James Dalrymple

Very nice 👍

An image of lips with legs is the poster for the film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

#OscarsMonth
Day 4: D (A-Z)

THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (French, 1972)

Luis Buñuel’s satirical film uses surreal sequences to mock upper-middle class friends by interrupting their attempts to dine together.
Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film.

Great title; awful poster.
#FilmSky

It is 1977 Japan. You are making a follow-up to your marvellous yakuza film, Japan's Don. Who do you cast in the sequel as a rival yakuza? That's right - Toshirô Mifune!

Film poster for Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981). There is a young Japanese girl in school uniform holding a machine gun pointed up above her head.

Film poster for Bernice Bobs Her Hair (1976). It is a black and white image of Shelley Duvall as Bernice looking into the camera with a sly smile on her face.

Film poster for The Jesus Rolls (2019). The title is in purple at the top inside a purple neon arrow. The O forms a bowling ball. Six members of the cast are in the middle of the poster. Jesus is in the middle holding a purple bowling ball. At the bottom, Jesus, Petey and Marie are walking away from a car, arm in arm.

Film poster for Hickey & Boggs (1972). Hickey and Boggs are standing in front of a bullet riddled car with their pistols drawn. At the top, the tagline says "They're not cool slick heroes. They're worn, rough men and that's why they're so dangerous. They hold their forty-four magnums with two hands and keep firing until they hit something... anything."

My favourite first watches of February were Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981), Bernice Bobs Her Hair (1976), The Jesus Rolls (2019) and Hickey & Boggs (1972).

Good one!

Screenshot of Letterboxd list showing posters for my favourite first-time watches, including Charulata, The Hero, Bitter Rice and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.

My favourite first-time watches in February. Plenty of highlights here, including CHARULATA, NAYAK / THE HERO and BITTER RICE.

For more recent films, IF I HAD LEGS… and THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE were excellent, too! #FilmSky

boxd.it/SVMfk

In no particular order, these were my favorite first-time watches in February. #FilmSky

good to hear!

Looking forward to it!

Must be! Strange that there's more than one title 🤷‍♂️

Cover of the Penguin edition of "Pictures of a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood" by Mark Harris, with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty from Bonnie and Clyde featuring prominently

Incoming reading 📚💙

Thanks @roq11.bsky.social for the heads up!

😆

I rewatched Jafar Panahi’s THE WHITE BALLOON last night, and it’s beautifully done. As James says, very much in tune with the Kiarostami.
Fans of the recent Iraqi film THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE will also find much to appreciate here! #FilmSky

The first part of the book, especially the part on mining, is the most illuminating, I reckon. The second part is more polemical but less engaging. Memorable read though

A glimmer in Pat’s (Claire Trevor) eye like the sparkle in her earrings reveals her deep-seated, dangerous passion for the man she and her love rival want to save in their own different and yet similar ways. There’s good in there; it’s just how to bring it out in spite of himself

The looming Raymond Burr as a ruthless bastard in a pinstriped suit with enormous shoulder pads. Is it even noir if Raymond Burr isn’t in it playing a despicable and wholly believable villain?

Holy shit, what a shot. Pat’s reflection in a ticking clock as she wrestles with herself about what to do - the selfish or the right thing, though she knows the latter will destroy any hope of future happiness

One of the all-time fight to the death scenes as Rick (Burr) and Joe (Dennis O’Keeffe… my cousin’s name, incidentally) wrestle on the balcony of a burning room

A doomed love triangle
Raymond Burr in massive shoulder pads
Inescapable fate
Moonlight on wet asphalt
Flickering neon hotel signs
Gunfights in the mist
That shimmer Alton captures in each woman’s eyes when they’re overwhelmed by love

Raw Deal (Mann, 1948) is everything noir should be and more

The Levant Trilogy (Book One: The Danger Tree) by Olivia Manning Five years ago, I read and loved Olivia Manning’s Balkan Trilogy, a superb series of largely autobiographical novels based on the author’s experiences of a life lived on the advancing edges of turm…

From the archive for Olivia Manning #BornOnThisDay in 1908, my thoughts on THE DANGER TREE, book 1 of the magnificent LEVANT TRILOGY.

Inspired by Manning's personal experiences, it's an absorbing, richly rewarding novel with an immersive sense of place! 💙📚

jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/01/18/t...

I have seen a few Richard Rush films - Colour of Night (his masterpiece...), Freebie and the Bean, Getting Straight - so I wasn't expecting a straight-ahead film but the mix of tones and styles of The Stunt Man still caught me slightly off-guard.

A poster of the noir film Crime Wave.

Rewatch: CRIME WAVE (1954), a gritty, 74-minute B-noir with a taut script, rapid pace, superb performances and perfect on-location filming in L.A.

Three prison escapees rob a gas station, kill a cop and force an ex-con-gone-straight into …
#FilmSky #noir #FilmNoir #MovieSky #thriller
1/2

Some stunning cover work in these thread

Intriguing!

oh great, thanks Juli!

Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London in Art A free exhibition that tells the story of London during the Second World War, as seen by artists. Families can enjoy a child-friendly ‘stamper’ trail and activity sheet that encourages children to spo...

As bombs rained down in 1940s London, artists responded. See art that presents a city both familiar and strange in over 45 paintings and drawings alongside photographs, film, objects and oral histories.

IWM London
20 March to 1 November 2026

😆sometimes you've just got to jazz things up a bit

To be fair, it's not a very appealing title

Like Abbas Kiarostami, he seemed to like deconstructing his own films. This isn't always very engaging as drama, but there are things "going on" when it doesn't seem like much is happening at all

he he, you don't have to. I just thought you might have one in mind. I'm often curious about the paintings chosen for those editions

What novel would you use it for, Jacqui? 😀

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) SYMPHONY IN WHITE, NO. III Around 1865-67 Oil paint on canvas Shown at the Royal Academy in 1867, this painting was the first in a series of works that Whistler exhibited under the title of 'symphony. By aligning his work with music, Whistler gave primary importance to form, tone and colour, opposing many of his contemporaries' emphasis on narrative. He took inspiration from Japanese art, which is evident here in his arrangement of the figures against a flattened space, framed by flowers to the right and accented by a patterned fan in the foreground. The Henry Barber Trust, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. Purchased 1939 (no. 39.24)

The right-hand-side of the painting showing a girl in a long cream-coloured dress sitting on the floor next to a couch. An orange Japanese fan is lying on the floor near her legs.

The left-hand side of the painting shows another girl in a long cream-coloured dress lounging listlessly on the couch. Her hear is propped up on one arm while the other arm rests on the back of the couch.

If you’re going to the Courtauld’s SEURAT AND THE SEA exhibition, check out the selection of artworks on loan from Birmingham’s Barber Institute of Fine Arts, on display until August this year.

I love this painting by Whistler, which would look ideal on the covers of old Virago Modern Classics!

Hearing characters question traditional gender roles, for example, might have been more acceptable to censors if it were thought to have just been "overheard" rather than scripted. The play of realities seems just as much a trick on the authorities as it does on audiences. 3/3

It would be easy to dismiss this as an elaborate self-reflexive prank, but the film cleverly flits between fiction and behind-the-scenes documentary, picking up dialogue that may or may not be staged, and some of which might have been considered "subversive" to authorities. 2/3