Carol at 9pm

We did several posts of Todd Haynes' CAROL here in recent years, as per labels, nice to see it is on Channel4 here in the UK tonight. My friend Martin would say "I have the blu-ray so I can watch it anytime", but it means it will be seen by a bigger audience here than on its initial rather limited release in 2015.

It has been announced that Cate will play Margo Channing in a stage production of ALL ABOUT EVE here in London next year .... lets hope its from Mankiewicz's original and not a re-working of the horrendous '70s musical APPLAUSE ! 

Festive cheer 2

Two treats lined up for holiday viewing: two Katharine Hepburn movies ideal for this time of year. THE LION IN WINTER, now spruced up in a new edition with lots of features, is an ideal Christmas film and is of course a feast of acting with Hepburn and OToole firing on all cylinders as Henry II and his warring brood celebrate Christmas at Chinon in 1183, and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine is left out of prison for the holidays. Anthony Harvey crafts a solid entertainment from James Goldman's play, and John Barry's faux medieval score is one of his best. It looks great too. I had already met Jane Merrow (label) and seen Timothy Dalton on the stage, so knew how good they were, and John Castle was fresh from BLOW-UP.
It was marvellous seeing it for the first time on the widescreen of the old Odeon Haymarket back in 1968, I still have the souvenir brochure. Hepburn dazzled us then.

DESK SET from 1957 is a more recent discovery, and may be my favourite Tracy-Hepburn, but has that long central act at the office christmas party, where Kate, splendid in red, does a delicious tipsy scene with Joan Blondell, Tracy is fun for a change, and Kate even sings "Night and Day"! (More on DESK SET at Kate label). 

It may also be time to have another look at CAROL, taking us back to that Christmas in 1950s New York, when Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara meet at the department store ......

Cinderella, 2015

We liked it, we liked it a lot. Kenneth Branagh's retelling of the fairytale was a pleasant Sunday evening flick to unwind to, with a drink or three, after all that drama and excitement from Rio. Cate Blanchett as ever looks divine in some stunning creations that drag queens would kill for, and it all looked a treat - add in a deliciously ditzy turn too by Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother ...

I missed this last year, but it is interesting now, after seeing Branagh's production of ROMEO AND JULIET (see review below) last week, which had some of the players here - is he starting a new repertory troupe? - Lily Allen and Richard Madden as Cinders and Prince Charming; he was supposed to be Romeo to her Juliet but injured his foot, leading to Freddie Fox taking over at 48 hours notice. Branagh regular Sir Derek Jacobi (that VICIOUS old queen, who was great as an aged Mercutio in R&J) is also here and in stately mode too, as the King. 

I felt a distinct vibe from Visconti's lush ballroom waltz in THE LEOPARD in the ballroom scene here; and there seems a nod too to Demy's magical fairytale DONKEY SKIN (PEAU D'ANE) especially with Bonham-Carter (right) seemingly channeling Delphine Seyrig's Fairy Godmother there. All in all, very good fun. 

I may now have to go back to Ken's 1996 all-star HAMLET, Sir Jacobi is Claudius in that, with Julie Christie as Gertrude - its overlong and stuffed with names, but time to get it on ... Ken is tackling Olivier's THE ENTERTAINER on stage next, we may see that before the end of the year, cast includes John Hurt and Greta Scacchi. 

Carol goes to Brooklyn

How nice to have another look at BROOKLYN last night - four months or so since I saw it in the cinema - and CAROL is lined up for a second view tonight. Now that Award Season is behind us for another year, one can appreciate them more fully. Both movies will endure and become more popular, now that they are not swamped by the big hitters anymore. Both have quite a bit in common: both from respected novels, and set in the early Fifties - and both featuring those department store girls: Eilis from Enniscorthy in Ireland, and Therese working in the toy department over Christmas, when Carol Aird walks in and they look at each other .... perfect moments and perfect endings too. And Emory Cohen is my discovery of last year, as Eilis's Italian-American boyfriend. Saoirse, Cate and Rooney are all spell-binding of course. 

Little White Lies - the Carol issue

I am very impressed with a new (to me) British movie magazine LITTLE WHITE LIES, it comes out every other month and is well produced and designed with lots of interesting graphics and features. Their CAROL issue came out last November and has features on the move: director Todd Hayes, stars Blanchett and Mara, and in fact its a very gay-themed issue, with even a list of '100 Great Queer Films' including lots of favourites, its alphabetical so THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA is number one, ALL ABOUT EVE nr 2!, BEN HUR nr 7!.The Hockney A BIGGER SPLASH, BROKEBACK and CABARET are also here and I am pleased to see Techine's WILD REEDS included, plus THE CHILDREN'S HOUR (1961), Visconti's THE DAMNED (1969). THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) - wide definitions here of what constitutes 'queer'. 

Not included though are particular favourites like DONA HERLINDA AND HER SON (1985), or the more recent CLOUDBURST or LOVE IS STRANGE, PRESQUE RIEN, THE LINE OF BEAUTY or others reviewed at 'gay interest' label.

Its a magazine to look out for though, good reviews too.

Winners & losers .....

Well thats over for another year, as the 88th Academy Awards finally ends. I was not going to bother this year, but ended up spending the morning (here in the UK) seeing the show unfold. It was a slick show, great idea to have all the endless thank-yous unfold on screen. Not totally predictable either - good to see SPOTLIGHT win best film and original screenplay, and Mark Rylance as Supporting Actor, and Alicia Vikander (looking terrific in that yellow dress) as Best Supporting Actress, though of course she really was the leading lady there. Great too to see those two veterans Ennio Morricone (87) and Quincy Jones together. And there certainly were quite a few black presenters - was the Academy making a point? I am miffed though that CAROL and its director Todd Haynes were not included in the nominations for best film and director - is the Academy homophobic as well as seemingly racist? - think back to BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN a decade ago... (below, Haynes with his two muses Blanchett and Julianne Moore, who both did two films with him). 
So, nothing for CAROL or BROOKLYN or THE LADY IN THE VAN (not even nominated) or 45 YEARS or THE MARTIAN, but apart from that, good to see MAD MAX getting all those technical awards ..... (THE REVENANT only got best actor and director of its 12 nominations). 

Cate Blanchett looked stunning as usual in another sensational dress by Armani Prive - as did Kate Winslet in that black Ralph Lauren. 
Mark Rylance made a great comment when being interviewed about the madness of voting on which actor is the best, when he said "its not a sport, its a craft".
Ho ho ho - it seems Sam Smith (winner for Best Song for that dreadful Bond theme) has annoyed the gay community with his speech where he seems to think he is the first out gay man to win an Oscar (well, he is 23, and its all about him ...). Dustin Lance Black (who won for his MILK script) was not amused, as per his Twitter rant. Then there's Sondheim and Elton John who won Best Song Oscars before Sam did! Perhaps Sam should have checked before making a fool of himself, he misquoted Ian McKellen who was talking about out gay actors. But what did it matter about his sexuality - who cares? He was lucky to be there to have won for that song ... 

See Academy Awards link for my Alternative Oscars.

BAFTA goes dafta ....

Award Season madness is here once more!  Watch those actors on the award trail - even if they won last year! BAFTA announced its nominations and puzzled/annoyed a lot of us, the Golden Globes are tonight, and the Academy Awards nominations are out later this week ....

BAFTA (the British awards) chose to ignore maybe the best British film of the year: 45 YEARS and its great performance by Charlotte Rampling - which seemed a shoo-in after all the rave revews , but then they also ignored Timothy Spall and MR TURNER last year.  Tom Hardy has also been ignored here, despite having 4 films out this year. .... plus I hardly see Rooney Mara as 'supporting' as per my other comments on CAROL, and, much as we like her, Julie Walters hardly merits a nod for BROOKLYN, where she phones in her standard performance and is barely in the film. Alicia Vikander (new to us) is nominated twice - as lead and supporting - so they may hardly want her to go away empty-handed ..... ROOM has not even opened here yet, so we know nothing about it. Ditto Leo's THE REVENANT. 

Maybe its a moot point who is up for best actress - sorry, Saoirse - as I am sure BAFTA will not want to miss honouring Maggie Smith one more time, 57 years after her first nomination as most promising newcomer in 1959, and a mere 47 years after her win for MISS BRODIE for what may well be her last leading role. 

Tom Hooper winning-director of the pedestrian KING'S SPEECH gets nominated for THE DANISH GIRL while the more interesting and quirky Andrew Haigh gets ignored for 45 YEARS ..... which is only nominated as one of the Best British Films .

The awards are dished out at the Royal Opera House on Valentine's Day, Feb 14 .... meanwhile, 45 YEARS has just arrived, so we will review it properly tomorrow. 

Finally, Carol

Well, they kept us waiting long enough for it. I first posted this photo here (below) from the film last year in May 2014 (see Blanchett, Highsmith labels). CAROL did not appear for last year's Oscar race, and finally previewed at Cannes this year back in May, when Rooney Mara won best actress. Then it was decreed that we should wait six months more to see it as it would not open until this year's Award Season, as all the other Oscar-bait movies appear one by one juggling for our attention - BROOKLYN and THE LADY IN THE VAN beat CAROL into the cinemas - as per reviews below. Do movies usually take a year and half to surface .... ? Blanchett has been involved with several other projects since.

CAROL is finally here and certainly worth the wait - if one knows and admires the work of Highsmith and director Todd Haynes, here mining the same seam as he did for FAR FROM HEAVEN. Like BROOKLYN we are back in 1950s New York as Therese works in a department store before Christmas and becomes bedazzled (as who wouldn't) by the vision of Cate Blanchett as Carol Aird, a married woman facing a divorce, in that fur coat. The women are immediately attracted to each other, and Carol "forgets" her gloves - leading to a further meeting .... 

The story, from Highsmith's acclaimed novel "The Price of Salt" later called "Carol", follows their developing passion and society's attempts to thwart it - namely Carol's husband Herge (Kyle Chandler) who is seeking sole custody of their child and who hires that detective to follow Carol and Therese on their car trip west. Therese's boyfriend also disapproves of her "crush" on Carol .... This is all marvellously worked out to the very satisfying, heart-stoppingly emotional ending. Of course it all looks marvelous, as in BROOKLYN the 1950s New York scene is perfectly realised as we linger over the clothes, and every marvellous moment. In keeping with the period, they smoke a lot too. Its a road movie as well as they travel on stopping at motels and hotels, great automobiles too. One cannot but think of Grace Kelly and elfin Audrey Hepburn playing these roles back in that early 1950s timeframe .... Rooney is a startling hybrid of early 50s Jean Simmons and Audrey. 
Production design (think Edward Hopper) is marvellous as is the varied soundtrack and costumes by Sandy Powell, and script by Phyllis Nagy. The varied producers include Blanchett, the Weinsteins and Stephen Wooley and our Film4. 

Cate and the mesmersing Rooney (new to me) should both be Oscar-nominated - but both as Best Actress? Rooney is hardly Supporting as we see everything through her eyes, as in the novel - the two leads seem evenly matched to me, as we watch them at that first meeting at the store, and then at lunch and on their car trip and those intimate scenes. They will have stiff competition however as Saoirse Ronan and Dame Maggie Smith should also be nominated. (As the "Daily Telegraph" says: "Blanchett does career-best work in the generally wonderful Carol, but having won two years ago for Blue Jasmine (and in 2004 for The Aviator), a third so soon – putting her on a par with Meryl Streep and Ingrid Bergman – at the moment seems statistically improbable").

I would like to see the film as a Best Film contender as well and a win for Haynes as director - I must go back to his VELVET GOLDMINE.. CAROL has got great reviews - like this one by Tim Robey from "The Daily Telegraph" -  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/carol/review/
        - and is already on several Year's Best lists: number 3 in "Sight and Sound" and number 4 in "Uncut" magazine. 

So, will CAROL appeal to the mainstream as opposed to gays, hipsters and fashionistas who will be in raptures over it? I suppose there's always a market for girl-on-girl stuff, but there is nothing salacious here. Is it a new BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN? - but with a happier ending. Like BBM, this film turns cliché on its head and is a swoonsome period/genre film that shows how falling in love can lead to finding joy in difficult circumstances. As such, it was deeply satisfying to this viewer. BRIEF ENCOUNTER is a reference point too, as the lovers' climactic meeting is interrupted by a casual friend ....

Shopgirls in 1950s New York ...

Rooney Mara in CAROL by Todd Haynes from Patricia Highsmith - and Saoirse Ronan in BROOKLYN from the Colm Toibin novel, finally opening here this week .... can't wait to see them. 

Coming soon: Carol

We have posted before about CAROL, the new Cate Blanchett, from the Patricia Highsmith novel "The Price of Salt" (its a great read), finally opening soon, after its Festival showings to whet our appetites. 
This new Todd Haynes film is it seems from the reviews totally dreamy and we will all love it. It was only shot last year (Cate has had 5 other projects since), but not long to go now - expect lots of chatshow and red carpet exposure for Cate and Rooney ..... then there is BROOKLYN, another must see from a super novel (by Colm Toibin). Then there is Ben Whatley's version of J.G Ballard's HIGH RISE, and the Alan Bennett THE LADY IN THE VAN, with of course another nomination for Dame Maggie Smith, should be an interesting Award Season! Below: Todd Haynes and Cate. 

Cate at the BFI

Cate Blanchett receives her BFI Fellowship from LOTR co-star Ian McKellen, marking the climax of the LFF London Film Festival junketing. Not too long now then before CAROL finally graces our screens as the next Awards Season hots up - we trust La Blanchett has some more splendid fashion creations lined up for those red carpets ...

Julie goes shopping, plus ...

I came across this a few weeks ago in a British paper I will not name, and I felt I should ignore it, but it ties in with some other stuff. Julie Christie, now 75, was snapped on her way going to the shops and the dry cleaners, near where she lives when in London, so of course the paper had to compare this with her DARLING and DR ZHIVAGO heyday, it was all rather snarky. But you know what, people, even screen icons, age and get older - deal with it. I think Julie looks mighty fine here and is ageing wonderfully, how do they expect a 75 year old to look?, when 80 is the new 70 it seems. 

Two of her contemporaries (following on from Terence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave teaming up the other year) Tom Courtenay (78) and Charlotte Ramling (a mere 69) have been gathering widespread rave reviews for their new film 45 YEARS directed by Andrew Haigh of gay romance WEEKEND acclaim - one expects Bafta nominations at least. Great to see them back in quality stuff 

Now that we have slid into autumn here in the UK after a washout summer, at least that backlog of interesting new movies are on their way to screens, a lot of them are screened too in the upcoming London Film Festival (I expect the brochure today) with gala screenings for Todd Haynes's CAROL, finally unveiled here (It was shot last year), it was a sensation at Cannes back in May, from Patricia Highsmith's groundbreaking lesbian romantic novel of the early Fifties (so Cate Blanchett will have to have another stunning dress for the red carpet - she already has two Oscars but it looks like her next campaign is underway, that new Armani advertisement should be a plus too); also opening in November John Crowley's BROOKLYN from Colm Toibin's marvellous novel finally arrives too, and then there is Tom Hardy and Tom Hardy as the Kray Twins, in LEGEND, which should be at least fascinating for seeing how it is done, and we also finally get Maggie Smith in that role she initally played on stage, THE LADY IN THE VAN by Alan Bennett, and directed by Nicholas Hytner. Bring them on. Awards season should be hotting up this year.

A new Mr Ripley at 60, plus Carol too ...

Tom Ripley is 60 – he first appeared in 1955 in Patricia Highsmith’s novel THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY. I had a Pan paperback edition when I was a teenager, circa 1962, and a few editions since, but I just had to get this new 60^th anniversary hardback, from Virago, a handsome volume for the bookshelf, with new introduction, etc. Its a book I love re-reading. Highsmith's lucid prose draws one in from the first sentence. 

We like Ripley – and his Alain Delon incarnation a lot, here at the Projector – as per the labels. Rene Clement’s 1960 film PLEIN SOLEIL, shot in 1959, captures that high end Mediterranean glamour perfectly, and entranced me when I was 14. I did not relate to the 1999 film much at all, as Anthony Minghella expanded and changed the characters and the ‘50s fashions were too fussy and overdone – back in the 1959 film they – Delon, Marie Laforet, Maurice Ronet – looks very smart casual wearing clothes that still work now.  The book, too, is surprisingly frank for one written in the mid-'50s about Tom and the gay milieu he lived in New York (it starts with Tom sharing a grotty room with an obviously gay window dresser who is putting Tom up for a while, before Mr Greenleaf sends him to Italy ...), before more erotic frissons in Italy. Back in the Fifties, before mass air travel, a trip to Europe on an ocean liner was a treat indeed - by page 50 Tom has left seedy New York behind and arrives in that Italian village ...

Reading the book again one realises how easy it must have been to impersonate someone else back in that pre-internet world without computers, the risk of being photographed on cellphones or on constant CCTV ... 

Its shaping up to a Highsmith year, with Todd Haynes’ film of CAROL finally coming out of the traps, after very positive reviews at Cannes recently. If its half as good as his FAR FROM HEAVEN ….

I have just read her novel CAROL, here is the blurb:

Therese is just an ordinary sales assistant working in a New York department store just before Christmas when a beautiful, alluring woman in her thirties walks up to her counter. Standing there, Therese is wholly unprepared for the first shock of love. Therese is an awkward 19 year old with a job she hates and a boyfriend she doesn’t love; Carol is a sophisticated, bored suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce and a custody battle for her only daughter. As Therese becomes irresistibly drawn into Carol’s world, she soon realizes how much they both stand to lose …

First published pseudonymously in 1952 as THE PRICE OF SALT, CAROL is a hauntingly atmospheric love story set against the backdrop of Fifties New York. 

It was a bit hit at the time, the first lesbian love story with a happy ending …. As Highsmith says in the Afterword at the end. The thriller element comes into force too as the women realise they are being followed on their extended car trip and decide to confront the detective, and Carol has a gun ...

THE TALENTER MR RIPLEY also begins in Fifties New York with jittery Tom trying to evade that man who is following him through the bars of that gay milieu he inhabits – he thinks it is one of his shady deals coming apart but he turns out to be the father of Dickie Greenleaf, setting that plot in motion ….

Cate Blanchett, whom one imagines is the perfect Carol as one reads the book, was also of course in Mingella’s 1999 film of MR RIPLEY – one of her first eye-catching roles. Now she is finally leading CAROL (it was filmed last year, but does not open until this November) into the next award season … no doubt, a cunning Weinstein strategy. 

Cate's CAROL wows Cannes, Maggie is in the van

... but we have to wait until winter to see them.

Todd Haynes's CAROL finally gets unveiled at Cannes. This is one we are eagerly awaiting, another FAR FROM HEAVEN maybe as Haynes gives his version of Patricia Highsmith's 1952 novel "The Price of Salt" featuring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara and those early '50s fashions. 
First comments are sensational - maybe this has been held back (it was filmed last year) to get over the success of Cate's BLUE JASMINE ?  Cate of course does marvellous red carpet, what a dress she is wearing here ! and she can certainly work that '50s fashion plate look (as she did in THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY).

It looks like (here in UK) we will have to wait till November - 6 months time! - to see CAROL when it goes on release here, presumably held back for next awards season. Just like how AMOUR was held up few years ago ...

Here is the rave review by Tim Robey from our "Daily Telegraph":

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/carol/review/

French director Agnes Varda, now 86,  gets a well-deserved special award on Sunday. 
Catherine Denueve always looks sensational at red carpet events - this year at Cannes was no different:

And we also wait until December for the film of Alan Bennett's play THE LADY IN THE VAN with Maggie Smith reprising her stage role. James Corden gets into this too .... (but of course he was one of Alan's HISTORY BOYS). Some winter goodies to look forward to then. 

Francois, Francoise, Charlotte, Catherine, David, Tom

A relaxing Sunday with warmer weather, the newspapers and some interesting stories on favourites of ours, before cooking dinner and later unwinding with a drink at hand, for that 1940s wartime saga HOME FIRES ....

An interesting interview with Francois Ozon (right) in "The Irish Times" where the gay French director talks about his new film THE NEW GIRLFRIEND (about to open here) and has some interesting comments, particularly on those films of his featuring women like Deneuve or Rampling. As the paper's feature (by Tara Brady) says: "8 WOMEN brought together France’s grandest dames for a 1950s-set musical murder mystery; 5x2 plays five key scenes from a divorced couple’s relationship backwards; SWIMMING POOL exuded Hitchcockian menace as Charlotte Rampling became a young woman’s reluctant caregiver and voyeur; POTICHE saw Catherine Deneuve as a rejected trophy wife, lead her husband’s employees to rebel.

Many of Ozon’s films are smaller, more tightly focused; TIME TO LEAVE sees a young man push everyone away as he enters the final stages of terminal cancer".

"Charlotte Rampling is one of many actors who have returned again and again to the troupe of Ozon players. Others include Ludivine Sagnier and Catherine Deneuve.

“There is a lot of pleasure in working with women,” says Ozon. “Very often actresses are more pleasurable and easier to work with than men. There are some actors I work with and once is enough. But there are others, like Charlotte, who have a depth and maturity.”

What is it, I wonder, about French cinema’s love affair with a certain kind of British woman, such as Rampling, Jane Birkin and Kristin Scott Thomas.

“In France we have a fascination with foreign actresses,” Ozon says. “One of the most popular French actresses of the 1970s was Romy Schneider who was German. And then there are the English actresses who fell in love with French men and come to France. They often tell me the French offer very good parts as a woman gets older. In England or America they get to play the mother or the grandmother.”

Ozon has had Hollywood offers since Swimming Pool became a global sensation, in 2003. But the director is not for turning.

“In America, film is not about art or culture. It’s a business. So they make movies for teenagers, because it’s easier. And they have a different way of working. The producer does not direct the film, but they do make all of the decisions. The director is a technician more than an artist. I don’t want to work that way. I don’t feel the necessity of losing my soul.” 

Charlotte Rampling herself is interviewed too in "The Daily Telegraph" - 'Le Legende' at 69 now feels she has "the face she has earned". Like Catherine Deneuve her career spans 50 years and she still works now, turning down scripts she does not like - "it has to be something that makes me want to leave the house, where I can stay very happily with my books and my cats". Presumably, like playing a barrister in that second series of BROADCHURCH for British television recently (we loved the first series, the second less so... ). She has come a long way from the 'partying Sixties It-girl' with The Look, as exemplified by her breakthrough film GEORGY GIRL in 1966. Interesting to see that this year she is starring with Tom Courtenay (another Sixties actor in it for the long haul) in 45 YEARS, by Andrew Haigh (LOOKING tv series, WEEKEND) which is an unsettling portrait of a marriage. . She credits Ozon and working with him on UNDER THE SAND as revitalising her and re-realising her potential as a cinema actor. She is as busy now as she has ever been: "I'm working because good work is coming"

Catherine Denueve, another Ozon regular, could probably say the same. Her STANDING TALL was the opening film at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and as the Times put it: "Deneuve adds punch to delinquent drama", where she is the steely judge in this gritty downbeat drama. The critics were not sneering, as at last year's opener GRACE OF MONACO. Let's hope London sees this new Deneuve drama before too long .... I found Catherine hilarious in Ozon's POTICHE with her portly housewife out jogging and communicating with nature, before taking over the family factory to avert a strike and then going into politics, and her dancing with the even portlier Depardieu a delicious treat, with that Seventies background, and the increasingly gay son (Jeremie Rennier). See Ozon label for reviews on all these, his serious TIME TO LEAVE is devastating too. 

BBC4 ran a fascinating documentary as well on French popular song - chanson - where a very spry Petula Clark, now 82, took us through the golden years of French popular song from Edith Piaf and Charles Trenet, including Petula's own French career, to that great early Sixties era, with Francoise Hardy and the others. Francoise was the Face of the early sixties, her Vogue 4-track EPs were the first records I bought, even before The Beatles. Utter bliss then. Francoise too is still going and still singing though the hair is short and silver grey now. 

Tom joins the Hockney set

David Hockney is back in the news too with a new exhibition at the Annely Juda Gallery in London, with some fascinating new paintings. The artist, now 77, is selling that house in Bridlington  in East Yorkshire, where his assistant Dominic Elliott died in 2013. His new work includes 'The Potted Palm' - below - which include Olympic diver Tom Daley and his partner scriptwriter Dustin Lance Black, who are now part of the Hockney circle, David said he likes Tom and praised his coming out last year, of course Tom does lots of diving into those blue pools, but not making "a bigger splash"! Hockney - subject of many posts here, see label - recently bemoaned the demise of what he calls Bohemia, the lifestyle once led by gays, who now want to get married, settle down and have children - he finds them boring and conservative, wanting to lead ordinary lives ... He now goes to bed at nine, and don't go to parties or films as he has got increasingly deaf. He continues to work though, as he says "When I'm painting, I feel 30. Of course I have no plans to retire, artists don't retire. So I'll go on until I fall over, dying ideally at the easel". One somehow feels that other blonde painter who smoked endlessly - Joni Mitchell, maybe still in a coma and also in her Seventies, would somehow agree. Hockney also said in another recent interview that "maybe" the love of his life was Gregory Evans, his 62 year old manager, they were lovers for over a decade but have worked together for 40 years - not Peter Schlesinger of A BIGGER SPLASH then ... The new paintings are certainly fascinating and sees Hockney going in a new direction. 

Binge on boxsets ...

Having a binge with boxsets seems to be the new way to watch television - not just an episode a week any more. and now that Netflix can put whole series on-line, one can certainly binge on them - I am rationing my GRACE & FRANKIE episodes (as per recent post), and got their HOUSE OF CARDS reboot on dvd. Has television ever been better? Despite all the crap stuff, there are some terrific series out there, our Sky Atlantic being particularly good (like HBO with THE NORMAL HEART and other dramas). PENNY DREADFUL is particularly stunning - amazing sets and gothic horror mixing in Frankenstein's monster, Dorian Gray, bloody vampires, werewolves and other assorted Victorian nightmares - Eva Green, Rory Kinnear (a touching monster, left), Timothy Dalton, Billie Piper, Helen McCrory and upcoming Douglas Hodge and Patti Lupone will keep one watching .... not for the faint-hearted! I have not even got around to GAME OF THRONES or BREAKING BAD or ...

THE AFFAIR looks like another must see, after recent stunning series like HAPPY VALLEY and the delicious Sky sitcom by Ruth Jones: STELLA  - now on Series 4 with those inhabitants of Pontyberry in deepest Wales. More please ! Hard to believe Ruth's Stella was also GAVIN & STACEY's Nessa and LITTLE BRITAIN's Myfanwy (with Daffydd, the only gay in the village) and played Hattie Jacques too. Actress and writer Ruth, right, with Patrick Baladi. 

Incidentally, I will have to catch the new MAD MAX: FURY ROAD this week, I need a big screen experience with an action movie everyone seems to love .... I will probably be seeing it in 3D!

Ingrid at Cannes ...

After the Awards Season, the Film Festival circuit gets underway... I like the new Cannes Film Festival poster for this year, following their previous years' tributes to Monica Vitti in L'AVVENTURA, Faye Dunaway in PUZZLE OF A DOWNFALL CHILD, Marilyn Monroe, and Marcello Mastroianni in FELLINI 8½ last year (see them at the labels on them), its Ingrid Bergman this year, a radiant shot from her Rossellini years, which seems entirely appropriate. 

Lets hope the festival throws up some more unmissables like AMOUR or BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR or UNCLE BOONMEE ... 
Gaspar Noe's LOVE may be this year's sensation ....?  Todd Haynes's CAROL finally sees the light of day, from Patricia Highsmith, featuring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara,, and Catherine Denueve, busier than ever, features in the opening film, a gritty drama LA TETE HAUTE (STANDING TALL) by Emmanuelle Bercot - a change from last year's farce GRACE OF MONACO then! ("Deneuve adds punch to delinquent drama" says today's "Times").,Last year's Olivier Assayas's CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA with Juliette Binoche, should be a must-see too, it is finally just opening here in UK this week!. A good year for actresses at Cannes then .. there is also that new MACBETH with Fassbender and Cotillard,and that new Tom Hardy MAD MAX reboot which is getting rave notices; and we will be interested in Sorrentino's latest (after THE GREAT BEAUTY), YOUTH (even if it does feature Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel).