Archive
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
“I come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be… yours.”
Although she had always been popular, 18th century English writer Jane Austen received a new surge of publicity in 1995 following the release of adaptations of two of her best-known works: the BBC mini-series based on Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle and featuring that swimming scene, and this film, adapting her 1811 novel Sense and Sensibility. The story of Sense and Sensibility follows the Dashwood sisters – practical and reserved Elinor, passionate and romantic Marianne – after their father’s death leaves them in reduced financial circumstances. Forced to relocate to a modest cottage in Devon, they navigate love, heartbreak, and the constraints placed on women of their class in Georgian-era England; both sisters are expected to marry to secure their family’s future, and while Elinor quietly longs for the earnest Edward Ferrars, Marianne falls deeply for the dashing but unreliable John Willoughby, overlooking the steadier Colonel Brandon. Read more…
A LITTLE PRINCESS – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Director Alfonso Cuarón’s A Little Princess is an adaptation the 1905 novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which is now regarded as a timeless classic of children’s literature. The story centers on Sara Crewe, a kind and imaginative young girl raised in India by her wealthy British father, Captain Crewe. When World War I breaks out, Captain Crewe is called to the front lines, and Sara is sent to a boarding school for girls run by the stern and cold-hearted Miss Minchin. At first, Sara enjoys a privileged status at the school, thanks to her father’s wealth and her own charm, but her life is turned upside down when news arrives that Captain Crewe has died in battle and his assets have been seized. Stripped of her wealth, Sara is forced to become a servant at the school, but despite her hardships and Miss Minchin’s cruelty, Sara refuses to give up her belief that “all girls are princesses,” and with the help of her friend Becky, a fellow servant, and Ram Dass, the mysterious servant of a wealthy neighbor, Sara clings to her imagination and dignity. Read more…
UNE FEMME FRANÇAISE – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Une Femme Française is a French romantic drama film co-written and directed by Régis Wargnier, starring Emmanuelle Béart and Daniel Auteuil. The story follows Jeanne (Béart), a passionate and free-spirited woman, who marries Louis (Auteuil), a devoted but rigid French army officer, in the early 1940s. Soon after their marriage, Louis is sent off to fight in World War II, leaving Jeanne alone for several years; she struggles with loneliness and eventually engages in various torrid romantic and sexual affairs, seeking love and companionship in his absence. When Louis finally returns, he discovers Jeanne’s infidelities but remains deeply in love with her, and they attempt to rebuild their marriage, but the emotional wounds and social constraints of the time make it difficult. Over the course of several decades their relationship is tested by Louis’ military deployments, societal expectations, and Jeanne’s unrelenting desire for independence and passion – including an extensive affair a wealthy industrialist in post-war Berlin – all of which combined to offer a deeply emotional portrayal of a woman torn between personal fulfillment and societal norms. Read more…
MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Following the critical and commercial success of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992 there was a brief resurgence and interest in Hollywood for making faithful adaptations of classic horror novels. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was director Kenneth Branagh’s attempt to bring the classic 1818 story back to the big screen, with high production values, a star-studded cast, and a more intellectual focus on its dark philosophical themes of creation, ambition, and the consequences of playing God. Branagh himself plays scientist Victor Frankenstein, who after the passing of his mother becomes obsessed with defying death. Victor moves to Germany to study science and medicine with his friend Henry Clerval (Tom Hulce), and marries his long-time love Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter). Eventually Frankenstein has a breakthrough where he discovers how to bring inanimate matter to life; wanting to take things further, he begins collecting human body parts, which he stitches together and tries to bring to life. Miraculously, Frankenstein succeeds, but the resulting creature (Robert De Niro) is grotesque and terrifying, leading Victor to abandon it in horror. The Creature, left to fend for itself, struggles with loneliness, rejection, and a desire for companionship; it learns language and human behavior but is consistently met with fear and violence from the people he meets, and in time vows revenge on Victor for bringing him into a world that hates him. Read more…
EXIT TO EDEN – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Exit to Eden is a romantic comedy-drama film loosely based on Anne Rice’s 1985 novel of the same name. The film was by directed Garry Marshall and stars Aussie actor Paul Mercurio – hot from his success in Strictly Ballroom in 1992 – as Elliot Slater, a photographer who travels to a BDSM-themed island resort called Eden, where guests can explore their fantasies. At Eden, he meets Lisa Emerson (Dana Delany), the resort’s lead dominatrix, and the two develop a romantic relationship. Meanwhile two detectives, played by Rosie O’Donnell and Dan Aykroyd, follow Elliot to Eden because they discover that he accidentally took the only known photograph of Omar (Stuart Wilson), an international diamond smuggler; Omar himself also discovers that Elliot has a photo of him, and also goes to Eden to try to recover the film. What follows is a series of increasingly ridiculous comedic situations involving all parties. Read more…
NEEDFUL THINGS – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Needful Things is a cautionary drama film with a horror-supernatural twist, directed by Fraser Heston (son of legendary actor Charlton), and based on a 1991 novel by Stephen King. The story revolves around a mysterious shop owner named Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow), who opens a store called ‘Needful Things’ in the small town of Castle Rock, Maine. Gaunt sells various items to the townspeople, each one seemingly fulfilling their deepest desires and fantasies. However, these apparently innocent transactions come with a sinister price – they require the recipients to perform increasingly malevolent and destructive acts against their fellow townspeople. As the town becomes divided and chaos ensues, local sheriff Alan Pangborn (Ed Harris) starts to investigate the bizarre occurrences and tries to uncover the truth behind Gaunt and his shop. The film co-stars Bonnie Bedelia, J. T. Walsh, and Amanda Plummer, and was a reasonable success at the box office in the late summer of 1993, although it was less popular with critics – Roger Ebert famously compared watching it to enduring ‘Satanic water torture’. Read more…
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I will always maintain that, with the possible exception of Sir Laurence Olivier, the only director who can successfully translate Shakespeare to the big screen is Kenneth Branagh. His 1989 cinematic debut Henry V was a lightning bolt, doing away with stuffy line readings and instead embracing rich and complex emotions, thereby making the Bard’s prose modern and invigorating. He brought scenes to life with lavish settings and action sequences, and surrounded it all with rich, bold music. His second Shakespeare adaptation after Henry V was this one: Much Ado About Nothing, a romantic comedy first published in 1599. Read more…
INDOCHINE – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the most critically acclaimed French films of the 1990s was director Régis Wargnier’s Indochine, a sprawling and epic romantic drama set against the backdrop of the last days of French colonialism in South-East Asia in the 1930s and 40s. The film stars screen legend Catherine Deneuve as Éliane Devries, the owner of a large rubber plantation in Vietnam, whose adopted daughter Camille (Linh Dan Pham) is a member of the noble Nguyen Dynasty, which ruled the country prior to French colonization. Both Éliane and Camille live a life of wealth and blasé privilege, but things begin to change when they independently meet and fall in love with Jean-Baptiste (Vincent Pérez), a dashing lieutenant in the French navy. The fallout from this love triangle begins to tear the family apart, and eventually results in Camille becoming involved with a group of Vietnamese communist revolutionaries who dream of independence for the country. The film was a massive domestic success, winning five César Awards (and being nominated for a further seven), while also winning the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1992. Read more…
DEATH ON THE NILE – Patrick Doyle
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Kenneth Branagh has seemingly moved from adapting works by William Shakespeare to adapting works by Agatha Christie, and I for one am delighted. Death on the Nile is the second major cinematic adaptation of Christie’s classic whodunit, after the John Guillermin-Peter Ustinov version from 1978, and is the second of Branagh’s Christie adaptations after Murder on the Orient Express in 2017. Branagh himself plays the brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who gets drawn into a mystery while travelling in Egypt; a wealthy heiress is murdered by an unknown assailant during a cruise down the Nile on a luxury steamer, and many of the guests on the boat have grudges against her, to the extent that any of them could reasonably have been the murderer. It is up to Poirot to unmask the killer before the boat returns to Cairo. The film is a wonderfully old-fashioned thriller, handsomely staged with sweeping vistas and gorgeous period production design. It also has a tremendous supporting cast, which includes Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Emma Mackie, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Sophie Okonedo, Letitia Wright, and Russell Brand. Read more…
DEAD AGAIN – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
After director Kenneth Branagh wowed Hollywood with his brash, compelling take on Shakespeare’s Henry V in 1989, many people expected that he would continue to drink deeply from the well of the Bard for his follow-up effort. Surprisingly, his sophomore effort was not a classic adaptation but was this film: Dead Again, a neo-noir thriller set in contemporary Los Angeles. Branagh plays private detective Mike Church, who is drawn into a mysterious case involving Grace, a woman with amnesia, played by Emma Thompson. In an attempt to discover her identity, he turns to antiques dealer and hypnotist Franklyn Madson (Derek Jacobi), who he believes can help her. While under hypnosis, Grace comes to believe that she is the reincarnation of Margaret, a socialite who was murdered by her composer husband Roman Strauss in 1949. Roman – who also bears an uncanny physical resemblance to Mike – took the secret of Margaret’s murder to his grave, and the more Mike digs into the events of the past, the more he and Grace find their lives in peril in the present. The movie is a fun, melodramatic romp filled with intentional homages to Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, and features a terrific, bold score by Patrick Doyle. Read more…
SHIPWRECKED – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Despite writing what is generally considered to be one of the greatest debut scores in film music history in 1989 for Henry V, Patrick Doyle was for some reason slow to capitalize on this success. His sophomore work was not for another prestigious drama or major studio feature, but was instead for this film: Shipwrecked, a sort-of Norwegian version of Treasure Island or Robinson Crusoe. The film was adapted from the popular series of historical novels by Oluf Vilhelm Falck-Ytter about the character Hakon Hakonsen, a young Norwegian boy in the 1850s who takes a job as a cabin boy on a ship to support his family, and subsequently has a number of fantastic adventures on the high seas. The film was directed by Nils Gaup, stars Stian Smestad, Louisa Haigh, and Gabriel Byrne, and was released by Walt Disney in the United States in 1991 several months after it was released to general critical and popular acclaim in its home country. Read more…
ARTEMIS FOWL – Patrick Doyle
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
After being in production since 2013, and then languishing in distribution hell for well over a year after it was completed, Artemis Fowl has finally staggered into the world as a straight-to-streaming product on Disney+ in June 2020, having had its theatrical release cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It’s a fantasy-adventure film for children, based on the massively popular series of novels by Eoin Colfer, and tells the story of a 12-year old genius named Artemis Fowl, who is the heir to the vast fortune accumulated by his father, a criminal mastermind. However, when his father is kidnapped, young Artemis is tasked with rescuing him, and is thrust into an adventure involving ancient artifacts, mythical hidden cities, and creatures from Irish folklore – fairies and leprechauns and the like – some of whom are intent on apparently starting a war between them and humans. The film stars Colin Farrell, Josh Gad, Judi Dench, and young Ferdia Shaw (the grandson of Jaws actor Robert Shaw) in the title role, and is directed by Kenneth Branagh. Read more…
HENRY V – Patrick Doyle
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
In 1989 Kenneth Branagh was a brash, handsome, dazzlingly talented young actor and director, who emerged from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in the early 1980s and set the British theatrical world alight with his electrifying Shakespearean productions. He was part of a group of talented contemporaries which included people like Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and Rowan Atkinson, all of whom began to have a profound effect on British stage society through their respective careers in drama and comedy. Branagh then went on to create the Renaissance Theatre Company, which brought his troupe of players into the circle of beloved stage veterans like Judi Dench, Richard Briers, Derek Jacobi, and Sir John Gielgud. Together they made enormously successful stage productions of Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night, the latter of which directly led to Branagh receiving funding to make a big-screen adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved works, Henry V. Read more…
Best Scores of 2017 – United Kingdom, Part II
The third installment in my annual series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world returns to the United Kingdom, with a look at a half dozen or so more outstanding scores from films made in Britain. This set of scores from comprises comedies, dramas, and even a horror movie, and includes one by an Oscar-winner, one by a well-loved multiple Oscar nominee, and one by one of the most impressive newcomers to emerge in 2017. Read more…
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS – Patrick Doyle
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The concept of the ‘whodunit’ in contemporary literature was essentially invented by British author Agatha Christie, who during her lifetime wrote more than 50 detective stories and mysteries. Possibly her most famous work was the 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express, which features as its protagonist one of her most beloved creations, the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Without giving too much of the plot away, the story unfolds as Poirot is traveling from Istanbul to London on the famous eponymous train. A passenger is murdered in his cabin, and Poirot is implored by the train’s director to help solve the case. With the train stuck in a snowdrift, Poirot has time to investigate each of the other passengers in the first class compartment where the murder took place, and slowly develops a theory linking the murder to the abduction and subsequent death of a wealthy child heiress several years previously. This is the second big screen adaptation of the story, after Sidney Lumet’s 1974 film; it was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who himself plays Poirot, and has an all-star supporting cast that includes Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Josh Gad, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Daisy Ridley. Read more…
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