Actors: Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ben
Barnes.
What is it about?
John Whittaker the son of a rich and ancient English family has decided to marry
Larita, an American girl that has recently won car races, without telling his family. He brings her home and hopes that everyone is going get along well. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Indeed, his mother doesn’t see anything good in his new wife and does everything to make her feel that she is not welcome in her house. But Larita has also plenty of ideas to surprise and make
fun of her hosts.
What did I think about it?
To be clear I hated it. I was expecting to see a nice comedy in the style of the 30s
as it is based on a play by Noel Coward. But it was not at all the case. Many people in the press seem to have found it funny but me not at all. Everyone was over-acting except Colin Firth who
must have said less than ten sentences in the whole film. There was no spirit and the humour was gross. I almost had the impression to watch a bad TV drama. Then, when you watch the bonus of the
DVD you understand why. Apparently the director hates all the historical films. So he decided to make it more actual and changed many things in the dialogs and in the story. He was always asking
his actor to do more and more when they were acting. But it now looks ridiculous: Kristin Scott Thomas looks twice her age, Colin Frith seems more bored than ever, Ben Barnes is useless and
Jessica Biel seems to have been taken directly from a bad American comedy. So if you fancy a stupid comedy with big jokes go for it, otherwise you can just pass your turn.
Presbyterian Church is only a new little mining town in the turn-of-the century
Pacific Nothwest when John Q. MacCabe, if that is indeed his real name, decides to move there. He’s goal is to become the most important man in the town. He’s glamorous reputation will
serve him at the beginning but soon the problems will start. Indeed, following his encounter of the mysterious and intriguing Mrs Millers, they decide to become partners in business - and a bit
in life as well – and decide to open a Saloon and a brothel with baths and the finest ladies of the country. However, this success doesn’t please everyone. The owners of the town mine are not
happy at all with having someone else making money in this place. They make him an offer that he is not supposed to refuse but that he decides to decline anyway. His life is now in danger as he
has become the new man to eliminate.
What did I think about it?
I had never heard of this film before. What decided me to watch is was the price of
the DVD in the shop where I bought it and the fact that it was an old film and with great actors and director. I thought I could give it a go and I’m happy that I did so. The decors of the film
are exceptional. The entire city has been built for the film. The rhythm of the filming occurred along the rhythm of the weather and the season passing. There is a very interesting documentary in
the bonus about the way the set have been design and constructed. The film starts in the torment of a rainy season and ends in the silence and the iced peace of a snowy day. I had never seen a
film with Warren Beatty before and I really enjoyed his performance. Julie Christie that I had never heard about before is also a very good actress she got a nomination for Best Actress at the
Academy Awards for her work here. The film can be seen as a classic western movie, but it is not quite right. Indeed, the story is set in an unfriendly environment and you can see how hard life
was for the people of the time. The characters show as well some complexity: slowly you start to realise that the protagonists are not what they seemed to be at the beginning. MacCabe is
presented as a dangerous murderer but you eventually find out that he never killed anybody. Mrs Millers appears at first as a fine gentle lady but reveals, after few minutes of mystery, that she
is a prostitute and has the very strong character of a person who knows exactly what she wants. A lot of secondary characters seem also very lunatic and you can never tell how they will react
which keeps the suspense at an intense level. I have to say that I tended to have a lot of pity for some of the character, but maybe because sometimes I’m a bit too emotional ;-)lol! The end of
the film is excellent. Obviously I was hoping a good happy ending but I think it would have been deceiving and the film wouldn’t have kept its strong and powerful impression that it left on the
spectator.
I have found a very interesting challenge on Caribou's mom’s blog. I have decided to participate for the level 3 which means that I will have to choose randomly 12 books that I would like to read. They will have to be read
between August 1st 2010 and July 31st 2010.
When her dear father dies, Mma Precious Ramotswe, an honest citizen of the country
of Botswana, decides to open a detective agency. It will be the first detective agency of Botswana owned by a woman. Through the quite and slow rhythm of her adventures we discover her country
that makes her proud of being an African woman. We can, thus, discover the landscapes, the traditions and the people of this country. Every event in the story is a pretext to learn more about
this culture and the life people have over there. From the evil encounter with a witch doctor to a beauty competition for Miss Beauty and Integrity, we follow our detective number one in all
sorts of investigations among all thedifferent social classes and beliefs that exist in her country. This is a nice series to enjoy a
peaceful moment of tranquillity and serenity.
What do I think about it?
This is a book series that I started to read recently. For the moment, I have only
read the first three tomes: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Tears of the Giraffe and MoralityforBeautiful Girls. I was very interested to discover the country ofBotswana and I think that it was an excellent way to do it. The characters are truly touching and experience problems of the
everyday life. Through these stories you can really see how people are living
over there and understand what their preoccupations are. The nice thing, as well, about this series is that the style is also simple and
represents perfectly the reality that it is describing. No need to show off for that. It’s a story about people with true ancestral
values, generous and with a good compassionate heart.
This book series has been adapted as a TV series. For the moment, I haven’t had the
opportunity to watch it yet but I have heard that it’s another good way to familiarize yourself with the country of Botswana.
For this first article on this new blog I shall introduce myself. I am a French girl living in
England and I would like to improve my English writing (please do not hesitate to let me know if some sentences are not grammatically correct, that would be very helpful). Therefore in this
fantastic new space dedicated to the finest cultural and art works, I will share with you my opinion about books, films and exhibitions that I liked or not and my travels around the world or even
just around my house ;-)
I hope you will enjoy my fascinating future articles and that you will be many to visit this
blog regularly writing tones of comments.
I am sure that you are now all very impatient to discover the marvellous first official
article of this blog. So I guess should stop here and let you enjoy the beauty of it :-)
