First view of Demelza from Season 1: the angry proud urchin (Angharad Rees), a match for our Cornish Che Guevara Mel Martin as Demelza from the 1996 Stranger from the Sea; I could not find one still of John Bowe as Ross grown older to match the above of Mel Martin *********************** Dear friends and [...]
Archive for December, 2010
Graham’s The Stranger from the Sea: A falling off (Poldark novel 8, Cornwall 1810-11)
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, Costume drama, Film adaptations, historical fiction, Poldark, political novels/films, Winston Graham on December 29, 2010 | 11 Comments »
The King’s Speech: powerfully absorbing, compassionate, but doesn’t bear too much thinking about
Posted in 20th century culture, Costume drama, Movies, political novels/films, Seasonal, tagged Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, King's Speech on December 25, 2010 | 14 Comments »
Colin Firth during press conference promoting The King’s Speech I’ll begin with The King’s Speech, directed by Tom Hooper (he also directed Daniel Deronda), screenplay David Seidler and numerous producers. The microphone is a central image repeated from the opening sequence to the close: it’s what demanded of this man with a stammer, that he [...]
Movies out of 19th century sources: real (novels, memoirs, histories) and pseudo (modern historical-costume drama): the question of Trollope’s place
Posted in 18th century novels, 19th century novels, Costume drama, Film adaptations, film studies, henry james, Trollope, tagged clarissa, Golden Bowl, Hardy films, James films, pallisers, portrait of a lady, simon raven on December 23, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Isabel Collard (Christine Kavanagh) accused of murdering her brother-in-law and lover, Roger (James Faulkner) and mother-in-law, Harriet Collard (Judy Parfitt) (Blackheath Poisonings, 1992) Dear friends and readers, Now I’ve re-watched all 26 episodes of the Palliser films, re-read all my blogs, and am watching for a second time Simon Raven’s 1992 adaptation of Julian Symons’s [...]
Thus do all things come together: Back to Palliser films & find a Balzac allusion in Lost in Austen (!) — my Austen paper published
Posted in 18th century, 19th century novels, Austen, Film adaptations, political novels/films, Trollope, tagged George Meredith, Lost ih Austen, pallisers on December 18, 2010 | 8 Comments »
Burgo (Barry Justice) hysterically weeping on shoulder of his vampiric aunt, Lady Monk (1974 BBC Pallisers 2:3) Dear friends, Thus do all things come together: back to Palliser films & I find the Balzac book alluded to in the Pallisers is alluded to in Lost in Austen: if I can do it, there’s still a [...]
Verdi’s Don Carlos at the Met: reactionary cruelties exposed (Das Rheingold & Boris Godunov in comments section)
Posted in Costume drama, Met HDOperas, Musical, opera, politics, Theater, tagged HD opera, Pushkin, Schiller, verdi, Wagner on December 12, 2010 | 8 Comments »
Elisabetta (Marina Poplavskaya) and Don Carlos (Roberto Alagna) Dear friends and readers, I thought I’d write a new kind of blog on Verdi’s Don Carlos as performed at the Metropolitan Opera, NYC, and screened on HD screens around the world. I want to tell others how moving I at least found it — the actor-singers [...]
Doing Christmas & Snow Reveries
Posted in Autobiographical, cats, Seasonal, tagged fiber optic penguin on December 10, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Colin, my fiber optic penguin Dear friends and readers, Some people my age have grandchildren, others have great-nieces and nephews: I have two cats and a fiber optic penguin which lights up in a glittery way when I plug him in. I gave him the name I would have given a son had I had [...]
Shame on him, Shame on Obama
Posted in politics, Uncategorized, tagged Shameful Obama on December 7, 2010 | 7 Comments »
I’ve just read that Obama has offered to extend the obscene tax cuts for the very wealthy (1 to 2 % of the US in this country who now control and have at their disposal something like 23% of the wealth). The house is silent: they are astonished. They never expected this for real. Reid [...]
Graham’s The Angry Tide: Failure in London; Elizabeth’s death (Poldark novel 7, Cornwall 1798-99) (2)
Posted in 18th century, Film adaptations, historical fiction, men's memoirs, Poldark, political novels/films, Winston Graham, tagged Angry Tide, Jill Townsend, marital rape on December 6, 2010 | 12 Comments »
Monk Adderley (Malcolm Tierney), actually a twisted sick man Dear friends and readers, The failure: Ross and Demelza cannot make a new life for themselves in London because they carry over all that they are to London, which includes Ross’s own angers, bitterness, and he ends up murdering a provocative scum-rake type; Elizabeth dies in [...]
Graham’s The Angry Tide: A Murder brings A Reprieve (Poldark Novel 7, Cornwall 1798-99) (1)
Posted in 18th century, historical fiction, men's memoirs, Poldark, political novels/films, Winston Graham, tagged Angry Tide, marital rape on December 5, 2010 | 10 Comments »
Ross (Robin Ellis) turns to embrace Demelza (Angharad Rees), Enys (Michael Cadman) looking on Dear Friends and readers, At long last, Graham’s The Angry Tide (Poldark novel 7). This is the first of another two-part blog on one of Graham’s novels. To explain the subtitle: when Rowella’s husband, Solway in a maddened rage murders Whitworth [...]
