher, Curiously. Continue reading →
Author / flares
Unbelouvrable
A Night at the Louvre: Leonardo da Vinci (Pierre-Hubert Martin, 2020)
Don’t confuse this with the Night at the Museum series of films — those sound like a whole lot more fun, but I’ve never seen them.
This film does something remarkable. Continue reading →
Sally Potter and the Deathly Allows
The Roads not Taken (Sally Potter, 2020)
Potter has produced some tremendous films over the years — Orlando and The Man Who Cried, plus Ginger & Rosa and The Party — and the initial success of the latter allowed her to make this deeply uncomfortable film, inspired by caring for her brother, Nic Potter, the bassist for the rock group Van der Graaf Generator. Continue reading →
Eavesdropping
Nicolaes Maes: Dutch Master of the Golden Age (National Gallery, London)
Tucked away on the ground floor of the National Gallery has been an exhibition devoted to Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693), an almost industrial producer of portraits – some 900, apparently – but earlier in his career better known genre pictures. In fact, such is the divide, that some critics have suggested there were two artists on the same name.
The Hand of Dog
Alan Bennett, The Outside Dog (directed by Nadia Fall, Br/dge Theatre)
Alan Bennett, The Hand of God (directed by Jonathan Kent, Br/dge Theatre)
I’m not sure that I ever saw the second season of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues and I certainly haven’t seen The Bridge’s TV remakes. Probably, I should. Continue reading →
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Max Richter’s Sleep (Natalie Johns, 2019)
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzz zzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Continue reading →
Hop Gape
Hope Gap (William Nicholson, 2019)
Curiously, for a film set in Seaford in East Sussex, parts of this were filmed in Yorkshire. And this is just a couple of weeks after what may well be the same East Sussex cliffs stood in for East Kent. I look forward to Folkstone being the location for a remake of Wuthering Heights. Continue reading →
Hard to Beat
David Hare, Beat the Devil (directed by Nicholas Hytner, Br/dge Theatre)
So, here we are again, but with a piece of theatre before a piece of theatre – a specific entry time (ignored in practice), some kind of thermal imaging camera to detect The Plague, an auditorium all but stripped of chairs, a stage with a chair and a desk and little else… Continue reading →
Has a Screw Lose
Unhinged (Derrick Borte, 2020)
Apparently, this was the first new film released since cinemas reopened — have we not suffered enough? Are we willing to accept any old guff or Christopher Nolan?
Continue reading →
Deception
Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)
Nolan is one of those directors who flatters his audiences into thinking they are intelligent — at least in the half of his output which tries to be thinky, rather than the superhero tosh which somehow gets away with have a Gotham City that is so male that Batman and one of the villains are dating the same woman.
Oh, and gotta kill those wives.
With the possible exception of The Prestige (which flattens its source material), it’s been downhill since Following and Memento. (I confess I’ve not seen Insomnia, as I suspect it is not in the same league as Erik Skjoldbjærg’s original.)
Part of me is happy to see Michael Caine in anything, but as with Bill Nighy and Tilda Swinton, sometimes I suffer for their art.
I had seen Inception before — on DVD — and, appropriately, I’d forgotten most of it, aside from the criminal underuse of Ellen Page. So, the big screen rerelease to drum up interest in Tenet seemed like a good reason to see it large. And inevitably, I have to talk about the ending. Continue reading →
Subject to Change 