To celebrate the centenary of Ingmar Bergman birth’s – and the arrival of arguably the archetype arthouse auteur – I sat down to a harrowing complete screening of perhaps his most pertinent, powerful work… Like a gallery wall-sized enlargement … Continue reading Bergman at 100: Scenes from a Marriage ever powerful, pertinent
By titling her 1993 breakthrough Debut, Björk cutely shrugged off the juvenilia of an earlier self-titled solo album – an Icelandic collection of translated covers released some 16 years earlier – and subtly distanced herself from the three LPs she … Continue reading Björk’s Debut at 25: A tantalising tip of the audio iceberg
It’s no great creative secret that conflict is an essential ingredient of any good narrative – and it seems that the male-dominated media once got together and decided that in the world of pop music, nothing sells like a catfight. Historically, it sometimes feels hard to find a female star that has avoided being dragged into some kind of ugly, unbecoming feud with a would-be rival. The headlines are often as legendary as they are petty: From the showdowns of Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez to the intergenerational enmity between Madonna and Lady Gaga, right up to the Taylor Swift … Continue reading How women (finally) took over the charts (together) in 2018
Following the recent news that Morrissey has postponed all this month’s UK and European tour dates amid a racism row, I couldn’t help but recall this piece I wrote at the end of last year, pondering only slightly prematurely if … Continue reading It wasn’t really nothing: Morrissey has finally gone too far this time
As the increasingly nostalgic movie geek world embraces another (not-so-new) wave of Godard-fever – sparked both by the belated UK release of Michel Hazanavicius’ bio-drama Godard Mon Amour (AKA Redoubtable), and the recent 50th anniversary of JLG shutting down the … Continue reading Why Godard’s Le Mépris might be my favourite film ever
