To Kill a Mockingbird at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

There is something about the classic coming-of-age story, the bildungsroman, that we just cannot get enough of. Whether it's Charlotte Bronte's brooding Jane Eyre, CS Lewis's magical tales of Narnia, or Suzanne Collins' modern dystopian answer to the genre with The Hunger Games trilogy, the concept is something we can all relate to on one level or another. Whatever age, wherever we live, whatever class we're born into - we can all remember a moment, series of events or time in our lives when childhood seemed to slip from our grip and the murky, less black-and-white (excuse the pun...) adulthood showed itself.

For a friend of mine, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is her absolute favourite example and I can completely see why. For those who don't know, the novel is a touching, loosely biographical tale that follows Scout and her brother Jem as a series of events unfold in their hometown in Alabama during the Great Depression. A young black man is accused of raping a young white woman and their father is the defence lawyer and Scout is suddenly thrown into the town's bitter brawl.

It has since won the Pulitzer Prize and been added to the curriculum in schools all over the world but what do you do when you want to adapt a book that well-read, that well-loved?

The answer, for me, was at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre this summer and luckily for anyone who missed it - it's going on tour!

Sat in the audience wrapped up in my blanket and hoodie on the sunny but chilly September Sunday evening with my hot chocolate, I won't lie that I was a bit taken aback when a middle-aged woman in a mac and scarf stood up on her chair in the row in front and started speaking to the audience in a distinctly Northern accent, not Deep South America by any stretch.

'Oh god,' I whispered, 'they're going to try and mix it up and set the story in a council estate in Manchester aren't they?' Luckily, I spoke too soon. A few minutes in and the stage comes alive with children and trees and invisible picket fences, the village all cleverly brought to life with some simple props, a few pieces of chalk and a man floating in and out of scenes strumming an atmospheric soundtrack by Phil King (which, I might add, I bought on CD and is now playing in my car - recommended).

The cast is brilliant, the staging spectacular, and all in all it was the perfect way to spend a late summer evening. My snooty anxiety that 'you can't successfully adapt a truly good book' was put to shame and instead, I've gone away and curled myself up with the novel itself. Success story (pun intended this time) I think you'll agree, and all tied up very nicely with an on-site barbecue dinner and subsequent hot chocolate.

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

In this brilliantly perceptive novel, a middle-aged professor living in California is alienated from his students by differences in age and nationality, and from the rest of society by his homosexuality. Isherwood explores the depths of the human soul and its ability to triumph over loneliness, alienation and loss.

'He strikes a note of great intimacy with the reader as if with a close personal friend, and a sense of total honesty is sought. This style - witty, observant, nostalgic, exact - was Isherwood's great contribution to modern literature' Financial Times

'Very sad and yet at times wildly funny' Daily Telegraph

I picked up A Single Man again a few weeks ago. I love this novel but to describe why is so difficult. Not because I can’t put my finger on it, but because my reasons are so boringly clichéd.

It’s just beautifully written and brilliantly immersive; you really feel you ‘get’ George. You can place him, you can place his neighbours and his academic colleagues. You know who he is, what he’d do next – you can paint a very good picture in just the 170 pages that make up this book.

It of course helps when painting said picture (I didn’t actually paint… just to be clear…) that you’ve seen the film. Which I have. Three times. Also, extremely good. I mean Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode and Nicholas Hoult are never going to disappoint but director Tom Ford brings his relentlessly cool style to the table that gives it that extra summitsummit. I suppose you could maaybbeee say that Ford’s direction fills the void of Isherwood’s writing in the film.

While making the story visually striking, I also think Ford gets across George’s moments of detachment that Isherwood creates so beautifully in his novel. Ishwerwood’s decision to describe everything from George’s perspective helps illustrate how George, for the most part, is removed from his community. He is secretive and aloof – a deliberate decision, I think, to protect himself, which he enjoys but all the while he unconsciously yearns to be included, be social, be loved. Probably a bit of that in us all…

In short, though, he’s a softie who is wonderfully screwed up. As a child from the Harry Potter generation, I was brought up with Snape, Lupin, Dumbledore, Harry himself, and so feel I am now always destined to fall for screwed up male characters (hopefully just in books…).

Being so short, there is absolutely no excuse not to read this. Even if you hate it. Which I hope you don't… and if you do, watch the film. I give you permission.

8.5/10

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

This animation makes me feel all smiley and growy like watching a sepia toned movie on a rainy Sunday afternoon. In 2011 it won Best Animated Short Film at the Oscars, so you may have come across this little gem before but even if you have, you should just watch it again. If your job is in books, I like to think this counts as work... as does the Daily Mail sidebar of shame - it's RESEARCH.

To give you a little bit of background info and credit the brilliant people behind it, 'The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore' is a short animated film directed by American's William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg. The film was originally made to showcase Joyce and Oldenburg's the quality of the work coming out of their studios, Moonbot Studios in Louisiana. Winning an Academy Award I think probably secured them a little recognition... they later went on to create DreamWorks' Rise of the Guardians.

The studio's Louisiana roots are evident in this touching story which starts with Mr. Lessmore writing his memoir in the French Quarter of New Orleans before trouble hits.

Enjoy, friends!

Tracks

Last night I went to see Tracks, the film adaptation of the memoir of the same name by Robyn Davidson. Davidson, for those that don't know, became famous after completing a 1,700 mile trek across Australia from Alice Springs to the west coast. The trek, much to her resentment it's understood, was documented by American photographer Rick Smolan who met up with her three times along the way on the understanding that the magazine would sponsor Davidson's trek. Smolan's photographs were published alongside an article written by Davidson herself and both went on to publish books - Davidson to write a full-length account in Tracks and Smolan to put together his photographic collection in From Alice to Ocean. 

What a film. It's beautifully shot, but you only have to see the trailer to see that. It was even more fun for me having been out to the Red Centre so recently, and flown over this extraordinary landscape myself but the film makes it all so immediate, so real, that you don't have to have flown to the other side of the world to appreciate it.

I have to admit I have never read the original memoir but I was immediately drawn in to this girl's world, and her eccentric character. Sure, the film can't resist providing some kind of emotional explanation as to why a 27 year old woman would try to cross the Australian desert with just the help and companionship of four camels and a dog... but Mia Wasikowska is brilliant, and somehow you can't help but fall for this essentially difficult, and slightly barmy, woman.

I was relieved, too, that not too much was made of this story being important because she was a woman. For once I felt inspired by a woman because of what she did, not because she's female or because the world is telling me I ought to look up to her because I'm a woman too.

It's a brilliant story and so, by default, you would assume it would make a brilliant film... but, to me, it's an achievement to keep an audience engaged with so little visual variation. The Australian outback is just desert. Once she passes The Rock, that's pretty much it save a handful of Aboriginal huts. But I was hooked, and it was certainly a good advertisement for whoever made those sandals... but less so for good sunscreen practice, pretty sure she doesn't have time for any of that mumbo jumbo...

I'm really keen to read the book now and see how faithful the film was but if you just want to go see a beautifully made film, escape for a while, and feel inspired to capture some frothing wild camels - go see this film.

9/10

Other relevant posts:

Voss by Patrick White

Literary Melbourne

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

Tolkien Tourism

Did you know 'Tolkien Tourism' has its own Wikipedia page? Mm, yup - Tolkien Tourism.

It's basically the term used to describe the pilgrimage fans of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film franchises take to the locations that stand in for places described in Tolkien's original novels in the films.

As the films were filmed almost entirely in New Zealand, that's pretty much where these 'Ringers' (as I've just learned they're called) want to go. Now I wouldn't call myself a Ringer, not even close, and I didn't make it to Hobbiton sadly, but even I knew that leaving New Zealand without seeing Mount Doom would be 'literarily' (the red wiggly line tells me this is not a word?) blasphemous.

I would have loved to do the Tongariro Crossing where you trek between the two volcanoes and climb Mount Doom itself, but time was not on my side sadly.

I'm sure New Zealand has a weird relationship with Lord of the Rings. On the one side, you don't exactly want your distinguishing feature to be your use as a film set, but on the other side I'm pretty sure half the planet didn't know New Zealand was a place you could actually go, let alone that it was as beautiful as it is. I mean what else would let you get away with hanging a huge model of Gollum over the departure lounge at Wellington Airport?

With horses grazing on the lush green mountains, turquoise lakes, milky glacier rivers, the clear blue ocean of the Coromandel Penninsula and the dramatic jet black rocks and moody waters of the South Island, Peter Jackson probably couldn't have found a more perfect Middle Earth.

I was lucky to walk in the shadows of Mount Doom, took some hobbits horses to Isengard and through the Dead Marshes, cycle through Rohan and go through the forests of Rivendell, Dimrill Dale and Chetwood Forest.

Embarrassingly, it was actually the latest adaptation of CS Lewis's Prince Caspian that first made me want to go to New Zealand. Using Cathedral Cove, the film captured a very different side to New Zealand but no less beautiful - I mean seriously? This place exists? This planet is awesome.

Wolf Hall at RSC Stratford

When it was announced that Hilary Mantel's Booker-winning Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies were going to be adapted into a stage production by the Royal Shakespeare Company, there was never a doubt in my mind that it would be brilliantly done. Mantel's intelligent and vivid re-imagining of Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII's Tudor court was made for the stage.

The only thing was that the books were so long, weren't they? and I'm not sure we could call them the lightest reads either... so the plays were bound to be hideously long and a little 'heavy'. I wasn't convinced the more political side would translate that well - potentially a little dry... When I went to see Wolf Hall in Shakespeare's birth-town of Stratford last week, though, I'm pleased to say that I was completely and utterly wrong.

What I should have remembered was when I heard Hilary Mantel reading from Bring Up the Bodies at the Southbank Centre a couple of years ago. She brought out all the humour in her writing that I had embarrassingly missed somehow when reading it myself. It was clear from the moment the play started that Mantel was written all over the screenplay. Her heavy involvement in the production has resulted in a play that was both clever and accessible, and really very funny from start to finish. Be it Cromwell's crafty wit or his Shakespearean clown-like servant Joseph, the whole Swan Theatre regularly erupted into laughter. One of them so much that they seemed to be quietly dying of a coughing fit in the third row... 

On the subject of the audience, it was a little, umm, predictable shall we say. I'm pretty sure I brought the average age down by about 40 years for starters. Admittedly it was a matinee in the middle of the week in Stratford but I do hope when the plays move to London later in the year that everyone goes to see it.

The only criticism I had, and to be honest it's more of a question mark than a criticism, was that I felt there could have been a bit more of Cromwell's brutality. Even though one of the main ambitions of Mantel's trilogy is to change our perspective on Cromwell a little bit and imagine him from a different perspective, there is no doubt that Cromwell could be a cruel bully sometimes, whether his actions were understandable or not. I felt that this was slightly underplayed, not absent, but perhaps too subtle in places. Perhaps Bring Up the Bodies grows this side of his character a bit more. And maybe make him a bit uglier... Ben Miles is very nice on the eye - pretty sure Crommers was not...

Anyway, it's really really good. So go see it. Do it. Go. And if you're really keen and, you know, rich - book Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies back to back! I wish I had. Historical inaccuracies aside, there really are worse things than a double-bill of Ben Miles...

Other related posts:

Review: Giving Up the Ghost

Hilary Mantel Makes History...

RSC To Stage Wolf Hall

Review: A Place of Greater Safety

Hilary Mantel at the Southbank Centre

Review: Bring Up the Bodies

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Hobbit trilogy; a filmic masterpiece or an exercise in making the longest films ever out of a very average sized book? As much as I'd like to believe and feel the former, I am desperately struggling to get past the latter unfortunately.

I think if I were a film maker *makes mental note for whenever Stylist magazine ask me my Plan B career* I would struggle to not want to make my mark. I heard last week that Scorcese has allegedly managed to make it into the record books with The Wolf of Wall Street by making a movie that has the highest usage of the F-word in any other movie other than a film about the F-word itself... over 500 utterances apparently. If Peter Jackson's adaptation of the Tolkein classic is indeed an indulgent attempt to make it into the record books with the greatest amount of screen-time per page of a single novel, then I have to say he's doing a pretty good job. I'm not going to go out there and say it's the best film I saw last year. It's far from it: it's too long and it's not got enough content to stop me from looking at my watch... but it could be SO much worse.

Maybe not the words Peter Jackson wants to hear from the likes of Empire or Total Film, but I'm pretty sure he won't give a hobbit's foot what I think so I'll make the most of my insignificance.

I definitely preferred this film to the first in the trilogy. The plot still feels stretched but overall it felt more 'whole' somehow, like it stood by itself better than the first. The ending was less abrupt too, a nice cameo from Orlando Bloom, a bit of dwarf flirting that was absent from part 1, LOVED the melting gold and there was a little bit more pretty in the form of Bard the Bowman for which I was thankful. Talking of casting, if there were ever a film that better solidified the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch will become the next Anthony Hopkins or Michael Gambon of brilliant British voiceovers, then I don't know what will. Cumberbatch as Smaug has got to be a highlight.

Overall, I'd wait for it on DVD if it weren't for the stunning scenery that continues to scene steal throughout.

Punchdrunk: The Drowned Man

Have you ever seen nature inside out? When the sun stands at midday and it's as if the world was going up in flames?

Step into the world of Temple Pictures where the Hollywood studio system meets a forgotten hinterland filled with dreamers who exist at the fringes of the movie industry. Here, celluloid fantasy clings to desperate realism and certainty dissolves into a hallucinatory world.

Inspired by Buchner's fractured masterpiece Woyzeck, this theatrical journey follows its protagonists along the precipice between illusion and reality.

You would be forgiven for thinking wtf does that mean when you read the above blurb for immersive theatre company Punchdrunk's latest spectacle - The Drowned Man. To be honest you would be forgiven for thinking wtf when you get to the end of the entire evening, having absolutely no idea what you just witnessed. But lord this is good.

Call me cynical but normally I'm a little sceptical of people who tell me how much they 'loved' some weird modern arty theatrical performance because I always slightly think they're worried their cool-points will plummet if they say they didn't like it and had no idea what was going on. This time, though, I was intrigued.

For those who don't know, a little summary. Firstly, you all have to put on Venetian-style white masks so that suddenly you become completely anonymous and it's almost impossible to recognise your friends or they you. Once inside, the whole building becomes the dark (quite literally) world of Temple Pictures and its surrounding grounds. It is absolutely vast. 

Floor after floor with different sets, secret passageways, characters' private rooms where you can rummage about their papers and diaries etc, while all the time actors run amongst you playing out scenes. One moment you could be watching a romantic moment between two lovers, before you find yourself in a seedy bar with drunken cowboys threatening each other.

How on earth do you even begin to tackle such a huge project. The answer is of course completely up to you. Some choose to follow an individual character who will, inevitably, introduce you to other people, other floors, other sets as they move around the building. Others follow friends. Some people stick to just a couple of floors and never even find the other sets. Personally I went off on my own. Being the nosey person I am, I went off looking for secret passageways, details written in letters inside characters' dressing rooms, watching random scenes as I came across them. It's a voyeur's dream and I have to say it concerned me a little how easily I slipped into this role...

Sadly I didn't come across many secret passageways... clearly I'm not practiced enough at snooping... but I know some people found themselves whisked away by strange actors desperate to make them famous or being chatted up by a discerning young gentleman...

If you keep wondering around you will eventually discover the bar... completely in the 1940s Hollywood style, you get swept up in the glitz and glamour. It is also the only place in the entire building where you can take off your masks and are allowed to talk to people. Having lost my friends I stumbled across the bar, got myself a glass of wine and found myself getting into deep discussion with a completely random man I'd never met before. There's something so brilliant about that. Like when you're a bit tipsy and get into some weird conversation with a strange person but with all the excitement of the setting and again surrounded by actors carrying on in character. 

The experience is amazing and I would recommend it to anyone but I would give a little advice:

1. Definitely read the brief outline of the play that they hand out in the queue.
2. Don't get too het up with working out the story and what each scene is trying to do because inevitably you will come out with no idea what just happened.
3. For this reason, split up with your friends and then afterwards go for a drink and share your experiences - you can start to then piece together the story a bit more for yourself (or just get really jealous that your friend found a secret passageway through a fridge or trapdoor or some other awesomeness.

Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts to star in Hardy film

It's no secret now that my knowledge of the really classic classics, as opposed to, well, The Great Gatsby... I suppose by that I mean classics that are super old and, often, super long and dense... is pretty poor. That said, it won't come as a surprise that I have never read a Thomas Hardy novel. Some of his poems, sure, and I'm always partial to a BBC drama here and there, but I've never completed one of his novels. I think perhaps I was scarred by everyone who studied him at GCSE: "Just sheep. Sheep and more sheep," was pretty much the gist.

That said, I was pretty excited to see that Thomas Vinterberg is doing a new adaptation of Far From the Madding Crowd with Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts (if you haven't seen Rust and Bone, just do it. He is beautiful. Marion Cotillard is beautiful. The film is just, well, beautiful). The film will also star Michael Sheen, because it seems most films do and he is pretty good..., and Tom Sturridge, who I have to say I was pretty impressed by in On the Road last year. David Nicholls is on board to write the script, who as it happens also adapted the BBC's 2008 adaptation of Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbevilles with Gemma Arterton, and 2012's Great Expectations.

Far From the Madding Crowd, for anyone who doesn't know, follows Bathsheba Everdean who arrives in the village of Weatherbury and manages to capture the heart of three men. There is love but, as with any Hardy novel, there are also consequences.

Apparently this will be the fourth adaptation of the classic for the screen, the most famous starring Julie Christie in 1967, and more recently the novel inspired the comic-strip (and subsequent film), Tamara Drewe.

Right, guess I probably should read it now. We'll see...

Book meets Bikini

So you know how I love to squeeze literary relevance into my blog via some of the least book-related posts ever? Well this one came to me fully formed... didn't need any effort on my part whatsoever to fit under the 'literary' umbrella, except perhaps by labelling this post 'Adaptation'...

Anyway, this weekend is promising to be another scorcher. Bet you've always wanted a bikini to match your summer read... Matchbook can sort you out with just that. This is just.. ingenious. Love it. Question is, can you guess the book for the bikini? Take a look at these and then look online at http://matchbook.nu/ to see how you did.

Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis

So I know I told you all about my weekend in Bath last week but what I didn't say was my highlight: finding a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Latin... who knew?! No offence to Caecillius, but Latin could have been a whole lot more interesting learning about Dominus et Domina Dursley and Harrius Potter.

JK Rowling's Potter series has been translated into over 70 different languages and variations now but just how do you translate all the spells, incantations and place names? To readers of English, the latin phrases are, in most cases, recognisable without too much explanation, but what if you're reading in Asia or Africa? Of course you could just leave the words as they are but some translators have gone the extra mile and created different names that have more meaning to their readers. For instance, in Hindi editions of the novels, the Sanskrit has been used to create the same effect.

   

   

Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby

The wait is finally over - Baz Luhrmann's Gatsby has finally graced our screens to be met with, shall we say, mixed reviews... The main criticisms seem to be 1) it is overly glitzy, with too much focus on the roaring twenties parties. 2) Not enough of the novel's darkness and 3) not enough 'emotion' and sadness.

I can't say I'm surprised. Take a much-loved book written nearly 100 years ago and then make a film in 3D with Leonardo Di Caprio... you're never going to please the critics. That said, I'm a big Gatsby fan, and I loved this film. The glitz and the glamour was there, sure, they had to be. All I wanted to do was go out on a wild New York night out, drink myself silly and negotiate my way home without falling into the lake... arguably that wasn't really the reaction they wanted but it really does look so fun.

As for the novel's darkness, from just the trailer I could see Luhrmann had injected a whole lot more darkness than any of the film's predecessors. It was the darkness that I was excited for and I didn't feel disappointed.

The emotion was there, too. All helped by fantastic performances from both Leo. The casting in general, I have to say, was spot on. Tobey Maguire was definitely my Nick Carraway, Tom Buchanan was so brilliantly evil, Isla Fisher was just, well, unrecognisable and wonderful as Myrtle and Carey Mulligan was so perfect for Daisy, it's hard to see how she could have been so difficult to cast! The only person I felt did not match the image in my head, was Leonardo Di Caprio himself. Luckily Leo, for me, can't do any wrong and this was no exception. And for once his baby face was a complete asset! You could completely believe Gatsby's wide-eyed hopefulness and childlike fascinations/obsessions.

Everything was then polished off and brought to life by the genius jazz/hip hop fusion soundtrack, which has arguably received far more attention than the film itself and saw Jay Z receive an Executive Producer credit. Florence and the Machine, Lana Del Ray, The XX, will.i.am, Jack White, Beyonce and Jay Z himself plus more... and loads of original songs. Impressive doesn't quite cover it.

What really had to win me round, though, was the 3D malark. Bleh, I really can't be dealing with it - gives you headaches all for the sake of not very much. This, however, I have to say, worked. It didn't distract me and it really added to Baz Luhrmann's theatrical vision for this iconic story.

Highlight? Gatsby's cream jumper. If anyone can find this exact item of clothing, get in touch... there is no reward greater than my appreciation...

If you don't like Baz Luhrmann, don't see it. If you read The Great Gatsby yesterday, again probably don't see it (no use going to see a film being able to pick out every single discrepancy), if you hated Moulin Rouge, don't see it. If none of these apply, GO SEE IT. It's a real feast.

Relevant posts:

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald book review

Great Gatsby: The Game!

The Letters of F Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby on Stage...three times
The first Great Gatsby trailer

The Paris Wife by Paula McCain

Daisy Buchanan does Vogue

Is there such thing as era envy?! If so, the twenties have got to be pretty high of anyone's envy list, if indeed anyone were to make such a list... Well, maybe not the whoooole of the twenties, none of the no money, no booze, no fun stuff, but the flappery decadent party part at least... Vogue's May edition has clearly had the same thought and is, conveniently for Baz Luhrmann, suffering some serious era envy in channeling Gatsby glamour this month.

Daisy Buchanan would surely have been a contender for Vogue - a poster-girl for the 20s flapper lifestyle if ever I saw read one - and now she finally has her chance as Carey Mulligan takes centre stage. Anyway, I will stop rabbiting on and let Mario Testino's shoot do the talking... I'm not jealous. At all. Nup.

Will Emma Watson fit the slipper for Branagh's Cinderella?

Is it just me or do we seem to be swamped by fairy tales at the moment? We've already had Red Riding Hood with Amanda Seyfried and two adaptations of Snow White in 2012 alone (Mirror Mirror with Julia Roberts and Snow White and the Huntsman with Kristen Stewart). This year we have already had Hansel and Gretel and are about to be re-introduced to the world of Oz through Disney's Oz the Great and the Powerful.

Apparently, though, there are yet more retellings on the way and Harry Potter actress Emma Watson is rumoured to be in two of them: Guillermo de Toro's Beauty and the Beast and now she's about to try on Cinderella's glass slipper for Kenneth Branagh. The last part of that sentence sounds a little creepy for some reason... apologies.. Watson's involvement is still a rumour though, when it comes to Cinderella, and other actresses believed to be being considered for the role are Imogen Poots, Gabriella Wilde and Alicia Vikander. Hilariously, I read that back in 2009 Watson's name was attached to Marilyn Manson's rumoured gothic revamp of the fairy tale. Seems that never happened but that must be worth a look if it comes about?

It looks like Emma Watson might not be the only Hogwarts alumni to return to the world of monsters, though, as fans are petitioning for Tom Felton to play Beast opposite Watson's Belle... As amazing as that would be, I'm not keeping my hopes high...

Though it does look like co-star Daniel Radcliffe is very close to being confirmed as Igor in Paul McGuigan's adaptation of Frankenstein. Igor doesn't actually appear in Mary Shelley's original novel but featured in the 1939 film as a hunch-backed assistant to Frankenstein called Fritz, and again in subsequent films in the Frankenstein series as 'Ygor'. Igor has since become a stock character in interpretations of many Gothic films, including Dracula, Van Helsing and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

85th Academy Awards

And they've finally happened. After all the hype, the predictions and the glitzy dresses, the Oscars have been awarded by the Academy and I have to say, it's been quite an exciting year. Not because the films are any more amazing than previous years, or because the fabulous Adele sang "Skyfall" at the ceremony or even that DanRad danced his merry way across the stage of the Kodak Theatre, but because, except for Daniel Day Lewis, no one really knew what was going to happen (certainly didn't expect poor J-Lawrence to stumble up the steps). And actually partly because Jennifer Lawrence was nominated and, in the words of Bridget Jones, I have, 'let's face it, a bit of a crush now, actually'. I. Love. Her.

Anyway, as last year, I can't really persuade you that film awards are 100% to do with books. I can, though, talk about the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. This year rather embarrassingly I have not read any of these books despite my mum having bought me Life of Pi, twice.

Argo, winner of Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, was adapted from Antonia J Mendez' book The Master of Disguise and Joshuah Bearman's Wired article, 'The Great Escape'. Mendez is a, now retired, CIA technical operations officer who led the rescue of 6 American. diplomats from Tehran during the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis. The film stars Ben Afleck, who also directed and produced along with fellow producers Grant Heslov and George Clooney.

Other contender, Beast of the Southern Wild, was derived from Lucy Alibar's play Jucy and Delicious. The fantasy drama garnered a Best Actress nomination for the youngest ever Best Actress nominee, 9 year-old Quvenzhané Wallis and has been highly praised since its release last year. Then six years old, Wallis plays young Hushpuppy whose dilapidated bayou community falls victim to a flood caused by melting icecaps. If that weren't enough, she must also cope with her hot-tempered father who is not well.

Life of Pi may not have won this film but this magical realist adventure unexpectedly saw Ang Lee snatch the Best Director award for the second time in his career. The book has already received high praise since it was published over ten years ago in 2001 but there was always a question of how the unusual style would translate into film. Ang Lee's fantastical masterpiece, though, seemed pretty successful, also picking up the award for Special Effects. Amazingly the book (which follows Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, after he survives a shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean with just a Bengal tiger for company, was originally rejected by 5 London publishing houses before being taken on by Knopf in Canada. The book has now sold well over three million copies worldwide.

Lincoln was inspired by the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. As we all know, Daniel Day Lewis broke the records this year by winning his third Best Actor Academy award for his portrayal of the beloved president. While the film focuses on the turbulent final four months of Lincoln's life and presidency, focusing on the passing of the thirteenth amendment, the book is a real beast at nearly 1,000 pages and looks at the final four years. Apparently Goodwin had previously consulted with director Steven Spielberg on a project of his in 1999 and just mentioned that she was planning to write Team of Rivals. Spielberg didn't hang about... and immediately asked for film rights there and then. Interestingly, Lincoln was going to be played by Liam Neeson until he had to withdraw in 2010. Reportedly, the film was then pushed back by a year so that DDL felt he had enough time to prepare for the role... we've all heard how he likes to prepare...

Finally, my highlight of 2012 cinema, Silver Linings Playbook, was adapted from the novel by Matthew Quick. For what is, essentially, a romantic comedy, this adaptation did very well this awards season, being nominated for 8 Oscars (including the Big Five - the first time since Million Dollar Baby in 2004) and with J-Lawrence walking/tripping away with Best Actress. The story follows Pat Solitano (played by Bradley Cooper), a bi-polar sufferer who has just spent some time in a mental institution, who meets recovering sex addict Tiffany (Lawrence) who has problems of her own. The film's subject brought Robert De Niro, who also stars in the film, uncharacteristically to tears during an interview and Director David O. Russell has spoken openly about his inspiration: "It's personal to me, because I've lived through some of these experiences with a son". 

Anyway, excuse the long post and go see ALL these films. Ciao!

BBC to make War and Peace

Worryingly, the title of this post took some time. I really thought that somehow I must be able to make some form of witty headline with this so that, at least occasionally, I can be seen to be as intelligent and hilarious as I truly am. I'm afraid, though, today is not that day as this is the best I could do. Let's move on.

Anyway so we've recently ascertained that Nicholas Hoult is to star in the Hollywood version of Sebastian Faulkes' Birdsong (see post here), a part only recently taken on by fellow Brit, Eddie Redmayne, for the BBC. Now it's hard to feel sorry for Eddie because he's had a pretty fantastic couple of years with successes like My Week with Marilyn, playing King Richard II in Richard III at the Donmar Warehouse in London's West End and, more recently, singing his heart out in the BAFTA and Golden-Globe-winning Les Miserables. But. Saying all this. It seemed a little cruel that only a year after his performance in Birdsong is aired, Hollywood decide they can do better.

But it's ok, people - it's O.K. I know you were almost worried there. Eddie Redmayne is rumoured to be part of what surely promises to be a BBC masterpiece, an adaptation of Tolstoy's epic War and Peace. Perhaps a little ambitiously, Andrew Davies (the mind behind previous BBC book-to-film triumphs Bleak House and Middlemarch) is retelling the story in just six 1-hour episodes. Bear in mind that last time the BBC tackled this beast of a book with Anthony Hopkins in the lead role, they made 20 episodes...

The novel, first published in 1869, centres on five aristocratic families in Russia and looks at the impact of the Napoleonic era and the French invasion.

Nicholas Hoult to star in Birdsong

What? Huh? Wait. Have we not just had an adaptation of Birdsong for the screen? Yes, yes we have. But as we all know, nothing is ever finished with until Hollywood have had their go. Sometimes twice.

Think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, The Great British Bake Off... One thing all these films have in common though? Except perhaps the latter... top male leads. Daniel 'Phwoar' Craig, Michael 'Wunderbar' Fassbender, Jeremy 'English Rose' Irvine... I'm sure Irvine would love being called an English Rose... *shrugs*

ANYWAY, the BBC had already done a pretty good job with casting for Birdsong last year with the irresistible Eddie Redmayne. Therefore it was always going to be tough for Hollywood to take it up a notch in my opinion. But, I have to say, if the rumours are true, Nicholas Hoult is a pretty good choice. Now he may not be the conventional Etonian gorgeousness that is Mr. Redmayne, but everyone loves a bit of Nicholas Hoult don't they? Even with blonde hair in A Single Man. Actually, that brings me on to a good point. Nicholas Hoult is not only rags to riches, Skins to Hollywood, rising British star... he also does a pretty good job of adapting characters from page to screen. From Nick Hornby's About a Boy to A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood to, more recently, Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies, he's done quite a range.

Now I still have reservations about whether or not Birdsong will ever make an entirely successful transformation from page to screen because I've always slightly wondered if there's something missing from Sebastian Faulks novel. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it (you can read my review here) but Hollywood is going to need to bring something a little different. Perhaps Nicholas Hoult will do that? We shall have to see.

See my thoughts on the BBC adaptation here.

RSC to stage Wolf Hall

"From the moment I started writing Wolf Hall the characters were fighting to be off the page." ~ Hilary Mantel

I think I may have more posts about Hilary Mantel than any other author... except maybe my fav, Ginny Woolf... but Mantel really is continuing to take the literary world by storm. Not only has it today been announced that she has become the first person to win both the Costa AND the Booker in the same year. The other news? Her Booker-winning Tudor trilogy is to be transformed for the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The books, which will be performed in two parts, will take to the stage as part of the RSC's 2013 Winter season at The Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Londoners don't worry, though, it looks likely that the plays, if successful, will most likely come to London eventually.

We have been promised some extra material that did not originally feature in the books. Seriously, how is that possible? The books are humungous! Is it just me or do you think that Hilary Mantel's head should be a lot bigger? Like Noddy or something so that all this info that she has researched can fit... what an intellectual force she is.

Mantel has been working closely with RSC artistic director, Gregory Duncan, so that the theatrical language of the time is captured successfully. See how she feels about her books making the leap to the stage in the video above.

Les Miserables

In 19th-century France, Jean Valjean, who for decades has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert after he breaks parole, agrees to care for factory worker Fantine's daughter, Cosette. The fateful decision changes their lives forever.

I've been wanting to see Les Miserables for almost a year, which gives us an idea of how long the hype surrounding this Oscar nominated adaptation has been going on. Almost a year ago to date, I was thinking of what books I wanted to read in 2012 and that I needed at least one classic in there. I'm always shamefully apathetic with classics - they just normally take so long to read that, no matter how good they are, I become bored. In anticipation of the film, though, I wanted to try Victor Hugo's original novel. Holy mother... it's a frickin' doorstop of a book. Thus, not unsurprisingly, I have not read the book. I have, though, just seen the film and completely loved it.

Whenever I go and see a musical, be it on screen or on stage, somehow I always seem to forget that they are going to do a hell of a lot of singing... so much so that Amanda Seyfried, one of the headline names, does not have to test her English accent skills even once as every single line she says is sung. The director, Tom Hooper, approached the singing, as you have probably heard by now, in an interesting way. He didn't cast the best singers in Hollywood for this film and he didn't stick them in a recording booth for days on end to perfect each track. They just sang there and then as they were acting in an effort to get across the reality of their characters' situations and I think it really works.

I completely understand that, as a result of Hooper's approach, some people are distracted from time to time as the singing in places is a little shaky, but I see the result as showing singing to be the ultimate form of expressing emotion. Unfortunately, I am completely awful at it. I cried my way through Anne Hathaway's surely Oscar-winning performance of I Dreamed a Dream, but I'm not entirely sure whether I was crying more about Fantine's desperate situation or the fact that, despite many hours screeching along to Glee's version of the classic song, I still cannot reach those high notes.

As a story, I am sure that massive chunks have been cut out since the original novel. Impossible not to. I could complain, but there's something nice about the fact that we don't have to go back 2 more times before we see the ending...*cough* the Hobbit... You really go along with Jean Valjean the entire way through his journey - you wouldn't want that disrupted. I also am a sucker for any story related to the French Revolution (as you may have noticed in my review of A Place of Greater Safety...)

Controversially, none of the four main cast members are British despite it being a British film. Don't get me wrong, Jackman, Hathaway, Crowe... they're all phenomenal in this movie, but I feel, as a Brit, I need to praise the stand-out British performances - Eddie Redmayne's voice didn't falter once and he nailed his heart-wrenching solo, Samantha Barks is a true star that I hope comes back to the big screen again, the pairing of Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen is hilariously spectacular, little Gavroche is a scene-stealer and it was great to see members of the West End cast, including Barks, transform their characters for film. Plus, it was lovely to see France come to life on my doorstep as the Royal Naval College in Greenwich was transformed into Revolutionary Paris.

There were tiny aspects that didn't work for me - some of the lyrics, the slightly rushed feeling from time to time, the occasional strained note and perhaps unfairly I could have done with a little more dialogue - but overall, I really enjoyed this film. And it made me cry at all the right times and for all the right reasons... I have been known to cry at all the wrong times in other films...