Can you ever forgive me? sounds like the title of a Victorian novel. Of course I’m thinking of Can You Forgive Her? the first of Trollope’s Palliser series.
The former is a film based on a true story – well almost true I s’pose:
Melissa McCarthy stars as Lee Israel, the best-selling celebrity biographer (and cat lover) who made her living in the 1970’s and 80’s profiling the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estée Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. When Lee found herself unable to get published because she had fallen out of step with the marketplace, she turned her art form to deception, abetted by her loyal friend Jack (Richard E. Grant)
The protagonists are well cast. Melissa McCarthy is convincing and Richard E Grant less convincing but supremely funny as an older Withnail. It is meringue not plum pudding. The lines between watching films in a cinema and at home are becoming blurred. If you have a decent telly you could watch this film at home and miss nothing.
Not having a TV at home I want to see films in the cinema that are full-on performances. The last I saw was The Hateful Eight: overture, film, interval, more film. Totally brilliant but unpopular with cinemas because they cannot fit in as many screenings; unpopular with producers because they cost a fortune; perhaps unpopular with audiences because they like to watch at home. Cinemas and pubs are in the same leaky boat unfortunately.
I pine for Barry Lyndon, Lawrence of Arabia, The Leopard, Tom Jones, Doctor Zhivago …
I agree with you about seeing films in a cinema and not having a TV that’s what I do, but almost exclusively in Paris where in the recent past I have seen Barry Lyndon (preceded by a fascinating introductory talk), Dr Zhivago, The Leopard and countless others. At my local cinema there was a week of retrospective Omar Sharif films. Alas, I’ve not yet seen Lawrence of Arabia.
Christopher, what are your reasons for not having a TV?
I have recently decided upon a similar course of action with the intent of freeing up time for other things.
Radio efficiently delivers all the news one needs and there is much interesting content to be found online.
However the adjustment is challenging.
Has live TV had its day?
In 2002 I realised that my small TV hadn’t been plugged in for more than a year and was being used as a small table to put drinks on – time to give it away and not have to pay for a TV licence. Now I watch TV on a laptop: news, PMQ, University Challenge, Dads Army, Blackadder, Minder, etc
Am very glad to see that Barry Lyndon heads up your list of quality films. For me it is three hours in two minutes of perfection, I even have it downloaded onto my mobile phone for quiet reflective moments on buses.
Yesterday I saw Mary Queen of Scots which has a couple of powerhouse female performances and went a very long way to restore my faith in costume drama, having in endured the very dreadful “The Favourite…… ” The acting in it was decent, but the vulgarity of the dialogue, the cheap gags and the playing did not raise a single titter in the audience.
Barry Lyndon was on at the BFI recently. Next time I will see if you are able to come, perhaps with Tom Ponsonby who saw a bit of the filming in Ireland – see comments passim.There is so much to like about BL, from Michael Horden’s narration to the locations, the cast, the photography and even the story. It’s the thinking man’s Italian Job.