Tag: Glasgow

The Marbles

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 16 October 2025
No Comments on The Marbles
Sticky post

Director – David Nicholas Wilkinson – 2025 – UK – Cert. 12a – 114m
****

The Parthenon Marbles – were they stolen from Greece, and should they be sent back? – Opening Night Film (World Premiere) Central Scotland Documentary Festival in Stirling, Scotland on Thursday, October 30th; out in UK cinemas on Thursday, November 6th.

This starts with director Wilkinson, who previously made the excellent Getting Away With Murder(s) (2021), writing a letter to the Head of the British Museum asking him for an interview outlining the Museum’s position on the Parthenon Marbles. He never receives a reply.

The historical and legal background is helpfully unpacked by Alexander Herman, a historian and legal expert who has written and spoken widely on the Marbles controversy, and Mark Stephens, the UK’s foremost Art & Cultural Property lawyer.

The eponymous Marbles were Ancient Greek statues and artefacts removed from the Acropolis in Athens by Lord Elgin in the early part of the 19th Century and brought over to England to adorn his newly built stately home in Scotland. In 1816, following a Parliamentary debate on the matter, they were purchased from Elgin by the British Museum where they have resided ever since, on display to the public.… Read the rest

Tags 19th century, abroad, Acropolis, Alexander Herman, ambassador, Ancient Greece, annual protest, art, Art & Cultural Property law, artefact, Athens, Battle of Wounded Knee, BCRPM, beard, Brian Cox, British Committee for the Repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles, China, COVID, COVID lockdown, cultural artefact theft, culture, David Nicholas Wilkinson, dig, document, documentary, Dominic Selwood, draw, Elgin Marbles, Elgin’s priest, England, face masks, Firmin, fly, foreign, ghost dance shirt, Glasgow, Greece, historian, history, Italian copy, Janet Suzman, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, killing of British envoys, Lakota, law, legal basis, legal expert, loot, Lord Byron, Lord Elgin, make casts of, Mark Stephens, Miriam Margolyes, museum, Native American, no beard, numerical order, of which Greece was then a part, on display, Ottoman archives, Ottoman Empire, palace, Parliamentary debate, Parthenon Marbles, Paul McGann, place of origin, plunder, purchased by the British Museum, ransacked, reference numbers, removed, repatriation of stolen artefacts, repatriation of stolen cultural artefacts, revenge, Scotland, scrupulous, secured access, Stage Four Bowel Cancer, stately home, statue, stolen, stolen goods, terminal, The Marbles, The Marbles controversy, time, travel, UK, voice artist, Yuanmingyuan

Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Big Banana Feet

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 10 May 2024
No Comments on Big Banana Feet
Sticky post

Director – Murray Grigor – 1976 – UK – Cert. 12 – 77m

****1/2

The camera follows comedian Billy Connolly to Dublin and Belfast for the final dates of his 1975 tour – 2K restoration is out in UK cinemas on Friday, May 10th, and on BFI Blu-ray/DVD (Dual Format Edition) and digital from Monday, May 20th

This played the Scala Cinema a few times back in the day. I always thought there must be a reason why, and now, with its release in a restored form by the BFI, I get to find out. I must admit to mixed feelings prior to viewing – I’m not someone who particularly enjoys stand-up comedy; indeed, watching videos of comedians doing their material onstage has been known to bore me to tears, even as it enthralls fans.

Although this has clips of Billy Connolly performing on stage – comic routines, songs with banjo and guitar – it’s essentially a fly-on-the-wall piece that captures his personality as he, with the help of his seemingly tireless road manager Billy Johnson, plays dates in Dublin and Belfast on the final leg of his 1975 tour. Watching it, you feel you get to know Connolly well, at least at the period of his career being filmed.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Perfect Sense

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 29 April 2020
No Comments on Perfect Sense
Sticky post

Director – David Mackenzie – 2011 – UK – Cert. 15 – 92m

*****

Love story set in a pandemic captures something of the emotions felt during the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, when this review was written (one of the first to appear on this then fledgeling site) – streaming on the Arrow Channel from Friday, March 24th to Sunday, April 30th 2023

Glasgow, Scotland. Michael (Ewan McGregor) is a chef. He likes to sleep alone, so if he takes a woman to bed, he’ll turf her out afterwards to get back his space. That changes when he meets Susan (Eva Green), who then does the same thing to him. And yet, there’s something between them. They’re drawn to one another. A relationship ensues.

Which might sound like just another boy meets girl movie, but Perfect Sense is different. Behind the foreground of walking along river banks and sleeping together lies a very different backdrop. Susan is an epidemiologist at a local hospital. A man has lost his sense of smell and is kept in isolation. There are other cases all over the country. Suddenly, people are being overwhelmed with grief and losing their sense of smell. Some time later, they eat ravenously then lose their sense of taste.… Read the rest