Playwright Alan Bennett has written original screenplay The Choral, which will begin filming this summer.
There’s a reason a remake of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues (pictured above) was one of the first things put into production when the pandemic started in 2020. Not only were they easy to film with a single cast member, but the texts are also regarded as modern classics of drama, each story a masterpiece in construction and storytelling. You only have to watch the original versions to see the astonishing power of David Haig in Playing Sandwiches or Dame Thora Hird in A Cream Cracker Under The Settee.
The Choral, meanwhile, is Alan Bennett’s first original script written for the screen in forty years, after 1984 comedy A Private Function. The synopsis reads as follows:
Set in Ramsden, Yorkshire in 1916, the plot centers on the chorus master and most of the men of the ambitious local Choral Society,...
There’s a reason a remake of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues (pictured above) was one of the first things put into production when the pandemic started in 2020. Not only were they easy to film with a single cast member, but the texts are also regarded as modern classics of drama, each story a masterpiece in construction and storytelling. You only have to watch the original versions to see the astonishing power of David Haig in Playing Sandwiches or Dame Thora Hird in A Cream Cracker Under The Settee.
The Choral, meanwhile, is Alan Bennett’s first original script written for the screen in forty years, after 1984 comedy A Private Function. The synopsis reads as follows:
Set in Ramsden, Yorkshire in 1916, the plot centers on the chorus master and most of the men of the ambitious local Choral Society,...
- 3/21/2024
- by Jake Godfrey
- Film Stories
The BBC is celebrating the art of the literary adaptation by screening a variety of classics on BBC Four. More details here.
The BBC is quite rightly celebrated for its rich history of book to screen adaptations, such as the iconic 1995 version of Jane Austen’a Pride And Prejudice to Cbbc’s hugely successful adaptation of Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker series.
It has now put together a season of 14 adaptations from the BBC archive, some of which have rarely been seen since their original broadcast.
The dramas are:
The Great Gatsby
Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd lead the cast in this 2000 BBC adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel on the American dream in the jazz age.
Small Island
Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ashley Walters star in this 2009 TV version of Andrea Levy’s novel focusing on the lives and...
The BBC is quite rightly celebrated for its rich history of book to screen adaptations, such as the iconic 1995 version of Jane Austen’a Pride And Prejudice to Cbbc’s hugely successful adaptation of Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker series.
It has now put together a season of 14 adaptations from the BBC archive, some of which have rarely been seen since their original broadcast.
The dramas are:
The Great Gatsby
Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd lead the cast in this 2000 BBC adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel on the American dream in the jazz age.
Small Island
Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ashley Walters star in this 2009 TV version of Andrea Levy’s novel focusing on the lives and...
- 2/6/2024
- by Jake Godfrey
- Film Stories
Let loose some airy English film aesthetes with a big budget, a French film studio and a theme somewhere between Marcel Proust and Jean Cocteau, and back comes this strange, slightly off-balance but extremely impressive objet d’art. Eric Portman is really good, Edana Romney not so much. English actresses Barbara Mullen and Joan Maude compensate greatly — they’re haunting, actually. For his first job of direction Terence Young gives us a flash of Christopher Lee in his first film, along with pretty Lois Maxwell. Content-wise the film has the screwiest construction … its style and obsessions are split between the two films presently rated the best ever made! Expect something different: the baroque style may prompt some viewers to reach for the ‘eject’ button.
Corridor of Mirrors
Blu-ray
1948 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / Street Date October 19, 2021 / Available from /
Starring: Eric Portman, Edana Romney, Barbara Mullen, Hugh Sinclair, Bruce Belfrage, Alan Wheatley,...
Corridor of Mirrors
Blu-ray
1948 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / Street Date October 19, 2021 / Available from /
Starring: Eric Portman, Edana Romney, Barbara Mullen, Hugh Sinclair, Bruce Belfrage, Alan Wheatley,...
- 10/16/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Jodie Comer, Martin Freeman, Tamsin Greig, Kristin Scott Thomas and Imelda Staunton are among the stars lined up for new BBC One adaptations of playwright Alan Bennett’s acclaimed “Talking Heads” monologues, which start filming Tuesday.
Ten of the original pieces are being remade, having first aired on BBC Television in 1988 and 1998, winning two BAFTA awards. Two new monologues, written by Bennett last year, are also being filmed.
The contained nature of Bennett’s monologues means they are one of the very few dramas that can be produced while following guidelines on safe working practices during Covid-19. Filming is taking place at BBC Elstree Studios using existing sets.
They are produced by former National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner’s London Theatre Company and ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ producer Kevin Loader.
Lead director Hytner, whose film credits include “The Madness of King George” and “The History Boys,” said:...
Ten of the original pieces are being remade, having first aired on BBC Television in 1988 and 1998, winning two BAFTA awards. Two new monologues, written by Bennett last year, are also being filmed.
The contained nature of Bennett’s monologues means they are one of the very few dramas that can be produced while following guidelines on safe working practices during Covid-19. Filming is taking place at BBC Elstree Studios using existing sets.
They are produced by former National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner’s London Theatre Company and ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ producer Kevin Loader.
Lead director Hytner, whose film credits include “The Madness of King George” and “The History Boys,” said:...
- 4/28/2020
- by Tim Dams
- Variety Film + TV
May 7th is a relatively quiet day of genre-related Blu-ray and DVD releases, so I’ll keep this installment of our ongoing home media column series on the short and sweet side. If you dig creepy kid horror and you happened to miss it in theaters earlier this year, Nicholas McCarthy’s The Prodigy comes home on Tuesday, and for those of you who might be more into nunsploitation stories, St. Agatha is set to arrive on both formats this week. Cult film fans can finally add The Nightcomers and The Man Who Haunted Himself (featuring Roger Moore) to their Blu-ray collections, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army is making its 4K debut on May 7th as well.
The Nightcomers
Two Children… Two Adults… One Unspeakable Crime! Captivating and disturbing, this highly intense psychological drama with its haunting, twisted notion of sexuality puts a new spin on the characters from Henry James’ celebrated ghost story,...
The Nightcomers
Two Children… Two Adults… One Unspeakable Crime! Captivating and disturbing, this highly intense psychological drama with its haunting, twisted notion of sexuality puts a new spin on the characters from Henry James’ celebrated ghost story,...
- 5/7/2019
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Get ready, John Schlesinger fans, as the filmmaker’s debut feature “A Kind of Loving” has gotten the full restoration treatment, and will next be screened following Film Forum’s Brit New Wave festival, which aims to spotlight British films of the 1960’s. Though not an official part of the festival, it’s a canny topper to the ambitious slate.
Alan Bates, in his first starring role, along with June Ritchie and Thora Hird star in this classic romantic drama that took place just before the Beatles revolution. Vic and Ingrid have a shotgun civil wedding when she becomes pregnant after their one-night stand (because he was too embarrassed to buy condoms from a woman at the drugstore, what a time!) and move in with Ingrid’s vengeful, disapproving mother.
Read More: Brit New Wave Classics ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’ ‘Alfie’ and More Get Swinging at New Festival — Watch...
Alan Bates, in his first starring role, along with June Ritchie and Thora Hird star in this classic romantic drama that took place just before the Beatles revolution. Vic and Ingrid have a shotgun civil wedding when she becomes pregnant after their one-night stand (because he was too embarrassed to buy condoms from a woman at the drugstore, what a time!) and move in with Ingrid’s vengeful, disapproving mother.
Read More: Brit New Wave Classics ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’ ‘Alfie’ and More Get Swinging at New Festival — Watch...
- 3/24/2017
- by Allison Picurro
- Indiewire
'Henry V' Movie Actress Renée Asherson dead at 99: Laurence Olivier leading lady in acclaimed 1944 film (image: Renée Asherson and Laurence Olivier in 'Henry V') Renée Asherson, a British stage actress featured in London productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Three Sisters, but best known internationally as Laurence Olivier's leading lady in the 1944 film version of Henry V, died on October 30, 2014. Asherson was 99 years old. The exact cause of death hasn't been specified. She was born Dorothy Renée Ascherson (she would drop the "c" some time after becoming an actress) on May 19, 1915, in Kensington, London, to Jewish parents: businessman Charles Ascherson and his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman -- both of whom narrowly escaped spending their honeymoon aboard the Titanic. (Ascherson cancelled the voyage after suffering an attack of appendicitis.) According to Michael Coveney's The Guardian obit for the actress, Renée Asherson was "scantly...
- 11/5/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
Within the crowded genre of British TV detective shows, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates offers us something fresh and a little bit different. It originally aired in the UK in the late 90s before making its way across the U.S. for a series of airings on PBS affiliates around the nation. Unlike some of her gloomier and grittier counterparts, Wainthropp deliberately steers clear of mysteries involving unpleasantness such as drugs and divorce although she does love a good murder mystery. She’s essentially a neighborhood busy-body with a sharp mind and an insatiable desire to uncover the truth. She follows up on the cases that the police can’t be bothered with: phony mediums, poison pen letters, buried treasure, paternity cases and unexplained deaths. She’s a working class Miss Marple and a formidable character both in her home and at work.
Wainthropp is assisted during her investigations but her excitable assistant Geoffrey.
Within the crowded genre of British TV detective shows, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates offers us something fresh and a little bit different. It originally aired in the UK in the late 90s before making its way across the U.S. for a series of airings on PBS affiliates around the nation. Unlike some of her gloomier and grittier counterparts, Wainthropp deliberately steers clear of mysteries involving unpleasantness such as drugs and divorce although she does love a good murder mystery. She’s essentially a neighborhood busy-body with a sharp mind and an insatiable desire to uncover the truth. She follows up on the cases that the police can’t be bothered with: phony mediums, poison pen letters, buried treasure, paternity cases and unexplained deaths. She’s a working class Miss Marple and a formidable character both in her home and at work.
Wainthropp is assisted during her investigations but her excitable assistant Geoffrey.
- 2/9/2014
- by Edited by K Kinsella
Network Distributing is pleased to announce the next batch of titles within “The British Film” range which will be available in the UK later this year. Each feature once again benefits from a new transfer, an instant play facility and will be presented in special slim-line space-saving packaging. Some of the highlights from October are a documentary about the body narrated by Vanessa Redgrave with music from Roger Waters, more gems from the vaults from Ealing Studios, classic horror, British musicals and a courtroom drama starring Richard Attenborough.
7 October
The Body £9.99
Vanessa Redgrave and Frank Finlay narrate an intimate and innovative documentary from the seventies about the human body cut to music from Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters. Commentary by poet and playwright Adrian Mitchell.
The Final Programme £9.99
Cult director Robert Fuest’s dystopian sci-fi thriller. Robert Finch stars as Jerry Cornelius, a Nobel Prize winning physicist and playboy who...
7 October
The Body £9.99
Vanessa Redgrave and Frank Finlay narrate an intimate and innovative documentary from the seventies about the human body cut to music from Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters. Commentary by poet and playwright Adrian Mitchell.
The Final Programme £9.99
Cult director Robert Fuest’s dystopian sci-fi thriller. Robert Finch stars as Jerry Cornelius, a Nobel Prize winning physicist and playboy who...
- 10/28/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The ancient ads of times past, the physical, getting-fuzzier evidence of films watched over and over, the simplicity my Dad can comprehend: we haven't mourned the VHS enough
As gazillions of video recordings reach the end of their useful life, it occurred to me that unlike the LP, and Polaroids, the demise of the big, bulky VHS tape hasn't been mourned half so much as it deserves. According to the Washington Post, in 2005 94.7m American households still owned VCRs. I doubt it would be quarter of that now. I can count the people I know under 60 with video players on my two index fingers.
Before home-recorded videos decline entirely from functional to shabby retro-decoration, I'm going to press pause and give them their clunky due. Here's why I love watching films on video.
They wear their loving proudly
Like teddy bears and your comfiest pair of jeans, you can tell...
As gazillions of video recordings reach the end of their useful life, it occurred to me that unlike the LP, and Polaroids, the demise of the big, bulky VHS tape hasn't been mourned half so much as it deserves. According to the Washington Post, in 2005 94.7m American households still owned VCRs. I doubt it would be quarter of that now. I can count the people I know under 60 with video players on my two index fingers.
Before home-recorded videos decline entirely from functional to shabby retro-decoration, I'm going to press pause and give them their clunky due. Here's why I love watching films on video.
They wear their loving proudly
Like teddy bears and your comfiest pair of jeans, you can tell...
- 10/1/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Denzel Washington's natural gravitas seems all the more fascinating when tainted by sins and secrets in this tale of a functioning-alcoholic pilot
As Lloyd Bridges says in Airplane!: "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking!" – a declaration he later famously modifies to take in smoking, sniffing glue and doing amphetamines. Before seeing this, I had thought that, between them, and from different directions, Airplane! and the real-time 9/11 drama United 93 had more or less finished off the aeroplane disaster movie. But this flawed yet enjoyable film from screenwriter John Gatins and director Robert Zemeckis proves that it can still be kept airborne, with a little re-invention.
Flight looks very much like a fictionalised true story, based on some New York Times bestseller. Actually, it isn't. Gatins has built his film around a single extraordinary detail that emerged from a real-life Us air disaster in 2000:...
As Lloyd Bridges says in Airplane!: "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking!" – a declaration he later famously modifies to take in smoking, sniffing glue and doing amphetamines. Before seeing this, I had thought that, between them, and from different directions, Airplane! and the real-time 9/11 drama United 93 had more or less finished off the aeroplane disaster movie. But this flawed yet enjoyable film from screenwriter John Gatins and director Robert Zemeckis proves that it can still be kept airborne, with a little re-invention.
Flight looks very much like a fictionalised true story, based on some New York Times bestseller. Actually, it isn't. Gatins has built his film around a single extraordinary detail that emerged from a real-life Us air disaster in 2000:...
- 2/1/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
From a grumpy Ariel Sharon to a splenetic Tracey Emin, some of the most entertaining, controversial – and cringe-making – encounters from the Guardian's daily features section, G2
Thora Hird
Simon Hattenstone
12 April 1999
She introduces me to Scotty by way of a photograph on her sideboard. "That is the best picture of my husband and my grandson. He was a good man." The picture is taken in Beverly Hills where her daughter, the former child movie star Janette Scott, used to live. "We had 54 years together. It was a wonderful life. And you see, Simon, I was ashamed that I didn't know it was a stroke he'd had. I was getting ready to go to work in the back, and we've got two bedrooms, and I was in one and he was in the other, not because we didn't speak to each other, because my arthritis, well, with all this you wouldn't...
Thora Hird
Simon Hattenstone
12 April 1999
She introduces me to Scotty by way of a photograph on her sideboard. "That is the best picture of my husband and my grandson. He was a good man." The picture is taken in Beverly Hills where her daughter, the former child movie star Janette Scott, used to live. "We had 54 years together. It was a wonderful life. And you see, Simon, I was ashamed that I didn't know it was a stroke he'd had. I was getting ready to go to work in the back, and we've got two bedrooms, and I was in one and he was in the other, not because we didn't speak to each other, because my arthritis, well, with all this you wouldn't...
- 10/17/2012
- by Simon Hattenstone, Emma Brockes, Decca Aitkenhead
- The Guardian - Film News
Ben Wheatley's third movie is an at-times uneasy combination of British naturalism, comedy and total gore on a caravan holiday
Ben Wheatley is the outstanding young British film-maker who got himself talked about with his smart debut Down Terrace; then he scared the daylights out of everyone, as well as amusing and baffling them, with his inspired and ambiguous chiller Kill List. His talent and signature are vividly present in every frame of this new movie, Sightseers, a grisly and Ortonesque black comedy about a lonely couple who go on a caravanning holiday in Yorkshire: Chris and Tina, played by co-writers Steve Oram and Alice Lowe.
Sightseers is funny and well made, but Wheatley could be suffering from difficult third album syndrome: this is not as mysterious and interesting as Kill List; its effects are more obvious and the encounters between the naturalistically conceived antiheroes and the incidental, sketch-comedy...
Ben Wheatley is the outstanding young British film-maker who got himself talked about with his smart debut Down Terrace; then he scared the daylights out of everyone, as well as amusing and baffling them, with his inspired and ambiguous chiller Kill List. His talent and signature are vividly present in every frame of this new movie, Sightseers, a grisly and Ortonesque black comedy about a lonely couple who go on a caravanning holiday in Yorkshire: Chris and Tina, played by co-writers Steve Oram and Alice Lowe.
Sightseers is funny and well made, but Wheatley could be suffering from difficult third album syndrome: this is not as mysterious and interesting as Kill List; its effects are more obvious and the encounters between the naturalistically conceived antiheroes and the incidental, sketch-comedy...
- 5/24/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
While New Yorkers have plenty of opportunity to see classic films on the big screen, you'll be hard pressed to find a lineup as front to back awesome as the Film Society Of Lincoln Center's "15 For 15: Celebrating Rialto Pictures."
The series honors the reknowned arthouse distribution shingle founded in 1997 that has brought some of the best known (and previously unknown) classics of cinema to American audiences. And the selection here by programmers Scott Foundas, Eric Di Bernardo and Adrienne Halpern represents the breadth and scope of the films Rialto has put their stamp on, ranging from the French New Wave ("Breathless") to film noir ("Rififi") to comedy ("Billy Liar") and more. There is something here for everybody and with the series kicking off tonight, we've got a special prize for some lucky readers.
Courtesy of Film Society Of Lincoln Center, we've got a copy of the excellent Rialto DVD...
The series honors the reknowned arthouse distribution shingle founded in 1997 that has brought some of the best known (and previously unknown) classics of cinema to American audiences. And the selection here by programmers Scott Foundas, Eric Di Bernardo and Adrienne Halpern represents the breadth and scope of the films Rialto has put their stamp on, ranging from the French New Wave ("Breathless") to film noir ("Rififi") to comedy ("Billy Liar") and more. There is something here for everybody and with the series kicking off tonight, we've got a special prize for some lucky readers.
Courtesy of Film Society Of Lincoln Center, we've got a copy of the excellent Rialto DVD...
- 3/19/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Classic British comedy Go To Blazes is out on DVD on January 30th from Studio Canal. Featuring an all-star cast: Maggie Smith, Robert Morley, Dennis Price, Dave King, Derek Nimmo, Thora Hird and Will Hay, the DVD release marks the film’s 50th Anniversary, and for this occasion, it will also be screened at the British Film Institute in the London Comedy Film Festival on January 29th.
Studio Canal have given us three DVDs of Go To Blazes to giveaway to you, our readers. All you have to do to win one is answer this simple question:
Go To Blazes stars Thora Hird, but in what classic British BBC televison series did she appear? Was it:
a) Songs of Praise
b) Points of View
c) Last of the Summer WIne
Email your answer and address to competition@blogomatic3000.com with Blazes in the subject line. An email entry counts as One entry into the competition.
Studio Canal have given us three DVDs of Go To Blazes to giveaway to you, our readers. All you have to do to win one is answer this simple question:
Go To Blazes stars Thora Hird, but in what classic British BBC televison series did she appear? Was it:
a) Songs of Praise
b) Points of View
c) Last of the Summer WIne
Email your answer and address to competition@blogomatic3000.com with Blazes in the subject line. An email entry counts as One entry into the competition.
- 1/23/2012
- by Phil
- Nerdly
Co-writer of TV sitcoms On the Buses and The Rag Trade
At the height of his writing partnership with Ronald Chesney, Ronald Wolfe, who has died aged 89 after a fall, enjoyed huge success with the sitcom On the Buses; its bawdy humour was panned by the critics but lapped up by the viewing public. Originally turned down by the BBC, the idea for a comedy based around the antics of a driver and conductor giving their inspector the runaround at the Luxton Bus Company appealed to Frank Muir, head of entertainment at the newly launched ITV company London Weekend Television.
Reg Varney played Stan Butler, at the wheel of the No 11, and Bob Grant was his lothario conductor, Jack. The pair made life hell for the miserable Inspector Blake (Stephen Lewis). Blakey's "Get that bus out" and "I 'ate you, Butler" were two of the most frequent lines that flowed...
At the height of his writing partnership with Ronald Chesney, Ronald Wolfe, who has died aged 89 after a fall, enjoyed huge success with the sitcom On the Buses; its bawdy humour was panned by the critics but lapped up by the viewing public. Originally turned down by the BBC, the idea for a comedy based around the antics of a driver and conductor giving their inspector the runaround at the Luxton Bus Company appealed to Frank Muir, head of entertainment at the newly launched ITV company London Weekend Television.
Reg Varney played Stan Butler, at the wheel of the No 11, and Bob Grant was his lothario conductor, Jack. The pair made life hell for the miserable Inspector Blake (Stephen Lewis). Blakey's "Get that bus out" and "I 'ate you, Butler" were two of the most frequent lines that flowed...
- 12/20/2011
- by Anthony Hayward
- The Guardian - Film News
Fans of classic horror and cheesy Eighties movies have just received the green light to shit their pants with joy! Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment’s Mod (Manufacturing on Demand) initiative is once again unleashing MGM's vaults with a stellar collection of long gone classics!
In September be prepared to break your banks as we have your first look at some of the upcoming hard to find titles that lay in the not too distant future!
The Living Ghost (1942) - James Dunn stars as Nick Trayne, a retired detective, hired to look for missing banker Walter Craig. During the investigation Craig shows up in a zombie-like state and murders his brother-in-law. But is the banker the killer or is someone controlling him? The trail leads Nick to the real culprit, a mad scientist, who has been conducting experiments on Craig. Stars James Dunn; Joan Woodbury; Paul McVey. Directed by William Beaudine.
In September be prepared to break your banks as we have your first look at some of the upcoming hard to find titles that lay in the not too distant future!
The Living Ghost (1942) - James Dunn stars as Nick Trayne, a retired detective, hired to look for missing banker Walter Craig. During the investigation Craig shows up in a zombie-like state and murders his brother-in-law. But is the banker the killer or is someone controlling him? The trail leads Nick to the real culprit, a mad scientist, who has been conducting experiments on Craig. Stars James Dunn; Joan Woodbury; Paul McVey. Directed by William Beaudine.
- 8/26/2011
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.
This Week’s New Instant Releases…
Promised Lands (1974)
Streaming Available: 04/19/2011
Cast: Documentary
Director: Susan Sontag
Synopsis: Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary — initially barred by Israel authorities — from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent perceptions of the enduring Arab-Israeli clash. Weighing in on matters related to socialism, anti-Semitism, nation sovereignty and American materialism are The Last Jew writer Yoram Kaniuk and military physicist Yuval Ne’eman.
Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)
Streaming Available: 04/19/2011
Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch, Hannah Herzsprung, Gerald Alexander Held, Lena Stolze, Sunnyi Melles
Synopsis: Directed by longtime star of independent German cinema Margarethe von Trotta, this reverent...
This Week’s New Instant Releases…
Promised Lands (1974)
Streaming Available: 04/19/2011
Cast: Documentary
Director: Susan Sontag
Synopsis: Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary — initially barred by Israel authorities — from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent perceptions of the enduring Arab-Israeli clash. Weighing in on matters related to socialism, anti-Semitism, nation sovereignty and American materialism are The Last Jew writer Yoram Kaniuk and military physicist Yuval Ne’eman.
Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)
Streaming Available: 04/19/2011
Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch, Hannah Herzsprung, Gerald Alexander Held, Lena Stolze, Sunnyi Melles
Synopsis: Directed by longtime star of independent German cinema Margarethe von Trotta, this reverent...
- 4/20/2011
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Remembrance Of The Daleks kicks off with a pre-credits sequence – the fourth in Doctor Who up to that point. Featuring snippets of speeches from JFK, Martin Luther King and Charles De Gaulle, and an overhead shot of the Dalek ship, the unusual beginning jump-starts the new season of Doctor Who in fine style.
In fact, the Remembrance pre-credits heralds what feels like a new era for Doctor Who. After the to-ing and fro-ing of season 24, Remembrance finally lands the series a classic, something that hadn't really been since Revelation Of The Daleks back in 1985. It's a fast, pacy action story that also happens to say lots of interesting things about racism and betrayal. It's also the first example of the Cartmel Masterplan, in which The Doctor is, at times, portrayed as something more than just an ordinary Time Lord. There's enough meat here for both casual viewers and dedicated Who aficionados,...
In fact, the Remembrance pre-credits heralds what feels like a new era for Doctor Who. After the to-ing and fro-ing of season 24, Remembrance finally lands the series a classic, something that hadn't really been since Revelation Of The Daleks back in 1985. It's a fast, pacy action story that also happens to say lots of interesting things about racism and betrayal. It's also the first example of the Cartmel Masterplan, in which The Doctor is, at times, portrayed as something more than just an ordinary Time Lord. There's enough meat here for both casual viewers and dedicated Who aficionados,...
- 3/30/2011
- Shadowlocked
The actor Pete Postlethwaite died yesterday at the age of 64. We look back over his career in clips
It's difficult to know which is the more telling statement about Pete Postlethwaite, who died yesterday. That Steven Spielberg called him "the best actor in the world", after working with him on Jurassic Park sequel The Lost World. Or that Postlethwaite reacted to the praise with such dry deprecation: "I'm sure what Spielberg actually said was, 'The thing about Pete is that he thinks he's the best actor in the world.'"
A man with a face just made for immortalising on Mount Rushmore, Postlethwaite was an ensemble actor to his core; transparently decent and generous, hardly a limelight hogger. The role that first brought him to the attention of most people was Giuseppe Conlon, inmate dad to Daniel Day-Lewis's falsely imprisoned Guildford Four suspect Gerry in 1993's In the Name of the Father.
It's difficult to know which is the more telling statement about Pete Postlethwaite, who died yesterday. That Steven Spielberg called him "the best actor in the world", after working with him on Jurassic Park sequel The Lost World. Or that Postlethwaite reacted to the praise with such dry deprecation: "I'm sure what Spielberg actually said was, 'The thing about Pete is that he thinks he's the best actor in the world.'"
A man with a face just made for immortalising on Mount Rushmore, Postlethwaite was an ensemble actor to his core; transparently decent and generous, hardly a limelight hogger. The role that first brought him to the attention of most people was Giuseppe Conlon, inmate dad to Daniel Day-Lewis's falsely imprisoned Guildford Four suspect Gerry in 1993's In the Name of the Father.
- 1/3/2011
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Hancock given lifetime achievement award at Women in Film and TV Awards, hosted by Julie Walters
Sheila Hancock was "full of wonderment" as she accepted a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and TV Awards today.
Hancock, 77, who first made her name almost 50 years ago in the BBC sitcom The Rag Trade, told the specially invited audience she thought she "was not the sort of person" who wins prizes.
Hancock said: "I remember being at the Bafta awards once and I was nominated and I didn't win the bloody thing and Thora Hird came up to me and said: 'Don't worry love, just hang on until you're 70.' Maybe that's what's happened." Hancock, whose account of her marriage to Inspector Morse star John Thaw was a bestseller, also paid tribute to her daughters.
She said: "I've been married to two mad, bad, dangerous-to-know men and it was good.
Sheila Hancock was "full of wonderment" as she accepted a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and TV Awards today.
Hancock, 77, who first made her name almost 50 years ago in the BBC sitcom The Rag Trade, told the specially invited audience she thought she "was not the sort of person" who wins prizes.
Hancock said: "I remember being at the Bafta awards once and I was nominated and I didn't win the bloody thing and Thora Hird came up to me and said: 'Don't worry love, just hang on until you're 70.' Maybe that's what's happened." Hancock, whose account of her marriage to Inspector Morse star John Thaw was a bestseller, also paid tribute to her daughters.
She said: "I've been married to two mad, bad, dangerous-to-know men and it was good.
- 12/4/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
The author of The History Boys and The Habit of Art has written a sexy new short story. Alan Bennett tells Simon Hattenstone how he lost his literary inhibitions
Alan Bennett is finally losing his inhibitions. At 76, the great British playwright has decided it's time to give himself free rein. Take blowjobs, for example. For 50-odd years, fellatio had no place in his work, but how times change.
He quotes his hugely successful play, The History Boys, when the pupil Dakin gets a little too intimate with his teacher Irwin. "Dakin asks Irwin out for a drink and Irwin says: 'No, I can't do it,' then Dakin says, I can't remember the words exactly, but he says: 'Would there be any circumstances in which you'd suck me off?' Now I could have never conceivably written that line 15 years ago, but then again, if I had, it wouldn't have...
Alan Bennett is finally losing his inhibitions. At 76, the great British playwright has decided it's time to give himself free rein. Take blowjobs, for example. For 50-odd years, fellatio had no place in his work, but how times change.
He quotes his hugely successful play, The History Boys, when the pupil Dakin gets a little too intimate with his teacher Irwin. "Dakin asks Irwin out for a drink and Irwin says: 'No, I can't do it,' then Dakin says, I can't remember the words exactly, but he says: 'Would there be any circumstances in which you'd suck me off?' Now I could have never conceivably written that line 15 years ago, but then again, if I had, it wouldn't have...
- 11/23/2010
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Alberto Cavalcanti's wartime propaganda thriller about fifth columnists in an English village remains a prescient masterpiece, writes Peter Bradshaw
Alberto Cavalcanti's 1942 film, presented as part of a new BFI retrospective, is a wartime conspiracy thriller, a black-comic nightmare and a surrealist masterpiece in which stoutly English-seeming army types reveal themselves to be Nazis, like the reflected figures turning their backs on us in René Magritte's mirror.
The movie's influence shows up in Dad's Army, in Village of the Damned, and maybe even, with a twist, in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. In the sleepy English village of Bramley End, dozens of soldiers turn up, needing a billet. They are a fifth-columnist troop of Nazi agents, a revelation made more glitteringly disturbing by the fact that Cavalcanti never reveals how this infiltration has been achieved. The film shows the Germans being capable of violence and beastliness towards civilians – even daringly...
Alberto Cavalcanti's 1942 film, presented as part of a new BFI retrospective, is a wartime conspiracy thriller, a black-comic nightmare and a surrealist masterpiece in which stoutly English-seeming army types reveal themselves to be Nazis, like the reflected figures turning their backs on us in René Magritte's mirror.
The movie's influence shows up in Dad's Army, in Village of the Damned, and maybe even, with a twist, in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. In the sleepy English village of Bramley End, dozens of soldiers turn up, needing a billet. They are a fifth-columnist troop of Nazi agents, a revelation made more glitteringly disturbing by the fact that Cavalcanti never reveals how this infiltration has been achieved. The film shows the Germans being capable of violence and beastliness towards civilians – even daringly...
- 7/8/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Really, what's not to like about reissued rustic village shoot-'em-up, Went The Day Well?
Playing like some stiff-upper-lip, second world war, homefront version of John Milius's Red Dawn, it should delight us that Alberto Cavalcanti's Went The Day Well? is back in circulation once again. In its casting and its subversive storytelling, its 1942 setting offers a parallel universe wherein not only are the Nazis invading Britain and coldly massacring the Home Guard, but postwar TV battleaxes such as Thora Hird and Patricia Hayes are caught in cinematic amber as plucky young Land Girls vigorously sticking it to the filthy Boche (with axes, bayonets, rifles and household pepper). And the goose-stepping enemy are played by quintessentially English postwar actors, including Powell and Pressburger's phallocratic fave David Farrar and perpetual Pow Co James Donald, plus Alexander Korda's very own imperialist hero, Leslie Banks, as the head Nazi collaborator and local squire.
Playing like some stiff-upper-lip, second world war, homefront version of John Milius's Red Dawn, it should delight us that Alberto Cavalcanti's Went The Day Well? is back in circulation once again. In its casting and its subversive storytelling, its 1942 setting offers a parallel universe wherein not only are the Nazis invading Britain and coldly massacring the Home Guard, but postwar TV battleaxes such as Thora Hird and Patricia Hayes are caught in cinematic amber as plucky young Land Girls vigorously sticking it to the filthy Boche (with axes, bayonets, rifles and household pepper). And the goose-stepping enemy are played by quintessentially English postwar actors, including Powell and Pressburger's phallocratic fave David Farrar and perpetual Pow Co James Donald, plus Alexander Korda's very own imperialist hero, Leslie Banks, as the head Nazi collaborator and local squire.
- 7/3/2010
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
The BBC has confirmed that it is axing comedy series Last Of The Summer Wine after 37 years. BBC One controller Jay Hunt promised that the last series, which will air this summer, will provide a "fitting farewell" for the Roy Clarke-penned sitcom. Following the adventures of characters such as Compo (Bill Owen), Nora Batty (Kathy Staff) and Edie Pegden (Thora Hird), the programme has survived for nearly four decades, despite a large number of the cast members passing away and frequent rumours that the show would be pulled off air. The final run will feature long-time cast member Peter Sallis as Norman Clegg, alongside Russ Abbott (Hobbo) and Brian Murphy (Alvin). "It is a testimony to the wit and warmth of the characters (more)...
- 6/2/2010
- by By Alex Fletcher
- Digital Spy
DVD Playhouse—April 2009
By
Allen Gardner
Milk (Universal) Sean Penn deservedly captured his second Best Actor Oscar (and Dustin Lance Black a statuette for his original screenplay) in director Gus Van Sant’s portrait of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold public office in the U.S. Alternately heartbreaking, infuriating and very funny, a film that both captures a bygone era and is still very timely. Fine support from Josh Brolin, Victor Garber, James Franco and Emile Hirsch. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Three featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround.
Slumdog Millionaire (20th Century Fox) The Best Picture of 2008 is a kinetic, clever audience-pleaser about a determined lad (Dev Patel) from the slums of Mumbai, who has his chance at literal and financial redemption as a contestant on India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Best Director Danny Boyle dazzles...
By
Allen Gardner
Milk (Universal) Sean Penn deservedly captured his second Best Actor Oscar (and Dustin Lance Black a statuette for his original screenplay) in director Gus Van Sant’s portrait of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold public office in the U.S. Alternately heartbreaking, infuriating and very funny, a film that both captures a bygone era and is still very timely. Fine support from Josh Brolin, Victor Garber, James Franco and Emile Hirsch. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Three featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround.
Slumdog Millionaire (20th Century Fox) The Best Picture of 2008 is a kinetic, clever audience-pleaser about a determined lad (Dev Patel) from the slums of Mumbai, who has his chance at literal and financial redemption as a contestant on India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Best Director Danny Boyle dazzles...
- 4/11/2009
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
The late, great Dame Thora Hird brought well-mannered cheer to British TV for sixty years. Famed for her roles in Last Of The Summer Wine, Salvation Army sitcom Hallelujah and 1960s classic Meet The Wife, she was one of the most gifted comedy stars of her generation. Her often forgotten early work included war-time propaganda and roles alongside comic Will Hay and Sir Laurence Olivier. Although the Morecambe-born star is often latterly remembered (more)...
- 12/5/2008
- by By Alex Fletcher
- Digital Spy
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.