And Lo, there came amongst us another great English film with a wondrous British cast. 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' was a film I heard great things of but what clinched it for me was the thought of another performance by Judy Dench. As most Baby Boomers with parents, I have watched hours of 'As Time Goes By' and come to love the Judy Dench persona but the 'J.Edgar' Dench was a different kettle of fish altogether. A darkness emanated from that woman that was chilling and made the madnes of J.Edgar almost touching by comparison.
I also covet any film with Penelope Wilton in it since her frail and dear Mrs Hamly in 'Wives and Daughters'. She is the very antithesis in this and managed to take on a physical vigour which was a knockout by comparison. Maggie Smith is fabulous and Bill Nighy moving and funny with a speech to make you cry if ever there was one. And who has not had his ill advised advice about 'Bargaining in foreign parts'? It all takes place in India where Celia Imrie, Tom Wilkinson and Ronald Pickup confront their fates.
We are all moving in into this shadowland and dealing with it with as much of our better natures as we can muster. Here are a few fellow travellers with a bit of insight along the way.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Dead Funny
Looking about for a cheering film for a friend in trouble, I came upon a boxed set of Alec Guiness' films which included 'The Ladykillers'. Shot barely ten years after the end of WW2, the film centres around an old lady living in a charming but bomb damaged house near a railway tunnel.
The fifties produced a flowering of british films which sprang up despite the drabness still shrouding London and the leading character, Mrs Wilberforce is one of its rare, exotic and completely charming blooms. Every day she turns on her tap(cold water only),bangs the pipes with her hammer(hanging by ribbon),and fills the enormous kettle which she puts on a gas stove. Despite living in a damaged house with several floors considered unsafe by the surveyor, she is keen to rent out the liveable space to the disgraceful bunch of seasoned british actors (Guiness,Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green)who turn up to apply for it. With a woman like this, they hadn't a chance.
Katie Johnson had been working on stage since 1894 and had just the right pair of steely,rose coloured glasses guaranteed to out do the most extravagant comic. She walked away with the film and was greatly mourned when two years later, she 'upped and died' as my father put it. Perhaps she is a good model for the current decade. Neither she nor her character appeared full of pills or self pity and let's hope her death was not the passing of another era.
The fifties produced a flowering of british films which sprang up despite the drabness still shrouding London and the leading character, Mrs Wilberforce is one of its rare, exotic and completely charming blooms. Every day she turns on her tap(cold water only),bangs the pipes with her hammer(hanging by ribbon),and fills the enormous kettle which she puts on a gas stove. Despite living in a damaged house with several floors considered unsafe by the surveyor, she is keen to rent out the liveable space to the disgraceful bunch of seasoned british actors (Guiness,Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green)who turn up to apply for it. With a woman like this, they hadn't a chance.
Katie Johnson had been working on stage since 1894 and had just the right pair of steely,rose coloured glasses guaranteed to out do the most extravagant comic. She walked away with the film and was greatly mourned when two years later, she 'upped and died' as my father put it. Perhaps she is a good model for the current decade. Neither she nor her character appeared full of pills or self pity and let's hope her death was not the passing of another era.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Rich man, Poor man?
I had no idea how this was going to turn out, cherishing a long love of Alec Guinness work. My memory of his 'Smiley' seemed unassailable and Gary Oldman a bit of an odd choice but if ever there was an actor who grabbed a role and ran with it, it is Oldman in this.
He is surrounded by a stellar cast of English actors, John Hurt, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy and many more, moving through the grimy air of cold war Europe. If it was possible to feel the chill radiating from the grim little apartments and squalid streets the superb camera work does it for you...thats over and above the wrecked lives and entrenched sexism. Nevertheless they still managed to sqeeze in some of the glamour and glitz of those days as I remember them.
There is a sense of ever present threat and also the feeling that WW2 was not long over and memories and hard times not gone yet. Sex and alcohol seem to have taken the the place of love and the love that dared not speak its name, dared only be underground or gone. Women are whores or saints. Its not a musical.
Near the end, when they are closing in on the rat in the ranks you see how the 'team' pull together in an almost balletic sequence of threat and intimidation which took my breath away. And like a fool I had not realised why they called the character 'Smiley'. I do now. Oldman glides through these scenes with the same amiable appearance he has used to comfort and entertain.
If you want to see what a Cold War can do to those who are set up to prevent a warm one, see 'Tinker Tailor, Soldier Spy'. And see if you can spot 'Le Carre' in his cameo role.
He is surrounded by a stellar cast of English actors, John Hurt, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy and many more, moving through the grimy air of cold war Europe. If it was possible to feel the chill radiating from the grim little apartments and squalid streets the superb camera work does it for you...thats over and above the wrecked lives and entrenched sexism. Nevertheless they still managed to sqeeze in some of the glamour and glitz of those days as I remember them.
There is a sense of ever present threat and also the feeling that WW2 was not long over and memories and hard times not gone yet. Sex and alcohol seem to have taken the the place of love and the love that dared not speak its name, dared only be underground or gone. Women are whores or saints. Its not a musical.
Near the end, when they are closing in on the rat in the ranks you see how the 'team' pull together in an almost balletic sequence of threat and intimidation which took my breath away. And like a fool I had not realised why they called the character 'Smiley'. I do now. Oldman glides through these scenes with the same amiable appearance he has used to comfort and entertain.
If you want to see what a Cold War can do to those who are set up to prevent a warm one, see 'Tinker Tailor, Soldier Spy'. And see if you can spot 'Le Carre' in his cameo role.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Big Brown Horse.
My father is a cavalry man. I was raised with horses and learnt to ride in a rigorous school which had us jumping over obstacles with our hands held out horizontally. It taught you balance - it taught you how to get off too when you found yourself going round the arena underneath the horse. I will never forget the wonder I felt when he got on my unruly pony and took her round the field jumping jumps perfectly...with no stirrups or reins.
I saw the trailer for this film and loved the look of it. The lead horse is a big animal, with a bit of Percheron or cart horse in him...the sort that carried the knights of old. Not that I think he was the only horse because he seemed to have shrunk at times but he is an attractive type to me. 'Warhorse' is a beautiful film made more so by Steven Spielberg's great animal direction and graced throughout by a marvelous English cast. The wonderful Benedict Cumberbatch of Sherlock Holmes fame - who says you can't have a name like Cumberbatch or Hackforth-Jones as an actor? is a convincing cavalry man who leads a charge so beautifully shot you feel the officers of the day would have approved.
And yet, and yet it's sad. So many of my relatives were there and so many of their friends. The terrible charnel house of WW1 France is a horribly familiar thing. There are rays of light and wonderfully comic interludes and 'Warhorse' leaves you on an upswing but so much died on those battle fields and so many that it is hard to feel this arena of blood and terror is safely in the past. So as a baby boomer I told my father of the film and as a cavalry man he said."There were no black horses". Yes there were I said, there was a brown one and a black. "No" he said "There was no such thing as a black horse in the cavalry". They were there all right but they called them 'brown'. So now you know.
I saw the trailer for this film and loved the look of it. The lead horse is a big animal, with a bit of Percheron or cart horse in him...the sort that carried the knights of old. Not that I think he was the only horse because he seemed to have shrunk at times but he is an attractive type to me. 'Warhorse' is a beautiful film made more so by Steven Spielberg's great animal direction and graced throughout by a marvelous English cast. The wonderful Benedict Cumberbatch of Sherlock Holmes fame - who says you can't have a name like Cumberbatch or Hackforth-Jones as an actor? is a convincing cavalry man who leads a charge so beautifully shot you feel the officers of the day would have approved.
And yet, and yet it's sad. So many of my relatives were there and so many of their friends. The terrible charnel house of WW1 France is a horribly familiar thing. There are rays of light and wonderfully comic interludes and 'Warhorse' leaves you on an upswing but so much died on those battle fields and so many that it is hard to feel this arena of blood and terror is safely in the past. So as a baby boomer I told my father of the film and as a cavalry man he said."There were no black horses". Yes there were I said, there was a brown one and a black. "No" he said "There was no such thing as a black horse in the cavalry". They were there all right but they called them 'brown'. So now you know.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
A Blast from the Past
This is a case where the trailer for BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK gives you the insight you need to wet your appetite for it. Still, I was initially worried that the doco would skate along the surface of the fashion world in way that would not be very satisfying but when I realised that Bill Cunningham was in his eighties and following his obsession and profession on a BICYCLE, I began to focus.
The film shows us a day in the life of this remarkably likeable old man but then manages to get so close to his centre that its almost too much. After decades in the scene in New York, Bill knows just about everyone in the arts world and caps it off with a thorough knowledge of the rich and powerful - its a heady blend of tinsel and tough blended together by a magnificent being. Cunningham we find had started out as a hat maker but closed his shop when he was called up,entering his military career with the same amiable dedication he uses to run his whole life.
Bill Cunningham is the type of character I feel is dissapearing. Despite one moment of almost unbearable insight, I do thank the director Richard Press for bringing us Bill Cunningham who is, in effect Decency on Wheels. The world needs you Bill.
The film shows us a day in the life of this remarkably likeable old man but then manages to get so close to his centre that its almost too much. After decades in the scene in New York, Bill knows just about everyone in the arts world and caps it off with a thorough knowledge of the rich and powerful - its a heady blend of tinsel and tough blended together by a magnificent being. Cunningham we find had started out as a hat maker but closed his shop when he was called up,entering his military career with the same amiable dedication he uses to run his whole life.
Bill Cunningham is the type of character I feel is dissapearing. Despite one moment of almost unbearable insight, I do thank the director Richard Press for bringing us Bill Cunningham who is, in effect Decency on Wheels. The world needs you Bill.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Tiger Burning Bright
Again with the sorrowful footage. Once more we see the sad film of the last Tasmanian Tiger in captivity, pacing its lonely cell and trying to escape the fate we had brought it to. The animal is so familiar to us, half dingo, half devil. What went wrong?
Well nothing, for Willem Dafoe who slips as naturally into this role as a second skin. What isn't there to like for him? He is a sure thing for the lean man who tracks through the unkind beauty of the Tasmanian outback and sets meticulous traps for the unseen and unwary fauna. He cradles his complex weaponry like a lover and is alert to the sounds of the wilderness and the prospect of treachery. Around him the vast splendour of Tasmania spreads out in all its glory. As scary as the moon and as intoxicating.
In his search for the Tiger with its haunting bark, he is billeted with a mother and her two children, Morgana Davies and Finn Woodlock. The relationship he forms with these two is enchanting and subtly varied. Of course, having worked with Morgana, you would expect nothing less from her but it is wonderful to watch. And she is only a little girl at the beginning of her climb. But there is also a little boy and his ride to escort Dafoe off the property is one of the most truly moving scenes I have ever seen. Enchanting without that layer of cuteness that seems to be thickly applied wherever children appear in movies. Morgana works well with other children. I have seen her helping her 'younger' brother in The Tree through his first interview and she uses that same care here with her new 'brother'.
The Hunter is half in love with the children's mother (Frances O'Connor) who is jealously guarded by a wary neighbour, (Sam Neill) but the real star of this tale is The Tiger. Can they make him return and make him as beautiful as once he was?
Well nothing, for Willem Dafoe who slips as naturally into this role as a second skin. What isn't there to like for him? He is a sure thing for the lean man who tracks through the unkind beauty of the Tasmanian outback and sets meticulous traps for the unseen and unwary fauna. He cradles his complex weaponry like a lover and is alert to the sounds of the wilderness and the prospect of treachery. Around him the vast splendour of Tasmania spreads out in all its glory. As scary as the moon and as intoxicating.
In his search for the Tiger with its haunting bark, he is billeted with a mother and her two children, Morgana Davies and Finn Woodlock. The relationship he forms with these two is enchanting and subtly varied. Of course, having worked with Morgana, you would expect nothing less from her but it is wonderful to watch. And she is only a little girl at the beginning of her climb. But there is also a little boy and his ride to escort Dafoe off the property is one of the most truly moving scenes I have ever seen. Enchanting without that layer of cuteness that seems to be thickly applied wherever children appear in movies. Morgana works well with other children. I have seen her helping her 'younger' brother in The Tree through his first interview and she uses that same care here with her new 'brother'.
The Hunter is half in love with the children's mother (Frances O'Connor) who is jealously guarded by a wary neighbour, (Sam Neill) but the real star of this tale is The Tiger. Can they make him return and make him as beautiful as once he was?
Monday, September 26, 2011
Black and White
I first saw the trailer for 'The Help' waiting for another movie to start... of course. It immediately woke me up to the sixties again and the incredible neatness and weirdness of that world. Who would have thought you could 'back comb' your hair to a 'bee hive', spray it into submission and walk around like that?
Well, here it is again. Not as bouncy as 'Happy Days' but initially, clean cut and orderly and round and about this sanitised post war dream, The Help moves silently, cleaning and correcting the mess left by their employers. Heaven help them.
The idle wives of busy men 'gang aft awry' and this lot do. What could you expect from women who were cossetted and protected with little to do but invent the sins of others and the inadequacies of their own lives?
The highlights of this for me were the wonderful black cast and the 'outlaw' white women. Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark and Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson play the two main black characters and they are beyond compare. Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote was a standout. Cicely Tyson as Constantine Bates plucked at the heartstrings as the older black woman but it saddened me to see her aging - I have missed out on her work for all those intervening years.
You get a glimpse of the mad underwear in another of Allison Janney's great performances as Charlotte Phelan, the heroine's mother. And yes, we did wear those ridiculous but strangely comforting undergarments.
Director Tate Taylor really does bring back that time and thank God we have the actors to bring it ALL back, in black and white.
Well, here it is again. Not as bouncy as 'Happy Days' but initially, clean cut and orderly and round and about this sanitised post war dream, The Help moves silently, cleaning and correcting the mess left by their employers. Heaven help them.
The idle wives of busy men 'gang aft awry' and this lot do. What could you expect from women who were cossetted and protected with little to do but invent the sins of others and the inadequacies of their own lives?
The highlights of this for me were the wonderful black cast and the 'outlaw' white women. Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark and Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson play the two main black characters and they are beyond compare. Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote was a standout. Cicely Tyson as Constantine Bates plucked at the heartstrings as the older black woman but it saddened me to see her aging - I have missed out on her work for all those intervening years.
You get a glimpse of the mad underwear in another of Allison Janney's great performances as Charlotte Phelan, the heroine's mother. And yes, we did wear those ridiculous but strangely comforting undergarments.
Director Tate Taylor really does bring back that time and thank God we have the actors to bring it ALL back, in black and white.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Cloud High
There is of course one leading lady in Jane Eyre and Oh boy, does she do just that. Mia Wasikowska is a young Australian who began her acting career after an initial ballet fascination waned.
When she first appears, it seems as if this creature from the New World has been an inhabitant of the old for centuries. Her face is very like Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' or any number of classic female portraits from another era. After a while you realise the casting director and director Cary Fukunaga have chosen all their actors with this delicacy and precision.
The voice of Charlotte Brontë longing for broader horizons, for potency, money and love is very clear and all these thoughts flying through Jane's mind are writ large as they emerge in the seemingly effortless performance.
The camera work, music, costuming and makeup are also superb but in case you are tempted to wallow in the luxury of it, beware. Take care not to miss the dialogue...the scene where Jane jousts with her employer for the first time, her yearning for the wide world near a great mullioned window, her declaration of full sensibility in the face of Rochester's teasing arrogance.
It is every young girls dream and the gaggle of young women I saw it with could barely contain themselves so tightly is the sexuality wound but it also holds the dream of fulfilment and that is never out of date.
When she first appears, it seems as if this creature from the New World has been an inhabitant of the old for centuries. Her face is very like Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' or any number of classic female portraits from another era. After a while you realise the casting director and director Cary Fukunaga have chosen all their actors with this delicacy and precision.
The voice of Charlotte Brontë longing for broader horizons, for potency, money and love is very clear and all these thoughts flying through Jane's mind are writ large as they emerge in the seemingly effortless performance.
The camera work, music, costuming and makeup are also superb but in case you are tempted to wallow in the luxury of it, beware. Take care not to miss the dialogue...the scene where Jane jousts with her employer for the first time, her yearning for the wide world near a great mullioned window, her declaration of full sensibility in the face of Rochester's teasing arrogance.
It is every young girls dream and the gaggle of young women I saw it with could barely contain themselves so tightly is the sexuality wound but it also holds the dream of fulfilment and that is never out of date.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
HerStory
We have a lot to be grateful to Robert Redford for. In setting up Sundance Film Festival, he gave Indie movies a launching point in America which set a fire under the audience that first watched 'Shine'. It led to world wide success and an Oscar for Geoffrey Rush.
'The Conspirator' has the most come hither poster with its title over the poignant face of Abraham Lincoln. It opens with his shooting and the labyrinthine events that lead to the capture and conviction of some of the plotters as well as the trial of the only woman thought to be involved - Mary Surrat played by Robin Wright.
This actress has the sort of sombre appearance we would like to think The Founding Mothers had but her performance is graced by a sort of physical and spiritual loveliness that is hard to describe. Suffice to say that she is beguiling for every minute she has on screen. And if you think for a moment that is her persona, just look her up on wikipedia.
Redford has used a variety of UK actors including James McAvoy as Mary's attorney and Tom Wilkinson as his employer. It's a fine cast which is enhanced by the sets and costuming. I am not sure why the fashions of 1864 were so repulsive but the hoop skirt and greasy looking looped hair are beautifully reproduced.
The landscapes of the time are also breathtaking but if you think Redford thinks this film is just history, think again.
'The Conspirator' has the most come hither poster with its title over the poignant face of Abraham Lincoln. It opens with his shooting and the labyrinthine events that lead to the capture and conviction of some of the plotters as well as the trial of the only woman thought to be involved - Mary Surrat played by Robin Wright.
This actress has the sort of sombre appearance we would like to think The Founding Mothers had but her performance is graced by a sort of physical and spiritual loveliness that is hard to describe. Suffice to say that she is beguiling for every minute she has on screen. And if you think for a moment that is her persona, just look her up on wikipedia.
Redford has used a variety of UK actors including James McAvoy as Mary's attorney and Tom Wilkinson as his employer. It's a fine cast which is enhanced by the sets and costuming. I am not sure why the fashions of 1864 were so repulsive but the hoop skirt and greasy looking looped hair are beautifully reproduced.
The landscapes of the time are also breathtaking but if you think Redford thinks this film is just history, think again.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Now and Again
After the phenomenal numbers that watched 'Downton Abbey' it was wonderful to see a new Julian Fellowes work, 'From Time to Time' come on at my local. He has adapted and directed this WW2 ghost story but, as my father dryly pointed out, its territory that has been gone over before and to great effect.
Of course, in such hands it doesn't let you down. The stunning cast includes Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville but most importantly for me, the wonderful Alex Etel, of 'Cranford' fame. Older and taller now but with all the leading man appeal he showed as a very young boy.
The movie is full of well known English actors all directed with great delicacy. The sudden appearance of the visitors from another world is quite shocking after Fellowes has lulled us in to a cup of tea and cardigan mood.
There is a real twist in the telling of this tale and several scenes of such beauty that I had to stop myself snivelling. This is a water proof mascara movie but take the kiddies.
Of course, in such hands it doesn't let you down. The stunning cast includes Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville but most importantly for me, the wonderful Alex Etel, of 'Cranford' fame. Older and taller now but with all the leading man appeal he showed as a very young boy.
The movie is full of well known English actors all directed with great delicacy. The sudden appearance of the visitors from another world is quite shocking after Fellowes has lulled us in to a cup of tea and cardigan mood.
There is a real twist in the telling of this tale and several scenes of such beauty that I had to stop myself snivelling. This is a water proof mascara movie but take the kiddies.
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