musings about the actor and the characters he brings to life
As we get closer to Billions becoming a reality to hit our screens come January, we learn more and more juicy bits about the show. Last week we learned that Bobby Axelrod takes a trip with his buddy to Quebec to see Metallica. We saw it all play out in the wonderful worlds of Twitter and Instagram, the best portals ever to behind the scenes goodies.
Anything that can render history and literature accessible to the masses plus get children excited about learning is a winner in my book. Combine that with cameo appearances by Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory and what you’ve got is a must-see treat.
The comedy, Bill, put together by the folks who do the BBC series Horrible Histories, comes to screens today, September 18, in the UK. The film imagines what may have happened during William Shakespeare’s “Lost Years”, the time during which he transformed from a married father of three in bucolic Stratford to the greatest dramatist of all time in London.
As a ramp up to Emmy night this Sunday, September 20, I wanted to take a look back at the six episodes of masterpiece television that was Wolf Hall. The series is nominated for a whopping 8 awards, and I plan to be watching and rooting for the entire crew to take home at least a few of those statues. Allow me to cover a bit of the highlights of each episode and you be the judge.
Fourteen years ago today, September 9, 2001, a documentary-like mini-series tribute to D-Day and to WWII, Band of Brothers, aired its two first episodes. Two days later that same year the world turned upside down. It was very difficult for any entertainment to be very entertaining in the days after September 11, 2001. If there were people who looked at ratings, advertising revenue, critical reviews and other such metrics to gauge the success of a series, chances are that they, like the rest of us, were distracted by other headlines. On this anniversary, I wanted to examine how Band of Brothers was perceived by critics, before and after September 11, 2001.
In light of upcoming international releases for Queen of the Desert, allow me to take you on a visual trip into some screenshots from German clips and “fotos” released from the official German site for the film. No word yet on when we can see this large-scale saga on our screens in the U.S. Reviews abroad, so far, have been mixed, some going so far as to say that with such a conventional romantic epic, Herzog has stepped perilously far from the avant-garde aesthetic which has defined his work to date. Needless to say, one of the preeminent directors of our time certainly took a chance with this enterprise. But, what’s the value of achieving preeminence if not to be given a license to take chances every now and then? One thing is certain from the trailers and clips we’ve seen: the actors involved in this project have given it their all. I’ll, of course, focus here on Damian’s work in this film, picking apart the few glimpses we’ve seen so far.