Kristen Sinclair

(Source: google.com) “Some things belong on paper, others in life. It’s a blessed fool who can’t tell the difference.” If I’m completely honest, I initially decided to watch this film because I fancy Joaquin Phoenix loads. Aside from his looking dreamy as ever, Quills is a genuinely great film with a fantastic cast which exceeded my expectations when I first put it on. In fact, before watching Quills , it’s worth knowing a bit about its protagonist, the infamous Marquis de Sade. Born in Paris in 1740, he was an aristocratic politician, philosopher and writer, known for what Wikipedia is calling his ‘libertine sexuality’, characterised by violence and a complete lack of morality; in reality this was most likely his perverted and often misogynistic sexual fantasies (the word ‘sadism’ is derived from his name, so take from that what you will). During the time of Napoleon, he was imprisoned several times, notably in the Bastille and finally in an insane asylum at Charenton nea...

"Would you like me to seduce you?" Everyone knows the iconic still of Dustin Hoffman and a wedding dress-clad Katharine Ross looking relived and slightly bewildered sitting at the back of a bus. The actors’ expressions in this scene have gone on to become synonymous with Mike Nichols’ 1967 classic The Graduate . Recent East Coast graduate Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), something of an over-achiever at college, returns to his home in the shallowness of white southern Californian suburbia, unsure of where his life is heading and surrounded by “plastics”. Following a family dinner party, Ben is seduced by his parents’ friend Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), spawning the classic line “Would you like me to seduce you?”. This then develops into a full-blown tremulous affair between the married and much older Mrs. Robinson and the virginal Ben. It soon becomes clear that Mrs. Robinson is in a loveless marriage and is only using Ben for sex. Coerced by his parents, ...

There are so many gorgeous stills from this film I could hardly choose one Source: ourgoldenage.com.au “ Qu'est-ce que c'est ‘dégueulasse’? ” In theory, I’m watching this film to improve my French… or because I’m a total sucker for a pretentious romance film. À bout de souffle , or Breathless , is director Jean-Luc Godard’s debut feature length film, released in France in 1960. The story follows petty criminal and scumbag Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who models himself on Humphrey Bogart and, having rashly killed a policeman pursuing him from Nice, flees to Paris and rekindles his relationship with American journalism student Patricia Franchini (Jean Seberg). Poiccard attempts to collect debt from an underworld associate whilst trying (unsuccessfully) to convince Franchini, who sells copies of the New York Herald Tribune on the Champs-Élysées to supplement her studying at the Sorbonne, to escape to Italy with him. Breathless was very innovative in its tim...