Hard day at the Film Festival coalface

The master.

I read this lovely novel by Joseph O’Connor, about Bram Stoker’s relationship with Henry Irving: then then next day I noticed the plaque in Stokes Croft

Lovely review of my book in Screen by Francesco Pitassio ☺️ academic.oup.com/screen/artic...

Lecce. Love a beach, love a shrine, love a Padre Pio statue ❤️

R.I.P Enzo Staiola, maybe THE face of Italian neorealism after Bicycle Thieves. I’m quoted in this Washington Post obituary of him archive.ph/fydat

The first review of my book has appeared: a long, thoughtful and generous one from @clliv.bsky.social.which is nice. intellectdiscover-com.bris.idm.oclc.org/content/jour...

Karen Joy Fowler’s novel about John Wilkes Booth and his family is marvellous. I read it after managing to finish a mammoth bio of Lincoln so can now call myself a 19th-century Americanist

NYC, baby! (Sadly Audra didn’t perform, but Gypsy still a great show)

The documentary pulled by the BBC, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone can be viewed here. Powerful stuff rumble.com/v6nm6n9-bbc-...

Maria Grazia Calandrone’s Dove non mi hai portata, her account of being abandoned as a baby, and her reconstruction of post-war Italy and her mother’s life, is stupendous. Read here in the translation by Antonella Lettieri for Foundry Editions.

No Other Land on C4 tomorrow night. Save the date

Highly recommend No Other Land. Beautiful and enraging. Streaming on YouTube youtu.be/Y_aKPLEHkv4?...

I loved Sing Sing, which falls into the ‘doing drama in prison’ genre: Colman Domingo is outstanding alongside formerly incarcerated alumni of the theatre rehabilitation programme. Give him the Oscar!

I’ll be doing an author talk/book launch with Miguel Gaggiotti next Friday 6pm UK time @miguelgaggiotti.bsky.social georgiasouthern.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

I returned to a long strand, the hammered curve of a bay, and found only the secular powers of the Atlantic thundering. Seamus Heaney

Found newspaper evidence of my granda’s arrival in New York, April 1928. His first singing engagement: an IRA celebration. Would love to know what he and Seumas got up to in NYC.

Great to see this out. My chapter on Alessandro Borghi as reluctant star is in it plus lots of other stuff on contemporary Italian actors

Sergio Castellitto’s vape hit in Conclave is one of the film moments of the year, but Fiennes is majestic. Habemus papam!

I’m giving an online talk tomorrow 9am UK time on The Non-Professional Actor in Global Cinema. You can register for free at the link below or via QR code bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Going back in. Finishing my Sopranos rewatch 3 years later.

In a vain effort to make this week suck less, I saw Anora, which is fantastic. Such a pleasantly welcome screwball vibe from Sean Baker. And because it paid unexpected homage to one of my all-time faves, Now, Voyager, I rewatched that. 'Oh Jerry..'

What a dark day. Feel so bad for US friends and colleagues, and all at risk. “In the morning, when the sun rises sometimes it's hard to believe there ever was a night” (Joseph Cotten, Gaslight)

I’m going in. (Just when I thought I was out etc)

I really enjoyed this study of Violet Gibson, the Anglo-Irish aristocrat who attempted to kill Mussolini in 1926. Not only insightful about her life, connections to Irish nationalism, and sad institutionalisation, but a good cultural history of fascism. 9/10, no notes

I saw, and was wowed by, Killers of the Flower Moon last night. Both vintage Scorsese and something new. Lily Gladstone is amazing, De Niro is on GoodFellas-esque form, and the production and costume design is superb. Maybe a smidge too much Leo…

This was an entertaining distraction from work and… everything. Set in the 40s in a Hollywood studio and in Calabria (fascism/confino). Bringing studio studies and Italian studies together!