I’m trying to keep to the resolution that I’m not going to over-think these non-film-related blog posts and just write the first thing that comes to my mind as and when I get a chance to sit in front of a keyboard… but the trouble is that when I do find a moment to myself, my brain is absolutely and utterly overwhelmed by responses to and views on the many, many things happening around me at the moment.
Continue reading “Unsigned”
Call me alarmist, but one of the main thoughts floating around in my mind at the moment is that Boris Johnson, in his great and unmatched wisdom (wait, no, that was the other guy) keeps implying that he may choose not to obey the laws that have been created to protect Britain from the idiocy of a no-deal Brexit. It’s an attitude that has frightened me more than I can say, because it feels like the epitome of a general trend towards ridiculing rules and structures. Yes, I understand – and I usually support the idea – that real change can rarely come about unless something is broken. But this feels like egotism: a sense that some people are more equal than others, and so don’t need to think that certain laws apply to them.
Continue reading “No Need To Get Worked Up”
My capacity for self-censorship knows no limits. Every time I think of something I could potentially write here, I am immediately paralysed by the notion that it might upset someone, or it might not cover all the possible angles of the subject in question, or it might break a confidence, or it might be misinterpreted, and so on.
Continue reading “The Approaching Process”
I spend a great deal of time telling myself what not to write about. Or, to be more precise, what I feel I shouldn’t write about. I’m pretty sure it was Krzysztof Kieslowski – still my favourite director, in case anyone’s interested – who said that he abandoned documentaries in favour of fictional features because the latter allowed him to be more truthful. I believe he was referring to the very specific issue of exposing intimacies and personal situations that one simply couldn’t film in a fly-on-the-wall, documentary format. But I think his statement also hints at the notion that fiction is a kind of shield. A layer of protection. For the author.
Continue reading “On Guard”
