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Recent Posts
- Vogue and Cruelty
- ‘A Swarm of Ghosts’: Anna Akhmatova’s Russia
- Michael Powell and the National Myth
- Saddam and his Enemies
- Italy Needs Me: The Life and Death of Silvio Berlusconi
- ‘Time Reigns’: Vernon Watkins and Wales
- Archives of Pain: Kanan Makiya and the Politics of Iraq
- Roman Tragedy: Lucio Fulci’s ‘Beatrice Cenci’
- On the Legacy of George L. Mosse
- Slaughter Commissions: Crime Films and the Italian Crisis
- ‘Everyone Middle East is here’: The British in Iraq
- The Writing Racket: Balzac’s ‘Lost Illusions’
- On Marvin Gaye’s ‘Midnight Love’
- The Queen of Condé Nast
- American Carnage: Sarah Palin’s Revolution
- ‘The Town Blazing Scarlet’: Swansea’s Blitz
- The Letwin Amendment
- In Defence of the Italian Peplum
- The Jews in Fascist Italy
- The Haunting of Yulia
- Ezra Pound & Salò
- The Passion of Yulia Tymoshenko
- GooGoosha’s Golden Globe
Archives
Author Archives: olivercraner
Vogue and Cruelty
Review of In Vogue: The 90s (Disney+) Fashion is hard. The world of clothes and beauty is saturated with pain, exploitation and cruelty. The paradox is that this is precisely part of its appeal. It is why fashion repeatedly returns … Continue reading
Posted in Fashion
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‘A Swarm of Ghosts’: Anna Akhmatova’s Russia
I: Revolution and Counter-Memory There is no present — I am proud of the past And I suffocate from such shame. Reading Anna Akhmatova’s first two collections of verse, it can be difficult to recognise the poet who would later … Continue reading
Posted in Communism, Literature, Nationalism, Poetry, Russia, Ukraine
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Michael Powell and the National Myth
1980: Exile Michael Powell began writing his autobiography A Life in Movies during a period of professional exile from England — in 1980, while teaching film students at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. “I love England,” he wrote: I have … Continue reading
Posted in Britain, England, Film, Germany, Nationalism
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Saddam and his Enemies
Review of Samuel Helfont, Iraq Against the World: Saddam, America, and the Post-Cold War Order (Oxford University Press, 2023) On the morning of February 13, 1991, two U.S. Air Force GBU-27 smart bombs demolished ‘Public Shelter No. 25’ in the … Continue reading
Posted in France, Iraq, Politics, Russia, United States
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Italy Needs Me: The Life and Death of Silvio Berlusconi
The life of Silvio Berlusconi had one great theme: man’s battle with time. Vigorous daily exercise routines and public jogging sessions; an obsession with personal hygiene driven by a deep phobia of germs; an epic struggle against hair loss that … Continue reading
Posted in Italy, Politics, Populism
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‘Time Reigns’: Vernon Watkins and Wales
I: ‘Welshness’ and Poetic Identity Vernon Watkins did not measure success in terms of book sales or critical acclaim. He was not indifferent to literary trends or the demands of the book trade, but maintained an uncompromising, if polite, disdain … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Nationalism, Poetry, Wales
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Archives of Pain: Kanan Makiya and the Politics of Iraq
That’s the hope I still have for Iraq — that it can rediscover its destiny as a richly various and pluralistic society, a meeting ground of all sorts of creeds and groupings. That’s the hope that sustains me. Kanan Makiya, … Continue reading
Posted in Iraq, Nationalism, Politics, United States
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Roman Tragedy: Lucio Fulci’s ‘Beatrice Cenci’
Guido Reni’s portrait of Beatrice Cenci retains pride of place at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini, just off Piazza Barberini in Rome. The old story that it was completed by Reni on the eve of Beatrice’s execution … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Italy
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On the Legacy of George L. Mosse
Past history is always contemporary. George L. Mosse, The Nationalisation of the Masses In Confronting History, his posthumously published memoir, George L. Mosse recalled the occupation of Mossehaus, the headquarters of Rudolf Mosse’s German publishing empire, during the Spartacist Uprising … Continue reading
Posted in Fascism, Germany, Italy, Nationalism, Politics, Populism
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Slaughter Commissions: Crime Films and the Italian Crisis
Review of the Arrow Films box set Years of Lead: Five Classic Italian Crime Thrillers, 1973-1977 (Mario Imperoli, Like Rabid Dogs; Vittorio Salerno, Savage Three; Massimo Dallamano, Colt 38 Special Squad; Stelvio Massi, Highway Racer; Vittorio Salerno, No, the Case … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Italy
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