Tetro

Whilst up in Paris, I had meant to see a film called In the Loop but found myself in the wrong cinema and ended up watching Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro instead. Not an atrocious film by any means but I can't help wondering whether it would ever have seen the light of day, let alone been given worldwide distribution, if it had been written or directed by a virtual unknown. That's the trouble with film-makers, especially those of a leftist or anarchist bent, who were praised to the skies at the beginning of their careers. Nobody dares tell them they've gone stark raving mad. The prime example of this sorry state of affairs is Jean-Luc Godard. Nothing against him personally - he actually has some very interesting things to say away from the film studio - but everything against those French critics who continue to welcome each new film as a masterpiece.

The question arises: how do you know if you're famous? Well, you can see if you get VIP treatment from Turkish Airlines (Kevin Costner) or unlimited supplies of Nespresso (George Clooney) or Gillette razor blades (Tiger Woods, Thierry Henri). But there is a simpler way. Just type this paragraph into a word processor such as Word and see how many of the proper names are not recognised. As you will see, Word recognises them all. Now type in "Capel-Dunn" and you will see that I am not famous.