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.

Hysteria is Hysterical!

Yes, Hysteria really is about the invention of the vibrator in Victorian England. And in my opinion it is adorable. Not everyone's cup of tea I realize. If the subject matter makes you a little uncomfortable, then give this one a pass. I can certainly see that certain conservatives would not be amused by this premise.

If however you do find it amusing that someone made a romantic comedy about...well...you know what... then you will have a lovely light evening and leave the theatre laughing heartily.

A very proper dinner scene in Hysteria

The cast is wonderful. Hugh Dancy (Daniel Deronda, Grigg from The Jane Austen Book Club) plays the adorably earnest but slightly clueless Dr. Mortimer Granville, the doctor credited with the first patented electric vibrator. Jonathan Pryce (Mr. Buxton in Cranford) portrays Mortimer's employer Dr. Dalrymple, overworked from "treating" hysterical upper class English ladies. The Dalrymple daughters are Maggie Gyllenhall (Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang) and Felicity Jones (Northanger Abbey), both brilliant in their depiction of two totally different types of Victorian ladies. Also outstanding are Rupert Everett, Gemma Jones, Anna Chancellor, and quite a few other actors whom I have seen in other films but who are lesser known.

The director and the writers were American (hard to believe, I know!) but the cast is almost entirely British. Maggie Gyllenhaal's accent is awesome and sounds suspiciously like her friend Emma Thompson's accent!

Ready, set...

Molly: What do you call that little thing?
Mortimer Granville: I was calling it the feather duster.
Molly: Well I'd think of something quick, so that a girl knows what to ask for.


So I leave it up to you about whether you will enjoy this film. I loved it as did my husband. OK, he wasn't happy about me leaving him in line for the film to go to the washroom. Poor guy, all alone...in line for the vibrator movie. :)

But he said he liked it more than he liked The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. And he liked that one a lot!

Cheers!!

An Ideal Husband 1999 starring Rupert Everett

An Ideal Husband 1999

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." 

Rupert Everett was made for Oscar Wilde. And of course, he plays the Wilde type character of Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband with such relish that you almost think you are seeing Oscar Wilde himself on the screen. Bravo!!!

Cate Blanchett struts her stuff in An Ideal Husband

I won't give the plot away in case you haven't seen this film or the play on which it is based. Suffice it to say that Jeremy Northam and Cate Blanchett play the "ideal couple" Sir Robert and Lady Gertrude Chiltern in this story who of course find things a bit rocky for a while. Everett plays the confirmed bachelor Lord Goring and Minnie Driver plays the naughty but nice Miss Mabel who is interested in him. Julianne Moore plays the just plain nasty Mrs. Cheveley who stirs things up quite handily for all.

Rupert Everett and Cate Blanchett having a serious conversation

 
"All I know, Gertrude, is that it takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it. And even more courage to see it in the one you love. Gertrude, you have more courage than any woman I have ever known. Do not be afraid now to use it." 

You'll hate Julianne Moore and love Jeremy Northam as you should!

 "A rather charming little idea has come into my head, and now that I consider it, I find it to be a rather charming big idea."

Minnie Driver has a riot with this role as usual

"My dear father, if we men married the women we deserved... we should have a very bad time of it."


Well, I will leave you with Oscar Wilde's wise words and my hearty recommendation of this film. Oh, and the play is pretty darn good too if you are lucky enough to see it live!

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P.S. If any of you have seen the lower budget but perhaps "closer to the play" version from 2000 with Jonathan Firth, James Wilbey and Sadie Frost, please let me know what you think. I love the above version very much, but I am always open, especially to a brother of Colin Firth!

The Importance of Being Earnest 2002-Oscar Wilde and Colin Firth!

The Importance of Being Earnest 2002

Well, as I continue my happy journey through the favorites of my DVD collection, The Importance of Being Earnest jumped into my hands. There are times when you need something funny, light, gorgeous to look at and with just a hint of biting satire for tang and this one really fits the bill.

Frances O'Connor, Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Reese Witherspoon in The Importance of Being Earnest

Arguably Oscar Wilde's greatest play, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is mostly romping farce but has, of course, some social commentary at it's core. This makes it perfect for the screen and director Oliver Parker does a wonderful job adapting it. Visually stunning and with a musical score which helps the romping pace of this film, you will laugh and totally lose yourself. The story centres on the two couples above, Frances O'Connor is luminous and Colin Firth even gets to sing in this. He has a rather funny reedy little voice, which you have likely heard in Mama Mia but here he gets to accompany himself on a ukulele which again adds some comedy (or was it a guitar?-oh, goody, I have to watch it again!).

Rupert Everett and Colin Firth in The Importance of Being Earnest

Rupert Everett and Colin Firth have worked together before, very early in their careers in  Another Country from 1984 and you can tell that they enjoy each other's company. As friends (or are they brothers?) the banter is as wonderful as those suits they are wearing.

Reese Witherspoon and Rupert Everett in The Importance of Being Earnest

Reese Witherspoon shows that she is not just another pretty face by holding her own amongst these greats of the British screen. She is refreshing and sweet and really gets the joke.

Rupert Everett, Judi Dench and Reese Witherspoon in The Importance of Being Earnest

Judi Dench is just the icing on the cake as Lady Bracknell, whipping off the wonderful lines like the pro she is.

Lady Bracknell: To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness. ***********************************************************************************

Jack: I don't actually know who I am by birth. I was... well, I was found.
Lady Bracknell: Found?
Jack: Yes. The late Mr. Thomas Cardew, an old gentlemen of a kindly disposition found me and gave me the name of Worthing because he happened to have a first class ticket to Worthing at the time. Worthing is a place in Sussex. It's a seaside resort.
Lady Bracknell: And where did this charitable gentlemen with the first class ticket to the seaside resort find you?
Jack: In a handbag.
Lady Bracknell: [closes eyes briefly] A handbag?
Jack: Yes, Lady Bracknell, I was in a hand bag. A somewhat large... black... leather handbag with handles... to it.
[pause]
Lady Bracknell: An ordinary handbag.
Lady Bracknell: And where did this Mr. James... or, Thomas Cardew come across this ordinary handbag?
Jack: The cloak room at Victoria Station. It was given to him in mistake for his own...
Lady Bracknell: [Shocked] The cloak room at Victoria Station?
Jack: Yes. The Brighton line.
Lady Bracknell: The line is immaterial.
[begins tearing up notes]
Lady Bracknell: Mr. Worthing. I must confess that I feel somewhat bewildered by what you have just told me. To be born, or at any rate bred in a handbag, whether it have handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life which reminds one of the worst excesses of the French revolution, and I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to?

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So again, if you haven't seen this one, it is an easy recommendation for me to make. If you have seen it, then you may want to pull it out for another viewing as I have done quite happily.

Enjoy the weekend my friends and I hope this made you smile!!!