Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 311

Not Nostalgic After All These Years

After I posted old footage of London in the 1950s, I noticed that the original host site had been hit with a number of quasi-racist remarks, along the lines of ‘Weren’t things nicer then when we were all English,’ and so on.

I have no nostalgia for that selectively remembered past at all, just a natural [...]

Re:View – ‘Dans La Maison’ (In The House)

Admin loves stories. He also loves stories about stories. Director Francois Ozon is fascinated by the line that separates fact and fiction. In ‘La Piscine’, Charlotte Rampling is a blocked writer who goes on holiday to try and jump-start her new novel. What she discovers crosses that line beautifully. In ‘Huit Femmes’, the titular women [...]

A Right Old Ding-Dong In London

I have to hit London’s West End tonight (Piccadilly Circus, oh joy) and I have a feeling it’s going to be a bit crazy down there, although so far Margaret Thatcher’s funeral has so far been marked by solemnity and respect. Even so, one would like to think that an oppositional point of view (something [...]

London’s Best & Worst No.1

Best Weather Reports: The Londonist

‘Spring continues its Marge Simpson ‘slow and steady wins the race’ attitude. Moderate, unremarkable temperatures and a botheration of clouds are a marked improvement on last week, but it’s all still disappointing sky bilge. The wind can cock off as well.’

Best Indian London:

TheShri Swaminarayan Mandiris a masterpiece of Indian stonework and [...]

Re:View – ‘Oblivion’

*No Spoilers*

Q. Why do films made from graphic novels fall on their faces, even unpublished ones?

A. because storytelling is treated as secondary to gorgeous visuals.

‘Oblivion’ starts off looking great, but right from the outset there are dire warnings. The opening monologue points to a mid-film twist any SF neophyte can see in million-mile high letters. [...]

Re:View – ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’

A few years back,Mark Haddon’s children’s book became a sensation. Its story of an autistic boy, Christopher, investigating the death of Wellington, a dog found speared with a garden fork, becomes a heroic journey of discovery that leads to the exposure of adult lies. Christopher only tells the truth and takes everything he sees at [...]

Hear This!

If you have some urgent knitting to attend to, you could always pass the time listening to my interview about ‘Film Freak’ on the Robert Elms Show here. Unless you’re overseas, of course, then you’ll probably get a blank screen. Goldarn rasslefrassle copyright laws!

Oh, and I suppose somebody out there knows which film I quoted [...]

Pulp These!

How do you give paperbacks a bit of added value, and separate them out from all the DRM-free versions online? How about doing what PulpTheClassics.com is doing, and reprinting a number of classic books to look like tacky paperbacks?

Yesterday I got sent a truly horrible copy of ‘The Great Gatsby’ bearing the strapline ‘When it [...]

In Paradise, The Honeymoon Is Over

Public lashings, Islamic fundamentalists seizing power, a secular gay blogger getting his throat slashed – few of the million annual visitors to the beautiful Maldives island see the mainland. Instead they’re fed a tropical dream that has nothing to do with the terrible state the Maldives now finds itself in.

Islamic hardliners, many trained in Pakistan [...]

Film Freak: First Review

The first review is in and it’s a stonker – here. (The computer auto-corrected that to ‘stinker’. Everyone’s a critic.) ‘was so smitten with this book that I read it through from cover to cover in one sitting,’ says the reviewer. That’s better than a poke in the eye.