#& also a roman a clef of a real murder which tbh always makes me uncomfortable

[bechdelexam]

Best of January 2021

Books

5. S: A Novel About the Balkans, Slavenka Drakulić, tr. Marko Ivic

4. Concubines and Bondservants: The Social History of a Chinese Custom, Maria Jaschok

3. This Thing of Darkness: Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible in Stalin’s Russia, Joan Neuberger

2. The Witch-Hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children, Ross Cheit*

1. Disorderly Order: Colors in Silent Film: The 1995 Amsterdam Workshop, ed. Daan Hertogs

Films

5. The Sea Wolf, dir. Michael Curtiz (1941)

4. Edge of the City, dir. Martin Ritt (1957)

3. Martha Marcy May Marlene, dir. Sean Durkin (2011)

2. The Phantom Carriage, dir. Victor Sjöström (1921)

1. Sweet Smell of Success, dir. Alexander Mackendrick (1957)

*Although not my “favourite” book of January 2021, this was definitely the most important; I think that everybody should read this, until the “witch-hunt narrative” no longer has cultural cachet.