Today I’ve been learning about Simon the Zealot, one of the apostles of Jesus who might have died peacefully or might have been crucified or might have been sawn in half lengthways, depending on whose story you believe. …

Shelley was born both unlucky and lucky. She was unlucky because she was born with a serious congenital heart defect that, in 1971 or really any other time, didn’t have a very good untreated survival rate beyond a day or two. She was lucky because, just a couple of hospitals…

Two hundred and sixty-seventh film: Ivan the Terrible Part 1, an epic, melodramatic Russian film from 1944 that is exactly as light and whimsical as you’d expect from a Russian movie about a ruthless tsar. This thing has fantastic shadows, astounding facial expressions, sparkly costumes, very tall hats and gargantuan…

Two hundred and sixty-sixth film: It’s A Wonderful Life, the 1946 Christmassy movie that I really should have seen before now. Having been around so long, I’ve heard bits and pieces about this movie, and formed some vague opinions about it. Still, it was weirder, more mystical, more heavily sentimental…

Two hundred and sixty-fifth film: It Happened One Night, a film from 1934 that won five Oscars including Best Picture, back when the Oscars looked like a dinner party at a mate’s place. I recognise that this is an utterly great movie without being able to describe why. It has…

Only one part of this is sad: my twin sister Shelley died on 26 June 2021. Every single other thing about Shelley is happy. Happy and interesting and funny and clever and important. I’m not going to dwell here on any part of Shelley being gone, only stories from her…

Two hundred and sixty-fourth film: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the original 1956 version (and the 1978 version straight afterwards, but let’s focus). Old sci-fi/horror is fun to watch, partly because of the high-schlock melodrama, and partly to see early tropes and concepts that re-emerge elsewhere. A simple Cold War…

Two hundred and sixty-third film: Intolerance, an intolerably long 1916 silent film that I skipped through a lot of the melodramatic facial expressions of. Made by D.W. Griffiths who also made the highly controversial The Birth of a Nation, the constantly hammered-home message that intolerance ruins lives and civilisations really…

Two hundred and sixty-second film: Inglourious Basterds, a fiction-based-loosely-on-fact movie that has Nazi-killing as its foreplay, Hitler-killing as its climax, and an astounding amount of tension in between. Brad Pitt plays an emotionless Southerner so it’s hard to tell if he does a good job or not, and Christoph Waltz…