Ricky Gervais: Armageddon review smug, macho, playground bants

 Posted on May 3, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  388 words  |  Kary Bruening

ComedyReviewApollo, Manchester There’s ample room in comedy to tease at woke over-earnestness but this weak and boorish set fails to engage Ricky Gervais gives us a little lecture after curtain call tonight about taking offence. Laughter is always good; no one’s getting hurt – that kind of thing. But, not for the first time, it’s a specious argument, setting up various straw men to represent those of us who might demur from his boorish comedy. [Read More]

Tower Hamlets town hall review an old hospital immaculately stitched up

 Posted on May 3, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1241 words  |  Aldo Pusey

The ObserverArchitectureReviewThe £125m transformation of the Royal London hospital into an elegant seat of local government is a sleek operation that has retained the 18th-century building’s original aura and poise There’s an old view of the London Hospital, around the time it was built in the 1750s, that shows it standing like a stately home, symmetrical, classical and serene, in fields on which an expanding city encroaches. Even the Whitechapel Mount, a gigantic pile of rubble and dung that loomed over one end of the new building, somehow looks in this image like a landscape feature on a gentleman’s estate. [Read More]

A Year of Marvellous Ways review a gripping waiting game

 Posted on May 2, 2024  |  1 minutes  |  184 words  |  Aldo Pusey

The ObserverFictionReviewSarah Winman’s second novel celebrates the rejuvenating power of memories and storytellingWaiting is what 89-year old Marvellous spends the year 1947 doing, in an isolated Cornish hamlet, although she isn’t sure what she is waiting for. This might seem like a less-than-engaging narrative device, but Sarah Winman creates gripping suspense while unfolding Marvellous’s memories, from lonely nights spent “willing her life to change” to the time “Whatshisname” was lured in her direction by a Louis Armstrong song playing on the wireless. [Read More]

Alison Bechdel: The Bechdel test was a joke... I didnt intend for it to become a real gauge

 Posted on May 2, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1171 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

The ObserverAlison BechdelInterviewAlison Bechdel: ‘The Bechdel test was a joke... I didn’t intend for it to become a real gauge’Hephzibah AndersonThe US graphic novelist on having her landmark comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, turned into an audio series, ​growing up in a funeral home, ​and ​​her famous women-in-film test Cartoonist Alison Bechdel, 62, is the author of three graphic memoirs, including Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, but she’s most widely known for cinema’s Bechdel test. [Read More]

Carlo Lizzani obituary | Movies

 Posted on May 2, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  964 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

MoviesObituaryCarlo Lizzani obituaryItalian neorealist film director and screenwriter who made Last Days of Mussolini, starring Rod SteigerCarlo Lizzani, who has died aged 91, after falling from a balcony at his home, was a screenwriter and director of Italian neorealist cinema who made more than 40 feature films, as well as documentaries and television series. His first professional experiences in the film world were as an actor, playing cameos in two powerful neorealist films: Il Sole Sorge Ancora (The Sun Still Rises, 1946), directed by Aldo Vergano; and Caccia Tragica (Tragic Hunt, 1947), Giuseppe De Santis's first feature film. [Read More]

Fish leather is here, its sustainable and its made from invasive species to boot | Invasiv

 Posted on May 2, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  608 words  |  Valentine Belue

Seascape: the state of our oceansInvasive species This article is more than 1 year oldFish leather is here, it’s sustainable – and it’s made from invasive species to bootThis article is more than 1 year oldAn avid diver saw how lionfish have devastated populations of Florida’s native tropical fish and resolved to help solve the problem Aarav Chavda has been diving off the coast of Florida for years. Each time he became increasingly depressed by the ever-growing void, as colourful species of fish and coral reefs continued to disappear. [Read More]

In her diary, Anne Frank admits she was smitten by a boy named Peter, but in the six decades since,

 Posted on May 2, 2024  |  13 minutes  |  2632 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

The ObserverBooks This article is more than 15 years oldIn her diary, Anne Frank admits she was smitten by a boy named Peter, but in the six decades since, no picture or news of him has come to light - until nowThis article is more than 15 years oldSimon Garfield uncovers the story of Anne's lost loveOn Friday 7 January 1944, Anne Frank confessed her love for a boy she had been smitten with for years. [Read More]

One character, three actors: meet the stars of knotty Netflix smash Dark | Science fiction TV

 Posted on May 2, 2024  |  7 minutes  |  1299 words  |  Kary Bruening

Science fiction TVInterviewOne character, three actors: meet the stars of knotty Netflix smash DarkJack SealeSimultaneously set in at least four points in time, the third series of the cult German sci-fi will be its last. But can the trio who play Jonas keep up with where’s it’s heading? Warning: Spoilers for the first two seasons of Dark “Man is a strange creature,” recites Dietrich Hollinderbäumer, on the phone from Berlin. “All his actions are motivated by desire, his character forged by pain … he cannot free himself from eternal servitude to his fear. [Read More]

Raymond Allen obituary | TV comedy

 Posted on May 2, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  1059 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

TV comedyObituaryRaymond Allen obituaryPlaywright and screenwriter who created Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em in the 1970sRaymond Allen, who has died aged 82 after suffering from cancer, created the 1970s sitcom Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em, which starred Michael Crawford as the accident-prone Frank Spencer and Michele Dotrice as his wife, Betty. At the age of 31, while working as a cinema cleaner on the Isle of Wight, Allen submitted a single play titled Have a Break, Take a Husband! [Read More]

Tati, much-loved French retailer, shuts up shop in Paris after 70 years | France

 Posted on May 2, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  868 words  |  Valentine Belue

The flagship Tati store in Barbès, Paris. Its emblematic pink-and-white chequered carrier bags became a style statement for film stars and celebrities. Photograph: Richard Frieman-Phelps/Gamma-Rapho/Getty ImagesCut-price clothing chain falls victim to changing shopping habits and the Covid-19 lockdown by Jon Henley in ParisTati, the much-loved cut-price clothing chain that has been a French retail institution for more than 70 years, is to close its original – and last – Paris store, after public transport strikes and the coronavirus crisis sent sales plunging by more than 60%. [Read More]