Tag: drama
The last night of Hobson’s Choice
Most people remember John Savident as Coronation Street’s recently deceased butcher Fred Elliott.
Fred was a self-made man, a local personality, a mainstay at the Rotary Club. A character on the cusp of extinction in today’s Britain: part of the local Con club scene, part of the furniture along with the photos of once successful football …
Making a song and dance about it
Brief Encounter, The West Yorkshire Playhouse
Noël Coward’s play Still Life (1936) formed the basis of the wonderfully restrained (or rather dry, depending on your sympathies) 1945 film Brief Encounter.
The film tells the story of Laura Jesson, a terribly middle-class, well-to-do sort of housewife who takes the train at Milford Junction to do a few chores. …
The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Germany, 2006
Crass Hollywood remakes of European art film aren’t often successful. The big budgets, the bigger country and the biggest names tend to kill off every single cell of zeitgeist in the original. And I can see that happening here, when they get sad-jowled Nicolas Cage to emote all over this …
Memories of Murder
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Korea, 2003
Korean cinema is alive and kicking, emboldened and naive like a headstrong teenager with something to prove. One driver is undoubtedly a gutsy brew of high melodrama and truthful acting. Another might be that uniquely Korean gift for all things epic: simple, emotive storytelling with a keen directing wit.
Song Kang Ho …
Crash
Director: Paul Haggis
United States, 2004
Paul Haggis is one of those people who was obviously born to make movies. Already a decorated screenwriter of note, his mainstream directorial debut landed Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Editing at the Oscars.
Choosing Los Angeles to tell a series of interrelated stories (see also: Magnolia, Short Cuts), Haggis’ defining …
The Queen
Director: Stephen Frears
United Kingdom, 2006
If before seeing The Queen you caught the two-part television drama Elizabeth I, then you probably admired Helen Mirren’s preface to her glorious turn as our current monarch.
The Queen paints an intimate portrait of Elizabeth II during the aftermath of Diana’s death in 1997. Any portrayal of the private activities of …
Parenthood
Director: Ron Howard
United States, 1989
My brother will probably back me up on this: Parenthood was one of the first VHS movies we ever saw as kids. Which probably explains why it surprises me fifteen or so years later as an adult: Father Of The Bride this ain’t. Instead, it’s a well written, well acted ensemble …
Ma Mère
Director: Christophe Honoré
France, 2004
Pierre has too much time on his hands. He’s a sullen, truculent, overweaned, morbid youth who spends his inordinate amount of spare time writing miserable prose and pulling faces at his elders. Ma Mère is all about Pierre and it’s as indolent, ignorant and insolent as he is.
Based on some novel or …
Syriana
Director: Stephen Gaghan
United States, 2005
Syriana is a literate and highly engaging story of cause and effect in the global oil industry. It has a self-propelling pace similar to the one that moved Michael Mann’s The Insider.
Clooney here is magnetic in his downbeat role as the ex-CIA agent Bob Barnes, whose life has been spent …
JSA (Joint Security Area)
Director: Park Chan Wook
Korea, 2000
For those who argued that the North/South tensions depicted in Shiri(1999) took second place to a daft Bond-esque tech-fluff plot, JSA (Joint Security Area) succeeds in approaching the borderline. This hype enabled the movie to do brisk business when I was living in Korea.
For Park, who has since turned out some …
Elsewhere on MikePadgett.com …
Memories of Murder
Director: Bong Joon Ho Korea, 2003 Korean cinema is alive and kicking, emboldened and naive like a headstrong teenager with something to prove. One driver is undoubtedly a gutsy brew of high melodrama and …
- Originally published: 26 Jul 2007 in Film
La Gloria para El Mejor
Such was the headline at the El Pais website this morning. There can be little doubt that Spain was consistently the best team on the field in Euro 2008, playing their entertaining brand …
- Originally published: 30 Jun 2008 in Editorial
Kuurne Brussel Kuurne
The 2010 Kuurne Brussel Kuurne was marked by strong winds and heavy rain. We caught up with the riders on the Oude Kwaremont. …
- Originally published: 28 Feb 2010 in Editorial
Florence
Florence is without a doubt one of the world’s most beautiful cities. It has been home to great artists and their patrons for centuries. Bocaccio, Da Vinci, Botticelli, Dante, Giotto, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, …
- Originally published: 30 Dec 2005 in Europe
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring
Director: Kim Ki Duk Korea / Germany, 2003 A tale of loss of innocence and redemption, a film with its own sense of inner peace. Director Kim appears to ‘atone’ for the fatalism and violence …
- Originally published: 31 Jul 2006 in Film
Who is that guy?
Hello you. I'm Mike Padgett and I work in the technology sector as an Information Designer.
I also enjoy travel, concerts, films and walking.
I'm based in Brussels, Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is St Feuillien Brune.