Robin Baker
@robinalexbaker.bsky.social
Film. TV. Archaeology. Pottery. Photography. Novels and short stories. Design. India. London. West Dorset 🌻 🍉
Linktree: https://t.co/YEqJmhdXY0
Linktree: https://t.co/YEqJmhdXY0
Richard Burton was born 100 years ago today.
This is a publicity shot for an early Burton big screen starring role - as a smuggler in the Ealingesque comedy GREEN GROW THE RUSHES (Derek Twist, UK, 1951).
This is a publicity shot for an early Burton big screen starring role - as a smuggler in the Ealingesque comedy GREEN GROW THE RUSHES (Derek Twist, UK, 1951).
November 10, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Richard Burton was born 100 years ago today.
This is a publicity shot for an early Burton big screen starring role - as a smuggler in the Ealingesque comedy GREEN GROW THE RUSHES (Derek Twist, UK, 1951).
This is a publicity shot for an early Burton big screen starring role - as a smuggler in the Ealingesque comedy GREEN GROW THE RUSHES (Derek Twist, UK, 1951).
1/5. Guru Dutt’s MR AND MRS ’55 (India, 1955) is currently available on Channel 4 Player, which is cause for celebration. If you don’t know Dutt (here as director, producer and lead actor) in light romantic mode, this is a joy. His performance is beautifully tender and understated.
October 26, 2025 at 8:34 AM
1/5. Guru Dutt’s MR AND MRS ’55 (India, 1955) is currently available on Channel 4 Player, which is cause for celebration. If you don’t know Dutt (here as director, producer and lead actor) in light romantic mode, this is a joy. His performance is beautifully tender and understated.
That’s great to know. I haven’t seen it, but I love this photo that was taken during the interview
October 17, 2025 at 6:17 AM
That’s great to know. I haven’t seen it, but I love this photo that was taken during the interview
Angela Lansbury would have been 100 today. Which is more than sufficient excuse post this publicity shot by Keith Hamshere, taken to promote Death in the Nile (1978). Lansbury's scenery-chewing performance as Salome Otterbourne is a joy.
October 16, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Angela Lansbury would have been 100 today. Which is more than sufficient excuse post this publicity shot by Keith Hamshere, taken to promote Death in the Nile (1978). Lansbury's scenery-chewing performance as Salome Otterbourne is a joy.
2/2. I hope that the destruction of Gaza is being fully documented right now and the films of it are preserved. In 100+ years time, people still need to be able to see the horror that innocent Palestinians have had (and continue) to endure and question how it was allowed to happen.
October 13, 2025 at 8:44 AM
2/2. I hope that the destruction of Gaza is being fully documented right now and the films of it are preserved. In 100+ years time, people still need to be able to see the horror that innocent Palestinians have had (and continue) to endure and question how it was allowed to happen.
1/2. I watched 'En dirigeable sur les champs de bataille' (1919) for the first time a few years ago. These are just short extracts from the 72 min film, recording the destruction across northern France that took place during WW1. The horror of watching it is overwhelming.
October 13, 2025 at 8:44 AM
1/2. I watched 'En dirigeable sur les champs de bataille' (1919) for the first time a few years ago. These are just short extracts from the 72 min film, recording the destruction across northern France that took place during WW1. The horror of watching it is overwhelming.
The severed faces of ancient statues always make me look longer and harder. For a classically handsome face - usually notable for its symmetry - this chap has a wonderfully skewy nose.
From the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Bodrum, Turkey), c350 BCE. Now in the British Museum.
From the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Bodrum, Turkey), c350 BCE. Now in the British Museum.
October 3, 2025 at 11:16 AM
The severed faces of ancient statues always make me look longer and harder. For a classically handsome face - usually notable for its symmetry - this chap has a wonderfully skewy nose.
From the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Bodrum, Turkey), c350 BCE. Now in the British Museum.
From the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Bodrum, Turkey), c350 BCE. Now in the British Museum.
3/3. I wondered if the film on screen was an invention of Roberts, or whether it was based on an actual film? It looks very much like a western. Other than that, there appear to be very few clues.
September 28, 2025 at 7:38 AM
3/3. I wondered if the film on screen was an invention of Roberts, or whether it was based on an actual film? It looks very much like a western. Other than that, there appear to be very few clues.
2/3. Tate's catalogue states that the painting is "based on a small cinema in Warren Street which is now used as a television studio." But this map of London's silent cinemas - www.map.londonssilentcinemas.com/dhp-projects... - shows no evidence of a cinema on Warren Street. Any thoughts?
September 28, 2025 at 7:38 AM
2/3. Tate's catalogue states that the painting is "based on a small cinema in Warren Street which is now used as a television studio." But this map of London's silent cinemas - www.map.londonssilentcinemas.com/dhp-projects... - shows no evidence of a cinema on Warren Street. Any thoughts?
1/3. The Cinema (1920) by William Roberts - on display at Tate Britain. I love this painting, especially some of the details such as the pianist glimpsed through a gap in the curtains. But it posed a couple of questions that maybe silent film friends might be able to help answer.
September 28, 2025 at 7:38 AM
1/3. The Cinema (1920) by William Roberts - on display at Tate Britain. I love this painting, especially some of the details such as the pianist glimpsed through a gap in the curtains. But it posed a couple of questions that maybe silent film friends might be able to help answer.
2/2. There's a vein of surrealism running through Jennings' films as he seeks strangeness in the everyday - such as the sequence of the kazoo band in SPARE TIME, also made in 1939. But today was the first time that I had seen one of his surrealist paintings. It's on display at Tate Britain.
September 27, 2025 at 7:11 PM
2/2. There's a vein of surrealism running through Jennings' films as he seeks strangeness in the everyday - such as the sequence of the kazoo band in SPARE TIME, also made in 1939. But today was the first time that I had seen one of his surrealist paintings. It's on display at Tate Britain.
1/2. Swiss Roll by Humphrey Jennings, 1939.
The man who gave us some of the most potent and poetic wartime propaganda films also gave us a sponge cake juxtaposed by the Matterhorn.
The man who gave us some of the most potent and poetic wartime propaganda films also gave us a sponge cake juxtaposed by the Matterhorn.
September 27, 2025 at 7:11 PM
1/2. Swiss Roll by Humphrey Jennings, 1939.
The man who gave us some of the most potent and poetic wartime propaganda films also gave us a sponge cake juxtaposed by the Matterhorn.
The man who gave us some of the most potent and poetic wartime propaganda films also gave us a sponge cake juxtaposed by the Matterhorn.
I loved ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025), but spent the second half wishing that the film was the potential masterpiece I thought it might be during the first half.
September 27, 2025 at 8:07 AM
I loved ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025), but spent the second half wishing that the film was the potential masterpiece I thought it might be during the first half.
2/3. Sergey Urusevsky's cinematography is remarkable, especially the tracking shots across the inhospitable landscapes. I would love to find out more about the production. What the actors must have endured on location makes Lillian Gish's experience on an ice floe in WAY DOWN EAST (1920) look tame.
September 27, 2025 at 7:43 AM
2/3. Sergey Urusevsky's cinematography is remarkable, especially the tracking shots across the inhospitable landscapes. I would love to find out more about the production. What the actors must have endured on location makes Lillian Gish's experience on an ice floe in WAY DOWN EAST (1920) look tame.
1/3. Figures in a landscape - LETTER NEVER SENT (Mikhail Kalatozov, USSR, 1960). My second Kalatozov of the week. It's a 'survival' film - 4 young geologists battling the elements in a remote part of Siberia - driven as much by a sense of impending terror as by the dangerous beauty of the landscape.
September 27, 2025 at 7:43 AM
1/3. Figures in a landscape - LETTER NEVER SENT (Mikhail Kalatozov, USSR, 1960). My second Kalatozov of the week. It's a 'survival' film - 4 young geologists battling the elements in a remote part of Siberia - driven as much by a sense of impending terror as by the dangerous beauty of the landscape.
1/2. THE CRANES ARE FLYING (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957) comes highly recommended. It has the energy of nouvelle vague with the poetry of Jean Vigo. This is one of many sequences that show the brilliance of Kalatozov, cinematographer Sergey Urusevsky, editor Mariya Timofeyeva and star Tatiana Samoilova.
September 25, 2025 at 9:28 AM
1/2. THE CRANES ARE FLYING (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957) comes highly recommended. It has the energy of nouvelle vague with the poetry of Jean Vigo. This is one of many sequences that show the brilliance of Kalatozov, cinematographer Sergey Urusevsky, editor Mariya Timofeyeva and star Tatiana Samoilova.
The line-up for 2025's Channel 4 South Asian Film Season has just been announced. Highlights include Guru Dutt's MR AND MRS '55 (1955) and JOYLAND (Saim Sadiq, 2022). Nasreen Munni Kabir has been programming the season since the 80s. It's a remarkable achievement www.channel4.com/4viewers/blo...
September 23, 2025 at 2:23 PM
The line-up for 2025's Channel 4 South Asian Film Season has just been announced. Highlights include Guru Dutt's MR AND MRS '55 (1955) and JOYLAND (Saim Sadiq, 2022). Nasreen Munni Kabir has been programming the season since the 80s. It's a remarkable achievement www.channel4.com/4viewers/blo...
Erich von Stroheim was born 140 years ago today, which is more than sufficient excuse to post this publicity still of him taken to promote FOOLISH WIVES (1922).
It's a shame that more actor/directors don't don silk shirt, knickerbockers, girdle, stockings and suspenders for the camera.
It's a shame that more actor/directors don't don silk shirt, knickerbockers, girdle, stockings and suspenders for the camera.
September 22, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Erich von Stroheim was born 140 years ago today, which is more than sufficient excuse to post this publicity still of him taken to promote FOOLISH WIVES (1922).
It's a shame that more actor/directors don't don silk shirt, knickerbockers, girdle, stockings and suspenders for the camera.
It's a shame that more actor/directors don't don silk shirt, knickerbockers, girdle, stockings and suspenders for the camera.
Delighted to be participating in the Film Heritage Foundation's Film Preservation & Restoration Workshop. I'll be teaching the sessions on programming archive film.
12–19 Nov, Bhubaneswar, India
Applications close on Sep 26
filmheritagefoundation.co.in/film-preserv...
12–19 Nov, Bhubaneswar, India
Applications close on Sep 26
filmheritagefoundation.co.in/film-preserv...
September 19, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Delighted to be participating in the Film Heritage Foundation's Film Preservation & Restoration Workshop. I'll be teaching the sessions on programming archive film.
12–19 Nov, Bhubaneswar, India
Applications close on Sep 26
filmheritagefoundation.co.in/film-preserv...
12–19 Nov, Bhubaneswar, India
Applications close on Sep 26
filmheritagefoundation.co.in/film-preserv...
Robert Redford enjoys a pint under Waterloo Bridge, London, 1973.
September 16, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Robert Redford enjoys a pint under Waterloo Bridge, London, 1973.
It's Comb-Over Night on BBC Four. Robert Robinson in an edition of CALL MY BLUFF from 1982 and Joseph Cooper presenting FACE THE MUSIC in 1975.
September 15, 2025 at 8:44 PM
It's Comb-Over Night on BBC Four. Robert Robinson in an edition of CALL MY BLUFF from 1982 and Joseph Cooper presenting FACE THE MUSIC in 1975.
Faces and noir lighting in THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (Fritz Lang, 1944) - shot by Milton Krasner. I watched the film back-to-back with Lang's SCARLET STREET (see previous post) - a very rewarding experience. You can watch THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW here www.youtube.com/watch?v=URMX...
September 15, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Faces and noir lighting in THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (Fritz Lang, 1944) - shot by Milton Krasner. I watched the film back-to-back with Lang's SCARLET STREET (see previous post) - a very rewarding experience. You can watch THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW here www.youtube.com/watch?v=URMX...
2/2. Decker was commissioned by a range of Hollywood stars including John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers and Greta Garbo, who he painted as the Mona Lisa. He also painted caricatures of lead actors of the period - here's a taster.
September 15, 2025 at 4:49 PM
2/2. Decker was commissioned by a range of Hollywood stars including John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers and Greta Garbo, who he painted as the Mona Lisa. He also painted caricatures of lead actors of the period - here's a taster.
1/2. In SCARLET STREET (Fritz Lang, 1945) Edward G Robinson plays an amateur artist. His paintings were created for the film by John Decker. I wonder what happened to his striking portrait of Joan Bennett?
You can watch the film here www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjwz...
You can watch the film here www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjwz...
September 15, 2025 at 4:49 PM
1/2. In SCARLET STREET (Fritz Lang, 1945) Edward G Robinson plays an amateur artist. His paintings were created for the film by John Decker. I wonder what happened to his striking portrait of Joan Bennett?
You can watch the film here www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjwz...
You can watch the film here www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjwz...
The Albert Memorial last night pre-Prom.
September 9, 2025 at 3:23 PM
The Albert Memorial last night pre-Prom.