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Ivan The Terrible: Part I (1944)
Ivan The Terrible: Part I (1944)
1944 | Biography, Drama, History
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Ivan the Terrible, Part 1. Sergei M. Eisenstein. Mainly because he shot it during the middle of the second world war, and he had thousands of extras to choose from. It was one of those movies made during, of course, the second world war. Stalin had absolute power, which means that they could literally do anything with this production. Their production was epic on a scale that’s never been seen before because they were using — sort of very freely — prisoners of war for these big scenes. But the end result is the film is an extraordinary interpretation of what Ivan the Terrible, Part 1, is. It’s extraordinary for a myriad of different reasons, but one of those reasons is it was made during the second world war, and you can see aspects of it that we don’t really see about the world at that time. Do you know what I mean? Eisenstein was very cleverly able to mirror Stalin, mirror Hitler, within the confines of that film — disguising it, of course,as Russian folklore to get the movie made. In fact, he probably sold it to Stalin like, “You are as great as Ivan the Terrible was!”Of course he was, but terrible also. It was a great way of being able to reflect the politics, the situation of Europe, the situation of the world at that time within the confines of the film. It’s a great film. Magnificent. His use of individualizing on individual characters is mind blowing. I’m sure every great director has studied it for weeks and weeks, months and months at a time in their lives."

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The Last Girl To Die
The Last Girl To Die
Helen Fields | 2022 | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I have read one of Helen Field's books from the DI Callanach series (One For Sorrow) and it was absolutely brilliant so I thought I'd be on to a winner with The Last Girl to Die and whilst it's not as good as One For Sorrow, it's still a great read. This is a standalone so no worries about missing out on anything.

Sadie is a private investigator from Canada hired by Adriana's family to find her and it doesn't take her long to locate her body. She is a bit of a maverick and makes some questionable decisions which only serves to stir up the local constabulary and community in her quest to find out who the killer is. All is definitely not what it seems and soon Sadie has a list of suspects as long as her arm and at risk of becoming a target herself.

Helen Fields uses all manner of skills to immerse you into this story from myths, legends and folklore to her vivid descriptions of the Island of Mull, well fleshed our characters and a pace that moves along well and whilst I felt some of the situations Sadie put herself into as being a tad dubious, it did work with her character.

The Last Girl to Die is full of tension and unease which ramps up towards an ending I wasn't expecting at all ... I love it when that happens ... and I would recommend to others who enjoy dark mysteries that keep you guessing.

Thank you to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for enabling me to read The Last Girl to Die and share my thoughts.