An affectionate history of postwar romance offers a corrective to modern notions about love
I am often struck by how few of the people I know who were young in the swinging 60s actually had much fun. There were drugs and rock'n'roll in Soho; there were a few open marriages in Hampstead. But in street after street of terraced houses lived couples who had married as virgins and were now struggling to bring up three children with only the occasional camping holiday to look forward to. They may have sung along to the Beatles while washing the floor, but the sexual revolution was definitely passing them by. An urbane and apparently bohemian friend told me recently that it wasn't until 1970 (after several years of sexual encounters) that he was alerted to the fact that women were capable of orgasms. It must have been rather frustrating to learn with hindsight that...
I am often struck by how few of the people I know who were young in the swinging 60s actually had much fun. There were drugs and rock'n'roll in Soho; there were a few open marriages in Hampstead. But in street after street of terraced houses lived couples who had married as virgins and were now struggling to bring up three children with only the occasional camping holiday to look forward to. They may have sung along to the Beatles while washing the floor, but the sexual revolution was definitely passing them by. An urbane and apparently bohemian friend told me recently that it wasn't until 1970 (after several years of sexual encounters) that he was alerted to the fact that women were capable of orgasms. It must have been rather frustrating to learn with hindsight that...
- 8/10/2013
- by Lara Feigel
- The Guardian - Film News
Jeanette Winterson and Helen Dunmore among famous names venturing into the horror genre this year
As an icy wind blows in from the east, the grip of a good horror story is tightening its hold on many of Britain's leading literary talents. Terrifying new novels from outspoken author Jeanette Winterson and from the acclaimed novelist and children's writer Helen Dunmore are at the head of a blast of chilling fiction heading for British bookshops.
Where once an accomplished "lady novelist" in search of a change might have attempted a neat whodunnit or perhaps a cosy "Aga saga", suddenly the unholy desire to create a horror or ghost story has seized a range of established talents. Even the television book club presenter Judy Finnigan has been drawn to the genre for her debut novel, a ghost story that will be out this autumn.
Winterson, who had her first success with the...
As an icy wind blows in from the east, the grip of a good horror story is tightening its hold on many of Britain's leading literary talents. Terrifying new novels from outspoken author Jeanette Winterson and from the acclaimed novelist and children's writer Helen Dunmore are at the head of a blast of chilling fiction heading for British bookshops.
Where once an accomplished "lady novelist" in search of a change might have attempted a neat whodunnit or perhaps a cosy "Aga saga", suddenly the unholy desire to create a horror or ghost story has seized a range of established talents. Even the television book club presenter Judy Finnigan has been drawn to the genre for her debut novel, a ghost story that will be out this autumn.
Winterson, who had her first success with the...
- 1/30/2012
- by Vanessa Thorpe
- The Guardian - Film News
The world during WWII is always a fascinating subject for dramas, and one of the most intriguing places to set a story from that time is Great Britain. We can name any number of stories about the British during this conflict, touting the bravery, resilience and heart of the citizens who lived through so much and endured. Acorn has brought together three dramas about very different aspects of the War in Britain, giving viewers a chance to learn more about the trials and triumphs of an island nation put to the test. First in the set is The Heat of the Day, Harold Pinter.s adaptation of Elizabeth Bowen.s novel of love and espionage. In this story beautiful widowed...
- 3/1/2010
- by June L.
- Monsters and Critics
DVD Playhouse—January 2010
By
Allen Gardner
The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment) Absorbing character study follows the leader (Jeremy Renner) of a bomb squad unit in Iraq and his growing addiction to the adrenaline-fueled life and death edge that he and his men must walk on a daily basis. Director Kathryn Bigelow, an unheralded great filmmaker for nearly two decades, has finally hit paydirt with this gut-wrenching examination of war as drug, as opposed to hell. That said, The Hurt Locker is 2/3 of a great movie that takes a wild left turn in a subplot involving Renner’s character and that of a local boy to whom he takes a shine, and never quite recovers its momentum. In spite of that hiccup, it remains one of the best films of 2009 and, thus far, the finest cinematic exploration of America’s war in the Middle East. Also available on Blu-ray disc, in...
By
Allen Gardner
The Hurt Locker (Summit Entertainment) Absorbing character study follows the leader (Jeremy Renner) of a bomb squad unit in Iraq and his growing addiction to the adrenaline-fueled life and death edge that he and his men must walk on a daily basis. Director Kathryn Bigelow, an unheralded great filmmaker for nearly two decades, has finally hit paydirt with this gut-wrenching examination of war as drug, as opposed to hell. That said, The Hurt Locker is 2/3 of a great movie that takes a wild left turn in a subplot involving Renner’s character and that of a local boy to whom he takes a shine, and never quite recovers its momentum. In spite of that hiccup, it remains one of the best films of 2009 and, thus far, the finest cinematic exploration of America’s war in the Middle East. Also available on Blu-ray disc, in...
- 1/19/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
By Aaron Hillis
Why hasn't an esteemed actor like Alan Rickman ever been nominated for an Academy Award? (He's got an indirect theory on that -- more on that later.) Whether your earliest memory of his screen work was his yippie-ki-yay mother of falls from a skyscraper in 1988's "Die Hard," as the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," or even as Professor Severus Snape in the "Harry Potter" adaptations, Rickman always brings the same British grace, charm and theatrically trained precision as if he were still in "Sense and Sensibility."
His latest is "Nobel Son," the second film this year he's co-starred in with Bill Pullman and Eliza Dushku for director Randall Miller and co-writer/co-producer Jody Savin; the first being "Bottle Shock." Rickman plays Eli Michaelson, a womanizing professor whose egomania reaches planetary proportions after he scores the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which sets...
Why hasn't an esteemed actor like Alan Rickman ever been nominated for an Academy Award? (He's got an indirect theory on that -- more on that later.) Whether your earliest memory of his screen work was his yippie-ki-yay mother of falls from a skyscraper in 1988's "Die Hard," as the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," or even as Professor Severus Snape in the "Harry Potter" adaptations, Rickman always brings the same British grace, charm and theatrically trained precision as if he were still in "Sense and Sensibility."
His latest is "Nobel Son," the second film this year he's co-starred in with Bill Pullman and Eliza Dushku for director Randall Miller and co-writer/co-producer Jody Savin; the first being "Bottle Shock." Rickman plays Eli Michaelson, a womanizing professor whose egomania reaches planetary proportions after he scores the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which sets...
- 12/4/2008
- by Aaron Hillis
- ifc.com
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