Mark Cousins

Another journey by train

Rebecca Solnit Says the Left’s Next Hero Is Already Here

"Changing the world is more like caregiving than it is like war"
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/m...

I hated the Iranian regime, but love Tehran. Some of the nicest people in the world. Terrible to see it (and so much of Iran) bombed. US and Israeli hubris/aggression pretending that they want to improve the lives of Iranians.

From Bush Sr to Trump: the risks, lessons and legacy of US interference in the Middle East While there are similarities with the wars against Iraq, the Iran conflict may prove to be the most dangerous and consequential yet

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Avant garde painting, or sellotape on the back of an old billboard?

The Most Chilling Detail in the U.S. Attack on an Iranian Naval Ship The Iranian warship was taking part in an international exercise with many other countries—including the United States.

newrepublic.com/post/207429/...

This month, in the wonderful little cinema in Cromarty:

Have spent so much time here over the years - Warrington Bank Quay

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

No country has welcomed me, moved me, excited me more than Iran.
How, therefore, to react to the bombing?
Joy that Khamenei is finally gone. But a Trump-Netanyahu co-authorship is a terrible story.
Sending love to Iranian friends.

To anyone who thinks Trump can bring peace and equality to Iran – I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Going cheap | Marina Hyde If POTUS can really bomb peace, stability and women’s rights into the Middle East, I’ll take my hat off to him. Judging by his role in Gaza, I won’t hold my breath, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Thanks to Tom Hastings for sharing this great letter from John Steinbeck to Marilyn Monroe.

The National Year of Reading celebrates the ‘joy’ of books. But let’s not forget they can also be deeply troubling, too | Charlotte Higgins Encounters with great art can be absorbing, unsettling and even painful. How has this been tamed into ‘reading for pleasure’, asks Charlotte Higgins, the Guardian’s chief culture writer

Totally agree
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Donald Trump doesn't understand Iran or care about its people.

Netanyahu Calls Iran Strikes Necessary To Prevent War He Just Started

Netanyahu Calls Iran Strikes Necessary To Prevent War He Just Started

Carb loading for Bela Tarr's Satantango @filmhouseedinburgh.bsky.social today.

I'd love to be friends with Ryan Coogler

Baz Luhrmann's EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert in IMAX (front row) is a quasi religious experience.

Why was Bela Tarr not in the In Memoriam sequence in the Baftas tonight?

Bliss

China? No Tillycoultry near Stirling.
As the rain gets stronger, rocks are falling.
No birds.
I expect to see the Tardis

What a complex film. Leone at times, the Godfather at times, Coutinho at times, but so its own wide-screen, super saturated, slow burn delight.
The Secret Agent.

If you know my work, you'll know that looking/visual thinking is central to it.
So of course I loved the new French-Japanese film Little Amelie, about a 2-3 year old beginning to understand life through looking.
Really innovative.

This book is so good.

Thought + felt a LOT through highs and lows of Emerald Fennell's #WutheringHeights
Reminded me of Orson Welles' great, derided film Macbeth - his sketches for it below.
Echoes too of Jacques Demy films.
It's thin at times, but thinking visually rather than in terms of literature or psychology.

My last hours at the Berlin film fest.
Thank you to everyone

Many thanks. Yes happy to do that