#david bamber

[didanagy]

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1995)

dir. simon langton

[isabelleneville]

@perioddramasource: Period Drama Appreciation Week 2024

day one | favourite period drama

R O M E 2 0 0 5 - 2 0 0 7 (created by John Milius, William J. MacDonald and Bruno Heller)

[janeaustenjunkie]

Lizzy trying not to laugh at the pompous nature of Mr. Collins.

[doctorfriend79]

Mummy On The Orient Express

[wah-pah]

I can separate actors from their characters but it's always amusing when you are watching an old Midsomer Murders and 95 P&P's Jane Bennet is having an affair with Peaky Blinders' Arthur Shelby and 95 P&P's Mr Collins is a dodgy art dealer who gets killed at some point.

[mandoreviews]

📽️ Enola Holmes (2020)

I didn’t actually watch this movie until after the second one was out. I was refusing to watch it on principle, although now I don’t even know what that principle was. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit more than I thought I would. I thought it was going to be another super corny, super woke Netflix movie. I was surprised to find I genuinely enjoyed it. I rarely try to figure things out as the movie goes on because I love the big reveal at the end. I do agree with some that have said there was too much going on, but I think it all works out in the end. I would watch this again.

Sex/nudity: 1/10 (breasts shown in an art book briefly)

Language: 2/10 (nothing too bad but there is some)

Violence: 3/10 (there are quite a few fight scenes but nothing too graphic, mild blood)

Overall rating: 7/10

[spockvarietyhour]

Cicero on Tumblr

[ardentlyinlovedarcy]

[rambleonwithrosie]

For all the trials of our times...

At least we no longer live in a world where we have to marry Mr Collins to survive and not be a burden

[queensantiagoofthe99]

I'm watching The Curse of Amenhotep (series 3 is my comfort series, sue me!) and I can't get over the fact that Mr Hubble is played by the same actor who played Mr Colins in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice series

Once you see Mr Collins in Mr Hubble, you can't unsee it, and you realise this poor actor might have been type-cast a bit on this occasion

[angelstills]

S1, Ep. 6: The Queen's Husband (2016) Victoria (2016-2019)

[didanagy]

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1995)

dir. simon langton

[camyfilms]

ENOLA HOLMES 2020

Sometimes you must dangle your feet in the water in order to attract the sharks.

[dannyreviews]

High Hopes (1988)

If you’re a frequent visitor to my page, you would know that one of my favorite directors of all time is Mike Leigh. His unconventional manner of working without a script and crafting the actor’s performances through workshops creates an actual slice of life printed on film. 1988 was the year that Leigh broke away from being a national figure of the arts and branched off internationally. “High Hopes” is Leigh’s introduction to a wider audience of cinema lovers and 35 years later, he’s viewed as one of Britain’s greatest auteurs.

The film focuses on a slew of characters that couldn’t be more different in economic classes and personalities. We’re introduced to Cyril and Shirley (Phil Davis and Ruth Sheen), ex-hippies that love Karl Marx, hate Margaret Thatcher, smoke marijuana and take in strangers. Cyril’s elderly mother Mrs. Bender (Edna Dore), a widow losing grip on her life. Cyril’s unstable sister Valerie (Heather Tobias) who is married to a self made businessman and adulterer Martin (Philip Jackson) and finally, Mrs. Bender’s rich neighbors Laeticia and Rupert (Lesley Manville and David Bamber). Over the course of a few days, these characters will clash in the most ironic, humorous and tragic ways.

50 years earlier, William Wyler’s “Dead End” gleaned on the topic of gentrification (a term not coined at the time). In that film, a slum on the East Side of Manhattan was gradually being transitioned into a high end neighborhood where the upper crust were more appealed by the status of living in such a place rather than fitting in. Mike Leigh took this topic to a whole new satirical level. Mrs. Bender is the last pensioner on a block that is being bought up by condo developers and transformed into prime real estate. When Mrs. Bender locks herself out of her home, Laetita is hesitant to help her, but begrudgingly does so as to not appear too cold. It is inside where both Laetita and Rupert treat her more as an inconvenience rather than someone they are willing to help, much like how they view all poor and working class people with contempt. Leigh doesn’t hide the rich neighbors’ almost-hatred of this poor woman, a savage dig at the upper crust Thatcher-loving milieu destroying the backbone of English society.

“High Hopes” shows us that both the rich and the poor and left-wing and right-wing are both warped in their everyday lives. Cyril and Shirley talk about revolution, but know that its unrealistic to carry out. Instead, they prefer their current lifestyle because anything else would be a detriment. Out of all the characters, they are the happiest, yet the most idle. Valerie and Martin are the most miserable, even though they are economically stable. Laetita and Rupert want to be seen as generous, whether its helping old ladies or going to homeless charity dinners, but don’t want to lift a finger. If anything, they are hippies masquerading in fancy dress up. Mrs. Bender is the only character that is really salt of the earth, a symbol of a patriotic Britain far gone. And yet, Leigh doesn’t turn these characters into status symbols, but actually living, breathing creations. 

Leigh’s usual revolving door of actors have never disappointed in 50 years of film, television and theater. “High Hopes” is no exception. Every performance emulates the natural dialect of both the neighborhood and the economic class so you get a feel of the rift between the characters. But I would like to highlight one particular scene that shows not only the amazing cast, but the cinematic ambiance of capturing a moment in real time. When the family gathers for Mrs. Bender’s 70th birthday, they are in complete shambles. As the candle is blown out, Valerie insists that her mother has a piece of the cake, but is completely shot down. This leads into a fight in which the camera is solely on Mrs. Bender with the saddest expression imaginable. If this was a Hollywood film, the mother would’ve screamed at them for being rude, but instead you have a much more down to earth reaction. That is a credit to Edna Dore, who I believe should have won every acting accolade in the book for that scene alone. Classic Mike Leigh moment.

“High Hopes” was a big hit on the film festival circuit, winning an award at the Venice Film Festival as well as winning acting prizes at the European Film Awards for Sheen and Dore. As the last 35 years have shown, Mike Leigh has revolutionized the way in which characters are molded and turned into regular human beings. I have yet to see another director come this close in taking on Leigh’s unadulterated substance.

9/10

[doctorfriend79]

"I'm so pleased to finally see you. I'm the Doctor and I will be your victim this evening. Are you my mummy?"

Mummy On The Orient Express

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]