Faith · Cinema · Monarchies · Humour

Horns on the helmet of Alexander the Great and their link to the cult of Zeus and Amon

The helmet of Alexander of Macedon in the film "Gentlemen of Fortune" is made from a fireman's helmet. Alexander did in fact have a horned helmet, but the point is not whether it bore even the faintest resemblance to a firefighter's hard hat painted

Two elderly men sit in a restaurant, smiling and pointing their fingers at the camera.

NB! · Cinema · Paris · People · Pop Culture

Pierre Richard, 87, remembers his friend Jean-Paul Belmondo, mourned across France

87-year-old Pierre Richard remembers his friend Jean-Paul Belmondo. He writes that all of France is in mourning. In fact, the whole world is in mourning

Cinema · Moscow · Mores · Society

In the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", which begins in 1958, we meet the girls working at a factory

In the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", which begins in 1958, we meet the girls working at a factory. The heroine, Katerina Tikhomirova, who has come from the provinces, becomes not merely a fitter but a setter-operator. That, however, is another matter altogether: different circumstances,

Archaeology · Cinema · Museums · Saint Petersburg · Ethnography

The funerary mask of the semi-legendary Empress Himiko in the film "Tomb Raider: Lara Croft" is a complete replica of a real woman's mask from the Oglakhty burial ground in Khakassia

The funerary mask of the semi-legendary Empress Himiko in the film "Tomb Raider: Lara Croft" is a complete replica of a real woman's mask from the Oglakhty burial ground in Khakassia. The painted plaster mask, made by a woman of the Tashtyk archaeological culture, dates

Cinema · Books · Observations · New York

The Bird Woman in the 1964 “Mary Poppins” as the Prototype of the Pigeon Lady in “Home Alone 2”

Yet Another Unsolved Artistic Parallel. The image of the bird lady in the film "Home Alone 2" is, beyond doubt, a nod to a classic, and not only in idea and emotion but in quite exact visual correspondence with the original reference, the lonely bird woman of Pamela

NB! · Cinema

The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed

NB! · Cinema · Mores · Humour

An Entertaining History of Culinary Masterpieces

An entertaining history of culinary masterpieces. The tale of the Kyiv Cake, worthy of Leonid Kanevsky

Cinema · Science · Society · People

A short article on the Russian prodigy and young genius Pasha Konoplev: how at four he solved complex school problems, at six scored 142 on an IQ test, at seven mastered logarithms and musical notation, at eight appeared in Solaris, and…

A short article on the Russian prodigy and young genius Pasha Konoplev: how at four he solved complex school problems, at six scored 142 on an IQ test, at seven mastered logarithms and musical notation, at eight appeared in Solaris, and at ten published "A Study of the Variables

Cinema · Books · Observations

Gurilyov’s romance and Baratynsky’s elegy “Razuverenie” as sung by Larisa

Remember when Kharita Ignatyevna was teaching Larisa how to handle wealthy suitors, and she took up her guitar, sat down by the window and sang "Matushka, golubushka, solnyshko moe, Pozhalei, rodimaya, dityatko tvoe!" What, in essence, does this romance by Gurilyov, to words by Nikormsky, signify? On the

Black and white portrait of a young woman with long tousled hair in a knitted sweater, looking to one side.

Coming Up · Cinema · Pop Culture

Tilda in two films at the Cannes Festival, Memoria and The French Dispatch

Tilda Swinton at 27 ❤️. A reminder that this year we shall see Tilda in two films at once at the Cannes Film Festival: Memoria by the independent Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul and The French Dispatch by Wes Anderson

NB! · Cinema · Observations · Humour

I hardly know which of these rare shots is the more impressive: Roman legionaries on the approaches to Hadrian's Wall, or French infantry at Waterloo?

Cinema · Books

The first of three screen versions of H. G. Wells's "The Island of Doctor Moreau" (1932 Erle C. Kenton, 1977 Don Taylor, 1996 Frankenheimer-Stanley) may seem the most naive, but on reflection "Island of Lost Souls" is quite a modern horror story, whose ch

The first of three screen versions of H. G. Wells's "The Island of Doctor Moreau" (1932 Erle C. Kenton, 1977 Don Taylor, 1996 Frankenheimer-Stanley) may seem the most naive, but on reflection "Island of Lost Souls" is quite a modern horror story, whose