Reviews

One of Trollope's longest tomes, 'The Way We Live Now' is a tale of greed and downfall in London during the 1880's boom. It tells the tale of a visiting conman, Melmotte, who decides this time to stay in his chosen destination after having been forced to leave Vienna in haste after causing another of the financial scandals in his long career. With many characters and subplots, this is a hard book to adapt to the screen. The BBC has managed a competent interpretation nontheless, squeezing the whole thing into only five hours.

David Suchet as the protagonist, Melmotte, is excellent: a dark and charismatic foil to the foppish aristocrats who disdain all about him except his money. His daughter, Marie Melmotte, is particularly sweet. Apart from a few quirks like Mrs Hurtle's bizarre American accent (did American ladies really talk with a Jerry Hall drawl in the nineteenth century)? this is an extremely pleasing production.

A somewhat sanitised version of the Balzac classic which departs disappointingly from the original story. Jessica Lang is far too pretty a version of the downtrodden, wizened old hag Bette of the original and so conveys none of her deviousness in the many schemes to avenge herself against her condescending relatives. Missing completely from the film is arch-whore Valerie, a central character of the book's plot, who dies a grim death from a disfiguring tropical disease at the conclusion, thus removing an important moral message of the tale. Most of Balzac's other works viz. Madame Bovary, contain one of these. That said, costumes and furniture are fairly faultless which shows Hollywood has at least tried to do justice to a great book.

This film is truly abysmal, BUT if you want to see a decent French film about violence and prostitution, get 'L'Appat' out on video which is far better and more intriguing. This film is based on a real story, the main female protagonist of which is just about now eligible for parole after having served over 10 years in jail for her dark deeds.

I really cannot understand the controversy a programme as innocuous as 'Sex in the City' manages to stir up in US. Here in UK, it is shown on network TV at 10pm with a prior warning of "strong language and scenes of a sexual nature". The language is fairly tame and the sex is frankly rather ersatz. It contains no violence and as such, is a pretty inoffensive, slightly frothy, mildly entertaining piece of programming. Perhaps, people are a bit more jaded here, but the only episode which raised an eyebrow amongst my entourage was the 'c**t' one and even that did not make us switch off en masse. True, the girls do little for women's lib with their silly skinniness and shallow views on life, but from the outset it was always made clear this was the story of four tarts from Manhattan not real woman who do a day's work. Perhaps we should try and appreciate entertainment for entertainment's sake a little more.......

This a typical glossy American mini-series of the mid-eighties (and now) concerning a grumpy Provencal artist deftly played by Stacey Keach and his life and loves. It is both melodramatic and crass, but it is watchable for one reason alone; the sight of Stefanie Powers prancing around the Rive Gauche in 1900's Paris playing an 18 year artist's model when she is well over 40 and far too old for the part is absolutely irresistible. This is genuine parody fodder for the likes of French & Saunders and has the watcher giggling with disbelief at such comic miscasting. Interlaced with its syrupy theme tune 'Only Love' sung by the evergreen (and awful) Nana Mouskouri and faux French scenery, this is guaranteed to cheer up all fans of awful but hilarious television.