TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL PERIOD SET FILMS: CLICQUOT WITH HALEY BENNETT, LEO SUTER, TOM STURRIDGE, CRITIC WITH IAN MCKELLEN, GEMMA ARTERTON, MARK STRONG, DOUGLAS BOOTH'S SHOSHANA, VIGGO MORTENSEN'S DEAD DON'T HURT

  TIFF PERIOD SET MOVIES  

WIDOW CLICQUOT

Toronto Film Festival has started and today we are spotlighting period set films that will premiere there, starting with WIDOW CLICQUOT which, set in France during the Napoleonic Wars, tells the true story of the “Grande Dame of Champagne,” also known as Madame Clicquot after marrying the scion of a winemaking family. Though their marriage was arranged, a timeless love blossomed between Barbe-Nicole (Haley Bennett) and her poetic, unconventional husband, François (Tom Sturridge). After becoming a widow at age 27, she is determined to protect her family’s legacy. Determined to advance her husband's theories about soil chemistry, the configuring of vines, and revolutionary techniques in bottling, Barbe-Nicole wagers on the next harvest and her own blend of sparkling wine. Ben Miles, Sam Riley and our dearest Leo Suter also star.

IAN MCKELLEN'S THE CRITIC

Gemma Arterton and Ian McKellen star as adversaries forced to take desperate measures to save their careers, in THE CRITIC set in 1936. As the new steward of London’s Chronicle, David Brooke (Mark Strong) seeks to revive the financially troubled daily as the country’s most-read family paper. In the firing line is long time theatre critic Jimmy Erksine (Ian McKellen), whose extravagant prose and personal “proclivities” are distasteful to David. Jimmy has a lot to lose as an elderly gay man in a culture and legal system deeply hostile to homosexuality. Yet he cannot resist writing the flamboyantly merciless critiques that are his trademark. Actor Nina Land (Arterton), for whom the married David secretly carries a torch, is a regular target for Jimmy’s most withering remarks. As pressure to appease his employer mounts, Jimmy concocts a plot to entrap both David and Nina, herself secretly in love with a married painter (Ben Barnes). But with the Blackshirts taking to the streets amid anti-queer police raids, Jimmy may be grossly overestimating his ability to emerge from his elaborate scheme unscathed.

DOUGLAS BOOTH'S SHOSHANA

Set in British Mandatory Palestine, this tense historical thriller from Michael Winterbottom traces the origins of one of the world’s most complex conflicts. The year is 1938, and tensions run high in Tel Aviv, wherethe British struggle to maintain order among a mixed Palestinian and Jewish population. Yet English police officer Thomas Wilkin (Douglas Booth) has made his home here and is madly in love with Shoshana (Irina Starshenbaum), daughter of Zionist Labour movement co-founder Dov Ber Borochov. As the paramilitary organization Irgun, led by poet Avraham Stern (Aury Alby), undertakes a violent campaign to evict the British authorities, Thomas and his superior officer Geoffrey Morton (Harry Melling) adopt a zero-tolerance policy toward the resistance, intensifying their tactics to include torture. Meanwhile, Shoshana receives death threats for daring to fraternize with a member of the occupying forces. She loves Thomas, but she also believes in the pursuit of her people’s independence. She will be forced to choose between the two. Our boy Daniel Donskoy also stars!

  GUY PEARCE'S THE CONVERT

Lee Tamahori’s action-filled historical epic stars Guy Pearce as Thomas Munro, a newly arrived preacher in a colonial town in early 19th-century New Zealand whose violent past is soon drawn into question and his faith put to the test, when he finds himself at the centre of a long-standing battle between two Māori tribes. The film does not have a release date yet in cinemas.

 

THE DEAD DON'T HURT

Set in the 1860s, Viggo Mortensen directed western THE DEAD DON'T HURT follows French-Canadian flower seller Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps)

The movie premiered this week at TIFF

and Danish carpenter Holger Olsen (Viggo Mortensen) who meet in San Francisco. Vivienne is irreverent, fiercely independent, and refuses to wed, but agrees to travel with Holger to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada. There, they begin a life together, Vivienne grows roses and waits tables at a tavern and Holger builds barns, until the couple are separated by Holger’s decision to fight for the Union in the burgeoning Civil War. Left on her own, Vivienne must fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston) and his business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt). Alfred's violent, wayward son Weston (Solly McLeod) aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances.

1ST LOOK AT WINTER KING ARTHURIAN EPIC TV SERIES! 1ST IMAGES FROM PERIOD SET MOVIES THE CONVERT WITH GUY PEARCE, FRANZ KAFKA BIOPIC THE GLORY OF LIFE, WW2 ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES WITH LIEV SCHREIBER, JOSH HUTCHERSON

 FIRST THE WINTER KING  

IMAGES FROM NEW SERIES  

ITVX has released first images from their upcoming TV series adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles and I must admit they look cheap as hell and not very promising. THE WINTER KING will air later this year following Arthur Pendragon as he evolves from outcast to legendary warrior and leader. It is set in the 5th century long before Britain was united. In a land ofwarring factions and tribes when the world was brutal and lives were often fleeting. Iain De Caestecker stars as a young Arthur, who begins as an exiled bastard before becoming the greatest hope for Britain. Stuart Campbell is Derfel who transforms from left-for-dead orphan to the truest of all warlords. Ellie James is Nimue a priestess saved by Merlin because she can see the gods - he gives her power, wisdom and learning. Eddie Marsan is Uther, High King of all Dumnonia, old and battle tested. He commands incredible authority, over almost all, bar Merlin. Nathaniel Martello-White is Merlin, a politician, powerful, enlightened, and absolute. Fearless in the face of a King’s wrath he follows his connectionto his Gods in all things. Daniel Ings is Owain one of Arthur’s closest childhood friends and like a son to High King Uther. Valene Kane is Morgan, Arthur’s half-sister and another bastard child of King Uther. She is asharp-tongued and independent minded pagan and student of Merlin. Simon Merrells is Gundleus, King of rival kingdom Siluria. Imposing and savage, Gundleus is prepared to slaughter whoever he needs to secure power. The series will air on MGM+ in USA.

 

  FIRST IMAGES FROM  

GUY PEARCE'S THE CONVERT

A bunch of first images from different period set movies for you today, starting with THE CONVERT, a historical drama from Oscar winner Lee Tamahori in which Guy Pearce plays  a lay preacher who arrives at a British settlement at New Zealand in 1830s. His violent past is soon drawn into question and his faith put to the test, as he finds himself caught in the middle of a bloody war between Maori tribes.

THE GLORY OF LIFE

There is also Franz Kafka biopic, a story of the famous Czech writer which is being offered to buyers at Cannes. The love story between Kafka (Sabin Tambrea) and Dora Diamant (Henriette Confurius) is set in 1923 on the Baltic Sea coast, a year before the author died from tuberculosis. The worldly wise Diamant, who was working in a Jewish community, took him to Berlin, and as Kafka’s health deteriorates rapidly, they traveled together to a sanatorium in Austria. The memory of their time together will shape Diamant for the rest of her life!

ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES MOVIE ADAPTATION

There are also first images from the movie adaptation of Hemingway's ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES with Liev Schreiber, Josh Hutcherson and Matilda de Angelis scheduled for Fall. Set in post WW2 Venice Italy, American Army Col. Richard Cantwell, haunted by the war, is a bona fide hero who faces news of his illness with stoic disregard. Determined to spend a weekend in quiet solitude, he commandeers a military driver to facilitate a visit to his old haunts in Venice. As Cantwell's plans begin to unravel, a chance encounter with a remarkable young woman begins to re kindle in him the hope of renewal.