Production Year: 2003 - Drama - Director: Michael Winterbottom - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton, Om Puri, Jeanne Balibar
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Advantages: Funny in bits, detailed Disadvantages: Can leave you feeling a bit upset
I first watched Angela's Ashes a few months back in History. I fell in love with it straight away, and is now one of my favourite films. But, why...?
*****
Angela's Ashes is based on the book written by Frank McCourt, made in 1999. It is the story of McCourt's life as a child, followed right through until his early adult life. The director, Alan Parker, helps us connect with the characters and sets across a very clear yet important message.
In the 1930s, when he was just a small boy, McCourt and his family (mum, dad and two brothers) were forced to move back to Ireland. Here his mum gave birth to another little girl, who soon sadly died a little while after because of the terrible living conditions.
Life was in no way easy in Ireland. This was the time when many illnesses were going around, such as cholera and typhoid. Sadly, the Mc ...
Advantages: You may Laugh Disadvantages: You may Cry
AngelasAshes was a film I heard a lot about but have never got around to actually watching, when I managed to pick it up on special offer (5 DVDs for £20) I was really looking forward to watching it ? I was not disappointed. The film is based on a biography written by Frank McCourt (which he won the Pulitzer prize for!), the film was directed by Alan Parker and released in 1999.
The story opens in Brooklyn in 1935, where a daughter is born to Malachy and Angela MCourt who already have four boys. When the baby dies at two days old, the family are obviously devastated and return to Limerick in Ireland in the midst of the depression. The McCourt?s are not well received back in Ireland by Angela?s Catholic relatives ? since her husband is a Protestant who can?t hold down a job and would rather put beer in his belly than food on the table ...
Advantages: Very readable, heartwarming, amusing, a page-turner, not at all self-pitying Disadvantages: None
The late, ex-schoolteacher Frank McCourt had an amazing, humorous and very down to earth way of writing. It feels in the book Angela's Ashes, as if he is talking to you personally.
This is a journey of a poverty-stricken childhood, that begins in one of the poorer areas of New York, then moves down into the dark "lanes" of Limerick, Ireland, during the depression years of the 1930s. Though Frank's childhood was filled with despair, poverty, hunger, malnutrition, illness, and was spent in a slum dwelling of the very worst kind, nowhere does Frank bemoan his unfortunate start in life or feel he has an axe to grind. From page one through to the end of the book, Frank tells his tale with a wry humour, and his childhood oscillations from vulnerability to tough kid and back again, are a delight to read.
What for me shines through ...
Three features: 'Angela's Ashes' which is based on the autobiography by Frank McCourt, this drama tells the story of Frank's life as a child growing up in Limerick in the 1930's; 'Stepmom' is a story of the universal problem faced when people get divorced of step-parents, step-children, ex-spouses, new lovers etc. Isabel is the girlfriend of Jackie's ex-husband Luke and the two women have considerable differences until Jackie discovers she is ill; and in 'Billy Elliot' a lad chooses ballet classes over boxing lessons his life is changed forever. He decides to keep the lessons secret from his father, a coal miner, but when his ballet instructor persuades him to try out for the Royal Ballet School in London, Billy must make the choice between family responsibilities and his dreams.
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A "Grimm-er" Live Action (PG) Take on This Classic Brothers Grimm Tale, Directed by the Screenwriter/Co-Author of Edward Scissorhands (Caroline Thompson)
Possibly Not Suitable for Younger Children (not Disney Animation "Pretty-Pretty" version) - Miranda Richardson dominates the action and steals the show as the stepmother. (*)
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