If Claude is looking anxious, he has good reason. According to the latest Radio Times, Andrew Davies has been talking to Tom Hollander (who wants to play Quasimodo) about doing an adaptation of NDdP…

Andrew Davies…

I am already worried about his Les Misérables…

Had a super time, though a few disappointments: the ferry took longer than expected to unload at Zeebrugge, so we ended up having only 3hrs 45 min in Lille, and the late 18C room (Boilly and David) was closed for refurbishment. So no chance to see the Little Darling… They don't even do a postcard ( Read more... )

In the Rue d’Arcole… I started to have Fawlty Towers imaginings of what it would be like if run by the characters… Quasimodo as a waiter, mishearing orders and spilling stuff. Claude in the kitchen, having to be dissuaded from using it for alchemy experiments, or doing weird Heston-type things with food and science…

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It alludes to this painting:

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…Here, breaking into sobs, and raising her eyes to the priest: "Oh! wretch, who are you? What have I done to you? Do you, then, hate me so? Alas! what have you against me ( Read more... )

Not sure what people are complaining about here: the drawing looks rather more sensitive and attractive than the actors. He could as easily be Edgar, the most loveable character in Wuthering Heights: the kind-hearted single parent who loves his library. I was never convinced that Darcy & co in Austenland really used their libraries for more than ( Read more... )

Sad news re: the sweetest cat in the universe. However, will be going to visit him at the weekend: not sure how long he has left, poor darling ( Read more... )

Have just posted on IMDb. Someone has done a poll on "Best Fictional French Villain". Not only have they included my poor beloved Claude, whom I would class as "Romantic tragic hero/anti-hero", but they have illustrated him with the travesty of him presented by Disney in their abominable so-called 'adaptation'...
C'est damnable...

“The blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold” (L. Cohen, The Future)

2016 has not been a year I wish to repeat:

• An old evil is at large again: black of shirt, black of heart; blood has been spilled.
• I have been robbed against my will and consent of the only part of my citizenship that matched who I am culturally, intellectually and ( Read more... )

Remember I mentioned the published German essay, Claude Frollo als Typus des romantischen Helden in Victor Hugos "Notre-Dame de Paris"? Well, I now have it. And I was most amused to note that I get a bibliographic citation for a newspaper article I wrote several years ago!