Yeah. A MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all! :)
Here’s one of my favourite Swedish christmas songs, Julen är här (~Christmas Is Here). A really beautiful song, performed by Tommy Körberg and Sissel Kyrkjebø (a little present for anyone that might stop by during the holidays…!). Hope you like it too! :) (if the video doesn’t show up below, then go here)
GOD JUL on you! 8-)
(…and if you miss Santa Claus Tom this year, he’s right here. :) )
Well… ”Jösses Amanda!!!” (Gosh Amanda!!) as we would say in Sweden. I don’t know.. “Blimey!” or ”Well, I’ll be buggered!”, or something (??), is perhaps what you Brits would say…
What a surprise! Woooo. Didn’t see that coming… !
Apparently the British Film Institute has gone a bit mad this summer… cause look what’s up for release on DVD (and Blu-ray!) now on August 24th… !!! :)
Yeah, got to post the Blu-ray cover as well (even though it’s like exactly the same). But just because! :)
Fuck! On Blu-ray as well…. ! :-O I mean; We’re talking now about a production that hasn’t even been available on VHS before. That it one day would be availble on DVD was something you only could hope to wish for… And now they’re also double-printing it out on Bluu-ray… hoo-ray! :D
Well, shows you should never count things out. And what beautiful cover photo, too! *nods* …But I am a bit late reporting it, Cinedelica actually beat me to it.
I haven’t seen the film (have not been able to find a private copy before of this one somewhere), so it’s great that it will finally be out! I’m excited!! You can order it here from Amazon! :)
I hope the theme is dealt with good in the film, though. At least… somewhat. That it’s not the typical “oooh let’s sex shock” the ’60s way… you know: “Let’s test and shock a bit!”. But that it will have something more to offer than the standard Lolita-theme-thing going on (I’m glad they skipped the original tag-line, though, from the poster: “Is 15 1/2 too young for a girl? Is one wife enought for a man?”…………………! !!!!! !! ).
Let’s just hope for the best, shall we. ;)
Love Olivia Hussey (and she was 18 and not 15 when they did the film, btw), I’ve always thought she’s a beautiful, poetic and very expressive actress, a bit exotic (one of my favourite films as a teen was Ivanhoe; you know that 1980s version with Anthony Andrews, and where he naturally picks the wrong girl at the end… for long the film was a big New Years tradition on Swedish TV, and shown on every New Years Day, always with high ratings… and year after year you’d hope that this time he’d changed his mind, but no… no, no, no, he just continued to pick the wrong girl year after year, and the Swedes moaned in unison at circa 3.15 pm… ;)). Well, regardless of the perspective and tone of All The Right Noises it will be interesting to see Olivia Hussey opposite Tom here (!), and how they work together on screen.
So, I guess someone over at BFI must have read my Christmas post with my little new years wish there at the bottom of the post, and particularly the “I really hope 2009 will be a great Tom year with more releases of his productions on DVD! That’d be awesome!!”-sentence. ;) Grooovy. Well, there we have one film then, to remove from the “none-released” films list and put to the “On DVD” list instead. Cool. The list is getting shorter…!
(or what have you all been writing to the BFI? Come on, tell tell! Have you been sending them Valentine Cards..? *LOL*) *wink*
Well, as far as I know it is (and according to the bios out there!). So I thought I’d better make a birthday post here (and it’s probably time for a bit of posting anyway :)).
First I’d like to share a beautiful little clip from 1971 film Quest For Love. Perhaps some of you have already seen this clip, but for those of you who haven’t… ! This is the opening credits along with the first scene with Tom in the film. :)
Looks great doesn’t it! And that music score is absolutely divine! The name of the composer here is Eric Rogers. Thought he deserved a proper mention for that beautiful title music (checked up on him on IMDb and he’s also done the music score for Carol Reed’s 1968 film Oliver!, and for the very first original James Bond film (!) back in 1962, Dr. No – how about that). Well… If it is not after all Peter Rogers (his… brother?) that we should credit here in the end. I don’t know. His name is also credited here for something called the Ottilie theme.. maybe it’s this one.. (?). Well, to be on the safe side: a salute to them both! :) Just love the design and look of the opening titles as well..! Very beautiful with those roses.. Haven’t watched this film myself yet in its full length, but I have it (I managed to get hold of it a while ago), and I’m sort of saving it for a special time. :)
This summer I’ve been watching, among others, The Violent Enemy, Red King, White Knight (I managed to locate a well preserved Swedish VHS copy of it, with Swedish title: Kamrat mördare (!)), Dennis Potter’s Angels Are So Few, and then Tom’s appearance in the Blue Murder series, with Caroline Quentin (which turned out to be one of his last). Perhaps I will write something about all these productions later, I don’t know. I say _perhaps_ now, because always when I say I _will_ in this blog it never happens. *LOL* (so if I dont say it… !). Out of all of them, I’ve got to say that Angels Are So Few is probably my favourite. It’s probably some of the best I’ve ever seen with Tom, actually. He is absolutely amazing and heartbreaking in it. It’s a beautiful but very disturbing piece. But I absolutely loved it!
A lot of people (including myself) have probably wondered what happened to the Hope It Rains series over at Lovefilm.com (that I previously wrote about in a post earlier this year). Well, I have no idea what happened here, and why they took it off the site and out of their selection (but maybe there were som issues with rights after all (?)). But really sad it disappeared since it does not exist on DVD (or on old VHS, even, for that matter). And also sad that it somehow didn’t work out (for whatever reason), I mean because of the great idea of it all: to make an old series available in this way (which I thought was great and fun); for download on-line legally on a popular site, with new modern technique, for such a production that hadn’t been availabe in years. So really sad it didn’t work out. I can’t believe it could have cost Lovefilm.com that much, either, to have it featured there (as it is from 1991-92; I mean, it’s not exactly Doctor Who or Hustle now, is it?), so it’s a bit puzzling they took it off the site (if that was the reason). I hope some of you got chance to download it, though, while it was there. If not, and you’re eager to see it and looking for it, I might be able to help you out a bit.. well, kind of.. :) E-mail me for further information on that.
So far, I’ve only seen the first season of it, and what I can say is that it’s a really different sitcom, even different from “standard” British sitcoms; it’s a bit bolder and raw, and has a different tone about it. It’s also quite as much drama as a sitcom. It’s sort of a mix of it, which makes it a stand out from the average sitcoms. Not for all I can imagine, but I quite enjoyed it, even though it’s different. If you’re cynical, and have a taste for the black humour in life; this is it! But it’s cute also. Cynical and cute, and a bit wicked. Quite a combination! :) The acting chemistry between Holly Aird and Tom is what makes it worth to watch, they play off each other great I think! And then the series also features Eamon Boland in a funny little part as Dennis, a photographer and Harry’s (Tom’s character) best friend! :)
Anyway, here’s a funny short clip from a little scene, with Harry and goddaughter Jace “bonding” (…well, sort of… *LOL*).
“…But I’m in the bath!!!” Haha. *:)
Well, I hope you all liked these clips!!
&
Happy Birthday to you Tom, wherever you are! *sends thoughs* :)
Yes. Back to Tom now. (even though I still hope you’ll support the important campaign & the freedom of speech for bloggers on internet!).
One of the 1960s films with Tom that I still haven’t seen, sadly (but I’m going to fix this as soon as I’ll get my pay check this month - hi Amazon!) is the 1969 thriller The Violent Enemy (that’s apparantly based on the novel A Candle for the Dead by Hugh Marlow I now spot; weird, I thought it was based on this book , so - who’s Jack Higgins then? Author of the adaption of the adaption?! LOL. ..well, not the author of the screenplay, that’s Edmund Ward. weird.). Anyway; but of course that’s also the joy and wonder of it all as well: that I haven’t seen all of Tom’s work, so that I still have a lot more waiting for me… *hugs* But the Violent Enemy DVD is definately next on the list.. I’ll get to those Tom DVDs alright… one by one… *wink*
So, on devoting myself to the wonderful art of googling Tom this weekend (as it’s sadly been a while for this joy), I quite soon stumbled over a real treasure (!) that made me go weak in the knees: Some exceptionally beautiful human being here (!) has scanned in - and made a PDF!- of this most rare little publicity booklet from The Violent Enemy publicity material, appearantly released back in the days. *Hugs that librarian or student* (…it’s usually one of these types that tirelessly spends time doing such culture deeds for the rest of the world’s lost and hungry post-modernism fetischists, LOL!). Who would’ve thought? Good on ya, whoever you are! :) This booklet has such beautiful layout and some exquisite illustration/art work here, and features some pics of Tom and great info on him as well in a small bio section…. I JUST LOVE IT! *loooves*
So.. from me to you: Enjoy! (and here’s the original pdf-file to flicker through, with some more pages, for anyone who wants to print out and/or read the text of it properly, as it’s probably easier in that format, when you can zoom the text up big; just make sure to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed for this first, though, as you need it to open the PDF with). Some serious Blog-aliciousness here… :)
*sighs* Divine is too weak of a word.
God. Who did the layout and art for this booklet? (step forward Master!) B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!
Wooooooooooh. More Tom-booklets to the people!!! :D
This is going to be a bit of a different post. I got an email from a friend telling me about a thing called the Free Blogger Campaign created by Italian blogger Beppe Grillo. I’m proudly taking part in this important campaign together with the Tom Bell blog…!
OK. Background,…
A lot is going on in the EU at the moment, especially concerning issues on how to handle the internet. In many countries there are laws and propositions being put forward to make it easier for authorities to control internet in various ways (and I’m not solely talking about the heated debate concerning file sharing now, but on shutting websites and blogs down that expresses “not desirable views” according to their government), most notably at the moment; in Italy and by the Italian government. (Read more here). The internet has been a free zone and has become a democratic tool in many countries, especially with the growing blog community among bloggers worldwide. Something that should be protected on the internet as with freedom of speech in every other areas that we of democratic countries are used to.It’s important to be wary and observant of the political developement in various EU countries here (as it often inflicts rest of EU), as well as countries in the rest of the world (i.e China and the censorship there of Google, for example. A horrible one ).
In his petition, Beppe Grillo asks for bloggers worldwide to join in and help to support the Italian bloggers by showing that you are a FREE BLOGGER and support the freedom of speech on the internet. To take part and go about this, you:
*make a sign with the words FREE BLOGGER written on it
*photograph yourself with it, and:
Send your photo in an email to freeblogger@beppegrillo.it with:
- subject: your name
- text: the address of your blog
- attached: the photo of you with the sign saying “FREE BLOGGER”.
So therefore; me and the Tom Bell blog here are now taking part: I made my own little FREE BLOGGER sign and photographed myself with it, and sent it to Beppe Grillo together with the address of this blog (so that the picture will link back here)! It became a very serious Nina, and ghostlookingly pale (which is because I’m totally sans make-up here I wish to add, and to my defense I also want to say that it was very early in the morning.. *laughs* ..and the day after.. the day before.. =P).. I can smile.. *wink* but it’s a very saddening & serious subject isn’t it (so I’m not going to be fucking vain here!). The serious face is appropriate & deliberate. I am a FREE BLOGGER. It pains me that campaigns like these are needed (and I wanted to show it in my pic)..
Later on, the photos of all the bloggers and the blogs that take part in this photo campaign will be collected and sent to be presented to the Italian government.
I really liked the whole idea and visual aspect of this manifestation; where every picture here also becomes a piece of art, and together; a forceful art manifestation of photos, with a clear and strong message.
Anyway; I hope that all people that surf in here, Tom Bell fans or not ;) , that if you have a blog you will join in with your blog and support the Italian campaign for a free internet!
Here below are some photos of some of the other bloggers participating in the campaign with their blogs! FREE BLOGGERS!!!
…together with thousands of other bloggers with various blogs… :)
(otherwise, it is not my intention to swamp this blog with different campaigns and such things – don’t worry -, but this was an exception as I felt this was such an import thing to take part in, this time… :) I also joined in on the campaign with my Swedish blog)
Well… sometimes a photo says it all… *smiles* (and you don’t really need to write anything else) . Simple as that! *:)
Feels strange to write it, but it’s here; the new year! Well, it’s been here for roughly 11 days now, so I guess it’s here to stay for a while..! =) I want to start off the year on this blog with posting something great, so:
Here’s five extremely beautiful, rare lobby cards for He Who Rides A Tiger with Tom!
I really love this last one above here with Tom and Judi Dench… very tender and such intimacy captured in the still. I also love the two ”action stills”, particularly that one in the living room… what a frame! You can just feel the tension and the strong, strained emotions… just brilliantly captured!
=D Yay! It’s Christmas!!!
I want to wish everyone out there a Happy Christmas!
Thanks everyone for visiting my little blog and for all the great comments and e-mails I’ve received!
I can’t believe this year has gone so fast.. to me it seems that way! For me it was like recently… spring… *laughs* I’m always so behind everyone else.. (!) Anyway, in Sweden, as with all the other Scandinavian countries (and also some east and central European countries), we celebrate Christmas on the 24th, on Christmas Eve! Personally for me this means I’ve now left the gloomy, un-snowy Stockholm behind me for a number of days now and head back to a very snowy Hälsingland where I was once born and bred..!
I really hope you will all have wonderful Christmas Holidays! I for one am looking forward to really sink my teeth into and enjoy some cool unseen Tom-films that I have there, waiting for me… ( Dead Man’s Cards for instance, which seems to be really hard, gritty and juicy.. perfect for Christmas! =)) And, of course, to once again eat too much Christmas candy..! (preferrably do both at the same time!)
As for the blog, I’m working on an idea for a sort of review section on this blog and to start putting up some personal reviews on some of the Tom productions I have seen where I will rate the film/TV-production and then also the Tomness itself in them (with my own personal Tom-rating). How I will go about this the best way I have not yet completely worked out to the fullest, LOL, but I’m thinking over the details to get some sort of system in this. Will be interesting to see how this will work out. Ha!
For the coming year I also hope to continue posting great Tom stuff, and I really hope 2009 will be a great Tom year with more releases of his productions on DVD! That’d be awesome!!
(and btw, I’ve updated On DVD & VHS a bit with some more VHS titles and added some cool film posters)
Well, I don’t know what to more now, except:
Ho ho ho! :)
Take care everyone out there!!!
(ps. ..yeah, I couldn’t help myself but to play around in Photoshop and put the honorable Tom in a Santa cap.. but please note: it’s not just any Santa cap here.. it’s one with spangles on! =D ds.)
From a production I knew absolutely nothing about these two lovely goodies unexpectedly surfaced: old press release photos from the 1986 TV play Unnatural Causes: Hidden Talents, starring in order: our Tom, Pat Phoenix and the wonderful actor Tom Georgeson (who I’ve been a fan of ever since Liverpool 1 – a great TV series I still miss terribly; it only got two seasons and mere 12 episodes before some moron decided to cancel it *growls*). And guess my surprise when I check up on this title and find that the play is written by none other than a certain Lynda La Plante. Would be great if one ever get to see this one. I bet it’s juicy!
Just listen to this story description: “Bed-ridden Nellie (played by Patricia Phoenix) has been nursed by her elder son Harold (Tom Bell) ever since Stanley (Tom Georgeson), Nellie’s best-loved younger son, disappeared after the death of a young girl in a nearby wood. Stanley’s return leads inexorably to another death…” Hee hee. 8-)
(The bunny she’s holding is cute…! Nice touch for “mummy dearest”. Present from the lads? :D)
“Mummy dearest and son”
What’s there to say? Not enough Tom on TV in knitted slipovers, I say! =D *ROFL*
Yeah, Rum för obemärkt; take that all you English! :D. Finally it arrived at my local post office and I jumped down the stairs to fetch it… !
I’m talking about the beautiful poster for Rum för obemärkt (also known as The L-Shaped Room in its original title ;)) that I got my hands on (see bottom of the post)! This great film (and the book is one of my all-time favourites too!!)! Translating the Swedish title directly right off it would mean something like “room for unnoticed” (sounds very strange in English, I know.. ). So, an explanation: The Swedish word used here, ’obemärkt’, was sort of the old “hush hush word” back then used “behind the back” for an unmarried girl being pregnant, and it means something like “unnoticed”, “unseen”, “in secrect” and ”hidden”, all in one in Swedish (but most importantly: most sinfully pregnant (!)). Thank God times have changed (a bit). Anyway, they probably used this title here in Sweden to emphasize even further of this terribly sinful aspect of the film, to make it even more alluring to Swedish movie goers at the time (as ‘sin’ and ‘sex’ and anything with it combined here, especially with dark, hidden meanings of forbidden and secret and pregnant, were the shit back then in the 60s in Sweden… cause I have to make it clear again that we’re talking about Sweden here ;) with films such as this and this… (and later on this and this! =D ) …so this Swedish title was I guess probably in this respect more useful than if they’d translated the title more correctly to “Det L-formade rummet” - as would have been a more precise and accurate translation (but for the 60s Sweden that would have been just way too little sin and sex and forbidden-ness in there to have sparked an interest for the avarage 1960s moviegoing Swede… ;)). Anyway, that’s my take on that more obvious “in your face” Swedish title.. !
It was just by chance I happened to spot the Swedish L-Shaped Room poster at Seriesam.com (THE place to get movieposters in Sweden). But then of course I just had to get it. This time. It was so beautiful! (and so is Tom too, on it!!!!) Otherwise, I do not personally collect Tom-stuff for myself in that way (like real posters, photos, clippings, books, etc.) to have for myself in my home (I have never done that with any actor or music artist, a.o. that I admire), for I’m not a collecting person in that way… (because that means you get more to dust and you have to sort everything as well, AND have room for it… too time-demanding..!). The only thing I buy and “collect” - if you want to call it – are films, DVDs and VHSs, but not solely Tom’s films, but films I like (because I’m a film buff!)… but a large number of them, naturally, happen to be Tom’s films (and TV stuff) that I like, of course (because I really like them!)! But otherwise I do not “collect Tom” in that specific hardcore way, except material, facts and photos for the blog of course (but then in the convinient computer format that only occupies the harddrive ;)). The poster is the only real like “Tom item” I have in my home the moment (well… OK… except for the fact that I had to make a fridge magnet of my favourite Tom photo… couldn’t help that one… So he’s on my fridge! =D).
But that’s as far as it’s gone. The wall and my fridge. So far. ;)
Anyway, enough now. Ladies and gentlemen, THE most precious poster:
Beautiful isn’t it? This is the original 1963 Swedish release poster, in size 70 x 100 cm!
*looks at poster* *looks at Tom* *sighs* ;)
