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London Review of Books

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Jenny Diski

  • The New Biographical Dictionary of Film by David Thomson
  • Nobody’s Perfect: Writings from the ‘New Yorker’ by Anthony Lane
  • Paris Hollywood: Writings on Film by Peter Wollen

I think it is two years since I’ve been to the cinema. This is something of a mystery to me, like love gone wrong: in fact, it is love gone wrong. Was the love misguided in the first place, have I simply aged out of the way of love, or has the beloved altered beyond all recognition? Naturally, lovers whose love is depleted are inclined to think the last: it makes them feel better, less fickle, less hopeless, that the loss is not their own fault. But it’s always best to doubt such self-serving conclusions. Generally, things are one’s fault, unless it can be positively proved otherwise. Anyway, sit me in front of Bringing Up Baby, The Wild Bunch or The Conversation and I’m ravished. It’s not the films I love that I’ve fallen out of love with.

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Jenny Diski is writing a book about St Helena. A novel, Apology for the Woman Writing, is coming out in November.