tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60395051230814057002024-03-04T23:47:28.724-08:00Carey Mulligan SpotlightThis Blog is all about British Actress Carey Mulligan. This is also her first fansite which will follow her upcoming career. Famous for roles in Bleak House, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Doctor Who episode ‘Blink’. This blog features the latest news, video, pictures about the actress as soon as we get it.bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-44159128050536676962009-02-17T10:29:00.000-08:002009-02-17T10:31:37.239-08:00Carey Mulligan makes her markGet ready to hear a lot more about indie films' newest It Girl<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Artists/M/Mulligan_Carey/2009/01/26/m1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 256px; height: 200px;" src="http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Artists/M/Mulligan_Carey/2009/01/26/m1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />PARK CITY, Utah -- Some things can't be taught.<br /><br />Such as how to manage the whiplash stardom that arrives with being Hollywood's newest overnight sensation.<br /><br />Just ask little-known British actress Carey Mulligan, who finds herself hailed as the industry's It Girl after breaking big at this year's just-wrapped Sundance film festival.<br /><br />Until a week ago, few outside the industry knew Mulligan's name. Now the 23-year-old is being compared to everyone from Ellen Page to Audrey Hepburn.<br /><br />No pressure or anything.<br /><br />"It's a crazy circus, quite an out-of-body experience, very surreal," she tells Sun Media. "This is my first festival, period, so I've got to enjoy it because I'll never have it again -- it's all downhill from here."<br /> <br /><br />Don't bet on it. Mulligan is a stand-out in two very different films: the tear-jerker The Greatest and the coming-of-age memoir An Education.<br /><br />In the latter, she plays Jenny, an English teenager in the 1960s seduced by an older man played by Peter Saarsgard. Adapted by High Fidelity and About A Boy author Nick Hornby and directed by Lone Scherfig, it's generated the most critical accolades of any film at this Sundance.<br /><br />Reviews for The Greatest have been more tepid -- aside from raves for Mulligan's turn as a pregnant 18-year-old who, after the baby's father is killed in a car accident, moves in with his mourning parents, played by Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon. And yet, as with all Next Big Things, it has been a career years in the making for Mulligan.<br /><br />"It's been a very long process," she says, recalling how she first auditioned for An Education in 2006.<br /><br />Shortly thereafter the production collapsed before eventually being remounted with Scherfig at the helm.<br /><br />"It's always touch and go on all independent films. I never let myself believe it would really get filmed until I was on the set," says Mulligan, who has small roles in two upcoming high-profile movies: Michael Mann's Public Enemies opposite Johnny Depp and the war-themed drama Brothers with Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire.<br /><br />Now, though, An Education is both finished -- and poised for release. After a bidding war, distributor Sony Pictures Classics snapped it up for $3 million, buoyed by the buzz for Mulligan's performance as a 16-year-old who transforms from middle-class teenager to worldly woman.<br /><br />"Playing 16, you are so bad -- or I was at least -- at capping emotions and holding back and not saying the first thing that comes into my head. And that's what Jenny does a lot of," she says. "I was quite socially awkward. Not an introvert but I could say the wrong thing quite a lot. I was always massively enthusiastic. I never had a cool thing. Even now I'm not cool."<br /><br />For proof of this, she offers up her recent appearance on the Sundance party scene.<br /><br />"We went to see some big DJ. We got in, right next to the speakers and deck, apparently the best seats in the place. But it was so loud and unpleasant. I'm sure he's brilliant at what he does, but it's so not my scene."<br /><br />Moreover, Mulligan is swiftly learning that once you have success as an actor, you no longer have your characters to hide behind.<br /><br />"I love telling stories and love being somebody else. I'm not so good at being myself. I can't public speak and a lot of the time I can't articulate myself very well, so I think I really enjoy playing other people more than I like being me. I find that whole photo-taking quite difficult.<br /><br />"When I get here and I'm wearing a dress and they're taking my picture and saying, 'Give us something' you're like, 'Give me a character.' It's very hard to just be you when you're used to being other people. This public side of things is tricky. I don't know what kind of look to pull. I can't stand there with my hand on my hip. I just kind of stand and stare and hope that's good enough." <br /><br />SOURCE<br />http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Artists/M/Mulligan_Carey/2009/01/26/pf-8143691.htmlbs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-61833569029868554252009-02-17T10:24:00.000-08:002009-02-17T10:26:56.058-08:00This fame lark is quite an educationCarey Mulligan has been turning heads. The 23-year-old London-born actress had a meeting with Warren Beatty in Los Angeles.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/01/23/article-1126845-03264470000005DC-707_233x536.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 233px; height: 536px;" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/01/23/article-1126845-03264470000005DC-707_233x536.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />'It's surreal!' she told me. 'I was thinking: "I'm talking to Warren Beatty - what is going on?"'<br /><br />When I spoke to Geoff Gilmore, the director of the Sundance Film Festival, and mentioned Carey's name, his eyes lit up. 'Where did she come from?' he asked.<br /><br />Well, London, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Wales - and Bleak House and Dr Who - is the short answer.<br /><br />Harvey Weinstein called her the 'belle' of the festival, and her gamine beauty has been compared to that of a young Shirley MacLaine or Audrey Hepburn. She arrived in Park City, high up in the snowy mountains above Salt Lake City, Utah, with two films: An Education and The Greatest. And she's beyond sublime in both.<br /><br />In An Education - written by Nick Hornby from Lynn Barber's brief memoir about class, sexual mores and education in the early Sixties (before they started swinging) in Twickenham - Carey plays a 16-year-old schoolgirl whose eyes are opened wider than is polite by an older Lothario.<br /><br />Then, in The Greatest, which is a big weepie, she plays an American college student who is forced by circumstances to live with her boyfriend's parents, played by Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan.<br /><br />Carey has two other films due out this year, which explains why, whenever I bumped into her, she had a different hairstyles.<br /><br />She went Jean Harlow-esque peroxide-blonde to play a Thirties flapper - a small role - opposite Johnny Depp's John Dillinger in Michael Mann's Public Enemies. 'I'm in a nightie, smoking a cigarette, playing a high-class hooker - and then Dillinger dumps me for Marion Cotillard,' Carey said with a laugh.<br /><br />She was struck by the difference in scale of working on An Education, where every penny counted, to the set of Public Enemies in Chicago, where one scene might feature 300 extras, 50 vintage cars and enough food to feed a small country. 'You could eat anything you wanted, at any hour!' she marvelled.<br /><br />Carey's a film festival virgin and was pleasantly shocked by the circus-like atmosphere.<br /><br />'I've never had my photograph taken in the street before, other than when I've been with Keira. But it's happened here - although it hasn't got to a madness level,' she said, referring to the intense paparazzi attention on Keira Knightley, with whom she worked on Pride And Prejudice (Carey played Kitty Bennet). She also met Rosamund Pike on that movie and they're together again in An Education.<br /><br />She has more movies to make this year, but next spring Carey hopes to return to the stage (she was in The Seagull at the Royal Court and on Broadway with Kristin Scott Thomas) in another Chekhov, Uncle Vanya, starring Ralph Fiennes and Ken Stott, and directed by Matthew Warchus.<br /><br />When we chatted in Park City, Carey told me she felt jetlagged, even though she wasn't. 'It's like I'm out of my body and looking down, going: "What's going on?" '<br /><br />What's going on? A star is being born, that's what.<br /><br />SOURCE<br />http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1126845/Sienna-Miller-make-Broadway-debut-sexually-provocative-landowners-daughter.htmlbs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-45275864902553638782009-02-17T10:18:00.000-08:002009-02-17T10:24:06.870-08:00Carey Mulligan is a Sundance sensationA 23-year-old British actress called Carey Mulligan (pictured) has become an overnight Hollywood sensation at the Sundance film festival, now underway in Utah. She's the star of An Education, a coming-of-age drama based on the Observer journalist Lynn Barber's early 1960s memoir about a 16-year-old schoolgirl who falls in love with an older man.<br /><br />Directed by Lone Scherfig, the Danish filmmaker known for her 2000 comedy Italian for Beginners, and with a script by the London writer Nick Hornby, the film has been receiving rave reviews since it was screened on Sunday night. “There's no movie in this festival that's quite as ravishing, as witty, as well-acted or as satisfying overall as An Education," writes Andrew O’Hehir on salon.com. He goes on to describe Mulligan’s turn as the precocious 16-year-old Jenny as “a performance of Audrey Hepburn-esque starmaking intensity”.<br /><br />The ”older man”, a 30-something bounder who drives a sports car, charms her parents (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour) and steers Jenny off the path to Oxford, is played by the American actor Peter Sarsgaard. Emma Thompson plays Jenny’s strict headmistress and Olivia Williams her favourite teacher.<br /><br />But the break-out performance comes from the little-known Mulligan, who until now has had parts in Waking the Dead and Doctor Who and the regulation costume dramas. According to a review on IndieWire.com, Mulligan is "fantastic, utterly believable as a schoolgirl who desperately wants to be seen as a sophisticated adult".<br /><br />An Education began as a 12-page story by Barber, best known for her newspaper interviews, in Granta magazine. Some critics are already claiming it’s the best film at Sundance and, to the delight of Hornby and Scherfig, Sony have snapped up the US distribution rights for between $3m - $4m.<br /><br />SOURCE<br />http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people,0,lynn-barber-memoir-makes-a-star-of-carey-mulligan,72017bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-13121155448757099082009-02-17T10:14:00.000-08:002009-02-17T10:18:21.934-08:00An Education’s Carey Mulligan on Not Playing a Lolita<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.nymag.com/images/2/daily/2009/01/20090123_carey_250x375.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 375px;" src="http://images.nymag.com/images/2/daily/2009/01/20090123_carey_250x375.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Carey Mulligan had this year’s one true star-is-born moment at Sundance. She’s on her way to being a serious movie star, with a sharp ensemble part in The Greatest and a gobsmacking star turn in the Nick Hornby–scripted An Education. We spoke to Mulligan about having an “out-of-body experience” at Sundance and realizing how young she looks in a school uniform.<br /><br />You’re the talk of the festival. Are things getting busy for you?<br />It’s been mostly photos and TV-thingies. This is the first day I’ve really interviewed all day. I am not bored or jaded. I’ve never really done very much of this. I am having an out-of-body experience.<br /><br />You’re such a newcomer, I know next to nothing about you — sorry! Where are you from?<br />I was born in London, lived in Germany until I was 8. My father ran hotels. And then back. Now I’m just outside London. I acted all the way through school. My first job was Pride and Prejudice when I was 18 turning 19, and then I just carried on after that.<br /><br />You’ve worked on stage and TV, but this is your first starring film role. How’d you nab it?<br />I got the job about five months before I started shooting, but I’d read it two years before. I felt like it’d just been going on for ever and ever and ever, and I’d wanted it forever. It’s so disheartening and sad when independent films collapse. So I tried to not get my hopes up. When we started shooting, I was like, “Really? Okay.”<br /><br />Was there any advice from Susan Sarandon or Emma Thompson for the newcomer?<br />You learn a lot about how to handle yourself on a film set from people like Emma. At the end of the day, she bought three crates of wine and beer, and pizza for the whole crew, and I thought, “Now that’s a proper leading lady…”<br /><br />Most people will assume you’re 16, but you’re really 23. How’d you tap into a teenage self?<br />Mainly it was just thinking about the awkwardness of being 16 and your inability to cap your emotions — your inability to stop yourself from saying what’s on the tip of your tongue. Then I watched it, and I was like, “I don’t think I look that young.” And when I am in a school uniform, I’m like, “I am a child, it’s so horrible!”<br /><br />You don’t play a victim, and Sarsgaard doesn’t play a predator. But she’s clearly being taken advantage of…<br />I wouldn’t want it to be that sort of young girl, completely being taken advantage of — and I don’t think you’ve seen a film with this kind of dynamic. There are scenes where she initiates things, actually flips it round. He is not a bad guy; he is not a villain; there’s nothing sexual about what they have together. When it collapses, it collapses because he is just [such] a lost soul.<br /><br />There’s been a bit of silly controversy in America over The Reader, since Kate Winslet’s middle-aged character seduces a teenage boy. Has that been on your radar?<br />I don’t know how an American audience would view it, but for an English audience, sex is consensual from 16. Sixteen or seventeen seems fairly respectable to most people, I think.<br /><br />So what’s next?<br />I am doing Uncle Vanya in spring 2010. And I just finished this film with Jim Sheridan, my first time doing an American accent, improvising, whilst holding a 3-month-old baby. It was just intense.<br /><br />SOURCE<br />http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/01/an_educations_carey_mulligan_o.htmlbs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-90224566516082828402009-02-17T09:57:00.000-08:002009-02-17T10:01:50.358-08:00THE NEW AUDREY?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.nypost.com/seven/01212009/photos/ent044a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 290px; height: 658px;" src="http://www.nypost.com/seven/01212009/photos/ent044a.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />PARK CITY, Utah - A little-known 24-year-old British actress has emerged as the "It" girl of this year's Sundance Film Festival. Carey Mulligan is being compared to Audrey Hepburn for her vastly different performances in two films directed by women that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.<br /><br />MORE: Lou Blogs From the Sundance Film Festival<br /><br />In Lone Scherfig's "An Education," which has garnered perhaps the best critical response of any film so far, she plays an English schoolgirl in the early 1960s who is seduced by a sophisticated 30-something man played by Peter Saarsgard. Scripted by novelist Nick Hornby, "An Education" co-stars Dominic Cooper, Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina and Sally Hawkins.<br /><br />Mulligan plays an 18-year-old American in first-time director Shana Feste's "The Greatest," which premiered in the dramatic competition. Critical response to this tearjerker shot in Nyack, NY, has been mixed.<br /><br />But Mulligan was acclaimed for her performance as a young woman who becomes pregnant during a one-night stand with a classmate. He dies in a car accident - and she goes to live with his grieving parents, played by Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan.<br /><br />Mulligan, who had small roles in "Pride and Prejudice" and "And When Did You Last See Your Father?," will be seen later this year in a pair of big-budget American flicks, "Public Enemies" opposite Johnny Depp and "Brothers" with Jake Gyllenhaal. In the meantime, buyers are reportedly pursuing both of her Sundance titles. The producers of "An Education" accepted a $3 million bid yesterday from Sony Pictures Classics.<br /><br />Searchlight did snap up a low-buzz title, "Adam," for an undisclosed sum. Max Mayer's romantic dramedy stars Hugh Dancy as a Manhattanite with Aspberger's syndrome who falls for neighbor Rose Byrne.<br /><br />And Magnolia was reported to have paid in the low to mid- six figures for rights to "Humpday," one of the most talked-about starless titles at the festival.<br /><br />Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard, veterans of the DIY, improvised genre known as mumblecore, star as two straight guys who plan to make a gay porn movie together in the comedy, directed by Lynn Shelton.<br /><br />In a sign of the rapidly changing direction of distribution for small indie features, "Humpday" will be made available on video-on-demand a month before its theatrical debut this summer.And IFC announced it would use its video-on-demand network to make five features available simultaneously with their debuts at March's South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.<br /><br />SOURCE:<br /><br />* - http://www.nypost.com/seven/01212009/entertainment/movies/the_new_audrey__151184.htmbs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-43367188138942344582009-02-17T09:53:00.000-08:002009-02-17T09:57:07.522-08:00A Young Actress Wins Over Sundance<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://media.wwd.com/images/processed/wwd/2009/02/02/landscape/01-large/eye03.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 529px; height: 385px;" src="http://media.wwd.com/images/processed/wwd/2009/02/02/landscape/01-large/eye03.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />It would be an understatement to call actress Carey Mulligan busy. The newcomer spent the better part of the last year shooting two films back-to-back — “An Education,” and “The Greatest” — followed by making her Broadway debut as Nina in the acclaimed revival of “The Seagull” opposite Kristin Scott Thomas. And so far, critics and audiences alike have been pleased to meet the button-nosed 23-year-old: “An Education” sparked a bidding war at the Sundance Film Festival after its premiere before finally selling to Sony Classics for a rumored $4 million, and her turn in “The Greatest” also won strong reviews at the festival.<br /><br />“It’s been a really good year,” says the London native, who manages to exude Brit appeal while in Park City, Utah, thanks in part to a pinstripe blazer pinched from her “An Education” co-star Peter Sarsgaard’s significant other, Maggie Gyllenhaal. “I went to her house and she had bags and bags from cleaning out her closet, so I did rather well,” Mulligan says.<br /><br />Costume played an important role in “An Education,” a Nick Hornby-scripted film based on famed British journalist Lynn Barber’s coming-of-age memoir set in swanky Sixties London and Paris. As Jenny, a precocious 16-year-old whose aspirations for Oxford are derailed by an older man (Sarsgaard), Mulligan alternates between little-girl kilts and sophisticated frocks. “It was really funny. The male camera crew couldn’t adjust to a 22-year-old actress in a schoolgirl uniform,” she laughs. Of the more sophisticated dresses she dons as Sarsgaard’s arm candy, she says, “I wanted to keep all of them.” She only made off with one, though, plus the Prada heels that went with it.<br /><br />“I just thought Jenny was such a brilliant female character,” continues Mulligan, whose co-stars include British actresses Emma Thompson, Olivia Williams, Rosamund Pike, Sally Hawkins and Cara Seymour. “When you’re 16, there’s a lot going on with hormones and becoming a woman. It’s easy to get caught up in a whirlwind and that’s what she does.”<br /><br />Mulligan had to switch gears — and accents — to make “The Greatest,” a contemporary film costarring Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon as a couple who lose a child. “We shot ‘The Greatest’ in 25 days, so it really was the fastest you could work,” she says. “It was brilliant because it was my first American lead role, so that was a real challenge.”<br /><br />Although she never had formal acting training, Mulligan landed her first film role at an open casting call for 2005’s “Pride and Prejudice,” starring Keira Knightley. Having such experienced co-stars has certainly helped the budding starlet find her footing. “It’s like one great drama training for me every time I meet someone like Pierce or Emma,” she says. “I just try and watch and learn as much as I can.”<br /><br />And despite her burgeoning film career, Mulligan vows to act in at least one play a year. “Next year I’m doing ‘Uncle Vanya’ in the West End [in London]. I’m trying to knock out all the Chekhov while I’m still young,” she laughs (as it turns out, Gyllenhaal has reportedly been approached to appear in the production as well).<br /><br />Between jobs, Mulligan heads to her family’s house in the Austrian Alps to ski and hike, and goes to the theater. “I’m going to fly to New York on the way home to see my friend Jenna Malone in ‘Mourning Becomes Electra’ and I’m seeing ‘The Cherry Orchard,’” she says.<br /><br />She may also do some shopping — her favorite labels include Chloé and Miu Miu. “I borrowed my friend’s Miu Miu handbag for Sundance because I’m completely obsessed with it, but I can never shell out the money to buy it,” she sighs.<br /><br />SOURCE<br /><br />* - http://www.wwd.com/lifestyle-news/eye/a-young-actress-wins-over-sundance-1961661?gnewsid=236b9f133b6a571fe48ed76ea2a9e588bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-41027414806533169372009-02-17T05:58:00.000-08:002009-02-17T10:32:15.802-08:00The Greatest - News Round Up<span style="font-weight:bold;">The Greatest</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/19/sundance_greatest1_300_2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 350px;" src="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/19/sundance_greatest1_300_2.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Starring Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon, The Greatest marks the debut of a young filmmaker and screenwriter, Shana Feste, and follows a family coping with the sudden death of their teenage son. Newcomer Carey Mulligan plays the girlfriend of the son who shows up to further complicate the grieving process for the parents. There's some buzz about both Brosnan's and Sarandon's performances as well as talk that this could be a "career-launching" role for Mulligan.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Pierce Brosnan Makes Up For Mamma Mia!</span><br /><br />Pierce Brosnan, in search of a career path post James Bond, didn’t do himself any favors singing in the film of “Mamma Mia!” He was awful in a cheap looking, terrible movie that was an inexplicable hit.<br /><br />But with “The Greatest,” which premiered last night at Sundance, all is forgiven. Brosnan and the remarkable Susan Sarandon are just perfect in a film that clearly echoes Robert Redford’s classic “Ordinary People” but has enough new twists to make it very interesting.<br /><br />In the film, Allen (Brosnan) and Grace (Sarandon)’s 18-year-old son has been killed in a car accident just after losing his virginity to the girl he loves and graduating from high school. Director Shana Feste indicates well enough that Bennett (Aaron Johnson) has been the apple of their eyes. But they still have a younger teenage son (Johnny Simmons) to deal with, plus Allen’s been having an affair with a fellow professor at his college, so you know the marriage hasn’t been perfect.<br /><br />Grief envelopes the family. Grace is obsessed with the man whose truck collided with her son’s and keeps vigil at his coma bedside to find out what Bennett might have said in his final moments. Allen bottles up his emotions until they make him ill. Ryan has a teen drug problem, and goes on the sly to group therapy. And there’s Bennett’s girlfriend. She’s pregnant.<br /><br />Feste could have turned this all into bad “Ordinary People” or a soap opera. A first time director and screenwriter, she takes her team into a field already well trodden with clichés. But she manages to avoid most of them, and carve out a simple new take on an old story with class and subtlety. Carey Mulligan makes a powerful debut herself as Rose, the pregnant and scared girlfriend. Sarandon is a knockout as the grieving and not necessarily sympathetic mom. And Brosnan, this time, is in right key.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Sundance Review: The Greatest</span><br /><br />As I was walking out of the theater after seeing The Greatest, I had the urge to find myself a broom closet or some other nearby private place so I could cry for at least five minutes. It’s that type of movie and not just because it’s so sad. It’s a very emotional film all around that will likely have people dabbing their eyes as they watch two parents come to terms with the loss of their son. The Greatest is both heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once.<br /><br />The film opens with a semi-steamy scene between Bennett (Aaron Johnson) and Rose (Carey Mulligan). Afterwards when they’re in the car together, Bennett is about to confess his feelings to Rose when a truck hits them from behind and Bennett is killed. The story follows Bennett’s mother (Susan Sarandon), father (Pierce Brosnan), his brother Ryan (Johnny Simmons) and almost-girlfriend Rose (Carey Mulligan) as each of them grieves both separately and together for the loss of Bennett, whom we learn throughout the movie, was an all around great guy.<br /><br />Bennett’s mother grieves day and night for her son, while his father is attempts to detach himself from the loss in an effort to stay strong for his family. Ryan has lived in the shadow of his brother all of his life and now even after his brother’s death he’s still playing second fiddle. He turns to a teen grief support group where he meets Ashley (Zoe Kravitz), another grieving sibling who understands what he’s going through. Rose, shows up at Bennett’s family’s house to introduce herself and having no where else to go, they agree to take her in. Her presence adds a new layer of grief as Rose wants to know Bennett better through them, yet no one in the family is really emotionally capable of talking to her.<br /><br />As we watch Bennett’s family and Rose grieve, we get the occasional flashback of Bennett through Rose’s memory. It is through these flashbacks that we come to understand just how unique their relationship was. While the flashbacks are happy, they’re bittersweet because we know how things are going to turn out for Bennett and Rose’s budding romance.<br /><br />The Greatest has moments of levity that keep the movie from becoming entirely too depressing but for the most part, this is a film about love and grief. Sarandon in particular delivers such a raw performance that at times, it becomes uncomfortable to watch her because it’s clear her character is on the verge of falling apart and though her husband wants to help her, he doesn’t know how. Brosnan delivers a fantastic performance as the helpless husband who’s bottling up his grief for the sake of his family. As Ryan, Simmons carries the role well as the occasionally strung out and slightly bitter younger brother who secretly admired his big brother despite always being outshined by him. Surrounded by exceptional acting, Mulligan holds up well as Rose, the sweet girl who’s dealing with her own grief and looking to get to know the man she believes was the love of her life.<br /><br />In general, I’m apprehensive to see films that seem to be sad for sadness’ sake, however The Greatness really does successfully capture the heartbreaking grief involved in the loss of a child as a family tries figure out how to move past it. The grief in the film feels real and if you can handle the almost painful realism, this could be a cathartic experience for anyone who has had the unfortunate experience of losing a loved one. What’s more, there’s a love story here that is both happy and sad, as we see how Bennett and Rose got together and how their relationship played out up until the final moments of his life. I let the theater wanting a good cry and not just because the movie was sad but because there’s an emotional depth here which rings true. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">MOVIEHOLE AT SUNDANCE DAY TWO</span><br /><br />The actress is sublime in this film. British newcomer Carey Mulligan deserves a special mention as Rose, the 18-year old who fell in love with a boy only to have never gotten to know him before his tragic death. This is a ferociously talented actress to watch for.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Mulligan dismisses Sundance buzz</span><br />Monday, January 19, 2009, 14:22<br /><br />Carey Mulligan has dismissed the buzz around her at the Sundance Film Festival as "a bit blah".<br /><br />"No [I don't feel pressure]," the British actress said, when asked how she felt about being touted as "the next big thing" at the festival, where she is promoting two films.<br /><br />"It's all sort of blah. It's just good to be here with two films that I really love and that I had a good time working on."<br /><br />The 23-year-old was speaking at the Sundance premiere of her new film The Greatest, in which she stars alongside Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan.<br /><br />She also appears in An Education, adapted from the Nick Hornby novel and starring Alfred Molina.<br />Click here!<br /><br />"Sundance is a circus but it's really cool," she said. "I love it. We were so excited when we got in."<br /><br />SOURCE<br /><br />* - http://www.buzzsugar.com/2700125<br />* - http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480474,00.html<br />* - http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Sundance-Review-The-Greatest-11604.html<br />* - http://www.moviehole.net/200917361-moviehole-at-sundance-day-two<br />* - http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/showbiz/Mulligan-dismisses-Sundance-buzz/article-625102-detail/article.htmlbs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-34836532293810381732009-02-17T05:01:00.000-08:002009-02-17T10:32:02.724-08:00An Education - News Round Up<span style="font-weight: bold;">The 2009 Sundance Film Festival Preview </span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/13/carey_mulligan_kcapnqnc_300.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/13/carey_mulligan_kcapnqnc_300.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />An Education teams one of Denmark's finest directors, Lone Scherfig, with British novelist Nick Hornby, and the results should certainly be interesting. It's a coming-of-age tale of a 16-year-old named Jenny (played by Carey Mulligan) set in 1961 London, who becomes involved with a much older man played by Peter Sarsgaard. It has what possibly what could be deemed as one of the most impressive who's who of British actors including everyone from Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson to Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The 5 Films Likeliest To Cause A Sundance '09 Bidding War</span><br /><br />Those tall, icy piles of matter smothering Park City every January aren't always snow — they could just as easily be discarded Sundance dreams. But as usual, a few lucky ones will avoid the freeze.<br /><br />Amid the contraction and pocketbook panic gripping the independents and mini-majors this winter, predicting a Sundance bear market seems a safe, obvious choice for 2009. But it also seems relative — especially following a year when sales of festival films reportedly plunged 66 percent from their collective 2007 high of $45 million, and eight-figure buys like Hamlet 2 (and its subsequent seven-figure gross) signaled a reality check that had little or nothing to do with an imploding economy. Distributors need content; they just don't need to walk away with one film to show for $11 million.<br /><br />So what will they be spending on — and for how much — over the next 10 days? We scoured this year's selections for a few intrepid predictions:<br /><br />· An Education. Nick Hornby adapted his novel about Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a 16-year-old London girl whose coming of age is kick-started after meeting an older man (Peter Sarsgaard) in 1961. She's on her way to Oxford, he's on his way to a nightclub, holy Christ what will she choose? Word is that An Education is a starmaker for Mulligan, aided by another anticipated film at the fest (see below) and a supporting cast — Sarsgaard, Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina, Sally Hawkins — that will attract the likes of Sony Pictures Classics, Miramax and Focus Features for at least $4 million.<br /><br />· The Greatest. Setting itself up as an In the Bedroom without the undercooked revenge subplot, The Greatest thrusts Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon into grief over the loss of their teenage son in a car accident. Mulligan appears as the dead kid's girlfriend, lessons are learned, Oscar clips ensue — again, if it's any good: Sundance's bead on middle-class white mourning is growing tired, and Brosnan's executive producer credit whispers "vanity project." But to the extent they even show up with any money at all, the Weinsteins and Paramount Vantage are suckers for this kind of stuff. It may not leave Park City with a deal, but we'll probably hear numbers between $4 million and $5 million throughout the week.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sundance Unveils A New Star, So Does Ecuador</span><br /><br />Remember the name Carey Mulligan. The twenty three old British actress is about to become an It girl. Everything is in place for it too. Yesterday at Sundance the fire marshall had to turn away ticket holders at the Egyptian Theatre because word was Mulligan’s star role in “An Education” was so hot. I hate to say it—because who knows what will happen—but Mulligan turns in an Oscar and award winning performance much on the par of Ellen Page in “Juno” in the Lone Scherfig (a gorgeous Danish director) film.<br /><br />“An Education” is just about perfect, too: written by Nick Hornby based on the memoir of a British journalist, the early 60s suburban London story has all the makings of a substantial hit for any distributor. The cast includes Peter Saarsgard, Dominic Cooper, Emma Thompson, and a terrific Alfred Molina in this coming of age story. But it’s 23-year-old Mulligan playing a wise 16-year-old who just pops off the screen. The amazing thing, she’s just as memorable in “The Greatest,” a film seen on Saturday that was so good it prompted a standing ovation.<br /><br />So 2009 should be the year of Carey Mulligan. Isn’t it interesting too that she’s already got powerhouse CAA talent agency on her side, with Kevin Huvane and Chris Andrews—who know talent—steering her along. Shades of Gwyneth and Cate!<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">"An Education,"</span> an early-'60s London coming-of-age fable from writer Nick Hornby and director Lone Scherfig. (This is a surprise of a different sort, in that Sundance has only started to become a major showcase for non-American films.) In a performance of Audrey Hepburn-esque starmaking intensity, young English actress Carey Mulligan plays 16-year-old Jenny, a precocious student, talented cellist and aspiring woman of the world who's trapped in the middle-class suburban dreariness of Twickenham, circa 1961.<br /><br />As writer Hornby (the author of "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy") explained after the vastly oversold downtown screening I attended, England in the early '60s wasn't yet, you know, '60s England. When Jenny meets a charming and handsome older guy who we can instantly tell is bad news, he knows about jazz and Ravel and art auctions and supper clubs and weekends in Paris; Carnaby Street and Twiggy and Brian Jones are still in the future. David, the smooth operator, is played by Peter Sarsgaard, who does such a good Ewan McGregor I convinced myself he was McGregor for a while.<br /><br />David is in the vicinity of 30 and drives a sports car and has nice clothes and knows "colored people." He tells outrageous lies and charms Jenny's parents and gradually steers her off her track of Oxford-bound academic excellence and onto one of his own devising. On one hand, clearly a bad idea. On the other, as Jenny demands of her school headmistress (a forbidding cameo for Emma Thompson), what the hell can Oxford do for young women in profoundly unliberated early-'60s England? A long, dull grind of study followed by a long, dull grind behind a desk at spinsterish jobs like hers? At least hanging out with David is fun.<br /><br />You could say that there's nothing surprising in the oft-told tale of the seducer and the schoolgirl -- hanging out with David is indeed fun, until the dynamic between them begins to shift subtly -- but this one's told superbly, with heart, humor, a marvelous supporting cast and a dazzling recreation of a long-lost, pre-Mod London. It's a movie with many wonderful small moments, courtesy of Alfred Molina as Jenny's dad or Dominic Cooper as David's more cautious best friend or the beautiful Olivia Williams as Jenny's favorite teacher. Fundamentally it belongs to the irresistible Mulligan as Jenny, a mouthy, awkward, almost-sexy combination of innocence and wisdom. You almost never see movies about teenagers that treat them with this much respect; sure, Jenny is governed by her hormones and her half-realized dreams of the future, but she's also much smarter than the grownups around her. As her relationship with David grows murkier, it becomes less and less clear which one is the adult and which the child.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sundance: An education and 'An Education'</span><br /><br />So much for preamble. On to An Education. This slight, charming, lulling coming-of-age story tells of teenaged Jenny (Carey Mulligan, poised for breakout after this showpiece and her central part as dead-boy's-girlfriend in The Greatest), and David (Peter Sarsgaard), the mysterious thirtysomething man who introduces her to a world of sophistication beyond her stodgy London suburb in dull, pre-Beatles Britain. Danish director Lone Scherfig (Italian For Beginners) has an appropriately gentle, feminine touch. (Is it okay for me to say feminine? This year's festival is a casual marvel when it comes to the number of female filmmakers in the mix, and I trust that from now on, no mention of sexual equality will be necessary since the situation will just be ... normal.) The friendly and soothing script is adapted by the redoubtable Nick Hornby of glorious High Fidelity and About A Boy fame from an autobiographical magazine piece by British journalist Lynn Barber.<br /><br />And certainly the cast is plummy and hip: Sarsgaard plays a fine balance of suave and slippery as the gentleman caller; Mulligan, 22 at the time of filming, emerges from schoolgirl togs to look Audrey Hepburn-yummy; Dominic Cooper and an effortlessly funny Rosamund Pike nearly steal the pic as David's ever-so-raffish friends; and Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour fuss and fumble as Jenny's tea-cup-rattling parents, a pair that might have been played by Graham Chapman and Terry Jones in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />HOW TO MAKE GREAT MOVIES ON A SHOESTRING</span><br /><br />And yet, bad or good, the films were easier to enjoy than last year's grim parade. BBC Films' An Education, for instance, lived up to its Sundance hype. This delicately told age-gap drama from Denmark's Lone Scherfig sees 23-year-old Carey Mulligan stepping deftly either side of the child-adult divide as the A-level schoolgirl who finds herself being charmed by Peter Sarsgaard's older man. The world of riches and travel his character opens up threatens the girl's progress out of Twickenham to Oxford University. A sharp critique of the meaning of learning, An Education couldn't be more timely.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">SUNDANCE RUNDOWN<br /></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://blog.spout.com/wp-content/uploads/yapb_cache/an_education_02.8bgqdheamiskogk00wo8gosck.cnqqfgkqrd44ckgc80g40skc.th.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 424px; height: 192px;" src="http://blog.spout.com/wp-content/uploads/yapb_cache/an_education_02.8bgqdheamiskogk00wo8gosck.cnqqfgkqrd44ckgc80g40skc.th.jpeg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />An Education (dir. Lone Scherfig) – Thousands of journalists and industry wags and filmgoers arrived at Sundance without a clue who British actress Carey Mulligan was. One week later, she was the industry’s hottest name and not because of her supporting role opposite Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon in The Greatest. No, expect to be hearing much more about the coming-of-age period film An Education and Mulligan’s starring turn as a schoolgirl in 1961 England whose dreams of A-levels and Oxford are put on hold when she falls for a much older (and somewhat shady) man (Peter Sarsgaard). Scripted with wit and intelligence – would we expect anything else? – by Nick Hornby and directed with polish and sensitivity by Lone Scherfig, An Education avoids nearly every Lolita tendency, instead concentrating an on a sometimes hilarious and sometimes devastating critique of what it meant to be a middle class girl on the eve of the Sexual Revolution. Featuring memorable supporting turns by Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams, Rosamund Pike and Dominic Cooper, An Education was swiftly swooped up by Sony Pictures Classics. This was the finest film I saw at Sundance and I’d expect it to be an Oscar contender.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Sundance 2009: In the Loop puts rest of the fest in the shade<br /></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/a0/0f/c4e3facc448ca04fa0eb5e313247.jpeg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 405px; height: 300px;" src="http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/a0/0f/c4e3facc448ca04fa0eb5e313247.jpeg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />There's been some aggro this week. On Wednesday, a Variety critic called John Anderson punched Jeff Dowd, the producer who inspired the character of the Dude in The Big Lebowski, when the latter pestered him about his unfavourable response to a doc called Dirt! The Movie. Disappointingly there was no return punch, nor was there any blood. I guess you take what you can when the business of buying and selling has been so slow. After the Brooklyn's Finest deal at the weekend there was a light flurry of small sales. The highlights have been Sony Pictures Classics stumping up about $3m (£2.2m) for Lone Scherfig's drama An Education, which stars new British It girl Carey Mulligan as a modern day Holly Golightly. IFC, which buys movies every five minutes to feed its growing VOD pipeline, took the Norwegian Nazi zombie horror flick Dead Snow from the French sales agency Elle Driver (how cool is that name?), while Magnolia Pictures bought the mumblecore 2.0 comedy Humpday, a real crowdpleaser all week.<br /><br />As the weekend approached buyers continued to swirl around the Anna Wintour doc The September Issue and the drama The Greatest (again starring Carey Mulligan), plus several studios were interested in the Uma Thurman comedy Motherhood (co-star Minnie Driver inflicted a five-song set on the after-party on Wednesday). There's been plenty of acclaim for Lee Daniels's drama Push: Based on the Novel By Sapphire and Oliver Hirschbiegel's Five Minutes of Heaven, which tackles the Troubles. I liked Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as gay lovers in the wild and wildly uncommercial comedy I Love You Phillip Morris, as well as The Cove, an eco-doc about dolphin slaughter in Japan that plays like a thriller and has adaptation potential. I walked out of an interminably drippy romance called Peter and Vandy and tried – believe me – to flee the Polish brothers' 1960s-set comedy Manure (it's too easy, so I won't go there) starring Billy Bob Thornton and Téa Leoni. Alas I was thwarted, flanked as I was on one side by a middle-aged woman who laughed spikily in all the wrong places and was not about to get up for anybody (even if you were having a heart attack) and on the other by an elderly man who fell asleep within the first couple of minutes. He had the better time.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">An Education<span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span> stars British actress Carey Mulligan as an early '60s teenager caught between marrying an older man (Peter Sarsgaard) and chasing a riskier life of creativity and independence. The movie was acquired by Sony Classics — and won the international drama audience award.<br /><br />Mulligan, 23, was poised for a Sundance starmaking moment with two films. In the other, The Greatest, she's a teenager who tells her deceased boyfriend's family she is carrying his baby. By the time she turns up this summer as Johnny Depp's lover in the 1930s gangster movie Public Enemies, Mulligan may already have broken through.<br /><br />As the festival began, she was cautiously hopeful about mercurial "festival buzz."<br /><br />"As a young actress, when you haven't done big films, you come up against the name thing time and time again, where you're not enough of a name and studios don't want you," she said. "If there's anything that comes out of Sundance, it might make it slightly easier for me to get seen."<br /><br />Others came with distribution locked up, but were seeking — or found — validation of other kinds. <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />DRAMATIC GRAND PRIZE: "An Education"</span><br /><br />An almost painfully perfect recreation of early-'60s London -- before it really became '60s London, that is -- and a starmaking performance from Carey Mulligan as mouthy, precocious, cello-playing and French-speaking 16-year-old Jenny, so eager to escape her suburban family that she falls for suave, older, Mr. Obvious Bad News (Peter Sarsgaard). Scripted by English novelist Nick Hornby ("High Fidelity") and directed by Danish helmer Lone Scherfig ("Italian for Beginners"), this is marvelously well-constructed period entertainment with a feminist bite. One can argue it's less substantial than the next three films on my list, each completely different from "An Education" and from each other. But the way to settle a four-way tie is with your heart, and I loved this film as I loved no other at Sundance this year. Sony Pictures Classics apparently felt the same way, which is why "An Education" should reach theaters later this year.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">AN EDUCATION REVIEWS</span><br />http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=reviews&Id=11531<br />http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117939422.html?categoryid=2471&cs=1<br />http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Sundance-Review-An-Education-11635.html<br /><br /><br />SOURCE<br /><br />* - http://defamer.com/5130965/the-5-films-likeliest-to-cause-a-sundance-09-bidding-war<br />* - http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480692,00.html<br />* - http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/feature/2009/01/19/sundance_3/<br />* - http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/01/sundance-an-edu.html<br />* - http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/feb/15/berlin-film-festival-budget-films<br />* - http://www.filter-mag.com/index.php?id=18389&c=1<br />* - http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2009-01-25-sundance-wrapup_N.htm<br />* - http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/feature/2009/01/26/sundance_wrap/bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-55421718577847425422009-02-17T04:51:00.000-08:002009-02-17T04:56:02.669-08:00Carey Mulligan - Straight to the top of the classAt just 23, UK star Carey Mulligan is working with Johnny Depp and Michael Mann and was the toast of the Berlin Film Festival. Gaynor Flynn meets her<br /><br />In the space of a few weeks, Carey Mulligan has gone from being a virtual unknown to the next big thing in the film industry. Some are even predicting an Oscar nomination next year for the 23-year-old British actress after her star turn in Lone Scherfig's An Education, a coming-of-age tale in which she plays a London schoolgirl in the Sixties who falls for a much older man (Peter Sarsgaard). Based on the journalist Lynn Barber's memoirs, and written by Nick Hornby, the film wowed audiences, first at the Sundance Film Festival last month and now in Berlin, and has turned Mulligan into the newcomer of the moment.<br /><br />"They didn't want me for the role, initially," laughs the actress. "I auditioned ages ago with Beeban Kidron. Then Beeban pulled out and it collapsed. That was two years ago. Then Lone came on, but they didn't want to bring me in. She had a list of people, and the ones that they thought she should bring in had ticks next to their names. I didn't have a tick, but she saw my tape and said, 'She should come in.' If she hadn't had the time to watch all the tapes, I wouldn't be talking to you today."<br /><br />Mulligan probably wouldn't be in Berlin this week either, where she was named one of the 10 Shooting Stars of 2009 (former winners include Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz). "This week has been freaky," she says, laughing.<br /><br />It began on Sunday night when she had to present her very first award – at the Baftas. The previous Wednesday, An Education had had its European premiere in Berlin. She admits that she was concerned "that the Europeans might hate it", but she needn't have worried. The film generated more rave reviews for the young actress, and sparked even more comparisons with Audrey Hepburn (Mulligan has short, cropped hair, and a similar elfin beauty).<br /><br />Mulligan has four films due for release in 2009, with some of the biggest names in the business. Besides An Education (which also stars Emma Thompson and Alfred Molina), there's The Greatest (with Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon), Michael Mann's Public Enemies (with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale) and Jim Sheridan's Brothers (with Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman).<br /><br />"Presenting a Bafta was more nerve-wracking than anything else I've done," she laughs. "I was terrified. I've never worn a full-length gown, and I never wear strappy shoes. I couldn't walk in them."<br /><br />Mulligan first came to the attention of audiences in 2005, when she made her feature-film debut as Kitty Bennet in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice. She then put in a confident turn in Anand Tucker's And When Did You Last See Your Father?, did some television (Doctor Who) and recently impressed audiences on stage in New York with her performance in The Seagull.<br /><br />" It was one of the most important experiences of my life," she says. "I love making films, but doing theatre is like falling in love with life every night. It took me a while to believe they'd cast me, so I was determined to be the best Nina ever." She had surgery for appendicitis in the middle of the run, but was back on stage within a week.<br /><br />The Belgian director Marion Hansel, who was on this year's Shooting Stars jury in Berlin, isn't surprised by Mulligan's success. "Carey started very young, so she's already a real professional. You can see that in the different material she's done. She has had a lot of experience in very different parts. She has a wide range of possibilities, which is very exciting."<br /><br />"It doesn't feel like things are changing that much," says the actress about the hype surrounding her. "It's probably made it easier for me to get a job, but nobody's seen An Education apart from people at Sundance and Berlin. It's all very well this buzz, but it's not based on an awful lot. It's not like the world's going, 'This is a great film.' My parts in Brothers and Public Enemies are both small: I'm not running around with Johnny Depp for the whole movie,even though I wish that was the case! An Education was the one I was most excited about seeing. I was sobbing. You never ever imagine that you're going to get to play a lead."<br /><br />Mulligan was born in England. Her father is a hotel manager, and when she was two and a half, the family moved to Germany for several years because of his work. That's where she first discovered her passion for acting.<br /><br />"My brother and I were at the International School of Düsseldorf, and they did these amazing, lavish productions. Because they had boys and girls up to the age of 18, they could have people playing men and women. They did The King and I, and my brother was cast as one of the little kids. My mother and I went to watch the rehearsals, and I burst into tears because I wasn't in it, so the director let me in."<br /><br />As for what's next, she's not allowed to say, she jokes. "It's annoying, but they want to make an announcement. When I knew I was coming to Berlin, I said, 'They're going to ask me what I'm doing next.' And they said, 'Yep, but you can't say.' And I was like, 'It'll make it sound like I don't have a job!' But I do have a job; I'm not going to be sitting around on my arse eating crisps waiting for the phone to ring."<br /><br />Right now, however, Mulligan has far more important things on her mind.<br /><br />"I don't like having my photo taken," she admits. "But I got much better at doing stills on set with An Education, because Lone said, 'Look, the stills promote the movie before it comes out. If they're dull, nobody will want to see it.'<br /><br />But she's less happy when the focus is just on her. "It's hard," she says. "We did this Vanity Fair shoot for Shooting Stars, and we were all naked under a rug. I've never done anything like that. I always find looking down a lens difficult. All the brilliant people know their best angle, not because they're vain, but because they know how to present the most powerful shot. They say that about Ben Kingsley. He knows exactly where to be for the camera for a line to deliver an emotion. You probably get that after 30 years. Right now, I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't even know if I have a best angle!"<br /><br />'An Education' is out in the autumn<br /><br />SOURCE<br /><br />* - http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/carey-mulligan--straight-to-the-top-of-the-class-1607933.htmlbs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-75122905049520490472009-02-17T04:37:00.000-08:002009-02-17T10:32:09.601-08:00The Electric Slide - News Round Up<span style="font-weight:bold;">Ewan McGregor Becomes Antiques Dealer, Does ‘The Electric Slide’</span><br />Published by Brian Jacks on Friday, February 6, 2009 at 10:32 am.<br /><br />It’s nice to see Ewan McGregor back on the big screen, in the trades, and away from his motorcycle. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he’s tapping into that daredevil side for his next film, “The Electric Slide” which will see him robbing the rich to … well, feed himself. British actress Carey Mulligan is in talks to join McGregor.<br /><br />Directed and scripted by newcomer Tristan Patterson, “Slide” is based on the true story of Eddie Dodson, a former antiques dealer who ran with with the rich and famous of Hollywood. In order to feed his heroin habit and impress his new girlfriend, he decided to rob a bank — the first of 72 he would rob in his lifetime. Dubbed “The Yankee Bandit” for the Yankees hat he always wore, he always slipped away just as the authorities arrived. He was eventually caught, and died in prison in 2003.<br /><br />The film will be based on a Gear magazine article penned by journalist Timothy Ford, Dodson’s friend and biographer. While McGregor and Mulligan are not yet signed, the film is being pre-sold at the Berlin Film Festival.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ewan McGregor and Carey Mulligan Do The Electric Slide</span><br /><br />Ewan McGregor and Carey Mulligan are not doing a dance, but they're signing up for a new film. According to The Hollywood Reporter, McGregor and Mulligan are in negotiations to star in The Electric Slide.<br /><br />The film is based off the true story of a Los Angeles furniture salesman named Eddie Dodson who became a bank robber. Dodson owned a pricey furniture boutique on Melrose Ave. and lived a glitzy lifestyle in the 80s. When he fell in love with his new girlfriend, he took a huge risk trying to impress her and robbed a bank. Dodson robbed 72 banks in the L.A. area before the FBI apprehended him. McGregor is in talks to portray Dodson while Mulligan is in talks to portray his new love.<br /><br />Tristan Patterson wrote the script, based off Timothy Ford's article in Gear magazine entitled "The Yankee Bandit: The Life and Times of Eddie Dodson, World's Great Bank Robber." Patterson will also make his directorial debut on the film. <br /><br />SOURCE<br /><br />* - http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/02/06/ewan-mcgregor-becomes-antiques-dealer-does-the-electric-slide/<br />* - http://www.movieweb.com/news/NE120428fqRJ35bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-25732819430386082402009-02-17T04:18:00.001-08:002009-02-17T04:51:45.020-08:00Carey Mulligan - Fresh Talent on RTRT profiles the young actress ready to make an impact.<br />by Joe Utichi | February 10, 2009<br /><br />Coming out of Sundance this year, one name rang out as a talent to watch. Carey Mulligan made her big-screen debut in Joe Wright's 2005 Pride & Prejudice adaption, but as she premiered An Education and The Greatest in Park City, Utah, tongues started wagging about her obvious talent. Now RT profiles a name you're likely to hear a lot in 2009.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/spotlights/2009/rtuk_feature_carey_mulligan_02.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 210px; height: 315px;" src="http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/spotlights/2009/rtuk_feature_carey_mulligan_02.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was a letter to Julian Fellowes asking for advice that led to Carey Mulligan's big-screen acting debut as the youngest Bennet in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice in 2005. She's barely stopped since then and the 23 year-old actress has no fewer than four projects on her slate for release this year. Two of them premiered at Sundance in January to stellar reviews, with Park City audiences celebrating Mulligan as one of the festival's finest performers. She presented an award at the BAFTAs, announced intentions to star in The Electric Slide alongside Ewan McGregor and travelled to the Berlin Film Festival to represent Britain in the Shooting Stars programme -- all this month.<br /><br />A ferocious appetite for acting seems to inspire Mulligan to work so hard, and it's clearly paying off. This year her co-stars include Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan. And all indications are that she holds her own alongside such seasoned thesps, delivering performances that belie her short CV.<br /><br />It's April 2008, and RT has come to the West London set of An Education to meet Mulligan. Her passion for her craft is immediately obvious - when we arrive she has her head buried in a script, emerging occasionally to seek advice from her director and co-stars and laugh and joke with the whole crew. She has the good sense to enjoy what she's doing, and that seems to give her the necessary confidence to deliver as a performer. Most would be intimidated by the starry names around them -- Mulligan seems to be thrilled by the opportunity to learn from them. "I had a dream day working with Emma Thompson last week," she gushes when we finally sit down with her. "I have literally dreamed about getting to do stuff like that."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/spotlights/2009/rtuk_feature_carey_mulligan_03.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 485px; height: 273px;" src="http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/spotlights/2009/rtuk_feature_carey_mulligan_03.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />It's not without irony that she's decked out in period school uniform on the day we visit -- the eager student surrounded by masters - though the costume is having a rather odd effect on the crew. "They've started talking to me differently," she laughs. "I feel 16 again! The first day of filming in the school I kept falling asleep on set because I was in a classroom. It was some kind of psychological thing, as soon as I was put in a classroom I started nodding off. I was on all sorts of caffeine pills trying to stay awake!"<br /><br />As her 2009 releases start unspooling for audiences, what's clear is that while she may be keen to keep improving her skill, there's plenty of natural talent already present. Salon claimed her performance in An Education was full of "Audrey Hepburn-esque starmaking intensity," while Collider calls her "outstanding ... she allows us to watch her become a woman onscreen, the resulting portrayal intimate and lovingly crafted." Todd McCarthy writes in Variety that her performance in The Greatest is "a revelation ... [she brings] a bracing resilience to a teenager for whom one night changed the rest of her life."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/spotlights/2009/rtuk_feature_carey_mulligan_04.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 485px; height: 273px;" src="http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/spotlights/2009/rtuk_feature_carey_mulligan_04.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />It's clear that she's won over the critics, but with Michael Mann's Public Enemies due out in July, Jim Sheridan's Brothers in October and The Greatest and An Education expected before the end of the year, Mulligan is ready to make her mark with audiences. That she balances enormous talent as an actor with a classical, natural beauty and beguiling charisma should ensure that impact is wide indeed.<br /><br />SOURCE<br />* - http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/an_education/news/1795919/carey_mulligan_fresh_talent_on_rtbs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com51tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-52726004424133568502009-02-17T04:18:00.000-08:002009-02-17T10:32:26.117-08:00Doctor Who - News Round Up10 Doctor Who companions that might have been<br /><br />Sally Sparrow Blink <br />Carey Mulligan's performance as Sally Sparrow in Blink is mesmerising. As the main protagonist, she really makes the episode work and somehow the feeling she may return isn't completely out of the realms of possibility. A creation from the pen of soon-to-be show runner Steven Moffat, there is a great deal of anticipation that the Doctor and Sally Sparrow may eventually team up. Moffat is on record saying Carey Mulligan is "one to watch" though his recent pronouncement that his Doctor Who will see fewer returning characters suggests her future may not lie with the Doctor... <br /><br />SOURCE<br />* - http://www.denofgeek.com/television/102848/10_doctor_who_companions_that_might_have_been.htmlbs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-88527044764728904372009-02-17T04:17:00.000-08:002009-02-17T10:32:34.446-08:00The Seagull on Broadway – News Round Up<span style="font-weight:bold;">Carey Mulligan</span> (Nina) For the Royal Court: The Seagull and Forty Winks. Other theatre includes: The Hypochondriac (Almeida) and Tower Block Dreams (Riverside Studios). Television includes "Dr. Who," "Northanger Abbey," "The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard," "Waking the Dead," "Miss Marple," "Bleak House," and "Trial & Retribution X". Film includes When Did You Last See Your Father?, Pride and Prejudice and the upcoming An Education, Brothers and Public Enemies. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Broadway's The Seagull Changes Opening Night to October 2</span><br />The forthcoming production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, which begins previews on September 16, has rescheduled its opening night a day later than the previously announced date of October 1. The production, starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Peter Sarsgaard, will now open at the Walter Kerr Theatre on October 2. The change was made to take advantage of a newly open date vacated by To Be or Not To Be, which has delayed its own opening to October 14. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Broadway played it safe during 2008</span><br />Even a cockeyed optimist would have trouble arguing that Broadway became more daring in 2008. USA Today's Elysa Gardner surveys a few peaks and valleys<br /><br />Ingenue of the year— Carey Mulligan of "The Seagull." With her unmannered, heartbreaking portrait of Chekhov's Nina, the rising British actress stole this revival from her more established co-stars.<br /><br />SOURCE<br />* - http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Tickets_for_The_Seagull_at_Walter_Kerr_Theatre_Go_On_Sale_825_20080820<br />* - http://www.broadway.com/Broadways-The-Seagull-Changes-Opening-Night-to-October-2/broadway_news/570948 <br />* - http://www.baxterbulletin.com/article/20090101/COMMUNITIES/901010305bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-65990033205281629532008-04-04T11:00:00.000-07:002008-04-04T11:07:41.460-07:00When Twickenham starts swingingCarey Mulligan plays a teeanger in the movie An Education who, she told me, 'lives this dull beige life in Twickenham'. Until, that is, an older man drives into her life. <br /><br />Carey plays Jenny, a highly intelligent 16-year-old who lives with her parents in their boring semi-detached home in a south-west London suburb. <br /><br />Everything changes when she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), a man with fingers in many pies who drives a red Bristol car. <br /><br />'Jenny's looking for something more than she's got,' Carey said. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZIgwMDTXcPvoZoaXoztL8kyJwz0h7X7MlKh5V-vaMGzbTjLrHyyVEfmIv5MIVu1-JK1rJ9Cjghad2P5qn4d9dyCLIzMn_zHvXXycddxlfPGh79oVIMhWxUGuT2qEhaFFq6HFqr8dunnU/s1600-h/careyDM0404_468x379.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZIgwMDTXcPvoZoaXoztL8kyJwz0h7X7MlKh5V-vaMGzbTjLrHyyVEfmIv5MIVu1-JK1rJ9Cjghad2P5qn4d9dyCLIzMn_zHvXXycddxlfPGh79oVIMhWxUGuT2qEhaFFq6HFqr8dunnU/s400/careyDM0404_468x379.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5185452864368186546" /></a><br /> On the cusp: Peter Sarsgaard and Carey Mulligan <br /><br />The film is set in 1962, a really specific time just before the decade started the swinging sixties. <br />'It's really a time of paste sandwiches and Battenburg cake,' 22-year-old Carey noted. <br /><br />It's a fantastic role for an actress on the cusp of stardom. The screenplay is by Nick Hornby and is based on an intimated memoir that award-winning journalist Lynn Barber wrote a few years ago for Granta about how, essentially, her parents allowed her to romp around with a much older man and his friends. <br /><br />Hornby has opened out Barber's story, fictionalising certain elements and changing some names to protect the guilty. <br /><br />Jenny gets taken to art galleries and auctions on a trip abroad and is hurled into a lifestyle that is the antithesis of life at school and with her parents. <br /><br />Producers Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey have nursed the project for a long time and at one point Variety, the showbusiness trade paper, voted Hornby's script one of the best un-produced screenplays. <br /><br />I've read it and it's hilarious, yet bittersweet look at our country at a certain time and place. As Carey noted, 'it's very British' yet the specific story has a universality about it. <br /><br />Director Lone Scherfig told me she has been thrilled working with the likes of Carey, Emma Thompson, Rosamund Pike, Olivia Williams, Alfred Molina and Dominic Price. <br /><br />From An Education, I believe Carey will graduate as a star. <br /><br />As David Thompson, who supported the project when he ran BBC films, told me: 'She's luminescent.' <br /><br /><br />• There's a lot of interest in playing Heathcliff in the big-screen Wuthering Heights that John Maybury is preparing to direct this autumn. <br /><br /><br />I gather he has met Colin Farrell, Dominic Cooper and Sam Riley, but no decisions have been made. Maybury has the film The Edge Of Love coming out, with Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller giving top performances, but neither will be in Wuthering Heights.<br /><br /><br />By BAZ BAMIGBOYE - More by this author »<br />Last updated at 12:25pm on 4th April 2008<br />http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/bazbamigboye.html?in_page_id=1794&in_article_id=556768bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-5698007056019284292008-03-19T05:43:00.000-07:002008-03-19T06:09:31.674-07:00Orlando Bloom Doesn't Want 'An Education' .. But Dominic Cooper Does!Last month, I was sold on the idea of Peter Sarsgaard being a lascivious '60s swinger who gives Carey Mulligan An Education. In the sea of my hopes for a good film, I sort of glossed over the fact that Orlando Bloom was also involved. (He might make a great, stunt-performing Legolas, but he hasn't impressed me in anything else.) Well, now it seems that he's not on the roster. <br /><br />The Hollywood Reporter posts that the actor has pulled out of Lone Scherfig's An Education, citing scheduling conflicts, which seems a bit weird since the film just began shooting. One would think that he would have someone watching his calendar and noticing that he was double-booked... <br /><br />Whether that's the real reason or not, Orlando is out, and has been replaced by Dominic Cooper, the guy who recently popped up in The History Boys, and who will soon be a leading man in Mamma Mia! The Brit already has experience acting in the '60s/'70s as well -- he was a "Squaddie at Disco" in 2005's Breakfast on Pluto.<br />http://www.cinematical.com/2008/03/17/orlando-bloom-doesnt-want-an-education-but-dominic-cooper/<br /><br />Almost the same story about Dominic Cooper replacing Orlando Bloom are on the following websites.<br />http://www.andpop.com/article/11116<br />http://www.ifmagazine.com/new.asp?article=5922<br />http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2266353,00.html<br />http://www.pr-inside.com/bloom-pulls-out-of-nick-hornby-r490563.htm<br />http://hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i70b16620fc842bc83cabb0c50bf74512?imw=Y<br />http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/bazbamigboye.html?in_article_id=533669&in_page_id=1794bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-75951429628662526322008-02-13T06:10:00.000-08:002008-02-13T06:12:30.661-08:00'Education' gets four starsBy Gregg Goldstein<br />Feb 12, 2008<br /><br />NEW YORK -- Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson will star in the 1960s coming-of-age drama "An Education."<br /><br />Writer Nick Hornby ("About a Boy") adapted the screenplay from a memoir by Lynn Barber, published in literary magazine Granta. Endgame Entertainment and BBC Films are financing the film.<br /><br />Danish director Lone Scherfig will helm the story of a 17-year-old girl (Mulligan) living in the quiet London suburbs. As the swinging '60s culture emerges, her world turns upside down after she meets a 35-year-old sportscar-driving Brit (Sarsgaard). He courts her with chic dinners, clubs and foreign trips, charming her father (Molina) but putting her future at Oxford University in jeopardy. Thompson plays the disapproving headmistress of her school.<br /><br />Finola Dwyer ("Backbeat") and Amanda Posey ("Fever Pitch") are producing. Endgame CEO James D. Stern, Wendy Japhet, Douglas E. Hansen and BBC Films' David M. Thompson are executive producing. Principal photography is set to begin in late March in London.<br /><br />The film will be Hornby's second produced screenplay after "Pitch," the 1997 U.K. film adaptation of his novel, and his first script not based on his own novel.<br /><br /><br />Sarsgaard is repped by CAA, Jon Rubinstein of Authentic Talent & Literary Management and attorney Jodi Peikoff. Mulligan is repped by CAA and U.K.-based Julian Belfrage Associates.<br /><br />Molina is repped by Endeavor, manager Joan Hyler and U.K.-based Lou Coulson Associates.<br /><br />Thompson is repped by WMA and U.K.-based Hamilton Hodell.<br /><br />http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3if2a7312d15f5f54fa3ea5e76a6d02a11bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-62726702117397394592008-02-13T05:39:00.000-08:002008-02-13T06:10:42.794-08:00CAREY MULLIGAN ON MY BOY JACKCarey Mulligan, the up and coming young actress who made such an impression in the BBC's lavish adaptation of Bleak House recently appeared in the ITV drama My Boy Jack alongside David Haig and Daniel Radcliffe. Here she talks about appearing in the production.<br /><br />Carey was attracted to the character of Elsie because she did not conform to the wallflower role often written for young women in period dramas. This was a girl, barely an adult, who was fiercely protective of her little brother and was not afraid to tell her domineering father so:<br /><br />“Although Elsie is dearly loved, I think it’s obvious from what you read about the Kiplings that Jack was the main focus of the family and Elsie was there to support him. After Josie died, that was Elsie’s position in the family - to be Jack’s confidant and friend.<br /><br />“She’s stuck at home and a bit bored, but she loves her little brother desperately. In some of the letters to her parents I’ve read, she writes about Jack with such affection. The one thought that was in my mind the whole time was ‘she can’t lose another sibling [after Josie]’. I just don’t think she or the family can take losing another child.<br /><br />“Elsie comes across as quite feisty in the film, but you get the feeling that the arguments they have are brought on by her real passionate belief that Jack shouldn’t go to war. I don’t think their lives are usually like that because it wouldn’t be proper or right for a girl of that age to argue with her father, but it is clearly something she feels she has to fight for, and the minute she has to defend something, the feistiness comes out of her.<br /><br />“I’m glad Elsie is a feisty character - there are so many wallflower roles for girls in period drama but she has real guts. She’s interested in politics. She isn’t going to change the world, but she talks about the suffragettes. She’s quite forward thinking and finds it hard to sit through the speeches Rudyard makes about the war and to support a war which has been built up to be this magical, wonderful thing. She can see straight through to the reality of it, where many people didn’t. Also Elsie is very aware of how it’s going to affect her. It’s very close to home - it’s as if she knows John isn’t going to survive.<br /><br />“I loved it that Elsie was not in any way two dimensional. She was a fully rounded character and had so much spirit. I loved the family, and the script was just one of the best things I’d read. I would read it on the tube on the way to rehearsals and I couldn’t get to the end of it without crying, and crying on the tube is quite embarrassing. As I said, there are so many wallflower parts but Elsie is so special. David has written a really good ‘girl’ and he really understood her. He didn’t write someone airy-fairy - he wrote someone very strong. She was much more ‘masculine’ than other girls of the time and that was really interesting. And I’ve never had a younger brother, so that was lovely.<br /><br />Carey also relished the challenge of playing ‘a real person’, a first for her. She stepped into the character’s shoes with the help of letters Elsie had written to her family back in the early 1900s.<br /><br />“I have never played a non-fictional character before. I read as much as I could about the Kiplings and the story of Jack. Not a great deal is written about Elsie [compared to the others], so the letters she wrote were an important insight into who she was. It’s hard because you can only do so much reading around the real person. At the end of the day you’ve got a script to follow, and there was such a clear character coming out of the script. Having said that, it’s so helpful to have those pictures in your mind about their life. They travelled so much and had such an amazing education being brought up by Rudyard. They were special children.”<br /><br />Carey was both moved and enchanted by the world of the Kipling family, listening to Rudyard’s magical stories in one scene and witnessing a shell-shocked soldier’s pain in the next.<br /><br />“I love the birthday party scene where Rudyard tells an audience of children a story. The extras weren’t all that interested in what David was saying because whenever Daniel (Radcliffe) walked in, all the kids were just fighting the urge to look at him. But Kim and I were grinning like idiots because David has such an amazing story-telling voice - it was magical. I also enjoyed the scene when the witness to Jack’s death tells the family what happened. I think Martin McCann is a brilliant actor. I remember at the read through, his speech towards the end of the film had most of the production in tears.<br /><br />“It felt eerie filming at Bateman’s. Sometimes you’d think ‘do they actually approve of what we are doing?’ And would they be happy with the way their story is being told?’ I remember at one point Daniel grabbed my hand and took me to the house where, in the archway, all four of them had etched their names into the stone. I almost burst into tears. David (Haig) did the same thing. He took me down to the sundial where Rudyard had written ‘it’s hotter than you think’. It’s those tiny details which made it such an odd and emotional experience. It was so beautiful, sitting in the garden. It felt like their own little world - you could just imagine them all there, hidden away from everybody else and the press who hounded them.”<br /><br />As eerily realistic as filming at Bateman’s was, it was the dialogue between Jack and Elsie which transported Carey to another time entirely – a time she had tried to persuade her own brother, an officer in the Territorial Army, from serving in Iraq.<br /><br />“I had the exact same arguments with my brother about going to serve in Iraq last year. He was dead set on going. I tried to argue with him, I tried to make him give me solid reasons, and he could, which drove me mad. At the end of the day you’ve got to realise if someone is going to do something regardless, you’ve just got to love and support them as much as you can.<br /><br />“When I read the script I recognised many of the arguments which went on in our house, and it very much mirrored the angst we all felt. Every time I switched the television on over the six months and saw images of Iraq, my heart just stopped. The fear and the waiting, that’s what people can relate to. When I read the script, I could see exactly what David was getting at. I’d been through it myself. The poems and the writing enhanced and articulated it in a different way but the sentiment was the same.<br /><br />“It’s interesting because that’s what you rarely get to see in war films - the people who are left behind. Can you imagine how they got through the day? Did they wake up and write a list of things they would try and accomplish to fill their time so they didn’t have to think about it? And to be a girl of Elsie’s age… Rudyard could go off and throw himself into the war effort but the women were just left to think a lot. Elsie is so desperate to fill her day. Was Jack being horribly maimed the best they could hope for? If they had that in their mind, then god only knows how they got through each day.”<br /><br />Carey’s hope for the film is a simple one – that it makes people think about a young boy who dies for a cause.<br /><br />“I hope audiences are moved by Jack’s story. I hope they remember that boy, that they think about him for a while. And hopefully it will make people think about all those we have lost in war and those who have never been found. I think it’s such an accurate portrayal of living with someone who is in the army, fighting a war.<br /><br />“It’ll touch people because they will see themselves in it. The overriding thing that comes out of the film, however, is that we can only show those who go to war that we love them. I think that’s what people do in real life. You can argue and worry about them all you like but, at the end of the day, all you really have to do is love them.”<br /><br />My Boy Jack was broadcast on the ITV1 Network on Sunday 11 November 2007 / 9:00pm - 11:00pm <br /><br /><br /><br />http://theuktvguide.blogspot.com/2008/01/carey-mulligan-on-my-boy-jack.htmlbs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-24657719540727299412008-02-13T05:37:00.000-08:002008-02-13T05:39:31.433-08:00Review: 'Northanger Abbey' a better effort for 'Masterpiece' seriesReview: 'Northanger Abbey' a better effort for 'Masterpiece' series<br />David Wiegand, Chronicle Staff Writer<br />Saturday, January 19, 2008<br /><br />If any of Jane Austen's novels could be acceptably adapted for a 90-minute film, "Northanger Abbey" is probably the best candidate. After an unfortunate launch of its three-month Jane Austen series with Sunday's "Persuasion," PBS redeems itself with a nicely pitched version of the author's first completed novel as part of "Masterpiece" on Sunday night.<br /><br />"Northanger" is interesting in part because, in addition to being an amusing send-up of Gothic romance novels, it is a sketchbook for the plots and characters that would come to full bloom in Austen's later novels. There is, of course, a young, somewhat plain heroine who is pursued by a perfectly pleasant but bland chap, while her heart flutters for a more aloof man. And, of course, there is the theme of money versus sincerity, character and true love.<br /><br />But "Northanger" also has its own charms, slight though they may be in comparison with Austen's later masterpieces. Catherine Morland (Felicity Jones) is a young woman with a vivid imagination and a young girl's fondness for Gothic romances. The daughter of a country clergyman, she is dispatched to provide company for wealthy family friends the Allens (Desmond Barrit and Sylvestra Le Touzel) during the social season in Bath. Catherine meets the Thorpe siblings, Isabella (Carey Mulligan), who is already smitten by Catherine's older brother, and John (William Beck), who quickly develops a crush on Catherine.<br /><br />For her part, however, Catherine is already half in love with brooding Henry Tilney (JJ Feild), whose overbearing father, Gen. Tilney (Liam Cunningham), encourages the romance because he thinks Catherine will receive a large fortune from the Allens. <br /><br />Money and love are, of course, at constant odds in "Northanger Abbey." Henry's sister Eleanor (Catherine Walker) is in love with a young man who, unfortunately, is the second son in the family and, thus, not slated to receive much of an inheritance. Accordingly, the general has forbidden the marriage. And Henry's character, like many Austen "heroes," is ambiguous. While he seems genuinely charmed by Catherine, he does allow that the best thing he could do would be to fall in love with a girl who comes with a large dowry. While the complexities of this character type would be more credibly explored by Austen in later figures such as "Persuasion's" Capt. Wentworth, and, of course, Mr. Darcy of "Pride and Prejudice," we can, again, see their beginnings in Henry Tilney.<br /><br />While later Austen heroines would show a bit more sophistication, Catherine often comes off as a more than just a little naive. Her fondness for Gothic romances has led her to imagine that highwaymen are going to overtake her carriage on the way to Bath at any moment. That notion can be easily dismissed as the musings of a silly schoolgirl, but later, while staying at Northanger Abbey with the Tilneys, she endangers her relationship with Henry by conjuring up the idea that his father may, in fact, have murdered his wife. At various points in the "Masterpiece" film, Catherine's imaginings are dramatized as part of the action. In fact, the first time it happens, you'll probably believe that her carriage really is being overtaken by highwaymen. While the scenes may seem silly, they correctly represent Austen's gentle satire of this overheated genre. In fact, there's a running debate in the story about whether it is in fact dangerous to read too many novels. <br /><br />While "Persuasion" is a bigger challenge to try to squeeze into 90 minutes, the real difference between that film and "Northanger" is the latter's consistency of high-quality performances, a careful and attentive adaptation by Andrew Davies and solid direction by Jon Jones. Jones is quite winning as Catherine, although she does seem a bit too young to know whether she's actually in love or not. That's fine for the earlier scenes, but it becomes a bit of a stretch when Tilney is actively courting her. <br /><br />As an aside, let it be known that in its finite wisdom, PBS has decided to truncate the name of its Sunday night warhorse from "Masterpiece Theatre" to "Masterpiece." In a similar vein, no doubt we can expect future PBS offerings such as "Myst," "Live From Linc," "Great Perf" and, for the kids, "Cliff the Big." <br /><br /><br /><br />http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/19/DDVDUF61U.DTLbs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-20103740180650822692008-02-13T05:13:00.000-08:002008-02-13T05:36:32.749-08:00'Northanger Abbey' is lighthearted Austen'Northanger Abbey' is lighthearted Austen<br />By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff | January 19, 2008<br /><br />This new PBS adaptation of Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey," tomorrow at 9 p.m. on Channel 2, was written by Andrew Davies. If you're a fan of filmed classic novels, you've probably already admired Davies' work as the screenwriter of some of PBS's best "Masterpiece Theatre" productions - "Bleak House," "Middlemarch," "The Way We Live Now," and the "Pride and Prejudice" - that would be the 1995 version starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, with all due respect to Sir Laurence O.<br /><br />Davies has a pleasing way of staying true to his masterful sources in spirit and detail, never imposing a contemporary vision onto them in the way Jane Campion and Laura Jones did in 1996 with "The Portrait of a Lady," by making the Henry James novel into a tale of domestic abuse. And yet Davies knows how to clear off the dust, too, to translate all the 19th-century manners and obscurities for today's audiences. There's a nice scene early in "Northanger Abbey" when heroine Catherine Morland and hero Henry Tilney are talking about flirting while flirting, and Davies makes their clever "meta" exchange - talking about talking - feel like a Victorian invention.<br /><br />There are things to like about Davies' "Northanger Abbey," even while it is flawed and superficial, particularly when the storyline collapses awkwardly toward the end. It is not one of Davies' most consistent adaptations, but still, it's an easy-to-watch introduction to one of Austen's lesser-known novels. Austen wrote "Northanger Abbey" early in her career but, after a publishing misadventure, it was not released until after her death. About an imaginative young woman who reads too many Gothic novels, the story is Austen's most lighthearted.<br /><br />Catherine Moreland (Felicity Jones), an impressionable 17-year-old from a large, not particularly wealthy family, is brought into Bath leisure society by family friends. There she meets two very different pairs of siblings. Isabella Thorpe (Carey Mulligan) and John Thorpe (William Beck) are lively and, perhaps, scheming. Eleanor Tilney (Catherine Walker) and Henry Tilney (JJ Feild) are quieter, more mysterious, and more dignified. Having only learned about life through heightened, supernatural novels, Catherine is ill-equipped to parse out the good and the bad in the Thorpes and the Tilneys.<br /><br />The movie gives us black-and white flashes of Catherine's vivid fantasies - scenarios in which she is captured by thieves, Henry rescues her, and she swoons in quasi-sexual ecstasy and fear. In the novel, Austen is teasing Catherine, and Davies carries that gently mocking tone into the movie through an authorial voiceover that musingly tells us, "Something must and will happen to throw adventure in her way."<br /><br />At one point while staying with the Tilneys at their large home, Northanger Abbey, Catherine imagines that their father, a stiff general, was in some way responsible for the death of their late mother. Swept up in her sense of drama, she shares her theory with Henry and appears to trigger a series of unpleasant events. By that moment, though, the movie has already given up on its storytelling efforts and on making the secondary characters anything more than sketches. Davies and director Jon Jones seem to be saying, "OK, you know where this is all going, so let's just go there. You've seen an Austen movie, that's good enough."<br /><br />Part of "The Complete Jane Austen" presented by "Masterpiece" this season, "Northanger Abbey" probably needs more than 90 minutes to do justice to Austen's novel. While it is a fairly obvious piece of work, in that the perceptions of characters generally match their realities, the story still deserves enough time to explore more thoroughly how the Thorpes' behavior affects our heroine, and how our heroine grows. As she learns not to be so easily influenced by others and by books, we need to know more about the allure of those influences.<br /><br />Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. <br /><br /><br />http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2008/01/19/northanger_abbey_is_lighthearted_austen/bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-5613415684446540442008-02-13T05:04:00.000-08:002008-02-13T05:07:02.082-08:00Masterpiece Theatre: Northanger Abbey (2007)Masterpiece Theatre: Northanger Abbey (2007) <br />WGBH // Unrated // $24.95 // January 22, 2008 <br /> <br /> Review by Paul Mavis | posted January 21, 2008 <br /><br />WGBH Boston Video and Granada International have released Northanger Abbey, the latest Jane Austen adaptation that premiered this past spring on Britain's ITV Channel. Streamlined to a sprightly 86 minutes, this enjoyable little romp make take liberties with Austen's affectionate parody of Gothic novels, but it's fairly faithful to the spirit of her novel, providing a diverting lark that fans of Austen - provided they're not purist sticklers - should find entertaining.<br /><br />Catherine Moreland (Felicity Jones), a 17-year-old beauty-in-waiting from rural Fullerton, is given an invitation by her family friends, Mr. and Mrs. Allen (Desmond Barritt and Sylvestra Le Touzel), to join them in Bath, England, a spa city of culture, entertainment, and high society. The naive Catherine, who is obsessed with romantic Gothic novels, has one of her primal dreams come true when she meets handsome, wealthy clergyman Henry Tilney (J.J. Feild) at a society ball. Tilney shows obvious interest in the beautiful country girl, but Catherine has reason to believe he may just be a passing fancy, since he soon leaves Bath, with no explanation, for several days. No matter, though; another young man, John Thorpe (Willam Beck), also watches Catherine at the ball.<br /><br />When Catherine is introduced to Isabella Thorpe (Carey Mulligan), a naughty new best friend is made. Isabella, a saucy minx whose brother John knew Catherine's brother James (Hugh O'Conor) in college, immediately sets her sights on ensnaring James, incorrectly assuming the Morelands to be potentially wealthy when the Allens, who are childless, leave their fortunes to Catherine and James. Interest in James doesn't stop Isabella, who also loves Gothic romances - the more salacious the better - from flirting with Henry's dashing, cold older brother, Captain Frederick Tilney (Mark Dymond), and eventually becoming his lover. Catherine, despite attempts by John Thorpe to press himself on her, renews her courtship with Henry, which is good news to Henry's father, General Tilney (Liam Cunningham), who is led to believe by a jealous John that Catherine is indeed wealthy (and therefore a safe match for wealthy Henry). Inviting Catherine up to their forbidding mansion, Northanger Abbey, for several weeks, stern General Tilney initiates with his invitation a series of events that will turn Catherine and Henry's life upside-down.<br /><br />SPOILERS ALERT!<br /><br />Last week, I reviewed one of the other new Jane Austen adaptations that ITV kicked off their Jane Austen Season last spring; three films that I understand will appear on the newly rebooted Masterpiece Theatre (you can read my review of Persuasion here). Like that film version, Northanger Abbey has been retooled specifically to appeal to new viewers who may find older film versions of Austen's novels staid or too dense. Gone is quite a bit of Austen's profuse backgrounds of various characters - and the resulting nuances, as well. Events have been compressed, or invented out of whole cloth, and the energy level has been jacked up to reinvigorate viewers more accustomed to the stately pace of previous Masterpiece Theatre presentations.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Naturally, there are those who find such "improvements" not improvements at all, but those same viewers usually find fault with any film adaptation of a literary classic. While Persuasion was beautifully naked in its fever-like emotions, creating a direct plea to the audience to connect with its heroine, Northanger Abbey is quite different in tone, with a fast-paced comedic sensibility that may not be pure Austen, but which comes close to what she was trying to achieve with her novel. Northanger Abbey, her first completed novel, was a gentle parody of the Gothic form that still featured submerged, stinging Austen commentary on the dynamics of men's and women's relationships, as well as on the nakedly venal jockeying of the various classes in the pursuit of profitable marriages. Her "heroine" was an inversion of the typical Gothic heroine, in that she turned out to be completely wrong in her dangerous, highly romantic assumptions about the Tilney family. Suffused with the sensibilities of the coarse, common Gothic novels that were considered declasse for a young woman of her position, Catherine assumes that something terrible happened to General Tilney's wife, who died years before. Taking the word of flighty Isabella and scheming John Thorpe, Catherine eventually works herself up into believing that the General committed murder, with the foreboding edifice of Northanger Abbey fueling her fictional obsessions. Among the several thematic elements that Austin attempted to expound on, the central one was illustrating how real-life events are far more prosaic in details - and yet far more devastating in their life-long impact - than any overheated, cardboard histrionics of a Gothic novel.<br /><br />And on illustrating that central theme, Northanger Abbey is fairly successful. Providing us with brief, delirious little dream sequences courtesy of Catherine's fevered imagination, the viewer immediately understands that almost all of Catherine's thinking has been adversely affected by the newly popular medium of the novel. The suspense of the film comes from our wondering if she'll snap out of her dreamworld long enough to truly understand the players on the scorecard, before her actions - again, based on highly improbably fictional conceits - irreparably harm her real-life future. While the film shifts occasionally in tone, with the earlier sequences veering dangerously close to an almost-slapstick ambience, Northanger Abbey is fairly consistent in its aims. Those Masterpiece Theatre fans not accustomed to screenwriter Andrew Davies' more flamboyant additions - and severe eliminations - may initially pass off Northanger Abbey as a Avon romance novel come to life. But the spoofy, obvious comedic tone of the piece is wholly self-conscious and intentional, and entirely in keeping with Austen's original intention.<br /><br />Evidently, some English viewers were put off by the Irish location work (for whatever reasons - perhaps monetary - the more expensive prospect of dressing authentic Bath locations for period filming was abandoned). But the skimping won't bother the majority of U.S. viewers who won't know the difference, and as with Persuasion, the production design and lensing is quite nice, with all costumes and set decorations up to par. The acting, as with most British period productions, is exemplary. Felicity Jones pulls off the neat trick of appearing both country-bumpkinish naive and sexually desirable - perfect for her character. She handles the comedy well, and has nice, heated chemistry with Feild (he looks rather disconcertedly at times like Jude Law). He's quite adept at getting across Henry's cynicism, while providing female viewers with the required handsome, wistful romanticism called for in this type of film. Carey Mulligan is ideal as the sexually active, willful, scheming Isabella, and William Beck is suitably odious as the opportunist John Thorpe. Directed by Jon Jones in a manner befitting this abbreviated, amped-up adaptation, the cast is obviously having fun with this speedy little comedy - which translates well to the viewer.<br /><br />Just a small note, however, concerning this U.S. disc version of Northanger Abbey. According to some sources I've read, there may be a scene or scenes in the original British TV version that are not present here. Specifically, there's a sequence where Isabella and Catherine discuss a rather torrid Gothic novel, The Monk, which leads to a dream sequence where Catherine, in her bath, imagines Henry coming to her naked. The initial discussion between the two girls is here, leading to a brief shot of sleeping Catherine writhing in obvious sexual pleasure on her bed, but an abrupt cut to an opera performance may indicate that the subsequent dream sequence was cut. This particular DVD times out at 86 minutes, while other sources say the film was 90 minutes in Britain -- perhaps this accounts for the lost sequence. Again, I stress "may," because I haven't seen the original British TV version.<br /><br /><br /> <br /><br />The DVD:<br /><br />The Video:<br />The anamorphically enhanced, 1.78:1 widescreen image for Northanger Abbey looks scrumptious, with a beautifully hued color scheme and no compression issues in the super-sharp picture. <br /><br />The Audio:<br />The Dolby Digital English 2.0 stereo audio mix is quite adequate for this dialogue-heavy presentation. All lines are heard crisply and cleanly. Close-captioning is available.<br /><br />The Extras:<br />Unfortunately, there are no extras for Northanger Abbey, which is a shame, considering the fact that I'm sure promotional materials were shot for such a prestigious TV production.<br /><br />Final Thoughts:<br />Purists may squawk, but I rather enjoyed the heated ridiculousness of Northanger Abbey, which takes Austen's gentle parody of Gothic novels, and turns it into an appropriately-toned bodice ripper - at least at the start. Austen's social commentary is still there, though, albeit in severely abbreviated form, and the final wrap-up is suspensefully handled. A good introduction to the novel, and entertaining in its own right. I recommend Northanger Abbey. <br /><br />http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/print.php?ID=32085bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com154tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-57662485857012067862008-02-13T04:07:00.000-08:002008-02-13T05:01:09.127-08:00An Austen heroine with a fertile imaginationThe central character in 'Northanger Abbey' tends to cast herself in Gothic romances, which makes her fun to watch in Masterpiece Theatre's adaptation.<br />By Mary McNamara<br />Los Angeles Times Staff Writer<br /><br />January 19, 2008<br /><br />In the good old days, before Jane Austen was a pop star, with assorted websites and an action figure, "Northanger Abbey" was what used to be called a "lesser-known work." "Emma," "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility," even "Persuasion" all could be referred to in casual conversation by those desirous of proving their good taste and general familiarity with English literature. Mention your devotion to "Northanger Abbey," however, and you instantly identified yourself as a Jane Austen geek.<br /><br />This is strange, since "Northanger Abbey" is the most lighthearted of Austen's novels, a gentle take-down of the popular Gothic novels of the time, with their swooning, sexually endangered heroines, mildly depraved villains and heroes in thigh-high boots.<br /><br />Catherine Morland is a typical Austen character -- young, innocent, neither classically beautiful nor rich, but with an endearing nature and spirit to compensate for such deficits. She is also a novel-addict, longing for a swoon scene of her own and finding potential intrigue wherever she looks. Especially in the grim and echoing pile of the title, where lives the man she admires and his beloved sister.<br /><br />All of which makes "Northanger Abbey" particularly perfect for TV adaptation. The second in Masterpiece Theatre's "Complete Jane Austen," "Northanger" lends itself more freely to the term "based on." Thus Andrew Davies (who has done many Austen adaptations, including the 1995 TV production of "Pride and Prejudice," not to mention those Bridget Jones movies) may hew faithfully to the essential story, but he also has a little fun with it.<br /><br />Instead of being told of Catherine's runaway imagination, we see it in action -- a young woman is thrown into the clutches of a jailer; imagined ruffians attacking a stagecoach; Catherine writhes against a tree, the seduced and seductive prize of a duel. Hot stuff, considering the source. (But then, Mr. Davies also adapted a version of "Fanny Hill" for television.)<br /><br />If the dream-time Catherine seems a bit more wanton than an Austen character has any right to be, the real-time character makes up for it with her fresh-faced likability.<br /><br />The young and lovely Felicity Jones plays Catherine as a true innocent and, as Austen would say, the soul of amiability. One of 10 children, Catherine is thrilled when wealthy friends of her parents offer to take her to fashionable Bath, where her wide-eyed, winning ways capture the attention of two men: the quick and quirky Henry Tilney (J.J. Feild) and the overbearing but handsome John Thorpe (William Beck). Each has the requisite sister -- Eleanor Tilney (Catherine Walker) is as gentle and gracious as Isabella Thorpe (Carey Mulligan) is vivacious and, as it turns out, scheming.<br /><br />Mulligan, last seen in "The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard" and "Bleak House," is a versatile actress who could just as easily (sans blond ringlets) played Catherine. As it is, she's a perfect Austen foil -- pretty, lively and, oh, so fond of our heroine. When she becomes engaged to Catherine's brother but continues her flirtatious ways, we know betrayal is only a matter of time.<br /><br />But Catherine, defining the role of ingénue as she does, reserves her suspicions for the Tilney household, fearing, and desiring, that in Northanger Abbey's looming towers and locked rooms lurks a secret worthy of any Gothic plot. Like every Austen heroine, she is at last taught the dangers of predisposition, and then, of course, there is a wedding.<br /><br />Oh, you could poke a few holes in the production -- the 90-minute playing time does not leave much room for mood. Beck's John Thorpe is not polished enough to fool even a young woman for more than a few minutes, while Feild seems to downplay Tilney's rather zany charms. Davies gets a bit carried away with the sexiness -- "there's a young peach ripe for plucking," comments the young roué as he catches sight of Catherine, while Austen no doubt turns in her grave.<br /><br />And as always happens with a screen adaptation of Austen, much of the author's sharp humor is lost in translation, though mercifully a voice-over preserves such wonderful lines as: "A family of 10 children, of course, will always be called a fine family where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number, but the Morlands were, in general, very plain."<br /><br />We also get all the pretty hats and dresses, the candlelit interiors, the sylvan walks and, of course, all that witty dialogue while dancing. So who's going to complain?<br /><br />"Northanger Abbey" the novel was as fun as it gets for Austen, and the television film quite lives up to the same standard. Which is not to recommend it as a substitute for the novel, which it is now quite the fashion to have read.<br /><br />http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-northanger19jan19,1,785732,print.story?ctrack=3&cset=truebs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-33599540049964308172008-02-13T03:55:00.000-08:002008-02-13T04:06:59.494-08:00Have you news of my boy Jack?It's rare today - in TV's lightweight world of tacky reality shows and insignificant tittle-tattle tosh - that something reaffirms television's power to educate, shock, inform, overwhelm, grip and entertain. But My Boy Jack does just that and considerably more. One of the most potent programmes you'll see on television this year, it's so powerful that at times it's almost unbearable to watch. Seriously good, haunting TV, it will stay lodged in your memory for a long time. <br /><br />Written by actor David Haig - and based on his own stage version of a true-life story - My Boy Jack reveals how author and poet Rudyard Kipling used his influence to get his 17-year-old son John (called Jack) a commission with the Irish Guards, despite his son's poor eyesight, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. <br /><br />It was a terrible mistake, for a few months later Lieutenant John Kipling was killed in action, slowly and very cruelly cut down in a hail of machine-gun bullets at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, just one day after his 18th birthday. <br /><br />But that wasn't the end of it. It took Kipling and his wife Caroline years to uncover the awful truth about their son's terrible death, and they never found his body. And, understandably, it altered Kipling's attitude to a war that he had previously whole-heartedly supported and publicly promoted. <br /><br />It's not just a powerful story. The casting here is carefully chosen and top-notch. Haig himself plays Rudyard Kipling, giving a bravura performance as the writer, best known for The Jungle Book and Just So Stories, but here shown in his true colours as a hectoring, lecturing, often overbearing, bombastic paterfamilias with dangerously jingoistic leanings. <br /><br />Daniel Radcliffe - playing his first major role on TV since the Harry Potter film series - is superb, keeping things finely understated as young Jack, the lad who wants to break away from his father and the suffocating, privileged world of his upbringing. Rebuffed twice by two military medical boards, through his father's influence he gains a commission, then trains hard with his men, and bravely goes over the top of the trenches to meet his death. Complementing the two leads are fine support roles from Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City's Samantha Jones) as Kipling's wife Caroline and Carey Mulligan as their daughter Elsie. <br /><br />The script is tight and taut, running very smoothly, the locations are beautifully shot, the attention to detail - especially the battlefield scene - is superb, and the piece is brilliantly directed and edited, building unbearably in tension. And the closing scenes, over which Haig solemnly reads Kipling's poem My Boy Jack (written after his son's death), are a masterstroke. <br /><br />Appropriately scheduled for peak-time viewing on Remembrance Sunday, this is TV at its finest. Harrowing, yet essential viewing. <br />Paul Strange<br /><br />http://forums.digiguide.com/topic.asp?id=22515bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-57735725361932106622007-12-14T05:24:00.000-08:002007-12-14T05:28:21.297-08:00Granada Unveils Slate for NATPELONDON, December 12: Granada International is heading to NATPE with a raft of new titles covering genres like comedy, entertainment, music and drama, led by the British TV movie My Boy Jack, which stars Daniel Radcliffe and Kim Cattrall. <br /><br />In his first television role since Harry Potter, Radcliffe stars alongside Sex and the City’s Cattrall in the wartime drama, My Boy Jack. The 95-minute production, an Ecosse Films/WGBH Boston/Ingenious Broadcasting co-production for ITV in association with Octagon Films and Granada International, is based on the true story of Jack Kipling (played by Radcliffe), the son of British author Rudyard Kipling. After Jack becomes a soldier in WWI and goes missing, Rudyard and his wife Carre (played by Cattrall) begin their search to find their son. <br /><br />David Haig (Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Thin Blue Line) stars as Rudyard Kipling, and wrote the drama, which is directed by Brian Kirk (The Tudors, Middletown) and also stars Carey Mulligan (Bleak House, Northanger Abbey). My Boy Jack recently aired in the U.K. on ITV1, and achieved a 25-percent share of viewers in a prime-time Sunday-night slot. <br /><br />Other drama offerings include the 13x48-minute series Murdoch Mysteries, which is set in Toronto, Canada in the 1980s. Yannick Bisson stars as William Murdoch, a young detective who solves challenging murders using emerging and progressive forensic techniques. The series is a Shaftesbury Films production in association with CHUM Television, Granada International and UKTV. BAFTA Award-winner Victoria Wood (Housewife 49) and Emma Watson (Hermione in Harry Potter) star in the drama Ballet Shoes, from Granada for the BBC. <br /><br />Other titles in Granada’s catalogue for NATPE include entertainment programming like Corteo, which features circus skills and avant-garde theatrical techniques presented by Cirque du Soleil, along with its backstage counterpart Through The Curtain. On the music and celebrity programming front, Granada will offer up The Kylie Show, Divas and Audience With Celine Dion, among others. <br /><br />Additional highlights include the comedic entertainment series The Friday Night Project, which is also available as a format. Other formats from Granada’s catalogue include the cooking competition reality show Best Dish… and the game show format Born Winners. Also available from Granada at NATPE are the wildlife series Nick Baker’s Weird Creatures, the HD animated series Supernormal, the children’s series Boowa & Kwala, Hollywood TV movies like Matters of Life And Dating, the series Old Skool with Terry and Gita, as well as the popular Hell’s Kitchen series from both the U.S. and the U.K. <br /><br />By Kristin Brzoznowski<br /><br />http://www.worldscreen.com/newscurrent.php?filename=granada121207.htmbs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-79341926960586385562007-12-14T05:17:00.000-08:002007-12-14T05:23:37.780-08:00Carey to star at charity concertHOLLYWOOD actress Carey Mulligan will be among the hundreds of guests at a Christmas charity concert.<br /><br />The Chapel at Wellington College will be the venue tomorrow (Thursday) for Thames Hospicecare’s annual fundraiser.<br /><br />Ms Mulligan, who has shot to fame starring in the ITV series My Boy Jack and alongside Keira Knightley in Pride and Prejudice, will give a reading, while the Windsor Boys’ School Wind Band will be among the musical performers.<br /><br />http://www.thisisslough.com/live/stories/story.php?story_id=2927bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039505123081405700.post-74821687704220594402007-11-23T07:28:00.000-08:002007-11-23T07:29:16.665-08:00Pride & Prejudice (2005) A film review by Joel Meares - Copyright © 2005 Filmcritic.comEnglish students of the world rejoice – another reason not to read Jane Austen. Joe Wright’s latest incarnation of Austen’s classic Pride & Prejudice is a mostly blissful time-traveling bus tour through a giggly and gorgeous English countryside. To your left note the lovely ladies Bennet, all sideways glances, blushing cheeks and innuendo. To your right, lenses at the ready for the dapper, tall, dark, and handsome objects of their affection, Darcy, Bingley, and Wickham! Swoon… Watch them as they play and woo, mismanage and miscarry, repress and reveal. This flighty matrimonial preamble is the pleasure of Wright’s adaptation, briskly played in balls and manors. When at its playful best, it dances lightly with humor and delight. However, the film’s occasional missteps, rhythm-less moves into the shadows of darker and more serious emotional territory, threaten to sink rather than anchor Wright’s film with any of the depth they intend to provide.<br /><br />For those who are unaware of Austen’s novel (it might be helpful to consider that The Lion King is to Hamlet as Bridget Jones’ Diary is to Pride & Prejudice), Pride & Prejudice is the story of the Bennet sisters, and particularly, second eldest child Elizabeth (Keira Knightley). These desperate housewives-to-be are in dire pursuit of a man. For the younger girls, and Elizabeth’s squawking mother (a superbly erratic Brenda Blethyn), a man’s greatest endowment is his wallet. However, for Elizabeth and oldest sister Jane (Rosamund Pike) love is the only currency in which they wish to deal. Convenient then that the objects of their affections, Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) for Jane, and the infamously standoffish Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen) for Elizabeth, are moneyed up to the kilt when they ride into town to stir trouble and steal hearts. Elizabeth’s very cinematic blindness to Darcy’s very British advance is the centerpiece of both novel and film, with all suspense drawn from the “will they or won’t they” dilemma.<br /><br />The film opens gloriously and sails solidly for sometime thereafter, compelled by a freshness in its handling of the period. The camera is relaxed but never stagnant. An early shot following Elizabeth through the Bennet household (echoed later at a dance) has an Altman-esque charm, paying mild attention to sisterly passers-by, eavesdropping, before moving on and regaining focus. The dialogue is snappy (“Believe me, men are either eaten up with arrogance or stupidity”) and full of the fruity and literary language one would expect from an Austen adaptation. As if we were on tour, Wright’s schedule is full, Austen’s agenda dictates that it must be, and in its first half, Pride & Prejudice delights in entertaining us at balls, in fields, in parlors and giggling with teenage girls under bed sheets. The Bennets are charming company, Jena Malone and Carey Mulligan as the youngest sisters offer an amazing energy to the production as a pair of mawkish desperados. Donald Sutherland as Mr. Bennet delivers a fine performance, and is given the film’s best line and most poignant moment seconds before the credits roll.<br /><br />However, when Wright moves away from the Bennet household Pride & Prejudice loses much of its charm and flow. The tour becomes plodding as Elizabeth takes center stage and we are dragged with her to various uninspiring locations across England in a doggedly inevitable march to Darcy. Part of the flaw, dare I say it, is a structural problem inherited from the novel. Darcy and Elizabeth are never given the opportunity to fall in love, so that when their confessions come (and it is not giving much away to say that they do), one wonders when they possibly had the time or inclination to fall for each other so deeply. The only evidence Wright offers is in the unspoken chemistry between his leads, MacFadyen and Knightley, at times almost scorching enough to justify their inevitable union. This pause in the film, away from the Bennet home, pulls from under it the emotional investment achieved in its earlier stages. And unfortunately, the casting of Knightley as the iconic Elizabeth does not help.<br /><br />Knightley is an intelligent and photogenic actor and for much of the film, particularly when lit by the blue hues of dawn, is a more than adequate protagonist. Yet when the rain comes, the film delves deeper, and more than a wry smile is required, Knightley is lacking. Her shrill hurt and played realization ring false and only confirm the growing feeling that Pride & Prejudice is a fairly superficial exercise. Elizabeth Bennet is a complex character, a contradiction between youth, femininity, wisdom and sass, and Knightley’s admirable attempt does Austen’s character only infrequent justice.<br /><br />Joe Wright’s adaptation is diligent, faithful, sweeping, full of witty retorts, generally well cast, and yet emotionally unpersuasive. The audience is offered a glance through the looking glass into the lives of the Bennets and their dark and handsome pursuits, but never are we allowed off the bus to fully engage. Sumptuous and diverting, this Pride & Prejudice is delightful, but only hints at being anything more.<br /><br />http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/Pride-and-Prejudice-(2005)bs10064http://www.blogger.com/profile/15921075685913422166noreply@blogger.com8