Films
Hou Hsiao-Hsien: The Assassin
Movie of the Year?
Languid, measured, and perfectly-paced. The cinematography and sound design are exquisite.
This film makes me want to watch Three Times again.
Languid, measured, and perfectly-paced. The cinematography and sound design are exquisite.
This film makes me want to watch Three Times again.
I cannot wait to see this. I am a huge fan of both actors.
And you can't have enough Shakespeare.
On Reddit the other day, a poster put up a text claiming to be an 1860s pamphlet from John Strachan, the Anglican ArchBishop of Toronto. I suspect it’s a really good satire, rather than authentic text, but I could be wrong.
The mark of really good satire, in my mind, is how it captures the tone of the discourse of the time. My family is from Northern Ireland, and I've read much more recent tracts that are not that far off of this in tone.
Like many of you I was shocked to hear of the recent Fenian attacks on Fort Erie. How can our government allow Irish immigrants to flow into this United Province of Canada while we continue to be terrorized by Fenian religious zealots? Every Sunday in Catholic churches across the land, radical preachers are whipping their flocks into a catachismic frenzy, urging them to cram their Nicene orthodoxy down our throats three different ways. On every ship coming into Montreal or Halifax, hidden among the malnourished, diseased Irish there are sure to be Fenian terrorists ready to slit your throat at the first opportunity. This needs to stop now.
We all know that the Irish are a bunch of uneducated, colonial savages with a primitive religion. How will our women and children be safe while hoards of drunken Irish flow into our cities and roam the streets? Meanwhile they breed like rabbits, all part of their plan of Papist domination. It is a scientific fact that if Irish immigration continues apace Canada will be a Catholic state by 1910. Enjoy having your wine with communion, because that's all about to end. And if we let the Irish in, who's next - Ukrainians? Chinese? Musalmen?
It is our sacred duty to preserve Canadian values now, before it’s too late. In 150 years your children’s children will look back and know that you did the right thing.
Be sure to share this leaflet with all your friends (or at least those of them who can read … and you can probably skip the women, not like they can vote anyways). Say yes to Canada staying Canadian. Say no to Irish immigrants!
Rev. John Strachan
York, June 1866
Reading this text fifteen years ago, I might have found its paranoia and bigotry quaint: I would have thought we had come so far beyond such sentiments.
Not these days.
Panahi’s previous film was called This Is Not A Film.
It was a brilliant conceit. The Iranian authorities had banned him from making films for ten years. So he had someone film him discussing what the film he was planning would be like.
A defiant, warm, and inspiring movie.