Thursday May 30
Resident Evil: Extinction [e.tv.00.45]
Friday May 31
Anastasia [e.tv.14.30]
THE KISS OF THE HOLLOW MAN
Hollow Man [e.tv.20.30]
Saturday June 1
The Fourth Kind [M-Net.03.35]
Arthur [M-Net.05.10]
Crazy on the Outside [SABC3.19.30]
Sunday June 2
Wrath of the Titans [M-Net.20.05]
JAMIE BELL AS STJOHN RIVERS
Jane Eyre [M-Net.04.00]
Personal Effects [SABC1.20.00]
TREVOR RABIN WROTE THE MUSIC FOR 12 ROUNDS- IN THE 70S, HE WAS A MEMBER OF RABBITT
12 Rounds [e.tv.20.00]
The Rose [e.tv.22.10]
Monday June 3
Jumping the Broom [M-Net.03.05]
Tuesday June 4
Zilch
Wednesday June 5
Somewhere [M-Net.03.30]
***
CHARLOTTE BRONTE
This week we see not only remakes and sequels but also a sequel to a remake. Firstly, the 5th remake of Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel, June Eyre [M-Net.Sunday.04.00], first published on the 16th of October 1847, less than eight years before the author’s death on the 31st of March 1855.
THE FIRST HEATHCLIFF AND CATHY- MERLE OBERON AND LAURENCE OLIVIER
Like her sister Emily’s novel Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre has been filmed often, with varying degrees of success.
JANE AND ROCHESTER IN 1934
Jane Eyre first came to the American movie screen in 1934, starring Virginia Bruce as Jane and the rather dissipated Colin Clive as an equally dissipated Edward Rochester.
CLIVE'S CAREER MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN A LONG ONE; BUT HE WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED FOR THESE IMMORTAL WORDS IN FRANKENSTEIN
Clive who died from alcohol induced tuberculosis in 1937, was also the first actor to play Dr Henry Frankenstein on screen and, in was the alcoholic Captain Stanhope in Journey’s End , made in 1930.
BRITISH BORN JAMES WHALE
Both movies were directed by James Whale, an innovative craftsman who was of the first ‘great directors’ to come out of Hollywood.
WELLES AND JOAN FONTAINE
For many years, the 1944 version, starring Joan Fontaine (Alfred Hitchcock’s first icy blonde) as Jane and a thin, young Orson Welles as Rochester, was seen as the definitive version.
SHADES OF THINGS TO COME-ELIZABETH TAYLOR ACTS PEGGY ANN OFF THE SCREEN
Elizabeth Taylor, aged twelve, played Jane’s doomed childhood friend Helen, with Margaret O' Brian as Adele and Peggy Ann Garner as the young Jane.
HUXLEY AS A YOUNG MAN
The screenplay was written in part by both John Houseman and Aldous Huxley; Bernard Herrmann provided the stirring music.
A STRANGE PAIRING-YORK AND SCOTT IN 1970
There was an unlikely 1970 version, with Susannah York- very beautiful, but at 31, too old to play Jane and a very American sounding George C Scott as Rochester. Vanessa Redgrave’s mother, Rachel Kempson played Mrs Fairfax and for the first time the drama was filmed in colour.
ZEFFIRELLI'S VISION OF JANE AND ROCHESTER
In 1996, Franco Zeffirelli coupled a rather stiff William Hurt with Charlotte Gainsbourg,an almost perfect Jane Eyre; plain and purposeful. Anna Paquin played the young Jane.
THE LATE MARIA SCHNEIDER PLAYED BERTHA MASON
For the first time, we catch a real look at the first Mrs Rochester, Bertha Mason, portrayed by Maria Schneider and her strange keeper, Grace Poole played by Billie Whitelaw.
JOAN PLOWRIGHT WAS FOR MANY YEARS MARRIED TO LAURENCE OLIVIER
The film was richly textured Zeffirelli and was well received by both the critics and the public. Just for the record, Joan Plowright played Mrs Fairfax.
ROCHESTER AND JANE IN 2011
The 2011 version made by Cary Joji Fukunaga is to my mind, the best so far. For starters, Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender are more or less the right ages to play Jane and Rochester.
A FRESH YOUNG TALENT
The Australian born actress, best known as Tim Burton’s Alice, gives her portrayal of Jane just the right mix of vulnerability and inner potency.
MICHAEL AND MIA
Michael Fassbender’s Rochester is a show of tenuous strength and deep sadness; the chemistry between the two actors crackles across the screen.
DAME JUDI AS MRS FAIRFAX
Judi Dench makes a redoubtable Mrs Fairfax, while Jamie Bell does his best in the thankless role of St John Rivers.
SCREEN WRITER MOIRA BUFFINI
Jane Eyre is engrossing, absorbing cinema, with a tightly fluid script by Moira Buffini. The story of Jane Eyre and her love for Mr Rochester has fascinated readers and viewers for well over a century.
OLIVIER AND JOAN FONTAINE IN ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S REBECCA
Jane Eyre and has been much copied and reinvented, Rebecca and Wide Saragossa Sea come to mind. I wonder which version, if any, Charlotte Bronte would have liked best ?
RAINS AND GLORIA STUART-STUART WAS 87 WHEN SHE MADE TITANIC, AND 100 WHEN SHE DIED IN 2010
Hollow Man [e.tv.Friday.20.30] is a violent, rather unpleasant reworking of H.G. Wells’ novel The Invisible Man, first filmed way back in 1933, by James Whale, starring Claude Rainsin the title role and Gloria Stuart.
KEVIN BACON AS THE HOLLOW MAN
Made in 2000, Kevin Bacon plays the mandatory mad scientist, tampering with the natural order of the universe, with messy results.
JOSH BROLIN PLAYS WITH FIRE
Bacon uses his invisibility with vicious intent; to wreck nasty havoc on those around him; those in the line of fire include Elizabeth Shue and Josh Brolin.
DUTCH BORN PAUL VERHOEVEN
I wonder why films of this ilk are billed as horror, when horrible would be a better description. Paul Verhoeven who directed both Basic Instinct and Robocop should bear almost all of the blame here, I’m afraid.
DUDLEY MORE AS ARTHUR
Arthur was a huge hit in 1981; ticket queues were long, everybody was humming, whistling and buying the 7/ single of The Best That You Can Do…is fall in love. The whole world loved Arthur Bach, played by impish Dudley Moore and his valet, Hobson; played by a droll John Gielgud.
SIR JOHN GIELGUD
Sir John and the song went on to win Oscars, director Steve Gordon, nominated for best screenplay; didn’t win. Sadly, Gordon did not live long enough to make more films; he died, aged 44 of a heart attack in November, 1982.
QUITE A CONTRAST- MOORE AND BRAND
Thankfully, Gordon was not alive to see what Russell Brand and company did to his Arthur [M-Net.Saturday.05.10], in 2011. The sweetly coy appeal of the original has been completely lost in tawdry remake.
HELEN AND RUSSELL
Helen Mirren, in the Gielgud role does her best, while Russell Brand just lurches and leers. One of those times to ask the ever pertinent question, was a remake really necessary?
HELEN HAYES AS THE DOWAGER EMPRESS AND INGRID BERGMAN AS ANA/ANASTASIA
Anastasia [e.tv.Friday.14.30] is more or less, given some fairytale poetic license, an animated remake of the 1956 film that provided a ‘come back, all is forgiven’ role to Ingrid Bergman.
THE VOICES OF MEG RYAN AND ANGELA LANSBURY CAN BE HEARD IN THE ANIMATED VERSION
The song Journey to the Past sets the pace for this 1997 movie, based on the urban legend that Anastasia survived the massacre that killed her parents, three sisters and brother Tsarevich Alexei, ending forever the Romanov Dynasty.
CHARMING AND ROMANTIC
The action takes place in Paris in the 20s, where Anastasia tries to persuade her grandmother that she is indeed a princess of royal blood. Meg Ryan, Kirsten Dunst, John Cusack , Angela Lansbury as the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna and Christopher Lloyd as Rasputin head the large cast and the result is charming.
PROLIFIC COMPOSER ALFRED NEWMAN
David Newman wrote the score, just 40 years after his father Alfred Newman wrote the score for the Bergman original. Anastasia is one of those urban legends that his been disproved by DNA. My romantic heart and I wish the legend were true.
HIS SON DAVID
I suppose that a musical score alone can not make a bad film good. But, if I were David Newman, I’d hang my head in shame. Yes, poor David wrote the music for that banal rubbish called Crazy on the Outside [SABC3.Saturday.19.30].
THEY SHOULD HAVE KEPT HIM LOCKED UP
That creative double threat, Tim Allen, acted and directed this pointless pest of a movie; Sigourney Weaver and the rest of the cast should have known better. Maybe, with luck, SABC3 will cancel it nearer the time; that has happened before.
SHE FIGHTS FREARLESSLY-ZOMBIES ON THE ONE HAND...
And then there was… a sequel in the never-ending Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: Extinction [e.tv.Thursday.00.45] and The Fourth Kind [M-Net.Saturday.03.35] a play on alien/ earthling interaction, as recorded by Josef Allen Hynek—his Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind is/are abduction by aliens.
AND ALIENS ON THE OTHER; IN HER SPARE TIME SHE COLLECTS RAZZIE NOMINATIONS AND FAMOUS HUSBANDS
Both movies are set in Alaska and both star Milla Jovovich. There are zombies in the first movie, aliens in the second; a twice treat for fans and believers.
LIAM NEESON AS ZEUS IN THE REMAKE/SEQUEL AND LAURENCE OLIVIER IN THE ORIGINAL
Wrath of the Titans [M-Net.Sunday.20.05] is the promised sequel to a remake—Clash of the Titans was a remake of the 1981 original. Wrath stars original cast members, Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, with the added expertise of Rosamund Pike, Bill Nighy and Danny Huston.
SAM WORTHINGTON IS ONCE AGAIN PERSEUS
Like the first film, the movie is littered with glittering weapons, gleaming bodies and the antics of mythological creatures. I’m afraid that the entire saga is a bit ancient Greek to me.
MIDLER AS THE ROSE
The Rose [e.tv.Sunday.22.10], dating from 1983, also featured a song that would be recorded, over and again by all and sundry. Bette Midler stars as a singer who crashes and burns herself and all those around her.
SIR ALAN BATES SUPPORTS BETTE MIDLER
Alan Bates plays her spooky manager and Fredric Forrest is sort of the love interest. The Rose is quite good as biopics go and Bette Midler has a quirky talent all of her own.
JANIS
The story, however, has very little to do with the life and times of Janis Joplin, that brilliant, destructive rock star who burned brightly and briefly in the late 60s.
COPPOLA AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER
Sofia Coppola is a female writer/ director, part of the Coppola acting/directing/producing dynasty. She is one of the few female directors to have been nominated for an Oscar,for her brilliant Lost in Translation made in 2003; she did however win a Best Screenplay Award for the movie.
PLYING HER OWN TRADE
Her latest offering The Bling Ring is making noises in the industry at the moment; Somewhere [M-Net.Wednesday.03.30] dates from 2010 and won Coppola the Golden Lion in Venice.
ELLE FANNING AND STEPHEN DORFF
Somewhere tells of fame, destruction and responsibility in a world that Coppola knows well. Versatile Stephen Dorff stars as Johnny Marco, an indulged movie actor, who suddenly becomes responsible for his child. Elle Fanning co stars, as usual Coppola examines the human condition in minute and painstaking detail.
WEDDING BELLS
If you haven’t the strength for anymore sturm and drang, try Jumping the Broom [M-Net. Monday.03.05]; a fresh take on weddings and social class.
Or
JOHN CENA GOING 12 ROUNDS
12 Rounds [e.tv.Sunday.20.00]; Things go bang and debris flies.
Or
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PFEIFFER AND KUTCHER
Personal Effects [SABC1.Sunday.20.00]; A movie made back in the day when Ashton Kutcher used to enjoy the favours of older women; in this case Michelle Pfeiffer.
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FASSBENDER MAKES A FINE MR ROCHESTER
My pick, as you might have guessed, is Jane Eyre [M-Net.Sunday.04.00].
AS MR ROCHESTER IN 1983
Final Whistle: Timothy Dalton is the only actor to have played Heathcliff, Mr Rochester (on television) ... and James Bond.