The little white attic

Let’s start with some personal news. Those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook may have been wondering where I’ve been the pas...

The first thing that needs to be said is that Orson Welles makes quite a few changes: he removes blocks of text (making the film 107 minutes...

1/ Tolstoy starts the epilogue by talking about historians’ criticisms of Alexander I.  “In what does the substance of those reproaches lie?...

1/ In Part 3 of Volume 4, we meet again Petya, the youngest of the Rostovs. His naïve enthusiasm is reminiscent of the naïveté in the young ...

1/ In the previous blog post, I wrote that there’s a problem in Tolstoy’s portrayal of Hélène, and wondered if there would be anything diffe...

1/ In an earlier blog post , I wrote that Tolstoy a few times compared things to the stage. The theatre metaphors reappear in this part.  “T...

My picks. In chronological order. In bold are the ones I like the most.  Pride and Prejudice (1995) with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth Sens...

1973: The End of the Affair is a film I made in May 2022 for The Associated Press 1-Minute Archive Film Competition. Participants had low-r...

1/ It is in this part that Tolstoy the philosopher appears for the first time, as he starts talking about the French invasion of Russia in 1...

1/ The opening chapter of this part is brilliant and uncomfortably, if not painfully, relatable.  “How horrified [Pierre] would have been se...