Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 398

Goodbye, Mr Naughty

Ken Russell, iconoclastic director of 'Women In Love', 'The Devils' and 'Tommy' has died at the age of 84. The archetypal naughty boy, he directed BBC biographies of musicians that gave way to excessive satires and biographies, including 'The Music Lovers' (Tchaikovsky), Liszt ('Lizstomania'), Valentino, Mahler and Isadora Duncan. Much of his work remains unavailable [...]

More Christmas Foreign Films

My first selection of Christmas movies wasn't deliberately picked from Western Europe (see Comments) – I wasn't planning to pick one from every country, just some I've enjoyed. Besides, a lot of the Eastern Europe films I've seen lately as a member of the European Film Academy have been incredibly depressing, so a very slow [...]

Mummy And Daddy Are Stoners

The Guardian is running a piece today about a right-on children's book on cannabis. 'It's Just a Plant' is written and illustrated by Ricardo Cortés, whose work recently graced the bedtime story bestseller 'Go the Fuck to Sleep'. Recently reissued, it follows Jackie, a girl who smells dope and goes to her parents' bedroom to [...]

Go Directly To Jail, Eat Dinner

Wild mushrooms en croute, guinea fowl, quince jelly. The Clink restaurant at HMP High Down in Sutton, Surrey is a gourmet restaurant at the centre of a prison for 1,100 criminals where the prisoners themselves cook and serve food. The Clink is not on the outside of the prison, but bang in the middle [...]

Ten Great Foreign Films For Christmas

At Christmas I won't be watching M&S ads and X Factor specials on TV but my favourite foreign films. You know the accepted list; in the same way that Hollywood Top Tens place 'Citizen Kane' at the start, there's usually 'Jules Et Jim', 'A Bout De Souffle', 'Les Enfants Du Paradis' and so on. I'll [...]

Listening To Mr Punch

W F Howes, our excellent audiobook champions, are finishing the latest novel and it should be out soon for you to hear. That's the way to do it! Here's the cover art (click to enlarge):

An End To Climbing The Lions

The lions of Trafalgar Square have been clambered on by generations of children, but today's kids are rougher, and think nothing of trying to gouge their names into the bronze flanks of Landseer's beasts with keys and other sharp objects. As a consequence, the metal has been eroded after 140 years from the original thickness [...]

Re:View – 'War Horse'

I turned down tickets to see the show when an alarm in my head sounded about noble beasts and tearful lads, and indeed, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh at parts of this tragic tale. My cynical stance came from the idea that I would have to watch a depoliticised view [...]

European Humour

Mad Rubbish You Stumble Across On The Interweb Dept: This is not the French Fantomas we know and love, but some kind of weirdly ironic European version. Some superheroes have secret identities in which they are hairdressers, apparently. Given the high percentage of smutty jokes in this episode, it's hard to tell who the audience [...]

Let's Talk About The Henge

This was recommended to me by my neighbour, film director and ace trumpet player Mike Figgis, who shares my silly sense of musical humour. Warning; the song will stay in your brain and do damage. It's all about the henge.