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Possession (2002 Film)
''Possession'' is a 2002 romantic mystery drama film written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart. It is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by British author A. S. Byatt, who won the Booker Prize for it the year it was published. Synopsis Literary scholars American Roland Michell and British Maud Bailey independently find that the socially antagonistic relationship between the Victorian era poets Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte may have concealed a secret connection as lovers. Ash is traditional and conservative and LaMotte is a freethinking bisexual. Rival scholars become aware of their efforts and each seeks to be the first at the public disclosure of this major finding about the poets. In a parallel relationship, Michell and Bailey have their own deepening connection. Cast Development Three early drafts of the film's screenplay were written by American playwright David Henry Hwang in the 1990s, but the project langui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil LaBute
Neil N. LaBute (born March 19, 1963) is an American playwright, film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is best-known for a play that he wrote and later adapted for film, ''In the Company of Men'' (1997), which won awards from the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the New York Film Critics Circle. He wrote and directed the films ''Your Friends & Neighbors'' (1998), ''Possession'' (2002) (based on the A. S. Byatt novel), ''The Shape of Things'' (2003) (based on his play of the same name), ''The Wicker Man'' (2006), ''Some Velvet Morning'' (2013), and '' Dirty Weekend'' (2015). He directed the films ''Nurse Betty'' (2000), ''Lakeview Terrace'' (2008), and the American adaptation of '' Death at a Funeral'' (2010). LaBute created the TV series ''Billy & Billie'', writing and directing all of the episodes. He is also the creator of the TV series ''Van Helsing''. Recently, he executive produced, co-directed and co-wrote Netflix's ''The I-Land''. He also dir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romance Film
Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey through dating, courtship or marriage is featured. These films make the search for romantic love the main plot focus. Occasionally, romance lovers face obstacles such as finances, physical illness, various forms of discrimination, psychological restraints or family resistance. As in all quite strong, deep and close romantic relationships, the tensions of day-to-day life, temptations (of infidelity), and differences in compatibility enter into the plots of romantic films. Romantic films often explore the essential themes of love at first sight young and mature love, unrequited love, obsession, sentimental love, spiritual love, forbidden love, platonic love, sexual and passionate love, sacrificial love, explosive and destructive love, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 – May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 20 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 movies or shows and produced over 44 films. For his film ''Out of Africa'' (1985), Pollack won the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture. He was also nominated for Best Director Oscars for '' They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'' (1969) and ''Tootsie'' (1982). Some of his other best-known works include '' Jeremiah Johnson'' (1972), ''The Way We Were'' (1973), '' Three Days of the Condor'' (1975) and '' Absence of Malice'' (1981). His subsequent films included ''Havana'' (1990), '' The Firm'' (1993), ''The Interpreter'' (2005), and he produced and acted in ''Michael Clayton'' (2007). Pollack also made appearances in Robert Altman's Hollywood mystery '' The Player'' (1992), Woody Allen's relationship drama ''Husbands and Wives'' (1993), and Stanley Kubrick's erotic psychological drama ''Eyes Wid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holly Aird
Imogen Holly Aird (born 18 May 1969) is an English television actress known for playing forensic pathologist Frankie Wharton in the BBC1 drama series '' Waking the Dead'', having previously starred in productions such as ''Soldier Soldier'' and the 1997 film ''Fever Pitch'' alongside Colin Firth. Early life Aird was born in Aldershot, Hampshire. She was spotted by a casting director at age nine whilst at Bush Davies Ballet School and starred in the 1980 dramatisation of the H. G. Wells novel ''The History of Mr Polly''. In 1981 she portrayed the young Elspeth Huxley in the television adaptation of the latter's autobiographical book ''The Flame Trees of Thika''. Career In 1981 she portrayed Elspeth Huxley in ''The Flame Trees of Thika''. In 1982 she starred as the young Beatrix Potter in ''The Tale of Beatrix Potter''. She was seen in ''The Happy Valley'' in 1987 with Denholm Elliott, in which she played a schoolgirl in Kenya in the 1930s. As well as small parts in various te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anna Massey
Anna Raymond Massey (11 August 19373 July 2011) was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner's novel ''Hotel du Lac'', a role that one of her co-stars, Julia McKenzie, has said "could have been written for her". Massey is best known for her role as Babs Milligan in Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film, ''Frenzy''. Early life Massey was born in Thakeham, Sussex, England, the daughter of British actress Adrianne Allen and Canadian-born Hollywood actor Raymond Massey. Her brother Daniel Massey was also an actor. She was the niece of Vincent Massey, a Governor General of Canada, and her godfather was film director John Ford. Career Although she had no formal training at either drama school or in repertory, Anna Massey made her first appearance on stage in May 1955 at the age of 17, at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, as Jane in '' The Reluctant Debutante'', subsequently making her first London appearance in the same pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Crowden
Clement Graham Crowden (30 November 1922 – 19 October 2010) was a Scottish actor. He was best known for his many appearances in television comedy dramas and films, often playing eccentric "offbeat" scientist, teacher and doctor characters. Early life Crowden was born on 30 November 1922 in Edinburgh, the son of University of Edinburgh-educated schoolmaster Harry Graham Crowden (d. 1938) and Anne Margaret (née Paterson).Who's Who In The Theatre: a biographical record of the contemporary stage, seventeenth edition, vol. I, ed. Ian Herbert, Gale Research Company, 1981, p. 154 He was educated at Clifton Hall School and the Edinburgh Academy before serving briefly in the Royal Scots Youth Battalion of the army until he was injured in an accident. During arms drill he was shot by his platoon sergeant, when the sergeant's rifle discharged. The sergeant reportedly enquired "What is it now, Crowden?", to which Crowden replied "I think you've shot me, sergeant." He later found work in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Hickey (actor)
Tom Hickey (1944 – 1 May 2021) was an Irish actor who appeared on stage and screen in a career that began in the early 1960s. He was best known for playing Benjy Riordan in the long-running television series, ''The Riordans''. Early life Born in Kildare, Hickey began his career in 1963 at Deirdre O'Connell's Stanislavski Studio in Dublin where he trained in Stanislavski's system of acting. He said that he saw his choice of profession as a "vocation", having decided to become an actor when he was five or six years old. Television In 1965, Hickey joined the cast of RTÉ television's new rural drama series, ''The Riordans''. He went on to play the part of Benjy Riordan in the successful serial for the next sixteen years. In 2001, he made a rare venture into television advertising with his appearances in a series of commercials for Club Orange, a soft drink. The first of these was directed by Declan Lowney, the director of ''Father Ted''. Lowney also directed ''Moone Boy'', a Sky ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trevor Eve
Trevor John Eve (born 1 July 1951) is an English film and television actor. In 1979 he gained fame as the eponymous lead in the detective series '' Shoestring'' and is also known for his role as Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd in BBC television drama '' Waking the Dead''. He is the father of three children, including actress Alice Eve. Early life Eve was born in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, the son of Elsie (née Hamer) and Stewart Frederick Eve. His father was English, and his Welsh mother was from Glynneath. Educated at Bromsgrove School, he had little acting experience during his school days. He studied architecture at Kingston Polytechnic (now Kingston University) in London. He dropped out of the course after three years to enrol at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where, upon leaving, he was awarded The Bancroft Gold Medal. Career Eve portrayed Paul McCartney in Willy Russell's 1974 play '' John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Bert'' at the Lyric Theatr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Hollander
Thomas Anthony Hollander (; born 25 August 1967) is an English actor. As a child Hollander trained with the National Youth Theatre and was later involved in stage productions as a member of the Footlights and was president of the Marlowe Society. He later gained success for his roles on stage and screen winning a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for a Tony Award and Olivier Award. He began his career in theatre, winning the Ian Charleson Award in 1992 for his performance as Witwoud in ''The Way of the World'' at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. He made his Broadway debut in David Hare's '' The Judas Kiss'' in 1998. He appeared as Henry Carr in a revival of Tom Stoppard's play ''Travesties'' earning nominations for the Olivier Award for Best Actor and Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. Hollander gained attention for portraying Mr. Collins in Joe Wright's '' Pride & Prejudice'' (2005) and as Lord Cutler Beckett in the ''Pirates of the Ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bisexual
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, which is also known as '' pansexuality.'' The term ''bisexuality'' is mainly used in the context of human attraction to denote romantic or sexual feelings toward both men and women, and the concept is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation along with heterosexuality and homosexuality, all of which exist on the heterosexual–homosexual continuum. A bisexual identity does not necessarily equate to equal sexual attraction to both sexes; commonly, people who have a distinct but not exclusive sexual preference for one sex over the other also identify themselves as bisexual. Scientists do not know the exact cause of sexual orientation, but they theorize that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetic, hormonal, and env ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freethinking
Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods such as logic, reason, and empirical observation. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', a freethinker is "a person who forms their own ideas and opinions rather than accepting those of other people, especially in religious teaching." In some contemporary thought in particular, free thought is strongly tied with rejection of traditional social or religious belief systems. The cognitive application of free thought is known as "freethinking", and practitioners of free thought are known as "freethinkers". Modern freethinkers consider free thought to be a natural freedom from all negative and illusive thoughts acquired from society. The term first came into use in the 17th century in order to refer to people who inquired into the bas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victorian Era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the '' Belle Époque'' era of Continental Europe. There was a strong religious drive for higher moral standards led by the nonconformist churches, such as the Methodists and the evangelical wing of the established Church of England. Ideologically, the Victorian era witnessed resistance to the rationalism that defined the Georgian period, and an increasing turn towards romanticism and even mysticism in religion, social values, and arts. This era saw a staggering amount of technological innovations that proved key to Britain's power and prosperity. Doctors started moving away from tradition and mysticism towards a science-based approach; medicine advanced thanks to the adoption ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
