London Now and The Art of Literature. Review by Barbara Lewis. Leonardo da Vinci, creator of Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting sold yet, said: “painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen”. Seller of the Salvator Mundi in 2017, Christie’s, which is cultivating its image as so much more than a place where very rich people spend millions, has taken his words as part of the inspiration for an exhibition open free to the public that showcases teasingly the latest lots next to rarely seen, privately-held works that are not for sale.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Complete Series. Review by Alan Price. Hitchcock said he had always wanted to work in the short story. ‘The small simple tale of a single idea building to a turn, a twist at the end. A little shocker. The story that’s lost when stretched to the length of a movie.’
Poetry review – REQUIEM: P.W. Bridgman takes an in-depth look at Síofra McSherry’s long poem which faces loss and death
Nightmare Alley and The Razor’s Edge. Signal One Blu Rays 2022. Review by Alan Price. Nightmare was violently against the grain and a box office flop. And Razor resolutely conventional yet questioning societal norms was a huge hit. Both are the film children of Edmund Goulding who on the evidence of these films and others (The Old Maid and Dark Victory) was a fine director.
* The Summer 2022 issue of London Grip New Poetry features: *Charlotte Gann *Sally Festing *Pam Job *Mary Mulholland *Neil Leadbeater *Stephen Claughton *Brian Docherty *Mary Franklin *John Grey *Jane Simpson *Bob Cooper *Phil Connolly *Paul Stephenson *Elizabeth Smither *Gareth Writer-Davies *Stuart Henson *Rosemary Norman *Alison Campbell *Rod Whitworth *Stuart Handysides *Joan Michelson *Arthur Russell […]
Poetry review – DEAR LIFE: Rosie Johnston peruses a prize-winning pamphlet by Maya C Popa
The Lighthouse (2006). Review by Alan Price. The opening images of The Lighthouse (2006) set the scene for the film’s reoccurring visual motifs. Villagers, soon to be refugees, dancing and singing on a railway track. A badly burnt antiquarian book. The sleeping face, filmed on a train, of its female protagonist.
The Devil’s Trap – Blu Ray (Second Run). Review by Alan Price. The Devil’s Trap 1961) was directed by Frantisek Vlacil and is considered the first part of a loose trilogy of historical films that includes Marketa Lazarova (1967) and The Valley of the Bees (1967). All three films display an arresting black and white imagery that recalls Sergei Eisenstein – The Devil’s Trap’s pastoral lyricism evoking The General Line.
Poetry review – ARIAS OF CONSOLATION: Tim Cunningham is captivated by John Liddy’s hymn to Limerick and its history
Poetry review – KITCHENS AT NIGHT: D A Prince admires the mysterious energy running through Dean Browne’s poems
NO ONE HAS ANY INTENTION OF BUILDING A WALL: James Roderick Burns finds considerable power in a slim volume of short stories by Ruth Brandt
The Excursions of Mr Broucek. Review by Barbara Lewis. The Excursions of Mr Broucek is an opera like no other – or as Wasfi Kani, the founder and power behind the bold, brave and never daunted Grange Park Opera, puts it: “Cosi fan Tutti it isn’t.”
By Barbara Lewis • music, opera, theatre, year 2022 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, music, opera, theatre