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| Stephen Fry |
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| Tony Slattery |
Showing posts with label Stephen Fry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stephen Fry. Show all posts
Saturday, December 22, 2018
favorite movie #117 - holiday edition: peter’s friends
Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #117 - Peter’s Friends (1992) - This film, about the getting together around the New Year's holiday by a bunch of old college friends, feels mostly improvisational, and probably for good reason — most of the cast are old college friends or frequent collaborators. Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery, and screenwriter Martin Bergman attended Cambridge University together and were members of the Cambridge Footlights. Director Kenneth Branagh was married to Emma Thompson at the time of filming, and Bregman is married to co-writer Rita Rudner. Hugh Laurie was a former comedy partner of Stephen Fry, and Imelda Staunton has appeared in numerous projects with all of the cast. Called a British Big Chill, the film is less about a generation as it is about the nature of friendship. Some of the plotting and situations seem familiar, but the fun comes from watching this talented cast interact with one another. And I am happy for any chance to see one of my favorite British comedians, Tony Slattery, apply his zany energy to anything.
Monday, April 09, 2012
peter's friends 20 years later
Spoilers abound, as I want to discuss some major plot points that have been affected by the passing of the years.
Peter's Friends has been dubbed a "British Big Chill." I have never actually seen that movie, but I guess the ensemble of stars playing friends, the nostalgic soundtrack, and the interpersonal dramas, make them similar. The friends in Peter's Friends are played by real-life friends. The movie was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who plays Andrew, and was married at the time to Emma Thompson, who plays Maggie. Thompson's old school chums play ... old school chums (they were all once members of the Cambridge Footlights): Stephen Fry (Peter), Hugh Laurie (who American audience know and love as House, M.D., plays Roger), Tony Slattery (Brian). Thompson's mother Phyllida Law plays Peter's housekeeper Vera. The cast is rounded out by Imelda Staunton, a frequent co-star of Thompson's (Sense and Sensibility, Nanny McPhee), Alex Lowe, who plays Vera's son, and Rita Rudner, who co-wrote the script with her husband Matin Bregman, who was also a member of the Cambridge Footlights.
All of the nepotism aside, Peter's Friends desires to be a bit more than it is, which is a bunch of old friends spending a weekend at a fabulous country estate owned by Peter. The friends have lost touch since college, but get together for New Year's, where they will fight, divulge secrets, and have lots of sex. It is hinted throughout the film that Peter is gay — through some comic and unsuccessful attempts at seduction by the extremely single Maggie, and by some sheepish exchanges that Peter has with his housekeeper. But the big reveal comes near the end of the film, when right before the stroke of midnight, Peter, fed up with all of the in-fighting that has come to a head over the weekend, informs his friends that he is HIV positive, banishing all of their bickering and replacing it with a deadly silence.
The reaction of his friends is quite dramatic, and shows how much has changed in twenty years. Not that an HIV diagnosis is not a serious thing for anyone and their loved ones still to deal with, but I was surprised at all of the looks on the actors faces as they took in Peter's news, clearly feeling that he had announced his imminent death. If this movie were to be made today, Peter's news might still come as somewhat of a surprise to his friends, but more because they were all so self-absorbed and had no idea what his life was really about rather than his prognosis, which would be generally more hopeful.
Peter's Friends isn't really a good movie. It wasn't even when it came out in 1992. But it is entertaining, even funny at times. It is interesting to see this group of actors together, and to see how attitudes have changed in two decades.
Peter's Friends has been dubbed a "British Big Chill." I have never actually seen that movie, but I guess the ensemble of stars playing friends, the nostalgic soundtrack, and the interpersonal dramas, make them similar. The friends in Peter's Friends are played by real-life friends. The movie was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who plays Andrew, and was married at the time to Emma Thompson, who plays Maggie. Thompson's old school chums play ... old school chums (they were all once members of the Cambridge Footlights): Stephen Fry (Peter), Hugh Laurie (who American audience know and love as House, M.D., plays Roger), Tony Slattery (Brian). Thompson's mother Phyllida Law plays Peter's housekeeper Vera. The cast is rounded out by Imelda Staunton, a frequent co-star of Thompson's (Sense and Sensibility, Nanny McPhee), Alex Lowe, who plays Vera's son, and Rita Rudner, who co-wrote the script with her husband Matin Bregman, who was also a member of the Cambridge Footlights.
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| Clockwise from L: Rita Rudner, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Imelda Staunton, Hugh Laurie, Phyllida Law, Tony Slattery, Alphonsia Emmanuel, Alex Lowe |
The reaction of his friends is quite dramatic, and shows how much has changed in twenty years. Not that an HIV diagnosis is not a serious thing for anyone and their loved ones still to deal with, but I was surprised at all of the looks on the actors faces as they took in Peter's news, clearly feeling that he had announced his imminent death. If this movie were to be made today, Peter's news might still come as somewhat of a surprise to his friends, but more because they were all so self-absorbed and had no idea what his life was really about rather than his prognosis, which would be generally more hopeful.
Peter's Friends isn't really a good movie. It wasn't even when it came out in 1992. But it is entertaining, even funny at times. It is interesting to see this group of actors together, and to see how attitudes have changed in two decades.
Monday, April 18, 2011
who do you Brits think you are?
Who Do You Think You Are? may have finished its latest run of shows, but that doesn't mean that the amateur genealogist has to go without. Imagine how happy I was to discover that my love for actor David Suchet, best known for his portrayal of Agatha Christie's famous Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot, and my interest in genealogy was combined in an episode from the British version of the series. I have loved watching the first two seasons of the American series, which it turns out is actually an offshoot of the British original, which originated in 2004 (and is still producing new episodes). Why am I not surprised — all the best television ideas seem to come from across the pond.
Suchet found out the real source of his last name (not French, as he had been told) and travelled to England, France and the Ukraine. Thankfully, all of the episode, in six parts, can be watched on YouTube. Now that I've started watching the British version of the show, I can't stop. Other favorites I have queued up include Stephen Fry and David Tennant (both can also be watched on YouTube). The episodes I've watched have been narrated by British actor Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes, Stardust, Robin Hood).
Stephen Fry, as you might expect, was quite amusing in his episode. He was delighted to discover an ancestor, one of the "amazing Prings" was a pauper inmate in a London workhouse. His reaction? "How Dickensian!" Fry had always been told that on his mother's side of the family, Jewish relatives were "killed by Hitler." This proved to be true, and he took an amazing emotional journey to Vienna and beyond to discover how tragic his relative's stories were.
My favorite Dr. Who, David Tennant, was initially also a bit surprising — to my ears — as I got used to his Scottish accent. Tennant knew next to nothing about his ancestors. He discovered a star athlete and a beauty queen and travelled from the Lowlands of Scotland to the Highlands. His quest also took him to Ireland, where he found it quite difficult at first to learn about his ancestor's involvement in "the troubles," Bloody Sunday, gerrymandering and poll-rigging.
Who Do You Think You Are is always an interesting history lesson. People find out not only about their relatives, but their relatives' part in history. I'm looking forward to digging up some more of these shows, and learning more as well. Zoë Wanamaker, Patsy Kensit, Robert Lindsay, and Graham Norton's shows all seem available. Hopefully more will be put up on YouTube or become available on DVD, as some of my favorites have also done episodes — Alan Cumming, John Hurt, Jeremy Irons, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Nigella Lawson.
It was a little strange for me at first, just getting used to listening to Suchet in his own voice, own accent. I'm so used to the precise inflections he uses and slight accent for Poirot. It was amusing watching him realize that like his signature role, he would have to go on the trail for clues. At one point he was laughing as he pulled on white gloves to examine some old documents, "How many times have I done this before?" Of course this time, it's for some information that will directly affect him and his family.
Stephen Fry, as you might expect, was quite amusing in his episode. He was delighted to discover an ancestor, one of the "amazing Prings" was a pauper inmate in a London workhouse. His reaction? "How Dickensian!" Fry had always been told that on his mother's side of the family, Jewish relatives were "killed by Hitler." This proved to be true, and he took an amazing emotional journey to Vienna and beyond to discover how tragic his relative's stories were.
My favorite Dr. Who, David Tennant, was initially also a bit surprising — to my ears — as I got used to his Scottish accent. Tennant knew next to nothing about his ancestors. He discovered a star athlete and a beauty queen and travelled from the Lowlands of Scotland to the Highlands. His quest also took him to Ireland, where he found it quite difficult at first to learn about his ancestor's involvement in "the troubles," Bloody Sunday, gerrymandering and poll-rigging.
Who Do You Think You Are is always an interesting history lesson. People find out not only about their relatives, but their relatives' part in history. I'm looking forward to digging up some more of these shows, and learning more as well. Zoë Wanamaker, Patsy Kensit, Robert Lindsay, and Graham Norton's shows all seem available. Hopefully more will be put up on YouTube or become available on DVD, as some of my favorites have also done episodes — Alan Cumming, John Hurt, Jeremy Irons, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Nigella Lawson.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Kathy Bates investigates
Article first published as TV Review: Harry's Law with Kathy Bates on Blogcritics.
I hate lawyer shows. I used to watch Law and Order when Jerry Orbach was on it, but never liked the law part of the show, especially Sam Waterston's annoying DA. I don't like arguing for the sake of it—or I should say, watching others do that. I really don't like all the little catches and loopholes in the law that could affect someone in a good or bad way, depending who's writing this week's script. Which is why Harry's Law appeals to me. Many are saying its target audience are Golden Girls from Bates's generation who miss Murder She Wrote. I'm sure the show will appeal to them, but I used to like watching Jessica Fletcher solve her biggest-guest-star-dunits with my grandmother, too. How can you not like Cabot Cove, the murder capital of the world? It was Angela Lansbury, for Pete's sake.
And that's exactly why it's fun watching Harry's Law—Kathy Bates. She's having a blast being ornery, saying all the curse words that her time slot will allow (asshole ... asshole). And she's Kathy Bates. It's refreshing to not see yet another show headed by an unbelievably thin and perky cast. There is the token cast cutie in Brittany Snow, who thankfully also seems to have a sense of humor. Nate Corddry is a great foil and sidekick. The show is supposed to be set in Cincinnati. I've never visited Cincinnati, but I've lived in New York and D.C. and I'm sure the bad part of town doesn't look like the block where Harry's Law and Fine Shoes is located, but who cares; we know it's a backlot. That's not the point. It's a chance to watch Kathy Bates kick some smarmy lawyer butt and get the wind taken out of her sails at the same time, with one client wackier than the next. But like I said, it's really not about the law, it's about the personalities.
What this show really reminds me of are two great British shows that I used to watch, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
, starring Patricia Routledge and Kingdom, starring Stephen Fry. Maybe David E. Kelley has been watching BBC America reruns lately. Hetty Wainthropp was ostensibly a detective show, but no one, no matter how guilty, ever went to jail. They may have gotten a stern lecture or a "tut-tut" and an expressive roll of the eyes from Hetty, but that was about the extent of it. So far Bates's Harry is 2-for-2 getting her criminals off-the-hook, too. Hetty was a fun hour watching Routledge and a very young Dominic Monaghan team up to solve crimes in Northern England. Kingdom starred Fry as a small-town lawyer surrounded by a cast of extremely eccentric but lovable characters, including the wonderful Tony Slattery, Hermione Norris and Celia Imrie.
Harry's Law is so much more entertaining than the show that precedes it, the hyped but horrible The Cape. I'm so sorry, James Frain. I love you but I don't know if I can sit though another episode with such heavy-handed music and dialogue like, "Either you wear the cape or the cape wears you." Yikes. Or, "Every cop cell in my body tells me that guy's bad news." Seriously, a killer cape that can behead department store dummies? I just hear The Incredibles' Edna Mode's voice in my head on an endless loop, "No capes!"
Instead of suffering through The Cape again maybe I'll check out Kingdom on Hulu and Hetty on YouTube as the perfect openers to Harry's Law. And Kathy Bates and her show can ride on the cape-tails of a comic, but deliver the real comedy.
I hate lawyer shows. I used to watch Law and Order when Jerry Orbach was on it, but never liked the law part of the show, especially Sam Waterston's annoying DA. I don't like arguing for the sake of it—or I should say, watching others do that. I really don't like all the little catches and loopholes in the law that could affect someone in a good or bad way, depending who's writing this week's script. Which is why Harry's Law appeals to me. Many are saying its target audience are Golden Girls from Bates's generation who miss Murder She Wrote. I'm sure the show will appeal to them, but I used to like watching Jessica Fletcher solve her biggest-guest-star-dunits with my grandmother, too. How can you not like Cabot Cove, the murder capital of the world? It was Angela Lansbury, for Pete's sake.
And that's exactly why it's fun watching Harry's Law—Kathy Bates. She's having a blast being ornery, saying all the curse words that her time slot will allow (asshole ... asshole). And she's Kathy Bates. It's refreshing to not see yet another show headed by an unbelievably thin and perky cast. There is the token cast cutie in Brittany Snow, who thankfully also seems to have a sense of humor. Nate Corddry is a great foil and sidekick. The show is supposed to be set in Cincinnati. I've never visited Cincinnati, but I've lived in New York and D.C. and I'm sure the bad part of town doesn't look like the block where Harry's Law and Fine Shoes is located, but who cares; we know it's a backlot. That's not the point. It's a chance to watch Kathy Bates kick some smarmy lawyer butt and get the wind taken out of her sails at the same time, with one client wackier than the next. But like I said, it's really not about the law, it's about the personalities.
What this show really reminds me of are two great British shows that I used to watch, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
, starring Patricia Routledge and Kingdom, starring Stephen Fry. Maybe David E. Kelley has been watching BBC America reruns lately. Hetty Wainthropp was ostensibly a detective show, but no one, no matter how guilty, ever went to jail. They may have gotten a stern lecture or a "tut-tut" and an expressive roll of the eyes from Hetty, but that was about the extent of it. So far Bates's Harry is 2-for-2 getting her criminals off-the-hook, too. Hetty was a fun hour watching Routledge and a very young Dominic Monaghan team up to solve crimes in Northern England. Kingdom starred Fry as a small-town lawyer surrounded by a cast of extremely eccentric but lovable characters, including the wonderful Tony Slattery, Hermione Norris and Celia Imrie.Harry's Law is so much more entertaining than the show that precedes it, the hyped but horrible The Cape. I'm so sorry, James Frain. I love you but I don't know if I can sit though another episode with such heavy-handed music and dialogue like, "Either you wear the cape or the cape wears you." Yikes. Or, "Every cop cell in my body tells me that guy's bad news." Seriously, a killer cape that can behead department store dummies? I just hear The Incredibles' Edna Mode's voice in my head on an endless loop, "No capes!"
Instead of suffering through The Cape again maybe I'll check out Kingdom on Hulu and Hetty on YouTube as the perfect openers to Harry's Law. And Kathy Bates and her show can ride on the cape-tails of a comic, but deliver the real comedy.
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
hold the fry?
Stephen Fry made some remarks recently about straight women and sex that seem to have got the internets up in arms, from feminists crying, "foul!" to "experts" saying maybe he's on to something. I honestly don't get what all the fuss is about, why anyone would take these remarks seriously. I happen to love Stephen Fry, and the Mrs. I have for years.
Maybe the folks whose panties are so twisted don't really know who Fry is or what he's like. Here are a few things to keep in mind before getting too upset.
1. He's a homosexual. He is about as privy to the inner workings of a straight woman's sexuality as ... Well, he isn't at all. That's the point. If that's not enough to convince you ...
2. He blathers. And yammers. And splutters. It's his stock-in-trade. No one should be paying any real attention to about 80% of what he says, it's just static. And usually charming.
3. He's British. Why would anyone take a Brit seriously as a sex expert? It's not like he's French.
4. He's a comedian. They push the envelope, sometimes too far, but that's their job. I can't even imagine what the politically correct police would do if a Richard Pryor came onto the scene now.
It's amusing and possibly a little disturbing that some people are outraged that he claims that women don't like to go trolling for anonymous sex in the park. Like some gay men might. Poor women. These are all stereotypes and generalized blah blah blah, people. Bad cocktail party conversation, maybe, but not a call to arms. Are we really supposed to take this seriously? Seems to me that Fry is not the only one who's clueless about women and sex and talking about women and sex.
I hope Fry, after a self-imposed humbled interlude, continues to blather freely once more. Even blither. I'm quite upset that he isn't currently tweeting. I find his silence much more upsetting than anything "inappropriate" or "incorrect" he could ever tweet or say.
People who read such articles or opinion pieces on such articles should just R-E-L-A-X.
Maybe the folks whose panties are so twisted don't really know who Fry is or what he's like. Here are a few things to keep in mind before getting too upset.
1. He's a homosexual. He is about as privy to the inner workings of a straight woman's sexuality as ... Well, he isn't at all. That's the point. If that's not enough to convince you ...
2. He blathers. And yammers. And splutters. It's his stock-in-trade. No one should be paying any real attention to about 80% of what he says, it's just static. And usually charming.
3. He's British. Why would anyone take a Brit seriously as a sex expert? It's not like he's French.
4. He's a comedian. They push the envelope, sometimes too far, but that's their job. I can't even imagine what the politically correct police would do if a Richard Pryor came onto the scene now.
It's amusing and possibly a little disturbing that some people are outraged that he claims that women don't like to go trolling for anonymous sex in the park. Like some gay men might. Poor women. These are all stereotypes and generalized blah blah blah, people. Bad cocktail party conversation, maybe, but not a call to arms. Are we really supposed to take this seriously? Seems to me that Fry is not the only one who's clueless about women and sex and talking about women and sex.
I hope Fry, after a self-imposed humbled interlude, continues to blather freely once more. Even blither. I'm quite upset that he isn't currently tweeting. I find his silence much more upsetting than anything "inappropriate" or "incorrect" he could ever tweet or say.
People who read such articles or opinion pieces on such articles should just R-E-L-A-X.
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