Michael Winterbottom’s third Thomas Hardy adaptation moves Tess of the D’Urbervilles to contemporary India with mixed results. At the centre of the film experience is a frustrating conflict between the operatic melodrama of Hardy’s original story and Winterbottom’s realism. The latter ultimately negates the plot’s effectiveness, resulting in a film which is viscerally satisfying but […]
Temperatures and passions were both rising at Saturday’s opening night of Bard on the Beach’s King John. On a sultry summer evening we were treated to a heated rendition of Shakespeare’s rarely-performed historical play; a fiery saga of political struggle, double-dealing and loyalty featuring King John – who is best known for his role in […]
Maybe you never gathered with the neighbourhood kids to roll each other down a hill inside dump-truck tires. Maybe you never had a daily routine of playing ‘comb-ball’ until someone cried and your aunt made you all stop. And maybe, just maybe…you don’t even know what ‘comb-ball’ is. But what is almost certain is that […]
Michael Winterbottom’s third Thomas Hardy adaptation moves Tess of the D’Urbervilles to contemporary India with mixed results. At the centre of the film experience is a frustrating conflict between the operatic melodrama of Hardy’s original story and Winterbottom’s realism. The latter ultimately negates the plot’s effectiveness, resulting in a film which is viscerally satisfying but […] 