1,000th post ...

Here it is, the 1,000th post. When I began this blog 3 years ago I never imagined I would clock up a thousand posts ... I said I would take a break then, and in fact I am flying out tomorrow morning for a trip to Ireland - weather permitting, we are having a hurricane here at the moment, but its blowing out now, trains and transport should resume during the morning .... / Right: Scorsese's Italian cinema masterclass.

The blog - pages and pages of it - I am pleased with it and its given me the chance to write about the movies and people I like, as well as books and music - and all those magazines like "Films & Filming". I now want to get back to that manuscript I was tinkering with and complete that. 

Its not farewell though _ I shall be looking in and adding comments and photos and reviews as and when. 
I have enjoyed looking back at all the stuff I was doing in the early 70s, meeting and seeing lots of those stars still active then, my 60s in Swinging London, and that great era for me: 1954 - 1964 co-inciding with my early moviegoing years in Ireland (above: the first film I saw, aged 8, JOHNNY GUITAR - which I still love now too). during that great period for international cinema, and then my London years starting in 1964 in time for that new era .... then those groovy '70s and on to the '80s and '90s to now. 

 
The movies - whether a silent classic (take a bow THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD, and I have Murnau's SUNRISE lined up to watch on Blu-ray) or a Buster Keaton, a '30s screwball, a '40s noir, a '50s epic/western/musical/drama/peplum or a '60s New Wave Italian or French arthouse treat or a Hitchcock classic or a prime slice of Trash, a '70s New American Cinema classic or Eurotrash, or a current blockbuster! - are all grist to our mill here, being a movie omnivore. We love the camp side of showbiz too, as well as the great actors and directors - check out those Showpeople ! 
Then there is the pleasure in discovering long unseen movies which become new favourites: LA NOTTE BRAVA, THE LONG NIGHT OF '43, BALLAD OF A SOLDIER, THE LETTER NOT SENT, BLACK ORPHEUS etc.

"I'm discovered on a rather simple divan ..."

Kay does great feather boa in RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE (click images to enlarge)

The labels (and  archive) for the main categories will bring up all I have done on those topics:

People We Like, Glamour, Showpeople, Trash, French, Italian, Russian, British, London, Gay Interest, TV, Theatre etc. as well as all those decades: 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and those great years like 1954, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1962, '67, '69, '72 etc  ...
as well as all those Names.  "Names, sweetie, names" ....  You will find them all here - at the labels:

Dirk, Sophia, Monica, Marilyn, Lee, Susan, Katharine, Bette, Cary, Alain, Claudia, Romy, Belmondo, Deneuve, Dorleac, Anouk, Jean, Deborah, Brando, Ingrid, Judy, James, Julie, Greta, Marlene, Gina, Janet, Newman, Belinda, Lana, Antonioni, Wilder, Hitchcock, Losey, Huston, Demy, Cukor, Minnelli, Mankiewicz, De Sica, Von Sternberg, Joni Mitchell, David Hockney and more ....

So, after my holiday, I shall post here those Appreciations I did on Bogarde and Loren some years ago, from IMDb.

I used to have up to 9 or 10 posts per page here, but now it seems down to 3 or 4 ....