Referencing such classics as Lassie Comes Home and Gone with the Wind, War Horse is an unashamedly and deliberately old fashioned tearjerker that feels as though it belongs to Hollywood’s golden era of the 1930s. It evokes the films of John Ford and Victor Fleming, but at the same time is unmistakably and emphatically a … Continue reading
Shakespeare wrote for all eras. That is the principle argument for updating his work to contemporary settings, and generally its one I agree with. As far as cinematic adaptations go, the key texts in this regard are Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and Ian McKellen’s take on Richard III. Although adapted from a less well … Continue reading
As has been observed elsewhere, The Artist would make a fine double bill with Martin Scorsese’s Hugo for anyone who has ever fallen in love with cinema. Whilst Scorsese’s film dealt with the birth of cinema, using modern visual effects technology to comment in an ironic way on the earlier pioneers of film (George Melies … Continue reading
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,400 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people. Click here to … Continue reading
Meryl Streep’s tremendous performance is the primary reason to see this biopic of Margaret Thatcher. Unfortunately, apart from that, The Iron Lady is something of a damp squib with, as Mark Kermode put it, “all the political clout you would expect from the director of Mamma Mia” (Phyllida Lloyd). Regarding the controversial flashback structure, wherein … Continue reading
