Sunday 30 August 2015

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH'S HAMLET





Read here a review of Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as Hamlet which is now at the Barbican until 31 October 2015. The production is sold out, but 30 £10 day tickets are made available to buy in person to every performance.
Flitting across the stage with an athletic intensity, he is walking in the footsteps of the greats; among them Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Peter O’Toole, Kenneth Branagh and most recently, David Tennant. 
Although Benedict Cumberbatch is best known for his film and television roles, he undoubtedly knows classical theatre. He first performed in Shakespearean plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Love’s Labour’s Lost and A Midsummer Night’s Dream early in his career. He has appeared in films such as Atonement, Amazing Grace and  Star Trek Into Darknessand was the star of the TV series Sherlock, receiving three Emmy award nominations for the role. For The Imitation Game, about  British cryptographer  Alan Turing during the Second World War, he received an Oscar nomination.

According to Henry Hitchings, the theatre critic on the London Evening Standard, Benedict Cumberbatch is "a charismatic Hamlet, energetic but also pensive."



Wednesday 26 August 2015

BRIDE AND PREJUDICE


Bride and Prejudice is a 2004 romantic musical film directed by Gurinder Chadha. The screenplay is a  Bollywood-style adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was filmed in English, with some Hindi and Punjabi dialogue. The film released in the United States on 11 February 2005 and was well received by film critics. 
Needless to say, it has always been one of my favourite movies! 

Sunday 9 August 2015

THE YOUNG VICTORIA



I saw this beautiful and romantic period film on TV several months ago and, quite obviously, I loved it! 
It takes a look at the year leading up to and first few years of Victoria on the English throne. It shows the struggle and difficulties of being a lonely child growing up in a repressive background at Kensington Palace before becoming the  queen that would have the longest standing reign in all of British history. The film also depicts the life of a married monarch, that is to say the marriage between Victoria and Albert,  a true love story for the ages.
Read here a review of the movie. Here you can see it in Italian.


Saturday 1 August 2015

AUGUST


"In August, the large masses of berries, which, when in flower, had attracted many wild bees, gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue, and by their weight again bent down and broke their tender limbs."
Henry David Thoreau