Film Reviews by NS

This was well acted and the sets and clothes were spot on. However a bit of a gloomy film. Much of it relevant to today.

I really enjoyed this. It is written from the point of view of the empress and the other women in the imperial family so offers a different slant on the story. I am no expert but the costumes and sets looked very authentic, including riding without stirrups (the romans hadn't invented them) and the acting was great. Deserves a higher rating.

In spite of a stellar cast this just didn't evoke the atmostphere of the book. Basically the garden wasn't right, it need to be an english country garden with delicate spring flowers and roses not a tropical garden. There are of course plenty of tropical style gardens in the UK but not really in keeping with a place on the yorkshire moors. Disappointing.

Having read the books by Herman Wouk I was intrigued to see that there was a 'mini series'. The DVD come with I assume episodes run together and is spread over several DVDs. (only seen 3 so far) As the author of the book wrote the screen play the dialogue is often word for word the same and no story quirks that I noticed, which is good because its a great story. I found Robert Mitchum a bit incongrous as the lead as he is a bit old for the part, but this is from the era when it was deemed ok to have much older (male) romantic leads. That aside it was well cast and very enjoyable, giving a really good flavour for the parts of the world covered, USA, Italy, Warsaw, Berlin and the UK. The bomber flight over Berlin was very well done.

Great costumes, entertaining storylines no doubt a few enhancements on what we know happened. Engaging actors.Enjoyed this more than I thought I would it really brought the period to life.

I mssed this when it was on TV the first time, but really enjoyed catching up with it. The acting was superb, especially Daniel Lewis as Soames in his older years. Costumes and sets lovely and convincing and a gripping story. Every episode had me hooked.

Compelling story line, about an era that I didnt know much about. The actors made the characters real and the script showed their dilemmas. And of course the sets and costumes were amazing. Always entertaining.