Tag: Helena Bonham Carter

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 30 September 2025
No Comments on Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Sticky post

Directors – Tim Burton, Mike Johnson – 2005 – US – Cert. PG – 77m

*****

When his arranged marriage preparations go badly wrong, a young man inadvertently marries a dead woman from the underworld – stop-frame animated marvel is out on 4K Ultra HD and Digital, and in UK cinemas on Friday, October 10th

It is a grey world, and everything must go… according to plan. For there is to be a rehearsal today for a marriage that will take place tomorrow. The son of nouveau riche couple the Van Dorts (voices: Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse) is to wed the daughter of penniless aristocrats Lord and Lady Everglot (voices: Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney). The bridegroom Victor (voice: Johnny Depp) has yet to meet his bride Victoria (voice: Emily Watson) and, left in the vast Everglot vestibule, the young man plays the piano. The tune floats up the stairs and is heard by Victoria who is drawn to it and its performer. She descends the stairs to listen and, against the odds, the pair fall in love.

Three hours into the marriage rehearsal, presided over by Pastor Galswells (voice: Christopher Lee) and poor Victor can’t seem to get his lines right.… Read the rest

Tags Albert Finney, Alison Abbate, animated skeletons, animation history, arranged marriage, bridegroom, Christopher Lee, Corpse Bride, dancing, Danny Elfman, death, Disney Silly Symphony, drinking in bars., elope, Emily Watson, everything must go, fall in love, families, grey world, Helena Bonham Carter, high position, husbands and wives, Joanna Lumley, John August, Johnny Depp, liberated from the past, living it up, Mackinnon and Saunders, marriage rehearsal, Michael Gough, Mike Johnson, newlyweds, nouveau riche, parents and children, pastor, Paul Whitehouse, penniless aristocrats, piano, playing music, Ray Harryhausen, rehearsal, rehearsing lines, Richard E. Grant, social convention, Tim Burton, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, Tracey Ullman, trapped, true love, underworld, vestibule, woods

Art Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Exhibition on Screen:
John Singer Sargent
Fashion & Swagger

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 15 April 2024
No Comments on Exhibition on Screen:
John Singer Sargent
Fashion & Swagger
Sticky post

Director – David Bickerstaff – 2024 – UK – Cert. U – 93m

****

Late nineteenth century society portrait painter John Singer Sargent was fascinated more by their clothing and the possibilities of paint than he was by the women he painted – documentary is out in UK cinemas for selected screenings from Tuesday, April 16th

Based on the exhibition first at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) and now at Tate Britain, this opens with incidental music that conjures a contemporary dance floor, a soundtrack which provokes a strange tension with paintings hanging on walls and costumes displayed in glass cases as the camera moves through the physical spaces in which they are displayed. But then, the title suggests this might be a little different from Exhibition on Screen’s usual fare.

John Singer Sargent’s A Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer (A Lady In White), 1889-90, shows the energy and intensity of his portraiture. The brushstrokes are arresting and like nothing else being done at the time. The paintings might be perfect, but the people within them most definitely are not: Sargent captures their imperfections in a most compelling way. He looked deeply at people, and some of his sitters were afraid to sit for him because of what he might see.… Read the rest

Tags 1882, A Lady In White, actors on a stage, Alice Brisbane, Alice Comyns Carr, Alice In Wonderland, Aline de Rothschild, art student, artist, beetle wing dress, Boston, Boston Public Library, brushstroke, camp, Carmen Dauset Moreno, Carmencita, Carnation Lily Lily Rose, Carolus-Duran, cataloguer, Chelsea, chemical dyes, Chinese lanterns, city, colour, costume designer, costumes, dance floor, dancer, dancers, dark space, David Bickerstaff, David Rocksavage, diet Coke, drama, dress straps, Edward Darley Boit, Ellen Terry, Elsie Palmer, Erica E. Hirschler, Europe, exhibition, Exhibition On Screen, fabric, fashion, fire, flamenco El Jaleo, Florence, Frances Fowle, Franz Hals, Gassed, Give Women the Vote, glass cases, Grand Manner portraiture, grandmother, green white and violet, Grenada, guitar players, GWV, Helena Bonham Carter, Henry James, Houghton Hall, Imperial War Museum, James Hayes, John Singer Sargent, Joshua Reynolds, Kate Moss, Kenwood, Lady Macbeth, Lady Sassoon, light, Lisa Stansfield, London, Louise Cooling, Madame Pierre Gautreau, Madame X, Madrid, Mark C. O’Flaherty, Mary Frances Grant, MFA, Miss Haversham, MoMA, Monet, Monty Python, Mrs Hugh Hammersley, Mrs. Charles Thursby, murals, muscles, Museum of Fine Arts, Mustard Gas, neck, New York, Norfolk, nouveau riche, nude, off the shoulder, opera cloak, Oscar Wilde, outer space, paint, painting imperfection, Paris, Paul Fisher, photographer, plain air, portraiture, pose, powerful, Queen of Hearts, queer, queer artist, queer circle, Richard Ormond, Rose Rocksavage, Sandy Powell, Siouxsie Sioux, sitting, society women, Stephanie L. Herdrich, Stephen Farthing, studio, Sybil Sassoon, Tate Britain, texture, the Lyceum, Thomas Edison, Thomas Gainsborough, Tilda Swinton, Tim Walker, Tite Street, torsion, twist, UK, Velázquez, Virginie Amélie Avegno, W. Graham Robertson, watercolour, Whistler, William Blake, women’s suffrage

Features Live Action Movies

Charlie
and the
Chocolate Factory

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 29 July 2005
No Comments on Charlie
and the
Chocolate Factory

Director – Tim Burton – 2005 – US – PG – 115 mins

*****

UK release date 29/07/2005. Currently screening on Netflix

An adaptation of Roald Dahl’s eponymous 1964 children’s book previously filmed under the title Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart, 1971), this also marks the second collaboration of Burton with screenwriter / adapter John August. The duo previously made Big Fish (2003), which film had all the desired Burton trademarks (larger than life, nonconformist outsiders, sense of wonderment, distinctive and zany visuals) while sidestepping the flaws (narrative incoherence, weak characterisation) which beset many of the director’s previous films. They’ve repeated the trick with Charlie, elaborating upon and extending Dahl’s original text without ever compromising it. Lead actor Depp is something of a Burton regular, having previously appeared in Edward Scissorhands (1990), Ed Wood (1994) and Sleepy Hollow (1999).

Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore, current critics’ favourite child actor following his terrific turn in Finding Neverland, Marc Forster, 2004) lives with a family (Helena Bonham Carter, Noah Taylor and grandparents including David Kelly and Liz Smith) so poor they live on cabbage soup in the shadow of the Wonka Chocolate Factory. Mysterious, reclusive owner Willy Wonka (Depp) closed it years ago following his celebrated recipes’ theft by rival confectioners and hasn’t been seen in public since.… Read the rest