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(e)Book – Love and friendship

  (e) Book –  Love and friendship Full title :  Love and friendship and other early works Author : Jane Austen Score : /10 Year : 1790 (original) ; 2012 (this edition) Publisher : Duke Classics   ISBN  978-1-62012-155-9  // 9781620121559  (ebook)  Pages :  Language: English Jane Austen is best known for her 6 novels, which all have been adapted into tv movies - but after having read Virginia Woolf's short fiction in chronological order, I decided to apply the same for Austen's publications, to better appreciate her growth and evolution in narrative style. So, before reading her novels which were released from 1811 to 1817, in the following order :  Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma,  Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, I decided to go back to her teenage years, reading Love and Friendships, and other early works.
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Movie – The man who'd be king


Movie – The man who'd be king
Score : 8/10
Year : 1975
Director: John Huston
Country : UK. USA  
Language : English.
Duration: 2h09
 
This 1975 John Huston film, adapted from R. Kipling's novel points the stupidities of war, especially one without no real reason whatsoever, or those based on religious/ supersitious belief systems.

Sean Connery is Danny Dravot, the man who'd be king, mistaken for a god, specifically Alexander the Great who was revered by the local non-muslim population as a god...

Michael Caine (with the accent) is Peachy Toliver Carnehan (who the hell calls their kid Peachy anyway?!)

They pledge their loyalty and forswear drink & women until they reach their end goal : in order to become rich kings rulling over Kafiristan, they sign a contract in presence of Rudyar Kipling himself (giving a name to the narrator in the book, in the form of Christopher Plummer) and they set off to their adventures. Before this movie, I'd never seen Christopher Plummer so young ; here, he looks like Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in Doctor Who).

Maurice Jarre's music isn't always the best ; here it fringes with the ridicule (although one could say it's done on purpose to show the stupidty of war, more than just images, but it's still a bad music)

Filmed in Morroco, the landscape does remind India & Afganistan, or more precisely Kafiristan where the story takes place.

The movie has many funny moments, and its ending is ... delightfully macabre, althogh the movie isn't very graphic per say : John Huston leaves most of it to one's imagination, and rather tells of certain things than showing them.

Very enjoyable movie, but i have to say, why is Michael Caine often shouting in his roles ?!



 
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