Viewing at home has never been more popular in these times.  On TV, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is a treasure trove of older classics.  A while back I watched the four-hour 1963 epic Cleopatra that starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.  Possibly the most expensive movie ever made, the extravagant scene of Cleopatra’s entry in Rome (which actually happened in 46BC) is something to behold.  For deprived theatre goers, Britain’s National Theatre has been presenting acclaimed full-length plays every Thursday on its YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUDq1XzCY0NIOYVJvEMQjqw?sub_confirmation=1 (free to watch for one week).  The May 7 offering was Antony & Cleopatra with the great Ralph Fiennes. Here are more viewing choices: Capital in the Twenty-First Century (France/New Zealand 2019, Kino Lorber on demand) A French economist Thomas Piketty just turned 49 a few days ago but has already produced two of the most important works of po...

Let me begin by noting that the film world has lost two great actors this year—Kirk Douglas (103!) and Max Von Sydow (90). The pandemic has been a huge boon to online/streaming platforms … Netflix is now worth more than ExxonMobil. (Amazon is valued at US$1.2 trillion and rising.) The best series on Netflix is the German Babylon Berlin (A+), but Tiger King (A) frenzy has been the biggest boost to ratings:   https://deadline.com/2020/04/tiger-king-huge-viewership-netflix-earnings-money-heist-love-is-blind-spenser-confidential-1202914195/ https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/tiger-king-big-cat-public-safety-act-1234591738/ On another Netflix series Freud (A) check out this analysis: https://medium.com/@wjauthor/austrian-german-netflix-show-freud-combines-mythology-and-psychoanalysis-6e3cf419eb0d Planet of the Humans   revisited On April 22 I sent around a viewing link for this provocative documentary. My original review is below, but be aware that the film has st...