Charles Drazin
@charlesdrazin.bsky.social
How Cavalcanti's return to Paris led to a great British film noir: www.charlesdrazin.com/post/british...
British Noir in Paris
It was a great pleasure last Friday to be able to talk about British film noir at a conference in Paris. The general feeling that participants seemed to have at the end of this three-day event was tha...
www.charlesdrazin.com
November 11, 2025 at 5:08 PM
How Cavalcanti's return to Paris led to a great British film noir: www.charlesdrazin.com/post/british...
Why people fell for #BriefEncounter? This piece in today's Guardian doesn't really offer an answer. But nor could its producer Tony Havelock-Allan, although he spoke more perceptively about the film than anyone else I know: www.charlesdrazin.com/post/brief-e...
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
Brief Encounter at 80: why we’re still falling for David Lean’s 1945 romance
The story of hot tea and unconsummated love hails from a very different era – and was far from easy to make. Yet it remains a key influence for film-makers from Sofia Coppola to Celine Song, James Ivo...
www.theguardian.com
November 4, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Why people fell for #BriefEncounter? This piece in today's Guardian doesn't really offer an answer. But nor could its producer Tony Havelock-Allan, although he spoke more perceptively about the film than anyone else I know: www.charlesdrazin.com/post/brief-e...
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
It was rather novel for me a few months ago to be asked to talk about a novel – "The French Lieutenant's Woman" by John Fowles, which Anthony Burgess chose as one of the best novels in English since 1939. Here is a link to the podcast.
www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-posts/n...
www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-posts/n...
Ninety-Nine Novels: The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles - The International Anthony Burgess Foundation
In 1984, Anthony Burgess published Ninety-Nine Novels, a selection of his favourite novels in English since 1939. The list is typically idiosyncratic, and shows the breadth of Burgess’s interest in fi...
www.anthonyburgess.org
October 30, 2025 at 8:50 AM
It was rather novel for me a few months ago to be asked to talk about a novel – "The French Lieutenant's Woman" by John Fowles, which Anthony Burgess chose as one of the best novels in English since 1939. Here is a link to the podcast.
www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-posts/n...
www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-posts/n...
After having some time ago pointed out the resemblance of the “Bond for Bond” book cover to Film Finances’ boardroom cushions, I was sent this picture of a Dr No frock. Really looking forward to the day when the owner turns up at the Film Finances office.
October 2, 2025 at 10:49 AM
After having some time ago pointed out the resemblance of the “Bond for Bond” book cover to Film Finances’ boardroom cushions, I was sent this picture of a Dr No frock. Really looking forward to the day when the owner turns up at the Film Finances office.
We were very pleased at Film Finances to be able to provide Justin Doherty with a few old documents for his book on "Don't Look Now" – a great example of independent book-making, which was obviously a labour of love. www.theguardian.com/film/gallery...
Shocking red: behind the scenes on classic horror Don’t Look Now – in pictures
Released in 1973, Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now is regularly acclaimed as a high point of British cinema, and a new book collects hundreds of images from the film’s production, many of them previously...
www.theguardian.com
October 1, 2025 at 8:14 AM
We were very pleased at Film Finances to be able to provide Justin Doherty with a few old documents for his book on "Don't Look Now" – a great example of independent book-making, which was obviously a labour of love. www.theguardian.com/film/gallery...
Chris Sarandon in today's Guardian: “Michael Winner,” he groans. “Don’t get me started." I know what he means!
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/remembe...
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/remembe...
Remembering Michael Winner
I had no idea that the whole thing was being filmed. This photograph, from forty years ago, February 1985, captures the moment when I decided that the time had come to give up my first job in the film...
www.charlesdrazin.com
September 25, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Chris Sarandon in today's Guardian: “Michael Winner,” he groans. “Don’t get me started." I know what he means!
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/remembe...
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/remembe...
It was a pleasure to be able to introduce Zoltàn Korda's "Cry, the Beloved Country" last Saturday during the Budapest Classics Film Marathon. One of the highlights was experiencing a brief moment of infinity in the lobby of the Urania cinema. www.charlesdrazin.com/post/zolt%C3...
September 22, 2025 at 10:54 AM
It was a pleasure to be able to introduce Zoltàn Korda's "Cry, the Beloved Country" last Saturday during the Budapest Classics Film Marathon. One of the highlights was experiencing a brief moment of infinity in the lobby of the Urania cinema. www.charlesdrazin.com/post/zolt%C3...
I can't believe it's taken me ten years to notice, but Film Finances' boardroom cushions – by some pleasing serendipity – are colour-coded to match the cover of my book on the company's role in the making of "Dr No". Accident beats the algorithm!
September 4, 2025 at 11:09 AM
I can't believe it's taken me ten years to notice, but Film Finances' boardroom cushions – by some pleasing serendipity – are colour-coded to match the cover of my book on the company's role in the making of "Dr No". Accident beats the algorithm!
#JohnFowles on #TerenceStamp in #TheCollector: "Most girls would give their all to get in a cellar with him."
August 18, 2025 at 11:31 AM
#JohnFowles on #TerenceStamp in #TheCollector: "Most girls would give their all to get in a cellar with him."
Horribile dictu! The Grim Reaper is now swinging his scythe through the Swinging Sixties. RIP #TerenceStamp #filmsky
August 17, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Horribile dictu! The Grim Reaper is now swinging his scythe through the Swinging Sixties. RIP #TerenceStamp #filmsky
Nobel prizewinner on the future of AI in today's Guardian: “Assuming we steward it safely and responsibly into the world, ... then we should be in a world of what I sometimes call radical abundance.” Time for some monster laughter.
August 4, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Nobel prizewinner on the future of AI in today's Guardian: “Assuming we steward it safely and responsibly into the world, ... then we should be in a world of what I sometimes call radical abundance.” Time for some monster laughter.
#Casablanca: where Europe and Hollywood meet. The oldest café in Paris was a good place to talk about it.
#filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/casabla...
#filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/casabla...
Casablanca at the Café Italien
After the screening, we walked down the rue Dauphine, then into the rue de l’Ancienne Comédie. It’s one of the charms of Paris that a street could be given such a name. In London – which you might ha...
https://www.charlesdrazin.com/post/casablanca-at-the-café-italien
July 13, 2025 at 11:40 AM
#Casablanca: where Europe and Hollywood meet. The oldest café in Paris was a good place to talk about it.
#filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/casabla...
#filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/casabla...
Working hard to keep the skies blue!
June 25, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Working hard to keep the skies blue!
A marvellous sight: swallows at #VauxleVicomte on the longest day. www.charlesdrazin.com/post/vaux-le...
Vaux-le-Vicomte and the Swallows
I hadn’t seen the house in fifteen years. I was invited to visit again last Saturday to talk to a tour party about Nicolas Fouquet, the brilliant finance minister of the young Louis XIV. I had writt...
www.charlesdrazin.com
June 23, 2025 at 2:32 PM
A marvellous sight: swallows at #VauxleVicomte on the longest day. www.charlesdrazin.com/post/vaux-le...
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." What a difference four years makes even in #RichmondPark. The inscription is almost gone and the only thing that hasn't changed is the dead tree (although it has lost a few twigs)!
June 19, 2025 at 6:43 AM
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." What a difference four years makes even in #RichmondPark. The inscription is almost gone and the only thing that hasn't changed is the dead tree (although it has lost a few twigs)!
Forty-three years ago today, #LindsayAnderson’s #BritanniaHospital received a warm reception at the Cannes Film Festival. But it was a different story when it then opened a few days later in a Britain at war.
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/britann...
#filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/britann...
#filmsky
Britannia Hospital: Bad Timing
It was a brilliant, shocking poster that made you sit up if not lose your head. The trouble was that eight thousand miles away British soldiers were now in serious risk of losing theirs as the Falklan...
www.charlesdrazin.com
May 24, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Forty-three years ago today, #LindsayAnderson’s #BritanniaHospital received a warm reception at the Cannes Film Festival. But it was a different story when it then opened a few days later in a Britain at war.
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/britann...
#filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/britann...
#filmsky
Here is the amazing story of the man who produced #CaryGrant's only British movie, the greatest unsung hero of independent film-making.
#filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/cary-gr...
#filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/cary-gr...
Cary Grant and the Real Mr Bliss
a.k.a. The Amazing Adventure of Robert Garrett: As this piece is partly about a film that has three different names, it seems fitting to give it another title that contains the name of the person who ...
www.charlesdrazin.com
May 13, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Here is the amazing story of the man who produced #CaryGrant's only British movie, the greatest unsung hero of independent film-making.
#filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/cary-gr...
#filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/cary-gr...
The Netflix documentary #BritainandtheBlitz suffers from comparison with the great wartime documentaries about the Blitz, which it plunders but does not credit.
#NetflixUK #filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/faking-...
#NetflixUK #filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/faking-...
Faking the Blitz
Britain and the Blitz describes itself as an “immersive documentary” that “tells the story of how the country responded” to eight months of daily bombing from Nazi Germany. But it’s much more make-bel...
www.charlesdrazin.com
May 11, 2025 at 5:55 PM
The Netflix documentary #BritainandtheBlitz suffers from comparison with the great wartime documentaries about the Blitz, which it plunders but does not credit.
#NetflixUK #filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/faking-...
#NetflixUK #filmsky
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/faking-...
David Sherwin's book "Going Mad in Hollywood" ends with a quote from Lindsay Anderson: “Only three things are real: God, human folly, and laughter…” I thought of that line early this morning when I discovered who President Trump’s Hollywood adviser was. www.charlesdrazin.com/post/going-m...
Going Mad over Hollywood
When I read yesterday that Trump was calling for a 100 per cent tariff on foreign movies, I thought to myself, I wonder who could have put him up to that? Then I learned that the Three Wise Men who ad...
www.charlesdrazin.com
May 6, 2025 at 8:18 AM
David Sherwin's book "Going Mad in Hollywood" ends with a quote from Lindsay Anderson: “Only three things are real: God, human folly, and laughter…” I thought of that line early this morning when I discovered who President Trump’s Hollywood adviser was. www.charlesdrazin.com/post/going-m...
A good day to watch #ADiaryforTimothy: "Are you going to have greed for money or power outsting decency from the world, as they have in the past? Or are you going to make the world a different place?"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uua...
#filmsky
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uua...
#filmsky
Diary For Timothy
YouTube video by Nuclear Vault
www.youtube.com
May 5, 2025 at 12:41 PM
A good day to watch #ADiaryforTimothy: "Are you going to have greed for money or power outsting decency from the world, as they have in the past? Or are you going to make the world a different place?"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uua...
#filmsky
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uua...
#filmsky
True grit and false grit: why it is best to leave alone a masterpiece. www.charlesdrazin.com/post/brief-e...
#filmsky #BriefEncounter
#filmsky #BriefEncounter
May 3, 2025 at 3:03 PM
True grit and false grit: why it is best to leave alone a masterpiece. www.charlesdrazin.com/post/brief-e...
#filmsky #BriefEncounter
#filmsky #BriefEncounter
It required a certain kind of courage to re-make #BriefEncounter in 1974. The Sophia Loren/Richard Burton version had very little chance of living up to the original, but none the less it has its own strange fascination.
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/brief-e...
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/brief-e...
Brief Encounter 2
It requires only a brief encounter with the 1974 remake of Brief Encounter to appreciate what a bad film it is. The first mistake, of course, was to attempt to remake such an iconic film at all. “If t...
www.charlesdrazin.com
May 1, 2025 at 2:35 PM
It required a certain kind of courage to re-make #BriefEncounter in 1974. The Sophia Loren/Richard Burton version had very little chance of living up to the original, but none the less it has its own strange fascination.
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/brief-e...
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/brief-e...
The story of how a short film about London burning tried to make the world free.
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/london-...
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/london-...
London Can Take It!
As “America First” 2025 approaches the heights of alarming insularity, it’s worth thinking back to 1940, when, in spite of the same ostrich instinct, enough Americans realised that what was happening ...
www.charlesdrazin.com
April 28, 2025 at 10:20 AM
The story of how a short film about London burning tried to make the world free.
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/london-...
www.charlesdrazin.com/post/london-...