NETWORK DISTRIBUTING PRESENTS: MAN IN AN ORANGE SHIRT. (2017) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

BBC To Premiere Ralph Fiennes Coriolanus This April

BBC 2 will premiere Ralph Fiennes’ BAFTA nominated contemporary version of William Shakespeare’s political thriller, CORIOLANUS, on Saturday 6th April at 21:45, which will also be simulcast on BBC HD.

Produced by BBC Films withRalph Fiennes directing and stars alongside Vanessa Redgrave, Gerard Butler, Jessica Chastain, Brian Cox and James Nesbitt. CORIOLANUS is a tense and timeless thriller of power broking, political manipulation and the arguments and prejudices of opposing social extremes, set against a backdrop of a republic caught up in a long and bitter war.

Caius Martius ‘Coriolanus’ (Ralph Fiennes), a revered and feared Roman General is at odds with the city of Rome and his fellow citizens. Pushed by his controlling and ambitious mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) to seek the exalted and powerful position of Consul, he is loath to ingratiate himself with the masses whose votes he needs in order to secure the office. When the public refuse to support him, Coriolanus’s anger prompts a riot which culminates in his expulsion from Rome. The banished hero then allies himself with his sworn enemy Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler) to take his revenge on the city.

Read our review of the film here after you check out the trailer below

Eureka Video Releasing Howard Brenton's TV Noir Drama Dead Head on DVD

Eureka Entertainment have announced the release of DEAD HEAD, the controversial four-part BBC noir drama written by Howard Brenton, available on DVD from 15 April 2013.

London based petty crook, Eddie Cass (Denis Lawson) agrees to pick up a package and courier it across the capital. When nobody answers the door at the drop off address Eddie opens the package and finds a woman's severed head in a hatbox. He panics and dumps it in the River Thames. Returning home Cass is kidnapped by the mysterious Eldridge (George Baker) and his heavies who inform Eddie that he has been framed for the murder. The hatbox belonged to his ex-wife and his fingerprints are all over it. Eddie panics and goes off the rails - boozing and sleeping rough. Eventually he ends up at his ex-wife Dana's house, played by Lindsay Duncan. Whilst he sleeps there, his former partner informs on him, and Eddie once again has to go on the run. The next morning the newspaper headlines reveal the discovery of the gruesome hatbox. Eddie's own private atom bomb has gone off...

Written in 50-minute episodes by playwright Howard Brenton and directed by Rob Walker the series has a top-notch cast including Denis Lawson (Bleak House, Holby City, Perfect Sense) as Eddie Cass, Don Henderson , George Baker (The Spy Who Loved Me, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Hopscotch), Simon Callow (Amadeus, Four Weddings and a Funeral) and Lindsay Duncan (Rome, Under the Tuscan Sun)

Here's a clip from Dead Head

Never repeated, but never forgotten - this much loved series from the BBC is set to be released in the UK for the first time on any home entertainment format. Available in a 2-disc Special Edition DVD from 15 April 2013.

The Girl DVD Review

The Girl is one of 2 Alfred Hitchcock biopics coming out in soon succession of each other, the other being the simply titled Hitchcock.Toby Jones stars as Hitch in The Girl, who has portrayed a famous dead
person before. He played Truman Capote in Infamous and like The Girl, which had a competing biopic as well Capote.

The Girl’s story is about Tippi Hedren (played by Sienna Miller). Tippi was a very successful model in the early 50s to 60s, Hitchcock was looking for a new Grace Kelly (who starred in a handful of Hitch’s earlier film, including the masterful Rear Window) and found Tippi. He cast her as the lead in his film The Birds. The Birds is often considered the last great Hitchcock film (even though this reviewer who put a case up for the later Frenzy) and was one of the most successful of his entire career. Tippi is tortured throughout The Birds by Hitchcock which climaxes with him lying they were gonna use artificial birds but in reality he choose to use real birds and made her shoot the bird attacking scene for 3 days.

Tippi becoming an overnight sensation because of The Birds. She was under contact to Hitch, who had already made sexual advances to her during the making of The Birds. Despite this due to the nature of the contract, she makes another film with Hitch called Marnie however isn’t as good as The Birds even though it’s certainly the more interesting film. It’s sorta like Hitchcock’s Masterpiece Vertigo’s little sister. It deals with a young woman who is a chronic liar and thief and has some serious psychological issues, which date back to her childhood. After the troubled filming of Marnie, she wants out of her contract from Hitchcock who continually made advances to her during the filming. However he made sure she couldn’t work again till
Charlie Chaplin’s last film and lost out a role for a François Truffaut film.

The Girl is a very mixed bag. It has 2 very fine performances by Sienna Miller and Toby Jones (which is the superior performance).However the film is very much a tv film and that’s fine but it barely cracks the surface level of their relationship and paints Hitch clearly as the villain (which he certainly was). You don’t get any
sort of emotion from Hitch or why he does such horrible things to Tippi. The film also suffers from a low budget film problem that a lot of film posters in Hitch’s room are mock posters for his great films and not the real ones, which probably do to copyright. The other film which is very annoying is Marnie starred Sean Connery and you never see Tippi or Hitchcock interact with Sean during the making of Marnie, there is stand in but you never see his face, this is very distracting. Overall it’s worth seeing on iplayer or renting for the performances but some things are very annoying. It also ends with the laughable appendix that claims “Marnie is now considered Hitchcock’s last masterpiece”.

Ian Schultz

★★★☆☆

Rating: 15
Release Date:26th December 2012 (UK BBC2 ) 7th January 2013 (UK,DVD)
Directed By: Julian Jarrold
Cast: Sienna Miller, Toby Jones and Penelope Wilton