Week 5

This week started with a superb political thriller The Ghost by Roman Polanski, based on the also brilliant Robert Harris' book under the same name. In a nutshell, it's a story about a ghost writer hired to produce memoirs of retired British PM. As the plot proceeds, a political conspiracy unfolds. I liked that the film is close to the book – the plot, the characters and style. Beautifully filmed and it's gripping, even though I knew what was going to happen. It is an intelligent movie and for the voracious news consumer in me it was a feast (the PM is loosely based on Tony Blair and also other characters are reminiscent of British politicians). Olivia Williams was my favourite as the PM's sarcastic wife!

The National Portrait Gallery is hosting a retrospective of American fashion photographer Irving Penn work. His career has spanned for seven decades since 1940s and in this exhibition over 120 portraits of major cultural figures are on display. His work is very distinctive and, to my eye, did not change over the years (nevertheless, it's brilliant). On display here is like a picture Who's Who of the 20th century art world. For those living in Rome, the exhibition is coming there 1st July.

I was lucky enough to see a preview of Women Beware Women by Middleton at the National Theatre. I am not a fan of 17th century drama, but this production was quite good. I particularly liked the costume and set design. They had a live band playing jazzy tunes. So the production is modern, but the play is ancient and there were quite a few gaps in the plot. One moment a character is in love with her husband, in the next scene – she hates him. You are left wondering when and why that happened.

Also this week: saw Lucia, a movie about opera by Don Boyd, and listened to the premier of Jörg Widmann Lied performed by the BBC SO.