Director Gurinder Chadha has given cinema audiences a glimpse of British Asian experience with films like Bend it Like Beckham or Bhaji on the Beach. Now a series of chance encounters has led her to examine a difficult period in her family history and that of the country of her ancestors: the Partition of India … Continue reading “Partitioning India”
Dunkirk tells the story of one of the most extraordinary events of the Second World War: the evacuation of 338,000 men from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France, against incredible odds. In May 1940, the Nazi Army was on the offensive. Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium rapidly fell, then they set their sights … Continue reading “The Miracle of Dunkirk”
The David Hockney exhibition that broke attendance records at the Tate Britain arrives as the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In London, almost half a million people saw the retrospective of Britain’s most famous pop artist, from his California swimming pool paintings to recent monumental landscapes and iPad art. Hockney was born in Yorkshire in 1937, … Continue reading “David Hockney: The Pompidou Goes Pop”
The world’s most popular female superhero has finally made it to the big screen for her first solo movie and has been named an Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls by the United Nations…for only 2 months! It took 76 years to bring the world’s most famous female superhero to the big … Continue reading “Wonder Woman: from Comics to the UN”
You may have heard about a complex concept described as a “Rube Goldberg”… then wondered what that meant. The Rube Goldberg machine is a complicated machine that does simple tasks. Rube Goldberg was an American inventor, sculptor, author, engineer, cartoonist and he is very famous for his zany inventions cartoons. Before he was known as … Continue reading “The Art of Rube Goldberg: Why do simple when it can be complicated?”
Churchill is a portrait of the wartime British Prime Minister, not as a one-dimensional heroic leader but as a far more human, and in some ways more likeable, character with all the frailties and contradictions that implies. Every country needs its national myths and in the wake of WW2, Britain constructed one where British people … Continue reading “Churchill Hesitates”
In June, the Barbican Centre in London will open a major science-fiction exhibition, “Into the Unknown: A Journey Through Science Fiction”. This unprecedented show encompasses literature, contemporary art, film, music, comic books and video games to present a new, global perspective on Science Fiction. Science fiction is responsible for some of the world’s most iconic … Continue reading “Into the Unknown: A Journey through Science Fiction”
The new film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is a high-energy action film of one of Britain’s most enduring myths: the sword in the stone. The film stars Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law as the “once and future king” and his evil uncle Voltigern, who has done his best to wipe Arthur and his … Continue reading “Medieval Murder and a Sword Called Excalibur”
In 1987, James Baldwin died without having finished his last book. He left just thirty pages of the manuscript. The book was intended to be a personal account of the assassination of three of his friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. In the documentary film I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul … Continue reading ““I Am Not Your Negro””
Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot are back for “Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2”, an adventure through the cosmos to try and track down Peter Quill’s mysterious father. If you’ve seen “Volume 1”, you’re guaranteed to be interested in its sequel. After Iron Man, The Hulk, etc… Marvel has continued its big-screen adaptation of … Continue reading ““I am Groot!”: My Kingdom for a tape!”