Tag Archives: John Hurt

TIFF FILM REVIEW: Natalie Portman in ‘Jackie’

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Chilean director Pablo Larrain’s “Jackie” purports to tell what Jacqueline Kennedy did in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. If the film is to be believed, the answer is: not … Continue reading

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PREVIEW: Spies go back into the cold in ‘Tinker, Tailor’

By Ray Bennett When John Le Carré created his master spy George Smiley – who is about to be revisited in Optimum Releasing’s Working Title Pictures production of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” – he made him a fat man. The … Continue reading

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Rowan Joffe’s ‘Brighton Rock’

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Rowan Joffe’s film of Graham Greene’s 1938 novel “Brighton Rock” takes a gothic approach to the story of a young thug obsessed with hell with little of the writer’s subtlety and too much reliance on … Continue reading

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FILM REVIEW: Ray Winstone in ’44-inch Chest’

By Ray Bennett LONDON – When a man’s wife breaks the news that she has met someone else after 21 years of marriage, the husband and four friends kidnap her lover while they decide if they should kill him in Malcolm … Continue reading

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John Hurt talks about returning to play Quentin Crisp

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – British actor John Hurt told me that he is the straight actor who has played the greatest number of gay characters onscreen and he returns to the most famous one of them all, Quentin Crisp, in … Continue reading

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BERLIN FILM REVIEW: John Hurt in ‘An Englishman in New York’

By Ray Bennett BERLIN – When John Hurt portrayed Quentin Crisp in the movie “The Naked Civil Servant” 33 years ago, it gave Crisp the stardom he’d always craved. Now Hurt is back in the same role in “An Englishman … Continue reading

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LOCARNO FILM REVIEW: Alessandro Baricco’s ‘Lecture 21’

By Ray Bennett LOCARNO, Switzerland – Italian director Alessandro Baricco’s English-language “Lecture 21” is a treat for lovers of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and filmgoers who enjoy sumptuous images accompanied by splendid music. The film explores the substance of a fictional … Continue reading

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