Category: Blog
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Van Gogh – the man, the myth, the muse
2019 is starting out with a bang for art lovers. With two exciting feature films to be released soon about Vincent Van Gogh – AT ETERNITY’S GATE and LOVING VINCENT – it’s worth examining other past films central to the topic. 1. CHINA’S VAN GOGHS Documentary, 2016, China https://chinasvangoghs.com/ Director Yu Haibo charts the true-life…
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Bess of Hardwick – the third player in the struggle between Elizabeth and Mary
The upcoming feature Mary, Queen of Scots chronicles the rivalry between two women battling for the throne of England. During the Tudor era, Elizabeth and Mary lived in one of the most brutal times of British history, some say the most. While not the focus, there is a third woman in this story who was…
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Global film and television demand 2018 – Rightstrade
This month, Rightstrade gave a teaser into their statistics dashboard by releasing the Global Demand for Film & TV Genres for 2018. It’s an interesting snapshot. Horror genre leads the way again, no surprise there. But what was second? Comedy? Sci-fi? No. Documentary came in second, with a demand of 262% in Australia and the…
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It’s a sweet life, George.
Or, what do sugared almonds and George Clooney have in common? Sulmona in Abruzzo, Italy has been a manufacturer of the traditional sugared almond for centuries. Officially called confetti, one of its oldest confectioners, Confetti Mario Pelino, was established in 1783. The company has been called upon to grace many wedding table from celebrities to…
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Red Carpet Burns – optioned
The 2013 memoir of journalist Georgia Cassimatis’ years in LA – Red Carpet Burns – is such an entertaining read of what happens when one leaps into the unknown. Many readers will wish the journey went much, much longer. Full of complex characters she encountered while on the media beat, Cassimatis’ vignettes weave the highs…
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‘The Glitter and the Gold’ by Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan – Book review
2017 saw at least two big starring films about the UK prime minister Winston Churchill – Churchill with Brian Cox and The Darkest Hour with Gary Oldman, for which he collected the Best Actor Oscar. Both prompt further learning and Mary S Lovell’s tome to the Churchills is a strong recommendation. On a quarter way through…
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Hatton Garden Job : Fact is stronger than fiction
Recently caught up on the film version of the unprecedented Hatton Garden heist in London in 2015 – The Hatton Garden Job. It could have been the fact I watched it distractedly during a flight from Australia to the UK, but it was no match for a Vanity Fair article I’d read the year following the heist.…
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Simply, Marilyn Monroe
Women who aspire to be equal to men are unambitious. Marilyn Monroe A little known fact about Marilyn Monroe was her business nouse. In the mid 1950s she formed Marilyn Monroe Productions in an attempt to break free from the studios and the formulaic roles they had given her thus far. Unfortunately the company was short-lived.…
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Must read : Red Carpet Burns
Just finished reading Red Carpet Burns by Georgia Cassimatis and I’m sad there’s no more. For any expat who has been through that questioning of where your heart and hat really lay, you’ll relate to Georgia’s truly honest and open account of her time away in Los Angeles. But more so, it’s such a good…
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Regency design at Stourhead
Late last year I visited the National Trust property of Stourhead, near Mere in Wiltshire. Built between 1721-1725, it holds a strong family connection for me, as my great great grandfather, a ranger, had at one time been employed by the Hoare banking family to tend to their forestry reserves. It is a beautiful house…
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