Author Archive: Lesley Jakobsen
Peter Lorre Takes to Santa with a Bat
Hollywood Canteen (1944)
We at TVC have not seen this 1944 film, Hollywood Canteen, but we want to. See TVC’s review of The Lost One here. And then Peter inveigles Mickey Rooney to take a loan for a date (in Quicksand)…is there no end to his perfidy?
Continue Reading →A House and its Head
(by I Compton-Burnett) Ivy Compton-Burnett* must have had a strange family life (just look at her hair). She was the seventh of her father’s children and the first of her (less than affectionate) mother’s five. A brother died of pneumonia, another on the Somme. Two of her sisters (“Baby” and “Topsy”) committed suicide together one Christmas Day. None of the twelve had children. None of the girls married. Certainly her books are about strange families. The Edgeworth family of A House and its Head is unhappy, decidedly in its own way. The solipsistic father Duncan is oblivious to his (first) wife’s misery and to…
Continue Reading →Bitings on a Complimentary Basis.
Get your bitings here
In 2004, while staying in a converted monastery in wild, windy, Avignon, we read an invitation to “bitings on a complimentary basis” at 7pm . In some trepidation we donned evening garb, strung garlic around our necks and descended to the ancient hall for what turned out to be “free nibbles” and not of the flattering, cannibal sort. The European grip on English translation had not improved by 2013, when, in the train station at Sorrento we read a sign which frightened and confused us.
Continue Reading →Melbourne & Victorian Bookshops
The Varnished Culture attended a book launch and signing in April 2017 and made two important discoveries. First, we rather like Albert Park, once an inner Melbourne ‘burb of faded grandeur, now a plush and trendy nook that is about to out-Toorak Toorak. And the Avenue Bookshop matches that vision – new books, great selection. They’ve sister stores in Elsternwick and Richmond but we’ll stick to Albert Park, thank you. Hill of Content, Hill of Content, Hill of Content. Perched on a real hill, hiding behind the trams and general horror of Burke Street traffic. It always makes TVC smile when we see that…
Continue Reading →The Babadook
As usual, the Australian film industry has worn its thin skin off patting its own back in praise of a predictable, derivative mess. “The Babadook” (even the name is a yawn) has some (very) minor suspense, good acting from the major characters and awful acting from some minor characters. The script is amateurish and lazy. If this film were shorter, it might make a workmanlike student film. Every poor horror film requires most or all of these elements: A cute, shaggy pet dog. Preferably white. An insect infestation. A concerned and mild-mannered neighbour or work colleague of the opposite sex….
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