(Rainbow image taken from Princess Farhana Blog) I’ve been reading quite a bit of poetry lately – particularly a beautiful book of poetry by Peter Bakowski (review to follow) – and I got bitten by the Aussie poetry bug. I haven’t had such a love-bug-bite for a while, so I did a stroll around and […]
Author Archives: lisathatcher
April
09
Trapped in Mykonos – Gravas Productions start with a Greek bang. (theatre review)
posted by lisathatcher
In 406 BC Agamemnon is planning to set sail for Troy to redeem the bride of his brother Menelaus, from the arms of Paris, prince of Troy. He is stalled at the beach, his men are itchy with blood lust, and he is forced to make a decision about sacrificing his family for the glory […]
April
09
First Position – Bess Kargman and the complicated world of child dancers. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Documentaries and film have a complex relationship – but then anything that wants to be associated with a representation of “the truth” has an equally tough time. Film, as we have explored many times on this blog is a manipulation medium and therefore statements have to be rich and complex if they are to avoid […]
April
02
Mike Cooper – White Shadows in the South Seas: Exotica for the dawn of a new age. (music review)
posted by lisathatcher
When Arthur Lyman shouted those bird calls into the audience at the Shell Bar in 1951, he had no idea he was teetering drunk on the edge of a revolution. Not just a revolution in sound with the birth of Exotica, but a revolution with the discovery of Island Kitsch igniting a national mania for all […]
April
02
So Many Great Expectations – Mike Newell and the ninth version. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Great expectations has been adapted for screen nine times, and this count does not include the many television miniseries versions there have been, nor countless theater adaptations. Overall, it seems Dickens has been adapted for the screen almost 300 times, with A Christmas Carol being the most replicated of his stories. Dickens has had all of his work […]
March
27
Mother Joan of the Angels – Jerzy Kawalerowicz and repression in “Devil Possession” films. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
I wanted to make a film about human nature and its innate reaction against repression and laws which are imposed on it. Jerzy kawalerowicz In the history of films about demonic possession, probably the three most important are The Exorcist, The Devils and Mother Joan of the Angels. Interestingly, both The Devils and Mother Joan […]
March
26
The Credeaux Canvas – Sure Foot Productions does Keith Bunin. (theatre review)
posted by lisathatcher
In an interview for AIMbitious TV, Keith Bunin talks about solving the “problem” of writing and also asserts that deep engagement with this process is the role of art in general. For Bunin, his writing is involved with the problems we face and the pain we cause when we are trying to love each other. […]
March
26
Bardo Pond – Yantra: Three epic tracks of dense textural landscape. (music review)
posted by lisathatcher
Like all the releases in the Latitudes collection, Bardo Pond’s Yntra arrived on the shelves in limited editions of collector-grade beauty. The three track mini album still clocks out at just over thirty seven minutes leaving with a hefty Bardo Pond vibe combined with a freedom-of-expression improv feel. The result still garners all that Bardo […]
March
26
Rust and Bone – Jacques Audiard’s film on Melodrama. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
When Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain decided to make a film based on Craig Davidson’s book of short stories Rust and Bone, it wasn’t for the plot, or even the characters. It was for the intensity of lives blown out of proportion by drama and accident. There was a complex relationship between hard lives and […]
March
24
Katzelmacher – Fassbinder makes his first “bourgeois” film. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
When Fassbinder called Katzelmacher his frist “bourgeois” film (it was made in August 1969 over nine days and is his second feature ever made) word has it he called it that because it is a film conceived against real life rather than other films. The first film he made, Love is Colder than Death (a […]
Lisa Thatcher 