There have been any number of films about Henry VIII and how the English king’s various wives kept losing their heads, but precious few have focused on the one queen who managed to outlive him; Katherine Parr has been a bit player in the likes of 1953’s “Young Bess”, but Karim Aïnouz’s “Firebrand” puts this radically progressive woman of the people at the center of the story in a way that has never been done before.
And yet, despite its righteous attempt to reframe history — an effort supported by the natural steeliness of Alicia Vikander’s performance as a social activist who’s trying to reshape her country without screwing up her marriage to its tyrannical sovereign — this bland period drama can’t help but feel like a familiar tale of court intrigue. Not even Jude Law, whose riveting and revoltingly bellicose take on Henry VIII is equal...
And yet, despite its righteous attempt to reframe history — an effort supported by the natural steeliness of Alicia Vikander’s performance as a social activist who’s trying to reshape her country without screwing up her marriage to its tyrannical sovereign — this bland period drama can’t help but feel like a familiar tale of court intrigue. Not even Jude Law, whose riveting and revoltingly bellicose take on Henry VIII is equal...
- 5/21/2023
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Deborah Kerr movies: with Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity Deborah Kerr Pt.2: Sexual Outlaw As an unhappily married woman having a torrid affair with an army officer shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Deborah Kerr is equally powerful in one of her best-remembered movies, From Here to Eternity (1953), stealing the romantic melodrama from her male co-stars. Fred Zinnemann’s Academy Award-winning blockbuster marked one of the rare times when Kerr’s physique played a part in her erotic persona, as she parades around Hawaii in Lana Turner-type shorts and frolics on the wet sand with brawny Burt Lancaster. Less obvious is Kerr’s headmaster’s wife in Tea and Sympathy (1956), who, despite her discreet clothing and demeanor, ends up seducing one of her husband’s teenage students. It’s all for a good cause, of course — the "sensitive" adolescent thinks he may be gay...
- 5/22/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi in Oscar nominee (but not DGA nominee) David Lean's Summertime DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards 1948-1952: Odd Men Out George Cukor, John Huston, Vincente Minnelli 1953 DGA (12) Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Above and Beyond Walter Lang, Call Me Madam Daniel Mann, Come Back, Little Sheba Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Julius Caesar Henry Koster, The Robe Jean Negulesco, Titanic George Sidney, Young Bess DGA/AMPAS George Stevens, Shane Charles Walters, Lili Billy Wilder, Stalag 17 William Wyler, Roman Holiday Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity 1954 DGA (16) Edward Dmytryk, The Caine Mutiny Alfred Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder Robert Wise, Executive Suite Anthony Mann, The Glenn Miller Story Samuel Fuller, Hell and High Water Henry King, King of Khyber Rifles Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Knock on Wood Don Siegel, Riot in Cell Block 11 Stanley Donen, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers George Cukor, A Star Is Born Jean Negulesco,...
- 1/10/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
"TCM Remembers 2011" is out. Remembered by Turner Classic Movies are many of those in the film world who left us this past year. As always, this latest "TCM Remembers" entry is a classy, immensely moving compilation. The haunting background song is "Before You Go," by Ok Sweetheart.
Among those featured in "TCM Remembers 2011" are Farley Granger, the star of Luchino Visconti's Senso and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope and Strangers on a Train; Oscar-nominated Australian actress Diane Cilento (Tom Jones, Hombre), formerly married to Sean Connery; and two-time Oscar nominee Peter Falk (Murder, Inc., Pocketful of Miracles, The Great Race), best remembered as television's Columbo. Or, for those into arthouse fare, for playing an angel in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire.
Also, Jane Russell, whose cleavage and sensuous lips in Howard Hughes' The Outlaw left the puritans of the Production Code Association apoplectic; another Australian performer, Googie Withers, among...
Among those featured in "TCM Remembers 2011" are Farley Granger, the star of Luchino Visconti's Senso and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope and Strangers on a Train; Oscar-nominated Australian actress Diane Cilento (Tom Jones, Hombre), formerly married to Sean Connery; and two-time Oscar nominee Peter Falk (Murder, Inc., Pocketful of Miracles, The Great Race), best remembered as television's Columbo. Or, for those into arthouse fare, for playing an angel in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire.
Also, Jane Russell, whose cleavage and sensuous lips in Howard Hughes' The Outlaw left the puritans of the Production Code Association apoplectic; another Australian performer, Googie Withers, among...
- 12/14/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Tree of Life actor says he was trying to figure out what role he played in Terrence Malick's Palme d'Or-winning film, while Christian Bale signs on for a new Malick project
The big story
"Mother ... Father ... Always you wrestle inside of me. Always you will. Oh ... and what's going on again?"
This week it emerged that Sean Penn seems to have been as mystified by The Tree of Life as the rest of us. "The screenplay is the most magnificent one that I've ever read but I couldn't find that same emotion on screen," said the actor of Terrence Malick's graceful meditation on the meaning of life / unnaturally long ode to self-involvement.
"A clearer and more conventional narrative would have helped the film without, in my opinion, lessening its beauty and its impact," said Penn. "Frankly, I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing there and what...
The big story
"Mother ... Father ... Always you wrestle inside of me. Always you will. Oh ... and what's going on again?"
This week it emerged that Sean Penn seems to have been as mystified by The Tree of Life as the rest of us. "The screenplay is the most magnificent one that I've ever read but I couldn't find that same emotion on screen," said the actor of Terrence Malick's graceful meditation on the meaning of life / unnaturally long ode to self-involvement.
"A clearer and more conventional narrative would have helped the film without, in my opinion, lessening its beauty and its impact," said Penn. "Frankly, I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing there and what...
- 8/25/2011
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
This 1953 film recasts the young Elizabeth I as a rapacious Scarlett O'Hara who chases after Thomas Seymour
Young Bess (1953)
Director: George Sidney
Entertainment grade: C+
History grade: B
Princess Elizabeth of England, known as Bess, was born in 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She would become queen as Elizabeth I in 1558.
People
At the beginning of the film, the infant Bess is in the care of her nursemaid, Katherine Ashley, who has an appalling habit of talking about her in a syrupy voice using the first person plural: "All we have to do is to see to it that our new stepmother likes us, our appearance, our little ways, and our manners." The princess is being taken to meet her father's latest wife, Anne of Cleves. "Now listen carefully," says Mrs Ashley, wagging her finger. "This one is German. Don't forget that. After all, it's not her fault.
Young Bess (1953)
Director: George Sidney
Entertainment grade: C+
History grade: B
Princess Elizabeth of England, known as Bess, was born in 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She would become queen as Elizabeth I in 1558.
People
At the beginning of the film, the infant Bess is in the care of her nursemaid, Katherine Ashley, who has an appalling habit of talking about her in a syrupy voice using the first person plural: "All we have to do is to see to it that our new stepmother likes us, our appearance, our little ways, and our manners." The princess is being taken to meet her father's latest wife, Anne of Cleves. "Now listen carefully," says Mrs Ashley, wagging her finger. "This one is German. Don't forget that. After all, it's not her fault.
- 8/25/2011
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
Alluring actor in a string of glossy Hollywood movies in the 1950s
The seductive brunette Elaine Stewart, who has died aged 81, may have lacked that ineffable essence that makes up star quality, but she had enough allure to attract attention in several glossy Hollywood movies in the 1950s, both in leading parts and noteworthy supporting roles. Among the best of the latter were her brief though memorable appearances in two films directed by Vincente Minnelli.
She was both bad and beautiful in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) as Lila, a wannabe film star, hoping to make it by sleeping with Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas), the studio head. When told that Shields is a great man, Lila responds, "There are no great men, buster. There's only men." The scene which lingers most in the mind is when Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner), who has just triumphed in a Shields movie, leaves a...
The seductive brunette Elaine Stewart, who has died aged 81, may have lacked that ineffable essence that makes up star quality, but she had enough allure to attract attention in several glossy Hollywood movies in the 1950s, both in leading parts and noteworthy supporting roles. Among the best of the latter were her brief though memorable appearances in two films directed by Vincente Minnelli.
She was both bad and beautiful in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) as Lila, a wannabe film star, hoping to make it by sleeping with Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas), the studio head. When told that Shields is a great man, Lila responds, "There are no great men, buster. There's only men." The scene which lingers most in the mind is when Georgia Lorrison (Lana Turner), who has just triumphed in a Shields movie, leaves a...
- 7/8/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Cinema lost another lovely and classic face over the weekend, as actress Jean Simmons passed away, according to the New York Times. She was 80.
Simmons' career often reads like a lesson in what might have been. She rose to early success in films such as David Lean's Great Expectations and Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (which earned her an Oscar nomination) before running afoul of her contract holder, Howard Hughes. After rejecting his advances, he attempted to ruin her career and cost her the lead in Roman Holiday. Simmons held out, and managed success with roles in Young Bess, Footsteps in the Fog, Guys and Dolls, and The Actress.
Due to financial strain, she quietly accepted any role offered, and Simmons became known as the quiet lady who supported great men in films like The Robe, The Egyptian, Desiree, Elmer Gantry, and Spartacus. She always rose above the material, and...
Simmons' career often reads like a lesson in what might have been. She rose to early success in films such as David Lean's Great Expectations and Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (which earned her an Oscar nomination) before running afoul of her contract holder, Howard Hughes. After rejecting his advances, he attempted to ruin her career and cost her the lead in Roman Holiday. Simmons held out, and managed success with roles in Young Bess, Footsteps in the Fog, Guys and Dolls, and The Actress.
Due to financial strain, she quietly accepted any role offered, and Simmons became known as the quiet lady who supported great men in films like The Robe, The Egyptian, Desiree, Elmer Gantry, and Spartacus. She always rose above the material, and...
- 1/26/2010
- by Elisabeth Rappe
- Cinematical
British-born film star known for her roles in Great Expectations and Spartacus
Jean Simmons, who has died aged 80, had a bounteous moment, early in her career, when she seemed the likely casting for every exotic or magical female role. It passed, as she got out of her teens, but then for the best part of 15 years, in Britain and America, she was a valued actress whose generally proper, if not patrician, manner had an intriguing way of conflicting with her large, saucy eyes and a mouth that began to turn up at the corners as she imagined mischief – or more than her movies had in their scripts. Even in the age of Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor, she was an authentic beauty. And there were always hints that the lady might be very sexy. But nothing worked out smoothly, and it is somehow typical of Simmons that her most astonishing...
Jean Simmons, who has died aged 80, had a bounteous moment, early in her career, when she seemed the likely casting for every exotic or magical female role. It passed, as she got out of her teens, but then for the best part of 15 years, in Britain and America, she was a valued actress whose generally proper, if not patrician, manner had an intriguing way of conflicting with her large, saucy eyes and a mouth that began to turn up at the corners as she imagined mischief – or more than her movies had in their scripts. Even in the age of Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor, she was an authentic beauty. And there were always hints that the lady might be very sexy. But nothing worked out smoothly, and it is somehow typical of Simmons that her most astonishing...
- 1/24/2010
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
Film Score Monthly has announced an ambitious 15-cd set focusing on the legendary Miklós Rózsa, a release that “is destined to become one of the most essential soundtrack collections of all time,” according to the label. The “Miklós Rózsa Treasury (1949-1968) focuses on Rózsa’s association with M-g-m and features, among many other things, the complete scores from Madame Bovary, The Power and Quo Vadis. Other works included are Young Bess, The Story of Three Loves, All the ...
- 11/25/2009
- by Mikael Carlsson
- MovieScore Magazine
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