“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” “That if Franz Kafka was here his head would explode?” “Actually, yeah.” It’s difficult to discuss a film like John Dies At The End without having read the book, seeing as the book is a kind of mash-up parody of so many disparate influences, having its own cult following. […]
Tag Archives: literature
September
12
John Dies at the End – Don Coscarelli takes on David Wong. (Sydney Underground Film Festival Review)
posted by lisathatcher
September
11
Salinger – Shane Salerno reveals himself to be the great Holden-Caufield-Wannabe. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Below is Will Smiths great monologue about The Catcher in the Rye from the film Six Degrees of Separation. Its one of my favourite cinema moments and well worth the watch if you have 5 minutes. I haven’t read “The Catcher” for years although I fairly regularly read Nine Stories. Because of this, I thought […]
September
05
Murder on the Nile – Nannette Frew, The Genesian Theatre and the genius of Agatha Christie. (Theatre review)
posted by lisathatcher
If Agatha Christie were a man, she would be considered the kind of genius no female could ever aspire to. She is the best-selling novelist of all time, and her books have sold roughly four billion copies. After Shakespeare and The Bible, her books rank as the most published in history. She is the most […]
August
12
May We Be Forgiven – A.M. Homes and the post modern ‘after’. (book review)
posted by lisathatcher
In a rather broad brush stroke of a statement, one of the problems I have with books written by women is the reluctance to expand into universal themes, or send their novel to the far corners of the universe in its scope. I say this is a broad brush stroke of a statement, because it’s […]
July
09
Rocket Man – Paul Gilchrist, Subtlenuance and the enormity of our stories. (Theatre Review)
posted by lisathatcher
The song Rocket Man made famous by Elton John is based on a Ray Bradbury short story called The Rocket Man. While the song deals with the idea that traveling into space and back is similar to being a traveling salesman, Bradbury’s story deals with the complexity of forming a relationship with a person who […]
April
16
Beneath our Armour – Peter Bakowski peels away the layers. (poetry review)
posted by lisathatcher
“I’m in my twenty-first year of writing poetry, and I just want to write poetry till the day I die,” Bakowski replied. That line, taken from an interview with Peter Bakowski that you can read here, was spoken by him in October 2004. Nearly ten years later, Bakowski is still writing poetry, still making every […]
April
15
The Political Hearts of Children – Subtlenuance and the complex relationship with the child we were. (theatre review)
posted by lisathatcher
“An actor is seen as if through crystals. Inspiration in stages. One mustn’t let in too much literature.” Antonin Artaud The relationship between the audience and the actor in the world of theater is a regularly examined one, but the relationship between the play write and the actor is one that can be assumed to […]
April
10
An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow – Les Murray (Poetry article)
posted by lisathatcher
(Rainbow image taken from Princess Farhana Blog) I’ve been reading quite a bit of poetry lately – particularly a beautiful book of poetry by Peter Bakowski (review to follow) – and I got bitten by the Aussie poetry bug. I haven’t had such a love-bug-bite for a while, so I did a stroll around and […]
April
02
So Many Great Expectations – Mike Newell and the ninth version. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Great expectations has been adapted for screen nine times, and this count does not include the many television miniseries versions there have been, nor countless theater adaptations. Overall, it seems Dickens has been adapted for the screen almost 300 times, with A Christmas Carol being the most replicated of his stories. Dickens has had all of his work […]
March
26
Rust and Bone – Jacques Audiard’s film on Melodrama. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
When Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain decided to make a film based on Craig Davidson’s book of short stories Rust and Bone, it wasn’t for the plot, or even the characters. It was for the intensity of lives blown out of proportion by drama and accident. There was a complex relationship between hard lives and […]
Lisa Thatcher 