A Dangerous Method
David Cronenberg built his reputation on making challenging, boundary-breaking films which explore sexuality, violence and death. So…
Transformational Suffering and The Karate Kid
How can we be transformed through suffering? Surprisingly, the eighties cult film The Karate Kid offers some insights. If you're unfamiliar…
'Prometheus' Raises Big Questions
Some thoughts about the film Prometheus and the human search for meaning.
Brontes' "Eternal Powers"
The most recent strain of Brontemania, at large throughout 2011, included major film versions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and the…
Margaret Atwood - Life Without Certainty
Margaret Atwood is one of the most important and influential writers alive today. Her fiction explores and reflects the current cultural…
The Hunger Games
According to the Romans, ‘bread and circuses’ were the key to keeping a population content. As long as their immediate physical…
A Vogue for Vincent
Vincent Van Gogh is now a solid fixture in our cultural vocabulary. I need only mention sunflowers or a bandaged ear to conjure up his life…
The Grey
I watched The Grey the other night, and thought it was disturbing, haunting, devoid of hope and the best film I'd seen in a long time. The…
War Horse
How do you begin to tell stories about a war which claimed more than fifteen million lives? For children's author Michael Morpurgo, the…