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House of the Dragon finally redeemed Game of Thrones for its terrible ending and it seems that the fans of the high fantasy series are getting back up on the Got train. Based on George R.R. Martin‘s book Fire & Blood, the Game of Thrones prequel series takes place 200 years before the events of the original series and it revolves around the internal conflicts of the House of Targaryen. House of the Dragon stars Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, Rhys Ifans as Otta Hightower, Steve Toussaint as Corlys Velaryon, Eve Best as Rhaenys Velaryon, Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria, and Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole. So, if you loved the high fantasy, political drama, brutal violence, and medieval setting in House of the Dragon here are some similar shows you could watch next.

Game of Thrones (Max & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – HBO

Game of Thrones is an epic fantasy and...

U.K. director Mike Leigh directs films in a wide range of moods but his working-class dramas are what made his name. All or Nothing is an emotionally punishing story of everyday life on a lower rung of a stagnant economy, where nobody has dreams and pessimism is the order of the day. The bitterness and anger are most evident in the abusive attitudes and verbal brutality from one generation to the next, even with the caring, sensitive Penny (Lesley Manville) and the inoffensive Phil (Timothy Spall). Leigh’s players craft heartbreaking characters whose individual miseries can’t be dismissed. We invest heavily in the hope of a positive outcome even as everything we see says, ‘no.’ Yet the film’s honesty doesn’t want us to give up on these people.

All or Nothing

Blu-ray

Severin Films

2002 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 128 min. / Street Date November 23, 2021 / Available from Amazon / 29.95

Starring: Lesley Manville,...

Stars: George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Mia Goth, Matthew Stagg, Nicola Harrison, Kyle Soller, Tom Fisher, Myra Kathryn Pearse, Paul Jesson, Robert Nairne | Written and Directed by Sergio G. Sanchez

[Note: With the film now out on DVD, here's a reposting of our review of The Secret of Marrowbone from its cinematic release back in August]

Three brothers and a sister have just lost their mother. After her death they fear to be separated, so to protect themselves and prevent this from happening they decide to flee to an abandoned farm, a place that is not what it seems, because it hides a dark secret between its walls.

Sergio G. Sanchez’s The Secret of Marrowbone comprises a fusion of Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others and Alfred Hitchcock’s famed masterpiece Psycho, not necessarily in the context of plot points but clearly influenced the formation of a deeply expressive style of subtlety. While not a complex piece of intricacy in the realm of the horror genre, it has its moments of slight terror and peril,...

Stars: George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Mia Goth, Matthew Stagg, Nicola Harrison, Kyle Soller, Tom Fisher, Myra Kathryn Pearse, Paul Jesson, Robert Nairne | Written and Directed by Sergio G. Sanchez

Three brothers and a sister have just lost their mother. After her death they fear to be separated, so to protect themselves and prevent this from happening they decide to flee to an abandoned farm, a place that is not what it seems, because it hides a dark secret between its walls.

Sergio G. Sanchez’s The Secret of Marrowbone comprises a fusion of Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others and Alfred Hitchcock’s famed masterpiece Psycho, not necessarily in the context of plot points but clearly influenced the formation of a deeply expressive style of subtlety. While not a complex piece of intricacy in the realm of the horror genre, it has its moments of slight terror and peril,...

Chicago – The thing that can be said for British writer/director Mike Leigh is that it’s never known what story may capture his fancy. The auteur of “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “Topsy-Turvy,” “Secrets and Lies” and “Life is Sweet” now tackles the last quarter century of a notable British painter’s life, through his strange maneuverings and unconventionality, in “Mr. Turner.”

Rating: 3.5/5.0

The Mister is J.M.W. Turner, an English Romantic landscape artist, whose form elevated the genre into a pre-impressionism age – making Turner a rather controversial figure in his time. The film plays upon that theme, as Timothy Spall portrays the painter in Mike Leigh’s script as a prolific adventurer and eccentric. Since Turner is a landscape painter, the director and cinematographer (Dick Pope) create an expansive cinematic canvas that “sees” Turner’s vision. The story, however, is a mishmash of scenes rather than a cohesive narrative, and...

Timothy Spall paints a fascinating portrait of J.M.W. Turner in the new biopic, Mr. Turner, written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Mike Leigh and beautifully lensed by cinematographer Dick Pope. The actor fully immerses himself in the role of the eccentric but brilliant English painter, water colorist and printmaker who elevated the art form of landscape painting in the 18th century. Mr. Turner premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival where Spall took the award for Best Actor and marks the seventh time in his career that he has collaborated with Leigh. Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, and Paul Jesson also star. At a recent roundtable interview, Spall talked about the challenge of playing the artist, his preparation for the role, the directing process with Leigh, their organic approach to building up the characters through improvisation, his painting lessons with British portraitist Tim Wright that helped him portray Turner convincingly,...

Mr. Turner (2014) Film Review, a movie directed by Mike Leigh, and starring Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Karl Johnson, Ruth Sheen, Sandy Foster, Amy Dawson, Lesley Manville, Martin Savage, and Richard Bremmer. Great movies steal away our attention and hold it hostage until the final [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Mr. Turner (2014): A Man’s Life Painted In Broad Strokes...

Mr. Turner Sony Pictures Classics Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes. Grade: B Director: Mike Leigh Screenwriter: Mike Leigh Cast: Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Lesley Manville, Martin Savage, Joshua McGuire Screened at: Sony, NYC, 11/19/14 Opens: December 10. 2014 If you take a survey course in History of Art—which every liberal arts college should require—you’ll inevitably come across the big guys: Rembrandt, Bruegel the Elder, Titian, Michelangelo, Goya—but the folks from the Continent are not the only greats of their field. Britain is right to brag about J.M.W. Turner, who is important not only because of the quality of his work but [ Read More ]

The post Mr. Turner Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Mr. Turner writer-director Mike Leigh, who has been nominated for Oscars five times, knew exactly who he wanted to play the lead role in his new biopic about the revered and irascible English Romantic painter J.M.W. Turner.

That was, as he tells Deadline’s Pete Hammond in this video clip from our recent Oscar showcase The Contenders, veteran character actor Timothy Spall.

Spall was the only actor Leigh said he considered for the role, and he’s perhaps best known for his ratty role as Wormtail in the Harry Potter films. But before Spall picked up a paintbrush in the film, Leigh said he made Spall take two years of painting lessons. That’s dedication.

The film also stars Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson and Marion Bailey. It was produced by Georgina Lowe.

Mr. Turner is scheduled for a limited release beginning Dec. 19, after a lengthy string of film festival appearances,...

It's interesting to look at the awards Timothy Spall has won and been nominated for and realize he's never been nominated for an Oscar. With his fifth collaboration with director Mike Leigh it's an oversight that just might be cleared up as his performance in Mr. Turner (see trailer at bottom of this post) has already earned him a Best Actor award at Cannes and is definitely in contention for Best Actor at this year's Oscars. Spall plays the titular character, the eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner, as the film focuses on the second half of his life, exploring a time following his father's (Paul Jesson) death and a subsequent relationship with Ms. Booth (Marion Bailey) a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea. I had the chance to talk with Spall, whose work most mainstream audiences will likely remember as Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter films,...

This is no stuffy costume drama but a richly lived-in visit to early-19th-century England that is rough, bawdy, often funny, and more often unsettling. I’m “biast” (pro): I always expect greatness from Mike Leigh

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

I don’t know much about the painter J.M.W. Turner except that he was a precursor to the Impressionists, that his work, which we can see today was an early transitional sort of abstract, inspired future generations of artists to represent the world in ways that had never been imagined before.

Even this foundational basic is not the sort of thing that Mr. Turner cares to share with us. As grand as it is — the film frequently borrows the epic look and feel of Turner’s sweeping landscapes — history and scholarship are not its concerns. This...

Director: Mike Leigh; Screenwriter: Mike Leigh; Starring: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Karl Johnson, Ruth Sheen, Leslie Manville; Running time: 150 mins; Certificate: 12A

Mike Leigh is a director synonymous with kitchen sink realism, but in exploring the life of 19th-century landscape artist Jmw Turner, he takes the opportunity to get outdoors and capture some beautiful views. Less handsome but equally imposing is Timothy Spall as the man himself, always looking out and rarely looking inward, which is a strength (adding to the intrigue) and a weakness of the film.

Leigh homes in on the last 25 years of Turner's life when he is an artist of great renown, living in London with his doting father (Paul Jesson) and equally devoted housekeeper Hannah Danby (Dorothy Atkinson). There is a studied formality in the way Leigh conveys the dynamics between them, punctuated by bursts of impropriety. Turner is endearingly tactile with his old dad,...

Prior to Mr. Turner, I’d assumed J.M.W. Turner was some upper-class dork with a silly accent, spending his days flouncing around a field somewhere (probably wearing a stupid old-timey hat). I dutifully trotted around the Turner Collection at Tate Britain and appreciated (rather than enjoyed) his paintings, but to be honest, landscapes aren’t really my cup of tea. I figured Turner was just one of those artists you’re expected to like, an institution rather than something that speaks to the heart.

After watching Mike Leigh’s biopic, however, my thoughts have changed. Turner, as seen through the lens of Mike Leigh and the performance of Timothy Spall, is a weirdly primal, sexually charged pig man who spits on his canvases, responds to questions with bestial grunts and is tangled up in some compulsive quasi-bdsm relationship with his housekeeper. From the moment we first see him silhouetted against the horizon,...

Mr. Turner has been gathering spectacular reviews and almost universal acclaim since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Mike Leigh's epic, vibrant film explores a painter acknowledged as one of the greatest British artists, someone who experimented with style, technique and environment to create visceral landscapes and now iconic pieces of art. Mr. Turner looks at the final 25 years of the artist's life and how he was affected by the death of his father. The BFI London Film Festival played host as Mr. Turner was unveiled as the Time Out Gala at this year's event.Sporting an elegant moustache and flanked by some of the cast of the film including Paul Jesson, Marion Bailey and Ruth Sheen as well as director, Mike Leigh, Timothy Spall owned the red carpet, waxing lyrical about Turner and the complexities of such a character.“What sort of man is he? It's difficult to say because it's complicated.

Ray Winstone and Amanda Redman will star in new ITV drama The Trials of Jimmy Rose.

The series will tell the story of armed robber Jimmy Rose (Winstone), whose lifetime of crime has had its costs.

His wife Jackie (Redman) battles with thoughts that she no longer loves her husband, while their adult children decide to cut Jimmy out of their lives.

The three-part series follows Jimmy as he is released from prison and tries to adapt to his family's new take on his lifestyle.

Winstone said: "Alan Whiting has created and written a gift of a role. I'm excited to be playing him and to be working with the great Amanda Redman. She's such a fine actress, and together with Adrian Shergold and the production team, I'm sure we'll be able to bring Jimmy and Jackie to life."

The Trials of Jimmy Rose also features Marion Bailey, Sue Anderson and Paul Jesson,...

October 3, 2014

Life After Beth

Director: Jeff Baena

Starring: Jeff Baena

Running time: 89 mins

Certificate: 15

Dracula Untold

Director: Gary Shore

Starring: Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper

Running time: 92 mins

Certificate: 15

Draft Day

Director: Ivan Reitman

Starring: Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner

Running time: 107 mins

Certificate: 15

Gone Girl

Director:David Fincher

Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike

Running time: 149 mins

Certificate: 18

October 10, 2014

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Director: Miguel Arteta

Starring: Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner

Running time: 81 mins

Certificate: PG

Annabelle

Director: John R. Leonetti

Starring: Ward Horton, Annabelle Wallis

Running time: 99 mins

Certificate: 15

The Calling

Director: Jason Stone

Starring: Susan Sarandon, Gil Bellows

Running time: 108 mins

Certificate: 15

Effie Gray

Director: Richard Laxton

Starring: Dakota Fanning, Emma Thompson

Running time: Tbc mins

Certificate: 12A

The Maze Runner

Director: Wes Ball

Starring: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario

Running time: 113 mins

Certificate: 12A

The Rewrite

Director: Marc Lawrence

Starring: Hugh Grant, Marisa Tomei...

Mike Leigh and cinematographer Dick Pope (The Illusionist) have turned the big screen into their canvas, painting a picture of the life of British painter J.M.W. Turner (played to the hilt and full of phlegm by Timothy Spall) in a film that's beautiful to look at and yet a bit of slog to endure. Mr. Turner is a Mike Leigh film through and through, presenting the life of his protagonist at face value, flaws and all, but I found it difficult to render any connection to the material. At two and a half hours I need to feel as if there is some reason I'm watching beyond bearing witness to two masters (Pope and Leigh) using Turner's life's work as inspiration for a beautiful film to look at, yet dull to spend too much time with. This felt more like a series of well-made home videos someone felt I would find interesting,...

Opening Night – World Premiere

Gone Girl

David Fincher, USA, 2014, Dcp, 150m

David Fincher’s film version of Gillian Flynn’s phenomenally successful best seller (adapted by the author) is one wild cinematic ride, a perfectly cast and intensely compressed portrait of a recession-era marriage contained within a devastating depiction of celebrity/media culture, shifting gears as smoothly as a Maserati 250F. Ben Affleck is Nick Dunne, whose wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) goes missing on the day of their fifth anniversary. Neil Patrick Harris is Amy’s old boyfriend Desi, Carrie Coon (who played Honey in Tracy Letts’s acclaimed production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is Nick’s sister Margo, Kim Dickens (Treme, Friday Night Lights) is Detective Rhonda Boney, and Tyler Perry is Nick’s superstar lawyer Tanner Bolt. At once a grand panoramic vision of middle America, a uniquely disturbing exploration of the fault lines in a marriage,...

A new poster for Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner has arrived and awaits your loving gaze down below. Leigh’s latest movie, starring Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson and Dorothy Atkinson, explores the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty. Released: October 31st Ireland & UK / December 19th USA (Limited Release)...

The impressive lineup announced for the upcoming 2014 Toronto International Film Festival includes a number of extremely promising films, and we’ve got some new images from four such features for your perusing pleasure. Briefly: A Little Chaos – (Directed by Alan Rickman) Starring Kate Winslet, Stanley Tucci, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Alan Rickman. Love & Mercy – (Directed by Bill Pohlad) Starring Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks, John Cusack, and Paul Giamatti. Miss Julie – (Directed by Liv Ullmann) Starring Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell, and Samantha Morton. Mr. Turner – (Directed by Mike Leigh) Starring Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Lesley Manville, Martin Savage, Joshua McGuire, Ruth Sheen, David Horovitch, and Karl Johnson. Hit the jump to check out the images and synopses, and click here to check out all of the Tiff images released thus far. The 2014 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 4 – 14th. A Little Chaos A landscape gardener with a...

The 39th Toronto International Film Festival has announced its initial slate of galas and special presentations, which includes 37 world premieres and several films with Oscar ambitions. The Judge, which stars Robert Downey Jr. as a big-city lawyer who reluctantly returns home and ends up defending his revered father (Robert Duvall) against criminal charges, will have its world premiere in Toronto. His Avengers pal, Chris Evans, will unveil his own directorial debut in Toronto, titled Before We Go.

Also noteworthy: James Gandolfini’s final film, The Drop, which also stars Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace; another Jason Reitman Toronto world premiere,...

The Toronto International Film Festival announced its initial wave of 2014 premieres and galas this morning and it features some familiar awards titles, some big stars and some unexpected studio titles. Among the major studio films, David Dobkin's "The Judge" with Robert Downey Jr. and Antoine Fuqua's "The Equalizer" each received gala slots and should premiere over the festival's opening weekend. Other announced galas so far include Bennett Miller's acclaimed "Foxcatcher," which debuted at Cannes, and Mike Binder's "Black and White" starring Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer and Anthony Mackie. Toronto has also scheduled special gala screenings for David Cronenberg's "Map to the Stars" with Julianne Moore and Robert Pattinson, François Ozon's "The New Girlfriend," Ed Zwick's "Pawn Sacrifice" with Tobey Maguire, Lone Scherfig's "The Riot Club," Jean-Marc Vallée's "Wild," Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano's "Samba" and Shawn Levy's "This is Where I Leave You...

Diana Drumm is reporting from Cannes for The Film Experience on two new films that have won strong reviews.

Timothy Spall as Mr. Turner

Mr. Turner

Mike Leigh’s latest (and the current Palme d’Or frontrunner though we're only a few days into the festival) opens on a pastoral landscape of seemingly neverending fields. A windmill in the middle-ground and sunlight speckling through the vastness give hints of perspective. As the camera lingers, two women ease their way into frame and jolt the viewer into the 19th century. Chatting back and forth and carrying their errands’ loads, they breathe human life into the painterly image (lensed by Leigh's regular cinematographer, Oscar nominee Dick Pope). The camera follows this humble pair until it spots a graying stout figure staring off into the field and sketching near-furiously. Sticking out like a sore crooked-toothed thumb in this panorama, this is J.M.

What’s crueler to witness: a force of nature that sinks a great many ships, or a tide of opinion that destroys a lone artist’s reputation? Nineteenth century landscape painter J.M.W. Turner often concerned himself with the former subject on his canvas — sunrises, shipwrecks and such — but leave it to writer/director Mike Leigh to make room for the latter in his latest period piece, Mr. Turner, an emotionally muted biopic less beholden to Leigh’s similarly set Topsy-Turvy than one might initially assume. After all, in a career defined almost entirely by present-day character studies set in working-class Britain — Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year, Secrets & Lies — only these two stand out as stately reflections of artistic anguish. However, Topsy-Turvy addressed the burdens of a stagnant creative partnership between a composer and a playwright, and by extension an entire theatre company, whereas Turner is more mindful of the man’s often solitary struggles with navigating the...

★★★★☆A past Palme d'Or winner and first of two British heavyweights in competition, Mike Leigh returns to Cannes with a beautifully realised portrait of one England's greatest ever landscape artists, J.M.W. Turner - entitled simply Mr. Turner (2014). Similar to 1999's Topsy-Turvy, Leigh is interested in the warts and all, spit and filth, rag-and-bone shop nature of the creation of art. In arguably a career-topping performance, Timothy Spall plays the cantankerous painter as a complex, grunting, snarling and utterly single-minded creature. His ex-barber father (Paul Jesson) assists him in his business and his housekeeper adores him. Turner is at the height of his fame, a celebrated and relatively wealthy man.

Renowned British filmmaker Mike Leigh and the Cannes Film Festival have history. His films have always been well-received there, and his 1996 adoption drama, Secrets And Lies, won the Palme d’Or at that year’s festivities. He served on the festival jury himself in 1997, where he famously butted heads with then Jury President, Isabelle Adjani, and now, he has returned with his latest project, Mr. Turner, which is screening in competition.

Mr. Turner sees regular Leigh collaborator Timothy Spall (The King’s Speech) play the famous British painter, J.M.W. Turner, in a period drama exploring the last 25 years of his life, which ended in 1851. The synopsis of the film, as presented at Cannes, gives a more in-depth view:

“Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, [Turner] forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom...

Currently screening at the Cannes Film Festival, writer-director Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner is already building up some positive reviews.  The biopic of eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner (Timothy Spall) takes a look at the last 25 years of the man's life.  We'll have a review up shortly, but for now you can get an early look at this excellent first trailer for the film.  It serves to highlight the painter's genius and ability, while refusing to shy away from the man's depression and growing eccentricity in his later years.  It also appears to be quite the star vehicle for Spall, whom Stateside audiences may know best from his work in the Harry Potter series as Wormtail.  Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, and Ruth Sheen also star. Hit the jump to watch the Mr. Turner trailer. Watch the first trailer for Mr. Turner below: Synopsis: Mr. Turner explores the last...

Sony Pictures Classics has released the first trailer and clip from Mr. Turner, writer-director Mike Leigh's biopic of British painter J.M.W. Turner, portrayed by Timothy Spall. This drama follows the eccentric artist's life, as he forms a bond with a landlady in Chelsea who he eventually comes to live with in secret. Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson and Lesley Manville co-star in this drama, arriving in theaters December 19.

Mr. Turner explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts,...

Mike Leigh returns to Cannes with this biopic of Jmw Turner, and it is also his return to a period drama set in Victorian England since Topsy-Turvy wowed Venice audiences way back in 1999. Timothy Spall appeared in the latter film and has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with Leigh, but whereas in the past he has been a reliable support this time the film is all his.

The film deals with Turner’s mature years. Spall as our eponymous hero is an irascible wanderer, harrumphing and snorting his way through his conversations, he’s abandoned his first wife and their two daughters, and he enjoys a groping, fumbling and thrusting relationship with the family housekeeper, Hannah (Dorothy Atkinson). Despite these shortcomings, we take to Turner. He is a loving son to his “daddy” (Paul Jesson), he’s a joker and generous with his friends. His apparent dismissal of his wife and daughters,...

Mike Leigh's new film Mr Turner has unveiled its first trailer ahead of its Cannes Film Festival debut.

The biopic stars Timothy Spall as Jmw Turner, a British painter famed for his landscape work in watercolours. He was dubbed "the painter of light" and it's thought his final words were "the sun is God".

Leigh's film will premiere at Cannes this evening (May 15) and marks his first time back at the festival since 2010's Another Year.

He won the event's prestigious Palme d'Or award in 1996 for Secrets & Lies.

Mr Turner will open in the UK on October 31 and features Lesley Manville, Marion Bailey, Dorothy Atkinson and Paul Jesson in the supporting cast.

Mike Leigh's first period biopic in 15 years is a feat of confidence, with an outstanding performance from Spall as the Romantic landscape artist

 Full coverage: Cannes 2014

What a glorious film this is, richly and immediately enjoyable, hitting its satisfying stride straight away. It's funny and visually immaculate; it combines domestic intimacy with an epic sweep and has a lyrical, mysterious quality that perfumes every scene, whether tragic or comic.

Mike Leigh has made a period biographical drama before: Topsy-Turvy (1999), about the rewarding but tense association of Gilbert and Sullivan and their own rewarding but tense association with the theatre-going public. Now he made another utterly confident excursion into the past and into the occult arcana of Englishness and Victoriana: a study of the final years of the painter Jmw Turner, played with relish and sympathy by Timothy Spall.

In the past, I and others have commented that Leigh's dialogue...

Along with fellow British veteran Ken Loach's Jimmy's Hall, Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner (2014) will be in the running for the coveted Palme d'Or in the next fortnight. A biopic of Victorian painter J.M.W. Turner, the film stars Timothy Spall as the famed painter alongside Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey and Paul Jesson. Leigh's previous foray into period drama produced the fascinating Topsy-Turvy (1999), a warts and all look at those other doyens of Victorianism, Gilbert and Sullivan. Leigh has had his share of triumphs at Cannes, picking up the Jury Prize for Naked in 1993 and winning the Palme d'Or three years after with Secrets and Lies (1996). It hasn't all been plain sailing, however, as Vera Drake was passed over by Cannes in 2004, only to pick up the prestigious Golden Lion at rival fest Venice.

A first image has arrived for Mike Leigh's much anticipated and long in-the-works J.M.W. Turner biopic -- simply titled "Mr. Turner" -- with Timothy Spall in the lead role as the famed Brit Romantic landscape painter. The film was announced this morning as part of the Cannes competition lineup. Check out the new still, below. While no official synopsis has been released for the film, we know that Marion Bailey, Dorothy Atkinson and Paul Jesson co-star in Leigh's first period piece since 1999's brilliant behind-the-scenes Mikado tale "Topsy-Turvy." Cinematographer Dick Pope ("Another Year") was in charge of lensing, while the National Gallery, the Tate Britain and Royal Academy granted special access to some of Turner's paintings for the project.Here’s what Leigh has had to say in the past about his interest in the artist, for hints about the direction of the film:"I want to explore the man,...

Very little information has emerged about Mike Leigh’s forthcoming, currently untitled biopic about British painter J.M.W. Turner, but the prospect of Leigh reteaming with Timothy Spall is motivation enough for me to keep an eye out for this film. Today, we have a first look at Spall in costume as Turner, which you can check out above.

Leigh has worked with Spall many times before, on films including Secrets & Lies, Topsy-Turvy, All or Nothing, Life Is Sweet and Home Sweet Home, though the Turner biopic will mark their first time collaborating in over a decade. Both seem passionate about the project; Leigh has worked for almost twenty years to get the film made, while Spall signed on for the lead role very early on.

On his goals with the biopic, Leigh told Rope of Silicon that:

Turner as a character is compelling. I want to explore the man,...

The first photo released from Mike Leigh's new project features star Timothy Spall standing determined on a wooden ship as painter J.M.W. Turner. The project, about the British Romantic landscape artist who was known as "the painter of light," has yet to receive a title and is still in post-production. Leigh has returned with many of his previous collaborators including actors Marion Bailey, Dorothy Atkinson and Paul Jesson, producer Georgina Lowe, cinematographer Dick Pope, costume designer Jacqueline Durran and make-up and hair designer Christine Blundell. Sony Pictures Classics is handling the release.

Chicago – I’ll never forget the moment I became a fan of Ralph Fiennes. It was while watching the behind-the-scenes documentary on the “Prince of Egypt” DVD. He was voicing the scene where his character, Ramses, shouts at Moses across the Red Sea. As he stood next to the mic, Fiennes’ entire body underwent a transformation, as if he were summoning a storm that coursed through his veins. He then let out the sort of howl that could easily part water.

The sheer largeness and theatricality of some Fiennes performances can easily drift into hamminess (as in the final act of “Deathly Hallows: Part 2”), but in his directorial debut, the actor strikes the perfect balance between prideful indignation and wounded strength, with a few bursts of blood-curdling ferocity. After taking on the titular tragic hero of “Coriolanus” onstage, Fiennes reprises the role in an ambitious modernization of Shakespeare’s under-appreciated masterwork.

Coriolanus Contest Giveaway Sweepstakes. This Coriolanus DVD contest, giveaway, sweepstakes illustrates Coriolanus‘ release on DVD and Blu-ray on May 29, 2012. Ralph Fiennes‘ Coriolanus (2011) stars Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Jessica Chastain, Vanessa Redgrave, Lubna Azabal, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Dragan Micanovic, Paul Jesson, and Harry Fenn. Coriolanus‘ plot synopsis: “Caius ‘Coriolanus’ Martius a hero of Rome but also a feared general who refuses to integrate with the current system finding himself ousted by the people from the [...]

Continue reading: Contest: Coriolanus (2011) DVD: Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler...

In his directorial debut Ralph Fiennes has created a vivid, intelligent Coriolanus with powerful political relevance

Modern-dress Shakespeare has been with us for nearly a century, long enough to cease being a novelty or in need of justification. Barry Jackson's 1920s Cymbeline at Birmingham Rep with the cast in first world war uniform is the key example we were shown pictures of as sixth-formers in the late 40s. Traditional dress, however we define it, is currently pretty rare, though film-makers, no doubt because of the continuing popularity of Roman epics, reached for their togas when Charlton Heston appeared in fustian versions of Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. The only recent movie to deal with one of the Roman plays was Richard Linklater's 2008 Me and Orson Welles, about the controversy surrounding Welles's 1937 anti-fascist modern-dress production of Julius Caesar in New York.

But now we have Ralph Fiennes's bloody and bold directorial debut,...

Title: Coriolanus Directed By: Ralph Fiennes Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox, Gerard Butler, James Nesbitt, Paul Jesson, Jessica Chastain, Lubna Azabal, Ashraf Barhom Back in high school, I always knew I should appreciate Shakespeare, but getting through his work was so tedious, it often took away from the narrative. Then, once I finally understood the text and perhaps should have gone back for a second go-around to appreciate it as a story, it was onto the next book of the semester, forever branding his work a mere school assignment rather than something that was meant to be enjoyed. Thanks to Ralph Fiennes, if Coriolanus ever comes up in...

Coriolanus

Directed by Ralph Fiennes

2010, UK, 122 minutes

Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut is a worthy attempt to adapt one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known tragedies, which features one of his most ambiguously-heroic heroes, to the screen. This film has a lot going for it. Fiennes’ modern rendition is not only true to the play but enhances its political themes. The cast is superb, led by Fiennes himself as Caius Martius and featuring excellent performances by Brian Cox as Menenius, Vanessa Redgrave as Volumnia, and James Nesbitt and Paul Jesson as the suitably smarmy Tribunes Sicinius and Brutus. At times, the screenplay is fairly clever, especially considering that watching a film that based on a familiar play is like reading a foreign translation of a familiar tongue. However—and I am truly disappointed to write this—it doesn’t quite work out.

That said, let’s start with what works. Fiennes’ Coriolanus takes...

The Weinstein Company presents the new trailer for Coriolanus - directed by Ralph Fiennes with a screenplay by John Logan, based on the play “Coriolanus” by William Shakespeare. Filmed in Serbia, Montenegro and the UK, the film will be released December 2nd.

Synopsis:

A feared and revered military commander courts tragedy when he enters the political arena in Coriolanus, a driving action/drama that marks the directorial debut of the film’s star, two-time Academy Award® nominee Ralph Fiennes. Updating William Shakespeare’s late-period tragedy of ancient Roman setting to the 21st Century of guerrilla insurgencies, instant polling and 24-hour news networks, Fiennes delivers a trenchant tale of honor, power, politics and pride. At the heart of the film is the personal journey of Caius Martius, the noble but flawed “Coriolanus” of the title. Scion of a proud, aristocratic military family, Coriolanus is a man of great courage and unshakeable...

Coriolanus Trailer. Ralph Fiennes‘ Coriolanus (2011) movie trailer stars Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Jessica Chastain, and Vanessa Redgrave. Coriolanus‘ plot synopsis: “Caius ‘Coriolanus’ Martius a hero of Rome but also a feared general who refuses to integrate with the current system finding himself ousted by the people from the city. Determined to seek on the city he dearly loves Coriolanus must ally himself with his nemesis Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler) to gain revenge on those people who banished him.”

This movie trailer has new footage that was not in the previously released in the Coriolanus (2011) UK Movie Trailer. This looks like a wonderful piece of work and I am looking forward to watching it.

Regarding the look of the film, Ralph Fiennes

recruited director of photography Barry Ackroyd and camera operator Oliver Driscoll (The Hurt Locker, Green Zone) in order to visually realize Shakespeare’s Coriolanus as a gritty modern-day tale of war.

We are now four days into the Toronto International Film Festival which runs a total of ten days so I felt it would be best to look back at some of the coverage we’ve posted thus far. Admittedly we are all a bit behind but we do intend on catching up before the fest if over. So far this year the festival hasn’t been as exciting for me as compared to previous years. Most of my time is spent running around from one cinema to the next, networking and trying to find some time to maintain the site and do some writing. The first day is usually a write off spent picking up tickets, finding a place to stay and meeting up with some old friends, so unfortunately my movie watching only began on Friday evening. So I’ve decided that in the future, I will arrive in...

Coriolanus

Directed by Ralph Fiennes

2010, UK, 122 minutes

Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut is a worthy attempt to adapt one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known tragedies, which features one of his most ambiguously-heroic heroes, to the screen. This film has a lot going for it. Fiennes’ modern rendition is not only true to the play but enhances its political themes. The cast is superb, led by Fiennes himself as Caius Martius and featuring excellent performances by Brian Cox as Menenius, Vanessa Redgrave as Volumnia, and James Nesbitt and Paul Jesson as the suitably smarmy Tribunes Sicinius and Brutus. At times, the screenplay is fairly clever, especially considering that watching a film that based on a familiar play is like reading a foreign translation of a familiar tongue. However—and I am truly disappointed to write this—it doesn’t quite work out.

That said, let’s start with what works. Fiennes’ Coriolanus takes...

Coriolanus UK Trailer. Ralph Fiennes‘ Coriolanus (2011) UK movie trailer stars Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Jessica Chastain, and Vanessa Redgrave. Coriolanus‘ plot synopsis: “The film is an adaptation of William Shakespeare‘s Coriolanus…A banished hero of Rome allies with a sworn enemy to take his revenge on the city.”

This movie looks fantastic. I will have to set aside some time to read Coriolanus. The way writer John Logan modernized the story in a war-torn setting looks good, Children of Men good. Since I haven’t read the play yet, I do not understand why the government would betray such a celebrated soldier as Caius Martius Coriolanus for. What did he do? I am also glad to see that the trailer’s producers did not give the reason away in the movie trailer.

Fiennes recruited director of photography Barry Ackroyd and camera operator Oliver Driscoll (The Hurt Locker,...

Ralph Fiennes has picked a modern war-zone version of Coriolanus for his directorial debut. Cath Clarke finds herself embedded on set in Belgrade – bullets, bandanas, Gerard Butler and all

A dozen or so soldiers are sprawled in front of a communist-era block of flats in a factory town outside the Serbian capital, Belgrade. The building has seen better days, graffiti snaking the walls, brickwork crumbling. The soldiers are none too pretty, either: a mean-looking hairy crew in dirty uniforms. Up marches their general and grunts at them. Behind the general's bushy beard and mirrored sunglasses is the actor Gerard Butler, and the soldiers are extras playing his troops. As he stomps off, grinning, to start the day's filming in a nearby flat, one of them pulls out a sudoku book. Not so tough after all – but film sets, like wars, involve a lot of waiting around.

This is week seven...

Eastwood Eyes J. Edgar Hoover Project: One of this year's sure-fire Oscar contenders is Clint Eastwood's Hereafter, merely because the name Eastwood is attached as director, and now we learn his next film is a biopic of controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment. Oscar-winning Milk scripter, Dustin Lance Black, penned the screenplay based on Hoover, who was most recently depicted by Billy Crudup in Michael Mann's Public Enemies.

Hoover was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935 and turned it into an efficient crime-fighting organization. He remained its director until his death in 1972, but his sculpted persona was already coming apart at the seams; he employed the FBI to harass political activists and used illegal methods to make secret files on leaders. Many biographies also assert the man was a closeted homosexual and cross-dresser. Speculation has it ending up at Warner Bros.

How do you get someone excited for a film adaptation of Coriolanus with zero interest in Shakespeare? Pack it with a fantastic cast, of course, Not only is the film marking Ralph Fiennes. directorial debut, but it.ll feature him, Gerard Butler, John Kani, Paul Jesson, James Nesbitt, Ashraf Barhom, Lubna Azabal and Jessica Chastain. Still not convinced? What if I tack on Brian Cox and Vanessa Redgrave? According to THR, Cox and Redgrave have decided to stick together and go from the BBC production The Day of the Triffids straight to Coriolanus, which begins shooting next week in Belgrade, Serbia. Fiennes leads as the Roman general Coriolanus. Redgrave will play his mother, Volumnia, who insists that he join the Senate. What seems like inevitable success turns into a disaster when conniving tribunes stifle his efforts. Coriolanus grows so upset he incites a riot, which ultimately leads to his expulsion.

Ralph Fiennes is finally ready to start shooting on his adaptation of  Coriolanus, marking his first time in the director's chair and, unbelievably, his first Shakespearean film role when he takes the title role to boot.The story has Roman General Caius Martius, later called Coriolanus (Fiennes), who despises the masses but becomes a hero when he conquers the city of Corioles (hence the name) from the hated Volscians (led by Tullus Aufidius, who's played by Gerard Butler). On returning home, Coriolanus' mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) persuades him to stand for election as a Consul - but things do not go according to plan, and betrayal, war and disaster result. Trust us, it's pacier than that sounds.The film also stars Brian Cox (who we guess is playing Cominius, and who we think is stepping into a role to which William Hurt was at one point attached) as well as John Kani,...

London -- Brian Cox and Vanessa Redgrave are to appear together on the big screen in Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut "Coriolanus," fresh from the duo teaming up for the small screen update of "The Day of The Triffids."

The pair joins Gerard Butler to star on screen alongside the director in his movie update of the Shakespearean historical tragedy.

John Kani, Paul Jesson, James Nesbitt, Ashraf Barhom, Lubna Azabal and Jessica Chastain also feature in the cast.

It stars shooting next week in Belgrade, Serbia from a script penned by John Logan, whose credits include "The Aviator."

The multi-hyphenate Fiennes also produces, along with Logan, Gabrielle Tana, Julia Taylor-Stanley and Colin Vaines.

Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd and sound mixer Ray Beckett, fresh from their BAFTA and Oscar success with "The Hurt Locker," are on the crew list.

Fiennes plays revered Roman general Coriolanus who is at odds with the city...