CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
Latest editorial
The White House of horrors
DAVID YEARSLEY muses on the State Department’s use of film to project US power
AVIATOR COMPLEX: Joe Biden and Disney+ actress Olivia Rodrigo in the Oval Office
[The White House/CC]
TONY BURKE speaks to JOEL McIVER, co-author of the biography of bluesman John Mayall
A misfit couple unhappily ever after, a dead man walking, dodgy journos, and trench art trucking
New releases from Javon Jackson, IZE Trio, and Mal Waldron Trio
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an intriguing multi-layered depiction, dominated by a stunning impersonation of Marilyn herself
EWAN CAMERON marvels at the impossible ambition, realised with dreamlike finesse of translating Italo Calvino to the stage
What’s the difference between a US movie producer and a US secretary of state? The one dreams of winning an Oscar, the other makes sure the awards go to the right global players.
US foreign policy has long been committed to flooding the world with Hollywood films. Inseparable from this open market ideology is the recognition of the moving image’s literal projection of US power and the universal rightness of the US Way.
Winston Churchill paid homage to these forces when he described Mrs Miniver, that silly Little Olde England wartime MGM melodrama of 1942, as “propaganda worth a hundred battleships.”
Similar stories
by Francesco Sani
by Alistair Findlay
by Mike Jenkins