trish-fowlie Reviews

Daniel Deronda (2002)

Reasonable adaptation

[8/10 · 12 April 2021]

I was slightly reluctant to watch this as Andrew Davies is prone to add more in your face sex than the book can stand. Couldn't watch his "War & Peace" for more than 20 minutes, though love the book (read X3).

He's not done a bad job on this. Oversimplification naturally, but well cast and beautiful settings.

The Guardians (2017)

Thin plot, little characterisation

[6/10 · 7 March 2021]

Photography is beautiful and the actors do their best with a script which is anaemic in comparison with the novel on which the film is based. Many of the more interesting characters in the book are omitted, along with half of the setting - the people who live on the waterways. The ending is unbelievable.

The Two Popes (2019)

Glad I watched it

[9/10 · 26 December 2019]

It's very difficult to make a film drama where the two protagonists are still alive, universally known and arouse strong feelings in millions of people. I was reluctant to watch it but agreed to see it with family. And enjoyed it greatly.

The acting is terrific, the mix of sadness and humour, fact and invention, past and present, is well balanced and the dialogue is good.

It was a courageous decision to make a film about such recent events but it has succeeded.

10 Rillington Place (1971)

Chilling portrayal of a serial killer.

[8/10 · 29 April 2019]

This is a convincing account of the infamous serial killings of Christie, and the dreadful miscarriage of justice which led to the hanging of Timothy Evans, who would now be described as having a learning disability, for the murder of his wife. Richard Attenborough portrays the apparently respectable, colourless killer with insidious menace, through to his eventual disintegration and discovery. The house of horrors has now been demolished- who would want to live there? At this time serial killers were unusual in the UK, and there was little expectation of finding multiple corpses in a dreary lower middle class dwelling - Jack the Ripper had been regarded as the epitome of the worst humanity could be. The execution of Evans was and is an overwhelming condemnation of the existence of the death penalty in any society or state which has moral values or any claim to respect for justice or civilised mores.

Brideshead Revisited (2008)

Not the story Waugh wrote.

[4/10 · 29 April 2019]

The meaning of Waugh's novel was captured in the TV series, but in this shallow adaptation the point is lost. It becomes just another banal tale of rich folk and sex. Sebastian is camp to a caricatural degree, Charles and Julia's relationship is distorted, the vital substrate of Catholicism is minimised, in the interests of sexing up (literally and metaphorically) the plot for an modern audience regarded as incapable of appreciating nuance or complexity. It is a travesty of the original. Don't bother with this film.

Brideshead Revisited (1981)

Don't watch the newer film version!

[10/10 · 29 April 2019]

Stunningly beautiful, well acted, and true to the original classic book. This is what the best television can be. Great TV was usually considered to be the monopoly of BBC, unfettered by the need to attract advertising, but for Brideshead, ITV pulled out all the stops. The book has subtle characterisation and good-humoured social satire (Waugh was an unrepentant snob!) but it's not just an "Upstairs, Downstairs" or "Downton Abbey" costume drama of the fascination of the middle-class Charles Ryder for the glamorous, aristocratic, recusant Marchmain family.

Brideshead Revisited (2008)

Feeble compared with book and TV series

[4/10 · 29 April 2019]

This film adaptation of a classic book lacks the fidelity and subtlety of the TV series, which was produced at a time when television, even commercial TV, made some quality programmes. Anyone who knows the book (Waugh's best, in my opinion) would be shouting at the screen, " That's not how it happened!", and the film's plot loses the trajectory of the story and obscures the meaning of Charles Ryder's odyssey, the complexity of the relationships within the Marchmain family, and the semi-affectionate social satire. Why remake a classic?

The Deer Hunter (1978)

Endless boredom and 5 minutes of horror

[1/10 · 29 April 2019]

The music is the best thing about this film. It seems to go on and on forever until its gruesome ending.

The Jewish Cardinal (2013 TV Movie)

Complex issues of faith, identity, memory, conflict and reconciliation

[9/10 · 29 April 2019]

Aron (Jean-Marie) Lustiger disappointed his father at 14, by choosing baptism over bar mitzvah. His mother was gassed at Auschwitz. He became archbishop of Paris and a Cardinal. I remember hearing about him as archbishop, but didn't know till fairly recently that he was Jewish. The scene is set for personal, family and social conflicts, which are presented with thoughtfulness, and the acting is excellent. The part of JPII is particularly well portrayed; he was Pope so long that even those of us who lived through his papacy have tended to forget he was once a young, vigorous, dynamic pontiff, from a background atypical for XXth century popes. We tend to remember him as old and ill and increasingly rigid. The actor captures his aging convincingly. Lustiger was insistent that he was both Jewish and Catholic, to the consternation of some from both faiths, but his dual understanding enabled him to for towards reconciliation. The original title « Le Métis de Dieu » (God's half-breed) is, to my mind, more evocative than its English translation. After all, what's peculiar in terms of eternity about a Jewish Cardinal? Jesus, his disciples and earliest followers were all Jewish, including St Peter, who is the man from whom all popes claim apostolic succession.

Pride (I) (2014)

Cheering all the way.

[10/10 · 23 March 2019]

Heartwarming story of the unlikely (for that time) alliance of an LGBT group and a striking Welsh mining community during that unforgettable period of the Thatcher era. Based on real events and real people, told with humour, the development of understanding between two different but demonised communities in that dark time when the UK was deeply divided, won't be popular with Thatcherites, but is a must for those of us who still feel a shiver down the spine at the mention of her name.

Peterloo (2018)

Does its subject justice.

[9/10 · 23 March 2019]

There's no trivialising of an important and notorious event in the troubled era following the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in this film. Tension builds up slowly, giving due regard for the background to the massacre (what happened is so well known I don't think this is a spoiler - I learned about it at school 50 years ago!) I wouldn't have rated it a "12", however, but "15" - Peterloo was, at least in my day, appropriately, on the secondary school curriculum, being too complex and violent for primary school history. I give it high marks for accuracy, and for refusal to romanticise and oversimplify this story.

House of Cards (1990)

Much, much better than USA remake.

[10/10 · 22 February 2019]

Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart is compelling. The epitome of Machiavellian evil disguised as a suave upperclass safe loyal party man. I tried to watch USA remake, but gave up after one episode, partly because I had to put the subtitles on, as main characters mumbled, and because the UK original made it seem tame and contrived. This series was original in its time for "breaking the fourth wall" - Urquhart faces camera to confide in the viewer- and certain of his lines have entered the language - "You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment" was even used in Parliament!

Yes Minister (1980–1984)

Political satire unsurpassed

[10/10 · 22 February 2019]

Plus ça change...Undoubtedly the best political humour ever. Modern comedies tend to run too fast to be really funny - it doesn't have the subtlety and timing of this classic. Still relevant in 2019.

Yes, Prime Minister (1986–1987)

Timeless political satire

[10/10 · 22 February 2019]

I've been listening to the radio adaptation on Audible recently and watching some episodes via Amazon video. The humour is still sharp, immaculately timed, and the acting brilliant. Even though "a week is a long time in politics" , the issues presented are not too different from those we face today.

Colette (I) (2018)

Too English

[7/10 · 22 February 2019]

I was surprised that "Colette" was made as an English film, and I still feel it would have been better as a French one, in spite of considerable efforts having been made to capture the atmosphere of that era. I read the Claudine books at school- the school library wasn't too strict on censorship of novels in French! - Chéri, etc, later and recently a biography (because we were discussing La Maison de Claudine (different from the earlier books) in my French literature class, so I wasn't going to be a casual critic. The film provides a somewhat santitised view of her life, and has important factual errors and omissions- presumably to make her likeable. Colette was an important figure in the French literary and world of her time, however, and it's selling her short (and the viewers) to present her in this impoverished version.

In Plain Sight (2016)

A name that still sends shivers down my spine.

[10/10 · 27 January 2019]

When I was 6, Peter Manuel was hanged. I can still picture the front page of the newspaper that day, with a photo of him wearing the type of raincoat ubiquitous among Scotsmen (and probably more widely). It was a time of nightmares for adults and children alike in Southwest Scotland! This drama also focuses on the police investigations and his family's collusion. The acting is excellent and 1950s Scotland is authentically shown, down to the carpets. I should know. Even though I knew about his callous murders, I found tears in my eyes occasionally. Fortunately the gory horrors and violence are suggested, rather than gloated over, but the evil, vain, superficially charming personality of an intelligent psychopath is well acted, except the cold, subtly threatening eyes aren't quite there: hard for any normal human, even a good actor, to replicate. If you've ever had the misfortune to meet someone like this, as I have a few times, you'll know what I mean. At 6, I was glad he'd been hanged, but soon after I had recurring dreams of my uncle being hanged for crimes he'd not done - as might have happened to someone in the film, and did happen to Timothy Evans in those times, and I have detested capital punishment ever since.

Dreyfus ou L'intolérable vérité (1975)

Great documentary on the Dreyfus case

[9/10 · 6 May 2018]

The pictures aren't of top quality in this 1975 documentary, but the content is unforgettable. Who would have thought that it was possible, in 2018, to hear the recorded voice of Dreyfus, or to watch an interview with his daughter, to view newsreels of the later stages of the event, and the reconstructions of Georges Meliès, to see so many images from newspapers of that time, those vile caricatures of Jews we now associate more with the Nazi regime, with Julius Streicher and Der Stürmer in particular. And, of course, a couple of interviews with respectable looking old men, who believed that Dreyfus was guilty- and would have probably gone on to become Holocaust deniers had they outlived the eye-witnesses. A question mark is left over the rôle of Esterhazy and his continued protection by the authorities- a double agent, maybe, but in no way a decent, honest human being. L'Affaire Dreyfus remains a warning to any country which considers itself democratic or civilised- the power of the popular press, generally owned by right-wing magnates, the desire to externalise culpability for the internal troubles of a nation state. It is impossible to underestimate the importance of this case, even today. Herzl began the Zionist movement ...