Brief Encounter

[See “Entry from July 22, 2009” under “My Diary”]

A charmless, tedious and unfunny movie that cultivates an image of — of all things — intelligence

In Love and War is a New Line release of a Richard Attenborough film, based on Henry Villard’s book, Hemingway in Love and War. It is co-written by Villard’s son, Dimitri. Villard Sr. was in Italy with Hemingway and Agnes von Kurowsky, the (American) nurse on whom Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms is…

[See “Entry from August 4, 2010” under “My Diary”]

Beshkempir: The Adopted Son by Aktan Abdykalykov from Kyrgyzstan is written in Kyrgyzstani and stars the director’s son (Mirlan Abdykalykov) as Beshkempir, a name which literally means “five grandmothers.” It is a name sometimes given to adopted children to signify the role played by a sort of council of old women of the village in…

[See discussion under “My Diary” for July 3, 2013]