September 18, 2007
Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
"Coming almost a full decade after its progenitor, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, is every bit its equal," writes Will Lawrence for the Telegraph. "As with its predecessor, The Golden Age examines the price of power, exposing the sacrifices that the Queen must make in order to protect her emerging nation state."
"There comes a point when these Hollywood picture shows become so incoherent, when the camera movements become so unmotivated, and when the performances become so irrelevant that there's nothing left on screen but pure Surrealist spectacle," writes Darren Hughes. "And people say avant-garde cinema can't find an audience."
"The handsomely mounted film, in its cute ADD way, soon forgets its half-hearted attempt to make History Relevant To What Is Going On In The World Today and morphs into a sort of Classic Comics on acid, or as a friend so brilliantly put it, 'the longest Eurythmics video ever made,'" blogs Premiere's Glenn Kenny.
"What a strange hybrid The Golden Age is: a sequel, a costume fantasy, a romantic melodrama, a CGI war spectacular, a puzzling celebration of beauty over substance," writes Karina Longworth at the SpoutBlog. "It's sort of an historical epic, although it doesn't seem to care much about historical accuracy. If anything, it recasts the Anglo-Spanish War as a battle between superheroes (ie: British Protestants) and villains (ie: Catholics, particularly of the Spanish variety), with the former's only impediment to success the pesky distractions of romantic rejection."
"Mainly it's an extended game of 16th-century Barbie, an eye-popping pageant parade masquerading as rapturous religious art (it even climaxes with a pieta: the Virgin Queen, you see?)," writes Keith Uhlich at the House Next Door. "Pardon me while I whip out my Hogwarts wand and shout 'Ridiculus!' at this awards-baiting gobsmack, which nonetheless has a good many pleasures in which to partake."
"Cate [Blanchett] is marvelous and [Clive] Owen dashingly charming, but the film is a bombastic costume drama that reduces European historical conflict to a numbing simplicity of religious tyranny and Catholic intolerance versus the enlightened rule of England's Protestant Queen Elizabeth, done up with plenty of international intrigue watched over by loyal advisor, Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush)," blogs Sean Axmaker for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
"I'll keep it simple," writes David Poland. "The movie has way too much story, way too few places where an audience can link in emotionally, an absolute waste of a parade of excellent Oscar-nominated and winning actors including Clive Owen, Samantha Morton and this time, even Geoffrey Rush, enough music to choke an iPod, and a hyperkinetic parade of cool, but logic-free shots that at some point feels like you are choking on the Scott Brothers' leftovers."
"This is not historical drama so much as heritage cinema for the North American market, replete with rolling English hills and soaring English cathedrals," notes Nick Roddick in the Evening Standard.
The AFP reports that Shekhar Kapur would really like to do a third film; Blanchett, on the other hand, is more "hesitant." Via Movie City News.
Online listening tip. Back in July, there was a terrific segment on the Leonard Lopate Show featuring Susan Ronald, author of The Pirate Queen: Queen Elizabeth I, Her Pirate Adventurers and the Dawn of Empire. She explains why "The Golden Age" is actually a pun of sorts.
Earlier: Todd McCarthy in Variety.
Posted by dwhudson at September 18, 2007 10:01 AM
Deborah Allison on Alice Hutchison's "stunningly produced" Kenneth Anger, "with 256 glossy large-format pages filled with numerous images, many in dazzling color."
According to the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, this book contains plagiarized text. Please read the following:
The Humboldt University's Commission for Ensuring Sound Scientific Practices and for Handling Allegations of Scientific Misconduct issued a statement regarding allegations that Black Dog Publishing of the UK and Ms. Alice Hutchison copied text verbatim without attribution in their book about American film-maker Kenneth Anger.
Today I am attaching the German-written statement of the Humboldt University as well as a translation into English.
As you may know, Black Dog Publishing and Ms. Alice Hutchison used text verbatim without attribution both from Ms. Miriam Dagan and from American author Ms. Carel Rowe. But the statement of the Humboldt University of Berlin referrs only to passsages copied from the work of Ms. Dagan, a former student of that university.
For your convenience I am adding (please see below and in the attachments) information about the relevant works as well as details about the passages copied verbatim both from Ms. Carel Rowe and from Ms. Miriam Dagan.
I would appreciate it very much if you could kindly inform your colleagues and other interested individuals and institutions about this matter. For more information please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you very much for confirming receipt of this message.
Sincerely,
Daniel Dagan
Wilhelm Str. 90
10117 Berlin
Germany
tel. +49 30 - 22 62 06 50
mob. +49 172 - 609 47 75
daniel@dagan.de
Here are the citations for each work: thesis and book.
Thesis written by Ms. Miriam Dagan:
"Oppositional Spaces: Kenneth Anger and Sixties Counterculture" by Ms. Miriam Dagan de Picciotto
The thesis was submitted to Professor Dr. Guenter H. Lenz of the Humboldt University
(www.hu-berlin.de)in Berlin, Germany, on 21 November, 2003, and it can be obtained there for reference. The thesis can also be obtained for reference in the Anthology Film Archives (www.anthologyfilmarchives.org)in New York, USA, where it has been kept in the institution's files since January 2004 (and from where it has been appropriated).
I can also send a printed or electronic version of the thesis upon request.
Book written by Ms. Alice Hutchison:
Kenneth Anger
by Alice L. Hutchison
LIST PRICE: £24.95 FORMAT: Paperback (pp: 256)
ISBN: 1-904772-03-X PUBLISHER: Black Dog Publishing, United Kingdom
PUB. DATE: 08 Sep 2004
Please note:
The passage of ten lines on page 176 of the book of Black Dog Publishing and Ms. Aice Hutchison, that begins
"The cosmology of" and ends "Horus as well."
is copied verbatim from page 17 of Carel Rowe's essay in : "Moonchild: The Films of Kenneth Anger", edited by Jack Hunter (Creation Books, 2002, ISBN: 1-84068-029-6)
Translation of a Statement addressed to Ms. Miriam Dagan of Berlin, Germany
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Vice President for Research
Prof. Dr. Hans Jürgen Prömel
July 23, 2007
Your application to the Commission for Ensuring Sound Scientific
Practices and for Handling Allegations of Scientific Misconduct
Dear Ms. Dagan,
The Commission has studied your application regarding
Ms. Alice L. Hutchison and has reached the following conclusion:
The Commission confirms that intellectual
property rights have been infringed as alleged.
Reasoning:
As you were a student at the Humboldt University of Berlin when you wrote and published your Master‘s thesis, the Commission has determined that this application for an investigation of alleged academic misconduct falls within its jurisdiction.
The examination of your allegations has established that, in accordance with Article 9 of the Commission‘s statutes, the Commission sees indications of an “infringement of intellectual property” by Ms. Alice Hutchison in her publication.
Article 9 of the Commission‘s statutes states: “Infringement of intellectual property includes, in particular, (a) with regard to a work created by another person and protected by copyright, or with regard to substantial scientific insights, hypotheses, teachings or research approaches originated by other persons: Unauthorized use while arrogating authorship (plagiarism).”
After comparing the works of Miriam Dagan and Alice Hutchison, it is the view of the Commission that such a state of affairs does exist, based upon the presence of a series of extended, almost verbatim quotations that were not identified as such and that contained
no reference to Miriam Dagan's authorship.
As neither you (Miriam Dagan) nor Ms. Hutchison are currently members of the Humboldt University of Berlin, the university administration has no jurisdiction with regard to further consequences.
Sincerely,
Prof. Dr. Hans Jürgen Prömel
Vice President for Research
Subscribe to GreenCine Daily RSS
Subscribe to GreenCine Daily by email
