The BFI closed their Marilyn Monroe retrospective  with a Study Day on Sat 27th July. Entitled Marilyn Monroe: Understanding a Cultural Phenomenon four academics delivered talks on various aspects of her career. Lucy Bolton asked why Marilyn’s stardom has endured even among people who have never seen any of her films. Sarah Churchwell, author of The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, tore into the myths that have formed around Marilyn since her death. Laura Adams analysed Marilyn’s acting style and the clips back up her claim she was a much more gifted performer than many care to admit. Lastly Pamela Church-Gibson looked at the role of women in 1950′s society, and the emergence of Marilyn as a style icon during that era. Conspiracy theorists were mercifully given short thrift during the final round-table discussion. It’s also worth noting for an actress who is often dismissed as nothing more than a male fantasy figure the audience was predominantly female. 

Johnnie To onstage at EIFF 2015.

The return of Young Sherlock Holmes. Always hoped somebody would let Nichola Rowe play Sherlock Holmes again. So it’s lovely to see Bill Condon has given him a cameo in ‘Mr Holmes’ as the actor playing Holmes in a movie the real Sherlock (Ian McKellen) watches at the cinema.

This is what happens if you ask Jean-Luc Godard if he wants to watch the tennis.

For the last couple of years I’ve been putting my film writing on a blog called ‘The Film Hermit’ but I have decided to shut it down. Some of the pieces I will move here. Others discard. 

I borrowed an old pictorial book on Silent movies and found this gem of a poster from 1910. It’s the back in the day equivalent of those adverts warning people to switch off their mobile phones. Ladies in outlandish hats were apparently the biggest menace facing audiences in the early days of cinema.

Hoping Lech Majewski’s The Mill and the Cross about Pieter Bruegel (Rutger Hauer) and his painting ‘The Procession to Cavalry’ gets a UK release soon. Until then I’ll just have to study the painting in preparation. 

Vittorio De Sica’s Miracle in Milan (1951) has a great DVD release on the Arrow Academy label. Not a big fan of De Sica but this beguiling slice of Magic Realism is much more fun than his best known film Bicycle Thieves (1947).  Bleakest happy ending ever.