76. Roman Polanski

The best films are because of nobody but the director. – Roman Polanski

Films for Review:

• Knife in the Water  (1962)
• Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
• Chinatown (1974)

77. Samuel Fuller

A film is like a battleground. It’s love, hate, action, violence, death… in one word, emotion. – Samuel Fuller

Films for Review:

I Shot Jesse James (1962)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Shock Corridor (1963)

78. Jean Cocteau

An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture. – Jean Cocteau

Films for Review:

The Blood of a Poet  (1932)
Beauty and the Beast  (1946)
Orpheus (1950)

79. Donald Siegel

I’ve never had a personal publicity man working for me. – Don Siegel

Films for Review:

• Invasion of the Body Snatchers  (1956)
• Dirty Harry  (1971)
• Charley Varrick  (1973)

80. King Vidor

The director is the channel through which a motion picture reaches the screen. – King Vidor.

Films for Review:

• The Big Parade (1925)
• The Crowd (1928)
• Northwest Passage (1940)

81. Wong Kar-wai

My films are never about what Hong Kong is like, or anything approaching a realistic portrait, but what I think about Hong Kong and what I want it to be. – Wong Kar-wai

Films for Review:

• Chungking Express (1994)
• Fallen_Angels_(1995)
• In the Mood for Love (2000)

82. Leo McCarey

I don’t know what my formula is. I only know I like my characters to walk in clouds. I like a little bit of the fairy tale. Let others photograph the ugliness of the world. I don’t want to distress people. – Leo McCarey

Films for Review:

• Duck Soup (1933)
• The Awful Truth (1937)
• Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)

83. Nagisa Ōshima

Nothing that is expressed is obscene. What is obscene is what is hidden. – Nagisa Ōshima

Films for Review:

• The Ceremony (1971)
• In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
• Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)

84. Francis Ford Coppola

The language of cinema was invented at the turn of the last century by pioneers who were free to experiment but today you can’t dare to experiment. People who control the motion pictures want to make profitable films. Now we’re at a turning point: As artists we can change the world but to do that we need to be free to experiment. – Francis Ford Coppola

Films for Review:

• The Godfather (1972)
• The Conversation (1974)
• The Godfather Part II (1974)

85. Pier Paolo Pasolini

When I make a film I’m always in reality among the trees, and among the people like yourselves. There’s no symbolic or conventional filter between me and reality as there is in literature. The cinema is an explosion of my love for reality. – Pier Paolo Pasolini

Films for Review:

• Accattone (1961)
• The Gospel According to Matthew (1964)
• Teorema (1968)

86. Peter Bogdanovich

You see so many movies… the younger people who are coming from MTV or who are coming from commercials and there’s no sense of film grammar. There’s no real sense of how to tell a story visually. It’s just cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, you know, which is pretty easy. – Peter Bogdanovich

Films for Review:

• Targets (1968)
• The Last Picture Show (1971)
• Saint Jack (1979)

87. Jane Campion

I’m a much better filmmaker than painter. But studying it did make me visually acute and taught me lessons like being economic: Say something once and you don’t have to say it again. – Jane Campion

Films for Review:

• An Angel at My Table (1990)
• The Piano (1993)
• The Power of the Dog (2021)

88. Olivier Assayas

I like to film reality when it’s beautiful, when it’s ugly, when it’s unpleasant, I don’t care. – Olivier Assayas

Films for Review:

• Irma Vep (1996)
• Carlos – TV Miniseries (2010)
• Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

90. Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet

The material and its treatment are purely religious-philosophical. – Jean-Marie Straub

Films for Review:

• Not Reconciled (1965)
• The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968)
• From the Clouds to the Resistance (1979)

91. Woody Allen

If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative. – Woody Allen

Films for Review:

• Annie Hall (1977)
• Manhattan (1979)
• Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

92. George Cukor

Give me a good script, and I’ll be a hundred times better as a director. Real talent is a mystery, and people who’ve got it, know it. – George Cukor

Films for Review:

• The Philadelphia Story (1940)
• Gaslight (1944)
• Travels with My Aunt (1972)

93. Abel Gance

Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Beethoven will make films… all legends, all mythologies and all myths, all founders of religion, and the very religions… await their exposed resurrection, and the heroes crowd each other at the gate. – Abel Gance

Films for Review:

• J’accuse (1919)
• La Roueoue (1923)
• Napoléon (1927)

94. Nicolas Roeg

Movies are not scripts – movies are films; they’re not books, they’re not the theatre. – Nicolas Roeg

Films for Review:

• Performance – Co-directed by Donald Cammell. (1970)
• Walkabout (1971)
• Don’t Look Now (1973)

95. Frank Capra

My advice to young filmmakers is this: Don’t follow trends, start them. – Frank Capra

Films for Review:

• It Happened One Night (1934)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
• It’s a_Wonderful_Life (1946)

96. Bernardo Bertolucci

I accept all interpretations of my films. The only reality is before the camera. – Bernardo Bertolucci

Films for Review:

• Before the Revolution (1964)
• The Conformist (1970)
• Last Tango in Paris (1972)

97. Pedro Almodóvar

I don’t want to imitate life in movies; I want to represent it. And in that representation, you use the colors you feel, and sometimes they are fake colors. But always it’s to show one emotion. – Pedro Almodóvar

Films for Review:

• All About My Mother (1999)
• Talk to Her (2002)
• The Skin I Live In (2011)

98. Aki Kaurismäki

Real film is light; digital is electricity. – Aki Kaurismäki

Films for Review:

• Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989)
• Man Without a Past (2002)
• Le Havre (2011)

99. René Clair

Nothing essential has been added to the art of the motion picture since D.W. Griffith. – René Clair

Films for Review:

• Un chapeau de paille d’Italie (The Italian Straw Hat, 1928)
• Under the Roofs of Paris (1930)
• Le Million (1931)

100. Terrence Malick

I will be true to you. Whatever comes. – Terrence Malick

Films for Review:

• Badlands (1973)
• Days of Heaven (1978)
• The Thin Red Line (1998)

101. Charles Laughton

The Night of the Hunter (1955) was the only film that actor Charles Laughton ever directed. The film features Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish, with a screenplay by James Agee; photography by Stanley Cortez, who also shot Orson Welles’ 1942 film The Magnificent Ambersons; produced by his friend Paul Gregory; and art direction by Hilyard M. Brown. In preparation of directing the film, Laughton studied the original nitrate prints of D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, and German expressionist films of the 1920s. At the time of its original release, it was a critical and box-office failure, and Laughton never directed again. The Night of the Hunter was cited by Cahiers du Cinéma in 2008 as the second-best film of all time, and has been selected by the United States National Film Registry for preservation in the Library of Congress.

The post The Complete List: Traveling Boy Selects the Greatest Film Directors of All-Time. appeared first on Traveling Archive.

5 Easy Ways to Secure Your Hotel Room

Inexpensive, portable safety devices to take with you when you travel
Courtesy by David Dean

Are you worried about the security of your hotel room when you travel? You never really know who else has a key to your room, or how good the locks and deadbolts actually are. Luckily, there are several easy, inexpensive ways to secure the room more effectively. Here are five of the best.

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Two Thirds Of Americans Worry About Work Whilst On Vacation

Courtesy Calum McCloskey, 10 Yetis Digital

New research has found the biggest worries that Americans have whilst on vacation, with the weather, accommodation, spending money and arguments all making the top five, with almost two thirds confessing to also worrying about work whilst away.

As well as determining the biggest worries that Americans have on vacation, with work featuring quite heavily for many, the biggest worries Americans have at the airport were also revealed, with fear of a flight being delayed or cancelled, luggage getting lost or damaged and missing the flight from being late topping the list.

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WanderTours

Beth Whitman here. I’m the founder of WanderTours and am your (mostly) fearless leader.

I escort groups on most of our trips – the exception being photography trips and yoga retreats where professionals are there to guide and teach you. After my first book was released, Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo, women started asking me to bring them along on my travels. Wanting them to travel independently – as I had done for nearly 20 years up to that point – I was reluctant at first. But I recognized that not everyone has the energy, time or sometimes even the desire to plan their own travels. So I led my first tour to Bhutan in 2008.

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6 Destinations with Sunscreen Bans, and What You Need to Know

Courtesy Shannon McMahon, SmarterTravel

Think the plastic straws you gave up sipping from are bad for our oceans? It’s time to consider the same about the sunscreen you use. Non-biodegradable sunscreens that contain harsh chemicals like oxybenzone have been proven to be toxic to coral reefs and other sea life. But travelers haven’t been as quick to widely abandon them for a natural alternative — so now some destinations are enacting sunscreen bans themselves.

Here are some of the most popular destinations that have banned non-biodegradable sunscreens, and how you can switch to a responsible alternative.

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Survey: Only About One-Third of Americans Say They Sleep Better in Hotels

Majority Believe Mattress is Less Comfortable Than at Home

As millions of Americans head out on vacation this summer looking for rest and relaxation, it’s likely that two-thirds of them won’t sleep as well as they do at home.

MORE

Secrets the Cruise Lines Don’t Tell You

Courtesy Erika Silverstein, Cruise Critic

Cruise ship life can be a little mysterious. Your choices aren’t always spelled out in black and white. The more you cruise, the more you pick up on the unofficial secrets the cruise lines don’t tell you — which give you more options, let you save money and generally allow you to have a better time onboard.

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Protect Yourself Against Airport Checkpoint Theft

Airport theft is becoming a major problem for travelers, so make sure to get to your destination with all your items intact.

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7 Things You Should Always Wear on a Plane

Courtesy Caroline Costellos

Be the best-dressed (and most comfortable) person in the cabin with our guide to in-flight apparel.

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Question: Which two Beatles are left-handed?

Scroll down for the answer

How to Disinfect Your Airplane Seat

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Virtual Reality Helps Japan’s Elderly Travel the World

CNN Travel

Traveling from the canals of Venice to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, a group of elderly people in Japan is seeing the world – without even leaving their seats. It’s all thanks to virtual reality, as well as a team at the University of Tokyo led by Kenta Toshima.

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How to Renew a Passport in 24 Hours

Courtesy Shannon McMahon

By partnering with an existing service called RushMyPassport, FedEx is facilitating a nationwide solution for those who need very fast passport renewal.

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Half of Americans Would Take a Job With No Paid Time Off for a Higher Salary

Meanwhile, One in Three Workers Would Give Up Some Pay for Unlimited Vacation

Half (49 percent) of working Americans would accept a job with no vacation time if they were paid more, according to the 11th annual Vacation Confidence Index* released by Allianz Global Assistance. Millennials (63 percent, compared to 47 percent of Gen X’ers and 32 percent of Baby Boomers) and men (57 percent, versus 41 percent of women) are the most likely to sacrifice paid time off for higher salaries.

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Pickpocket-Proof Clothing: 10 Garments to Protect Your Stuff

Courtesy Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon

Nothing sours a trip like having your belongings stolen by a pickpocket. But chances are, if you travel frequently — or just happen to be unlucky — a sticky-fingered stranger will one day secretly separate you from your stuff. Since traveling sans cash, credit cards, and other valuables isn’t an option for most of us, I’ve rounded up a passel of pickpocket-proof clothing and accessories that’ll make you less of a target for thieves.

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The Best Navigation Tools to Keep You on Track on a Car Trip, Here or Abroad

Courtesy Catharine Hamm, L.A. Times

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Beatle Beat Trivia Answers

Question: Name the Two Beatles who are left-handed.

Answer: Paul and Ringo who are alive and well, and left-handed.

Travel’s Unspoken Taboo – Pooping Your Pants!

Listen to excruciatingly funny tales from traglamorous selfies, sometimes s**** gets real! But no-one wants to talk about every traveler’s worst nightmare – until now.

• When you gotta go in a Nepalese temple! Do the Gods smile on this backpacker?
• Terror at 30,000 feet – explosive decompression of the worst kind!
• Go for launch, recreating how the Apollo astronauts wentin space.

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Polanski’s J’Accuse (aka An Officer and a Spy) Showcased at Venice Film Festival

Courtesy Jonathan Romney, Film Comment

Not everyone is happy about Roman Polanski having a new film in competition in Venice — especially since the festival only has two women directors competing this year. Some commentators have considered it an act of some chutzpah for Polanski to make a film about a historic case of unjust accusation and punishment — J’Accuse (aka An Officer and a Spy), his account of the Dreyfus case which divided France in the 1890s. In reality, it would be seriously stretching a point to interpret Polanski’s new film as being in any direct way about his own experience, although his depiction of Dreyfus’s exile on Devil’s Island certainly rhymes with his concern with the pain of isolation, from The Tenant to The Pianist.

MORE

10 New Women Only Travel Escapes to Take in 2019

Courtesy Shannon McMahon, SmarterTravel

Not sure you’re a group travel person? If you’re a woman seeking a new, authentic, and sustainable way to see your dream destination, women-only travel operators can take your trip to new heights. Group options like tours catering to those who identify as female can take you across the globe in a more inspiring and authentic way than the average tour does. And in the post-#MeToo era, the number of women-only travel possibilities has skyrocketed.

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One In Five American Millennials Go On Vacation To Take Pictures For Social Media

• 11% of American millennials say the main reason for going on vacation is to get pictures for social media, with it being a top factor for as many as one in five
• Two thirds upload pictures to social media whilst on holiday
• The average millennial spends 40 minutes per day on vacation taking social media pictures

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D.C. Sues Marriott Over Hidden Resort Fees ‘Pricing Deception’

Courtesy Ed Perkins

The first real action to prevent hotels from posting false low-ball prices on initial rate searches, also known as hidden “resort fees,” is finally underway. The Attorney General of the District of Columbia asked the D.C. Superior Court for injunctive relief against Marriott (the world’s largest hotel chain) for violations of the District’s consumer protections against deceptive advertising. And it could mean a lot for the future of hotel pricing.

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On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

By John Keats

Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow’d Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star’d at the Pacific — and all his men
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise —
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

Send Deb your favorite travel poems

Random Acts of Canine Kindness

Cedric the Dog takes a well-deserved break after an ill fated attempt to shut down a white supremacist rally in Wyoming.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog. – Harry S. Truman

MORE Dog Quotations

Top Museums in Rome

Rome’s museums contain everything from ancient sculpture to modern art, so there is something for everyone to enjoy. In order to appreciate all of the various different kinds of art Rome’s museums have to offer, visitors will need more than one day – perhaps a day per museum of interest. Plan to take your time so you can fully absorb all the amazing world history these museums have on display.

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Discovering St Helena: Explore Life On One of the Most Remote Islands in the World

1,200 miles from Africa and 1,800 miles from South America lays a fascinating remote volcanic island named St Helena. Almost entirely cut-off from the outside world, the island has often sparked interest by historian enthusiasts drawn to the island’s rich history, allowing them a glimpse into its role in fighting the slave trade, acting as a Boer prisoner of war site and the notorious home and prison of Napoleon, who was exiled to the island.

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7 Common Travel Crises and How to Conquer Them

Courtesy Denise Caiazzo, Travel Planners International

Travel advisors are well-equipped to handle just about anything travel-related. Give them a destination, a budget, and a few key interests, and they can whip up an entirely personalized itinerary that will make a client feel over-the-moon, as they make their travel dreams come true.

But what happens when an unforeseen travel nightmare occurs? We’re talking, “I can’t find my passport and I leave for my trip in a week!” or “Surprise, a bad storm hit, and all flights are canceled.”

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Behind the Bucket List: What Americans Really Want in Travel

Courtesy Tours.com

What do Americans want when it comes to Bucket List travel? A group from Provisional Living wanted to find out not only what’s on those lists, but why and how they got there. What they found was pretty revealing.

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Are Airlines Tracking Your Flight Searches (and Raising Prices)?

Courtesy Caroline Morse Teel

Ms. Caroline Morse Teel, Senior Editor of SmarterTravel, investigates whether or not searching for airfare makes the price go up. Also: perfume on a plane, tipping when gratuities are included, who can sit in an exit row, and more.

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How to Complain Effectively at a Hotel

Courtesy Charlyn Keating

Demand satisfaction when you have a valid complaint

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7 Travel Gadgets You Don’t Need & What to Buy Instead

Courtesy Nevin Spearman‎

There are all sorts of gadgets out there that promise to make traveling easier but often fall short. Some are cheaply made and fall apart after one trip. Others are just impractical, a realization that only comes after lugging them around the globe. Below are some of the not-so-great travel gadgets we’ve either purchased ourselves or have spotted in the wild, and the handy alternatives that you may find more useful.

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The post Sunscreen Bans, Women Travel, Polanski’s J’Accuse appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Beth Whitman here. I’m the founder of WanderTours and am your (mostly) fearless leader.

I escort groups on most of our trips – the exception being photography trips and yoga retreats where professionals are there to guide and teach you. After my first book was released, Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo, women started asking me to bring them along on my travels. Wanting them to travel independently – as I had done for nearly 20 years up to that point – I was reluctant at first. But I recognized that not everyone has the energy, time or sometimes even the desire to plan their own travels. So I led my first tour to Bhutan in 2008.

What I discovered through that trip to Bhutan and through subsequent trips was the bonding, camaraderie and life-long friendships that develop when women (and men on the co-ed trips) experience these destinations together. Those friendships have blossomed not only between myself and my tour people but also between these once-strangers who have met on one of our tours and who now regularly travel together – many of them returning tour after tour as a reunion of sorts.

All this is to say that after more than 10 years of leading groups to destinations both near (Seattle, my backyard) and far (Papua New Guinea, India, Tanzania, Peru and more), I truly feel like the luckiest person on the planet. I get to travel with people whom I am genuinely delighted to share time with AND I get to introduce them to new cultures, sights, sounds and food along the way.

Want to know more?
Some people arrive on a tour expecting me to carry a clipboard and pen, and peering over reading glasses checking names off a list.

That’s not me.

I greet you with a hug because, if we’re not already, we’re soon going to be friends. After all, we’re going to be spending some time together, anywhere from five to 15 days depending on the destination. I don’t want YOU traveling without a friend and I certainly don’t want to either!

This type of tour isn’t for everyone. And that’s totally fine. I would encourage you to follow me on social media, specifically by friending me on Facebook, following me on Instagram here and here, and listening to me host the She’s Bold Podcast.

I think you’ll get a pretty good sense as to what I’m about and whether a WanderTour is for you. If you’re still not sure, pick up the phone and let’s have a chat. I LOVE to talk travel! 206-317-1860.

Polanski’s J’Accuse (aka An Officer and a Spy) Showcased at Venice Film Festival

Courtesy Jonathan Romney, Film Comment

Not everyone is happy about Roman Polanski having a new film in competition in Venice — especially since the festival only has two women directors competing this year. Some commentators have considered it an act of some chutzpah for Polanski to make a film about a historic case of unjust accusation and punishment — J’Accuse (aka An Officer and a Spy), his account of the Dreyfus case which divided France in the 1890s. In reality, it would be seriously stretching a point to interpret Polanski’s new film as being in any direct way about his own experience, although his depiction of Dreyfus’s exile on Devil’s Island certainly rhymes with his concern with the pain of isolation, from The Tenant to The Pianist.

Not that Polanski has distanced himself entirely from this topic in public statements. In the interview published in the film’s press notes, philosopher Pascal Bruckner asks the director whether he will survive the “present day neo-feminist McCarthyism” — to which Polanski replies: “In the story, I sometimes find moments I have experienced myself, I can see the same determination to deny the facts and condemn me for things I have not done.” Making this sort of parallel, especially in as profane a context as a PR kit, may not help Polanski’s cause greatly at a time when, outside France and the European circuit that honors grands auteurs, his reputation as a public figure is arguably at its lowest ebb. It looks especially awkward when promoting a film that, from most angles, looks very much like an impersonal study of a historic case (just as Polanski’s films have tended to feel impersonal and detached for quite some time, even when the subject is as directly connected to his personal history as the Holocaust story The Pianist).

One of the routine defenses of Polanski is to claim that, whatever he may have done in his personal life, he remains indisputably a great filmmaker, which some see as an inarguable defense. As Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera put it at the opening press conference: “He is, in my opinion, one of the last masters in European cinema.” In today’s climate, the “mastery defense” has come under increasing scrutiny, and in any case, this has been a very tenuous case to make for Polanski for some time: he has certainly made some very good films over the years, but it’s debatable whether there has been anything of outstanding brilliance and originality since Chinatown and The Tenant in the mid-’70s (apart, perhaps, for the outstandingly bold and contentious oddity of 1992’s much-derided sexual-politics black comedy Bitter Moon).

An Officer and a Spy will not persuade skeptics that Polanski is that lofty and dubious thing, a True Master. But it is a very solid, compelling, and serious piece of filmmaking. Based on the novelized version of the case by Robert Harris (who has adapted the book alongside Polanski), this account of the story is original in not following the ordeal of French artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus (a barely recognizable Louis Garrel), seen at the start of the film undergoing court martial in 1894 on charges of treason and supplying information to the Germans. Instead, the film follows another officer, Georges Picquart (Jean Dujardin), who, after being promoted to the head of the French army’s intelligence bureau, discovers through following a completely different case that there is a crucial anomaly in the supposedly cast-iron evidence against Dreyfus. Picquart realizes that the man has been falsely charged, the scapegoated victim of the virulent anti-Semitism that, the film shows, was very prevalent in France at that time.

The film is a detective/espionage story, with an emphasis on military political intrigue and bureaucratic conspiracy, suggestive of French fin de siècle John le Carré. What makes the drama gripping and plausible from the start is the fact that Picquart is not a noble idealist and whistleblowing rebel, but simply a career soldier of integrity who believes in truth and justice and believes it is his duty to pursue their cause. In fact, he is shown at the start to be less than saintly himself, pursuing secret assignations with the married wife (Emmanuelle Seigner) of a friend, and himself casually subscribing to the anti-Semitism universal in his milieu. It is perhaps frustrating that the scant depiction of Dreyfus’s ordeal — partly shown in brief sepia sequences, with Garrel’s voiceover reading of his letters — marginalizes the man at the center of this story. But then, it might have come across as intrusive to show us too much of his exile, and what is essential to the film is the way that Dreyfus has been excluded from his own life, exiled and silenced — a pariah on an island far from his own world.

For the first 20 minutes or so, Polanski’s film threatens to be a solemn, laborious and altogether academic affair — a corridors-of-power drama in which the parquet floors of those corridors are sheened with pedantic historical accuracy. As the film develops, however, two things impress. One is the visual precision with which Polanski, DP Pawel Edelman, and production designer Jean Rabasse recreate Paris at this period — one brief scene at a café-concert feels more authentically a cinematic evocation of the world of Lautrec and Manet than anything comparable I’ve seen in French or any other cinema. There’s a certain visual mannerism that irks for the first part of the film — the tendency to show interiors cloaked in dusty half-light, a very tangible metaphor for the fog of untruth. But it adds to the impression that this is a profoundly anti-glamorizing depiction of the past — a Belle Époque that is anything but beau.

The other is the narrative concentration and seriousness of Polanski’s approach, which has no space for thrills or distractions, but simply shows Picquart pursuing the case doggedly as he cleans up the shady mess that Intelligence headquarters has become. Dujardin’s singularly not-of-our-era physiognomy and ever so slightly stiff bearing make him perfect for the part, which he plays with due solemnity and an utmost lack of self-promotion. The casting is perfect throughout — every face fitting the period perfectly, without its ever seeming that Polanski has trawled for memorable (read: folkloric) “characters.” The credits are liberally stacked with Comédie Française notables (including Michel Vuillermoz and Denis Podalydès) alongside French cinema axioms such as Mathieu Amalric and Melvil Poupaud, but grandstanding is minimal. The performance that most imposes itself in a larger, more theatrical way is by Grégory Gadebois as Picquart’s resentful subordinate turned foe, Major Henry, a masterful portrayal of institutionalized laziness, prejudice, and corruption.

One of the most shocking moments in the film comes early on, in the form of a crowd baying for Dreyfus’s blood; another comes later, after the novelist Émile Zola has written his famous open letter “J’Accuse” in the newspaper L’Aurore, and crowds burn the author’s books and paint anti-Semitic graffiti on shop windows (here’s something Polanski does know about from his early experience). Depictions of anti-Semitism are something that, alas, never become out of date, and these feel particularly discomforting today. The other thing that feels especially timely is the film’s defense of a free press and independent campaigning investigative journalism. Whatever misgivings you have about the state of Polanski’s artistry or about his right to continue to be adulated or, many would argue, be let off the moral hook, this is certainly a film that powerfully expounds a righteous moral message — regardless whether you consider Polanski himself to be an arbiter of righteousness or morality. In any case, this film is in no sense groundbreaking auteur cinema — not the ineffable sui generis stuff we tend hopefully to associate with “Masters,” but it is a very fine, very authoritative drama, and well worth seeing. But Polanski does lose points for one touch of vanity — this member of France’s Académie de Beaux-Arts appears as an extra in a salon scene, wearing the full regalia of an académicien.

Survey: Only About One-Third of Americans Say They Sleep Better in Hotels

Majority Believe Mattress is Less Comfortable Than at Home

As millions of Americans head out on vacation this summer looking for rest and relaxation, it’s likely that two-thirds of them won’t sleep as well as they do at home.

According to a recent survey from luxury bedmaker DUX, only about one-third  (34%) of Americans say they sleep better in a hotel room. The survey was conducted online by The Harris Poll for DUX from June 18-20, 2019, among 2,060 U.S. adults.

“Most people don’t even think to ask about what type of bed a hotel uses and whether they’re comfortable at all,” said Ed Curry, president of DUX North America. “The thing is, if a hotel provides excellent beds it’s going to go a long way in assuring you get a good night’s rest and that you’re ready for your vacation adventures.”

DUX, the Swedish bed company that’s produced some of the highest-quality mattresses in the world for 90-plus years, has a longstanding commitment to assuring travelers worldwide get great sleep. DUX beds are found in more than 100 of the finest hotels around the world.

For travelers expecting a quality hotel bed, what they find is often a disappointment. The survey found that while 61% of Americans expect a hotel mattress to be more comfortable than the one at home, that’s often not the case. Fifty-six percent said most mattresses at hotels where they stay aren’t as comfortable.

Only about 43% of Americans look for hotels that feature specialty or luxury mattresses, according to the survey. That’s a shame because one easy travel hack that can improve your vacation is to simply ask a hotel what type of beds it uses.

“It’s hard to enjoy your vacation when you’re not sleeping well,” Curry said. “So along with following other sleep tips, such as cooling the room and putting technology away, try to find hotels that truly focus on sleep by using high-quality mattresses, linens and pillows.”

Two Thirds Of Americans Worry About Work Whilst On Vacation

Courtesy Calum McCloskey, 10 Yetis Digital

New research has found the biggest worries that Americans have whilst on vacation, with the weather, accommodation, spending money and arguments all making the top five, with almost two thirds confessing to also worrying about work whilst away.

As well as determining the biggest worries that Americans have on vacation, with work featuring quite heavily for many, the biggest worries Americans have at the airport were also revealed, with fear of a flight being delayed or cancelled, luggage getting lost or damaged and missing the flight from being late topping the list.

The study was undertaken by the team behind flight-comparison site www.us.jetcost.com, in which over 4,300 Americans over the age of 18 were surveyed. All respondents revealed that they had been on at least one vacation abroad within the last two years.

Respondents were quizzed on their worries when flying – and going on vacation in general – and it was found that two fifths of Americans (39%) find going to the airport a stressful experience, and a further 45% said that they don’t like flying.

On top of this, 19% of Americans confessed that they are scared of flying, and a further 8% do not fly to certain destinations because of the time spent on a plane.

Asked what Americans’ biggest worries were when flying, and given an extensive list to choose from, the top answers were found to be ‘flight being delayed/cancelled’ (69%), ‘luggage getting lost/damaged’ (63%) and ‘missing a flight due to being late’ (58%).

Quizzed on the vacation itself, the top worries Americans have whilst away were found to be:

1. Weather will be worse than expected – 79%
2. Something will happen at work/work will call – 65%
3. Accommodation will be worse than expected – 61%
4. The money that will be spent – 59%
5. Arguing with who you are going with – 48%

Asked further about worrying about work whilst away, it was found that nearly one third of Americans (32%) do work whilst they are on vacation, and a further 70% check their work emails at least once when on a trip abroad.

Due to these worries, more than two fifths of Americans (42%) find going on vacation stressful, and one in seven (14%) even say that they regret going away after coming home.

Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson for jetcost said:

“Going on vacation can definitely be a stressful experience, but it is so worth it in the end. You can help relieve some of the stress by being organised and having everything planned before leaving, and try and enjoy yourself as much as you can! If you know you’re the sort of person to worry about work and check your emails while away, leave your phone at home – if you can’t look, you can’t respond or end up working when on vacation.”

5 Easy Ways to Secure Your Hotel Room

Inexpensive, portable safety devices to take with you when you travel

Courtesy by David Dean

Are you worried about the security of your hotel room when you travel? You never really know who else has a key to your room, or how good the locks and deadbolts actually are. Luckily, there are several easy, inexpensive ways to secure the room more effectively. Here are five of the best.

The simplest way to add extra security to your hotel room is with a rubber door wedge, and many travelers swear by them. They’re cheap, take up almost no space in your bag, and can be set up in just a few seconds. You simply place the thin end under the door jam; then gently kick the wedge into place to secure it.

Door wedges work best on hard surfaces like wood or tile, although some do come with a Velcro strip to stop them from sliding on carpet. For extra security, you can also buy models that come with an alarm that will sound when the wedge is disturbed.

The door you’re securing has to open inwards for the wedge to be effective. Most hotel doors do, but it’s something to bear in mind.

Another straightforward approach to securing your room is by using a portable door lock. These come in several shapes and styles, but they all work in a similar way, preventing the door from opening inwards. Again, for that reason, they won’t protect you when the door to your room opens out into the corridor.

Most portable locks have one piece that fits into the metal plate where the existing latch or lock goes, and another that sits across the back of the door. When locked in place, these prevent the door from opening unless someone physically breaks it down—not the most subtle of approaches.

A few portable locks take a different approach, with a piece that slides under the door jam, and a plate that screws down onto the floor.

When someone tries to open the door, the horizontal force is transferred into vertical pressure that secures the lock more tightly in place. Like door wedges, they work best on hard surfaces. You’ll get some protection if your room has carpeted floors, but not as much.

If you’d like to protect more than just the entry door to your room, consider a motion detection alarm. These infrared sensors can be placed facing a window, door, or anywhere else in the room (other than your bed), and will alarm when they detect movement.

Make sure you choose a model that has sufficient range (at least 10 feet, but more is better), and will automatically re-arm itself if you’re planning on using it when you’re out of the room. If you’re protecting a window, be aware of flapping curtains and swaying tree branches when choosing the right position for the alarm.

Some can also be used as personal security devices, with loud alarms that can be quickly activated in an emergency, so look for that feature if it’s important to you.

While it won’t prevent access to the room, a door alarm should scare away all but the most determined of thieves. There are different versions, but a common type hangs from the door handle, with two metal prongs or blades that are pushed between the door and its frame.

When the door opens, the prongs come apart, and a loud alarm sounds. It’s a simple but effective technique, with the advantage that it will work on any door type, including those that open outwards. These alarms typically only take a few seconds to set up, so you don’t need to spend ages messing around every time you leave or come back to the room.

Finally, if your door has a deadbolt, but you’re concerned about staff and others still having access with a spare key, the Lock Locker will help set your mind at ease. It’s a two-part device, with a long flat section that fits around the handle and a round piece that fits over most deadbolts.

Set both pieces up, combine the two, and you’ve got a system that makes it pretty much impossible for anyone to open the deadbolt from the outside, whether they have a key or not

Check prices for the Lock Locker on Amazon.

Travel’s Unspoken Taboo – Pooping Your Pants!

Listen to excruciatingly funny tales from traglamorous selfies, sometimes s**** gets real! But no-one wants to talk about every traveler’s worst nightmare – until now.

• When you gotta go in a Nepalese temple! Do the Gods smile on this backpacker?
• Terror at 30,000 feet – explosive decompression of the worst kind!
• Go for launch, recreating how the Apollo astronauts wentin space.

On September 10th The World Nomads Podcast devotes an entire episode to s***ing while traveling. What causes it, how to avoid it, and stories which are both horrifying and hilarious shared by experienced travelers.

“There’s no shame. I’ve done it in every country I’ve visited. It even happened to me in Tokyo on Takeshita Street” said producer and co-host Kim Napier.

The World Nomads Podcast usually takes listeners on a journey to some of the most exotic locations on Earth, or interviews intrepid travelers who inspire others to seek out adventure, but the idea for this episode came up after many of their guests shared their tales of woe after recording had stopped.

“It’s happened to us all, so we thought it was time we told the truth about travel and switched the microphones back on.” said co-host Phil Sylvester.

Among the harrowing tales re-told on the podcast are:

• “Yeah. I’ve been lucky enough to defecate in quite a few different places. I’m not sure if lucky is the right word, but yeah, there’s Guatemala, and China, and Thailand, and Australia as well, probably in Canada too.” – Jarryd Salem, adventure travel blogger.
• “Something that had been handled before went into my mouth, so her slightly s***ty fingers transferred onto my sweetcorn, which got into me and made me sick.” – Jane Wilson-Howarth author of How to Shit Around the World.
• “I reverse-engineered the Apollo fecal bag. I got a gallon Ziploc bag and I followed the instructions that NASA themselves published, I stuck it on my ass, and then I went into my shower because that seemed to be the smartest place to do this.” – Jason Torchinsky, author and blogger.

The episode can be listened to, and downloaded from, the podcast show notes page at worldnomads.com/podcasts or by clicking this link.

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Director

Writers: Roman Polanski (original screenplay), Gérard Brach (original screenplay) (as Gerard Brach)

Cinematography: Gilbert Taylor

Music: Krzysztof Komeda

Stars: Donald Pleasence, Françoise Dorléac, Lionel Stander, Jack MacGowran, Jacqueline Bisset (as Jackie Bisset)

Polanski’s “Cul-de-Sac”

By Walt Mundkowsky
(mostly written in London, 1969)

By this viewer’s idiosyncratic standards, Cul-de-Sac (1966) is Roman Polanski’s sole brush with greatness, and the only feature to keep faith with the surrealist metaphors and perceptions of his celebrated short films. It’s his most bizarrely funny, as well as his most serious work.

Cul-de-Sac takes a Desperate Hours-style situation (criminals on the run invade a normal household) and turns it on its head. George is a fiftyish English factory owner who has sold his business and retired to a fortress-like structure on Lindisfarne, a barren island (except at low tide) off the Northumberland coast. Teresa, his young French wife of a few months, busies herself homebrewing vodka, raising chickens, and advertising her sexual wares to passing males. Into this amalgam of character and landscape come Dicky and Albert, two gangsters wounded in a bungled robbery attempt. This quartet is reduced to a trio when Albert dies during the night. Dicky waits for Katelbach, his boss, to mount a rescue, but it never happens. The accumulated tensions heighten as a party of George’s former associates drops by unannounced. After George forces them off his property, Dicky calls Katelbach again and realizes that he’s been abandoned.

Polanski is here much influenced by the Theatre of the Absurd. Indeed, the proceedings might be profitably described as a cast of Ionesco characters, their outrageous humors and quirks on parade, playing at Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. The shifting power alliances among this trio are pitilessly observed; more pessimistic still is the sense that each of them is a solitary planet incapable of contacting the others, obeying physical laws they comprehend only fleetingly.

This is by several miles Polanski’s most ambitious and singular directing achievement. His unnerving use of the setting’s potential for entrapment, his instinct for the detail that clinches a line of development, his restless but purposeful editing touch — all these cohere into a moral argument presented in scathing terms. And Krzysztof Komeda’s off-kilter jazz is itself almost an individual personage — catchily melodic, texturally grating.

The lead performances are as much a triumph of casting as of directing; they reinforce Polanski’s view of human nature by having virtually nothing to do with each other. Donald Pleasance’s George is a career best, and somewhat related to his brilliant Davies in Harold Pinter’s play The Caretaker. In both we are invited to see the desperation lurking beneath the character’s picky, hectoring surface. Pleasance’s skill at shifting in mid-syllable from a command to a confession still astounds. Teresa is a nearly unactable monster as written — conniving, dishonest, juvenile. Françoise Dorléac (older sister of Catherine Deneuve, and tragically dead in an auto accident the following year) at least gives her a coquettish playfulness that renders the extravagances bearable. Lionel Stander has less operating room than they do, by Polanski’s design. Dicky is a none-too-bright career criminal and a blustering brute besides, but he’s the sanest of this unholy threesome. Stander delivers the primary tones unfailingly. Jack MacGowran, one of Samuel Beckett’s prized performers, makes the most of Albert’s deathbed scene. The young Jacqueline Bisset (billed as Jackie Bisset) is a sharp and snotty delight as the guest who notices too much.

An account of Dorléac’s death figures in Derek Marlowe’s novel Echoes of Celandine (1970, The Viking Press, Inc.) —

“On one page, her face stares out at me (beautiful, alert, almost boyish …). It is the face non-Europeans neither produce nor ever appreciate. It is too strong and yet fragile, too independent, too revealing — not only of the owner but also of the onlooker — and too defiantly feminine. (…) she out-Eves Eve in expression alone. If her body has been left to medical science, her eyes, at least, ought to have been left to Tiffany’s.

“I make a note of the actress’s name and attempt to tear the photograph from the magazine, but it is stapled badly, the picture tears, and I am left with half her face in my hand (right eye, a triangle of soft rain of hair, the crescent shadow of a cheekbone) and so drop the magazine, reluctantly, in pieces, on to the floor.

“It is not my night.”

(p. 91)

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