Books
George Jacobs and William Stadiem Mr S: My Life with Frank Sinatra (2003)
I’m currently finishing this, my fifth Sinatra biography, which is at once a love poem and a eulogy from Sinatra’s personal valet. You can feel the pained love and care in every single page, and you’ll get a ground-level report of almost every conquest, feud or struggle Sinatra went through. The rare combination of dishy and tender. You can’t help but feel heartache as the book comes to a close.
Laila Lalami: The Moor’s Account (2014)
Published last year, this book retells the story of Estevanico, a slave whose destiny was enmeshed with that of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca [explorer of Shipwrecks fame]. Together, they crossed from Florida to California and into Mexico in the 16th century. In their journey they encountered previously unchronicled – and now forgotten – tribes and wonders.
Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books (1889-1910)
I have his complete collection of books with me at all times. I have three extra physical sets and I travel with an ebook version of them in my iPad. These stories started their journey with me when I was very young.
Television
House Of Cards (2013-present)
In its third season, House Of Cards moved away from the political fantasy arena that it had entered when Kevin Spacey was pushing people off subway platforms. It is the core relationship of Claire and Francis Underwood that lends power to the show. A fascinating power marriage of Borgian proportions, the Underwoods have a cannibalistic urge for power but start responding differently now that they have it in their tenuous grasp.
The Knick (2014-present)
Steven Soderbergh succeeds in making the tale of a turn-of-the-century hospital into a modern story of power-mongering, addiction, and the thin line between virtue and vice. Morally challenging and never an easy watch, but meticulously researched and staged.
Music
Arvo Pärt: Spiegel Im Spiegel (1978)
Once upon a time – before it started popping up everywhere – this amazing piece was a bit of a secret. So intimate it became to me that I wrote the entirety of Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) to it.
Joe Hisaishi: Nostalgia - Piano Stories III (1998)
The perfect balance of hope and loss. Never cloying, always luminous and a perfect encapsulation of wonder.
Movies
Great Expectations (1946)
It was one film in a three-part masterclass that I gave at the Toronto film festival this year, and what a magnificent reminder of David Lean at the peak of his powers. The film has a musical, note-perfect sense of pacing and rhythm, and a beautiful, silhouette-oriented cinematography that captures the gothic romance and seamlessly transitions from elaborate sets to real locations. Lean’s Dickens films handle visual hyperbole with dexterity and precision, and are poetic, poignant and at times truly terrifying. He captures the whimsy and visceral punch that was Dickens’s trademark.
The Three Musketeers & The Four Musketeers (1973/74)
What a flawless adventure saga! Every cast member is perfection and, for a geek like me, to have Christopher Lee and Oliver Reed in the same film is pure, uncut joy. A great series that was borne of a terrible idea – to use it as a vehicle for the Beatles. It is incredibly modern given that is now over 40 years old and makes me lament again and again that we don’t have its creator Richard Lester working in our industry any more.
No Country For Old Men (2007)
I was thinking of viewing a few minutes to add some questions for an upcoming interview with the Coens and it just trapped me. I ended up watching it almost twice in the same day.
Dheepan (2015)
Two films in one: an artful expose of migration woes and exploitation arse kicking masterwork.
The Man From UNCLE (2015)
Guy Ritchie has a superb light touch and his staging is getting better and better. Most of his cast is spot-on. I particularly enjoyed Armie Hammer and Alicia Vikander – who was of jewel-like perfection in Ex-Machina – as its emotional core.