★★★★☆ By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes - namely Snowtown director Justin Kurzel's visually inventive take on the Scottish play Macbeth (2015), starring Michael Fassbender as the murderous Thane and Marion Cotillard as his Lady. Scotland is in the grip of civil war and the survival of King Duncan's (David Thewlis) reign depends on a final battle with the loyal Macbeth commanding his troops. The battle is bloody and brutal but with a stylised 300-like aesthetic of slow motion interlaced with bloody detail. Banquo (the ever excellent Paddy Considine) and Macbeth meet up with the weird sisters - four rather than three here - and are gifted/cursed with their fatal prophecies.
- 10/6/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Starz’s Outlander By the Pricking of My Thumbs TV Show Review. Outlander: Season 1, Episode 10: By the Pricking of My Thumbs introduced two new elements into show, or rather brought one talked about element into the forefront while redefining and expanding upon another. The often spoken of and [...]
Continue reading: TV Review: Outlander: Season 1, Episode 10: By the Pricking of My Thumbs [Starz]...
Continue reading: TV Review: Outlander: Season 1, Episode 10: By the Pricking of My Thumbs [Starz]...
- 4/19/2015
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Outlander, Season 1, Episode 10, “By the Pricking of My Thumbs”
Written by Ira Steven Behr
Directed by Richard Clark
Airs Saturdays at 9pm Et on Starz
Playing with perspective is a common trope in TV. Lost, and countless imitators, used this as its primary storytelling device, telling its story from a different character’s point of view in every episode. This can be an incredibly rewarding way of unravelling episodic stories, allowing individuals to briefly take precedence, giving them greater significance and nuance, and letting the overarching plot move forward incrementally. This approach is not suitable for all shows, however, which Outlander learned all too well last week when it returned from a six-month hiatus.
The audience was thrown into the Pov of Jamie, who is a great character, but is made much more so when he’s seen through Claire’s eyes. It was an interesting choice to have this...
Written by Ira Steven Behr
Directed by Richard Clark
Airs Saturdays at 9pm Et on Starz
Playing with perspective is a common trope in TV. Lost, and countless imitators, used this as its primary storytelling device, telling its story from a different character’s point of view in every episode. This can be an incredibly rewarding way of unravelling episodic stories, allowing individuals to briefly take precedence, giving them greater significance and nuance, and letting the overarching plot move forward incrementally. This approach is not suitable for all shows, however, which Outlander learned all too well last week when it returned from a six-month hiatus.
The audience was thrown into the Pov of Jamie, who is a great character, but is made much more so when he’s seen through Claire’s eyes. It was an interesting choice to have this...
- 4/12/2015
- by Jake Pitre
- SoundOnSight
Claire Fraser has a whole lotta problems, and a witch is one.
This week’s Outlander finds Jamie’s inquisitive wife getting caught up in Geillis Duncan’s murderous drama, and it’s no real spoiler to say that Lady Broch Turach’s plight will get much darker before it gets better.
Because with Jamie away on a Colum-ordered mission and Claire getting hauled into a police carriage with her accused murderess of a pal, life at the end of the episode is nowhere near as bonny as it is at the start.
Those first few moments, by the way?...
This week’s Outlander finds Jamie’s inquisitive wife getting caught up in Geillis Duncan’s murderous drama, and it’s no real spoiler to say that Lady Broch Turach’s plight will get much darker before it gets better.
Because with Jamie away on a Colum-ordered mission and Claire getting hauled into a police carriage with her accused murderess of a pal, life at the end of the episode is nowhere near as bonny as it is at the start.
Those first few moments, by the way?...
- 4/12/2015
- TVLine.com
By the pricking of my thumbs, a holiday-themed list feature this way comes. Yep, All Hallow's Eve is almost upon us, and while the temptation to do some kind of "Before I Go To Sleep"-themed feature was a great one, we thought we should put together something appropriately spooky to get you in the mood for tomorrow night's festivities. So, during a break from making our costumes for the annual Playlist Halloween party (popular choices this year: the Babadook, Kevin Feige, Alexander from "Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," box-office receipts for "Sin City 2," a GamerGater), we've been considering the state of recent horror. We're now fifteen years into the new millennium, and while the horror genre is as ever responsible for more dross than most, it's also been an exciting time for scary movie fans, with a new wave of filmmakers emerging from...
- 10/30/2014
- by The Playlist Staff
- The Playlist
By the pricking of my thumbs…oh, how does that line end? I’m sure the answer couldn’t be found in the title of this week’s movie on Mousterpiece Cinema, the 1983 horror movie Something Wicked This Way Comes starring Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce. (Forgive me, William Shakespeare’s vengeful ghost. Forgive Me.) Yes, it’s true, Walt Disney Pictures did make a few forays into the world of horror back in the 1980s, and this week, Josh, Mike and special guest Zack Handlen from The Av Club take a backwards ride on a magical carousel to the past to analyze this film. Were Robards and Pryce awesome enough to disguise the movie’s flaws? What truly makes a Disney movie? And how much are Josh and Mike dreading discussing, of all things, The Haunted Mansion? Listen to the new show to find out!
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- 10/27/2012
- by Josh Spiegel
- SoundOnSight
“By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.” – Macbeth
A warning in advance, some of these stories are quite graphic so this article is not for the weak hearted. I appreciate cynicism so I’ve kept to the facts about what’s happened and not gone too far into speculation. They say nobody believes in curses until they’re living in one, it’d be interesting to see what the cast and crew of these films would tell you… the ones that survived anyway.
The following movies have all gone down in Hollywood lore as “cursed” productions. Could it all be bad luck or something more? You’re the judge. These are my Top 3 favourites.
I took into account things like health and safety regulations not being quite as strict in the 1950s as they are now. For instance, stuntmen didn’t have to wear harness, fire...
A warning in advance, some of these stories are quite graphic so this article is not for the weak hearted. I appreciate cynicism so I’ve kept to the facts about what’s happened and not gone too far into speculation. They say nobody believes in curses until they’re living in one, it’d be interesting to see what the cast and crew of these films would tell you… the ones that survived anyway.
The following movies have all gone down in Hollywood lore as “cursed” productions. Could it all be bad luck or something more? You’re the judge. These are my Top 3 favourites.
I took into account things like health and safety regulations not being quite as strict in the 1950s as they are now. For instance, stuntmen didn’t have to wear harness, fire...
- 8/14/2012
- by Jamie Brett
- Obsessed with Film
By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes ... to Queen Elizabeth's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, England. Police say a woman's body was discovered on the grounds and they have ruled it a homicide.
"A member of the public had been walking their dog in the area and had found the body of a female in a wooded area," Detective Chief Inspector Jes Fry, a Norfolk Constabulary, tells "Today."
But he adds that "very little [is known] at this time."
The reason a passerby was the one who discovered the sprawling grounds have footpaths and a park that are open to the public, which is also presumably how someone could kill a person or dump a body at the estate.
What is known is that the body was found less than two miles from the main house, which is where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip have been staying as Philip recovers from heart surgery.
"A member of the public had been walking their dog in the area and had found the body of a female in a wooded area," Detective Chief Inspector Jes Fry, a Norfolk Constabulary, tells "Today."
But he adds that "very little [is known] at this time."
The reason a passerby was the one who discovered the sprawling grounds have footpaths and a park that are open to the public, which is also presumably how someone could kill a person or dump a body at the estate.
What is known is that the body was found less than two miles from the main house, which is where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip have been staying as Philip recovers from heart surgery.
- 1/4/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Actor best known as Paddy, the militant shop steward in the BBC's The Rag Trade
The actor Miriam Karlin, who has died of cancer aged 85, became famous in the early 1960s as Paddy, the militant shop steward of a London clothing firm in the BBC television comedy series The Rag Trade. As Paddy, who was always willing to signal a strike with a whistle and her catchphrase "Everybody out!", Karlin was watched by millions, and quoted by millions. But neither that success, nor her more serious roles on stage, removed the gnawing dissatisfaction she felt at not achieving something more serious. She channelled some of that feeling into promoting broadly leftwing causes as a member of the council of the actors' union Equity, and as a campaigner for the Anti-Nazi League, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Soviet Jewry.
She was born Miriam Samuels and brought up in Hampstead, north London,...
The actor Miriam Karlin, who has died of cancer aged 85, became famous in the early 1960s as Paddy, the militant shop steward of a London clothing firm in the BBC television comedy series The Rag Trade. As Paddy, who was always willing to signal a strike with a whistle and her catchphrase "Everybody out!", Karlin was watched by millions, and quoted by millions. But neither that success, nor her more serious roles on stage, removed the gnawing dissatisfaction she felt at not achieving something more serious. She channelled some of that feeling into promoting broadly leftwing causes as a member of the council of the actors' union Equity, and as a campaigner for the Anti-Nazi League, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Soviet Jewry.
She was born Miriam Samuels and brought up in Hampstead, north London,...
- 6/3/2011
- by Dennis Barker
- The Guardian - Film News
PARIS -- Two years after bringing to the screen By the Pricking of My Thumbs, Pascal Thomas adapts another story by Agatha Christie, Towards Zero ("L'heure zero").
Among fans of the British crime novelist, Zero is considered one of her greatest achievements. The impressive cast of the film -- composed of a French classic actress (Danielle Darrieux), a renowned comedian (Francois Morel) and several young talents usually dedicated to auteur films (Laura Smet, Chiara Mastroianni, Melvil Poupaud), among others -- added to a widespread taste for crime stories, should attract interested audiences in Europe and could open world sales to this witty and enjoyable movie.
The young Guillaume Neuville (Poupaud) has the strange idea to invite both his wife, the hot-blooded Caroline (Smet), and his ex-wife, the delicate and shy Aude (Mastroianni), to spend a summer in the seaside house of his aunt Camilla (Darrieux). Tension arises until the fatal moment of a terrible calculated murder.
Although Thomas and his co-writers moved the action from 1944 England to contemporary Brittany, France, the key idea to the story remains the same, as expressed by an old judge in the opening sequence: Crime stories are usually disappointing because they explain a murder that takes place at the beginning of the story (or even in some cases beforehand). The crime in Zerowill be committed at the end, "zero" being the exact moment of the crime toward which all the characters are converging. This unique approach confers the film a melancholic tone that Thomas cleverly balances with humorous touches.
Darrieux, whose career has resumed after her 2002 comeback in Francois Ozon's 8 Women, is as imperial as ever as the old aunt who favors one of his nephew's wives and despises the other. Poupaud has a lot of fun in playing a typical seducer, half delightful and half arrogant. Mastroianni is perfectly cast, with her diaphanous skin and her ethereal look, as the pure wife who was unfairly abandoned.
Morel, who had a huge success on French television and stage in the '90s, has a subtle approach to the character of the detective solving the multiple enigmas of the story. Finally, Laura Smet gives her finest performance to date. She literally bursts on the screen every time she appears. As the eccentric and extraverted second wife, she talks, shouts, screams, dances and moves with an enchanting touch of madness.
Charming, intriguing and witty, Towards Zero is also a dark portrait of the human soul.
TOWARDS ZERO
Les Films Francais/France 2 Cinema/StudioCanal
Credits:
Director: Pascal Thomas
Screenwriters: Clemence de Bieville, Francois Caviglioli, Roland Duval, Nathalie Lafaurie
Based on the novel by: Agatha Christie
Producers: Nathalie Lafaurie, Hubert Watrinet, Bernadette Zinck
Director of photography: Renan Polles
Production designer: Katia Wyszkop
Costume designer: Catherine Bouchard
Editors: Catherine Dubeau, Marie De La Selle, Elena Mano
Music: Reinhardt Wagner
Cast:
Commissaire Martin Bataille: Francois Morel
Camilla Tressilian: Danielle Darrieux
Guillaume Neuville: Melvil Poupaud
Caroline Neuville: Laura Smet
Aude Neuville: Chiara Mastroianni
Marie Adeline: Alessandra Martines
Thomas Rondeau: Clement Thomas
Running time -- 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Among fans of the British crime novelist, Zero is considered one of her greatest achievements. The impressive cast of the film -- composed of a French classic actress (Danielle Darrieux), a renowned comedian (Francois Morel) and several young talents usually dedicated to auteur films (Laura Smet, Chiara Mastroianni, Melvil Poupaud), among others -- added to a widespread taste for crime stories, should attract interested audiences in Europe and could open world sales to this witty and enjoyable movie.
The young Guillaume Neuville (Poupaud) has the strange idea to invite both his wife, the hot-blooded Caroline (Smet), and his ex-wife, the delicate and shy Aude (Mastroianni), to spend a summer in the seaside house of his aunt Camilla (Darrieux). Tension arises until the fatal moment of a terrible calculated murder.
Although Thomas and his co-writers moved the action from 1944 England to contemporary Brittany, France, the key idea to the story remains the same, as expressed by an old judge in the opening sequence: Crime stories are usually disappointing because they explain a murder that takes place at the beginning of the story (or even in some cases beforehand). The crime in Zerowill be committed at the end, "zero" being the exact moment of the crime toward which all the characters are converging. This unique approach confers the film a melancholic tone that Thomas cleverly balances with humorous touches.
Darrieux, whose career has resumed after her 2002 comeback in Francois Ozon's 8 Women, is as imperial as ever as the old aunt who favors one of his nephew's wives and despises the other. Poupaud has a lot of fun in playing a typical seducer, half delightful and half arrogant. Mastroianni is perfectly cast, with her diaphanous skin and her ethereal look, as the pure wife who was unfairly abandoned.
Morel, who had a huge success on French television and stage in the '90s, has a subtle approach to the character of the detective solving the multiple enigmas of the story. Finally, Laura Smet gives her finest performance to date. She literally bursts on the screen every time she appears. As the eccentric and extraverted second wife, she talks, shouts, screams, dances and moves with an enchanting touch of madness.
Charming, intriguing and witty, Towards Zero is also a dark portrait of the human soul.
TOWARDS ZERO
Les Films Francais/France 2 Cinema/StudioCanal
Credits:
Director: Pascal Thomas
Screenwriters: Clemence de Bieville, Francois Caviglioli, Roland Duval, Nathalie Lafaurie
Based on the novel by: Agatha Christie
Producers: Nathalie Lafaurie, Hubert Watrinet, Bernadette Zinck
Director of photography: Renan Polles
Production designer: Katia Wyszkop
Costume designer: Catherine Bouchard
Editors: Catherine Dubeau, Marie De La Selle, Elena Mano
Music: Reinhardt Wagner
Cast:
Commissaire Martin Bataille: Francois Morel
Camilla Tressilian: Danielle Darrieux
Guillaume Neuville: Melvil Poupaud
Caroline Neuville: Laura Smet
Aude Neuville: Chiara Mastroianni
Marie Adeline: Alessandra Martines
Thomas Rondeau: Clement Thomas
Running time -- 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 11/2/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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