iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Honestly, when you're up against this, it might be the best way to go.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

The Hollywood Reporter mis-spelled the title of the show!

Carrie Coon posing in front of a white backdrop with a chyron to left of frame with her name and "The Gilded Age" spelled with a U, like the noun for a professional organization.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

When I read these headlines, I'm picturing a guy with student loan debt turning a paycheck into $1 million. But this is Felicity Huffman level criming.

Bob Vulfov tweet

ADMISSIONS OFFICE: ur child was not accepted to our college
FELICITY HUFFMAN: then i will have to do a crime
ADMISSIONS OFFICE: u can just donate some money & we'll let em in
FELICITY HUFFMAN: a crime i shall do
ADMISSIONS OFFICE: just make a donation
FELICITY HUFFMAN: crime time

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

This was a great week for finally getting to movies I have been meaning to watch for awhile. #LastFourWatched

One sheets for Burning, Sneakers, Reds and The Conformist

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I know he's been in the league for awhile, but I can never get used to a "D. Wade" showing up in box scores that looks like this.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Literally the top story under the "today" tab on the app right now.

Screenshot of New York Times app. Headline: Trump's Approval Sinks Amid Unpopular War, Darkening GOP Prospects

Under the headline is a screenshot of a Times showing disapproval of Trump's decision to go to war.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

I hate these bus clusters. It was a 20+ minute headway, and not because there aren't enough vehicles and drivers.

Image from a transit app showing 3 Chicago buses from the same route and terminal stop spaced at 2-5 minutes away.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Theo Angelopoulos really desecrated Greece in his films even worse than Nolan.

Hi res photo of cliffs, pink flowers and a bright blue seas.

An elderly couple on a pier, they are dressed for the cold. It is damp and grey.

A young man in a leather jacket dances with a young girl as a younger boy looks on. They are on a sandy beach, and once again, it is grey looking, chilly and misty.

A well dressed young couple in pre-WW2 dress walk towards a seaside café. The image includes another strolling couple, a man riding out of the frame on bicycle, and two men standing outside the café. The sky is completely cloudy, and it looks chilly. It

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

They got yelled at by a lot of people and updated it, apparently.

E. Use of Al (Artificial
Intelligence) in Your 48 Entry Prohibited: Filmmakers are prohibited from using Generative Al to create their film— specifically, filmmakers are not permitted to use Al to create writing, scripts, music, images, special effects or footage. Definition:
Generative Al is any system that produces new content (text, image, audio, video, code, etc.) in response to a prompt.
Permitted: Filmmakers are permitted to use Non-Generative Al tools (Assistive Al) that assist with technical post-production tasks, specifically noise reduction, audio cleanup, color correction, upscaling, stabilization, rotoscoping, and similar enhancement functions embedded in editing software.
These tools may only improve human-created source material; they may not generate new content (i.e., prompt-based Generative Al features in all apps are prohibited).

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

This is the kind of post that does numbers on Threads.

When a character died in a movie and their eyes were open someone used to put their hand over their eyes and close them. I feel like that was a thing and then they stopped doing that at some point.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

I just saw a quote of someone's post here which included a screenshot from X of a person quoting someone else's post of a Bluesky screenshot. What are we doing?

Lady from Shanghai still. Black and white. 3 Elegantly dressed people in a hall of mirrors, including Rita Hayworth's image being reproduced 5 different angles.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

The best case for Widow's Bay is that it absolutely feels like something the author of this hall-of-fame post would make.

A tweet with image by Katie Dippold.

Text:
Tbt to Halloween when I dressed as babadook but my friend's house had more of a grown ups drinking wine vibe.

Image: a woman looking at the camera is wearing a black hat, scraggly wig coming out it, deathly pale face makeup with dark rings around the eyes.

There is 30 something man and middle aged woman dressed casually, a bottle of wine on the table.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

That was all the published detail I was aware of until today. And today there is a lot more, thanks to @michaelschulman.bsky.social

"Little Bear Ridge Road" was originally commissioned by Steppenwolf, which premièred it in Chicago in 2024, starring Metcalf. Rudin offered to bring it to New York as his first Broadway show after the self-imposed exile, but Steppenwolf declined to work with him.
"It didn't feel in alignment with our values and mission that he would come back on Steppenwolf's name," someone involved with the theatre company told me. "In a precarious moment where we were rebuilding back from the pandemic, why would we partner with someone who the industry felt really harmed by? We can't be a vehicle for someone to prove that they've changed." When Steppenwolf pressed him on how he'd reformed, the person I spoke to recalled, Rudin "never made us feel that he had done the work."

At first, Metcalf was open to finding another producer to bring the play to Broadway, but none materialized.
Steppenwolf, still refusing to partner with Rudin, held firm. Metcalf was distraught; she wanted the play to have a future.
Caught between her longtime theatrical home and her most powerful champion, she took the extraordinary step of threatening to quit Steppenwolf unless it relinquished the rights. The theatre, facing the defection of one of its most prominent members, took this as an ultimatum. In the end, Steppenwolf agreed to release the rights, clearing the way for Rudin to make his return to Broadway. When "Little Bear" arrived in New York, last fall, Steppenwolf was acknowledged in a note in the Playbill, but the names above the title were Scott Rudin and Barry Diller. The play was critically admired but commercially disappointing, and it closed eight weeks early.

I asked Metcalf about her standoff with Steppenwolf. "I can't really go into that, because that's something I haven't even figured out for myself, my relationship back there," she said, tearing up. She has not been involved in Steppenwolf's current season, its fiftieth. "I want my own celebration of that, and I want to celebrate it with some of the Old Guard," she went on, crying as she folded up the notebook paper. "I want to go back in time, and I want to be brave with the people who taught me to be brave. I don't want to worry if something is not P.C.—not to trigger people. Just to be daring:
Controversial, if it wants to be. Back then, we didn't have to be so scared that we were going to step on somebody's toes and get brought down. We won't call it the fiftieth.
We'll call it something else. It'll be like getting the band back together for one last tour, you know?"

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

I saw it and loved it! Steppenwolf would normally be a producer of any Broadway transfer if one of their productions, but when it was finally announced in the next year, the commercial producer mounting it is Scott Rudin in comeback mode, and Steppenwolf is out. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/t...

Reflecting some of the complexity of Rudin's return to Broadway, Steppenwolf has opted not to be involved with the Broadway transfer. "Steppenwolf is proud to have commissioned the world premiere of 'Little Bear Ridge Road' by Samuel D.
Hunter, however we have decided to not take a role in producing the Broadway production," the theater's leadership said in a statement. "We wish ensemble member Laurie Metcalf, director Joe Mantello and Sam all the best."

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

These AP push alerts are getting out of hand.

Screencap of push alerts on iPhone fron AP

Heading: Be Well

Text: You can add beef tallow and salmon sperm to your skincare routine. But should you?

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

I will never forget the time he made a point of leaving a pair of high heels out in his hotel room for a magazine writer to notice, just to make this cringeworthy joke.

Home may be L.A., but Avenatti lives most of his nomadic existence on the road, preferably in five-star hotels. In June he met with TIME at the Park Hyatt on 57th Street in Manhattan. He had come to town to accompany Daniels to an interview with the local U.S. attorney's office, but the feds canceled at the last minute, leaving him fuming. His suite was strewn with legal papers as well as a pair of strappy black high heels. Asked who they belonged to, he joked,
"Ivanka-wouldn't that be a story?"

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Nothing very insightful to say about it, but My Undesirable Friends is on Mubi, and it is worth 5 hours of your time.

Christopher Owen

My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in
Watched Apr 6, 2026

A film whose unique strengths transcend its occasional flaws. The length, which is monumental if you think of it as a feature, but modest if you think of it as a TV series, was ultimately necessary. All the mundane moments are so essential to understanding the climax on an emotional level.
I wish I somehow took actionable lessons on the current moment in American politics from this project. But that's not really how it works. I do understand more about what it means to be alive imon earth right now, and that is the highest calling of storytelling.
Stray observations:
-An all-time great movie dog. I hope he's doing well!
-Russians born in the 90s are apparently obsessed with Harry Potter.
-I love the constant food-sharing.
-I would love to get 2 free movie tickets with a bottle of Hennessy

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

A lot of people trying to Google-manifest something...

Screenshot of Google search autocompletes. Base search: Tracy Letts Carrie Coon, 3 times. In bold are the suggestions: letterboxd, reddit, open relationship.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

The movie we saw in theaters was the Lord and Miller cut. They refer to the longer one as "embarrassing." From this quote, and Drew Goddard's ScriptNotes interview, sounds like the cuts were artistic decisions. Hopefully some can be released can be released as "deleted scenes" (remember those?)

"Our first official test screening went great, but we do a lot of earlier screenings for friends and family and other filmmakers and writers," Miller explained. "This movie was massive.
When we finally got the assembly cut down to under four hours long, we
subjected some filmmaker friends of ours to a three hour and 45 minute cut of the movie, which was embarrassing."

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

I watched two John Sayles movies this week, Matewan and Lone Star, and they are both masterpieces. The latter, in particular, speaks very directly to our current moment. I need to watch all the rest now.

Still from Lone Star. A anglo man and hispanic hispanic woman sit in a closed, dimly Mexican restaurant at night, looking out at an empty town square.

Still from Lone Star. A young Black man in glasses is engrossed by an amateurish gallery exhibit featuring illustrations Black men in Native American clothing.

Still from Matewan. A hefty middle-aged white man in a dark suit with a smug grin shows a skeptical younger man in with a police badge on his jacket a piece of paper. 4 onlookers in early 20th century clothing look on from the foreground, surrounding a railroad track. The setting is hilly and green.

James Earl Jones, in coal miner's garb, is flanked by two thin white men in a meeting setting. One has a gun, but they look more afraid than he is.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Anyway, I suspect it won't be much of a sacrifice to ignore the project if this is the visual sensibility.

An image from first Harry Potter film- Harry is in baggy clothes pushing a luggage cart with a trunk and caged white owl through a train station. The there are warm colors and contrast.

Similar image from trailer of new series. He is running with the cart, his clothes fit well, and the photography is cold and flat.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

I was leaning towards the Potter series being an unstoppable juggernaut, but if this is how the legions of people who never moved on to other books are reacting to the casting, maybe it will blow up after a few seasons.

YouTube comments

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HBO: "More book accurate"
Also HBO: "Here's black Snape!"

2
They want to normalize a mixed society so we lose our national identity in the west. To us it looks out
of place, but the next generations are going to think t... Read more

3
They will make Hagrid gay, I'm calling it

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

"Chicago's Northern suburbs" is how AP describes a district that includes one of the city of Chicago's most densely populated stretches.

News site screenshot:

The race for retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky's seat in Chicago's northern suburbs has been marked by big spending and allegations of dark money.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Forgot to do #LetterboxdFriday I hope to forget the movie on the right as well.

Screenshot of "recent activity" from the letterboxed app.
Secret Agent, re watch, 5 stars
Ball of Fire, 4.5 stars
Drive My Car, re-watch, 5 stars
Rental Family, 1 star

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

All Criterion Channel this week, I watched a couple of forgettable documentary shorts, and two classics that were not what I expected- which is the best kind of classic! #LetterboxdFriday #LastFour

Screencap from letterboxd app. 4 individual posters:
God Respects Us When We Work, But Loves Us When We Dance
Streetwise Revisited: Tiny at 20
Drugstore Cowboy (with a 4.5 star rating)
The Palm Beach Story (4 stars)

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

I was immediately curious about the origins of "emploid." Honestly, it seems to be a funny and self-effacing term. I don't know what it says about Bluesky that the first use of it here was a full year before the second.

Screenshot of bluesky search for the word spelled e.m.p.l.o.i.d.

3 posts

1mo ago

I got fucked over by my manager and got canned, took me nearly a year to get back in the game; one of the things that helped me was having an emploid friend look over my resume to help improve it

1mo ago
My lame ass emploid gf won't hangout with me cuz she has "work" at her "job" she's lucky she's so cute

January 2025
jobsearchmaxxing rn im such a corpopilled neetcel emploid

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

It's right there in the article.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

This statement from Charles is cold as ice. He doesn't refer to Andrew as his brother. "Meanwhile, my family and I..." seems to not include the former Prince. Obviously, all hereditary monarchies must be abolished, but maybe he should be allowed to keep one or two of his houses.

ROYAL COMMUNICATIONS
Thursday, 19th February 2026
A STATEMENT FROM HIS MAJESTY THE KING
I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office. What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities.
In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.
Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.
As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter. Meanwhile, my family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all.
Charles R.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

I learned by watching a 2 year-old episode of Finding Your Roots that Wes Studi is my 5th cousin, once removed. If I ever meet him, I can excitedly shout that information and see where things go from there.

Cherokee actor Wes Studi at a staged "in conversation" event, seated in wingback learher chair wearing a suit and tie, plastic cup of transparent liquid in right hand, gesturing with his left. He's a handsome man who looks about 60. (He's actually older, though)

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

I wondered in 2024 why a planned production of August: Osage County was cancelled due to "rights issues." Mystery solved: Tracy Letts withdrew them after being contacted with concerns about the company's leadership. It took until *this week* for the board to act. www.instagram.com/p/DUGlR47iaZ...

WHO WAS CONTACTED & WHEN
• The entire Jeff Committee Executive Board - 2/6/24
• Brittany Chhutani- Jeff Committee head- 7/15/25
• Brian at Newcity Mag - 2/6/24 (He actually responded with concern but not enough concern to stop fluffing Charles and Todd apparently.)
• Windy City Playhouse (their venue) - 2/7/24
• AEA - 2/6/24
• DCASE - 2/6/24
• IAC - 2/6/24
< Angell Foundation - 2/7/24 (As far as we know, Invictus was called in for a meeting with them.)
• The Chicago Tribune - 2/6/24
• The Chicago Sun-Times - 2/6/24
• Block Club Chicago - 2/6/24
• The Chicago Reader - 2/6/24
• Kerry Reid at The Chicago Reader - 2/6/24
(She started interviewing artists but the story was shelved.)
• Rights Holders - Tracy Letts (August: Osage County, rights were pulled)
• Rights Holders - Three Sisters, rights were left intact
• Rights Holders - Network, rights were left intact

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

The daily, online political coverage from People is praiseworthy, but this is what their recent covers look like. And, in any case, many grocery stores stopped carrying magazines.

4 People Magazine covers, featuring Catherine O'Hara, "Derek Hough and wife Hayley: Our Miracle Baby" and Today host Sheinelle Jones.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

There are people in detention in horrible conditions because of the government's failure to respond. She's obviously in a tough spot, but this seems like a pretty egregious attitude to have about it, when there are people suffering severely and deprived of their rights.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

I had a good laugh, but the context in the follow-up post made me feel a different emotion.

Tweet from reporter Paul Blume:
Judge Blackwell had ordered the SHOW CAUSE hearing because he was frustrated that in 5
Habeas cases he was presiding over, he felt his orders were being ignored, leaving immigrant detainees unconstitutionally locked up for days.
Ms. Le said that govt lawyers just cannot keep up.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

These cowards won't lift a finger for an elderly woman who was hospitalized after an unprovoked assault, because the attackers happen to be federal agents. www.salemreporter.com/2026/01/31/u...

Maria contacted the Salem Police Department about the incident, but was told to contact the FBl since the incident involved federal agents, the union said.
The Salem Police Department did not immediately respond to questions about Maria's report and what department policy is for handling incidents involving federal agents. A department spokesman reached by phone Saturday said he didn't have more information immediately available.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Just have to hold on until next week. Look at all those beautiful two digits figures.

A weather app screen cap of Monday-through Saturday. The lows range 17 to 21, and highs from 28 to 36

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

I am sick to death of this genre of posting. Amateur, half-baked psychoanalysis in search of an explanation no one needs.

I honestly wonder how much of this is deeply psychological for Vance, the inability to reconcile that people can love their neighbors so much when his own mother abandoned him.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

In conclusion, Caleb Williams' stat line is a land of contrasts.

Screen cap from ESPN app of Bears QB stats for a single game.
24 of 48
361 yards
2 TD 2 interceptions

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

This should be the moderate position. It's not difficult to articulate. It's a layup with the base. Yet again, Schumer abd Jeffries are failing morally in the service of really shitty politics!

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Democrats should push for reducing funding.
"This Congress, this Republican Congress, while they cut a trillion dollars to Americans' health care, and they exploded the ice budget to $170 billion making it one of the largest paramilitary forces in the United States with zero accountability as they shoot U.S. citizens in the head, absolutely," Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

What if they had done a movie together?

Screencap from a Letterboxd year in review showing most watched actor Marcello Matroianni and most watched director Edward Yang. Marcello's photo- color, handsome Europesn man with tie and dress shirt under dress coat. Yang, black-and-white, 40ish Asian man in 49ers ball cap and sunglasses concentrating on and gesturing toward something out of frame.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

I ate an entire box of these over an 18 hour period. I am cursed with enough mental math ability to multiply every number in the second photo by 16 without a calculator, but to preserve my self-esteem, I will only focus in two easy ones: 16 grams if protein! 64% of my daily iron!

Nutrition label from same box.

Serving size 2 cookie, servings per container 16, numbers for 2 cookies in addition to those quoted include 130 calories, 6 grams of fat, 12 grams total sugar, etc

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

"If you see this, post a random image from your device."

Faded-looking DVD box sets on white store shelves, new and unused moving boxes are leaning against the bottom of the shelves.

(This was taken through a window in Edgewater Chicago this past week; it's a long-closed video store that was part of a still-open electronics store. They appear to be finally clearing the space for other use)

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Christmas Week viewing, because why not?

Photo of TV showing 1975 film Jeanne Dielman. A well dressed redheaded woman dries silverware while standing in a small kitchen.

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

I recently watched Bardot's breakthrough for the first time. Flawed film, but her performance is a miracle. It's sad how much of her public persona in later years was defined by ugly, bigoted comments, when she had started out so far ahead of her time. #RIP

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Christopher Owen @cbowen.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

This was not part of the Owen family repertory. I'm watching it for the first time!

Vintage one sheet for Meet Me in St Louis, with paintings of the characters.

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