Happy Birthday Brigitte Bardot

Happy Birthday to Brigitte Bardot! This picture is of her with Picasso, during a visit to his studio at Vallauris, near Cannes, during the film festival in 1956. He actually refused to paint her!!

Most romantic story is about her romance with playboy Gunter Sachs.  Hours after they met, he arranged for a helicopter to douse Bardot's house in red petals: "It's not every day a man drops a ton of roses in your garden," she wrote, and married him precipitately in Las Vegas. 

Top Ten Favourite Dog Films

My Top Ten Favourite Dog Films

Let me know your favourite doggy movies, would love other suggestions!

1.Eight Below
This is my all time favourite and based on a true story. All about an Alaskan dog team surviving a bitter winter on their own. Beautifully filmed with Paul Walker playing second fiddle to the dogs. A real treat.

2.Lady and The Tramp
A Walt Disney classic. A Love Story that has seduced generations of children and adults.

3.White Fang
A wild dog, part wolf finds friendship with a young miner whilst running from a brutal past owner. Stunning backdrop and gorgeous dog. I have watched this so many times and never get tired of it.

4.Lassie Come Home
All time classic. So many Lassie films so little time! I have picked the Elizabeth Taylor version but honestly you can't go wrong with any of them. The modern version from a couple of years back is also lovely if you don't like old movies.

5.101 Dalmations
Mix loads of Dalmations with Glenn Close as Cruella DeVille and you have an instant hit. Funny, cute and a little dark. Something for all the family. Of course I do have to mention the cartoon version as well. Both have a charm that you can watch again and again

6.Beethoven

A family adopts a St Bernard puppy and as he grows watch chaos ensue. Laugh out loud film. Brilliant!

7.Because of Winnie Dixie
Lovely little film based on a classic childrens book. A little girl finds a dog and wants to keep it despite there being a no pet clause in their trailer park. Beautiful sentiment and wonderful characters. Divine Dog.

8.Bolt
Brilliant and clever animated adventure about Bolt, A Hollywood Dog Star who gets lost and has to find his way home. Funny for all ages

9.Hotel for dogs

Adorable family film about a group of kids taking over a disused hotel to rescue and home abandoned dogs. Inventive.

10. Turner and Hooch
Classic with Tom Hanks and his sidekick Hooch, a French Mastiff. If dribble is not your thing then you should give this a miss. However Tom is at his funny best and a perfect foil to his dog partner. Funny and poignant.

Honorary Mentions

The Incredible Journey
The story of three pets, a cat and two dogs, who lose their owners when they are all on vacation. Can they find their way home?

The Call of The Wild
Jack London's classic story from 1903 about Buck, a dog kidnapped from his home in California and taken to the Yukon where he is mistreated until a prospector discovers him and relates to his situation.

Benji
Stray Dog saves 2 children.

All Dogs Go to Heaven
 dog returns from the dead looking for revenge on his killer using an orphan girl who can talk to animals
Cats and Dogs
This never appealed to me but its been so popular i thought I'd better put it in!! A look at the top-secret, high-tech espionage war going on between cats and dogs, which their human owners are blissfully unaware of.
K 9
To stop an elusive criminal, a maverick detective enlists the aid of a police dog who's an unusually intelligent smart alec.
Marmaduke
A suburban family moves to a new neighborhood with their large yet lovable Great Dane, who has a tendency to wreak havoc in his own oblivious way.
Snow Dogs
When a Miami dentist inherits a team of sled dogs, he's got to learn the trade or lose his pack to a crusty mountain man.

You'll Need A Tissue, You Have Been Warned

These films I can't watch without shedding a tear. They are all beautiful films but don't watch if you want to cheer yourself up!
Grey Friars Bobby 
Marley and me
Hachi

In memory of Richard Kiel RIP

Richard Kiel will be forever remembered as one of the best Bond Baddies of all time. Seven foot 2 with metal teeth that could bend steel bars he terrified me as a child and I loved him for it. He and Roger Moore were the perfect foil. Entertainment at it's best.
Richard Kiel 
Actor 1939-2014


Obituary in The Daily Mail

Film Review: Pride starring Bill Nighy, Dominic West, Ben Schenetzer, Menna Trussler and Imelda Staunton

Synopsis

UK gay and lesbian activists work to help miners during their lengthy strike of the National Union of Mineworkers in the summer of 1984.

My Musings

We were lucky to be given early bird tickets for this film for a showing at 10.30 am on Sunday morning. There are not many things that will prize me away from my coffee and sunday papers but I was dying to see the film featuring a star turn from our very own local actress Menna Trussler and so off we zoomed, blurry eyed and coffeeless. 

We were so glad we made the effort. Definately one of the best films this year.

Setting the stage we meet the first half of a large ensemble cast, a gay London activist group led by Mark played by the brilliant Ben Schenetzer, (recently seen in The Book Thief) and includes older couple, Andrew Scott(Sherlock's Moriarty) and Dominic West, Freddy Fox and George Mackay with Faye Marsay as the token lesbian. They all have their own personal issues to deal with but also decide to show solidarity with the Welsh miners and raise funds for them during their fight against the closure of the pits.  It would sound very far fetched if it wasn't absolutely true and because of that it is immeasurably heartwarming. 

When they raise enough money the group feel they should go and give it to a community in need and after picking a welsh mining village they all head off to donate their support in person.

This is where the fun really begins, seeing two cultures clash as each side go on a journey of discovery about the other. Set against the backdrop of the fragmentation of these tight welsh communities and the emergence of AIDs and the backlash that came with it the many individual stories that are weaved throughout the film could have been a mess but was told sensitively and intelligently. 

It was also nice to see no stereotyping on either side and all the ensemble cast were fantastic. The Welsh contingent was led by Billy Nighy who underplayed the quiet stern Welshman with a sensitive side and Mena Trussler innocently playing the perfect foil to the gay activists while on a steep learning curve. One of my favourite parts of the film was Mena and Imelda Staunton dancing with Dominic West. Who knew he had moves like that! Brilliant. Talking of which the music score of 80's hits are brilliant and will have you toe tapping through out. 

This isn't your usual comedy as it is touched with a serious message and note of sadness in that the miners lost so much with their community and work and the gay community had to deal with aids and the hysteria and ignorance that came with it. The ending was very unhollywood in that the miners lost their fight and the gay community continue to fight ignorance on several fronts however in the film many of the individuals won on personal levels. The film ends with a really positive and extraordinary true scene showing the Union joining the 1985 Gay and Lesbian Pride Rally in London, and helped push through gay rights policies at the 1985 Labour Party Conference, in the face of opposition from that Party’s National Executive. 

This film will make you laugh and cry and more importantly leave the cinema filled with PRIDE

So spread the word it's well worth it.

Book Review, Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase by Louise Walters

Synopsis

Forgive me, Dorothea, for I cannot forgive you. What you do, to this child, to this child's mother, it is wrong...

Roberta likes to collect the letters and postcards she finds in second-hand books. When her father gives her some of her grandmother's belongings, she finds a baffling letter from the grandfather she never knew - dated after he supposedly died in the war.

Dorothy is unhappily married to Albert, who is away at war. When an aeroplane crashes in the field behind her house she meets Squadron Leader Jan Pietrykowski, and as their bond deepens she dares to hope she might find happiness. But fate has other plans for them both, and soon she is hiding a secret so momentous that its shockwaves will touch her granddaughter many years later...

My Musings

A beautiful novel about two different women in different times coping with life, love and loss. 

The setting for the book is very endearing. Roberta works in a beautiful old bookshop collecting letters of strangers that have been left behind which leads her to find a devastating letter of her grandmothers. It seems she made a decision which led to the loss of her one great love, but why?.

Louise then spins us back in time to Dorothea, Roberta's grand mother in wartime when her husband is away fighting and she is recovering from a still birth. The arrival of Jan a hansome polish pilot turns her world on its head. Back with Roberta, her friendship with Philip, the owner , is kept at a distance because of abandonment issues, insecurities and her terminally ill father. The steady resolve and determination not to give up on either women by both men in the book is deeply romantic, sensitive and I would definitely like to meet both in real life!!

The book weaves back and forth seamlessly as both women struggle to overcome their reticence to make a meaningful connection afraid to be hurt. Both women have quite difficult and frustrating characters in their own way. I can't imagine I would warm to either in a first meeting but as the story gently unfolds to its heartbreaking conclusion Walters shows us why both these woman have made the choices they have and we really shouldn't judge a book by its cover, excuse the pun!!! The secondary characters give the book added richness and it weaves a rich tapestry of intertwining stories that conclude very satisfyingly even if you may need to reach for a tissue at points.

A great debut novel and will definitely look out for this author again.

If you like this you may also like

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
The Last Summer by Judith Kinghorn
The Light Behind Windows by Lucinda Riley

Facts
Louise Walters Blog

Book Review Frozen by Melissa De La Cruz and Michael Johnston

Synopsis

From New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston comes this remarkable first book in a spellbinding new series about the dawn of a new kind of magic.

Welcome to New Vegas, a city once covered in bling, now blanketed in ice. Like much of the destroyed planet, the place knows only one temperature—freezing. But some things never change. The diamond in the ice desert is still a 24-hour hedonistic playground and nothing keeps the crowds away from the casino floors, never mind the rumors about sinister sorcery in its shadows.

At the heart of this city is Natasha Kestal, a young blackjack dealer looking for a way out. Like many, she's heard of a mythical land simply called “the Blue.” They say it’s a paradise, where the sun still shines and the waters are turquoise. More importantly, it’s a place where Nat won’t be persecuted, even if her darkest secret comes to light.

But passage to the Blue is treacherous, if not impossible, and her only shot is to bet on a ragtag crew of mercenaries led by a cocky runner named Ryan Wesson to take her there. Danger and deceit await on every corner, even as Nat and Wes find themselves inexorably drawn to each other. But can true love survive the lies? Fiery hearts collide in this fantastic tale of the evil men do and the awesome power within us all.

Release Date October 2nd 2014

My Musings

This is a hybrid book of dystopian mixed with fantasy. Mad Max meets X Men meets The Wild West!! 
Sounds a mess and could have been but in the hands of these writers they pull together a vibrant and brutal world that is totally fascinating. Throw in an eclectic group of characters and this is a series which could become seriously addictive. 

Nat is in Las Vegas hiding her true identity and past. She is one of the minority with special skills that are hunted and used by the brutal authority. It s a lawless and dangerous place in which she has to survive whilst fighting the monstrous voices in her head telling her to find a legendary paradise called Blue. It has water and warmth of which there is precious little where she is. The only person who can get her there is Ryan who leads a rag tag band of mercenaries and has his own secrets and tragedies. 

A fantastical mix of dystopian and fantasy fiction that introduces us to some very endearing secondary characters and storylines that add depth to the bubbling romance between Nat and Ryan as they cross the treacherous toxic sea littered with icebergs of rubbish and slavers and pirates. They both fight their feelings towards one another and their journey takes you on a real roller coaster ride right up to the heart stopping finale. 

This is the first book of the series and I am already addicted. Some reviewers have commented that there are holes in the world building but it didn't bother me and I just thought those things will be explained as the series goes on. If you had an indepth history of this particular world included in the book it would have damaged the pace and excitement of the story and I didn't feel it was needed. 

A unique mix of genres that sets it apart and I can't wait for the next!

Trailer

If you like this you may like
Books
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Hunger Games by Suzanne Harris
Films
Mad Max Series
X Men Series

Interesting Facts
Official website of Melissa De La Cruz
Melissa De La Cruz

Michael Johnston is Melissa's husband and has been collaborating on her books from the beginning of her prolific career although his name has never appeared until now.
Below is a link to an interview with both and ineresting chat on their working life together and their thoughts on Frozen
Interview with husband and wife writing team Melissa and Michael

Film Review The Book Thief

Synopsis

While subjected to the horrors of World War II Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. In the basement of her home, a Jewish refugee is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.

My Musings

Adapted from the international bestseller it tells the story of a young orphan girl Liesel, adopted in Nazi Germany. Sophie Nelisse as Liesel is mesmerizing throughout the film as she learns to escape from the tyranny of Nazi Germany through her love of books. This she unexpectedly shares not only with her adoptive parents but also with a young Jewish boy her parents hide in their basement and an wealthy woman who has lost her only son. Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson play the parents and give quiet powerful performances where they have the confidence to underplay their characters. You warm to them immeasurably as their relationship builds with their new daughter and the tension builds with the surrounding dangers. Death is the narrator in this film always in the background whispering of an inevitability. I did not guess that the end would be quite so devastating but it is a heartrendingly beautiful film. It takes strength from its subtle performances and leaves you pondering over the uselessness and wastefulness of war. This film deserved more publicity and acclaim and will be one that stays in my memory for quite a while.

If you like this film you may like

• Schindlers List with Ralph Fiennes
• Malena with Monica Bellucci
• Goodnight Mr Tom with John Thaw
• War Horse, Stephen Spielberg
• The Piano with Adrien Brody
• Boy in The Striped Pyjamas
• The Reader with Kate Winslet