Tagged: Melodrama
Review – The Beguiled (2017)
Director: Sofia Coppola
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Colin Farrell, Elle Fanning, Oona Laurence, Angourie Rice, Addison Reicke, Emma Howard
Thomas P Cullinan’s 1966 novel The Beguiled was first adapted for the screen by Don Siegel in 1971 with Clint Eastwood in the lead (immediately preceding their collaboration on Dirty Harry) in a film which played up the story’s horror elements. Writer-director Sofia Coppola’s adaptation, for which she won best director at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is a different film. While also a trimmed down, streamlined version of Cullinan’s story, Coppola gives it a distinctively feminist perspective, aligning our point of view with the female characters.
1864, Virginia. It is three years into the American Civil War, the result of which is becoming clearer by the day. A young girl, Amy (Oona Laurence), finds a wounded Yankee soldier, Corp. John McBurney (Colin Farrell) in the woods and offers to take him back to Ms Farnsworth’s Seminary for Young Ladies for treatment. Continue reading
Review – Angry Indian Goddesses (2015)
Director: Pan Nalin
Starring: Sarah-Jane Dias, Amrit Maghera, Anushka Manchanda, Sandhya Mridul, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Rajshri Deshpande, Pavleen Gujral
Promoted as the Indian Bridesmaids or Sex and the City, Pan Nalin’s Angry Indian Goddesses is India’s first female buddy movie, but it uses its light and fun premise to make some biting observations about life as a woman in India.
Photographer Frieda (Sarah-Jane Dias) invites her six closest friends to stay with her for the weekend in her house in Goa and surprises them with the news that she is getting married. These friends come from all walks of life: Madhureeta (Anushka Manchanda) is a singer, Pamela (Pavleen Gujral) is a housewife, Joanna (Amrit Maghera) an aspiring Bollywood actress, Suranjana (Sandhya Mridul) is a powerful corporate executive, Lakshmi (Rajshri Deshpande) is a maid, and Nargis (Tannishtha Chatterjee) an activist. Everyone brings their own issues and experiences to the house, and as they talk, laugh, celebrate and help Frieda prepare for her big day different truths come out. But through all of this one question remains: who is the groom? Continue reading
Review – Carol (2015)
Director: Todd Haynes
Starring: Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, Kyle Chandler, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacey
The psychological thrillers of American novelist Patricia Highsmith have for a long time proven a rich source for film adaptations (Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley’s Game). However her second novel, The Price of Salt, a lesbian love story set in the 1950s which she published under a pseudonym, had not been touched. It is difficult to imagine a filmmaker better suited to tackling this material than Todd Haynes. Over the course of his 25 year career Haynes has a tremendous track record of building films around complex female protagonists and exploring issues of queer identity, while being one of the very few directors to work in the classic melodrama genre. All of which contribute to the faithful adaptation of Highsmith’s work in Carol.
Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) is a quiet, shy young woman with an interest in photography who works in the toy section of a Manhattan department store. In the days leading up to Christmas, Therese meets an elegant society woman, Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) who is shopping for a Christmas gift for her daughter. A slightly older woman than Therese, Carol is instantly fascinating to her. Continue reading
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