Haruki Murakami may not have received this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature, but he will probably win it before too long. It would be a shame, though, if Haruki Murakami becomes to Japanese literature what sushi is to Japanese cuisine – the single dominant icon that obscures all the other good stuff. Also worthy of […]
Archives for October 2015
‘Treasure Island’, Cine Camões, Lisbon
Got off to a dodgy start a couple of days ago with my tiny, three-student advanced English class. To my opening gambit of “What did you do today before you came to this lesson?”, the answers were: “I was sick all day and I didn’t get out of bed till half an hour ago.” “I […]
‘The Window’, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon
Cinemateca Portuguesa, located on Rua Barata Salgueiro in the centre of Lisbon, is a wonderful place for cinephiles. Great posters and marvellous black and white stills from the 1940s adorn the foyer walls: Bogart in All Through the Night, Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World!, Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine in Rebecca, Spencer Tracy […]
‘The Hurt Locker’, Shibuto Cine Tower, Tokyo
In the cold light of day, Tokyo can seem grey and sterile. But at night and in the early evening, when the light fades from the sky, Tokyo is magical. The neon buildings begin to shine as the sky turns from pale blue to deep blue to black. You get that in any city but […]
‘The Great Beauty’, Curzon Renoir, London
Russell Square underground station, opened in 1906, is aesthetically pleasing with its beautiful tiling. I like to amble slowly along the platform here after getting off a train, savouring the station’s elegant design. But it does not provide the most efficient transition from the bowels of the earth up to the surface. You have to […]
Cecil B. DeMille triple bill, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Lisbon
Ghostly mist is swirling through the streets of Cacilhas this February morning. I decide to check out some local haunts before crossing the river into town for another Saturday triple bill of Cecil B. DeMille films. I start my wander on Rua Cândido dos Reis, where I drop into an anonymous bar opposite the offices of […]
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