While I was Sweeping

Random older stuff found while sweeping the internet

A review of Pride and Prejudice by marisacarpico at Tuna Quest blog from January 24 2010, with some comparison to the 2005 movie version. (Basically, she finds that the 1995 adaptation is ”far more faithful" to the novel.)


More commentary on Pride and Prejudice at JOURNEYS AND DESTINATIONS blog from February 23 2010, (also with some comparison to 2005).
”Ms. Ehle gave life to her character magnificently! She is so charming, beautiful and witty! I really love her face!”

BINGO!


A Mr. and Mrs. Fitch review at Theatre Geekery from March 17 2010, noting that ”Lithgow and Ehle are so funny”
and
”After seeing John Lithgow in his stunning role as the Trinity Killer of this past season of Dexter, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to make the transition back to seeing him in comedy, where I am used to seeing him. It took me a couple minutes of convincing myself that he wasn’t going to kill Jennifer Ehle where she stood, but I managed to talk myself out of it. He was charming and funny, and she was wonderful as well. I am less familiar with her, but I am EXCITED (yes, all capitals) to see her as Cat Tully Stark in the Game of Thrones series by HBO. That aside, I have to say they were perfectly wonderful together. They had good chemistry, a natural rhythm in their banter, and I had no trouble seeing them as a married couple.”

Well, we know the Stark casting was later revised, though even now some news/blogs about the series continue to list her in the role. NewsBots, I guess.



Before the Rains was reviewed at Filmwallas' Blog on June 10 2010, noting:
”The white man is a spineless fellow, the white woman a large hearted up-standing woman”
and, especially that,
”Jennifer Ehle is wonderful in a small role as the woman full of empathy.”



Observations on Possession can be found in three entries at The Jer Blog

Possession Obsession posted on June 24 2010.
”… it does Byatt’s novel justice by focusing on the straight-forward aspects of the literary mystery and the romance. The latter should be an awkward business, with dialog culled from letters and poems, but Ehle and Northam pull it off beautifully.”
(That post includes several good photo stills from the film.)

and

what do you fancy? blogged on July 26 2010 (includes trailer video).
”Jeremy and Jennifer Ehle are wonderfully passionate and charismatic as the Victorians”

and

Prepare to be Possessed published on July 29 2010 (with more lovely pictures).



Less Outdated News: The King’s Speech

From 365 Cinema’s Fall/Holiday 2010 Preview
”THE KING’S SPEECH (Weinstein) chronicles the relationship between speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) and King George VI (Colin Firth), whom Logue must help get past a terrible stammer so that he may lead his nation into World War II after the unexpected abdication of his brother Edward. The impressive cast includes Timothy Spall, Guy Pearce, Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon.”

[my note: evidently there are no women in this version!]


An article at NJ.com reports that The King’s Speech is under consideration for the Arthouse Film Festival that will run for 12 weeks beginning Sept. 20 at two New Jersey theatres: AMC Loews Mountainside and AMC Loews Monmouth Mall.


New Zealand release date reported in “Coming soon” at flicks co nz.
”OPENING IN CINEMAS: 26th Dec 2010 (NZ)
Starring Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Colin Firth, Michael Gambon, Geoffrey Rush, Timothy Spall, Jennifer Ehle, Derek Jacobi”

All astonishment! A rare actual mention of Ms Ehle in the cast! Very reassuring.


Oscar spec at KipMooney blog.

A list of actors/celebrity guests expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), September 9-19 at
Toronto Film Net.
Long, but does not include Hers.

Alex Carlson at Film Misery blog reports on the 25 Most Anticipated Films of the Third Trimester and writes,
“One of the most buzzed about films leading up to the Toronto International Film Festival, The King’s Speech has been predicted all year by awards prognosticators to be one of the major Oscar frontrunners.”


And last but not least

According to this at Shootonline, The King’s Speech is one of seven films to be announced for inclusion at the 32nd annual Aspen Filmfest.

”Aspen, CO, August 31, 2010 | SHOOT Publicity Wire | --- This Labor Day weekend, the 32nd annual Aspen Filmfest, a five-day feast of of film and fall color, is announcing seven films that will be screened during Filmfest 2010, held September 29 - October 3, 2010.
…
Films will be shown at the historic Wheeler Opera House in Aspen and at the Crystal Theatre in Carbondale.”

Granted, it’s no South Park, but good news anyway.

Today's post recipe

Some Pride and Glory

• The Associated Press claims that Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, and Jon Voight will be attending the Toronto International Film Festival to promote Pride and Glory, but there's no indication (as yet) that Jennifer Ehle will be accompanying them. On the bright side, a tipster (see the chatterbox) tells us that Pride and Glory will be taking part in several film festivals in addition to TIFF before being released in October. We'll let you know if we find any googlable confirmation of this.

A grain of salt

• For a bit of gossip, or er jossip, relating to Pride and Glory, check out Jossip.com. (Don't forget the salt as this is more than likely just jossip!)

A dash of art

• The Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood gives us some background information about one of the paintings used in Possession.

Just add water

• Lastly, for some absolutely fabulous P&P icons, visit Red Scharlach's Livejournal, which explains:

  It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single blogger in the throes of an extended period of online silence must be engaged in icon-making. Well, perhaps it is less than universal, but it is certainly true in my own personal case on this one specific occasion, so there.

  This time the icons are all based on Pride and Prejudice, more particularly the 1995 BBC TV version, i.e. the one with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. As an added cultural bonus, most of the text is taken straight from Jane Austen herself (and the couple of bits that aren't shouldn't be too hard to spot, hem hem).

The Ides of March

Photos:

• Playbill has posted this adorable photo of Ms Ehle with Richard Easton at the unveiling of Jack O'Brien's caricature at Sardi's Restaurant. There is also a photo of Amy Irving with Tom Stoppard. (Must have been a fun mini-Utopian reunion!)
• You can also see larger versions of the photos we posted last time (courtesy of Wire Image) by going to Getty Images (search "Jennifer Ehle").

News:

• This is just hearsay at the moment, but the folks at silksoundbooks have told us that they hope to record more audiobooks with Jennifer Ehle later in the year. That would be fabulous! (If you've listened to Washington Square, pray tell us your thoughts at the forum).

Before the Rains:

• The sad news is that yesterday would have been the release date for Pride and Glory had it not been postponed until 2009. The good news is that Before the Rains is scheduled to be released in the US in May. According to Screen India:

  [...] Films with Indian themes shot on Indian locations and tinged with an international flavour are gaining cross-over acceptance. Taking the lead here is top-rated cinematographer turned director Santosh Sivan’s fifth film, Before The Rains . . . Roadside Attractions will release Before The Rains on May 9th in New York and Los Angeles and then expand over the subsequent two weeks into over twenty US cities. [...]

• India Glitz reports more of the same. Let's hope that it makes it to a theater near you and me!
• Also, there is an interview clip with director Santosh Sivan at Film Catcher (from when Before the Rains was being shown at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September '07). Apologies if this has already been posted.

DVD:

• Just a reminder that Alpha Male will be released on DVD in Region 1 format on March 18. It is currently available for pre-order at Amazon.com.
• Mole Underfield, from the livejournal realm, watched Jennifer Ehle's deleted scene on the Michael Clayton DVD:

  [...] Basically, the scene depicts the two talking shop in her apartment (apres liaison) while she prepares dinner . Although the scene is about ten minutes, Jennifer's acting is, again, top notch . . . Though it was unnecessary for the movie, the deletion of that scene was a pity. To have kept it in would have added a pinch more spice. [...]

Miscellaneous:

• NPR dedicated a piece to A Streetcar Named Desire's tragic heroine, Blanche DuBois, and there is insightful quotage from Rosemary Harris about what it is like to play the character on stage:

[...] Actress Rosemary Harris remembers one thing in particular about Blanche DuBois.

"It's the loneliest part to live through that I've ever played on the stage," she says.

Harris played Ophelia opposite Peter O'Toole in the Hamlet that inaugurated the Royal National Theatre in 1964. Summer-blockbuster fans know her as Peter Parker's Aunt May in the Spider-Man movies. She starred as Blanche in the 1973 Lincoln Center production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

"Most people, even if they're unsympathetic characters like Lady Macbeth or somebody, at least she has ... Macbeth rooting for her," Harris says. "But there is nobody rooting for Blanche. And you go through that night after night, and it begins to get to you. It's very, very lonely up there."

What saves Blanche, and makes her tragedy more bearable, says Harris, is her humor. Harris says too many people fail to see that parts of the play — especially some of the exchanges between Blanche and Stanley — are meant to be funny.

"They're very witty," she points out. "They're very funny with each other; they spar. They strike sparks off each other. And it's obviously sexual — right from the beginning, too. But it's a sexual thing with wit." [...]

• Remember that Jennifer Ehle made her theatrical debut in this production of Streetcar. See El Interview Part 1, Question 6:

My first public performance was as part of the ‘birthday party’ that passes-by in A Streetcar Named Desire. I was less than 2 years-old, but remember it —remember going across the back of the stage during one of the performances and seeing Mum in the quick-change room (that was supposed to be the bathroom where Blanche was having her bath) and her waving and smiling and putting her finger to her lips to remind me not to say her name aloud.

And I remember the feeling of all those hundreds of people sitting out there in the dark on the other side of the set. It was an awesome feeling but not a scary one; oddly comforting. [...]

• The Independent has a nice article about Tom Stoppard.
• And finally, I couldn't resist posting these worshipful words about Jennifer Ehle from a livejournaler's review of Possession:

  [...] Jennifer is, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful, talented women on the face of the Earth. Her portrayal of the fictional poetess Christabel LaMotte was so surreal. It was almost if she were not made up at all! I half expected to be able to find books about her, biographies, when I searched for her name on Amazon.com. [...]

From North Carolina to Indiana

• The above, from the NC Department of Cultural Resources, is a line-up of the aforementioned North Carolina Award recipients. I am sure you know that Ms Harris is 4th from the right. (You may also recognise 4th from the left; to see him interviewing the daughter of 4th from the right, click here and search 'Jennifer Ehle'. This interview is also available on DVD).
  
• Secondly. the Star Wars Community announce that the second volume of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones will be available on DVD from December 18. On sale in the Star Wars Shop, the $75.99 package consists of 'a nine-disc boxed set that includes eight chapters of the digitally remastered television series, plus over 25 all-new documentaries.'

Ms Ehle appeared as Empress Zita in Adventures in the Secret Service, which is the sixth disc. A trimmed-down recap of the hour and a half long disc is as follows:

[...] Indy's duties for French Intelligence continue, and now he is teamed up with the brothers Prince Sixtus and Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma. At first, Jones thinks them nothing but puffed up royalty, but they may hold the key to ending the war. In their possession is a letter from the French government, which they must get to their sister, Empress Zita. Her husband, Emperor Karl I of Austria, wishes to negotiate a peace settlement separate from Germany. If that happens, Germany would lose its major ally. So Jones must escort them into Vienna, under the careful watch of the Austrian secret police...but it turns out navigating past them might be easier then braving the treacherous waters of international diplomacy. [...]

• In other bits and bobs, Screen India have an article on the DIFF, and the George Street Playhouse Blogspot mention the January arrival of Oscar and the Pink Lady, although neither have new information. Sign on SanDiego meanwhile announce Jack O'Brien's departure from his post as Artistic Director at The Old Globe, after twenty six years. Lastly, another blogger passes comment on Possession, noting that Ms Ehle 'had this sort of ethereal, luminous quality about her' while Jeremy Northam 'was his usual hot self'. No comment!

Rosemary Harris receives NC Award

Felicitations to Ms Harris, who is one of the recipients of this year's North Carolina Award! News Observer gives the particulars:

Nine North Carolinians were recognized Tuesday with the North Carolina Award, the state's highest civilian honor. More than 200 North Carolinians have been selected as recipients since the award was first issued in 1964.

Ms Harris won in the 'Fine Arts' category. Here is what they had to say about the triumphant Pink Lady:

[Harris] has supported the N.C. School of the Arts in Winston-Salem since 1967, and she serves on its board of visitors. Born in Ashby, Suffolk, England, [Harris] grew up in India and was educated in England. [Harris] made her London debut in 1952 in "The Seven Year Itch." Her stage career included roles opposite Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole and Laurence Olivier. She received a Tony Award for her role as Eleanor of Aquitaine in "The Lion in Winter," a Golden Globe for her role in the television miniseries "Holocaust" and an Emmy for her role in "Notorious Woman." Most recently, [Harris] has enjoyed popular acclaim as Aunt May in three Spider-Man movies. She is married to author John Ehle, a North Carolina Award winner in literature. [...]

Citizen Times has the same story. Start placing your bets on how long it will be before there is a third one of these awards in the family!

In other news, it is four days until the Dubai International Film Festival opens in - you've guessed it - Dubai, at which one of Ms Ehle's latest films Before the Rains will be screened. The DIFF website now has a little page for the film and lists two show times should you happen to be in the vicinity.

There are many reviews floating around regarding Ms Harris' film Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Examples include The Michigan Daily, The Arizona Republic and the Free Times. Many make laudatory comments; the Athens Exchange occupying what one might call the extreme end of the spectrum:

[...] To whomever is shipping the Oscars: give regards to the Academy and just send the box of trophies to the cast of Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead along with most of the Golden Globes, those MTV popcorn things and a couple of Grammys just to be safe. [...]

In other reviews, one blogger has written a relatively lengthy piece in Spanish about Possession, including one particular comment on Ms Ehle - 'Jennifer Ehle es una actriz muy socorrida por su físico para personajes de esta época'. If anyone's Spanish is less abysmal than mine, help on this would be appreciated, especially in light of the useful BabelFish translation: 'Jennifer Ehle is an actress very aided by its physicist for personages of this time'. Something nice though, presumably?!

Lastly, if you're interested, the Lincoln Center Theater's artistic director Andre Bishop was the latest guest on the ATW's radio program Downstage Center. There is little mention of Utopia but it is an interesting discussion about the theatre, its productions past and present, and how Mr Bishop used to work in the Delacorte's box office. Nice to know the best of them started somewhere!

A little something for everyone

Just to let everyone know, Blogger seems to be having a bit of trouble with polls right now, so if you are unable to submit your vote in our poll (on the right sidebar), please use the Chatter box to give us your opinion.

Well, there is nothing news-worthy to speak of, but here are a couple of tidbits:

• In his "Memo to Colin Farrell," Richard Horgan is optimistic about the upcoming film, Pride and Glory. Here is the relevant bit:
  

  [...] Your New Line crime drama Pride and Glory is technically a studio film, but it’s written and directed by an American director with the same name as Irish actor Gavin O’Connor (can’t hurt), and would appear to return said filmmaker to his pre-Miracle, Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker Trophy days. It’s also the first time you’ve been paired with Ed Norton, a combo that somehow feels to me like it can only be dynamite. [...]

  There hasn't been a lot of buzz about Pride and Glory thus far, but the folks at the IMDB message board are speculating that a trailer for the movie will make an appearance in January '08.
  
• Most of Jennifer Ehle's films seem to be available for reduced prices at amazon.co.uk right now, including Alpha Male, Backbeat, Melissa, Possession, Pride and Prejudice, Sunshine, and The River King. There are some great bargains so now might be the time to beef up your collection.

For today's Jane Austen fix:

• In addition to offering some words of praise for the BBC Pride and Prejudice, Shuttsie recommends a literary quiz-book called "So You Think You Know Jane Austen?" Here is how it is described at amazon.com:
  

  [...] Designed to amuse and divert, the questions and answers take the reader on an imaginative journey into the world of Jane Austen, where hypothesis and speculation produce fascinating and unexpected insights. Whether you are an expert or enthusiast, So You Think You Know Jane Austen? guarantees you will know her much better after reading it.

• And, Carole Goldberg of the Hartford Courant provides a list of movies, websites, and books, all relating to our dear Miss Austen.

Our Coast of Utopia devotees might be interested to know that Martha Plimpton was recently interviewed by Leonard Lopate about her role in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare in the Park. Visit WNYC.org to listen to the interview. Very good stuff! (Note that you can also see a picture at WNYC's photo page.)

Lastly, you might find ShrineMathGuys's latest blog entry excessively diverting! (Of course this is not the Jennifer Ehle, but wouldn't it be hilarious if she taught a class on blogging?)

Unordered list

• For Ruskophones in the audience, here's a Russian translation of English Coast of Utopia dialogue that is meant to be Russian at jakovlev's LJ, a review of the plays at good-boy's and discussion on the pronunciation of "Ehle" at an Austen LJ community. Babelfish em.
• At eBay, you can bid for a The Maitlands DVD and the Design for Living stagebill.
• Post-Tonys encounter.
• Reviewlets of Voyage and Shipwreck at OffTheStem by Barry, both given B's. Voyage is also reviewed by Jennifer who particularly dug her namesake:

  I saw The Coast of Utopia: Part 1, the Voyage this weekend at Lincoln Center. The rare cast consisting of Billy Crudup, Richard Easton, Jennifer Ehle (<-- my personal fave: Elizabeth Bennett from BBC's "Pride and Prejudice"), Ethan Hawke, Martha Plimpton , Brian F. O'Byrne (the priest in "Doubt"), and many others. The standouts in the cast were Billy Crudup (with the most ridiculous hairstyle), Jennifer Ehle, and Richard Easton. Richard Easton became infamous as he suffered a heart attack early on in the run during the play when he was offstage. Glad to see he's back in fine shape. [...]

• Voyage and Shipwreck reviews from the Epoch Times. From the latter:

  [...] After a shaky start with Voyage, Stoppard and director Jack O'Brien do a much better job here, thanks to a strong, through-narrative and wonderful performances by the two central characters; Alexander Herzen (Brian F. O'Byrne) and his wife Natalie (Jennifer Ehle). [...] In addition to the excellent Byrne and Ehle, the latter exuding sexuality, other standouts include Amy Irving, Bianca Amato and Jason Butler Harner. Another happy surprise is that the eternal believer Michael Bakunin (Ethan Hawke), one man who does accept responsibility for his deeds, is used to much better effect here than in "Voyage." [...]

  Couple of new reader reviews on Voyage at the NY Times, and another's up at Swarthmore's Phoenix student paper critiquing the play more than the staging.
  

• Possession music video of Christabel and Ash set to "I love you" by Fisher.
  
• Variety reports that while there's been a general post-holidays slump in Broadway box office sales, Utopia is an exception, still selling well.
• Wilde trivia from SX News:

  Jennifer Ehle won the part of Wilde’s wife Constance from Theresa Russell. Ehle was enjoying the recent popularity of her role as Elizabeth Bennet in TV’s Pride and Prejudice.

• From ICM the latest is that "as it stands" Ms Ehle will not be in Michael Clayton. Endeavor people explain that "the film was too long and they had to cut out her 2 scenes". So rend your garments, but praps not your Sunday best.
  

One minute left to Sunday

First up, there's a review of Possession at Book/DVD Guzzler. Nothing Ehle-specific, but it's generally enthused. Second, there are not one but two posts up at Martha Plimpton's blog, from the pre-tech runthrough and tech rehearsal. She's hugely excited and the show sounds super duper cool. So whip out your credit cards and remember to report back!

Hold on, there's more. Gotham Magazine interviews Billy Crudup, who gets points for saying "discombobulating" in a sentence.

G: Well, your moustache looks great. How are people reacting to it?
BC: It’s for the play. All of my friends are giving me tons of shit, which is totally understandable. And people I’ve never met before are thinking of me as the “moustache guy.” It comes in red… it’s awkward all around. If I weren’t playing a character who needed an awkward moustache, it wouldn’t be there.

G: How long will The Coast of Utopia run?
BC: Six-months. The performance schedule is incredibly complex. It’s a trilogy: Once we finish rehearsing the first play and put it up, we perform it for a month, then start rehearsals during the day for the next play. After a month of that, we have four performances of the first play, two performances of the second, and gradually build up to where we’re alternating. Eventually, we’ll be performing the first two plays and rehearsing the third during the day.

G: That’s a lot….
BC: Then we have a couple of days when we do all three in a row.

G: Isn’t that an extremely intimidating concept to tackle?
BC: Actors get so few opportunities to do something ballsy, and all the actors involved are excited about the prospect of this kind of marathon. There are only three Saturdays in February when we do all three, and I’m only in the first two. So, comparatively speaking, The Pillowman—which was only two and a half hours long—was much more difficult for me.

G: How is the New York theater community going to fare, committing to nine hours of Stoppard in Russia?
BC: Right now we’ve got people spending 24 hours just to see three hours of Brecht [the playwright’s Mother Courage, in Central Park]. Now, we don’t have Meryl Streep, for there’s only one Meryl Streep, but I suspect there are enough theater geeks in New York and the tri-state area to fill up three days’ worth of shows. There are the fans of Russian literature, fans of live theater, fans of Stoppard, and then all of those people who want to say they saw it.

G: Did you see the London production?
BC: No, I didn’t get over there for it.

G: Well, you didn’t know you had to.
BC: Exactly. And, actually, had I known I was going to do the play, I probably still wouldn’t have gone and seen it, because you can’t help but be influenced by another performance. For something like this, when I’m the second person playing the part, I don’t want to have a context. It’s different when playing Hamlet or Othello, when context is really important. For newer plays, I don’t see the benefit.

G: This is your opportunity to put a stamp on it.
BC: The director, Jack O’Brien, is fantastic. He did one of my favorite Tom Stoppard plays, The Invention of Love. He did such an incredible job of focusing the audience’s attention on the emotional journey of the characters. And he kept all the literary humor for the people who would enjoy it, but didn’t let it get in the way of the movement of the play—and that’s really important for the play we’re about to do now.

G: What do you think of Stoppard?
BC: When you’re a student, studying acting, you study the great actors [and writers]… and one of the great contemporary writers is Stoppard. You can’t avoid him. And, sentimentally, the first big production I was a part of in New York was Arcadia, and he was there for it… and that play really launched my career. I have an enormous amount of gratitude for that part he wrote. [more]

Also there's a bit from Tom Stoppard at the New Yorker Festival via New Yorkology:

"I've done quite a lot to the text," he said.

"It's my first chance to react to the play and do what I would have done if I wasn't up against it all the time," Stoppard said. "There was never a time to step back."

"'The Coast of Utopia,' which I used to refer to as my nine-hour Russian Trilogy," Stoppard said. "I now refer to it as my eight-and-a-half-hour Russian Trilogy -- pass it on."

Found a site with audition "sides" for Utopia which are possibly from the revised script (judging from the "US" suffix after some characters). Payment required though. Oh and for something completely random, there's a review of Pride and Prejudice en français.

Tout était réuni pour faire une adaptation réussie. Tout d'abord, le choix des acteurs. Colin Firth est imbattable en gentleman aussi élégant que fier et hautain. Il possède le style idéal pour se faire à la fois haïr et respecter par la "vive et ironique" Elizabeth Bennet. Cette dernière est jouée par Jennifer Ehle, qui parvient à transcrire avec beaucoup de justesse le mépris profond mais toujours contrôlé (en public du moins) que lui inspire Mr Darcy.

Meanwhile, we're recruiting for a third blog editor. Yours truly will be away for exams and travel rather soon, so seriously, if you're interested, pretty please drop off an email to jenniferehle@gmail.com. It's not rocket science and you need only commit to 2-3 days a week. An extra hand on board for The Coast of Utopia coverage would be muchly appreciated.

Cash for comment

Almost. Risky Regencies blog is running a contest for which the collector's edition of Pride and Prejudice is the prize. All you have to do is comment on at least one of their posts this week (Mon 2 - Sat 7).

Also in blogland, Erica reviews Possession. She digs the period part, not so much the modern.

Starting in the positive end then, period-junkies Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle are breathtaking to watch as poets during the Richmond period in England. They are two people who cannot be together, for one has chosen a wife and the other has chosen a life of 'shared solitude' (which is a euphemism for a lesbian relationship).

Yet they begin a correspondence of love letters, which blossoms into a fully-fletched romance, embroidered in intrigue and quiet passion. Ehle's beautiful, reassuring smiles conveying the latter. At times their story is achingly romantic, so I think this aspect is very nicely tended to in the film. The graceful words in their letters even invests the film in a lyrical flow of sorts.

Just Jared has the text of Julie Delpy interviewing Ethan Hawke in Interview magazine. There's mention of The Coast of Utopia in a discussion on apathy:

JD:: Yeah, but most of the major figures that could serve as examples to the world have contracts with big companies that give them millions of dollars to represent a product, and they would probably lose that if they took a stand. I think that’s the big problem.

EH:: You’re right, and it puts the burden squarely on the artistic community. There’s a potential for real dialogue right now. It’s interesting, because this fall I’m doing this new Tom Stoppard play here in New York about the Russian Revolution. It’s called The Coast of Utopia, and it’s really incredible. It’s three plays that we’re going to present in succession, and I’m looking at all these fascinating characters who laid the groundwork for the 1917 revolution in Russia, and how hard it was for them to break through the apathy of their time. It begs the question of where our leaders are today. We’re in desperate need of a Martin Luther King, a Mahatma Gandhi, a Nelson Mandela; the Middle East is in desperate need of somebody to rise up and lead. I always think about how nearly every major city in this country has a Martin Luther King Boulevard, King’s picture is up in every classroom, we take a day off every year to celebrate him, and everyone universally admires him-but we all know what he would say about the Iraq war. We turn a blind eye to the things we know he would tell us.

Alpha Male DVD etc

Tesco and Screen Select seem to have Alpha Male for rent already, which is weird.

A meh kinda review by Jason Solomon from The Mail on Sunday (not online):

Be careful what you wish for, runs the old saying. For years, British film-makers gave us either gangster movies and council-estate dramas or posh people and period pieces. I've spent many columns begging for films about the middle classes. Now, in Alpha Male (15) **, one arrives and it's, well, dreary.

On the eve of Jack's 21st birthday and his mum (Jennifer Ehle) has persuaded her son to return to their country home for a lavish party. In flashbacks we see a happier time when the kids played in the garden and Dad earned a fortune making drink cartons. But then cancer strikes and the family splinters in grief. In the intervening years, Mum's got herself a new man, a new young son and a whole new set of problems.

In his debut as director and writer, Dan Wilde has attempted an intimate family saga, painting in the emotional landscape with detailed sketches of past remembrances and present troubles. It's like piecing together a smashed ornamental plate.

A drama about love, loss and repressed emotion, Alpha Male suffers from a lack of tension. This stuff works on telly on Sunday evenings but on the cinema screen it feels out of place and short on thrills; too polite and awkward to let rip. How very British middle class, I suppose.

Hands up who's not in The Coast of Utopia? Another bunch of actors sign up. Press release here.

Ain't It Cool has a review of Michael Clayton from a test screening. Watch out for spoilers. Llephen's verdict in a nutshell is that it's good but needs editing. Also, a Myspace account from the screening as well. No review though.

YouTube has an interview with Jeremy Northam about Possession.

Another meh review, from Peter Whittle of the Sunday Times:

A family fails to face up to the trauma of a father's death in this ponderous and inept British drama from the director Dan Wilde. The fact that it's a wealthy black-tie type of family doesn't make its woes any more interesting, other than the opportunity it affords to gawp at beautiful country houses and luscious lawns.

Jennifer Ehle plays the widow who falls for a new man (Patrick Baladi), thus earning the disapproval of her arrogant twerp of a son (Mark Wells) and causing her weird daughter (Amelia Warner) to spend much of her time chasing foxes. The problem is that this simple story is confused by baffling editing and an overuse of disorientating flashbacks -an attempt, perhaps, to jazz up the thin material.

Ian Johns of The Times modifies his earlier review a bit:

This is a slow-burn British film that charts the family tensions underlining the return of a prodigal son for his 21st birthday. Through flashbacks we discover the father’s terminal illness and the resentment caused by the mother remarrying. It’s not Festen, more a portrait of repressed British emotions.

An oppressive air hangs over the film that not even Ehle’s luminous stillness as the mother can lift. The tone remains too aloof to keep us interested in the agonies before us in a film in which even the pauses seem to have been scripted.

One more from BBC Movies' Mark Stevens:

A melancholy story of bereavement and family breakdown, Alpha Male takes itself seriously but quite never finds the emotional weight necessary for us to do the same. Jennifer Ehle (Wilde, This Year's Love) heads the cast as Alice, widow of Jim (Danny Huston). Left on her own, she tries to cope as children Elyssa (Amelia Warner) and Jack (Mark Wells) feel the loss of the family's alpha male. The resulting drama proves a dream-like evocation of death and dysfunction.

Ehle excels as Alice, capturing the reserved shellshock of a woman who knows she can't afford to indulge her grief. Despite doing everything she can to ease her children through the painful transition, she watches helplessly as Jack (played brilliantly by Arthur Duncan as a child, less convincingly by Mark Wells as an adult) begins to blame her for everything. Told by his father that he needs to become head of the family, young Jack is totally unprepared for such a challenge and the film keenly observes this boy's muddled attempts to play man.

Hints of sexual tension between mother and son come to little as does daughter Elyssa's gradual mental breakdown. Debut writer/director Dan Wilde eventually relies on some trite third act plotting to deliver a climax, but it feels falsely tacked on, too convenient to ring true. What sticks in the memory is the evocative cinematography and creepy score; both turn the family's beautiful country mansion into a haunting, haunted place where choked up despair and adolescent angst simmer towards disaster.

Autographed Donmar The Real Thing program on eBay. Here's a scan of the signed page with photos and biogs of her and Stephen Dillane.

Film blogger Tim R gives Alpha Male a B and rates the screenplay as one of his top 5.

Alpha Male screenings, etc

The Curzon Mayfair is showing Alpha Male at 6.30pm and 9pm from August 11th to 14th. It's getting a longer run at the Barbican, til the 24th. Distributor Verve Pictures says that the film will also be screening at Cineworld Haymarket and Fulham Road, although Launching Films indicates that it'll be showing at "Cineworld Shaftesbury Ave. & Nationwide".

On the blogs it's back to the old chatter about Pride and Prejudice. Manasi Subramaniam on the leads:

Colin Firth as Darcy - possibly the most attractive literary character created at least until the appearance of the sordid, brooding Edward Rochester in 1847 - is so deliciously morose, that you actually forgive him, at some point, for being Colin Firth. But the stealer of the show, without doubt, is, more than Ehle herself as Elizabeth, the ever-laughing, perpetually amused pair of eyes that Ehle possesses, eyes that were alluded to by Darcy at the ball in Chapter Six. If for nothing but those eyes, Ehle is brilliant casting.

More praise for said eyes at UnNatural History, in Possession this time, though the romantic plot touches on some sore points for the author.

Continuing with the Macbeth scraps, John Heilpurn of the NY Observer gives a thumbs down. And Terry is outed.

John Ehle will be attending the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival on September 15th-16th.

PS. The Alpha Male trailer has just been rated by the BBFC so keep an eye out.

Unwaveringly sexy intelligence

This Possession review's by Rick McGinnis.

They're a maddening and pitiful pair, especially when compared to Randolph and Christabel, whose passion is undeniable despite the social conventions that should keep them apart.

They're also played by Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle, two British actors who casually dominate almost everything they're in, Northam with his always-humming threat of dash and charisma, Ehle with an intelligence that's proved unwaveringly sexy. The darting forays into the past and their affair, away from the unhappy present with its zipless lovers, are frustratingly brief.

On an unrelated note, there's another update from Press 53 about the progress of John Ehle's The Land Breakers. A mid-July release is anticipated. Some of Harper Lee's blurb is quoted:

In part, she wrote, "John Ehle’s meld of historical fact with ineluctable plot-weaving makes The Land Breakers an exciting example of masterful story-telling. He is our foremost writer of historical fiction."

Possession snippets

Wee tidbits from Possession reviews today. These are just the bits about Ms Ehle because copy-pasting is so strenuous.

This one's catty. It's from the Fin Review. These sentences may or may not be connected.

Possessed by a lesser spirit
Peter Craven
Australian Financial Review

In counterpoint to him there is Ehle and if you are not allergic to her, you will probably think she gives one of her better performances as the poet who sacrifices so much in order to come to terms with her soulmate. The self-conscious pouts and implicit glances in the mirror are still there but Ehle has a kind of monumental quality in her Pre-Raphaelite incarnation, even though it might have been more attractive if a bit bewildering to have Paltrow in both the contemporary and the Victorian roles.

And here, she's called British again.

Americans take possession, but Brits win
By Margaret Agnew
(c) 2002 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News

What a to-do! Miss Elizabeth Bennet is cheating on Mr Darcy!

Well, not really, but it's hard to see Jennifer Ehle in period costume, smiling winsomely up at some sideburned man, and not think of her BBCTV Pride and Prejudice role.

In the film Possession, Ehle plays bisexual Victorian poetess Christabel LaMotte, who falls in love with prominent married poet laureate Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam doing his dashingly-handsome-decent-guy thing), despite the restrictive mores of the era.
...
They strike few romantic sparks and create little chemistry. In the battle of American actors versus English actors, Ehle (despite her Bennet-ness) and Northam beat Paltrow and Eckhart hands down.

Nice note to end on.

"Possession' tells tales of love in Victorian, modern times"
Soren Andersen
The News Tribune

Northam is suitably soulful as Ash, but it's Ehle who steals the picture with her quiet warmth and an intriguing brand of enigmatic composure.

Oprah

Kiri, a blog reader, has suggested that we write to Oprah to urge her to have Ms Ehle as a guest on her show. Who knows, maybe Oprah's a fan?

By the way, I just realised how close it is to the 15th! It's your last chance to see The Other Side.

Since this is turning into a random-bits-of-information post, here's a slightly interesting auction from eBay - a German edition of Possession ("Besessen") by A.S. Byatt, with the movie poster on its cover.

"The real thing"

Liz Penn of The High Sign reviews Possession. She's not keen on the movie but likes Ms Ehle in it, so she's partially forgiven.

I saw Jennifer Ehle eat up the stage a few years ago in a Broadway production of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing. The real thing is just what she is: a big, juicy, radiant redhead, straight out of a Julia Margaret Cameron photograph from the 1860s, whose face seems full of secrets that far outstrip the complexity of the role she's playing.

Sapphic milkmaid

Bruno Bayon of Libération (September 11th, 2002) reviews Possession in possibly the most impenetrable French I've ever read. Babelize it for a laugh.

En revanche Possession, autre promesse de plombage carabiné, se révèle de bonne compagnie. Ce semblant de thriller hypertextuel à quatre mains sur les traces d'un poète victorien supposé (Henri Ash), dont l'action adultérine à deux vitesses se déroule dans divers «jardins anglais» très peu meurtriers, a pu être jugé «alambiqué». Voire. Tout est dans cette subtilité du dosage, sur un fil de tarabiscotage tendu entre Harlequin et mandarin. Fausse héroïne et blonde de l'affaire, Gwyneth Paltrow, qu'on avait laissée au tapis, éléphantiasique idiote de 245 kilos montrant sa foufoune noire dans le répugnant Amour extra-large, relève ici de cette pesée spécieuse. Sibylle givrante. Le dialogue de même, assorti au profilage psychologique vieille Angleterre, conjuguant beach boy de bibliothèque ricain (Aaron Eckhart) et Frénétique anglais plus déliquescent que nature (Jeremy Northam), fait dans le rébus. L'intrigue au demeurant ne lésine pas sur le double fond, en abyme de «sympathie» spirite, hermétismes à tiroirs révélant écrits enfouis et vies parallèles antérieures. L'étoile masquée de cette énigme aux airs nervaliens est son héroïne capiteuse Christabel LaMotte. Soit Jennifer Ehle, imprévisible Laitière saphique transfigurée bi préraphaélite d'une Leçon de piano «possédée» par la métrique.

A truly hopeless attempt at the last bit:

The hidden star of this Nerval-esque mystery is its heady heroine Christabel LaMotte. That is, Jennifer Ehle, the unpredictable Sapphic milkmaid turned Preraphaelite bisexual of The Piano, "possessed" by metrics. [??!?!]

I know, I know. "Metrics"?! "The Piano"!? Au secours, francophones!

Christabel or Chucky?

Village Voice's review of Possession isn't that positive, but J. Hoberman comes up with an unusual metaphor:

Perhaps [Jeremy Northam]'s been hypnotized by the round-faced, green-cloaked poetess Jennifer Ehle, whose gracious smile and wide-eyed twinkle as Christabel LaMotte have the uncanny animation of a young girl's favorite doll come to life.

That's meant to be a compliment. I think.

Quick!

You've got 10 days left to participate in our project for Ms Ehle's birthday. Make haste, make haste!

Another (belated) reminder: The River King came out in Thailand on November 22nd.

There's an additional not-worth-its-own-post item as well, photos from Possession signed by Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Ehle, Jeremy Northam and Aaron Eckhart on eBay.

Hors d'oeuvres

There's been a surprising lack of articles about The Philadelphia Story even though previews started yesterday. Perhaps more will come out after the press night on May 10th. Meanwhile, whet your Ehle appetite with these tiny, grainy, scratchy multimedia offerings.

Clips of The Real Thing and award shows on this Stephen Dillane site.

Trailer for This Year's Love dubbed in Spanish.

Clips from the audiobook Witch Child, written by Celia Rees.

Clip from The Tempest audiobook.

Jennifer Ehle takes part in the American Theatre Wing's round-table seminar on working in the theatre. [edited: wrong link changed- thanks to Robb Perry]

Possession trailer.

There have been several articles about Kevin Spacey's run so far as the artistic director at the Old Vic, mentioning The Philadelphia Story. The latest is the Times' "Has Spacey lost the plot at the Old Vic? No, it's only act 2". Unfortunately no mention of Jennifer Ehle.