The filmmaker's movies may not be overtly topical, but topicality is never far from his mind.
There are ingeniously staged killings, terrific chases, a visit to the Rijksmuseum where the heroine works, and a sharp green socio-political message given a new topicality by the current Trafigura affair.
Writing for the Evening Standard, Nicolas de Jongh feels that the play "has dated and matured as well as vintage cheese" and the current situation in Iraq "lends an arresting topicality to John Osborne's 50-year-old, rotten-state-of-the-nation drama".
But even without the grimly fortuitous topicality conferred by Sept. 11 and the current military response, "Baran," the new film from the Iranian director Majid Majidi, would be necessary viewing.
Some of this is no more than everyday topicality, writers wallpapering novels set in the present with current events.
In today's debate, we have already had the opportunity to assess the outcome of the Dublin Summit in two aspects, and we have to repeat that what we said then, in other words that we should refer to an aspect which to me seems to be of particular relevance and topicality, as far as EMU is concerned and the current presidency.
Topicality could be more cryptic than the direct description of current events.
Cannes also aims for some topicality with Mohammed Ossama's "The Silver Water" and Sergei Loznitsa's "Maidan," which center on current events in Syria and Ukraine and will play as special screenings.
If topicality, relevance, reportage, social comment, preachy presentism, and sidewalk-smarts - in short, the contemporary American novel in its current, triumphalist form - are novelists' chosen sport, then they will sooner or later be outrun by their own streaking material.
