I've had a soft spot for Winnie the Pooh ever since I red a brilliant article by Angela Carter that forensically summed up the differences between him and Paddington Bear. However until I'd seen the film (and then read up about AA Milne to prepare these notes) I had not been aware of his extensive career beyond Pooh.
Since this film came out I've also seen Tolkien and apart from their shared experience of the Battle of the Somme it's interesting to note how both writers, albeit in very different ways, used their writing to create a vision of a mythical wonderland.
Since this film came out I've also seen Tolkien and apart from their shared experience of the Battle of the Somme it's interesting to note how both writers, albeit in very different ways, used their writing to create a vision of a mythical wonderland.
Goodbye
Christopher Robin
UK 2017 107 minutes
Director: Simon Curtis
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie and
Kelly Macdonald
“With its bittersweet
interweaving of fact and fantasy, youthful innocence and adult trauma, this
tale of the creation of a children’s classic could have been called Saving Mr Milne. Like Mary Poppins, Winnie-the-Pooh occupies a sacred
space in our hearts and anyone wishing to co-opt some of that magic must tread
very lightly indeed. Director Simon Curtis’s movie could easily have tripped
(like Piglet) and burst its balloon as it evokes a dappled glade of happiness
surrounded by the monstrous spectres of two world wars. Instead, it skips
nimbly between light and dark, war and peace, like a young boy finding his way
through an English wood, albeit one drenched with shafts of sugary,
Spielbergian light.”
Mark Kermode
Awards
and Nominations- Best Supporting Actress Nomination for Kelly Macdonald at the British Independent Film Awards
- A further two wins
Milne read Mathematics at Cambridge but while he was there also edited a
student magazine, and after graduating made his living as a writer: he became a
regular contributor to Punch (where
he met the cartoonist E H Shepherd who was to provide the definitive
illustrations for his children’s books) and his other literary output included
at least 18 plays (including a stage adaptation of The Wind in the Willows), three novels as well as several
screenplays for the early British Film industry. However despite their success
at the time all this work has been entirely overshadowed by the success of the
two books of stories for children about Winnie-the-Pooh and two associated
books of nursery rhymes When We Were Very
Young and Now We Are Six; in 2002
Forbes magazine ranked
Winnie-the-Pooh as the most valuable fictional character and in 2005
Winnie-the-Pooh generated revenue of $6 billion from sales of merchandising
products.
The production team for Goodbye
Christopher Robin bring some very different backgrounds to the film. The
screenplay is by Frank-Cottrell-Boyce who among his other work for cinema has
written five screenplays for Michael Winterbottom including Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) and 24 Hour Party People (2002); he also wrote
the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony,
several award-winning novels for children and two recent episodes of Doctor Who. The soundtrack is by Carter
Burwell who has worked extensively with both the Coen brothers and Martin
McDonagh, and who among many awards and nominations has received Oscar
nomination for the soundtracks he wrote for Carol
(2015) and Three Billboards Outside
Ebbing, Missouri (2017). Director Simon Curtis began his career as a stage
director at the Royal Court where he worked as an assistant to Danny Boyle
before moving into television where he made his name with the BBC adaptations
of Cranford and Return to Cranford (2009). He made his cinema debut with My Week with Marilyn (2011) and followed
this with Woman in Gold (2015).
Here is a link to the trailer:
