Digis Mak

On 10 October 1957, Harold Macmillan sent a letter to President Dwight Eisenhower. The question he asked his US counterpart was: “What are we going to do about these Russians?” The launch of the Sputnik satellite six days earlier had carried with it the threat that Soviet military technology would eclipse that of the west. The prime minister was hoping to boost British nuclear capabilities, and was desperate for US cooperation.On that same day, however, the UK’s most advanced nuclear project went up in flames – putting the knowledge and bravery of its best scientists to the test, and threatening England’s peaceful countryside with a radiological disaster.Britain’s first atomic establishment had been hurriedly put together after the second world war. It had turned the small village of Se...

yesUsanna Abse is the marriage counselor's marriage counselor – 30 years in practice giving her peerless insights into the challenges couples face without making any dent in her curiosity and originality. This serene, witty 65-year-old is exacting but non-judgmental; I imagine you'd feel able to say absolutely anything about her in front of her, unless it was bullshit. You would trust her with your marriage from her, but you'd want to take your A-game from her.Abse can't begin to estimate how many couples she's seen since her first in 1986, but puts it at tens of thousands of hours. She has worked with every kind of couple, from the ones who “bang their heads together and shout and stand up and walk out” (she calls these “doll's house” couples in her book – people who break things w...

As you read this, I will be packing my tuxedo, linen shirts and several packets of ibuprofen for the Cannes film festival, which kick off on tuesday – back where it belongs in the calendar, in the springy blush of May. At last year's pandemic-delayed July edition, a wildcard Palme d'Or win for Julia Ducournau's genderqueer cars-and-carnality freakout Titan seemed an apt response to the humid conditions.For viewers at home, Mubi's Cannes takeover season offers some highlights from festivals past, from little-seen finds such as Mauritanian director Med Hondo's powerful 1967 immigrant portrait oh sun to more recent successes such as Laurent Cantet's impassioned schoolroom debate The Class. Three of Mubi's selections are from last year's festivals, not yet seen in the UK: Arnaud Desplech...