Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 294-295: Forster's Flicks

Recently, when reviewing Tess, I talked about how a lot of the Best Picture nominees have been adaptations of classic works of English literature. That is the theme that ties the next two films on the list as both have been adapted from novels by EM Forster.

The first film, A Passage to India, is also the list picture to be directed by the legendary David Lean whose films had previously featured in four different posts. By this time in his career Lean had become synonymous with the audacious epic and, from a visual standpoint, A Passage to India. But, unlike some of his other films, I feel that A Passage to India was as concerned with its characters as it was with its stunning scenery and incredibly filmed set pieces. Set in during the 1920s, it tells that tale of Adela Quested who journeys to India to visit her fiancée Ronny who has become a magistrate in the country. Adela is joined by Ronny's mother Mrs Moore who is a lot less stuffy than a lot of the English folk they encounter in India. During one of her first nights in India, Mrs Moore meets the widowed Dr Aziz and the two strike up a friendship of sorts as they talk about their lives. Adela quickly discovers that Ronny's friends in India have quite a bigoted view on the natives and try to keep themselves to themselves as much as they can. After asking Aziz to help them find the real India, Adela and Mrs Moore quickly find themselves on an expedition to the Marabar Caves. When Mrs Moore becomes claustrophobic, Adela and Aziz go along with only a guide for company. However, Adela later emerges from the cave with her clothes torn and it's later insinuated that she's been raped by Aziz. Although the hysterical English folk rally round Adela and Ronny, Mrs Moore fails to believe her friend would act in such a way while Aziz's ally Richard Fielding feels the same. The court case soon brings out everybody's true feelings and results in a couple of tragic events along the way. I also found that everything that came after the court case went on far too long and A Passage to India could've ended about ten minutes before it did.

When I see a film is over two and half hours long I often approach it with some trepidation however A Passage to India just flew by. Part of the reason for this was the combination of Lean's sumptuous direction and is adaptation of Forster's compelling novel. Ernest Day's cinematography transported you to 1920s India allowing us to experience the sights and sounds of what the country offered at the time. Lean's long-time collaborator Maurice Jarre won another Oscar for his original score which once again perfectly suited the tone of the film. But possibly the biggest reason for A Passage to India's success was in its casting of actors who brilliantly brought the characters to life. I'm not alone in thinking that the stand out performance in the film belonged to Peggy Ashcroft as Mrs Moore. In fact Ashcroft won the Best Supporting Actress prize for her portrayal of an elderly woman who is still a lot more open-minded than her younger counterparts. Ashcroft's performance is both tender and strong as she makes you really believe in the courage of Mrs Moore's convictions. I do feel that Judy Davis' performance as Adela should have also earned her an Oscar as the Australian actress superbly portrayed a rather naive English rose. Davis lit up the screen as the damaged yet principled young woman who struggled to know where her loyalties should lie. Similarly excellent was Victor Banerjee as the wronged Dr. Aziz as he is able to switch his character from eternal optimist to jaded realist. Fantastic support is lent from a cavalcade of memorable British actors including Nigel Havers, Richard Wilson, James Fox and Art Malik. In fact the only questionable piece of casting comes in the form of Alec Guinness as Indian Professor Godbole. It just seemed a little odd that an incredibly famous Brit was playing a role that could've easily been taken by a talented Indian actor. But that's just a minor criticism in a costume drama that I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. Though overlong, I was swept up by the performances and Lean's superb direction. It's odd to think that the master of the epic will no longer feature on this list and I feel that A Passage to India was a perfect way to end his marvellous career.

Picking up the baton from Lean in a way were director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant who became synonymous with costume drama during the 1980s and 1990s. Merchant Ivory productions' first entry into this blog comes in the form of another Forster adaptation - A Room with A View. In addition to being the first Merchant Ivory film to feature during the challenge, A Room with A View was also one of the first movies to be co-produced by the then-fledgling Film 4 company. Although a lot lighter in tone, A Room with A View shares many similarities with A Passage to India including the fact that it focuses on a foreign holiday taken by a young woman and an older companion. In this case the country is Italy, the young woman is Miss Lucy Honeychurch and her older companion is her cousin and chaperone Charlotte Bartlett. The first half of the film looks at their stay in Italy which is initially plagued by the fact that they haven't got the room with the view they ordered. Their holiday is partly influenced by the people they meet including their local vicar, a pair of gentlewomen and a worldly novelist who is currently researching her next book. However Lucy's head is turned by the free-thinking George Emerson, who is staying at her hotel along with his father. Their time in Italy is cut short by a kiss that George steals from Lucy, an act that Charlotte is later appalled by. The second half of the film then takes place in Lucy's small Surrey town where her somewhat foppish family is criticised by the local snobs. One such snob, Cecil Vyse, is intrigued by Lucy and eventually asks her to marry him, a proposition she accepts. But when George, and later Charlotte, arrive in town things chance for Cecil and Lucy all together.

The third part of the Merchant Ivory family was screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala who often proved adept at providing accessible adaptations of English literature. I certainly think she did a great job with A Room with a View as I found the film to be well-paced and delightfully comic throughout. The majority of the characters within the film, with the possible exception of Lucy, were utter eccentrics but I have to say I didn't mind this too much. Jhabvala also broke down the story beautifully by interspersing various sections with the original titles of the book's chapters and was rewarded for her work here with an Oscar. Tony Pierce-Roberts' perfectly captured both the Italian scenery and the English countryside giving both unique identities and making sure they were the ideal backdrop for the story to take place. Richard Robbins' score provided great accompaniment for each scene and really enhanced the joy of the film. The art direction and costume design was equally fantastic and both areas were similarly honoured by Oscar. In another similarity with A Passage to India, A Room With a View is bolstered by a cast of reliable English actors. Maggie Smith is excellent as the reserved Charlotte as she excels at playing the woman who has never really lived life. A fresh-faced Helena Bonham Carter excels as the innocent Lucy who grows over the course of the film as do her feelings for Julian Sands' George. Plenty of reliable support is provided by Rupert Graves as Lucy's idiot brother, Judi Dench as the aforementioned novelist and Simon Callow who goes full-frontal as the local vicar. Interestingly, Daniel Day-Lewis also makes his debut on the blog as the incredibly insensitive Cecil whose incompatibility with Lucy didn't seem to affect his desire to propose to her. Even at this early stage in his career, Day-Lewis proved that he could become the character he was tasked with playing and indeed he is able to portray Cecil as the fool of the piece. Whilst not an outstanding film, A Room with a View was an enjoyably light period drama with plenty of eccentrics played by reliable actors. It perfectly demonstrated why Merchant Ivory were successful for so many years and why they would go on to garner a number of Oscar nominations in the next decade.

Next time we remain in British period drama territory as we focus on a war film with a difference.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 229-230: The Rise of the Summer Blockbuster

Throughout my reviews of 1970s films I've noted how many of the stars and directors would go on to change the cinematic landscape. One such film-maker was Steven Spielberg who, in 1975, essentially created the summer blockbuster. At the time Spielberg had only directed one cinematic feature, The Sugarland Express, and so nobody expected his film about a shark to be particularly historical. But, by putting the film out over the summer, traditionally the time in which studios dumped their less-appealing films, Spielberg capitalised on a new market. His film went on to become the most successful film of all time, for at least two years, and essentially created what we know today as the summer blockbuster.

That film was of course Jaws, adapted from the book by Peter Benchley, and focusing on a shark which threatens the residents of the close-nit Amity Island. Amity's Chief of Police Martin Brody is the first to identify a shark attack after a young girl is killed. But the island's mayor is keen not to close the beach as summer season is on its way. The mayor also clashes with Brody, who was once a cop in the big city, as he doesn't think he understands island life. Following another death by shark, Brody calls in marine biologist Matt Hooper who is able to identify the type of shark the islanders should be looking for. With summer trade at its busiest, the shark strikes again and it's only then that the mayor instructs Brody to hunt down the animal. Brody hires old sea dog Quint and he and Hooper join him on the hunt for the shark. Obviously the search is hard and the mismatched trio don't always live harmoniously together. Indeed Quint's old-fashioned mentality and Hooper's gadgetry aren't best suited to one another while Brody's hatred of the water doesn't exactly make him the ideal candidate to look for a shark.

One of the joys of watching Jaws is the simplicity of the story and the way in which the shark is introduced through the trickery of the screen. Indeed, it is John Williams' score that created the iconic shark and every time those notes are played you know the threat is imminent. Spielberg's high-concept plot meant that audiences didn't have to think too much about what was going on and instead enjoyed the first real summer blockbuster. However, Jaws isn't a blockbuster in the way we know today and isn't chocked full of special effects and wafer-thin characters. The story was the most important thing for Spielberg, who hired many people to edit Benchley's original script, and he wanted the first two thirds of the story to build up to the three men in a boat adventure. I found this build-up to be incredibly masterfully produced with the islanders willing to ignore the threat of the shark until it was right there in front of them. As Brody, Roy Scheider provided the world-weariness of a man who just wanted to do the right thing and was thwarted at every corner. The then unknown Richard Dreyfuss was a ball-of-energy as the enigmatic Hooper and was the perfect antidote to Robert Shaw's cantankerous Quint. Jaws is primarily a film about three men at different stages in their life who just happen to be chasing a man-eating shark. Jaws definitely still looks as good today as it did when it was released and it proves that most blockbusters just need a good story and an effective way to signify the main villain.

John Williams was back two years later signifying the main villain in another summer blockbuster, which overtook Jaws as the most successful film of all time. That film was Star Wars, a movie that has become incredibly famous to the extent where I feel I don't really need to review it. This is because that everybody has their own memory of when they first watched Star Wars and for me it was watching the trilogy back-to-back just before The Phantom Menace was released in 1999. Though I've caught it on the TV in the following years, this was my chance to watch it through a film graduate's eyes and change some of my memories of the film. It's actually quite hard to write about Star Wars without hurting someone's feelings but the first thing I should say is that it's not that spectacular. I feel when people reminisce about Star Wars they're thinking about the whole trilogy but judging the first film by itself is a lot different. Obviously the film is made great by the special effects, which at the time were ground-breaking, and there's no denying that watching someone pull out a lightsaber for the first time is a truly magical experience. Similarly characters like Chewbacca or Darth Vader just didn't exist in normal mainstream cinema back then and I feel that audiences would've been intrigued by their presence. Obviously John Williams reserves some credit for the aforementioned score which instantly brings back memories of both the film's opening and Darth Vader's legendary strut down the death star.

Director George Lucas was really able to create an incredible universe of characters, planets and spaceships with the mythology of the Star Wars universe seeming vast and mysterious. At the same time the characters of Luke, Leia and Han feel fairly simplistic while the central plot is incredibly basic. However, Lucas was lucky with his choice of actors all of whom share great chemistry. Harrison Ford was an inspired choice to play the swaggering Han Solo and he was totally believable as a gambling drunk. Wide-eyed Mark Hammil perfectly encapsulated the innocent Luke while Carrie Fisher combined sexiness with strength to play Leia who could easily hold her own amongst the boys. Bringing gravitas to proceedings was Alec Guinness as Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi though his casting was mainly to appease the studio heads who didn't like the fact he was casting unknowns. Acting and visuals aside; my 2013 viewing experience of Star Wars was pleasant enough but it didn't blow me away. I can understand how audiences at the time would've been dazzled by everything they saw on screen but today I feel that Star Wars, if judged as a film on its own, is nothing more than an entertaining two hour romp. A while back I had an argument with a friend who was trying to explain to me why Star Wars should have won Best Picture over the film that eventually triumphed. His argument was based on the film's legacy but, at the time, there was no legacy to speak off and the Academy purely had to go on the quality of the overall film. It seemed the Oscars did acknowledge the film's main strengths and gave it six awards mainly in the sound, visual effects and art direction categories. However, I would argue that the film itself isn't exactly a masterpiece even if it influenced hundreds of sci-fi films that would come after it.

Next up we get into the ring with a contender that became a Best Picture Winner.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 208: The Doctor Will See You Now

As we've seen throughout this journey, David Lean is a director who has grand vision and scope. With Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia both giving a different perspective on the war film, Lean definitely excels in telling stories set around times of conflict. This is true of Doctor Zhivago, Lean's lavish adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel, which starts in 1913 and takes in both World War I and the Russian Revolution. These events are seen through the eyes of Omar Sharif's Yuri Zhivago, a frustrated poet who becomes a doctor and therefore is witness to a lot of the bloodshed of the time. Initially Yuri is drawn to Tonya, the daughter of the couple who raised him, and they indeed have a child together. But later, Yuri meets Lara, a complicated girl who gets married to idealistic reformer Pasha Antipov. Though, Yuri and Lara serve together during the war, what happens later means he has to care for his family first. Ultimately Doctor Zhivago is set up as a love triangle with a bit of violence and revolution thrown in for good measure. Yuri's ending is a tragic one, some would say overly so, but there was a kind of a happy ending involving the supposed daughter of Yuri and Lara.

As with all of Lean's films, Doctor Zhivago is wonderfully shot and brilliantly scored. The film won five Oscars which included the prizes for Art Direction, Costume Design and Cinematography. I personally found a lot of the shots and set pieces to be first class, these include the shot of the train coming out of the tunnel following the intermission and Yuri's attempts to attract Lara's attentions for the last time. The vast expanse of sets used was amazing while the fact that Lean's team were able to transform Spain into Russia was astounding. Maurice Jarre's score also deserves a mention and in particular 'Lara's Theme' which is still an incredibly enchanting piece of film music. One of the elements that let Doctor Zhivago down was its running time, a regular bugbear of mine, as I felt the film meandered during its 200 minutes. I also wasn't a particular fan of the character of Yuri as he always seemed to be someone on the outskirts of society and somebody who could never commit to anything. This isn't anything against Sharif's performance though I do feel he lacked chemistry with both his female leads. Julie Christie was absolutely amazing as Lara and played a completely different role to her Oscar-winning turn in Darling. Similarly Rod Steiger's brutish portrayal of Komarvosky was a scene-stealing performance. However, the only acting nomination came for Tom Courtenay as the idealistic and later bloodthirsty Pasha. I found Courtenay utterly mesmerising as he played a man who truly had passion for his cause but later had lost all of this and had now realised that he was never to have a personal life.

Overall, while not one of my favourite of Lean's films, there's no denying that Doctor Zhivago is a visually spectacular piece with some interesting performances. Though I found heavy-going occasionally, Lean seemed to have a genuine love for his characters that shone through. I just wish that Doctor Zhivago's runtime had been shaved slightly as I felt this would have made a definite improvement.

Next time we come to the last 1960s film of our search.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 183-185: The O'Toole Box

Poor old Peter O'Toole holds one of the more dubious records when it comes to the Oscars. At present O'Toole has received a total of eight acting nominations but is yet to win an award. His first Oscar nomination came for what is arguably his most famous role as the title character in Lawrence of Arabia. The 1960s also saw him get two nominations for playing Henry II in both Becket and The Lion in Winter. Of the films he received acting nominations for only those three films have also been nominated for Best Picture so this post will look at each of those pictures in turn.

O'Toole was much more famous as a stage actor before Lawrence and had only appeared in three films up to that point. Other names such as Albert Finney and Marlon Brando had been tossed around before O'Toole was finally given the role. For those unaware of the story, O'Toole stars as TE Lawrence who starts the film as an odd lieutenant who is sent to assess Arab Prince Faisal's attack on the Turks. Though Lawrence is told to agree with his colonel he later suggests to Faisal that they try to attack Aqba and create a passage for the Brits. During the trip across the desert, Lawrence manages to ingratiate himself with the Arab group after he goes back for one of their party who falls off his camel. It is at this point that Lawrence's army clothes are burnt and he becomes and Arab. When he returns to the British officer's quarters they are shocked to see that Lawrence has changed significantly and now thinks of himself as an Arab. The second half of the film then looks at Lawrence the conqueror as he listens less and less to his British superiors. Meanwhile American war correspondent Jackson Bentley starts to document Lawrence's story and is fascinated by the man himself. However Lawrence almost gets too big for his own boots and so both the Arabs and Brits plot to bring him down for different reasons.

Lawrence of Arabia won the Best Picture at the 1963 ceremony and you can definitely see why. As we've seen in the past the academy loves an epic and David Lean's film gave them quite the epic. The sweeping cinematography of F.A. Young is quite iconic especially in the scenes in which Lawrence and his company traverse across the desert. Maurice Jarre's iconic score has also lasted the test of the time and to me perfectly captures the essence of Lawrence's journey. O'Toole himself excels in his breakthrough role as he is able to portray Lawrence's change in attitude with ease. Though comment was passed about how much more attractive O'Toole was than the actual Lawrence I don't think this hampered his performance at all. Of the other cast members Omar Sharif was absolutely captivating as the sheriff who warms to Lawrence throughout the film. The realism of the piece is also enhanced via the costumes and sets which are all incredibly well-designed while the Jordanian and Moroccan scenery perfectly doubled for Cairo. I know it may be a little sacrilegious but I felt the film dragged a little bit certainly in its first third. I personally believe that the scenes before Lawrence got to the desert could have been a little less baggy which would've improved the pace. Thankfully the second half of the film was great as Lawrence almost gets a little bit too big for his boots and you can see his downfall coming a mile off. The film itself won seven awards including one for Lean and one for Young's cinematography. Meanwhile O'Toole shot to stardom however he failed to win the Best Actor Award an accolade that would evade him throughout his career.

Two years later and O'Toole was nominated for Best Actor once again for playing Henry II in Becket. The film explores the relationship between Henry II and Thomas Beckett who here was played by Richard Burton. At the start of the film Beckett is presented as Henry II's dogsbody who often sets up extra-marital one night stands for his king. A lot of Henry's noblemen distrust the Saxon Becket's intentions towards their Norman king. However Henry almost falls in love with Becket and feels that he is his most trusted confident so for that reason he appoints him as Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry feels that he can easily manipulate Becket however this turns out not to be the case. Instead Becket begins to take his job awfully seriously and decides to favour God over his King. Henry becomes increasingly jealous of Becket's relationship with God and decides to frame him for embezzlement. The rest of the film sees Becket's attempt to flee Henry's attempts to arrest him and Henry's continued obsession with Becket.

Throughout Becket it is easy to spot O'Toole's diversity as an actor because here he plays quite a petulant and immature character. His King Henry is easily the most interesting thing about Becket as he captures a man who has never really had to grow up. As we learn Henry as locked his wife up in the dungeon, more on that later, and relies now on meaningless hook-ups. In fact his most fulfilling relationship is the one he shares with Becket and therefore his betrayal hurts Henry even more. Richard Burton is the perfect straight man to O'Toole's immature cad and the two bounce off each other perfectly. It is the Burton/O'Toole chemistry that really drives Becket and both of them really made me believe in Henry's motivation for causing Becket's downfall. Both Burton and O'Toole lost the Best Actor award this year but Becket did win one Oscar for its tightly-written script. While Burton would later feature in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, O'Toole would return to the role of Henry II four years later.

This time his Henry II was a lot more forceful as he had to decide which one of his sons was most deserving of being his successor. The film was The Lion in Winter which is set around the succession conflict in which Henry couldn't decide between his aggressive eldest son Richard or his much dumber son John. The film also explores Henry's relationship with Eleanor of Aquitaine who he releases from the dungeon for the Christmas celebrations. Henry champions John as his son, seeing him as easy to manipulate, therefore Eleanor wants Richard to be Henry's successor mainly to get one over on his husband. It appears as if Richard doesn't get on with either of his parents so attempts to form an alliance with his uncle King Philip II. John meanwhile is manipulated by his brother Geoffrey who himself wonders why he hasn't been chosen as successor. Over the course of the Christmas period more devious plotting is afoot as Henry suggests that his mistress Alais marries Richard. However this wedding doesn't go through mainly because of arguments breaking out in the family. The film ends with Eleanor's return to the dungeons and Britain still finding itself without a future king.

I have to say I really enjoyed The Lion in Winter thanks in part to Anthony Harvey's assured direction and the performances provided by the ensemble cast. Peter O'Toole was on fine form here as the swaggering Henry who really enjoyed throwing his weight around. The Henry of The Lion in Winter was much more mature and worldly-wise than the one O'Toole portrayed in Becket. As Eleanor, Katharine Hepburn is utterly brilliant as she manipulates her sons and plots to make Henry's life as miserable as possible. To me the best scenes of The Lion in Winter were those in which Hepburn and O'Toole were on screen together as their interplay was absolutely electric. The Lion in Winter also saw the film debuts of both Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton who played Richard and Philip respectively. Hopkins made a good impression here as the war-hungry yet frustrated Richard who felt that he would make a much better king than John. Meanwhile Dalton, John Castle, Nigel Terry and Jane Merrow all made their characters distinctive and intriguing whenever they were on screen. The French exterior shots were also fabulously captured by Douglas Slocombe whose camera-work was outstanding throughout. John Barry's score was equally iconic and went on to win one of The Lion in Winter's three Oscars alongside the very intelligent script. The third award went to Katharine Hepburn's amazing turn as Eleanor however here she had to share the prize with Barbara Streisand's performance in Funny Girl. Peter O'Toole meanwhile had to cope with a third Best Actor loss however at the time I'm guessing he thought he'd win one eventually.

Having watched these Peter O'Toole films back-to-back I discovered that he was a versatile actor even during his first years as a film actor. His tour de force performance as Lawrence alone should've shown people that he would go on to be one of the nation's best actors. I was also surprised at how convincing he was at playing the older Henry II in The Lion Winter only four years after playing a much younger version of the king. Despite Lawrence of Arabia winning Best Picture, my personal favourite of these three films had to be The Lion in Winter mainly due to the verbal sparring between O'Toole and Hepburn. Seeing as O'Toole is still around there's still may be a hope of him winning that elusive Best Actor Award however it does seem as likely as it did back in 1963.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 166: Bridging the Gap Between the Decades

So somehow I've finished the 1950s I didn't think it would ever happen and no doubt it will take me another year before I make it through the 1960s however as I have done before I will end on a winner. The Bridge on the River Kwai is yet another war film but unlike Battleground or 12 o'clock High it doesn't feature men up in the air or down on the ground instead we journey to Thailand and a Japanese prisoner of war camp during the war. When first we get to the camp we meet William Holden's Commander Shears who has been there for quite some time and dreams of escape. At the same time Alec Guinness' Colonel Nicholson arrives with his men and his told by the camp commander Colonel Saito that all men must work on the new railway bridge including the officers. Nicholson's refusal to let his officers work results in a stand-off with the British ultimately winning as Nicholson is released and agrees to help out by using his resources in the right way. Meanwhile Shears has escaped but almost drowns thankfully he is rescued by people in a small town and taken to the nearest army hospital where he has a bit of a fling with one of the nurses. He is then commandeered by the British Major Warden to help in his commando mission to blow the bridge up at the same time as Nicholson is finishing his work and thanking Saito for co-operating. The final stand-off sees those who are trying to blow the bridge up come up against the team of Nicholson and Saito with only one surviving in the film's final spectacular scene.

I really think that The Bridge on the River Kwai is a film of two halves one in which Alec Guinness and Sessue Hayakawa verbally spar with one another over the officers issue and the other in which William Holden and Jack Hawkins creep back to the camp to blow the bridge up. It is this first half that is the better one with Guinness' British resilience earning him a Best Actor Oscar however Hayakwa is equally as compelling and one wouldn't be nearly as good as the other. Maybe I'm just suffering from William Holden fatigue but his leading role in the film was overshadowed by the other acts despite his being the star name here. There are far too many scenes of the creeping through the jungle for my liking and I wish the second film would've been more equally split as I feel that Nicholson's need to get the bridge finished on time is as important to the final scene as the men coming to blow it up. Those criticisms aside though this is a great film thanks to the work of David Lean who used to all of the elements available to him to sculpt a beautifully looking film with a captivating plot. From Jack Hildyard's cinematography to the adapted screenplay everything is on fine form here and overall there is a believable thread to the narrative especially in the relationship between Saito and Nicholson. Though I personally don't believe this should've won Best Picture, see the next post for more details, this is certainly one of the best British films of all times and any other year it would be a no-brainer for the top award. Overall a great-looking well-acted spectacularly-written war movie which is only slightly hindered by its middle section.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 105: More from Charlie and Bill

Next up we have adaptations of two classic works of British literature from two classic British directors. First of all Charles Dickens' Great Expectations directed by David Lean and then Laurence Olivier's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Henry V. When writing about any of these films its always tempting to go into plot detail but with works of classic literature it feels like ret-reading old ground a lot of the time so instead I shall simply discuss the style and acting.

First up then Lean's Great Expectations which goes straight into the story as young Pip first encounters the convict Abel Magwitch and is forced to steel food and a file so that the convict can get away and have something to eat. These scenes between the startled Pip and the terrifying Magwitch are some of the film's best and the way they are shot and edited and the music that accompanies them all adds to the haunting mood and rightfully the film did win the Oscars that year for Art Direction and Cinematography. The Art Direction is also prevalent in the later scenes when Pip is invited to play at the house of Miss Havisham and her ward Estella whom Pip falls in love with. Lean again gets it just right showing this house as a large daunting place full of cobwebs and dust where the clocks are stopped to the time when Miss Havisham was stood up at the altar. About an hour into the film the action switches and Pip is now an adult played by John Mills, it is in these scenes that Pip goes to London to live with Alec Guinness' adorable Herbert Pocket and also romances the grown Estella. For me I felt that Mills was miscast as Pip, I felt that he seemed almost too old to be playing a 21 year old and also didn't really convey the fact that he'd made the transition from blacksmith's mate to gentleman in training. But Mills' performance is the exception rather than the rule as there are some fine performances in the supporting cast from Francis L Sullivan as the belligerant lawyer Mr Jaggers to Bernard Miles as the kindly Mr Joe and Finlay Currie as the terrifying Magwitch all these roles are played as they should be my only criticism is that I feel that Martita Hunt went a little overboard as Miss Havisham almost making her performance lapse into pantomime. As the final scenes come on and Pip finds out who it was that paid for him to become a gentleman and also of Estella's true parentage the film comes together with the final scenes playing out as they should. Lean abridges the book rightfully chopping out the bits that don't really contribute to the overall narrative and at the end producing a great piece of British cinema which was ahead of its time in many ways and was certainly deserving of the two technical Oscars that it won.

Similarly Olivier's Henry V was deserving of the Special Oscar it won for Laurence Olivier in his achievement of bringing this unique retelling of one of the Bard's most famous works to the screen, he was honoured as a director, producer and actor and excels in all three. This film was shot in Technicolor which, in 1944 when it was being shot, was still quite rare and the way the colour is used in this film also feels ahead of its time creating almost like a separate world as Henry V and his charges head to France. However the film actually starts as a performance in The Globe theatre as we see the audiences take their seats and Leslie Banks, as the chorus, welcomes us to the performance as the actors deliver the first couple of scenes from the stage before Henry and the English hit the sea to France to fight in the Battle of Agincourt. The Agincourt scenes themselves are spectacular, the exterior shots are obviously done in interior studios but at some times I had to sort of take a double back as they are so realistic but at the same time quite obviously fake. This contrast creates almost a surrealist feel and when two soldiers are surrounded by what is meant to be snow covering the French castle it feels out of the ordinary. Olivier makes a brilliant Henry V and his performance and the film as a whole are a lot better than Hamlet the film that won him the Oscar and took home the same prize. Henry V was seen as a morale-booster for the British army and therefore this Techincolor marvel was funded by the British Government and some of Olivier's speeches do have a certain morale-boosting resonance to them. This is getting away from just a filmed version of a Shakespeare play and using the medium of film to try and play around with the audience's expectations. I have to say my favourite parts are when the camera goes backstage to see the actors getting ready before taking the stage again at The Globe. As Henry and Katherine get married at the end of the film we return to the theatre with the audience clapping and I'd like to think that the post-war audience was doing the same thing.

O.K. that's your lot for this little update hopefully be back with more Oscar-ness soon.