John Baker’s Blog

Released in the same year as The Seventh Seal (1957), Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries stars Victor Sjöström as Dr Isak Borg and Bibi Andersson in two roles, as Sara, the hitchhiker and as Sara, the doctor’s childhood sweetheart.
The film is a hauntingly beautiful meditation on life and death and follows a lonely and elderly professor [...]

In this 1957 film by Ingmar Bergman, a Knight (Max von Sydow with bleached hair) returning from the crusades is shadowed by the figure of Death.
The Seventh Seal has been considered one of the masterpieces of cinema for a long time. But I wondered if I would find it a little embarrassing, its imagery comical, [...]

Good stuff at Newcastle on Tyne’s Northern Stage yesterday. Two generals, Macbett and Banco, put down a rebellion. In payment for their heroic service, the Archduke promises to bestow on them land, titles and cash. But once the war is won and the rebel leaders are slain he reneges on the deal. Seduced by thoughts [...]

The Observer reports that the Mexican publishers, Planeta, are to publish the contents of Che Guevara’s green notebook, which was found among his belongings when he was shot by the CIA in 1967. The notebook has since been kept locked away by the Bolivian military.
The notebook contains 69 poems by Pablo Neruda (Chile), Nicolás [...]