Archive for the 'film' Category

This fly-on-the-wall documentary was one of about three programmes that made up the BBC Four so-called Beatles Week. It was filmed by Albert and David Maysles, and is a reworking of an 81-minute film they made in 1964 called What’s Happening! The Beatles in the USA.
Some of the footage is familiar from the Anthology series, [...]


Released in 1990, Trust has only been available on DVD in some territories. I discovered the fact of its availability in France relatively recently. Thinking to avoid the extortionate Amazon.fr postage costs, I decided to look for it in Fnac, a well-known entertainment/electronics emporium, on one of my regular visits to France. No luck there [...]


Start Wreck

10May09

When I was around 8 years old, I gave up the cub scouts because it was on the same night as Star Trek. This would have been 1971, I suppose. I loved it, but I never loved it obsessively. It fitted with my love of science fiction, but I didn’t rate it highly enough to [...]


In Film Club at school this week, we watched Air Guitar Nation, the 2006* documentary about the 2003 World Air Guitar Championships in Oulu, Finland, which were entered that yearby Americans for the first time.
I got three punters, all KS5-ers, and we all enjoyed it a great deal. It’s not only funny, warm, full of [...]


1. There’s an interview with Phil Spector on TV tonight, being trailed as his first for three centuries. Ironically, one of the last he gave – for Tony Palmer’s All You Need is Love series – was on a couple of weeks ago. So not that long really.
Radio Times describes Phil as the greatest record [...]


This week’s film in Film Club was The Spirit of the Beehive, a 1973 Spanish film set during the aftermath of the Civil War. A travelling projectionist shows James Whale’s Frankenstein in an isolated village. Two young girls, sisters, watch the film. Meanwhile, their beautiful mother sends a love letter to an absent lover, while [...]


Waitress

12Oct08

Waitress was written and directed by Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered in the apartment she used as an office in New York City shortly after the film was accepted at the Sundance Film Festival. It didn’t cost much to make, and was eventually bought by Fox Searchlight for around $4 or $5 million, taking over [...]


I bought a new belt, as do-it-yourself belt holes tend to be unsatisfactory. As of right now, I’m officially a Medium in belt sizes, not a Large. This is because I have dropped around 7kg (a stone… ish) since starting WeightWatchers (online) just under 6 weeks ago.
You don’t need to be a maths genius to [...]


rose, originally uploaded by mcmrbt.

Further to the recent Dire Straits controversy, I decided to spend the 79 pence to get the 8.5 minute live version (from Alchemy). Most of the extra minutes on the recording are shockingly bad 80s stadium rock filler, so the core of the song itself is basically the same.

On my main [...]


Juno vs. Wade

10Feb08

Went to see Juno last night, one of three films released this week given five-star reviews by such outlets as the Guardian. Even Kermode was mostly positive about it.
I enjoyed the film. Ellen Page is a star, and the one-liners in the script were funny. Interesting question in my mind as to audience, given the [...]