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Film Review: Whistler – “goes beyond even his own extravagant self-image”

Take a look at any portrait James McNeill Whistler painted of himself, and you would think he’s a man easily summed up. That style, that smirk. Flamboyant? Yes. Self-aggrandizing? Always. Oscar Wilde famously dubbed him the artist who “spells Art with a capital I”. The American ex-pat, who made London his home, not only knew his worth, he’d tell you about it too. In their latest documentary, James McNeill Whistler, Exhibition on Screen are delving into the world of Whistler, coinciding with the recent exhibition at Tate Britain. The gift that Whistler hands ... Continue Reading

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Film Review: Sense and Sensibility – “Janeites, assemble.”

For Jane Austen fans, waiting for a new Austen film can be a frustrating experience. Nothing for years, and then two come along at once. While the Netflix / Dolly Alderton version of Pride and Prejudice isn’t out until December, we do have a new Sense and Sensibility that is fully dialling into those autumnal vibes. It’s also an auspicious date, as hard-core Janeites well know. It’s been thirty years since the release of Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility. A starry adaptation featuring the cream of British acting talent, a superb, Oscar-winning screenplay from Emma Thompson, it quite rightly holds its ... Continue Reading

Film review: Wuthering Heights – “Fennell interprets obsession for passion”

There are few books that shorthand themselves so readily as Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel, Wuthering Heights. Windswept moors, doomed lovers, youthful angst. A passionate, yearning love for the ages. It’s an easy sell. But Bronte’s multi-generational saga presents several challenges to the film-maker who wants to adapt it for the big screen. Its complex structure; it has not one but two (highly) unreliable narrators, and when adapting the book in full would mean your film’s running time would be 5 hours long, where do you start making cuts? It is interesting to note ... Continue Reading

Film Review: Hamnet – “Buckley’s interpretation of Agnes’ grief, and anger, is instinctive and beautifully nuanced.”

It’s fair to say that cinema has found a great deal to mine from Shakespeare. Whether it’s the man himself, hurrying along to the playhouse, trying to stave off writer’s block, in John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love, or Laurence Olivier’s smiling villain, played-to-camera, in Richard III, the adaptations – and interpretations – keep on coming. Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, Hamnet imagines the family Shakespeare left behind in Stratford to pursue his theatrical career in London. The scraps of information we have about them – ... Continue Reading

Film Review: Exhibition on Screen – Caravaggio “the artist that deployed chiaroscuro to bring a cinematic flair to religious iconography”

Reviled (or revered) as the Bad Boy of Italian Art, Caravaggio’s reputation seems to be unassailable. The bravura artist that deployed chiaroscuro to bring a cinematic flair to religious iconography, his fan base extends far beyond the art world. The director Martin Scorsese remarked on his ability to craft a scene from light and dark. In taking a deep dive into Caravaggio’s life and work (the two are deeply connected), the problem is not how to convey what we already know of the artist, it’s approaching him from a fresh perspective. For their ... Continue Reading

“Romantic, Pragmatic, Feminist”: Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility

Although it doesn’t get the same attention as Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion or even Emma, Sense and Sensibility can lay claim to being Jane Austen’s literary debut. Published in 1811, it did well. Its original critics described the novel’s plot as “probable, highly pleasing and interesting”. While she didn’t get the literary hoopla of a new release by Rebecca Yarros or R.F Kuang, Sense and Sensibility got Jane Austen’s foot in the door of the publishing industry. What is particularly noticeable about the novel is ... Continue Reading

Film Review – Pride and Prejudice (2005)

When it comes to making the transition from page to screen, there are few novels that can rival the track record of Jane Austen’s 1813 classic, Pride and Prejudice. The book’s blend of romance and comedy has proved an irresistible combination, with film and television adaptations appearing regularly over the decades, although they vary wildly in tone and attitude. We have Greer Garson’s frothy, morale-boosting comedy from 1940. It gets the lilt of Jane Austen’s humour, but purists scoff at the wardrobe choices, which leapfrog straight over the Georgian period and into the Victorian ... Continue Reading

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Film review – Dawn of Impressionism Paris 1874

It’s hard, from our perspective, to imagine a time when Impressionism wasn’t popular. It’s not only popular but ubiquitous. Images of sunlit meadows, leisurely riverbanks and ornate gardens have become artistic shorthand. Even if we think we know nothing about art, identifying a Monet would be easy enough. In their latest film, the Exhibition on Screen team take up the challenge of taking us back to the roots, and the inauspicious beginnings, of Impressionism itself. Dawn of Impressionism: Paris 1874 starts in a familiar place. We are watching an art auction take place. Impressionist paintings are selling for eye-watering sums. You ... Continue Reading

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