The Power of the Dog [2021] – ★★★★1/2 “Deliver my soul from the sword/My darling from the power of the dog” (Psalms, Preface to Thomas Savage’s novel The Power of the Dog (1967)). The Power of the Dog centres on two very different brothers Phil and George Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons) living on…
Category: Flick Lit
“The Lost City of Z” Review
The Lost City of Z [2016] – ★★★ “There is very little doubt that the forests cover traces of a lost civilisation of a most unsuspected and surprising character” (from a letter of Fawcett to the Royal Geographical Society, December 1921, Grann (2009) at 55). 🌴 Based on a great book by David Grann titled…
Agatha Christie Adaptations: Murder on the Orient Express (1974), & (2017)
Murder on the Orient Express [1974] – ★★★★ It is no wonder that Agatha Christie chose the Orient Express, once the most luxurious train in the world, as the setting for one of her fictitious crime scenes. From Paris to Istanbul, a journey of some 1,920 miles, will take passengers around 1883 (the date of…
The Colours Blogathon: Betty Blue (1986)
Catherine at Thoughts All Sorts is hosting The Colours Blogathon, and my contribution to this colourful parade of entries is a French cult classic film from 1983 titled 37°2 Le Matin or simply Betty Blue. Nominated in 1986 for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category, this film of a passionate, doomed…
“Silence” Review: From Book Comparison to Character Study
Silence [2016] – ★★★★1/2 “This is not the sort of film you “like” or “don’t like”. It’s a film that you experience – and then live with” (Matt Zoller Seitz). “…wandering here over the desolate mountains – what an absurd situation!…I knew well, of course, that the greatest sin against God was despair; but the silence…
“Love & Friendship” Review
Love & Friendship [2016] – ★★★★1/2 🏰 Like its main heroine, the film puts a special charm on the viewer, and its intriguing, witty, playful and engaging nature is hard to resist. Love & Friendship is a new film by Whit Stillman and an adaptation of a short novel by Jane Austen Lady Susan. The…
“The Painted Veil” Review
The Painted Veil [2006] – ★★★★1/2 “Lift not the painted veil which those who liveCall Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,And it but mimic all we would believeWith colours idly spread….” (Percy Bysshe Shelley) The Painted Veil is a moving romantic drama set in China in 1925, and based on Somerset Maugham’s critically acclaimed…
Spotlight on Film 