BILLY ELLIOT (2000) - Week 1

BILLY ELLIOT


Director: Stephen Daldry
Producers: Greg Brenman, Jonathan Finn
Screenwriter: Lee Hall
Cast: Julie Walters, Jamie Bell, Jamie Draven, Gary Lewis, Jean Heywood, Stuart Wells, Nicola Blackwell

An Irish boy pursues his dream of learning to dance the ballet despite fierce opposition from his macho father and brother, who insist he learn to box and work in the local mine. Billy does not give up dancing. The buried pain in the father/son relationship is healed when the boy wins a chance to audition for the national ballet.

Go to
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249462/
and read some more about it!

Julio has sent us the lyrics to Cosmic Dancer (posted below)- Billy Elliot's theme song. Go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6W8ZspPjj4&feature=PlayList&p=404562CD704A4451&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=56 and watch a beautiful video with Billy's dances and the song in the background.

Cosmic Dancer

T Rex

I was dancing when I was twelve
I was dancing when I was aaah
I danced myself right out the womb
Is it strange to dance so soon
I danced myself right out the womb

I was dancing when I was eight
Is it strange to dance so late
I danced myself into the tomb
Is it strange to dance so soon
I danced myself into the tomb

Is it wrong to understand
The fear that dwells inside a man
What's it like to be a loon
I liken it to a balloon

I danced myself out of the womb
Is it strange to dance so soon
I danced myself into the tomb
But when again once more

I danced myself out of the womb
Is it strange to dance so soon
I danced myself out of the womb.

THANKS, JULIO!

And...
Our near-future project stands...
Shirley Valentine; Under the Tuscan Sun; Educating Rita...

What do these pictures have in common?
How do they differ?

We will be watching these films in the coming months and will then schedule a special class to discuss the questions brought up above.

SHIRLEY VALENTINE (1989)- Week 1

No one thought she had the courage. The nerve. Or the lingerie.

Directed by Lewis Gilbert;
Based on play by Willy Russell;
Screenplay by Willy Russell.

The leading role is performed by actress Pauline Colins who also played Shirley Valentine's part on the play.

This is an excerpt of the review posted at IMDb site titled "We always have steak on a Thursday", 16 February 2009 by author James Hitchcock from Tunbridge Wells, England
Go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098319/usercomments?start=10 and read all the review.

...Shirley's main concern is that life is passing her by. We learn from flashbacks that the young Shirley was a wild, rebellious, free-spirited girl and in the early days of her marriage was still fun-loving and unconventional, devotedly in love with her husband. The older Shirley is bored and frustrated, trapped in a marriage which seems to have died. She has fallen out of love with Joe, who has become cold, stingy and bad-tempered. Whereas Shirley hates routine and predictability, Joe thrives on them; in one memorable scene he loses his temper because she has served him egg and chips rather than steak for his tea. ("We always have steak on a Thursday. We have chips and egg on a Tuesday").

Shirley sees a chance of escape from her routine when her friend Jane wins a holiday for two to Greece in a competition and asks Shirley to come with her. Shirley has never been abroad before (Joe being too mean to pay for foreign holidays), and, after some hesitation, accepts and sets off for Greece without telling her husband. While on holiday she meets, falls for, and has a brief affair with, Costas, a Greek bar owner. At first, he appears to be everything Joe is not- handsome, charming, generous and attentive- but Shirley soon discovers that he is a practised seducer, which is why their affair is only a brief one...

MEET JOE BLACK - Week 2

You've been asked to select the scenes (at least 3) you'd like to see at our next meeting .

Please list them here under "comments" or bring your notes next class.

Watch this video to help you decide.



Celebrating Valentine's Day...

If you really want to indulge your soul with love scenes and beautiful music(Andrew Lloyd Webber's "All I Ask of You"), go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55ke_-zB2SU and watch this video which depicts the deep love shared by the Angel of Death and his Soul Mate*.

*Soulmate

Soulmate (or soul mate) is a term sometimes used to designate someone with whom one has a feeling of deep and natural affinity, friendship, love, intimacy, sexuality, and/or compatibility.
A related concept is that of the twin flame or twin soul – thought to be the ultimate soulmate, the one and only other half of one's soul, for which all souls are driven to find and join. (Babylon)

MEET JOE BLACK (1998) by Martin Brest

the director of Scent of a Woman;
featuring Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Claire Forlani.

Week 1

Read the transcript of the introductory scenes.

MEET JOE BLACK
(source http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Meet-Joe-Black.html)

--------------------------------------------------------------

EXT. ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - 4:00 AM

A patch of water. PULL BACK TO REVEAL more water. BACK
FARTHER TO REVEAL an expanse of river, up the bank to
massive lawn running up to a great, classic Hudson River
manor house; the country estate of William Parrish.

INT. PARRISH COUNTRY ESTATE - 4:00 AM

MOVE THROUGH French doors that lead from a wide terrace into
an expansive living room, DOWN wide corridors lined with
Bierstadt and Cole paintings, the Hudson River School, mists
and trees and small boats and distant humans.

INT. PARRISH BEDROOM - 4:00 AM

MOVE THROUGH the doorway to reveal a master bedroom furnish-
ed with exquisite simplicity, revelatory of its sleeping
occupant, WILLIAM PARRISH, 64, a warm but commanding face, a
man of maturity yet who exudes a glow of enthusiasm.

Although asleep, there is an uncommon restlessness to him.
Parrish grips his upper arm as if in pain. Now the severity
of the pain wakes him, he squeezes his arm. The wind comes
up, through the wind a VOICE is heard distantly, or is it the
wind itself:

VOICE (V.O.)
... Yes.

Parrish blinks, has he heard something, has he not, he is
not sure, he releases his arm, his grimace of pain fades,
the discomfort seems momentarily to have subsided.

He rises now, crosses to the bathroom. As he pees, a breeze
outside the window, the wind again, but then the Voice comes
up:

VOICE (V.O.)
Yes...

It is unmistakably a Voice, it is not the wind, Parrish has
heard something, he looks around, but no one is there. He
can't finish peeing, turns back to his bedroom. All bewild-
ered, Parrish looks around once more, climbs back into bed,
trying to trace the source of what he has heard or hasn't
heard; he is not sure.

He pulls the covers up now, not a SOUND, tries to close his
eyes.

VOICE (V.O.)
Yes.

Parrish sits up again, frightened, but still there is no one
there, he seems fraught with indecision, should he get up,
should he not, what is happening? He looks out: absolute
stillness and silence, CRICKETS chirp down by the river, a
light FLICKERS from a shadboat, Parrish closes his eyes but
then they flutter open, he glances up at the ceiling and
finally, exhausted, falls back asleep.

EXT. REAR TERRACE, PARRISH COUNTRY ESTATE - NEXT MORNING

The great lawn infested with workmen, planting stakes, un-
rolling a huge canvas tent, gardeners fashioning topiary and
adding landscaping of their own, crews setting up platforms,
speakers, lights. Ubiquitous is ALLISON, 35, Parrish's
older daughter, foremen competing for her attention and she
relishing every moment.


Print the script above and bring it to class. We'll analyze it while watching the introductory scenes.

-Is the film set well portrayed in the script?
-Are the emotions experimented by the character conveyed?
-Does the script depict details you hadn't observed in the film?

Watch the trailer.

-Which scene was the most stirring to you?

Meet Joe Black Trailer | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

The impressive opulence of the set, the beauty of the art exhibited is described in "Behind the Scenes".

Click on the link above and read the most interesting information on Production Designer Dante Ferreti who created the Parrish mansion and offices.