Classic and James Bond films unite
My late father was French-Mauritian, a distinction that he always made very clear to people. And I think that is perhaps why he was such a devotee of Agatha Christie’s famous Belgian detective. My father took great delight in the parts where British characters insulted Poirot by calling him a French so and so, and… Continue reading You’re the Top!: Diana Rigg in “Evil Under the Sun” (1982)
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that Jane Austen is one of the greatest, and most influential, authors to ever live. Her six completed novels have been translated into about thirty five languages, and Pride and Prejudice alone has sold some 20 million copies. In addition to being one of the best selling authors of… Continue reading Passion and Perseverance: Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Based on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ famous epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, Stephen Frears’ 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons is undoubtedly one of the best costume dramas ever made. Whilst that may sound like an overstatement, it really isn’t. Every aspect of the film’s production is utter perfection, from Frears’ direction, to the performances of the… Continue reading The Danger of Desire: Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
The Brontë Sisters are incredibly famous. I don’t think this point can be overstated. Their contribution to the English literary canon, especially Gothic literature, has influenced countless authors, filmmakers and musicians (I’m looking at you, Kate Bush.) They revolutionised a genre that had been seen as low brow, melodramatic trash for almost a century, and… Continue reading Jane, Jane: Timothy Dalton in Jane Eyre (1983)
You knew his name. So It's been a while since I blogged. Life happens. But when one of my favourite bloggers, Gill from Realweegiemidget Reviews approached me about co-hosting a Blogathon dedicated to the six official Bond actors' non-Bond films, I knew that it was time to get back on the blogging wagon! I have… Continue reading Announcing the You Knew My Name: The Bond Not Bond Blogathon
In 1968, Mia Farrow showed that she could play a character that required both exhaustive physical and psychological realisation. In Rosemary's Baby, she played a young woman who has the unimaginable happen to her, and she was rightly nominated for a BAFTA and Academy Award for her efforts. A year before that, in 1967, Audrey Hepburn would… Continue reading A Sightless Evil: Mia Farrow in “See No Evil” (1971)
Choosing five essential performances for Al Pacino is nearly impossible. Ask me in a few days time and I may swap out one film for another, because his filmography is such an embarrassment of riches. In every film he's been in I can never take my eyes off of him. Even in Once Upon A Time...In… Continue reading Al Pacino’s Five Essential Performances
The Hitchcock blonde has become a part of popular culture, a creature with varying shades of blonde hair, from honey to ice to strawberry, who embodies beauty, mystery, seduction and at times, danger. The actress, however, who seemed to entirely realise Hitchcock's vision of the perfect leading lady for his films, was Grace Kelly. The… Continue reading A Match Made in Hollywood: The films of Grace Kelly and Alfred Hitchcock
Wikipedia calls The Crow an American superhero film, but for me, it's more a gothic horror/romance film. The Crow isn't really a superhero, he's an antihero who becomes like that because of circumstances. He reminds me more Darkman than Clark Kent. The Crow is largely famous because it was Brandon Lee's final motion picture due to his tragic… Continue reading Rain and Revenge: The Crow (1994)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992) was one of the first movies I bought with my own money. I bought it quite by chance, a common thing it seems for films I came to love fiercely. Based on James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 and the 1936… Continue reading Live by no man’s leave: The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Pale Writer 