“Surrogates” (2009)
Can't stand sci-fi? Allergic to blockbusters? Try this great big blockbuster sci-fi movie.... Read more...
Richard D North.
On culture, Nature, liberal issues, monasticism, spiritualityPage 37 of all posts
Shaw’s “Pygmalion” at Chichester Festival Theatre
The audience was lively by Chi standards, and that sort of swept one along... Read more...
“Ragged Trousered Philanthropists” at Chichester
We paid £50-odd for our two tickets, and added to it nearly £9 to buy the script by Howard Brenton. We left at half-time, and would willingly have paid a little more than£25 to be out of the place. The £9 was so I could reassure myself that there wasn't some second act bombshell which made this dire piece worth watching. Read more...
Will the BP spill transform the oil business?
I was asked to appear on Radio 4's special programme BP: Beyond the horizon and the Macondo disaster. Would it transform the firm and the oil business? I'm clinging to the idea that it won't much, but with one big caveat. Here's the crib I prepared.... Read more...
Claire Denis and “White Material”
This stunning movie is a blend of Conrad's The Heart of Darkness (or Apocalypse Now) and Karen Blixen's Out Of Africa (book and movie). Swirl in some Lord Of the Flies and you've sort of got the picture. Goodness knows why the right-ons love it. Read more...
Efraim Karsh on Islamic Imperialism, arabism and Palestine
These books certainly fit my prejudices, but also tally with my 4o years of following the news in a middlebrow sort of way. If they're wrong in any particular, or their general conclusions, it'd be fascinating to see the evidence. Read more...
Chichester’s “Love Story” is a stunner
Forty years on and Erich Segal's "Love Story" makes a surprisingly spikey and yet delicious show in Chichester Festival Theatre's Minerva Theatre. Read more...
Rational Optimist: RDN’s still one
It's not often a good ploy to whinge, and this isn't exactly a moan. Well, only a bit of one. I want to stand up for my Life On a Modern Planet (1995) and Rich Is Beautiful (2005) as works of "rational optimism". Read more...
BP oil spill update, 15 June 2010
It's been a spectacularly bad few days for BP. Things looks set to get a bit worse. But they may yet turn out less than apocalyptic. Without shouting the odds, here're some thoughts. Read more...
BP Gulf spill: the end of the phoney war
We are at the beginning of the end of the phoney war on the BP oil spill. We seem to be in sight of beginning the real shooting. Here's why... Read more...