Wide World of Arts
Velázquez looked down on his sitters
They thought to hold a contest for The grandest forms of portraiture To accommodate the talent-free And cash in on celebrity. So the call to paint was made, A grateful nation’s light and shade Was wielded and the packing crates Swept in as if on roller skates. The problem was, the open field Like an open mind, often concealed Hard work forsworn, the sweat that stings And shows the empty state of things.
Continue Reading →The Witchery
Edinburgh, summer, 2013 If you are staying in Edinburgh, book dinner here. Ensure that you book ahead. You may need to be content with a late booking. We wended along the Royal Mile, ascending towards the Castle. L negotiated the cobbles expertly in her high heels. By 9.30pm we were past Boswell’s walk and ready to descend to the secret garden, our way lit by candles on each step (ladies with long gowns, beware). The day had been dry and sunny, with a bone chilling wind. From our cosy vantage, the sky was an arctic blue and pink and you could…
Continue Reading →Vanity Fair
(William Makepeace Thackeray) (1848) Well. Rebecca Sharp. She’s a real dilly. Nabokov, apropos Humbert Humbert, pointed out there were not many memorable literary characters we’d like our children to meet: “Would we like our sons to marry Emma Rouault, Becky Sharp or la belle dame sans merci?”* This vivid and wordy book has caused charges of carelessness to be leveled at WMT: the chronology is at times out of whack, different characters seem to age in different time dimensions, for instance. But so what? This is a masterpiece of playful improvisation, and after all, plenty of dull, dud novels have been…
Continue Reading →Bastille Day
Bastille in trouble: La Bastille dans les premiers jours de sa démolition, by Hubert Robert
14 July: La fête nationale On this day in 1789, a bunch of disaffected Parisians gathered at Number 232 rue Sainte-Antoine, address of that pygmy-monolith, the Bastille, formerly a fort, now a prison for marginal types. They wanted a symbolic victory and eventually, the Governor, M. de Launay, would hand it over: a paper surrendering control, on the basis of clemency. This mercy was promised, and then ratted-on, in a piece of barbarity that would sum up the French Revolution in general. De Launay’s head was soon off his neck and sat atop a pike. As Carlyle recounts in his superb…
Continue Reading →The Burglars
"Confidentially...I never pay here."
(Dir, Henri Verneuil) (1972) A nifty cat-and-mouse jewellery heist caper set in Athens, in a time when you could get a decent meal for a fistful of drachmae. Omar Sharif is very good as the oily and corrupt copper, who is on to Jean-Paul Belmondo and his gang of emerald thieves. A top car chase, fights, romance, double-dealing and a unique climax in a grain hopper. A little cheesy but a relief to watch nowadays if you’re sick of Fast and Furious # 43. Vale Omar Sharif (10 April 1932 – 10 July 2015). He was not a great or imposing actor…
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