Book Review by Anna Peña Vicent

Book Title: The Nº 1 Ladies’Detective Agency.

Author: Alexander McCall Smith.

Publisher/ Year: Abacus 1998

Book type: Detective, mystery novel

Pages: 250

Summary:

When Precious Ramotswe, a fat and friendly African lady, decides to use the money of her father’s inheritage to set up a Detective Agency in Botswana (Africa), people is sceptical. But Mma Ramotswe feels ensure of her success and she is decided to help people with problems in their lives. Although she has never studied to become a private detective, she is endowed with a cunning intuition, which will help her to solve most of the cases. Then she is hired to find a missing husband, uncover a con man, follow a teenager…But the most important and dangerous will be the difficult task of finding a missing boy who may have been kidnapped by witch doctors. Throw all these stories we will find an accurately description of Africa, its landscape and lifestyle.

Opinion:

I’ve found the book quite simple and easy to read. On the other hand I’ve found it a bit disappointing because I expected more mystery involving the cases.

In my opinion the most interesting thing is the fantastic approach to the African life style and its landscape that allows to discover a different view of Africa.

A pleasant enough to read, but I won’t be bothering with the rest of the titles in the series.

Lenguage/ Style:

In general, the vocabulary is quite simple, and just in some cases you have to look into the dictionary for unfamiliar words.

The novel is written in 3^rd person using the past but introducing dialogues in present time and he always uses the correct tone.

Film Review, The Russia House

Film Review by Anna Peña Vicent

Film Title: The Russia House

Country / year: USA, 1990

Genre: Drama/ thriller

Director: Fred Schepisi.

Cast: Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer, Roy Sheider, James Fox, Klaus Maria Brandauer.

Type of language used: British and American English.

Plot:

Bartholomew “Barley” Scott Blair is a british publisher who regularly attends book sales fairs in Moscow. One day, a soviet writer sends him a manuscript containing information about the soviet nuclear capabilities and their atomic weapons and asking him to publish it.
The book is intercepted by the British intelligence and with the American co-operation forces Barley to contact the mysterious writer and verify if the documents are true or is just a trick to confuse the enemies.
Blair, who has been always very fond of the Russian people values, doesn’t want to take part of this “game” but he is compelled to do it and there is no chance for him.
But everything changes when he meets the russian writer’s contact, a beautiful soviet woman called Katia. Blair is immediately attracted to Katia and then he has to choose between finishing his fact-finding mission or betraying his country to save Katia and her family.

Analysis:

Adaptation of John Le Carre’s novel on the world of the international espionage and its hypocrisy, the pacifist values of the human being as well as his ambiguity and contradiction. But over all, is a love story which is capable of piercing all the ideologies and that is totally unpredictable.
The soundtrack is brilliant and essential in order to submerge the spectator into the story. This, joined with the excellent photography in a range of grey and blue scenes provides the film with a necessary touch of melancholy and romanticism.
All the actors play a good role, specially Sean Connery who gives one of the best performances of his career.

Opinion:

In my opinion is a really good and entertaining film to see it and takes part of my private film library. Maybe some people can find it a bit characterless and mushy because the love story reduces leadership to spying.
I think it could be a good film for men and women as equal. At least give the chance to watch it and I hope you won’t regret it.

Film Review: The Illusionist

The Illusionist

Country/Year: USA 2006

Genre: Drama

Director: Neil Burger

Producers: Brian Koppelman, David Levien, Michael London, Bob Yari, Cathy Schulman

Cast: Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, Rufus Sewell

The Old Story with a New Trick

A poor young boy falls in love with a pretty aristocrat girl, but the class differences makes the relationship impossible.

Years later, the boy (now a handsome man) and the girl (now a beautiful lady and fiancée of the future emperor of Austria) meet again and love reappears.

It sounds very typical? Well and it is, except for the fact that the boy turns out to be an incredible magician.

Plot:

In The Illusionist , Edwar Norton plays the role of Eisenheim an illusionist of great talent with a wonderful show that is captivating the audience of Vienna in the last years of the XIX century. Inspector Uhl (played by Paul Giammati) tries to uncover the tricks of Eisenheim, first by mere interest, but after a show in which Eisenheim and Shopie (Jessica Biel) meet again after a long time, by order of the Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewel) who wants inspector Uhl to uncover Eisenheim’s tricks.

Unfortunately for Prince Leopold , instead of unmasking the tricks of Eisenheim, Inspector Uhl discovers that Shopie and Eisenheim are lovers…

Opinion:

While the story itself is not very original there are several features that make this movie remarkable. First and foremost is the outstanding quality of the photography. It is really beautiful and catches perfectly the atmosphere of Vienna and its theatres. Second is the wonderful acting of Paul Giammati, particularly when he is together with Edward Norton.

On the other hand, I must say that although The Illusionist is an entertaining movie, perfect for a Sunday evening, it has an important flaw. The end is quite predictable, so if you expect a final and surprising twist you can be quite disappointed because even a skilled Illusionist like Eisenheim can’t change the outcome of a classical story.

NIGHT WITHOUT END

BOOK REVIEW by Nati Peris Tena

If you have some leisure time and want to spend a good while, at the same time as you learn some interesting things about living in extreme weather conditions, do not hesitate in turning the pages of this book.

Book Tittle: NIGHT WITHOUT END

Author: Alistair Mclean

Publisher: Oxford University Press – Stage 6

Pages: 108

Year: 1959

Book Type: Thriller and adventure with suspense elements.

Plot summary:

In the middle of a stormy night, a British Airways airliner crashes on the Greenland ice cap near an isolated weather station where three scientists are living for several months. The scientific team rescues the passengers, there are ten survivors, the rest of the people apparently have died in the crash. Their only means of asking for help is through the scientific´s radio transmitter, but inadvertently it is destroyed by someone. Several following happenings make evident that the crash is not a simple accident and the rescue turns into a nightmare for the three scientists. The hurry to reach shelter from the savage ice blizzards, before all supplies run out and the Arctic winter freezes them, with temperatures falling 50 degrees centigrade below zero, drive all of them into an adventure through the endless nights of the Polar ice cap. Altogether with the presence among the survivors of a camouflaged killer with a gun and a secret avid to hide.

Opinion:

I really enjoyed this book because although I have never been to Greenland, the reading of this novel made me feel as if I were immersed in its frozen environment, due to the novelist using vivid descriptions of unforgiving landscapes. With great ability he gives you a sense of the place where the book is set, and makes you feel like you were a part of the setting. All this completed with a very intriguing plot, makes this book a good candidate to be read.

Language/Style:

The author uses a formal British language. Mainly the more difficult vocabulary is related with weather conditions and descriptions about the Polar ice cap. In general, the words used are quite easy to understand by the context, and moreover, you do not need to look up so many words in the dictionary because there is a glossary at the end of the book which contains the most unfamiliar words.

Characters Description:

The story is related in first person by its main character, called Peter Mason. He is a doctor and the person in charge of the scientific station. He manages the rescue team and organizes the travel through the Polar ice cap to the coast to bring people to safety. He discovers the presence of a killer among the rescued people and tries to unmask him. The other members of the scientific team are Jackstraw, a very skilled man with guns and who knows all about how to survive on the Greenland ice cap, and the radio operator Joseph London. They configure a team where everyone can rely on the other, because in such extreme weather conditions their survival depends on team work. But suddenly the passengers of the crashed airliner become a new danger in their already dangerous world.

The survivors of the crash landed plane are the other significant characters. They make up a very heterogeneous group composed by a business man (Nick Corazzini), an actress (Marie Le Garde), a minister of religion (Joseph Smallwood), a boxer (Johnny Zagero) and his manager (Solly Levin), a London society woman (Ms Dansby-Gregg) and her personal maid (Helene), a Senator (Mr. Brewster), a silent Jew (Theodore Mahler) and an emotional stewardess (Margaret Ross).

Almost all of them want to be rescued as soon as possible, but there are several people that are trying to put setbacks during the travel to safeness because they have something to hide.

1/10 Score: 8

V for Vendetta

FILM REVIEW by Nati Peris Tena

I am going to tell you about one of the best films I have seen lately. If you have not watched it yet, I highly recommend it because this is one of those movies that really sticks in your head, since there is a message behind the fiction that makes you open your eyes about what is happening in our time and what could happen. One of its outstanding sentences is: “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

Film Tittle: V FOR VENDETTA

Country: A United Kingdom-Germany co-production

Language: British English

Year: 2005

Genre: Action / Drama / Sci-Fi / Thriller

Director: James McTeigue

Writing Credits: Andy and Larry Wachowski (creators of the Matrix trilogy)

Main Cast: Natalie Portman (as Evey Hammond), Hugo Weaving (as V), Stephen Rea (as Chief Inspector Eric Finch), John Hurt (as Chancellor Adam Sutler), Stephen Fry (as Gordon Deitrich).

Location: Berlin and London

You can watch the trailer at: wwws.warnerbros.co.uk/vforvendetta

Synopsis:

This film is set in London around the year 2039. England is ruled under a totalitarian government leaded by Chancellor Sutler.

V is a mysterious man, who is always covering his face with a mask to conceal his identity. He also has a superhuman strength with a great ability to combat, extraordinary intelligence and a cruel mood, skills that he is able to use in a creative way to manipulate the media, to kill influential partisans of the government who are doing really wrong things, and to blow buildings using explosives. V is considered a terrorist by the government, but he gets all the citizens to pay attention to him.

At the beginning of the film, V rescues a young woman called Evey from a dangerous situation with police officers. He lodges her in his hiding-place and asks her for help in his plan: to start a revolution, encouraging to his fellow citizens to rise up against government oppression and tyranny being all present at the blowing up of the Houses of Parliament the night of the 5^th of November next year. At the beginning Evey rejects his request, but after all, she becomes V´s ally.

Analysis:

This film is based on the graphic novel tittled “V for Vendetta” by Alan Moore in 1988. It has clear dialogues with quite usual vocabulary. You can also understand easily all the plot because the characters do not talk very fast.

There are very well done special effects, which are deeply moving in the climatic moments. Moreover, the sound track with classical music is amazing.

Although this film is rated “R” (Restricted for people under 17 years old) by the MPAA (The Motion Picture Association of America) for strong language and violence, it is not that bad.

Personal opinion:

I was amazed by this film. In one hand, I have read that many people think that it is an attack on the Bush Administration, and on the other hand, this story could be similar to the one related in the George Orwell book titled “1984”. It could be, but above all, I consider this movie as a criticism on oppression and about freedom. It shows the viewer what is really important, giving us an encouraging message. V for Vendetta warns against the dangers of corruption, control, manipulation and repression. And also makes you think about a powerful weapon used by governments: fear (of war, disease or famine). Fear is a basic part of human nature, and it has been exploited as a method of control for centuries. So, it shows what can happen when society is ruled by government, rather than government is run by the will of the people. In conclusion, the film is really a very interesting illustration to think over, set in a world that I hope we will never have to inhabit.

1/10 Score: 9

‘The Shawshank Redemption’

FILM REVIEW by LLEDO RIVAS RENAU

Film Title: ‘The Shawshank Redemption’

Country/Year: USA/1994

Genre: Drama

Director: Frank Darabont

Writing Credits: Stephen King (‘Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption’), Frank Darabont (screenplay)

Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

LANGUAJE: English with jargon

MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America): Rated R for language and prison violence (Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian).

Plot/Synopsis: A man, wrongly imprisoned for 20 years for the murder of his wife and her lover, becomes the best friend of another prisoner. He is the only one that holds out hope, finding in this way peace and solace.

OPINION: A beautiful and unforgettable film that reminds you life is a simple choice: ‘Either get busy living or get busy dying’.

‘Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free’. This Frank Darabont’s film (he was the director of another excellent prison film, ‘The Green Mile’, based on a Stephen King’s novel as well) was nominated for seven Academy Awards but got zero. `Forrest Gump’ was the winner and `Shawshank Redemption’ and `Pulp Fiction’ were the great losers. However, while `Forrest Gump’ is now seen as a good film, `Shawshank’ and `Pulp’ are acknowledged as some of the all-time best.

Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), Vice-President of a large bank, is found guilty of two murders, his wife and her lover. He is imprisoned with two life sentences in Shawshank, where he meet Red,`the man who gets things’ (Morgan Freeman, in one of his best-actings) and they set up the best friendship. Despite the violations Andy suffers, he says no word and can hold out hope. His hope is in music, in the sandy beaches of Zihuatanejo. `There is something inside that’s yours, that they can’t touch’. It is, above all, a film about hope, dreams (you always can achieve your dreams), freedom, even inside a prison (the moment with Andy playing over the prison loudspeakers the duettino ‘Che soave zeffiretto’ sung by María Callas from Mozart’s `Marriage of Figaro’) and friendship.

Besides the great actings of Robbins and Freeman, I would like to point out the music by Thomas Newman, one of the best nowadays composers (`American Beauty’ and `The Road to Perdition’) which gives the film this serenity sensation.

Success did not come easy for `Shawshank’. One reason was the title. Many people did not know what Shawshank was. Another reason was that a prison drama is not easy to sell to women and the story of friendship between two best friends is not for men. Many people also think there is a religious subtext to be found here, because of the themes of hope and faith. You can find both figures here, Good and Evil, (Andy and Warden Norton). But if you are not looking for subtexts, this film is perfect for whom needs hope. It is a moving film and both actors are two of the best.

In conclusion, it is the perfect film.