Suffragette Film October 2015!

I have been eagerly awaiting the trailer for the Suffragette film due out this October and wow was it ever worth the wait. I  have watched them three times now and I have cried each time. Give Carey Mulligan the Oscar now!




A who's who of British (and Irish and American) actors are in this. Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Romola Garai, Ben Whishaw, Brendan Gleeson and Samuel West to name just a few!

I have never printed quotes before a film was released but here they are!

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Male voice over: Women should not exercise judgement in political affairs.

Male voice over: If we allow women to vote it will mean the loss of social structure.

Man: You work at the Glass House Laundry?
Maud (Carey Mulligan): I was born there. Part time washer from when I was 7, full time from when I was 12."

Mrs. Pankhurst (Meryl Streep): For 50 years we have laboured peacefully to secure the note for women. We've been ridiculed, battered and ignored.

Maud: All my life I've been respectful. Done what men told me. Well I can't have that anymore.

Maud: We break windows. We burn things. Cause war's the only language men listen to.

Maud: What are you going to do? Lock us all up? We're in every home. We're half the human race. You can't stop us all.

Judge: What would the vote mean to you?

Mrs. Pankhurst: Never underestimate the power we women have to define our own destiny. We have been left with no alternative. Defy this government!

Mrs. Pankhurst: We don't want to be law breakers. We want to be law makers!"

Edith New (Helena Bonham Carter): The only way is forward!

Violet Cambridge (Anne-Marie Duff): Votes for women!

Alice (Romola Garai): The power is in your hands!


Join me watching this in October. And bring your mother, daughter, friend and spouse!

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!

Nora Ephron- Writer/Director of the Week

"Be the heroine of your life, not the victim".  Nora Ephron sure could turn a phrase, couldn't she? In all the tributes to Nora I have read in the weeks since her death, she emerges as a wonderfully funny, kind, feminist who loved to cook (with butter). And what a great combination that turned out to be.

I know she didn't write period drama, but she sure had a fondness for Jane Austen. Wouldn't you love to be at a dinner where Jane Austen and Nora Ephron were at the same table? OK, maybe that's too much greatness at once. Separately then perhaps! And she loved films. Films with humour and romance and happy endings. I am going to be spending my summer holidays reading Nora's books, watching Nora's films, and thinking about how to be the heroine of my life. So here's a little tribute.

Heartburn with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep

Mark Forman: My wife's name was Kimberley. One of the first Kimberleys.
Rachel Samstat:My husband had hamsters.
Mark Forman: Me too.
Rachel Samstat: Not as a grownup you didn't. He had hamsters named Arnold and Shirley. And he was always whipping up little salads for them in the Slice-O-Matic and buying them extremely small sweaters at a pet boutique in Rego Park. Also, there was a certain amount of talking in squeaky voices.
Mark Forman: Both of you?
Rachel Samstat: Well, he was Arnold... and I was Shirley.

When Harry Met Sally with Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan

Harry Burns: There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance.
Sally Albright:Which one am I?
Harry Burns: You're the worst kind; you're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance.
Sally Albright: I don't see that.
Harry Burns: You don't see that? Waiter, I'll begin with a house salad, but I don't want the regular dressing. I'll have the balsamic vinegar and oil, but on the side. And then the salmon with the mustard sauce, but I want the mustard sauce on the side. "On the side" is a very big thing for you.
Sally Albright: Well, I just want it the way I want it.
Harry Burns: I know; high maintenance.

Sleepless in Seattle with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks

Sam Baldwin: What is "tiramisu"?
Jay: You'll find out.
Sam Baldwin: Well, what is it?
Jay: You'll see!
Sam Baldwin: Some woman is gonna want me to do it to her and I'm not gonna know what it is!

You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan

 
Kathleen Kelly: I love daisies.
Joe Fox: You told me.
Kathleen Kelly: They're so friendly. Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower? 

Julie and Julia with Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci

Paul Child: What is it you REALLY like to do?
Julia Child: Eat!

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So again, thank-you Nora Ephron for leaving the world a happier place. I dearly love a laugh!