Spencer. Review by Graham Buchan. Pablo Larrain’s Spencer achieves a great deal that the other major bio-pic, Diana, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and released in 2013, did not.
Director David Greene has gone on record as saying that he finds upheaval in society to be dramatic and exciting. “I like my films to be a sort of reportage of the world around the action.” For me this accurately describes the effect of his three remarkable films of the late sixties. I Start Counting (1969), The Shuttered Room (1968) and The Strange Affair (1968) reveal a brilliantly confident sense of circumvention of plot and action.
Thesmophoria in ancient Greek religion is a festival typically held in late autumn in honour of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. A celebration of human and agricultural fertility, it has been interpreted as the carrying on of things laid down.
BALLET FOR MURDERERS: Charles Rammelkamp reviews a poetry and prose collection by Richard Wayne Horton
In their humble domestic lives, my grandmothers were not romantic and did not fight for civil or women’s rights. They did not personify any ideal of femininity or heroic endeavour. They simply carried on with their ordinary lives caring for their families and working hard.
Poetry review – RENTED: Pat Edwards engages with a challenging collection by Sue Johns
Scottish stand-up comedian Daniel Sloss is a centurion by his own admission – in other words, he has slept with at least 100 women. One triggered the dark outpouring Jigsaw, which became a Netflix sensation, notorious for causing more than 300 divorces, 350 cancelled engagements and 120,000 breakups – so far.
Rarely does the cinema provide us with such perfect opportunities for directly (and appropriately) comparing the work of two very different auteurs, but the release, just two months apart, of Jean-Luc Godard’s 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her and Luis Bunuel’s Belle de Jour, provides just such an opportunity.
100 POETS. A LITTLE ANTHOLOGY: Kevin Saving considers the selections made and not made for a new anthology compiled by John Carey
Poetry review – DANGEROUS PURSUIT OF YELLOW: Thomas Ovans gets to grips with a collection of challenging and colourful poems by Annie Wright
Poetry review – TRACK RECORD: Kate Noakes enjoys a book of railway-related poems by Sue Johns
Poetry review – PHOENIX: Neil Fulwood is moved and encouraged by the spirit of reconciliation and collaboration running through this collection by Antony Owen
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, history, poetry reviews, politics, year 2021 • Tags: books, history, Neil Fulwood, poetry, politics