chouchoulane

I haven't read all the posts so please forgive if I'm repeating. This thoroughly enjoyable film suffers from one major defect. Ironically, it is a defect that results from the excellence of today's technology. In effect, the picture is so clear and the colours so vivid that it looks as though it was filmed five minutes ago! Not good for a story set in the British colonial era. Other movies have used muted colour or even sharp black and white to give that period feel. (Recently, "The Good German" in black and white and I understand that the John Boorman film "The General" was filmed in colour but printed in B/W) More consideration should have been given to the film's colour.

Richard E. Grant, if I may say so, owes a huge apology to the population of the United States. For I can see them now, those millions of Americans, earnest devotees of popular culture, trotting along to their local movie theatre in the erroneous belief that Grant's "Wah Wah" is a Barbara Walters biopic... (Anyone who needs this explained to them should consult their nearest popular culture guru...)

, That however, is where the apologies stop. For, not only does Grant give usthe real talent in the extended Walters family, the wonderful Julie of that ilk, but we get Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson cornering the English Bitch market and the incredibly talented Celia Imrie (There will be those who think Imrie's performance somewhat OTT. It isn't. The English Gorgon she portrays is alive and well and infesting the Home Counties). I was also very impressed with Nicholas Hoult's sensitive performance.

Just one gripe. The material covered in the film, plus the array of talent used, would have justified a miniseries in which a good deal of desirable fleshing-out of the characters could have been done. That aside, this is a filmthat makes me look forward to Grant's future efforts as director. His first outing has resulted in a real gem.

"The Stranger" may have left no card but he certainly left an indelible impression on me when I saw him in Belfast's Broadway cinema as a child. (The equally impressive "Incident at Owl Creek" is another short film that I saw at a time when excellent short films were often offered as "support" for the main feature.) I became a great admirer of Alan Badel star of "Stranger" and am always taken back to my first viewing of the film when I hear "Swedish Rapsody".

I do not know how to obtain a copy. However,those who have expressed an interest might like to know that a re-make of the story was included in the "Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected" TV series, under the title "Stranger in Town". It stars one of Britain's finest actors, Derek Jacobi, and the good news is that it has just become available on DVD from Acorn Media Entertainment.

Maybe I should also mention that, in one of those quirks of television programme-making, the "Twilight Zone" people ran out of money, apparently, and, instead of making a final series episode, bought a prize-winning film to fill the gap. That gap-filler was nothing less than the superb "Incident at Owl Creek" (see first paragraph') which, happily, is also available on DVD as part of the "Twilight Zone". Hope that makes a few people happy!