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Entries in Tom Courtenay (4)

Thursday
Feb252021

Showbiz History: It's "One Night in Miami" day! 

8 random things that happened on this day, February 25th, in showbiz history...

Feb 25th, 1964 in history (left) and reenacted in 2020 for One Night in Miami... (right)

1950 Your Show of Shows premieres on NBC. The live variety show starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, was a stepping stone for legendary comedy writers like Mel Brooks and Neil Simon. The show helped create the  variety genre and inspired both the TV classic The Dick Van Dyke Show and the movie My Favorite Year.

1956 Poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes meet at a party. Their doomed romance is dramatized in the 2003 film Sylvia starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig...

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Thursday
Dec242015

Podcast Pt 2: Carol, 45 Years, Christmas Gifts, Etc... 

For the second half of the holiday podcast Katey, JoeNathaniel, and Nick, name our favorite Christmas movies, hand out lumps of coals and Christmas gifts to our least and most favorite movie achievements. Let's jump right in! 

37 minutes 
00:01 Previously On...
01:00 Foreign & Docs & Shorts + Heart of a Dog and World of Tomorrow
06:50 Our ongoing Carol obsession
11:00 Favorite X-Mas movies: Home AloneIt's a Wonderful Life, etc
19:01 Lumps of Coal & Beautiful Gifts. Plus a long tangent for Tom Courtenay & Charlotte Rampling in 45 Years
30:25 Random Silliness & Goodbyes
34:00 "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

Further Reading for Context:
Oscar Charts & Doc Finalists & Foreign Finalists 
Richard Lawson's Top 10
Nathaniel's 15 Worst
Decider's 'best movies that are only tangentially about Christmas'

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes

Holiday Podcast Pt 2

Saturday
Mar142015

We Can’t Wait #7: 45 Years

Team Experience is counting down our 15 most anticipated for 2015. Here's Manuel...

Who & What: Directed by Andrew Haigh (Weekend, HBO’s “Looking”). Starring Charlotte Rampling & Tom Courtenay. I actually love the succinct synopsis Haigh offers over at his own site: “A marriage is thrown into turmoil with news of a long dead lover,” though if you want a more detailed version it runs something like this: Kate, “who is in the middle of preparations for her 45th wedding anniversary when her husband Geoff receives the news that the body of his old girlfriend, who died 50 years earlier in a fatal accident in the Swiss Alps, has finally been found, frozen in ice and time. Geoff retreats into a distant world of memories while Kate endeavors to suppress her burgeoning jealousy and anxiety with pragmatism.

Why We're Excited About it: After charming festivalgoers and indie film lovers with his quietly successful sophomore effort, Weekend and transitioning quite easily into cable television with the exquisite Looking (may I direct you to my recaps?), Haigh tackles slightly different territory with this film adaptation of David Constantine’s short story. It took Berlin by storm and won Rampling & Courtenay twinned Best Actress and Best Actor honors. Thus this went from a curio title to a highly anticipated one, the type of festival find that’s always a treat to anticipate.

What if it all Goes Wrong? Thankfully, this is one of the titles on our collective list that has already screened and from all the reviews out of Berlin it seems we have little to worry about, as they all point to another strong offering from Haigh, who might have found his stride as a keen filmmaker of quiet yet poignant revelations: “a quietly moving and deceptively tragic look at aging romance haunted by past mysteries," “a drama of quiet restraint," “The emotional disquiet builds like an orchestral crescendo from near-silence to a roar," “a quietly powerful study of a long-term marriage."

When: 28 August 2015 (UK Release) and we should be hopeful that a US release date will follow shortly thereafter. The film is being distributed by Sundance Selects, which managed Haigh’s Weekend.

 

Courtenay, Rampling & Haigh doing press in Berlin

more entries...

Tuesday
Oct162012

LFF: "Quartet" and Other Misguided Lovers

David here reporting on a diverse selection of films showing at the 56th BFI London Film Festival starting with the Best Actress hopeful Quartet...

Tom Courtenay and Maggie Smith in 'Quartet'

“Like being hugged by your favourite grandparent,” I wryly tweeted just after exciting the press screening of Quartet. Imagine that. It’s an undeniably pleasant experience, even as it might come with a slightly musty smell and a worry that if you let go they’ll lose their balance. (Said grandparent must obviously have reached a certain age, and I’m sure your grandmother smells lovely really.) Quartet is, in the nicest way possible, an elderly person’s movie – gentle, undemanding, exceedingly pleasant and just a little bit bland. Every piece of the easy narrative jigsaw puzzle is placed before you within fifteen minutes – Cissy (Pauline Collins) winsomely forgets where she’s going several times, Reggie (Tom Courtenay) withdraws bitterly at Jean’s (Maggie Smith) arrival, and Dr. Cogan (Sheridan Smith) happens to mention that the nursing home is in danger of closing down. Not to mention that this collective of aging musical greats are already rehearsing for their gala concert in honour of Verdi’s birthday. Continue...

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