Category Archives: Film

les miserables and die hard

Posted on January 19, 2019 by Houyhnhnm

les miserables what is it about les mis? four brilliant tunes, an epic plot rattled through at 200 novel-pages a minute, a series of injustices and pathetic deaths ending in those of the protagonists: the baddy jumping off a bridge, … Continue reading →

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a fish called wanda and brief answers to the big questions by stephen hawking

Posted on January 9, 2019 by Houyhnhnm

a fish called wanda some great moments, but overall disappointing; (‘sir’) michael palin’s stutter is always a little painful, but it was the (to modern eyes) slow editing which got me – and the sexism – both made it seem … Continue reading →

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the song of the sea & bohemian rhapsody

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Houyhnhnm

the song of the sea a chunkily animated irish folk-tale cartoon about a lighthouse-keeper, his selkie (seal-mermaid) lover, and their children; set in modern ireland, the story tells of children discovering their parents’, and their own, identities it’s beautiful to … Continue reading →

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the ape that understood the universe by steve stewart-williams and the dallas buyers guide

Posted on December 29, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

the ape that understood the universe by steve stewart-williams long-windedly and irritatingly covers the ground: first Darwinian natural selection of GENES, taking an explicitly and alternately triumphant and apologetic counter-zeitgeist stance that more of human nature is biological, genetic, than … Continue reading →

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they shall not grow old & troilus and cressida

Posted on December 11, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

they shall not grow old a project where technical brilliance is the direct explanation of emotional power: peter jackson’s restoration of the imperial war museum’s footage is, more than his shaping of the story and the effect of the oral-history … Continue reading →

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denial & shaun of the dead

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

denial timothy spall’s brilliant portrayal of hitler-admiring and holocaust-denier david irving, tom wilkinson’s patrician barrister, andrew scott’s arch lawyer, and rachel weisz’s deborah lipstadt: all reasons to remember this film it’s about holocaust-denial, of course, but in terms of genre … Continue reading →

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romeo and juliet, & mahler’s 8th symphony

Posted on July 28, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

romeo and juliet (south woodford odeon, live-streamed from stratford (the other one) like the rory kinnear macbeth, the dead rise and walk – and not just the scripted banquo; this romeo and juliet has first the slain mercutio and tybalt, … Continue reading →

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luisa miller & ordeal of innocence

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

luisa miller (live from the met, south woodford odeon) even my dad hadn’t heard of this opera by verdi; and the english surname of its heroine certainly feels unusual in this italian-language melodrama with a count and a guy called … Continue reading →

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wittgenstein’s poker & patience (after sebald)

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

wittgenstein’s poker a meeting of the moral sciences club in king’s college cambridge in 1946, where, allegedly, wittgenstein brandished a poker threateningly at karl popper: not much material for a book, you might think – but not so, dear reader, … Continue reading →

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selma & gandhi

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Houyhnhnm

selma a film i hadn’t seen when it came out, but was prompted to by some ministry at quakers; this also led to gandhi the following night – a film i’d meant to see but hadn’t what struck me most … Continue reading →

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