Donald Clarke

• Uncategorized
• August 27, 2010, 22:59

If you are embarking on a PhD thesis (or a facetious “blog” post) on the issue of How Journalism Works you could do worse than begin with the story of the cat and the wheelie bin. Those of you with …

• Oscars Politics Sex
• August 25, 2010, 23:27

TOTALITARIANISM! SAUSAGE! DEATH FROM THE SKY! –reports from Hollywood (in Adeathica USA or THEM SA) say that Jean-Luc Godard is to RECEIVE AN AWARD FROM the ACODomy of “motion” pictures. What they call an OSCAR DESERVED (though mad mad mad …

• Language Way off topic
• August 22, 2010, 21:49

In a recent post, I made a few passing smart-Alec remarks about The Irish Times Stylebook’s assertion that lady thespians should be referred to as “female actors” rather than “actresses”. Quite a few readers ignored the main thrust of the …

• Hell Politics Trailerspotting
• August 19, 2010, 16:03

No really. Confirmation of this comes in the trailer for a great new film (which, thank heavens, we will never see) entitled I Want Your Money. Featuring comments from a version of Ronald Reagan that appears to have been animated …

• Uncategorized
• August 14, 2010, 00:19

Thanks to Ms T Brady for uncovering a curious Inception-related document at (of all things) a Thomas Pynchon discussion group. It seems that some years before Christopher Nolan delivered the script for his mind-bending psychological thriller, the good people at …

• Box Office Figures
• August 11, 2010, 19:29

It’s official. As we have noted here repeatedly, any examination of films that do disproportionately  well outside the United States will confirm that overseas — by the American definition — viewers seem, if anything, more addicted to poo than those …

• Uncategorized
• August 9, 2010, 22:35

I’m afraid I forgot to bring my camera to the press conference for Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables at the Dorchester Hotel. I tried taking some photographs of Sly — who sat beside Dolph Lundgren and Jason Statham — with my …

• Star Ratings
• August 6, 2010, 19:57

Hang around film writers for long enough and — after explaining that they have the hardest job in the world — they will eventually get around to complaining about the star-rating system. It really is an appallingly reductive business. For …

• Box Office Figures Robin Hood
• August 5, 2010, 12:51

There’s a slightly scary truth at the heart of Forbes magazine’s recent list of the best-paid female actors (thank you, Irish Times style book). We’re not talking about the news that Sandra Bullock has made it to the top spot. …

• Sex
• August 2, 2010, 18:44

I quite enjoyed Andrew Motion’s comments about the lack of sex in novels submitted for The Booker Prize. The former UK Poet Laureate, chairman of the Booker panel this year, suspects that writers are so afraid of winning the Bad …