partnership Archives - Jeremy C. Processing

Director – John Schlesinger – 1965 – UK – Cert. 15 – 128m

*****

A young woman abandons her dull marriage to navigate life and love in 1960s swinging London – back out in UK cinemas on Friday, May 30th, and on 4K UHD & Blu-ray on Monday, 16th June

Today, this stands as a testament to the 1960s, when social class in Britain began to break down and people began experimenting with lifestyle and morality in hitherto unthinkable ways. It plays as a fascinating snapshot of its contemporary time and mores, providing a glimpse into the sixties, the decade of Swinging London when, for a brief moment, this city was the coolest in the world.

Yet, for Darling’s characters, London is just where they happen to live. In a loose framing device, Diana Scott (Julie Christie) recounts her memories into a tape recorder, presumably for an unseen interviewer or biographer, although while this dramatic device anchors the narrative charting of the young woman’s life and career, it does little beyond ease the viewer into her story and allow her to interject pertinent comments at various points.

As a child in the school play, people are already referring to Diana as Darling.… Read the rest

Exhibition on Screen:
Hopper:
an American Love Story

Director – Phil Grabsky – 2022 – UK – Cert. 12a – 94m

*****

The story of American painter Edward Hopper, and how his artistic career was facilitated by his fellow artist wife Jo – originally out in UK cinemas on Tuesday, October 18th 2022, now available on home video (see bottom of review)

The latest entry in Grabsky’s generally excellent Exhibition On Screen series about art and artists covers the career of Edward Hopper to tie in with a major Hopper exhibition (Edward Hopper’s New York) at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The big (and most welcome) surprise is that it charts not just Hopper’s life and work but also that of fellow artist Josephine Nivison, later his wife Josephine Nivison Hopper, whose career was largely eclipsed by his during his lifetime. To be fair, it doesn’t really go into her life before the point at which she became involved in his.

Hopper was born in 1882 and raised in the Nyack, New York house his parents had built (an enviable state, indicative of their and his time, which must surely influence one’s outlook on life). Religion and church were important to the Hoppers, but theirs was the brand of Christianity unafraid to engage with the outside world which at that time meant vast quantities of books and periodicals; the young Edward acquired a love of books from his avid reader father.… Read the rest