😬 I hope that they were delicious!

Indeed!

Hampstead is another country.

Thank you, Jacqui! Honoured to be in such esteemed company.

Jean Arthur and Marlene Dietrich in A Foreign Affair (Billy Wilder, 1948). The film is a complete delight and Arthur is a comic joy.

If you're in the UK, you can currently watch it on the Channel 4 player www.channel4.com/programmes/a...

Object of the day: 5000 year old ‘flame pot’ made in Jōmon period Japan. The pot would have been used for cooking and serving food around the same time that the Brits were busy putting up Stonehenge. It’s currently on display in the British Museum’s Japan gallery.

Great list! Further to our Rumer Godden-related conversation, I’m tempted to hunt down 1961’s The Greengage Summer that I haven’t seen for decades (though I struggle with Kenneth More in romantic roles).

1961 Films - a watchlist for the #1961Club A list of 22 films compiled on Letterboxd, including La Notte (1961), Il Posto (1961), Victim (1961), Viridiana (1961) and Léon Morin, Priest (1961).

As an adjunct to the bookish #1961Club, which officially starts tomorrow, I'm planning to watch some films released that year.

Here's my watchlist of potential choices, too many to see in one week. But feel free to join me if the mood takes you! #FilmSky #BookSky 💙📚

letterboxd.com/jacquiwine/l...

Guru Bandana (Prayer) YouTube video by Ali Akbar Khan - Topic

I fell in love with Asha Bhosle's voice through her performances of R. D. Burman's songs, but I'm remembering her today by listening to this remarkable track from a collaboration with Ali Akbar Khan. Turn off the lights, lie on the floor and immerse yourself www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpfp...

Ha! I would happily move in tomorrow. But still, endless inspiration.

Kettle’s Yard is one of my favourite places. I wish that my flat looked like it. However many assorted pebbles I throw about, it just doesn’t look as good!

My mother, Audrey Hepburn: the star’s son Sean on her movies, marriages, good works and fascist parents The heroine of Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s knew war and poverty, riches and fame, love and betrayal – yet claimed to have lived a ‘terribly boring’ life. Sean Hepburn Ferrer paints a very...

For today's Guardian G2 I interviewed Sean Hepburn Ferrer, son of the great Audrey Hepburn, about her remarkable life, talent and legacy www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

An exemplary initiative by The Met: they have made 1600+ of their out of print books/catalogues/journals available as free to download PDFs. I hope that more UK collecting organisations - esp those in receipt of public funding - start to see this as a responsibility www.metmuseum.org/met-publicat...

‘Truly vile’: the UK’s 25 best (and worst) novelty hot cross buns – tested! Can you beat a traditional spiced yeast bun at Easter? There’s only one way to find out. Bring on the rhubarb and custard version, the red velvet, the chocolate and fudge, the tiramisu …

Essential reading www.theguardian.com/food/2026/ma...

Unless the kids have already reactivated their sourdough starter in anticipation of making their annual batch of hot cross buns, I'm unlikely to get with them.

Yesterday, I realised what an unrepentant traditionalist I am when I scowled at a packet of hot cross buns that had been filled with lemon curd.

There are so many comparisons beyond the obvious without it ever feeling like a half-baked imitation. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Further to my previous post… The pleasure of a film that sees the beauty of watching reflections on an actor’s face - and holds longer than we might expect.

UNDER THE BRIDGES (Helmut Käutner, Germany, 1946).

That's great to know. Can't wait to see them, too.

Unter den Brücken (Under the Bridges) (1946) | Helmut Käutner | 4K Remastered [FULL MOVIE] YouTube video by Enhanced Cinema

9/9. You can watch Under the Bridges here www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMK2...

8/9. Even though this is a a romantic drama, the most touching element is the relationship between the two bargemen. I can think of few films that capture male friendship as well or as tenderly.

7/9. But what drives the film is the warmth of the 3 lead performances (Gustav Knuth as Willy is a delight, too) and how Käutner captures their gentleness and vulnerabilities.

6/9. There’s a goose called Vera and a dog called Tobi. But try not to get too attached to Vera.

5/9. Another favourite scene is all about listening as Hendrik (a wonderful performance by Carl Raddatz) explains the sounds of the river - the wind in the reeds, the creak of the rope - to Anna (Hannelore Schroth).

4/9. Two fantastic sequences make extensive use of superimposition and montage. The technique makes the arrival of the barge in Berlin feel like a city symphony. And the film has an enjoyable taste for the slightly surreal.

3/9. Igor Oberberg’s cinematography is inventive and beautifully lit - lots of reflections and shadows - and uses a highly mobile camera (especially in a great scene in a cafe).

2/9. Although released in 1946, it was shot in 1944. But there’s no reference to the war and not a swastika in sight - the politics of the period are wholly absent. It feels decidedly odd to be watching a Nazi-era film that is so genuinely tender and uplifting - and without a hint of propaganda.

1/9. First time watch of UNDER THE BRIDGES (Helmut Käutner, Germany, 1946). The tale of 2 bargemen and the woman they both love, the film seems as if it’s on a trajectory from L’ATALANTE to JULES ET JIM - and I loved it just as much as either of them. See 🧵 for a few reasons why you should tune in.

Colleagues with interests in film + television studies, the history + aesthetics of the documentary, 20th-century and labour history, Jewish studies, migration + refugee studies, and more, may be interested in the one-day free symposium a week today about the remarkable emigré filmmaker Robert Vas.

2/2. But what I loved most is the intensity of emotion with which it engages with the ancient world. Grave robber Josh O'Connor has an epiphany in an unexcavated subterranean Etruscan temple with its murals, statue and votive offerings still intact. It's an extraordinary moment.