Cinema · Books · Observations · Pop Culture · Saint Petersburg
Since everyone is so delighted with the Soviet "Lord of the Rings" that Channel Five has put online, I suggest watching the Soviet "Hobbit" as well, with a more starry cast and a truly epic Gollum. Zinovy Gerdt is the narrator, Ivan Krasko is Gandalf, Mikhail
Archive · Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · People
Mary of Teck, widow of King George V, died just 10 weeks before the coronation of her granddaughter Elizabeth. On her deathbed she insisted that the coronation not be postponed on account of mourning for her. But Elizabeth's accession itself had taken place in Queen Mary's
Cinema · Books · Pop Culture
The Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez was a close friend of the singer Shakira and admired her work, saying that the personal stamp in her music made her unlike anything else, and that Shakira performs, dances and sings with a particular sensuality that seems to have been invented by her.
Cinema · Observations · Humour
Remember that scene in "Gentlemen of Fortune" where Yevgeny Leonov, as the kindergarten head Troshkin, tells the children: "Today breakfast is cancelled! We are flying to Mars in a space rocket. Igorek is appointed commander. Take up your space spoons. Fortify yourselves thoroughly. The rocket will not
Cinema · Monarchies · Observations · People
Queen Victoria is usually presented as a squeamish prude and a lady of sorrow, but she had a wonderful sense of humour and a very sharp mind, and a smile, glimpsed in a few rare photographs, that could lift the spirits. I should like to see Nina Usatova, for example,
Cinema · Moscow · Education · People
How chance intervened in the life of Volodya Nemolyayev, a humble clerk and graduate of the Lomonosov Technical School (formerly the Imperial Komissarov School). Meyerhold presented the nimble GUM employee with a complimentary pass to any ten performances, and the young man fell wholeheartedly in love with the theatre and
NB! · Cinema · Moscow · People · Pop Culture
Vasily Lanovoy in June 2018. He was speaking about the destruction of the Vakhtangov Theatre during the bombing in the summer of 1941. Lanovoy turned 87 this year. Today Irina Kupchenko announced the death of her husband: Vasily Semyonovich has passed away
Cinema · Observations
I would have come, but I never heard or saw any announcements. That, too, is important work in our day; merely showing the film is not enough
NB! · Cinema · Pop Culture
20 January is the birthday of David Lynch (1946) and Federico Fellini (1920-1993). In the photograph with the two celebrants is the beautiful Isabella Rossellini
Aristocracy · Cinema · Books · Observations
I do not care for round-ups as a format, but this time Buro has put together an excellent list of 7 books of aristocratic character, from "Snobs" by Julian Fellowes, the very same Fellowes who shamelessly cribbed details of the private life of the Earls of Carnarvon
NB! · Cinema · Observations · People · Pop Culture
Renata Litvinova is a person whom everyone adores, and not only on her birthday. Understandably so: Renata strikes straight to the heart, even when she is firing at the ceiling. The main thing is that the bullets never run out
In the Press · Cinema · London · Society · People · Pop Culture
Today the Italian press is chewing over Rowan Atkinson's remark that he is "tired of political correctness, it is like living in the Middle Ages". The Italians are quoting an interview given in honour of the actor's 66th birthday, in which he spoke, among