Books
I’m just coming to the end of Ahmed Rashid’s compelling book on the conflict in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, Descent into Chaos. It’s an essential brew of fine research, persuasive analysis and lively prose – all in all, it feels definitive.
The best work of fiction I’ve read and re-read this year – John O’Hara’s Appointment in Samarra – is a great Christmas book, set as it is over the Festive Season. I have a habit of evangalising about O’Hara’s work, so – to spare you – I’ll just point you towards my comments on the novel for the Spectator Book Club’s Christmas Book List.
Film
There’s not too much to get excited about in cinemas at the moment, so home video’s probably the way forward. On that front, Marcel L’Herbier’s L’Argent (1928) – recently released on DVD as part of Eureka’s Masters of Cinema line – is a revelation. Based on Zola’s novel of greed, lust and jealousy among the bourses of Paris, L’Herbier’s masterpiece is chock-full of thematic and formal daring. It’s oddly topical, too.
The decent folk at the British Film Institute have just published a DVD collection of Lotte Reiniger’s Fairy Tale films. All the familiar stories are there – Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty etc. – and all told using animated silhouettes (watch an example here). This is as delicate and as charming as cinema gets.
Dance
Edward Scissorhands at Sadlers Wells: a case of Christmas Future rather than Christmas Past here, as I’m actually checking out this Matthew Bourne production in a few days’ time. Bourne’s high-camp vision may not be for everyone, but I’m looking forward to seeing what he makes out of the Tim Burton source material.
Music
The Cure’s thirteenth studio album, 4:13 Dream, doesn’t hit the heights of, say, Pornography or Disintegration, but it’s still a reminder of the enduring pop genius of Robert Smith. Who else could craft a similar mix of music hall razmatazz and suburban angst, of poignancy and despair? No-one, I’d say – making this a rare, essential listen.
Perhaps I should have filed this one under ‘Books’ but, regardless, the recently released Gonzo Tapes certainly deserve a place on your iPod. Here’s the Good Doctor himself – Hunter S. Thompson – waxing hysterical during a series of home audio recordings. As you might expect, nobody or nothing is spared.
TV
I’ve only just finished watching through Series 1 of Mad Men – that TV show about the sharp-suited, cigarette-puffing advertising execs of Madison Avenue, circa 1960. For me, it’s the closest that television has ever got to the novel; character-driven, multilayered and socially aware. In Don Draper we have a protagonist worthy of Fitzgerald. The DVD set of Series 1 is – as the ad execs would have it – an ideal present for that special someone in your life. I’m already looking forward to catching Series 2 when it airs early next year.
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