SUBSCRIBE

Tag: history

Film Reviews

The Woman King

Friday, November 4th, 2022 Film Reviews,

Viola Davis is known as a character actor who strives to bring psychological depth to the roles she plays. Who would have imagined that all Viola really wanted to do was get a cool aircut, dress up in battle gear, and go around waving a huge sword? This is pretty much what she does in […]

Film Reviews

Lost Illusions

Friday, July 1st, 2022 Film Reviews,

  Everything is taxed, everything is sold, everything is manufactured, even success.                                                                                                          […]

Art Column

Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto

Thursday, February 10th, 2022 Art Column,

“I am not a heroine,” Gabrielle Chanel told one of her biographers. “But I have chosen the person I wanted to be and am. Too bad if I am disliked and unpleasant.” Like most things this famous couturiere said, this statement requires unpacking. Madame Chanel could be extremely unpleasant, but also wildly generous. She was […]

Film Reviews

The Last Duel

Thursday, October 21st, 2021 Film Reviews,

Clang! Crunch! Swish! On leaving the cinema after seeing Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, the sounds of battle still ring in one’s mind. Over two-and-a-half hours Scott unleashes a series of ferocious battle scenes, and a final showdown between two armoured combatants that leaves nothing to the imagination. As we remember from features such as […]

Film Reviews

How to Become a Tyrant

Saturday, July 17th, 2021 Film Reviews,

Politics is a fascinating game, but hard to win. Under the yoke of a tyrant people clamour for democracy but after generations of democratic rule they hanker for a strongman to come and make all their decisions for them. As we watch the United States careening towards a complete crack-up, with millions of people obsessed […]

Film Reviews

Martin Eden

Friday, June 18th, 2021 Film Reviews,

Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden is getting a limited release in Sydney and Melbourne but it deserves a much bigger audience. It’s a huge film – not in terms of running length, but in its themes, its characters and ambitions – the latest in an outstanding sequence of foreign-language titles that have overshadowed anything produced by […]

Film Reviews

De Gaulle

Friday, May 7th, 2021 Film Reviews,

Charles De Gaulle was an imposing figure, both physically and morally. Standing at 196 cms, he was a man almost everyone looked up to. As leader-in-exile of the French Resistance, the head of the provisional post-war government, and the nation’s dominant political figure of the 20th century, De Gaulle enjoyed an unshakable power and prestige. […]

Film Reviews

Judas and the Black Messiah

Saturday, March 20th, 2021 Film Reviews,

“Fred Hampton” may not be a name that rings any bells, but after watching Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah you wont be forgetting it quickly. This historical drama of the 60s is driven by a memorable performance by Daniel Kaluuya in the role of the youthful Black Panther supremo. King’s theme, needless to […]

Film Reviews

Ammonite

Friday, January 15th, 2021 Film Reviews,

An ammonite is a mollusc with a distinctive spiral shell that flourished in the Devonian period, (400 million years ago) and died out at the end of the Cretaceous, (roughly 66 million BCE). In biological terms that was a pretty good run. Homo sapiens will be lucky to survive for even a fraction of this […]

Art Column

Endeavour Voyage

Tuesday, September 29th, 2020 Art Column,

In the Bicentenary celebrations of 1970 Captain Cook was hailed as the discoverer of Australia. At primary school we received a special booklet telling us about the great navigator and his achievements. There were commemorative coins, badges and postage stamps. Every form of sporting competition had its dedication to Cook – from surf life-saving to […]