Best of British Part 2 - page 2

15 July 2008

0Comments | Comment on this Article

The English Patient was released to critical and commercial acclaim going on to be nominated for twelve Academy Awards.

On the night it picked up nine including Best Picture, Best Director for Minghella and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Juliette Binoche. Kristen Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes were nominated for Best Actress and Best Actor in a Leading role.

For fans of World War II epics, The English Patient delivers a story of love and lost during trying times and illustrates the compassion human beings display at their best.

It's beautifully acted by the stellar cast with all the characters hurting in some shape or form it's a brooding expanse of a film that intricately tangles love and tragedy and passion and anger and violence and war together.

9. Zulu

Based on actual events, this film takes place in 1879 at Africa's Roarke's Drift, a military post occupied by 97 British soldiers.

The Englishmen receive word that they are about to be besieged by 4,000 Zulu warriors armed with spears and even rifles.

The soldiers stay and fight the warriors, desperately using everything they can find to withstand the onslaught.

This was the first major role of British actor Michael Caine who took on the role of Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead, a young infantry officer.

Despite their being some historical inaccuracies the film is one of the best British war films ever released.

10. Atonement

There has been a changing of the guard at Working Title gone are the day when their movies consisted of Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis as their new golden boy Joe Wright has taken the movie industry by storm.

Hard to believe that Atonement is just the director's second feature as his choice of shot, use of costume, attention to the period, and the performance he commands from his cast suggests that he is a veteran movie-maker.

It's 1935 and the hottest day of the summer. Thirteen year old Briony Tallis, an aspiring writer with a wild imagination, is fascinated by the behaviour of the adults around her, despite not understanding what they are doing.

She witnesses two strange encounters between her older sister Cecilia and Robbie, a family friend and son of the cook.

She believes, after reading a letter from Robbie to Cecilia, that Robbie is a dangerous, sex crazed individual. When she walks in on Robbie and Cecilia making love in the library, which she believes to be an attack on her sister, her suspicions about Robbie are confirmed.

Later that night their cousin Lola is raped in the grounds of their house and Briony accuses Robbie of the crime.

The three main character's lives pivot on this one event: Robbie is sent to prison before going to fight for his country in the Second World War, Cecilia leaves her family behind and becomes a nurse in blitz London, and Briony spends her whole life attempting to atone for her mistake.

Knightley finally makes her claim as a serious grown up actress shaking off her young girl roles, her Pirates tag and silencing her critics in just one stroke. She delivers a controlled performance as the emotionally repressed Cecilia, who shows her emotion only once in the library scene with Robbie.

The role of Robbie Turner is a distant cry from Shameless for the young Scot James McAvoy who is truly becoming one of this country's great leading men.

0Comments | Be the first to comment!