Top 10 Posts of 2011

Helena Bonham Carter with Tim Burton and kids Billy and Nell

1. Helena Bonham Carter-Actor of the Week. This photo specifically of HBC with her family seemed to interest a lot of readers.

Clueless with Alicia Silverstone

2. Clueless 1995...A Modern Emma Turns 16! Appropriately for this blog, the modern version of Jane Austen's Emma was one of my most popular posts.

Victoria & Albert

3.Victoria and Albert 2001 starring Victoria Hamilton, Jonathan Firth and Penelope Wilton  I love this miniseries about the real life romance between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. My readers loved it too. It stars Jonathan Firth, Colin's brother as Prince Albert and he does a fabulous job along with Victoria Hamilton.

William and Catherine-The Official Photo

4. Royal Weddings, Gowns and Hats, Oh My!  Didn't we all have fun at the end of April watching the royal wedding? Well I sure did. Glad my readers agreed!

Hugh Laurie as the Prince Regent in Black Adder

5. Hugh Laurie- Actor of the Week  This goofy photo of Hugh Laurie as the Prince Regent in Black Adder drove a lot of folks to my blog. Thanks Hugh!

David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman and Donny Osmond-My Tiger Beat past!

6. David Cassidy to Richard Armitage, My ever changing taste in men!  This is one of my favourite posts ever, so I am glad my readers agreed!

Jennifer Ehle

7. Jennifer Ehle- Actor of the Week  I have loved Jennifer Ehle since she was snogging Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice 1995. She now has a great role as a dead doctor (I kid you not) in an American TV show called A Gifted Man. She is also addicted to twitter and can be found here.

Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette

8. Gorgeous but disappointing films- Marie Antoinette and Girl With a Pearl Earring  This post celebrated a couple of beautiful films that didn't quite satisfy me in the plot and acting departments. Both still worth seeing for the eye candy however (and a bit of historical enlightenment).

The Tudors with Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a skinny sexy King Henry VIII

9.  The Tudors Marathon I watched this series while laid up with a bad throat infection last January. Absolutely heavenly but of course Henry VIII is skinny and sexy and the women all have perfect teeth and blow dried hair. Again, good eye candy and entertaining to boot!

Billy Elliot 2000

 
10. Billy Elliot- The Film (2000) This one was a stretch to call a Period Drama but it was set in 1984, so there! I just love this film and so, apparently, do my readers.

Happy New Year and may we all enjoy lots of good Period Drama throughout 2012. I am really looking forward to the new Downton Abbey season 2 (and Christmas Special, whenever we get that!) and also Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy if it ever goes into wide release. It is stuck in the big cities right now, but it will soon come to my little independent cinema in Waterloo Ontario!

Cheers!

Jeremy Northam- Actor of the Week

Ah, Jeremy Northam. This guy can do period drama. Or period comedy. Or anything in a cravat! No, seriously, he has been in some of my favourite films. I mean first we have Emma:

Jeremy Northam as Mr. Knightley in Emma 1996

"Try not to kill my dogs."

And then we have him playing the only real life character in Gosford Park, composer/singer/actor Ivor Novello:

Jeremy Northam in Gosford Park

Morris Weissman: How do you manage to put up with these people?
Ivor Novello: Well, you forget, I make my living impersonating them.

Then we have him in Henry James' The Golden Bowl with Kate Beckinsale Anjelica Huston and Uma Thurmon:

Has anyone seen this one? I didn't know this one even existed.  I will have to track it one down and let you know what I think. It looks interesting, even though I am not a great fan of Henry James in general.

As he is maturing, he is getting some interesting meaty roles like Sir Thomas More in The Tudors:

Jeremy Northam as Sir Thomas More in The Tudors

Sir Thomas More: If the lion knows its own strength, no man could control it...

And I loved him opposite Peter O'Toole in Dean Spanley. An adaptation of an Edwardian era novella about a father/son relationship and a reincarnated dog. I kid you not. It is adorable!

Jeremy Northam and Peter O'Toole in Dean Spanley

"It's often occurred to me that pulling a dog away from a lamppost is akin to seizing a scholar at the British Museum by the scruff of his neck and dragging him away from his studies."

And in support of Movember, we have Jeremy Northam playing THE Ideal Husband. I may have my hubby watch this one again...

Julianne Moore and Jeremy Northam in An Ideal Husband

Sir Robert Chiltern: If you are suggesting, Sir Edward, that my position in society owes anything to my wife, you are utterly mistaken. It owes everything to my wife.

And he is uber sexy opposite Jennifer Ehle in Possession:

Jennifer Ehle and Jeremy Northam in Possession

Randolph Ash: They say that women change: 'tis so: but you are ever-constant in your changefulness, like that still thread of falling river, one from source to last embrace in the still pool ever-renewed and ever-moving on from first to last a myriad water-drops.

Be still my beating heart! And last but not least, my fave quote from the film Emma, although it is not to be found in Jane Austen's book, I think she would approve!

Jeremy Northam and Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma

Mr. Knightley: Marry me. Marry me, my wonderful, darling friend.

So...which of Jeremy's films is your fave? There were so many great films, I didn't even get them all into this post! Keep them coming Jeremy!

The Tudors Marathon

While I have been recuperating from a bad throat infection, I have had the pleasure of watching the miniseries The Tudors for the first time.  It was lent to me by a friend who knows my weakness for Period Drama just before Christmas, so I obviously hadn't had time to watch it yet.  When I started feeling better, I popped the first episode in the DVD player and was quickly hooked. My friend said she had bought the first season because she and her teenage daughters had enjoyed it so much.  Apparently, the fourth and final season has just recently wound up on TV.

Henry ripping the bodice off yet another Lady in Waiting!

I have to state at the outset here that the DVD version is UNCUT!  Yes, lots of breasts and naked butts in this one, so if that is not to your taste, beware.  But, this is the Tudor period we are talking about, and it all seems to come down to political intrigue and sexual politics as well as a fair number of beheadings.  Whether you read about the period, or watch any of the various films about Henry VIII or his daughter Elizabeth I, there is always a lot of violence, and a fair bit of sex and political maneuvering.  Now, the nice thing about this series is that there is very little violence in it, considering the time period in which it is set (you know, beheadings and burning at the stake and all).  I am a person who doesn't mind the sex and nudity much but I do object to too much violence.  So this production suited me just fine.  And this is a very beautiful production.  Almost too beautiful, as I am often pondering the unlikelihood of the perfect teeth and hair on the actors.  Not much orthodonture in the 16th century!  Nor blow driers for that matter.  Alas, modern audiences expect beauty, so there you go.

I mean seriously, did their Ladies maids have blow driers?

And of course, it wouldn't be a Tudor/Elizabethan historical drama without messing with the facts and rearranging history a little.  So far, I have seen Henry's sister Mary, who in real life married the King of France who died a few months after marrying her, get switched to being Henry's sister Margaret (OK there are really too many Marys...) who in this series marries the King of Portugal and then smothers him with a pillow within days of the wedding, as he was too old and ugly for her taste (oops...should have given a spoiler alert).  He truly was disgusting, so I don't really blame her.  Especially when you see who she ends up with instead, and I won't spoil this one, but he is very yummy looking.

I actually learned a bit of correct history as well, in that along with all of the plagues and illnesses we are used to hearing about, they had another one in the 15th and 16th century called sweating sickness.  I looked this up on Wikipedia, where we all seem to end up while googling things these days, and apparently this was a true illness (and a frightening one at that as you could be dead within hours of contracting it) and which disappeared after the year 1551.  They don't know what the cause of the illness was, but they suspect a variation of hantavirus.  So you get the real history mixed in with the rewritten stuff.

In any case, the reason to watch this one is for a rollicking good story, gorgeous locations and costumes (as well as impossibly gorgeous actors) not for historical accuracy.  Although, my 16 year old son ended up learning a fair bit about the English Reformation by sitting down beside me every time he walked by and there were nipples visible on the screen, which happened regularly to his delight!  I managed to slip in an English history lesson here and there between the bodice ripping, without him really even noticing....

Overall, two thumbs up, even though the more genteel 19th century is more to my taste.  My sister used to devour books on this era (as well as on the Medieval times a la Mary Stewart) so she will love this one, as will her 13 year old son I suspect!

N.B.  I just finished the whole first season.  Really wonderful!  Who cares if the history is a bit dodgy?  Now I have to get Season 2, 3 and 4.  Hmmm....rent or buy?  Or perhaps it would be worth getting Netflicks for?  I'll post later when I have worked my way through season 2.  Can't wait to see how they portray the Reformation and how Henry gets rid of all of those wives!  I think I may have to buy the entire boxed set with all 4 seasons...