Christopher Fowler's Blog, page 415

Frightfest Screens Its Best Film

So, on the climactic night of Frightfest, we had Dick Mass's fun Dutch epic 'Saint', about the sinister side of St Nick, with children getting sucked up chimneys and a marvellous central horse chase across the rooftops of snowy Amsterdam. Then it was on to the much-hyped 'Kill List'…

My key instruction for 'Kill List' is [...]

The Good, The Bad & The Inexcusable

Frightfest has become the largest and most successful event of its kind in Europe, and has scored more hits than misses this year. We're now four days in and I'm burning out, although mercifully Chinatown is around the corner so we can hit the dim sum trail between ordeals. I've been avoiding the director Q&As [...]

Curtain Call

During a break in the films of Frightfest, we nipped up to the Roundhouse in Camden Town to see Ron Arad's amazing installation 'Curtain Call'. Consisting of hundreds of plastic rods hanging from the ceiling and arranged in 360 degrees, projectors run seamlessly circular film onto them to create a total environment that you can [...]

Great Equal Rights Signs

These suggestions why there should be gay marriage legislation in the US cracked me up. Find the rest of them here.

What Not To Call Your restaurant

Okay, I can see the pun they were intending – it implies French vegetables, but by making the 'tout' a '2′ they concentrated your attention on the first word, meaning 'skin disease of mammals caused by parasitic mites and characterized by intense itching, lesions, scabs, and a loss of hair'. Unsurprisingly, it has closed down.

OMG, I'm Almost A Cockney!

The home of Cockneys isn't clearly defined. In theory, in order to be a Cockney you must have been born within earshot of the Bow Bells. But many people don't realise that the church isn't in Bow, and has nothing to do with the East End.

The church of St Mary-le-Bow was destroyed in 1666 by [...]

Towards More Colourful Language

If you thought Cockney rhyming slang was confusing, check this out.

Time For The Return Of Rep?

Last night I went to posh Holland Park (no M&S sandwiches on the lawns here, it was all French champagne and ciabattas) to see 'Some Like It Hot' on the open air screen. Secret Cinema started these events some while back, restaging scenes from films and creating an ambience around the movie you're watching.

Now many [...]

First Catch Your Witch

A friend calls me from Liverpool: 'What are you doing?' 'I'm in Waitrose,' I reply, 'looking at Barry Norman's Pickled Onions (the jar has baggy-eyed Barry holding a clapperboard on the label – what connection could there possibly be between a film clip show and pickled onions?) and organic vanilla pod custard'. 'You big Southern [...]

The Face Is Familiar

But possibly not the back of the head. I blame Christian Marclay for starting all of this. Now we have an entire assembly of back-of-the-head shots from movies. It's driving me mad trying to work out what they're from.