Soma Ghosh Archives | The Quietus

Soma Ghosh

Film

A Man’s Job: Asif Kapadia And Akram Khan On Creature

Asif Kapadia and Akram Khan address female abuse, post-colonial inheritance and the beauty and pain of male artistry in conversation with Soma Ghosh
Film

Pure Motion: Girls Can’t Surf And Other Wave Stories

New documentary Girls Don't Surf offers an upbeat take on young women overturning the pay gap, but there's more to learn about the pain, beauty and solitude of surfing on screen, finds Soma Ghosh
Film

Fuck Fame: Charli XCX, A-ha And Destructive Fandom

The cost of summery, youth-led music is steep as much in the 1980s as the 2020s, as revealed in documentaries about Charli XCX and A-ha, finds Soma Ghosh
Film

Miss American Pie: Black Widow And Marvel’s Rotten Women

Marvel's recent female heroines offer a cultural turning point, but with Black Widow leading the charge, they still fail to reveal the rottenness of America's myth as force for good, finds Soma Ghosh
Film

Is This Bitch For Real? Black And White Fashion In Cruella And Beyond

The release of Disney's Cruella offers another opportunity to examine a history of black and white fashion on film – and speaks to our neverending delight in wicked women, finds Soma Ghosh
Film

A Deafening Glory: On Sound Of Metal And The Hell Of Noise

Darius Marder's bold debut Sound of Metal asks the viewer to understand rock and deafness as two contradictory things – but it's a complex history, finds Soma Ghosh
Film

More Than An Emblem: The United States Vs. Billie Holiday

Lee Daniels' gorgeous star-spangled biopic of Billie Holiday honours the incomparable artist, but risks reducing her to a shiny, heroic emblem more than the harsh-throated contradiction she was, finds Soma Ghosh
Film

Tickle, Tickle: A History Of The Witch On Film

Following the release of Robert Zemeckis' remake of The Witches, Soma Ghosh looks back on the history of the witch on film, from Bewitched to The Love Witch
Film

Never Come Back: Reclaiming Roots In ‘Monsoon’ And ‘Residue’

Two 2020 films tackle masculinity and non-whiteness within a present-day diaspora, examining the myth of the conquered home to varying effect. Soma Ghosh explores how Monsoon and Residue go about reclaiming roots

Film

He Makes You Think He’s Lost When He’s Won: On Chadwick Boseman

The devastating news of the death of Chadwick Boseman, the actor whose intelligent vulnerability redefined portrayals of Black heroes for a beseiged generation, brought the world to the halt. Soma Ghosh remembers the late, great artist
Film

You Can Be Anything: On Oscar Micheaux, History’s Most Prolific African American Filmmaker

Controversial yet mainstream, Oscar Micheaux is the often forgotten African-American filmmaker who paved the way for Steve McQueen, Spike Lee and Childish Gambino. Soma Ghosh guides us through Micheaux's history
Film

The Killing Joke: War Comedy In ‘Da 5 Bloods’ And ‘Apocalypse Now’

Spike Lee's new film Da 5 Bloods, on Netflix now, grapples with the irony of war and eulogises male togetherness as a moral good. Soma Ghosh explains how its comedy capsizes under pedantry

A Quietus Interview

Intimacy Is The Only Solution: Jehnny Beth Interviewed

As she releases her debut solo album and an book of explicit fiction and art, Jehnny Beth speaks to Soma Ghosh about gender, sexuality, and the power in submission
Black Sky Thinking

My Name Is Prince: On Race, Identity & The End Of The Love Symbol

Twenty years after Prince abandoned the Love Symbol to reclaim his own name, Soma Ghosh explores what lay behind this subversion of gender and racial identity

Books

Becoming Prince: The Beautiful Ones Reviewed

Prince's posthumous memoir conceals as much as it reveals, but remains a beautiful and strange book, finds Soma Ghosh
Album of the Week

Prince In A Camisole: Undressing The ‘Originals’ Album

Prince's newly released Originals album is a window into the artist's relationship with his female avatars
Film

Nothing Fabulous Lasts: Fleshback, Studio 54 & Alt-Sex Clubbing On Film

With the release of new films Fleshback and Studio 54, Soma Ghosh looks through the cinematic history of alternative sexual identities and the clubs they let loose in
Film

Vamping Into The Void: Betty Davis – They Say I’m Different

Director Phil Cox discusses his new documentary on the legendary Betty Davis, Betty – They Say I'm Different, screening in the UK throughout July

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