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Seach Results for "oliver farry" (14)

Oliver Farry on Patrick Modiano

The latest of his novels to belatedly see the light of day in English is his 1975 work Villa Triste, published by the Other Press, in a translation by John Cullen. Unusually for Modiano, it takes place entirely outside his usual Parisian hinterland.

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Oliver Farry on Michel Houellebecq

The peculiar circumstances surrounding the publication of Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel constitute a case study in how even the biggest literary news stories are, in the wider scheme of things, small potatoes.

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Oliver Farry on Brazil 2014

So Germany make it four World Cups, edging level with Italy in the pantheon of winners, and just behind Brazil, whom they slain in such terrifying fashion. It’s hard to argue with that, given they were really the only outstanding team to show enduring consistency (the odd hiccup aside). A brilliant generation of players had heretofore threatened to forever fall short but things came together in Brazil and they even managed to ride their luck with a defence that continues to look suspect.

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A Man, a Plan, a Book Van: Lisbon by Oliver Farry

A Man, a Plan, a Book Van: Lisbon by Oliver Farry

Francisco Antolin, with his mobile book van in Lisbon by Oliver Farry Francisco Antolin and Domingos Cruz, old schoolfriends in Lisbon, were having a drink once when a problem common to them came up in conversation. Namely, getting hold of copies of Portuguese novels in translation they had each recommended to foreign friends. Copies to…

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Oliver Farry in Albania

Oliver Farry in Albania

Rebellion of Mirdits against the Ottomans, Albania, Kel Marubi, 1907 by Oliver Farry I went to Albania to try and get back with an ex-girlfriend, though that is only half the story. The trip had been planned in advance; Anna, a Swedish girl I had been seeing for about eighteen months, gave me as a…

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‘Licking Graffiti On Cement Walls’ and ‘Your Palms’ by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho

‘Licking Graffiti On Cement Walls’ and ‘Your Palms’ by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho

The dream I had before waking up this morning: / A cat jumping up to the sky

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Football Time

by Oliver Farry Though I have a few memories of España ’82 – and even a brief ticker tape-strewn flicker of Argentina ’78 is lodged in my unconscious – Mexico 86 was my first ‘real’ World Cup. An unwritten rule generally dictates that one’s first World Cup is the standard all future ones are measured…

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Restoration Revamped

Restoration Revamped

In the Land of the Head Hunters, Edward S. Curtis, 1914 by Oliver Farry In the Land of the Head Hunters, dir. Edward S. Curtis, 65 minutes One of the best films of 2013 was released in 1914. Edward S. Curtis, well known for his documentary photographs of the dying traditions of the native peoples…

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‘This Is Just to Say’ by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming

‘This Is Just to Say’ by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming

Photograph by Oliver Farry by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming i. When we are laughing at your joke, I slap your face. Forgive me. I want to show you my love, but the truth is I don’t know what I am doing. ii. I tear a page from your Portuguese dictionary. I’m sorry, but it is so…

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A young girl’s strange, erotic journey…

A young girl’s strange, erotic journey…

Marine Vacth as Isabelle in Young & Beautiful (Jeune & Jolie), Wild Bunch, 2013 by Oliver Farry Young & Beautiful (Jeune & Jolie), dir. François Ozon, France, 93 minutes The prolific François Ozon’s fourteenth feature is a companion piece to his popular hit from last year, In the House, in which a schoolteacher discovers the…

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‘Morning Blues’ by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming

‘Morning Blues’ by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming

Photograph by Oliver Farry by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming Unlike Balzac, he bought me no gloves. And none of my fingers is measured for a ring. Only I know when in love, as in Rome, do as the Romans do. He wrote me no poems, and morning begins with an espresso by a road-side café facing…

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Joshua Oppenheimer’s Movie

Joshua Oppenheimer’s Movie

by Oliver Farry The Act of Killing, dir. Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Norway/UK, 115 minutes Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing has made ripples in the West not so much because it’s a good film (though there is much about it that is very good) but because the impunity it portrays in such glaringly uncomfortable detail is…

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Whatever Fitz

Whatever Fitz

by Oliver Farry Baz Luhrmann adapts Fitzgerald and the result is pretty much as you might expect. There are no surprises here. You have a continual sense that you have seen this film before. That is largely because you have – if, that is, you happened to chance upon any of Luhrmann’s previous four features.…

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‘Hula Hooping’ by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming

‘Hula Hooping’ by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming

Photograph by Oliver Farry by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming I don’t want to be like a fruit that is small, round and has a bland taste. I like being written into poems but when someone does that I feel shy but also ridiculously euphoric. I have been using the same perfume since I was sixteen years…

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