La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995 France)

Last night I introduced - virtually - Kassovitz's La Haine at The Odyssey cinema in St. Albans, the latest in our Postcards from Europe strand in the programme. Our next film will be Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud/Lift to the Scaffold (1958 France) on Sunday 18th October at 7.15. See here for details.

On Lockdown...

Earlier this year I wrote a short piece reflecting on the experience of lockdown. This was for the British Psychoanalytic Council who asked me, as one of their recently nominated 'Scholars', to write something On Lockdown for them.

For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965 Italy)

As part of the series Postcards from Europe, which I have curated with The Odyssey Cinema, I have recorded a number of video introductions in lieu of the face to face delivery to audiences in the cinema. I recently introduced Sergio Leone's 1965 film For a Few Dollars More...

Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio de Sica, 1948 Italy)

As part of the series Postcards from Europe, which I have curated with The Odyssey Cinema, I have recorded a number of video introductions in lieu of the face to face delivery to audiences in the cinema. I have also revisited previous introductions, including that of my favourite film, Vittorio de Sica's 1948 masterpiece Ladri di biciclette /Bicycle Thieves.

It's good to be back...

My last post was almost nine years ago. Since then a huge amount has happened to me - and to the world! One of the major events for me was my redundancy from academia after almost twenty-three years in UK higher education. The current pandemic has made the prospect of full-time teaching in the university sector very slim but I have managed to pick up some part-time work, including lecturing - now online - at the famous City Lit in Covent Garden. My current and upcoming courses include How to Read a Film: A Beginner's Guide to Cinema and Masters of Cinema: Agnès Varda. I have also been curating and introducing film screenings at The Odyssey Cinema in St. Albans and hosting post-screening discussions, something which currently has shifted to video. Given my current situation now seemed like the perfect time to resurrect my dormant blog and to begin writing once more about the things that interest me, namely, film, television, cars and motorcycles... So, please watch this space!