The Reel Life of Real Life

After nineteen years as a prisoner, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is freed by Javert (Russell Crowe) the officer in charge of the workers in the prison. However, Jean Valjean breaks parole, though ultimately uses the money gotten for stolen silver to reinvent himself as a mayor and factory owner. Eight years later, he becomes the guardian of a child named Cosette after her mother's (Anne Hathaway) death, but Javert's relentless pursuit to bring Jean Valjean back to prison means that peace is not something to be expected any time soon. Oh this has to be one of the most depressing film I’ve ever sat down to watch. It really is. I mean, there’s no point in sugar coating it. If there was a rotten situation possible to convey, it’s in this movie. Like...there’s a place called stop! A luxury this story does not seem to avail of. It’s just one bad thing after another. (The hint is in the title, so you needn’t be too disapointed by this “spoiler”!) That being said however, th...

I said I’d write about this movie next since the sequel is out in cinemas now! British retirees travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than its advertisements, the Marigold Hotel nevertheless slowly begins to charm in unexpected ways. I admit I didn’t think much of this movie the first time I watched it. I think the pace is very, very slow moving. The story is good…it just takes a while to get there! And while I like Judi Dench’s character’s narrations, sometimes they can be a bit dreary! But her character does offer some consoling ideas to life’s unpredictability, which I like. There’s a nice message at the heart of the plot, which could be easily overlooked due to the slowness of the pace. In my opinion, it’s Dev Patel who steals the show, as the hapless hotel manager, Sonny. He’s just brilliant. I just can’t understand how we hear so little of him. He’s a brilliant actor. His character has one particular quo...

Due to the fragility of early film stock and the means available of archiving, most of the earliest horror films have supposedly been lost forever. However, some have survived. In 1896 Georges Méliès created what is considered to be the first horror film ever made, “Le Manoir Du Diable”. Gothic literature provided the inspiration for the first horror films. This was a popular genre in both books and theater at the time. However the term ‘horror’ did not come into use for film until the 1930s. Famous Gothic writers included: The first horror films are surreal and disturbing pieces. Their visual appearance relies on expressionist painters and spirit photography of the 1860s. Spirit photography was popular from the 1860s onwards among stage musicians and Spiritualists. This was achieved through the use of double exposures or superimpositions to dpict ghosts within a frame of film. While the first moving pictures would have been action and comedy, early filmmakers also u...