Culture
/
Screenwriter

Donald Clarke

Whingeing about cinema and real life since 2009

Monthly Archives: June 2010

What’s the difference between a spin-off and a sequel?

The question is, of course, triggered by an interesting news story involving former sex-addict (bless!) Michael Douglas. A little over a decade ago, the creased star was involved in a more than usually rancorous divorce with some woman named Diandra …

On losing it (and keeping it) as a director. Woody? Francis?

Many British publications have had fun this week comparing the later career of Woody Allen with the autumn years of Francis Ford Coppola. Woody’s Whatever Works opened here this week also, but Coppola’s Tetro will not be with us until …

Pitchfork.com illustrates my point on genres.

If you have nothing better to do, you might like to read my piece today on the absurd proliferation of genres within music criticism. About half-way through, I say this: Clued-in websites such as Pitchfork or Cokemachineglow largely dispense with …

I can’t get Bouncing Babies by the Teardrop Explodes

Farewell then, Frank Sidebottom. If you don’t know, Mr Sidebottom — and you really should — he was a northern entertainer with a papier maché head of genuinely macrocephalic proportions. Never an enormous star, he nonetheless cheered up the 1980s …

Johnny Depp hits back at yesterday’s mean-spirited post.

In an unmistakable counterblast against this “blog’s” allegations that Johnny Depp is no longer as beautiful as he once was, the actor’s people have released images of the Deppster looking more sharp-featured and youthful than ever. The snaps from Bruce …

Mean-spirited Johnny Depp post.

If, like me, you are the same age as Johnny Depp, you, most likely, wonder how the hell he manages to keep looking so gorgeously young and trim all the time. Just look how grizzled, fat and palsied the rest …

World Cup Movie Shoot Out.

It has been  reported that the Algerian team were encouraged to watch Gillo Pontecorvo’s untouchable Battle of Algiers before taking the field against the hapless English. That film would seem more appropriate for the prelude to a game against the …

Somewhere re-opens the Lost in Translation debate

The  trailer for Somewhere, the latest film by Sofia Coppola, has finally come our way. Ms Coppola’s picture was one of many that the organisers of the Cannes Film Festival desperately — and ultimately vainly — hoped would be ready …

Calm down, it’s Repulsion.

Be aware that one of the greatest films of the 1960s has been reissued on a nice new DVD. Common wisdom has it that the best movie by Roman Polanski must be Chinatown. After all, it was at this point …

One final whinge about Sex and the City 2

This is it. I promise. I really do. Before going on to address the main theme, let’s pause to consider some interesting box-office results. As you may be aware, the bloody awful sequel to the already dreadful TV spin-off has …

Gary Oldman is George Smiley

There are three of them and Alleline. Allow me to become a keyboard-thumping dweeb for a few minutes. (“What’s new?” you mutter.) Nothing more stirs up the Nerdisphere than casting decisions on films of much-loved cult entertainments. Remember the fuss …

What was hot in 1960?

This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of two hugely admired, enormously influential European films: Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. We could devote megabytes to a discussion of the relative merits of those films. After enduring …

What is Benicio del Toro up to?

No, we’re not talking about the dodgy Wolfman movie. The issue is, rather, that deeply strange commercial for Magnum Gold choc-ices. You may have first noticed the campaign in its billboard form. Mr del Toro and his (more anon) co-star …

The Ten Best Sitcoms of All Time

Hey, June is here. What better way of frittering away the silly season than compiling some sort of pointless list? So here is the definitive chart of the best ever situation comedies. For the record — just to avoid confusion …