Women and Film- The Chick Flick and Girl Power

I love "Chick Flicks"! There. I said it. Really, this is what my entire blog is about, but it has taken me 3 years to really come out and say it. I don't like violence in film. I don't like unhappy endings. I like comedy. Not slapstick or crude comedy but really witty and fun comedy, interspersed with a bit of really great plot and dialogue. Oooooooh yes, dialogue. Words, words and more words. Why are we afraid to ask for what we want to see? Why isn't there an entire film company run by women and dedicated to making the kind of films we like to see?

Let's stand up and demand good films that we want to see. Good quality entertainment for women is really important. It makes us feel better. It helps us cope with the difficulties we face every single day. Pride and Prejudice 1995 helped me deal with a mild case of postpartum depression after the birth of my second child. It was really important to me. I am crying as I write this. And yes, a good cry every once in a while is really great. Necessary even.

I am not going to say much more except that we really need to let the makers of film and TV know what we want to see, and that we have the money to pay for it. And for the few wonderful men who read my blog and have exquisite taste in film, join us too! The world will be a better and happier place with more of these films in it.

There, rant over. Now if you would like to hear someone talk who has much more knowledge of the film industry than I do, here is the Youtube video of Lindsay Doran, the Producer of Sense and Sensibility 1995 and someone who has been making films for us for decades, this is a link for her TEDx talk on Saving the World vs Kissing the Girl.

And Happy International Women's Day my friends. Feel free to post your fave "chick flicks" in the comments below and tell us all which films lift your spirits or give you a really great cry when you need it.

Hugs to all!!!!

Here are links to my IMDb lists:

Chick Flicks I can't do without (modern) by the Jane Austen Film Club

Top Period Dramas From The Jane Austen Film Club

10 Most Popular Posts of 2012

#1. Yes, ladies my number one most popular post of the year was the rather attractive and talented Tom Hiddleston. He has quite a following now after an exciting few years starring in The Avengers (Loki), War Horse and Midnight in Paris. He was already on my top 10 list for Miss Austen Regrets and Cranford. You will see much more of this talented actor in the future!

#2. The hunks were ruling this year with Jonny Lee Miller coming in second. He had quite a year as well, with his take on Sherlock Holmes, Elementary, set in NYC with a female Watson (Lucy Liu) doing quite well on CBS. Elementary is absolutely worth seeing, although as you can see from the photo above, he will always be Mr. Knightley to me (but his Edmund Bertram was pretty hot too)!

#3. Again, here we have another cutie. Matthew Macfadyen was wonderful in Anna Karenina in which he was working again with Keira Knightley and Joe Wright from Pride and Prejudice 2005. You will see him again soon in Ripper Street, as a Victorian police detective working on the Jack the Ripper case. I have to say that his role as Sir Felix Carbury in The Way We Live Now is still one of his best, IMHO.

#4. Michael Gambon was my fourth most popular post of 2012. He certainly belongs in my hall of fame with his appearances in Emma, Wives and Daughters, Gosford Park, Cranford, and The King's Speech among many other period drama roles.

#5. Great Expectations 2011/2012: Battle of the Miss Havishams was my 5th most popular blog post. I still can't comment on the Ralph Fiennes/ Helena Bonham Carter version as it has not yet had a wide release in North America. Here's hoping we get to see it in 2013. The miniseries version with Gillian Anderson was very good. Not earth shattering, but very good.

#6. One of my favourite posts of the year was a comparison of Sense and Sensibility 1995 vs 2008. Lots of comments on this post as so many of my readers have a definite opinion on which is the best version! And there was not a consensus of opinion by the way. Just what I was hoping for. A spirited discussion, as both versions are worthy of the designation of "best".

#7.  Although Benedict Cumberbatch was in the public eye for much of this year for his modern day Sherlock series, I prefer him in his many period roles. Although perhaps not in a powdered wig. And yet, the longer I stare at that photo, the hotter he seems to get...
Other films to get your Cumberbatch fix include Atonement, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and War Horse. Yum!

#8.  Happily, Castle Howard was my 8th most popular post of 2012. One of the most wonderful locations for shooting period drama, it is a main character in both Brideshead Revisited versions as well as the brilliant The Buccaneers from 1995. Having been there myself a few years ago, it is well worth the visit.

#9.  Romola Garai is one of the best actresses in England today. The fact that she does lots of period work is very lucky for a fan like me. Emma, Daniel Deronda, Amazing Grace, Atonement, Vanity Fair, I Capture the Castle...the list goes on and on. That reminds me, I still haven't seen her in The Hour. It looks brilliant!

#10.  Last but not least, Helen Mirren gets the nod as my 10th most popular post this year. Well deserved for films such as The Queen, Elizabeth I, The Last Station, Gosford Park and The Passion of Ayn Rand. I can't wait to see her with Anthony Hopkins in Hitchcock.

Imelda Staunton- Actor of the Week

Imelda Staunton

Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton. The most Irish of names for one of the best English actresses of all time. Her parents were immigrants from County Mayo, Ireland but she was raised in London, attending RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) with Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and Juliet Stevenson. She started her career performing in the theatre, but of course we know her best from all of her wonderful film roles. And so many of her film and television roles have been costume dramas.

Mr. and Mrs. Palmer in Sense and Sensibility

I first learned to love Imelda as the chattery twit Charlotte Palmer in Sense and Sensibility 1995. Apparently she had had a long connection with Emma Thompson (Thompson, Peter's Friends, Much Ado About Nothing) and when Emma was writing the screenplay, she had Imelda and Hugh Laurie in mind for Mr. and Mrs. Palmer right from the beginning.

Nurse in Shakespeare in Love

Her wonderfully nuanced comedic performance as Nurse in Shakespeare in Love is a joy to watch. Her facial expressions are even more amazing with that incredible Elizabethan headgear.

Vera Drake

Nominated for an Academy Award in 2005 for her role as Vera Drake, Imelda really showed her acting chops. Although she lost to Hilary Swank, Hollywood sat up and took notice.

Mrs. Blatherwick in Nanny McPhee

Reunited with Emma Thompson for Nanny McPhee, Imelda got to have fun with a comedic performance again. In fact, she really gets to let loose as Mrs. Blatherwick! Look out!

Dolores Umbrage in Harry Potter

As the saccharine Dolores Umbrage in Harry Potter, Imelda gets to be truly evil and over the top. And I must say, those costumes are out of this world!

Miss Pole in Cranford

Do you love her as much as I do as Miss Pole in Cranford? Oh, the cat and the lace! Oh, the cage and the parrot! Oh, I have to watch Cranford again. Especially as Imelda's husband Jim Carter is Captain Brown and her daughter Bessie Carter has a small role as Margaret Gidman.

Bessie Carter as Margaret Gidman in Cranford

Imelda's daughter Bessie Carter played Margaret Gidman in Cranford, the maid who learned how to read (horrors!). Lady Ludlow was not amused!

Queen Victoria in The Pirates! Band of Misfits

As the voice of Queen Victoria in The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (which I haven't seen alas as I have no child to accompany me) she looks quite ferocious. Anyone seen this film? Is it as fun as it looks?

Imelda with Bessie and Jim

I had to pop in this photo as it is just so comical. 5 foot nothing with her family towering over her. She is a very big talent however, in a very little package.

Do you have any fave Imelda Staunton roles that I missed? There are lots to choose from!

Emma Thompson- Actor of the Week

Emma Thompson

Let me just say that I adore Emma Thompson. I will never be able to do justice to her so let me just allow her to do the talking!

''I don't want your readers ever to think they have to have it all. I think that's a revolting concept. It's so false! Sometimes you'll have some things, and sometimes you'll have other things. And you do not need it all at once; it's not good for you."--on juggling motherhood and careers

Sense and Sensibility

Elinor Dashwood: Marianne, please try... I cannot... I cannot do without you. Oh, please, I have tried to bear everything else... I will try... but please, dearest, beloved Marianne, do not leave me alone. 

Love Actually

Karen : Get a grip, people hate sissies. No-one's ever going to shag you if you cry all the time!

"Liam Neeson, quite frankly, is sex on legs. Always has been".

Professor Trelawney in Harry Potter

"I have a nervous breakdown in the film and in one scene I get to stand at the top of the stairs waving an empty sherry bottle which is, of course, a typical scene from my daily life, so isn't much of a stretch." -- on her role in the Harry Potter film.

Nanny McPhee

"I've realized that in all the great stories, even if there's a happily-ever-after ending, there's something sad."

"There is that thing about not working with animals and children - I don't think that's true. Although you should never work with donkeys."

"You can't imagine what satisfaction can be gotten from throwing a pie into someone's face."

An Education

Headmistress: Nobody does anything worth doing without a degree.
Jenny: Nobody does anything worth doing WITH a degree. No woman anyway.
Headmistress: So what I do isn't worth doing? Or what Miss Stubbs does, or Mrs. Wilson, or any of us here? Because none of us would be here without a degree. You do realize that, don't you? And yes, of course studying is hard and boring...
Jenny: Boring!
Headmistress: I'm sorry?
Jenny: Studying is hard and boring. Teaching is hard and boring. So, what you're telling me is to be bored, and then bored, and finally bored again, but this time for the rest of my life? This whole stupid country is bored! There's no life in it, or color, or fun! It's probably just as well the Russians are going to drop a nuclear bomb on us any day now. So my choice is to do something hard and boring, or to marry my... Jew, and go to Paris and Rome and listen to jazz, and read, and eat good food in nice restaurants, and have fun! It's not enough to educate us anymore Ms. Walters. You've got to tell us why you're doing it.

Howard's End

Margaret Schlegel: Unlike the Greek, England has no true mythology. All we have are witches and fairies.

Remains Of The Day

Miss Kenton: What's in that book? Come on, let me see!
Stevens: This is my private time. You're invading it.
Miss Kenton: Oh, is that so?
Stevens: Yes.
Miss Kenton: I'm invading your private time, am I?
Stevens: Yes. 

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Well, this post could go on for ever, but let me just add that Emma has a few new films coming out. She is Agent O in Men in Black 3, the voice of Queen Elinor in Brave, Lady Eastlake in Effie among others. So...any other fans of ET? Any Emma Thompson films you would like to add?

"I was brought up by very witty people who were dealing with quite difficult things: disease and death... I was brought up by people who tended to giggle at funerals."

Sense and Sensibility- 1995 vs 2008

Sense and Sensibility 1995

Having watched both versions of Sense and Sensibility recently, I feel the time is right for a post comparing and contrasting the two versions (does that sound like an English Lit class?-sorry!).

One version I like and the other version I love. Can you already tell which is which?

Sense and Sensibility 2008

The 2008 BBC miniseries with screenplay by Andrew Davies and directed by John Alexander is an excellent treatment of Jane Austen's first published novel. I adore Andrew Davies and I did not envy him the task of following Emma Thompson's Oscar winning screenplay. When he took on the job, he decided to go back to the book and pull out plot points that ET had been forced to omit in her shorter version.

Willoughby and Marianne

The dramatization of the seduction scene, the restoration of the elder Steele sister (comic gold, I tell you) and the dueling scene really do add to the meat of this version. There is also no doubt that the scene at Allenham with Willoughby and Marianne is sizzling with sexual tension and greatly adds to Marianne's story.

OK, little Henry Dashwood was hilarious

There are lots of things about this version that I truly enjoy. The young actors are amazing and the locations gorgeous and appropriately bleak.  To paraphrase Elinor, "I do not attempt to deny that I think very highly of it -- that I greatly esteem, that I like it."

However, I think you have guessed by now that the version I truly adore is the 1995 Emma Thompson/Ang Lee masterpiece. I just popped it in my DVD player and the first strains of music go straight to my heart!

Oh, the hats of Sense and Sensibility!

There is no doubt that the genius and humour of Emma Thompson's script is at the heart of what makes this version great. She changed so much of Jane Austen's dialogue and yet because she does it so well, we not only forgive her but we begin to look for her lines in the book!

Oh, the scenery and the cinematography!

Ang Lee's direction is also heartbreakingly artistic. How a Taiwanese man was able to interpret the intentions of a 200 year old story by an English lady is a mystery, but there it is!

But the music!

The original score of Sense and Sensibility is some of the most sublime music ever composed. Was there ever a film so enhanced and elevated by it's music? Both the background music and the piano compositions played by Marianne...sigh!

And if I start waxing poetic about the superb acting in this film by some of England's finest thespians this post will go on forever.

OK, time for my readers to weigh in. What do you like or dislike about each of these two versions? Don't hold back!

P.S. I have also recently compared TV/film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice if you would like to join that discussion too!

Domenic Cooper- Actor of the Week

Domenic Cooper

Domenic Cooper is a hot commodity right now and seems to pop up everywhere these days. I think a lot of people would recognize him as the love interest of Amanda Seyfried in Mama Mia.

Domenic Cooper and Amanda Seyfried in Mama Mia

Good choice for the smouldering, mostly shirtless fiancee in Mama Mia. He has that slightly exotic bad boy look to him and of course that gorgeous accent, having been brought up on the outskirts of London in Greenwich.

Domenic Cooper as Charles Grey in The Duchess

I think his best role so far is as Charles Grey in The Duchess opposite Kiera Knightley. He was very intense and sexy in this part and the chemistry between his Charles Grey and Kiera's Georgiana was electric. I'll admit it, I cried during this film. Quite shamelessly I might add.

Domenic Cooper and Charity Wakefield in Sense and Sensibility

OK, I know I am going to get some flak on this but I just couldn't quite get into Domenic as Willoughby in the 2008 miniseries Sense and Sensibility. I adore Andrew Davies and I do think this entire production is really good. I guess Emma Thompson has just ruined me for other versions. To be fair, I should watch this one again as it is quite lovely. I just didn't love Domenic as much as Charity Wakefield's Marianne did. Mind you Willoughby is one of my least favourite Jane Austen male characters so maybe it has more to do with that.

Domenic Cooper in Tamara Drewe

If you haven't seen Tamara Drewe, it is quite a great flick. A little bit dark for a comedy but highly entertaining in an oh so British kind of way. Lovely little village for the location too, which never hurts. And Domenic is hilarious as a dopey rock star bad boy. I mean look at that face. It just mirrors the dog's face!

Rosamund Pike and Domenic Cooper in An Education

As affluent wheeler dealer Danny in An Education, Domenic plays a very different kind of bad boy. This film was riveting on many levels. I could certainly watch it again as all of the performances were remarkable and I loved the script by Nick Hornby about a girl trying to choose the course of her life.

Domenic Cooper in My Week With Marilyn

I haven't seen My Week With Marilyn yet so I can't comment on Domenic's role as Marilyn Monroe's photographer and business partner Milton H. Greene. Actually, I almost watched this last night but instead watched The Muppets, which made me very happy. Can anyone else tell me how they liked My Week With Marilyn?

So watch out for lots more Domenic Cooper in the future. He has 8 upcoming films listed on IMDb, including Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. So look out!

Hugh Grant- Actor of the Week

Hugh Grant

In honour of his new animated film The Pirates! Band of Misfits or The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists depending on your side of the pond, my actor of the week is Hugh Grant. I will admit to a bit of a weakness for Hugh's films. If you take a look at his IMDb page, you will see why I had trouble narrowing down my choices for this post. So if I just limit myself to period films first,we have...

Hugh Grant in Sense and Sensibility

Although a little stiff-necked, Hugh Grant is wonderful as Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility. One of his best roles!

Hugh Grant and Tara Fitzgerald in The Englishman who...yada yada yada

In The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain, he plays an English cartographer who has to tell a Welsh village that their mountain is only a hill. I'm going to have to see this one again, as I have been to Wales since I first saw the film (it is breathtaking) and as I recall, the film was pretty darn good.

Hugh Grant as Reginald Cardinal in The Remains of the Day

In The Remains of the Day, he has a small but wonderful part in this riveting film which is now almost 20 years old!

Hugh Grant and Judy Davis in Impromptu

In Impromptu as Chopin and opposite the luminous Judy Davis as George Sand, he is sweet and funny. Not a serious take on Chopin, this one is right up my alley. I love a spot of comedy! Emma Thompson has a riot as the loopy Duchess in this one as well. Love her!

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Ok...now for the non-period films of Hugh Grant's which I absolutely adore. No, they are not high art but they always entertain.

Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget: Apparently, I used to run round naked in his paddling pool.
Daniel Cleaver: I bet you did, you dirty bitch.

Love Actually

Prime Minister: Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around.

Music and Lyrics

Alex Fletcher: The best time I've had in the last fifteen years was sitting at that piano with you.
Sophie Fisher: That's wonderfully sensitive... especially from a man who wears such tight pants.
Alex Fletcher: It forces all the blood to my heart.

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Fiona: There's a sort of greatness to your lateness.
Charles: Thanks, it's not achieved without real suffering.

About a Boy

Will: I couldn't possibly think of a worse godfather for Imogene. You know me. I'll drop her at her christening. I'll forget her birthdays until her 18th, when I'll take her out and get her drunk and possibly, let's face it, you know, try and shag her. I mean, seriously, it's a very, very bad choice.
Christine: We know, I just thought you had hidden depths.
Will: No. No. You've always had that wrong. I really am this shallow.

Two Weeks Notice

George Wade: I own the hotel, and I live there. My life is very much like Monopoly.

Notting Hill

Keziah: No thanks, I'm a fruitarian.
Max: I didn't realize that.
William: And, ahm: what exactly is a fruitarian?
Keziah: We believe that fruits and vegetables have feeling so we think cooking is cruel. We only eat things that have actually fallen off a tree or bush - that are, in fact, dead already.
William: Right. Right. Interesting stuff. So, these carrots...
Keziah: Have been murdered, yes.
William: Murdered? Poor carrots. How beastly!

Nine Months

Rebecca Taylor: Sam! My water broke!
Samuel Faulkner: Well, we'll get you another one! 

OK, that last one seems very appropriate since Hugh Grant has finally become a father to a little girl Tabitha with Chinese actress Tinglan Hong. Who knew he had hidden depths?

Did I miss any of Hugh Grant's films that you really love? I left out the film Restoration with Robert Downey Jr. and Sam Niell, because I had never heard of it but which looks awesome. Can anyone recommend it?