The Rise & Rise of Chatbots ‘… users are now having genuine problems parsing reality. Peruse AI chat forums and you’ll see women asking one another if they should tell their husband that they’re having an affair with their chatbot.’ Tim Elliott, AGE newspaper article In Bot we trust One of my … [Read more…]
Wild and Wicked Famous women are frequently sensationalized to provide historical fodder for films, plays, operas and books. Facts are wilfully ignored because wickedness, orgies, incest, violence, psychological abuse and criminal activity will always find an audience. Cleopatra was frequently represented as an objectified woman. Everyone from Cicero to Shakespeare used her to … [Read more…]
The Queen of Crime ‘Poetry is not the most important thing in life … I’d much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.’ Welsh poet Dylan Thomas author of Under Milk Wood (1954). It was described by Thomas as ‘prose with blood pressure’. Agatha Christie was a prolific … [Read more…]
Poor Things ‘She (Bella Baxter) thinks that all aspects of life are fascinating because she is in love with being alive. I find that very inspiring. I wish I could live like that more often. Whether she is going through an incredible experience or a really difficult one, she gives an equal weight to … [Read more…]
Napoleon Bonaparte ‘I have not spent a day without loving you; I have not spent a night without clasping you in my arms; I have not drunk a cup of tea without cursing the glory and ambition which keep me from the heart of my very being. In the midst of my … [Read more…]
Are we amused? ‘I guess when I think about it, one of the things I like to dramatize, and what is sometimes funny, is someone coming unglued. I don’t consider myself someone who is making the argument that I support these choices. I just think it can be funny Wes Anderson … [Read more…]
ASTEROID CITY There’s comedy and tragedy in real life. And there’s a need to not play comedy overtly in comedy, unless you’re doing something that’s very superficially funny … but the key is to be well in on that joke and play it very straight … That’s what kills, right?” Adrien Brody who plays … [Read more…]
Indiana Jones Rides Again A bad guy in a movie has a lot of latitude for acting. He can walk up the wall, crawl across the ceiling, go piss in the corner and everybody will say, “Fantastic!” But somebody’s going to have to catch that sucker. Somebody’s going to have to play the guy … [Read more…]
Manipulation by Gaslight The term ‘gaslight’ can refer to psychological manipulation. The concept was derived from a play in 1938 and later a British film titled ‘Gaslight’ in 1940. In 1944 there was also an American movie version of the same name. In the 1940 film, a husband tries to persuade his wife she … [Read more…]
Venus in a Fur Bikini ‘My name is Raquel Welch. I am here for visual effects, and I have two of them.’ Raquel Welch came to fame after starring in One Million Years B.C. in 1966. She only had three lines in the film but her fur bikini – made from deer skin … [Read more…]
Babylon Babylon is a test of whether or not a film can be the sum of its gorgeous pieces. A great score, a talented ensemble, and expert cinematography—all are undeniable here. And yet there are narrative elements of Babylon that feel hollow from the very beginning … Brian Tallerico Babylon clocks in at … [Read more…]
Breakfast at Tiffany’s All his prayers in the past had been simple concrete requests: God, give me a bicycle, a knife with seven blades, a box of oil paints. Only how, how, could you say something so indefinite, so meaningless as this: God, let me be loved. Other Voices by Truman Capote. … [Read more…]
Hollywood Dame – Zsa Zsa Gabor ‘A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he’s finished.’ Zsa Zsa Gabor In the fifties and sixties, Zsa Zsa Gabor became more famous for playing herself than the films, stage shows and television shows she appeared in. Born in Budapest and … [Read more…]
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ‘I overheard Dorothy tell Major Falcon that she liked to become intoxicated once in a dirty while.’ Lorelei Lee from Anita Loos novella, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. One of my favourite books is a hardcover 1926, tenth edition of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. So popular was Anita Loos’ novella that … [Read more…]
Bond. James Bond. The first 007 movie was released nearly sixty years ago. There have been six James Bond British secret agents: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan & Daniel Craig. Much has been made of Daniel Craig’s fifth and final Bond movie, No Time To Die. I won’t … [Read more…]
FLASH GORDON ‘Flash, Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!’ Flash Gordon (1980) Ming the Merciless from the planet Mongo, has a delightfully wicked line in evil patter – ‘Pathetic Earthlings … Who can save you now? ’ Played by Max von Sydow, … [Read more…]
BARBARELLA Barbarella psychedella, There’s a kind of cockleshell about you. Dazzle me with rainbow colour; Fade away the duller shade of living. Theme song from Barbarella. When it first hit me just how serious COVID_19 was, the original 1982 Bladerunner movie (set in an apocalyptic world in 2019) suddenly seemed prophetic. I wanted … [Read more…]
To Proust or not to Proust ‘One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory’. Rita Mae Brown Memories get a bad wrap from quite a lot of folk, including Rita Mae Brown. Yet so many song lyrics dwell on memories. Love songs frequently combine memories with intense regret, and in turn … [Read more…]
Paolo Sorrentino – The Pope Maker ‘Face it, I didn’t become famous until I took my clothes off.’ ‘I always wanted to be an actor and not a beauty pageant winner.’ Jude Law Jude Law plays Lenny Belardo, Pope Pious XIII in The Young Pope & The New Pope. Paolo … [Read more…]
Jack’s Story Jack Charles – Aboriginal Elder, film and stage actor, potter, indigenous activist and former cat burglar – is a brilliant storyteller. His gift of writing from the heart, provided him with cachet and respect when imprisoned. He would sit down with illiterate inmates, discuss what was required and then pen deeply felt … [Read more…]
‘He is more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.’ Catherine defining her obsession with Heathcliff. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I’ve been sneaking back to the classics on those chilly nights when all you want to do after dinner is curl up with … [Read more…]
THE LEOPARD One of the most astonishing things about the novel, The Leopard is that it was initially rejected by major publishing houses. Yet when it was finally published in 1958, it was acknowledged to be a masterpiece. Unfortunately by this time the author, Giuseppe di Lampedusa had died at the age of sixty … [Read more…]
The Man in the Moon Half a century ago Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin walked on the moon. On July 20 2019 their moon landing of July 1969 will be celebrated worldwide. Given that there’s no atmosphere on the moon, it’s possible that Armstrong and Aldrin’s footsteps may still visible on the moon’s … [Read more…]
Vive la France! I’m thinking of taking a trip to Europe next year and Paris is already on the itinerary. I’ve been there a few times but too much Paris is never enough. Cole Porter wrote the lyrics to I Love Paris and just about everyone recorded it. Frank Sinatra sang it for decades, … [Read more…]