Nige watches Tony Palmer's curious 1995 film about Henry Purcell and finds that the music triumphs over the clunking polemics... On Christmas Day in 1995, Channel 4's TV treat was a two and a half hour film about Henry Purcell (how times change!). I didn't watch England, My England at the ... Read More...
Film
Misti Traya, American expat living in London, falls in love with Paddington and decides to have a go at making marmalade... Just before Christmas, I took my three year-old to the cinema for the first time. We saw Paddington and were equally charmed. It was funny and darling and the calypso band that played throughout ... Read More...
Frank Key's Hooting Yard is brought to the screen, thanks to brilliant animator Sharon Smith... The Dabbler is delighted to present this splendid 10-minute animated film by Sharon Smith. It is an adaptation of a tale by our own Frank Key, is narrated by him, and has been screened at film ... Read More...
Mahlerman returns with a post celebrating the exceptional soundtrack to the film Shutter Island, one of many successful collaborations between Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson... The time was Thanksgiving, 1976. The place was the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, and the last performance of the Canadian-American rock group The Band. It ... Read More...
I’m afraid I’ve never been able to take Wales seriously. My troubles begin, shallowly, with the bilingual road signs, which are funny if the Welsh is very different from the English (Please drive carefully - Gryywch yn ofalus) and even funnier if it is similar (Millennium Stadium - Stadiwm y ... Read More...
‘One adult for The Hobbit in 3D, please,” I said, thus setting the bar pretty high for the Saddest Thing Uttered in 2014 contest. It can’t be helped: a residue of youthful Tolkein geekdom means that a part of me will always yearn for the world of dragons and pointy-eared ... Read More...
Rita celebrates an Art Deco gem in an unlikely location... Where would you expect to find the venerable American Film Institute’s movie theater? There is one in Los Angeles of course, on the non-profit organization’s eight-acre campus in the Hollywood hills. You might expect their second theater to be in New ... Read More...
Readers of a milksop disposition, look away now! From the archives, Frank once again besmirches the pages of The Dabbler with pure unbridled filth... According to John Trevelyan in What The Censor Saw (1973), the following list includes some of the disgusting and morally repugnant subjects rightly banned by the British Board of Film ... Read More...
A real treat for us today as Luke Honey explores the little known link between super-macho action hero Harry Palmer and fancy gourmet cookery ... Colonel Ross: Champignons? You’re paying ten pence more for a fancy French label. If you want button mushrooms they’re better value on the next shelf. Harry ... Read More...
A nautical theme this week, as Brit selects pieces from a great movie soundtrack... Not only is Patrick O’Brian’s 'Aubrey-Maturin' series of books one of the great reading experiences available to mankind but it has also spawned a fine movie in Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. The ... Read More...