Joan Rivers standing before her index boxes, a joke on each card; she has a wall of these she turns to Dear friends and readers, Again I write hurriedly to recommend seeing a film lest it vanish before you get there. Yesterday Izzy braved the intense (and it was burning, burning hot in that car), [...]
Archive for June, 2010
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Posted in 20th century culture, feminism, film studies, women's art, womens' films, tagged joan rivers, johnny carson, meryl streep on June 28, 2010 | 17 Comments »
Winston Graham’s Ross Poldark: The Revenant (Poldark novel 1, Cornwall 1783-87)
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, Film adaptations, Poldark, political novels/films, Winston Graham, tagged Jill Townsend, Poldark on June 24, 2010 | 23 Comments »
Poldark 1, Part 1, Episode 1 (1975-76): carriage glimpsed on horizon First shot of Robin Ellis as not-so-young Ross come home Poldark 2 (1977-79) Ross Poldark as revenant — Season 2: both open with him emerging from the landscape or sea, expected not to return any time soon or thought dead Dear friends and readers, [...]
Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone: an Antigone for our era
Posted in 20th century culture, feminism, Film adaptations, film studies, novels of sensibility, political novels/films, tagged jennifer lawrence, john hawkes on June 21, 2010 | 21 Comments »
Jennifer Lawrence, our dauntless heroine, Ree Dolly (Winter’s Bones) Dear readers and friends, I braved the intense heat yesterday to see Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bones, fearful that it would leave the theaters quickly. In the event I was astonished to find myself in a 3/4s full theater — but then it was superhot yesterday, this [...]
Jane Campion’s Portrait of a Lady: unusually Jamesian
Posted in 19th century novels, Costume drama, feminism, Film adaptations, henry james, Henry James, Movies, tagged Jane Campion, john malkovich, kate field, nicole kidman, portrait of a lady on June 19, 2010 | 13 Comments »
Isabel Archer (Nicole Kidman) Dear friends and readers, I carried on with my study and comparison of films based on 18th and films based on 19th century matter, and earlier this week watched Jane Campion’s brilliant effective film adaptation of Henry James’s novel, The Portrait of a Lady, screenplay Laura Jones, produced by Steve Golin [...]
Poldark: an 18th century Cornish Che Guevara
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, Costume drama, Film adaptations, Poldark, political novels/films, Regency Romantic literature, romance, Winston Graham, womens' films, tagged historical novels, Jack Pullman, Poldark on June 14, 2010 | 30 Comments »
Lizzard Light, Cornwall Robin Ellis as Poldark Dear friends and readers, It’s been several weeks now since I fell in love with a new (to me) season-long mini-series (previously it was the 1974 BBC Pallisers): I found just irresistible the first season (1975) of Poldark adapted from 4 novels by Winston Graham. I began it [...]
The pleasures of Isak Dinesen
Posted in 20th century culture, film studies, gothic, women's memoirs, women's novels, women's art, womens' films, tagged isak dinesen, karen blixen, out of africa on June 7, 2010 | 12 Comments »
Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) and Denys Finch-Hatton (Robert Redford) dining elegantly in an African plain (1985 Out of Africa Dear friends and readers, It’s been a couple of months now since a group of us on WWTTA read and discussed Isak Dinesen’s Seven Gothic Tales, along with selected stories from Anecdotes of Destiny (“The Immortal [...]
Affectionately dedicated to Mr Fielding: the 1997 BBC/A&E Tom Jones
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, Costume drama, feminism, Film adaptations, film studies, tagged henry fielding, Kathy Burke, Lindsay Duncan, Samantha Morton, Tom Jones on June 2, 2010 | 16 Comments »
Tom Jones (Max Beesley), Sophia (Samantha Morton) and Mr Western (Brian Blessed) making music together Dear Friends and readers, About 8 months ago, I wrote a blog review comparing Tony Richardson’s 1963 Tom Jones and Stanley Kubrick’s 1977 Barry Lyndon, vowing to myself that I would follow this up with a blog review on the [...]
