Downton Abbey Season 5 Episode 1

SPOILER ALERT! This post is intended for those who have already seen Season 5 Episode 1

Downton Abbey is back! Much as I dislike the fact that we have to wait 4 months later than the Brits for our Downton fix, it does help to brighten the cold dark winter months doesn't it? I keep asking myself why I enjoy this miniseries so much and all I come up with is that the eye candy and the humour keep me going. That and the fact that Julian Fellowes has us truly attached to these characters after all these years and event.

I mean Lady Mary is going all slutty-Season-1 again for us (hurrah!), Thomas (I still can't get used to calling him Barrow) is still doing his evil even without O'Brien egging him on. And the tenderness between good old Molesley and Cora's new ladies maid with the secret is adorable. I just love Molesley! The hair dye thing was a hoot!

Many thanks to Lord Fellowes for writing Anna Chancellor a wonderfully cougarish part as Lady Anstruther, who has to come sniffing around for Jimmy when he doesn't reply to her letters. Bravo!

And Lady Edith's frustration with the whole Michael Gregson/lost to the Nazis/Marigold being raised by the farmer-come-fireman, conveniently gave us the mini-fire plot mover. Edith chucks the book in the fire, Thomas Barrow is saved again and off goes Jimmy to London!

But the whole Miss Sarah Bunting thing is really getting to me I am afraid. What a horrible character. She is enough to keep Branson as toffee-nosed as Lord Grantham would want for the moment. Ugh!

So with Daisy learning Algebra, the tedious war memorial plot, Lord Merton sniffing around Isabel to Dowager Violet's chagrin and Baby Sybbie calling her grandfather Donk, we have a promising start to the new Downton Abbey year!

Now let's just get Lady Rose married off, or at least Lady Mary or Lady Edith. We need a real wedding for a change!

Best Lines of the Week:

Lord Grantham: I couldn't care less if he was the son of Foo Manchu!

Countess Violet: There's nothing simpler than avoiding people you don't like. Avoiding one's friends, that's the real test!

Countess Violet to Lord Grantham: Your father always told the village what they wanted.

Sarah Bunting: The rule of the gong. It sounds like life in a religious order.

Lady Shackleton: A single peer with a good estate won't be lonely long, if he doesn't want to be.
Countess Violet: You sound like Mrs. Bennett!

Lord Grantham: Do people think we're a public house on the great road north?

Lord Grantham: Molesley, you look very Latin all of a sudden. Do you have Italian blood?

Lady Ansthruther: Look at your parents, thirty-four years. I'd never manage it. That's the advantage of an older husband. One gets an early release.

Countess Violet: Principles are like prayers. Noble of course, but awkward at a party.

Happy 2015 and for an extra treat, here is a link to the George Clooney Downton Abbey spoof which was an ITV fundraiser for Text Santa. It's a hoot, especially Maggie Smith literally rolling on the floor laughing after having her hand kissed by George Ocean Gravity, The Marquis of Hollywood!

Lord Hollywood Part 1

Lord Hollywood Part 2

The Monuments Men

My hat is off to George Clooney for trying to tell the story of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives program which although represented by only 7 Monuments Men in his film, was actually an effort of over 350 individuals from various countries to preserve fine art in the last days of WWII.

Clooney (co-writer, director and star of the film) based his story on the book The Monuments Men: Allied Heros, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. The story is fascinating. Hitler and the Nazis had taken paintings, sculptures and other national treasures from France, Belgium, Poland and across Germany...much of it taken from Jewish collectors. Apparently up to 20% of the art in Europe was looted by the Nazis, and stored in various castles, salt mines, etc all over Germany. Most was recovered but in 2012 a large quantity of Nazi looted art was found in a Munich apartment and much art is still missing and may never be found.

The film The Monuments Men is well worth seeing, although a bit clumsy in it's attempt to be both serious and lighthearted. After seeing the deft way the Brits take us on the emotional roller coaster between tears and laughter in Philomena, this film was less successful. Still, even though it veers into Hogan's Heroes territory at times, I did quite enjoy  it.

Manet's In The Conservatory being recovered from a salt mine

In The Conservatory by Manet, now in the Alte Nationalgallerie in Berlin

It is likely that Hollywood would not have made this film without the Clooney machine behind it and the fact that he convinced all of his friends and big name co-stars to take a much lower salary than they usually would. So although George takes it on the chin about his predilection for Amazonian models half his age, we really need more film stars like him around. I think he might want to leave the directing to someone else next time however.

So again, go for a light evening of entertainment and to learn a bit about art and Europe in the final days of WWII. No Academy Awards here, but you might enjoy seeing Bill Murray as an architect and John Goodman as a sculptor. Oh and Cate Blanchett as a French ice queen who hits on Matt Damon. :)

Let me know what you think of the film if and when you see it.

Cheers!