HOLYWOOD SPY'S SPOTLIGHT ON LADY POWER 2011 FILMS: "IRON LADY' WITH MERYL STREEP AND "THE LADY" WITH MICHELLE YEOH

 It is interesting that the end of the year will bring us two biopics of famous ladies from the world of politics, although two very different ones: a much hated British Prime Minister who lead wars in THE IRON LADY and a much beloved Burmese activist who

fights for peace in THE LADY.

THE LADY OF WAR

One of the news this week was the move of the release date of Meryl Streep's drama THE IRON LADY to December 30th so that it could get in the run for Academy Awards, and there are absolutely no doubts that Meryl will score her 17th Oscar nomination! Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, known for an unforgivable sin of putting Meryl in superficially done MAMMA MIA movie, the film is basically a biopic of infamous British prime minister (or is it ministress :) Margaret Thatcher. THE IRON LADY will bring a surprising and intimate portrait of Margaret

Thatcher the first and only female Prime Minister of The United Kingdom. One of the 20th century’s most infamous and influential women, Thatcher came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male dominated world. She also became one of Britain's most hated politicians. The story concerns power and the price that is paid for power. The film will also feature an insight into her private life with marvelous Jim Broadbent playing her husband.The cast also includes Richard E. Grant and brilliant Harry Lloyd from GAME OF THRONES as young Dennis Thatcher.

Meryl Streep has just one film scheduled for future, it's GREAT HOPE SPRINGS in which she and Tommy Lee Jones will play  a middle-aged couple which goes on an intense counseling weekend to decide the fate of their marriage. Steve Carell will play the counselor. 

THE LADY OF PEACE

Another political drama hitting cinemas this December is THE LADY in which amazing and always wonderful Michelle Yeoh portrays Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and pro-democracy icon who led the opposition against the Burmese military junta that arrested her in 1989, and spent 15 years of the last 21 years under house arrest.The film will also bring a true story of love set against political turmoil by depicting her personal struggles since she had to choose whether to lead the political battle or to fight her husband's (always amazing David Thewlis) cancer battle. It is an epic love story about how this extraordinary couple and family

sacrificed their happiness at great human cost for a higher cause. Despite distance, long separations, and a dangerously hostile regime, their love endures until the very end. The film, which premieres later this year, is directed by famous French director

Luc Besson (THE BIG BLUE, THE FIFTH ELEMENT). It is interesting that most of the first reviews of the film describe it as lacking in feeling and authenticity, with the usual Western ignorance in depicting foreign cultures in one-dimensional way.