Don't bother, they're here
Clearly, the first before-they-were-famous photo montage was a click-winner for the Guardian as they’ve gone back into Tristram Kenton’s archive for a second dip of notable actors earlier in their careers:
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2020/nov/13/stars-before-they-were-famous-in-pictures-rachel-weisz-damian-lewis-daniel-kaluuya
Tackling the constraints of the pandemic in its own way, Simon Annand’s fantastic new book of photos Time To Act has launched a virtual exhibition of some of the photographs which has now been extended to until Christmas. It’s an ingenious way of sharing some of the hundreds of images from the book and should surely whet the appetite for either just buying it now or putting on your list for Santa to collect soon.
“Just because you’re the Prime Minister doesn’t mean you can make up your own facts”
I’m not quite sure how I managed to let Official Secrets pass me by late last year, given how thesp-heavy its cast is. Practically every scene is filled with familiar faces of much-loved actors, so getting to catch up with it now was a real pleasure. Based on the book The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War by Marcia & Thomas Mitchell, Gavin Hood’s docudrama is eminently watchable and a salutary reminder of how far governments are willing to (over)reach in the face of uncomfortable truths.
It is based on the true story of Katharine Gun, a low-level GCHQ employee who leaked a secret memo that exposed the lengths that the US and UK were willing to go to in order to secure backing for their invasion of Iraq in 2003, in the face of the lack of any tangible WMDs. She copies the memo for a media friend, a front-page scoop follows and thus the consequences of breaching the Official Secret Act are brought to bear. Continue reading “Film Review: Official Secrets (2019)”
“Amsterdam was captivated by a flower”
The signs weren’t good. Tulip Fever was filmed in 2014 but was pushed and pulled around the schedules before it finally surfaced in 2017, notorious producer Harvey Weinstein clearly hoping that some post-production magic would win over reluctant test audiences. Safe to say though, such an amount of chopping and changing does no-one any favours as Justin Chadwick’s film remains punishingly dull.
Based on Deborah Moggach’s book, with screenplay by Moggach and Tom Stoppard, the story (mainly) centres on Sophia, an orphan whisked out of convent life by a wealthy merchant who wants her essentially as a brood mare, But things ain’t clicking in the bedroom, so Sophia tumbles into an affair with the artist her husband has commissioned to do their portrait. And competing for screentime, tulip mania has hit the Netherlands. Continue reading “Lockdown film review: Tulip Fever (2017)”
“I suppose we should start by reading it”
Atonement was only Joe Wright’s second film but crikey it’s a good’un. Following on from Pride and Prejudice with another literary adaptation was a bold move, especially in taking on such a modern classic as Ian McEwan’s 2001 Booker Prize nominee but with Christopher Hampton on script duties and Wright’s visionary eye at the helm, Atonement is a deliciously gorgeous piece of art.
From Kiera Knightley’s iconic green dress to that epic Dunkirk tracking shot, from a three-fold Briony (Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave) to narrative daring that enriches the whole piece, Atonement is a sumptuous and assured film that has lost none of its charge nearly ten years on. Wright is blessed with a top-notch cast to be sure, but it is his flair that characterises the film’s brilliance. Continue reading “DVD Review: Atonement (2007)”
BAFTA Fellowship
Mike Leigh
Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema
BBC Films
Best Film
Birdman – Alejandro González Iñárritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood – Richard Linklater and Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven M. Rales and Jeremy Dawson
The Imitation Game – Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky and Teddy Schwarzman
The Theory of Everything – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce and Anthony McCarten Continue reading “68th British Academy Film Awards nominations”
Best Picture
Birdman
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Nightcrawler
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Whiplash
Best Director
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay – Selma
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Alejandro G. Iñárritu – Birdman
Angelina Jolie – Unbroken
Richard Linklater – Boyhood Continue reading “20th Critics’ Choice Awards nominees”
Best Motion Picture
Drama
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Musical or Comedy
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Into the Woods
Pride
St. Vincent Continue reading “The 72nd Golden Globe Awards – nominations”
Film
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Steve Carell – Foxcatcher as John du Pont
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game as Alan Turing
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler as Louis “Lou” Bloom
Michael Keaton – Birdman as Riggan Thomson
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything as Stephen Hawking
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Jennifer Aniston – Cake as Claire Bennett
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything as Jane Hawking
Julianne Moore – Still Alice as Dr. Alice Howland
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl as Amy Elliott-Dunne
Reese Witherspoon – Wild as Cheryl Strayed Continue reading “21st Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees”
“Alan, I’ve a funny feeling you’re going to be rather good at this”
As Hollywood gears up for another Academy Award season, the early frontrunners are starting to appear in our cinemas and chief amongst those is The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, one of the more criminally maligned and under-appreciated figures in British history. Responsible for heading up the team that built the machine that was to crack the Nazi’s Enigma code thereby changing the course of the Second World War, his life ended in ignominy as the Official Secrets Act shielded his achievements from public knowledge and a conviction for gross indecency unimaginably marred his final years.
But this being prime Oscar-bait, the film is a lot more perky than that. That’s perhaps a tad unfair as this is a genuinely good piece of cinema but one can’t help but wonder what might have been had Morten Tyldum’s direction and Graham Moore’s script been a little braver in exploring Turing’s homosexuality and how that shaped his interior life, especially in those later years. It’s the one major weakness in an otherwise fully-fleshed characterisation of an awkward genius. A man who can crack codes but not jokes, respond to complex formulae but not to simple lunch invitations, can detect Soviet spies but not the gently breaking heart of his friend Joan. Continue reading “Film Review: The Imitation Game”
