iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 11h

At what point did people start curating biscuits? Does M&S employ a Curator of Baked Goods?

Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 21h

Michael Powell was born on this day in 1905. He started his career in Nice working with director Rex Ingram in a range of capacities. For THE MAGICIAN (1926), based on Somerset Maugham’s novel, he worked as Ingram’s assistant - and as an uncredited actor (here with Gladys Hamer).

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Suspiria rainbow. SUSPIRIA (Dario Argento, 1977) Production designer: Giuseppe Bassan Cinematographer: Luciano Tovoli

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I have no idea why I took photos of the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Hayward as they don’t begin to replicate the pleasure and complexity of experiencing the work in the gallery. It’s all about space and multiple ways of seeing.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Every time I walk past Vigo Street and Walbrook in London I necessarily think of Jean and Anton. Of course, they have nothing to do with them. One is named after the 1702 Battle of Vigo Bay, the other after a subterranean river.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Pottery porn. Lucie Rie/Hans Coper: Life at the Wheel at Offer Waterman gallery. Free exhibition open until 30 October. 1. Lucie Rie

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Paul C. Dobbs @steadytiger.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Middle of the Night (1959). First ten minutes is a bunch of old geezers talking about their ailments, who’s died, and telling each other how old they are. So that’s that theme settled. You aways know where you are with Paddy Chayefsky dont you? But turns out you don't here, or at least I didn't

Poster for Middle of the Night. Frederick March and Kim Novak looking intense

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Typical Friday afternoon in search of Mithraic mysteries. The Roman god Mithras had his very own mystery cult/religion - a powerful challenge to early Christianity. We still don’t know much about it (including its rituals), but it sounds a bit like the Roman Masons, but more fun.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Robert Bresson was born on this day 125 years ago. To mark the occasion, here are some Bressonian hands (and a foot). AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (1966) THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC (1962) UNE FEMME DOUCE (1969) THE DEVIL PROBABLY (1977)

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Door of the day. Kagyu Samye Dzong Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Centre, Bermondsey.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Rewatched THE HORSE THIEF (Tian Zhuangzhuang, China, 1986) for the first time in decades. In awe all over again. Like a timeless parable, it explores Tibetan tradition and religion through extraordinary, haunting images that you won’t be able to get out of your head. See 🧵 for more reasons to watch.

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Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

See THE INNOCENTS on a big screen! I must have watched it on a small one a dozen times before I finally caught it at the Cinematek in Brussels, with an audience. It was a whole new experience. Freddie Francis's widescreen cinematography! Everyone gasping in unison! Book your ticket now, if you can.

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JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Have just seen this remarkable film at the Garden Cinema as part of the Czech New Wave season. The use of flashbacks/snatches of memories and dream sequences blurs the boundaries between reality and the imaginary, giving the film a haunting, hallucinatory quality. Bleak but brilliant. #FilmSky

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Paul Whitelaw @paulwhitelaw.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Here's something: Dennis Potter's rarely seen Play for Today from 1974, Schmoedipus, will be repeated on BBC Four on Wednesday 7th October at 10pm. It's their tribute to Tim Curry, who stars alongside Anna Cropper and Bob Hoskins. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

bbc.co.uk

BBC One - Play for Today, Series 4, Schmoedipus

A strange young man turns up on Elizabeth’s doorstep and makes a frightening claim.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Shout-out for Polish period drama THE DOLL/LALKA (2026) on Netflix. It’s a far cry from a run-of-the-mill adaptation of a literary classic (it’s based on Bolesław Prus’s 1880s novel) and has been reimagined with the verve, wit and sex of Lanthimos’s THE FAVOURITE.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

My highlight of this year's London Open House was the guided tour of @stolavehartst.bsky.social

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James Dalrymple @jamesewand.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

First watch: Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979). A recommendation from yesterday’s 1979 lists that I was curious to see, and is currently on Tubi: an unmarketable romantic comedy with an acid bite that was originally released to public indifference and a happy ending as “Head over Heals”

poster one of Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979), with John Heard looking pretty miserable and cold on a bench in black and white, with an insert image of him in an embrace with Mary Beth Hurt. The poster makes the film look very bleak, which it isn't really

poster two of Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979), with a cartoonish image of John Heard grinning inanely, and windscreen wipers on his glasses, making the film look like goofball comedy, which it isn't

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

First time watch of THE DANCING GIRL OF IZU (Yoshitarō Nomura, 1954) - a subtly realised story of young love set on Japan's Izu peninsula (on the south coast of central Honshu). See 🧵 for few reasons why it comes recommended. #FilmSky

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Alex under Waterloo Bridge by Invader. A somewhat chilling choice of location.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

A query for the archaeologically inclined. My brother-in-law dug up this object yesterday, but we don't know what it is. Any ideas? It’s 4cm long and, we think, made of a copper alloy. It’s heavy. Thank you!

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

4 favourites from the British Museum's Early Netherlandish Drawings exhib. It's free, but closes tomorrow. The Vermeyen portraits are as startlingly modern as the best Holbein drawings. - Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen. Portrait of a young woman, 1547-8 - Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen. Portrait of a girl, c1545

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Greta Garbo was born on this day in 1905. Here's a (very) small taster of the Garbo-mania that swept across the world during the late 1920s and early 30s. #FilmSky

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JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

STORY OF WOMEN (Claude Chabrol, 1988, rewatch). Isabelle Huppert is excellent here in the complex role of Marie, a black-market abortionist who also fraternises with sex workers in Occupied France. Chabrol seems interested in exploring how the collective guilt of a broader society >> #FilmSky

Film poster showing a colour image of Isabelle Huppert looking worried.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

First complete recording of my favourite musical - and conducted by the great John Wilson, too. A joy. open.spotify.com/album/5aFJV3...

open.spotify.com

Guys and Dolls - Compilation by Frank Loesser | Spotify

Frank Loesser · compilation · 2026 · 57 songs

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Anne Billson @annebillson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I ranked Busby Berkeley! Now have to rid myself of an infernal medley of Harry Warren-Al Dubin earworms. (I urge you to seek out the full Lullaby of Broadway number; official Warner Bros clip linked to in the artcle doesn't do it justice, though this one is better: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT9L...)

theguardian.com

Human harps, massive bananas and dogging: the 20 best Busby Berkeley dance routines – ranked!

To mark 50 years since the director and choreographer’s death, we count down his best fantastical, kaleidoscopic numbers, from erotic silhouettes to sinister tap dancers

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This cat is my neighbour. I respect his right to roam, but I wish that his favourite place to sit wasn't the middle of the road. We live in London, not a small village!

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I once spent a day with Bonnie Greer as part of a discussion panel. I was hugely impressed by her openness to ideas and the quality of her arguments while standing by what she believed in. But what I remember most was her tremendous warmth to me - someone she had never met before.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

First time watch of THE SHOP ON THE HIGH STREET [aka MAIN STREET] (Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, Czechoslovakia, 1965) - the most surprisingly and unnervingly rewarding film I’ve seen so far this year. #FilmSky

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Whenever I start moaning that half the series on Netflix have confusingly similar titles, I remind myself that Hitchcock made SABOTAGE, SABOTEUR, SUSPICION, SPELLBOUND and SECRET AGENT and that SABOTAGE is an adaptation of Conrad’s ‘The Secret Agent’, but SECRET AGENT isn’t.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Watched Kurosawa’s THRONE OF BLOOD (1957) yesterday for the first time in decades. A good reminder why rewatching films can be so rewarding - leaped to the top of my Kurosawa favourites with its blend of artifice and naturalism, thriller-like tension and epic vision. #FilmSky

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

A small taster of the blue/orange obsession of Pakistani thriller LAAL KABOOTAR / لال کبوتر (Kamal Khan, 2019). Somewhat unexpected given that the title translates as 'Red Pigeon'.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I'm marking what would have been Claudette's Colbert's 123rd birthday with a celebration of her contribution to our understanding of ancient history.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Architectural tour of Oxford with old friends. Huge thanks to our tour leader for his inspired choices. Most of the buildings have soul-destroying names. 1. Blavatnik School of Government by Herzog & de Meuron.

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Dan Sheehan @dansheehan.memyon.org · 11/09/2026

🧵 Herbert Stothart, composer and songwriter BOTD (1885-1949). He was lured away from stage musicals and operettas in 1929 by Louis B. Mayer to MGM, where he worked for the rest of his career writing film scores and songs for musicals and dramas, including THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) #filmsky #moviesky

A scene from the 1939 film THE WIZARD OF OZ - showing a wide shot of the yellow brick road leading to the Emerald City on the horizon and the four protagonists walking toward it.

A black and white publicity photo of composer Herbert Stothart seated at a piano wearing a suit and tie. He is writing something on a score sheet on the music stand over the keyboard.

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John Maguire @johnmaguire.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

As you read through Robin's authoritative list of films about film, remember Brownlow & Gill's extraordinary 13-part Hollywood is available to watch on the internet archive: archive.org/details/vol....

archive.org

Hollywood

Hollywood (also known as Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film) is a multi-BAFTA award winning 1980 documentary series produced by Thames Television which explored the establishment and...

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JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Having so enjoyed Ginette Vincendeau’s insights into TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI on the Why This Film? pod, I’m in the market for similar discussions. This is from @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social’s FREE THINKING strand, a deep dive into Jean-Paul Belmondo. Enjoy! #FilmSky podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...

A black and white pic of Jean-Paul Belmondo looking effortlessly cool while smoking a cigarette.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I was asked this week what my favourite film about film was. I was surprised by the speed of my reply: Kevin Brownlow and David Gill’s documentary series HOLLYWOOD (1980). Got me thinking about other films about the worlds of film that I love. Here are 100 of them: letterboxd.com/robinalex/li...

letterboxd.com

100 favourite films about film

Favourite films about filmmaking, filmmakers, cinema-going and the world of film. A mix of fiction and documentary. Kevin Brownlow and David Gill's series Hollywood (1980) would be my nomination for t...

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

As the Bayeux Tapestry goes on display at the British Museum, let's celebrate two movies that plundered the giant embroidery for inspiration. 1. Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Robert Stevenson, 1971) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjjr...

youtube.com

BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS opening credits (#16)

YouTube video by Sam Henderson

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Great to revisit Newcastle's Tyneside Cinema for the first time in several decades. It must be among the most beautiful cinemas in the UK. It was designed by Dixon Scott - great uncle of directors Ridley and Tony Scott - and first opened as a news cinema, the Bijou News-Reel Cinema, in 1937.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I’ve been after a copy of this illustrated retelling of the Iliad and the Odyssey for a very long time. Whenever I’ve seen copies in the past they’ve either been far too expensive or too well-thumbed. This was a bargain and in almost mint condition.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

1/6. Lucky to watch ELECTRA/PERSONA from the perspective of a £30 middle-of-the-2nd-row seat at the National Theatre last night. It’s a production of two halves: the Sophocles bit working better than the Bergman bit. It’s flawed, but I found the interplay between the two rewarding and complex.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

ELEPHANT WALK (1954) is basically REBECCA (1940) with pachyderms and cholera. I'm intrigued by the similarities between them. I wonder if Daphne du Maurier received royalties? Spoilers ahead in 🧵 1/10 Young woman in a dowdy job is saved from drudgery by glamorous rich man.

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Not only was there a third cat in THE THIRD MAN (Carol Reed, 1949), there was also a second dog! Baron Kurtz's dog seems to have had its very own stand-in (or friend).

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

1/2. Carol Reed and Graham Greene's THE THIRD MAN was released on this day in the UK in 1949. Here, one if its stars gets ready for his/her close-up. #FilmSky

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

If you're starting out on a career in film preservation and restoration, or considering doing so, this workshop comes strongly recommended. I'll be teaching the sessions on programming archive film and TV. filmheritagefoundation.co.in/film-preserv...

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Robin Baker @robinalexbaker.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Violet Carson (Coronation Street's Ena Sharples) surveys her domain. Carson was born on this day in 1898. Photo taken by John C Madden, 1968.

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JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

PSA for #FilmSky people! Juho Kuosmanen’s terrific COMPARTMENT NO. 6 will be on BBC2 in the early hours of tomorrow morning - and presumably on the iPlayer thereafter. Two mismatched companions must share a sleeper on a train journey from Moscow to Murmansk in this wonderfully unpredictable gem!

Film poster showing a young woman (possibly asleep) leaning against the window of a train compartment.

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