BLITHE SPIRIT (2020) An impulse purchase this week: I suspect it was the subliminal effect of the tarot spread in the cover image. And I like Judi Dench. And Dan Stevens. And I love Coward, the snap and crackle of his dialogue. Certainly the play could use an update — like removing all the casual…
Category: shenanigans
Surreal Noir: 19 Apr 22
Tonight, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Nine: My text for this episode is Leonora Carrington’s ‘My Mother is a Cow’ which you can find in the collected stories. It features surrealism, ritual, goddesses, sacrifice, skin, magic, and a bit of Graves’ The White Goddess. If this sounds familiar, it’s adapted from the talk…
Magickal Women: 3rd Time = Charm
I am delighted to say I will be part of the third Magickal Women Conference this October with a superb bunch of other speakers, practitioners and performers. My presentation: OPEN YOUR LUNAR PLEXUS WITH LEONORA CARRINGTON This one weird trick could help you to change your life. Doctors hate this! Celebrities endorse this! Big pharma…
Sunday Matinee: The Fake (1953)
Another early morning movie with a noir tinge and an art scam — I’m staying on brand for once! I watched another neo-noir last night but am mulling over whether I want to write about it. Yes, two films in a 24-hour period. Who am I? The key is working around dad’s schedule (also ear…
Got Gothic? Turney’s The Other One (1952)
The Dell paper back edition: ‘Black magic — and a modern sorceress!’ That ghastly green: I love it. Last week’s film Back from the Dead was based on this mid-century Gothic thriller and scripted by the author, who certainly streamlined the narrative — perhaps a little too much. By coincidence (or due to us both…
Surreal Noir: 22 Mar 22
Tonight, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Eight: It’s Women’s History Month, so a variety of things including adaptations of Patricia Highsmith’s Deep Water (no, I haven’t seen the brand new one yet but I did hear someone refer to it as Gone Girl 2.0 which is encouraging. All texts mentioned: Leave Her to…
Surreal Noir: 22 Feb 22
Returning for 2022, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. Episode Seven: In the States it’s Black History Month so this episode shares a variety of Black women and centres on Paris, of course the city at the centre of Surrealism, but also with a long history drawing people of colour for art, music and more….
Surreal Noir: 22 Dec 21
In a contemplative yuletide vein, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. This episode gets me belatedly into seasonal mode: an exploration of fictional accounts of the Parker-Hulme murder and its repercussions. In the darkest days of the year we tend to hide; with good reason – who knows what might lurk in the dark. Even…
Surreal Noir: 24 Nov 21
Coming up on the eating holidays, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. This episode gets me belatedly into Noirvember mode: a dive into Highsmith’s Cry of the Owl which my students just read (they’re not onto Deep Water so maybe I will get on to that next here). I also wrote about the 2009 adaptation…
Surreal Noir: 20 Oct 21
Coming up on the spooky holidays, it’s SURREAL NOIR at NoBounds Radio. This episode brings together a surprisingly apt pair: Dorothy B. Hughes’ Ride the Pink Horse and Dorothea Tanning’s memoir Between Lives. What brings together two such unlikely texts? Chicago gangsters! Yes, really. How so? Well, you’ll have to listen to find out. I’ll…
K. A. Laity 