This month, in the wonderful little cinema in Cromarty:
05.03.2026 16:38
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This month, in the wonderful little cinema in Cromarty:
The challenge for fascism is not when it is fighting for control but when it gains control: because then it has to create a cultural product that people are consistently happy with. And, well, just look at the Turning Point USA Super Bowl show or that Match of The Day they had without commentators.
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
First review of The Story of Documentary Film:
theplaylist.net/the-story-of...
Great read on Silksong from the newly launched @mothership.blog
Hornet’s compassion is the heart of Silksong www.mothership.blog/hollow-knigh...
🚨BOOM!! 💥 YOU DID IT!!!
The Petition for by-elections to be called automatically when MPs defect to another party has hit 100,000 signatures!
NOW LETS HAVE A DATE FOR A DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT
Cc @HoCpetitions
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...
Charlie Chaplin tightrope walking with three monkeys clambering on him.
Jacques Tati singing and dancing next to an orchestra
Started the day with Chaplin's The Circus and ending with Tati's Parade. Two comedians and multi-hyphenate filmmakers making two very different films about the circus spectacle at two very different points in their respective careers.
It's time to board the Mothership.
www.youtube.com/shorts/iEw90...
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! Also time for @dvdbeaver.bsky.social poll of the Best Physical Media of the year. Delighted that the 2025 poll includes several mentions for Second Run. Thanks to all who voted + the continued support and enthusiam of customers and friends.
www.dvdbeaver.com/subsite/best...
heavily redacted peanuts
🚨 The @scottishgreens.org have delivered a £2 bus fare cap for the Highlands and Islands!
Starting early next year, single fares will be capped at £2 for a year across Shetland, Orkney, Eilean Siar, Highland, Moray and most of Argyll & Bute!
Take the bus, save the planet 💪🌍
Saw The Shining on the biggest screen in Notts yesterday. The soundtrack/soundscape truly oppressive. And feeling the motion of all those tracking shots/dollies/zooms. Are we stalking/looming/lurking or are we being led? How powerful it remains despite the level of saturation in pop-culture.
Cinemas are overflowing with great films at the moment, just this week saw Pillion, Wake Up Dead Man, & It Was Just an Accident, plus a first big-screen viewing of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. (Also a shout out to an at-home watch of Alice Diop's Fragments for Venus)
And deservedly so! Consumed by the pace of thought, the personal intertwined with the study of language, and the playfulness and power in reshaping it.
Plan to read more of them both soon (only previous was Drive Your Plow), and would love to explore some of Tokarczuk's novels in situ.
Covers of The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk and The Vegetarian by Hang Kang
Cover of Bad Language by So Mayer
Incredibly satisfying reading great books back-to-back.
Particularly rewarding following Olga Tokarczuk's The Empusium with Han Kang's The Vegetarian - interesting to explore the confluence and contrast in themes and narrative perspectives.
Now engrossed in @suchmayer.bsky.social's Bad Language!
“I want a formally perfect film”
Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was murdered shortly before this article was published, spoke to S&S when we visited the set of the film in Mantua. He explained why being misunderstood was an intrinsic part of the work
www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
Did not have this on my bingo card, intrigued to see where Kore-eda takes this...
This is horrifying - this leaves the door open for mass incarceration, within which would be the ever more disproportionate sanction of people (especially of colour) from working class communities
Also Ninetto Davoli being on screen for mere seconds across two scenes but having so much meaning placed upon his role.
Wonder what it would be like watching Pasolini's work in order and not already knowing who he was?
The Gospel According to St. Matthew, dir Pier Paolo Pasolini
Reminds of Watkins' Culloden, using close-ups of faces in crowds to bring history closer to today.
Jesus depicted as a man but so certain and righteous compared with the crowd bearing witness.
Blends both doc-like and icon-like images.
Sky Blue, dir Moon-saeng Jim
Sci-fi treading a well worn path - dystopic two-tiered society, eco-terrorism, and Romeo & Juliet-type narrative.
The animation is most impressive, mixing 2D and 3D styles, seem to layer quite well due to industrial look and textures.
A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness, dir Seijun Suzuki
The perils of turning people into products.
Appreciate Suzuki's idiosyncratic storytelling - this one makes more sense than some of his other films, not that making sense is a necessity.
Great set design/costumes/colour.
Merrily We Go to Hell, dir Dorothy Arzner
Sidney driving off into the night is iconic.
The wedding ring is beautifully devastating.
Cary Grant always welcome.
The ending may predictably seek closure, but throughout it feels like an honest engagement between a couple where addiction is an issue
Lost Highway, dir David Lynch
Like a relationship in freefall - everything feels wrong, you don't recognise your partner, don't recognise yourself. The world goes dark, giving way to paranoia and possessive instincts.
Arquette really knots everything together.
Phenomenal soundtrack.
Point Blank, dir John Boorman
A straightforward revenge thriller told in a wonderfully expressive way.
How did I get here? How do I get out?
Marvin wrestling to regain some sense of control, a shark caught in a net. Can see both his strength and his weakness in the violence.
Not watched half as many films as I would like to have this year, so filling my days with them now. Sharing a few thoughts on the better ones between now and the end of the year.
The only reason a mainstream outlet would publish this is to make the case for the moderate, sensible transphobe - "see we aren't as bad as him!".
Shame on them for platforming him. Selling out for clicks and dragging the supposed centre further right.
Today's albums:
Geese - Getting Killed
Eiko Ishibashi - Drive My Car OST
Brian Eno, Harold Budd - Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
Brian Eno, Laraaji - Ambient 3: Day of Radiance
Fela Kuti - Zombie
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... - my new article, if of interest please share.
The SNP's wrecking amendment to this motion has sadly passed, confirming that the Scottish Government no longer opposes the Rosebank oil field application. A huge step backwards and a sad day for Scotland's reputation on climate action.