Lesley Manville

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Phantom Thread Trailer


Who knew the world of fashion could be so strained and dramatic? But that's exactly what it is for the world renowned dressmaker depicted in 'Phantom Thread'. A romantic period drama with Paul Thomas Anderson at the helm, it's also set to be Daniel Day-Lewis' final film. 

It's the 1950s and Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) is one of the leading names in high fashion in London, dressing the likes of the royal family, the biggest filmstars and a variety of famous heiresses and socialites. He's aided at The House of Woodcock by his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville), though the pair could not be more different.

Reynolds is a flighty self-confessed bachelor who sees love as almost a curse on his work. His life has seen too many women flit in and out of it, but when he meets the pretty yet headstrong Alma (Vicky Krieps), a woman several years his junior, he begins to feel as if he's found the perfect relationship.

Continue: Phantom Thread Trailer

Hampstead Review

Good

Deliberately appealing to older audiences, this undemanding comedy-drama comes with a hint of social relevance in its true story about an outcast who takes on the system in a leafy corner of London. While the script is too thin to make much of the premise, the film at least benefits from the likeable presence of Diane Keaton and Brendan Gleeson in the lead roles, plus a lively supporting cast.

Keaton plays Emily, an American widow living in the posh village on the edge of Hampstead Heath. Her late husband left her with a lot of debt, which her grown son Philip (James Norton) is helping her sort through. And her neighbour Fiona (Lesley Manville) is trying to set her up with an accountant (Jason Watkins) who has romantic inclinations. But Emily is much more intrigued by the homeless Irishman Donald (Gleeson) living in the lushly overgrown grounds of an abandoned hospital. And when she realises that developers want to build a glassy block of expensive flats there, she kicks into action with the help of a quirky young friend (Hugh Skinner).

Director Joel Hopkins keeps everything picturesque and twinkly as the story gently tips into a courtroom drama with an accompanying romance. Despite its basis in fact, there's little about this film that's remotely believable, not that it will matter to the core audience in search of some warm escapism. They'll enjoy the squeaky clean story and the stylised version of an England furnished with impeccably matching antiques and huge bouquets of flowers. And the cast makes it watchable. Keaton does her usual kooky thing, smart but clumsy, with perfect timing in her interaction with everyone around her. There may not be much chemistry with Gleeson, but he gives the tetchy Donald plenty of scruffy charm.

Continue reading: Hampstead Review

Hampstead Trailer


It's been one year since Emily's husband Charles passed away, but she has very mixed feelings towards his memory. There are good things in her life too; a loving grown-up son named Philip and a lovely home in Hampstead Heath, but her life is far more complicated than that. After one date with a fiddle-player named James Smythe, she struggles to shake him off. She'd love to find love again but she's desperate not to settle for anyone. One day though, she espies a bearded old man washing in the ponds across from her house. Curiosity gets the better of her and she follows him home to a quaint but run-down old shack in the middle of the woods. Charmed by his wit and his amusingly grumpy temperament, she decides to help him save his home when he is given an eviction notice by land owners who wish to build on his property. His unshakeable pride works against his cause, but Emily refuses to give up saving the man she's falling deeply in love with.

Continue: Hampstead Trailer

Lesley Manville at The ITV Gala held at the London Palladium, London, United Kingdom - Thursday 24th November 2016

Lesley Manville
Lesley Manville

Gary Oldman & Alexandra Edenborough’s Divorce Is Finalised, Ending Six Years Of Marriage


Gary Oldman Lesley Manville Uma Thurman

Gary Oldman and Alexandra Edenborough’s divorce has been finalised. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge signed off on the divorce on Tuesday (29th September). The couple were married for six years.

Alexandra Edenborough and Gary OldmanAlexandra Edenborough and Gary Oldman at the Palm Springs Film Festival in January 2014.

Read More: Gary Oldman Brands The USSR Government The 'Real Killer' In Child 44.

Continue reading: Gary Oldman & Alexandra Edenborough’s Divorce Is Finalised, Ending Six Years Of Marriage

Mr. Turner Review


Excellent

It's no surprise that Mike Leigh would take a distinctly original approach to the celebrity biopic, and this film about 19th century painter J.M.W. Turner is refreshingly unstructured and abrasive. By avoiding the usual formula, Leigh also reinvents the period drama as something almost startlingly realistic, packing the screen with sardonic humour and honest emotions that are extremely complex. And since it's about a painter, the film looks absolutely gorgeous, as Leigh and his ace cinematographer Dick Pope recreate the look of Turner's paintings on-screen.

The film is set in the 1820s, when Turner (Timothy Spall) is a celebrity on the art scene, courting controversy with his visceral landscapes. People either love or hate his work, but his financial success means he can do whatever he wants. Living with his father (Paul Jesson) and loyal housekeeper Hannah (Dorothy Atkinson), Turner openly challenges his critics. But his private life is just as tempestuous. He ignores the two daughters he fathered with Mrs Danby (Ruth Sheen) and has a second incognito life with the widow Sophie Booth (Marion Bailey), calling himself "Mr Mallard". Meanwhile, he continues to push boundaries in his work, challenging the status quo to such an extent that he becomes a joke in social circles.

Spall won the Best Actor award at Cannes for his astonishing performance as the fiercely independent Turner, a man who went to extreme ends to maintain his anarchic lifestyle and produce his distinctive paintings. In one key scene, he straps himself to a ship's mast during a storm so he can better capture the extreme weather in his work. Yes, Turner was a hurricane of a man, brushing off anyone who disparaged his art, including Queen Victoria. And it's no surprise that so few people liked him: Spall plays him believably as monosyllabic grump who growls more than he speaks.

Continue reading: Mr. Turner Review

Maleficent Review


Good

Disney rewrites its own history again with this revisionist version of its 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty. As she did with Alice in Wonderland, screenwriter Linda Woolverton uses simplistic plotting and clumsy dialogue to turn a children's story into an eerily dark Lord of the Rings-style effects extravaganza. Fortunately, it's held together by an imperious performance from Angelina Jolie.

She plays the story's wicked witch as a misunderstood hero, a happy fairy who grew up in a magical realm next to a kingdom of humans who were constantly afraid of what they didn't understand. And things take a grim turn when her childhood friend Stefan (Sharlto Copley) brutally violates her in order to become the human's king. Now the two lands are at war with each other, and in a fit of rage Maleficent curses Stefan's firstborn Aurora (Dakota Fanning) to fall into a deep sleep before she turns 16. So Stefan hides her in a country house cared for by three bumbling pixies (Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville and Juno Temple). But it's actually Maleficent who watches over Aurora, and as they bond Maleficent begins to wish she could undo that pesky curse.

Yes, this is not remotely the familiar 17th century Sleeping Beauty fairytale: it's a completely different plot that reduces the "sleeping" bit from 100 years to little more than a power nap. It also re-casts Maleficent as a woman who had one brief moment of nastiness, while the increasingly paranoid and cruel Stefan is the real villain of the piece. The problem is that this shift leaves all of the characters feeling shallow and uninteresting. Aside from Jolie's fabulously prowling horned fairy, no one on-screen really registers at all. The terrific trio of pixies are sidelined in silly slapstick, while the Handsome Prince (Brendon Thwaites) is utterly hapless and Maleficent's crow-like sidekick (Sam Riley) is the victim of an over-zealous make-up designer.

Continue reading: Maleficent Review

Mr Turner Trailer


Director Mike Leigh has made a new biopic about one of Britains finest landscape artists, J.M.W. Turner. 'Mr Turner' will see key events of Turner's life like the death of his father which had a profound effect on him; as well as the relationships he built such as the one with his housekeeper who loves him, but he underappreciates. The film will tell the story of Turner's legacy which saw him help pioneer landscape painting with his works, helping the style rival history painting.

As well as being skilled at landscape painting, Turner was also known for being well versed in watercolour landscape painting. He was considered an anarchistic character in his life, due acts such as strapping himself to a ship, in order to paint a storm.
The film is directed by Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year, Vera Drake), who's expressed that he wanted to make a film that captures Turner's personality, which Leigh describes as complex and compulsive. 'Mr Turner' is set to be released in the UK on the 31st of October 2014.

Maleficent - Featurette


'Maleficent' stars Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning talk about the upcoming fairytale movie alongside screenwriter Linda Woolverton and director Robert Stromberg in a short featurette.

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Maleficent - Full-Length Trailer


Maleficent is a cruel sorceress who will stop at nothing to destroy those who have stolen her wings and ruined her world. As a child, she lived happily in the forest kingdom with a powerful force inside her that she was mostly unaware of. However, it wasn't long before it spun out of control at the arrival of the human kingdom's brutal army, who were intent on taking over. She fought bravely as the guardian of her land, but her valour soon turned to viciousness when she is callously deceived. A new person now filled with a dark desire for vengeance, she takes it upon herself to curse the daughter of her betrayer's successor, forcing her to die when she reaches her sixteenth birthday. Can Princess Aurora persuade Maleficent to turn her curse around, or is the wicked fairy truly a lost cause?

Adapted from the 1959 animated Disney movie 'Sleeping Beauty', 'Maleficent' is the untold story of the film's embittered villain. It marks the directorial debut of double Oscar winning visual effects designer Robert Stromberg with a screenplay by Linda Woolverton ('Beauty and the Beast', 'The Lion King'), Paul Dini ('Superman' animated TV series) and John Lee Hancock ('The Blind Side', 'Snow White and the Huntsman'). It is due to hit the UK on May 30th 2014.

Click here read - Maleficent movie review

Maleficent - Teaser Trailer


Maleficent is a merciless sorceress who dubs herself the 'Mistress of All Evil'. But she hasn't always had a heart of stone. As a beautiful young girl she was happy and contented with her life in the forested kingdom, but deep down she held within her a powerful strength; a strength that would surface when she became the guardian of the entire land as a brutal army take siege. However, through all her great feats of bravery, she is faced with a callous deception that transforms her completely. In a fit of rage she places a curse on baby Princess Aurora; the daughter of the usurping King's successor; that would see her prick her finger on a spindle and die on her sixteenth birthday. However, on meeting a much older Aurora, Maleficent starts to wonder if she could actually help to bring happiness back to the land, and to Maleficent herself.

Continue: Maleficent - Teaser Trailer

Lesley Manville

Lesley Manville Quick Links

News Pictures Video Film RSS

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Lesley Manville Movies

Phantom Thread Trailer

Phantom Thread Trailer

Who knew the world of fashion could be so strained and dramatic? But that's exactly...

Hampstead Movie Review

Hampstead Movie Review

Deliberately appealing to older audiences, this undemanding comedy-drama comes with a hint of social relevance...

Hampstead Trailer

Hampstead Trailer

It's been one year since Emily's husband Charles passed away, but she has very mixed...

Mr. Turner Movie Review

Mr. Turner Movie Review

It's no surprise that Mike Leigh would take a distinctly original approach to the celebrity...

Maleficent Movie Review

Maleficent Movie Review

Disney rewrites its own history again with this revisionist version of its 1959 classic Sleeping...

Mr Turner Trailer

Mr Turner Trailer

Director Mike Leigh has made a new biopic about one of Britains finest landscape artists,...

Maleficent Trailer

Maleficent Trailer

'Maleficent' stars Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning talk about the upcoming fairytale movie alongside screenwriter...

Maleficent Trailer

Maleficent Trailer

Maleficent is a cruel sorceress who will stop at nothing to destroy those who have...

Maleficent - Teaser Trailer Trailer

Maleficent - Teaser Trailer Trailer

Maleficent is a merciless sorceress who dubs herself the 'Mistress of All Evil'. But she...

Romeo And Juliet Trailer

Romeo And Juliet Trailer

The stars of the upcoming adaptation of 'Romeo and Juliet' Douglas Booth, Hailee Steinfeld, Ed...

Spike Island Movie Review

Spike Island Movie Review

There's a terrific blast of nostalgia in this finely crafted film, which will probably make...

Spike Island Trailer

Spike Island Trailer

Gary (aka Tits) and his friends Dodge, Zippy, Little Gaz and Penfold are an ambitious...

Romeo and Juliet Trailer

Romeo and Juliet Trailer

Romeo and Juliet are two young lovers whose lives together cannot escape their inevitable tragic...

Another Year Trailer

Another Year Trailer

Meet Tom and Gerri, a happily married couple who're closer to the end of their...

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