Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë were wonderful storytellers, but their lives have fascinated generations of audiences almost as much as their books. The play Brontë by Polly Teale combines their biographies and their fiction. We talked to Barry Purves, who directed a recent production. Brontë by Polly Teale (2005), intertwines the biography of the Brontë … Continue reading “Staging the Brontë Sisters”
JRR Tolkien’s stories of Middle Earth, hobbits, wizards and dragons have captured the imagination of generations. A new film looks at his experiences of friendship, love and war as a young man, and how they may have influenced the man and work. Tolkien the film opens with a young officer, Tolkien, ill with a fever, … Continue reading “Tolkien the Storyteller”
While it may be the last film of the current X-Men movie franchise, Dark Phoenix is also shaping up to be the absolute darkest chapter of the series yet. What’s the Dark Phoenix story? The Dark Phoenix story is based on Chris Claremont’s iconic 1980s X-Men comic book (specifically The Dark Phoenix Saga). … Continue reading “Dark Phoenix: back to black”
Stubby, a stray dog, became the mascot of an American regiment in World War I and accompanied the soldiers so steadfastly that he was given the rank of Sergeant. A new animated feature brings this true story to life. Millions of animals were used by armies on all sides in WWI — it is estimated … Continue reading “A Canine Sergeant”
Why did the First World War inspire so many participants to write poetry? And what effect does the work of poets like Wilfred Owen, Vera Brittain, Siegfried Sassoon or Rupert Brooke have on our vision of that war today? Author Simon Davies will address these questions in a public talk at the British Council Paris … Continue reading “Talk in English: World War I Poets”
The subjects covered by the films in the main competition at this year’s Cannes Festival are very varied. The English-language competitors are a case in point, ranging from zombies in small town America to washed-up actors in Hollywood, to an indictment of the gig economy in the UK. 82-year-old director British Ken Loach has planned … Continue reading “Zombies, Loach, Tarantino and Elton John at Cannes”
Adapting a scene from a book as a film scene, or a film scene as prose, is an excellent English-learning exercise. To see how the experts do it, a talk at the American Library in Paris analyses the adaptation of one of America’s classic books into one of its classic films. Judith Merians, Hollywood executive … Continue reading “To Kill a Mockingbird: Adapting to Film”
The world of Pop culture will remember April 2019 for two things: the release of Avengers: Endgame and the final series of Game of Thrones. Both mark the culmination of tentacular stories with many iconic characters which could die at the really end… or not. As Game of Thrones approaches the midpoint of its final … Continue reading “This is the end…”
Britain’s celebrated modern dance company, Rambert, is celebrating singer Nina Simone with a dance-theatre piece featuring musicians live on stage. Simone, who died in 2003, was one of the great, and unclassifiable, popular singers of the 20th century, and a strong proponent of Civil Rights. Simone was born in North Carolina in 1933. She had … Continue reading “Dancing Nina Simone”
After 8 seasons, Game of Thrones is finally coming to an end…. until a series of prequels hit our screens. It’s been a long time coming. The last episode of season seven aired in August 2017. But the final season has apparently been a vast amount of work. It only includes six episodes, but each … Continue reading “Winter is Here”
