celticman's blog

Happy as Lazzaro (2018) Film 4, written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/happy-as-lazzaro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_as_Lazzaro Happy as Lazzaro won the Best Screenplay at the Cannes Festival 2018. It’s quite simple yet quite complex. Setting the scene. A proposal. A peasant farmworkerwith his workmates come to ask for the hand in marriage of young girl. Lazzaro (Adriano Tardiolo) looks on smiling. Food and drink is prepared in the traditional way. An electric lightbulb is...

Notes on why Celtic Supporters Fly the Palestinian Flag.

Notes on why Celtic Supporters Fly the Palestinian Flag. Epitaph on a Tyrant W. H. Auden - 1907-1973 Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets. President Joe Biden offered some...

David Sedaris (2000) Me Talk Pretty One Day.

The book cover has a blurb from the Guardian : ‘Like an American Alan Bennet’. You might be asking what’s the Guardian and who is Alan Bennet? Why do we need more of him, especially if you’re American and already got David Sedaris. Like most writers David Sedaris writes about himself. Like most writers he tells the same story over and over while trying to capture new readers who’ll appreciate him for his literary talent, or at least pay him for...

Another Round (2020) Film 4, Screenplay by Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm, Director Thomas Vinterberg.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/another-round https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Round_(film) Another Round won an Oscar for The Best International Film 2021. Like most great stories the plot can be summed up in one line. Four teachers at the same school agree to get pissed every day. They call it an experiment. An aid to creativity and the better life they feel they’re missing out on. Psychiatrist Finn Skårderud’s theory — humans are...

A Fantastic Woman (2017) Film 4, Written by Sebastián Lelio and Gonzalo Maza and directed by Sebastián Lelio.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/a-fantastic-woman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fantastic_Woman Marina (Daniela Vega) is A Fantastic Woman or if you’re being picky, a fantastic transgender woman. Sebastián Lelio’s Oscar-winning drama is in many ways a revenge movie. Marina is a singer and part-time waiter who lives with her boyfriend, Orlando (Gonzalo Maza) in a smart apartment in Santiago. They have a dog, and he’s the type of older man...

Unreported World, Channel 4, 19th May 2023, Unreported-world-on-demand, Kenya’s Christian Death Cult.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/on-demand/75517-001 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65588273 Symeon Brown investigates how Pastor Paul Mackenzie, a former taxi driver and preacher of the coming apocalypse (who is in police custody) led to the mass murder or suicide of over 600 men, women and children and babies as young as two-months old. Pathologist Dr Goya reports that many of the victims of the exhumed bodies in...

Alan Radcliffe (2023) The Old Haunts.

For any of you unfamiliar with Glasgow dialect, The Old Haunts are the place you used to hang about when you were younger. Alan Radcliffe has pretty much nailed it in his debut novel. Part of the Fairlight (his publisher’s) Moderns. I’m not sure what that mean but it sounds like a good marketing gimmick. The Old Haunts speaks for itself. I’m tempted to give Alan Radcliffe the Great Scottish Writers tag I give to authors such as William...

Isobel Buchanan Reilly 1954—2023 (RIP).

Brian Reilly came to the door on Saturday to tell us his mum, Bel, had died. He likes to call Mary, Auntie Mary. She’s not really his aunt. But Mary’s son Alan and Robert washed through their house in Trafalgar Street, when the world was young, much the same as they washed through this house. Bel wasn’t their Auntie either. Mums knew better than God these things didn’t matter. The more Auntie Mary persisted in asking if he wanted anything, the...

US, BBC 2 10pm, BBC iPlayer, written and directed by Jordan Peele.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rjvp/us https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peele If you’ve a spare two hours and don’t mind watching a zombie movie, batter in. I was intrigued. I misread the premise was something to do with doppelgangers. Strictly speaking that’s true. A black and upper-middle-class family of dad, mom and their two children go on holiday to the beach. They meet their demonic doppelgangers who come from a hole in the...

Uncanny, BBC 2, 9pm, Episode 1, ‘Miss Howard,’ presented by Danny Robbin, assisted by experts Evelyn Hollow and Ciarán James O'Keeffe, Director Joe Myerscough.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001rcl0/episodes/guide https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001rckl I admit to having previous here. I listened to Danny Robbin and his team’s Podcast such as The Battersea Poltergeist , The Witch Farm and even one of his lesser known fares the Uncanny Podcast series, The Angel in the Bathroom . Danny Robbins has made the big time now he’s on prime time telly, well kinda, BBC2, but it is 9pm and that’s primetime...

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