Films
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Withnail And I Is Still Wonderful
It is one of the most beloved films of the 1980’s, a cult movie with instantly quotable lines and a devoted fan base. Now, Wìthnail and I, the tale of two failing actors at the tail-end of the 1960’s who go on holiday ‘by mistake’, has been transformed into a brilliant piece of tragi-comedy theatre that delights fans both old and new. Once again, the Birmingham Rep has a monster hit on its hands. Withnail and I (Marwood) are failing actors living in virtual destitution in 1969 London. Their lives are made up of signing on, drinking alcohol when they can get it, and lighter fluid when they can’t. Withnail…
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Stylish Films: Back To Black
Amy Winehouse is a musical heroine of mine. Back to Black has been the soundtrack to many of my life events, and I feel lucky enough to have seen her perform live, in Manchester, when she was at the peak of her powers. Her tragic life, and its end is a well known story, and her death is one that continues to haunt, a real story of what ifs, and what else she could achieve. Now, Sam Taylor Johnson has turned Amy’s life into a film, Back to Black, a film which has been accused of everything, from whitewashing Amy’s life, playing down the role her husband played in her…
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Spiders Web – An Agatha Christie Rarity
Spiders Web is a bit of an Agatha Christie oddity. a 1950’s play that was written at the request of Margaret Lockwood during Rehearsals for ‘Witness for the Prosecution‘. It was Agatha’s 2nd most successful play after The Mousetrap, and was turned into a novel by Charles Osborne (who did the same for Black Coffee), and yet it is certainly not up there with the best of Agatha, despite having a great heroine in Clarissa. I first read the novelisation during the first lockdown, when I made a decision to read all of Agatha’s books and plays, and found it very stagy, something you would expect as it started life…
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The Motive And The Cue – Live From The National Theatre
Many cinemas are now showing National Theatre productions on the big screen, and last week, The Light Cinema in Walsall showed a new play, The Motive and the Cue, written by Jack Thorne and directed by Sam Mendes. This premiered on 21 April 2023 at the National Theatre in London, and is now having sporadic filmed showings at selected cinemas around the country. The film of the play portrays the behind the scenes history of the 1964 Broadway modern-dress production of William Shakespeare ‘s Hamlet which starred Richard Burton as the title character in a production directed by Sir John Gielgud . The history of this play was fraught due…
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Agatha Christie Focus: Murder Is Easy (1982)
I’ve recently discovered that YouTube is an absolute treasure trove for lovers of Agatha Christie. You can find all manner of oddities on there, from 1930s adaptations of her early books and stories, to more obscure versions of some of her best known books. Murder is Easy is a book that that has very recently been adapted by the BBC, and was shown during Christmas 2023, to some controversy, so I decided now was the perfect time to visit a little known, American version of the book that was made in 1982, and was shown on CBS. This version of Murder is Easy is interesting when we look at the…
