and the ship sails on – A Damn Fine Cup of Culture

I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: The ship sails ever, ever on

Mar 23, 2025Mar 23, 2025MattLeave a comment

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

What comes to your mind when you hear The Lord of the Rings and the name “Ian Holm”? For most, it’ll probably be Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy – but for Alan, it’s the BBC radio adaptation from 1981. Sadly, there are generally no trailers for radio shows, definitely not for ones that are 44 years old, so let’s instead do one better – and link to the actual episode. Enjoy!

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Forever Fellini: And the Ship Sails On (1983)

Mar 22, 2025Mar 22, 2025Matt1 Comment

It’s a conundrum: this late in Criterion’s Essential Fellini box set, I didn’t expect to find a film I’d like as much as And the Ship Sails On – but at the same time, I ended up finding it more frustrating than many of the films I liked considerably less. There is a lot I love about And the Ship Sails On – but it feels like by the time Fellini made it, he had mellowed with age, and in this case I wish he hadn’t. The film is too loving and mild as satire, when the themes it addresses would have required a sharper sensitivity, one that isn’t averse to drawing blood… and this shortcoming is much more obvious in 2025 than in 1983.