28th Nov2015

Carol (Film)

by timbaros

CAROL_Carol and Therese in the store at Christmas time_CA1_3079In the new film ‘Carol’, Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchette play two women who fall in love in a time when it was not accepted and actually frowned upon.

Director Todd Haynes, in his first film since 2007’s ‘I’m Not There,’ has crafted this movie in a style and theme that he’s used before. In ‘Far From Heaven’ Julianne Moore’s housewife faces a marital crisis – her husband is caught kissing another man so she takes comfort in the arms of a black man. Whereas in ‘Carol’ Cate Blanchette’s unhappy housewife falls into the arms of another woman. Both of these films take place in the 1950’s where it’s all dewey and lush and beautiful. And the attention to detail in both films is amazing, capturing the fashion and essence that was the norm of it’s time, where everyone made an effort to dress up, especially the women, even just to go shopping.

Blanchett’s character, Carol Aird, is in a loveless marriage but it’s not because her husband is cheating on her with another man, it’s because Carol is cheating on her husband with another woman. It’s not a mid life crisis that Carol is going through, she’s been linked to Abby Gerhard (Sarah Paulson) in the past, and Abby has always been in the shadows throughout Carol’s marriage to Harge (Kyle Chandler). Harge still loves Carol, he wants to stay married, but Carol insists that the divorce still go ahead, which is very difficult for the both of them because of their young daughter. But one day Carol goes into a department store and is eyed by employee Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), who suggests to Carol to buy a train set for her daughter. Carol and Therese have chemistry, and the next day Carol invites Therese out for lunch to thank her for helping her out with her purchase. Eventually they start seeing each other more and more, and they fall headstrong into a relationship. Carol, who has the perfect husband and the perfect house, pursues a relationship with Therese, at the risk of losing custody of her daughter. Harge, in utter frustration over Carol’s new found relationship, seeks full custody of their daughter using a morality clause as the reason. And Therese risks her impending marriage to her boyfriend Richard (Jake Lacy) to be with Carol, and her and Carol embark on several trips together. It’s not until New Year’s Eve where they consummate their relationship in a full on one minute lip lock, which leads to a sexual act, again full on, there’s almost nothing left to the imagination. But will Carol’s impending divorce and the threat of losing her daughter and Therese’s burgeoning career as a photographer get in the way of their relationship?

Blanchett is magnificent as Carol, who risks losing her daughter yet has strong feelings for a much younger woman. Mara is even more superb as Therese, her innocence and naivete in full display. Both actresses are excellent, yet it’s Mara who ups Blanchette in the acting arena. The movie basically revolves around Therese and her coming of age not just with her career but with her sexuality as well. It would be a shame if Mara is reduced to supporting actress level as Blanchett does get top billing, they both deserve Best Actress Academy Award nominations but it’s Mara who should be on the podium. Chandler is also excellent as Carols’ husband – he’s got an ideal 1950’s look about him. ‘Carol,’ Based on the novel ‘The Price of Salt’ by Patricia Highsmith, was written at a time when it’s subject was considered scandalous, which Haynes truly captures. ‘Carol’ was filmed with Super 16mm to produce the muted hues of glamour magazines of the era, it’s romantic and dramatic and lovely to watch.

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14th Nov2015

Tangerine (Film)

by timbaros

TangerineTwo transgender prostitutes tear up Santa Monica Boulevard in the brilliant new film ‘Tangerine.’ In a week that also sees the releases of Michael Fassbender in ‘Steve Jobs’ and Dame Maggie Smith in ‘Lady in a Van,’ Tangerine’ is far and above the best film of the three.

It is one of the most funny and original films of the year. and stars two transgender actresses in the lead roles, roles that will make them both stars.

Mya Taylor is Alexandra, and Kitana Kiki Rodriquez is Sin-Dee (yes, Sin-Dee), it’s Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, and Sin-Dee has just got out of jail after spending 28 days for holding drugs for her pimp boyfriend Chester (James Ransom). She finds out, from Alexandra, that Chester has been having sex with Dinah (Mickey O’Hagan), so Sin-Dee goes on a mission to find Dinah and then to confront Chester. And Alexandra is having her own drama – she’s performing at a local bar that night and has passed out fliers to everyone she knows. Meanwhile, she’s got one of her regular customers, Razmik (Karren Karaguilian), looking for her. Razmik has problems of his own, he’s attracted to transgender prostitutes, but he’s married with a young daughter at home. He’s also got his nosy mother-in-law visiting for the holidays.

TANGERINE_still_two_girls_in_sunset

Sin-Dee finds Dinah in a motel room with several other prostitutes and their naked male customers, so she literally kidnaps her and then heads to confront Chester. Alexandra, meanwhile, scuffles with a customer who doesn’t feel like he should pay her because he didn’t come. But she does have sex with Razmik in a brilliant uncut sex scene in a car wash. All these characters converge together at the local Donut Shop as they confront each other about infidelity in a very dramatic and hilarious ending. Tangerine is a Christmas tale not of the typical Christmas kind.

Shot on three iphone 5s’ on a $105,000 budget, Tangerine is not the sort of movie you would expect to be dazzling, funny, dramatic, adventurous and original, but it is. Thanks to the many elements that bring this 88-minute film to fruition which make it so; the guerrilla style filmmaking is excellently created by Director, Editor, Co-Cinematographer and Co-Writer Sean Baker (co-written along with Chris Bergoch). And the actors are fantastic. Baker initially met Taylor at the Los Angeles Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer Community Center, and she introduced him to all her friends, including Rodriquez, which is how ‘Tangerine’ came to be, and these two actresses more than carry the movie, they are the movie, you can’t take your eyes off them. The rest of the cast is also brilliant; especially Karaguilian (who is a professional actor) brings sympathy to his role as a man trying to do the right thing but who also harbours a secret, and O’Hagan as the ‘other’ woman who is literally dragged around Los Angeles by Sin-Dee in the search for Chester. The Los Angeles neighborhood where this film is shot feels like another character in the film; the hued and hazzy skies, cheap motels, strange people and very cheap fast food restaurants litter the area. And the music (and script) is cutting edge; pulsating, loud, sharp, a perfect match for a film with characters who are the same, who spew lines such as ‘He just went from half fag to full fag’ to ‘You forget I’ve got a dick too,’ and ‘you don’t have to Chris Brown the bitch’ with copious amounts of the word ‘bitch’ and ‘whore.’ ‘Tangerine is a smorgasbord of wit and sarcasm. It’s also brilliant and must be seen to be believed.

Tangerine is now playing in UK cinemas.

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12th Nov2015

Steve Jobs (Film)

by timbaros

STEVE_JOBS_reflectionSteve Jobs, one of the co-founders of Apple, has changed the way we communicate with each other. He’s had a fascinating life, but it’s not detailed in the new ‘Steve Jobs’ film.

Director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) has assembled a first rate cast (Michael Fassbender plays Jobs and Kate Winslet plays his long suffering assistant Joanna Hoffman). While the movie is a timeline of crucial events in Jobs life, it’s not, as writer Aaron Sorkin bluntly put it at a recent press conference for the film, a ‘dramatic recreation of his Wikipedia page.’ Sorkin admitted that the script is his invention, and while the characters are real, most of the events that take place in the film are not. There is lots of conflict, with his daughter Lisa, and with his daughter’s mother Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston), conflicts that underpin and take over the whole movie. There is also conflict between Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen), who co-founded Apple with Jobs; and conflict between Jobs and then Apple CEO John Scully (Jeff Daniels), a man who Jobs hired for the role. This is not to mention Hoffman’s conflict she had in keeping up with Jobs and his temperament, and for keeping her love for him a secret for many years, according to Boyle’s version of events.

Boyle comes from a theatre background, and he shot ‘Steve Jobs’ in three acts, acts that all deal with Jobs’ product launches. Act 1, which takes place in San Francisco in 1984, was shot in 16mm to give the look of the film a rough homemade feel. It’s an act that introduces the world to Job’s (and Wozniak’s) Macintosh computer. It’s a computer that is one of a kind, a device that they hope will reinvent the way people do stuff. But it wasn’t Apple’s computer that had recently made Time Magazine’s ‘Man of the Year,’ it was an IBM. To say Jobs is bitter is an understatement. Meanwhile, Brennan shows up to tell him that she’s got no money to pay the bills, that’s he’s not taking care of his daughter Lisa the way he should be (Lisa is played by various actresses as she gets older), yet he’s worth an estimated $484 million and pretty much fobs her off. But it’s minutes to the Mac product launch, and there’s a problem with the computer that will be used during the launch show. And Jobs makes Hoffman find a white shirt with a pocket so that the shirt the has on won’t clash with the colors on stage. It’s a lot of conflict for just one act – Shakespearean even. And even Wozniak gets to throw a barb in his direction by telling Jobs ‘Computers aren’t supposed to have human flaws, I’m not going to build one with yours.’ Ouch. And Scully wants to sell the Mac at a much higher price than Jobs recommends.

But the Mac was a failure, sales never live up to expectations, so Jobs is fired from Apple (after a massive row with Scully and the board of directors) and sets up his own company – Next. Act 2 then takes place in the lead up to the launch of Next’s Black Cube, also in San Francisco, in 1988. It’s a computer where Jobs confesses has no Operating System! It’s like building a great car but with no engine. So it’s not a great start to the Black Cube. And Lisa is lurking in the background again, asking Jobs lots of questions. She’s missing school just to be with him and she says she wants to live with him. And Brennan is still bitter. Jobs is becoming crazy, desperate and angry. But one year later the Black Cube is a failure, and Jobs was able to convince Apple to buy Next.

By 1998, Act 3, Jobs is back at Apple, he’s got the gold rim glasses, black sweater, jeans, tall, lanky and thin. And it’s another launch, this one for Apple’s new computer iMac, a bulbous computer very sleek in design. But Jobs has just found out that one of his lieutenants, Andy Herzfeld (Michael Stuhlberg), has paid for Lisa’s Harvard education. And yes, again, Lisa is there, right before another product launch, and she’s there we presume to create more conflict and drama as if it’s not already palpable. And Jobs is so obsessed with work that he forgets his true responsibility – his daughter. And he’s launching the Apple as we know it today, a logo of an Apple with a bite on the upper right hand side, but Wozniak is still in conflict with Jobs, even though they’re still working together. He tells Jobs: ‘I am tired of being Ringo instead of being John.’ With all this going on, and with Jobs needing to be on stage in a couple minutes, he feels that he must resolve the biggest conflict he’s got, with his daughter. And this is what he does, with much chagrin to the investors waiting in the auditorium. And then all is right with his world.

‘Steve Jobs’ ultimately turns into Boyle’s vision of Steve Jobs. Think of it this way; this movie is made up almost mostly of events and conversations that didn’t happen. And that is what is most disappointing about ‘Steve Jobs.’ It’s going to have to be accepted as a work of fiction. But Jobs was such a fascinating man and made a huge impact to the world, why would an Oscar-winning director do this?

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10th Nov2015

Elf (Theatre)

by timbaros

'Elf, The Musical' Performed at the Dominion Theatre, London UKThe musical adaptation of the hit 2003 film ‘Elf’ is an early Christmas treat for both adults and children alike.

If you’ve not seen the film, ‘Elf’ tells the story of how one young man ended up living in the North Pole with Santa Claus and all of his elves and what he does to find out where he’s really from.

Ben Forster is perfect as Buddy. You see, he was a young orphan child who had crawled into Santa’s bag of gifts on a Christmas Eve many years ago. He was transported to the North Pole where his poor toy-making abilities, and human size, makes him realize that Santa Claus is not his real father and he’s actually not an Elf as well. So Buddy, with the help of Santa, finds out who his real father is, and decides that it’s time to leave the safe confines of the North Pole and to discover where he really came from.

Arriving in New York, it’s all big buildings and lots of people, and Buddy is astonished and excited about this world he didn’t know existed. He wanders into Macy’s department store, all decorated for Christmas, which makes Buddy feel like he’s back in the North Pole. He’s mistaken for a store elf and is put to work decorating. There he meets Jovie (Kimberly Walsh), a store worker who Buddy takes a keen interest in. But his bubble gets burst when the store Santa is not the real Santa he left back in the North Pole.

Buddy then goes to his father’s office – a children’s book publishing company – right inside the Empire State Building. Buddy’s first encounter is with the funny and wonderful Deb (Jennie Dale), the company secretary. They hit it off like white on rice. But once he meets his father, Walter Hobbs (Joe McGann), it’s a bit of a letdown for Buddy as his father denies and doesn’t even want Buddy around. But one thing leads to another and Buddy spends the night at the Hobbs’ Central Park apartment with Mrs. Hobbs (Jessica Martin) and their young son Michael Hobbs (Ewan Rutherford on the night I saw it). Mrs. Hobbs has a test done to see if Walter is the true father of Buddy, and the test results turn out that indeed, yes, Walter is the father. Buddy is ecstatic, he finally knows where he came from, and also has a younger brother to boot. But not all is well in the Big Apple; Mr. Hobb’s publishing company needs to find a hit book fast before the CEO comes into town, while Jovie, even though she is pretty and bubbly, doesn’t want to spend another Christmas alone, and at the same time Santa’s sleigh is having a hard time flying through New York City because of all the doom and gloom and lack of Christmas cheer in the city. Leave it up to Buddy to find a solution for all three!

‘Elf’ is a musical delight. It’s in a perfect home, the very large Dominion Theatre at Tottenham Court road, a theatre that allows the show to have huge sets, including Santa’s North Pole workshop, complete with elves (played by adult actors on their knees with dangling fake legs – an optical illusion for the eyes), to Mr. Hobbs office – complete with the elevator, to Macy’s department store, both inside and outside, to the Hobb’s gorgeous living room, with a very large window facing Central Park, and finally taking us to the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center. The musical numbers are fun – with Buddy singing ‘World’s Greatest Dad’ while Mrs. Hobbs and Michael sing ‘I’ll Believe in You’ and then the cast sing ‘A Christmas Song.’ The first half is where most of the story takes place, and is longer. The second half neatly wraps up all of the drama from the first half.

It’s just the start of November and Christmas is less than 50 days away, so what better way to kick off the Christmas season than to make a visit to see ‘Elf?’ Take the kids, the in-laws, the neighbors – you will all thoroughly enjoy yourselves, and will marvel at the end how Santa and his sleigh rides over the audience. There’s not an ounce of coal in this show, and it will put you in the Christmas spirit.

Elf is playing until Jan. 2, 2016 – to get tickets please click here:

http://www.dominiontheatre.com/theatre/elf/

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09th Nov2015

Pasolini (DVD)

by timbaros

PastedGraphic-1-2PastedGraphic-1-24623673045Director Abel Ferrera brings us the few days in the life of gay Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini in his new film simply titled ‘Pasolini.’

Ferrera, who last year gave us the gripping, scandalous, controversial and excellent film ‘Welcome to New York’ (which was inspired by the case of Dominique Strauss-Khan (DSK), the former chairman of the IMF who was accused of raping a hotel maid), presents us a film where Ferrara imagines and then reconstructs the last days in the life of Pasolini.

Pasolini was an extremely controversial film director. His films combined themes of religion and sex, his own personal views on topics such as abortion, displaying in your face bacchanals that left little to the imagination. His last film – titled Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom – depicted children subjected to violence, sexual depravity, and horrific murder – making Pasolini an extremely hated, or genius, figure. In ‘Pasolini,’ Willem Dafoe doesn’t so much imitate or play Pasolini in the film, but he inhabits the actions and thoughts of him. And Ferrara, in putting this film together, spoke to Pasolini’s relatives and friends to gather the memories and thoughts of a man who would wind up being killed by a rent boy at the age of 53 in Italy.

‘Pasolini’ is not so much an actual biography of the last days of Pasolini’s life, it’s more of a combination of the actual events that took place coupled with scenes from an unmade Pasolini film, a film that he was actually working on when he died. So we have Ferrara inhabiting the shoes of Pasolini and bringing to life scenes from the film that Pasolini never made – Porno-Teo-Kolossai – coupled with the events from the last days of his life which included meetings to discuss his new film, in his home with his mom and assistant and various friends, and to finally, his pickup of a male rent boy that would result in his death. It’s a very realistic film. Ferrara uses the actual locations of the real life events and also uses Pasolini’s personal objects and clothes in the film. This, coupled with Dafoe’s performance, gives us a documentary style production that is rich in it’s storytelling. Dafoe gives a fantastic performance inhabiting Pasolini’s world, right down to the language (some of this film is in Italian, and not every part of it has subtitles), to the glasses that he wears, to the clothing, to the way he carries himself. Like Gerard Depardieu who perfectly inhabited the role of DSK, Dafoe convincingly inhabits the role here. Even down to the final scene in the film, where Pasolini has sex with the rent boy and ends up being badly beaten, and run over by his own car. It’s a brutal death for a man who didn’t deserve to die that way. His murder on a beach on the outskirts of Rome on November 2, 1972 is still an open case despite the conviction of the rentboy that he picked up that night. It would be bit more fascinating if a filmmaker can make a film about Pasolini’s life – that would be a much more well-deserved tribute.


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09th Nov2015

Lovesong of the Electric Bear (Theatre)

by timbaros

_w_kIINyrk05qdvM9oQeNsgc_E-rrWF6pR0x6LwtCE0,At35341H8GxfRT4nit3Pi0Zu5kCAadcd9TsaN6zDqm8Alan Turing’s life is told, with the help of his teddy bear, in the new play ‘Lovesong of the Electric Bear.’

Yes, you read it right. It’s a teddy bear called Porgy (Bryan Pilkington in a teddy bear suit) who guides Turing (and the audience) through the events in his life. From his life as a young boy in France, where he was a bit different from the other boys, to his time in Bletchley, where he created his machine which broke the German code during World War 2. It’s a strange and unusual little show, currently playing in the small studio upstairs in the Arts Theatre on Great Newport Street, redesigned to look like a codebreakers bunker.

It’s a true story, written by the late Andrew Wilson. Turing evidently did have a teddy bear, and it’s the teddy bear in the opening sequence who awakens Turing from his deathbed and takes him through the journey of his life. It’s an incredible journey, a journey we all know very well from last year’s hit film ‘The Imitation Game,’ which starred Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing. Not much new information on Turing is provided in this production, but it’s the viewpoint of the teddy bear giving advice and opinion on every move Turing which makes is interesting to say the least. And it’s quite funny, and surreal, especially when Turing (played stoically and confidently by Ian Hallard) starts ‘dating’ Joan (an excellent Laura Harling), and he takes her to meet his parents, but it’s always the bear who is in the background giving advise and musing about Turing’s wrong decisions. And it’s also the bear who advises Turing to get far away from the rent boy (Chris Levens, very good in all the roles he plays in this show) that eventually brought upon Turing’s downfall. And of course we all know how it ends, and that’s the sad part, there was nothing the bear could have done for Turing, in the play and in real life. Turing’s was a life cut too short, he was a man too far ahead of his time.

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09th Nov2015

In The Grayscale (DVD)

by timbaros

Screen Shot 2015-05-07 at 11.53.56 AMTwo men, who seem perfect together, fall in love in the new Chilean gay film ‘In the Grayscale.’

We first meet Bruno (Francisco Celhay) in his grandfathers’ workshop studio where he is living. He’s an architect, and has been assigned by the city commissioners to design a new monument in Santiago. Bruno is introduced to Fer (Emilio Edwards), a history teacher who knows Santiago inside out and will help Bruno look for a unique spot for the monument. Bruno is recently separated from his wife Soledad (Daniela Ramirez) and they share custody of their young son Daniel (Matias Torres). Soledad is very depressed about the breakup of their marriage, and there are days when she can’t get out of bed, even when she’s supposed to be watching Daniel.

Bruno, a handsome quiet type, and Fer, who’s very goodlooking, perky, full of jokes, very energetic with a perfect smile and perfect hair, spend their days together riding their bikes around Santiago. And over the course of their tours of the city, Bruno slowly starts to fall for Fer. It’s a love affair that Bruno finds surprised to be in; he always had doubts about his sexuality but didn’t realize he was going to find someone like Fer. But Bruno has responsibilities with his family, plus he’s ignoring the work that he’s been given so he’s under a lot of pressure to please everyone. And word is out that he’s been seen spending time with, and kissing, another man. Can Bruno handle the pressure of his new relationship while trying to be a role model to his son?

‘In the Grayscale,’ which literally translates to being in a state of flux, or being in a range of gray without any color, is pretty much a depiction of Bruno’s life, and is an impressive debut feature from Claudio Marcone. It’s an eye opening film depicting one man questioning his sexuality pitted against another man who’s very comfortable with his. The two male leads are very good, confident in their roles, making the story very believable. But the best bit of the movie comes at the end in the form of a song called ‘Disfruto’ by Carla Morrison which rolls over the closing credits. Morrison’s voice is angelic, and the song, which translates to enjoy, is an ode to secret love, where she sings (in Spanish) ‘be with me during this time, to guard the secret, and to be careful with these moments.’ It’s a beautiful song that wraps up the love between the two men in the film.


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04th Nov2015

Drown (DVD)

by timbaros

Matt Levett as Len in DROWN (3)Three lifeguards pal around until things turn ugly one night in the new film ‘Drown.’

‘Drown’ is a film with very ugly overtones. And it’s not even a positive portrayal of a young gay man who continues to get beaten up and up by an evil homophobic asshole. Handsome Jack Matthews plays Phil. He’s the newby lifeguard in a team that includes the unpredictable and very volatile Len (Matt Levett). They form a trio with fellow lifeguard nick-named Meat (Harry Cook), and together all three bond, in some sort of strange way.

Len has some kind of strange fascination for Phil, it’s either because Phil is gay and Len doesn’t like it or because Len is secretly attracted to Phil, though won’t admit it to himself. Len is also jealous of Meat, because of his very large penis (not shown unfortunately). But when Phil beats Len in a Lifeguard competition, it causes Len to fume with anger and more jealously because he was beaten by a homosexual. Len’s anger grows even more after Phil’s very handsome boyfriend Tom (Sam Anderson) enters the picture.

‘Drown’ is told in flashbacks beginning with their night out to celebrate Phil’s win. But it’s a night out that turns out to be both dangerous, and extremely absurd. In flashbacks taking us away from that night out, we see Len beating Phil up, but Phil denies Len ever doing so, and we’re not told why. Surely an extremely homophobic lifeguard with sadistic tendencies needs to be shown the door? And perhaps arrested? Meat is an accomplice to Len’s evil doings – he’s the bitch that Len seems to desperately want. Len even orders Meat to take off injured Phil’s clothes off on a deserted beach? Including his underwear. And most of the time the dialogue is ridiculous, especially in the moments when Len and Meat are discussing Meat’s large penis. I was just hoping Len would either put it in his mouth or take it up his arse, just to relieve some of his sexual anxiety. And while there are beautiful images of the men swimming, and sunsets, and a woman who swims and swims out to the ocean with the likelihood that she won’t be coming back used as a metaphor for Len’s personality, it all makes for a highly uncomfortable and almost unwatchable 93 minute film.

Out on DVD & On-Demand: 12 October 2015

Country: Australia
Duration: 93 mins approx. / Language: English
Cert: 18 / RRP: £15.99
Extra Features: Trailer, Behind The Scenes


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03rd Nov2015

Vincent Price Legacy Tour 2015 (Film)

by timbaros

12049111_937985749591193_6152880337869369105_nVincent Price, the star of many horror films, is being celebrated by having his own tour.

The Vincent Price London Legacy Tour celebrates not only the actor’s legendary horror roles, but also his great love for London. It’s where he got the acting bug while studying art at the age of 24. Price was born in St. Louis, MIssouri in 1911 but it wasn’t until the 1960’s that London became his second home. It’s also where he met his third wife and where some of his most iconic horror screen roles were born.

The tour, which is a first for the capital, will be led by Victoria Price, Vincent’s daughter. Victoria is a designer, art consultant, author, and public speaker who wrote the critically acclaimed book about her father ‘Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography’ published in 1999, and reissued in 2014. She will speak about her dad, meet with fans, and help keep the memory of her father alive. The five day event will include a tour of Kensal Green Cemetery, which was a location for the film ‘Theatre of Blood,’ followed by a half day excursion on Thursday, Nov. 5th to Grim’s Dyke Hotel in Middlesex, which was the llcation of ‘Cry of the Banshee.’ On Friday November 6th Victoria will present a multi-media presentation about her father at Barts Pathology museum in the City of London. On Saturday November 7th a breakfast at Harrods is planned and which will mark the 50th anniversary reprint of Vincent and his wife Mary’s cookbook ‘A Treasury of Great Recipes.’ And finally on Sunday November 8th there will be a full day tour in Lavenham, Suffolk, which was the prime location of Price’s 1968 film ‘Witchfinder General.’

For tickets to these events, and for more information, please click here:

http://vincentpricelegacy.uk

Vincent Price starred in dozens of films, but is best known for his distinctive voice and performances in horror films, which included ‘House of Usher’ (1960), ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ (1961), ‘The Raven’ (1963), ‘The Mask of Red Death’ (1964) and most famously ‘House of Wax’ (1953), and ‘The Fly’ (1958). Price died in Los Angeles as the age of 82 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California.

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01st Nov2015

The Vatican Tapes (Film)

by timbaros

OLIVIA TAYLOR DUDLEY IN THE VATICAN TAPESIs there a secret vault in the Vatican where an immense library of all demonic possessions exists? The new film The Vatican Tapes would like you to believe so.

We’ve seen quite a few demonic possession films in the past where one persons’ behaviors change and they’re body is then possessed by something evil; a devil, a spirit, which leads to lots of mayhem and vomit and spinning around. ‘The Exorcist’ created the template for these type of movies, and in The Vatican Tapes, it’s the same story again.

Olivia Taylor Dudley is 27-year old Angela. She gets bitten by a raven and then suddenly starts to cause injury and in some cases death to anyone close to her. Her father Roger (Dougray Scott) is very concerned, watching his daughter morph from a very normal, healthy girl who spirals into a possessed unrecognizable devil. So local priest father Lozano (Michael Pena) is brought in to save Angela from the demons that have taken over her body, but neither he nor local psychologist Dr. Richards (Kathleen Robertson) can’t help. So news of Angela’s possession reaches the Vatican where Vatican Vicar Imani (Djimon Honsou) decides that this is a true possession case where The Vatican needs to be involved. So he sends Cardinal Bruun (Peter Anderson) to Angela’s house to extract the demons that now possess Angela.

Of course, Cardinal Bruun has a tough time at it. And this is where The Vatican Tapes’ plot follows the exact same premise as all the other possession movies: lots of Angela spinning around, throwing people from one side of the room to the other, Angela, with very red eyes vomiting and defacating all over – the true essence of someone who is possessed. We’ve seen this all before. There is simply nothing new in the plot to make ‘The Vatican Tapes’ worth a watch.

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