Palaces of Pleasure - How the Victorians Invented Mass Entertainment by Lee Jackson

 

Introduction or Expensive and Dangerous Amusements

Lee Jackson's well-researched book is an examination of the growth of the leisure industry in the nineteenth century. He looks at the gin palace, the music hall, the exhibition ground, the seaside resort and the football club. This all co-incides with the shorter working week with half days on Saturdays. (As a ten-year-old boy, I remember vividly walking to my father's shop on Kensington High Street at lunchtime on a Saturday (early closing day) to take the 49 bus to Kensington Gardens, where John and I played football at Buck Hill). 

Chapter 1: The Gin Palace or The Abodes of Suicide

(These horrible alternative titles fare no better in later chapters). 

We hear how ornate these places were, occasionally situated in the midst of slums. Their gaslighting, the liquor they served and the "magnificent decoration". However, there was normally no seating, encouraging drinkers to leave. These were very different to the alehouse, where there was seating and you were served at the table. Magistrates were often trying to close them down.

"Gin drinking had acquired a thin veneer of respectability." There is a discussion about the licensing battles between these places and ale houses. As trade grew, the "gin shop" became gradually replaced by the Gin Palace. A far more respectable and luxurious establishment. Licensing laws meant that beer shops had to close at 10pm, whereas gin places were open until midnight. It was the 1839 Metropolitan Police Act that prohibited Sunday opening before 1pm.

The part about licensing laws reminded me of when I lived next to the river in Barnes; the pubs there on the south side of the River Thames closed an hour earlier than those in Hammersmith on the north side. How many times did I cross Hammersmith Bridge for one more pint?

Chapter 2: The Free-and-Easy or The Glorious Apollo

For some reason the author starts talking about the advent of the music hall, only to ditch that and goes back to public houses where a club room allowed gatherings of friends to drink, sing and have a good time. Jackson believes this is "from which music hall would eventually spring". That sounds like rubbish to me. Better is the writer's investigations into Mr Boothroyd's Kings Arms on Golden Lane where the premises were extended to accommodate three hundred patrons who were charged an entrance fee for the entertainment. We know because they were prosecuted. Now this could be the precursor of the music hall. 

We hear about various such venues where the owners tried to expand their premises for entertainment, only to lose out to the local licensing board. Next come London's "patent" theatres (the Theatre Royals), which came under the jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberlain. The "minors" were other establishments which only presented music and mime. These were forever pushing the boundaries as their presentations started to include more dialogue.

Then came the Theatres Act of 1843 and a major change. All theatres could perform drama, thus abolishing the monopoly of the "patent" theatres. They were all now under the jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberlain. Music and dancing licences were still available as long as there was nothing theatrical or spoken.

Chapter 3: The Music Hall or He Slept on the Piano

The author starts this section with Charles Thornton's "Canterbury Hall" as an example of a music hall. It had a capacity of up to 2,000. There were songs, ventriloquists, magicians, acrobats, melodrama and pantomimes. Jackson spends some time telling us about the battles in court between music halls and theatres. From what used to be an annexe of a pub to a standalone "variety theatre" or "palace of varieties". There was still much controversy about content.

The last part of this section suggested that the drinking culture was certainly dying down with the growth of these new theatres. And people expected more for their money: carpets instead of sanded floors, cushioned armchairs instead of benches, and the finest fabrics, fixtures and fittings. A new age of luxury. Theatres might have a twelve-strong orchestra and be "free from vulgarity". The first Royal Variety Performance took place at The Palace Theatre in 1912.

Chapter 4: The Dancing Room or The Way of the Whirled

This chapter starts with the creation of "assembly rooms". Not to be confused with "commercial dance halls for the masses". The author explains about "dancing academies" to bypass the laws on such congregations. However, the main feature of this chapter focuses on Laurent's Casino that opened in October 1846, just off The Strand in Adelaide Gallery, where there was a conversion into a dance hall. Advertised as "Dancing for the Million" with a fifty-piece orchestra. 

Then Caldwell's Assembly Rooms in Soho "catered more for the working-class dancer" with up to 600 participants. These prospered thanks to "rigid moral policing". However, there were still battles with the magistrates, so much so that these establishments closed after only a few years. 

What did prosper for dancing at the end of the century were the seaside resorts, such as The Tower Ballroom in Blackpool. Hammersmith Palais opened in 1919.

Chapter 5: The Pleasure Garden or The Midnight Roysterers

Maybe the best example was Vauxhall Gardens: "an enclosed cultivated park". It opened during the evening, where various routes were lit (or not). There were various entertainments along the way and a two-storey bandstand for an orchestra. There were variety acts, concerts, firework displays, ballooning ascents, tightrope walkers and all kinds of circus, theatrical performances and dancing.

Chapter 6: The Exhibition Ground or The City of Sideshows

The Great Exhibition was a "Crystal Palace" erected in Hyde Park. Visitors from home and abroad flocked from home and abroad to the capital in 1851. There were six million admissions in six months. It was not until 1854 that a remodelled Crystal Palace opened in Sydenham, South London. We hear a lot about the installations that filled this permanent building. When a new Alexandra Palace opened in 1873, it burnt down after sixteen days. It was rebuilt and reopened. Successful on the face of it, but not enough to repay the shareholders. All the attractions at these exhibitions are far too many to list. Earls Court opened in 1887 and Olympia in 1886.

Chapter 7: The Seaside or A Triumphal Car for Neptune

(Don't you just hate these alternative titles)

It was the steamboat and railways that were the cause of the explosion of of tourism. At first, Brighton and Margate were at the fore. Then Blackpool. Before the advent of the railways from 1846 to 1863, the best way to the resorts was by steamboat. Sixty miles from London in 1815, it took six to seven hours but was extremely popular. We hear about the opening of piers, with a fine example being Southport. We hear about the construction of promenades. The first piers were very plain, but then came extensions with various additions and rooms. Blackpool North Pier had concerts. Blackpool Tower opened in 1894 and there is a description about its construction. 

Along the seafront came various attractions such as theatres, aquariums, winter gardens, donkey rides, organ grinders, and Punch and Judy; the list goes on. Amusement parks began to open.

Chapter 8: The Football Field or To Brutalise the Game

The growth of football in the nineteenth century from its "rough and tumble" beginnings to the establishment in 1863 of the Football Association (the FA), which provided a set of rules. I'm not sure about the author's description of how it grew out of rugby and cricket clubs. But we do hear about the formation of the early football clubs, mainly in the north of England. Blackburn Olympic played in the FA Cup final of 1883 at The Oval where they beat Old Etonians. 

Conclusion

This is mainly just a rehash of all the above and the factors that contributed to the "country's entertainment explosion". With newspapers, magazines, railways and transport.

This was a hugely researched book; sometimes it felt as if the author wanted to include everything that he found. Twenty-seven pages of end notes, a huge bibliography, but a shortish index. It could have done with some judicial editing.

10,000 Hits on Songs from Call the Midwife - and rising

In 2014, I posted this note about Call the Midwife:

Nothing on my blog compares with the interest that has been shown on my list of songs from each episode of "Call the Midwife", due in part to the fact that there is no other listing on the internet of the songs episode by episode. This week the number of hits on my first posting for Series 1 reached 10,000. It had been around 30 short for a long time, but suddenly there are now seventy more than the magic number. There are also over 1,000 hits for my posting for Series 2 and a hundred plus for Series 3. This latest series has been a huge test. The songs (mainly from 1959) have become more and more obscure, as if someone were really trying to make it difficult. But I keep trying, and the people on the Facebook page for "Call the Midwife" have sometimes helped. There are still a few gaps which I hope someone might fill one day.

PS    On the 8th of November 2021, the number of hits for my post for Series 1 of CTM has now reached 14,093. Other series have also garnered hits in the thousands. 

PPS  Then today, I checked again, and the number of views for Series 1 has reached 17,119. Series 2 has 8,368; Series 3 has 12,407; and Series 4 has 4,143. I think that the websites that list songs from TV series have not gone back since they were created. So my blog is the place to go. It appears on the first page if you google "Songs from Call the Midwife Season 1".

Stowe Gardens - National Trust

 

The penultimate day of April and our Wednesday excursion took us to the National Trust's Stowe Gardens. I cannot remember going there so early in the year, but with clear blue skies, we knew it would look great with the trees coming into leaf. We know our way pretty well, but we could have done with the map.

At the end of the half-mile walk to the entrance of the gardens, we turned right and followed the path to the Palladian Bridge.

Instead of following the main path, we headed up a grassy path to the Gothic Temple. Instead of retracing our steps, we went across a field before rejoining the main route.

The best part of the visit for me was arriving at the Doric Arch that is surrounded by ten statues. I have a vague memory of seeing these years ago but not in this spectacular position. 

The statues are now complete with the newly installed Apollo in 2023, which stands with the nine muses. The originals from the early eighteenth century gradually deteriorated, and it's taken thirty-three years of planning and construction to reach this wonderful conclusion. See the Cliveden Conservation website.

From there we found our normal route, which eventually reaches Stowe House, as the top photo shows. We ignored an encouragement to go round the mansion and found our way back to the lake. There are a number of paths along the lake, including that one past the Temple of British Worthies.

We then found ourselves in a completely deserted part of the estate and had to ask for help in finding the route back. We found that we had been there well over two hours (probably around five miles), so we were glad to get to the cafe for a welcome late lunch.

Movies at Home: La Chimera, Funeral in Berlin and Magnolia

 

In La Chimera, we are in Tuscany in the 1980's as Josh O'Connor as Arthur (a British archaeologist) is returning to the scene of the crime after spending time in prison. He is welcomed back to his ex-girlfriend's mother's place full of her family and friends. His old gang who search for artefacts (ancient Etruscan culture) know he will be looking for more even though his earlier finds are mostly missing. It's Arthur who has the talent for divining such buried objects, quite against the law. They are "tomboroli" or grave robbers.

Alice Rohrwatcher has written and directed a superb movie with excellent cinematography by Hélène Louvart. (Thank you, spell check, for the apostrophes.) The landscape looks so great, and the music is perfect. There are the occasional different aspect ratios which might be a dream. The overgrown railway station looks wonderful. 

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian gave it a deserved five stars and was "utterly captivated" by the film that was "garrulous, uproarious, and celebratory". Mark Kermode loved it, especially the performance of Josh O'Connor.  

I must have seen Funeral in Berlin when it was first released in 1966. Directed by Guy Hamilton from the 1964 novel by Len Deighton, it stars Michael Caine, reprising his role as Harry Palmer from the earlier film The Ipcress File. There are plenty of twists and turns as Palmer is sent to Berlin to effect the defection of a Soviet intelligence officer. Although the film is showing its age, the period shots of Berlin are interesting, and Michael Caine showed promise of that stellar career.

I wanted to see this early movie from one of my favourite directors. Paul Thomas Anderson. Magnolia features an all star cast in alternating stories. At first I thought this was going to be a three-hour sprawling mess. But when you get used to the ultra-sharp editing between the alternating scenes, it becomes a staggering piece of filmmaking. All these separate fragments come together in that even stranger ending. One day in the San Fernando Valley, not to be confused with that other great movie, Two Days in the Valley. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian called it "a sprawling, howling miasma of strangeness" and "a dark and bitter poetry of regret, ..... a real wail of regret".

The cast is an amazing collection of top acting talent. Tom Cruise as you have never seen him before. Such an awful person, but when we at last find out his background, no wonder. William H. Macy playing... William H. Macy. John C. Reilly is also great. But of all the cast, I thought Philip Seymour Hoffman was the best. That poor man trying his best. It may be even better on a second viewing in the future.

Sight and Sound Magazine - May 2026

 

Editorial

Mike Williams looks at the film posters of Philip Castle and Drew Struzan. Castle was famous for the poster for Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). Mike describes the artwork and the background of the artist who died in February at eighty-three. Castle then worked with Struzan on the poster for A Clockwork Orange (1971). Mike calls them "still images that do their own work of narration, distillation and suggestion". It was Struzan who then created posters for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Goonies, Blade Runner – the list goes on. Mike then takes a dive into some international film posters that are far less interesting than those before.

Opening Scenes

Nick Hasted tells us about concert films that use modern technology to create the best (or loudest?) sound. But this is all so familiar.

Editor's Choice

Of the six recommendations, the only one to appeal to me was "Finding Your Way: The Films of Peter Weir" being shown at BFI Southbank. I just love his The Truman Show (1998).

In Production

Filming is underway on Martin Scorsese's What Happens at Night. It's on location in the Czech Republic with some A-list stars.

News

Nothing of interest.

In Conversation

Elizabet Cabeza talks to Carla Simon about her new film Romeria. (See review later). We hear about her very personal films, including her latest. It's about her parent's family. 

Interview

John Bleasdale interviews Michael Angelo Cavino and Kyle Marvin about their new film Splitsville. (See review in April's edition). It's a "demented romcom" about two married couples in the throws of, yes, splitting up. Or sort of. The writer/directors have cast themselves alongside Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona. They go on to talk about filming their fight. I missed the film at The Rex cinema.

Festival

Copenhagen's international documentary festival. Lots of films but none of any interest.

Preview

Juliette Binoche has made a documentary called In-I in Motion about her 2008 dance with Akram Khan at The National Theatre. 

The Score

David Thomson tells us about composer/musician Daniel Blumberg and his Oscar for The Brutalist as well as his new film The Testament of Ann Lee. My review of the former on 12th February 2025 said "I thought that I was going to hate the music ..... but in the end, Daniel Blumberg's score was completely right for the film." Last of all is something about his new film Pompei: Below the Clouds. 

Diary

Cromarty Film Festival (a small town near Inverness!) Mark Cousins lets us into his diary. Mostly classic old movies.

Spotlight

The film Wild Foxes is a boxing drama about youth amateur boxing and a seventeen yea    r old French guy. He becomes interested in the foxes in the nearby woods. Hmm. 

Mean Sheets

Film posters made of textiles. One is actually for Fargo (1996) and is cross-stitched artwork. But the most interesting is that for Sightseers (2012) and gives a glimpse of the violence to come. Otherwise quite a good little film.

Reader's Letters

As usual, nothing worth a comment.

Flick Lit

Nicole Flattery on yet another piece on "Wuthering Heights". "It feels less like creative decisions than engagement-farming social media content. "Not sure what that means. "Is this a film or a product?" "Cathy and Heathcliff, in this modern iteration, look like influencers on a brand trip to northern Yorkshire." (Now that was funny, if complete rubbish). So Nicole, this is all too easy criticism, not anything we could call serious. And what is all this "BookTok" romance? Enough!

An afterthought. Maybe she's right that this adaptation is far more for the younger generation. The costumes, make-up, the passion and the music. Although there is hardly a mention for the amazing score by Charli xcx

The Long Take

Pamela Hutchinson talks about courses in film studies and how they might be under threat. She is also worried that those students are not taking it seriously, even to the extent of ignoring watching a movie. She compares it with ballet and opera as a serious contender, as "all arts are fighting for their lives".

TV Eye

Andrew Male thinks that the new four-part TV adaptation of Lord of the Flies "conveyed more effectively through images, performance and sound than character and dialogue". Male was not impressed with Jack Thorne's adaptation, but fortunately Mark Mundeu was "a great director of children". 

Out of Time

Rose of Nevada is the new small film from Cornish "auteur" Mark Jenkin. (Who appears on the cover of the magazine.) But people like him think they are so special because they come from Cornwall and not England. What about the Geordies or Yorkies? I could go on. Jenkin is "rejecting Englishness, actively supporting whoever England was playing". So I totally ignored these ten miserable pages. Even the Sunday Times gave it a full page written by, yes, another Cornishman, Petroc Trelawny, who wasn't even born in the county.

Neo Tokyo Story

Roger Luckhurst tells us about Akira (1988), which is now back in cinemas. Over six pages with some glorious photos of this iconic Japanese animation. We are told it "had a cyberpunk cool" and that it "marked peak animation in booming 1980s Japan". This "70mm spectacle" used 327 colours, 97 of them different shades of red. (There seems to be a lot of blood). When I first noticed that it was on at my local Odeon, I gave it a miss. But having read this article, I might go to Cineworld at Hemel Hempstead, where it is showing on the IMAX screen. Apparently quite a complex movie, "the cityscapes are dazzling in detail. " We hear all about its background and influences. (I remember that anime sequence in Kill Bill Volume 1.)

There is a lot here about other Japanese films and their history, including a mention for the wonderful Perfect Days (2023). Also, its influences on recent body horror movies. 

Future Paradise

In the March 1991 edition of Sight and Sound, Tony Rayns talked to director Otomo Katsuhiro about his designs for Akira. The story and pictures first appeared in episodes in Young Magazine in December 1982, a manga publication every fortnight until April 1986. We learn a lot about what Manga is and how popular it became.

Reservoir Cops

Quentin Tarantino's long article is about Joe Carnahan's new thriller The Rip. It stars the big mates Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as cops that takes us back to the "glory days" of the 1970s. Tarantino seems unimpressed with crime films over the last few years and keeps harping back to their heyday over fifty years ago. But he says that here is a new movie that "did grab me and held me for its entire duration". This is mostly down, he says, to the "sensational screenplay by Carnahan and Michael McGrode". What I didn't like was that he gives us a detailed explanation of the plot. But better is the comparison with other such movies from way back.

Although Quentin again warms to the script and thinks that the two leads are "sensational", he does warn us that his friends are not so impressed. I won't be able to judge, as it's only on Netflix. I do wonder sometimes about their reviews.

The Boy who fell through Earth

Jason Wood discusses an "issue" film, D is for Distance. Five pages on what seems a turgid family documentary. 

At the movies with ...... Raoul Peck

Another documentary, Orwell: 2+2=5, is the subject of an interview by Nick Bradshaw. But not for me.

REVIEWS

As always, only my selection of those in this issue.

Father Mother Sister Brother

Nicolas Rapolo is impressed by Jim Jarmusch's film in three parts about "adult sibling relationships". It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. See my review. I have noted two of his previous movies: Broken Flowers (2005) and Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). 

Romaria

Sophie Satchell-Baeza says that Carla Simon's part memoir has an "etheral quality". It follows eighteen year old Marina to Vigo in Spain to find any paperwork relating to her late father's family.  She needs it for her application to film school. Simon's biological parents died when she was six. Meeting her relatives for the first time brings a mixed reception. Sounds interesting.

Primavera

In the Venice of the early 1700s, Cecilia is a talented violinist in an orphanage. Sam Davies likes how the arrival of one Antonio Vivaldi as musical director makes an interesting story. "Middlebrow historical fiction". 

Undertone

Roger Luckhurst reviews this extremely cheaply made film. Basically one person going mad watching an online podcast.

Diamanti

Catherine Wheatley explains how this film about dressmakers comes from a group reading a screenplay that melts from present day into the 1970's. It's a "melodrama set in a costume atellier". It sounds a lovely little film from Ferzan Ozpetek. Yes, it's all about the costumes but maybe a "self indulgent and maudlin coda".

The Bride!

Simran Hans says Maggie Gyllenhall's big film is "an act of grandiosity". He talks about the makeup, the clothes, and the hair. But he thinks the film is spoilt by "indulgent, unapologetic excess". (No, there's not enough!) The review seemed more of a mess than the movie. (See my review).

Project Hail Mary

Henry K. Miller thinks that this film is "cloying and ingratiating" as well as "distinctively millennial", and "it is Reddit". Whatever these words mean. He makes parallels with The Martian (I can see that). Well, it does have the same novelist and screenwriter. Miller was not impressed with the plot (nor was I) and "the big action sequence is busy and hard to follow". (Glad it wasn't just me). I think it should have been called "Grace and Rocky". I just hated the idea that his objection to going was steamrolled while drugged."

Fuze

After seeing the trailer, I was going to give this a miss, but the "fusion" of the unexploded bomb and a bank heist might be OK. 

I didn't even read the review for Mark Jenkins's Rose of Nevada. 

DVD and BLU-RAY

I wasn't interested in the three pages on The Devil's Hand.

Lost and Found

Porgy and Bess. This modern opera from 1959 has an all star cast but is STILL LOST!

Archive TV

Robert Hanks reviews a three disc black and white compilation called Daniel Farson's Guide to Britain: Volume 1. Farson's early fame as a TV reporter in the late 50's and early 60's comprises this box set. We aslo get a view about his later disreputable life style. His documentaries were broad in nature. Hanks selects one from the series People in Trouble (1958) about mixed marriages. An interview with a "mad bigot" sounds extraordinary. 

The Day of the Locust (1975) is out on Blu-Ray, a John Schlesinger film that influenced many Hollywood movies to come.

Fear in the Night (1972) is out on Blu-Ray. I was going to skip this Jimmy sangster movie from Hammer Studios but became intrigued by the story. "An entertaining macabre slice of 1970's domestic gothic" according to reviewer Adam Scovell. It stars Judy Geeson with help from Ralph Bates, Peter Cushing and Joan Collins. We are told it's a "wonderful British Horror". Will watch out for it or buy a cheap DVD.

Wider Screen: Another Flick in the Wall

Sophia Satchell-Baeza has curated a season of films at the Regent Street Cinema. (It's 130th anniversary). It explores the cinematic links of ..... Pink Floyd. The season is called Yet another Movie: Pink Floyd in Film. Being shown is Antonioni's Zabriskie Point. 

Books

In the BFI Film Classics Series comes A Hard Day's Night is by Samira Ahmed. A longish review bit no mention at all for screenwriter Alun Owen, a one time close neighbour in London. 

From the Archive: Cafe Society

From the August 2001 Edition of Sight and Sound, Ginette Vincendean looked at Jean-Pierre Jeunet's wonderful Amelie and it's "wildly divided reception". A romantic comedy that saw at the Rex, Berkhamsted. I really liked it - see post 3rd November 2020. Audrey Tautou plays Amelie Paulain. I was not surprised that it was ahuge success in France when it first opened. Paris looked amazing. The feauture has six great stills from the film but that six page analysis seemed too much. Ginette called it "the perfect escapist product". I would watch it again. 

This Month in ..... 1996

The central feature is the Coen Bros' superb movie Fargo. That month's Sight and Sound had Steve Buscemi on the cover. Other reviews included Hackers. 

La Grazia, Father Mother Sister Brother and The Drama

 

I was off to the Rex in Berkhamsted to see the Italian film La Grazia. It was written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, whose earlier movie Parthenope I enjoyed. (See review of 15th May 2025). His new film stars long-time collaborator Toni Servillo as President Mariano De Santis, who is coming to the end of his presidency. An outstanding performance that won him best actor at the Venice Film Festival. 

Here he's a top lawyer turned politician, and in his last days as president he has two main issues to resolve, both of which require him to grant pardons or not. As well as signing off an Act of Parliament on euthanasia. He is assisted in his office by his daughter Doratea, splendidly played by Anna Ferzetti, who has her own views. There is a masterful performance from Servillo, a little too downbeat, as though through it all is the ghost of his dead wife, and with whom did she have an affair? But the best scenes for me are those with an old friend, Coco. 

John Bleasdale in April's Sight and Sound Magazine calls it the director's "most graceful film". Other critics were equally impressed. 

Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, Father Mother Sister Brother is made up of three separate stories. Set in three different countries, the locations are New Jersey, Dublin and Paris. There is absolutely no connection between the characters. Each one starts in a car; the first two have siblings on their way to visit a parent (they are not the easiest people, having lost their partner). The last two children lost both parents in an accident. 

In Part 1, Adam Driver (the best that I have seen him) and Mayim Bialik find their way to the isolated cabin where their father lives, seemingly on the edge of poverty. Tom Waits was born to play the role of this scoundrel. His pleads of poverty include covering that expensive couch with an old rug and leaving out a load of clutter. Also forgetting to hide his expensive Rolex, which he then declares is a fake. Refusing to let his son see the repairs he paid for. Dressing in old clothes but changing after the children leave. They do not stay that long, but it's that final twist that upset me so much. In the car going home Adam Driver has a clue something isn't right. As Peter Bradshaw said in The Guardian, "Who are or were our parents?"

On an annual visit to their mother (Charlotte Rampling), one of the daughters in Part 2 (played by Vicki Krieps) never closes the gate, throws her coat anywhere, gets her mother to pay for a taxi and even opens a box of books without asking. Her sister (an unrecognisable Cate Blanchett) is the opposite, with awful short severe hair, terrible clothes and glasses. I did wonder if this was all put on for her mother. She has laid out a perfect tea, and we wonder if she ever wanted children. She cannot wait for them to leave, as do they. But are they all playing games? See they all have that red in their clothes.

Both parents are missing in Part 3. The brother and sister have a strong bond as they muse on their parent's tragic accident. But did they really know their parents, driving off to some isolated mountain? The siblings are driving through Paris to a lockup with their parents' few possessions. Those views through the car windows are spectacular. Critic Mark Kermode said it was "the least engaging" of the three. But I thought its relaxed feeling was far better and contrasted with the difficult atmosphere of the first two.

There are definitely connections between the three stories. There are always two children. Did they ever know their parents? Did they ever want children? All three start and end in a car. In every story someone says, "Bob's your uncle." In all three there are skateboarders. (Hmm). In the first two there is hardly anything said about what they are doing in their lives. In all three the children have lost at least one parent. 

Previous films by director Jim Jarmusch include Only Lovers Left Alive and Broken Flowers. Both on DVD, which I can order sometime. His latest film made a big impression.

I just wish I could have avoided The Drama. It was just not my kind of film. It reminded me of all those TV shows that I purposefully do not watch. That is to say it's not poorly presented. The screenplay, the acting and direction are all fine. But somehow the story just did not add up. Robert Pattinson as Charlie seems a high-flyer at work, but he acts like a stupid child. Zendaya is more grounded but has a difficult background (not that you would have guessed as the person her father describes). 

I was even less impressed with the shock of the McGuffin that haunts the whole movie. Or the unravelling of Charlie. The film is written and directed by Kristoffer Bogli. I didn't like his film Dream Scenario (see post 13th December 2023), so why did I not read that first? There is no review in my Sight and Sound magazine, so I should have known. One review said it was an "unsettling cringe film", and Mark Kermode said it was "excruciating". Both were quite right. I sometimes avoid reviews so I can go into a film without any knowledge. It didn't work this time. One final note. One of the cast was Alana Haim. I seem to see every film in which she appears. 

The Land in Winter, The British Museum Is Falling Down and Karla's Choice

 

The book starts on 7th December 1962. So where was I? I was very nearly eighteen and halfway through my last year at school, studying (not very hard) for my three A-Levels. Here, the country doctor Eric Parry is visiting patients. His wife Irene is pregnant and finding it hard to motivate herself, even though she was always known as a hard worker. Eric then visits the asylum where a patient has committed suicide on the pills he prescribed.

Across the field from their home live Bill and Rita (also pregnant). trying hard to make a go of their farm. Of course, Irene and Rita become friends. This, for me, was the best part of the book, as they talk about their lives with lots of personal stuff. (When one of them "tries to settle on the dial for Radio Luxembourg. The signal came and went", (it took me back to our old radio). Not sure she would be listening to the American Marcie Blane singing "Bobby's Girl", as in this country it would have been Susan Maughn. There is a lovely conversation with Rita when Bill says, "Posh people think my father's a jumped-up little immigrant, which he is. They'd send him back if they could work out where he came from."

A week later we hear about a crucial part of the story when Eric has a secret tryst with Alison. Meanwhile Rita and Irene are off on a trip to the cinema. "A year from now it'll be bingo." How right they were. Boxing Day is the day of the party, and everyone is there. Another marvellous chapter. Crucially, snow is on the way, and that historic weather event is central to the rest of the book. But it's Irene's discovery of what her husband was up to and what she does about it that I found less than enthralling. So the last third I found is all a bit of a jumble. The ending, though, is very unexpected, even traumatic, but with a sense that there will be something closer in the future for the two couples.

This is one of David Lodge's very early novels, more of a novella of only 160 pages. It was written quickly in 1964, during a year in America while on leave from his job at the University of Birmingham. Adam Appleby is twenty-five and already has three children and is agonising whether a fourth is on the way. Catholicism, and its teaching about birth control, plays a stern and worrying role. Adam does not even have a proper job, as his studies take him every day to the Britich Museum.

Each day he starts off with good intentions, but somehow the fates are against his studies. What follows is a series of what might be termed 'comedic misadventures', but with an unexpected and highly unlikely bonus at the end. The book is written with style and the intelligent prose the author honed over the years.

It's the spring of 1963. (I have "A"-level exams about to start.) George Smiley is recently retired from the Circus, the UK's intelligence service. Settling down happily with his wife Anne. Until he is needed back because he is the one best placed to find out what has happened to Mr Banati. He runs a literary agency with his assistant Sussanah Giro. She comes face to face with Miki who was about to assassinate said Banati but changes his mind after the latter has done a bunk.

So a reasonable beginning is followed by a turgid first third of the book. This is not easy reading. There are periods when we get a long backstory of a new character. Even near the end this also happens. There is no momentum to the story. It all seems a bit pointless and difficult. There is hardly any plot, and nothing much happens. Even a predictable chase near the end is over so quickly. We end up first in Berlin and then in Vienna, the author trying to emulate his father's fascination for Eastern Europe of the sixties.

Is it that the book is so poorly written that I was glad when it was finished? It took me so long to read, especially the last third. It never takes me three weeks to read a book just under 300 pages. I was glad when it was all over.