While living in London I was drawn into the original series and it became my only TV related vice, aside from soccer, when I was there. Recently I purchased the series on DVD and my wife loves it. I was not as interested in the subsequent editions of the series as it seemed to lose that unique character, but Prime Suspect is very good.

Can hardly wait to see this....but the link to "The Deal" goes to some american Wall St. thriller not a film about Blair and Brown. Does anyone know about the British made "The Deal"?
thanks.

Hellen Miran has always been a favourite of mine. Her perfomance in The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and Her Lover was truly fanatastic, though not for the squeamish!

I'm looking forward to seeing her latest film, too.

Ohhh...the poles must be reversing, I completely and unabashedly ;-) agree with you, Working Man. Mirren is brilliant in The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and Her Lover... and in most everything she does.

There is something about British actresses...Julie Christie, Charlotte Rampling, Peggy Ashcroft, among my favourites...

Good review - I'm going to see it this weekend...also for Hellen Miran rather than any lingering "Diana kitsch" on my part. Will report back =)

Went to see "Marie Antoinette" last night. I didn't read any advance reviews, so the film wasn't what I was expecting. Coppola missed the mark with this one, although it wasn't a total loss. The authentic sets (were they actually able to film inside Versailles?) were a feast for the eyes, as were the sumptuous costumes. Beautiful. The claustrophobia of court culture was authentically portrayed, and the ritualized nature of the court was captured very well. Court ritual was, of course, the Sun King's way of disempowering the aristocracy after the Fronde, so by the late 18th century it had evolved to absurd degrees.

Unfortunately, there was virtually no character development in this film whatsoever, although Antoinette herself (and Louis, by extension) were humanised somewhat - no small task after 200 years of bad press. Very little politics were contained in the film either. I think Coppola was aiming to reproduce the oblique mood of Lost in Translation...which didn't translate very well after all. But there was something about the lavish stasis of life inside Versailles that, when the crowds finally do come to gates (roaring in the background throughout the persevering but now visibly hollow court ritual) it produced a visceral anxiety for the family. Nothing is shown after the Royal Family's removal from Versailles, however, though the lead-up is authentic enough to make the unshown conclusion believable and inevitable. It became unnecessary for the camera to follow them all the way to the guillotine.

I'm still glad I saw it, and the whole audience stayed 'til the end. One thing that proved a terrible distraction was that (in the copy of the film which this theatre had received) there were not less than a dozen scenes in which the microphone was clearly visible. That's the kiss of death for any scene, let alone a dozen in a row. The audience lost it at that.Not sure why that happens, or why those cuts ever make it to the public.

The acting was okay, but not terrific. Dunst gets into the role, though, after a few shakey scenes at the beginning just prior to her character's arrival in France.

Geez, my mum will be all over this one...

Saw 'The Queen' at a matinée - Very good. Everything just right - nothing overdone. Mirren does an excellent job.

I agree about the British actresses (and actors) - I think it has something to do with the Shakespearean stage training they all go through.

Mel Gibson's 'Apocalypto' was previewed prior to the feature. Notwithstanding his ongoing personal nonsense, this film looks stunning at first glance.

I got the feeling Coppola was making a point, in both Lost in Translation and Marie 'A' about the frozen in aspic aspect of the the American aristocracy and/or American culture in general. In 'LIT' in the sense that other cultures don't exist for Americans and in 'MA' in the way other classes don't - w/in the culture itself.

You have to remember her Coppola's roots too.

Haven't seen the Queen yet - Helen Mirren is ne plus ultra.

There may still be hope for you working man - if you can just get past the idea that's it's not all about YOU!

NO?

Nightbloom--That visible mic problem could be a projection issue. I once saw a screening where the film was not centred on the screen properly--it was running off the bottom-- and I was rather stunned to see all the mikes and booms visible at the top of the frame. I wouldn't have thought they would be there on film just above the screen line, but maybe so.

That's probably it - the feature did start with the image too low, and with the bottom of the frame appearing at the top of the screen. It was manually adjusted by the projectionist about two minutes into the film, and seemed to be centred properly after that, but perhaps not sufficiently.

This certainly doesn't belong here, but I had to bring it to your attention nightbloom:

The Pope seems to be bunking in with some strange bedfellows eh!

For what it's worth, nightbloom, the only film that I have ever seen wherein the boom mic was visible at the top of the shot was... Lost in Translation. My guess is that it is a combination of poor projection -- I still remember standing on the picket lines with the projectionists and everyone telling them a monkey could do their job -- and Coppolla as a filmmaker not leaving enough of a buffer in her shots. Marie Antoinette was poop, I thought; actually extroardinarily conservative, although I could see why Coppolla would have such sympathy for an aristocrat born to power and privilege.

My fiancée is super excited to see The Queen, and I've heard nothing but good things, including this review, Steve. Still, I'll have to sit in those damned Park Theatre seats... ever since the Ridge re-did theirs, the Park's are by far the worst in town.

It is a passable review, but why do we even care about the queen and her family? It seems the only thing they have going for them is wealth. The sooner Canada cuts all ties with Britain and the monarchy the better. Having new Canadians swear an oath to a foreigner just blows me away! And having to look at her mug on our currency, at the post office and on the ferries is an insult. And if the above is treason, then so be it.

The boom mic in shots is always the fault of the theatre, even if the managers there don't admit it -- or realize it. It's a projection issue. And while I think monkeys can do the job, they still have to be trained monkeys. They have no idea. But you could ask for your money back. At the very least, they should give you free tickets to a future show. That kind of thing is unacceptable.