-
The Pink Floyd period David Gilmour thought was falling apart: “Incredibly undisciplined”
David Gilmour has looked back frankly on the early days of his tenure in Pink Floyd, admitting he found the band in a poor state when he joined to support the ailing Syd Barrett. He recalled the group’s live performances under Barrett as chaotic, reflecting the frontman’s own deteriorating mental health, and said his priority…
-
Screen Industries Adopt Five Thematic Declarations at Lumiere Summit, Setting Terms on AI, Piracy, Gender, Education and the Environment
Screen industry bodies, national governments and rights organisations adopted five thematic declarations at the Lumière Summit, held on Monday at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. The declarations establish shared frameworks covering artificial intelligence, piracy, gender equality, image education and environmental sustainability, aiming to shape future legislation and cross-border industry cooperation. Signatories include France, the…
-
Loznitsa constructs portrait of Soviet life from Italian television archives
Sergei Loznitsa, director of The Two Prosecutors, has premiered Imperium at the Venice film festival, an archive-compilation documentary built entirely from footage shot by an Italian TV crew in the Soviet Union between 1970 and 1973. Without any interviews or voiceover, the film assembles ambient scenes of everyday life across the USSR to create what…
-
France Launches Global Initiatives to Support Independent Cinema and Establish Framework for Alliance of State Film Commissions: Lumiere Summit
France has launched a new global initiative called IRIS (International Resilience Initiative for Independent Screens) to support independent cinema worldwide, unveiling it on Monday at the Lumiere Summit in Saint Paul de Vence. Backed by an array of leading filmmakers including Jane Campion, Pedro Almodóvar, Wim Wenders and Jafar Panahi, the scheme aims to strengthen…
-
Emmanuel Macron Calls for Global Initiatives to Protect Film and Warns About Dangers of Social Media as Lumiere Summit Opens
French President Emmanuel Macron opened the Lumiere Summit by calling for coordinated global action to safeguard the future of cinema, while warning that social media’s endless scroll poses a serious threat to artistic expression and human attention. Speaking at the Fondation Maeght art museum in Saint Paul de Vence, Macron framed the issue as a…
-
America’s massive labor crisis started in the classroom, not the workplace
This opinion piece argues that America’s shortage of workers for nearly 7 million unfilled jobs stems not from automation or globalisation but from failures in how children are educated. The author, a former teacher and school administrator, contends that schools have spent years prioritising students’ self-esteem and comfort over discipline, resilience and accountability, leaving many…
-
Diana Memorial Fountain shuts for whole summer due to series of faults – after £5.2million feature was beset by problems in its opening months
The Diana Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park has been shut for the whole of a record-hot summer after a series of technical faults left it dry, disappointing Londoners and tourists who normally use it to cool off. Royal Parks, the charity that maintains the site, has apologised for the timing, acknowledging the closure came “particularly…
-
‘Swiftly enchanted’: why Bedknobs and Broomsticks is my feelgood movie
In a Guardian series where writers champion their favourite comfort films, this piece makes the case for Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), arguing it deserves recognition beyond its reputation as a lesser Mary Poppins imitator. The writer, who grew up watching a taped VHS copy, reflects on how the Disney film’s darker, wartime-set tone and Angela…
-
Playground Games’ devs were so confident in Fable, they made me play the Gamescom demo twice
Eurogamer was given a rare, hour-long hands-on preview of Playground Games’ upcoming Fable reboot at Gamescom, playing the same dungeon demo twice with different character loadouts. The developers were confident enough in the experience to let the writer replay it, and the preview suggests the game’s combat, which blends melee, ranged and magic attacks, offers…