| Screening of Bottle Shock, Sundance Film Festival (AR attending) | ................................ | Jan. 17, 2008 |
| Interview with AR & cast of Sweeney Todd on BBC Radio Four | ................................ | Jan. 25, 2008 at 16:30 to 17:00 |
| Yukio Ninagawa's Shintoku-Maru (pr-recorded narration by AR), Washington DC | ................................ | Feb. 7 to 9, 2008 |
| Motherland charity performance, UK (AR attending) | ................................ | March 2, 2008 |
| Screening of Snow Cake, Oxford Union, UK (AR at Q&A & talk afterwards) | ................................ | May 6, 2008 |
| The Reading Room, Eastleigh, Hampshire, UK | ................................ | June 27 & 28, 2008 |
| Strindberg's Creditors (AR directing) at the Donmar Theatre, UK | ................................ | Previews stat Sept. 25, 2008 Opening Night Sept. 30, 2008 Closing Night Nov. 15, 2008 |
| Theatrical release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | ................................ | Nov. 21, 2008 |
| Theatrical release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows - Part 1 | ................................ | Nov. 2010 |
| Theatrical release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows - Part 2 | ................................ | May 2011 |
| News & Information |
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Jonathan Lunn Dance Company
featuring Alan Rickman
Friday 27th June at 7.30pm
Saturday 28th June at 7.30pm
Critically acclaimed international choreographer and director Jonathan Lunn brings his company to The Point for the first time. This inspiring show includes
specially commissioned text by the late Anthony Minghella performed by special guest actor Alan Rickman. The Reading Room is a series of scenes focusing on different lives and relationships and examining the connections, disconnections, pacts, secrets and lies of our human interactions. This very special evening brings together an array of artists from the worlds of film, dance, music, literature and opera and features a choreographed section by Hampshire Youth Dance Company. Lunn’s previous credits include opera work in London, Los Angeles, Washington and Paris and for the National Theatre, whose production of Pericles earned him an Olivier
nomination for best choreography in theatre.
Duration: 60 minutes approximately
Recommended age: 12 years+
Tickets: £10
“The dancers perform intricate movements with careful delicacy drawing the audience into the tiniest detail. Light humour and tenderness completed this intelligently executed beautifully wrapped package including striking lighting
designs. A subtle and compelling work.”
DANCE EUROPE
Reeds
Perth, WA Australia - Friday, May 02, 2008
[quoted from] The Oxford Union
The Union is the world's most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford.
Event Name: Gina Carter
Start Date: 6th May 2008 8:30pm
Description
GINA CARTER is one of the UK's foremost producers, having worked with some of the UK's biggest names in film and television from Michael Winterbottom to Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman. Her recent projects include 24 Hour Party People and Bright Young Things.
There will be a screening of GINA’S recent and highly acclaimed film Snow Cake in the Chamber at 4pm and then, Alan Rickman with Gina will be taking questions at 8.45pm about the film, their life and work in general, and what it takes to make it in the industry. Alan has said that Snow Cake contains his finest performance, indeed the only ONE that he enjoys re-watching.
All those present [members only, I think] at the screening will get a free drink in the bar and priority entry to see Alan speak at 8.45
Susan
- Tuesday, April 29, 2008
For those interested I found this on the Isle Of Wight County Press website last night.
Stars Line Up for Anthony Minghella Tribute (with video clip).
Amelia x
Amelia
UK - Monday, April 28, 2008
Alan will be debating at the Oxford union on Tuesday may 6th!
Trinity Term 2008
Event Name: Alan Rickman
Start Date: 6th May 2008 8:30pm
End Date
Duration: N/A
Description: ALAN RICKMAN is not a bad man; he's just very good at playing them. One of Britain's most versatile actors, many of Rickman's most high profile roles have involved playing silver screen villains. The Emmy, BAFTA and Screen Actors' Guild Award-winning actor has played Hans Gruber in Die Hard and the Sherriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, as well as more recently portraying Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd. His acting career began with a scholarship to RADA before moving onto the RSC, picking up numerous acting prizes and medals in the process. More recently he has starred in the enormously successful Love Actually and was voted one of Empire's 'sexiest stars in film history'.
Dottee
- Monday, April 28, 2008
Many people attended the memorial for Anthony Minghella.
From The People UK:
"Actors Jude Law and Alan Rickman joined hundreds of family and friends yesterday at a thanksgiving service for Oscar-winner Anthony Minghella. Law and Rickman both addressed the service at Minster Church of St Thomas in Newport, Isle of Wight. Minghella was born and brought up in nearby Ryde, where his parents Edward and Gloria still live and run an ice cream business.
His brother Dominic told the service: "He was a genius but he was also a person - human, flawed, gorgeous and infuriating."Quoting from his brother's film Truly, Madly Deeply, he said: "Anthony is still with us: Really, truly, madly, deeply, passionately, remarkably."
The BBC will broadcast a series of plays in his honor.
And in the back catalogue of Rickman films, this month, "Die Hard" is Blu-Ray available, and one reviewer says:
" . . . Led by the dignified but deadly Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), this gang is out to rob the company Holly is employed by for a cool $600 million while the FBI and LAPD, thinking they are dealing with terrorists, fumble about outside. But with his wife’s life at stake, McClane is only more than happy to do the job for the feds and screw with Gruber’s holiday plans."
"But what really set the original Die Hard apart from the rest of the pack for were the performances by Willis and Rickman. Willis gives McClane an everyman type of quality that instantly allows the viewer to connect with the character and buy into his situations without hesitation. He also displays great onscreen chemistry with the entire cast, while delivering his memorably profane one-liners like nobody else. Rickman’s Gruber is a perfect blend of dry humor and menace who dominates any scene he is in without chewing up the scenery. Rickman has had many memorable roles over the past two decades, but this one, the actor’s screen debut, is still far and away my personal favorite."
(Hmm. My personal favorite for entirely different reasons.)
Renie
- Monday, April 28, 2008
Copley News Service
March 28, 2008 Friday 3:26 AM EST
Bloody musical 'Sweeney Todd' is hard to swallow
BYLINE: Robert J. Hawkins
SECTION: DVD SELECT
LENGTH: 1168 words
So, you pick up a copy of director Tim Burton's interpretation of the Stephen Sondheim musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks, 2 1/2 stars) this week and you see it is rated R.
These days they tell you why a movie is rated R - so that if you are a teenager, you'll know whether it has enough nakedness or sex or violence to be worth your while.
On "Sweeny Todd," the label merely says "For graphic bloody violence." (Well, it actually says "FOR GRAPHIC BLOODY VIOLENCE," but there's no need to shout.)
"Graphic bloody violence"?
Bloody hell.
You'd better believe it has graphic bloody violence.
By my count - and I am just sick this way - Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp), the demented barber, slits 10 throats even. Not conceptual or off-camera slittings but 10 horrific, graphic, bloody in-your-face-and-you-could-be-next throat slittings. And he tosses one slightly mad dame into the roaring flames of a furnace. She's alive.
There's one last throat slitting in the picture, and you can imagine whose it might be, at the hand of a 10-year-old boy who has a fondness for gin. It is as cleanly and surgically done as any by the mad Mr. Todd. And yet, not gratifying in the least.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, so to speak. Perhaps because this has been a Broadway musical off and on since 1979, and performed on stages all over the world, you haven't the slightest idea what I'm talking about.
Sweeney Todd was once a fine young barber by name of Benjamin Barker with a lovely wife and child. The lustful Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) trumps up charges and sends Barker off to the penal colonies in order to steal his wife.
Fifteen years later, a grim, Gothic, raging Barker comes back as the reinvented Todd Monster and sets up shop in his old quarters above Mrs. Lovett's Pie Shop. Nellie Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) is as gothically creepy as Todd. A nice pair. A frightful pair. And she boastfully makes the worst meat pies in all of London.
Sweeney Todd learns that his wife had been raped by the judge and took poison and that his daughter is now the ward of the judge. So, can you blame the guy for being a little homicidal?
Right off, Todd's true identity is flagged by another imposter, the pseudo Italian barber Pirelli (a scene-stealing Sacha Baron Cohen). Throat slit. Problem solved.
And suddenly Mrs. Lovett has a tasty new source of filling for her meat pies. Win-win for the goth team.
Sweeney merrily slits away and Mrs. Lovett whips up her now-popular pies but neither keeps their eye off the prize: the grizzled neck of the nasty Judge Turpin and his porcine sidekick Beedle Bamford (Timothy Spall).
There are secondary characters, like the young sailor Anthony Hope (Jamie Campbell Bower) who falls for Todd's daughter Johanna (a fragile lovely sprite named Jayne Wisener). And there's the scruffy workhouse child Toby (Ed Sanders) who is a heartbreaking mix of innocence and experience.
All of these characters have one thing in common. Not a one has ever sung before, in a professional musical, that is. But they could all coalesce around the singular detail that director Tim Burton hates musicals.
His wife Bonham Carter discloses as much in a most entertaining feature on the DVD titled "Burton + Depp + Carter = Todd." She also astutely notes that the main characters in all Tim Burton movies seem to "end up somehow a version of himself."
Burton says of Depp and Carter together "They had that quality of a weird couple."
Apparently there was great drama in the words of producer Richard Zanuck over the fact that "we are spending millions of dollars on the picture (in pre-production) and not one person on Earth had ever heard Johnny Depp sing. And he's the star of the picture."
It must have come as a relief when all discovered that Depp can't sing. Well, not really. But it doesn't matter. When you're a half-craze, vengeance-driven, homicidal barber who is slitting a throat every 2.3 minutes - the singing comes as welcome relief, no matter how awful.
In 30 years, audiences have about evenly loved and been revolted by "Sweeney Todd." I think Burton's personal style has ensured that 70 percent will now feel revolted. He may well have slit the throat of musicals on film for the next 20 years.
On the other hand, "Sweeney Todd" is perfectly positioned to replace the well-worn "Rocky Horror Picture Show" as the cult midnight audience participation movie of a new generation of people who have no life of their own. Just don't wear your good clothes because by picture's end you'll be drenched in fake (hopefully fake) blood.
"Sweeney Todd" comes with a second disc that is chucky jam full of great sounding features like "Sweeney Todd Press Conference Nov. 2007" and "Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition" and "A Bloody Business" and "The Razor's Refrain" but I'm gong to need another week or two to recover from Disc 1 first.
Georgiana (I thought a bit about cutting out the plot rehash in the middle of this, but decided it was all of apiece; sorry)
Seattle - Monday, April 28, 2008
VNU Entertainment News Wire (Online)
April 8, 2008 Tuesday
This week's Broadway scene
BYLINE: ROBERT OSBORNE
SECTION: COLUMNS; RAMBLING REPORTER
LENGTH: 516 words
. . . . . . . . . .
Also starting the prevue process Saturday will be Laura Linney in the Roundabout's revival of Christopher Hampton's "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" at the American Airlines Theatre. It is directed by Rufus Norris and also stars Ben Daniels, Sian Phillips and Mamie Gummer. It most recently appeared on Broadway in 1987 in a stunning production that starred Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan. ...
Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday Mail
April 27, 2008, Sunday
TRIBUTES PAID TO MINGHELLA
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 31
LENGTH: 69 words
HUNDREDS paid tribute to Oscarwinning director Anthony Minghella at a memorial service yesterday.
The English Patient writer and director died in hospital from a fatal haemorrhage last month aged 54.
Mourners at yesterday's service in his home town of Ryde, Isle of Wight, included actors Jude Law and Alan Rickman and TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh.
Minghella's parents Edward and Gloria run an ice cream business in Ryde.
Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, April 28, 2008
Mail on Sunday (London)
April 6, 2008 Sunday
Stars farewell to the talented Mr Minghella
SECTION: 2ND; Pg. 43
LENGTH: 216 words
HIS work spanned the worlds of showbusiness and politics and Anthony Minghellas funeral featured some of the biggest names from both yesterday.
Gordon Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair sat with Hollywood stars including Matt Damon, Renee Zellweger and Maggie Gyllenhaal at the memorial service for the Oscar-winning director behind films such as The English Patient and Truly, Madly, Deeply.
The 100 mourners also included the Duchess of York, English Patient star Kristin Scott Thomas, actors John Hurt, Bill Nighy, Dexter Fletcher, Ray Win-stone, Jamie Bell, Martin Freeman, Alan Rickman and film-makers Richard Curtis, Sir Richard Attenborough, Alan Parker, Mike Figgis and Stephen Daldry.
Minghella died last month, aged 54, after suffering a haemorrhage following an operation at Charing Cross Hospital in London.
His funeral was a private affair, held at the Golders Green crematorium in North London, for family and close friends, including Jude Law, who worked with him on The Talented Mr Ripley. Following a wake at a local church hall, the mourners gathered at the Thomas More Roman Catholic church in Hampstead.
There was a small moment of drama when Jill Scott, who starred as Precious in his final film, The No1 Ladies Detective Agency, fainted and had to be carried out of the church.
Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, April 28, 2008
Wales on Sunday
April 13, 2008, Sunday
North Edition
GOWNING AROUND!; EXCLUSIVE
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 399 words
RONALD Reagan, Diego Maradona, Michael Jackson... Dirty Sanchez?
The Welsh nutters might be best known for spending their lives battering their bodies and bending their minds in pursuit of cheap laughs, but they're now sharpening their minds after being invited to join the roll call of speakers at one of the top debating societies - the Oxford Union.
Previous guest speakers have also included Richard Nixon, Gerry Adams, Stephen Fry and Cherie Blair - all a far cry from the antics of the Welsh pranksters. Their catalogue of stunts has seen madmen Pritchard, Dainton, Pancho and Englishman Joycey fight professional wrestlers, roll in fields of nettles, shoot their private parts with BB guns and glue their nostrils together.
But they are now facing their biggest challenge - after being included among big names like Tory leader David Cameron in the latest round of invited speakers.
Ringleader Dainton, of Newport, thought the invite itself was a prank after he was told about it by agent Steve Hogan.
But Oxford Union confirmed the invite was real and that Dirty Sanchez is in esteemed company.
Also invited to talk to the toffs are:
Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood;
Tory leader David Cameron;
White Stripes' warbler Jack White;
one-time Spice Girl Geri Halliwell;
designer Roberto Cavalli;
screen baddie Alan Rickman;
British armed forces boss General Sir Richard Dannatt; and
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga.
But Dainton, 34, said some members of the crew had never even heard of poshTory, Cameron.
He added: "I've been to some ridiculous places that I've really thought I had no place being. But this is the highlight of my career, because I've not even gotaGCSE.
"What amI going to say to them? I find it hard at times to string a sentence together. But I'm sure I'll hold my own. I'm looking forward to rubbing shoulders with Alan Rickman.
"And I'll be sympathising with Geri Halliwell, because my daughter's ginger."
Sadly for the boys, all the other guests will be appearing at the union on different nights, if at all.
But 35-year-old Pritch said: "First I can't believe they've asked us to come.
Who would have thought Dirty Sanchez was up their street?"
Ben Tansey, president of Oxford Union, said: "They are going to be coming next term because they are quite big stars. The programme is really popular with the students, it's going to be a really fun event."
Dirty Sanchez are due to talk on April 22.
Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, April 28, 2008
Press Association Newsfile
April 26, 2008 Saturday 3:32 PM BST
DIRECTOR REMEMBERED IN THANKSGIVING SERVICE
BYLINE: Ben Mitchell, PA
SECTION: HOME NEWS
LENGTH: 689 words
Hundreds of family members, friends and colleagues from the movie industry today attended a thanksgiving service for Oscar winning director Anthony Minghella, who died last month.
The 54-year-old died on March 18 after suffering a fatal haemorrhage at Charring Cross Hospital in west London after undergoing an operation on a growth in his neck.
Among the mourners at today's ceremony were the actors Jude Law and Alan Rickman. The service was organised by his family and the Isle of Wight Council.
Minghella was born and brought up in Ryde where his parents Edward and Gloria Minghella still live and run an ice cream business.
The director of The English Patient, Cold Mountain and Truly, Madly, Deeply was made the first and now Freeman of the Isle of Wight in 1997.
Also in attendance was television gardening expert Alan Titchmarsh who was recently made the High Sheriff of the Isle of Wight and was attending as part of his ceremonial duties.
The service began with a rendition of Sonata for Viola Gamba and Keyboard by JS Bach. The order of service says: ``Anthony loved Bach. His music played a significant role in much of his work. The two pieces played at the beginning and end of this service feature in Truly Madly Deeply, and Anthony's first film as director.''
The service ended with Suite for Unaccompanied Cello Number One in G Major.
Jude Law read the poem When Death Comes by Mary Oliver. The order of service says: ``This was one of Anthony's favourite poems, read by Jude, one of Anthony's favourite people.''
Minghella's sister Gioia then read Katharine's last words from The English Patient.
Alan Rickman then read from Hang Up, a short radio play by Minghella which won the 1998 Prix Italia. Rickman is described as: ``A dear friend and colleague of Anthony's for 20 years.''
Other music used in the service included Lullaby for Cain which was written by film music composer Gabriel Yared, with lyrics by Minghella for The Talented Mr Ripley. Minghella's sister Edana Minghella read the poem So Many Different Lengths of Time by Brian Patten.
The order of service says: ``This poem is described as one of the most comforting answers to death. Brian Patten who wrote it in homage to Pablo Neruda, a poet Anthony loved very much.''
In a statement, the Minghella family said: ``We will miss Anthony more than we can say. Of course he was a brilliant director and writer, acclaimed worldwide for his amazing talents.
``But more than that he was a wonderful son, husband, father, brother and uncle, who loved and was loved by all who knew him.
``His genius and his gift of gentle human kindness live on in his work and in the hearts of those he has so tragically left behind.
``He never forgot his island roots and was honoured to be made the first Freeman of the Isle of Wight.''
Minghella's parents Edward and Gloria were accompanied by the Reverend Cannon Dr Stephen Palmer, vicar of the Minster Church of St Thomas when they arrived at the church.
Minghella's brother Dominic said that his brother was as happy surrounded by people as he was alone on a deserted beach and he never forgot his roots of his home town on the Isle of Wight.
He said he was a workaholic who had a great love for poetry, photography, music and Portsmouth Football Club.
Describing him he said: ``He was great, he was a genius but he was also a person, human, flawed, gorgeous and infuriating.
``His presence blessed you and his absence bruised you.''
He said that his brother's death had been a shock for all who knew him.
He said: ``We were all expecting another reel in his story or knowing Anthony several more reels - we can only imagine how those extra chapters would have gone.''
He finished his tribute by quoting from the film Truly, Madly Deeply. He said: ``I would like to list a few ways in which Anthony is still with us: Really, truly, madly, deeply, passionately, remarkably, to name but a few.''
Dominic's son Dante also read a poem he had written about his uncle titled: ``My Superman''.
The family asked for charitable donations to be made to Cancer Research UK and The Number One, a charity dedicated to helping the women and children of Botswana.
Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, April 28, 2008
Alan attended and spoke at a memorial service for Anthomy Minghella today on the IoW.
sue
england - Saturday, April 26, 2008
Hey! Alan's directing Strindberg's Creditors in London this September! Read all about it on Playbill.
Ali-Pat
Dayton, OH USA - Friday, April 18, 2008
Freestyle to distribute 'Shock' By Gregg Goldstein
April 17, 2008
NEW YORK -- "Bottle Shock," the true story of a California winery family, will be distributed in North America by Freestyle Releasing.
Randall Miller's feature starring Chris Pine, Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman and Freddy Rodriguez premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival. It revolves around a vineyard owner (Pullman) and his slacker son (Pine) who join forces with a British winemaker (Rickman) to launch the 1976 Paris Tastings, which put the California wine industry on the map.
The film will be released this year in more than 250 theaters nationwide. Odd Lot International will handle foreign sales on the project at next month's Festival de Cannes, part of a two-picture rep deal with Freestyle.
Miller co-wrote the film with Jody Savin and Ross Schwartz. He also produced the film with Savin, J. Todd Harris, Brenda Lhormer, Marc Lhormer and Marc Toberoff.
Freestyle also is distributing Miller's darkly comic thriller "Nobel Son," which also stars Rickman and Pullman.
Source: Hollywood Report
Sheena <amber64dragon@gmail.comfoo>
Berkshire UK - Friday, April 18, 2008
Tributes at premiere of Minghella's final film
Mark Blunden and Sophie Goodchild
From tonight's London Evening Standard
The premiere of Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella's final film became a celebration of his life with tributes led by BBC Director General Mark Thompson.
Mr Thompson said corporation bosses were in two minds whether to hold the screening of The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency, only hours after the film-maker died from a sudden brain haemorrhage.
But they went ahead with the showing at the British Film Institute on the South Bank last night at the request of Minghella's widow Carolyn, his son Max, daughter Hannah and other members of the family.
Mr Thompson said: "We weren't sure whether to go ahead with it or not but his family and people closest to him were very keen to show it and I think it was the right decision.
"Many people were not sure what tonight would feel like but in the end it felt right, it's such a life-affirming film. He was in the middle of a fantastic career and as a writer, director and producer. Maybe his best work was still to come."
Minghella, 54, had undergone an operation for cancer of the tonsils and neck and doctors at Charing Cross hospital were optimistic he would recover.
But while he was recuperating from surgery, the English Patient director suffered complications and severe bleeding, which triggered a heart attack.
A source at the hospital told the Standard: "The complication arose after he had the operation. This is a tricky operation - in patients who have a sudden haemorrhage one of the results is cardiac arrest." Broadcaster Andrew Marr, who attended last night's screening, said: "It feels like a party that's become a wake. I think there's an enormous amount of shock and people are incredibly upset.
"People are supposed to be having a good time but feel like they've been hit round the back of the head with a wet sandbag."
Stars, many of whom became close to Minghella, told how his direction brought out the best in them. Alan Rickman and Juliet Stephenson, who starred in his debut film Truly, Madly Deeply, spent much of the evening in deep conversation.
Stephenson, tears in her eyes, said: "To work with him was to be taken to the very edges of what you can do and made better, it was empowering."
Rickman added: "It's impossible to talk objectively. We're here because of a very personal relationship with Anthony. He was a profoundly talented film-maker. This evening was driven by his family, who felt it was the right thing to do. The atmosphere tonight is very unreal for us."
The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency, adapted by Minghella and Richard Curtis, tells the story of a company of women-only private eyes in Botswana. It will be screened on BBC1 on Easter Sunday.
sue
england (hoping the paragraphs come out, it's a long time since I did this!) - Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Excerpt from Slate:
"Because Anthony Minghella died with decades of work still ahead of him, we'll never know whether Minghella would have made another movie with the lasting power of his first one, Truly, Madly, Deeply, a 1990 made-for-television comedy that was successful enough to gain a big-screen release and a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay. The story of a grief-stricken pianist (Juliet Stevenson) whose cellist lover (Alan Rickman) comes back from the dead to hang around the house they once shared, Truly, Madly, Deeply is on my semisecret list of all-time favorite movies. Semisecret because I don't know that I could entirely defend the choice: It's not as if the film is formally innovative or visually impressive or thematically original. It's just so damn wonderful.
The ghost who comes back to help his or her loved ones mourn is a familiar figure, from Hamlet to Ghost (also released in 1990) to such recent grotesqueries as P.S. I Love You. But Truly, Madly, Deeply manages to make that familiarity feel less like a cliché than a profoundly resonant archetype. The scene in which Rickman's character, Jamie, first appears to Nina (Stevenson) is an example of how Minghella tweaks a formula to evoke the agony of real grief. As the bereft Nina sits playing the piano, the camera revolves to reveal the blurred outline of Jamie sitting behind her, accompanying her on his cello. At first we take this as a familiar bit of cinematic syntax: Jamie isn't really there, we're just seeing a symbol of Nina's memory of him. Any minute now, she'll snap her head around and see only an empty chair. Instead, Jamie puts down his cello and moves out of the frame himself, confirming the viewer's assumption: His presence was just a figment of her imagination. The camera then pans a little to left to reveal the unambiguously real Jamie, and we realize at the same moment Nina does that the man she buried months ago is standing in her living room. What follows is a reunion scene that, even in this decontextualized and blurry clip, should reduce anyone who's ever loved and lost—or even just loved—to a quivering jelly.
Minghella started his career as a stage director, and his touch with actors is palpable in every scene of Truly, Madly, Deeply. Rickman and Stevenson, both extraordinary performers, are given the freedom to improvise in scenes like this one, in which she dances around the living room as they belt out a decidedly amateur version of "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore." The result is an on-screen romance of unusual texture and intimacy. By the time Jamie is ready to rejoin the world of the shades, you sense the true magnitude of what both he and Nina have lost (and if you're me, you've also developed a debilitating, lifelong crush on Alan Rickman).
Over the years, I've discovered that there's a kind of secret cult for Truly, Madly, Deeply. People who have no clue who Anthony Minghella is can passionately quote great chunks of dialogue from this film. The movie's potent appeal isn't surprising; how many psychologically accurate portraits of grief also hold up as romantic comedies that are both funny and madly romantic? I've recommended Truly, Madly, Deeply to friends mourning their own losses as a kind of homeopathic remedy. And I have one friend who watched it with his ailing wife only weeks before she died, both of them laughing and crying as they wondered what kind of ghost she would be.
The British film industry is still stunned by the unexpected and early death of Anthony Minghella, who was an important figure there; he held the title of commander of the British Empire and was, until recently, the chairman of the British Film Institute. Minghella also leaves behind a wife and two children. (His 22-year-old son, Max Minghella, has acted in several films, including Syriana and Art School Confidential.) It might make Minghella happy to know that those still figuring out how to mourn him can turn to his own best movie for advice.
Renie
- Wednesday, March 19, 2008
About Anthony Minghella's TMD, from the NY Daily News. If you haven't seen it yet (you haven't SEEN it yet??) then a SPOILER ALERT of sorts, and for heaven's sake, see the movie, and be prepared to love Bach.
""Truly Madly Deeply" (1990) was his first feature as a writer-director after spending time as a University lecturer and a writer for radio, television and the stage. The story seemed familiar, culled from Hollywood standards like "A Guy Named Joe," "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and Warren Beatty's "Heaven Can Wait": A woman is visited by the ghost of her lover until she eventually begins a new relationship with a lovable but deserving goof. But Minghella's take on it all was fresh and just slightly askew.
For starters, Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman's characters aren't lifelong marrieds, as might be typical, but rather were in the early-middle part of a relationship, when people are just starting to see a future with each other. It's a crucial detail, since when Stevenson's Nina breaks down and bawls a bucketful to her therapist about how she misses Jamie (the first of Rickman's rogueishly charming romantic heroes), the tears are those of someone who misses not just a partner but also of all the promise he embodied. Similarly, Jamie wasn't a typical "Ghost"-like lost ideal: he was a cranky, curmudgeonly, prickly wise-ass who was peeved he died of, essentially, a bad cold. But it's exactly those (very human) qualities that make Nina miss him ... and to reluctantly think she should give Michael Moloney's Mark a chance, which even Jamie sees is the right thing to do."
Renie
- Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Anthony Minghella has died - his first film was Truly Madly Deeply starring Alan and Juliet Stephenson
Claire
UK - Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Just saw in The Guardian (London), whose source is the LA Times, that the last HP book will be filmed as two separate movies. Clearly, Warner don't really wish to part with their golden calf . . . ;-). The official reason/version is that it would be bad, for artistic reasons, to cut out much of the novel. The first of these two final (?) films is scheduled to be released in November 2010, the second in May 2011. I suppose that AR will appear in both (?).
pia susanna
edinburgh, - Thursday, March 13, 2008
AR helping out as usual King's Head theatre
Glowbox
France - Sunday, March 09, 2008
This month's issue of Chatelaine features an interview with Carrie-Anne Moss, and although the cover boasts of her opening up about " what it's like to kiss Alan Rickman," the inside just features a small still from Snowcake (the scene where they are sitting on the rocks by the lake), and for those of you who don't want to spend the $4.50 for the relevant quote (or their recipe for "Terrific Tofu Pizza"), she says, "It was so effortless to be intimate with him."
I hear ya, Carrie-Anne. I always thought it'd be easy, if only I had the chance! ;-)There are new pictures of Alan Rickman from the charity performence of Motherland at The Young Vic theatre on 2nd of March 2008 in London England
Enjoy :-) If I find more elsewhere I will post again, once I get a chance to look.
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire, UK - Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Sunday Times (London)
February 3, 2008, Sunday
Sweeney's scream queen
BYLINE: Stephen Price
SECTION: FEATURES; Eire Culture; Pg. 14
LENGTH: 1257 words
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"My upbringing was very normal, but I always had that little eccentric streak at the back of my head, and I loved that thrill of performing, the thrill of people applauding."
A few years later her eccentric streak would bring her from school festivals to playing opposite Alan Rickman, who, as the evil Judge Turpin, destroys the life of the youthful barber Benjamin Barker before molesting his wife and stealing his daughter. Barker returns from transportation many years later as the demonic Sweeney Todd, itching for revenge. But Johanna is now 15 and a temptation to her degenerate ward's eye, who keeps her locked away.
"Alan was charming socially, but I was very nervous of him on set, very intimidated. But then Lucy is supposed to be intimidated and Alan was staying in character. Tim (Burton) even took me aside and went through our main scene, just the two of us, to prepare me. But I was terrified."
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Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, March 03, 2008
Variety
January 28, 2008 - February 3, 2008
BOTTLE SHOCK
BYLINE: ROBERT KOEHLER
SECTION: REVIEWS; Pg. 56
LENGTH: 811 words
An IPW presentation in association with Zin Haze Prods. of an Unclaimed Freight production. Produced by J. Todd Harris, Marc Toberoff, Brenda Lhormer, Marc Lhormer, Jody Savin, Randall Miller. Executive producers, Dan Schryer, Art Klein, Erik Cleage, Robert Baizer, Diane Jacobs. Co-producer, Elaine Dysinger.
Directed by Randall Miller. Screenplay, Jody Savin, Miller, Ross Schwartz; story, Schwartz, Lannette Pabon, Savin, Miller. Camera (color, Panavision widescreen), Michael J. Ozier; editors, Miller, Dan O'Brien; music, Mark Adler; production designer, Craig Stearns; set decorator, Barbara Munch; costume designer, Jillian Kreiner; sound (Dolby Digital), Nelson Stoll; supervising sound editor, Kelly Oxford; re-recording mixers, Kevin Burns, Todd Orr; stunt coordinator, Rocky Cappella; associate producers, Bill Abraham, Randall Bingham, John Colton, Jack Miller, Phil Trubey; assistant director, Brian F. Relyea; casting, Rick Pagano. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Spectrum), Jan. 18, 2008. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 112 MIN.
Steven Spurrier ..... Alan Rickman
Bo Barrett ..... Chris Pine
Jim Barrett ..... Bill Pullman
Sam ..... Rachael Taylor
Gustavo Brambilia ..... Freddy Rodriguez
Maurice ..... Dennis Farina
Prof. Saunders ..... Bradley Whitford
Mr. Garcia ..... Miguel Sandoval
Joe ..... Eliza Dushku
(English, French dialogue)
A true story that only Hollywood could have made up gets the Hollywood treatment in "Bottle Shock," a peppy and quite deliberate crowd-pleaser about how a little Napa winery's 1973 Chardonnay won a major French tasting contest and sent the wine world into a tizzy. Certain to tap into many of the same sentiments that brought "Sideways" to prominence, but lacking some of Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's refined screenwriting chops, pic will please palates across the fest world and should score sincere distrib tasters.
Working some similar easy-to-swallow storytelling angles as in his debut feature, "Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School," director and co-writer Randall Miller constructs a fairly sprawling narrative that takes in the father-son pair of Jim and Bo Barrett (actual operator-owners of Chateau Montelena), an upstart Latino winemaker, a frisky love interest and a priggish yet open-minded British caviste in Paris who gets turned on to the California wines of the 1970s. Like a wine spread with more samples than any tongue can handle, "Bottle Shock" contains too much to manage it all well, including some painfully corny sections, but has a charming aftertaste.
Jim (Bill Pullman) owns and runs his Napa winery, Chateau Montelena, both like a common American-style farmer and a perfectionist searching for the perfect vintage of Chardonnay. His struggle for further loans to obtain the best wine presses is just one sign that business is poor in 1976, and it's no help that carefree son and would-be heir Bo (Chris Pine) lives life like he's on permanent holiday.
On the other side of the Pond, Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) is also struggling in his Parisian wine shop, with his only customer apparently being Yank ex-pat Maurice (an amusing Dennis Farina). Maurice notes that he's read that California wines are starting to turn heads, and Steven gets the notion to launch a French-American taste contest for the best wines in both lands, setting off to Napa-Sonoma to scout prospects.
Miller's script (co-written with wife Jody Savin and the story's original author, Ross Schwartz, who came up with the idea with Lannette Pabon) dresses up this saga of viti- and viniculture with a side plot involving Bo, cute intern Sam (Rachael Taylor) and Jim's reliable but increasingly independent-minded Gustavo (Freddy Rodriguez) in a jokey sort of love triangle. Gustavo also has his own winemaking ambitions tied with venerable Mr. Garcia (Miguel Sandoval), who has made a fabulous red.
Wine lovers won't just sip but guzzle a lot of this down, and the same effect that sun-dappled days and sex in California had on "Sideways" operates here. The eventual chain of events that actually gets the Montelena Chardonnay into Steven's competition is an underdog tale in extremis, and Miller's tendency is to milk it, and milk some more.
A peculiar demand placed on the cast, from Farina in Paris to Pine, Rodriguez, Taylor and Pullman in Napa (and Rickman in both locales), is credibly reacting when tasting vintages, sending the visual clue that a great wine is at hand. Rickman plays the snob to human scale and never to exaggeration, while Miller lets Pine and Pullman go overboard with unevenly calibrated perfs. Taylor and Rodriguez, despite one ridiculous love scene, pull off big-screen charm.
Production is slick on a budget (though using Napa spots as a location substitute for France is an obvious flub), and plenty of visuals serve as little more than commercials for California wine country.
SUBJECT: MOVIE REVIEWS (90%); WINE (89%); WINERIES (89%); DRAMA LITERATURE (89%); FESTIVALS (78%); ARTS FESTIVALS & EXHIBITIONS (77%); VISUAL ARTS (77%); FILM (77%); WRITERS & WRITING (75%); CONTENT RATINGS (73%); ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE INDUSTRY (70%); FASHION DESIGNERS (70%); DANCE (64%)
GEOGRAPHIC: PARIS, FRANCE (75%) FRANCE (75%)
LOAD-DATE: February 6, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
Georgiana
Seattle - Monday, March 03, 2008
From San Jose Mercury News, Thu, 21 Feb 2008 1:19 AM PST Horoscope by Jeraldine Saunders:
BIRTHDAY GUY: Actor Alan Rickman was born in London on this day in 1946. This birthday guy won 1996 Emmy and Golden Globe awards as the title character in the TV movie "Rasputin," although he may be better known to moviegoers as Severus Snape from the "Harry Potter" films and terrorist Hans Gruber in the first "Die Hard" picture. Recent films for the actor include "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Nobel Son" and a starring role opposite Johnny Depp in the film version of "Sweeney Todd."
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
February 16, 2008 Saturday
First Edition
Depp sings their heads off; MUSICAL
BYLINE: John Shand
SECTION: SPECTRUM; Arts & Entertainment; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 462 words
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Sweeney Todd (Warner)
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The ever-wonderful Alan Rickman barely manages to bluff his way through his share of the wistful Pretty Women. Although his shortcomings are more obvious on disc, it's still impossible to quarrel with his casting.
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Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, February 15, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer describes Mr. Rickman as "sepulchral and sensational" as the corrupt Judge Turpin in yesterday's 3-line review of "Sweeney Todd" ("Capsule reviews of feature films).
Georgiana
Seattle - Friday, February 15, 2008
The Express
February 6, 2008 Wednesday
U.K. 1st Edition
Out there . . .; DAY & NIGHT
BYLINE: EDITED BY KATHRYN SPENCER WITH LIZZIE CATT, PENNY STRETTON AND CATHERINE BOYLE
SECTION: COLUMNS; 14
LENGTH: 32 words
IN LONDON. . . Holby City actress Tina Hobley, looking very pregnant, having lunch at Brinkley's restaurant in Chelsea . . . Tanned and dapper-looking actor Alan Rickman strolling through Soho.
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, February 13, 2008
February 7, 2008, Thursday
Staffordshire Edition
Letter: Your Say - Cut the music; In association with POST OFFICE
BYLINE: Barbara Dunn
SECTION: LETTERS; Pg. 20
LENGTH: 73 words
WHOSE idea was it to have the actors singing their lines in Sweeney Todd as opposed to saying them? We just couldn't take the story seriously. If film critics think this is what the average cinema goer wants then they are really out of touch with the general public. People were laughing in all the wrong places - when they weren't yawning. Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman are good actors. They were wasted in this farce. Barbara Dunn, Moseley.
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The Washington Post
February 9, 2008 Saturday
Suburban Edition
'Shintoku-Maru': At a Loss for Words
BYLINE: Peter Marks; Washington Post Staff Writer
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C07
LENGTH: 746 words
Among the adventurous conjurers of stage pictures, Japanese director Yukio Ninagawa surely ranks as world-class. The eerie sight of the conflicted young hero of "Shintoku-Maru" wandering an underworld of wagon-size boats, crowded with candles and what look like jellyfish dangling from long poles, speaks hauntingly in the universally incongruous language of tortured sleep.
Ninagawa's estimable gift for spectacle is on display through tonight at the Kennedy Center in the U.S. premiere of the slightly uneven "Shintoku-Maru," an adaptation by Rio Kishida of Shuji Terayama's play based on a centuries-old Japanese story. It's fortunate that the venue for this opening act of the center's Japan festival is the Opera House, because the scale and emotional intensity of the piece -- bordering on the histrionic -- puts you in mind of the mighty winds of grand opera.
I'd love to say that the visual dimension of "Shintoku-Maru" was enough, but a half-hour into the production, I found myself craving more information than I had access to. Because of the language barrier, the compact, 90-minute work at times lulls you into a state of woozy indifference. A rather esoteric decision was made by the director not to provide a running English translation of "Shintoku-Maru's" dialogue scenes. The intention for non-Japanese speakers seems to be an unadulterated immersion in Ninagawa's refined design elements.
In some productions, words might indeed be secondary. (As a leftover from a presentation of the piece in London a decade ago, British actor Alan Rickman recorded a plot synopsis that is played before the show over the public-address system.) The fabric of "Shintoku-Maru," however, is of some psychological complexity, and the protracted scenes in which the teenage Shintoku-Maru (Tatsuya Fujiwara) vents his feelings or engages in battles of will with his stepmother-to-be, Nadeshiko (Kayoko Shiraishi), cry out for the explication that much of an American audience is denied.1.
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Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, February 13, 2008
PA Regional Newswire for English Regions
February 7, 2008 Thursday 2:36 PM BST
FILMING STARTS FOR SIXTH POTTER MOVIE
SECTION: PA Regional Newswire for English Regions
LENGTH: 263 words
Harry Potter fans were cast under the boy wizard's spell once again as cameras rolled for the sixth movie in the series at Gloucester Cathedral.
Cast and crew have descended on the cathedral to shoot the eagerly-anticipated Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince.
Star-spotters in the city hope to catch glimpses of a host of A-list celebrities including Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the eponymous hero, Alan Rickman, who plays Professor Snape, and Dame Maggie Smith, who plays Professor McGonagall.
Warner Brothers' crews pitched up tents around the grounds of the cathedral and neighbouring King's School last month and have been preparing since.
Film-makers chose the 11th century cathedral as the perfect setting for scenes in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
This will be the third time the school and cathedral grounds have been used for the Potter movie series - with The Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets both filmed there.
Gloucester city council leader Paul James said: ``When it comes to film you don't get any bigger than Harry Potter. It's great for the city.
``We get a lot of tourists coming to Gloucester as a result of the previous films being shot here. It certainly puts Gloucester on the map. But the filming also gives the local economy a boost. Local people are hired as extras, cast and crew shop in our shops and they eat in our restaurants.''
A total of 174 pupils from King's School, aged 11 to 18, are starring as extras in the multi million-pound production based on the JK Rowling-penned book.
The film is set for UK release on November 21.
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Clarissa, from NBC's realtalk.com, sent me an e-mail (thank you!) to let us know that they have another video interview of AR from the Sundance Film Festival last week. Here's the link:
AR at Sundance
Suzanne <webmistress@alan-rickman.comfoo>
TX USA - Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Thanks to tomoyocaptor on Alan Rickman's IMDB board for the heads-up. There is a release date for "Nobel Son", according to the news section at Paul Oakenfold's site it will be released in the USA on 4th April, hopefully, for those of us outside of the USA it will be released around the same time everywhere :-).
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire, UK - Wednesday, February 06, 2008
The Australian (Australia)
February 1, 2008 Friday
1 - All-round Country Edition
Lessing amazed by Nobel, even if she couldn't care less
SECTION: WORLD; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 487 words
LONDON: Nobel literature laureate Doris Lessing, who greeted news of her victory with the words, ``I couldn't care less'', received her prize with typical candour yesterday at a champagne reception in London.
The 88-year-old writer noted, ``There isn't anywhere to go from here, is there?'' before thinking of one more accolade: ``I could get a pat on the head from the Pope.''
But she said winning the 10million kronor ($2 million) prize was ``astonishing and amazing''.
``Thank you does not seem enough when you've won the biggest one of them all.''
Lessing, whose back problems prevented her from travelling to Stockholm for the official Nobel prize-giving ceremony on December 10, was given the gold Nobel medal by Swedish ambassador Staffan Carlsson amid the paintings of the Wallace Collection art gallery in London.
Guests included playwright Tom Stoppard, actor Alan Rickman and writer Germaine Greer.
Mr Carlsson called Lessing ``forever young and wise, old and rebellious ... the least ingratiating of writers''.
Born in Persia (now Iran) and raised in what is now Zimbabwe, Lessing drew on her experiences in colonial Africa for her debut novel, The Grass is Singing, published in 1950. Her most influential book is probably 1962's The Golden Notebook, considered a feminist classic.
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Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Western Daily Press
February 2, 2008 Saturday
Millions pledged to save Bristol old Vic
BYLINE: Daniel Evansd.evans@bepp.co.uk
SECTION: Pg. 18
LENGTH: 628 words
The show will go on at Bristol Old Vic after millions of pounds were pledged by Arts Council England yesterday.
The theatre's prospective executive chair, Dick Penny, said he was "delighted" to announce the news at the famous King Street venue.
Following months of uncertainty over whether the 241-year-old theatre would ever reopen, the arts council has reserved £2 million of capital funds for refurbishment plans.
It has also pledged £578,000 for the first half of next year, with more to follow if it is satisfied that the business plans progress.
Leading actors joined campaign
Some of Britain's leading stage actors including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis, Alan Rickman and Pete Postlethwaite joined a campaign to save the Old Vic, which has become outdated and in need of a revamp.
Its refurbishment appeal has now raised £6.1m of the £9m needed, meaning £2.9m is still to be found.
Mr Penny said: "I am delighted that Arts Council England (ACE) has confirmed its continued support for, and investment in, the Bristol Old Vic.
"The immense support from the public, the theatre profession and Bristol City Council has been instrumental in securing the future relationship with ACE.
"This excellent news completes the jigsaw of support which will enable us to move forward in refurbishing the Theatre Royal complex and getting Bristol Old Vic back into production.
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Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, February 05, 2008
The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
February 2, 2008 Saturday
MUST SEE FILM
BYLINE: Chosen by Sukhdev Sandhu and Tim Robey
SECTION: ART; Pg. 15
LENGTH: 148 words
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Sweeney Todd (18)
It's a match made in (dark) heaven: Stephen Sondheim's musical about the demon barber of Fleet Street put through Tim Burton's neo-goth treatment. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman enjoy themselves immensely.
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Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, February 05, 2008
The Washington Post
February 3, 2008 Sunday
Every Edition
SECTION: SUNDAY SOURCE; Pg. N05
LENGTH: 506 words
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2.SHINTOKU-MARU
[ON STAGE] The Kennedy Center's two-week celebration of Japanese arts, "Japan! Culture + Hyperculture," has many noteworthy events, but if you're going to experience just one, consider the American debut of award-winning director Yukio Ninagawa's tragic love and revenge fable. This play, based on an ancient tale, features Tatsuya Fujiwara as a young man haunted by the memory of his dead mother yet drawn to his new stepmother. The performance is presented in Japanese without subtitles, but a detailed synopsis is in the program. A taped audio synopsis read by Alan Rickman will be played after everyone is seated.
Thursday-Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Kennedy Center Opera House, 2700 F St. NW. $15-$35. 202-467-4600 or 800-444-1324.
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Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, February 05, 2008
The Evening Standard (London)
February 4, 2008 Monday
The 1000; LONDON'S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE 2008
SECTION: A; Pg. 16
LENGTH: 452 words
The energy of London is nowhere more reflected than in the shifting balance of power among its thoughtmakers, trendsetters and leaders. Every week, Simon Davis looks at whos in and whos out.
. . . . . . . . . . .
LITERARY LIFE
DORIS LESSING, 88
AUTHOR The agreeably prickly writer from West Hampstead has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. She was presented with the award in London as she was too ill to travel to Sweden. However, what the writer of The Golden Notebook and The Grass Is Singing lacks in physical vigour, she makes up for in intellectual rigour. Her literary influence is enormous and she is astonishingly well connected with friends including Sir Tom Stoppard, Michael Frayn, Alan Rickman, Ben Okri and Juliet Stevenson. Her next book, Alfred And Emily, is published in May.
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Georgiana
Seattle - Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Rickman sighting alert!!! Apparently, he's more of a fan of Monty Python than just appearing in a skit with Eddie Izzard: He went to see Spamalot!
Julia
Canada - Saturday, February 02, 2008
It's time to celebrate; Alan Rickman's birthday is coming up on February 21st! And once again, Catherine and Sara (from RADA) have set up the JustGiving donation page (thank you!) in his honor. I received an e-mail from them yesterday saying it was up and running, so I have updated the link to the Birthday Page at the top of the GB. Last year we raised £830 plus £81.79 in Gift Aid (about $1,795 total) and the Just Giving page has the names of the students that were helped by our donations. AR and RADA are depending on us to help more students this year, without which could not complete their studies and training. It is a worthy cause that is very dear to Alan. So let's give him a fantastic birthday present by trying our best to beat last years total. We've done it before, we can do it again! I've started things off with a donation and have just received a thank you e-mail from AR. :-)
Please, everyone, spread the word to other Alan Rickman web-sites, groups, forums, live journals, etc. The more AR fans that get involved the better!
Suzanne <webmistress@alan-rickman.comfoo>
TX USA - Saturday, February 02, 2008
Wanted to share this link from a Sundance press conference that has a great number of AR pics.
Finally, thank you for such a great site to chat about AR and his projects! Maybe now, I will be able to communicate more frequently on my favorite actor!
Claire <david.arthur@cox.netfoo>
Fairfax Station, VA USA - Friday, February 01, 2008
As I understand it, "Bottle Shock" was screened at Sundance Film Festival, with 5 showings between January 18 and January 26. Per Daily Variety on January 25, it had not secured a distributor as of that date.
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Sunday Express
January 20, 2008 Sunday
U.K. 1st Edition
The odd couple go for a song;
Review Films - They may not have a conventional relationship but Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter are a match made in movie heaven, says John Millar, who talks to them about their new project, Sweeney Todd
BYLINE: John Millar
SECTION: FEATURES; 71
LENGTH: 1251 words
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Rickman, who had appeared in Guys And Dolls when he was a young actor in repertory theatre, reveals that he had to dig into his own pocket to prepare for this movie.
"I paid a singing teacher a lot of money, actually. It's GBP 80 an hour, but it was worth every second, " says Rickman.
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Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
The Herald (Glasgow)
January 24, 2008 Thursday
Final Edition
A prime cut of blood, song and fantasy; Cinema review
BYLINE: Alison Rowat
SECTION: GOING OUT; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 1782 words
FILM OF THE WEEK
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (18) 3/5
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Despite his character's heinous deeds, Depp almost succeeds in turning Sweeney into the kind of creature that only exists in movies - a serial killer to care about. His demon barber remains a tortured soul, the drive for revenge bringing him no peace.
Helena Bonham Carter is spectacularly, comically hammy as his accomplice, but when it comes to a tender moment in John Logan's excellent screenplay she shows her acting chops. Alan Rickman is less of a revelation as the judge - he seems to do nothing but play a hissing rotter these days - while Timothy Spall, as his henchman, rather overcooks his part. Certainly something for the weekend if musicals set your red stuff boiling. Just mind how you go with that post-cinema dinner.
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Daily Post (Liverpool)
January 25, 2008, Friday
Mersey Edition
Todd's the best a man can get; Sweeney Todd (18) Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jayne Wisener and Jamie Campbell Bower; director Tim Burton. 117 mins. Rating: THE BIG PICTURE
BYLINE: Philip Key
SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 668 words
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The judge in question (Alan Rickman back to his best full panto villain mode) . . .
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Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Sunday Tasmanian (Australia)
January 27, 2008 Sunday
1 - Edition
Clear-cut winner
BYLINE: STUART DIWELL
SECTION: SUNDAY MOVIES; Pg. 25
LENGTH: 680 words
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
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On the whole Burton's film realisation of Sondheim's work is a glorious success. It creates a perfect milieu for the material and for the most part is wonderfully cast.
Depp proves again what an amazing screen presence he is, making you forgive his excesses in the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies. He not only does a great job in the acting department but is commanding with Sondheim's songs.
Baron Cohen has a wonderful time as the smarmy Pirelli whose terrible treatment of his assistant Toby (Ed Sanders) is reason enough for his appointment with the razor.
Rickman and Spall are simply delicious as the main villains.
Jayne Wisener is sadly the most malnourished of the players vocally, a situation not helped by the fact that Burton has his music levels so high that only really strong voices get a chance to stand up to them.
This also presents something of a problem for Bonham Carter, though her performance as Mrs Lovett is sublime.
Musicals are generally considered family entertainment but Sweeney Todd is definitely not. It does deserve its MA rating.
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
January 25, 2008 Friday
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 18 CERT, 116 MIN Our Daily Bread 12A CERT, 86 MIN This demon barber just doesn't cut it
Johnny Depp is miscast in Tim Burton's blood-soaked version of the Sondheim musical, though Helena Bonham Carter is a delight as monstrous Mrs Lovett
BYLINE: Sukhdev Sandhu
SECTION: FEATURES; Film on Friday; Pg. 33
LENGTH: 1087 words
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There is a small but exuberant turn from Sacha Baron Cohen as a foppish and pseudo-Italian rival barber, Signor Adolfo Pirelli. Rickman, reprising the whispering, coiled menace of Severus Snape from the Harry Potter films, is a pleasure to behold. But it's Timothy Spall, as Turpin's fey and porcine henchman (a dead ringer for Rick Wakeman, too), who most catches the eye.
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Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia)
January 27, 2008 Sunday
First Edition
Gothic drama slashes musical conventions;
REVIEWS
BYLINE: Rob Lowing
SECTION: S INSERT; Movies; Pg. 16
LENGTH: 523 words
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It's a pity that Rickman, he of the purring voice, doesn't get more time and more songs.
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Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Sunday Mail (South Australia)
January 27, 2008 Sunday
1 - State Edition
Depp and Burton a cut above
BYLINE: ZACH GIBSON
SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 102
LENGTH: 639 words
MUSICAL/HORROR
Sweeney Todd
(116 minutes, MA15+)
****
The players: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Sacha Baron Cohen.
Behind the scenes: Directed by Tim Burton.
The plot: Having been falsely imprisoned and had his wife and daughter taken from him, a Fleet St barber returns with vengeance on his mind.
In short: Depp sticks his neck out in cut-throat musical.
WHAT took them so long? Oddball chums Tim Burton and Johnny Depp worked together on five films - Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride - before getting to this dangerous gothic weirdo which the daffy duo seem perfect for.
Based on the unique 1979 musical by Stephen Sondheim - who has won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Pulitzer Prize - Sweeney Todd is a purpose-built platform to provide everything that Burton/Depp fans want.
Far from The Phantom Of The Opera, or even The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Sweeney Todd is the dark heart of musical theatre. Oscar-winner Chicago has nothing on demented Todd slicing through urchin London as his thirst for vengeance finds no satisfaction. Be warned - Sweeney Todd gets really bloody. And vicious. In an artsy, thick-red-soupy way, you understand.
If anyone can change your tune on throat hacking, Depp can. An actor people will follow almost anywhere, his first foray into musicals might test his mainstream fan base. Not just because of Todd's homicidal rampage, or that victims end up in pies served to unsuspecting customers. No, there's also the chimney sweep accents and unusual phrasing of Sondheim's show, which is about 90 per cent singing.
Given he hasn't sung professionally before, Depp delivers another reason for envy by showing a suitable set of lungs.
Predictably, Burton and his synchronised production team plonk us into a Burtonian fantasy world of gothic storybook reality. Dickensian London was made for Burton, and he constructs and choreographs the wrath of Benjamin Barker,
aka Sweeney Todd, with career-defining relish.
Having been intentionally imprisoned by nefarious Judge Turpin (delicious Alan Rickman) so that he could steal his wife, barber Barker returns to the cobbled-street city as Sweeney Todd (who looks a lot like Barker). Setting up shop in Barker's old parlour, single-minded Todd involves the downstairs tenant, doting dodgy Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), in his plans to kill Turpin. To do this, Todd carves up London, which inspires a gruesome showstopper about the new source of meat for Lovett's pies.
Driving the macabre musical is obsessive, destructive vengeance, something Depp easily demonstrates. But Todd the character does get lost in the whole gob-smacking production, the one-track demon descending into a consumed caricature. Even with this drop off, though, the foreseeable finale packs a wallop to make you gag and sob.
Before the nastiness truly sets in, several songs stake their claim for movie musical immortality. Depp's challenging of schemer Adolfo (the fabulous Sacha Baron Cohen) to a shave-off is a rocket, but it's Depp and Rickman who are the match made in heaven. The always-watchable Bonham Carter continues to try harder than she needs to, causing her duets with Depp to pale beside Todd and Turpin's precarious first encounter. For two musical novices, this scene is extraordinary.
From woe to go to woe, there are plenty of Edward Scissorhands echoes, but Sweeney Todd is a different, blacker beast. This points to one annoying response that is hard to ignore.
Because you expect so much of Burton and Depp, Sweeney Todd may be slightly underwhelming. Geez, some people will never be happy. Right, Mr Todd?
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Sunday Herald Sun (Australia)
January 27, 2008 Sunday
8 - IE Edition
Bloody awful and off key
BYLINE: CLARK FORBES
SECTION: IE; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 429 words
MUSICAL
Sweeney Todd
(116 minutes, MA)
2 1/2
The players: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen.
Behind the scenes: Directed by Tim Burton.
The plot: Based on the Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim about the barbarous barber of Fleet St.
In short: Short back and sides.
TWO things the trailer and the advertisements for Sweeney Todd are at pains to omit: it's a musical and there is more arterial spray in 30 seconds than in the entire opus of television's CSI.
There is a reason. Much of Stephen Sondheim's music (the film is adapted from his black-hearted 1979 Broadway musical) is as catchy as a funeral dirge and Johnny Depp's Sweeney Todd makes his eccentric Captain Jack Sparrow seem like a pantomime dame.
Sweeney, the demon barber of Fleet St, is a man hell-bent on revenge and, after a couple of hours in his company, it almost seems preferable to have your throat cut than listen to another song about the need not just to get mad but even.
Sweeney is justifiably annoyed at a judge named Turpin (everyone's favourite villain, Alan Rickman), a sinister creature who 15 years earlier stole his wife and daughter and transported the barber on a trumped-up charge to Australia.
Once back in gloomy, foggy and -- as seen by director Tim Burton -- Gothic London, Sweeney is only interested in reopening his shop and slicing and dicing the devilish jurist.
But he has not counted on his conniving, sulky neighbour, the wild-haired Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter, the director's wife), who sees an opening for cheap and tasty pie fillings.
Depp, with his wild eyes and consumptive complexion, looks the part of a raddled nutter consumed by his black-hearted obsession. He sounds as if he took singing lessons in a karaoke bar.
And that is a bit of a problem because Sweeney does like a tune, bursting into a bar or two for just about anyone who stops long enough to listen.
Burton's graphically grim film (the sixth with Depp) deviates little from Sondheim's vision, but what works on stage does not necessarily translate to the screen -- no matter how many marquee stars are on the bill.
The killings, which ought to be ``look away'' gruesome, are almost parodies as throats gush fountains of blood. The bodies land on the bakery floor with such force it is a wonder the foundations do not give way.
Worse, the humour and the cunning partnership between the barber and Mrs Lovett seems curiously inert on screen. Bonham Carter's voice is no better than that of Depp.
At least Rickman was born to play roles such as the dastardly Judge Turpin.
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
The Independent (London)
January 26, 2008 Saturday
First Edition
Performance Notes; The Film Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street Certificate 18 On General Release
SECTION: COMMENT; Pg. 46
LENGTH: 236 words
OVERVIEW
Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter star in Tim Burton's suitably gory adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical set in early 19th-century London. Depp's barber, Ben Barker, has been transported to a penal colony by Alan Rickman's fiendish judge. Fifteen years later, Ben returns under his new guise, Sweeney Todd, and is out for bloody revenge.
OUR VIEW
"This rendering of Sondheim has so much potential that you could weep for the way Burton squanders it ... It looks awful. Burton wants to style it as a black-hearted fairy tale, but his camera movements feel sluggish and one keeps sensing a gulf between his idea and his execution ... Neither Depp nor Rickman provides real menace." Anthony Quinn
CRITICAL VIEW
"Depp and Carter bring a pale, insomniac vigour to their ghastly characters ... This is a rich, demented experience." empire"It's hard not to connect with the killer and his accomplice. Thanks to increasingly intense performances from Depp and Bonham Carter, it becomes impossible." evening standard"Burton's glorious penny dreadful is a wonderful adaptation of Sondheim's musical ... The atmosphere is vintage Hammer Horror ... The chemistry between Depp and Carter is terrific ... Alan Rickman is a sinister pleasure." the times"Here's the main trouble: I just couldn't buy into any of it emotionally." the spectator"Alan Rickman and Tim Spall are terrific in the supporting roles." financial times
Georgiana
Seattle - Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Some book news!
I got a nice surprise in the mail this week. I ordered this book thinking it was a novelization of the Sweeney Todd film. It is so much more than that! It is a reprint of the serialized Victorian era story, The String of Pearls, upon which all the Sweeney Todd stories and plays have been based ever since. There is a lot of historical information included in the introduction plus footnotes and a fair sized bibliography. If you want to know more about the backstory of Sweeney Todd, here is a good place to start.
Also, I see that Rachel Corrie's journals have been released under the title Let Me Stand Alone, available from many online booksellers. If you want to see what inspired Alan to edit and produce the play My Name is Rachel Corrie this will give you an inkling.
Finally, if your book/film searching activities include clawing through closeout bins and tables of remainders, keep an eye out for the Signet Classics edition of Romeo and Juliet which includes not only Shakespeare's play but a DVD of the 1979 BBC production featuring AR as Tybalt. You really must see him in this--extremely young, whippet thin, and with a very fetching pudding bowl haircut :o)
Ali-Pat
Dayton, OH USA - Thursday, January 24, 2008
Some pictures I hadn't found on this site yet (from Sundance Film Festival):
WireImage.
He's looking awfully good, again.
LurkingLady
Belgium - Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Alan in one swag booth and picking up a razor in another--guess ST turned him off going to barbers!
And here is an interesting article ....not only b/c it talks about Alan but b/c the reporter quotes Alan referring to Rima as his wife. Presumably the reporter, clearly not a super-Rickman-fan, didn't take precise notes and simply reconstructed the quote later, accidentally replacing whatever term AR used w/ "wife." Or did Alan use the word himself, for whatever reason? (I know that using "partner" can sometimes lead to confusion Here are pics from last night's premiere of Bottle Shock at Sundance:
gettyimages
They all look cold, and too bundled up for my taste. :-) But I read that temps outside at Sundance have been around 0 deg F, so I guess they are cold.... Looks like a new collaboration between AR and Yukio Ninagawa (Tango at the End of Winter) HERE. I hope someone can go and send back a report!
I noticed that the site whatsonstage.com has 28 photos of the ST premiere in London. Alan is no 9, 10 and 11. What ironic fun that the party afterwards was held in the Royal Courts of Justice just down from Fleet Street.
First pic of Alan Rickman from the London Premiere Alan Rickman Other pictures from the premiere are slowly appearing at the following places (I'll update as and when I can).
PolFoto thanks to Laura in my group who found them.
The Leaky Cauldron some nice unwatermarked pics.
Enjoy and don't forget to keep checking the links because photographers will probably be uploading for a day or so. Empire Magazine (Australia edition but maybe other ones, too)January 2008 is called their Crime Issue. They have their 20 Top Crims - the wiliest law-breakers on Planet Film. Pride of place at no 1 is Hans Gruber and a little spiel about him and photo of AR. I got this from my digiguide "The Film Programme" on BBC Radio Four, is doing a piece on Sweeney Todd, here are the details:
The Film Programme
Francine Stock talks to Johnny Depp and Tim Burton about their bloodthirsty musical Sweeney Todd. Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman reveal what it was like to sing on film for the first time. Paul Haggis, Oscar-winning director of Crash, talks about In The Valley Of Elah, his controversial new film about the traumatising effects of the Iraq conflict on American soldiers.
For those of you outside of the UK who can't pick up BBC Radio you can listen to it online here Film Programme and after the show airs they will have it available to listen to for a week. You can download a podcast of the show after it airs from the site as well. There are oodles of reviews *spurting* in . . . One more, this from SF Station--Revenge Served Cold, With a Soothing Lather:
"Alan Rickman, who guaranteed himself a lifetime of villainous turns after starring as a black-hearted terrorist in Die Hard, infuses Turpin with an almost palpable menace, providing Todd with a worthy foil." From the LA Times--'Sweeney Todd' cuts it close:
"Alan Rickman plays the twisted Judge Turpin, and Timothy Spall appears as his repugnant henchman, the Beadle Bamford. Though Rickman is denied his lech's version of the love song "Johanna" (a shame), he's still suitably nasty -- there's something about the way he acts almost entirely through his nose that lends a perfect sinister snootiness to the part. Spall, meanwhile, does something twisty with his tongue when he sings that couldn't be more repulsive. But the supporting character who steals the show is Sweeney's first -- incidental -- victim, Signor Adolfo Pirelli (Sacha Baron Cohen), a rival barber and trouser-stuffing fake Italian who recognizes him and threatens him with blackmail." 20th December NPR audio of short interview Rickman Gives Voice to 'Sweeney Todd' Nemesis with Alan talking and singing, can be found here Alan Rickman candid picture and exclusive Broadway World interview from 11th December on Sweeney Todd Oh, I should mention that article also contains a photo of AR. (Click to enlarge).
Sondheim, in the Sunday Dec 16 2007 NY Times Arts & Leisure Section, confirms that the Judge's version of the song Johanna has not been included in the film adaptation.
Excerpt: "Mr. Sondheim not only approved every change, as his contract required, but also did the musical reworking himself. Though he was at first shocked by the suggested elimination of “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” Mr. Sondheim said that when he put on his “movie-buff hat,” he “completely agreed,” because it would keep holding up the action. The loss of the Judge’s version of “Johanna” — part of a brilliantly conceived triptych of “Johanna” numbers that look at the girl from various perspectives — was more troubling. It is the only time the Judge is characterized in song. (Below left, the Judge and Johanna in the 2002 Kennedy Center production.) But Mr. Logan had written a new scene that covered similar material visually. (The Judge, played by Alan Rickman, above left, fondles albums of exotic pornography.) So out it went. Did Mr. Sondheim not mind so much butchery of his score?"
“Come on, you’ve got to be ruthless. I learned that from Oscar Hammerstein. He and Richard Rodgers cut their big hit song out of ‘Oklahoma!’ because it interfered with the storytelling. A song like ‘Kiss Me’ has its delights onstage if it’s played well, because it’s funny and silly, and I’ve always meant it to be suspenseful, because you worry if the Judge is going to discover the lovers. But that’s just not how the sequence in the movie is written, and if you don’t have that, then you’re stuck in the parlor with the lovers singing and singing and singing and singing and — nothing. So there’s no point. Now, if I had my druthers, would I put the Judge’s song back in? Yes, but it might hold the story up. And anybody who wants to know what the whole thing sounds like can still listen to the record of the show.” The Broadway World interview with Alan is posted here.
There is a new video interview with Alan Rickman here at ReelTalk Enjoy :-)
The reviews are trickling in, and they're not all good: Yahoo! Entertainment calls ST a disappointment.
.
I found this excellent review of "Sweeney Todd" someone posted on the imdb. I am so sad I won't be in New York at the time it will open up. But I will see it as soon as possible. Variety. Here are more photos from last night (premiere of Sweeney Todd in New York).
If the link doesn't bring up Alan Rickman just go to the site home page and do a search :-) Newscom you have to follow the instructions to log in as a guest before you can do a search :-) Enjoy Via The Leaky Cauldron: Rickman donates HP stuff to charity. WireImage have new pictures of Alan Rickman from last week's Sweeney Todd Press Junket Enjoy :-) Just to update you on the clips floating around for Sweeney Todd. You will find six new hi-res ones (different to the nine clips from the IESB and Johnny Depp Reads Forum) here at Coming Soon most of them downloadable. There are spoilers so be warned. A couple there with Alan Rickman in, including "Thrill" be warned that one does contain a spoiler for those who don't know the story. There is now a transcript of the latest interview with Alan Rickman at the IMDB for those of you who can't read the IMDB boards and don't want to join there you can also see it here on LiveJournal He gives info about release of Nobel Son & Bottle Shock as well as when he starts on the next HP film and more, enjoy :-)
The link posted yesterday to the IESB interview has now updated with clips from the film and they have more clips coming soon. Check it out IESB Interview and clips enjoy :-) Yippee today seems to be a day I can post. Thank you Vera for posting that for me yesterday. Thank you for everything Suzanne, you do a great job.
Okay, sorry for the slight delay. Here are a couple of Windows Media files, but if you'd like any other versions, please ask. Believe me, if I can make it, it's yours.
TV spot 1 (3.39 MB, ST-TVspot-chair-11-24-07.wmv)
And I was wrong, AR doesn't say anything in these clips. I saw "the Judge" and his gavel, and my memory played tricks on me from a previous clip. Speaking of, I did make a sound file from the first trailer:
May the Lord have mercy on your soul (46 kb, ST-mercy.wav)
:-) I'm posting this for Sheena, because she has trouble with posting here.
This is taken from the Sweeney Todd Press Junket - IESB Interview which took place in London on Monday 26th November.
Relevant bit from the interview, well for all the Alan Rickman fans:
With a slasher musical like Sweeney Todd, it’s going to be interesting to see how the film fares in terms of Yule-tide competition at the box office.
Rickman commented, “it is the jolly Christmas option” for punters. He has two independent films due for release in January – “Bottle Shock” and “Nobel Son”. Thanks so much, Julia, for link to the Sweeney Todd CW video! It definitely looks like those interviews were filmed on the set. Anyway, I know a lot of you like to save videos on your computer (as do I) to watch over and over to your heart's content, so I downloaded and converted the video to three different formats: Window's Media (16.1 MB, ST-CW-BTS-11-24-07.wmv), MPEG-4 (12.9 MB, ST-CW-bts-11-24-07.mp4), and QuickTime (22.8 MB, ST-CW-bts-11-24-07.mov).
If there are any other formats to you would like, just let me know. One thing about the QuickTime file; although it seemed to convert fine, I cannot play QuickTime files on my computer for some odd reason, so I could not test it. So, to the Mac users out there, could you please downloaded and watch it to let me know if it works?
Also, last night I caught a couple of great Sweeney Todd ads on the BBC America channel (during Torchwood)! Short (about 30 seconds each), but they showed AR a few times in a couple of shots I haven't seen before. And a little more singing than I've heard before (though AR doesn't say anything except "May the Lord have mercy on your soul," which we've heard before). I'll post them when they are finished uploading.
Have you guys seen this? It's the behind-the-scenes special on the CW network for Sweeney Todd, and it features AR both in the movie and talking about the movie - lovely longish gray hair They have more clips from "Sweeney Todd" on the Official MySpace site for the film. Alan Rickman is only in the trailer and TV spot, but worth keeping an eye on. This on Sweeney Todd, from Variety:
"In a season of dark movies, this could be the grimmest -- but done with style and energy that offset the subject matter.
John Logan's screenplay smartly condenses the legit version to under two hours. Several performances, including those of Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall, will merit attention -- though anchoring the film is Johnny Depp, who offers another reminder that he can apparently do anything."
This related link has been posted over at Claudia's.
I am posting this for Sheena, as she had difficulties trying to do it.
Google News Alert for: "Alan Rickman"
Casting Is Complete on "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
Kind regards
Sheena
The Gazette (Montreal) From Los Angeles Times Slash Film have an article and some hi-res pics from "Sweeney Todd" including one of Sweeney & Judge Turpin, be warned there could be spoilers. You can find them HERE and the direct link to the Sweeney & Judge pic is HERE. I am looking forward to this film I must admit.
'Nobel' a prize pickup for Freestyle
By Gregg Goldstein
Nov 2, 2007
Complete AFM coverage in our special section
Randall Miller's darkly comic thriller "Nobel Son," starring Alan Rickman, Danny DeVito, Mary Steenburgen, Bill Pullman, Ted Danson and Shawn Hatosy, has been picked up for North American distribution by Freestyle Releasing.
Bryan Greenberg ("Prime") and Eliza Dushku ("Bring It On") also star in the story of an egomaniacal Nobel Prize-winning scientist (Rickman) whose son (Greenberg) is kidnapped. The film features a wild collection of eccentric supporting characters who guide the film through unexpected plot twists.
"The soundtrack is has new tracks by Paul Oakenfold, Groove Armada and the Chemical Brothers. The marketing opportunities are tremendous," said Freestyle co-president Susan Jackson. "We are convinced this will capture the same young male audience that 'Crank' and 'Smokin' Aces' did last year."
Freestyle will roll the film out on more than 1,000 screens in March. Nicolas Chartier of Voltage Pictures is repping its international sales at AFM.
Miller and his and producing partner, Jody Savin of Unclaimed Freight Prods., recently wrapped the wine industry saga "Bottle Shock" starring Chris Pine, Rickman and Pullman. The director wrote the script with wife Jody Savin, who previously collaborated on the Sundance entry "Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School."
Jackson negotiated the distribution deal with Miller and Savin.
Sweeney Todd will be on the cover of Entertainment Weekly - Nov. 9 issue! And here are a couple of stories on the EW web-site:
All puns intended, I'm sure. :-) AND there are already Oscar predictions for Sweeney Todd I'm getting excited and really looking forward to seeing this movie.
An article on the concertfrom www.musicfromthemovies.com.
A Remarkable Night with the Stars
"I’ve always been appreciative of Patrick Doyle’s talent as a composer; he has a gift for melody and orchestral nuance, and a sparkling romantic touch with music. Last night those gathered at the Royal Albert Hall in London bore witness not only to that musical gift, showcased through two-hours of his film music performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, but also Patrick’s mighty heart.
It’s ten years since the composer was diagnosed with Leukaemia, a disease that, we were informed, only 30% of adults survive. Patrick’s brave battle is inspiring for many and, with the help of his family and good friends, it is a battle he thankfully won. So, ten years on, and many scores later, Patrick teamed up with Britain’s leading blood-cancer research charity, Leukaemia Research, and with a little help from his friends put on one hell of a show.
They say you can get the measure of a man by his friends, and with the likes of Kenneth Branagh, Dame Judi Dench, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane and Sir Derek Jacobi on his speed-dial, Patrick Doyle is perhaps off the chart. Branagh directed tonight’s show and was a great force in getting it off the ground. His collaboration with Patrick, which began at London’s Renaissance Theatre Company, has since born the likes of Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Frankenstein, Loves Labours Lost, As You Like It and Sleuth and the pair remain close friends. Of course the big-screen Shakespearean adaptations played a big part in the night’s programme, beginning with selections from 1993’s Much Ado About Nothing. Emma Thompson reprised her role as Beatrice, prancing onstage, feeding grapes to orchestra and audience members, before performing the verse ‘Sigh No More Ladies’, which was elegantly put to music by Doyle for the film, while Tenor Scott Davies sang ‘Pardon Goddess of the Night’. Sir Derek Jacobi stole the show though later with a thunderous recital from Hamlet, backed by Patrick’s thrilling underscore.
French director Regis Wargnier was on hand to introduce two dramatic cues, from his films Indochine and East-West. The director offered his memories of working with Patrick for the first time and also, for the latter film, taking the screenplay into hospital for him to read. He recalled how they both tried to hide their shock, Regis’ at how sick Patrick was, and Patrick at how shocked Regis looked. Another director friend to take to the stage was Mike Newell, with whom the composer has worked on the likes of Into The West, Donnie Brasco and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The ‘Harry Potter Waltz’ opened the second half, with Newell introducing the beautiful theme ‘Harry In Winter’. The LSO worked their own magic with Doyle’s music, under the strong direction of conductor Dirk Brossé.
Great humour was abound during the concert and the likes of Imelda Staunton, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane and Greg Wise recounted hilarious anecdotes about their time with Patrick, as a friend and as a fellow actor (one of his many talents). Staunton remarked how Patrick’s laugh is so raucous it can be 'heard across several counties' and, being seated just in front of him, I can vouch for that. The big names continued to step up to the microphone and the highlights continued well into the night.
A poignant moment came when actress Celia Imrie took to the stage with Angela Baker. Angela is one of the original Calendar Girls, portrayed as Annie Clarke by Julie Walters in the film, who lost her husband to Leukaemia. In fact all of the original ‘girls’, members of the Rylestone Women’s Institute, were present and seated in the Royal Box. Leukaemia Research has had a fruitful association with them and, with Patrick coincidentally scoring the film in 2003, it has become a wonderful union. Imrie and Baker went onto introduce US singer/songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman, who put lyrics to Patrick’s theme from the film to create the heartrending song ‘I Find Your Love’. It was a moving moment in the show, made all the more poignant knowing Chapman’s own husband was also taken by the disease.
Further highlights came thick and fast, not least of all the world premiere of Patrick’s new Violin Concerto. Dedicated to his wife Lesley and introduced by his daughter Nuala, the work is based upon themes from his recent score for Branagh’s As You Like It and is in fact titled the ‘Rosalind Violin Concerto’. Soloist and Co-Leader of the LSO Carmine Lauri performed the piece beautifully on his 1780 Lupot instrument. Another Doyle took to the stage in the first half, this time Patrick’s other daughter Abigail. An accomplished vocalist, the young artist performed ‘The Way It’s Meant To Be’, the lyrics for which she co-wrote with director Robert Altman for his 2001 film Gosford Park. Richard E. Grant introduced this segment, which included the buoyant piece ‘String Folly’.
Bringing the evening to an end was Dame Judi Dench who introduced a selection from Patrick’s first film score, Henry V. Kenneth Branagh and Jimmy Yull performed as Henry and Westmoreland, with Branagh giving an exuberant recital of the ‘St. Crispin’s Day’ speech, backed by Patrick’s score. The big surprise of the evening came when Patrick himself performed the opening vocal solo of his piece ‘Non nobis, Domine’. It was a very strong performance, and a lovely touch to the programme. The London Symphony Chorus were of course magnificent in what was a resounding finale. Of course that wasn’t really the end and the ‘cast’ assembled onstage to sing, with a little help from us, a reprise of ‘Sigh No More Ladies’, before Patrick took some time to say a few words, surrounded by his friends. He remarked how having his music performed at the Albert Hall by the LSO was something he would never have imagined in his wildest dreams and to be able to gather together such immense world-wide talent was a ‘miracle’. One final encore came as people left their seats, the hugely exciting cue 'The Creation' from Frankenstein, a stunning final word from Dirk Brosse and the LSO.
It’s certainly true to say that to be able to see not only the world’s greatest orchestra, but also a who’s who of acting talent all under one roof (and what a roof), was just the biggest of treats. 'Patrick Doyle’s Music from the Movies – An All-Star Celebration' was without doubt an enourmous success and a remarkable achievement. This was a special night; not just a concert, but a celebration of life, courage, good humour and music, all things which form part of Patrick Doyle’s character and things that ultimately helped him win his battle with Leukaemia.
If you want to find out more about the wonderful work Leukaemia Research do, or if you want to lend your support, then visit www.lrf.org.uk." Phenomenal report Wendy! And Sue too! There are more super reports and photos in this Rickman IMDB thread including many large un-watermarked pics from the leaky cauldron.
I wish I could have been there too. So many of my favorite Brits! Sounds like everyone had a fun time for a worthy cause. I'm so relieved Patrick Doyle is now well so he can continue to make such wonderful music.
I should have guessed that Kenneth Branagh would perform the St. Crispin's Day speech from Henry V at the Patrick Doyle concert at the Royal Albert Hall. I can't begin to imagine how thrilling that must have been *live*.
I understand that Derek Jacobi's delivery of Hamlet's "How All Occasions" with Patrick's music behind him was riveting . . . Would I had been there . . .
Here's a review of Rachel Corrie running at the Arcata Playhouse, in Ca.
Britain's Best--a night of movie music from *koff* Hello Magazine. Snippet:
"It could easily have been BAFTA night as the cream of British acting talent turned up in their finest. The stellar lineup, which included Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Richard E Grant and Harry Potter actors Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane, all took to the stage at London's Royal Albert Hall for Music From The Movies - An All Star Celebration."
On Tuesday there was an early screening of "Sweeney Todd" to test audience reactions. Click here for the results (no spoilers).
Ali-Pat, thanks for the "Sweeney" merchandise list from Amazon. That is so cool! I know what's going in MY stocking this Christmas.
This article on Patrick Doyle's story in the daily Mail. Read it through. Here are the relevant AR excerpts:
"When music composer Patrick Doyle was diagnosed with an aggressive type of leukaemia, his famous friends rallied round in support.
Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman had him in stitches when they wore funny wigs to visit him in hospital; he sobbed on the shoulders of Kenneth Branagh and John Sessions; and Timothy Spall relived his own leukaemia battle to help Patrick through.
Hospital staff became used to celebrity visitors. "Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman came in wearing ginger wigs, speaking with Scottish accents. The ward didn't know what had hit it."
Sleuth, scored by Patrick Doyle, is currently playing in the US. This comes from the Sweeneytoddfilm community on livejournal There are reports from the screening here Johnny Depp forum obviously as that is mainly about Johnny Depp not much is said about Alan Rickman, but he does get a couple of little mentions.
There are also reports on the IMDB board for Sweeney Todd be warned there are spoilers involved in two of the links (I will mark those two) and there is one which is meant to be spoiler free but you never know what people will type in things like that so be warned.
Little spoilers and plot details Mega Spoilers Meant to be spoiler free Just thought you may like to know. :-) For all you early holiday shoppers, the Sweeney Todd move book, novelization, and Soundtrack CD are available for pre-order. The Times (London) A second Sweeney Todd trailer is out. See it on YouTube HERE Rickman's Latymer speech moved up a page - here it is incase they move it off the site.
(http://www.latymer-upper.org/page147.html)
PRIZE GIVING 2007 SPEECH BY GUEST OF HONOUR
I have to say this is a slightly out of body experience.
Apparently, I’m talking to the Latymer pupils even though I’m clearly staring only at parents and staff.
The Headmaster assures me I’m being ‘beamed’ to the pupils but my question is –
How does he know? Can he be sure? Where are they? Are they still there?
This situation seems to me to be open to infinite abuse.
On my side, you see, I have hindsight.
Jill
CA USA - Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Alan is in the pics in the second row and the middle pic of the bottom-most row.
Jill <esoterica1693@yahoo.comfoo>
CA USA - Saturday, January 19, 2008
Ali-Pat
Dayton, OH USA - Saturday, January 19, 2008
Barbara
New Zealand - Sunday, January 13, 2008
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire, UK - Saturday, January 12, 2008
Barbara
NZ - Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Channel: BBC Radio Four
Date: Friday 25th January 2008
Time: 16:30 to 17:00
Duration: 30 minutes.
Copyright GipsyMedia Ltd.
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire, UK - Wednesday, January 09, 2008
R
No one can forget Hans, it seems, despite AR's valiant attempts to the contrary . . . , - Tuesday, December 25, 2007
R
Chilly Marin, - Monday, December 24, 2007
Claire
- Friday, December 21, 2007
Claire
- Friday, December 21, 2007
R
- Monday, December 17, 2007
Renie
:-(, - Monday, December 17, 2007
Ali-Pat
Dayton, OH USA - Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire, UK - Sunday, December 09, 2007
Julia
Canada - Thursday, December 06, 2007
Greta <lotsalolly@hotmail.comfoo>
- Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire UK - Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Julia
Canada - Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire, UK - Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire, UK - Saturday, December 01, 2007
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
- Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire UK - Tuesday, November 27, 2007
I bring glad tidings, the podcast from musicaltalk is up already. For those who don't read at other places, a man called Nick Hutson was at the press junket for MusicalTalk. He has posted on the Sweeney Todd board at the IMDB that they have the podcast up now. Not listened yet myself but here it is Press Junket Podcast Thank you to Nick Hutson for sharing it so quickly.
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire UK - Tuesday, November 27, 2007
TV spot 2 (3.58 MB, ST-TVspot-smile-11-24-07.wmv)
(right click and choose "Save as" or "Save Target As)
Suzanne <webmistress@alan-rickman.comfoo>
TX USA - Monday, November 26, 2007
Although reticent to discuss Harry Potter, Alan Rickman laughed about the recent rumor of a JK Rowling inspired musical; “who is shoving that around?” He further informed the IESB that there is an online porn version of the franchise making the rounds. (Harry Pooter is my vote for the title)
Vera
- Monday, November 26, 2007
(right click and choose "Save as" or "Save Target As...)
Suzanne <webmistress@alan-rickman.comfoo>
TX USA - Sunday, November 25, 2007
Julia
Canada - Sunday, November 25, 2007
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire, UK - Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Renie
USA - Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Ali-Pat
Dayton, OH USA - Saturday, November 17, 2007
PR Newswire UK (press release) - London,UK
... Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Natalia Tena, Julie Walters and David Thewlis, as well as Evanna Lynch, Matthew Lewis and Bonnie Wright. ...
Sheffe <shethra77@yahoo.comfoo>
Conestoga, PA USA - Saturday, November 17, 2007
November 13, 2007 Tuesday
Final Edition
Activist's parents to attend local play
BYLINE: The Gazette; Newsday
SECTION: ARTS & LIFE; Fast Track; Pg. D5
LENGTH: 120 words
The parents of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old activist crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer, will be in Montreal next month to attend the Canadian premiere of a controversial play based on their daughter's diaries and emails home. Teesri Duniya Theatre's production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie will run from Dec. 6 to 22 at Monument National. The play was written by actor Alan Rickman and journalist Katharine Viner and was first staged in 2005 at London's Royal Court Theatre. Corrie, an American Jewish woman, joined a peace movement in Gaza committed to using non-violent but direct action to resist the Israeli occupation. She was crushed to death in 2003 while trying to stop the demolition of a Palestinian home.
Georgiana
Seattle - Thursday, November 15, 2007
November 14, 2007 Wednesday
Home Edition
IN CONTENTION TOM O'NEIL; IT'S A CROWDED FIELD
BYLINE: Tom O'Neil
SECTION: THE ENVELOPE; Calendar Desk; Part S; Part S; Pg. 30
LENGTH: 1823 words
THE Oscars' acting races are packed with real drama.
. . . . . . . . . .
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Favorites
Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
Sacha Baron Cohen, "Sweeney Todd"
Philip Bosco, "The Savages"
Paul Dano, "There Will Be Blood"
Albert Finney, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"
Ben Foster, "3:10 to Yuma"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"
Ethan Hawke, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"
Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"
Alan Rickman, "Sweeney Todd"
John Travolta, "Hairspray"
Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton"
Max von Sydow, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
. . . . . . . . . .
Georgiana (back from Egypt and have ben working like a dog...)
Seattle - Thursday, November 15, 2007
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire, UK - Monday, November 12, 2007
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire, UK - Saturday, November 03, 2007
Johnny Depp: Cutting Loose in "Sweeney Todd"
"Sweeney Todd": A Musical on the Cutting Edge
Suzanne <webmistress@alan-rickman.comfoo>
TX USA - Saturday, November 03, 2007
By Michael Beek
Renie
- Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Terry
FL USA - Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Renie
*le gasp* et *le sigh* , - Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Renie
I hope there are more reports coming-- let's hear them., - Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Lisa
US - Friday, October 26, 2007
Renie
- Friday, October 26, 2007
Sheena <dragon@amberdragon.freeserve.co.ukfoo>
Berkshire, UK - Friday, October 26, 2007
Ali-Pat
Dayton, OH USA - Friday, October 26, 2007
December 14, 2006, Thursday
Play your cads right, and you're a hero
BYLINE: James Christopher
SECTION: FEATURES; Times2; Pg. 13
LENGTH: 1248 words
That ever-reliable rotter Alan Rickman tells JAMES CHRISTOPHER how he came to play the good guy for a change
Alan Rickman takes a pen and a crumpled piece of paper out of his jacket pocket and writes down the name of a wonderful old-fashioned revue club I discovered in Berlin. It's a rare haunt where shapely artistes take pride in saucy routines and nostalgic torch songs, and the punters are civilised and few.
His curiosity doesn't surprise me. These late-night sanctuaries are hard to find if your face is as familiar as Rickman's, and his latest screen adventure will not make the task any easier. The reluctant star plays a modest but crucial role in Tom Tykwer's stunning adaptation of Patrick Suskind's hit novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
The hero is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (played by Ben Wishaw), a savage wretch born under a Paris fish stall in 1738. He is possessed of a nose that would make Cyrano de Bergerac weep and a sense of smell so acute that it gives him a God-like power over mortals. But life is a squelching misery until a raddled Italian perfumer (Dustin Hoffman) plucks Grenouille from servitude and teaches him the secrets of bottling essence. The young man's quest to decant the perfect scent from the bodies of beautiful virgins results in a grisly murder spree and widespread fear.
Rickman arrives quite late in the film like a doomy Sherlock Holmes. He is a rich and clever merchant keenly aware that his beloved teenage daughter (Rachel Hurd-Wood) is probably the ripest target for the ripper prowling southern France.
His battle to outwit the killer inspires a thrilling endgame. If Tykwer's $60 million (£ 30 million) film taps a fraction of the popularity of Suskind's book, it will bank a fortune. Since its publication in Germany in 1985 15 million copies of Perfume have been sold in 45 languages (including Latin).
"The simple genius of the story," says Rickman, "is that you fall in love with Grenouille's motives, if not the man himself. The miracle of the film is that it en- gages you on the same terms as the book. I've talked to nervous sceptics who ask: 'How do you film a sense of smell?' My reply is: 'Well, how on earth do you write it on a page?' It's all about imagination. Of course with film there are rival senses at work. Your eyes are dazzled by images."
And what images. Tyker's film has a visceral fascination with rotting flesh and muddy peasants that would humble Peter Greenaway. The director sprays his Parisian sets with hundreds of gallons of slurry. Yet there's a doll's-house perfection about the costumes and period detail. Even Rickman was taken aback by some of the extreme realism. "I thought the newborn hero, who lands on a pile of fish guts at the beginning of the film, was an animatronic baby. I've since discovered it was a real premature baby, complete with umbilical cord, surrounded by nervous medical extras."
Given his own colourful history of quirky screen roles, Rickman's conservative patrician in Perfume feels strangely conventional. "One of the unsettling things about the story is that it has no subtext at all," he explains. "My character, Richis, plays straight down the line of the narrative. You don't need to know what his inner psyche is. I'm a widowed father, I have a beautiful daughter, I love her, there's a killer on the loose -let's stop him getting to her."
Isn't playing a part such as this a bit like falling off a log? "No, I think these parts can be terribly difficult. You've got no hiding place. Mannerisms, quirks and tics are not going to be very useful here."
Ironically, Rickman has been unfairly accused in the past of abusing these fidgety tricks, largely because of his sublime ability to turn a deadpan line into a comic feast. It's a skill that made the 60-year-old actor a staple villain in Hollywood in the 1990s. Comparisons are invariably odious, but Rickman is an uncanny British version of John Malkovich. Both actors had huge stage careers in the 1980s. They both mined a rich seam of exotic screen-stealing villains. They've both directed issue-led plays and films. And they both played Valmont in Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses: Rickman on stage for the RSC; Malkovich in Stephen Frears's film in 1998.
The differences are more revealing. While Malkovich wears his psychoses like clunking armour (cf Eragon, reviewed on page 16), Rickman simply doesn't bother with the predictable trappings at all. His detached and withering disdain for emotional overload has served him wonderfully well as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, the icy Russian mastermind in Die Hard and as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter franchise.
But recently there's been a perceptible softening of tone, notably his vulnerable performance in Marc Evans's gentle drama Snow Cake, in which he plays a guilty ex-con who finds himself morally handcuffed to Sigourney Weaver's autistic mother when he is involved in a fatal car accident. And the new and conscientious Rickman in Perfume is stubbornly chaste despite his character's stifling obsession with his teenage daughter.
"It's a bit alarming but I found myself referring to Rachel as 'jail bait'," admits Rickman. "You had to keep saying to yourself 'She's 15'. She's an adorable girl who is completely unaware of her own beauty, which is why, I suppose, the tension works."
So was it difficult to remain paternal? I ask naively. "No, my dear," says Rickman. "She's 15. That said, I thought there might be a danger that the film could suffer some sort of sexist backlash given the number of beautiful naked young women who are murdered . But Tom (Tykwer) deals with it brilliantly. The notion of someone trying to bottle purity masks the murdering aspect. Tom never indulges that side, so it becomes a metaphor."
Thankfully Rickman has not abandoned his appetite for black comedy. He is about to start work on Tim Burton's new version of Sweeney Todd. Is it going to be an animation? "No, although Tim may wish it were when we all start singing," says Rickman in that delicious and deliberate drawl. "If you're going to do a musical on film this is perfect because it's so much about close-up, and the seamless stitching between speech and song. There's no ghastly 'And now for my next big number' moments.
"Johnny Depp is playing Sweeney. Helena Bonham Carter is Mrs Lovett. Sacha Baron Cohen is going to play Signor Pirelli, and I'm Judge Martin."
So will he end up in a pie? "I imagine so," says Rickman, and he smiles a small, enigmatic smile.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is released on Boxing Day
* FOUR GUIDES TO RICKMAN'S WORTH
Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990)
Juliet Stevenson is noisily grieving her lover's sudden death when he unexpectedly comes back from the grave.
Michael Collins (1996)
Liam Neeson hogs the camera as Collins, but is totally outclassed by Rickman's beautifully acted Eamon De Valera.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Rickman's Severus Snape: sinister and irreplaceable.
Snow Cake (2006)
A rare glimpse of Rickman at his vulnerable best
* FREE PERFUME WITH THE TIMES ON SATURDAY
Read The Times this Saturday to find out how to get your free copy of Patrick Suskind's bestseller Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Originally published in 1985, Perfume is regarded as a modern literary classic which explores the human sense of scent and identity.
Read The Times this Saturday to find out how to order your free copy by text (all books will be sent within 28 days).
Georgiana (missed this one)
Seattle - Wednesday, October 24, 2007
sue
england - Saturday, October 20, 2007
Assuming there are some students, in some room, somewhere, and if my experience of this
