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Diary of a cinephile: LFF Round-Up

By:
27-10-2011
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Hoss Ghonouie asks London Film Festival punters for their verdicts on the season’s upcoming titles

With the red carpet in Leicester Square and three-hundred-and-something film credits rolling regularly these last two weeks, the end of the London Film Festival is now in sight. As the winners are announced by an expert panel, what have been the ticket-holders highlights? Here are five Londoners’ favourites for you to look forward to on their impending cinematic release…

Alps
Sebastian Law, festival-goer: I was a really big fan of Dogtooth and so I had really high hopes for this one although literally hadn’t heard anything about it. His (director Giorgos Lanthimos) films are really stylised and visually beautiful, sort of pale and bright which really contrasts the dark, dark, absurd humour. Alps is about an agency that helps people in mourning replace their loved ones with actors – I know it sounds nuts – and as with Dogtooth there is a sort of confusing message to it. I think maybe it’s about how we are all trying to find a place in the world, acting out our roles or something. But I could be completely wrong! Anyway, one of the actors in takes her role (Aggeliki Papoulia) to some pretty dark places as she acts out a widowed husband’s erotic memories of his dead wife. Really brilliant, it makes you think, it can make you uncomfortable and it makes you laugh.

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continuous cruisers: Fran & Roelofje

By:
03-10-2011
Features, Guest Posts, Interviews
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Vyvian Raoul chats to aerial-performing boater Fran Hyde of Collectif and then…, who can frequently be seen leaping through the air above her home and performance space

Fran Hyde and Roelofje are the penultimate boat-boater combination in our series; every boater we’ve interviewed so far has asked us: ‘Have you spoken to the aerial performers, yet?’. Well, now we have — one of them at least: Fran is the boat owner and her performance partner Lucie N’Duhirahe joins her in the air for shows.

Fran’s boat allows her the freedom to perform wherever she stops on the canal — Roelofje is a highly mobile, to say nothing of highly unique, stage. It also allows her freedom from the constant bombardment of exhortations to buy that confront the average capital commuter — a little mental breathing space.

We caught up with her — hungover and out of gas, but happy — outside of the Constitution in Camden…

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staples: LFW menswear

By:
28-09-2011
Fashion, Guest Posts
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Fresh from London Fashion Week, Seb Law brings us his top three men’s fashion takeaways for SS12

Having just spent the best part of the last two weeks thinking constantly about London Fashion Week and a pretty intense six days on site managing the team for PlanetNotion.com, I’ve seen some unusual fashion choices for men; a surprisingly large number of men in wedge heels, particularly. But there have been three main fashion-forward accessories that I’ve taken away from the dedicated menswear day at LFW that I can pretty safely recommend will be ‘big’ in SS12. They’re also easily removable, so if you try them and get spooked, at least it’s not an entire neon pink outfit…

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Continuous cruisers: James & Wuff, Bark, Donkey

By:
20-09-2011
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Vyvian Raoul meets the unicycling boater James Bentley, organiser of the annual Pirate Regatta

James Bentley is a bit of a legend down by the canal. If you don’t know him by name, you may know him as the owner of easily the most interestingly monikered narrowboat on London’s waterways; you may also have noticed him lurching up and down the towpath on his second favourite mode of transport: the unicycle. He’s also one of the boaters behind the Pirate Regatta, an annual event that brings the cruisers together for a big ass two-day party. And Wuff, Bark, Donkey is centre stage: James’s double wide roof – all edged with light bulbs – hosts bands and sound system.

Hackney is his water and we caught up with him (listening to rock’n’roll records) by climbing through a set of railings on the opposite side to the towpath, near the gas works at Haggerston…

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Diary of a cinephile: London through film

By:
18-09-2011
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First stop pie & mash in Quadrophenia: Hoss Ghonouie‘s  tour of London’s film locations

Ever fancied a special tour through the scenic streets of our city as it appears on celluloid? A mental meander around film locales in London? Well then, hop aboard our imaginary tour bus, friend, but stay clear of that rowdy group at the back clad in braces and bowlers, and pay no mind to the fellow peering in through the window, that peeping tom ain’t allowed on!

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Staples: carrying it off

By:
13-09-2011
Fashion, Guest Posts
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If you’re havin’ bag problems, Seb Law can help, people

Getting the perfect bag to cart around all of your crap is a fine balance. Those vinyl sportswear-branded 70s-style ones are too ‘back to school’, briefcases are far too boredroom, old-school satchels and rucksacks are a little hipster and gym bags should definitely be confined to the gym. So, with swathes of bag-land written off, what should one be looking for? The answer, as ever, is a new twist. Remember those canvas drawstring bags that everyone had in the mid-90s? With huge Adidas/Reebok/Ellesse logos over them? Well here’s a new take on those, from brand spanking new Irish brand Stighlorgan. In deep walnut-coloured vegetable-tanned leather, this drawstring Driscoll bag borrows that vintage shape and injects it with quality materials, sleek finished and practical details like a zip pocket on the outside. Subtle, stamped branding completes this bag, which is perfectly sized for a laptop, your wallet, phone, keys a few other essentials. The rest of Stighlorgan’s offering continues in this vein, with simple, retro shapes reinterpreted in a modern style with quality materials – oh, and they also do a great line in cashmere-blend hats. Winter’s closing in, y’know, even if I am sat here in optimistic shorts… anyway, have a look and see if you reckon this is the balanced bag for you.

Today: a peek aboard the SS Atlantica

By:
10-09-2011
Daily Pick, Events, Guest Posts
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Morning London: the Thames Festival gets going today and what better way to soak in the atmosphere than aboard a 1930s ocean liner for those lucky enough to have snapped up an SS Atlantica ticket. Kate Finburg finds out more

Ever thought you were born in the wrong era? Do you yearn for the gin-soaked gangster days of the 1930s; do you constantly dress like a siren from the silver screen (or someone forever at a murder mystery party)?

If yes, then today’s SS Atlantica boat party is just your cup of cocktail in a teacup.

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Staples: The Big Scarf

By:
06-09-2011
Fashion, Guest Posts
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Seb Law‘s tip for the week as autumn sweeps in

When it comes to adding an architectural element to top one’s outfit, it’s very easy to be put off by the expense, the complexity and, to be frank, the sheer oddness of it. You’ll look in a mirror at a piece that you really liked on the hanger and go ‘WTF?’ It’s a perfectly natural response. But looking forward to the coming AW season, adding in a bit of striking detail is essential if you want to stand out. So, where to start?

A big scarf. It might seem simple, facile even, but it’s easier to experiment with shapes and play with proportions with accessories and a big scarf is the best way to start, especially as it gets colder *cries into summer wardrobe*. Two tips here: either kick off with a thick woollen scarf in bold, broad stripes and wind it around your neck like a bandage, or grab a thin-gauge one like this number from Warehouse at ASOS (NB boys: scarves are unisex, and a great opportunity to try out a pattern/colour combo that you wouldn’t normally try). Wrap it once around your neck, and leave the loose ends trailing. Instant architectural drama to any outfit.

Continuous cruisers: Tara, Du & Bee aboard Love

By:
05-09-2011
Features, Guest Posts, Interviews
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Vyvian Raoul hangs out with a boating family who tell him about making a garden on the towpath and why British Waterways has got it all wrong

These laid-back cruisers introduced me to the concept of boat time:  a mañana, mañana, mañana attitude, born of taking each bend as it comes, that puts boaters on their own clock entirely. Over two hours late for our meeting, they blamed ‘serendipitous meanderings’ when they arrived. And who could argue with that?

When we met, Tara, Du and Bee were making their home 200m south of the Lea Bridge Road in Clapton. As we sat in their impromptu, open-air, towpath parlour room – odd furniture against a wall opposite their boat – we spent as much time talking to passers-by as we did talking about them.

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Diary of a cinephile: sexy strange

By:
03-09-2011
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In tribute to The Skin I Live In, Hoss Ghonouie compiles his top five sexual perversion films. Here goes!…

Since Pedro Almodovar’s latest sociopathic labyrinth of sexuality, plastic surgery and vengeance entered my eyes, I have been haunted by the film’s scenes of tiger suited sodomy. The Skin I Live In is superbly skin-tingling until its twisted end, each lavish and colourful shot giving way to an increasingly lurid plot. In tribute to such distasteful success, here are my top five films of strange and disturbing sexiness…

(after the jump)…

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