Strange seeing Johnstone's Impro discussed as if it's a fringe volume; here in the UK, it's the standard work on the subject. Every theatre director I've ever met has a copy.

Slumdog Millionaire has one small virtue. It's the picture that led to Sebastian Coe offering Danny Boyle the Olympic Opening Ceremony. For that, I will forgive it a lot.

It's maybe worth mentioning that the Shakespearean storyline includes more than a few scenes taken more or less shot-for-shot from Chimes at Midnight, Orson Welles' version of the Henry IV  plays.  Even before Psycho, van Sant was a magpie.

So… what is the one about cannibalism and being trapped in the mine?

'Red Nightmare' includes one priceless moment when the hero is in a museum where inventions are falsely claimed by the Soviets.  He picks up one example and shouts 'The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell…  an American!'.

'Red Nightmare' includes one priceless moment when the hero is in a museum where inventions are falsely claimed by the Soviets.  He picks up one example and shouts 'The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell…  an American!'.

While I don't like Michael Keaton as Dogberry, it isn't really fair to accuse him of 'ignoring the metre', given that the entire part's in prose.

While I don't like Michael Keaton as Dogberry, it isn't really fair to accuse him of 'ignoring the metre', given that the entire part's in prose.

Nice to see film critics writing about, and enjoying, the specific appeal of theatre.  Lately, it seems to have become almost obligatory for film people to talk as if movies were a replacement of the older medium, in the same way that cars superseded the horse, or the invention of printing meant that no one had to…

Nice to see film critics writing about, and enjoying, the specific appeal of theatre.  Lately, it seems to have become almost obligatory for film people to talk as if movies were a replacement of the older medium, in the same way that cars superseded the horse, or the invention of printing meant that no one had to…

This led to a cinema in Cardiff having, one week, a billboard outside that read 'Cinderella In Bed With Madonna'.

Smith's Influence
I've wondered about Cordwainer Smith for years, because Alan Moore always cited him in interviews as a major influence. Reading that extract, I start to get the idea.