GeorgeOrwell Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Usually when I write about my surprise over a piece of news, it's in exasperation. You know -- writing about the umpteenth adaptation, remake, or reimagining. But could the movie industry finally be getting the hint? We've got Papa Hemingway on the way a few times (not to mention that yet-to-be-released Garden of Eden), Coriolanus, and now ...

Variety reports that Hugh Hudson is directing Bob Ellis' adaptation of George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia (simply titled Catalonia), with Colin Firth and Kevin Spacey starring. Yes folks -- Orwell did write more than 1984 and Animal Farm. In fact, the books inspired by his own life are some of his best work. This account focuses on his move to Catalonia (Barcelona) with his wife in the late 1930s to fight Stalinism*, where he joined the Anarchist brigade and fought in the Spanish Civil War -- which almost killed him. But rather than focus squarely on Orwell, the film will spotlight his friendship with Georges Kopp, the commander of the brigade.

I imagine that Firth will play Orwell (due to the Englishness), while Spacey takes on the Belgian Kopp. But it will take a while to learn much more -- production isn't scheduled to begin until the first half of 2010.

Now we just need more Henry Miller. A Devil in Paradise, anyone?

*Correction made thanks to Mattl

Look, I thought The Dark Knight had a lot of strong selling points: Combine a deft pace with thoughtful characterizations and a whopping IMAX design that turns the entire experience into a plot-driven theme park ride, and you've got one hefty dose of Batman adrenaline.

Still, comparisons to The Godfather Part II notwithstanding, The Dark Knight isn't foolproof -- in fact, no single movie in history is foolproof. The subjective experience of movie watching ensures that nothing can be universally liked by everyone, and rules of civility insist that humanity respect that truism. It's acceptable to feel passionately about a great work of art, and defend that perspective with rigorous argumentation, but much of the outrage over the minority perspective that The Dark Knight isn't any good has made such practical thinking impossible.

Deemed the first critic to pan the movie, New York's David Edelstein went out of his way to list the allegations against him sent along by various Batman fans. The House Next Door editor Keith Uhlich, meanwhile, fielded over a hundred rants in the comments section following his astute critique of director Christopher Nolan's questionable portrayals of violence. What's particularly shocking about this frightful deluge of negative responses is that many of these people began posting their disapproval before they even saw the movie.