#nanu segal

[sacredwhores]

Tom Shankland - The Children (2008)

[moodswingsintorder]

[claudia1829things]

"EMILY" (2022) Review

"EMILY" (2022) Review

I have been aware of only four productions that served as biopics for the Brontë family. I have seen only three of these productions, one of them being a recent movie released in theaters last year. This latest movie, the first to be written and directed by actress Frances O'Connor, is a biopic about Emily Brontë titled "EMILY".

This 2022 movie began with a question. While Emily Brontë laid dying from tuberculosis, her older sister Charlotte asks what had inspired her to write the 1847 novel, "Wuthering Heights". The story flashed back to 1839, when Charlotte returned home to the Haworth parish in West Yorkshire to visit before her graduation from school. Emily attempts to re-connect with the older sister about her fictional works, but Charlotte merely dismisses her creations as juvenile activities. Around the same time, their father Patrick, the parish's perpetual curate receives a new curate name William Weightman. While Charlotte, younger sister Anne and several young women seem enamored of the handsome newcomer, only Emily is dismissive of him. Emily accompanies Charlotte to the latter's school to learn to become a teacher and their brother Bramwell goes to study at the Royal Academy of Arts. Both Emily and Branwell return shortly to Haworth after as failures. When Branwell manages to find a job as a tutor, the Reverend Brontë charges William to provide French lessons to Emily. What began as lessons in French and religious philosophy lessons, eventually evolves into a romantic entanglement between the pair.

"EMILY" managed to garner a good deal of critical acclaim upon its release in theaters, including four nominations from the British Independent Film Awards. It also won three awards at the Dinard British Film Festival: Golden Hitchcock, Best Performance Award for leading actress Emma Mackey and the Audience Award. I have no idea how much "EMILY" had earned at the U.K. box office. But in North America (the U.S. and Canada), it earned nearly four million dollars. Regardless of this . . . did I believe "EMILY" was a good movie? Did it deserved the accolades it had received not only from film critics, but also many moviegoers?

I cannot deny that the production values for "EMILY" struck me as first-rate. I believe Steve Summersgill did a first-rate job as the film's production designer. I thought he had ably re-created Britain's West Yorkshire region during the early 1840s with contributions from Jono Moles' art direction, Cathy Featerstone's set decorations and the film's art direction. Nanu Segal's photography of the Yorkshire locations created a great deal of atmosphere with moody colors that managed to remain sharp. I found myself very impressed with Michael O'Connor's costume designs. I thought he did an excellent job in not only re-creating fashions from the end of the 1830s to the late 1840s, he also ensured that the costumes worn by the cast perfectly adhered to their professions and their class, as shown below:

However, according to a relative of mine, Emily Brontë's fashion sense had remained stuck in the mid-to-late 1830s, something that the 2016 movie, "TO WALK INVISIBLE" had reflected. On the other hand, "EMILY" had the famous author wearing up-to-date fashion for someone of her class:

And I must admit that I found those moments featuring actress Emma Mackay wearing her hair down . . . in an era in which Western women did no such thing . . . very annoying. Otherwise, I certainly had no problems with the movie's production values. The movie also included a fascinating scene in which Emily had donned a mask and pretended to be the ghost of the Brontës' late mother during a social gathering. The scene reeked with atmosphere, emotion and good acting from the cast. I also found the scene well shot by O'Connor, who was only a first-time director.

"EMILY" also featured a first-rate cast. The movie featured solid performances from the likes of Amelia Gething as Anne Brontë, Adrian Dunbar as Patrick Brontë, Gemma Jones as the siblings' Aunt Branwell, Sacha Parkinson, Philip Desmeules, Veronica Roberts and other supporting cast member. I cannot recall a bad performance from any of them. The movie also featured some truly excellent performances. One came from Fionn Whitehead, who gave an emotional performance as the Brontë family's black sheep, who seemed overwhelmed by family pressure to succeed in a profession or the arts. Alexandra Dowling gave a subtle, yet charged performance as Charlotte Brontë, the family's oldest sibling (at the moment). Dowling did an excellent job of conveying Charlotte's perceived sense of superiority and emotional suppression. I wonder if the role of William Weightman, Reverend Brontë's curate, had been a difficult one for actor Oliver Jackson-Cohen. I could not help but notice that the role struck me as very complicated - moral, charming, intelligent, passionate and at times, hypocritical. Not only that, I believe Jackson-Cohen did an excellent job of conveying the different facets of Weightman's character. The actor also managed to create a dynamic screen chemistry with the movie's leading lady, Emma Mackey. I discovered that the actress had received a Best Actress nomination from the British Independent Film Awards and won the BAFTA Rising Star Award. If I must be honest, I believe she earned those accolades. She gave a brilliant performance as the enigmatic and emotional Emily, who struggled to maintain her sense of individuality and express her artistry, despite the lack of support from most of her family.

"EMILY" had a great deal to admire - an excellent cast led by the talented Emma Mackey, first-rate production designs, and costumes that beautifully reflected the film's setting. So . . . do I believe it still deserved the acclaim that it had received? Hmmm . . . NO. No, not really. There were two aspects of "EMILY" that led me to regard it in a lesser light. I thought it it was a piss poor biopic of Emily Brontë. I also found the nature of the whole romance between the author and William Weightman not only unoriginal, but also unnecessary. Let me explain.

As far as anyone knows, there had been no romance - sexual or otherwise - between Emily Brontë and William Weightman. There has never been any evidence that the two were ever attracted to each other, or one attracted to the other. Many have discovered that the youngest Brontë sister, Anne, had been attracted to Weightman. In fact, she had based her leading male character from her 1947 novel, "Agnes Grey", on the curate. There have been reports that Charlotte had found him attractive. But there has been no sign of any kind of connection between him and Emily. Why did Frances O'Connor conjure up this obviously fictional romance between the movie's main character and Weightman. What was the point? Did the actress-turned-writer/director found it difficult to believe that a virginal woman in her late 20s had created "Wuthering Heighs"? Did O'Connor find it difficult to accept that Emily's creation of the 1847 novel had nothing to do with a doomed romance the author may have experienced?

Despite Mackey's excellent performance, I found the portrayal of Emily Brontë exaggerated at times and almost bizarre. In this case, I have to blame O'Connor, who had not only directed this film, but wrote the screenplay. For some reason, O'Connor believed the only way to depict Brontë's free spirited nature was to have the character engage in behavior such as alcohol and opium consumption, frolicking on the moors, have the words "Freedom in thought" tattooed on one of her arms - like brother Branwell, and scaring a local family by staring into their window at night - again, with brother Branwell. This is freedom? These were signs of being a "free spirit"? Frankly, I found such activities either immature or destructive. Worse, they seemed to smack of old tropes used in old romance novels or costume melodramas. In fact, watching Emily partake both alcohol and opium reminded me of a scene in which Kate Winslet's character had lit up a cigarette in 1997's "TITANIC", in order to convey some kind of feminist sensibility. Good grief.

What made O'Connor's movie even worse was her portrayal of the rest of the Brontë family. As far as anyone knows, Reverend Brontë had never a cold parent to his children, including Emily. Emily had not only been close to Branwell, but also to Anne. And Branwell was also close to Charlotte. All three sisters had openly and closely supported each other's artistic work. Why did O'Connor villainize Charlotte, by transforming her into this cold, prissy woman barely capable of any kind of artistic expression? Why have Charlotte be inspired to write her most successful novel, "Jane Eyre", following the "success" of "Wuthering Heights", when her novel had been published two months before Emily's? Why did she reduce Anne into the family's nobody? Was it really necessary for O'Connor to drag Charlotte's character through the mud and ignore Anne, because Emily was her main protagonist? What was the damn point of this movie? Granted, there have been plenty of biopics and historical dramas that occasionally play fast and loose with the facts. But O'Connor had more or less re-wrote Emily Brontë's life into a "re-imagining" in order to . . . what? Suggest a more romantic inspiration for the creation of "Wuthering Heights"?

I have another issue with "EMILY". Namely, the so-called "romance" between Brontë and Weightman. Or the illicit nature of their romance. Why did O'Connor portray this "romance" as forbidden? A secret? I mean . . . why bother? What was it about the pair that made an open romance impossible for them? Both Brontë and Weightman came from the same class - more or less. Weightman had been in the same profession as her father. And both had been college educated. Neither Emily or Weightman had been romantically involved in or engaged to someone else. In other words, both had been free to pursue an open relationship. Both were equally intelligent. If the Weightman character had truly been in love with Emily, why not have him request permission from Reverend Brontë to court her or propose marriage to Emily? Surely as part of the cleric, he would have considered such a thing, instead of fall into a secretive and sexual relationship with her. It just seemed so unnecessary for the pair to engage in a "forbidden" or secret romance. Come to think of it, whether the film had been an Emily Brontë biopic or simply a Victorian melodrama with fictional characters, the forbidden aspect of the two leads' romance struck me as simply unnecessary.

What else can I say about "EMILY"? A rich atmosphere filled the movie. The latter featured atmospheric and beautiful images of West Yorkshire, thanks to cinematographer Nanu Segal. It possessed a first-class production design, excellent costumes that reflected the movie's 1840s setting and superb performances from a cast led by the talented Emma Mackey. I could have fully admired this film if it were not for two aspects. One, I thought it was a shoddy take on a biopic for author Emily Brontë that featured one falsehood too many. And two, I found the secretive and "forbidden" nature of Brontë's false romance with the William Weightman character very unnecessary. Pity.

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Shrooms

Should the camera lie? That’s a question it would take a much better film than Paddy Breathnach’s SHROOMS (2007, Tubi, Peacock, Plex) to explore. It’s not total monkey dump. The tale of a group of Americans traveling to an Irish forest with their guide (Jack Huston) to do psychedelic mushrooms only to be stalked by something in the woods has a lot of possibilities, the cast is decent, and it’s well shot by Nanu Segal. The countryside is beautiful, and some of the tripping scenes resemble East Coast U.S. experimental films. But Breathnach plays with point of view so much that the twist ending feels arbitrary. It’s like the worst of M. Night Shyamalan (what I call the “Shyamalama Ding Dong”). The twist itself is derivative, but you’ll have to take my word for that. Explaining what it cribs from would provide spoilers for this and at least one other movie. For all its cinematographic flourishes, the plot, in which members of a disparate group miraculously come together and are picked off one by one, makes this just another slasher film. The final girl (Lindsey Haun) accidentally eats a death bell mushroom, which we’ve been told can kill you or grant you the ability to see beyond time and space. She lives (which isn’t bad; she’s a personable actress) and starts seeing what’s happening to her friends. The problem is that sometimes we see what they see, and at other times we see her visions and what she dreams. And we’re never very clear as to which is which. At one point, the group’s jock (Robert Hoffman) ingests too much of the psychedelic tea they’re brewing and goes off into the woods to be killed. Only Haun then gets up, finds him in what we recognize as the middle of his hallucination and brings him back to their camp only for him to turn up missing the next morning, because what happened before is the reality. Aroo?!? On the plus side, there’s a talking cow, and Huston is not just good; he’s also prettier than any of the film’s women.

[sesiondemadrugada]

Emily (Frances O’Connor, 2022).

[genevieveetguy]

We don't hit kids here.

The Children, Tom Shankland (2008)

[filmframesforlife]

Old Boys (2019)

[rogerdeakinsdp]

Female cinematographers: Nanu Segal An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018) Directed by Jim Hosking Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1

[nofatclips]

Spacewoman by The Breeders from the album All Nerve - Director: Richard Ayoade

[ruthmedia2]

Emily (15) Director: Frances O’Connor Runtime: 2hrs 10 minutes Cast: Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Alexandra Dowling, Amelia Gething, Fionn Whitehead, Adrian Dunbar and Gemma Jones Synopsis: Emily tells the imagined life of one of the world’s most famous authors, Emily Brontë. Emily, a rebel and misfit, finds her voice and writes the literary classic Wuthering Heights. It explores the…

[movie-shot-stash]

THE LEVELLING (2016) 

Director of Photography: Nanu Segal

Director:  Hope Dickson Leach

[worldcinemania]

'The Levelling' (2016) Director: Hope Dickson Leach Cinematography: Nanu Segal

[lifejustgotawkward]

365 Day Movie Challenge (2017) - #390: The Decoy Bride (2011) - dir. Sheree Folkson (52 Films by Women 2017: #30)

I am often wary of romantic comedies that seem too cutesy from the outset. The Decoy Bride surprised me, however, by presenting an update of the classic Powell & Pressburger romance “I Know Where I’m Going!” (1945), in which a young British woman journeys to a Scottish island to get married, the fates intervene by preventing her fiancé from arriving and the woman falls in love with a quirky Highlander instead. The Decoy Bride offers a gender-swapped version of that tale: pretentious English novelist James Arber (David Tennant) and world-famous actress Lara Tyler (Alice Eve) travel to the isle of Hegg to get married away from the spotlight, but the press finds the couple even in that remote location so Lara’s agent (Michael Urie) hires a local, Katie (Kelly Macdonald), to stand in as a “decoy bride” for the cameras. The only trouble, of course, is that the ceremony is for real, putting Katie and James (not to mention Lara) in a highly frustrating situation.

We learn early on that Katie has had a bad run of relationships with guys who didn’t care about her half as much as she did about them. The last thing she expects is to get married to a complete stranger - same for James, who didn’t quite realize that the woman hidden under ten pounds of bridal veils and speaking in a muffled American accent was not his beloved - so it’s understandable, and fun, to watch the accidental husband and wife squabble over how to resolve their little problem. Naturally, since this is a rom-com, the two fall for each other anyway. Lara’s portion of the story includes her own interesting escapades too, involving a lovelorn paparazzo (Federico Castelluccio) and Katie’s terminally ill mother, Iseabail (Maureen Beattie), who approaches conflicts with humor despite her condition.

I appreciate how sensitive The Decoy Bride is in exploring the Katie character; her personality is so clearly developed and her backstory explained so extensively that we feel she has more than earned her new shot at happiness. A lot of this is thanks to Kelly Macdonald’s delightful performance, although I think that the impact also comes from The Decoy Bride being created by women; the film was directed by Sheree Folkson, co-written by Sally Phillips (with Neil Jaworski) and photographed by Nanu Segal, to name just a few talented ladies from behind the scenes. The other actors in the film do fine work as well, especially the always lovely David Tennant, but it truly is Kelly Macdonald’s film the whole way through.

[mulhollanddrive2020]

Είδαμε το Guilt, του Neil Forsyth (Cosmote TV, 2020)

Ας προχωρήσουμε σε μία υπόθεση. Παίρνουμε το υλικό του Nick Hornby προσθέτοντας την γεωγραφία του Irvine Welsh, την διαχρονική αγάπη για το σινεμά των αδερφών Coen και την ειρωνική ματιά του Ben Wheatly. Το αποτέλεσμα; Μία από τις πιο σύγχρονες, καυστικά ειρωνικές δραματικές κωμωδίες των τελευταίων χρόνων.

Διατηρώντας μία ιδανική, παραδοσιακή για την βρετανική τηλεόραση, φόρμα, αυτή των 4 επεισοδίων ανά σεζόν (ο μινιμαλιστικός κανόνας των 3 έως 6 επεισοδίων ανά σεζόν έχει αποδώσει τα μέγιστα, καθώς αναδεικνύει στον ιδανικότερο βαθμό τις συγγραφικές αρετές των δημιουργών), ο Σκωτσέζος δημιουργός απλώνει εδώ μία ιστορία κάθαρσης με φόντο τα προάστια του Εδιμβούργου. Αυτό που ξεκινά ως μία κοινή αποποίηση ευθύνης μία βραδιά στο Leith, καταλήγει σε πολλές μικρές ατομικές ιστορίες απωθημένων συναισθημάτων, προσδοκιών και αποτυχημένων σχέσεων. Η αλήθεια είναι ότι η σειρά ξεκινά απόλυτα ανθρωποκεντρικά, φέρνοντας στο μυαλό και την αντίστοιχη εξαιρετική κωμωδία του Netflix, Dead to Me, δημιουργώντας έναν άνευ προηγουμένου ενθουσιασμό, για να καταλήξει να εμπλέξει στην πλοκή της πιο διευρυμένες θεματικές, όπως την συνομωσία, το έγκλημα και τον υπόκοσμο - στο σημείο αυτό φαίνεται η βαριά ακόμη επιρροή του Utopia στην βρετανική τηλεόραση - επιστρέφοντας εν τέλει και πάλι στην αρχική προσέγγιση εστιάζοντας όλο και περισσότερο στον ψυχισμό και την ηθική κρίση του, αναδεικνυόμενου σε κεντρικό ήρωα, Max (Mark Bonnar).

Η συνήθεια του να μειδιά μετά από ένα μικρό ψεύδος, έχοντας πλάτη στον συνομιλητή του και κοιτώντας λ��ξά τον φακό, είναι, άλλωστε, το πιο Coen-ικό χαρακτηριστικό της σειράς, η συζήτηση στον λόφο με φόντο το Easter Road της Hibernian το πιο Welsh-ικό, οι συζητήσεις του Jake (Jamie Sives) και της Angie (Ruth Bradley) το πιο γλυκό και ταυτόχρονα Hornby-ικό και οι ρυθμοί της αφήγησης, σαφώς το πιο Wheatly-ικό. Η δε Nanu Segal στην Φωτογραφία, είναι μία από τις μεγαλύτερες αποκαλύψεις της σύγχρονης βρετανικής τηλεόρασης.

Άξια επαίνου είναι επίσης η επένδυση του δικτύου (BBC Scotland) στην σκωτσέζικη διάλεκτο, αφ’ ενός μεν χαρακτηριστικό μεγάλης πολιτιστικής σημασίας, αφ’ ετέρου δε κάτι που δημιουργεί πραγματική απόλαυση κατά την παρακολούθηση της σειράς!

Σωτήρης Κ.

[mellowyknox]

MoneySuperMarket "Dirty Dancing"

Agency: Mother London

Production: Blink London Director: The Bobbsey Twins Cinematographer: Nanu Segal Editor: Adam Spivey Colorist: Jean-Clement Soret

Post: MPC London

Year: 2017

[helloyoucreatives]

Grey London has developed a campaign for HSBC UK supporting UK businesses. The work promotes HSBC’s belief that more than ever in today’s environment being open to new opportunities and connected to a wider network is critical for business.

The campaign is led by a 60” hero film, called ‘Mind Your Business’ starring comedian Richard Ayoade in his third outing for HSBC.

The film features Richard delivering a rousing monologue to the nation. It begins on a park bench, with Ayoade reading a business newspaper, telling a dog peering round the newspaper to mind its own business.

Richard then travels the length and breadth of UK, seeing how businesses that are open to new ideas, open-minded and open to new places and markets are best set to thrive.  He finishes at the White Cliffs of Dover with a rallying cry that being open is good for business.

Head of Campaigns, HSBC UK: Sarah Mayall

Senior Campaigns Manager, HSBC UK: Rowena Williams

Campaigns Manager, HSBC UK: Jayden Taylor

Head of Marketing for Commercial Banking, HSBC UK: Marion Sanchez

Marketing Manager: Rob Webster

Deputy Executive Creative Director: Nick Rowland

Creative Director: Andy Garnett, Dan Cole

Copywriter: Emma Thomas

Art director: Ryan Delaney

Agency producer: Madeline Smith, Thea Evely

Creative producer: Julia Parry

Planner: Hayley Sivner

Media agency: PHD

Media planner: Mandy Cross, Georgia Vine

Production company: Darling Films

Director: Adam Gunser

Producer: Kelly Doyle, Carla Terranova

Editor: Ben Stephens @ Final Cut

DOP: Nanu Segal

Post-production: The Mill

Soundtrack composer: Nick Payne & Joe Rice @ SixtyFour Music

Audio post-production: Munzie Thind @ Grand Central