feather_ghyll

Catherine, Called Birdy (2022) Rated: 12A
Adapted and Directed by: Lena Dunham
Based on the book of the same name written by Karen Cushman
Starring: Bella Ramsay, Andrew Scott, Lesley Sharp, Billie Piper


One of the advantages of getting Amazon Prime is that I can watch lots of films that I wasn’t able to previously, and so I chose this highly recommended adaptation of a book I reread last year. I wasn’t disappointed, it’s an entertaining film that’s funny, angry and a little touching, ( Read more... )

[Edited 10/5/25.]

The Guernsey Literary Potato and Peel Society (2018) (rated 12A)
Directed by: Mike Newell
Written by: Kevin Hood, Thomas Bezucha, Don Roos
Adapted from the book by: Mary-Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1289403/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

I gave up a gorgeous warm spring evening for this adaptation, so much did I want to see it. I wonder what people who haven’t read the book will make of it. As for me, I enjoyed it and got caught up in the emotion, ( spoilery example ) But that didn’t make me blind to the fact that there were a few clunky expositionary moments. Objectively speaking, I think Their Finest was a better film, but I had never read the source material.

( Read more... )

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, Bloomsbury 2008.

I devoured this last weekend – abandoning any fellow feeling with correspondents waiting days for answers to their questions. It’s been a while (by which I mean over nine years) since I bought it and read it, though I remembered some bits.

As I said in my last post, it was seeing the trailer of the movie adaptation that spurred me into doing so, and I am curious as to how they’ll turn an epistolary novel, with letters from so many islanders into a film. Either characters will be dropped or combined. Mike Newell is directing, which gives me confidence, and I like many of the cast, even if Lily James is a touch on the young side to be playing Juliet. They seem to have cast a lot of actors who were in Downton Abbey, which is a canny choice. I'd hoped they'd filmed in in Guernsey, but read that they hadn't because it's a tax haven/much changed.

Rereading the book, it’s striking ( Read more... )

Swallows and Amazons (2016) (PG)
Directed by: Philippa Lowthorpe
Adapted by: Andrea Gibb
From the book by: Arthur Ransome
Starring: (Grown-ups): Rafe Spall, Kelly Macdonald, Andrew Scott
(Swallows): Dane Hughes, Orla Hill, Teddie-Rose Malleson-Allen, Bobbie McCulloch,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1227183/?ref_=nv_sr_1

This feels a little like a natives’ take on the adventures of the Swallows and Amazons. ( Read more... )

Ths isn't the review that I said was coming (but then today was meant to be a book-buying day and that didn't happen either). Friday before last I read Anne Billson's feature on 'An Education', An Education that is very British, and the depiction of (British) school life or lack therefor on the big screen. I then saw 'An Education' (recommended, even if it sometimes falls on the side of being funny and charming rather than profound, the acting is very good, and the heroine's school life is a thread) and before it a trailer for Cracks, which is mentioned in the feature. I'm not sure entirely whether elements that were hinted at in the trailer will come through in the film. It looked like one I'd want to see, although everyone's hair was awfully messy!

Anyway, in her feature, Billson asks But why did no one ever film Malory Towers, or The Chalet School?. She discusses part of the reason in the feature, I think, St. Trinian's, which in part parodied the girl's school story. A strong, parodic or absured iconography like that made a 'straight' rendition difficult. In addition, the examples she offers are series, which before the Harry Potter and Twilight phenomena would probably put film-makers off (but why no television series?) Perhaps not so much these days? I don't know. It would be fun to see an all-girls school story with the rivalries, the midnight feasts, the prefects nd mistresses and the daring rescue from a fire or unexpected tide!

Happy New Year! I had hoped to post this much sooner after I saw the film, but it didn't work out. Still, I hope to post something about my Christmas reading (what bliss it is to be able to spend day after day reading books) in the near future.

Inkheart 2008

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0494238/

As I previously discussed in my review of the book, I read the translation of Cornelia Funke's Inkheart in preparation for this movie adaptation, charmed by the central idea of people with the gift of bringing characters and objects out of books when they read them out loud. ( Read more... )

Film review: Nancy Drew (2007)

Directed by: Andrew Fleming
Written by: Andrew Fleming and Tiffany Paulsen
Based on the Nancy Drew series written by 'Carolyn Keene'
Starring: Emma Roberts,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479500/

The Riddle of Reinventing Nancy Drew ( Read more... )