sebmarshall

Le Rayon vert: An Ode to the Listless

Eric Rohmer’s unassuming classic, Le Rayon vert (released in Britain as The Green Ray) is fundamentally a film where very little happens. Taking as its subject a situation which might normally be consigned to romantic backstory, Marie Rivière plays Delphine, a Parisian secretary whose struggle to come to terms with the end of a long-termContinue reading “Le Rayon vert: An Ode to the Listless”

Good for nothing? The Moral Philosophy of Iris Murdoch

‘It is significant that the idea of goodness (and of virtue) has been largely superseded in Western moral philosophy by the idea of rightness, supported perhaps by some conception of sincerity. This is to some extent a natural outcome of the disappearance of a permanent background to human activity: a permanent background, whether provided byContinue reading “Good for nothing? The Moral Philosophy of Iris Murdoch”

Beginning with a Misquote

Roughly two years ago to the month, I was sitting in my college room browsing a commentary on a play with the kind of wavering concentration devoted to an academic book you don’t strictly need to be reading. For picturesque sake, the court outside was filled with warm midday sunshine, which cast panes of colourContinue reading “Beginning with a Misquote”