Cold Comfort Farm 1995

I caught the film Cold Comfort Farm on cable yesterday and now want to read the book. Always a successful adaptation I think if it makes me go searching for the book!

The film of Cold Comfort Farm is an adaptation of the Stella Gibbons novel from 1932, a parody of the doom and gloom novels of the period (DH Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, Mary Webb and even further back, the Bronte sisters). Gibbons was obviously a fan of Jane Austen, as Flora Poste is an Emma Woodhouse type through and through, and Flora even has a line:

"Well, when I am fifty-three or so I would like to write a novel as good as Persuasion, but with a modern setting of course. For the next thirty years or so I will be collecting material for it. If anyone asks me what I work at, I shall say, 'Collecting material'. No one can object to that. Besides, I shall be."

Starring Kate Beckinsale as Flora Poste (I know...no coincidence that the BBC cast her as Emma in 1996) and an all star supporting cast of Rufus Sewell, Joanna Lumley, Ian McKellen, Eileen Atkins, Stephen Fry, Miriam Margolyes and even an impossibly young looking Rupert Penry-Jones!

Flora is a well-to-do twenty year old London girl who finds herself orphaned and with only a hundred pounds a year to live on. She decides to impose on distant relatives who live on a badly run Sussex farm and who all seem to have deep rooted emotional issues which would have sent me running for the hills! Flora, in her best Emma style, sees the potential in not only the farm, but in each of the inhabitants and proceeds to drag them into the twentieth century all cleaned and polished!

So just make sure you are in the mood for some rather tongue in cheek parody as otherwise the OTT style of this might put you off. And I am a little undecided as to whether I should recommend the book or the film first. I leave it to my readers to decide. In any case enjoy. And watch out for "something nasty in the woodshed"!

I am off to order the book now!

Cheers!

Parade's End debuts on BBC in UK

Parade's End

BBC literary adaptation Parade's End debuted in the UK last night to distinctly mixed reviews (critics loving it, viewers posting comments not so much). I can't comment myself, being trapped here in Canada unable to see it, but it is being hailed by critics as the "thinking man's Downton Abbey" or "Downton Abbey for grown-ups" the latter being partly in reference to the "two sex scenes in the first six minutes" according to the Daily Mail.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall as Christopher and Sylvia Tietjens 

Parade's End is an adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's masterpiece tetralogy of novels by the same name and is a big budget lavish production starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, War Horse) and Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) with screenplay by Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) and directed by Susanna White (Bleak House, Jane Eyre). It is a tale of love and betrayal set in the Edwardian years leading up to WWI, a love triangle between a conservative English aristocrat, his heartless socialite wife and a young suffragette.

The supporting cast is just as impressive including Rupert Everett, Miranda Richardson, Anne-Marie Duff, Rufus Sewell and Geoffrey Palmer to list just a few.

Miss Fox, Mrs Wannop and Horsley

With more depth in it's characters (and less likeability if I read the online comments correctly) it may be a little harder to love for those of us used to the fun fluffiness of Downton. However, if the critics are not leading us astray, it may be worth hanging in through the mumbled upper crust accents and choppy story line to follow this 5 episode miniseries to it's conclusion.

I'll update this post after the conclusion and then review it myself after it airs on this side of the pond on HBO (when that will be, I have no idea!).

Australian actress Adelaide Clemens as Valentine the Suffragette

The actress playing Valentine, part of the love triangle involving the two leads, is Aussie actress Adelaide Clemens who had to prove herself to get the part. Apparently she loved the books so much that she devoted herself to learn the upper crust English accent required for the role.

Janet McTeer as Mrs. Satterthwaite

Jane Austen fans will recognize Janet McTeer (Sense and Sensibility 2008) as Mrs. Satterthwaite, the mother of Sylvia Tietjens. Keep IMDb handy for this miniseries!

Well, here's hoping we get this one over the pond here in the not too distant future. Has anyone heard? Perhaps I have time to read the novels first. Not a bad idea actually. It might help with the supposedly mumbled dialogue!

Cheers!

P.S. Check out the comments below for how to find this online if you aren't in the UK. Apparently it will come to HBO sometime in 2013. Also a great link for an article about the books from The Guardian. I have the greatest readers! And after seeing the first episode on YouTube, I give it two thumbs up. Way up! And although you can't walk away from it for a moment (or you will miss something) I didn't find the dialogue hard to understand. Perhaps my ear is getting tuned to the accents after so many years.

Rufus Sewell- Actor of the Week

Rufus Sewell

Rufus Sewell is my actor of the week. He is a hot commodity this week after appearing in Zen on PBS Masterpiece Mystery Sunday. By the way, the next two Sunday nights feature the other 2 episodes (this delightful series about an Italian detective was canceled after only 3 episodes). Americans can catch up on the one from this past Sunday night on the PBS website. The rest of us are out of luck!

Rufus Sewell as Count Adhemar in A Knight's Tale

Adhemar: You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting. In what world could you possibly beat me?

Rufus Sewell as lowlife Jasper Bloom in The Holiday

Jasper: I wish you could just accept knowing how confused I am about all this.
Iris: Okay, let me translate that. So, you are still engaged to be married?
Jasper: Yes, but, I mean...
Iris: Oh, my God.

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I always think of Rufus as a bad guy. I mean, he was truly horrible to our beloved Will Thatcher (Heath Ledger) in A Knight's Tale, one of my all time faves. He was also completely rotten to dear Kate Winslet in The Holiday. Can we ever forgive him for that? But he is a wonderful actor and has been in many beloved Period dramas.

Rufus Sewell as Will Ladislaw in Middlemarch. Be still my beating heart!

His first big Period role was as the talented, handsome but poor Will Ladislaw in Middlemarch. Check out those boots ladies!

Rufus Sewell as the hilariously smouldering Seth Starkadder in Cold Comfort Farm

OK, gaze into those eyes of Seth Starkadder in Cold Comfort Farm. And yet Kate Beckinsale seems unimpressed. Harumph!

Rufus Sewell as Charles II in "Charles II: The Power & the Passion"

OK, how many of you knew he played the titular role in Charles II: The Power & the Passion? Nobody? Well me neither although I do like the way he looks in the wig and the crown! I may have to track this one down.

If that has whetted your appetite, here are a few more Rufus Sewell films that you may want to check out!

A Knight's Tale 2001 with Heath Ledger

A Knight's Tale with Heath Ledger

Another one of my all-time favourites, A Knight's Tale was on television a few nights ago, and we just sort of fell into watching it. I have seen it so many times, I can watch the middle, the end or any part and enjoy whatever I have time for. My boys loved this one when they were young teens and used to watch it with their friends.The modern music in this gives it a wonderful energy-We Will Rock You!

A Knight's Tale cast promo photo

This medieval underdog tale is great for everyone of all ages. For the females, we have an adorable young Heath Ledger as the thatcher's son turned makeshift knight. We also have a naked Paul Bettany (carefully filmed of course) as Geoffrey Chaucer for those who like their men long and lean! For the men we have exotic looking Shannyn Sossamon as the noble lady Jocelyn whom William Thatcher/Ulrich von Liechtenstein tries to win. My guys all liked the feisty little blacksmith-lady Kate played by adorable Scotswoman Laura Fraser with her Nike swoosh and her amazing metallurgical know-how! And the kids just love the jousting and the comedy.

Rufus Sewell as Count Adhemar in A Knight's Tale

The rest of the supporting cast is brilliant too. Rufus Sewell always makes a great baddie!

Adhemar: You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting. In what world could you possibly beat me?

James Purefoy as The Black Prince in A Knight's Tale

James Purefoy is delicious in his small but wonderful role as The Black Prince, disguised as Sir Thomas Colville.

Prince Edward: Your men love you. If I knew nothing else about you, that would be enough.

Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight's Tale

Chaucer:  My lords, my ladies, and everybody else here not sitting on a cushion!

Shannyn Sossaman and Heath Ledger in A Knight's Tale

William: Where will we live? In my hovel? With the pigs inside during the winter so they won't freeze?
Jocelyn: Yes, William. With the pigs.

Alan Tudyk as Wat in A Knight's Tale

Wat: We're the sons of peasants. Glory, and riches, and stars are beyond our grasps. But a full stomach, that dream can come true.

Modern dance scene from A Knight's Tale

Chaucer: And one and two and three and four and your hands should be light like a birdie on a branch. And one and two and three and four and Wat doesn't lead he follows like a girl.
[Wat punches him. Scene changes, and Chaucer now has a tissue stuck up one nostril]
Chaucer: And one and two and twirlie twirlie twirlie! And one and two and you're still getting it wrong! And one and two and three and four you can hit me all day cause you punch like a... what?
Roland: A girl!

Well, hopefully that gave you a laugh or at least you are smirking right now. So again, if you have never seen this one, rent it or better yet buy it (good extras on the DVD) and if you have seen it, you might want to dust this one off from your DVD collection!

P.S. Here is a deleted scene I found on YouTube with Olivia Williams as Chaucer's wife. Cute joke at the end of the scene with Wat and Kate!