While Christians prepare to celebrate Easter as the commemoration of Christ’s death and resurrection, they are unlikely to dwell on the pagan roots of such festivals, which were overlaid by Christian rites as Christianity spread across Europe in the first millennium AD. Easter replaced spring festivals, which focused often on the death and rebirth of a fertility deity.
<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> Robin Williams’s latest film,<i>The Night Listener</i> makes for engrossing viewing, especially as it gets increasingly noir in flavour, writes Shaun de Waal.
<b>NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> <b>Shaun de Waal</b> reviews <i>300</i>, the new movie about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BC which is based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel.
Shaun de Waal reviews Ian Buruma’s <i>Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance</i>.
The Out in Africa South African Gay and Lesbian Film Festival’s survival, and even flourishing, for so long is in itself a massive achievement, writes Shaun de Waal.
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/ 23 February 2007
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: The Last King of Scotland is riveting from start to finish, darkly funny, deeply involving, writes Shaun de Waal.
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/ 19 January 2007
NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Blood Diamond is the cinematic equivalent of American fighter jets bombing Somali civilians, with the only distinction that it also manages to be boring, writes Shaun de Waal.
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/ 12 January 2007
NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Darren Aronofsky’s much-bruited new movie, The Fountain simply doesn’t work, writes Shaun de Waal.
<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> <i>The Queen</i> takes us into the dynamics of the tug-of-war between Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and her prime minister, writes Shaun de Waal.