Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Media


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Back on the Nile

I’m not a fan of Agatha Christie.
I think what turned me off was starting with the Miss Marple mysteries, after viewing the old Margaret Rutherford movies. My late aunt, that was a great fan of Christie gave me an omnibus edition with a number of Miss Marple books, and I hated them.
There.

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But as I think I already mentioned, I love the Poirot movies featuring Peter Ustinov, and when it comes to Death on the Nile, in my house we are divided – to me, nothing surpasses the Ustinov movie, while my brother, that is a David Suchet fan, prefers the TV movie. Continue reading →


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Inhuman beauty – Kathleen Byron

I’m re-watching a number of Powell & Pressburger movies, these nights.
It started with an article I read on the website of the British Film Institute. That made me re-watch A Matter of Life and Death, which led to a post on my Italian blog, and a mention of my favorite Powell & Pressburger movie, Black Narcissus – so I re-watched that one too, and I will post on my Italian blog about it too.
Both movies feature an actress I always found marvelous, but I never followed very much – Kathleen Byron.
She was absolutely beautiful in such a strange, somewhat disquieting way.

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The Garbo Blogathon: Queen Christina (1933)

She is certainly the most iconic movie star of all time, and this is the Greta Garbo Blogathon, hosted by IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD.
As usual, I invite you to point your browsers to the blogathon page for a complete list of the participating blogs and a lot of great articles about Garbo and her movies.

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And once you’re done, come back here, because we are going the swashbuckler way again— well, sort of.
We’re gonna talk about the 1933 pre-Code classic, Queen Christina. Continue reading →