So tonight is the 2012 BAFTAs to be hosted by Stephen Fry and because I love to be proved wrong I have decided to offer up my predictions for who I think will win at what is often a ceremony full of surprises as the winners tend to substantially differ from the American awards.
Martin Scorsese has been selected to receive the BAFTA Fellowship while John Hurt will receive the Outstanding British Contribution to cinema award. But here are my predictions for the main categories.
BEST FILM
The Artist
Outstanding British Film
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Outstanding Debut
Tyrannosaur - Paddy Considine.
Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Best Original Screenplay
Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Help
Best film not in the English Language
A Separation
Best Leading Actor
My heart says Gary Oldman, but my head says Jean DuJardin. We shall see.
Best Leading Actress
I'm going to play it risky and say that Berenice Bejo may just snatch this one for The Artist.
Best Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Best Supporting Actress
Jessica Chastian - The Help
Orange Rising Star Award
Eddie Redmayne
Now I could be completely wrong but I am interested to know what you think. Let me know your predictions and who you hope to see presenting those awards!! My only wish is for Tom Hardy!! :)
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Monday, 2 January 2012
Your feedback
Happy New Year everyone! I just wanted to take this chance to say thanks to all of you who have read, viewed and supported by blog over the past few months since I made it public. I especially want to say thanks to Daisy at http://www.prettygreentea.com/ , Ms Macaroni at http://macaroni-intransit.blogspot.com/ and Penny at http://iblameoprah.blogspot.com/. They have all promoted my blog and gave me the confidence to give it a go in the first place.
I plan to post a lot more in 2012 and have lots of great new ideas for posts. But I would also like to hear from you on what you have enjoyed about the blog and what you would like to see more of. Also if there is something I haven't posted about yet that you would like to see let me know.
I wish you all the best for 2012 and look forward to hearing from you. Please post me a comment below.
I plan to post a lot more in 2012 and have lots of great new ideas for posts. But I would also like to hear from you on what you have enjoyed about the blog and what you would like to see more of. Also if there is something I haven't posted about yet that you would like to see let me know.
I wish you all the best for 2012 and look forward to hearing from you. Please post me a comment below.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
My Actor Obsessions : Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Phoenix first came to my attention back in 2000 when I saw him playing the emperor Commodus in Ridley Scott's Gladiator. I was completely captivated by his brooding, handsome, good looks and his ability to portray such a dark and at times grotesque character with such empathy. As usual I become obsessed and began to work my way through his back catalogue of films.
Joaquin Phoenix is the younger brother of the late River Phoenix and the middle child of 5, all of who have gone into the entertainment industry at one time or another. Joaquin Phoenix was actually born Joaquin Rafael Bottom and had an unconventional upbringing as his parents were members of the religious cult Children of God (founded in California in 1968). The children spent most of their formative years travelling around South America until their parents became disenchanted with the cult in 1978 and left, moving back to US. They changed their surname to Phoenix to symbolise new beginnings. The children performed on the streets and entered talent competitions in order to provide money for the family and were eventually discovered by a talent agent. Joaquin changed his name to Leaf to fit in with his other siblings River, Summer, Rain and Liberty and began acting in movies. His early films included Spacecamp in 1986 and Russkies in 1987.
When his brother River Phoenix died of a drug overdose in 1993 outside Johnny Depp's then club, The Viper Room, Joaquin withdrew from acting and went travelling. He eventually made his comeback in 1995 in Gus Van Sant's To Die For, starring opposite Nicole Kidman and Matt Dillon.
Stand out performance.
In a movie full of stand out performances, Joaquin Phoenix manages to steal every scene he is in and the movie right out from underneath Russell Crowe's nose. Commodus could so easily have been portrayed as your stereotypical camp villain with his incestuous nature and frequent temper tantrums. However, Joaquin Phoenix achieves the impossible by making us feel sympathy and pity for this man who has not only committed patricide but also has incestuous feelings towards his sister. His performance portrays Commodus as being a vulnerable and emotionally unstable man who has been rejected by his father and is being betrayed by his sister, the one person he thinks he can still trust. At the same time, his character is so unpredictable that during the latter scenes of the movie he becomes quite frightening. Stand out scenes for me are the murder of his father and the latter scenes with Connie Neilson (his sister Lucilla) which are incredibly creepy and tense!
Hidden Treasures
Clay Pigeons (1998)
Clay Pigeons is a black comedy thriller starring Vince Vaughn, Janeane Garofolo and Joaquin Phoenix. In the UK the film went straight to video which is a shame as it is a really entertaining movie which manages to combine humour with very strong violence without ever feeling off balance. The performances from all the main actors are great and while Vince Vaughn has the showier role, Joaquin Phoenix puts in a strong solid performance and shows he can master a comic role. The film centres around Clay played by Joaquin Phoenix whose best friend kills himself when he finds out Clay was having an affair with his wife. Clay then befriends Lester Long (played by Vince Vaughn) who just happens to be a serial killer and who plans to use Clay as his fall guy. This is a great movie which is definitely worth seeking out on DVD.
The Yards is another little known film that deserves for more people to see it. The movie was the second offering from director James Gray who specialises in crime dramas set in New York and whose first film Little Odessa is also worth seeking out. The Yards plays out like a good old fashioned film noir and it's subject matter, cinematography and casting of James Caan bring to mind the Godfather movies. Despite the director being relatively unknown at the time, he has managed to assemble a fantastically talented cast including Ellen Burstyn, James Caan, Faye Dunaway, Charlize Theron, Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix. The story revolves around Leo Handler (played by Mark Wahlberg) who comes out of prison to find that his mother has married the big boss (James Caan) in a subway subcontractor firm who also happens to be heavily involved in the corrupt business of sabotaging their rivals subway work. Joaquin Phoenix plays Leo's best friend (Willie Guttieriez) who is the big boss' right hand man. One night a job goes wrong and Leo gets sucked back into the crime world. This movie is a slow burner and has a very sombre tone, but it is definitely worth sticking with and Joaquin Phoenix puts in another faultless performance and his final scenes in the movie are explosive. Check out the trailer on the link below.
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3671105049/
Have you seen any of these films? What did you think? Do you have any favourite Joaquin Phoenix movies?
Saturday, 24 December 2011
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Apologies for the month long absence from this blog, life has been super busy heading up to Christmas but I hope to be a regular poster in the New Year. I thought I would leave you with one final review of the year on The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.
Plot: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge."
More than fifty years on, Iris Chase is remembering Laura's mysterious death. And so begins and extraordinary and compelling story of two sisters and their secrets. Set against a panoramic backdrop of twentieth-century history, The Blind Assassin is an epic tale of memory, intrigue and betrayal.
The Blind Assassin was the winner of the 2000 Booker Prize and represented the first win for Margaret Atwood having been previously nominated three times before for The Handmaid's Tale in 1986, Cat's Eye in 1989 and Alias Grace in 1996. I had never read any of her novels before and have to say that it was the cover that initially attracted me to the book and then the intriguing plot summary.
The Blind Assassin is made up of three different parts which consistently intertwine. At the beginning of the novel we are introduced to Iris Chase in the modern day who is writing her memoires for the benefit of her estranged grand daughter and who is our main guide on the journey through the life of the Chase sisters.
The 2nd part, made up of newspaper articles scattered throughout the book, provide us with background information on the life of this family and the important historical events in Canada at the time. The third part is a novel within the novel. 'The Blind Assassin' is not just the title of the book, but also the title of the novel Laura Chase wrote before her death and which has been published posthumously. In this book we are introduced to two characters carrying out a clandestine love affair and during their meetings, the male character narrates science fiction stories about children forced to make carpets until they lose their sight, who are then recruited as assassins. Hence the title 'The Blind Assassin.'
If this all sounds a bit complicated then to be honest at first it is. However, once you get used to the way the novel jumps around and begin to learn more about the background to Laura's novel, then everything starts to fit into place and I found this book really difficult to put down.
Iris' story of how she is married off to a cold, heartless business tycoon in order to save her family from ruin demonstrates how women were too often treated as material goods passed from father to husband in the early 20th century. The way she is treated by her in-laws and her declining relationship with her sister are heartbreaking, but there is also a considerable element of humour within the book, particularly in Iris' descriptions of daily life as an old woman.
There are a number of twists and turns in the book and some were easier to see coming than others, but overall the final twist took me by surprise and I plan on reading the book again in the future to see if my opinions of the characters are changed by this revelation. Some of the other reviews of this book that I have read have complained that the characters were too distant and difficult to feel any sympathy for. I disagree with this. Although Laura Chase comes across as a complex character who we never really understand completely, our narrator Iris Chase is incredibly sympathetic and she ends the novel by acknowledging the mistakes she has made, without seeking forgiveness.
Just as each character in the book interprets Laura's novel in different ways in order to fit with their idea of the truth behind her death, each reader of Margaret Atwood's book is likely to have their own view as to whether or not Laura is a victim of circumstance or the instigator of her own sad fate.
Overall I think this book is definitely worth a read, especially for book groups because there are so many opportunities for different interpretations of the story.
I would love to know how many of you have read this book and whether you liked it. Also have you read any of Margaret Atwood's other novels? Could you recommend which one I should tackle next?
Plot: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge."More than fifty years on, Iris Chase is remembering Laura's mysterious death. And so begins and extraordinary and compelling story of two sisters and their secrets. Set against a panoramic backdrop of twentieth-century history, The Blind Assassin is an epic tale of memory, intrigue and betrayal.
The Blind Assassin was the winner of the 2000 Booker Prize and represented the first win for Margaret Atwood having been previously nominated three times before for The Handmaid's Tale in 1986, Cat's Eye in 1989 and Alias Grace in 1996. I had never read any of her novels before and have to say that it was the cover that initially attracted me to the book and then the intriguing plot summary.
The Blind Assassin is made up of three different parts which consistently intertwine. At the beginning of the novel we are introduced to Iris Chase in the modern day who is writing her memoires for the benefit of her estranged grand daughter and who is our main guide on the journey through the life of the Chase sisters.
The 2nd part, made up of newspaper articles scattered throughout the book, provide us with background information on the life of this family and the important historical events in Canada at the time. The third part is a novel within the novel. 'The Blind Assassin' is not just the title of the book, but also the title of the novel Laura Chase wrote before her death and which has been published posthumously. In this book we are introduced to two characters carrying out a clandestine love affair and during their meetings, the male character narrates science fiction stories about children forced to make carpets until they lose their sight, who are then recruited as assassins. Hence the title 'The Blind Assassin.'
If this all sounds a bit complicated then to be honest at first it is. However, once you get used to the way the novel jumps around and begin to learn more about the background to Laura's novel, then everything starts to fit into place and I found this book really difficult to put down.
Iris' story of how she is married off to a cold, heartless business tycoon in order to save her family from ruin demonstrates how women were too often treated as material goods passed from father to husband in the early 20th century. The way she is treated by her in-laws and her declining relationship with her sister are heartbreaking, but there is also a considerable element of humour within the book, particularly in Iris' descriptions of daily life as an old woman.
There are a number of twists and turns in the book and some were easier to see coming than others, but overall the final twist took me by surprise and I plan on reading the book again in the future to see if my opinions of the characters are changed by this revelation. Some of the other reviews of this book that I have read have complained that the characters were too distant and difficult to feel any sympathy for. I disagree with this. Although Laura Chase comes across as a complex character who we never really understand completely, our narrator Iris Chase is incredibly sympathetic and she ends the novel by acknowledging the mistakes she has made, without seeking forgiveness.
Just as each character in the book interprets Laura's novel in different ways in order to fit with their idea of the truth behind her death, each reader of Margaret Atwood's book is likely to have their own view as to whether or not Laura is a victim of circumstance or the instigator of her own sad fate.
Overall I think this book is definitely worth a read, especially for book groups because there are so many opportunities for different interpretations of the story.
I would love to know how many of you have read this book and whether you liked it. Also have you read any of Margaret Atwood's other novels? Could you recommend which one I should tackle next?
Saturday, 26 November 2011
My Week with Marilyn- Review
Writers: Adrian Hodges (screenplay), Colin Clark (book)
Director: Simon Curtis
Starring: Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Watson, Julia Ormond, Judi Dench, Toby Jones and Dominic Cooper.
Plot: Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier's witnesses the tense production of the Prince and the Showgirl and falls into an unlikely relationship with the fragile Marilyn Monroe.
So I have just got back from seeing this movie with a good friend and thought I would get the review down on the blog for those of you looking for weekend movie viewing inspiration. My Week with Marilyn is based on 'The Prince, the Showgirl and Me, and 'My Week With Marilyn,' two memoirs by Colin Clark which detailed his time spent as Third Assistant Director on The Prince and the Showgirl filmed in England in 1957.
The Prince and the Showgirl was a troubled production from the start. Laurence Olivier, a classically trained Shakespearean actor grew frustrated with Marilyn Monroe's obsession with Method acting and her need to have her acting mentor Paula Strasberg accompany her everywhere she went on set. For Laurence Olivier acting was just that, acting, but Paula Strasberg had instilled in Marilyn the idea that she had to find and understand the character completely and not do something in a scene if she didn't feel that it was true to the character. Fragile Marilyn was struggling with a third possible failed marriage to Arthur Miller and her entourage was keen to keep her doped up on pills to make her easier to control.
My Week with Marilyn has been considerably hyped due to the performance by the lead actress Michelle Williams and I would say that overall this hype is thoroughly deserved. Michelle Williams performance is utterly convincing. She manages to successfully convey the sensuality and movie star charisma of the public Marilyn while at the same time tapping into the vulnerability and instability of the woman behind the spotlight. There are times in the movie when Marilyn hints at her fractured childhood and her desperate need for children and Michelle Williams plays this with such subtlety and pathos, that at times it was very sad to watch knowing what we now do about her tragic death. The only time I felt she failed to achieve Marilyn's magnetism was when she was recreating the scenes from the movie. She didn't have the same sparkle as the original.
Kenneth Branagh was for me a slight week point in the production. He has publically stated how much he admires Olivier and I often felt like his performance, although excellent, was a little bit too much of direct impersonation and slightly hammy. Eddie Redmayne was the heart of the story as the naive Colin Clark and his relationship with Marilyn felt believable. The rest of the cast should also be commended, especially Judi Dench who plays Dame Sybil Thorndike, the ageing actress who tries her best to make Marilyn feel comfortable on the increasingly tense set and Zoe Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg. Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh barely has anything of consequence to do and she failed to make any impression in a role which could have made more of the obvious jealousy that Vivien would have felt towards Marilyn.
This film is incredibly enjoyable and manages to mix humour and pathos in equal measure. At 99 minutes it is an easy watch and plays more like a good old fashioned English comedy drama then a heavyweight movie biopic! It appears to be the director Simon Curtis' first film, having previously focused on directing BBC period dramas such as Cranford and David Copperfield.
I would definitely recommend this and look forward to hearing what everyone else thinks about it. Check out the trailer below and a clip from one of my favourite scenes.
Trivia: For Downton Abbey fans, this movie has two links to the period drama. Not only does Carson the Butler have a small role as a pub landlord, but the director Simon Curtis is married to Elizabeth Mcgovern who plays Cora the Countess of Grantham!
Monday, 21 November 2011
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
I have just got back from my monthly book group where our book of choice to discuss was The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. So I thought I would get my book review done on the blog while still fresh and also add some views that came out of the book group tonight.
Plot: Unlucky in work, love and life, the Andreas sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother. But each sister has a secret she's unwilling to share – each has come home to lick her own wounds.
The Andreas family is an eccentric one. Books are their passion (a trip to the library usually solved everything), TV is something other families watched. Their father – a renowned, eccentric professor of Shakespeare who communicates almost exclusively in Shakespearean verse – named all three girls for great Shakespearean women – Rose (Rosalind), Bean (Bianca), and Cordy (Cordelia); as a result, the girls find that they have a lot to live up to.
With this burden, as well as others they shoulder, the Andreas sisters have a difficult time communicating with both their parents and their lovers, but especially with each other. Each sister has found her life nothing like she had thought it would be – and suddenly faced with their parents' frailty and their own disappointments and setbacks, their usual quick salve of a book suddenly can't solve what ails them. Can all three escape their archetypal roots and find happiness in a normal life? As it turns out, the small town of Barnwell and their sisterly bond offer much more than they ever expected.
I knew that myself and 'The Weird Sisters' were going to get along just fine when I opened the book to the first page and found myself confronted with a quote from my favourite Shakespeare play of all time. 'I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters.'
Shakespeare plays a principal role throughout the book as his words are used by each of the members of the Andreas family to convey their feelings during times of personal stress. Books and Shakespeare are the loves of the Andreas family and I found myself falling in love with them too as the story went on.
Being an only child I found the relationship between the three sisters endlessly fascinating, the way they could one minute be saying the cruellest things to each other and in a heartbeat be offering words of comfort like nothing had happened. Eleanor Brown manages to write each sister with such depth that you begin to know their character differences intimately and how they will react to any given situation. You become invested in their struggle to shake off the trappings of their Shakespearean namesakes and find themselves and the life they truly desire.
The use of Shakespearean quotes is inspired and Eleanor Brown should be applauded on the amount of research she must have done into Shakespeare's works in order to fill the book with such a high quantity of quotes which all seem to add something to the story and provide us with more insight into the characters' emotions.
I also loved the descriptions of their home town of Barnwell which painted such a vivid portrait in my mind of a small university town with the quaint library, student frequented coffee shop and homely church. I could have stepped inside the book and made myself right at home.
The scenes describing their mother's illness and her treatments are heartbreaking and difficult to read at times, but incredibly truthful. You find yourself willing this woman to get better as the book goes on and you see glimpses of her character but she is not as well rounded as the other characters in the story.
Within our book group I was the most enamoured with this book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and was sad to leave these characters behind when it came to the end. The one thing I didn't enjoy so much was the narrative voice, meant to be the three sisters narrating as one separate entity. Although I can see it allowed for more scope and objectivity compared to a first person narrative, I found the concept a bit confusing and difficult to get into at first.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a well written, engrossing story about family relationships and the trials we have to go through to find ourselves.
Plot: Unlucky in work, love and life, the Andreas sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother. But each sister has a secret she's unwilling to share – each has come home to lick her own wounds.
The Andreas family is an eccentric one. Books are their passion (a trip to the library usually solved everything), TV is something other families watched. Their father – a renowned, eccentric professor of Shakespeare who communicates almost exclusively in Shakespearean verse – named all three girls for great Shakespearean women – Rose (Rosalind), Bean (Bianca), and Cordy (Cordelia); as a result, the girls find that they have a lot to live up to.
I knew that myself and 'The Weird Sisters' were going to get along just fine when I opened the book to the first page and found myself confronted with a quote from my favourite Shakespeare play of all time. 'I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters.'
Shakespeare plays a principal role throughout the book as his words are used by each of the members of the Andreas family to convey their feelings during times of personal stress. Books and Shakespeare are the loves of the Andreas family and I found myself falling in love with them too as the story went on.
Being an only child I found the relationship between the three sisters endlessly fascinating, the way they could one minute be saying the cruellest things to each other and in a heartbeat be offering words of comfort like nothing had happened. Eleanor Brown manages to write each sister with such depth that you begin to know their character differences intimately and how they will react to any given situation. You become invested in their struggle to shake off the trappings of their Shakespearean namesakes and find themselves and the life they truly desire.
The use of Shakespearean quotes is inspired and Eleanor Brown should be applauded on the amount of research she must have done into Shakespeare's works in order to fill the book with such a high quantity of quotes which all seem to add something to the story and provide us with more insight into the characters' emotions.
I also loved the descriptions of their home town of Barnwell which painted such a vivid portrait in my mind of a small university town with the quaint library, student frequented coffee shop and homely church. I could have stepped inside the book and made myself right at home.
The scenes describing their mother's illness and her treatments are heartbreaking and difficult to read at times, but incredibly truthful. You find yourself willing this woman to get better as the book goes on and you see glimpses of her character but she is not as well rounded as the other characters in the story.
Within our book group I was the most enamoured with this book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and was sad to leave these characters behind when it came to the end. The one thing I didn't enjoy so much was the narrative voice, meant to be the three sisters narrating as one separate entity. Although I can see it allowed for more scope and objectivity compared to a first person narrative, I found the concept a bit confusing and difficult to get into at first.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a well written, engrossing story about family relationships and the trials we have to go through to find ourselves.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Oscar and Pacino
I wasn't planning on doing a post this evening but I have just listened to an absolutely fascinating radio programme on the Radio 4 website about Al Pacino and his love for Oscar Wilde's play Salome. Now being both a huge fan of Pacino and Mr Wilde this was a treat. The programme focuses on a recent drama documentary that Pacino has written, directed and starred in which mixes performance of the play Salome filmed over a week in New York with a footage of Al Pacino on a journey to discover the history behind the play and the truth about Oscar Wilde.
The film premiered at the Venice film festival back in September to, it would seem mixed reviews. Variety were not enamoured with it (http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117945964/) , the Hollywood Reporter were much more gushing in their praise (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/wilde-salome-venice-film-review-231024). Interestingly enough Salome herself is played by Jessica Chastain, who I was incredibly impressed with by her performance in The Help, so I am eager to see how she performs in a theatrical enviroment.
Despite his incredible success in movies, Al Pacino has always stayed true to his theatre origins and Wilde Salome appears to be very much in the same vein as 'Looking for Richard (1996) which if you have yet to see I throughly recommend. In that film, Al Pacino attempted to explore Richard III in a similar way to Salome, with performances of the play starring amongst others Winona Ryder and Kevin Spacey, in-depth discussions of the play and exploration of the historical background. If you have not seen this already I heartily recommend that you do even if you are not a die hard Shakespeare fan.
Despite searching high and low on the internet I cannot seem to find a nationwide release date for this film in the US or the UK, but it does not appear to be on dvd as of yet. There is a website (http://wildesalome.com/) and you can follow the production on twitter @WildeSalome. But for now here is the link to the radio programme and the trailer for the movie.
I would love to know if you are a fan of Pacino or Oscar Wilde and if so what your favourite quotes, favourite films or favourite plays are.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0174dzr
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