Posts tagged Game of Thrones
Slow West

Having grown up with Westerns, you'd think I'd come to them predisposed to loving them.  Not so much.  For every good Western, there are a saddlebag of worthless entries to go alongside.  But, the Western is the one genre where, against the backdrop of a huge, never ending sky, just about any tale can be told.  The Western in itself has been around since before cinema and hold a place etched in the public's mind.  Given that the period depicted in most Westerns, normally called "The Old West", lasted only about four years, it has been a magnet for our imagination since the dime novel of the 19th Century.  The Western has evolved, slowly, from Cowboys and Indians, to White Hats versus Black Hats, to Revisionism and then to Realism. 

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Cinderella

Nearly twenty years ago, I settled down to watch Kenneth Branagh's unabridged adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet.  I'd only ever read Hamlet in its entirety and getting comfy, I settled in for the four hours of what turned out to be one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen.  Branagh's Hamlet is utter gorgeous to look at and the cast are on top form.  Alex Thomson's camera uses every millimetre of the frame to great effect, capturing the opulence and the squalor that only nestle in great adaptations of Hamlet.  So why am I prattling on about a film that is older than most of the audience of Branagh's live action take on Disney's 1950 crown jewel, Cinderella?  Well, frankly, there are moments in Cinderella that blow me away the same way Hamlet did. 

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