Posts Tagged: film

  • Odysseus, Penelope and Telemachus pose for a selfie with the Cyclops photobombing the picture--to represent the Odyssey films arguably modernistic approach to language.

    Odyssey of Homer’s words

    We went to see Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on Tuesday (11 August 2026). We were a little disappointed after the high praise from many film critics. My wife and I thought it was entertaining but a little shallow and my son, who has studied ancient history at university, gave it 5/10. Some critics have suggested […]

  • An AI generated image that represents Angus MacPhail and the derivation of MacGuffin.

    MacGuffin—Angus MacPhail’s greatest joke

    Every profession has its own language. Film-makers have some wonderfully odd terms, but none is odder than the MacGuffin—a film-making trope made famous by Alfred Hitchcock that originates from the writer, Angus MacPhail.   MacPhail while a student at Cambridge University helped edit The Granta, the university’s magazine. He, with his friend Ian Dalrymple, also […]

  • Ethan Slater plays Boq the munchkin in Wicked to be released 21 November in Australia.

    Ethan Slater is a munchkin

    I came across an article recently spruiking Ethan Slater’s role as Boq, a munchkin in the new film “Wicked” an adaptation of the Broadway musical about good and bad witches based on the Wizard of Oz. The film will be released in Australia. 21 November 2024. The word “munchkin” was a creation of L. Frank […]

  • An AI generated mock film poster headed FLOPBUSTER with an Indiana Jones like figure in the front with disgruntled scriptwriters.

    What is a tentpole flopbuster?

    This week (5 July 2023) I was drawn to an online BBC film review on the latest Indiana Jones film. It was headlined—Does Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny mark the era of the flopbuster. I love this word. Does it really need an explanation? It is of course a new word that combines […]

  • Barry Humphries an AI generated image half Dame Edna Everage

    No more chunder from Barry Humphries

    This week Australian comedian, Barry Humphries died (22 April 2023). I had often wished that we had seen more of Humphries and less of Dame Edna Everage, now they are all gone. His writing was masterful and he was an aficionado of the Australian vernacular language. A memorial to Humphries’ life will be the cementing […]

  • Stay woke at the wokefest

    Oscars as a wokefest

    The Oscars event is one of the most prestigious in the entertainment industry but its ratings have been dwindling for years. Many have put the viewer decline down to the Oscars being a “wokefest”. “Wokefest” comes from a festival of “woke”. In 2021, the Oscars experienced an all-time low viewership of just 10.4 million. This […]

  • The dulcet tones of la dolce vitae

    The not so sweet life of dulcet

    Choosing the right partner for your life journey can help you to achieve great things and to realise your full potential. Unfortunately choosing the wrong partner can drag you down and stop you achieving your promise. Unfortunately the pairing of dulcet and tones has not been a beneficial choice for the lovely dulcet. Every time […]

  • Bliss poster Peter Carey and Ray Lawrence

    Bliss

    Bliss means extreme happiness or ecstasy. In a Christian, religious context it is the ecstasy of salvation or the joy that comes from spiritual connection with the divine.

  • Marcus Aurelius every moment in time is a pinprick in eternity

    Time and tide

    Marcus Aurelius is close to the original meaning of time when he calls moments pinpricks of eternity. Time and tide both meant points or portions of time.

  • Avatar—Munneswaram Sharabha overpowering Narasimha Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) 

    From gods to bots

    Avatar, is an ancient Sanskrit word that describes the form a deity takes when descending to earth. The concept of the avatar has been picked up in the information age by Internet users to describe their online representations. The recently released film, Avatar, combines the concepts.

  • The film, Synecdoche New York has a difficult name to pronounce. Synecdoche is a figure of speech where there is a deliberate confusion of scale.

    Synecdoche upsets critics

    A new film has just been released in the US (2009), which is annoying the critics because its title uses a difficult word with difficult pronunciation. The film is Synecdoche, New York. Pronounce it something like: sin-NECK-dock-ee. IMDb describes the plot as: Theater director Caden Cotard is mounting a new play … determined to create a piece of […]