Elizabeth (1998) - Kapur and Blanchett succeed with grand biopic

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+ Best Biopic of the Year + Best English Movie of the Year + Best Historical Drama of the Year + Breakthrough Actress of the Year: Cate Blanchett

 

Cate Blanchett appears as a woman to be reckoned with on this poster for Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth

1558, England: When Catholic Queen Mary of England during her fatal illness decides against convicting her Protestant sister Elizabeth to death, the country soon have a new queen, who finds herself under pressure to establish herself by marrying. 

Cate Blanchett (Hanna (2011)) plays with captivating vigor, impulsiveness and humanity in the title lead and enjoys first-rate backup from John Gielgud (Prospero's Books (1990)), Richard Attenborough (All Night Long (1962)), Joseph Fiennes (Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon (2016, TV movie)), Vincent Cassel (The Crimson Rivers/Les Rivières Pourpres (2000)) and more in the impressive ensemble.
Elizabeth is a very exciting and handsomely produced biopic with some extravagantly long music sequences (David Hirschfelder (The Dressmaker (2015)) has composed the fine score). It is a confident and great piece of very vividly rendered historical filmmaking. It is written by Michael Hirst (Vikings (2013-17)) and directed by great Britisth-Indian director Shekhar Kapur (Bandit Queen (1994)).

 

Related post:

 

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 82.1 mil. $
= Box office success
[Elizabeth premiered 8 September (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 124 minutes. Shooting took place in England, New Zealand and Australia. Blanchett was a widely unknown Australian actress at the time. Marlon Brando was in consideration to play the pope, which eventually was played by Gielgud. Kapur has related how he suggested, in vain, that the legendary Thespian acquire an Italian accent, which horrified every English actor within earshot. The film opened #17 in 9 theaters to a solid 275k $ in North America, where it peaked at #8 and in 624 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 30 mil. $ (36.5 % of the total gross) in its 26 week-long release there. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 15.8 mil. $ (19.2 %) and the UK with 9 mil. $ (11 %). The film won the Oscar for Best Makeup and was nominated for an additional 6: It lost Best Picture to Shakespeare in Love, Actress to Gwyneth Palthrow in Shakespeare in Love, Cinematography to Janusz Kaminski for Saving Private Ryan, Art-Set Direction and Costumes to Shakespeare in Love, and Score to Nicola Piovani for Life Is Beautiful/La Vita è Bella. It was also nominated for a two Golden Globes, winning one for Blanchett, 12 BAFTAS, winning 6, won 2 National Board of Review awards, an award in Venice and more. The film was accused of being anti-Catholic, and it is also fraught with countless historical inaccuracies. It was followed up by Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) about the second part of Elizabeth's reign, again by Kapur and with Blanchett, - but not a hit. Elizabeth is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Elizabeth?

The Elephant Man (1980) - Lynch's deeply moving second feature

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An unusual, gritty poster for David Lynch's The Elephant Man

 

John Merrick is the world's greatest freak of nature, known to the public simply as 'The Elephant Man' in London around a hundred years ago. Unscrupulous people exploit his deformity, as a doctor begins caring for him.

 

Merrick's challenges, humility and setbacks, and the compassion that he finally meets, is a fantastically moving journey to be on. The Elephant Man as a film is a remarkable achievement and extremely well done. The acting is stellar, but particularly John Hurt (Brighton Rock (2010)) in the title role and John Gielgud (The Wicked Lady (1983)) as the ultimately good hospital director are astoundingly brilliant. - Hurt's performance is all the more impressive for the enormous makeup contraption he is acting under.

The Elephant Man is written by Christopher De Vore (Hamlet (1990)), Eric Bergren (Frances (1982)) and Montanan master co-writer-director David Lynch (The Straight Story (1999)), whose second film it is. It is based on the true character of Joseph Merrick as detailed in Sir Frederick Treves' (Anthony Hopkins' character in the film) book The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences (1923) and Ashley Montagu's (Man and Aggression (1968)) book The Elephan Man: A Study in Human Dignity (1971).

Lynch's near-fetishistic fascination with urban industry of the kind London was teeming with in the late 19th century makes the film a rare and strange experience. Lynch cultivates a kind of profound alienation in the film, attempting to put us in Merrick's shoes, which takes full concentration and can render the experience extremely rewarding. Not achieving it is ultimately a failure of the viewer and not the film or its makers.

 

Related reviews:

David Lynch: Blue Velvet (1986) or, The Strange World 

Dune (1984) - Lynch heads to space, with an (unsurprisingly) strange result

Listen to the theme from the film here

Cost: 5 mil. $

Box office: 26 mil. $ (North America only), world gross likely somewhere between 35 - 45 mil. $

= Huge hit

[The Elephant Man premiered October 3 (New York) and runs 124 minutes. Mel Brooks' Brooksfilms produced the film, and Brooks was responsible for somel fine decisions as backer of the project: He rejected an executive producer's credit for himself so as not to make anyone think that The Elephant Man was a comedy. He believed in Lynch as director based on his supremely strange debut Eraserhead (1977) and to a large degree let Lynch make the film - and cut it - the way he saw fit. Lynch tried to make the makeup designs himself but failed, - a time he has described as one of the "darkest moments of my life." The prosthetics were eventually cast directly from the original casts made off Merrick's head, arm and foot after his death. The makeup took eight hours to apply and two hours to remove for each of Hurt's working days. Shooting took place in London and the Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England from October 1979 - May 1980. It was the 25th highest-grossing film in North America of 1980. It got nominated for 8 Oscars, tying with Raging Bull, but won none: It lost Best Picture to Ordinary People, Best Actor (Hurt) to Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, Best Director to Robert Redford for Ordinary People, Adapted Screenplay to Alvin Sargent for Ordinary People, Art Direction and Costume Design to Tess, Best Score to Fame and Best Editing to Raging Bull. The film's remarkable makeup achievement caused the instatement of the Best Makeup Oscar the following year, first won by An American Werewolf in London. It was also nominated for 4 Golden Globes, winning none; 7 BAFTAs, winning 3, and for 2 Grammys. It was on The National Board of Review's Top 10 list of the year and won the Best Foregin Film César (French Oscar). The film rests at #152 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250, between Wild Strawberries/Smultronstället (1957) and Warrior (2011). The Elephant Man is certified fresh at 90 % with an 8.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Elephant Man?

Caligula (1979) - Depravity galore in the Penthouse-produced Roman emperor biopic

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An alluring, brooding poster for Tinto Brass's Caligula

QUICK REVIEW:

The subject of the film: Caligula, who was a Roman emperor approximately 100 years A.C., as well as a sex-crazed maniac.
The film in itself is only worth 3 ♥'s, however, the place it has carved out for itself in film history, (along with the not irrelevant fact that it didn't spin an intolerable avalanche of accompanying epic, swords-and-sandal-art-porns in its vein), contributes to Caligula's growth beyond its own potential.
In a way it is refreshing to see an epic costume drama like this that suddenly both entails fisting and cumshots, and yet still ... Caligula, produced by Penthouse magazine, (it's only film to date), is a complete 70's freak-show.
The ending SPOILER with the appointment of the new emperor and the mooing-scene are spot-on, and the execution-scene impresses, but the film is generally wildly stagy, uncinematic and technically poor.
It was directed by Italian Tinto Brass (Salon Kitty (1976)) with additional footage, - more accurately all of the pornographic material in the film (spurting cocks etc.), - directed by the film's producer Bob Guccione (Lowball (1996)), who insterted the footage against Brass's wishes. The film is based on a script by Gore Vidal (Myra Breckinridge (1970)), which had way too many homosexual sex scenes in it (to suit the Penthouse taste) and was therefore rewritten by Brass. Both Brass and Vidal later disowned the film, which became a success fueled by the free press it got from the courts around America that actually (sensationally) tried to ban the film, but without luck; it was repeatedly deemed 'not obscene'. - It was, however, banned in Australia, where the uncut version has been banned at least into 2011!
That is the version this review is based on, which runs 156 minutes.

Watch an original trailer here

Cost: 17.5 mil. $
Box office: 23 mil. $
= Minor hit

What do you think of Caligula?