Black-and-white still: a man in a dark cloak brings his face to the cheek of a dark-haired woman in a light patterned dress. She looks aside with a faint smile.

NB!

Man in a cloak leans toward a dark-haired woman's cheek, black-and-white still

Cinema · Pop Culture

Charlton Heston as the Spanish national hero and knight of the Reconquista Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in the 1961 Spanish-American film "El Cid"

Charlton Heston as the Spanish national hero and knight of the Reconquista Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in the 1961 Spanish-American film "El Cid". Ximena, the beloved of El Cid, was played by Sophia Loren. The film is distinguished by the high quality of its costumes, sets, historical

Architecture · Faith · Books · Observations

On my way to Zvenigorod and to Mozhzhenka I kept passing Bolshiye Vyazyomy, but could never bring myself to go and see it, though it lies quite close to Golitsyno station

On my way to Zvenigorod and to Mozhzhenka I kept passing Bolshiye Vyazyomy, but could never bring myself to go and see it, though it lies quite close to Golitsyno station. One day, on a lovely spring morning, I got off the train and strolled over to the estate. I

An elderly man with thick dark eyebrows, glasses, a white shirt, suspenders and a patterned tie sits at a table with microphones, papers and a glass ashtray.

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Elderly man in glasses and suspenders at a table with microphones

Cinema · Observations · Humour

Brezhnev on screen as played by Shakurov and Stoyanov, and the image of a feeble old man

Brezhnev as played by Shakurov and Brezhnev as played by Stoyanov are like a bear and Winnie-the-Pooh. The two heroes turned out very different indeed. Both are charming, but Stoyanov's Leonid Ilyich is, all the same, a little too much of a caricature. I have seen

NB! · Observations · Society · Paris · Nature · Humour

Incidentally, Macron never did take the swim in the Seine he promised before the Olympics to prove how clean it is

NB! · Art · Moscow · People

Moscow of the Seventeenth Century, Apollinary Vasnetsov

Books · Paris

Mayakovsky on a journey to Paris, its ladies and the Place de l'Étoile

Ticket click. Cheek smack. A whistle and off we dashed to where, like herrings in the net of stockings, swim the globe-trotting ladies. Today he arrives an ugly brute of a fellow, and tomorrow just try to recognise him: in one go both the city and the mouth are

A gymnast in a dark leotard does a split handstand on a mat. Beside her sit a round wheel of cheese on a stand and a cut wedge, with a dim gym hall behind.

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Gymnast in a handstand split beside a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano in a gym

NB! · Pop Culture · Humour

The maker of Parmesan has become a sponsor of the Olympic silver medallist, the Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa, and the athlete now poses so organically with enormous wheels of cheese

Art

Alone

The Austrian painter Anton Marussig (1868-1925)

Faith · The East · Books

Krishna on reason prevailing over the weakness of the heart and the attainment of true wisdom

The wise, who have put away every thought of the fruits of their works, are freed from the chains of birth and pass to the realms of eternal bliss. When thy reason shall prevail over the gloomy weakness of thy heart, then shalt thou obtain all the knowledge that was

Alexandr Radayev