π Check out this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Drama films,Film,Culture β
Key idea: TThe first time David Lean's 1945 romantic masterpiece was shown to the public, audiences were in shock. It wasn't a comedy, it was far from ideal. The director felt extremely embarrassed, so he returned to his hotel, planning to break into the film factory and burn the negative as soon as possible.Eighty years later, the legacy of Brief Encounter has proven anything but that. Firstly, the train station setting and its ubiquity on British television led to parodies by everyone from…
β¨ Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Moldova,Ukraine,Europe,World news,Culture,Art and design β
Main takeaway: AIn the midst of the war in Ukraine and the fragile borders that cross the former Soviet Union, the self-declared Republic of Transnistria, which separated from Moldova more than thirty years ago after a short but bloody conflict, remains locked in deep political and diplomatic isolation.Map of TransnistriaHome to about 450,000 people, Transnistria is a narrow strip of land located between Moldova and Ukraine, along the eastern bank of the Dniester River. Its actual capital, Tiraspol, is less than 60…
π₯ Explore this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Film,Drama films,South Korea,Film adaptations,World news,Culture,Books,Asia Pacific π Main takeaway: AThis elusive but lively drama, adapted from the novel by Swiss-Korean writer Elisa Chua Dusapin, sees guesthouse worker Soha (Bella Kim) push French writer Yan (Rochdie Zim) into the demilitarized zone north of the South Korean city of Sokcho. Metaphor alert: Koya Camorra's debut film also camps in No Man's Land of the Soul, with Soha, abandoned by her French father while still in the womb, caught between two cultures. Forced to accompany the mysterious author, the French-speaking…
π₯ Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: John Irving,Fiction,Books,Culture π‘ Main takeaway: IIf some writers go through an imperial phase, reaching the top again and again, American novelist John Irving had a series of four rich and satisfying novels, from 1978's The World According to Garp to 1989's A Prayer for Owen Meany. These books were generous, funny, big-hearted, linking characters he called "radicals" to social issues from feminism to abortion.Since Owen Meany, returns have been decreasing, except for page length. His last novel, 2022's The Last Chairlift, was 900 pages of themes that…
β¨ Read this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Film,Drama films,Documentary films,Period and historical films,Nuclear weapons,Culture,World news π Hereβs what youβll learn: DDystopia, post-apocalypse, mockumentary: these genres are common, even hackneyed, in films and television today. But when director Peter Watkins used them in the 1960s, they were revolutionaries, and Watkins himself was a revolutionary too β an English revolutionary, in fact, alive to the cruelty and injustice of kings, but also to the cruelty and injustice of people bent on cutting off heads. His cinema has consistently asked questions about who is in power, and…
π₯ Discover this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Film,Jesse Eisenberg,Culture,Health,Organ donation,Society π‘ Main takeaway: Jesse Eisenberg has revealed that he will donate his kidney to a stranger next month. The actor and director told NBC Today that he would "donate my kidney in six weeks" but wasn't entirely sure of his motives."I don't know why," he said. βI've been bitten by the blood donation bug. I donate altruistically [in] Mid-December. I'm so excited to do this.Eisenberg (42 years old) added that he first came up with the idea of ββdonating organs when he was still…
β¨ Read this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Richard Ashcroft,Music,The Verve,Culture,Oasis π Hereβs what youβll learn: RRichard Ashcroft is the man of the moment. Having championed Oasis as "the only man for the job," the former Verve singer is back with an arena tour (almost) for 2026, and a few more Oasis dates in South America, not to mention his seventh solo album, Lovin' You. We caught up with Ashcroft to chat about loving ABBA, being inspired by Serge Gainsbourg and fighting Liam Gallagher.Hi Richard! It's always a pleasure to interview another Richard - who…
π Check out this trending post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: RosalΓa,Music,Culture,Pop and rock,BjΓΆrk,Classical music β
Main takeaway: toLast week, RosalΓa appeared on an American podcast to discuss her fourth album. At one point, the interviewer asked her if she thought Lux was asking too much of her listeners: a not entirely unreasonable question, given that it presents a song cycle in four βmovements,β based on the lives of several female saints and includes the 33-year-old Catalan star singing in 13 different languages ββto the thundering accompaniment of the London Symphony Orchestra; And it doesn't look at…
π₯ Discover this awesome post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Film,Horror films,Thrillers,Brazil,Americas,Culture,World news π Main takeaway: TIt's 1996, the country is Brazil, and young firefighter Ana (Marjorie Estiano) returns to work after a layoff. We see in flashback that, as a young child, she survived the horrific experience of her disturbed mother attempting to carry out a murder-suicide. Unfortunately, one of her first jobs back at work was to answer a call from a run-down nursing home in the middle of nowhere. The first sign that something is wrong when she and the crew agree is that…
π₯ Read this must-read post from Culture | The Guardian π π Category: Photography,Art and design,Culture,Exhibitions,Oxford,LGBTQ+ rights,Artificial intelligence (AI) π Hereβs what youβll learn: IIt's the first day of Photo Oxford's fifth edition, but the first place I arrive at, Maison FranΓ§aise, is closed. Is this what Roland Barthes meant when he wrote that βto see a good picture, it is better to look awayβ?At least there's an outdoor exhibit - one of 30 displays in the city's community spaces, churches, colleges and pubs that are part of the festival this year. Michael Christopher Brown's book "90 Miles" refers to…
