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JacquiWine

@jacquiwine.bsky.social

Book lover, film lover, art lover, wine lover. I write about books at JacquiWine's Journal. https://linktr.ee/jacquiwine

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JacquiWine@jacquiwine.bsky.social · 2h ago

'He had Tertia with him, the daughter of a lord. So sleekly pretty, so fair & tall that she seemed an advertisement for something very costly. She had driven a car from the castle, & her hair was bound with a strip of pink silk that passed behind her ears.' jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/08/04/t...

The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

First published in 1980, The Transit of Venus is the third novel by the Australian writer Shirley Hazzard, an author I’ve been circling for some time. It’s also one of the best novels I’ve read so …

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

John Hodson@mgcroadster.bsky.social · 4h ago

"...Quite simply, it is a scintillating, head spinning, exhilarating directorial debut by screenwriter #BOTD John Huston, a maverick talent who is perhaps somewhat undervalued today..." - My ★★★★★ review of The Maltese Falcon on Letterboxd boxd.it/9H0VaB #FilmSky

A ★★★★★ review of The Maltese Falcon (1941)

"When a man’s partner is killed, he’s supposed to do something about it. It doesn’t make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you’re supposed to do something about it. And i...

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Rose Ruane@regretteruane.bsky.social · 6h ago

Another drawing created by Danielle Koren, c.1979, in the art therapy studio at Netherne hospital, Surrey, where she was compelled to live. No biographical information is currently known to us

A drawing in felt tip pen of two beautiful young white people, masc coded sitting in a spooning position, looking left, as if they’re staring into a camera. The blonde person on the left has raised left hand and is wearing a patterned top, the person wrapped round them on their right has dark hair and a black jumper
Rose Ruane@regretteruane.bsky.social · yesterday

Drawing created by Danielle Koren, c.1979, in the art therapy studio at Netherne hospital where she was compelled to live. This drawing on scrap paper is very small, found among Edward Adamson’s files of personal correspondence which contain many cards & letters from individuals sent after release

A cross hatched pen and ink drawing in black and white of two beautiful thin white youths dressed in Tudor clothing, doublet and hose with ruffs. Their dress is masculine but their gender is not obvious, they are reminiscent of Orlando, the one on the right is wearing lighter clothes and has fair hair and stands, arms folded, feet crossed with a ballet dancer’s grace and poise in the foreground, the one on the left has darker hair and clothes and stands hands on hips, left foot pointing out, as if preparing to curtsy. Their shadows are long across the chequered floor and the background is black
JacquiWine@jacquiwine.bsky.social · 6h ago

Some more pics from the PORTRAIT OF A CITY exhibition, which would appeal to anyone interested in 20th century social history. #Photography #Art #ArtSky

Helen Levitt (1913-2009) New York, 1972 Dye-transfer print Helen Levitt was born and raised in New York and began photographing the city in her late teens. Largely self-taught, she developed her practice while moving through neighbourhoods she knew intimately, particularly Harlem and the Lower East Side. Alongside her photography, Levitt taught art classes to children, an experience that deepened her interest in children's street culture and informal play. Her photographs focus on unposed moments of everyday life in working-class communities. People appear absorbed in gestures, games and conversations, seemingly unaware of the camera. Although Levitt often worked in areas marked by poverty or urban change, her images rarely emphasise hardship. Instead, they convey a sense of closeness and social connection, capturing people as they inhabit their own worlds within the shared space of the street. In the mid-1940s Levitt extended this approach into film, co-directing the short silent documentary In the Street, shot in Spanish Harlem using discreet 16mm cameras that allowed street life to be recorded candidly. When she later began working in colour, Levitt avoided richness or saturation. Instead, she used colour as a counterpoint to the worn fabric of the city, allowing moments of brightness to punctuate otherwise subdued, deteriorating urban settings.Ted Croner (1922-2002) New York, 1947 Gelatin silver printSaul Leiter (1923-2013) Man in Straw Hat, 1955 Chromogenic prints Saul Leiter was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household and originally trained for the rabbinate before moving to New York at the age of 23 to become a painter. Encouraged to pursue photography by the artist Richard Pousette-Dart (1916-1992), Leiter developed a photographic practice shaped profoundly by his commitment to painting. While other photographers of the period experimented with colour, Leiter used it to structure the image itself, allowing colour to guide the composition. Leiter supported himself through commercial fashion photography, developing his sensitivity to framing, balance and negative space. His photographs have a strong graphic clarity, with panes of colour and shadow arranged deliberately as on a printed page. Leiter's work is characterised by partial views - figures cut by the frame or reflections - expressing a cinematic quality. Although Leiter started making colour photographs in the late 1940s, his work was not widely exhibited until the late-1990s. Working only within a two-block radius of his apartment in the East Village, he developed a quiet, inward vision of the city, marked by a sense of looking from the outside - through windows, beneath awnings, or from across the street - suggesting a truly candid and poetic portraying of urban life.SUBWAY Bruce Davidson (born 1933) began taking pictures at just ten years old and was winning school photography prizes by his late teens. He studied photography, painting and design before being drafted into the U.S. Army where he was assigned to a military newspaper. A photo-essay made during his service in Europe caught the attention of the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), who encouraged Davidson to join the prestigious international agency Magnum Photos while still in his early twenties. He photographed the New York City Subway between 1980 and 1985, at a time when the system was associated with neglect, graffiti and rising crime. It remained one of the city's most democratic spaces: a shared environment in which millions of New Yorkers were brought into close contact each day. In this series Davidson embraced the individuality of passengers from all backgrounds, presenting an honest and varied account of the city's inhabitants. The photographs were often taken following repeated encounters and conversations. People are fully aware of the camera, meeting it with curiosity, defiance or indifference. I wanted to transform the subway from its dark, degrading, and impersonal reality into images that open up our experience again to the color, sensuality, and vitality of the individual souls that ride it each day.
JacquiWine@jacquiwine.bsky.social · 22h ago

Would definitely recommend a trip to Dulwich Picture Gallery to see the PORTRAIT OF A CITY: A CENTURY OF AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY exhibition. Works by Saul Leiter, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon and Bruce Davidson are the stars here, but plenty of other gems, too! #Photography #Art #ArtSky

Saul Leiter (1923-2013) Harlem, 1960 Chromogenic print Saul Leiter was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household and originally trained for the rabbinate before moving to New York at the age of 23 to become a painter. Encouraged to pursue photography by the artist Richard Pousette-Dart (1916-1992), Leiter developed a photographic practice shaped profoundly by his commitment to painting. While other photographers of the period experimented with colour, Leiter used it to structure the image itself, allowing colour to guide the composition. Leiter supported himself through commercial fashion photography, developing his sensitivity to framing, balance and negative space. His photographs have a strong graphic clarity, with panes of colour and shadow arranged deliberately as on a printed page. Leiter's work is characterised by partial views - figures cut by the frame or reflections - expressing a cinematic quality. Although Leiter started making colour photographs in the late 1940s, his work was not widely exhibited until the late-1990s. Working only within a two-block radius of his apartment in the East Village, he developed a quiet, inward vision of the city, marked by a sense of looking from the outside - through windows, beneath awnings, or from across the street - suggesting a truly candid and poetic portrayal of urban life.
MadameBibiLophile@madamebibi.bsky.social · 9h ago

Today on the blog, volume 2 of Olivia Manning's Balkan trilogy: “Here they were, wrecked together on the edge of Europe as on an island and she was learning to keep her thoughts to herself.” (The Spoilt City, Olivia Manning) madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk/2026/08/05/h...

“Here they were, wrecked together on the edge of Europe as on an island and she was learning to keep her thoughts to herself.” (The Spoilt City, Olivia Manning)

It was a conversation with Marcie in the comments of Jacqui’s Levant Trilogy post which led to us doing a buddy read for all three volumes of Olivia Manning’s Balkan Trilogy this year. We started w…

madamebibilophilerecommends.co.uk

James Dalrymple@jamesewand.bsky.social · 10h ago

First watch: Past Lives (Celine Song, 2023). Not sure what made me put this off so long, although I suspect that some Letterboxd reviews played a part. Although mostly positive, some were suprisingly vicious. Personally, I found it rather moving after a shaky start.

The poster for Celine Song's 2023 film Past Lives, featuring its two main stars Greta Lee and Teo Yoo on the subway in New York, looking at each other with some yearning, their hands almost touching on the rail
Maylin@blithespirit4.bsky.social · yesterday

I've been wanting to read more of Maylis De Kerangal since reading Canoes, her collection of short stories. Enjoyed this short, intense novel about a soldier deserting on the Trans-Siberian train and the woman reluctantly trying to help him. Translated by Jessica Moore, book 2 for #witmonth

A cooy of Eastbound by Maylis De Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore, lies on top of a white wrought iron table. The cover is green with a black and white photo of a train rushing around a corner.
Darrell Clem@darrellclem.bsky.social · 16h ago

First watch: TOKYO TWILIGHT (1957) The grimmest Yasujirō Ozu film I've seen to date is a quietly powerful story of two sisters whose life struggles can be traced to being abandoned by their mother, despite a loving father who does his best to compensate. #FilmSky #MovieSky 1/4

Poster for the Japanese film Tokyo Twilight.
Robin Baker@robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 24h ago

1/3. Scenes from the c1500 year old Admonitions Scroll - one of the earliest surviving Chinese painted handscrolls - currently making a rare appearance at the British Museum. Due to its fragility, it can only be displayed for up to 6 weeks a year.

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JacquiWine@jacquiwine.bsky.social · 2d ago

New on the blog today, my thoughts on THE TRANSIT OF VENUS by Shirley Hazzard. A stunning novel about love, chance, fate, power dynamics & moral integrity, fully deserving of its status as a modern masterpiece. I loved the subtle use of foreshadowing here! jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/08/04/t...

The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

First published in 1980, The Transit of Venus is the third novel by the Australian writer Shirley Hazzard, an author I’ve been circling for some time. It’s also one of the best novels I’ve read so …

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

Rick Burin@rickburin.bsky.social · yesterday

Brief thoughts upon watching The Apartment (again) boxd.it/fDDfGZ

A ★★★★★ review of The Apartment (1960)

*SPOILERS* “You hear what I said, Miss Kubelik? I absolutely adore you.” The greatest of all Wilder’s great films: a story of becoming a mensch, and of sacrificing oneself – beyond all reason – for love. To do that, producer-director Wilder (co-writing with I. A. L. Diamond) takes all manner of outrageous gambles. Who else would dare hand us a hero who spends the first act with a head cold, social climbing at work, or let us overhear his love interest vomiting up her sleeping pills? It is an astonishingly romantic, devastatingly moving movie, possible because only great writers realise

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Robin Baker@robinalexbaker.bsky.social · yesterday

"Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table..." Shirley MacLaine reads The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (from an enviable Faber edition) in Woman Times Seven (Vittorio De Sica, 1967). This still is rather better than the film.

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JacquiWine@jacquiwine.bsky.social · yesterday

For anyone looking to watch CENTER STAGE, it’s available on blu ray. #FilmSky hmv.com/store/film-t...

Center Stage | HMV Store

Stanley Kwan (Director) | Jackie Chan (Producer) | Willie Chan (Producer) | Leonard Ho (Producer) | Center Stage Blu-ray Free shipping over £25

hmv.com

JacquiWine@jacquiwine.bsky.social · 2d ago

CENTER STAGE (Stanley Kwan, 1991). Absolutely loved this beguiling insight into the life and work of the legendary Chinese actress, Ruan Lingyu, star of silent film in the late 1920s/early ‘30s. (She was known as the Chinese Greta Garbo back then.) (1/4) #FilmSky

Poster for Center Stage, showing a headshot of a very stylish woman (Maggie Cheung) looking down. She is immaculately dressed and made up.
JacquiWine@jacquiwine.bsky.social · 2d ago

New on the blog today, my thoughts on THE TRANSIT OF VENUS by Shirley Hazzard. A stunning novel about love, chance, fate, power dynamics & moral integrity, fully deserving of its status as a modern masterpiece. I loved the subtle use of foreshadowing here! jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/08/04/t...

The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

First published in 1980, The Transit of Venus is the third novel by the Australian writer Shirley Hazzard, an author I’ve been circling for some time. It’s also one of the best novels I’ve read so …

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

Translators Aloud@translatorsaloud.bsky.social · 2d ago

It's all literature in translation, all the time, playlisted by language (and publisher, and topic!), on our channel--read aloud by the translators themselves! #readtheworld #readwomen #booksky #bookstagram #worldlit #witmonth www.youtube.com/@Translators...

Translators Aloud

TRANSLATORS ALOUD: THE VOICE OF TRANSLATED LITERATURE A place for translators to read their own work; a positive space for sharing great literature, read aloud by the translators themselves. For sub...

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