Welcome to My Cultural Life magazine
The online magazine devoted to helping you to enrich your cultural life here in London.
Featured
Review: Orwell: A Celebration, at the Trafalgar Studios
By Shamini Sriskandarajah | In Performance
A jaded romantic, a reluctant imperialist, a mysterious observer, and the interrogation from hell make up Dominic Cavendish’s thoughtful celebration of George Orwell’s work on the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four.Feature: Just another prequel?
By Andrew Harrison | In Film & cinemas
From Batman Begins to Casino Royale, cinemas have seen a surge in origins films in recent years. Andrew Harrison sees how X-Men Origins: Wolverine sits with the rest of the prequels.Review: In the Loop
By Shamini Sriskandarajah | In Film & cinemas
The Thick of It finally gets its big screen release. Armando Iannucci's sitcom moves from Whitehall to Washington as a junior minister provokes a world war. The only film where Alastair Campbell's alter ego comes face to face with Tony Soprano, In the Loop promises to be an intriguing comedy.Film review of the year
By Shamini Sriskandarajah | In Film & cinemas
An egocentric tightrope-walker, a woman in love with a barbaric barber, and an extremely greedy oil man were some of the highlights of 2008. Shamini Sriskandarajah looks at the films that held audiences captive and gives recommendations for the year ahead.
Review: The Fall
By Shamini Sriskandarajah | In Film & cinemas
Tarsem Singh follows the critical flop The Cell with a fairytale for grown-ups that shows a more thoughtful side to the director. The Fall is set in a Los Angeles hospital in 1915, where a chirpy Spanish girl befriends a patient in the men’s ward, and manages to dodge doctors and nurses in her efforts to cheer him up and hear more of his story – the ‘epic’ as he calls it.
Review: I've Loved You So Long
By Damian Griffiths | In Film & cinemas
Novelist Philipe Claudel's first movie is an intense character driven drama with outstanding performances.
Review: The Dark Knight
By Shamini Sriskandarajah | In Film & cinemas
The mostly hotly anticipated film of the year, with twilight screenings at the IMAX selling out weeks before the film’s release, The Dark Knight looks set to light up the summer with the crime thriller fireworks of its stellar cast. Remember the adrenaline that was pumping through your veins during The Bourne Ultimatum? Times that by five and you’ll have some idea of what to expect.
Previews
Review: Under the Blue Sky, at the Duke of York’s Theatre
By Shamini Sriskandarajah | In Past reviews
David Eldridge’s play, Under the Blue Sky, has encounters between three not-quite couples in the teaching profession. There isn’t much insight into their work, but there are plenty of thoughts about universal themes of unrequited love, sacrificing ethics for pleasure, and age gaps.
Review: Brief Encounter, at The Cinema Haymarket
By Shamini Sriskandarajah | In Past reviews
Emma Rice marks the centenary of David Lean's birth with a stage production inspired by his film 'Brief Encounter' and Noel Coward’s play 'Still Life', Shamini Sriskandarajah reports.
Feature: The Lives of Others
By Katie Burningham | In Heritage
Dennis Severs' house is an experience not to be missed, says Katie Burningham.
"My introduction to the house at 18 Folgate Street had an air of mystery about it. The house administrator, Mick Pedroli, was waiting outside the front door with a candle burning behind him. He ticked my name off on his list and said enigmatically, “you either see it or you don’t”. Then he opened the door..."
