
The Age of the Horse: An Equine Journey Through Human History
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Man has always been fascinated by Equus caballus, recasting horse power into many forms: a hunk of...

The Lives of the Great Gardeners
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Throughout history great gardeners have risen from all walks of life. Some have been aristocratic...

The Zeppelin
Book
This new publication from Michael Belafi offers some truly intriguing content. Photographs of the...

Colin Newman recommended Church Of Anthrax by John Cale in Music (curated)

Movie Metropolis (309 KP) rated A Little Chaos (2015) in Movies
Jun 11, 2019
Kate Winslet takes on the role of Sabine De Barra, a visionary landscape gardener who is tasked with creating the stunning piece of architecture in Versailles for King Louis XIV, portrayed by a typically on-point Rickman.
8379_poster_iphoneThe plot is stretched out into a film that lasts a little over two hours and despite some breath-taking scenery and excellent performances, A Little Chaos couldn’t be further removed from its title – in fact it’s all a little flat and Saturday night TV drama-esque.
A promising supporting cast that includes Stanley Tucci as Louis XIV’s gay brother and Matthias Schoenaerts, a former Cesar award-winner, as the king’s principal gardener, is wasted as the film spends much of its running time trying to tie together numerous loose ends, from a tragedy plot to a new-found romance.
Rickman’s direction is admirable and he certainly knows how to get the best out of his landscapes, but like the many shrubs in A Little Chaos, it all needed pruning back slightly more with at least 20 minutes of exposition being completely unnecessary.
Moreover, for a film that has its secondary focus on horticulture, there is very little in the way of gardening, and I for one was hoping for more beautiful shots of the stunning grounds rather than rain-soaked Winslet and admittedly impressive hair pieces.
Nevertheless, both Winslet and Rickman are superb in their roles and it’s nice to see the latter take on something a little less sinister after his well-received performances in the Harry Potter franchise and of course his brilliant turn in Die Hard.
The former is, alongside Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore, one of the most reliable actresses in cinema. Her performance here is excellent and through her tragic past, we see more to the character of Sabine the further we get into the picture.
It’s just a shame that none of it registers. After a disappointingly slow first half, things only moderately gain pace as the film
reaches its poorly CGI finished conclusion. Winslet’s character is given more depth than she needs and the audience faces the difficult task of dealing with numerous bits of information that don’t really come together.
Overall, Alan Rickman’s latest effort in the director’s chair lacks the magic and sparkle that he brings to his acting and despite mesmerising performances from Kate Winslet and Rickman himself, A Little Chaos is more at home on the small screen, rather than the big.
After all, if an overly camp Stanley Tucci fails to generate interest, there’s something seriously amiss.
https://moviemetropolis.net/2015/04/19/better-suited-to-tv-a-little-chaos-review/

graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated In the Shadow of the Sun King (Darkness to Light, #1) in Books
Feb 15, 2019
The heavy-handed use of religion is the least of it's problems, which should have at least have fit in better and not tossed like an oversight. I could not sympathize with any of the characters, the reader only got a cursory look at them, with Madeleine being worst of the lot (what a twit). The history is superficial and thrown in randomly; it rather reminded me of a children's book or show where they're being taught by an adult. Not to mention two years pass and there is no sense of it, we're just told in ten-twenty pages, not shown. That was an opportunity wasted right there and could have been the most interesting aspect of this novel. IN THE SHADOW OF THE SUN KING glossed over way too much and what remained was boring and stale.
Maybe the casual reader or more devout will enjoy it more, but I would have given up after fifty pages if I didn't have to review the sequel, A PRISONER AT VERSAILLES, and thought I <i>should</i> read this first. Hopefully, it will be much better because I'm really dreading it.

Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life
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For some historians and biographers, Maximilien Robespierre (1758-94) was a great revolutionary...

A World of Gardens
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A Japanese garden is immediately distinct to the eye from the traditional gardens of an English...

Little
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LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2020 LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE...
Historical fiction France French Revolution
Uruguayan Cinema, 1960-2010
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Runner-up for the 2014 Publication Prize awarded by the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain...