Classic and James Bond films unite
Okay so Florence Nightingale is probably the most famous nurse to ever live, with good reason, as she pretty much revolutionised the field by introducing sanitation measures (seriously, wash your hands) in hospitals, and establishing the first secular nursing school in the world. A famous lithograph of Nightingale from a painting by Henrietta Rae. So,… Continue reading The Man Who Loved the Lady with the Lamp: Timothy Dalton in “Florence Nightingale” (1985)
The story of Anastasia, the supposed last living member of the Russian royal family, is famous the world over. The hope that one last symbol of pre-Communist Russia exists/existed, is one that has lived on in the collective imagination for a long time. Twentieth Century Fox made the film twice, once in 1956 and again… Continue reading The Last Romanov: Anastasia (1956)
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)
Jane Austen is one of the most famous British authors to ever live. Her books, which centre on young women living during the Georgian era, are filled with wit, love, realism and the question of whether marriage can ever be conceived through love in a society obsessed with social position and money. Her novel, published… Continue reading The Importance of First Impressions: Pride and Prejudice (2005)
And so The Calls of Cornwall: Daphne du Maurier Blogathon has come to an end. I would like to thank all of the bloggers who contributed. I cannot WAIT to go through everyone's posts and read all about du Maurier and her works. I would also like to ask the bloggers who participated, or bloggers… Continue reading Finn…or will she come back?
I so wanted to adore Frenchman's Creek, especially after the languid, idyll that is du Maurier's novel. But despite Joan Fontaine looking like a queen and giving an utterly wonderful performance, I am sad to report that I did not adore it. This is a story of a woman's desire versus her duty. A not… Continue reading Too much Romance: Frenchman’s Creek (1940)
It may seem strange to choose a nun as the subject for a post written for The Reel Infatuation Blogathon. But, it is not strange when you think of the tremendous courage of both the character, based on a real woman of this marrow, and the actress who played her, who had these same traits.… Continue reading Obedience, that impossible thing: Audrey Hepburn as Sister Luke in “The Nun’s Story” (1959)
De-Lovely (2004) is one of the best and most underrated biopics I have ever seen. It has everything you'd want in such a film, awesome music, a fascinating, but very flawed central figure, which the filmmakers do not shy away from, a brilliant actor play that figure, and great supporting performances. Why people are not singing this film's… Continue reading In The Still of the Night: De-lovely (2004)
Firelight (1997) is a little known gem about how women in the early nineteenth century were often not only robbed of their personality, individual desire and ambition, but also the right to raise their own children, because men had complete control over their destinies. The film brings to mind such feminine bildungsroman as Jane Eyre and Pride and… Continue reading Strange Shapes in the Firelight
Pale Writer 