Corn-u-copia

From GFF to The BFG, plus what's new at thehaughtyculturist.com

Hello to you! I hope you’re well? I’ve got lots to tell you about, including fresh content on the site, news from Glasgow Film Festival 2023, and an editor’s note about the Roald Dahl controversy. Enough gabbing; let’s get into it.

New to the site

Fresh takes on old stories, and reviews of new films

1. Body horror and transformation in The Fly (1986)
Unpacking the 80s classic, and thinking about metamorphosis

2. Fight Club (1999) explained: vandals with dirty faces
One of the most requested films for commentary, FYI. Maybe we’re all Tyler Durden?

3. Knock at the Cabin | Review
Where does Knock at the Cabin sit on the Shyamalan spectrum?

4. Columbo | Murder Under Glass
A renowned food writer has been cooking the books and will kill to keep his secret. Let’s hope he doesn’t come after me for my puns

COMING SOON

The high camp, Gothic excess of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. Useful pre-reading: a guide to vampires in film and fiction.

Alt-cinema: Glasgow Film Festival 2023

Glasgow Film Festival has been going since 2005 - and it’s back for another run. This year’s selection encompasses a broad variety of alt and indie cinema, and runs 1 - 12 March. Not in Scotland? Well, neither am I, but I’ll be covering highlights over the coming weeks, so we can all share the goodness.

First up, As Bestas (The Beasts) is a taut, true-life story of boundaries and bad neighbours. Meanwhile, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock gives us Hitchcock in his own words. Kinda.

The Roald Dahl dichotomy

It’s been a controversial month for Roald Dahl’s legacy. Puffin, publisher of his childen’s books, found themselves in a sticky situation after changing Dahl’s words to make them less abrasive. Edits softened or removed the books’ more dated descriptions, i.e., calling people fat, ugly or bald.

What’s interesting about the furore is that it highlights how we talk about wickedness, or show opprobrium in stories and society. No wonder our Hollywood heroes and heroines are so flawless. Not to mention skinny.

This isn’t the first time Dahl has been edited (though with his oversight). See his complicated legacy via Time.com.

I won’t be amending Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s warnings for naughty children in light of the latest controversy. My commentary is based on a particular edition of the book, which is made clear in the footnote. More to the point, the book has always been a double-edged sword - and quite cruel - to its child characters. A redemptive story of the underdog? Not at all: it’s a fairy tale … claws ‘n’ all.

That’s all for now! Happy reading, thinking and wondering, wherever you are.

Ruth / The HC

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Pic credit: thank you, Estúdio Bloom

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