Blithe Spirit

Edward Hall’s new adaptation of Noël Coward’s play Blithe Spirit is so aggressively un-funny it might make audiences unfamiliar with the script's successful track record wonder why it was ever a success in the first place. Of all the movie's sins, this is the biggest. Coward requires a light touch and nerves of steel. His characters are witty and heartless, with glittering carapaces of dazzling verbal weaponry. They are self-involved, impulsive, and careless of consequences. When Coward is do...

Shifts and Ricochets

Did You See This? Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni rehearsing 8½ (1963) The British Independent Film Awards were presented last night, and Sarah Gavron’s Rocks has come out on top, winning five, including best British independent film. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw suggests that this story of a Nigerian British teen caring for her younger brother after her mother has left—but with the support of her all-girl crew—is told "in the spirit of Ken Loach...

Rare Ancient Millstone Found Decorated With A Roman Phallus Carving

When archaeologists pieced together a broken millstone they were shocked to find an ancient Roman phallus carving. Experts say that the Roman phallus decoration is both "highly significant" and rare. The broken millstone bearing the ancient carving was discovered during major roadworks between Cambridge and Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, England between 2017 and 2018. It is just one of more than 300 examples of hand mills and millstones that were discovered during the work. Cambridgeshi...

The Poetics of Prayer and Devotion to Literature

The Poetics of Prayer and Devotion to Literature: Introduction to the Special Issue Practices of Devotion Available free of charge for a limited time by Eleanor Craig, Amy Hollywood, and Kris Trujillo   In the introduction to this special issue, three of the co-editors explain that their goal "is to desegregate religious studies and theology from the humanities more broadly by reasserting religion’s significance to the histories of critique, theory, and literature … [and to] pursu...

Music: Kate Hudson says she ‘feels terrible’ that autism community feel ‘left out’ of Sia’s new film

Kate Hudson has waded into the debate surrounding her controversial new film Music. Music, which stars Hudson and Maddie Ziegler, was written and directed by the musician Sia, and revolves around a recovering addict who becomes a carer for her autistic half-sister. Over the past few months, Sia has been condemned for casting the neurotypical Ziegler as a neurodivergent character, and for including scenes in which an autistic character is restrained in a phy...

Most anti-Semites hate Jews for what they imagine Jews to be. T.S. Eliot, by contrast, hated Jews for what they really are

There recur in the work of ­T. S. Eliot two obsessions that make one cringe: his Jew-­hatred and his contempt for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The first is sometimes excused as a reflection of ambient prejudice, the second as critical crankiness. In fact, these obsessions have a common source. The characteristically Jewish contribution to Western literature is the tragicomedy, which reached one of its peaks in Hamlet. Just as he disliked the Jews in general, Eliot rejected what might be termed the J...

SLAMDANCE 2021: APOCRYPHA CANDIDATE: MAN UNDER TABLE (2021)

366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links. DIRECTED BY: Noel David Taylor FEATURING: Noel David Taylor, John Edmund Parcher, Ben Babbitt, Katy Fullan PLOT: A nameless screenwriter tries to write a movie (the movie we’re watching), while his peers’ careers seem to be taking off faster than his. WHY IT MIGHT JOIN THE APOCRYPHA: This microbudget meta-movie about a nameless screenwriter unabashedly gazes at its navel until that navel becomes a...

Alan Greenspan wished he’d never spoken of “irrational exuberance”; Thomas Kuhn rued introducing “paradigm shift” — coiner’s remorse is real

The children’s author Theodor Geisel, otherwise known as Dr. Seuss, was often asked where he drew inspiration for his verbal inventiveness. Surely there had to be some enchanted source for the words he dreamed up—the ones that caught on, notably "grinch," and the ones that might pleasingly have done so, such as "punkerish" and "flubbulous." He would solemnly reply that in August each year he traveled to have his cuckoo clock serviced in a tiny Alpine village called Uber Gletch. "I wander arou...

The 10 Most Profound Westerns of All Time

Since the early days of cinema, western films have been recognized as one of the most popular genres and attracted moviegoers for decades. It was clear early on that the western was a fluid genre that could encapsulate all sorts of stories, leading to many different types of interpretations. Such wildly different films include Mel Brook’s comic masterpiece Blazing Saddles, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s acid western El Topo, and romantic epics like Brokeback Mountain. While westerns continued to m...

Flora And Ulysses: A Fun Film About Nice People Dealing With a Superhero Squirrel

null Quick thoughts: Adapted from the 2013 children’s novel written by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by K.G. Campbell, Flora & Ulysses is a super nice film about a superhero squirrel who helps a family come back together, and realize their dreams. The latest Disney+ release Flora & Ulysses will most certainly be a pleasant distraction for families and individuals looking for something optimistic and fun. The story revolves around a 10-year old self-proclaimed cynic ...

To Olivia review: A portrait of grief that struggles to reconcile the two sides of Roald Dahl

Dir: John Hay. Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Keeley Hawes, Sam Heughan, Geoffrey Palmer, Conleth Hill. PG, 99 mins Thirty years have passed since the death of Roald Dahl and we still wrestle with his legacy. As a man, he was cantankerous and deeply antisemitic, known for belittling his loved ones and treating his audience with apathy. On the page, he’d allow worlds of infinite wonder and impish genius to blossom. To Olivia, a film by John Hay, attempts to sidestep the matter en...

Wallis and Fotuna

Flute - Everything2.com

Near Matches Ignore ExactFull Text Everything2 Flute (person) by melodrame Sun Oct 01 2000 at 6:36:24 Flute is also a character in Midsummer Night's Dream which I had the honour of playing (ugh). Because Flute was the young dude of the performing group in Midsummer and his voice had not yet been developed, he had to take the role of Thisbe (who is Pyramus' love), a chick. Yes, I had to wear a dress and stuff boobs into my shirt. The good thing about taking the role of Flute...

Laurent series - Everything2.com

Near Matches Ignore ExactFull Text Everything2 Laurent series (idea) by jkao Sun Dec 23 2001 at 5:53:59 Let f(z) be single-valued and analytic in the annulus R1 0| 2. For points in the annulus, f has the convergent Laurent series inf --- f(z) = > a_n (z - z_0)^n --- n=-inf Formally, the coefficients an are found using the formula 1 / f(z) a_n = ----- | -------------- dz 2pi*i /c (z - z_0)^n+1 (c a positively oriented closed...

On the Teenage Angst of 20th-Century Literature

Welcome to Lit Century: 100 Years, 100 Books. Combining literary analysis with an in-depth look at historical context, hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols choose one book for each year of the 20th century, and—along with special guests—will take a deep dive into a hundred years of literature. This week features part two of a discussion between co-hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols about the first ten books discussed on Lit Century. How did suffering come to be seen as cool in ...

Celtic Bronze Shields

The ancient Celts produced magnificent bronze shields in Iron Age Britain which were most likely for ceremonial purposes and display. Several fine examples have miraculously survived as evidence of the imagination, skill, and artistry of Celtic craftworkers. The outstanding example is the Battersea Shield, now in the British Museum, but there are several other complete bronze shields and bosses which amply illustrate that the Celts commonly decorated shields whether they were intended for bat...

FW: ["VisEv"] Besides the Screen - CFP: Geographies, Spaces, and Places Outside the Screen (Ningbo, June 10-12)

From: Gabriel Menotti Date: Tuesday, February 16, 2021 at 11:01 AM To: Subject: ["VisEv"] Besides the Screen - CFP: Geographies, Spaces, and Places Outside the Screen (Ningbo, June 10-12) apologies for cross-posting! Best! Menotti * * * Besides the Screen: Geographies, Spaces, and Places Outside the Screen University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), June 10-12, 2021 Conference Organisers: Dr. Virginia Crisp, Senior Lecturer in Culture, Media & Creative ...

The Modern Art Of Intertextuality In Recent Films

The Modern Art Of Intertextuality In Recent FilmsWill AshtonMay 25, 2016 5:36 pmNews2There’s a new emotional currency in Hollywood, and it’s called "intertextuality." As explained by Nerdwriter1, it’s something shaped by another text, and that can be the silent first reveal of the Millennium Falcon seen in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" or the presentation of the red rose, alongside the words "Be Our Guest," in the first trailer for the live-action "Beauty and the Beast," just to name two rec...

Walter Mosley in Conversation with Legendary Filmmaker Walter Bernstein

 Features Book Marks CrimeReads Longform Daily Fiction About Literary Hub . Walter Mosley in Conversation with Legendary Filmmaker Walter Bernstein In Celebration of Bernstein's 100th Birthday By Walter M...

The Meaning of All Caps—in Texting and in Life | WIRED

Skip to main content Gretchen McCulloch Ideas07.23.2019 09:00 AMThe Meaning of All Caps—in Texting and in LifeEmphatic caps feel like the quintessential example of internet tone of voice. Sure enough, they’ve been around since the very early days online. New!Caspar Benson/Getty Images WHEN YOU WRITE IN ALL CAPS IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING. Using capital letters to indicate strong feeling may be the most famous example of typographical tone of voice. But there are different kinds of strong ...

The Rise and Fall of Sumer and Akkad | Ancient Origins

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Word Morph - Everything2.com

Near Matches Ignore ExactFull Text Everything2 Word Morph (thing) by ½there Tue Jun 05 2001 at 23:05:25 Word Morph: A story, in one language, wherein the written form and the spoken form have entirely different, well formed meanings. The ultimate objective is most likely impossible to attain for monolinguistic humans. Here is an example... when read aloud the reader may not understand, but the listeners should hear parts: "The four tune tell hair stirred hard at hair h...

The Wizard of Oz: Watchmen director to give ‘fresh take’ on beloved story

A remake of The Wizard of Oz is in the works, with Watchmen’s Nicole Kassell on board to direct. According to Variety, New Line Cinema is promising a "fresh take" on the story of Dorothy and the Land of Oz, explaining the film will "draw on other elements" from the most iconic version, the 1939 musical starring Judy Garland. "I am incredibly honoured to join Temple Hill and New Line in bringing this beloved classic to the screen," Kassell said in a statem...

Marvel’s Eternals could explain lingering Thanos mystery from Avengers: Infinity War

Some Marvel fans have speculated that the forthcoming Eternals movie will fill in a key part of its Infinity Stone saga. In the 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War, the villainous Thanos (Josh Brolin) was seen acquiring the all-powerful Infinity Stones, eventually using them to wipe out half of all life in the universe. However, while we are shown exactly how Thanos acquired five of the six stones (the Soul, Mind, Reality, Space and Time Stones), the cha...

I Blame Society Director-Star Gillian Wallace Horvat on Making a Found Footage Film That Doesn’t Cheat

Gillian Wallace Horvat is the co-writer, director and star of I Blame Society, about an ambitious filmmaker who realizes she’s also good at murder. In this piece she talks about how she set rigorous rules for her found footage film. I was very intrigued when MovieMaker asked me to write a piece about my film I Blame Society, and its place in the long tradition of films about filmmaking. It’s a genre that begins in the silent era with Merton of the Movies and Charlie Chaplin’s "His New Job"...