Here We Are and Here We Go

Memories of 2015

Salome - Washington DC

Francis

Marlott

Just some of my favorite memories 

from 2015

It was a good year for Richard Armitage and Sean Bean

A good year for me as a fan of their work, a supporter of their work.

Happy New Year Richard and Sean

Thank You

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No New Year Resolutions - but some of my new year hopes: 

Richard -

*  Hope Urban and the Shed Crew goes global in the New Year - even if it's the global film festival circuit

*  Hope we see Pilgrimage, Sleepwalker, and Brain on Fire playing in all our local movie theaters around the world early in 2016

* Hope we get word Bridget Cleary is filming in the spring/summer and also Clearance and Edith Wharton's Summer sometime in the year, or at least some updates.

* Hope the Epix Berlin Station twitter account gives us some news, and the series air dates in the fall.

* Hope for an Armitage return to the stage, maybe in NYC this time, or both London and NY even better

Sean -

* Hope for a new home for Legends. The second season on TNT was so much better than the first, and in the right network it can only get better. 

* Hope for a second season for The Frankenstein Chronicles. Wouldn't that be an adventure! 

* Hope they finally start filming Enemy of Man

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

As for me, life can throw you a curveball any time, so all I hope for is manageable health and a roof over my head. 

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Peace and Prosperity for All in 2016

Happy New Year

A French Village (Un Village Français) and MHz Choice

I've been binge watching the second season of A French Village on MHz Choice this holiday.

This is the first series I've really watched on MHz's new online subscriber streaming service (with English subtitles).  I watched the first season of A French Village when MHz Networks wast still broadcasting international TV series on cable. Still too early to know how I'm going to like the move from cable to streaming. All I know is I'm now going to be paying a monthly fee and I still have MHz series in reruns on my TV. Right now it still comes with one of my cable bundles, together with the other international news channels the MHz network broadcasts, including France 24. 

There have been 6 seasons of this series that started in 2009, with a 7th airing in 2016.  Right now you can watch the first two seasons on MHz Choice, plus the first two episodes of Season 3.  The rest of the season's episodes will be posted once a week on Tuesdays (I think) until January 26.

The series follows the lives, losses, and loves of residents of the fictional village of Villeneuve after occupation by German forces in 1940's Vichy France.  During the time of the first three series, France has been defeated by Nazi Germany, and the Vichy regime, led by Marshal Petain, is now the government of  this new France. The Germans  occupy the northern part of the country. Villeneuve is an occupied village.  During series 1-3, 1940-1942, most of the villagers believe the Germans have pretty much won the war, and they are in a temporary state of "collaboration" between France and Nazi Germany. 

The series follows several families, including the children, and how each individual is affected and reacts to this sudden and violent occupation. Family members are divided and on different sides of the political struggle. Some are collaborators, some are active in the resistance, some try to carry on in quiet desperation. Some benefit quite nicely from the war and collaboration with the Germans. Some suffer the loss of liberty, torture, and death. 

There are many characters, some major some minor, but we get to know all of them and the effect the war has on their lives. One thing I truly like about the series is that we get to know intimately characters from all sides, even the occupying Germans. Even under these circumstances, life goes on, people fall in and out of love, people get sick and need attention, children go to school, chores must be done...

What would we all do under these circumstances? Would we risk our lives and join the resistance, or convince ourselves we're doing good by collaborating with the occupiers? I don't think we truly know what we would do.

Too many characters in this series to talk about in this short "review."  But I think one of my favorite families, the Larcher's, are a good example of what the series does so well.

Daniel Larcher (Robin Renucci) is the respected middle-aged village doctor when the German's occupy the village. He's soon enlisted to be the town's Vichy major (and so also German collaborator). He takes the job in the belief he can do good this way. But is he really doing good. He and his volatile wife, Hortense (Audrey Fleurot), who have no children, find themselves with a newborn baby they "adopt" in the confusion of the early days of the occupation. Daniel has a younger brother, Marcel (Fabrizio Rongione), who is a Communist and joins the anti-Nazi resistance. But Marcel also works, and is a loyal manager, in the lumber company of German collaborator, Schwartz (Thierry Godard). He has a darling 10 year old son, Gustave (Maxim Driesen), who is often torn between his uncle and his father. 

I find I like both Daniel and Marcel, and feel for the consequences of the decisions they make. Decisions that affect the life and death of others. 

Well, have to get back to binge watching. I have two episodes of S3 to watch tonight still.  

I would recommend A French Village wherever you can find it to watch.  

There are also a series of interesting and informative interviews with those that lived through the war, many were children then, and also scholars with some historical background to the events we see in the series. 

I would also recommend MHz Choice. Yes, something more to pay for, but some of these programs you can't find on Amazon or Netflix, and they are good to great international series from non-English speaking Europe.  (And a few UK/NZ/AUS series also.) Now everyone in the US at least can watch, if you subscribe. 

All series and extras with English subtitles.

For those that speak/understand French -a short interview:

Merry Christmas - Feliz Navidad

Dean O'Gorman: Hitting the big time - New Interview about Trumbo, Career, and Photography

An interesting new radio interview with Dean O'Gorman about Trumbo, his career after The Hobbit, and his photography.

Click below for the interview:

Dean O'Gorman: Hitting the big time

Award Time: Richard Armitage, Hugh Dancy, Dean O'Gorman, Sean Bean

(Don't know who created this image - saw it in tweet from Kirk Whelan-Foran)

Great news from the Critic's Choice Award

GUEST ACTOR/ACTRESS IN A 

DRAMA SERIES

Richard Armitage 

 Hannibal – NBC

Congratulations Richard

ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Hugh Dancy – Hannibal – NBC

And

ACTING ENSEMBLE

Trumbo

Dean O'Gorman in the cast

(Trumbo cast also nominated for a SAG Award)

The Martian

Best Picture

Sean Bean in the cast 

 The awards will be held on January 17 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. It will air simultaneously on A&E, Lifetime and LMN.

The Critics' Choice Movie Awards (formerly known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award) is an awards show presented annually by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA).

 The awards were originally named simply Critics' Choice Awards. In 2010, the word Movie was added to their name, to differentiate them from the Critics' Choice Television Award, which were first bestowed the following year by the newly created Broadcast Television Critics Association. The name Critics' Choice Awards now officially refers to both sets of awards collectively. (Wikipedia)

The Broadcast Television Critics Association was formed to represent the professional interests of those who regularly cover television for TV viewers. 

http://www.criticschoice.com/