Tag: canal

Exhibition on Screen
Turner & Constable

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 9 March 2026
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Turner & Constable
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Director – David Bickerstaff – 2026 – UK – Cert. U – 93m

****

A journey through the current Tate Britain show and art history about the two rival landscape painters – out in UK cinemas from Tuesday, March 10th

This latest Exhibition on Screen entry kicks off in uncharacteristic fashion with photographic shots of landscape (typical of views that used by painters Turner and Constable) accompanied by an excerpt from the poem Richmond by James Thomson (1834-1882), a favourite of both painters whose work will be similarly deployed (voiced by Robert Lindsay) at appropriate intervals throughout this documentary.

However, the film soon moves into more familiar territory with shots of present day London and of the Tate Britain’s current Turner & Constable exhibition, with visitors admiring some of the paintings on display. Amy Concannon, Manton Senior Curator, Historic British Art, Tate Britain, notes that this show represents the first time the two painters have been displays side by side on such a vast scale. Turner & Constable were born within a year of one another, which became a catalyst for the current show’s displaying them together.

Artist, writer and broadcaster Lachlan Goudie talks about the “dazzling” influence of both artists on the likes of Delacroix.… Read the rest

Tags 1768, 1802, 1806, 1815, 1819, 1820s, 1832, Alps, Amy Concannon, art, art exhibition, art historian, artist, artists’ sketchbook, bought and sold, British artist, British national consciousness, broadcaster, brushstroke, business, canal, castle, child prodigy, Claude Lorrain, commerce, Constable, Constable clouds, country, country boy, countryside, Covent Garden, critical attention, Curator of British Art 1790-1850, David Bickerstaff, declaration of peace, Delacroix. Nicola Moorby, drawing, East Anglia, Exhibition On Screen, fields and skies, France and England, French Revolution, grain exportation, grand scenery, hairdressing, hanging committee, Historic British Art, Impressionism, Industrial Revolution, inflections of light, Italy, James Thomson, Lachlan Goudie, landscape, landscape painting, light and shade, llandscape, lock gate, London, make money, Manton Senior Curator, milling, mountains, Napoleonic Wars, national consciousness, National Gallery, notes would enable him to construct artist’s studio, observer, oil painting, open fields, paint, painter, painting, painting in the studio, painting outdoors, plein air, political system, print shop, pub, RA, RA member, radical, railway engine, red light district, representation of light, Richard Johns, rival landscape painters, rivalry, River Stour, Robert Lindsay, Royal Academy, rural, science and technology, shop window, shop window display, sketchbook, social injustice, Somerset House, Suffolk, Tate Britain, the Lake District, the Louvre, theatre, tourist locations, travel, travel restriction, treaty, Turner, Turner & Constable, Turner’s sunsets, UK, University of York, upheaval, upward mobility, urban, urban type, viaduct, visual, visual research, Wales, war and peace, watercolour, well-heeled, wig-making, writer, yellow, yellow paint

Animation Features Movies

Wallace & Gromit
Vengeance Most Fowl

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 16 December 2024
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Vengeance Most Fowl
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Directors – Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham – 2024 – UK – Cert. U – 79m

*****

Feathers McGraw returns to wreak havoc with Wallace’s latest invention, robotic garden smart gnomes – out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, December 18th 2024, on the BBC on Christmas Day, and on Netflix from Friday, January 3rd 2025

Opening with the capture, some years ago, of notorious master criminal Feathers McGraw (voice: none) for the attempted theft of the blue diamond, foiled by simple Lancastrian inventor Wallace (voice: Ben Whitehead, doing an amazing job replacing the late Peter Sallis) and his smart pet dog Gromit (voice: none), this second feature sees Wallace inventing furiously, making next to no money and the household bills pile up.

However, all that is about to change with Wallace’s latest gadget, Norbot the Smart Gnome (voice: Reece Shearsmith) who, voice-instructed by his inventor to make Gromit’s carefully tended garden “neat and tidy”, chops down most of the put-upon pooch’s cherished, colourful flowerbeds to replace them with something resembling a Brutalist version of the Gardens of the Palace of Versailles.

This impresses the neighbours and passing tradesman, causing Wallace – a lightbulb sign from a stationery van (hilariously parked behind him) above his head – to realise that he has a potential business startup here.… Read the rest

Tags 3D animation, 62 West Wallaby Street, Aardman Animations, animation, Ben Whitehead, blue diamond, border, business startup, canal, capture, Chief Inspector, computer hack, covert, crime wave, Diane Morgan, drop-down menu, engineering, evidence, Feathers McGraw, film noir, flowerbeds, gag, garden, gardening, gnome improvements, gnomes, go missing, Gromit, havoc, household bills, Inventor, Lancashire, Lancashire and Yorkshire, Lancastrian, Lauren Patel, lightbulb, master criminal, Merlin Crossingham, miniature, missing, model animation, Muzz Khan, narrowboat, neat and tidy, Nick Park, Norbot, Norbot the Smart Gnome, Notorious, password, pet dog, Peter Kay, Peter Sallis, plasticine, plasticine animation, plasticine character animation, police, policewoman, prison guards, puppet animation, Reece Shearsmith, retirement, robot, rookie cop, smart gnomes, Snoozy Choc, stop-frame animation, stop-motion animation, theft, tools, UK, van, Vengeance Most Fowl, voice-activation, Wallace, Wallace & Gromit, Wallace and Norbot, work ethic, Yorkshire

Animation Features Movies

Ghost In The Shell
(Kokaku Kidotai,
攻殻機動隊)
(1995)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 25 April 2022
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(Kokaku Kidotai,
攻殻機動隊)
(1995)

Director – Mamoru Oshii – 1995 – Japan, UK, US – Cert. 15 – 83m

****1/2

A cybernetically rebuilt, female, government agent and her male sidekick pursue a mysterious computer hacker known as The Puppet Master through Hong Kong – Digital IMAX version plays in the Anime season April / May 2022 at BFI Southbank

Review originally published in What’s On In London in 1996.

Ghost In The Shell is the first (and hopefully not the last) anime feature to be jointly financed by America, Japan and Britain (our very own Manga Entertainment). Although superficially pigeonholeable as teenage boy’s market material (nothing wrong with that per se), Ghost is considerably more intelligent than that implies. Its plot is highly complex: suffice it to say that cybernetically rebuilt female agent Kusanagi and male sidekick Bateau are pursuing a mysterious computer hacker known as The Puppet Master through Hong Kong.

Kusanagi, who makes her first appearance stripping off her clothing, jumping off a skyscraper roof and crashing through a window below to riddle a criminal pleading “diplomatic immunity” with bullets, employs thermoptic camouflage which renders her invisible to the naked eye in a matter of seconds. It’s an impressive touch, additionally furnishing such great moments as a fugitive ankle-deep in an urban canal suddenly finding himself hit, gripped and thrown around by an invisible assailant.… Read the rest