Francis Bacon: Man and Beast. Review by Graham Buchan. “Life is suffering”. If you need visual confirmation of that, look no further than this great exhibition of Francis Bacon’s work.
Graham Buchan
West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg In the new West Side Story Leonard Bernstein’s magnificent music and Stephen Sondheim’s incisive and witty lyrics have all been preserved and bring as much pleasure as before.
Late Constable, Royal Academy. Review by Graham Buchan. Frankly, I find it hard to imagine anyone liking the bulk of Constable’s works more than the bulk of Turner’s. The two painters, almost exact contemporaries, differed in their backgrounds and their approaches to their art.
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.
Leopoldstadt Wyndham’s Theatre until October 30th 2021 Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt would have been better as a TV mini-series rather than this sprawling, over-populated two and a quarter hour play without an intermission. It is a long watch and although eminently worthwhile, feels too much like a history lesson.
Oleanna, by David Mamet. Arts Theatre. Review by Graham Buchan. David Mamet has had a substantial forty-year plus career writing plays and films which drill into the deeper recesses of the American psyche with unrelenting precision.
THE MIRROR & THE LIGHT. The final part of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy came out just before the pandemic: a year later Graham Buchan looks back on the whole sequence.
Paula Rego, Tate Britain. Review by Graham Buchan. The Anglo-Portuguese artist Paula Rego, now in her 86th year, has forged a long career in a variety of media including sculpture and etchings.
The Duke. Review by Graham Buchan. In The Duke the director Roger Michell establishes exactly the right tone from the outset and maintains it steadily right up to the film’s very satisfying conclusion.
By Graham Buchan • film, year 2022 • Tags: film, Graham Buchan