Johnny Simmons: Howards End

Showing posts with label Howards End. Show all posts

Friday, 20 May 2011

Encore’s Birthday Marathon: Day Three

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 07:22

This is part of the 20 day series of commentary commemorating random cinematic moments leading up to my birthday. It’s hardly an auspicious moment, but it’s as a good a reason as any for an arbitrary blogging event.

One of my sisters has this strange fixation with the number. Her birthday happens to be a 3rd of the year, so it’s probably not that weird. It’s interesting, though, because I’m part of a three sibling family and three always seems like the go-to number for cinematic families. Maybe I overstress, it’s probably not an overwhelming majority but I’m almost certain that it is the majority. The thing about siblings, on the big or small screen, though is that oftentimes the honesty of any filial bond is difficult to establish. Think of the trio of sisters in Gosford Park. I adore the film, but there’s little ostensible cinematic rapport to be found between Kristin Scott Thomas, Natasha Wightman and Geraldine Sommerville. It doesn’t destroy the film (it’s still excellent), but it’s notable.

I’ve found that the small screen is a more accurate purveyor of believable sibling relationships. There’s little about David Schwimmer and Courtney Cox in the Friends pilot that makes their relation to each other striking, but just like meeting actual siblings overtime the bond is revealed to be a strong one. Peter Krause and Michael C. Hall seem to hit it off immediately in Six Feet Under but it’s some time before Claire seems like a real part of their relationship (Krause’s current drama, Parenthood. is still trying to address chemistry issues.)

For the cinema, when I think of sibling rapport I immediately turn to Howards End – not only because of my affinity for Helena Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson but because I vicariously enjoy it as a paradigm for my own sibling situation (two older sisters). Tibby is sort of incidental to the drama in the film, which isn’t exactly regrettable (the film functions finely without him) but I love those little moments when all three are together like that first meeting with Leonard where Tibby is exasperating stolid or the first meeting with Mrs. Leonard Bast where he’s more voluble.

And if Howards End represents my sibling relationship in the Edwardian period, then It’s Complicated would be it in contemporary times. Not that I’m grossly invested in the film (and I do have a loathing for Zoe Kazan who plays the middle daughter) but the fact that the trio not only has strong chemistry but their relationship actually seems unforced despite the more obtrusive “cutesy” bits is impressive. (I always do think there’s a better movie trying to fight its way out of It’s Complicated). I couldn't only imagine the therapy my siblings would need if my parents decided to remarry - or have an affair. Yikes.

Any cinematic siblings remind you of yours?

Wednesday, 9 March 2011

March Bloodstones: Helen and Margaret Schlegel in Howards End

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 08:50

The bloodstone is the stone of March, and March is women's history month. Hence this post, (first entry HERE).

Jhabvala and Ivory don’t have the comfort of Forster’s lush narrative to wallow in, so they’re prevented from establishing – immediately – the radical ways of the Schlegel sisters, and yet from that very first visit Mr. Bast pays to their flats one is swayed to believe that there’s something peculiar about them. There’s already something eccentric in the on-and-off engagement between Helen and Paul and as Mr. Bast raps at the door – to retrieve his stolen umbrella – there’s something even odder about Margaret’s, “Not again, Helen. She is an incorrigible thief.” It’s not exactly courage, as yet, but it’s an essential bit about organic everything in Howards Ends unfolds – it’s never uncinematic but it always retains a definite literariness.

Helen seems like the more obvious candidate, but the quietness with which Margaret approaches her tentative relationship with Mrs. Wilcox seems decidedly gracious in its way. It’s the sort of selfless nobleness that we come to define her character by, and though it’s pointless to see the character through any sort of feministic lens it’s notable that both she and Helen define their bravery in relation to the men about them. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Again I come to this quandary of defining courage, and like Deanie Loomis (but, perhaps, not so difficultly) finding overt acts of courage is rare. Yet, the fact that they’re so erudite and well-meaning, even in their middle-class naïveté. The Edwardian era isn’t as symbolic as repressed women as, say, the Victorian era but considering how the upper-class Mrs. Wilcox feels about women’s education I can’t help but feel some commendation is worthy of them – although Aunt Jules’ aside “…but their father was German, and that is why they care for literature and art” seems (like everything about her character) superfluous and ridiculous.

Because it’s the moment where the two storylines finally interact, the wedding emerges as that obvious moment for watching different types of “courage”. Taking Forster and putting him to screen seems to be such a dubious task, and I have added admiration that Helena Bonham Carter manages to toe that line between histrionic and passionate so finely. The same goes for Thompson, in opposite form; even when Margaret is at her most dubious it’s difficult not to identify with her. True, her knee-jerk embarrassment to Helen’s theatrics seems to subvert any significant act of courage and if you’re sinister and think that if, perhaps, Helen’s pleas for equality (for the Basts) is driven by romantic inclinations then it does the same. Still, as much as the narrative (and in lieu, the film) have that utilitarian function of showing us a “new” England the nice thing about Howards End is how complex the characters.

I hate to think of it as some sort of misguided penance, but it’s to Helen’s credit that she bears her pregnancy alone – even if there’s something vaguely repressive about her intended plan to spend the duration of her pregnancy. For all her excitability, Helen is defined by childishness where Margaret – as the older one – emerges as, arguably, the braver of the two. Emma is a powerhouse opposite Antony towards the end as she prepares to leave him, and it’d be an injustice to her (Forster, Jhabvala, Ivory and the film) to see her reneging of that decision as evidence of her lack of courage. It’s the very thing that defines Margaret, her gentle grace in spite of the obvious and there’s that looming sense of justice as the camera pans over to Helen and her child and Margaret and Henry walking the plains. Howards End is not a women’s novel (thematically, or audience wise) but Forster’s characters and the interpretations of Thompson and Bonham Carter are fine evidence of courageous women – their excessive chatter is confirmation.

As Mr. Bast says, “The more a lady has to say, the better. Ladies brighten every conversation.”

Thursday, 17 February 2011

“Dear Miss Schlegel…”

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 12:54

Tuesday, 24 August 2010

“We’re not odd, just over expressive”

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 18:52

“There is something peaceful and quiet about Howards End, starting with Vanessa’s haunting walk and introduction. To me, it feels like the essence of the British countryside, of elegance and that high class feeling that Brits always put in their period films. Howards End is, to me, James Ivory’s greatest achievement, such a delicate film, but with such power of acting and fascinating plot.”

Alex (of Alex in Movieland and My Last Oscar Flick) always manages to make each of his words count and his summation of Howards End is fittingly perceptive.

Like him, I think of Howards End as the best work from the Merchant Ivory team, and like him I think of its beginning with Vanessa Redgrave soon after I hear the name. Howards End opens with a picturesque image of a woman walking through a green field near the eponymous Howards End. She, too, is clad in green, and though we don’t know it as yet this woman is the patron saint of Howards End (the film and the place). And though it opens with that image of Miss Redgrave, the story begins just after. An engagement impulsively arises and is broken just as swiftly. A bumbling aunt makes her way to a far off cottage, mistaken identities arise and harsh words ensue – and all this within the first ten minutes only. Yet, remove this preamble and Howards End is no worse (or admittedly, no better) for it. Even though I was drawn to Howards End on first viewing, it took a few more for me to appreciate the importance of this prologue and a few more for me to fully grasp the significance of Redgrave’s sombre walk through the field. And yet, the film isn’t really about Mrs. Wilcox. Like Forster’s original novel, it’s a story of class division in early 20th century England. There are the middle class Schlegels – booklovers and idealistically (if pedantically) good, the upper-class Wilcoxes – sometimes brittle and unrelenting but more than just caricatures and the lower class Basts – there are only two, but they’re just as important. Howards End takes a look at the unlikely clash between these three different groups, and though it’s not a particularly subtle message (Forster’s novel is almost a complete allegory) it’s a pertinent one.

The name Merchant Ivory was in the nineties (and remains, but with less alacrity) a name indicative of good literary adaptations. Howards End easily exists as my favourite. Screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala seems incredibly at ease adapting Forster to the screen, so that the machinations of these very “literary” characters never come across as unnatural. She does the same with A Room With A View, another Forster novel, but this is in a class of its own. It’s interesting to note how much of Forster’s book (and actual lines) make it into Jhabvala finished script. The lines are as precise as few period pieces and sets up the chance for the actors to floor us with their deliveries, and they do – they really do. When Jose from the wildly insightful (but yet oddly hip) Movies Kick Ass sent in his blurb I wondered “why review it?”…he essentially summed up what I loved about it….

“It’s impossible to watch this movie and avoid being haunted by the image of Vanessa Redgrave walking along a vast path of grass. The ethereal nature of this scene sets a strange mood over a film that so unsentimentally examines the clash of social classes and the creation of what was supposed to become modern England. Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter (both subtly extraordinary) play sisters who come to represent different schools of thought at the beginning of the twentieth century. Anthony Hopkins and Samuel West are their male counterparts who also become symbols for the underlying themes E.M. Forster addressed in his brilliant novel. The miracle in the movie though is watching these symbols become human and witnessing how the film works as a wonderful political study and as an involving, intense emotional drama. Few movies master with such ease the dichotomy that exists between mind and heart; which can be fierce enemies or intimate friends.”

It’s the penultimate line above that jolts me in particular. In transferring a novel so rich in symbolism to the screen Ivory and company manage to avoid one of the unnerving possibilities – caricatures. Instead of the characters becoming symbols, the symbols turn into characters (it seems synonymous, but mull it over – it’s not)

Emma Thompson’s Oscar win for Howards End remains as one of the most obviously good decisions the Academy has made in the Best Actress category. Her performance never fails to impress me upon subsequent viewings, even though to some degree it lies less in Thompson’s acting abilities (which are assuredly excellent) but in her ability to put the audience at ease. She’s only the de facto lead of the film (the main quarter are all given equal time for the most part) but it’s imperative for us to find Thompson’s Margaret to be a trustworthy, if simple, woman. Listening to Thompson recite her lines (and really, she doesn’t recite lines as much as she lives them) there is not the slightest trait of self-consciousness. Emma is so thoroughly Margaret we immediately believe her devotion to Helen – “what do I care Aunt Jules, Helen is in love – that’s all I need to know”. It’s one of her first lines and though it’s the beginning we already know all we need to about this woman.

Consider the words of Luke of Journalistic Skepticism (don’t let the name fool you, he’s much to opleasant to be a cynic):

“Battling through the myth that Merchant Ivory films are overlong and overwrought, Howards End combines the immense talents of its cast, particularly the always-lovely Emma Thompson and the startlingly beautiful Helena Bonham Carter, with an impossibly elegant backdrop. It’s a gorgeous costume drama that never looks down on its audience, and Thompson’s performance is mannered loveliness.”

It’s a period piece, but that doesn’t make it any less “real”. Howards End is intent to presenting as precisely normal a world as possible and Emma manages to find nuances in even those most rote of lines and adds a dash of personality in the places we’d least expect. For example, I love a slight moment where Redgrave’s Mrs. Wilcox instructs her to write her name on the top of the woman’s Christmas list – Emma’s gleeful obedience is amusing and completely in keeping with her character. This is the sort of woman who grows up before her time, but still retains a bit of the silliness – willing to be pleased at being at the top of someone’s Christmas list.

It sets her in perfection opposition (I use the word loosely) to her sister, played excellently by Helena Bonham Carter – the Oscar snub heard around the world (so says me). Helen is just slightly more perverse than her sister, retaining a childish streak of meanness that can show itself at the most inopportune of moments, even when the lines don’t show it. A young lady looking for her husband at their home is given the tart response, “you’re welcome to search for him if you like” – added to Helena’s deadpan delivery and just the slightest trace of a smile playing on her lips makes it impossible for us to dislike her even as she adopts an almost ridiculous sense of pragmatism as the film reaches its close. It’s a fine line she treads, and in the same way that Emma avoids turning Margaret into someone we cannot love even as she does things we don’t care for, we still believe in Helena’s Helen even when we want to slap her. Perhaps more so. Her task is just as difficult as Emma – are people so devoted to the cause? Helena makes it plausible.

It took me years to finally appreciate Anthony Hopkins, whom I now realise plays his role so excellently I subconsciously feel he’s giving a bad performance. True, it’s nowhere near as good as his next alliance with Merchant Ivory, but he’s so subtle (blink and you’ll miss some of his expressions) I eventually realise he’s doing an excellent job. It’s not that the men are put on the backburner in Howards End. In fact James Wilby and Samuel West play pivotal roles reaching to the core of their characters. West particularly is taxed with an almost unplayable and idealistic character (for some reason he reminds me of Lovborg in Hedda Gabler). But West is so willing to trudge on through the righteousness – that is not self-righteous – I believe him even at his most dubious. Simple acts like refusing a substantial amount of money is more than just a pretentious act of gallantry, but a requisite to the character he’s carved and for someone who’s had her fair share of chivalrous leading men it’s no mean feat when I say that Helena has never seemed more at ease with a leading man. The scenes between the two bring a romanticism to the narrative that’s fittingly contrasted with the adulterous undertones and its firm opposition to the Anthony / Emma pairing.

Perhaps because it’s such a tribute to its trade Howards End makes me write like I’m still in high school , but it’s obvious nonetheless that it is one that I love so.

“Howards End is the second masterpiece from the Merchant-Ivory team (E/N masterpiece #1, masterpiece #3], working at the height of their creativity. Anyone expecting the dreamy romanticism of their first masterpiece, A Room With A View, may be surprised at the complexity, subtlety and maturity of this drama. The luminous Emma Thompson, passionate Helena Bonham-Carter, and powerhouse Anthony Hopkins headline this tale of a country house, its meaning in the lives of its inhabitants, and its role in a series of misunderstandings that bring belated contentment to some, and ruin to others.

Gorgeous to look at, a dream to listen to, top-notch in all departments, this is intelligent film making at its best. Compelling and entertaining, it faithfully paints a tapestry of Forster's themes of love, class, family tradition, infidelity, and the yearning of artistic fulfillment. Vanessa Redgrave's supporting turn is but one of the film's many outstanding performances. I am also haunted by the symbolic image of a poor hanger-on literally crushed by his literary hopes and dreams. Howards End would sit proudly at the top of anyone's list of favorite films.”

So says Tom of the delightfully diverse Reinvention: The Journal of a Dog Lover...

It’s practically perfect in every way and so delicately made, it’s a pity many don’t even remember it. It’s #2 on my list of favourites, and really it’s interchangeable with the one to come since they’re both flawless, or thereabouts. (So, some of you would have discerned my obvious top choice.)

Do you care for Merchant Ivory? Do you care for Howards End? Speak up.

Thursday, 19 August 2010

Movie Meme, Day 19: Best Movie Cast

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 15:47

This was such an odd question for me. Obviously best cast is not synonymous with best film, but the overlap is hard to avoid even when I think that it doesn’t always end up being there. Only a few days ago I waxed on (with the help of others) about the all around brilliance of The Philadelphia Story and really that comes to mind as the strongest cast I can think of. True, other than the four principals (Hepburn, Grant, Stewart, Hussey) the cast is filled with less-popular folks but what makes The Philadelphia Story cast so brilliant is the fact that big names aren’t necessary to make it so. Any scene in the film sizzles, regardless of if the big names take centre stage.

Another film I mentioned in my top ten, Gosford Park would be a worthy candidate for best ensemble. From Helene Mirren to Michael Gambon to Maggie Smith to Clive Owen to Kristin Scott Thomas to Emily Watson and on and on and on, it’s just too brilliant for words. Is it not obvious why I’m always fawning over Altman’s masterpiece? It’s the way of the Britons, though, consider Howards End another film peppered with the English that’s just fantastic when they all come together.

Still, the small casts don’t get enough credit – look at Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – only four greats in Taylor, Dennis, Burton and Segal – and they do all the heavy lifting brilliantly. A Streetcar Named Desire has more than four but it all comes down to Stanley, Brando, Leigh and Malden and they work brilliantly together. I don’t love the play or the film for Long Day’s Journey Into Night – but I dare anyone to not be floored by the collective brilliance of Katharine Hepburn, Dean Stockwell, Ralph Richardson and Jason Robards in Lumet’s oft forgotten film.

The eclectic casting in All About Eve is worthy of remembrance too. Every one, not just Bette, turns in brilliant performances even if it’s all about the women at the end of the day…a bit like Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway, the men are smashing but it’s the women who take the cake at the end of the day.

I often think of Shakespeare as being the perfect playwright for ensembles and it makes sense that it’s a Shakespeare piece that I first though of. I wouldn’t call it the best ensemble – anyone I’ve mentioned thus far could take the cake, but I can’t be the only one who thinks that the ensemble of Shakespeare in Love is something to applaud heartily. Its best picture victory remains as one of the Academy’s most lucid decisions in the nineties and there’s no doubt that the ensemble is one to treasure.

Film is good, but there’s something particularly great about seeing a group of actors – big or small – work cohesively. There are dozens more I can think of, but these nine take precedence...and this is all for the MEME.

Wednesday, 2 June 2010

“Sister, Sister”

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 06:40

I love seeing sibling machinations on the screen. There’s something decidedly charming in seeing sturdy bouts of filial love and especially when that bond is between sister and sister. It’s something that pits actress against actress and often results in good performances all around. So today we're catering to the ladies - But what makes a good sisterly pairing? Well, obviously, they have to love each other – that’s a bit of prerequisite, so of course no inclusions of those Dubois women…few sisterly pairing are as true, and loving as these five that follow – well, I can’t think of any…

The Dashwoods

There are really three Dashwood sisters in Sense & Sensibility, but only two of them get descriptive adjectives to their name. Sure, Emma Thompson’s age acts against the very reason for Austen’s title, but she’s a good enough actress to overcome whatever her age cannot. Sure, sometimes Marianne comes off as undeserving of her sister’s patience, but they do look out for each other. Like a clever diversion on a piano to prevent the embarrassment of Elinor and the dedication Elinor in turn pays to a sick Marianne. Dedication to sisterhood.

The Magraths

Crimes of the Heart is such a forgotten one, but with Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spaceck I remember it. A sister of Best Actress Oscar winners, what can be better? Sure one of them is washed up, one's suicidal and one's "never been kissed" but the chemistry these three women have make me wonder this film isn't more remembered.

Ms. Jane Bennet, Ms. Elizabeth Bennett, Ms. Mary Bennett, Ms. Lydia Bennett and Ms. Kitty Bennett

It’s one thing ensuring two sisters match the truth of an Austen novel, but it’s so much more difficult when it’s five. How does Joe Wright accomplish it? Well Mary is the odd one out, and is often alone. Eliza and Jane gravitate to each other as do Lydia and Kitty so we have the older pair and the younger pair. But, even more, moments when they must combine are just as honest. The film’s beginning with the five of them, and their fishwife mother, haranguing their father about Miss Bingley is handled nicely. Yes, the strongest moments of the film come when Rosamund and Keira interact – they are so very lovely together. But Wright tries to make each one have their moment, and for the most part, he succeeds.

The March Girls

Of course this list cannot be made without some incarnation of the March sisters. Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy are memorable characters of literature and cinema and the 1932 incarnation is the most memorable. Kate stars as a role that seems tailor made for her - that of the irrepressible Jo. Joan Bennett, Jean Parker and Frances Dee round out the foursome as Amy, Beth and Meg. It's a pity none of the actresses went on to fame other than Kate, and it's a pity that the fair but uninspired 1994 version is remembered more. Still, the March Girls are the epitome of sisterly affection.

The Schlegel Girls

Howards End is a delight, and more than anything else the reason for its beauty lies in the chemistry between Helena Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson. Sure, they have a brother, but Tibby is incidental. It’s weird, considering the future controversy between these two women and a certain Shakespeare fanatic, but the bond these two seem to share is striking. Sure, halfway through the film they part ways, temporarily, but it doesn’t make the bond tenuous, they’re reunited at the end because the Schlegel girls know something about familial ties. It’s a unity that Ivory handles wonderfully. They are as different as night and day and of course this is why they’re so necessary to each other.

Which actress pairing convince you most of their sisterly bond?

Wednesday, 26 May 2010

Helena Bonham Carter...I Love You...

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 07:18

Back when no one was reading, I posted my thoughts on Helena Bonham Carter. Here is the post in its entirety...

I was going to write about Kristin Scott Thomas, but I saw Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince yesterday and all my adoration of Helena Bonham Carter [or HBC] came rushing back and I decided I'd do her instead. While writing this post I realised that even though I have a few of her films on DVD, I don't have enough. I've got Sweeney Todd, Merlin, Live From Baghdad, Hamlet and Howards End. I don't know where the hell my copy of Fight Club is [somebody's got some explaining to do!]. But alas, I have never owned a copy of her best work - The Wings of the Dove on DVD, because it is unavailable in my country. Horrors. But I'm getting way ahead of myself. Let us take a walk down memory lane as we celebrate the beloved Helena Bonham Carter, Mrs. Tim Burton, Ms. Bellatrix Lestrange, Mrs. Lovett and so much more. She also happens to be Gemini like me which makes her extra special.
I'm not sure what my first meeting with HBC was, but I'll start with one of her early triumphs in A Room With A View where she played Lucy Honeychurch opposite Dame Maggie Smith. I suppose she was in a way overshadowed by her costars [it was her first film], but I still think HBC was wonderfully dainty as the London misfit travelling with her chaperone and cousin Charlotte. A Room With A View is a good film to check out if you haven't seen. And Twif you haven't seen...ummm why, not? Moving on about four years later when HBC tackles Shakespeare. For the record I will always prefers Branagh's Hamlet to Gibson's Hamlet. But I do enjoy HBC in the role. This was back in the day's when Mel Gibson was not a joke, but they did have good chemistry... and thank God she didn't play Ophelia like some simpering fool. Two years later she returns to Merchant Ivory gloriousness with Howards End which is one of my favourite films. It's also the best film Helena has been in, so you should check it out. She plays the sister of Emma Thompson as middle class 19th century Londoners who deal with the injustices of their society. Helena is completely mesmerising as Helen Schlegel. Once again no Oscar love was forthcoming despite the year being VERY weak. Still, she won in my heart. She continued for the next few years playing in some low key fare, earning a Golden Globe nod for a TV movie as the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald, and then playing Woody Allen's wife in Mighty Aphrodite.
But in was in 1997 that HBC gave her greatest performance earning her only Oscar nomination for The Wings of the Dove as a complex character Kate Croy. I have only seen this film once and if you have not seen it you should, if you have a chance to buy it, do so. It's delightful. One of the best of 1997 and despite not winning the Oscar Helena did win the NBR and some other critics awards. The next year she played Morgan Le Fey in the miniseries Merlin. That movie is rather gruelling but it's good and HBC is delightful as the lisping, demonic woman/child Morgan. This was actually the beginning of a whole line of revolting/freaky/outrageoys/crazy characters. Take for instance her work as Marla Singer in Fight Club... a performance that was worthy of an Oscar nomination I might add. HBC is all kinds of hot with Brad Pitt, despite a very strange character.

She earned a second Emmy nod for her performance in Live From Baghdad (pictures here), a political thriller of sorts but a good film nonetheless. It's a pity this couldn't have been a big screen hit. She soon got involved with Tim Burton and his pet projects, some were not right for her but she was outstanding in Big Fish, Sweeney Todd and Corpse Bride. If it's possible, this is her second best performance ever for me. I know this is an animated film but her performance as The Bride is so haunting. I wish this could have been a live action film, it could have been a great career opportunity for her.
Today I have to be satisfied with snatches of my beloved in Harry Potter films or whenever Tim Burton lets her out for play. Hopefully that TV production of Enid Blyton does not suck. Who knows? Maybe it could be Emmy bound since it seems that her Oscar hopes have all but gone. Still I continue to adore... and you should too. She's brilliant.

I don't know what became of Enid Blyton, but HBC has The King's Speech coming out this year and I cannot wait...I adore her, and today is her birthday - she turns 44. If you could only watch one incarnation of dear Helen...which would it be?

REMEMBER this post is automated, I'll respond to your comments on Friday.

Thursday, 15 April 2010

British Birthday

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 11:27

I'm not back in full yet, but I had the fortune to come on line this morning to this post from Nick Davis informing me that today was the birthday of one of the most brilliant actresses alive - Emma Thompson. In typical intellectual fashion he wrote a piece on this lovely lady, and it would be remiss of me to let the day pass without some mention...so here are my five favourite performances from the great Brit (like I did with Diane Keaton before).

Vivan Bearing in Wit (2001)

"I don't mean to complain but I am becoming very sick. Very sick. Ultimately sick, as it were. In everything I have done, I have been steadfast. Resolute. Some would say in the extreme. Now, as you can see, I am distinguishing myself in illness."

Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (1992)

"I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you."

Elinor Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility (1995)

"What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I've had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you."

Miss Kenton in The Remains of the Day (1993)

"And I would ask you, Mr. Stevens, to turn around and look at the chinaman."

Margaret Schlegel in Howards End (1992)

"Will you forgive her as you yourself have been forgiven... you have had a mistress; I forgave you. My sister has a lover, you drive her from the house. Why can you not be honest for once in your life? Why can't you say what Helen has done, I have done!"

Which is your favourite?

Thursday, 25 March 2010

A Walk in the Grass

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 13:43

So it's been solved, my banner is from Howards End...a movie that I adore. Every time I watch I see something new, and it's only now I realised how much Ivory uses nature to bring out his characters. Howards End features one of the most beauteous openings I can recall as Ms. Redgrave saunters through the grass looking resplendent as ever. Isn't she lovely?

What shots do you recall from Howards End?

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

The Nineties Revisited: Ep 5

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 09:44

...wherein we come to the end. It's been lovely looking at the nineties in review, and I'm not going to end with a list of my favourite films from the period. That would be boring. Instead, I will highlight the ten best Ensemble Works from the decade. Firstly, remember this list is purely personal. So you may disagree. Secondly, this is not a list of my ten favourite films of the nineties. It's all about the ensemble, those films where you feel every actor is working in tandem with each other. The sort of "You jump, I jump" scenario from the actors. Yes, that one's there.

So, let me hear your thoughts? Give me your top three casts of that decade? Which of my choices have you reeling? Which makes you happy?

The Nineties Revisited: Ep 4

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 05:07

Continuing from Ep 1, Ep 2 and Ep 3 on to The Best Actresses. It was a bit difficult narrowing all the wonderful nineties performances, but here are those that I felt the strongest about. Two were Oscar winners, three were nominated.

So, this is often the category people feel most strongly about, I'd say there are about at least 20 more worthy performances, so what were the five you were really impressed with in the nineties? Which of my five did you not care for?

Friday, 22 January 2010

The Nineties Revisited: Ep. 1

0 comments Posted by 2011 at 17:02

Dear reader, I'm feeling retrospective at the moment. I know, it's still two weeks before I get my best of 2009 up yet, but I'm seeing Bright Star next week and I have to see it before I choose my favourites. Still, that's no reason why I still can't make a list (you know I love them). So here's my own list of women from the nineties.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1990-1999

So what do you think? Was the nineties too long ago for you to remember your favourites? Who'd be at the top of your list?