Posts Tagged ‘Fiona Shaw’

Sense and Sensibility

Director: Georgia Oakley

Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esme Creed-Miles, George Mackay, Caitroina Balfe, Frank Dillane, Herbert Nordrum, Fiona Shaw, Bodhi Rae Breathnach

Running Time: 2 hours and 11 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Young British director Georgia Oakley serves up a sumptuous film version of Sense and Sensibility the 1811 novel by Jane Austen, a ravishing and authentic cinematic reimaging that Austen would be proud of.

31 years after the Oscar winning Ang Lee version of Sense and Sensibility, a 21^st century version of one of Austen’s classic novels was due for a remake.

Cast as the ambitious but single Dashwood sisters are Daisy Edgar-Jones (Twisters, Where the Crawdads Sing) as the sensible Elinor and Esme Creed-Miles as the impulsive and headstrong Marianne Dashwood along with Hamnet star Bodhi Rae Breathnach as the young Margaret.

When their father dies and leaves the Dashwoods in financial distress, wealthy relatives come and take charge however, Mrs Dashwood wonderfully played by Caitroina Balfe (Belfast, Ford v Ferrari) does not wish to live under the rules of her brother-in-law who has inherited the entire estate. At the insistence of the loquacious Mrs Jennings, superbly played by Fiona Shaw (The Black Dahlia, Colette), the Dashwoods relocate to Devon.

On this physical and soon to be emotional journey, both Marianne and Elinor find possible love with respective suitors. Marianne is rescued on a beach by the handsome Willoughby played by Frank Dillane (In the Heart of the Sea) while Elinor more susceptible to the strict social norms of the early 19^th century has a desire for the charming and gentle Edward Ferrars exceptionally well played by George McKay (1917).

As each sister navigates the tricky social world of English society, both in the country and in London, director Georgia Oakley paints a vivid and erudite picture of England which was intensely patriarchal in which all the property and wealth was only transferred to the men, their brothers or their sons.

A generational system which served to keep men in power and women dependent, a situation which Jane Austen so subtly criticised in all her novels.

While Marianne discovers that some men are scoundrels, Elinor realizes that miscommunication and repression of one’s feelings do not lead to lasting romance. Looking on at the misadventures of the eligible Dashwood sisters is the kind Colonel Brandon expertly played by Norwegian actor Herbert Nordrum (The Worst Person in the World), who is the epitome of a gentleman, chivalrous and protective.

Sense and Sensibility is held together by a strong cinematic vision, slightly gritty but also elegant as the production design by Francesca di Mottola and the costumes by Grace Snell create a definite contrast between the Dashwoods in the country and their time in London, with its winter balls, fashion and voluminous art galleries. The scene in the National Gallery between Elinor and Edward is resplendent with authenticity, repression and desire.

As a whole, the cast do excellently especially the two main actresses and the leading men do their best to be both raffish and desirable. After all as young Margaret complains all the men are in London.

Sense and Sensibility does start off slowly, but soon the narrative builds momentum, making the second and third acts both enticing and entertaining filled with drama, a duel and suitable developments.

If viewers enjoy quality period films which are not out to shock the audience, then Sense and Sensibility is highly recommended as a beautiful film which is by no means a masterpiece but is certainly marvellous to contemplate.

Sense and Sensibility gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is aesthetically enriching and brilliantly acted.

The Tree of Life

Capturing the Universe’s essence

Reclusive American film maker Terrence Malick’s visually evocative epic The Tree of Life centres on a Southern American family living in the then idyllic town of Waco, Texas in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. A strict and religious father, a loving and luminous mother and three boys is intimately shot and interwoven with a larger meditation on the existence of God, the universe, Birth and Death and the arc from a more pastoral existence to the technology filled society which has defined the 21^st century. The father is played brilliant by Brad Pitt and the mother by Jessica Chastain each representing the balance in nature between order, discipline and change with beauty, grace and tenderness.

Malick’s vision is of a true auteur and is entirely uncompromising, creating a cinematic experience in The Tree of Life which is visually astounding, intimately beautiful and prosaic enhanced with amazing cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki. Using a non-linear narrative, multiple levels of sound combining breathtaking music with snatches of interior monologue from his characters, the audience has to piece together the progression of this journey of a family who suffers a loss by way of nature.

There are no structured scenes but rather a series of visually sublime and breathtaking scenery intercut with a larger vision of the universe’s origins, the development of life on earth and the natural order of selection. Where Malick excels are the scenes of the three brothers innocently playing, focusing on the eldest son, Jack’s viewpoint who is deeply affected by his father’s discipline, balancing his own aggression by acts of affection for his younger siblings. Jack also appears as an older man, played by Sean Penn as an architect in Houston, still affected by the earlier grief which defined his family.

The Tree of Life is not a commercial film and if viewers enjoyed Malick’s two previous films, The Thin Red Line and The New World, then they will appreciate this beautiful yet bewildering meditation on the origins of existence on earth, yet his latest visual offering did impress the jury at Cannes walking off with the 2011 much coveted Palm d’Or. See it to make your own impressions.

Oscar Wilde’s novella The Picture of Dorian Gray published in the summer of 1890 marked the age of aestheticism in the declining years of Victorian England. Wilde at the time of publication wrote `To become a work of art is the object of living’.

A Decaying Image but an Eternal work of Art

In Dorian Gray, the 2009 film version, Gray a wealthy aristocrat sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for eternal youth.  As the young Dorian drifts languidly into a world of debauchery, opium dens, orgies and uncompromising excess, the portrait first painted of him as a beautiful young lord soon reflects the ugliness of Dorian’s actions whilst the character retains his flawless beauty. There is an almost vampire quality to Dorian’s sordid adventures as he slowly but surely delves deeper into the darker spheres of human action from seduction, temptation and ultimately to murder, manipulating all those around him with the exception of his primary influencer Lord Henry Wotton, a brilliant performance by Colin Firth who shines in this part.

Ben Barnes who shot to fame in Prince Caspian and the 2009 film adaptation of Noel Cowards play Easy Virtue, struggles with a character as complex and compelling as Dorian Gray. Barnes portrayal whilst beautiful is bordering on flaccid and his inability to capture the fall from innocence of Dorian Gray is only illuminated by the razor sharp supporting performances of Firth and the remarkably brilliant Rebecca Hall of Vicky Christina Barcelona fame, illustrating that as an actor, Barnes is beautiful to look at but does not have the requisite skill and theatrical maturity to master a complex character like Dorian Gray.

Whilst Oliver Parker’s Victorian Gothic version of  Dorian Gray is fascinating and at times horrific to watch, it falls short as a brilliant work of cinema simply because there has never been a successful screen adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray as the novella is as much about literary symbolism, an ironic portrayal of aestheticism as a means in itself, as it is about decrepitude and vicious narcissistic menace, even resulting in seducing the artist Basil Hallward who paints Dorian’s portrait, a wonderfully brief but vivid performance by Ben Chaplin. Jude Law who starred as the vain and spoilt Lord Alfred Douglas in the film version of Oscar Wilde’s later life, Wilde opposite a fantastic Stephen Fry in the title role, would have been a more suitable Dorian Gray as his skill as an actor would have captured the weaknesses of a character entirely devoted to his own vanity and basking in the fascination that youth, wealth and beauty can cast on an infinitely corruptible society.

Oscar Wilde – either the wallpaper or myself have to go!

Think of Jude Law’s Oscar nominated performance in Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley. Law would have been perfect in Dorian Gray.

For literary enthusiasts Dorian Gray is a film worth watching as a point of discussion on how life imitates art and eventually as with all lovers of aestheticism, art survives above life for art’s sake, far out living those corpses decaying in a murky grave. Images outlive the subject and the portrait however beautiful will remain eternal. For vanity and debauchery, as the Duke of Rochester so magnificently portrayed by Johnny Depp in The Libertine shows, those that yield to an abundance of temptation ultimately perish by the pursuit of their own desires.

As for what Oscar Wilde would comment on a 21^st century Dorian Gray, words far exceed those merits of a celluloid image.