Marie Antoinette, 2006

MARIE ANTOINETTE Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film holds up well after a ten year gap in viewing. Is it marketed for a teen audience or does it depict Marie as an impressionable teen which today’s teens can relate to? The production is sumptuous as the teenage Marie leaves Austria to travel to France when still only 14 to marry Louis XVI and become queen at 19. We spend a lot of time with the teen Marie Antoinette (and Kirsten Dunst is perfect in the role) as she gets used to the lavish court and the rituals she has to abide by. It starts rather like Von Sternberg's 1934 THE SCARLETT EMPRESS with that other more knowing teenager heading off to become Catherine The Great ....

Later the birth of her children when in her 30s after she finally gets her husband to consummate the marriage is all glossed over rather quickly. The mob only appear once at the climax as she bows to the will of the people and we end with her and her family in a carriage, as the sun sets, on their way to their destiny.. The cast is quite good – nice to see Marianne Faithfull (if only briefly) as her mother Maria Theresa, and comedian Steve Coogan as the advisor, Rip Torn as the older king and Jason Schwartzmann as the diffident husband, plus Judy Davis, Rose Byrne and Tom Hardy. We also get to see a lot of the opulent and eccentric court at Versailles as Marie matures. Other characters like the Princess Lamballe and Count Fersen are rather glossed over.

The modern (well, 80s) music by the likes of Adam and the Ants, Bow Wow Wow and The Cure has caused a lot of comment (there are 854 reviews on IMDB alone! - as one puts it: "Gidget goes to Versailles and when she gets there, she gets bored, gossips, reads Rousseau, and has beach-blanket pot parties and wild balls in Amadeus outfits".) but for me it suits the images – even the shot of the trainers among the shoes – as these are the bored teens of their time, as they indulge in clothes, shoes, cakes and champagne.

We do not see enough of the mature queen or her trial where she defended herself, but this obviously was not part of Coppola’s plan – she also scripted from the well-regarded Antonia Fraser biography. Fraser expressed pleasure with the end result but then what historian would not like a lavish film to be made from their historical tome?

So really it is all about Marie Antoinette as a sweet, utterly conventional and finally boring teenage girl acting out the fantasy of becoming a queen without realising the implications that follow … certainly a fascinating contrast to the equally opulent MGM film of 1938 with Norma Shearer's majestic performance. There will always be a market for doomed queens, whether Marie Antoinette, Mary Queen of Scots or Elizabeth (Sissi) of Austria - Marie's story though is hard to beat - and it looks marvellous of course, as good as anything in BARRY LYNDON (which set the benchmark for period films).

The Tom boys

This glut of new Toms on the acting scene makes one think any young actor starting out should change his name to Tom. Early Toms were Tom Courtenay and singer Tom Jones and Tom Wilkinson. Then we had that run of posh actors (Benedict, Eddie, Damian), while Tom Hardy was on the rise, getting his kit off a lot and getting covered in tattoos as he essayed various hard men, culminating in the two Krays last year (LEGEND) and taking on the MAD MAX mantle as well as leaving Leonardo in the wilderness in THE REVENANT .... no doubt he has more of the same lined up this year. 

Meanwhile, Tom Daley dived, Toms Hanks and Cruise became veterans, Tom Hollander kept being busy, being DOCTOR THORNE and joining Tom Of The Year, Hiddleston in THE NIGHT MANAGER. Hiddles also had HIGH RISE, a film on Hank Williams and currently back in superhero mode (THOR) after his summer romance with Taylor Swift. 

Now there is Tom Hughes - Albert in the new hit British series VICTORIA, we have not quite got used to him yet; Tom Sturridge is getting the breaks too (THE HOLLOW CROWN, Sgt Troy in the recent FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD), and Tom Riley seems the latest Tom on the block (DA VINCI'S DEMONS, THE COLLECTION). 
Tom Colley was also eye-catching as the Italian fisherman in the recent revival of THE JUDAS KISS. 
Then there's playwright Tom Stoppard, and singer Tom Chaplin from Keane back in the limelight. Meanwhile, Tom Bradby reads the London ITV news, and more Tom actors are Tom Ellis and the busy Tom Goodman-Hill.
Meanwhile Tom Ford has a highly-praised new film NOCTURNAL ANIMALS coming up at the LFF and opening here shortly. Thats about 20 Toms ....

Hardy & Mad Max ....

"My name is Max. My world is fire and blood. Once, I was a cop. A road warrior searching for a righteous cause. As the world fell, each of us in our own way was broken. It was hard to know who was more crazy... me... or everyone else." - So begins MAD MAX; FURY ROAD as Max narrates ..... Then, what follows is a bonkers non-stop action movie to end all action movies - no wonder it is nominated for 10 Oscars - it will be interesting to see how many it takes home.

We enjoyed the previous MAX MAD movies, particularly that first one, and George Miller returns to the helm here. Tom Hardy is now Max, mainly silent at first while Charlize Theron has probably her best role as Furiosa, and Nicholas Hoult is unrecognisable as Nux, 
The stunts and action sequences are spectacular - its a non-top ROAD RUNNER cartoon, a bananas car chase , as Max and Furiosa have to work together to fight their evil foes. There's over 1,450 very diverse reviews on it over at IMDB so its really hit a nerve. One wonders though how they have enough gasoline for all that driving, and do they manage without eating anything? There isn't really any character development or plot as such apart from the extended car chase - but hey, thats enough for a lot of people. 

The Hardy boy seems everywhere at the moment - after ten years or so. It was fun the other day seeing him as Handsome Bob in a re-run of Guy Ritchie's ROCKNROLLA from 2008 in that amusing scene with Gerard Butler, and there he was in MARIE ANTOINETTE too, when I saw it again the other day. INCEPTION, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES were also megahits. His clothes seem to fall off him almost as often as Russell Tovey's or Matthias Schoenaerts or Fassbender ..... there is that scene on Hampstead Heath in SCENES OF A SEXUAL NATURE in 2006 (see review at Hardy label), and the internet has that scene in a Finnish sauna: DRIVEN TO EXTREMES: COLDEST ROAD - where he is beaten with twigs in a sauna - its on YouTube and there are some gifs.  He will be sans underwear again in a new project TABOO currently filming. ...

This year, MAX MAX is a super-hit, he also scores in THE REVENANT and may get a Supporting Actor Award, I will be seeing LEGEND next week (my pal Jerry is passing it on to me this weekend) where he plays both Kray Brothers, which should be a tour-de-force, the recent THE DROP was interesting too .... looks like another busy year for him then. 

Handy for the Heath ?

SCENES OF A SEXUAL NATURE, 2006. How could a sunny  afternoon on Hampstead Heath (in North London) be so crushingly dull? I used to be up there during the 70s and 80s, and it seemed a lot more fun than shown here. I also had this recorded on my Sky hard drive for about a year or so, before finally deciding to view it – despite that interesting cast. We drop in and out of observing 7 couples in various stages of relationship issues. 

Old-timers Eileen Atkins and Benjanim Whitrow get talking on a park bench and discover they have an unusual connection – as they were prospective dates about 50 years ago but went off and married other people instead (sounds like the start of hit series LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX). Catherine Tate and Adrian Lester are a divorcing couple, 

Tom Hardy fools around with Sophie Okonedo and drops his trousers – that makes the audience sit up!, Mark Strong and  Polly Walker  are another couple, while Hugh Bonneville and Gina McKee have an uneasy picnic. The only gay couple we listen in on (gays are usually plentiful on the Heath) are Ewan McGregor and Douglas Hodge (who was brilliant in LE CAGE AU FOLLES a few years ago) and Andrew Lincoln (forever Egg in THIS LIFE) is caught gazing at an attractive girl’s underwear …. Ewan has an eye for passing trade but wants to have children as well, while partner Douglas is not so keen, as Ewan heads into the bushes with a new friend …. 

This though plays like a tedious collection of hit and miss sketches, directed by one Ed Blum, and one ends up fast-forwarding some of the more boring episodes. 

Moi on the Heath in the early '70s

If this was meant to be another LOVE ACTUALLY it fails miserably, but is an interesting addition to those indie gay British movies (like LAWLESS HEART or BEDROOMS AND HALLWAYS - reviewed at Gay Interest label, both infinitely more multi-layered and entertaining than this forgettable piffle. And where was Tom Hollander ? - surely they could have squeezed him in somewhere! 
This was made in 2006 - if being filmed now, a whole new raft of performers familiar to us would have to be cast: David Tennant, Olivia Colman, Nicola Walker, Elisabeth Berrington, Miranda Hart, Martin Hutson et al ... and perhaps the sculptured cheekbones of Douglas Booth and the pouting Rupert Penry-Jones (who does not like kissing blokes) as that gay couple ! 

Actors

Its an exciting time for young British actors, with several major productions on the way. The new TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY highlights several of them: Colin Firth cements his Oscar-winning year, Mark Strong who has cornered the market in evil villains after his breakthrough in THE LONG FIRM a few years ago, Benedict Cumberbatch - probably THE actor of his generation after several high profile roles (SHERLOCK HOLMES on tv, we are looking forward to the second series) and his highly praised FRANKENSTEIN at the National Theatre where he and Johnny Lee Miller took turns playing the Doctor and the naked creature, this was such a sell-out I couldn't even get tickets for the local cinema link-up!



Good to see John Hurt in another good role - I spent an evening with him and Ray Winstone last year when they were promoting 44 INCH CHEST at the National Film Theatre. Then there is Tom Hardy another actor on the cusp, with INCEPTION etc - he was fun in ROCK'N'ROLLA. Dan Stevens after his success in THE LINE OF BEAUTY and that nice new version of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (he is both a risk-taking actor and an ideal choice for costume dramas, like Colin Firth before him) certainly scored in DOWNTON ABBEY, which is also heading back for another series, and these are only the main ones! If they can avoid the Hollywood rom-com route we should see a lot more varied work from them and others like Ewan McGregor now making very interesting choices too.
Tom Hollander continues in varied roles like his hilariously camp assassin in HANNA (review next) - then of course there are the vagaries of the actor's life: Jude Law got horribly over-exposed while that other TALENTED MR RIPLEY actor Jack Davenport hasn't quite got the breaks he deserved... ?