A (very) quick trip in the time machine!

Greetings all! Just a few little pieces today:

• The above photos, from Summerfolk, are from the National Theatre archive. Photos we already have of the 1999 production can be found in one of our posts from April 07 and in Josie's collection. Jennifer Ehle played the character of Varvara Mikhailovna.


• Next, the Brain Drain thoughtfully consider Wilde, more specifically the film's use of light and dark in the telling of the story. Below is the paragraph relating to Constance, although the whole piece is worthy of your fine eyes:

[...] The contrasting scenes involving Wilde’s wife, Constance (Jennifer Ehle), and Wilde’s sons tend to occur in the light of day, demonstrative of the scrutiny of a watchful social eye. In the external settings, Constance strolls through the park or gathers her children and husband from the country creek while drenched in sunlight and surrounded by lush greenery. When without Oscar, she sits in the sun on the beach. The internal settings containing her and the children are set in the soft light of white rooms, whether the bathroom while bathing the baby or the playroom where Oscar begins the tale of the Giant. Even as the children peer out at a rain storm, the light is bright.

It is when Constance enters Oscar’s world of darkness, she is often seen as an outsider to Wilde’s world. She enters his study to announce her pregnancy and is no match for his intellect. When she puts the baby down in her bedroom, a disconnect exists between her role as mother and wife. She is also the obstacle between Robbie and Oscar on their first night together. Only at Christmas does the entire family celebrate in dim light, but here Oscar is the intruder. [...]

• Joe Carnahan, co-writer for Pride and Glory gives his thoughts about the film's spot of bother in his blog:

[...] I've known about the 'Pride and Glory' situation for some time and was hoping that it would be resolved somehow because the....film is GREAT. Nothing is worse than the idea that a film is unreleasable when it's clearly not. I've seen the film four times now and it's just gotten better every time. So New Line either needs to nut up or cut us loose. Rally behind the movie and give it the attention and consideration it deserves or let us roll. ... Bully to Gav for going out on the line. He loves his film. It's what few people have the balls to do in this business which is confront something, head on and deal with it. It'll get sorted. The movie speaks for itself. It just needs the right hands on it now. [...]

• If you are suffering from Utopian withdrawal symptoms, Andrew Paul for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette offers a loosely-related remedy:

[...] I have come to the conclusion that the Poles are obsessed with Dostoevsky's great novel, "The Possessed". ... The novel is in three parts and [is] well over 700 pages. I'm about half way through it and it is particularly exhilarating. Inspired by the true story of a political murder that horrified Russia in 1869, it serves as an invaluable companion piece to Stoppard's "Coast of Utopia" about the rise of modern thought. This is a fantastic subject and I highly recommend the book to those who always wanted to read Dostoevsky and, like me, never found the time. [...]

• And last but not least, the fabulously named Morning Coffee, Afternoon Tea (and chocolate in between) discuss the quality of voice needed for a Pride and Prejudice audiobook, while Dr Rick Thurman of The Thomaston Times calls the 1995 adaptation "the most nearly flawless film version ever made of a British novel." Nice, but nearly flawless?!