Museum Hours

‘I don’t want to talk about it now’ But you must” she said firmly ‘You are history’ There is no conceivable way to do justice to the absorbing, subtle complexity of this novel in a few, inevitably rather schematic, observations. But here goes. All that you really need to know is that the main protagonist (Saul) suffers two traffic accidents, both on the zebra crossing made famous by the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road album. These incidents occur in 1988 just before the fall of the Berlin Wall and in 2016 just after the referendum on UK membership of the European Union. Two pivotal events in European history.  The book is concerned with the way that the perception, experience and recollection of events is mediated between the individual and the wider world. One lives through events in both senses of the word: through in the sense of being present on the journey and through in the sense of being an actor - doing, and not doing, things during those wider events.

The first few weeks of lockdown and the relative dearth of new films have allowed some delving back into previous decades, in particular the 1960s and 70s for reacquaintance (including the stellar MUBI retrospective of Jean-Pierre Melville including Un Flic,   Le Doulos  and others as well as Bresson's  Les Dames Du Bois De Boulogne  which I haven't covered here) and new discoveries. The Last Metro  (technically 1980 but hey) which felt like such an appropriate film for the moment - the power of art to survive the worst of circumstances. Powerhouse performances from Deneuve and Depardieu and by the time the swelling romantic music rolls over the credits there's not a dry eye in the house. The Innocents  (1961) Much imitated, rarely if ever fully bettered, this is one of the great psychological horror films. The setting, direction, cinematography and foley are pitched perfectly. The casting seems inspired: Deborah Kerr conveys just the right balance of pri