Tag: actors

Hugh Grant. Somewhat Awesome.

Certain members of the media services team decided to watch A Very English Scandal recently, having enjoyed Hugh Grant’s villainous turn in Paddington 2. Interestingly, Paddington is played by Ben Whishaw. This reunion of the two actors, as many have remarked, is…uh…a little different. We all love Ben Whishaw. He’s perfect. He’s perfect in Perfume … Continue reading “Hugh Grant. Somewhat Awesome.”

Certain members of the media services team decided to watch A Very English Scandal recently, having enjoyed Hugh Grant’s villainous turn in Paddington 2. Interestingly, Paddington is played by Ben Whishaw. This reunion of the two actors, as many have remarked, is…uh…a little different.

We all love Ben Whishaw. He’s perfect. He’s perfect in Perfume (HU DVD 3823), in Skyfall (HU DVD 5001), and in The Lobster (HU DVD 13642). Oh, and in Paddington (HU DVD 12216). He was less perfect, possibly, in Cloud Atlas (HU DVD 9072) which was just not a good movie.

But Hugh Grant, who I have loathed since the abomination that is Love, Actually (HU DVD 3510), is actually kind of awesome these days. Hugh Grant the befuddled punchline has become Hugh Grant the master of weaponizing his own loathsomeness. It’s not that he didn’t play sleazy men before. He’s a sleazeball in Bridget Jones’s Diary (HU DVD 8606). It’s some new character of age and reflection that makes, for example, the first “Bunny” scene in A Very English Scandal so distressing and yet funny. It’s like you can see him enjoying it.

As such, I’m inclined to study him further in, for example, Sense and Sensibility (HU DVD 6003), Four Weddings and a Funeral (HU DVD 6282), and Florence Foster Jenkins (HU DVD 13752). I’d love to see The Remains of the Day (HU DVD 6274), which I just found out he was in, but I keep putting off reading the book.

Any guilty Hugh Grant favorites?

Vomit. This movie is absolute vomit.

Happy Birthday Peter Lorre

To celebrate Peter Lorre’s birthday (June 26, 1904), here are some of BFI’s 10 essential Peter Lorre performances from our collection. (THOSE EYES!!) M (HU DVD 56): Drama based on the actual case of the Dusseldorf murderer of children who is hunted by police, but is caught and tried by the city’s criminals. The Man Who … Continue reading “Happy Birthday Peter Lorre”

To celebrate Peter Lorre’s birthday (June 26, 1904), here are some of BFI’s 10 essential Peter Lorre performances from our collection. (THOSE EYES!!)

  • M (HU DVD 56): Drama based on the actual case of the Dusseldorf murderer of children who is hunted by police, but is caught and tried by the city’s criminals.
  • The Man Who Knew Too Much (HU DVD 3521): In this heart-pounding suspense story, spies kidnap a young girl, in an attempt to prevent her parents from revealing what they know about an assassination plot. The action takes you from the Swiss Alps to Britain’s Albert Hall and London’s East End.
  • Stranger on the Third Floor (HU DVD 6404): A reporter provides eyewitness testimony that helps sentence a small-time loser to the electric chair for murder. When the reporter himself is fingered in a second murder, he realizes both crimes are the work of a furtive stranger – but will anyone believe him?
  • The Maltese Falcon (HU DVD 130): After the death of his partner, private eye Sam Spade is dragged into a quest for a priceless statuette.
  • Arsenic and Old Lace (HU DVD 5380): An easy going drama critic discovers that his kind and gentle Aunts Abby and Martha have a bizarre habit of poisoning gentlemen callers and burying them in the cellar.
  • Beat the Devil (HU DVD 4564): Adventure story set aboard a steamer bound for Africa. The passengers attempt to outfox each other for illegal control of a piece of land they think has uranium on it.

Didn’t make the BFI list, but we also have:
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Casablanca!

Feud: Bette and Joan

Feud: Bette and Joan premieres TONIGHT on FX. For anyone who will be waiting to binge watch this series on DVD, may we suggest the below titles to tide you over? What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (HU DVD 610): This film was the notorious battleground of Davis and Crawford. An aging ex-vaudeville child star … Continue reading “Feud: Bette and Joan”

Feud: Bette and Joan premieres TONIGHT on FX. For anyone who will be waiting to binge watch this series on DVD, may we suggest the below titles to tide you over?

  • What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (HU DVD 610): This film was the notorious battleground of Davis and Crawford. An aging ex-vaudeville child star initiates a psychotic reign of terror over her crippled sister, a former movie-queen of the 1930’s. In an old mansion, two sisters live alone. One is Jane Hudson, once billed as “Baby Jane Hudson, the diminutive dancing Duse,” a child star whose brief career lit up the lives of her doting parents. The other is Blanche, whose own career as an actress was cut tragically short by a crippling accident. Ever since that accident, Baby Jane has taken care of Blanche — or has she?
  • Hush– Hush, Sweet Charlotte (HU DVD 11847): This film was meant to reunite Davis and Crawford on screen, but did not succeed. A southern belle finds out the truth about her husband’s murder when her cousin reopens the case.
  • All about Eve (HU DVD 3081): A great Bette Davis film. From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington moves relentlessly towards her goal: taking the reins of power from the great actress Margo Channing. The cunning Eve maneuvers her way into Margo’s Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo’s director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critics see through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.
  • Mildred Pierce (HU DVD 2187): A great Joan Crawford film. Mildred Pierce is a woman who will do anything to satisfy the demands of her spoiled daughter Veda, including divorce, opening her own business, and possibly murder.

John Hurt

Last week, we were saddened to hear of the passing of John Hurt. As Nigel Andrews in the Financial Times wrote: “A film blessed with his presence had at least one actor who looked as if he had been harrowed straight from Hell. Hurt could do you any suffering you wanted: noble, sardonic, wry, railing, … Continue reading “John Hurt”

Last week, we were saddened to hear of the passing of John Hurt. As Nigel Andrews in the Financial Times wrote:

“A film blessed with his presence had at least one actor who looked as if he had been harrowed straight from Hell. Hurt could do you any suffering you wanted: noble, sardonic, wry, railing, comical, tragic. He hired out his gravelled drawl and lined and haggard features, like a weather map of ever-warring fronts. And he combined a thoroughbred theatre-trained eloquence with a film actor’s gift for mischievous miniaturism.” (Nigel Andrews, FT 1/28/2017)

Here is a sample of his films in our home use collection:

Alien – HU DVD 885
Dead Man – HU DVD 1429
The Elephant Man – HU DVD 1535
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – HU DVD 6041
The Lord Of The Rings (1978) – HU DVD 2972
Snowpiercer – HU DVD 11486
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – HU DVD 4317
V for Vendetta – HU DVD 5558
Watership Down – HU DVD 9336