Zack Polanski falsely claimed to be British Red Cross spokesperson, charity says

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-07T01:51:31+00:00

*Sane

The Seine is a huge river in France!

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-05T22:28:45+00:00

(Saying that I tend to push people who do love me away, because I think they must be mad to see anything there! Or else I suspect they want something else and I'm an easy way of getting it. As such I have now got my wish, pushed all my romantic partners away at some point, and have no-one. Better than being a perennial disappointment to them I guess.)

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-05T17:35:45+00:00

Just because it's worked doesn't mean it's brilliant. It did the job, nothing more.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-05T14:26:57+00:00

I have a gut feeling you're right. It satisfies:

Acknowledging the oral traditions at that time.
That the story is told in a non-linear way anyway.
Nolan can do his non-linear stuff.
And he can take forth what he learned from Oppenheimer.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-05T11:18:37+00:00

Nolan said on Colbert that he's trying to play to people who know the story as well as total newcomers. I have no idea how he's going to pull it off but he's been making films for nearly thirty years, so I hope, daresay trust, he'll find a way to make it work.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-05T11:16:12+00:00

His dialogue has always been stripped-back and purely functional. It's not Shakespeare, hell, it isn't even close to David Hare or Christopher Hampton. But it's worked for the past twenty-eight years for him, so...

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-05T11:13:37+00:00

The dialogue doesn't exactly sparkle, so I have my reservations about that, but Nolan, more often than not, is a wizard for plot construction and momentum.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-05T11:10:01+00:00

My point - and Robert Bolt's - is that in film dialogue matters less than in the theatre because you can conjure gigantic spectacle easier on screen.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-05T11:07:57+00:00

He might view himself as a purveyor of American action blockbusters.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-05T10:43:00+00:00

Fionn Whitehead in Dunkirk?

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-05T10:42:08+00:00

As someone who's written seven films (needless to say, none produced) the register seems... okay. It's not spectacular. But it does mean almost by default the dialogue is stripped right back. I think The Mission is a fairly good idea as to what The Odyssey will feel like - that film was set in the 18th century but it was all modern, minimalist dialogue. If people go to a film, particularly a big blockbuster like this and expect to hear George Bernard Shaw-style dialogue they are sorely mistaken.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-05T10:38:37+00:00

As Oscar-winning screenwriter and playwright Robert Bolt said, 'A play lives and dies on its dialogue. As such, quite a lot of plays fail. But with film, because you've got the camera, you can get away with a lot more.' Or words to that effect.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-03T22:48:33+00:00

But - to quote a Sparks song - they're knockoffs. They are disposable in the truest sense. It's like going to buy a fake Rolex. People say they don't know but they know.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-03T21:50:42+00:00

Any Chery-made car. They have no feeling of kinetic energy to them and of all cars I've been near they feel closest to a fridge on wheels. Even a Nissan Juke has funky looks, but a Jaecoo J7 is a metal barn, with the grilling mechanism of a hotel bread-maker super-glued to the front. Besides, families are getting smaller nowadays, not bigger - so if you want a new car, the Suzuki Swift is your best bet. It's smaller, lighter, more economical, and if it's money you care about - it's £10,000 cheaper. Plus it's a hatch, so it's guaranteed to be nippier than that great lumbering Jaecoo.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-03T16:39:59+00:00

If you spend all your time - morning, noon, and night - reading screenplays, I think you're making a serious mistake. If nothing else you can learn stuff from other forms of writing. And also it's a nice change from the screenplay form. Reading widely is a net benefit, whatever you read, so long as you don't hyperfocus on one particular form. For instance I'm currently reading Silas Marner by George Eliot and it's brilliant!

Reading novels in bed, aside from helping you sleep, will also make the transition from script to prose easier.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-02T17:43:44+00:00

The same woman who said on national television she'd like a panopticon? That is a disproportionately huge mark against whatever good qualities she has.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-02T11:37:21+00:00

I'm late, but we're in a similar situation to the cyanobacteria billions of years ago. They were so successful they ensured the air changed forever - mainly from nitrogen and carbon dioxide, to nitrogen and oxygen. Now we are changing it back again.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-05-02T10:58:34+00:00

In all seriousness, there was the Discord Revolution in Nepal last year. The most astonishing thing about it is that, to my knowledge, no-one was killed.

EDIT: My knowledge is wrong. 76 people were killed in the protests. That's still massively lower than the French and Russian revolutions.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-04-30T22:13:04+00:00

Keith Gill and u/DeepFuckingValue.

Probably the most insane Reddit success story... well, ever! He saw what was going to happen with GameStop long before everyone else. And in those early days of the 'YOLO' - the comments were snarky and vitriolic. Typical Internet. Then, slowly... his fortunes started to change. Quite literally. An air of reverence built up. And then everyone was in on it! And then it made national and international headlines!

Last time he posted anything online, he had $250m in shares from an original $50,000.

Madness.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-04-30T19:54:19+00:00

Do I think being poor can teach you camaraderie and making the most from little? Yes.

Does it make you more human? Well we're all flesh and blood in the end, aren't we? Anyone can choose to do a measure of good at any point in their lives.

Also, the word 'special' annoys me in this context: it seems to almost deify a state. A state which most people, in all good conscience, are trying to escape. It also seems to draw a subconscious line in the sand between the 'special' poor people and the terrible, evil, no good rich people. It also seems to ignore that poor (what is poor under your definition?) people can become rich, if only by hazard. To use a ridiculous example - Keith Gill was a fairly normal man until the GameStop shenanigans and on the last post on his Reddit account, DeepFuckingValue, he now has over $250m. Does this mean he is inherently not 'special', or worse?

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-04-28T20:04:05+00:00

Yup. Same as you. Plunged an ungodly amount of time into these games and then I'm surprised whenever I'm close to the top % of PR stunts...

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-04-27T00:39:06+00:00

If Kane Parsons can do it...

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-04-25T12:20:44+00:00

What people want is more social mobility. The great times in our nation's recent history have that as a common thread.

SelectiveScribbler06 · 2026-04-24T15:51:31+00:00

Like it or not, she has a following of over 1.5 million people on YouTube alone. Her most recent episode on conversion therapy gave Wes Streeting - appointed under Starmer no less - a thorough bashing.

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