Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture

A viewer's critical review of the Vernik brothers' programme on the Kultura channel

I sometimes watch the programme with the Vernik brothers on Kultura. And I cannot say that I have once been pleased with it. The gentlemen simply do not measure up: they fall short of the standard of a federal channel, at least as I conceive it. Even the two of

Observations · Mores

English bathing machines for women and their spread across Europe in the 19th century

Bathing machines are naturally an invention of the English. At the end of the eighteenth century, the champions of piety devised this way for women to enjoy the sea without loss of dignity or visible propriety. By the middle of the nineteenth century, in the heyday of Victorianism, machines for

Art · Observations · People

James Ensor, the Belgian painter, and his early 1876 work “The Bathing Machine”

Good Old Traditions of Self-Isolation. Today is the birthday of the celebrated Belgian artist James Ensor (1860-1949), remembered chiefly for canvases of grotesque figures, skeletons playing the part of living people, and masks. But what came to my mind was his lonely bathing machine of 1876. This early

Black-and-white photograph of a woman with short dark hair seated with a glass in her hand, with two people in wicker chairs behind her.

NB! · Archive · Observations · Pop Culture

Maria Callas and Winston Churchill in one photograph in a relaxed setting

A unique shot: Maria Callas, with Winston Churchill behind her. Who would have imagined the two of them in one place, and in such a relaxed setting at that

NB! · Observations · Humour

The Phystech lot are joking, and I honestly cannot say which of these returns I am awaiting more

Painting by Jean Dufy of the Place de la Concorde in Paris with the obelisk and fountains, the Seine with a steamboat and Sacré-Cœur in the distance.

NB! · Art · Observations · Paris

Place de la Concorde in 1950s Paris in a painting by Jean Dufy

I do so long to be in the incredible Paris of the fifties of Jean Dufy. Place de la Concorde. I wish everyone such a Chagallian-Dufyesque mood

NB! · Interviews · Cinema · Observations · Education · People

Jean-Luc Godard, aged 89, live on the Instagram of the University of Lausanne, where he once taught a course on cinema

Jean-Luc Godard, aged 89, live on the Instagram of the University of Lausanne, where he once taught a course on cinema. One gets the feeling that Godard does not quite grasp what the young people are up to here, and simply chills, puffing on a cigar as he answers

Archive · Observations · People · Pop Culture

Nadezhda Babkina in an induced coma and a mention of her in a 1989 California newspaper

Dreadful news about Nadezhda Babkina: she is said to be in a medically induced coma. I hope it all turns out well. I recall how I came across Nadya Babkina in a Californian newspaper of 1989: https://t.me/cucumberdeath/44

NB! · Aristocracy · Observations · People

But Yelizaveta Shakhovskaya's only daughter, Varvara, turned out to be a long-liver

But Yelizaveta Shakhovskaya's only daughter, Varvara, turned out to be a long-liver. I do like that sort of thing 😬

Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture

Sergey Obraztsov’s puppet play “An Extraordinary Concert”, dating back to 1946

Let us watch some genuine Soviet classics. An Extraordinary Concert is a puppet play by Obraztsov, with roots reaching back to 1946. Like everything that sets a standard, An Extraordinary Concert is as relevant today as ever. And in any case, you will take real pleasure in this cultivated, subtle

Art · Books · Observations · Humour

In 1841 Tropinin painted the heroine of Lermontov’s poem “The Tambov Treasurer’s Wife”

Who better than Vasily Andreyevich Tropinin, founder of the Moscow school of painting, to understand the misery of those self-isolating in a flat without a balcony. The woman at the window in this 1841 picture is the Tambov treasurer's wife of Lermontov's poem of the

Observations · Pop Culture · Saint Petersburg · Humour

Company meeting of the BDT in a new format with Alisa Freindlich and Nina Usatova

It is pleasing to see that colossi such as the BDT keep pace with the times and readily integrate new formats into their daily work. Take, for example, a company meeting with Alisa Freindlich and Nina Usatova. Everyone is ever so sweet, keeps up a fighting spirit and is not