TGFOP or not TGFOP: a talk on black tea at The Tea Centre
“Tea and Conversation with David Lyons: Black Tea” at The Tea Centre, Sydney, 10 November 2012 After that talk on green tea back in September, I was…
nausika
Derren Brown – The Heist: an experiment on conformity and deference to authority and self-help twaddle
Derren Brown and Benjamin Caron, “Derren Brown – The Heist” (2006) Under the pretence of training a group of middle-level managers in a corporate workshop on…
Derren Brown – Apocalypse (Part 2): heavily staged and predictable post-apocalypse experiment
Derren Brown and Simon Dinsell, “Derren Brown – Apocalypse (Part 2)” (2012) Second and final part of a mini-series in which Brown conducts an experiment on…
Derren Brown – Apocalypse (Part 1): clever if daft and stagey experiment hides some sober truths
Derren Brown and Simon Dinsell, “Derren Brown – Apocalypse (Part 1)” (2012) A cleverly staged if at times daft and rather too cinematic experiment in which…
French and French-language Films
Thérèse Desqueyroux (dir. Georges Franju): a skilfully made psychological study of much emotional depth
Georges Franju,” Thérèse Desqueyroux” (1962) A remake of this film with Audrey Tautou as the titular character was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012…
French and French-language Films
Judex (dir. Georges Franju): an affectionate, light-hearted homage to Louis Feuillade and silent films
Georges Franju, “Judex” (1963) A remake of the Louis Feuillade 1916 mini-series about the mystery masked crusader Judex (Latin for “judge”), Georges Franju’s film is said…
“Moral Dilemma … Can Ethics Help?” – useful guide on using ethics to determine the best choice to make
Hanneke van Ravenswaay and Ben Jurna, “Moral Dilemma … Can Ethics Help?” (1998) This episode of “The Examined Life” investigates a moral dilemma faced by a…
French and French-language Films
Le Samouraï: enjoyably hokey existentialist film about fate and the inevitability of death
Jean-Pierre Melville, “Le Samouraï” (1967) A beautiful and seductive film that spawned many imitators, of which some like John Woo’s “The Killer” also became cult flicks,…
D Zyuz’kov’s Natalia Yurchenko documentary: a contemplative and poetic TV sports special
D Zyuz’kov, Natalia Yurchenko documentary (1984) A curious little 20-minute gem on Youtube, this Soviet television documentary about the gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, made about the time…
Is Ethics based on Virtue? – an adequate introduction on how to live a good life and develop moral character
John Allman, “Is Ethics based on Virtue?” (1998) Part of a series “The Examined Life” which brings theories of ethics to bear on contemporary life, this…