Showing posts with label W. Somerset Maugham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label W. Somerset Maugham. Show all posts
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Being Julia
CA/GB/HU © 2004 2024846 Ontario, Inc. / Being Julia Productions Limited / ISL Film Kft. Serendipity Point Films presents. P: Robert Lantos. D: István Szabó. SC: Ronald Harwood – based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham (Theatre, 1937, in Finnish Näyttelijätär 1951 J.A. Hollo / Otava, 5. ed. 2005). DP: Lajos Koltai – colour: DeLuxe – 1,85:1. AD: Luciana Arrighi. COST: John Bloomfield. Make-up: Erzsébet Forgács. M: Mychael Danna. S: Jane Tattersall. ED: Susan Shipton. CAST: Annette Bening (Julia Lambert), Jeremy Irons (Michael Gosselyn), Bruce Greenwood (Lord Charles), Miriam Margolyes (Dolly de Vries), Juliet Stevenson (Evie), Shaun Evans (Tom Fennel), Lucy Punch (Avice Crichton), Tom Sturridge (Roger Gosselyn), Maury Chaykin (Walter Gibbs), Sheila McCarthy (Grace Dexter), Rosemary Harris (Julia's aunt), Rita Tushingham (Aunt Carrie). 103 min. A print with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Sanna Manninen / Hellevi Raita. Viewed at Cinema Orion, 11 June 2009. - A print without joins or scratches but with a digital intermediate look. - A great satire about the theatre, show business, and actors. - Annette Bening is wonderful as the narcissistic theatre diva approaching the age of 50. There is a grand finale in which she faces all the disasters and overcomes them (for the time being) in magnificent theatrical manner. - Mychael Danna's music is very appealing, spiced with 1930s hit songs. - This film belongs to the same tradition as All About Eve: Annette Bening invites comparison with Bette Davis, and Lucy Punch gets the role of Eve. - The victory belongs to Julia Lambert, the character played by Annette Bening. But the most cutting criticism Julia receives from her own son, who accuses her mother that she "does not exist", and that all that she has to say is second hand.
Sunday, February 22, 1998
Christmas Holiday
025933 / 16 / US / 1944 / Siodmak, Robert / thriller
Christmas Holiday / Tuli ja tuhka / Att älska så... © Universal. D: Robert Siodmak. SC: Herman J. Mankiewicz - based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham (1939). DP: Elwood Bredell. M: Hans J. Salter. Theme song: ”Always” by Irving Berlin. CAST: Deanna Durbin (Jackie Lamont / Abigail Manette), Gene Kelly (Robert Manette), Dean Harens (Charles Mason), Gale Sondergaard (äiti Manette). 93’. B&w Academy. MPAA Seal of Approval 10010. BBFC: Passed for Adult Audiences. An NFTVA print. Viewed in Helsinki, SEA, Cinema Orion, Saturday 21 February 1998. **** A soft, melancholy thriller, a woman’s noir spiked with sharp dialogue courtesy of W. Somerset Maugham and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It’s full of strong musical selections including ”Kyrie eleison” at the midnight mass, ”Der Liebestod”, and ”Always”. There is an unerring moody flow in the images. ”You can let go now Abigail”. The clouds part on the night sky revealing the stars in the distance as Robert dies.
Christmas Holiday / Tuli ja tuhka / Att älska så... © Universal. D: Robert Siodmak. SC: Herman J. Mankiewicz - based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham (1939). DP: Elwood Bredell. M: Hans J. Salter. Theme song: ”Always” by Irving Berlin. CAST: Deanna Durbin (Jackie Lamont / Abigail Manette), Gene Kelly (Robert Manette), Dean Harens (Charles Mason), Gale Sondergaard (äiti Manette). 93’. B&w Academy. MPAA Seal of Approval 10010. BBFC: Passed for Adult Audiences. An NFTVA print. Viewed in Helsinki, SEA, Cinema Orion, Saturday 21 February 1998. **** A soft, melancholy thriller, a woman’s noir spiked with sharp dialogue courtesy of W. Somerset Maugham and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It’s full of strong musical selections including ”Kyrie eleison” at the midnight mass, ”Der Liebestod”, and ”Always”. There is an unerring moody flow in the images. ”You can let go now Abigail”. The clouds part on the night sky revealing the stars in the distance as Robert dies.
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