A pure-gold Savant favorite, Sir Richard Attenborough's first feature as director is a stylized pacifist epic of the insane tragedy of WW1, told through contemporary songs, with the irreverent lyrics given them by the soldiers themselves. And one will not want to miss a young Maggie Smith's music hall performance -- luring young conscripts to doom in the trenches. It's the strangest pacifist film ever, done in high style. Oh! What a Lovely War DVD The Warner Archive Collection 1969 / Color / 2:35 enhanced widescreen / 144 min. / Street Date September 22, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 16.99 Starring: Too many to name, see below. Cinematography Gerry Turpin Production Design Donald M. Ashton Art Direction Harry White Choreography Eleanor Fazan Film Editor Kevin Connor Original Music Alfred Ralston Written by Len Deighton from the musical play by Joan Littlewood from the radio play by Charles Chilton Produced by Richard Attenborough, Brian Duffy, Len Deighton Directed...
- 2/23/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The ever-dependable Stephen Frears, who brought his "Dirty Pretty Things" to Toronto three years ago, returns with another keeper.
"Mrs. Henderson Presents", starring Judi Dench as a bored, wealthy British widow of the 1930s who buys a rundown Soho theater and shakes up the staid British establishment by introducing nudity, is an absolute delight from start to finish.
Frears, a filmmaker who never likes to repeat himself, is very much at ease delivering what will likely be his most commercially successful picture in years, complete with wittily acerbic dialogue, pitch-perfect performances and terrific production numbers. Of course all those naked women won't hurt, either.
Inhabiting a role she was born to play, Dench is the certifiably eccentric, tart-tongued Laura Henderson, a woman of considerable wealth and social stature who has just buried her husband.
Refusing to go gently into widowhood, she heeds the advice of her friend Lady Conway (Thelma Barlow) and finds herself a hobby. But needlepoint just won't cut it, so instead she decides to buy a shuttered property on Great Windmill Street in Soho with the intention of turning it into a theater.
Well aware that she's in over her head, she hires an out-of-work impresario by the name of Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins, in one of his most rewarding roles in years) to get the place up and running.
These two very strong-willed individuals don't exactly get on famously, but they make a go at it and The Windmill Theatre achieves some early success.
But it proves to be short-lived. Losing great sums of money, Mrs. Henderson turns to Paris' Moulin Rouge for inspiration.
By posing naked actresses in tableaux, like living art, she's able to get around the draconian censorship laws upheld by the prudish Lord Cromer (Christopher Guest) and have a major hit on her hands.
While there have been other films to feature the Windmill Theatre (Rita Hayworth played a Windmill girl in the 1945 film, "Tonight and Every Night"), this is the first to tell the real-life Laura Henderson's story.
Thanks to a gorgeous script by Martin Sherman ("Bent", The Boy from Oz"), it makes for some splendid entertainment which, at the same time, doesn't shrink away from the darker impulses generated by the onset of World War II.
Sherman's words and Dench's delivery are a match made in movie heaven, while Hoskins makes for an equally committed sparring partner. There's a palpable Hepburn-Tracy vibe to their lively exchanges.
Also in their element are Guest and Barlow, while Kelly Reilly is memorable as a spunky Windmill girl and "Pop Idol" winner Will Young makes an appealing big screen debut as Bertie, the theater's resident male ingenue.
Director Frears orchestrates the film's shifting moods with a refined fluidity, a quality echoed by composer George Fenton's period arrangements and Eleanor Fazan's musical numbers.
Further setting the agreeable mood is costume designer Sandy Powell's inspired wardrobe choices and the atmospheric production design by Frears' frequent collaborator Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski.
MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS
The Weinstein Co.
Pathe Pictures and BBC Films present in association with Future Films Ltd, Micro-Fusion and The Weinstein Co.
A Heyman Hoskins production
Credits:
Director: Stephen Frears
Producer: Norma Heyman
Screenwriter: Martin Sherman
Executive producers: Bob Hoskins, David Aukin
Director of photography: Andrew Dunn
Production designer: Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski
Editor: Lucia Zucchetti
Costume designer: Sandy Powell
Music: George Fenton
Cast:
Laura Henderson: Judi Dench
Vivian Van Damm: Bob Hoskins
Bertie: Will Young
Maureen: Kelly Reilly
Lady Conway: Thelma Barlow
Lord Cromer: Christopher Guest
Running time -- 103 minutes
MPAA rating: Not yet rated...
"Mrs. Henderson Presents", starring Judi Dench as a bored, wealthy British widow of the 1930s who buys a rundown Soho theater and shakes up the staid British establishment by introducing nudity, is an absolute delight from start to finish.
Frears, a filmmaker who never likes to repeat himself, is very much at ease delivering what will likely be his most commercially successful picture in years, complete with wittily acerbic dialogue, pitch-perfect performances and terrific production numbers. Of course all those naked women won't hurt, either.
Inhabiting a role she was born to play, Dench is the certifiably eccentric, tart-tongued Laura Henderson, a woman of considerable wealth and social stature who has just buried her husband.
Refusing to go gently into widowhood, she heeds the advice of her friend Lady Conway (Thelma Barlow) and finds herself a hobby. But needlepoint just won't cut it, so instead she decides to buy a shuttered property on Great Windmill Street in Soho with the intention of turning it into a theater.
Well aware that she's in over her head, she hires an out-of-work impresario by the name of Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins, in one of his most rewarding roles in years) to get the place up and running.
These two very strong-willed individuals don't exactly get on famously, but they make a go at it and The Windmill Theatre achieves some early success.
But it proves to be short-lived. Losing great sums of money, Mrs. Henderson turns to Paris' Moulin Rouge for inspiration.
By posing naked actresses in tableaux, like living art, she's able to get around the draconian censorship laws upheld by the prudish Lord Cromer (Christopher Guest) and have a major hit on her hands.
While there have been other films to feature the Windmill Theatre (Rita Hayworth played a Windmill girl in the 1945 film, "Tonight and Every Night"), this is the first to tell the real-life Laura Henderson's story.
Thanks to a gorgeous script by Martin Sherman ("Bent", The Boy from Oz"), it makes for some splendid entertainment which, at the same time, doesn't shrink away from the darker impulses generated by the onset of World War II.
Sherman's words and Dench's delivery are a match made in movie heaven, while Hoskins makes for an equally committed sparring partner. There's a palpable Hepburn-Tracy vibe to their lively exchanges.
Also in their element are Guest and Barlow, while Kelly Reilly is memorable as a spunky Windmill girl and "Pop Idol" winner Will Young makes an appealing big screen debut as Bertie, the theater's resident male ingenue.
Director Frears orchestrates the film's shifting moods with a refined fluidity, a quality echoed by composer George Fenton's period arrangements and Eleanor Fazan's musical numbers.
Further setting the agreeable mood is costume designer Sandy Powell's inspired wardrobe choices and the atmospheric production design by Frears' frequent collaborator Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski.
MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS
The Weinstein Co.
Pathe Pictures and BBC Films present in association with Future Films Ltd, Micro-Fusion and The Weinstein Co.
A Heyman Hoskins production
Credits:
Director: Stephen Frears
Producer: Norma Heyman
Screenwriter: Martin Sherman
Executive producers: Bob Hoskins, David Aukin
Director of photography: Andrew Dunn
Production designer: Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski
Editor: Lucia Zucchetti
Costume designer: Sandy Powell
Music: George Fenton
Cast:
Laura Henderson: Judi Dench
Vivian Van Damm: Bob Hoskins
Bertie: Will Young
Maureen: Kelly Reilly
Lady Conway: Thelma Barlow
Lord Cromer: Christopher Guest
Running time -- 103 minutes
MPAA rating: Not yet rated...
- 9/14/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The ever-dependable Stephen Frears, who brought his "Dirty Pretty Things" to Toronto three years ago, returns with another keeper.
"Mrs. Henderson Presents", starring Dame Judi Dench as a bored, wealthy British widow of the 1930s who buys a rundown Soho theater and shakes up the staid British establishment by introducing nudity, is an absolute delight from start to finish.
Frears, a filmmaker who never likes to repeat himself, is very much at ease delivering what will likely be his most commercially successful picture in years, complete with wittily acerbic dialogue, pitch-perfect performances and terrific production numbers. Of course all those naked women won't hurt, either.
Inhabiting a role she was born to play, Dench is the certifiably eccentric, tart-tongued Laura Henderson, a woman of considerable wealth and social stature who has just buried her husband.
Refusing to go gently into widowhood, she heeds the advice of her friend Lady Conway (Thelma Barlow) and finds herself a hobby. But needlepoint just won't cut it, so instead she decides to buy a shuttered property on Great Windmill Street in Soho with the intention of turning it into a theater.
Well aware that she's in over her head, she hires an out-of-work impresario by the name of Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins, in one of his most rewarding roles in years) to get the place up and running.
These two very strong-willed individuals don't exactly get on famously, but they make a go at it and The Windmill Theatre achieves some early success.
But it proves to be short-lived. Losing great sums of money, Mrs. Henderson turns to Paris' Moulin Rouge for inspiration.
By posing naked actresses in tableaux, like living art, she's able to get around the draconian censorship laws upheld by the prudish Lord Cromer (Christopher Guest) and have a major hit on her hands.
While there have been other films to feature the Windmill Theatre (Rita Hayworth played a Windmill girl in the 1945 film, "Tonight and Every Night"), this is the first to tell the real-life Laura Henderson's story.
Thanks to a gorgeous script by Martin Sherman ("Bent", The Boy from Oz"), it makes for some splendid entertainment which, at the same time, doesn't shrink away from the darker impulses generated by the onset of World War II.
Sherman's words and Dame Dench's delivery are a match made in movie heaven, while Hoskins makes for an equally committed sparring partner. There's a palpable Hepburn-Tracy vibe to their lively exchanges.
Also in their element are Guest and Barlow, while Kelly Reilly is memorable as a spunky Windmill girl and "Pop Idol" winner Will Young makes an appealing big screen debut as Bertie, the theater's resident male ingenue.
Director Frears orchestrates the film's shifting moods with a refined fluidity, a quality echoed by composer George Fenton's period arrangements and Eleanor Fazan's musical numbers.
Further setting the agreeable mood is costume designer Sandy Powell's inspired wardrobe choices and the atmospheric production design by Frears' frequent collaborator Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski.
MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS
Miramax
Pathe Pictures and BBC Films present in association with Future Films Ltd, Micro-Fusion and The Weinstein Co.
A Heyman Hoskins production
Credits:
Director: Stephen Frears
Producer: Norma Heyman
Screenwriter: Martin Sherman
Executive producers: Bob Hoskins, David Aukin
Director of photography: Andrew Dunn
Production designer: Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski
Editor: Lucia Zucchetti
Costume designer: Sandy Powell
Music: George Fenton
Cast:
Laura Henderson: Judi Dench
Vivian Van Damm: Bob Hoskins
Bertie: Will Young
Maureen: Kelly Reilly
Lady Conway: Thelma Barlow
Lord Cromer: Christopher Guest
Running time -- 103 minutes
MPAA rating: Not yet rated...
"Mrs. Henderson Presents", starring Dame Judi Dench as a bored, wealthy British widow of the 1930s who buys a rundown Soho theater and shakes up the staid British establishment by introducing nudity, is an absolute delight from start to finish.
Frears, a filmmaker who never likes to repeat himself, is very much at ease delivering what will likely be his most commercially successful picture in years, complete with wittily acerbic dialogue, pitch-perfect performances and terrific production numbers. Of course all those naked women won't hurt, either.
Inhabiting a role she was born to play, Dench is the certifiably eccentric, tart-tongued Laura Henderson, a woman of considerable wealth and social stature who has just buried her husband.
Refusing to go gently into widowhood, she heeds the advice of her friend Lady Conway (Thelma Barlow) and finds herself a hobby. But needlepoint just won't cut it, so instead she decides to buy a shuttered property on Great Windmill Street in Soho with the intention of turning it into a theater.
Well aware that she's in over her head, she hires an out-of-work impresario by the name of Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins, in one of his most rewarding roles in years) to get the place up and running.
These two very strong-willed individuals don't exactly get on famously, but they make a go at it and The Windmill Theatre achieves some early success.
But it proves to be short-lived. Losing great sums of money, Mrs. Henderson turns to Paris' Moulin Rouge for inspiration.
By posing naked actresses in tableaux, like living art, she's able to get around the draconian censorship laws upheld by the prudish Lord Cromer (Christopher Guest) and have a major hit on her hands.
While there have been other films to feature the Windmill Theatre (Rita Hayworth played a Windmill girl in the 1945 film, "Tonight and Every Night"), this is the first to tell the real-life Laura Henderson's story.
Thanks to a gorgeous script by Martin Sherman ("Bent", The Boy from Oz"), it makes for some splendid entertainment which, at the same time, doesn't shrink away from the darker impulses generated by the onset of World War II.
Sherman's words and Dame Dench's delivery are a match made in movie heaven, while Hoskins makes for an equally committed sparring partner. There's a palpable Hepburn-Tracy vibe to their lively exchanges.
Also in their element are Guest and Barlow, while Kelly Reilly is memorable as a spunky Windmill girl and "Pop Idol" winner Will Young makes an appealing big screen debut as Bertie, the theater's resident male ingenue.
Director Frears orchestrates the film's shifting moods with a refined fluidity, a quality echoed by composer George Fenton's period arrangements and Eleanor Fazan's musical numbers.
Further setting the agreeable mood is costume designer Sandy Powell's inspired wardrobe choices and the atmospheric production design by Frears' frequent collaborator Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski.
MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS
Miramax
Pathe Pictures and BBC Films present in association with Future Films Ltd, Micro-Fusion and The Weinstein Co.
A Heyman Hoskins production
Credits:
Director: Stephen Frears
Producer: Norma Heyman
Screenwriter: Martin Sherman
Executive producers: Bob Hoskins, David Aukin
Director of photography: Andrew Dunn
Production designer: Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski
Editor: Lucia Zucchetti
Costume designer: Sandy Powell
Music: George Fenton
Cast:
Laura Henderson: Judi Dench
Vivian Van Damm: Bob Hoskins
Bertie: Will Young
Maureen: Kelly Reilly
Lady Conway: Thelma Barlow
Lord Cromer: Christopher Guest
Running time -- 103 minutes
MPAA rating: Not yet rated...
- 9/12/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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