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TOP TEN BEST FILMS FOR VALENTINE’S DAY

Colette Webber
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TOP TEN BEST FILMS FOR VALENTINE’S DAY

Maybe you are the kind of person who avoids participating in even a card exchange when February 14th rolls around each year in a view to single-handedly dismantle the commodification of romance™ (good luck), or perhaps you’re the kind of person who has been tracking down the best set menus for two (small glass of house wine included) across Oxford for weeks now. In the forthcoming list I am perhaps making a genuine effort to cater to the veritable smorgasbord of feelings that V-Day elicits, or maybe I’m just hedging my bets, but regardless I aim to provide the former group with a few films to question their world-weary cynicism and the latter group with a few to remind them that love isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. Just maybe one of these movies will succeed in quietly haunting the latter group as they slurp away on their mussels at Pierre Victoire. Either way, one thing I believe we can all get behind RE Valentine’s Day is that it presents us with a chance to articulate, to whoever, that they are lowkey the person keeping you in once piece, and you love them, and they deserve chocolate, and more pertinently, a film night with you. So, here it is, a not at all biased list of the best films about ‘love’.

  1. Rebecca (1940)

Netflix recently announced a big budget adaptation of the classic novel starring Lily James, but the much earlier adaptation (which was Alfred Hitchcock’s first foray into American cinema) is always worth returning to. Rebecca tells the story of a young, inexperienced woman who becomes enraptured by the quiet glamour of the infamous widower Max de Winter and his aristocratic Cornish manor, Manderley. But once they are married the new Mrs De Winter begins to feel increasingly haunted by the presence of Max’s first wife, Rebecca. If you have already re-watched Gone Girl twice or if you loved the strange romance and grandeur of Phantom Thread, then this beautifully acted adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 psychological thriller/romance might be what you’re looking for.

Promotional poster for “Rebecca”
  1. The Graduate (1967)

Mike Nichol’s vision of the ‘Summer of Love,’ set to an iconic Simon and Garfunkel score, manages to capture the disquieting combination of lusty adrenaline and dismal boredom that a directionless college graduate, Benjamin, experiences upon returning to his sun-soaked LA suburb. This restlessness leads him into a romantic entanglement with the wife of his father’s law partner, Mrs Robinson, and her daughter Elaine. You could watch this film 100 times and never grow tired of the final scene and its mixture of incredible victory and troubling uncertainty. 

  1. Harold and Maude (1971)

This deadpan tale of a bored, wealthy 20-year-old with a penchant for all things dead and dismal follows the taboo romance he embarks on with an eccentric 80 something year old woman, whom he meets at a funeral service. Punctuated with songs by Cat Stevens, it is probably the definitive cult film of the 1970s– so unique that little can be said in summary. We’ll leave it here: it is life affirming and lovely.

Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort in “Harold and Maude”
  1. Paris Texas (1988)

When Travis wanders out of the West Texas desert with only an empty water bottle and the dusty, wrinkled suit he is dressed in, he seems to have no idea who he is or where he has come from. What follows is a confused and painful reunion with those he left behind for many unexplained years. With a memorably moody score provided by Ry Cooder, the flickering of neon motel signs, gas stations and an electric atmosphere that refuses to settle, Wim Wenders’ brutally intimate vision of the American Dream in disarray still feels in 2020 as astonishing as it must have done in 1988. This is a film about all kinds of love, how to lose it, and whether it can sometimes be recovered.

  1.  When Harry Met Sally (1989)

For many years I avoided this film like the plague because absolutely everyone, from my mum to overly serious film students, begged me to watch it. I was convinced it would be another sickly yet shallow boy-meets-girl two-hour trudge. How wrong I was. The film actually provides the playbook for every other modern Rom Com you have seen and does it better than any successor could. Nora Ephron is a legend and her screenplay is totally engaging. For anyone who has ever ended up with someone that they were initially repulsed by when they first met, this vaguely unwholesome love story is for you.

Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in “When Harry Met Sally”
  1. Chungking Express (1994)

Although Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000), with its dreamy take on the melancholy of 1960’s Hong Kong, initially seemed like the clear choice for this list, Chungking Express offers an equally stylish yet unpretentious vision of love in the city that’s touched by a whimsical instinct any French New Wave director would rightly kill for. The story, divided between two heartbroken policemen, is less interested in slow burning romance than it is in the protagonists’ desire to capture intimate moments amongst fast-moving crowds. This is an undeniably lighter film than much of Wong Kar Wai’s other work, but whether we are watching Cop 223 rush to the supermarket to save some soon expiring tins of pineapple, or Faye dancing blissfully to ‘California Dreamin’ by the Mamas and Papa’s as she serves customers kebabs under fluorescent lights, it is hard to resist the particular charms of this 1994 film.

  1. Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), Before Midnight (2013)

Adding the iconic indie trilogy that follows a couple and their conversations across three decades and three European cities to my top 10 list is, I admit, a slight cheat. In the first, and arguably best loved, film in the trilogy we walk around Vienna with Jesse and Celine after they meet by chance on a train on their way to totally different countries. The dialogue never feels saccharine or tiresome and the 80 minutes of ‘real-time’ walking and talking before Jesse’s morning train departs flashes by in an instant. Before Sunrise undoubtedly works well as a standalone film, but it felt wrong not to mention Before Sunset and Before Midnight too. The final film offers such a subtle study of marriage and  manages to sustain sympathy for both people so successfully that it makes Marriage Story (2019) look heavy-handed.

Ethan Hawke and Julia Delpy in “Before Sunset”
  1.  The Lunchbox (2013)

Mumbai operates on an exceedingly efficient system of lunchbox transportation. Each day workers’ families pack a selection of hot dishes into a three-tiered tin box and a team of 5000 dabbawallas (deliverymen) take them far and wide. It has been this way for at least 120 years. It is a single fault in this normally smooth system – a lunchbox delivered to the wrong address – that provides this warm film with its story of an unlikely pair whose lives intermingle.

  1. Black Mirror – Season 3, Episode 4, ‘San Junipero’ (2016)

I know, not a film, but bear with me. Just as I thought that Charlie Brooker’s now infamous series, which meditates on the pitfalls and peculiarities of a world dominated by tech, had gone on too long for its own good, this two-time Emmy award winning episode was released. Its depiction of a deceptively straightforward love story between two women, Yorkie and Kelly, who meet one Summer on holiday in 1980s California, is utterly uncharacteristic of the steadily cynical series. Perhaps this break from the shows’s usual negativity is the reason why the episode has experienced such success. It is by straying from its typical (undeniably entertaining) doom prophesying, and instead offering a return to the utopian visions of classic sci-fi, that “San Junipero” can, for a generation saturated by dystopian stories, offer the most unexpected vision of all.

Mackenzie Davis and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in “San Junipero.” photo credit: Netflix
  1. God’s Own Country (2017)

Francis Lee’s pared back, poetic debut follows a few months in the life of a young farmer, Johnny (played by a suitably mardy Josh O’Connor), who is isolated on a struggling farm in the Yorkshire Dales and struggles to locate himself in a vast landscape that feels far too small. The monotonous cycle of numb sex, copious drinking and 5am starts milkings is unexpectedly interrupted when Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), a worker from Romania, is hired and jolts Johnny out of his numbed disaffection, allowing him to witness the brevity and beauty of his daily life for what is perhaps the first time. Nothing will ever be more glorious (or more Romantic with a capital R) than watching Johnny watch Gheorghe as he helps a sheep give birth to a slimy little lamb.

‘Just keep my martini cool’: Why On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) is the Epitome of Valentine’s Day Viewing

Poppy Sowerby
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‘Just keep my martini cool’: Why On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) is the Epitome of Valentine’s Day Viewing

Like indigestion or crippling heartbreak, Valentine’s Day is always just around the corner. I realise this because Wish.com has started targeting my Facebook feed with leather chaps and chastity cages, a classic algorithmic prank that, unlike romance, never gets old. What are you planning for V-Day? Do leave a response in the comments – but only if it involves tortured solo outings to Tesco, a botched face mask (the chin wax you never asked for), or a card from a secret admirer whose handwriting bears some resemblance to your mother’s. Let’s be frank: Valentine’s Day is a corporate shill monetising plasticky tokens of ‘love’ – an old term meaning ‘entrapment’ in Shakespearean, or something. Thankfully, I have found the tonic to the bitter weariness of my four-strong readership – and he comes with an Aston Martin and about three decent catchphrases. So put down those tissues and put on the 1969 goldmine that is On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

If you watch this film intoxicated, or you’re a middle-aged man, you might be able to enjoy its romantic delights without irony. The tone of the film, directed by Peter R. Hunt and starring George Lazenby in his only outing as 007, might be summarized in a single stage direction: ‘James puts his hands on Moneypenny’s behind’; but the social resonances of this opus go far beyond secretarial goosing. This pre-Christmas release was the final Bond of the sixties: with the gritty realism of seventies cinema poking its side-burned head round the bend, the film buffs among you might see this as a final splurge of mid-century celluloid optimism. Politicos, alternately, might interpret the break-neck espionage plot – which sees Bond encounter slaphead villain Blofeld and his crackpot plan to use twelve luscious ‘angels of death’ to enact biological warfare – as a sly fart of Cold War propaganda. But I prefer to see it for what it is – a pantomime shag-fest, replete with corruptible, giggly women and corrupting, grinning men. This, ladies, is true romance.

Because I’m committed to cross-generational discourse, I asked my correspondent baby boomer, Kirk Long, to review the film. He telegrammed me this: ‘He’s the super confident hero – she’s vulnerable – he saves her from drowning – she fiercely tries to resist, but he wins her over. She dies after finally finding happiness. The end!’ Diana Rigg (DBE), a celebrated Shakespearean actress who found mainstream fame in the tongue-in-cheek spy series The Avengers, lends her characteristic gravity to the role of Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo, or ‘Tracy’ – daughter of mob boss Marc-Ange Draco. Plucked from the brink of suicide by the dapper Lazenby, the pair embarks on a whirlwind romance. Perhaps the second most subversive character called ‘Tracy’ on the British screen (pipped only Coronation Street’s murderous antagonist Tracy Barlow), the Contessa is the epitome of all Bond women, sticking her foot in the revolving door of babes sauntering in and out of James’s gin-soaked heart. Spiky, sexy and tragic, she is a proto-manic pixie dream girl – yet she doesn’t submit to Bond’s bumbling advances without a knowing comment or two. ‘Think about me – as a woman you just bought’, she jokes. ‘Who needs to buy?’ Bond returns, all that Brylcreem causing the meaning to bounce right off his head.

If you’re looking for something uplifting, look elsewhere – I’m sorry to say it, but Tracy comes a cropper. Firstly, Bond does the dirty on her with two of twelve ‘angels of death’ – but let’s pause here. These beautiful ‘henchwomen’ are kept prisoner by resident crone ‘Irma Blunt’, under the guises of being treated for various allergies in a Swiss clinic. They are weaponised by Blofeld (recurring supervillain) in contaminating (somehow) the global food supply with each of their allergies – which are each oddly specific to the culinary staples of their home countries. Blofeld will hold off on international havoc-wreaking if he is accepted as not-a-villain and given the title ‘Count de Bleauchamp’, which is hilarious because it’s basically a French way of saying ‘Blofeld’. 

Most of the girls don’t really have names – even on those weird fan pages on the internet I’ve been scrolling through for three hours – but I do think you can tell a lot from a person by their allergies. I myself am allergic to milk and eggs, which has resulted in a number of tragicomic incidents where my eyes have swollen up and my skin has turned the colour and texture of a rusty bike chain. Ironically, this first happened on Valentine’s Day two years ago, a day I will never forget. These women, however, do allergy in style – their glamour is a good instructional guide for female allergy-sufferers everywhere. There’s Nancy from Hungary (potatoes), Ruby from the UK (chicken) and Helen from the whole of ‘Scandinavia’ (fish). Joanna Lumley even gets a part. Bond gets down and dirty with the chicken lady and the fish lady, before witnessing a midnight brainwashing session and getting jumped by Irma Bunt – or ‘Bunted’.

A ski-chase (plus avalanche), a car-chase and a romantic chase (Bond proposes to Tracy in a barn) follow – a few chases later (I bet Bond has bunions) the pair finally marry in Portugal, as sidepiece extraordinaire Moneypenny tearfully watches on. Thankfully for Moneypenny, Tracy (spoiler alert) gets bumped off by a familiar-looking bald assassin – Blofeld! While the best scene is Blofeld’s earlier escape from his HQ in a bobsleigh, this moment tugs on the heartstrings like no other. Doomed to perpetual bachelorhood, Bond holds Tracy’s drooping head in his arms. The credits roll over a still image of the shattered windscreen, and the Bond theme suddenly blasts out. All in a day’s work.

This, reader, is all you need to know about Valentine’s Day. Corny slogans, gender essentialism and male happy endings: all the rites of the romantic season are here in 142 minutes of glorious technicolour. We should take this particular installment of 007 as an allegory of tragic love – and as a warning against bogus medical professionals, which I should have heeded when I went to see a homeopathic doctor who attempted to remedy my milk-and-egg woes by talking about my childhood and playing me music. Save the chocolates and roses: just keep my martini cool.

Cambridge Conservatives propose: “this house prefers Prince Andrew to Meghan Markle”

Sam Jones
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Cambridge Conservatives propose: “this house prefers Prince Andrew to Meghan Markle”

Cambridge University Conservative Association (CUCA) have debated a motion entitled “This House prefers Prince Andrew to Meghan Markle.” The motion, which was presented at an Association Port and Policy event on January 25, was allegedly passed by a significant margin.

Prince Andrew has been immersed in controversy over his relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in his jail cell in August of last year whilst awaiting sentencing for sex trafficking.

After an interview with the BBC’s Newsnight, the Prince was effectively forced to relinquish his royal duties and retreat from public life.

Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, has recently retreated from royal duties alongside her husband Prince Harry, with the intention of splitting their time between the United Kingdom and North America.

In a statement last month, the Duke and Duchess said: “After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution. 

“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen. 

“It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment.”

The pair’s decision has sparked virulent controversy, including last month’s debate at the CUCA. Other motions debated at the event were “This House Would Scrap the BBC License Fee” and “This House Supports a Nuclear Iran.”

The Prince Andrew and Meghan Markle debate was the last of the evening. One attendee told The Tab that “most people weren’t sober after the second motion.”

The controversy over Prince Andrew’s close relationship with Epstein took off following his interview with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis.

In the interview, the Prince admitted he does not regret his close relationship with Epstein, stating “the people that I met and the opportunities that I was given to learn, either by him or because of him, were actually very useful.”

He denied allegations made by Virginia Giuffre (now Roberts) that she had sexual relations with Prince Andrew after being sex trafficked to him by Epstein in 2001.

Prince Andrew said Giuffre’s accusation of him sweating during the encounter meant her version of events could not be true, as he had a medical condition that prevented him from sweating at the time.

He told Maitlis: “I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when I was shot at and I simply … it was almost impossible for me to sweat,”

Prince further criticised the authenticity of a photograph taken of him and Giuffre in 2001. “I don’t believe it’s a picture of me in London because … when I go out in London, I wear a suit and a tie,” he said.

“That’s what I would describe as… those are my travelling clothes… if I’m going overseas.”

The claim was made despite the fact newspapers have previously pictured Prince Andrew on a night out in London wearing jeans without a tie or blazer.

The Prince said: “nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored but I don’t recollect that photograph ever being taken.”

He also provided an alibi for the events of March 10, 2001, saying he went to a Pizza Express in Woking with his daughter. He remembered the occasion as “weirdly distinct” as it was one of the few times he’d been to Woking or to the Pizza Express there, making it, in his own words, “a very unusual thing for me to do”.

The Duchess’ retreat from public life seems to have been as controversial, if not more so, than the Prince’s. Many have suggested that the backlash to Markle has been down to racism.

The Daily Mail has referred to Markle’s “exotic DNA” and described her as “almost straight outta Compton.”

The BBC fired radio presenter Danny Baker after he tweeted, following the birth of the couple’s son Archie last year, a picture of a chimpanzee holding hands with a couple. He captioned it “Royal Baby leaves hospital.”

Last month, This Morning presenter Eamonn Holmes attacked Markle as “awful, woke, weak, manipulative, spoilt and irritating … I look at her and I think, ‘I don’t think I would like you in real life.’” 

CUCA has a history of inviting figures from the right of the political spectrum, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Godfrey Bloom, Arron Banks and Peter Bone.

Former chairmen of the CUCA include Ken Clarke (Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1993-97), Douglas Hurd (Foreign Secretary from 1989-95), and Norman Lamont (Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1990-93).

CUCA did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Oxford Applies for Funding to Become Britain’s First All-Electric Bus City

William Atkinson
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Oxford Applies for Funding to Become Britain’s First All-Electric Bus City

A collective bid for funding by Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council, the Oxford Bus Company, Arriva and Stagecoach to the Department of Transport, could see Oxford become the first city in England to be using a fleet of all-electric buses. 

This is part of a new scheme by the Department of Transport to give out up to £50 million to the successful town or city to go towards the financing of a modern fleet of all-electric buses. The aim is to reduce emissions in congested towns and cities with public transport that’s both up-to-date and less polluting. The “All-Electric Bus Town” initiative is an attempt to see what can be done if there is a genuine commitment to running all buses in an area by electricity, in the interests of making a zero-carbon future more affordable. 

Applying for the funds means participating in a competition of two phases. The first phase opened on February 6th and remains open until April. A shortlist will then be considered in the second phase, ending in August. 

Coming within the framework of the government’s new “national bus strategy”, this is part of a total of £170 million allocated by the government to revitalise bus services by making them more frequent, efficient and environmentally-friendly. These are part of a concerted central government effort to tackle entrenched problems with England’s bus services. 

Alongside seeking funding to go all-electric, Oxford’s councils also plan to apply for £20 million towards the design and promotion of on-demand sharing service for bus rides in both city and countryside areas, designed to give the public more control over their daily journeys. By matching up demand for buses with local people in a more intuitive way than is possible at the moment, it seeks to alleviate the inconvenience of bus scheduling that has often seen many services go into decline. 

This application for funding follows other concerted efforts at improvement in bus services by Oxford City Council in recent years. Since 2018, £2.3 million has been acquired to reduce the toxicity of bus emissions in Oxford from the government’s fund for Clean Bus Technology. Moreover, alongside the County Council, it has announced innovative plans to introduce an Oxford City Zero Emissions Zone, alongside growing bus services, to help ease congestion in the city and contribute to tackling the Climate Crisis. 

According to Councillor Tom Hayes, the council’s efforts in recent years have seen a “drop in harmful nitrogen dioxide levels by an average of 22.7%” due to the investment in ultra-low emission buses. Launching “the UK’s first city centre Zero Emission Zone in December this year” is just another step in achieving the council’s ambition of a Zero Carbon Oxford. Councillors from both the City and County Councils also expressed wishes to take “concerted climate action” alongside a wide-ranging expansion of bus services inside the city and out of it. Balancing commitments to providing efficient services with an environmentally sustainable future is central to their approach. 

The initiatives were also welcomed by the bus companies themselves. According to Phil Southall, manager of the Oxford Bus Company, “stronger bus networks are key to reducing congestion and emissions”.  Tackling emissions and congestions are as much a priority of Oxfordshire’s bus companies as they are of its councils. However, not all were onboard with the plans. One student told Cherwell that they feared an expansion of the bus network, however environmentally friendly, would cause more disruption in the short term, impacting both students and residents of the City and the wider county.

Pete Buttigieg, Rhodes Scholar, performs strongly in Iowa

Imogen Duke
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Pete Buttigieg, Rhodes Scholar, performs strongly in Iowa

Pete Buttigieg has emerged successful in the Iowa caucus, the first vote by the Democratic Party for its Presidential candidate.

It has been announced that Buttigieg received 26.2% of the share of votes with 13 delegates, while Bernie Sanders got 26.1% with 12 delegates. This is the first in a series of state-by-state votes, known as primaries and caucuses.

38-year old Buttigieg attended Oxford University from 2004 to 2007 as a Rhodes scholar, receiving a first class Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics.

He was a member of Pembroke College. While at Oxford, he was editor of the Oxford International Review and co-founded the Democrat Renaissance Project. 

In the American Rhodes Scholars-Elect document from May 2005, Buttigieg expressed his career aspirations as “public service, academia, law.”

He said was eager to begin his studies at Oxford, though “as a Mid-westerner”, he was “concerned about adjusting to the warmer English climate.”

Katharine Wilkinson, author and environmentalist, told The New Yorker last year that Buttigieg was an impressive debater, and “curated this great collection of whiskey from around the world”. 

Jeremy Farris, his old flatmate, told The New Yorker that he taught himself Norwegian through reading a book on the toilet while in Oxford. In the days before his exams, he “boarded a cargo ship – shopping goods across the ocean – to isolate himself before the multiple days of tests.” 

The next hurdle for Buttigieg is the New Hampshire primary, about which he states: “by all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious.” His main contenders are Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.

With the Iowa caucus, Buttigieg is the first openly LGBT+ candidate to earn presidential primary delegates in a major party’s nomination process. While at his caucus watch party, he called his husband, Chasten, the “future first gentleman of the United States.” 

Oxford residents among most engaged litter pickers in UK

Natasha Voase
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Oxford residents among most engaged litter pickers in UK

A report published by Plastic Patrol has found that Oxford residents are some of the most engaged litter-pickers in the country. 

According to the report, Oxford, London and Reading are some of the most engaged litter-picking locations, as determined by the number of uploads to the Plastic Patrol App. Plastic made up the majority of items found and of this litter, the majority was plastic packaging. 

Plastic Patrol aims to accelerate the transition to a circular economy and in the December 2019 Queen’s Speech, the government set out their plan to “progress towards resource efficiency and a circular economy.” Plastic Patrol seeks to use the information gathered by volunteers to ensure that the government meets this target. 

The report was compiled after analysing nine-months of data provided by litter-pickers who had downloaded the Plastic Patrol App. During the period, 110,614 pieces of litter were recorded and 64,913 were categorised by type and brand. The report focuses on the litter which was able to be classified. 

Plastic Patrol, which is a non-profit organisation has also produced a “litter map” which uses data stored in their App. This allows users to spot trends in litter-picking and single-use plastics. The group also organises clean-up events to encourage people to tidy up the environment around them.

Oxford City Council is responsible for ensuring that the streets are kept clean. Tony Eccelstone, a Council representative, said that though both “Oxford City Council and ODS work hard to keep the city clean” this is a “never-ending task”. Therefore, the Council encourages “partnership working with volunteer groups who aim to help us keep Oxford one of the best litter-picking cities in the country.”

According to the website of OxClean, another non-profit organisation, the City Council supports their litter-picking activities by supplying volunteers with rubbish sacks and taking away full ones. 

OxClean also organises a “Spring Clean”every spring and estimates that during the 2019 event, over 1000 volunteers took part and cleared over 6 tonnes of litter. The 2020 Spring Clean will take place from Friday 28th of February to Sunday 1st of March. OxClean also runs “spotless Oxford” which encourages local businesses, such as Quod, to clean up the area outside their business.

New humanities building project underway as architect selected

Travis Prescod
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New humanities building project underway as architect selected

In an email to students, Head of Major Capital Projects Karen Brill announced the imminent revelation of the firm tasked with the development of the Stephen A Schwarzman Centre for Humanities, due to complete in Autumn 2024.

The building will be situated at the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter between Woodstock Road and Walton Street.

Following a £150 million investment from the Blackstone Group CEO, the new centre will cover 23000 square metres and merge 6 faculty libraries: English, Philosophy, Theology and Religion, Music, History of Medicine and Film. It has been described by Sir Phillip Pullman as a “proper centre for the study and celebration of the humanities”

The Humanities Division hopes this complex will provide much-needed room for growth, citing a 25% increase in doctoral student numbers since 2000-01 and more than twice as many postdocs and researchers. The Division seeks to promote interdisciplinary research while offering a hub for student work exhibitions.

Once established, the complex will accommodate 200,000 collection items, seat over 400 readers, offer a range of teaching/research and performing arts facilities including a 500-seat music auditorium, 313 workspaces for graduates, broadcasting studios for public lecture sharing and additional accommodation for students pursuing certain divisional Master’s Degrees. 

The project will also encompass new academic posts, graduate studentships and scholarships while supporting the department’s “research-oriented” culture programme and Ethics in AI institute.

Oxford Vice-Chancellor Louise Richardson said of the building: “This is an investment in excellence, an investment in Oxford.”

The new library will be part of the Bodleian, featuring a range of study spaces informed by the Bodleian’s 21st Century Library report. The area, which will occupy 2,100 sqm, is comparable to the Taylorian.

No occupational reshuffling is anticipated nor disruption to the mixed college and faculty teaching regime.

Noise and Traffic contributions are expected to be minimal. Dialogue with the Oxford City Council and consultations with neighbours are planned, if not already underway.

The Project Board has also assured stakeholders that they will be regularly informed, including Student Organisations such as the Student Union and Drama Society.

Faculties not relocating, such as Classical and Oriental Studies, will be entitled to full use of the space, and access will also be granted to the wider University.

Several Student consultation events are being organised, including a “brainstorming marquee” on the ROQ site in May 2020.

John Evelyn’s Diary: Hilary 2020, Week 4

John Evelyn
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John Evelyn’s Diary: Hilary 2020, Week 4

The Feast of Saint Valentine’s is quickly approaching, but in Frewin Court old lovers and friends seem immune to cupid’s charms. This should come as no surprise – power couples in the Union only last as long as there is electoral gain to be had. Indeed, although the Short Man and Circular Mertonian seem closer than ever, a couple from days gone by is gearing up for outright war. 

Battle lines are being drawn for months to come – the Irish Priest will face his old flame in a race. The Priest and Justinian are no strangers to strife, nor are they strangers to pitting friend against friend. The Irish Priest, indulging perhaps too much on communion wine might see power shift from Rome to Constantinople (a much more attractive proposition for young pilgrims).

The French King is in demand – with both Rome and Constantinople begging for support in the ensuing conflict. Well aware that this Civil War has to be quashed – the King must lend their support to the side most likely to defeat the Short Man’s army: their survival is dependent on making the correct decision. Unlike the Short Man, hopefully this will be based on solid reasoning and logic. It seems that Hume was right all along. Reason is slave to the passions, or in this case, the phallus. 

Opportunistic, untrustworthy, a terrible judge of character – all the attributes required for political comeback? Well, maybe. Imagine a world where the Short Man offers a past rival a Clean Slate. Choosing to keep their friends close and their ex-enemies closer, BNC’s latest Presidential loser has been made an offer they can’t (and won’t) refuse. An unwelcome return into the political fray will be sure to frustrate the smooth running of the Short Man’s slate. Challenging the younger generation is not advisable – maybe the BNC man should give it up for Lent! 

For the most part, the gimpiest of gimps stay out of politics. The explanation is simple: they are too busy gimping. The election of Chief Gimp proves to be a notable exception. Just when all was done and dusted, there was a final twist in the tale. The Once Influential DRO thought they had one last bullet in their chamber. Taking aim at a former ally and counting on the support of old friends, it turned out that unlike in their “extracurricular” activities, they fired a blank. After a few successes, a series of serious misuses of the Society’s rules, and many, many failures, perhaps it is time for The Once Influential DRO to jump before they are pushed.

Review: ÜnkelGårf

Abigail Howe
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Review: ÜnkelGårf

Planning a holiday soon? Why not visit the prosperous, democratic and perpetually joyful nation of Orgislavia? They’ve hosted the Olympics for hundreds of years and I would visit myself but journalists have a rather nasty habit of disappearing… Luckily, Ünkel (Tommy Hurst) and Gårf (Matt Kenyon) are currently in the BT Studio with ÜnkelGårf on a grand state-sanctioned international tour, ready to introduce the world to Orgislavian culture through the art of mime. The two may be (slightly) more familiar to you as the duo behind Beef Comedy, part of the Oxford Revue. Their chemistry is fantastic. They bounce off each other – sometimes literally – like rubber balls. Speaking of balls, ÜnkelGårf is full of innuendo which is about as subtle as a sledgehammer (but hilarious). There’s fetish gear and salacious physical comedy – what a combination. There’s also twists and turns aplenty in this dark character-based comedy which are darted over, immediately moving onto the next moment of shock.

World-building is pivotal here; Hurst and Kenyon immerse us in a feverishly chaotic yet believable universe. Somehow, the realities and lies of Orgislavian life seem realistic. Perhaps it’s a worrying reflection of political developments which plunge us further into uncertainty, making this world appear more and more possible. Perhaps it’s instead the minimal set which adds weight to this suspension of disbelief, although the sheets used as a make-shift projector screen occasionally contribute to distortion of the projected film. The films themselves, though, are artfully scattered throughout the narrative. With contributions from Frankie Taylor, Angus Moore and Ali Muminoglu, these are snappily witty and a much-needed break for Hurst and Kenyon, who are constantly in motion when the lights are on them. It exhausts me just to watch.

The two of them are electric, throwing themselves around in order to showcase their best mimes. They toy with the boundaries of physical comedy and then throw them out the window. Kavana Crossley’s sound design adds to the comic effect. The show begins with a musical sequence only made possible through a fantastic soundtrack and precise timing. Hurst is cynical and direct as Ünkel while also brotherly; Kenyon, as Gårf, is gullibly playful. Both Gårf and Ünkel develop throughout the show; they perform on a double-level as mimes and deeper performers. For a show that’s less than an hour, ÜnkelGårf takes the audience on a long journey.

Agnes Pethers previously directed Hamlet at the O’Reilly Theatre. Despite this shift in production scale, Pethers appears unfazed to direct in such an intimate space. It’s used skilfully – Hurst and Kenyon step out into the audience, pulling faces at certain members but also remain aware of the constrictions of the staging. It’s a delicate balancing act but one that pays off well.

Witty, dark and frantic, ÜnkelGårf is a delight and hilarity to behold. Freedom of the press be damned; if ÜnkelGårf reflects the fun of life in Orgislavia, then I’m on the next plane out.

Irving Penn: His Life and Legacy

George Phillips
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Irving Penn: His Life and Legacy

Such was his modern and innovative approach to the craft that it’s easy to forget that many of Irving Penn’s world-famous Vogue cover photographs date back more than 50 years. Typified by bold colours, sharp lines and minimalist backdrops, these images would not look out of place had they been published in 2020. A behemoth of the 20th century photography industry, this timelessness is testament to Penn’s rich cultural legacy. Penn was perhaps the first photographer to truly unify art and commercial photography by combining tried and tested compositional methods with groundbreaking technical approaches, and his illustrious career saw him shape the way future generations were to approach their work. 

Equal measures modest, daring and technically accomplished, he left an indelible mark on the industry in the same way that Ansel Adams shaped the pursuit of landscape photography. Penn was rarely influenced by commission, and famously declared at a talk at MoMA in 1950 that ‘Whatever the photograph – a description of the battlefield, a portrait of a Hollywood celebrity, the turn of collar on the latest fashion, images for a small edition book or images to sell soap – all of them are equally important’.

Despite reworking the way fashion photography was viewed, elevating it to the realm of a recognised art form rather than a purely commercial endeavour, Penn surprisingly never intended to enter the profession. Born in 1917 to a Russian Jewish family in New Jersey, his father a watchmaker and his mother a nurse, he dreamed of becoming a painter. His early years saw him study design, painting and industrial arts at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art under the guidance of famous designer Alexey Brodovitch. A move to Mexico to focus on his ambitions resulted in modest success at best. The seminal moment in his career was to come a handful of years later when in 1940 he joined the Creative department at Vogue, initially in an editorial capacity, but where he was soon tasked with conducting his own shoots.

It was here that his talent blossomed, so much so that Vogue’s Art Director Alexander Liberman coined the term ‘stoppers’ in reference to his work, noting their universal tendency to capture the attention of readers. With his newfound creative calling, Penn began immediately to deviate from the established norms of fashion photography. While contemporaries such as Horst P. Horst and Norman Parkinson would conduct shoots in lavish settings, their subjects surrounded by ornate furniture, gaudy colours and dense backgrounds, Penn opted to do away with such frills, favouring minimalist, block-colour backdrops and clean lines. Posing models against a plain white background may now be the norm for fashion editorials, but such an approach was revolutionary at the time. His technique is exemplified by the famous Vogue cover piece shot in 1950 featuring Jean Patchett; the rich tonal range and high contrast black and white film pair to create an arresting portrait of the model who gazes sideways from beneath her veil, juxtaposed against a dazzling white studio wall. This highly stylised image conveys a typical mixture of grandeur and emotion, but such masterpieces were not achieved easily. Throughout his career, colleagues noted Penn’s perfectionism: he bordered on obsessive, often taking hundreds of photographs before being satisfied with the outcome.

Characterised by his meticulous attention to detail, Penn perfected the technical side of his craft. He was adept in his manipulation of light and shadow, thanks in part to the training he received as a painter. Whereas his contemporaries would often employ high intensity theatrical lights for their shoots, Penn tended to favour diffused natural light in his editorial work – his 1961 capture of Leontyne Price demonstrates the resulting interplay of light and shadow found in so much of his work, exhibiting a certain softness and intimacy. Yet more impressive is that this technical mastery extended beyond the studio and into the darkroom. His interest in developing and printing peaked in the 70s when he perfected the platinum printing process, allowing him to produce luminous images with luxurious textures and which capitalise on the extreme latitude of 120 film. Knowledge of the entire process finally afforded Penn full control over his creative output, from the moment he loaded the film to the appearance of the final print. The monochromatic simplicity shines through in particular when capturing the abstract lines of Issey Miyake’s stunning garments in the 90s, further blurring the previously well-established boundaries between commercial and fine art photography.

Penn’s own New York studio saw him expand his practice to include still lifes, which became his point of focus in his twilight years and reflected a growing fascination with mortality. He nevertheless continued to shoot features for Vogue and was credited with 165 cover images, more than any other photographer in history. Despite these monumental achievements, Penn remained modest until his final days. Renowned for his softly spoken and shy manner, he preferred to let his work speak for itself.

With his discerning eye, technical prowess and indiscriminate approach to his craft, Penn undoubtedly ranks among the most important photographers of the last century. 103 years after he was born, his pioneering approach to photography both in and out of the studio continues to influence and inspire. Many of the most prominent fashion photographers working at the moment have expressed their gratitude to Penn, and the echoes of his creative process will continue to remain visible for years to come.

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