Demob Happy

Notes on Notes On A Scandal
7/10
I resisted seeing - or indeed even reading about - ‘Notes on a Scandal‘, as I had wrongly assumed it was the kind of tasteful, Oscar-baiting ‘Quality British Drama’ that I loathe. With Cate Blanchette in tow, I thought I could smell theatre-honed, BAFTA-approved method acting a mile off. In [...]

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A river runs through it
8/10
‘South of the River‘ is an insightful and often moving novel revolving around the lives and loves of several inter-connected, mostly South London-based characters. It looks specifically at the changing fortunes of these individuals against the backdrop of New Labour and Tony Blair, from the landslide election night to the post-9-11 [...]

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The other side of the wall
9/10
1984 is an inauspicious date for the setting of this fine movie about the East German autocracy. Whereas films like ‘Goodbye Lenin’ inspired a trend of nostalgia (coined as OSTalgia) for the GDR, ‘The Life of Others’ paints a more realistic picture. In a thoughtful, humane work, Stasi [...]

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The secret history
9/10
Caché - ‘Hidden’ - directed by Michael (The Piano Teacher) Haneke, is a masterclass on how to unnerve your audience, not through what you necessarily show but by what is indeed hidden from view. Georges (Daniel Auteil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche) are a bourgeois Parisian couple with a teenage son. Georges is presenter [...]

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