Great injustices are committed upon this land

Thursday music corner: British dub poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson (b. Jamaica, 1952) joined his mother in Brixton in 1963 and during his school and university years became increasingly concerned about racism in British society and politics. Graduating with a sociology degree from Goldsmiths College in 1973, Johnson began writing verse targeting the goal of black liberation. He also wrote for music publications in the 1970s including the New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Black Music. 

Johnson released his first album, Dread Beat an' Blood, in 1978, and has released over a dozen albums to date, plus several compilation albums. Reggae Fi' Peach appears on his 1980 album Bass Culture, and honours the memory of New Zealand-born teacher Blair Peach, who died in Southall on 24 April 1979 during an anti-fascist rally against the British National Front. The balance of evidence suggests that the police Special Patrol Group unit was responsible for Peach's death, and also obstructed official investigations to protect the killer. An official report into Peach's death was not made public until 2010, 31 years after the incident.

Linton Kwesi Johnson - Reggae Fi' Peach (live at the BBC, 03.10.81)

See also:

Music: Linton Kwesi Johnson - Peach Dub (1980)

Music: Linton Kwesi Johnson - Di Great Insohreckshan (1983)

Music: The Upsetters - Dollar In The Teeth (1969)

The golden age of American long-distance high-speed diesel trains

[In 1935] the Union Pacific train was immediately put into service as The City of Portland between Chicago and Portland, Oregon, and the Milwaukee Road soon launched the Twin Cities Hiawatha, running between the same two cities as the Burlington's Twin Cities Zephyr but powered by new steam locomotives designed to run at 100 mph. Diesel, though, was now the fashion and within a couple of years there were more than a dozen of these new diesel services, trying to outdo each other with the extra facilities and comfort they provided. Pullman joined in the craze by providing streamlined lightweight cars for several of these trains, but it was the decision of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad to create an all-Pullman service that resulted in the service which could, justifiably, lay claim to being the most luxurious train in the world, pace the Orient Express. This was the Super Chief, which started running between Chicago and Los Angeles in 1936 in just under forty hours, a timetable that saved a full half-day on its steam predecessor, the Santa Fe's old Chief, a prestigious steam train introduced a decade before. The Super Chief became the train of choice for movie stars and studio moguls for their trips between the coasts and undoubtedly set a new standard of comfort for its passengers: 'Designed within by a group of eminent architects and stylists, its restaurant, observation lounge, bar and wide choice of overnight accommodation - every room richly panelled in wood veneers from the four quarters of the world were very reasonable replicas of the hotel accommodation to which the Hollywood haut monde who frequented it were accustomed.

These new streamliner services invariably offered all the accoutrements of the trains of the previous generation, but with modern extras such as air conditioning and electric razor points. The more spacious offered lounges, cocktail bars and office facilities, and all provided meals that today would earn them a Michelin star or two, elegantly hosted by a dinner-jacketed maître d', as well as offering various sleeping car options. There was, too, a great emphasis on making the trip itself into a pleasure, rather than merely a trial to be endured, with a great emphasis on the smoke-free views afforded by the much larger windows.

The result of this feverish activity was that, for a short period in the late 1930s, the ten fastest regular train services in the world were all American streamliners. It was not so much the speed or the diesel- powered engines that caught the public's imagination, but rather their streamlining. They were, quite literally, beautiful behemoths, a source of pride and modernity in an era of economic struggle and austerity. The size and power of the elegant diesels seemed to epitomize American values, and gave people something to celebrate.

- Christian Wolmar, The Great Railway Revolution: The Epic Story of the American Railroad, London, 2012, p.330-1.

See also:
Blog: The Sunday morning train to Verona, 15 June 2015

Blog: The break of gauge, 14 January 2014 
Blog: Take the 'A' train, 10 October 2009
Blog: You can get to Taumarunui going north or south, 24 May 2009

Flock

Burrows Ave, Karori

 

Reach across the cold divider, I will warm you

Thursday music corner: Marlon Williams is a New Zealand singer-songwriter with an increasing side-line in acting roles. He tours with backing band The Yarra Benders, and collaborates with fellow Lyttelton resident Delaney Davidson. Having met actor/director Bradley Cooper in Los Angeles, Williams was cast in a small role in Cooper's 2018 hit film remake A Star Is Born. He has also appeared in the 2019 Australian film The True History of the Kelly Gang, Alice Englert's 2023 film Bad Behaviour, and the New Zealand-filmed TV series Sweet Tooth.

Williams has released three solo studio albums, plus four other albums in collaboration with other artists, three of which were with Delaney Davidson. River Rival appeared on Williams' most recent album, My Boy (2022). It was the third single released from the album, after My Boy and Thinking Of Nina.

Marlon Williams - River Rival (2022)

See also:

Music: Marlon Williams & Delaney Davidson - Bloodletter (2012)

Music: Marlon Williams & Brandi Carlile - Oh, Pretty Woman (in A Star Is Born, 2018)

Music: Marlon Williams & Aldous Harding - Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore (2018)

Ascot St, Thorndon

 

But one little spoon of your precious love is good enough for me

Thursday music corner: Howlin' Wolf (aka Chester Arthur Burnett, 1910-76) was a Mississippi-born blues singer and guitarist who attained considerable fame as a progenitor of electric Chicago blues, and who was revered by the British blues exponents like Cream, the Rolling Stones and Steve Winwood. Howlin' Wolf released 14 studio albums during his lifetime, and scored four US R&B chart top ten singles: How Many More Years and Moanin' At Midnight (both 1951) and Smokestack Lightning and I Asked For Water (both 1956). 

The Willie Dixon-penned Spoonful was a 1960 Howlin' Wolf single on the Chess label. It features on the Rolling Stone '500 Greatest Songs of All Time' list, and has been inducted into the Blues Foundation's 'Hall of Fame'. 

Howlin' Wolf - Spoonful (1960)

See also:

Music: Howlin' Wolf - Killing Floor (re-recorded London 1971 with Clapton, Winwood, Wyman & Watts)

Music: Jimi Hendrix - Killing Floor (live at Monterey, 1967)

Music: Cream - Spoonful (live at the Fillmore, 1968)

How the plough fostered societies with greater gender inequalities

Early Egyptian ploughs were scratch ploughs, akin to a stick being pulled through the earth. During the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BCE to 220 CE), Chinese farmers developed the turn plough, which turns the soil upside down, creating furrows. Settled agriculture was five or six times more productive than foraging. The plough brought the end of a society in which everyone's occupation was effectively 'food finder'. Indeed, one historian has argued that the entire modern world is the result of the plough.

Ploughs changed power dynamics too. Digging stick agriculture is relatively gender-equal, but ploughs require significant upper body strength to pull the plough or control the animal that pulls it. So the plough made farming a more male-dominated activity. The legacy of this technology has echoed down the generations. In countries where plough use was uncommon (such as Rwanda and Madagascar), gender norms are more equal than in countries where plough use was common (such as Mauritania and Ethiopia). Even among immigrants who have recently moved to advanced countries, those from countries with a heritage of plough use are less likely to believe that women should have jobs outside the home.

- Andrew Leigh, The Shortest History of Economics, Collingwood VIC, 2024, p.16

Te Papa plinths

 

Let these times show you that you're breaking up the lines

Thursday music corner: Karen Dalton (1937-93) was a gravel-voiced American folk singer-songwriter whose struggles with alcohol and drug addiction during her lifetime limited her commercial success, but whose reputation has only grown with time. She released two studio albums, 1969's It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best, and 1970's In My Own Time. Something On Your Mind was the opening track on the latter album, and was composed by Quicksilver Messenger Service singer Chet Powers under his stage name of Dino Valenti.

Karen Dalton - Something On Your Mind (1970)

See also:

Music: Karen Dalton - A Little Bit of Rain (live in Colorado, 1970)

Music: Fred Neil - The Dolphins (1966)

Music: Quicksilver Messenger Service - Pride of Man (1968)

How the 'heads' of London lived circa 1970

It was still possible for heads to live a low-budget life in London in 1970. Although student numbers were rising steeply as the baby boomers left school, higher education was still only available to 8 per cent of the population (today it nudges 50 per cent). This comparatively privileged group had their education financed by a grant from their local authority, money from their parents if they were lucky, and whatever they had managed to save from a holiday job, which usually involved some form of hard physical labour. With a loaf of bread costing 5p (or one shilling - this was the last year of pounds, shillings and pence), a packet of Embassy cigarettes 20p and a Wimpy hamburger 10p, most of their daily requirements could be covered easily. In many respects the world seemed as economically stable as it had done in the fifties. But 1970 was one year before the decision to take America off the gold standard and the subsequent rise in the price of oil ushered in an era when inflation became endemic. In 1960 the rate of inflation had been 1 per cent. By 1975 it was running at 25 per cent. 

In 1970, heads sharing a flat in central London would expect to pay around £7 each per week. If they were prepared to settle for cheaper areas like Muswell Hill and Finsbury Park Time Out's Book of London predicted they could get a three-room flat for £15. Most of their entertainment was cheap. If they had gone to see Five Easy Pieces, which opened in London at the end of September, they might have paid 30p for their cinema seat. Most of the pleasures and diversions London offered to the tourist were too expensive for heads. They didn't eat out. They never took a taxi. The Time Out guide to alternative London advised that if you had difficulty getting back to the suburbs after a night at Middle Earth you could hitch a lift on one of the lorries leaving Fleet Street in the early hours to deliver the morning papers to the distributors. Credit cards were strictly for the adult world. Banks didn't open at weekends. When they were open they made it clear that they disapproved of anyone taking out any money. Anyone with as much as five pounds on their person was bent on some sort of blow-out.

- David Hepworth, A Fabulous Creation: How the LP Saved Our Lives, London, 2019, p.48-9.

See also:
London: The grooviest place on the planet, 16 July 2018
London: Earl's Court 1968, 16 April 2014
London: Denmark Street, 18 January 2010

Dapper cat

Dickensian Bookshop, Featherston, 30 March 2024

 

They don't believe that it is sinning when you are winning

Thursday music corner: Lawrence Arabia, the stage name of Christchurch-born, Auckland-based performer James Milne, has released five albums of erudite, well-crafted pop in the mold of Harry Nilsson since 2006. His 2009 single Apple Pie Bed from his second album, Chant Darling, won Milne and co-writer Luke Buda the APRA Silver Scroll for single of the year, sandwiched between OpShop's One Day (2008) and The Naked & Famous' international hit Young Blood (2010). 

A Lake is the opening track from Milne's 2016 album Absolute Truth. Brain Gym, another track from the album, was played by the legendary Iggy Pop on his BBC 6Music radio show.   

Lawrence Arabia - A Lake (2016)

See also:

Music: Lawrence Arabia & the Erotic Threads - Apple Pie Bed (live, 2007)

Music: Lawrence Arabia - Brain Gym (2016)

Music: Lawrence Arabia - The Developed World (2022)

Hamilton Gardens

 

Will I be handsome? Will I be rich?

Thursday music corner: The High Keys were a US R&B band named after lead singer Troy Keyes (b. North Carolina, 1940), who had a US hit in 1963 with their perky ATCO single release of their cover of Doris Day's 1956 hit, Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be). They released a major label version of the song the following year, on Atlantic. The song also charted in Canada and was released in the UK.  

The High Keys - Que Sera, Sera (1963)

See also:

Music: The High Keys - Living A Lie (1966)

Music: Troy Keyes - Love Explosions (1968)

Music: The Pixies - Que Sera Sera (2021, minor key version)

Now he's out in space, fixing all the problems

Thursday music corner: Welsh-born musician and songwriter Karl Wallinger, who died at his home in the East Sussex city of Hastings on Sunday aged 66, was the founder and driving force behind the group World Party. After joining Mike Scott's Waterboys as a keyboardist for the band's second and third albums, Wallinger went solo as World Party in 1986, adding other members as required. 

World Party released five studio albums from 1987 to 2000, three of which reached the UK top 40 albums chart; the most successful was Bang!, which reached number 2 in the UK album charts in 1993; it also went top 10 in Norway. World Party achieved four UK top 40 singles, and the 1987 single Ship of Fools reached number four in the Australian pop charts. She's The One, an album track from World Party's 1997 album Egyptology, was later a UK chart-topping single for Robbie Williams in 1999. Wallinger benefited from the royalties; according to the New York Times: 

“So we didn’t have to sell the kids to chemical experiments or anything,” he told The Chicago Sun-Times in 2012. “I think I’m a bit of a lucky person.” 

Is It Like Today? was the first single from World Party's third album, Bang! It reached number 19 in the UK charts, and number 24 in Canada. It also reached number five on the US alternative charts.

World Party - Is It Like Today? (1993)      

See also:

Music: The Waterboys - Don't Bang The Drum (1985, Scott/Wallinger co-write)

Music: World Party - Put The Message In The Box (1990)

Music: World Party - She's The One (live, 1997)

Lines To Be Read At the Casting of Scott FitzGerald's balls into the Sea

Cuba is a hell of an interesting place now and has been for last five years. Probably before too you say. But only know what I've seen. Anyway am writing a story about this next revolution. Come on down any time and I'll take you over there in the boat and you'll get a good story out of it anyway. If you really feel blue enough, get yourself heavily insured and I'll see you can get killed [...] I'll write you a fine obituary that Malcolm Cowley will cut the best part out of for the new republic and we can take your liver out and give it to the Princeton Museum, your heart to the Plaza Hotel, one lung lung to Max Perkins and the other to George Horace Lorimer. If we can still find your balls I will take them via the Ile de France to Paris and down to Antibes and have them cast into the sea off Eden Roc and we will get Mac Leish to write a Mystic Poem to be read at that Catholic School (Newman?) you went to. Would you like me to write the mystic poem now. Let's see. 

Lines To Be Read At the Casting of Scott FitzGerald's balls into the Sea from Eden Roc (Antibes Alpes Maritimes)

Whence from these gray Heights unjockstrapped wholly stewed he

Flung

Himself?

No.

Some waiter?

Yes.

Push tenderly oh green shoots of grass

Tickle not our Fitz's nostrils

Pass

The gray moving unbenfinneyed sea deaths deeper than

our debt to Eliot

Fling flang them flung his own his two finally his one

Spherical, colloid, interstitial,

uprising lost to sight

in fright

natural

not artificial

no ripple make as sinking sanking sonking sunk

Aw hell you'll have to get Mac Leish to write the mystic poem. I'll just give a few personal reminiscences of his Paris Period. Get that insurance now, pal. If they won't give you health or life insurance get accident insurance.

So long Scott --

Let me hear from you. Merry Christmas! Pauline sends her love.

Yours always affectionately 

Ernest

- Ernest Hemingway, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 21 December 1935, quoted in Carlos Baker (ed.), Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917-1961, London, 1981, p.428-9.

See also:

Books: A NZer makes powerful enemies at the BBC, 28 February 2023

Books: The importance of movies to Gopher Prairie, 6 October 2022

Books: The Paris correspondent starts his day, 30 April 2016

Jim Dandy in a submarine, got a message from a mermaid queen

Thursday music corner: LaVern Baker (b. Chicago, 1929, d. Queens, 1997) was a powerfully-voice R&B performer in the 1950s and 1960s who enjoyed considerable chart success. After signing with Atlantic Records as a solo artist in 1953, Baker enjoyed 20 top 40 R&B chart singles in the US from 1955 to 1966. Seven of these were also top 40 hits on the mainstream US pop charts. From 1969 until 1991 she lived in the Philippines as entertainment director at the Subic Bay US Marine Corps Staff club for non-commissioned officers.

Written by Lincoln Chase, Jim Dandy was recorded by Baker in December 1955 and released the following year. It was her only R&B chart number one, with 1955's Play It Fair and 1958's Cry A Tear reaching number two. It also cemented a move away from the kid-friendly titles of her earlier singles like 1955's Tweedlee Dee and Bop-Ting-a-Ling. Jim Dandy was the opening track of her second album, LaVern Baker (1957), and it also appeared on the soundtrack to John Waters' 1972 notorious cult classic, Pink Flamingos. Rolling Stone, in its top 500 songs list, rated Jim Dandy the 352nd greatest song of all time. 

LaVern Baker - Jim Dandy (1956)

See also:

Music: LaVern Baker & Jimmy Ricks - You're The Boss (1961)

Music: LaVern Baker - See See Rider (1962)

Music: Ann-Margret - Jim Dandy (1962)

Crusader Kings 2: Some medieval doggerel

Some medieval doggerel, or,
The Ballad of the Concubine Addiena, to whit:
G*d d*mn the Patriarchy
A tale from 9th-century Ireland, from Crusader Kings 2

Tis a tale of the wanton in the far isle of Eire
A young girl had been raised who had the longest black hair
In the palace she lived, with the Queen and the King
But the name of her sire, no courtier could sing

A bastard was she, yet cared for and fed
With the grace of the Queen, though not in her bed
The Queen lent a wet-nurse and paid for another
(But surely kept quiet about being the mother)

The girl's name was Addiena, uncommon to most
And as she grew she was more often to boast
Of her silken black hair that she wove forth in tresses
And the beauty of the linens in her fine English dresses

Now later, much later, when quite fully grown
Addiena and the Queen disagreed 'bout the throne
For the Queen's husband had become quite neglected
And Addiena, the rogue, had become quite disaffected

So Add, in her wisdom, seduced the poor King
(King Coscrach, the dotard, suspected not a thing)
And bore him a child, with no expressed shame
Arnemetia she called it, her own mother's name

A fitting tribute, she reckoned, to her bastard existence
A new life on Earth and a social resistance
The King, he ashamed, did wed off the maid
And the Queen, she angered, his doom she emprayed

So be this a lesson for every Queen to know best
If ye bring forth a babe from beyond royal nest
Set a household ban on all Concubina
And don't let your husband meet the fair Addiena

See also:

Games: Crusader Kings 2 - Stayin' alive, 25 October 2018 

Games: Crusader Kings 2 - House of Dunkeld, 5 May 2013

Games: Crusader Kings 2 - The new kings of Ireland, 7 July 2012

Will Rogers in New Zealand

Legendary American performer and aphorist Will Rogers (1879-1935) became famous through the Ziegfeld Follies and went on to become an enormously popular movie star and opinion columnist, and one of Hollywood's highest paid actors. In his youth he toured the world several times showing off his spectacular cowboy rope skills, and his travels even took him through New Zealand as part of the Wirth Brother's Circus tour in 1904. Known as the Cherokee Kid, Rogers got the following write-up in the Auckland Star:

The Cherokee Kid is a gentleman with a large American accent and a splendid skill with lassoos [sic.]. He demonstrated what could be done with the whirling loop by bringing up a horse and its rider from [an] impossible position, once throwing together two lasoos [sic.] encircling man and horse separately. He also showed the spectators how to throw half-hitches on to objects at a distance, and did other clever work with the ropes. It was a very interesting performance.

- Auckland Star, 20 January 1904

The circus tour must have lasted at least six weeks in the summer of 1903/04 because Rogers was still receiving press attention in March, like these reports from Wellington:

A novel feature was the lasso work of the Cherokee Kid, a cowboy in Mexican circus-costume, who whirls his swift rope round his head and lassos horse and rider in the twinkling of an eye. This rope work is pretty to watch, and altogether a desirable addition to the programme.

- Evening Post, 8 March 1904

The Cherokee Kid is a slim chap, who toddles into the ring with a couple of lassoes, and does anything in the roping line with them, talking all the time. He gets near, fore, or off fore-leg of a galloping horse, or loops the rider — or both — with a lassoo [sic.] thrown with either hand. Also, he afterwards throws a half-hitch over each of a dismounted man's limbs. He is the most expert rope-thrower seen here to date. Moreover, his rough riding, on a grey mustang wearing a Mexican saddle, is very fine.

- Free Lance, 12 March 1904

Rogers returned to the States later in 1904 to perform at the St Louis World Fair, which opened on 30 April 1904.

See also:

History: Stagecoach travel in the Old West, 19 March 2015

America: America's lax firearms laws, 16 December 2012

Music: He's a solid gold cat but a really mellow hip fat, 17 August 2023

The German Democratic Republic

The GDR, or The Very Shortest History of East Elbia 

East Germany didn't become different because of the Russian occupation of 1945-1989; the Russians occupied the place because it had always been different.

Otto the Great invaded across the Elbe in 935 AD; the Slavs threw the Germans back out in 982 AD; the Germans tried again in 1127 and over the next two centuries they largely (but never completely) succeeded in supplanting the Slavs up to the river Oder. The Teutonic Knights went further until the Poles smashed them in 1410. Prussia was born under Polish suzerainty as an act of revolt again Rome in 1525, rose to fame in battle against Sweden, was made a great power by victories between the Elbe and the Oder, then saved from abolition by the Tsar in 1807. The fatal inability of the western Germans to unite allowed Prussia to conquer them after a single great battle on the Elbe in 1866. Prussia smashed France in 1870; it thereafter dragooned the Germans into providing manpower and money for its bid(s) to settle the 1,000-year struggle with the Slavs. That struggle ended in 1945 with part of East Elbia lost forever and what was left, between Elbe and Oder, a helpless colony of Russia.

With the creation of the GDR, this rump East Elbia formally became what it had always really been: the odd German-speaking man out in a Slavic Eastern Europe. Until the wall went up in 1961, the East Germans - above all, the young and educated - undertook a new Ostflucht to West Germany at an average rate of about 200,000 year on year, about the same rate as in the Ostflucht from the 1850s onwards. If Russia's clients hadn't built and maintained a deadly barrier to stop the fugitives in the meantime, by 1989 there would have been hardly any Germans left beyond the Elbe.

- James Hawes, The Shortest History of Germany, Devo, 2017, p.199

See also:
History: Charlemagne's passion for education, 29 March 2022
Germany: NZ posters by young German artists, 30 June 2012

History: The single most successful German ruler, 19 May 2012 

Forgotten memories of laughter and war

Thursday music corner: Juliana Hatfield (b. Maine, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter who first came to prominence in the late 1980s in Boston band Blake Babies. In the early 1990s she was a member of Evan Dando's Lemonheads, appearing on their successful albums It's A Shame About Ray (1992) and Come On Feel The Lemonheads (1993). 

After releasing her solo debut album Hey Babe in 1992, her second album Become What You Are, released the following year as the Juliana Hatfield Three, became a major indie crossover success, spawning the hit single My Sister, which topped the US Alternative chart. Since then she has released albums for a range of labels. In 2023 Hatfield released her twentieth solo album, Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO, a follow-up to similar covers albums she has recorded for Olivia Newton-John (2018) and The Police (2019).

Sunshine is a breezy, 1960s-influenced pop song that appeared on Hatfield's sixth solo album In Exile Deo, released in 2004. 

Juliana Hatfield - Sunshine (2004)

See also:

Music: Blake Babies - Temptation Eyes (1991)

Music: Juliana Hatfield Three - This Is The Sound (1993)

Music: Juliana Hatfield - Universal Heart-Beat (1995)

Agapanthus

 

The North-South divide in England

The North-South Divide Gets Ideology

At the 1924 election, former Southern Liberal voters went Tory, and stayed there; former Northern Liberal voters went with Labour, and stayed there. This finally locked down the political North-South divide. The Liberal Party was English, with an ancestry going back beyond the Union of 1707. Although it had come to be identified with Outer Britain during the struggles of the 19th century, it never completely lost traction in the South - until now. The Labour Party was a very different animal. It was born of the United Kingdom, its first five leaders were Scotsmen, and for the first two decades of its existence it had zero impact south of the Trent except in the poor quarters of London's vast city-state.

The Conservatives were no longer facing off against a genuine rival English party. The opposition now was the Party of Outer Britain (Northern English + Celts) a.k.a. Labour. This hardened the age-old suspicion among Southerners that the North was somehow not properly English. Essentially the battle-lines were the same as in 1461, 1642 or 1848 (or, for that matter, as when Northern thegns and Welsh princelings had united against the Godwins of Wessex under Edward the Confessor).

The ancient struggle was now window-dressed with fashionable, 20th-century ideologies. Labour, the new incarnation of the Outer British Alliance, claimed its members were all somehow instinctively peace-loving, communitarian, and internationalist. This self-image remains central to many Scots, Welsh, and Northern English.

Men live by their generosities, by their loyalties; not by their interests, and their self-regarding impulses... that is the aim of the Socialist inspiration that gives us power in our Labour Movement.

- Ramsay MacDonald, Labour leader, 1924

Meanwhile, the latest version of the Party of the South claimed to represent a Deep Ethnic England. This vision is still widespread among those who love Barbour coats, the Cotswolds and suchlike.

The preservation of the individuality of the Englishman is essential to the preservation of the type of the race... To me, England is the country, and the country is England... The sounds of England, the tinkle of hammer on anvil in the country smithy, the corncrake on a dewy morning, the sound of the scythe against the whetstone...

- Stanley Baldwin, Conservative leader, 1924

- James Hawes, The Shortest History of England, London, 2020, p.204-206.

See also:
Books: A NZer makes powerful enemies at the BBC, 28 February 2023
Books: It seemed now that only a miracle could save Chamberlain, 20 December 2022
Books: The rotten boroughs, 2 April 2017

Maybe I'm weak, maybe I'm strong

Thursday music corner: US singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson (b. New York, 1941 - d. Los Angeles, 1994) was famed amongst music aficionados for the skill of his compositions and musical innovation, but struggled both with commercial success in the ruthless pop business, and with personal demons manifesting in the alcoholism that ultimately shortened his life. Famously, his two biggest hits, Everybody's Talkin' (1969) and Without You (1971) were covers of other artists' work rather than Nilsson originals. A friend of several Beatles, Nilsson was a prolific artist throughout the 1960s and '70s. Eight of his singles and three of his albums reached the US top 40.

Nilsson's start in the music business was greatly assisted by the Beatles' press representative, Derek Taylor:

Taylor, who first became enamoured with Nilsson after hearing his song 1941 on a car radio, concluded, “Nilsson is the best contemporary soloist in the world. He is it. He is the something else The Beatles are. He is The One.” To prove his belief, he bought 25 copies of Nilsson’s RCA debut album and despatched them to his favourite industry people, including all four Beatles. At which point, the world sat up and slowly began to notice.

Nevertheless (I'm In Love With You) is Nilsson's cover of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby's 1931 song originally recorded by Jack Denny, which became widely recorded in the 1950s, with versions by the McGuire Sisters, the Mills Brothers, Paul Weston, Ray Anthony, Ralph Flanagan, Frankie Laine and Frank Sinatra. Nilsson's version appeared on his 1973 album A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, an album of old standards covers that reached the top 20 in the UK and Australia, and reached number 46 in the US. Nilsson's version of Herman Hupfeld's As Time Goes By was released as the album's single, and performed modestly in the US, Canadian and Australian charts.

Harry Nilsson - Nevertheless (I’m In Love With You) (1973)

See also:

Music: Harry Nilsson - Without You (1971)

Music: Badfinger - Take It All (1971)

Music: Aimee Mann - One (Nilsson cover, 1999)

I've been forcing myself not to forget, just to feel worse

Thursday music corner: Electronic was a supergroup duo founded by New Order's Bernard Sumner and The Smiths' Johnny Marr. They collaborated with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys, and ex-Kraftwerk member Karl Bartok. Electronic released three albums during the 1990s: the self-titled debut Electronic, Raise the Pressure, and Twisted Tenderness. All reached the UK top 10, and the band scored eight UK top 40 singles.

Getting Away With It was Electronic's debut single, co-written by Sumner, Marr and Neil Tennant. The lyrics gently satirise the lyrical themes beloved by Marr's former bandmate Morrissey. Ben Thompson of the NME was impressed by the single, calling it 'the most complete pop record of the week, by an infinite margin...A lovely airy melody drifts in and out of the song; gently weighted with obtuse, lovelorn one-liners...The record somehow manages to be much more than the sum of its parts and stubbornly refuses to give up its element of mystery'. It reached number 12 on the UK pop charts, and number 4 on the US Alternative chart.

Electronic - Getting Away With It (1989)

See also:

Music: Electronic - Disappointed (live TOTP, 1992)

Music: New Order - Vanishing Point (1989)

Music: Johnny Marr & Neil Finn - Down On The Corner (live, 2001) 

Trump's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic

Trump had no idea how to handle [the Covid-19 pandemic]. The virus did not respond to his favorite instruments of power. It could not be cowed by Twitter posts, overpowered by campaign rally chants, or silenced by playground insults. For so long, Trump had believed he could overcome nearly any obstacle through sheer force of will, and in many cases he had been astonishingly successful. Over the course of his seven decades, Trump had managed to bluster and bully his way past bankruptcies, failed business ventures, lenders demanding repayment, fraud and discrimination lawsuits, and, once he reached the White House, a special counsel and even congressional impeachment. But he could not will away a plague. So he tried denial, another favorite Trump tactic. That did not work either.

The emerging pandemic would expose all the weaknesses of his divisive presidency - his distrust of his own staff and the rest of the government, his intense focus on loyalty and purges, his penchant for encouraging conflict between factions within his own circle, his personal isolation, his obsessive war with the media, his refusal, or inability, to take in new information, and his indecisiveness when forced to make tough decisions.

Trump had always been indifferent to most substantive policy matters and skeptical of anything that experts, scientific or otherwise, told him. He turned everything into a political question whose answer was whatever would benefit him politically. And that is how he would approach this crisis too. "From the time this thing hit," said an adviser who spoke frequently with the president, "his only calculus was how does it affect my re-election."

- Peter Baker & Susan Glasser, The Divider: Trump in the White House 2017-2021, New York, 2022, p.37

I would be wishing today on a four leaf clover

Thursday music corner: Tyrone Davis (1937-2005), later dubbed 'the king of romantic Chicago soul', was born in Mississippi and moved to Chicago in his early twenties. After joining the soul stable of successful Chicago soul producer Carl Davis in 1968 he attained immediate success with his first release, although rather than the A-side A Woman Needs To Be Loved, it was the B-side Can I Change My Mind that became a million-selling hit. Throughout his five-decade career 14 of Davis' albums reached the R&B top 40, and 35 of his singles hit the R&B top 40. He also achieved cross-over success on the national stage, with five US top 40 pop chart hits.

Turn Back The Hands of Time was Davis' third single, and it appeared on the 1970 album of the same name. Written by Jack Daniels and Johnny Moore, the single was his biggest hit, topping the R&B charts and reaching number 3 on the US pop charts. The album also reached number 9 on the R&B album charts.

Tyrone Davis - Turn Back The Hands of Time (1970)

See also:

Music: Tyrone Davis - Can I Change My Mind (1968)

Music: Tyrone Davis - Turning Point (1975)

Music: Tyrone Davis - Are You Serious (1982)

"I'd always dreamed of being my own star"

You've been asked if you're a feminist so many times, and you're tired of that. But after you left Porter [Wagoner]'s show, it became an important moment of empowerment for women. You said, essentially, "I deserve my own space."

Yeah, you're right. I had always dreamed of a show of my own. I'd always dreamed of being my own star. I had never in a million years thought about being just a girl singer in somebody else's band. I kept trying to tell Porter, "I need a little freedom. If I'm going to stay here, I need to do this, do that." Oh Lord, everything I said was a big fight.

It was the hardest thing I ever did because it was scary, the leaving and the going. Everybody was saying, "You're making a big mistake. You're one of the best, hottest girl singers in the business, and if you leave Porter, you're not likely to do well." I wasn't afraid of my future because I truly believed I had one. But it was the going, having to hurt people that have helped you. Through my intuition and prayer and faith in myself, that's where I got the courage to do it. My first million-selling record [1976's Here You Come Again] was after I left Porter's show, after I went ahead and took on new management, did all the things I felt I needed to do. I've just been going ever since.

We still live in a world where women are fighting for equal pay, let alone respect. Are you proud that women particularly can turn to you for that example?

Absolutely. I kept asking for a raise, but the whole time I was with Porter, the whole seven years I stayed, my salary never changed. Porter justified it by the fact that I was making royalties, publishing my songs. He made every excuse. Porter would buy me gifts and publicise the fact he'd got me gifts, when I kept saying, Why don't you just treat me fair? I was never going to be any more than what I was, Porter Wagoner's girl singer. I didn't want to make as much money as him. It was his show. I don't care if you're a man or a woman or whatever your colour or your religion: if you do the work, you should be paid for it. It's not about anything other than your work.

- Grayson Haver Currin interviews Dolly Parton, Mojo magazine, November 2023, p.37

What Ridley Scott learned from making Blade Runner

Midway through, the Guardian ran an interview in which Scott said that he preferred British crews, because he could give them orders and they'd say, "Yes, guv'nor!" The crew printed up T-shirts that read "YES GUV'NOR MY ASS!" Scott and his British compatriots tried to quell the insurrection by wearing T-shirts reading “XENOPНОBIA SUCKS." The budget ran two million dollars over. The final days were a frenzy, with the last scene - Rutger Hauer's moody android death - shot against the last sunrise to dawn before Scott's cameras would be taken from him. In postproduction, Scott was fired - twice - but worked his way back.

When preview audiences expressed confusion, Scott, against his better judgment, added a voice-over and a happy ending in which Deckard and his android paramour flee Los Angeles; Kubrick gave him helicopter footage left over from The Shining.

Blade Runner came out in June 1982, two weeks after E.T., which synched better with the sunny Reagan era than Scott's bleak dystopia did. [Pauline] Kael wasn't its only detractor; another critic wrote, "I suspect my blender and toaster oven would just love it." After making six million dollars on its opening weekend, the film all but disappeared. Although it grew into a cult classic and became a touchstone for such filmmakers as Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve (who directed the 2017 sequel), Scott still speaks of Blade Runner with an ache. Asked what it taught him, he sounded like a defiant general routed by an undeserving enemy: "I learned that the only opinion that matters, when all is said and done - even with failure in your face, and you're lying on the mat, crushed - is, What did you think of it?"

- Michael Schulman, 'Napoleon Complex', New Yorker, 13 November 2023, p.43

See also:
Movies: The refreshingly brutal candour of The RKO Story, 27 July 2021
Movies: Parker Posey on working with Christopher Guest, 31 August 2020

Movies: Young Spielberg, 27 September 2017

Undo the blue, be bright and shiny new

Thursday music corner: Iraina Mancini is a British singer-songwriter and DJ, who released her first album, Undo The Blue, in 2023. The title track of the album, a collaboration with the band Sunglasses for Jaws, was produced by Jagz Kooner (possibly best known for producing Primal Scream's cover of Some Velvet Morning with Kate Moss), and was released as the album's first single in 2022. The 60s-70s influenced music video was directed by New Zealand film director Marc Swadel, who has shot music videos for a wide range of artists including Einstürzende Neubauten, Devo, Sonic Youth, The Fall, Teenage Fanclub, Nick Cave, Iggy and the Stooges, The 3Ds, The Clean, Connan Mockasin, Bailterspace, Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh, Pavement, Liam Finn, and The Cramps.

Iraina Mancini - Undo The Blue (2022) 

See also:

Music: Iraina Mancini - Sugar High (St Etienne remix, 2023)

Music: Jonathan Bree - When We Met (2023)

Music: Primal Scream & Kate Moss - Some Velvet Morning (2003)

Wellington Anniversary Day 1924

In 1924 Anniversary Day, the 84th anniversary of the founding of the city of Wellington, fell on 22 January, a Tuesday. The main focuses of anniversary day in the capital were the annual regatta for the nautically minded and the opening of the summer racing carnival at Trentham racetrack for those fond of horseflesh. The capital's womenfolk were encouraged to outfit themselves grandly for the occasion, as this advertisement for racewear in the Dominion indicates:

(The IRD's inflation calculator estimates that the Shantung silk frock at 37/6 above would cost $225 today).

The Dominion also reports on the sailing trophy awarded as part of the regatta, the Sanders Cup, which was first given in 1921 in honour of the Great War hero Lt-Cdr William Sanders VC DSO. Sanders, the only New Zealand sailor to win the Victoria Cross, successfully drove off a German U-boat on his first mission as captain, but lost his life to another U-boat a few missions later. The Sanders Cup is still competed for today and is the oldest sailing trophy still awarded in New Zealand.

The Dominion's editorial is chiefly concerned with political events in Britain, and focuses on the imminent formation of Britain's first ever Labour government, led by Ramsay McDonald, within hours of the publication of the article. The editorial takes a sceptical approach to the new administration: 

As it is at present organised, the British Labour Party includes, with men of comparatively moderate views, a number of extremists whose talk and ideas are those of the Moscow International. These extremists are, as a group, actively belligerent, and habitually regard all strikes as right and all opposition to strikes as wrong. They are an integral and not by any means unimportant element of the Labour Party. Hitherto they have been at least tacitly accepted in that character by the leaders and representatives of moderate Labour, but a searching test such as the railway strike may provide is not unlikely to demonstrate that the two wings of the Labour Party are incapable of working whole-heartedly together.  

Elsewhere, the Dominion reported on a fine night's entertainment had the previous evening at Wirths' Circus:

The Flying Lloyds gave an exhibition of triple somersaulting, double twisting, and reverse flights, done at a height of twenty feet from the ground, the like of which has rarely before been seen in Wellington. They fully merited the thunderous applause with which their turn was greeted. Equally dangerous and calling for the utmost degree of skill, as well as application of nerve and strength, was the turn of Evans and Perez. To climb up a 80-foot pole balanced on the shoulders of a man, and from the top do hand-balancing feats is not an everyday accomplishment, and the spectators literally held their breath.

Tickets to the circus located at Cable St ranged from three to seven shillings (plus tax), with children half price.

See also:
History: Wellington Anniversary Day 1850, 22 January 2015

History: Wellington 150 - a capital anniversary, 26 July 2015

History: Shipping in Wellington, 1850-70, 12 June 2009

A friend won't say it's over and go out just for spite

Thursday music corner: Tommy Boyce (1939-94) and Bobby Hart (b.1939), known collectively as Boyce and Hart, were a singing and songwriting duo best known for their many compositions recorded by the Monkees, including Last Train To Clarksville and most of the band's self-titled first album. The duo also released three studio albums under their own names from 1967 to 1969. 

I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight is Boyce and Hart's most successful single released under their own names, reaching number eight in the US Billboard charts in 1968. It was the title and opening track of their second album, released in 1968. The modern video below featuring 1960s TV actors Barbara Eden and Elizabeth Montgomery is mostly not contemporaneous to the recording, although some of it is from a 1970 episode of Bewitched in which Boyce and Hart are performing a different number, I 'll Blow You A Kiss In The Wind. (Also, Elizabeth: your guitar's not plugged in...)

Boyce & Hart - I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight (1968)

See also:

Music: Boyce & Hart - The Ambushers (I Wonder b-side, 1968)

Music: The Monkees - Words (1967)

Music: The Monkees - A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You (1967)

Wellington Criterion: NZ Cycle Classic

Road racers cycling the fifth and final day of the Cycle Classic in downtown Wellington, 14 January 2024.

 

Photos from the Basin Reserve T20 double-header

Photos from the domestic T20 double-header at the Basin Reserve, with Wellington playing Central Districts in women's and men's T20 matches. Wellington Women (the Blaze) tied their low-scoring match, and Central Stags beat the Wellington Firebirds by six wickets.

 

Let the heavens shudder baby, I belong to you

Thursday music corner: The Sundays were an English alternative rock band, formed in 1988 by singer Harriet Wheeler and guitarist David Gavurin. They released three albums between 1990 and their disbandment in 1997, all of which reached the UK top 20, and two of which reached the US top 40.

The ethereal jangle-pop of Goodbye was the band's fourth single, and the second released from their second album, 1992's Blind. It reached number 27 in the UK pop charts, but performed better in the US, where it reached number 11 in the US Alternative chart. The band's cover of the Rolling Stones' Wild Horses appeared on the single's B-side, and was featured on the soundtracks to the 1996 movie Fear and the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

On a personal note, I was introduced to this album and The Sundays by Fiona McDonald, the singer for Strawpeople and the Headless Chickens. We weren't acquainted; rather, she was the Saturday manager of the Sounds music shop adjacent to the Whitcoulls bookshop that I was the Saturday manager of, in the Auckland Downtown Shopping Centre (which closed in 2016 and was replaced by the Commercial Bay development). She was playing the Blind album one Saturday through the shop stereo, and I wandered over during a lull in business to ask who was playing. Thanks Fiona! It was a distinct improvement on the Whitcoulls soundtrack at the time, which thanks to the musical tastes of the shop's regular manager was generally a loop of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert soundtrack. (To this day the introduction to Alicia Bridges' I Love The Nightlife sends shivers down my spine). 

The Sundays - Goodbye (1992)

See also:

Music: The Sundays - Wild Horses (1992)

Music: The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends (1990)

Music: Strawpeople - Taller Than God (1996)

The Hollywood golden age movie studios

I had gone back to New York for a while after sound came in, so when I came back, I looked over all the studios to sort of see what each one was like and where I might want to work. Paramount had impressed me always as having a staid, conservative atmosphere. RKO, which had been a financial football for its promoters, had an air of reckless excitement. Everyone who worked there had the feeling that it might close down right after the picture was finished. MGM posed as the aristocrat of the industry, undoubtedly stemming from its reputation for extravagance.... Warner Bros. was a rough-and-ready place, willing to try any idea for a picture as long as [Jack] Warner felt that it would make money. They paid no more than they had to. 20th Century-Fox was a big, sprawling lot on Pico Boulevard, and it suggested the opportunistic. Headed by Darryl F. Zanuck, a disappointed screenwriter - he never outlived it - it emphasized the obvious. While shunning sensitive material, the studio kept one standard of taste and discrimination to which they might point with pride when challenged. Otherwise it was very much the factory. Universal was a happy-go-lucky place, seldom getting top-budget pictures. But they were pretty unconcerned about it. Everyone was completely relaxed and enjoying themselves. At United Artists, not a studio in the same way, one felt relaxed and free. Most of the productions were independent, which usually removed distribution pressures. The schedules were apt to be more generous. Every department was smaller and seemed to be more efficient. I always regretted that I made only one picture there.

- Director John Cromwell (1886-1979), in J Basinger & S Wasson, Hollywood: The Oral History, New York, 2022, p183-4.

See also:
Movies: Dan Duryea's fetishistic on-screen forte, 29 November 2023
Movies: Louise Brooks on working with Pabst, 18 October 2023
Movies: The meticulousness of Cary Grant, 29 July 2022

My top 10 films of 2023

In 2023 I watched 281 films, which is a new record for me, surpassing the 262 I watched in both 2021 and 2022. I saw 245 of those for the first time, and 28 of the total were 2023 cinematic releases. (I've vowed to see more recent releases in 2024!).

This year's crop of directors includes a trio with five films each. I saw veteran director John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, The African Queen, Beat The Devil, and The Misfits, all for the first time. The African Queen was a highlight as this year's final Film Society film of the year in the Embassy Grand. Wes Anderson put out a clutch of four shorts on Netflix this year, the best of which was perhaps the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring Poison, and we also enjoyed seeing Anderson's Asteroid City at the Film Festival. One of the cinematic highlights of the year was of course Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, which we saw at the Queensgate IMAX, and at home I also watched his three Batman films and rewatched Interstellar. 

Three further directors contributed four films each to my 2023 film diary. My favourite Japanese director, Hirokazu Kore-eda gave us Monster in the Festival, which encouraged a much-deserved rewatch at home of my Blu-rays of his wonderful I Wish, Like Father Like Son, and the peerless Our Little Sister. I experienced four films by David Cronenberg for the first time, two with the same name but different plots: the experimental Crimes of the Future (1970) and the body-horror Crimes of the Future (2022), his strikingly inventive Crash plus his first directorial effort Stereo (Tile 3B of a CAEE Educational Mosaic) from 1969. And Mubi's collection of James Ivory films allowed me to see Autobiography of a Princess, Quartet, Heat & Dust and Henry James' The Bostonians for the first time.    

In terms of the actors I saw most of this year, Cary Grant was an effortlessly charming front-runner, with nine films on the list, with only his 1946 classic with Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman, Notorious, being a rewatch. My favourite of the other eight was possibly the 1938 comedy Holiday with Katharine Hepburn, and I also enjoyed People Will Talk, Kiss Them For Me, Born To Be Bad, Gunga Din, Monkey Business, and The Bachelor & the Bobby-Soxer. Only 1932's Sinners in the Sun was a dud, through no fault of Archie's. In 2023 I made a concerted effort to fill in my gaps in Humphrey Bogart's filmography, knowing that the Film Society year finale of The African Queen was steaming my way. Apart from that classic, I also saw for the first time Bogart's The Caine Mutiny, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, Deadline USA and Beat the Devil. Michael Caine appears thanks to his three appearances in Nolan's Batman films, plus Nolan's Interstellar and his committed performance as Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol. I enjoyed Florence Pugh in The Wonder, Midsommar and of course Oppenheimer (although her small role was rather thankless - while I love his films, Nolan could do with improving his female characters). She was also decent in Olivia Wilde's flawed Don't Worry Darling. And I broke a habit of a lifetime and watched some Tom "world's nicest actor" Hanks films for the first time - apart from Asteroid City, I also saw Catch Me If You Can, Cast Away and Saving Private Ryan. Not sure if I've acquired sufficient tolerance to see him in Forrest Gump, though. 

And here's my top 10 films of 2023 - this year they're all releases from the calendar year, as opposed to 2022 films I happened to see here in New Zealand in 2023. Contains not one but two Wim Wenders films - a prolific year for a 78-year old! 

1. Perfect Days (dir. Wim Wenders, Germany/Japan, 2023)


The cinematic equivalent of a delightful warm bath, in Perfect Days veteran German director Wim Wenders melds his long-established affinity for Japanese life with expert storytelling and unimpeachable casting to illustrate the simple yet touchingly honest tale of Mr Hirayama, a distinguished man in his sixties who spends his days cleaning Tokyo's myriad public toilets. While the film is a highly effective depiction of the dignity afforded by honest labour taken seriously by its practitioners, through the poetic resonances of Hirayama's orderly existence and his daily rituals the viewers are also entwined in the quiet, simple dramas of ordinary life - the delights of long-loved songs, the pleasure of admiring a noble tree each lunchtime, the friendly welcome of regular cafe owners and angelic-voiced bar hosts, the discovery of new-found literary morsels in second-hand bookshops, chance encounters with kind strangers, and unexpected visits from relatives long unseen. Throughout, lead actor Koji Yakusho is riveting and utterly endearing as the noble Hirayama, a quiet man with a passion for doing his job well, and a Japanese everyman's gentle sense of humour. Yakusho's final scene of the film is performed so tremendously skilfully and is so genuinely moving that it's hard to watch without immediately thinking of awards nominations. Perfect Days is a film that deserves a wide audience amongst those who appreciate honest story-telling, wonderful writing (by Wenders collaborator Takuma Takasaki) and acting of the highest possible calibre.

2. Monster (dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan, 2023)

Another expertly-realised observation of modern Japanese society by one of its two greatest directors. Hirokazu Kore-eda displays his traditional virtuosity with child actors and augments it with an ambitious yet wholly successful plot structure involving interwoven storylines to illustrate an increasingly nuanced and ultimately deeply satisfying and humanistic examination of family life, the power of gossip and innuendo, the Japanese passion for ritualised apology, and how one boy's schoolyard friendship has ramifications for all around him. The director's hallmark typhoon motif returns, as seen most pivotally in 2016's After The Storm, as the catalyst for a deeply engaging and rewarding conclusion. As always, the cast is perfectly selected and performs admirably, and there is a skilful blend of wry humour amongst the drama. Just one glimpse of the delightful grimace of a gossip-mongering mum, relishing passing on her tale of scandalous misbehaviour, sold this charming film to me in an instant.

3. Oppenheimer (dir. Christopher Nolan, US/UK, 2023)


Oppenheimer is a sumptuous film achievement best experienced in its native IMAX setting, which benefits from Christopher Nolan's most restrained directorial performance in years. The 'timey-wimey' experiments of Tenet, Dunkirk and Inception are barely present here in the wholly intelligible narrative, with the added bonus of the clear delineation of one key timeline (the Strauss hearing) being in black and white to aid viewer comprehension.

As a film experience Nolan could have delivered an entirely satisfying package by simply focusing on his thrilling Los Alamos - Trinity A-bomb test sequence, which is exemplary science filmmaking. But instead he expands the film's palate much wider, delving into Oppenheimer's reputation and the post-war battles over his legacy and loyalties amidst the climate of the Red Scare witch-hunts and blacklists that plagued American democracy in the 1940s and 50s.

The versatile and gifted Cillian Murphy and, in particular, Robert Downey Jr are likely and deserved Oscar nominations for their roles, and Emily Blunt is a possible nominee too, for her supporting role as the embattled Mrs O. Florence Pugh is as excellent as ever, but isn't given as much to work with in this very male story. The much-loved Tom Conti may also be an outside chance for an acting nomination for his role as Albert Einstein.

Visually the film is a delight, with muted colour palettes echoing faded 1940s photography, and much of the success of the picture also derives from the virtuosity and visceral impact of the score by Ludwig Göransson, who also scored Tenet.

My only slight criticisms are of one misjudged, but fortunately brief, sex scene involving Murphy and Pugh, which was superfluous to the plot and must have been unpleasant for Pugh to shoot, and the amount of screentime devoted to both hearings (the security clearance panel and the Cabinet confirmation). Some of the time devoted to the latter could easily have been sacrificed for a slightly shorter runtime without diminishing the narrative impact. But then I suppose that would have provided less opportunity for Downey's screen-filling Oscar grab, and in a film this good one has be open-minded!

4. Anatomy of a Fall (dir. Justine Triet, France, 2023)

An expertly-realised, highly nuanced examination of a contested death, in which the French inquisitorial court system tries to establish the truth in the case of a husband who either fell in a suicide gambit, or was bludgeoned and pushed by his wife. The cross-examination of the wife Sandra, played with customary verve by the burgeoning star, Sandra Hüller, and the testimony of their 11-year-old, partially sighted son, played by the excellent Milo Machado-Graner, are fascinating multi-faceted, and the audience is never railroaded into obvious conclusions regarding Sandra's guilt or otherwise. With a bevy of subtly dramatic twists and a frigidly beautiful alpine setting in the French Alps near Grenoble, Justine Triet's film is a worthy Palme d'Or winner, and one that certainly merits awards for Hüller's central performance as the complex, challenging character that shares her first name. And there's already been a special Palm Dog Award award for supporting canine actor Messi, a handsome fellow who steals scenes from his human colleagues with consummate ease.

5. Past Lives (dir. Celine Song, S.Korea/US, 2023)

A remarkable effort for a first feature, benefiting from soulful performances from its leads and successfully channeling the wistful but never self-pitying gentle mournfulness of Wong Kar-wai's best works. The film contains welcome dashes of gentle humour throughout, and a seamless evocation of the passage of a quarter-century in the blink of an eye. Celine Song's next works will be watched with great interest after this highly proficient debut.

6. Killers of the Flower Moon (dir. Martin Scorsese, US, 2023)


It takes a major commitment to bring such a harsh and gruelling story to the screen in such an impressive package, but Scorsese excelled himself with Killers of the Flower Moon. Leonardo DiCaprio is to be commended for playing such a thoroughly reprehensible lead character, but equally many of the plaudits should also go to sure-to-be-Oscar-nominated Lily Gladstone for her portrayal of the indefatigable Mollie Kyle. A tough watch, but one of the few modern film that thoroughly justifies its extended (206-minute) intermission-less runtime. 

7. Anselm (dir. Wim Wenders, France/Germany, 2023)

Wim Wenders returns with his first feature documentary in five years, and also returns to the 3D approach for the first time since The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez in 2016. His methodical survey of the career of post-war German conceptual artist Anselm Kiefer makes wonderful use of the medium, and Anselm's art lends itself to this documentary form, as it is often essayed at a grand scale and his atelier have for decades been situated in disused factories and warehouses on a literal industrial scale. There is next to no biographical detail on offer, with a laser-like focus on his artistic process and the way Kiefer addresses German society and culture in the aftermath of the devastating war that ended just as he was born. Several skilful reenactments bridge the decades effectively, using Kiefer's own son and (presumably) a Wenders grandchild to depict the artist as a young man and child, respectively. Anselm is a sensitively-handled celebration of an artist's lengthy career - imagine the verve with which Wenders might have tackled a Friedrich Hundertwasser biopic - and his single-minded artistic vision. It also presumably evokes considerable envy amongst other artists viewing the documentary - all that space to work in; all those industrial quantities of art supplies!

8. Barbie (dir. Greta Gerwig, US, 2023)

A subversive delight, with a note-perfect comedic performance by Margot Robbie and a hilarious supporting turn from Ryan Gosling, in a surprisingly iconoclastic and at the same time hugely entertaining slice of popular entertainment. Replete with highly quotable lines and an impressive barrage of dagger-sharp wit, Barbie manages the rare sleight of hand of making the ridiculousness of modern gender stereotypes wickedly amusing and critiquing the hypocrisies of patriarchal injustice and toxic masculinity without verging into dull preachiness. And for those of us who grew up without sisters in the household, it also opens up a window into the truly freaky world of the Barbieverse so many of you ladies grew up with. No wonder we're all messed up! Also, the French poster's translation was somewhat racy, and what a killer final line.

9. The Boy & the Heron, dir. Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, 2023)

Another delightfully off-kilter fairytale outing from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki, exposing young and old alike to his odd mind and the enduring strangeness of his magical, metaphorical kingdoms of the mind. Finally someone brave enough to stick it to those parakeets, who've had things their own way for far too long! [/s] And what a stark contrast with the Disney film trailer that appeared beforehand, illustrating another identical production-line commodity seemingly written by algorithm.

10. Fallen Leaves (dir. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2023)

Another deadpan Finnish working-class romance from the acknowledged expert, Fallen Leaves offers the traditional Aki Kaurismäki pleasures - stone-faced inarticulate bruisers, wistful disappointed women, seedy bars full of morose patrons drinking to forget their failed relationships, and heartless employers ready to cast our heroes into poverty at the blink of an eye. The obstacles to romance between the doughty Ansa and alcoholic Holappa are intentionally contrived, with the main pleasures being derived from the dry wit expressed throughout, with Kaurismäki giving many supporting characters wonderfully bleak lines that cumulatively build a sense of inspired silliness, heavily battened-down by the abiding rationale of the filmmaker's worldview, in which modernism and optimism are false prophets, and the simple pleasures of awkward romance always win through. Special mention must also go to scene-stealer Alma, the stray dog who pops up near the end and moves in with the heroine, and who should be put in as many movies as possible, Finnish or not.

===

Honourable mentions should also go to: The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar, The Creator, Mars Express and Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves. And I look forward to seeing if Ridley Scott is right about his four-hour cut of the rushed Napoleon being a superior beast.

See also:
Blog: My top 10 films of 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010