ALAN RICKMAN (1946-2016)

ALAN RICKMAN (1946-2016)

October 8, 2023 Alan Royle 2

  ALAN RICKMAN Alan Rickman arrived in this world on February 21, 1946, via Hammersmith, London, England. Whilst studying graphic design at Chelsea College of Art and Design, he met Rima Horton, who would later become his life-time partner until his death from pancreatic cancer in 2016, aged sixty-nine. In […]

60 MOVIES WORTH WATCHING – PT3.

60 MOVIES WORTH WATCHING – PT3.

November 13, 2021 Alan Royle 9

Here are my Top 20 films, the movies I enjoy watching more than once. I am the first to concede that a great many of my choices are not considered by the critics to be ‘worthy’. I accept that. But I know what I like and I know what I […]

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT176

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT176

June 19, 2021 Alan Royle 2

  Olivier & Monroe in a scene from The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) In his 1983 autobiography ‘Confessions of an Actor’, Laurence Olivier wrote that upon meeting Marilyn Monroe preparatory to the commencement of The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), he was convinced he was going to fall in love with […]

MEMORABLE PERFORMANCES – PT7

November 24, 2018 Alan Royle 2

Sterling Hayden as Dix Handley in The Asphalt Jungle (1950) Sterling Hayden was one of those actors who did not have to act tough. He was tough. Hayden made two movies in 1941, found time to wed British beauty Madeleine Carroll in February 1942, and then headed off to war. […]

Memorable musical moments in movies – PT1 – (50-26).

December 22, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  50          FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF (1986) – A clip that I personally cannot abide is this one of Matthew Broderick miming to the Beatles’, ‘Twist and Shout’, while standing atop a parade float in the city. His miming is not very good either, but the dancing and crowd reaction […]

Emma Thompson – making a difference.

May 8, 2016 admin 0

    Emma Thompson is a Londoner born into a family of actors in 1959, hence she developed a strong, witty personality, no doubt honed around the kitchen and dining table at home while growing up. Studying English literature at Cambridge University, and becoming part of its Footlights Group, where […]

My top 50 favourite movies -Pt3

February 18, 2016 admin 4

    #10  Road to Perdition (2002) Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Daniel Craig, Jude Law, Tyler Hoechlin Is there anything Tom Hanks cannot do? This period piece set during the Great Depression is beautifully crafted and, despite its gangland theme, is not a bloodbath. Hanks is simply the best. #9  My […]

Did you know? Points of interest. Pt 10

September 16, 2015 admin 2

  In 2010 Daniel Craig did something unique. He agreed to appear as James Bond before an estimated billion and a half television viewers in a sequence, opposite Queen Elizabeth II, as part of the Opening Ceremony for the London Olympics that year. ‘She was great’, he said. ‘A really […]

HUGH GRANT – The jury’s still out.

March 11, 2015 admin 0

While making the enormously successful film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1993), Hugh Grant, its male lead, privately stated that in his opinion the picture was just plain ‘awful’. Andie MacDowell got the female lead at the last minute after it had been turned down by both Melanie Griffith and […]