The end of another year of films and so, as is customary, here is my personal top 10 drawn from newly released films that I have seen this year. 1. Carol which is simply exquisite. 2. Phoenix A film about the most intimate questions of identity and trust which seem almost too personal to be shared; yet the whole motive force of the film is about demonstrating identity to others. It is a masterclass in film making and performance and the final scene will live with me for many a year. 3. By Our Selves Wonderfully strange with as much emphasis on the aural as the visual but with some striking images, many resonant of folk tales, and imbued with a real sense of earthly wonder about the environment through which we pass. It also has an abiding sense of sadness both about how John Clare has been to some extent marginalised as a poet but also about the loss that he experienced summed up in that wonderful line about being 'the self-consumer of my woes' 4. Force
Occasional musings about time spent in museums, galleries, theatres, cinemas and other dark settings ..