: of or relating to open fields or country ; rural
Well, one of the big themes of this holiday season will be catching up on BBC/PBS shows and mini-series' that Julia and I have lagged behind on:
From this -
(A few episodes into its first season, I can honestly say I know what all the hype is about: Downton Abbey is the real deal. Everything about it is absolutely splendid.)
To this -
(A BBC show about a haunted, troubled police detective solving gruesome cases masterminded by brilliant serial killers, starring the magnetic Idris Elba - there's only, over the course of two seasons, been ten episodes. But I'm hooked on Luther!)
And this -
(What's not to love about Kenneth Branagh's moody, intelligent portrayal of despairing detective Kurt Wallander in these 90-minute dramas adapted from the works of bestselling Swedish crime novelist Henning Mankell? Wallander crackles and vibrates and creates magisterial swaths of doom and sorrow. I've seen some of them before and have no problem watching them again.)
And after these, who knows? I'll find two or three other series to get into. Gotta love Amazon Prime!
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A performance today for my list of the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time?
Emma Thompson
as Margaret Schlegel in Howards End (1992)
Thompson is among the most customarily superb actresses of her (or any) generation. This was the role that really cemented her reputation for American audiences. A sterling Merchant-Ivory adaptation of the E.M. Forster classic, the film is an acting showcase all around: Anthony Hopkins' sly businessman; Vanessa Redgrave as his dying wife, who leaves her home, Howards End, to her kindred spirit; Thompson, as that kindred spirit, warm and appealing, nobody's fool, intelligent, wronged, tricked. She breaks your heart. In a career of great roles (Remains of the Day, Sense and Sensibility, Last Chance Harvey, to name some), this is the acme of hers... so far.
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Happy birthday, Kandinsky!
Images courtesy of:
http://janeaustensworld.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/downton-abbey-episode-5-550x3842.jpg
http://www.beyondhollywood.com/uploads/2011/10/idris-Elba-in-Luther-TV-Series1-600x400.jpg
http://camerarentalz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/wallander-red.png
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1UXgkn3hT8K7_7Bz4BbGcbXA1sYqE9n_xecbIdCfzPDyBZ69Bao9Y1VLYJ59xV77kVlyQ9fDfDR4jhVjr7OStM8BqEsbYtKMXPhDXs0X-Gu0Zwbv2Wp1N5tdJ4o3FQTPyESSsTNqGuM4I/s1600/Emma-Thompson-Margaret-Schlegel-Howards-End.png
http://www.abcgallery.com/K/kandinsky/kandinsky39.JPG
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