The crisis in the NHS is at the forefront of our minds. Nurses are striking. There are record ambulance waiting times. Even the prime minister uses private healthcare. The BBC’s adaptation of Adam Kay’s This Is Going To Hurt, with its shocking depiction of young doctors on a maternity ward, made the crisis into primetime viewing. Now, ITV’s new drama Maternal, in which three women try to balance exhausting careers in healthcare alongside early-stage motherhood, has raised the stakes – and my heart rate.
The series opens with paediatrician Maryam’s (Parminda Nagra) first day back at work. Having taken two years off to have kids back-to-back, she dreams that she’s sprinting across the ward in pyjamas and wakes up in a cold sweat. Before she leaves, her well-meaning husband tells her she looks beautiful. “I don’t want to look beautiful, I want to look competent,...
The series opens with paediatrician Maryam’s (Parminda Nagra) first day back at work. Having taken two years off to have kids back-to-back, she dreams that she’s sprinting across the ward in pyjamas and wakes up in a cold sweat. Before she leaves, her well-meaning husband tells her she looks beautiful. “I don’t want to look beautiful, I want to look competent,...
- 1/17/2023
- by Isobel Lewis
- The Independent - TV
The My Beautiful Laundrette screenwriter tweets about accident from his hospital bed.
Hanif Kureishi, the Oscar-nominated writer of landmark British film My Beautiful Laundrette, has revealed that he has been left without the use of his arms and legs after a taking a fall in Rome on Boxing Day (December 26).
In a series of tweets from hospital on Friday (January 6), Kureishi reported that after the fall it is “unclear whether I will ever be able to walk again, or whether I’ll ever be able to hold a pen.”
London-born Kureishi asked his Twitter followers for assistance with “voice assisted hardware and software,...
Hanif Kureishi, the Oscar-nominated writer of landmark British film My Beautiful Laundrette, has revealed that he has been left without the use of his arms and legs after a taking a fall in Rome on Boxing Day (December 26).
In a series of tweets from hospital on Friday (January 6), Kureishi reported that after the fall it is “unclear whether I will ever be able to walk again, or whether I’ll ever be able to hold a pen.”
London-born Kureishi asked his Twitter followers for assistance with “voice assisted hardware and software,...
- 1/7/2023
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
The My Beautiful Laundrette screenwriter tweets about accident from his hospital bed.
Hanif Kureishi, the Oscar-nominated writer of landmark British film My Beautiful Laundrette, has revealed that he has been left without the use of his arms and legs after a taking a fall in Rome on Boxing Day (December 26).
In a series of tweets from hospital on Friday (January 6), Kureishi reported that after the fall it is “unclear whether I will ever be able to walk again, or whether I’ll ever be able to hold a pen.”
London-born Kureishi asked his Twitter followers for assistance with “voice assisted hardware and software,...
Hanif Kureishi, the Oscar-nominated writer of landmark British film My Beautiful Laundrette, has revealed that he has been left without the use of his arms and legs after a taking a fall in Rome on Boxing Day (December 26).
In a series of tweets from hospital on Friday (January 6), Kureishi reported that after the fall it is “unclear whether I will ever be able to walk again, or whether I’ll ever be able to hold a pen.”
London-born Kureishi asked his Twitter followers for assistance with “voice assisted hardware and software,...
- 1/7/2023
- ScreenDaily
Hanif Kureishi, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter best known for penning the Daniel Day-Lewis romance “My Beautiful Laundrette,” suffered a potentially catastrophic fall that could prevent him from working again. In a Twitter thread on Friday, the actor detailed the dangerous accident that took place in his apartment in Rome over the winter holidays.
“I should like you to know that on Boxing Day, in Rome, after taking a comfortable walk to the Piazza del Popolo, followed by a stroll through the Villa Borghese, and then back to the apartment, I had a fall,” Kureishi wrote. “I had just seen Mo Salah score against Aston Villa, sipped half a beer, when I began to feel dizzy. I lent forward and put my head between my legs; I woke up a few minutes later in a pool of blood, my neck in a grotesquely twisted position, my wife on her knees beside me.
“I should like you to know that on Boxing Day, in Rome, after taking a comfortable walk to the Piazza del Popolo, followed by a stroll through the Villa Borghese, and then back to the apartment, I had a fall,” Kureishi wrote. “I had just seen Mo Salah score against Aston Villa, sipped half a beer, when I began to feel dizzy. I lent forward and put my head between my legs; I woke up a few minutes later in a pool of blood, my neck in a grotesquely twisted position, my wife on her knees beside me.
- 1/7/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
A currently crippling fall may see Hanif Kureishi unable to walk or “ever be able to hold a pen.”
In a series of social media posts today, the My Beautiful Laundrette scribe detailed how a moment of dizziness in Rome on December 26 led to a near death experience. “I believed I was dying,” the 1986 Oscar nominee wrote on Twitter Friday. “I believed I had three breaths left.”
“I cannot scratch my nose, make a phone call or feed myself,” Kureishi said, stating he’s had “minor improvements” since a spine operation in recent days.
In a moving and explicit thread, the acclaimed playwright, author and screenplay writer said that he had been watching a soccer match between Premier League rivals Liverpool and Aston Villa in the Italian capital when he began to feel sick and went down:
I had just seen Mo Salah score against Aston Villa, sipped half a beer,...
In a series of social media posts today, the My Beautiful Laundrette scribe detailed how a moment of dizziness in Rome on December 26 led to a near death experience. “I believed I was dying,” the 1986 Oscar nominee wrote on Twitter Friday. “I believed I had three breaths left.”
“I cannot scratch my nose, make a phone call or feed myself,” Kureishi said, stating he’s had “minor improvements” since a spine operation in recent days.
In a moving and explicit thread, the acclaimed playwright, author and screenplay writer said that he had been watching a soccer match between Premier League rivals Liverpool and Aston Villa in the Italian capital when he began to feel sick and went down:
I had just seen Mo Salah score against Aston Villa, sipped half a beer,...
- 1/6/2023
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
‘Amsterdam’ also opening wide for Disney.
A pair of monarchs are striding into UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend, as Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King and Stephen Frears’ The Lost King look to reign.
eOne’s The Woman King is starting in 577 cinemas, including 50 iMax screens plus 4Dx and Dolby Vision venues. The historical epic is inspired by events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of Africa’s most powerful states in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was protected by an all-female warrior unit known as the Agojie.
Viola Davis stars in the film and has...
A pair of monarchs are striding into UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend, as Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King and Stephen Frears’ The Lost King look to reign.
eOne’s The Woman King is starting in 577 cinemas, including 50 iMax screens plus 4Dx and Dolby Vision venues. The historical epic is inspired by events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of Africa’s most powerful states in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was protected by an all-female warrior unit known as the Agojie.
Viola Davis stars in the film and has...
- 10/7/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: A new stage play adaption of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is being developed with an eye toward the West End and Broadway. The Tony- and Olivier Award-winning Rob Ashford is set to direct.
The announcement was made today by producer Antonio Marion. Current plans are for the play to be developed in London prior to West End and Broadway stagings.
Written by British writing team Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel, the new Sherlock Holmes play is described as an original tale offering a “deeply theatrical exploration of the mind of the famous detective,” while remaining faithful to the world created by Conan Doyle. Akram Khan will serve as choreographer/movement director.
Staged as “a mystery within a mystery,” the new play is described by producers as involving a case presented to Holmes that forces him to confront his own murky past: “But is the unravelling of...
The announcement was made today by producer Antonio Marion. Current plans are for the play to be developed in London prior to West End and Broadway stagings.
Written by British writing team Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel, the new Sherlock Holmes play is described as an original tale offering a “deeply theatrical exploration of the mind of the famous detective,” while remaining faithful to the world created by Conan Doyle. Akram Khan will serve as choreographer/movement director.
Staged as “a mystery within a mystery,” the new play is described by producers as involving a case presented to Holmes that forces him to confront his own murky past: “But is the unravelling of...
- 4/12/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Roger Michell’s final feature film brings good-natured, Ealing-style brio to the 1961 theft of Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington
As with so many of cinema’s most successful practitioners, the South Africa-born British film-maker Roger Michell, who died last September aged 65, was not an “auteur” with a singular distinctive style. On the contrary, he was a versatile craftsman who could turn his hand to a range of genres with ease. From the classic Richard Curtis romcom Notting Hill to the American thriller Changing Lanes and the deliciously twisty Daphne du Maurier dark romance My Cousin Rachel, Michell instinctively understood the differing demands of each story he was telling. He adapted Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia for TV with great success, gave Anne Reid her finest role in the taboo-breaking, Kureishi-scripted drama The Mother, and directed a sorely underrated screen adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love,...
As with so many of cinema’s most successful practitioners, the South Africa-born British film-maker Roger Michell, who died last September aged 65, was not an “auteur” with a singular distinctive style. On the contrary, he was a versatile craftsman who could turn his hand to a range of genres with ease. From the classic Richard Curtis romcom Notting Hill to the American thriller Changing Lanes and the deliciously twisty Daphne du Maurier dark romance My Cousin Rachel, Michell instinctively understood the differing demands of each story he was telling. He adapted Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia for TV with great success, gave Anne Reid her finest role in the taboo-breaking, Kureishi-scripted drama The Mother, and directed a sorely underrated screen adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love,...
- 2/27/2022
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
BritBox has picked up “Reel Britannia,” a documentary series on the history of modern British cinema, for the U.S., U.K., Canada and South Africa.
The deal was closed by Abacus Media Rights (Amr), an Amcomri Entertainment company, who acquired worldwide distribution rights to the series from director Jon Spira and producer Hank Starrs of Canal Cat Films.
From 1960 through to 2010, the four-part series portrays how cinema held a mirror up to society to reflect on the youth revolution of the 1960s, the grit of the 1970s, the social divide of the 1980s, new hope of the 1990s and the social disillusionment of the 00s. Narrated by actor and comedian Nick Helm, “Reel Britannia” features new, exclusive interviews with noted cinema talents Terry Gilliam, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Stephen Frears, Hanif Kureishi, Mike Newell, Simon Beaufoy, David Leland and Terence Davies. In association with the BFI, it includes archival interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.
The deal was closed by Abacus Media Rights (Amr), an Amcomri Entertainment company, who acquired worldwide distribution rights to the series from director Jon Spira and producer Hank Starrs of Canal Cat Films.
From 1960 through to 2010, the four-part series portrays how cinema held a mirror up to society to reflect on the youth revolution of the 1960s, the grit of the 1970s, the social divide of the 1980s, new hope of the 1990s and the social disillusionment of the 00s. Narrated by actor and comedian Nick Helm, “Reel Britannia” features new, exclusive interviews with noted cinema talents Terry Gilliam, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Stephen Frears, Hanif Kureishi, Mike Newell, Simon Beaufoy, David Leland and Terence Davies. In association with the BFI, it includes archival interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.
- 2/11/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Editor’s note: British director Roger Michell died this week at the age of 65. Here, Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker, who distributed several of Michell’s films — including the upcoming “The Duke” — remembers his colleague.
Life stopped for many of us this week when writer/director Roger Michell passed away suddenly at the age of 65. He was a gentle, warm, soft-spoken, eloquent, witty, beautiful human being, in addition to being a strong, uncompromising artist of range and brilliance.
Only three weeks ago, he was in Telluride with us accompanied by Helen Mirren and producer Nicky Bentham to present his latest wonderfully rich picture, “The Duke.” He was seen zipping up and down the streets of Telluride on his rented bicycle, his fifth time there (three of them with us), introducing his film, enjoying the company of locals whose friendships he had continued with each visit, at dinners trading legendary...
Life stopped for many of us this week when writer/director Roger Michell passed away suddenly at the age of 65. He was a gentle, warm, soft-spoken, eloquent, witty, beautiful human being, in addition to being a strong, uncompromising artist of range and brilliance.
Only three weeks ago, he was in Telluride with us accompanied by Helen Mirren and producer Nicky Bentham to present his latest wonderfully rich picture, “The Duke.” He was seen zipping up and down the streets of Telluride on his rented bicycle, his fifth time there (three of them with us), introducing his film, enjoying the company of locals whose friendships he had continued with each visit, at dinners trading legendary...
- 9/25/2021
- by Michael Barker
- Indiewire
”His body of work represents exactly what many British filmmakers aspire to.”
Friends and collaborators in the international film industry reacted with shock and sadness to the sudden death of UK director Roger Michell, who died on Wednesday at the age of 65.
“It is a shock. He was my oldest professional friend,” said UK producer Kevin Loader, who produced six of Michell’s feature films including 2004’s Enduring Love, 2012’s Hyde Park on Hudson and 2013’s Le Week-end, through the duo’s London-based Free Range Films, founded in 1996. “I’d known him for over 30 years. We spoke several times a...
Friends and collaborators in the international film industry reacted with shock and sadness to the sudden death of UK director Roger Michell, who died on Wednesday at the age of 65.
“It is a shock. He was my oldest professional friend,” said UK producer Kevin Loader, who produced six of Michell’s feature films including 2004’s Enduring Love, 2012’s Hyde Park on Hudson and 2013’s Le Week-end, through the duo’s London-based Free Range Films, founded in 1996. “I’d known him for over 30 years. We spoke several times a...
- 9/24/2021
- by Ben Dalton¬Louise Tutt
- ScreenDaily
In the face of numerous challenges, the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival delivered a hybrid event in London, with the sister Birmingham Indian Film Festival coming back to cinemas and the launch of the Manchester Indian Film Festival, which saw an all female programme.
Supported by the British Film Institute (BFI) using funds from the National Lottery, and the London title sponsor the Bagri Foundation, the festival successfully took place in some of the capital’s top cinemas including BFI Southbank, Barbican and Ciné Lumière, attracting a healthy number of audiences, in spite of strict social distancing controls, which also worked extremely well in cinemas like Mac in Birmingham and Everyman in Manchester.
Executive & Programming Director Cary Rajinder Sawhney said: “It’s a testament to a strong team that we have been able to pull off a dynamic festival online and back in cinemas against considerable challenges and we...
Supported by the British Film Institute (BFI) using funds from the National Lottery, and the London title sponsor the Bagri Foundation, the festival successfully took place in some of the capital’s top cinemas including BFI Southbank, Barbican and Ciné Lumière, attracting a healthy number of audiences, in spite of strict social distancing controls, which also worked extremely well in cinemas like Mac in Birmingham and Everyman in Manchester.
Executive & Programming Director Cary Rajinder Sawhney said: “It’s a testament to a strong team that we have been able to pull off a dynamic festival online and back in cinemas against considerable challenges and we...
- 7/13/2021
- by Stacey Yount
- Bollyspice
This past week I happily immersed myself in the latest book by protean film critic/biographer/sometime novelist David Thomson, A Light in the Dark: A History of Movie Directors. Even as he approaches 80, the author of the invaluable Biographical Dictionary of Film editions is able to find fresh things to say about such cinematic imperishables as Hitchcock, Welles, Lang, Renoir, Bunuel, Hawks, Godard and Nicholas Ray.
Midway through the new tome, Thomson delivers his most unexpected and welcome piece, a savory appreciation of a director who, almost defiantly, is not an auteur and therefore remains somewhat taken for granted, far too much so, despite having made any number of notable films of considerable class and merit. That would be Stephen Frears, who himself will turn 80 in June.
Like such Hollywood non-auteurs as Michael Curtiz, Raoul Walsh, Don Siegel, Henry Hathaway, Richard Fleischer and any number of others, Frears is not a writer.
Midway through the new tome, Thomson delivers his most unexpected and welcome piece, a savory appreciation of a director who, almost defiantly, is not an auteur and therefore remains somewhat taken for granted, far too much so, despite having made any number of notable films of considerable class and merit. That would be Stephen Frears, who himself will turn 80 in June.
Like such Hollywood non-auteurs as Michael Curtiz, Raoul Walsh, Don Siegel, Henry Hathaway, Richard Fleischer and any number of others, Frears is not a writer.
- 4/21/2021
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
Beginning with the 13th Academy Awards ceremony in 1941, the Best Original Screenplay prize has been given in honor of each year’s most outstanding script written directly for the screen. The category was originally created to draw a distinction between the work of these writers and those who adapt existing works. The latter type is recognized in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.
The films in contention for the 2021 Best Original Screenplay Oscar are “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Minari,” “Promising Young Woman,” “Sound of Metal,” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Our odds currently indicate that “Promising Young Woman” (16/5) will come out on top, followed in order by “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (19/5), “Minari” (4/1), “Sound of Metal” (9/2), and “Judas and the Black Messiah” (9/2).
For the first time in 19 years, every individual writer included in the current lineup is new to the category. Aaron Sorkin, who penned “The Trial of the Chicago 7...
The films in contention for the 2021 Best Original Screenplay Oscar are “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Minari,” “Promising Young Woman,” “Sound of Metal,” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Our odds currently indicate that “Promising Young Woman” (16/5) will come out on top, followed in order by “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (19/5), “Minari” (4/1), “Sound of Metal” (9/2), and “Judas and the Black Messiah” (9/2).
For the first time in 19 years, every individual writer included in the current lineup is new to the category. Aaron Sorkin, who penned “The Trial of the Chicago 7...
- 4/19/2021
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
In “Philip Roth and Film,” the critic Ira Nadel claimed that “Roth takes pride in the proposed filming and production of his work, noting that film dramatically exposes his work to larger audiences.” “Pure rubbish, from the first sentence to the last,” Roth scribbled at the end of Nadel’s paper with his red Flair pen. On the contrary—as he once remarked to Hanif Kureishi, a screenwriter (My Beautiful Laundrette) who also wrote fiction—Roth found verbal precision more lasting than the pictorial kind, and was forever annoyed when a TV or radio spot about him and his work ...
In “Philip Roth and Film,” the critic Ira Nadel claimed that “Roth takes pride in the proposed filming and production of his work, noting that film dramatically exposes his work to larger audiences.” “Pure rubbish, from the first sentence to the last,” Roth scribbled at the end of Nadel’s paper with his red Flair pen. On the contrary—as he once remarked to Hanif Kureishi, a screenwriter (My Beautiful Laundrette) who also wrote fiction—Roth found verbal precision more lasting than the pictorial kind, and was forever annoyed when a TV or radio spot about him and his work ...
“Parasite” became the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars to go with three other victories for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. but that’s not the only history it made on Sunday. Here are all the barriers the South Korean hit has broken.
1. First foreign language film to win Best Picture
“Roma” came close, but “Parasite” crossed the line. “Parasite” was only the 12th film not in the English language to be nominated for Best Picture and the first from South Korea. Bong Joon Ho and Kwak Sin Ae are the first Asian producers to win Best Picture.
2. First South Korean film to win Best International Feature Film
Hard to believe, but no South Korean film had ever been nominated for Best International Feature Film, fka Best Foreign Language Film, until “Parasite.” And now the country is 1/1 in a category that historically favors European films.
1. First foreign language film to win Best Picture
“Roma” came close, but “Parasite” crossed the line. “Parasite” was only the 12th film not in the English language to be nominated for Best Picture and the first from South Korea. Bong Joon Ho and Kwak Sin Ae are the first Asian producers to win Best Picture.
2. First South Korean film to win Best International Feature Film
Hard to believe, but no South Korean film had ever been nominated for Best International Feature Film, fka Best Foreign Language Film, until “Parasite.” And now the country is 1/1 in a category that historically favors European films.
- 2/10/2020
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
After its victories over the weekend at the Writers Guild of America Awards and BAFTAs, “Parasite,” written by Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won, has eclipsed Quentin Tarantino‘s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” for the top spot in our Best Original Screenplay Oscar odds. If they indeed walk away with the prize on Sunday, Bong and Han would be the first people of Asian descent to win for writing in either category.
Unsurprisingly, there have not been a ton of Asian writing nominees in Oscar history, but nearly all of them have come in Best Original Screenplay. Hanif Kureishi, who is of Pakistani descent, was the first, receiving a nomination for “My Beautiful Laundrette” (1986). Thirteen years later, the Indian-born M. Night Shyamalan was shortlisted for “The Sixth Sense” (1999). Iris Yamashita, who’s Japanese-American, shared a bid with Paul Haggis for “Letters from Iwo Jima” (2006). Nearly a full decade later,...
Unsurprisingly, there have not been a ton of Asian writing nominees in Oscar history, but nearly all of them have come in Best Original Screenplay. Hanif Kureishi, who is of Pakistani descent, was the first, receiving a nomination for “My Beautiful Laundrette” (1986). Thirteen years later, the Indian-born M. Night Shyamalan was shortlisted for “The Sixth Sense” (1999). Iris Yamashita, who’s Japanese-American, shared a bid with Paul Haggis for “Letters from Iwo Jima” (2006). Nearly a full decade later,...
- 2/7/2020
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
Veteran director talks latest film ‘Sorry We Missed You’.
The UK release date for Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You falls portentously on November 1 - that’s to say the day after Brexit (if it happens).
The 83-year-old UK director, who is a guest of honour at Filmfest Hamburg this week, is phlegmatic about the film coming out on such a day.
“I hope it doesn’t make any difference, I don’t think it means we are all going to be on the streets on November the first,” says Loach. “I guess people will have time to go to the cinema as well.
The UK release date for Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You falls portentously on November 1 - that’s to say the day after Brexit (if it happens).
The 83-year-old UK director, who is a guest of honour at Filmfest Hamburg this week, is phlegmatic about the film coming out on such a day.
“I hope it doesn’t make any difference, I don’t think it means we are all going to be on the streets on November the first,” says Loach. “I guess people will have time to go to the cinema as well.
- 10/4/2019
- by 57¦Geoffrey Macnab¦41¦
- ScreenDaily
Roger Michell is one of the most reliably graceful directors of English-language screen drama, rising to the occasion of fine but challenging scripts (notably those he’s shot by Hanif Kureishi), that deft touch elevating material that’s more conventional or less than inspired. His good taste certainly makes a class act of “Blackbird,” Christian Torpe’s Americanization of the screenplay Bille August made into 2014’s Danish “Silent Heart.”
But thanks to Michell and a fine cast, it works admirably well — at least to a point, at which some viewers may feel Torpe piles on one crisis too many. Nonetheless, this is a quality enterprise with numerous rewards for adult audiences, one whose Christmas angle might prompt a release timed for maximum awards-campaign-season exposure.
Susan Sarandon’s Lily has Als, which has already cost her the use of one hand and made walking a chore. Doctor husband Paul (Sam Neill...
But thanks to Michell and a fine cast, it works admirably well — at least to a point, at which some viewers may feel Torpe piles on one crisis too many. Nonetheless, this is a quality enterprise with numerous rewards for adult audiences, one whose Christmas angle might prompt a release timed for maximum awards-campaign-season exposure.
Susan Sarandon’s Lily has Als, which has already cost her the use of one hand and made walking a chore. Doctor husband Paul (Sam Neill...
- 9/7/2019
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Laconic and moody, a Metallica t-shirt worn like a second skin, fifteen-year-old Daniel hobbles through his pastel-colored, chintzy home in a stretch of British suburbia like a black sheep in a Wes Anderson hallucination. He’s a few days away before his first-ever trip to the States, where his father moved with a new woman, with whom he expects his second child. A summer spent basking in the Florida sun is a far more alluring prospect than frittering it away with his best friend Ky and awkward, lonely mother Sue, but an intercontinental phone call is all it takes to make dreams crumble. As Daniel’s father tells his son that, regretfully, the trip is canceled, Sue is left to take up the pieces. Days of the Bagnold Summer, Simon Bird’s feature debut, is a chronicle of a failed journey, and of the far more intricate, tortuous one mother...
- 8/24/2019
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Jonny Fines and Omar Malik headline the production
Have you heard that My Beautiful Laundrette, one of our favourite 80s movies and one of the most beloved Lgbtq films ever, is getting the stage treatment? The production which is using the Oscar-nominated screenplay by Hanif Kureishi as its text, will open September 20th at Leicester's Curve. Though it's not a musical adaptation, the Pet Shop Boys are composing the score for it. The leads look the part but we are giggling a bit that they actually cast actors named Jonny and Omar for the lead characters of Johnny & Omar.
If you are a UK-based reader who is plannning to see it, please do report back about your experience! I will be tense with anticipation until you do but, to quote Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) directly from the film...
In my experience it is always worth waiting for Omar"...
Have you heard that My Beautiful Laundrette, one of our favourite 80s movies and one of the most beloved Lgbtq films ever, is getting the stage treatment? The production which is using the Oscar-nominated screenplay by Hanif Kureishi as its text, will open September 20th at Leicester's Curve. Though it's not a musical adaptation, the Pet Shop Boys are composing the score for it. The leads look the part but we are giggling a bit that they actually cast actors named Jonny and Omar for the lead characters of Johnny & Omar.
If you are a UK-based reader who is plannning to see it, please do report back about your experience! I will be tense with anticipation until you do but, to quote Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) directly from the film...
In my experience it is always worth waiting for Omar"...
- 7/12/2019
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Joseph Fiennes was in Cannes, Sunday, to talk to potential partners about “Cyrano,” his “Cyrano de Bergerac” series project for Atrium TV.
Atrium TV is a drama commissioning club that has telcos and pay-tv platforms as members. They were in Cannes to run the rule over new projects and others already in development. Members include BT from the U.K., Televisa from Mexico, Orange from France, and Movistar+ from Spain. They co-fund scripted series and launch them domestically as original productions. Atrium is backed by distributor Drg, which then sells the shows outside of the territories in which they were commissioned.
Atrium TV CEO, Richard Halliwell, said Sunday that Michael Douglas-produced “Silo,” which was first shown to members in May, is moving forward with new scripts being written. The futuristic drama is set in San Francisco. Douglas will produce with Peter Horton (“Grey’s Anatomy”), who writes alongside Raelle Tucker (“Jessica Jones”).
“Cyrano,...
Atrium TV is a drama commissioning club that has telcos and pay-tv platforms as members. They were in Cannes to run the rule over new projects and others already in development. Members include BT from the U.K., Televisa from Mexico, Orange from France, and Movistar+ from Spain. They co-fund scripted series and launch them domestically as original productions. Atrium is backed by distributor Drg, which then sells the shows outside of the territories in which they were commissioned.
Atrium TV CEO, Richard Halliwell, said Sunday that Michael Douglas-produced “Silo,” which was first shown to members in May, is moving forward with new scripts being written. The futuristic drama is set in San Francisco. Douglas will produce with Peter Horton (“Grey’s Anatomy”), who writes alongside Raelle Tucker (“Jessica Jones”).
“Cyrano,...
- 10/15/2018
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
Kumail Nanjiani was best known as a stand-up comedian and one of the stars of HBO’s “Silicon Valley.” But he took that classic advice to “write what you know” literally and penned “The Big Sick” with his wife Emily V. Gordon about how they met and fell in love, and how in the midst of that she fell gravely ill. Now the couple is nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and if “The Big Sick” wins not only would it be a fairy-tale ending for the pair, but Nanjiani would make history as the first person of Asian descent to win for writing.
Hanif Kureishi, who like Nanjiani is of Pakistani descent, made history as the first Asian writer nominated for Best Original Screenplay for “My Beautiful Laundrette” (1986). Then Indian-born M. Night Shyamalan revolutionized storytelling with his original screenplay for “The Sixth Sense” (1999) and reaped a nomination 13 years later.
Hanif Kureishi, who like Nanjiani is of Pakistani descent, made history as the first Asian writer nominated for Best Original Screenplay for “My Beautiful Laundrette” (1986). Then Indian-born M. Night Shyamalan revolutionized storytelling with his original screenplay for “The Sixth Sense” (1999) and reaped a nomination 13 years later.
- 1/30/2018
- by Amanda Spears
- Gold Derby
A television adaptation of the celebrated indie film “My Beautiful Laundrette” is in the works, with “The Big Sick” star Kumail Nanjiani attached to co-wrote and star, according to Variety. “Traffic” scribe Stephen Gaghan is executive producing with Super Deluxe, a production company best known for making bizarre viral video content. No distribution deal has been set for the series. With themes touching on immigration and Lgbt issues, the adaptation couldn’t be more timely.
Read More:Viral Videos at Sundance: Why Super Deluxe Belongs At Film Festivals (And Watch Their Short, ‘Deer Squad’)
Directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi, “My Beautiful Laundrette” charts a British Pakistini man (Gordon Warnecke) who opens a laundromat in London with his white punk boyfriend, originally played by Daniel Day-Lewis. The film was hailed for its complex and comical take on tensions between London’s Pakistani and English communities. The British Film Institute...
Read More:Viral Videos at Sundance: Why Super Deluxe Belongs At Film Festivals (And Watch Their Short, ‘Deer Squad’)
Directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi, “My Beautiful Laundrette” charts a British Pakistini man (Gordon Warnecke) who opens a laundromat in London with his white punk boyfriend, originally played by Daniel Day-Lewis. The film was hailed for its complex and comical take on tensions between London’s Pakistani and English communities. The British Film Institute...
- 1/10/2018
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Working Title producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, whose latest hit is Edgar Wright’s wheel-and-disc-spinning breakout “Baby Driver” (June 28, Sony), which has tracked $64 million worldwide to date.
Bottom Line: This brainy duo with plummy British accents have been turning out a consistent slate of smart global hits since the ’80s. The London-based co-chairmen of Working Title boast the best taste in the business. They chase mainstream quality fare. That’s their gig. But even so over the years, partnering with Universal Pictures, with freedom to greenlight movies up to $35 million, their films have grossed an impressive almost $7 billion dollars worldwide.
Career Peaks: From the start, Working Title founder Tim Bevan gravitated to local stories with global potential like “My Beautiful Laundrette,” Stephen Frears’ searing...
Bottom Line: This brainy duo with plummy British accents have been turning out a consistent slate of smart global hits since the ’80s. The London-based co-chairmen of Working Title boast the best taste in the business. They chase mainstream quality fare. That’s their gig. But even so over the years, partnering with Universal Pictures, with freedom to greenlight movies up to $35 million, their films have grossed an impressive almost $7 billion dollars worldwide.
Career Peaks: From the start, Working Title founder Tim Bevan gravitated to local stories with global potential like “My Beautiful Laundrette,” Stephen Frears’ searing...
- 7/10/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Working Title producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, whose latest hit is Edgar Wright’s wheel-and-disc-spinning breakout “Baby Driver” (June 28, Sony), which has tracked $64 million worldwide to date.
Bottom Line: This brainy duo with plummy British accents have been turning out a consistent slate of smart global hits since the ’80s. The London-based co-chairmen of Working Title boast the best taste in the business. They chase mainstream quality fare. That’s their gig. But even so over the years, partnering with Universal Pictures, with freedom to greenlight movies up to $35 million, their films have grossed an impressive almost $7 billion dollars worldwide.
Career Peaks: From the start, Working Title founder Tim Bevan gravitated to local stories with global potential like “My Beautiful Laundrette,” Stephen Frears’ searing...
Bottom Line: This brainy duo with plummy British accents have been turning out a consistent slate of smart global hits since the ’80s. The London-based co-chairmen of Working Title boast the best taste in the business. They chase mainstream quality fare. That’s their gig. But even so over the years, partnering with Universal Pictures, with freedom to greenlight movies up to $35 million, their films have grossed an impressive almost $7 billion dollars worldwide.
Career Peaks: From the start, Working Title founder Tim Bevan gravitated to local stories with global potential like “My Beautiful Laundrette,” Stephen Frears’ searing...
- 7/10/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Daniel Day-Lewis dropped a bombshell on fans of his work worldwide when he announced that he would be retiring from acting, just a few months before the release of his purported last role, in Paul Thomas-Anderson’s upcoming “Phantom Thread.” One of the world’s most coveted actors has a surprisingly nimble filmography. Even as it stretches back to the early eighties, Day-Lewis didn’t become a big name until his breakout role in Stephen Frears’ 1985 “My Beautiful Laundrette,” followed by a series of acclaimed roles in “A Room With a View,” “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” and “My Left Foot,” which won him the first of three Academy Awards. The other Oscars arrived for back-to-back roles in “There Will Be Blood” and “Lincoln,” leaving no doubt that the versatile performer was still at the top of his game.
See MoreDaniel Day-Lewis Announces He Is Retiring From Acting
But these highlights are only a few of the astonishing achievements in the actor’s robust output. Here are the ones we’ll treasure for all time, while holding out hope that this legendary talent’s final performance will land a spot as well.
“A Room With a View”
It was one of his very last supporting roles, but Daniel Day-Lewis was the embodiment of Cecil Vyse in Merchant Ivory’s 1986 adaptation of E.M. Forster’s “A Room With a View.” In lesser hands, Lucy Honeychurch’s jilted suitor might have been little more than a prissy sad sack; Day-Lewis invested the character with empathy, as if Cecil knew his reach exceeded his grasp. While Lucy may have viewed their match as a prison narrowly escaped, Day-Lewis’ performance suggested a man who couldn’t get beyond his own pince-nez, but loved her so much that he let her go. —Dana Harris
“The Age of Innocence” The emotions in Day-Lewis’s character are often big and ever present. But the performances that best showcase his talent are when he plays a more genteel character – his manner poised, cadence deliberate, body at rest. Yet in playing Newland Archer in Edith Wharton’s rigid 19th Century high society, he is effortless in accessing the desperate yearning that lies beneath his impossibly calm demeanor. His ability to translate complex thoughts, burning emotions and his character’s interior life through a completely placid surface is a marvel. —Chris O’Falt “Gangs of New York”
There’s a titanic force lurking under each of Day-Lewis’ roles, but nowhere was that energy unleashed better than in Martin Scorsese’s 2002 city-spanning epic “Gangs of New York.” Bill the Butcher combined the actor’s ferocity with an unbridled villainous streak, an antagonist as evil as he is charming. Day-Lewis has always excelled in quiet roles, but Bill is a reminder that his flair for the theatrical is rarely equalled. Watching Bill play to an audience inside a rowdy theater or to a gathered crowd of terrified citizens, there’s a twisted thrill in seeing a true performer playing a true performer. —Steve Greene
“The Last of the Mohicans” Arguably the actor’s most dreamy, overtly romantic role, Day-Lewis’ turn in Michael Mann’s 1992 historical action-adventure is both totally swoon-worthy and emotionally satisfying. As the adopted son of the eponymous last of the Mohican tribe, Day-Lewis plays his Hawkeye as a hero in the most classic sense, but aided by the actor’s formidable chops, the role (and the film) take on added dimension and complexity. Mann’s film is a heart-pounding adventure that doesn’t skimp on the tough stuff (people are scalped and burnt alive and commit suicide in order to escape worse fates, and that’s just the wide strokes), and it’s grounded by Day-Lewis’ trademark dedication and sincerity to the essential beats of his characters. Slipping easily between breakneck adventure (few movies contain so many scenes of artful running through the woods as “Mohicans”) and dreamy leading man (his chemistry with Madeleine Stowe all but aches right off the screen), turning in one of his more overlooked performances in a long line of lauded roles. It’s a film, and a part, that satisfies even more than two decades later. —Kate Erbland “Lincoln”
Day-Lewis won this third Best Actor Oscar — more than any actor in history — for playing the title role in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” because the movie is unimaginable without him. It took years for Spielberg to convince the recalcitrant Brit to play the American icon. Always willing to wait years between cherry-picked roles, replenishing his batteries by reengaging with the world, Day-Lewis finally broke down after Tony Kushner’s sprawling script focused on January 1865, when Lincoln maneuvered Congress into passing the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which ended slavery in America. “The important thing is they got Lincoln,” Lincoln biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin told me at the L.A. premiere, “his stooped walk, his high-pitched voice, his humor.”
Day-Lewis is a draw for moviegoers because when the match is perfect between director and role, when it feels right, he gives his all. He embraces a role so totally that it consumes and overtakes him. He loses himself in the part throughout production. As usual, Day-Lewis’s preparation was intense. He worked in seclusion until he sent Spielberg tape recorder audio of his approximation of the 16h president’s reedy tenor. He nailed his first scene on-set, an eight-minute speech about the Emancipation Proclamation, on the first take with no on-set rehearsal. Day-Lewis stayed in character throughout the shoot, addressed by all as “Mr. President.” No socializing on set saves energy, Day-Lewis has said. It’s fair to say that Day-Lewis is Abraham Lincoln, and the people went to see it because the actor was in it. —Anne Thompson
“My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown”
Jim Sheridan’s period drama revolves about Christy Brown, the cerebral palsy-stricken painter who struggles to engage with the family around him until he discovers the one vocation he can control with his foot. However, that summary barely gets to the essence of the movie’s emotional core. It’s a naturally engaging story about perseverance against daunting physical challenges, made all the more heartbreaking by the intolerant times in which it takes place — but it would be nothing without the young Day-Lewis in the lead role, one that few actors could tackle without risking accusations of parody. Instead, he turns Brown into a vibrating, energetic creative figure battling to express his emotions and overcome the pity that surrounds him at every turn. It’s at once heartbreaking and hopeful, a testament to perseverance in which the performance embodies the themes to its core. Day-Lewis won his first Oscar for the role, and even as he continued to tackle new challenges, he already confirmed his mastery at this early stage. —Eric Kohn
“My Beautiful Laundrette”
From the start of his career Day-Lewis showed a penchant for muscular, angry and violent roles, starting with Stephen Frears’s searing 16 mm portrait of Margaret Thatcher’s London, “My Beautiful Laundrette,” which jumped from TV movie to arthouse phenomenon at the Edinburgh Film Festival. “I spent most of my time on the front line of London street life,” Day-Lewis said at the 2013 Santa Barbara Film Festival, “playing soccer, fighting on the school playground, and rebelling against authority and the British class system.” A controversial early exploration of sex, race and class, “My Beautiful Launderette” broke out Lewis, director Frears, rookie screenwriter Hanif Kureishi (who earned an Oscar nomination) and Working Title Films. With swaggering, sexy humor, Day-Lewis played Johnny, the street-tough ex-National Front boyfriend of Omar (Gordon Warnecke), the son of a Pakistani immigrant, who helps his childhood friend to renovate his uncle’s Battersea laundrette. Fears cast Day-Lewis after meeting him and asking him about his South London accent. Frears said: “‘You’re the son of a poet laureate, why are you speaking like that?’ He said he’d been to a comprehensive and had adopted it as a defence. Then he wrote me a letter saying he’d kill me if he wasn’t cast.” No one knew “My Beautiful Laundrette” would become an iconic film about the 1980s. —Anne Thompson
“The Unbearable Lightness of Being” Day-Lewis was a perfect if unexpected choice to play Tomas, the detached lover at the center of this erotically charged adaptation of Czech novelist Milan Kundera’s most famous work. Disciplined in his practice surrounding sex and romantic attachments, Tomas bounces between Sabina (Lena Olin) and Tereza (Juliette Binoche) as both ravenous lover and aloof philosopher. Day-Lewis brings a perfect blend of lithe sexuality and mystery to Tomas, light on his feet and heavy in the head. He famously learned Czech for the part (a notoriously difficult language), and as a result his accent is spot on. What else would you expect from the man who made “method acting” a household term? —Jude Dry “There Will Be Blood”
His voice lowered to a rumbling baritone beneath a scruffy mustache, Daniel Plainview becomes an extraordinary figure of capitalist intensity within a matter of minutes. Paul Thomas-Anderson’s most audacious filmmaking feat was matched by Day-Lewis’ remarkable transformation into the scheming, relentless oil miner and the empire he cobbles together in the heat. From the virtuosic intensity of his early management of a drilling company to the psychotic extremes of his final stage, Plainview is emblematic of the darkness lurking at the center of the American dream — which is why it’s all the more extraordinary that he’s played by an Englishman.
But of course, he’s not just an Englishman, he’s Daniel Day-Lewis, an actor so capable of transforming himself that in “There Will Be Blood” he seems to be reborn before our very eyes. Hovering on the edge of camp, he manages to take a line that on paper sounds patently ridiculous — you know, something about drinking someone else’s milkshake — and turn it into an iconic moment in film history, one loaded with the rage of boundless American greed. He was a lock for Best Actor the moment the cameras stopped rolling.
Related storiesDaniel Day-Lewis Announces He Is Retiring From ActingIsabelle Huppert, Mariachi and a History Lesson: Cannes Celebrates Its 70th Year With a Lively NightMark Boal and Annapurna Pictures Are Getting Into the Documentary Business...
See MoreDaniel Day-Lewis Announces He Is Retiring From Acting
But these highlights are only a few of the astonishing achievements in the actor’s robust output. Here are the ones we’ll treasure for all time, while holding out hope that this legendary talent’s final performance will land a spot as well.
“A Room With a View”
It was one of his very last supporting roles, but Daniel Day-Lewis was the embodiment of Cecil Vyse in Merchant Ivory’s 1986 adaptation of E.M. Forster’s “A Room With a View.” In lesser hands, Lucy Honeychurch’s jilted suitor might have been little more than a prissy sad sack; Day-Lewis invested the character with empathy, as if Cecil knew his reach exceeded his grasp. While Lucy may have viewed their match as a prison narrowly escaped, Day-Lewis’ performance suggested a man who couldn’t get beyond his own pince-nez, but loved her so much that he let her go. —Dana Harris
“The Age of Innocence” The emotions in Day-Lewis’s character are often big and ever present. But the performances that best showcase his talent are when he plays a more genteel character – his manner poised, cadence deliberate, body at rest. Yet in playing Newland Archer in Edith Wharton’s rigid 19th Century high society, he is effortless in accessing the desperate yearning that lies beneath his impossibly calm demeanor. His ability to translate complex thoughts, burning emotions and his character’s interior life through a completely placid surface is a marvel. —Chris O’Falt “Gangs of New York”
There’s a titanic force lurking under each of Day-Lewis’ roles, but nowhere was that energy unleashed better than in Martin Scorsese’s 2002 city-spanning epic “Gangs of New York.” Bill the Butcher combined the actor’s ferocity with an unbridled villainous streak, an antagonist as evil as he is charming. Day-Lewis has always excelled in quiet roles, but Bill is a reminder that his flair for the theatrical is rarely equalled. Watching Bill play to an audience inside a rowdy theater or to a gathered crowd of terrified citizens, there’s a twisted thrill in seeing a true performer playing a true performer. —Steve Greene
“The Last of the Mohicans” Arguably the actor’s most dreamy, overtly romantic role, Day-Lewis’ turn in Michael Mann’s 1992 historical action-adventure is both totally swoon-worthy and emotionally satisfying. As the adopted son of the eponymous last of the Mohican tribe, Day-Lewis plays his Hawkeye as a hero in the most classic sense, but aided by the actor’s formidable chops, the role (and the film) take on added dimension and complexity. Mann’s film is a heart-pounding adventure that doesn’t skimp on the tough stuff (people are scalped and burnt alive and commit suicide in order to escape worse fates, and that’s just the wide strokes), and it’s grounded by Day-Lewis’ trademark dedication and sincerity to the essential beats of his characters. Slipping easily between breakneck adventure (few movies contain so many scenes of artful running through the woods as “Mohicans”) and dreamy leading man (his chemistry with Madeleine Stowe all but aches right off the screen), turning in one of his more overlooked performances in a long line of lauded roles. It’s a film, and a part, that satisfies even more than two decades later. —Kate Erbland “Lincoln”
Day-Lewis won this third Best Actor Oscar — more than any actor in history — for playing the title role in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” because the movie is unimaginable without him. It took years for Spielberg to convince the recalcitrant Brit to play the American icon. Always willing to wait years between cherry-picked roles, replenishing his batteries by reengaging with the world, Day-Lewis finally broke down after Tony Kushner’s sprawling script focused on January 1865, when Lincoln maneuvered Congress into passing the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which ended slavery in America. “The important thing is they got Lincoln,” Lincoln biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin told me at the L.A. premiere, “his stooped walk, his high-pitched voice, his humor.”
Day-Lewis is a draw for moviegoers because when the match is perfect between director and role, when it feels right, he gives his all. He embraces a role so totally that it consumes and overtakes him. He loses himself in the part throughout production. As usual, Day-Lewis’s preparation was intense. He worked in seclusion until he sent Spielberg tape recorder audio of his approximation of the 16h president’s reedy tenor. He nailed his first scene on-set, an eight-minute speech about the Emancipation Proclamation, on the first take with no on-set rehearsal. Day-Lewis stayed in character throughout the shoot, addressed by all as “Mr. President.” No socializing on set saves energy, Day-Lewis has said. It’s fair to say that Day-Lewis is Abraham Lincoln, and the people went to see it because the actor was in it. —Anne Thompson
“My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown”
Jim Sheridan’s period drama revolves about Christy Brown, the cerebral palsy-stricken painter who struggles to engage with the family around him until he discovers the one vocation he can control with his foot. However, that summary barely gets to the essence of the movie’s emotional core. It’s a naturally engaging story about perseverance against daunting physical challenges, made all the more heartbreaking by the intolerant times in which it takes place — but it would be nothing without the young Day-Lewis in the lead role, one that few actors could tackle without risking accusations of parody. Instead, he turns Brown into a vibrating, energetic creative figure battling to express his emotions and overcome the pity that surrounds him at every turn. It’s at once heartbreaking and hopeful, a testament to perseverance in which the performance embodies the themes to its core. Day-Lewis won his first Oscar for the role, and even as he continued to tackle new challenges, he already confirmed his mastery at this early stage. —Eric Kohn
“My Beautiful Laundrette”
From the start of his career Day-Lewis showed a penchant for muscular, angry and violent roles, starting with Stephen Frears’s searing 16 mm portrait of Margaret Thatcher’s London, “My Beautiful Laundrette,” which jumped from TV movie to arthouse phenomenon at the Edinburgh Film Festival. “I spent most of my time on the front line of London street life,” Day-Lewis said at the 2013 Santa Barbara Film Festival, “playing soccer, fighting on the school playground, and rebelling against authority and the British class system.” A controversial early exploration of sex, race and class, “My Beautiful Launderette” broke out Lewis, director Frears, rookie screenwriter Hanif Kureishi (who earned an Oscar nomination) and Working Title Films. With swaggering, sexy humor, Day-Lewis played Johnny, the street-tough ex-National Front boyfriend of Omar (Gordon Warnecke), the son of a Pakistani immigrant, who helps his childhood friend to renovate his uncle’s Battersea laundrette. Fears cast Day-Lewis after meeting him and asking him about his South London accent. Frears said: “‘You’re the son of a poet laureate, why are you speaking like that?’ He said he’d been to a comprehensive and had adopted it as a defence. Then he wrote me a letter saying he’d kill me if he wasn’t cast.” No one knew “My Beautiful Laundrette” would become an iconic film about the 1980s. —Anne Thompson
“The Unbearable Lightness of Being” Day-Lewis was a perfect if unexpected choice to play Tomas, the detached lover at the center of this erotically charged adaptation of Czech novelist Milan Kundera’s most famous work. Disciplined in his practice surrounding sex and romantic attachments, Tomas bounces between Sabina (Lena Olin) and Tereza (Juliette Binoche) as both ravenous lover and aloof philosopher. Day-Lewis brings a perfect blend of lithe sexuality and mystery to Tomas, light on his feet and heavy in the head. He famously learned Czech for the part (a notoriously difficult language), and as a result his accent is spot on. What else would you expect from the man who made “method acting” a household term? —Jude Dry “There Will Be Blood”
His voice lowered to a rumbling baritone beneath a scruffy mustache, Daniel Plainview becomes an extraordinary figure of capitalist intensity within a matter of minutes. Paul Thomas-Anderson’s most audacious filmmaking feat was matched by Day-Lewis’ remarkable transformation into the scheming, relentless oil miner and the empire he cobbles together in the heat. From the virtuosic intensity of his early management of a drilling company to the psychotic extremes of his final stage, Plainview is emblematic of the darkness lurking at the center of the American dream — which is why it’s all the more extraordinary that he’s played by an Englishman.
But of course, he’s not just an Englishman, he’s Daniel Day-Lewis, an actor so capable of transforming himself that in “There Will Be Blood” he seems to be reborn before our very eyes. Hovering on the edge of camp, he manages to take a line that on paper sounds patently ridiculous — you know, something about drinking someone else’s milkshake — and turn it into an iconic moment in film history, one loaded with the rage of boundless American greed. He was a lock for Best Actor the moment the cameras stopped rolling.
Related storiesDaniel Day-Lewis Announces He Is Retiring From ActingIsabelle Huppert, Mariachi and a History Lesson: Cannes Celebrates Its 70th Year With a Lively NightMark Boal and Annapurna Pictures Are Getting Into the Documentary Business...
- 6/20/2017
- by Eric Kohn, Dana Harris, Kate Erbland, Steve Greene and Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Author: Jon Lyus
Director Roger Michell’s previous films include Notting Hill, Morning Glory and Hyde Park on Hudson. His second directing job was ushering Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia onto an unexpecting TV audience, setting the tone for eliciting stirring performances from his actors.
His latest film, his own adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1951 novel My Cousin Rachel, is a dark tale of romance and revenge, with fine leading turns by Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin. The film also stars Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) and Holliday Grainger (Their Finest Hours), and you can see all of our interviews with the cast here.
Related: See our red carpet interviews from the World Premiere of My Cousin Rachel
Scott Davis sat down with the director to talk about how the project came to be, and working with the cast on this film.
This contains Mild Spoilers.
Here...
Director Roger Michell’s previous films include Notting Hill, Morning Glory and Hyde Park on Hudson. His second directing job was ushering Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia onto an unexpecting TV audience, setting the tone for eliciting stirring performances from his actors.
His latest film, his own adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1951 novel My Cousin Rachel, is a dark tale of romance and revenge, with fine leading turns by Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin. The film also stars Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) and Holliday Grainger (Their Finest Hours), and you can see all of our interviews with the cast here.
Related: See our red carpet interviews from the World Premiere of My Cousin Rachel
Scott Davis sat down with the director to talk about how the project came to be, and working with the cast on this film.
This contains Mild Spoilers.
Here...
- 6/9/2017
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Wearing produced Boys from the Blackstuff, Pride and Prejudice, Edge of Darkness and many more.
Michael Wearing, producer of iconic television dramas including Boys from the Blackstuff and Edge of Darkness, has died aged 78 (reports Broadcast).
Wearing (right), who held a number of senior positions across drama at the BBC, died on Friday 5 May following a stroke. Wearing is survived by his three children, Sadie, Ella and Ben.
After studying anthropology at Newcastle University and a short career in the theatre, Wearing joined the BBC’s English regions drama department as a script editor in 1976.
Reporting to David Rose, who went on to become founder of Film 4, at the BBC’s Pebble Mill base in Birmingham, Wearing worked with writers including Alan Bleasdale and Ron Hutchinson on a number of Play for Today scripts.
He also worked on series including Stephen Davis’ Trouble With Gregory, which aired as part of BBC2’s Playhouse strand, Hutchinson’s six-part...
Michael Wearing, producer of iconic television dramas including Boys from the Blackstuff and Edge of Darkness, has died aged 78 (reports Broadcast).
Wearing (right), who held a number of senior positions across drama at the BBC, died on Friday 5 May following a stroke. Wearing is survived by his three children, Sadie, Ella and Ben.
After studying anthropology at Newcastle University and a short career in the theatre, Wearing joined the BBC’s English regions drama department as a script editor in 1976.
Reporting to David Rose, who went on to become founder of Film 4, at the BBC’s Pebble Mill base in Birmingham, Wearing worked with writers including Alan Bleasdale and Ron Hutchinson on a number of Play for Today scripts.
He also worked on series including Stephen Davis’ Trouble With Gregory, which aired as part of BBC2’s Playhouse strand, Hutchinson’s six-part...
- 5/9/2017
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Scottish production company Synchronicity Films has secured the rights to Hanif Kureishi’s novella, The Body. The plan is to develop the tense thriller as a high-end international drama series. Synchronicity's Claire Mundell will executive produce, with Robert Murphy (Dci Banks, Vera) adapting. The acquisition was made in partnership with Green Ash Pictures backed by Great Point Media. The Body, originally published in 2002, centers on Adam, a middle-aged…...
- 3/15/2017
- Deadline TV
Totally relaxed in his Ritz-Carleton suite on Central Park South, his arms spread wide on a rather tasteful couch, Stephen Frears held court not at all like the monarch in his biggest success, The Queen, (2006). His press conference for his latest effort, Florence Foster Jenkins, will take place one hour later with about 40 journalists in attendance. His stars -- Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, and The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg -- would then be asked 95% of the questions. Not surprising. Directors, for the most, part do not drive traffic to web sites, sadly, even ones as near legendary as Frears.
Besides helming six of his past female leads to Academy-Award-nominated performances (Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons, Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening in The Grifters, plus Judi Dench in both Philomena and Mrs. Henderson Presents) and one Oscar win (Helen Mirren as the aforementioned queen), Frears has...
Besides helming six of his past female leads to Academy-Award-nominated performances (Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons, Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening in The Grifters, plus Judi Dench in both Philomena and Mrs. Henderson Presents) and one Oscar win (Helen Mirren as the aforementioned queen), Frears has...
- 8/19/2016
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Gordon Warnecke: ‘Daniel Day-Lewis and I were forever kissing people. We were constantly tipping back Listerine’
When Hanif Kureishi’s script arrived through my letterbox, I wanted to shoot it right away. I’d made Walter, the film that was screened on the first night of Channel 4, and was all in favour of the fact that it was originally to be made for TV. Who in their right mind was going to go to the cinema to see a film about a gay Pakistani running a launderette?
Continue reading...
When Hanif Kureishi’s script arrived through my letterbox, I wanted to shoot it right away. I’d made Walter, the film that was screened on the first night of Channel 4, and was all in favour of the fact that it was originally to be made for TV. Who in their right mind was going to go to the cinema to see a film about a gay Pakistani running a launderette?
Continue reading...
- 12/1/2015
- by Interviews by Jack Watkins
- The Guardian - Film News
From "Milk" to "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, of which I'm a proud voting member, has released the Top 10 Best Lgbtqa movies every non-lgbtqa must and should see! And I agree with all the selections. Some are brutally and politically honest, some are just fun but all speak volumes about the history of Lgbtqa in and around the world of cinema!
Here's the complete press release with the aforementioned list! Do you agree?
November 24, 2015 . Hollywood, Ca.: Just in time for the holidays, as they say . . . the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (galeca.org) today announced its membership.s picks for their second .Galeca Ten Best. list: The 10 Best Lbgtqa Films Galeca Every Non-lgbtqa Person Should See!
Oscar winners to community classics to modern independent discoveries . there.s a movie for every persuasion here.
Critics from the 120-member organization...
Here's the complete press release with the aforementioned list! Do you agree?
November 24, 2015 . Hollywood, Ca.: Just in time for the holidays, as they say . . . the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (galeca.org) today announced its membership.s picks for their second .Galeca Ten Best. list: The 10 Best Lbgtqa Films Galeca Every Non-lgbtqa Person Should See!
Oscar winners to community classics to modern independent discoveries . there.s a movie for every persuasion here.
Critics from the 120-member organization...
- 11/24/2015
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
David Bowie's first TV theme in over 20 years has landed and it hears the pop icon sounding as mysterious as ever.
The 68-year-old singer has recorded 'Blackstar' as the official theme for upcoming Sky Atlantic drama The Last Panthers.
The opening credits - which hear less than a minute of the track played over visuals - give fans a taster of the eerie, atmospheric song.
"On the day of execution / Only women kneel and smile," Bowie's distorted vocals chant over strings and a pulsing bass line.
"I was looking for one of the icons of my youth to write the music for the title sequence, but was presented with a god," said the show's director Johan Renck.
"His first response was precise, engaged and curious. The piece of music he laid before us embodied every aspect of our characters and the series itself - dark, brooding, beautiful and sentimental...
The 68-year-old singer has recorded 'Blackstar' as the official theme for upcoming Sky Atlantic drama The Last Panthers.
The opening credits - which hear less than a minute of the track played over visuals - give fans a taster of the eerie, atmospheric song.
"On the day of execution / Only women kneel and smile," Bowie's distorted vocals chant over strings and a pulsing bass line.
"I was looking for one of the icons of my youth to write the music for the title sequence, but was presented with a god," said the show's director Johan Renck.
"His first response was precise, engaged and curious. The piece of music he laid before us embodied every aspect of our characters and the series itself - dark, brooding, beautiful and sentimental...
- 10/6/2015
- Digital Spy
Hanif Kureishi also collects honorary award.
Tom Geens’ Couple In A Hole has won at hat-trick of awards including best film at the 26th Dinard British Film Festival (Sept 30–Oct 4) .
The film took home the Golden Hitchock awards for best film and best screenplay as well as the Hitchcock of the public, the festival’s audience award.
Couple In The Hole stars Kate Dickie and Paul Higgins as a couple who, after suffering a tragedy, begin living in solitude in a cave in the woods.
Zorana Piggott produced the film for 011 Productions/Chicken Factory, in co-production with Belgium’s A Private View and France’s Les Enrages. Verve Pictures are handling the film’s UK distribution while Paradiso Filmed Entertainment is distributing in Benelux.
A special mention was given to Departure, Andrew Steggall’s feature debut which focuses on a dysfunctional family as they attempt to sell their holiday home in France. The film stars...
Tom Geens’ Couple In A Hole has won at hat-trick of awards including best film at the 26th Dinard British Film Festival (Sept 30–Oct 4) .
The film took home the Golden Hitchock awards for best film and best screenplay as well as the Hitchcock of the public, the festival’s audience award.
Couple In The Hole stars Kate Dickie and Paul Higgins as a couple who, after suffering a tragedy, begin living in solitude in a cave in the woods.
Zorana Piggott produced the film for 011 Productions/Chicken Factory, in co-production with Belgium’s A Private View and France’s Les Enrages. Verve Pictures are handling the film’s UK distribution while Paradiso Filmed Entertainment is distributing in Benelux.
A special mention was given to Departure, Andrew Steggall’s feature debut which focuses on a dysfunctional family as they attempt to sell their holiday home in France. The film stars...
- 10/4/2015
- ScreenDaily
Rapidly skimming the latest press release from the BBC, unveiling upcoming BBC One projects, not really expecting to find anything for *us* in it, I almost missed this listing... - "To Sir With Love" - 1x90 - adapted by Hanif Kureishi, from the autobiographical novel by ER Braithwaite, made by Rainmark Films. Yes indeed, it is what you think it is. BBC One has commissioned a 90-minute film based on Guyanese author E.R. Braithwaite's 1959 novel, which was adapted for the screen in 1967 and starred Sidney Poitier, in a post-war London tale of social and racial strife in an inner-city school. In the book, relieved of war duty, Guyanese engineer...
- 9/22/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
The French film director died last week after a battle with cancer.
Pascal Chaumeil’s A Long Way Down is to open the 26th Dinard British Film Festival (30 Sept - 4 Oct).
The comedy drama, which stars Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Imogen Poots and Aaron Paul, was the penultimate production for the French director, who died last Thursday aged 54 following a battle with cancer.
The film, which premiered at the 2014 Berlinale, was the final English-language film for Chaumeil, who was in post-production on his final feature Odd Job (Un Petit Boulot) when he died.
Competition
The festival also revealed the titles that will compete for the festival’s Golden Hitchock award, including Owen Harris’ Kill Your Friends, an adaptation of John Niven’s 2008 novel of the same name starring Nicholas Hoult, Ed Skrein, James Corden and Rosanna Arquette.
Other films vying for the top prize are Craig Roberts’ directorial debut Just Jim, Andrew Steggall’s [link...
Pascal Chaumeil’s A Long Way Down is to open the 26th Dinard British Film Festival (30 Sept - 4 Oct).
The comedy drama, which stars Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Imogen Poots and Aaron Paul, was the penultimate production for the French director, who died last Thursday aged 54 following a battle with cancer.
The film, which premiered at the 2014 Berlinale, was the final English-language film for Chaumeil, who was in post-production on his final feature Odd Job (Un Petit Boulot) when he died.
Competition
The festival also revealed the titles that will compete for the festival’s Golden Hitchock award, including Owen Harris’ Kill Your Friends, an adaptation of John Niven’s 2008 novel of the same name starring Nicholas Hoult, Ed Skrein, James Corden and Rosanna Arquette.
Other films vying for the top prize are Craig Roberts’ directorial debut Just Jim, Andrew Steggall’s [link...
- 9/1/2015
- ScreenDaily
Just 20 movies.
First starting in the brilliant John Schlesinger film Sunday Bloody Sunday, Daniel Day-Lewis has become arguably one of the greatest and most highly regarded thespians in the history of cinema. And yet he has only 20 credits to his name. For a craft that sees even the biggest of Hollywood stars sign on for just about any project that comes their way, Daniel Day-Lewis has become a genre defining actor on almost a part-time like schedule.
It’s not something new for the actor either.
Look at one of his greatest achievements, Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette. 14 years after his debut, this marked his first performance of any real note, taking secondary billing in what would become one of the definitive cinematic achievements of 1980s British cinema.
Penned by Hanif Kureishi, My Beautiful Laundrette stars Gordon Warnecke as Omar, a young man who convinces his uncle Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey...
First starting in the brilliant John Schlesinger film Sunday Bloody Sunday, Daniel Day-Lewis has become arguably one of the greatest and most highly regarded thespians in the history of cinema. And yet he has only 20 credits to his name. For a craft that sees even the biggest of Hollywood stars sign on for just about any project that comes their way, Daniel Day-Lewis has become a genre defining actor on almost a part-time like schedule.
It’s not something new for the actor either.
Look at one of his greatest achievements, Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette. 14 years after his debut, this marked his first performance of any real note, taking secondary billing in what would become one of the definitive cinematic achievements of 1980s British cinema.
Penned by Hanif Kureishi, My Beautiful Laundrette stars Gordon Warnecke as Omar, a young man who convinces his uncle Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey...
- 7/24/2015
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
The European Film Academy and Efa Productions have announced the nominations for the 27th European Film Awards. The more than 3,000 Efa Members will now vote for the winners who will be presented during the awards ceremony on December 13, in the Latvian capital Riga, European Capital of Culture 2014.
Nominees:
European Film
Force Majeure (Turist)
Sweden/Denmark/France/Norway
Writer/Director: Ruben Östlund
Ida
Poland/Denmark
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Writers: Paweł Pawlikowski & Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Leviathan (Leviafan)
Russia
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Writer: Oleg Negin & Andrey Zvyagintsev
Nymphomaniac Director's Cut Volume I and II
Denmark/Germany/France/Belgium
Writer/Director: Lars von Trier
Winter Sleep (Kis Uykusu)
Turkey/France/Germany
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writer: Ebru Ceylan & Nuri Bilge Ceylan
European Comedy
Carmina and Amen (Carmina y Amen)
Spain
Writer/Director: Paco León
Le Week-End
UK
Director: Roger Michel
Writer: Hanif Kureishi
The Mafia Only Kills In Summer (La Mafia Uccide Solo d'Estate)
Italy...
Nominees:
European Film
Force Majeure (Turist)
Sweden/Denmark/France/Norway
Writer/Director: Ruben Östlund
Ida
Poland/Denmark
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Writers: Paweł Pawlikowski & Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Leviathan (Leviafan)
Russia
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Writer: Oleg Negin & Andrey Zvyagintsev
Nymphomaniac Director's Cut Volume I and II
Denmark/Germany/France/Belgium
Writer/Director: Lars von Trier
Winter Sleep (Kis Uykusu)
Turkey/France/Germany
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Writer: Ebru Ceylan & Nuri Bilge Ceylan
European Comedy
Carmina and Amen (Carmina y Amen)
Spain
Writer/Director: Paco León
Le Week-End
UK
Director: Roger Michel
Writer: Hanif Kureishi
The Mafia Only Kills In Summer (La Mafia Uccide Solo d'Estate)
Italy...
- 11/8/2014
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Force Majeure, Leviathan and Nymphomaniac among nominees.
The nominations for the 27th European Film Awards have been announced at the Seville European Film Festival.
More than 3,000 European Film Academy members will now vote for the winners, who will be presented during the awards ceremony on Dec 13 in Riga.
Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan, Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac Director’s Cut - Volume I & II and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep will compete for European Film, with every director - apart from von Trier - up for European Director alongside Steven Knight for Locke and Paolo Virzi for Human Capital.
Roger Michell’s Le Week-End is up for European Comedy, alongside Paco León’s Carmina & Amen and Pierfrancesco Diliberto’s The Mafia Only Kills in the Summer.
The full list of nominations is as follows:
European Film 2014
Force Majeure (Sweden/Denmark/France/Norway)
Written & Directed By: [link...
The nominations for the 27th European Film Awards have been announced at the Seville European Film Festival.
More than 3,000 European Film Academy members will now vote for the winners, who will be presented during the awards ceremony on Dec 13 in Riga.
Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan, Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac Director’s Cut - Volume I & II and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep will compete for European Film, with every director - apart from von Trier - up for European Director alongside Steven Knight for Locke and Paolo Virzi for Human Capital.
Roger Michell’s Le Week-End is up for European Comedy, alongside Paco León’s Carmina & Amen and Pierfrancesco Diliberto’s The Mafia Only Kills in the Summer.
The full list of nominations is as follows:
European Film 2014
Force Majeure (Sweden/Denmark/France/Norway)
Written & Directed By: [link...
- 11/8/2014
- by ian.sandwell@screendaily.com (Ian Sandwell)
- ScreenDaily
This is a rare jewel of a movie. Le Week-End follows Nick and Meg, enacted brilliantly by Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan, a British couple whose longtime marriage faces a turning point during a weekend in Paris. Directed judiciously by Roger Michell from an exquisite original screenplay by Hanif Kureishi, and photographed beautifully by Nathalie Durand, the film captures the nuances of a long-term relationship, the ups and downs, the easy asides and the sidelong glances, the heat of anger and the warmth of touch, the regrets and the resentments and the recriminations. It begins, comfortably enough, on a train but soon enough becomes awkward when Meg doesn't like the tiny hotel room Nick has secured for them. ("It's beige," she says, petulantly, and storms...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 7/10/2014
- Screen Anarchy
A marvelous little unpacking of the meaning of happiness, precisely what constitutes it, and how to know whether you’ve found it. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Nick (Jim Broadbent: Closed Circuit) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan: About Time) have been married a long time. We’re not sure how long, as Le Week-end opens with them on the train from London to Paris for a getaway, but the practiced ease of their togetherness, all reflexive sniping and easy intimacy, is plain. You know these people… but you don’t see them in movies often. Apart from the simple pleasure of spending cinematic time with intriguing yet realistic people exploring the conundrums of life in an engaging and sympathetic way, we have here the pleasure of seeing a couple of fresh, funny 60somethings having little...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
Nick (Jim Broadbent: Closed Circuit) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan: About Time) have been married a long time. We’re not sure how long, as Le Week-end opens with them on the train from London to Paris for a getaway, but the practiced ease of their togetherness, all reflexive sniping and easy intimacy, is plain. You know these people… but you don’t see them in movies often. Apart from the simple pleasure of spending cinematic time with intriguing yet realistic people exploring the conundrums of life in an engaging and sympathetic way, we have here the pleasure of seeing a couple of fresh, funny 60somethings having little...
- 4/2/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
If you have a proclivity for the smaller, indie films, then you won’t want to miss Le Week-end. This charming film opens at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema in St. Louis this Friday, March 28th.
Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent (Iris, Topsy-turvy, Another Year) and Lindsay Duncan (About Time, Alice In Wonderland, Mansfield Park) give exquisite performances as Nick and Meg, a long-married British couple revisiting Paris for the first time since their honeymoon in an attempt to rekindle their relationship.
During a two-day escapade, diffident, wistful Nick and demanding, take-charge Meg careen from harmony to disharmony to resignation and back again as they take stock of half a lifetime of deep tenderness – and even deeper regret. A surprise invitation from Nick’s old friend Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), an amusingly boorish American academic with a fancy Parisian address, soon leads them to an unexpectedly hopeful vision of what their love and marriage might still become.
Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent (Iris, Topsy-turvy, Another Year) and Lindsay Duncan (About Time, Alice In Wonderland, Mansfield Park) give exquisite performances as Nick and Meg, a long-married British couple revisiting Paris for the first time since their honeymoon in an attempt to rekindle their relationship.
During a two-day escapade, diffident, wistful Nick and demanding, take-charge Meg careen from harmony to disharmony to resignation and back again as they take stock of half a lifetime of deep tenderness – and even deeper regret. A surprise invitation from Nick’s old friend Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), an amusingly boorish American academic with a fancy Parisian address, soon leads them to an unexpectedly hopeful vision of what their love and marriage might still become.
- 3/24/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
“Love dies” Meg (Lindsay Duncan) exclaims after being accused of unfaithfulness by her husband of 30 years Nick (Jim Broadbent), who replies: “Only if you kill it” And who would know more about the longevity or expiration date of such powerful sentiment than a couple who knows each other to the most minimal pet peeves and still can be surprised, often negatively, by the other’s behaviors. Spending the weekend in the City of Love could either provoke a reassuring sense that they still need to be together or be a catalyst for the conclusion of their relationship. This is the premise of the elegantly funny and often-meditative Le Week-End directed by Roger Michell and written by Hanif Kureishi in what is the creators’ fourth collaboration.
As soon as the pair sets foot in Paris the bittersweet banter between the two exposes the crumbling state of their marriage. The trip’s purpose is to celebrate their anniversary, and in an effort to relive the magic Nick books a room in the same hotel as the first time they were there. Displeased by the establishment’s redecoration Meg refuses to stay there and recklessly decides on a luxurious suite they can’t afford. Nick gives in to keep his moody wife happy, but such splendid accommodations might simply not be enough. In a storytelling style that inevitably resembles Linklater’s “Before” trilogy, they walk along the Parisians streets looking for the perfect restaurants while dishing out their fears and aspirations that seem fading with the passing of time and the monotony of daily life.
Sex is out of the question despite Nick’s constant efforts. On the other hand, at times Meg appears certain on her resolution to get a divorce before submitting to the evident affection she still feels for her gray-haired husband. There is a strange kind of love here, but is tinted with the accumulating lost battles they both have endured and the uncertainty of what the future can still hold for them. Are they too old to change? Are they together because they are used to it and fear a new beginning? They are both teachers with greater unfulfilled artistic dreams, and in turn such regret becomes exponentially important as they look back at their journey together with profound melancholy and quiet sympathy. Nick and Meg would be lost without one another, and can’t figure out if this merits to be called love or if it's mutual pity.
In the midst of all their anxieties and feuds throughout the weekend, they run into one of Nick’s old friends, Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), a charismatic successful writer. His intellectual circle of friends will serve as added conflict-arousing device in the already complex failed romantic getaway. Lindsay Duncan is fantastic as the feisty, almost bipolar, woman who still wants more out of life and will settle for nothing less than ecstasy regardless of her partner’s shortcomings. Meg is selfish, dominating, and yet deeply insecure, the veteran actress plays her with outstanding nuance. Duncan’s character is so overpowering that it would seem she overshadows Broadbent, but it is thanks to the actor’s on point passiveness that they both can showcase their skills by means of a delicately written screenplay.
Michell and Kureishi have never set out to make spectacular films. They focus on crafting layered characters and then implanting those traits into the perfect actors to let the screenplay and the setting speak for themselves. This decaying love story that unfolds over a couple days in Paris is soothing, subtly comedic, and exquisitely put together. Le Week-End, like the finest wines, gets its strengths for the slow-simmered flavors developed by age, wisdom, and trial and error, which once in a while deliver the perfect combination of serendipitous luck and great ingredients. It is also – like wine- a labor of love.
As soon as the pair sets foot in Paris the bittersweet banter between the two exposes the crumbling state of their marriage. The trip’s purpose is to celebrate their anniversary, and in an effort to relive the magic Nick books a room in the same hotel as the first time they were there. Displeased by the establishment’s redecoration Meg refuses to stay there and recklessly decides on a luxurious suite they can’t afford. Nick gives in to keep his moody wife happy, but such splendid accommodations might simply not be enough. In a storytelling style that inevitably resembles Linklater’s “Before” trilogy, they walk along the Parisians streets looking for the perfect restaurants while dishing out their fears and aspirations that seem fading with the passing of time and the monotony of daily life.
Sex is out of the question despite Nick’s constant efforts. On the other hand, at times Meg appears certain on her resolution to get a divorce before submitting to the evident affection she still feels for her gray-haired husband. There is a strange kind of love here, but is tinted with the accumulating lost battles they both have endured and the uncertainty of what the future can still hold for them. Are they too old to change? Are they together because they are used to it and fear a new beginning? They are both teachers with greater unfulfilled artistic dreams, and in turn such regret becomes exponentially important as they look back at their journey together with profound melancholy and quiet sympathy. Nick and Meg would be lost without one another, and can’t figure out if this merits to be called love or if it's mutual pity.
In the midst of all their anxieties and feuds throughout the weekend, they run into one of Nick’s old friends, Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), a charismatic successful writer. His intellectual circle of friends will serve as added conflict-arousing device in the already complex failed romantic getaway. Lindsay Duncan is fantastic as the feisty, almost bipolar, woman who still wants more out of life and will settle for nothing less than ecstasy regardless of her partner’s shortcomings. Meg is selfish, dominating, and yet deeply insecure, the veteran actress plays her with outstanding nuance. Duncan’s character is so overpowering that it would seem she overshadows Broadbent, but it is thanks to the actor’s on point passiveness that they both can showcase their skills by means of a delicately written screenplay.
Michell and Kureishi have never set out to make spectacular films. They focus on crafting layered characters and then implanting those traits into the perfect actors to let the screenplay and the setting speak for themselves. This decaying love story that unfolds over a couple days in Paris is soothing, subtly comedic, and exquisitely put together. Le Week-End, like the finest wines, gets its strengths for the slow-simmered flavors developed by age, wisdom, and trial and error, which once in a while deliver the perfect combination of serendipitous luck and great ingredients. It is also – like wine- a labor of love.
- 3/15/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Caught somewhere between the dialogue-rich, European snapshots of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy and the deep humanism and leisurely beats of a Mike Leigh drama, Le Week-End is a splendid, albeit salty look at two septuagenarians spending a few days in Paris to mark their 30th anniversary. The man is Nick Burrows (Jim Broadbent), a weary college professor recently sacked from his teaching post. The woman is Meg (Lindsay Duncan), who wants to retreat from her dogged husband and find her own freedom. The couple ventures through the City of Love over three days of happiness and misery, as we wonder how their love will end up – faded away or reinvigorated?
Nick is still deeply in love with Meg, who has aged gracefully and has not lost the vigor or figure of a much younger woman. She knows that she controls him with an icy grip and that he will...
Nick is still deeply in love with Meg, who has aged gracefully and has not lost the vigor or figure of a much younger woman. She knows that she controls him with an icy grip and that he will...
- 3/15/2014
- by Jordan Adler
- We Got This Covered
Paris is a famed aphrodisiac but an unreliable marriage counselor. Then again, even with all its charms, the City of Love might not be able to save the marriage between British sexagenarians Meg and Nick (Lindsay Duncan and Jim Broadbent), a sexless pair whose union is built on rivalrous rebukes and shared disappointment. Penned by Hanif Kureishi (“My Beautiful Laundrette”), their war of words is initially a nasty delight. “I've taken up Zumba,” Meg announces. “I'm redesigning my body.” “Why? Who's going to see it?” shrugs Nick. Later, he's less cavalier, reduced to begging: “Can I touch you?” “What for?...
- 3/13/2014
- by Inkoo Kang
- The Wrap
Le Week-End is a marital disintegration–reintegration drama that opens with a dose of frost and vinegar and turns believably sweet—and unbelievably marvelous, in light of what had seemed a depressing trajectory. Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan play an aging, not-affluent British couple grabbing a fast weekend in Paris. Their tatty hotel appalls her so much she impulsively checks into a luxury one—which appalls her husband, who has yet to reveal he was forced to resign his professorship over a run-in with a student. He would like to touch her, but she quivers with displeasure when he tries. (“I’m a phobic object,” he concludes.) The not-so-sub subtext is that love doesn’t last. She sees his weakness and inability to get out of himself and truly care for her; he sees a still-beautiful woman who’s moving beyond his grasp.Hanif Kureishi wrote it, Roger Michell directed...
- 3/13/2014
- by David Edelstein
- Vulture
This weekend, your best bet is to steer clear of "Need for Speed" and seek out a few indies instead. The critics have spoken, and "Breaking Bad" star Aaron Paul's first mainstream theatrical vehicle, based on the wildly popular video game racing franchise, has no wheels. So instead, why not catch not one, but two hunky Jake Gyllenhaals in Denis Villeneuve's moody "Enemy," director Jason Bateman's "Bad Words," the long-awaited "Veronica Mars" movie, or even some sweet old folks in "Le Week-End"? Trailers below.With fest-circuit hit "Le Week-End," Brit director Roger Michell ("Notting Hill") returns to his home turf after several limp Hollywood outings ("Morning Glory," "Hyde Park on Hudson"). He directs writer Hanif Kureishi's sharp, acutely observed romantic comedy about a 60ish couple (Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan) hoping to liven up their marriage with an anniversary celebration in Paris, where they honeymooned 30 years before.
- 3/12/2014
- by Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Meant to Be Spent Alone: Michell’s Latest a Welcome Return to Quality Filmmaking
After a pair of mainstream Us misfires, South African born director Roger Michell returns to the UK for his latest film, Le Week-End, a portrait of a married heterosexual couple after thirty years of marriage that is as moving as it is engaging and astute. Enhanced by a pair of performances from a melancholy Jim Broadbent and an incredibly prickly yet gloriously acerbic Lindsay Duncan, Michell once again utilizes the strengths of screenwriter Hanif Kureishi and creates a visual journey out of what is, mostly, a sparring of contradictory wills through a series of well written dialogues. Though best known for his 1999 Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant starrer, Notting Hill, his latest ranks with his other top tier titles like The Mother and Venus.
Deciding to celebrate their 30th anniversary in Paris, university professor Nick (Broadbent) and...
After a pair of mainstream Us misfires, South African born director Roger Michell returns to the UK for his latest film, Le Week-End, a portrait of a married heterosexual couple after thirty years of marriage that is as moving as it is engaging and astute. Enhanced by a pair of performances from a melancholy Jim Broadbent and an incredibly prickly yet gloriously acerbic Lindsay Duncan, Michell once again utilizes the strengths of screenwriter Hanif Kureishi and creates a visual journey out of what is, mostly, a sparring of contradictory wills through a series of well written dialogues. Though best known for his 1999 Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant starrer, Notting Hill, his latest ranks with his other top tier titles like The Mother and Venus.
Deciding to celebrate their 30th anniversary in Paris, university professor Nick (Broadbent) and...
- 3/12/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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