18 January 2016								Mrs MAYER ⑫

1. Thursday 21/1 	Arte 20h55-0.00 WOLF HALL.2015. A series. GB. VM (1, 2, 3/6)
Historical drama. An adaptation of two novels by Hilary MANTEL: the 1st one is called ‘Wolf Hall’ and the 2nd one ‘Bring up the bodies’, and she’s writing a 3rd part because it will be a trilogy. This is a fictionalized story about Thomas CROMWELL (in the Court of Henry VIII) and the death of Sir Thomas MOORE.
Rotten tomatoes: 100%!
Audiences complained because they found it too slow moving (slow paced)
Pace:	allure, vitesse (pacemaker)
A well-known historian, David STARKEY, says both men (Cromwell & Moore) believed in the idea of enforcing ideas on others by persecution and execution. They only disagreed on which ideas.
1-6 cover the years from 1529 to 1536 / Henry VIII 1491-1547.
Dover Castle is used to represent the Tower of London where Ann BOLEYN was beheaded.
To fictionalize: romancer

2. Sunday 24/1 	Arte 20.45-22h25 ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ 1979
Dir. Don SIEGEL. A thriller with Clint EASTWOOD and Patrick Mc GOOHAN (The Prisoner-N°6). For ‘The Prisoner’ they used the setting of the Italianate village of Portmeirion, which is in North Wales.
No stuntmen (cascadeurs) acted in this film, Eastwood did all the stunts himself.

You could hear a pin drop: on pourrait entendre une mouche voler
Heads or tails: pile ou face
Hard labour:	travaux forces
Pidgin English/broken English: anglais approximatif/hésitant
Silent films:	le muet
‘Long time no see’: ça fait un bail
To turn up out of the blue/ to arrive without notice: arriver comme une fleur
As pretty as a picture: jolie comme une fleur
To split hairs:	couper les cheveux en quatre
Holiday/ Vacation in US or in University language GB
I sympathize:	je compatis
‘King’s Speech’ is a play on words because ‘speech’ also means ‘way of speaking’.
‘Save Our Souls’: SOS
‘May Day’ comes from French “m’aider”
Morse Code: …---…

ABOUT MURDER ON THE ORIENT-EXPRESS
The part of the story about Ratchett was inspired by a real crime, the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s child. Agatha Christie was also inspired by a news item, which served as a backdrop to her novel: an incident occurred in Feb.1929, the Simplon Orient-Express was blocked by a blizzard for 6 days in Turkey.
It’s a rather weird, surrealist film, with strange, caricatured characters. Albert Finney, who was 38 when the film was made, had to undergo complex make up every day for 2 hours to give him the appearance of a 50 year old man. The make up was excessive (for the old princess too) and Finney’s voice is particularly unbearable!
Agatha Christie, who had always been angry about previous film adaptations of her work and who didn’t want to hear talk of another cinema production, was however convinced by Lord Mountbatten to let his son produce an adaptation of this novel.
So she attended the premiere at the ABC Cinema on Shaftsbury Avenue in London, which was held in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II. She was very impressed by the film apart from one small detail: Hercule Poirot’s moustache wasn’t as stunning as she had imagined it would be!