Douglas Fairbanks in The Black Pirate (Albert Parker, 1926) by Hy Rubin. From the recently digitised original pressbook for the film lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/pres...

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.

My former BFI colleague Brian Robinson died last week. He was far too young. In 2002 he and his husband Pas kindly appeared as extras in a short film that I made. It’s a very brief shot, but I love the tenderness of the gesture between them. Pas on the left; Brian on the right.

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

"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.

“Musk and co seem to have missed this message. But it’s the real reason why they should hate the film… It makes clear a commitment to international diplomacy isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s a prerequisite to civilisation.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The right hates The Odyssey because of its ‘wokeness’ – but it missed an even bigger threat to its worldview | Peter Swallow

The new film extols the value of a rules-based world order. That’s far more radical than any casting decision says Labour MP and classicist Peter Swallow

theguardian.com

1/2. Love Maciej Hibner’s emotionally complex poster design for the Polish release of Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960). It perfectly captures Rocco’s love for his brother Simone, but doesn’t shy away from Simone’s terrifying brutality - or give away key plot details.

Sipping my coffee ☕️ and thinking about these marvellous Minoan cups! They look so modern it’s incredible to think they were made by Bronze Age potters some 3,800 years ago! Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete. 📷 by me #Archaeology

Meena Kumari was born on this day in 1933. Here she is a publicity photo for an early starring role in Piya Ghar Aaja (1948). She was just 14 at the time, but was already a cinema veteran. This image is from the May 1948 edition of FilmIndia magazine archive.org/details/film...

So very sorry to hear that we have lost the wonderful Brian Robinson, BFI Press Officer for so many years and the life and soul of any event he attended. Kind, clever, irreplaceable.

Been on a run of heftyish novels - the kind you can’t read in a weekend and weigh down your backpack. Love that feeling of total immersion - companions for weeks rather than days. Currently doing my shoulders no favours by lugging around the 954-page (+ intro + appendices) The Way We Live Now.

1/8. Some of the films that Travis Bickle passes (and, in one case, watches) in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) - shot in New York during the summer of 1975. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, USA, 1974) Return of the Dragon aka The Way of the Dragon (Bruce Lee, Hong Kong, 1972)

London #FilmSky people! A JACQUES DEMY season at the PCC! 🌟 princecharlescinema.com/whats-on/

What’s On | The Prince Charles Cinema

Discover the wide range of films currently on at The Prince Charles Cinema.

princecharlescinema.com

Prince Charles Cinema@princecharlescinema.com · 6d ago

Jacques Demy's beautiful debut LOLA (1961) shows Tue 11th Aug at 6:25pm, as part of our THE FILMS OF JACQUES DEMY season. 🎟️: buff.ly/hX1np6T

Joyce Carol Oates vs Emily Wilson vs Christopher Nolan www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ju... For the record, I love Nolan's film AND Wilson's translation. I'm a JCO fan, too.

‘The crude language of Maga folks’: Joyce Carol Oates criticises Emily Wilson for criticising Nolan’s Odyssey

The novelist suggested Wilson should have been ‘a wee bit more thoughtful and respectful’ towards a film-maker who may have helped boost her book sales

theguardian.com

1/4. Alma Taylor and Milton Rosmer in Shadow of Egypt (Sidney Morgan, UK, 1924). This fantastic still shows a scene shot at the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III in Medinet Habu (c1186-1155 BC), a huge temple complex on the West Bank of the Nile near Luxor.

In film preservation news… www.chemistryworld.com/news/polymer...

Polymer sponge could save stars of the silver screen from ‘vinegar syndrome’ destruction

Material that mops up acetic acid could slow degradation of old movie reels

chemistryworld.com

1/5. Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960) is among the films I have watched most often in a cinema. But yesterday, I saw something that I hadn’t noticed before. The family’s name in the film is Parondi. Rocco (Alain Delon) becomes a successful boxer and we see his hame everywhere.

Woven silk portrait of Anna May Wong, made by an unknown maker in the UK before 1939 (there is no exact date). It's just 7cm x 5cm. Preserved at V&A East Storehouse collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O315075...

1/3. Deciphering Heptapod language - ARRIVAL (Denis Villeneuve, 2016). One of the things that makes ARRIVAL so rewarding is its exploration of language. The film’s alien script was designed by artist Martine Bertrand, based on screenwriter Eric Heisserer's concept from Ted Chiang’s novella.

1/2. When a painting stops you in your tracks. I hadn’t noticed this before last night. The first image is the reverse of a small, double-sided painting of St Jerome by Dürer, painted in c1496 and on display in the National Gallery.

New on the blog today, a mid-year round-up featuring my favourite books from Jan to June 2026 - highlights from 6 months of reading. Including novels by Anita Brookner, Penelope Mortimer, Rumer Godden, Olivia Manning, Henry Van Dyke & more! #BookSky 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/07/24/m...

My favourite books from Jan – June 2026

Now that we’re well into July, I thought it might be interesting to put together a mid-year review, summarising my reading highlights from January to June. I seem to say this every year, but 2026 i…

jacquiwine.wordpress.com

1/2. If you grew up in the UK in the 60s and 70s, it's time to face one of your childhood traumas... THE SINGING RINGING TREE (1957) and other terrifying fairy tales produced by East German studio DEFA, are released on Blu ray next week with a 2nd volume out in Oct eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/into-t...

Cinema has spent 120 years trying to crack the Cyclops. Christopher Nolan finally found the answer – and it was staring everyone in the face.

Eye of the Giant: Cinema's Cyclops Problem

Cinema has spent 120 years trying to crack the Cyclops. Christopher Nolan finally found the answer – and it was staring everyone in the face.

lwlies.com

1/5. I’m another enormous fan of Nolan’s (and Homer’s) The Odyssey. It’s spectacular, mature filmmaking and psychologically and emotionally richer than I dared expect. And the changes he made to the original are invariably well judged. However, I have a caveat…

1/2. Love this retelling of the story of Perseus by Ian Serraillier. Though I’m really here for the illustrations by William Stobbs. He marries the style of the images on Ancient Greek vases and sculpture with a 1950s/early 60s sensibility.

1/2. Film education, 1927 style.

What are the books you yammer on about to anyone who'll listen? CASSANDRA AT THE WEDDING, Dorothy Baker MRS PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT, Elizabeth Taylor THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, Edith Wharton THE BEGINNING OF SPRING, Penelope Fitzgerald IN A LONELY PLACE, Dorothy B. Hughes BALKAN TRILOGY, Manning 💙📚

Jonathan Gibbs@jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 2w ago

Nicholson Baker Room Temperature Brigid Brophy The Snow Ball TJ Clark The Sight of Death David Markson Wittgenstein’s Mistress Don DeLillo The Body Artist Natalie Léger Suite for Barbara Loden Tessa Hadley Selected Stories (doesn’t exist, except in my head) Louis MacNeice Autumn Journal Don Quixote

I loved Nolan's film of #TheOdyssey, but Powell and Pressburger's portrayal of Corryvreckan in I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING! (1945) gets my vote for cinema's greatest whirlpool sequence.

I’m a big fan of that publicity photo staple - film stars reading books. There are some surprises here, though we'll never know if some of the choices are those of the star - or of the publicist. 1/10. The greatest of them all: Eve Arnold’s photo of Marilyn Monroe reading James Joyce’s Ulysses.

SAFE (Todd Haynes, 1995) on 35mm! Julianne Moore's finest, but underseen, 2 hours.

LostReelsUK@lostreelsuk.bsky.social · 2w ago

WOMEN ON THE EDGE – The LOST REELS all-day film event on Sun Sept 13th at The Cinema Museum announced and ON SALE! Presenting four films that exemplify the Lost Reels brand, WOMEN ON THE EDGE features extraordinary women living beyond the boundaries. All-day tickets: ticketlab.app/series/2806#/