Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1489264
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 JANUARY 2023 4 ALMANAC My essentials CHARLIE CAUCHI 42, multidisciplinary artist/ filmmaker I'm only 5 ft1, and my hair is now more salt than pepper. I live in Valletta... I guess you could say my roots are "tas-sikkina", but I was born within the sound of the Bow bells. Cinema is my passion, though it's boxing that keeps me in check, both mentally and physically. But ultimately, my work drives me: I'm so lucky I love what I do. 1 4 5 1. Book 2. Film 3. Internet/TV 4. Music 5. Place I'M just finishing the last sea- son of Atlanta. I'm taking my sweet time with it because I don't want it to end, and there won't be another sea- son after this fourth season. Donald Glover has created a work so dark and surreal, but he has still managed to make something that still incredi- bly funny. Some episodes still give me goosebumps. I just went to see Genn play live, and I'm so glad I did be- cause they were terrific! Actu- ally, it's been so great to see live music again. I made my teenage self very happy this year by see- ing both the Pixies and Pave- ment live. I have a habit – once I hear a song I connect with for whatever reason, I play it on repeat. One of these has been 'Catastrophe' by Yumi Zouma. Though my friend Romeo re- cently played me 'B.O.T.A.' by Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal, and I think it just might beat it. THERE are so many places, but this one is a bit nostalgic. There's a restaurant in Saint- Paul de Vence, France, called La Colombe d'Or. It's got such a wonderful art collection and the place is stunning. I went right after the Cannes Film Festival one year for a long and lazy lunch. It was one of the most perfect afternoons I've ever spent. But generally, any long and boozy lunch makes me happy – as long as I'm sur- rounded by those that I love. I'VE just finished Vladamir, Julia May Jones's debut nov- el. Female sexual desire and ageing are at the heart of this work. I found it to be ex- traordinarily compelling and uncomfortable at times, and I think it found a rather ar- resting way of unpacking the generational tensions that ex- ists around debates on sex and power, especially in the wake of the MeToo movement. I finally managed to see The Banshees of Inisherin. I ab- solutely adored Martin Mc- Donagh's debut In Bruges, and Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson had such great chem- istry in that film. It's nice to see that that hasn't changed at all. The film is set on the fic- tional titular island in 1923. It's such a simple film but also manages to do so much. It's got a melancholic, fable-like quali- ty to it, yet it also manages to be a rather grisly and tragic film, while also being tender and quite funny. There are some hysterical lines. The cin- ematography is breathtaking. 3 2