Doreen Mantle Movies
This romantic historical drama is based on the diaries of Agnes Von Kurowsky, who while serving as a nurse during World War I had a love affair with a young man who would later become one of the great literary figures of the 20th century, Ernest Hemingway. In 1918, 18-year-old Hemingway has volunteered to fight in the great war; while he goes into battle imagining it to be a lark, he soon discovers that the realities of warfare are far more grim, and during a shelling attack in Italy, his leg is severely wounded. Hemingway has taken a great deal of shrapnel, and the doctors at the field hospital decide that amputation would be the quickest and most effective way to deal with the injury. However, the idea of losing a leg horrifies Hemingway, and he pleads with Agnes (Sandra Bullock), the Austrian nurse looking after him, not to let the doctors cut off his limb. Moved by Hemingway's concern, Agnes convinces the doctors to pursue other treatments, and she looks after him during his long and difficult convalescence. Love and passion bloom between the young and naive soldier and the 26-year-old nurse, but while he's eager for her to return home with him as he follows his muse as a writer, she regards him not as the love of her life but as a passing fling and thinks that he's too young to marry. Agnes eventually sends Hemingway a "Dear John" letter; later Hemingway would use her as the basis for several characters in his novels and short stories, not always flatteringly. In Love and War was directed by Richard Attenborough, previously an Academy Award winner for Gandhi. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Chris O'Donnell, (more)
- 1992
- R
This film offers yet another film version of Henry James classic supernatural thriller. It all begins when an aristocratic uncle hires a nanny to watch over his innocent niece and nephew who are living in a large country manse. Soon she discovers that the poor children have been possessed. She also finds herself victimized by her own obsession. Tragedy follows when she tries to free the children from evil. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patsy Kensit, Stéphane Audran, (more)
Director Bob Rafelson fulfilled a lifelong dream when he finally received backing to complete Mountains of the Moon. The film recreates the exploratory adventures of 19th century visionaries Sir Richard Burton (Patrick Bergin) and John Henning Speke (Iain Glen). The heart of the film is the effort by Burton and Speke to discover the true source of the Nile river. This occurs well into the film, after several torturous scenes involving the injuries sustained by the protagonists during other expeditions and their growing friendship (which, the film intimates, goes far beyond friendship). Rafaelson's fascination with this story, and his insistence upon painstaking historical accuracy, unfortunately compromises his ability to make an interesting film. There are so many starts and stops during the first half that we sincerely hope Burton and Speke will chuck it all and set up a pub in Bristol or something. What saves Mountains of the Moon is the rapport between its stars and the brilliant, epic-like cinematography of Roger Deakins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Bergin, Iain Glen, (more)
- 1989
Filmed in Britain, Fellow Traveller is set during the waning days of Hollywood's Communist "witchhunt". The film begins with the suicide of "unfriendly" movie star Hart Bochner; we then briefly flash back to the friendship between Bochner and his close friend, blacklisted writer Ron Silver. Working pseudonymously in England, Silver seeks out the late Bochner's girl friend Imogen Stubbs, who has not renounced her leftist views. He has an affair with Imogen, and through her regains his commitment to his own political preferences. Incidentally, the TV series for which Silver writes in Fellow Traveller is the popular The Adventures of Robin Hood, which actually did hire blacklistees in the mid-1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Silver, Hart Bochner, (more)
Barbra Streisand's directorial debut, Yentl, is a musical adaptation of a story by the beloved Jewish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. Yentl (Streisand) is a young woman who wants nothing more than to study religious scripture. She is denied that possibility because she is a woman. She moves, passes herself off as a male named Anshel, and then begins her studies. She becomes close to fellow student Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin), eventually falling in love with him, although she can not reveal her true self as she would then be expelled. Avigdor is in love with Hadass (Amy Irving), but religious law forbids him from marrying her. Avigdor attempts to fix Anshel up with Hadass, leading to Hadass falling in love with Anshel. Yentl received four Academy Award nominations, including two Best Song nods. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbra Streisand, Mandy Patinkin, (more)
John Fowles' original novel The French Lieutenant's Woman was distinguished by a literary technique that involved telling a story of Victorian sexual and social oppression within the bounds of a 1970s viewpoint. How does one convey this time-frame dichotomy on film? The decision made by director Karel Reisz and Harold Pinter was to frame Fowles' basic plot within a "modern" context of their own making. While we watch as Sarah (Meryl Streep), a 19th-century Englishwoman ruined by an affair with a French lieutenant, enters into another disastrous relationship with principled young Charles (Jeremy Irons), we are constantly made aware that what we're seeing is only a film. This is done by surrounding the story with a modern narrative, focusing on a movie production company which is on location--filming The French Lieutenant's Woman. Meryl Streep doubles in the role of Sara and the American actress who plays her, while Jeremy Irons essays the dual role of Charles and the handsome Briton playing Charles. Likewise, everyone else in the cast is seen as "themselves" and as their French Lieutenant's Woman characters. Not surprisingly, the "real" Streep and Irons enter into an affair which closely parallels their characters' relationship. The commercial TV version of French Lieutenant's Woman eliminates 30 minutes' worth of "extraneous" scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, (more)
- 1974
This feature-length dramatization of James Herriot's best-seller was issued by EMI as a big-screen theatrical release in England, but debuted on NBC as a telemovie in the United States, February 4, 1975. It stars Simon Ward as Herriot in his early days as a veterinarian. The story picks up in 1937, with Herriot's first assignment as assistant to eccentric Yorkshire vet Siegfried Farnon (Anthony Hopkins). The film's highlight is the strenuous delivery of a newborn colt; its most poignant moment is the mercy killing of a seriously ill dog. In between "cases," Herriot courts pretty farmer's daughter Helen (Lisa Farrow). The film eventually spawned a television series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Simon Ward, (more)
- 1967
After directing several extraordinary documentaries for the BBC, including the award-winning The War Game and Culloden, Peter Watkins made his first dramatic feature with this flawed but striking film about Steven Shorter (Paul Jones), a pop singer in a future society where entertainment is controlled by a totalitarian government. Shorter's music and image are used to channel the impulses of rebellious youth; in one concert sequence, the crowd watches him sing a plaintive plea for love and understanding while locked in a cage surrounded by police officers armed with clubs. While Shorter is remarkably popular, he's also living a life created for him by the government, which Steven knows is a sham. When Shorter's handlers decide to revamp his image into that of an obedient, religious boy, he rebels, to his peril. Model Jean Shrimpton made her film debut here as an artist commissioned to paint a portrait of Shorter. Privilege later became something of a cult film; one of the film's admirers was rock poet Patti Smith, who recorded one of "Steven Shorter"'s songs, "Set Me Free," on her 1978 album Easter. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Jones, Jean Shrimpton, (more)
