I have loved the work of René Magritte ever since I first encountered it as a teenager at the start of the 1970s; indeed, one of the very first books on art that I bought, in 1974, was Suzi Gablik’s seminal study of the Belgian’s oeuvre, published by Thames and Hudson. (It’s still on my … Continue reading This Is Not a Review: Magritte in London
Good movies about jazz or set in the jazz milieu are far from common, so if you’ve any interest in the musical form – or, needless to say, if you’re a fan of the titular pianist – you should certainly make an effort to catch Everybody Digs Bill Evans. Not that you need to love … Continue reading Bill Evans the Movie: Reasons to Dig…
My tardiness in posting a brief tribute to the late, great film producer Jeremy Thomas – who died last Friday, aged 77 – was due not only to the fact that, at the time of his death, I myself was just out of hospital and having to take it easy after a fairly serious operation; … Continue reading The Film Producer as Mensch: Remembering Jeremy Thomas
If you’re tired of superhero fantasies (and yes, I do include Nolan’s The Odyssey) and often disappointed by what now seems to pass for a substantial art-movie – think Almodóvar’s elegant, intelligent but rather lifelessly academic Bitter Christmas or Anna Cazenave Cambet’s heartfelt but underwritten and cliché-fraught Love Me Tender, neither of which moved me … Continue reading The Poetry of Film: ‘Late Fame’
I may not have written here before about Éric Rohmer, but anyone familiar with my writings for Time Out and Sight & Sound or my programming for the BFI will probably be aware that I’ve long held the late, great French writer-director in especially high esteem. Indeed, for two or three decades, until his death … Continue reading New before the New Wave: Éric Rohmer, novelist
There’s been a great deal of discussion about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, so why shouldn’t I join the fray? While I like to keep an open mind before I see a movie, in this case I suspected I’d be a sympathetic viewer, since Nolan is one of the relatively few directors working in the American … Continue reading But is it Homer? Some thoughts on ‘The Odyssey’
It is incredibly hard to write these words so soon after my remembrances of Tony Rayns and Brian Case, especially since I learned of the death of the film programmer, festival director and producer Simon Field just a few hours on the same day after hearing of Brian’s. But of the three – whose paths … Continue reading Remembering Simon Field (1946-26): programmer, producer and dear, dear friend
I’ve arrived, sadly but inevitably, at that age where one keeps hearing that friends and former colleagues have passed on. Just a week or two ago, it was Tony Rayns; now, another person I encountered during my years at Time Out, and another terrific writer: Brian Case. (In many ways these two men could not … Continue reading Man of music (movies, and much more): in memoriam Brian Case (1937-2026)
It was with great sadness that I learned yesterday of the recent death of Tony Rayns, one of the most important, insightful and influential figures in international film culture during the last half-century. For me, as for many others, he was not only a hugely valued colleague but a friend and, to some degree, something … Continue reading Tony Rayns (1948-2026): A Supreme Cinephile Remembered
Almost exactly a year ago, I posted a piece about the (to me still unfamiliar but) utterly exhilarating experience I’d just had in singing the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth with a local choir, the Queen’s Park Singers – an ode to joy indeed, given that I’d only joined them a few months before, with … Continue reading Singing the Schumanns (and a bit more Brahms)
June 1st saw the centenary of the birth of Norma Jeane Mortenson, far better known as Marilyn Monroe, whose iconic status remains as vital and widespread today as it was at the time of her sad, premature death on August 4th, 1962. (I was just eight years old when her demise was announced, but I … Continue reading On Marilyn (and Buñuel): images, images, still and moving.
There are two exhibitions which recently opened in London that have a connection with Diego Velázquez – for me, as for so many, one of the very greatest painters in the history of art. The first – devoted to Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), at the National Gallery – is a clear link, since he and … Continue reading Great art in London: Zurbarán and Whistler
I’ve been listening to some very interesting new music recently (more about which soon-ish, I hope), but nothing has been more welcome than a Carla Bley double CD entitled Joyful Noise – a somewhat unexpected treat since the great bandleader, composer, arranger, keyboards player and occasional singer died around two and a half years ago. … Continue reading Joyful indeed: new(?) music from Carla Bley
I’m not about to explain, once more, my reasons for always wanting to catch any new movie (or any small screen fare, for that matter) by Steven Soderbergh; I already wrote about my enduring interest in his work in posts about Black Bag and Presence and about his low-budget web series Command Z. But that … Continue reading The Christophers: another gem from Steven Soderbergh
It was with considerable sadness that I learned of the death, a few days ago, of the great composer, bandleader, pianist and occasional horn-player Mike Westbrook, just weeks after his 90th birthday. Sadly, I never met him (though I exchanged a few emails with him and his wife Kate during the last couple of years), … Continue reading In Memory of a Musical Titan: RIP Mike Westbrook (1936-2026)
Regular readers will probably be aware of my high regard for the ECM label – its disdain for the limitations of musical borders, the roster of musicians, the pellucid sound, the readiness to release programmes many other companies would never consider – but one thing I haven’t really addressed is how often ECM albums boast … Continue reading But Is It Jazz? Two… no, three new albums
One of the pleasures I derived last year from visiting the National Gallery’s ‘Radical Harmony’ exhibition devoted to the neo-impressionists was the opportunity it afforded to reassess the work of Georges Seurat. Though I’d been familiar (or so I thought…) with his experiments in pointillism since my teens, I had always found pictures like Bathers … Continue reading Seascapes by Seurat, Faces by Freud: two new London exhibitions
The first time I encountered Peter Howden was shortly after I moved to London in the autumn of 1976. I had moved into a seedy basement flat in Westbourne Park, and the similarly seedy Electric Cinema Club, five minutes’ walk away in Portobello Road, soon became my second home. There was a bearded, bespectacled guy … Continue reading Man of the Cinema: one or two things I know about Peter Howden (1945-2026)
These days, each and every year I get to thinking that the state of the world can’t get any worse, then something comes along to prove me wrong. I needn’t give examples here; suffice to say that, for me at least, the arts have become ever more important as a solace and distraction, above and … Continue reading My best movies, music, books, etc of 2025
I’ll confess that when I first read that Tate Britain was to mount an exhibition entitled Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals, I wasn’t exactly filled with excitement. Don’t get me wrong: Turner has been one of my favourite artists ever since I first saw his work at the Tate in my mid-teens, and while … Continue reading Turner and Constable Together: surely a must-see show
December again. For some years, I've posted recommendations for recent BluRay/DVD releases, CDs and books that might be of use for anyone wondering what Christmas gifts to buy. (I find choosing presents very difficult, so am myself always open to ideas from friends.) So here we go once more. I hope some of the suggestions … Continue reading Movies, music and books for Christmas – and beyond…
Until the recent release of a three-disc BluRay set on Criterion’s ‘Eclipse’ series, most of the films by the late, very great Iranian writer-director Abbas Kiarostami made before his 1986 breakthrough feature Where Is the Friend’s House? have been almost impossible to see, surfacing only at occasional retrospectives around the world. With the sole exception … Continue reading Kiarostami at Kanoon: Early Jewels from a Cinematic Giant
I’ve generally been more admiring of Alan Bennett’s books and his writing for television (particularly the superb Talking Heads monologues) than of the films either adapted from his plays or based, in the case of A Private Function, on an original screenplay. Still, I’ve counted myself a Bennett fan since first encountering him in the … Continue reading Singing of Love and War: Alan Bennett’s The Choral
To return, or not to return, that is the question… More than half a century ago, as a teenage classicist at Northampton Grammar School, I recall (if memory still serves) being taught not only that the ‘Elgin Marbles’ were extraordinary sculptures that I should go and see at the British Museum should I get the … Continue reading The Marbles: a new doc about an old controversy
Many years ago – in the late 1980s or early 90s – my friend Tony Benn (no, not the politician, but a painter with good taste in music) marked my birthday by giving me a then recently released album entitled Arbos. It was my first encounter with the music of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, … Continue reading Winds from the East: five fine new musical delights
It is our loss that Michael Haneke, undoubtedly one of the most important writer-directors of recent times – and, in my opinion (for what that’s worth) probably our greatest living filmmaker – seems no longer to be at work. Before Covid hit, the Austrian had apparently written a television series about the effects of globalisation … Continue reading More Gems from Michael Haneke: the TV Films
The recent release of Percolation, a solo album by the Norwegian pianist and composer Christian Wallumrød, was another reminder from this highly imaginative and highly idiosyncratic artist that musical eccentricity – when it’s not some whimsical or contrived mannerism – can be wonderfully refreshing. In Wallumrød’s case, what I mean by eccentricity is an innate … Continue reading But Is It Jazz? The Ever-Surprising Christian Wallumrød
I have always failed to understand why the films of the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have seldom attained the box-office success they’ve deserved in the UK. I had been totally knocked out by the first film of theirs I saw – La Promesse - when it played in the 1996 London Film Festival, … Continue reading Modest but Masterly: the Dardennes’ Brilliant ‘Young Mothers’
I was very saddened indeed to hear today of the passing of Terence Stamp. I met him just a few times, and certainly didn't know him at all well. But like (it seems) all or most others who encountered him, I was utterly charmed by his down-to-earth demeanour, his quiet intelligence, his modesty, his warm … Continue reading Meetings with a Remarkable Man: Terence Stamp remembered
London is always a great city for art, and while there are several current exhibitions I’ve yet to get to*, this summer has some superb painting on offer, in addition to the many masterpieces on permanent display. I’d meant to write before now (but for various reasons didn’t get around to it) recommending the Edward … Continue reading Summer in the City: London’s treasure trove of art
Around three months ago, I wrote about what to me seemed a fairly transformative experience of joining a local choir to sing some music by Brahms. I certainly don’t intend to post a blog after every concert I take part in – this will probably be the last – but in the hope of encouraging … Continue reading Singing Beethoven (or how to have fun)
Frequent readers will probably have registered my admiration for the various musical offerings of saxophonist Trygve Seim and trumpeter Arve Henriksen, so are unlikely to be surprised by my enthusiasm for Arcanum, a newly released quartet album they made with bassist Anders Jormin and percussionist Markku Ounaskari. The four have played together in various configurations … Continue reading But Is It Jazz? Three New Albums
I can’t recall precisely when I first heard the music of the Tunisian oud maestro Anouar Brahem; it was probably when I bought Madar, an album of duets with Jan Garbarek, released in early 1994, which was some months before I saw Moufida Tlatli’s film The Silences of the Palace, for which he wrote and … Continue reading But Is It Jazz? Cool Music in a World on Fire…
There are currently a couple of very fine French movies playing in and around London and the UK, but since each is what many in the industry regard as a ‘small film’ – lasting a mere 100 minutes or so, with no stars, dealing with more or less ordinary people leading more or less ordinary … Continue reading Two Very Impressive New French Films: Catch ’em While You Can…
If you have any interest at all in the extraordinary work of the Quay Brothers, you should certainly be sure to visit the exhibition Dormitorium - The Film Décors of The Quay Brothers, currently at Bloomsbury’s Swedenborg House until Friday 4 April. But even if you’ve never heard of the Pennsylvania-born, London-based, Central-and-Eastern-Europe-obsessed twins and … Continue reading Impossible Worlds Made Real: The Quay Brothers in Bloomsbury
With the perhaps partial exception of my best-of-the-year lists, my writing here has always been about what other people have done – filmmakers, musicians, artists, photographers, writers – rather than about myself. For once, however, I am going to deal with my own actions, simply because I’d like to encourage anyone out there who’s considering … Continue reading Singing Brahms (and how to survive)
While little contemporary American filmmaking is to my taste – most of it’s not made for people of my age – there are a number of dependably rewarding directors whose new movies I always make a point of catching; one such, undoubtedly, is the prolific Steven Soderbergh. Since I first saw sex, lies and videotape back … Continue reading Black Bag and Steven Soderbergh: a talent to treasure
As regular readers may be aware, I’ve been a great admirer of the composer, bandleader and pianist Mike Westbrook for many years. If memory serves, the first music I ever heard by him (thanks to John Peel, I suspect) was the 1972 jazz-rock album Solid Gold Cadillac; certainly the first time I saw Westbrook perform … Continue reading Piano Magic: Mike Westbrook’s Intimate Epic
The recently opened exhibition at the Courtauld – Goya to Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection – may include only around two dozen paintings, and its title may be a tad misleading: there’s just one Goya on show, and the show has very little (as far as I can tell, anyway) to say about … Continue reading Of Fish, Men and Mountains: Rarely Seen Masterpieces at the Courtauld
There was, quite simply, no way I would willingly miss catching Festen, the new opera – based on Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 Dogma film of the same name – by Mark-Anthony Turnage. Besides the movie connection, it offers an extraordinary cast, a dependably excellent conductor (Ed Gardner) and an acclaimed director (Richard Jones). And even though … Continue reading From screen to opera stage: the new Festen
A few weeks ago, enthused by the release of an impressive album of duets by Thomas Strønen, I followed my review with a list of some of my favourite duet CDs released by ECM over the years. Perhaps one of the least known of the albums I included was Poros, a 1998 release by the … Continue reading But Is It Jazz? Another Fine Album of Duets…
If by any chance you read my recent ‘best of 2024’ post, you may have noticed, among the new musical releases, the inclusion of an album entitled Relations, attributed to Thomas Strønen, Craig Taborn, Chris Potter, Sinikka Langeland and Jorge Rossy. That would be a rather eccentric line-up for a group – a Norwegian percussionist, … Continue reading It Takes Two to Tango… or the Magic of Musical Duets
I’ve been posting my ‘best of the year’ lists since I first started writing here in 2016, and on each occasion I felt a need to mention in passing the state of the UK and of the world. Well, we may have got rid of the wretched Tories, but what with Trump, Musk et al, … Continue reading My Best Movies, Music, Books, etc, in 2024
So it's December again. For quite a few years now I've posted recommendations for recent BluRay/DVD releases, CDs and books that might prove useful for anyone wondering what to buy as gifts for Christmas; they appear to have been popular, so here we go again. (I myself find choosing presents enormously difficult, so I’m always … Continue reading Movies, Music and Books for Christmas… and Beyond
For me at least, there could be few BluRay releases more welcome than a new boxed set of four classic crime serials by Louis Feuillade. ‘Louis who?’ you may be wondering, and not without reason, even if the French filmmaker was enormously successful back in the 1910s, i.e. in the years when the cinema was … Continue reading Crime, Conspiracy and the Prospect of Chaos: Four Filmic Triumphs from Louis Feuillade
What with Arve Henriksen and Harmen Fraanje soon to appear at the London Jazz Festival, I’ve been revisiting their album Touch of Time, together with a more recent release featuring the great Norwegian trumpeter performing alongside Danish drummer Daniel Sommer and Swedish bassist Johannes Lundberg. Sounds and Sequences is apparently the second album in a … Continue reading Back to ‘Jazz’? Back to Ornette!
Back in 2008, a couple of days after Clint Eastwood’s Changeling had premiered in Cannes, I interviewed him about the film. During the small talk before we discussed the movie, I mentioned in passing that I’d been sitting just in front of him the day before at the Festival’s tribute to the great Portuguese director … Continue reading Another Fine New Eastwood Movie – See It While (If?) You Can
It’s strange: the Norwegians Trygve Seim and Frode Haltli undoubtedly count among my favourite musicians, and both – the former a saxophonist, the latter an accordionist – have been mentioned fairly frequently on this website. (Indeed, Haltli featured in my very first blog.) Nonetheless, while preparing a few notes for the following piece about Our … Continue reading Their Time: Trygve Seim and Frode Haltli on Stunning Form
No longer a programme advisor to the BFI London Film Festival, I haven’t yet seen many movies in this year’s edition (now underway and continuing until Sunday 20th October), but there are a few films I've already caught which I feel I should recommend. I’m sure there are others well worth investigating (I myself am … Continue reading Four Recommendations for the London Film Festival
In early 2021, writing about Godfrey Cheshire’s book of interviews, Conversations with Kiarostami, I bemoaned the fact that there were so few decent books (in English, at least) about the late and very great Iranian filmmaker, photographer, poet and artist Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016). Several years on, the situation has hardly changed, which is why I’m … Continue reading Cinematic Genius Surveyed: ‘In the Time of Kiarostami’
