Yesterday I watched a facinating documentary on the photographer Vivian Mair. I love what I saw of her work. As an archivist the whole story is also intriguing. Here is one of her pieces. Look closely at the gentleman on the phone. From what the documentary shows, Maier wasn’t afraid of showing aspects of the human condition that others turn away from.
Part of my Lockdown viewing has included all the repeats of ‘Agatha Christie’s Marple‘ and other Christie versions.
Then I moved onto Poirot and in the image below we have a murder IN the phone box:
Then there’s all the other TV I’ve watched, including:
Posting these I realise how bleak my viewing has been, so here’s something a little brighter:
A couple of more interesting elements were introduced in ‘Waking the Dead’ episode, in one episode (S6) a character is assulted in a phone box with a psychedelic compound made with woad and another (S5) where a man is murdered while making a call…
And in ‘Upload’, the design for the digitial after life still includes a phone booth…
‘Bill and Ted: Face the Music’ opened recently and the phone booth still plays a vital role as a time machine, in the quest to save the universe. (An updated time machine, now in the shape of a cocoon, is utilised by daughters, Thea and Billie.)
More screen time is ahead of me in the coming months. I’m normally don’t sit in front of the TV for too long but as I’m trying to do my civic duty and not leave the house, this will be difficult. Here’s a few to start the next phase with:
I like that in Supergirl we see a photo of a couple on someones phone with the indication that the photo was taken in the UK, thanks to the iconic, red phone box in the background.
With a new Wes Anderson movie coming out*, The French Dispatch, I thought I’d re-watch a favourite, The Royal Tenenbaums. There are quite of few scenes with telephones:
* Written Feb 2020, before Covid 19 ravaged the globe. And I thought I was about to see ‘The French Dispatch’. It still hasn’t come out (Oct 2020) although I did see a short for it at the cinema a week or so ago. It looks fabulous and I want to see it now!
