Eddie the Eagle

This was a bit of a surprise: I missed the reviews of the film when it came out and based on the subject matter it did not appeal, but it was great fun.

It was our last film before Christmas so we chose something light. Everyone who came enjoyed it, no doubt helped by the mulled wine and mince pies.

Here are my notes:

Eddie the Eagle

UK 2016                      105 minutes

Director:                      Dexter Fletcher

Starring:                        Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Christopher Walken, Iris Berben and Jim Broadbent

Awards and Nominations

• Won Truly Moving Picture Award at Heartland Film Festival
• A further three nominations, including a Teen Choice Nomination for Taron Egerton

“This Matthew Vaughn production is one of those cheerful Britcoms that celebrate the idea that we’re a bit crap and uncool as a nation, but carry-on-regardless spirit will see us through. In reality, you might regard it as a surreptitious hymn to innate national superiority: those Norwegians may have been mastering the sport since childhood, but a Brit armed with doughty innocence will only need a few months’ practice to emerge with honour.”

Jonathan Romney

Eddie Edwards (Taron Egerton) dreams of Olympic glory and takes up skiing so that he can take part in the Winter Games. While training in Germany he is taken on by Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), a former champion ski jumper who is now an alcoholic; Peary starts training his new pupil and uses various unorthodox methods to improve his skills. Eddie qualifies for the Olympics and at Calgary sets a British record with his ski jump.

The film is produced by Matthew Vaughn (director of Stardust (2007), Kick-Ass (2010), X-Men: First Class (2011) and Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014). He had been watching the film Cool Runnings (1993), a film about the Jamaican bobsled team at the Calgary Olympics, and wondered why no one made films like that anymore. Coincidentally Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards had participated in the same Olympics, and this might have been a catalyst for the film, although it bears little resemblance to the life of the real Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards who was warned that 90% of the story was made up. The character of Bronson Peary is entirely fictional.

Director Dexter Fletcher began his career as a child actor with a small role in Bugsy Malone (1976) and has subsequently appeared in many films and TV programmes, including Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) (which Matthew Vaughn produced) as well as Stardust and Kick-Ass. In 2012 he directed Wild Bill, his first feature film, followed by the highly successful musical Sunshine on Leith, which used music by The Proclaimers, in 2013.

Eddie the Eagle is a British/German/American production, with substantial funding from the German Federal Film Fund, and it received its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.  Following its worldwide release the film grossed $46.1million including $12.8 million in the UK, which made it the highest grossing British film released in the UK in the first half of 2016.

Here is the trailer:

 

Les Miserables

We screened this last week and I haven't been able to get the songs out of my head since then!!!

Here are my notes:

Les Misérables

UK 2012                      158 minutes

Director:                      Tom Hooper

Starring:                       Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen

Awards and Nominations

• Won three Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway) and a further five nominations including Best Film and Best Actor (Hugh Jackman)
• Won three Golden Globes (Best Film (Musical or Comedy), Best Actor (Hugh Jackman) and Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway))
• Won four BAFTAs, including Best Actor (Hugh Jackman) and Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway), plus five further nominations

“Like a diabolically potent combination of Lionel Bart and Leni Riefenstahl, the movie version of Les Misérables has arrived, based on the hit stage show adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel set among the deserving poor in 19th-century France, which climaxes with the anti-monarchist Paris uprising of 1832.  Even as a non-believer in this kind of "sung-through" musical, I was battered into submission by this mesmeric and sometimes compelling film, featuring a performance of dignity and intelligence from Hugh Jackman, and an unexpectedly vulnerable singing turn from that great, big, grumpy old bear, Russell Crowe.”

Peter Bradshaw

 The global success of the stage production of Les Misérables, which has been running in London since October 1985, quickly led to plans for a filmed version, with reports in 1988 that Alan Parker would direct the film, although by 1992 the production had been abandoned.  In was only after the twentieth anniversary celebrations of the show in 2005 that Cameron Mackintosh finally resurrected the idea of a film, and in 2011 it was announced that Tom Hooper, fresh from the global success of The King’s Speech, would direct from a script by William Nicholson. 

Tom Hooper brought production designer Eve Stewart and cinematographer Danny Cohen with him from The King’s Speech and also appointed Chris Dickens, who had won an Oscar and a BAFTA for his work on Slumdog Millionaire, as film editor.  The resulting look of the film, which combined both stylised and realistic views of Paris, drew its inspiration from nineteenth century French painters such as David, Delacroix and Gustav Doré, and secured BAFTA and Oscar nominations for both Costume and Production Design.

Hooper’s major innovation in filming the musical numbers was to have all the singing recorded live on set, with the performers listening to a pianist via earpieces and with the orchestration added later.  Most of the leading performers are able to sing well, with Hugh Jackman in particular having played leading roles in musical theatre.  Minor roles are played by performers who had played in various stage productions and include Colm Wilkinson (who created the role of Jean Valjean) and Samantha Barks who had performed the role of Eponine both in the West End and the Twentieth Anniversary Concert.  With almost all the dialogue set to music Hooper’s action allowed the entire cast to bring dramatic vitality to their performances.

In 2005 a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of Number One Essential Musicals placed Les Misérables at number one: in fact it took more than 40% of the vote.

 Here's te trailer: