Boogie Woogie is about art, and the London art scene. How droll that the main character, a wonderfully charming dealer, is called Art. All the characters, Art (and Art) included, are caricatures rather than characters, though the film is none the worse for that. In fact, it is a rather good laugh,...

So we’re sat in the front row in front of the big white screen, glancing around at the beautiful courtyard of the palazzo that houses the administrative offices of the Provincia di Roma. We’re there to see a movie, part of the Wine and Food Film Festival. A woman comes on stage. She announces that...

Luigi turned me on to David Mamet's Spartan, in a discussion of what was worth watching on TV these days.¹ I loved it. Not just for the violence, which is considerable and effective. Not just for the secret service procedurals, which are everywhere these days and which for all I know are having...

The Countess arrived more or less unheralded in our house, and on a quiet evening after a hard day, her appeal was great. I mean, “She sacrificed all for love... and sacrificed others for beauty. A 17th century Hungarian countess embarks on a murderous undertaking, with the belief that bathing in t...

My hardback copy (16th printing) of Mastering the Art ... was bought so that I wouldn’t have to contend with the stains on the paperback when I wanted to read rather than cook. (Alas, there's no recipe in it for humble pie.) So when Julie and Julia was released earlier in the summer, I was sniffy....