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eBook – The Empire Striketh Back

eBook –  The Empire Striketh Back Full title :  William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back By : Ian Doescher  Iillustrations :  Nicolas Delort Score : 9/10 Year : 2014 Publisher : Quirk Books  eISBN :  978-1-59474-716-8 Based on  978-1-59474-715-1 (hard cover) Pages : 176 *  Language : English From Goodreads : Hot on the heels of the New York Times best seller William Shakespeare’s Star Wars comes the next two installments of the original trilogy: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back  (and not reviewed as yet,  William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return.) Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter. Illustrated with beautiful black-and-white Elizabethan-style artwork, these two plays offer essential reading for all ages. Something Wookiee this way comes!  *** As he explains at the end, Ian Doescher
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Movie - Fortunat




Movie - Fortunat  

Score : 6/10 

Year :  1960
Director: Alex Joffé
Cinematography: Pierre Petit
Music:  Denis Kieffer
Country:  France, Italy
Language: French. (a bit of English) 
Duration:  2h01 (IMDB).
Writers:  Michel Breitman (novel) ;  Alex Joffé (Screenplay & dialogues) ; Pierre Lévy-Corti (screenplay) 


Full cast & team (IMDB)

May 20, 1942, during World War II, under the occupation of France. 
Juliette Valécourt, a posh bourgeois woman is wanted by the Nazis since her husband, a leader of the Resistance, was arrested. Miss Massillon, a teacher, tries to help Juliette, persuading the poacher Noël Fortunat, a brave fellow somewhat inclined to drink, to pretend he is Juliette's husband and to cross the dividing line with her and her two children, to the free zone, and take refuge in Toulouse. 

During the course of their life in Toulouse, the characters experience fears of getting caught  and of the growing threats of the approaching occupation, but also hope for the liberation. 

In this drama, the danger is present, yet kept at a distance - via dialogues and events read in the newspapers,  or overheard, and one major personal event for this newly-made family. Pacing makes some of the intertwined lives predictable, until a plot twist, brining about the end of the movie in a rather sad conclusion. 

Bourvil (Noël) and Michèle Morgan (Juliette) 's acting and characters are touching, at times even very moving. I'd seen Bourvil in comedies prior to this movie, and today I saw his talents for a mix of drama and comedy alike. 

Some of the scenes with the children are annoying, others are nicely directed and executed. 

The French and German characters are all played by French Actors, and the American solider is played by an American Actor - but it's not totally odd that they didn't get German Actors to appear back in 1960. 

I looked away during a scene in a bucher's shop, though it wasn't as tough as it could be in a color movie, and not very long either. Aside for this, food scenes were kept to a bare minimal and the movie centered on the complex relationships and character evolution. 

Cinematography and music are alright, though they don't shine. 

Fortunat is an overall entertaining movie ; it's predictable in some passages, surprises in others. If you want to watch a war movie that isn't graphic, and understand French - or have subtitles - I do recommend it. 
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