Tag Archive: holocaust


We live in a world increasingly dominated by likes or un-likes and surrounded by people to follow or unfollow. Although this was entertainingly dramatized in the Black Mirror episode ‘Nosedive’ ,  in reality it is no laughing matter. The grey areas in between these binary choices are marginalised to the point that there’s precious little space left for nuanced opinion.

When a film like Jonathan Glazer’s ‘The Zone of Interest’ comes along this limitation is a major problem.  The film is an accomplished, complex and uncompromising piece of work that left me awestruck, disorientated and a little numb. These are not reactions that can be summarised  by clicking a ‘like’ button.

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Son Of Saul: humanity vs barbarism

SON OF SAUL directed by Lázió Nemes (Hungary. 2015)
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How much of the horror of the holocaust can you stand to watch?

Newsreel footage can turn us all into passive voyeurs to humankind’s capacity for evil. On the other hand, however noble the intentions, turning history into cinema can reduce Nazi atrocities into entertainment.

Lázió Nemes’ remarkable debut avoids both pitfalls. You are never in any doubt about the barbarism at the heart of the story but the camera never dwells on the details. Continue reading

VAMPIRES OF NYC

THE ADDICTION directed by Abel Ferrara (USA, 1995)

I wanted to see this movie since, according to the Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw, it is the best film ever made.

I like Bradshaw’s reviews and more often than not agree with his opinions. I especially like the fact that he doesn’t take an elitist position; he is as likely praise the merits of Toy Story as the works of Tarkovsky.

The Addiction is a vampire movie like no other. Actually it is better to see it as an intense existential drama with theological overtones rather than as a straight horror film.

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THE QUOTE UNQUOTE HOLOCAUST

It is an absolute outrage that Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunications on Bishop Richard Williamson who says that there were no gas chambers in what he calls the “quote unquote holocaust”.

In other words he believes there was no holocaust.

Here is the interview he gave on Swedish TV:

It is noteworthy that he says that “historical truth goes by evidence and not by emotion”  –  not something which millions apply to religious belief where evidence is somewhat lacking for the existence of ‘quote unquote God’.

To embrace a man who denies the scale of the genocide conducted by the Nazis shows the true face of the Vatican and should give cause to all rational people  to question what  the Catholic Church stands for.