Far From the Madding Crowd and other upcoming films!

Far From The Madding Crowd will be released May 1, 2015 and promises to be one of the best Period Dramas of 2015. It stars Carey Mulligan (Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby), Michael Sheen (The Queen, Masters of Sex) and from what I can tell, Carey Mulligan does her own singing. While I am waiting for this one, I may reread the Far From The Madding Crowd, the sad tale of Bathsheba Everdene by Thomas Hardy. Or perhaps see one of the film versions, either Julie Christie's from 1967 or the newer Paloma Baeza version from 1998. All are well worth revisiting.




There are a few films which should have been in wide release by now which are being held up in distribution. I am not amused!

Effie Gray, which stars Dakota Fanning, Greg Wise and Emma Thompson was released to mixed reviews in the fall in the UK but is supposedly making it across the pond on April 3, 2015. It concerns the odd relationship between artist John Ruskin and his teenage bride. Fingers crossed! I love Emma Thompson and she wrote this one so I still have fairly high hopes.

A Little Chaos has fared a bit better with reviewers, and yet has still had it's released pushed back to April 17, 2015. I hope they mean in North America, not just in the UK. Directed by Alan Rickman and starring Kate Winslet, Stanley Tucci and Rickman himself (not to mention newcomer Matthias Shoenaerts from Far From the Madding Crowd), it is an unlikely tale of two landscape gardeners competing to design a fountain at Versailles for Louis XIV.

And if you can wait until fall of 2015, Suffragette is about the early feminists fighting for equal voting rights in Edwardian England. This one is star studded, with Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst and Carey Mulligan (I love her!), Helena Bonham Carter and Anne-Marie Duff as some of the suffragettes. My readers will know that this is a topic which I think deserves more attention. Some of my post links are below:

http://janeaustenfilmclub.blogspot.ca/2013/05/suffragettes-in-film-deeds-not-words.html
http://janeaustenfilmclub.blogspot.ca/2011/02/mary-poppins-and-suffragettes.html
http://janeaustenfilmclub.blogspot.ca/2013/05/iron-jawed-angels-american-suffragettes.html

So it would appear that 2015 will be a wonderful year for Period Drama! And now if only some film maker would take on a Georgette Heyer adaptation. Fingers crossed!

Cheers!

Alan Rickman- Actor of the Week

Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman is one of the top period drama actors of our time. He also does a great job with contemporary drama. The smooth silky voice, the measured speech...mmmmm.....sorry, I drifted off for a second there! Even the younger generation of Harry Potter fans have discovered this gem of the British stage and screen. And he seems like a truly lovely man too. He has apparently been together with his "life partner" (there must be a better term for that by now) former economics professor and Labour politician Rima Horton since 1977!

On longtime partner Rima Horton: "I think every relationship should be allowed to have its own rules. She's tolerant. She's incredibly tolerant. Unbelievably tolerant. Possibly a candidate for sainthood."

What a sweetheart. And yet he is king of the baddies, from Die Hard's Hans Gruber to Harry Potter's Severus Snape. He also shows his softer side as Jamie from Truly Madly Deeply and Col. Brandon from Sense and Sensibility. Sigh....... He has even dipped his toe into comedy with Galaxy Quest and Love Actually, although the latter turns to tragedy in his storyline and I always end up shouting at him on the screen. You just can't do that to Emma Thompson, man! Speaking of which, I want to see him in Song of Lunch, a televised dramatization of a poem (sounds amazing) and he is currently filming an updated version of Gambit with Stanley Tucci, Cameron Diaz and Colin Firth.

Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility

Colonel Brandon: What can I do?
Elinor Dashwood: Colonel Brandon, you have done so much already...
Colonel Brandon: Give me an occupation, Miss Dashwood, or I shall run mad.

Alan Rickman as Severus Snape in Harry Potter

"As a drama student and a schoolboy I was sitting up in the cheap seats watching Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon at the National Theatre, so to then find yourself working with them, them becoming friends…and of course Michael has the wickedest sense of humour and Maggie is one of the wittiest people alive, I only regret I didn’t have a tape recorder or a notebook or could do short hand, you can’t compete with those two, that was so fun."

Alan Rickman is Truly Madly Deeply...amazing!

Nina: I love you.
Jamie: I love you.
Nina: I really love you.
Jamie: I really, truly love you.
Nina: I really, truly, madly love you.
Jamie: I really, truly, madly, deeply love you.
Nina: I really, truly, madly, deeply, passionately love you.
Jamie: I really, truly, madly, deeply, passionately, remarkably love you.
Nina: I really, truly, madly, deeply, passionately, remarkably, umm... deliciously love you.
Jamie: I really, truly, madly, passionately, remarkably, deliciously... juicily love you.
Nina: Deeply! Deeply! You passed on deeply, which was your word, which means you couldn't have meant it! So you're a fraud, that's it!
[Jaime playfully pushes Nina away, then pulls her back towards him]
Nina: You're probably a figment of my imagination...
[pauses]
Nina: Juicily?
[Both laugh and make faces]


Now I'm afraid I am going to have to watch Truly Madly Deeply again. What a hardship! Which Alan Rickman films are your faves??????