Daniel Day Lewis

Society scion Newland Archer is engaged to May Welland, but his well-ordered life is upset when he meets May's unconventional cousin, the Countess Olenska. At first, Newland becomes a defender of the Countess, whose separation from her abusive husband makes her a social outcast in the restrictive high society of late-19th Century New York, but he finds in her a companion spirit and they fall in love.

Scorsese proves once again that he can direct anything of any genre, and it becomes brilliant. I admit that I do watch period drama and this is definatly up there with some of the best I've seen. Scorsese's direction with his famous tracking shots, montage editing and agressive camera movement really depicts the story well for me. Perhaps that's just become I'm a fan.

Compared with Gangs of New York there's more story developement there and there's more of a sense of purpose for the films, which I found lacked in GONY. The Age of Innocence has more of Scorsese's directorial signitures in it, as I said before, Montage editing, Tracking shots and a character who wants to be accepted in sciety. That's way it's superior to GONY.

The cast is top notch. Definatly one of the better casts in scorsese's movies. Winona Ryder, in her academey nominated role, performs to a high standard-one in which I don't think I've seen her like before. Michelle Pfeffer was unregnosible as her character, Countess Olenska, you really believe she's that character. Day-Lewis, in his first Scorsese movie was probably a little underated in the movie, perhaps overshadowed by Ryder. Also great to see fellow Brit actors; Johanthan Pryce, Richard. E Grant and Miriam Margolyes in an American film. Although Richard .E Grant had a pretty bad American accent in it, Pryce and Margolys were brilliant.

What I loved about the film was how brilliantly it depicted New York life in the 1870's. We see Neland struggling to overcome his feelings for Countess Olenska and marry a woman he doesn't love at all. There we see how society at that time wouldn't agree with him with Olenska. This is brilliantly depicted by the narration, used many times in Scorsese's films. There we understand the characters far better than we would without narration. There is also one brilliant score, which is still in my head after watching it. Again this beautifully capture the spirit of that era. Excellent!

Overall a brilliant period drama and one of Scorsese's best films.

Highly Recomended to all

Director:Jim Sheridan
Released:1989
Stars : Daniel Day Lewis, Brenda Fricker
Genre: Drama, Biography
Country: Ireland/UK



Christy Brown is a spastic quadriplegic born to a large, poor Irish family. His mother, Mrs Brown, recognizes the intelligence and humanity in the lad everyone else regards as a vegetable. Eventually, Christy matures into a cantankerous writer who uses his only functional limb, his left foot, to write with.

Well, I think this may be the start of a Daniel Day Lewis season for me after watching There Will Be Blood a few months ago. Seriously though, after watching this he may be in my top 5 favourite actors list. Just a superb performance, clearly methos acting at it's finest. Just need to pick another Day Lewis film to watch next.

My Left Foot is a touching and inspirational film about the life of Christy Brown and nominated for five academy awards and won two-which was rightly so. I think the problem that I had with it is that it has unfortunatly dated and date a lot. I also have seen a lot of senimental type films made here in the UK, over the years, it's not that different. There where serveral scenes which seemed to skip rather quickly to the next scene, which leaves the viewer having no concept of time within the film. The opening section of the film is weak and did make me loose interest for a small period of time. However the performance of Brenda Fricker( who I can't help but remember her iN casualty all those years ago), did keep me watching. rightly so she won Best Actress at the Oscars at the time. A Performance, which matches Day Lewis for me. Both equally brilliant.

Besides what I said in the first part of the review, I did enjoy My left Foot, just not like I thought I would. The Strength of the film lies with the performances and the writing. The writing, of course from the words of the real Christy Brown as well as writers; Shane Connaughton and Jim Sheridan, is superb for me. Each section of dialogue is relevent, quick and smart and doesn't leave you feeling a little disappointed. Every segement i slaos richly detailed, which keeps you attentive.

As I said before Day Lewis is remarkable, I have no idea how an actor can absorb himself into such a role as this. Also producing one of the most memorable performances I have ever seen. Made me convinces that I was watching Christy Brown, rather than Day-Lewis as Christy Brown, which is key to a great performance. Worth mentioning Hugh O-Connor, ad young Christy and Ray McAnnaly, as the Father who also delievered some fine performances.

also worth mentioning elmer Bernstein's brilliant score, which captures the essense of the film very well indeed. One aswell, which is still in my head at this very moment.

My Left Foot is definatly worth watching for the performances of Daniel day Lewis and Brenda Fricker. I do recomend this to anyone wanting to see one of Daniel Day Lewis' earlier performances.

Director:Paul Thomas Anderson
Released: 2007
Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciaran Hinds and Kevin J. O'Connor
Genre: Drama
Country: US



A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.

Well, first things first, I didn't think that I would come across a film that would have the same impact on me when i watched Atonement. Boy was I wrong! Everything in this film is pure genuis on Anderson's part. Stunning cinematography,acting,score,editing....everything that I want in a film and more. An absolute masterpiece.

There Will Be Blood contains some intresting idelogies about surburben America. Most notably an incredibly isolated one. But two that come to mind are this Anti-Religious theme and Ant-capitalism. We see the character of Plaintiff, who feels uncomfortable around Eli Sunday in relation to his evangelical preching. Daniel Day-Lewis' character is one of a seriosuly repressed man, who wants no more than to own every oil enterprise in the land.

What was so brilliant about this film, which I will probably say again was just absolutly bloody everything. The score I will begin with. Made by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, who for some starnge reason did not get an Academy award nomination for this, produces a score which prefectly relates to the time period. The whole errieness of it and the detuning of the score, adds to the bleak, corrupt atmosphere that we see on screen. Abolutly mesmeriszing. Something which I have to buy very soon. Still have it in my head. So brilliant"

The film also contains huge christian like imagery. For instance Plaintiff, is seen as deriving from hell, ie- we first seen him down in the pit lookin for oil. From there we can see he is a violent, selfish man, who is deterimined to get what h wants. From there on, when he takes the son of another man and poses him as his own-also symoboloses this. There are loads more but I dodn't want to give too much away as it's just blown me away!

Talking of "blowing me away" the cinematography. WOW oh Wow! again I didn't think I would see should sensational cinematography since I watched Atonement back in September. Again I was serisouly wrong. Throughout the film, the colour on the screen changes from dark to seriously light. Again, possibly signifies the changing of mood. One oncredibly piece of imagery is that scene where the oil place is on fire is unbelivably. The colours, is set up perfectly for something spectactualer. I don't have the words to describe it but once you see it you'll see what I mean.

Being a Scorsese fan, I can see hell of a lot of trademarks in here that he uses. For instance the jump cuts in here, that he often uses. These, as I can see from reviews have put people off and confused them a little. For me this is is beauty of the film. It has certainly made be think about how much I take for granted everything told to me in the film. I mean Anderson takes a chunk of vita nrrative information and doesn't tells us anymore. I loved this. Seriouslyy people is a good thing you know. It's something that is original and not often used. People wake up! Anyway, I loved some of the tracking shots in this, not quite beating Atonement but still some unbeliveable scenes in it.

The acting...well just outstanding. Daniel Day Lewis seriosuly pocess the inner-body of his character so well. The John Huston like voice, mannerisms, e.t.c is just mind-blowing. If he doesn't win best actor at this year's oscars-I'l eat my own hat!! I have to say Paul Dano is serisouly under-rated in this role. He brilliantly plays the twin-brothers Eli and Paul so so well. I love his crazy preaching moment...but I can't go into that much. Both actors, Dano and Day-Lewis have brilliant chemistry on screen which shows. I can't understand why Dano hasn't been credited more with his role-only a BAFTA nomination. I guess his is slightly over-shadowed by Day Lewis's performance.

Overall, the length of the film DOES NOT matter, the jump cuts, DOES NOT matter, acting, score cinematograpy all contribute to a sensational, outsanding film which words can't not express. I couldn't keep my eyes of it all the way through, just annoyed me that I picked a crapy version but I will get it on DVD soon.

Go out and see it when you can, you wont be dsappointed. Ignore the negative comments here because they're wrong!! There Will Be Blood gave me the same experience as I had with the brilliant Atonement. One of utter admiration for the director and just all around Wownes...a word I made up right there!

10/10