Peter Clinch
@zipnolan.bsky.social
Retired.
Projects: Englishness on film, the enigma of the canon.
Staples: English cinema of 20th century, noir (all variants).
2026 cinematic binges: Japan, Chabrol, Stanwyck, more to follow
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/doublesqueeze/
Projects: Englishness on film, the enigma of the canon.
Staples: English cinema of 20th century, noir (all variants).
2026 cinematic binges: Japan, Chabrol, Stanwyck, more to follow
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/doublesqueeze/
My favourite first watch at last week's Slapstick festival was this gem. Buster Keaton with sound, in French, but with comic inventiveness and timing as sharp as his silent heyday. Thank you for treating us with it
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
@theflyingeditor.bsky.social
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
@theflyingeditor.bsky.social
February 9, 2026 at 10:05 AM
My favourite first watch at last week's Slapstick festival was this gem. Buster Keaton with sound, in French, but with comic inventiveness and timing as sharp as his silent heyday. Thank you for treating us with it
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
@theflyingeditor.bsky.social
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
@theflyingeditor.bsky.social
After today I can safely say that I have learnt all I know about The Vamp and The Flapper from Z & S Fitzgerald and now also @pamhutch.bsky.social .
Many thanks!
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
Many thanks!
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
February 6, 2026 at 5:09 PM
After today I can safely say that I have learnt all I know about The Vamp and The Flapper from Z & S Fitzgerald and now also @pamhutch.bsky.social .
Many thanks!
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
Many thanks!
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
#Chabruary gloom is on hold as I attend this. I may even laugh a bit.
@andrewkelly.bsky.social
@lucyportercomic.bsky.social
@pamhutch.bsky.social
@theflyingeditor.bsky.social
and others...
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
@andrewkelly.bsky.social
@lucyportercomic.bsky.social
@pamhutch.bsky.social
@theflyingeditor.bsky.social
and others...
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
🚨 ONE WEEK til Slapstick Festival is back for 5 days of hilarity in Bristol (Wed 4 - Sun 8 February)!
With 33 events across Watershed, Bristol Beacon, Bristol Megascreen, and St George's Bristol covering over a century of screen comedy, there's something for everyone via the link below 👇
With 33 events across Watershed, Bristol Beacon, Bristol Megascreen, and St George's Bristol covering over a century of screen comedy, there's something for everyone via the link below 👇
February 3, 2026 at 9:01 AM
#Chabruary gloom is on hold as I attend this. I may even laugh a bit.
@andrewkelly.bsky.social
@lucyportercomic.bsky.social
@pamhutch.bsky.social
@theflyingeditor.bsky.social
and others...
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
@andrewkelly.bsky.social
@lucyportercomic.bsky.social
@pamhutch.bsky.social
@theflyingeditor.bsky.social
and others...
@slapstickfest.bsky.social
Reposted by Peter Clinch
🚨 ONE WEEK til Slapstick Festival is back for 5 days of hilarity in Bristol (Wed 4 - Sun 8 February)!
With 33 events across Watershed, Bristol Beacon, Bristol Megascreen, and St George's Bristol covering over a century of screen comedy, there's something for everyone via the link below 👇
With 33 events across Watershed, Bristol Beacon, Bristol Megascreen, and St George's Bristol covering over a century of screen comedy, there's something for everyone via the link below 👇
January 28, 2026 at 5:12 PM
🚨 ONE WEEK til Slapstick Festival is back for 5 days of hilarity in Bristol (Wed 4 - Sun 8 February)!
With 33 events across Watershed, Bristol Beacon, Bristol Megascreen, and St George's Bristol covering over a century of screen comedy, there's something for everyone via the link below 👇
With 33 events across Watershed, Bristol Beacon, Bristol Megascreen, and St George's Bristol covering over a century of screen comedy, there's something for everyone via the link below 👇
Pastoral opening scenes yield to an atrocious act of callousness - an obsessive will to punish drives the plot. The protagonist inveigles himself into the loathed and repulsive villain's nest. A bland absence of empathy, an aura of rippling misanthropy, no relief. I loved it.
#Chabruary2026 #3
#Chabruary2026 #3
February 3, 2026 at 8:47 AM
Pastoral opening scenes yield to an atrocious act of callousness - an obsessive will to punish drives the plot. The protagonist inveigles himself into the loathed and repulsive villain's nest. A bland absence of empathy, an aura of rippling misanthropy, no relief. I loved it.
#Chabruary2026 #3
#Chabruary2026 #3
Hitchcock has the jagged tones of Herrmann, Chabrol defaults to sinister chamber music. It's all about the quotidian, the unarticulated, yet she knows he knows she knows... Adultery is mundane, yet it unhinges the complacency of the framework that validates it. Chillingly subversive.
#Chabruary #2
#Chabruary #2
February 2, 2026 at 8:50 PM
Hitchcock has the jagged tones of Herrmann, Chabrol defaults to sinister chamber music. It's all about the quotidian, the unarticulated, yet she knows he knows she knows... Adultery is mundane, yet it unhinges the complacency of the framework that validates it. Chillingly subversive.
#Chabruary #2
#Chabruary #2
Erotic , seemingly about love, but in 1968 the theme is power. Power exacted by the bourgeoisie (Audran at her haughtiest, Trintignant the shit) over all around them. Lovers are toys, friendships are tossed aside, feelings of others are barely acknowledged. Something has to give.
#Chabruary #1
#Chabruary #1
February 2, 2026 at 8:41 PM
Erotic , seemingly about love, but in 1968 the theme is power. Power exacted by the bourgeoisie (Audran at her haughtiest, Trintignant the shit) over all around them. Lovers are toys, friendships are tossed aside, feelings of others are barely acknowledged. Something has to give.
#Chabruary #1
#Chabruary #1
My snail-like progress through world cinema continues, with extensions from Jan to #Japannum2026 and #Barbstannum2026. Additions this month are #Chabruary and #Silent2026. Other background obsessions also continuing slowly…. nothing can go wrong now.
February 1, 2026 at 10:27 PM
My snail-like progress through world cinema continues, with extensions from Jan to #Japannum2026 and #Barbstannum2026. Additions this month are #Chabruary and #Silent2026. Other background obsessions also continuing slowly…. nothing can go wrong now.
Reposted by Peter Clinch
RIP Sly Dunbar. Here's a lovely edition of the South Bank Show all about the wonderful Sly and Robbie. A few people were asking to see it, so I've uploaded it to YouTube and I'll leave it there until Monday. Hopefully it'll get a proper repeat soon.
youtu.be/M-cuOdr6DpQ
youtu.be/M-cuOdr6DpQ
South Bank Show - Sly & Robbie
YouTube video by Salvage Operation
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 7:56 AM
RIP Sly Dunbar. Here's a lovely edition of the South Bank Show all about the wonderful Sly and Robbie. A few people were asking to see it, so I've uploaded it to YouTube and I'll leave it there until Monday. Hopefully it'll get a proper repeat soon.
youtu.be/M-cuOdr6DpQ
youtu.be/M-cuOdr6DpQ
Reposted by Peter Clinch
Very shocked to hear that Sly Dunbar died earlier today.
Sly was at the forefront of reggae music's development and innovation for decades. His extraordinary drumming on this dub is a personal favourite.
youtu.be/1sAqYgPghGY?...
RIP Sly 🙏
#reggae #reggaesky #musicsky #vinyl #vinylsky #slydunbar
Sly was at the forefront of reggae music's development and innovation for decades. His extraordinary drumming on this dub is a personal favourite.
youtu.be/1sAqYgPghGY?...
RIP Sly 🙏
#reggae #reggaesky #musicsky #vinyl #vinylsky #slydunbar
January 26, 2026 at 4:31 PM
Very shocked to hear that Sly Dunbar died earlier today.
Sly was at the forefront of reggae music's development and innovation for decades. His extraordinary drumming on this dub is a personal favourite.
youtu.be/1sAqYgPghGY?...
RIP Sly 🙏
#reggae #reggaesky #musicsky #vinyl #vinylsky #slydunbar
Sly was at the forefront of reggae music's development and innovation for decades. His extraordinary drumming on this dub is a personal favourite.
youtu.be/1sAqYgPghGY?...
RIP Sly 🙏
#reggae #reggaesky #musicsky #vinyl #vinylsky #slydunbar
#lastfourwatched #letterboxdfriday
Mainly #Barbanuary but #Japanuary continues to provide an astonishing range to this mangenue.
Mainly #Barbanuary but #Japanuary continues to provide an astonishing range to this mangenue.
January 23, 2026 at 5:34 PM
#lastfourwatched #letterboxdfriday
Mainly #Barbanuary but #Japanuary continues to provide an astonishing range to this mangenue.
Mainly #Barbanuary but #Japanuary continues to provide an astonishing range to this mangenue.
Raw Nietzschean Stanwyck fucks a railwayman in a cargo train one day, and a randy executive in the ladies' room on another. Then she does his father, for advancement that ultimately proves to be hollow. The original end is better than the bowdlerised edition, but still too tame.
#Barbanuary 2026 #5
#Barbanuary 2026 #5
January 19, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Raw Nietzschean Stanwyck fucks a railwayman in a cargo train one day, and a randy executive in the ladies' room on another. Then she does his father, for advancement that ultimately proves to be hollow. The original end is better than the bowdlerised edition, but still too tame.
#Barbanuary 2026 #5
#Barbanuary 2026 #5
A tough watch in our political climate. Stanwyck and Cooper both terrific, it nails the sickening manipulations of American politics with truth forever negotiable. The ending falls between the (teleo)logical and the sentimental: the schmaltz comes at us like a hanging curveball.
#Barbanuary2026 #4
#Barbanuary2026 #4
January 19, 2026 at 12:51 PM
A tough watch in our political climate. Stanwyck and Cooper both terrific, it nails the sickening manipulations of American politics with truth forever negotiable. The ending falls between the (teleo)logical and the sentimental: the schmaltz comes at us like a hanging curveball.
#Barbanuary2026 #4
#Barbanuary2026 #4
The self-flagellating joy of a vicarious Stanwyck as she reinvents herself via her daughter is miraculous. The banal affectations of allaround her only serve to concentrate Stella's authenticity so she can be reborn in glimmering, glorious and uniquely proud Stanwyckian squalor.
#Barbanuary2026 #3
#Barbanuary2026 #3
January 17, 2026 at 11:12 AM
The self-flagellating joy of a vicarious Stanwyck as she reinvents herself via her daughter is miraculous. The banal affectations of allaround her only serve to concentrate Stella's authenticity so she can be reborn in glimmering, glorious and uniquely proud Stanwyckian squalor.
#Barbanuary2026 #3
#Barbanuary2026 #3
Steeped in traditional Japanese fable, capturing gruesome ambition and male violence; beautiful to watch, but also deeply troubling on the eye. Each male character is vile, goading others to unspeakable acts. Couldn't watch another film for a few days after digesting this.
#Japanuary2026 #10
#Japanuary2026 #10
January 17, 2026 at 11:08 AM
Steeped in traditional Japanese fable, capturing gruesome ambition and male violence; beautiful to watch, but also deeply troubling on the eye. Each male character is vile, goading others to unspeakable acts. Couldn't watch another film for a few days after digesting this.
#Japanuary2026 #10
#Japanuary2026 #10
On Sky Arts this evening. I'm quite fancying it.
If he did, he's got a few things to answer for.
If he did, he's got a few things to answer for.
January 11, 2026 at 5:38 PM
On Sky Arts this evening. I'm quite fancying it.
If he did, he's got a few things to answer for.
If he did, he's got a few things to answer for.
A Pygmalionesque plot echoed as Capra unveils Stanwyck's acting range. The highlight is the sexy scene of unrequited love in Graves’s apartment where her expressive acting is pitch-perfect. Marie Prevost (Sennett and Lubitsch alumnus) is a hoot, and her comic timing is wonderful.
#Barbanuary #1
#Barbanuary #1
January 11, 2026 at 10:57 AM
A Pygmalionesque plot echoed as Capra unveils Stanwyck's acting range. The highlight is the sexy scene of unrequited love in Graves’s apartment where her expressive acting is pitch-perfect. Marie Prevost (Sennett and Lubitsch alumnus) is a hoot, and her comic timing is wonderful.
#Barbanuary #1
#Barbanuary #1
There's a vibe of other films of the era: Czech absurdism, a touch of Losey's Accident (or other early Pinter), maybe Godard's Weekend. More trenchant than any of those, with its unfiltered pacifism and unambiguous disgust at racism. Powerful, funny and unadulterated.
#Japanuary2026 #8
#Japanuary2026 #8
January 10, 2026 at 10:08 AM
There's a vibe of other films of the era: Czech absurdism, a touch of Losey's Accident (or other early Pinter), maybe Godard's Weekend. More trenchant than any of those, with its unfiltered pacifism and unambiguous disgust at racism. Powerful, funny and unadulterated.
#Japanuary2026 #8
#Japanuary2026 #8
The jagged veins of post-war Hiroshima spill copious blood. Hand-held, random, with music that brings lives to screeching ends. Only Hirono, Eastwood-like, abides by the code. The thread of tension between Hirono, Yamamori and his chilling wife is gripping to the end.
#Japanuary2026 #7
#Japanuary2026 #7
January 8, 2026 at 1:40 PM
The jagged veins of post-war Hiroshima spill copious blood. Hand-held, random, with music that brings lives to screeching ends. Only Hirono, Eastwood-like, abides by the code. The thread of tension between Hirono, Yamamori and his chilling wife is gripping to the end.
#Japanuary2026 #7
#Japanuary2026 #7
After a gourmet start to my inaugural Japanuary, this one felt like leftovers.
Too much is going on, requiring a surfeit of disbelief suspension. Initially grounded in some real traumatic history, all descends to mysticism and sentimentality. Could have been so much less muddled.
#Japanuary2026 #6
Too much is going on, requiring a surfeit of disbelief suspension. Initially grounded in some real traumatic history, all descends to mysticism and sentimentality. Could have been so much less muddled.
#Japanuary2026 #6
January 7, 2026 at 3:52 PM
After a gourmet start to my inaugural Japanuary, this one felt like leftovers.
Too much is going on, requiring a surfeit of disbelief suspension. Initially grounded in some real traumatic history, all descends to mysticism and sentimentality. Could have been so much less muddled.
#Japanuary2026 #6
Too much is going on, requiring a surfeit of disbelief suspension. Initially grounded in some real traumatic history, all descends to mysticism and sentimentality. Could have been so much less muddled.
#Japanuary2026 #6
Many Western echoes in such a distinctly Japanese film: Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, even Olivier in Marathon Man. But to transform the torture into a vengeful catharsis of deep-rooted origin, that is where the genius lies.
#Japanuary Film 5
#Japanuary Film 5
January 6, 2026 at 10:32 AM
Many Western echoes in such a distinctly Japanese film: Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, even Olivier in Marathon Man. But to transform the torture into a vengeful catharsis of deep-rooted origin, that is where the genius lies.
#Japanuary Film 5
#Japanuary Film 5
A bout de souffle sans jouissance. Joy is solely destructive in this extraordinary effort, and its only viable syntax is untethered jazz. Brando begat Dean begat Belmondo…. who begat Kawachi. Without any moral shackles.
#Japanuary2026 #4
#Japanuary2026 #4
January 4, 2026 at 10:53 PM
A bout de souffle sans jouissance. Joy is solely destructive in this extraordinary effort, and its only viable syntax is untethered jazz. Brando begat Dean begat Belmondo…. who begat Kawachi. Without any moral shackles.
#Japanuary2026 #4
#Japanuary2026 #4
There is huge economy of plot in this 1960 heist-noir, furiously anti-elitist despite its apparently staid setting. What seems superficially as if it could be a TV crime episode belies a steely and grim moral resolve. Its faux-civilised tone defines passive-aggression. Very fine.
#Japanuary2026 3
#Japanuary2026 3
January 4, 2026 at 12:41 AM
There is huge economy of plot in this 1960 heist-noir, furiously anti-elitist despite its apparently staid setting. What seems superficially as if it could be a TV crime episode belies a steely and grim moral resolve. Its faux-civilised tone defines passive-aggression. Very fine.
#Japanuary2026 3
#Japanuary2026 3
Multilayered, vital. Visually and thematically it moves from landscape to portrait mode, as the characters slowly discover social modi operandi that are unfamiliar to them. The camera's humanity transcends the aridly procedural to make a wonder of where we may arrive.
#Japanuary2026 #2.
#Japanuary2026 #2.
January 1, 2026 at 11:24 PM
Multilayered, vital. Visually and thematically it moves from landscape to portrait mode, as the characters slowly discover social modi operandi that are unfamiliar to them. The camera's humanity transcends the aridly procedural to make a wonder of where we may arrive.
#Japanuary2026 #2.
#Japanuary2026 #2.
A film about impotence (creative/sexual) captured through juddering hand-held shots, flecked with monochrome flashes of destructive light masquerading as power, mediated by gangland punk violence. The urban landscape holds nothing save a bleak yet beautiful death drive.
#Japanuary2026 Film 1
#Japanuary2026 Film 1
January 1, 2026 at 9:33 AM
A film about impotence (creative/sexual) captured through juddering hand-held shots, flecked with monochrome flashes of destructive light masquerading as power, mediated by gangland punk violence. The urban landscape holds nothing save a bleak yet beautiful death drive.
#Japanuary2026 Film 1
#Japanuary2026 Film 1