It was a gloriously sunny day but there was a capacity crowd in the East Chapel in Golders Green Crematorium, in north London, for the Celebration of your life, Virginia Dignam, sometime actress, published poetess, film reviewer on The Morning Star, and long-serving hard-working Honorary Secretary of the UK Critics' Circle("a shrivel of critics" you used to call us, in your pert and often impertinent way).It would have been your 87th birthday, but you'd left us, after a sudden, sh...
The 2012 jury for SHOOTING STARS - Europe's Best Young Actors - has now been finalised. The Danish actor Thure Lindhardt (Flame & Citron), the Dutch director Marleen Gorris (Within the Whirlwind), the Romanian producer Ada Solomon (Renovation), the German casting director Simone Bär (Inglourious Basterds) and the British film journalist Matt Mueller (Total Film) will be selecting Europe's ten best acting talents at the beginning of December for European Film Promotion's (EFP) SHOOTING STARS...
Is Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone an anti-semite? This question has swamped the blogosphere in the past few days after the director gave a controversial interview to the Sunday Times of London. The director of such celebrated films as PLATOON, WALL STREET, JFK and NIXON, whose most recent documentary SOUTH OF THE BORDER is a controversial look at the left-leaning politics in current favor in South America, has not exactly been known for his discretion. He is a social and political...
Announcing the 10th TIME OF THE WRITER international writers festivalDurban: 19 - 24 March 200718 writers from 10 countries will descend on Durban for a stimulating feast of words, ideas, and discussion at the Time of the Writer international writers festival. Hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu Natal), the festival celebrates its tenth year with an extensive week-long programme of activities from 19 to 24 March. Diversity of the written word is a notable feature of the...
It may not be easy to take the temperature at any international film festival but when the event is held in London it should be de rigueur, as weather is such a British obsession. Although it has been the balmiest October since 1649, or whenever records began, with 21 degrees C enjoyed in the capital when The Times BFI 50th London Film Festival lengthily opened its doors (I did not attend the Inauguration on the 18th as I was too late in requesting a ticket; I live in hope of an entree to the c...
