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Esther Walker and daughter Kitty watch Rachel Weisz hit the self-destruct button at a parent-and-baby screening. But their affections are split: one prefers Tom Hiddleston while the other would opt for Simon Russell Beale

A foul and wild day for a nearly deserted showing of The Deep Blue Sea. An indication, probably, that smug mummies don't want to look at Rachel Weisz chewing the furniture for 98 minutes; we want, mostly, to see Ryan Gosling with no clothes on. I hear rumours that there was standing room only at the Baby Club showing of The Ides of March.

"She," I said to Kitty, pointing at the screen, "could have been your mummy." I refer to my husband's – possibly crazed – tale that he was invited to Rachel Weisz's house for a date after interviewing her for Tatler magazine about a hundred years ago. But fate had other plans for both of them.

Aardman's festive film knocks Twilight off the top of the tree while fending off Happy Feet Two and Hugo; and Margaret proves to be a one-screen wonder

The festive battle

Despite experiencing the first dip in takings in its run so far, Arthur Christmas nabs the top spot for the first time in its four weeks of release, knocking off The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1. Shrugging off the challenge of two major new releases targeting the same family audience – Happy Feet Two and Hugo – the festive Aardman animation fell a mild 25%. Its cumulative total of £11.48m is already more than five times its opening weekend gross (£2.11m), with plenty of life in it yet.

Arthur Christmas is following a very similar pattern to Disney's A Christmas Carol, which likewise released in early November, and stood at £11.33m after its fourth weekend, on its way to a total of more than £20m.

Terence Rattigan's masterpiece The Deep Blue Sea, now adapted for the screen, was based on an affair between men. He was not the only writer to change a character's sex

Terence Rattigan was the great playwright of restraint, which means, of course, that he was obsessed with the prospect of passion breaking out. There is no more fervent champion of sexual obsession than the puritan, and no more convincing exponent of the destructive power of passionate emotion than the poet of repression. Rattigan's great subjects are what may not be spoken about; what may be concealed; and the moments when people – particularly English people – find it impossible to say what they feel. These are subjects often ascribed to Noel Coward, but Brief Encounter is broad and explicit compared to the best of Rattigan. Consider, for instance, the great scene in the Raf movie The Way to the Stars, the...

Sitting down with Rachel Weisz recently to discuss her role as a 1950s English adulteress in Terence Davies’ adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play "The Deep Blue Sea," the actress also shed a bit of light on working with a third Terrence – Malick – on his untitled love story with Ben Affleck. She describes the experience as “unlike any other I’ve ever had. Unorthodox would be a massive understatement. There isn’t really a script, you don’t know what the story is, you don’t know who the other characters are. I knew I was Ben Affleck’s sister and that he was in love with two different women but otherwise I didn’t know...

The acclaimed, eccentric director of Women in Love and The Devils died this week, prompting tributes from the press and former colleagues

The big story

Ken Russell died this week, leaving behind a body of work that shocked and surprised, teased and titillated. He was, said Xan Brooks in our early news story a man of "wild drama, gaudy conflagrations and operatic flourishes", a "juggler of high and low culture who invariably courted controversy".

Russell's career path - from his documentary work for the 1960s BBC series Monitor, to the short films he made at home in later years - was hard to map. His most infamous and innovative works - The Devils, Altered States - flashed by in the wake of semi-hits Women in Love (which won him an Oscar in 1971) and Tommy. He was, said friends an "iconoclast" (Venessa Redgrave). "Fearless, eccentric and silly" (Melvyn Bragg). "Capable of...

Rachel Weisz shines in a melancholy Rattigan adaptation, writes Peter Bradshaw

This misery can't last, says Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter … not even life lasts very long. There is much misery in Terence Davies's new movie, and much of the fear that Cs Lewis said was like grief, and also a kind of vertigo and euphoria at looking directly, as if for the first time, at the mystery of existence: the painful, intractable mystery romantic love will never quite be able to solve or explain away.

It's an impressionistic adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play about the young wife of a kindly, dull High Court judge. In 1950, she falls passionately in love with Freddie, a hard-drinking former Raf pilot whom she finds is more in love with his own heroic past. Rachel Weisz performs with enormous intelligence and restraint as Hester; Tom Hiddleston is the prickly airman, horrified by...

Hugh Grant, who was lauded for his appearance at the Leveson inquiry this week, had some arguments to air about the film promotion circuit

The big story

This week saw actor Hugh Grant deliver his testimony to the Leveson phone hacking inquiry. Grant, a vocal opponent of invasive press behaviour for many months, gave a thoughtful and measured performance. He no longer appeared "the foppish stereotype Brit," according to the Guardian's Michael White. "More high-minded Gary Cooper in Mr Deeds Goes to Town."

Part of Grant's argument centred on the impression that film stars ought to offer themselves up to promote their films. It was, he said, part of your responsibility to a project to do interviews around it ("If you didn't do a little bit of publicity you'd be a monster"), but far from essential. Grant estimated that around 5% of a film's success came down to whether or not he gave interviews,...

Terence Davies' new film features a bored 1950s wife who leaves her husband after some earth-moving illicit sex. It's how he wishes he'd lived his life, he says

'I'm gay, I live alone and I've been celibate for 30 years," says Terence Davies. "So in a sense, I can't imagine what it's like." The 65-year-old director is talking about women trapped in unfulfilling marriages in the 1950s. And yet, in another sense, he perfectly understands their plight – having witnessed, as a boy in the 1950s, his own mother's brutal marriage.

"My mum had a terrible life because my father was a complete psychopath," he says. "She never once complained. She got on with it. That's what you did. It moves me more than I can say." I can't help thinking of the unbearable scene in his autobiographical 1988 film Distant Voices, Still Lives in which the father bawls "Shut up! Shut up!

This week on Film Weekly: Jason Solomons meets Terence Davies, who returns with an adaptation of Terence Rattigan's acclaimed play The Deep Blue Sea - his first non-documentary work in 11 years. He discusses his fascination with the postwar era and why he cast Rachel Weisz as a married woman who embarks on a passionate and tortured affair with a Raf veteran (played by Tom Hiddleston).

Jason also delves into the fraught world of west African politics when he meets Jarreth Merz the director of An African Election. The film follows the 2008 Ghanaian presidential elections with a forensic eye, unpacking the very particular tensions in Ghana's political culture.

Finally, Xan Brooks joins Jason to review some of this week's other releases, including Michelle Williams as the blond bombshell in My Week With Marilyn, Brad Pitt sporting a stack of statistics in baseball drama Moneyball and Boardwalk Empire star Michael Shannon...

Artificial Eye have released a new poster and trailer for their movie, The Deep Blue Sea which played at the London Film Festival earlier in the year. Written and directed by Terence Davies​ (The House of Mirth​), The Deep Blue Sea stars Tom Hiddleston​, Rachel Weisz​, Simon Russell Beale, Harry Hadden-Paton, Ann Mitchell​ and Sarah Kants.

Hester Collyer (Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz) leads a privileged life in 1950s London as the beautiful wife of high court judge Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale). To the shock of those around her, she walks out on her marriage to move in with young ex-raf pilot, Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston), with whom she has fallen passionately in love.

Set in post-war Britain, this adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s classic play, The Deep Blue Sea is a study of forbidden love, suppressed desire, and the fear of loneliness – but is at heart a deeply moving love story.

Director who found success across film, TV and advertising

Paul Dickson, who has died aged 91, had a long, versatile and award-winning career in film, television and advertising. His critical reputation rests on two remarkable postwar documentaries, The Undefeated (1950) and David (1951, the Welsh contribution to the Festival of Britain). Episodes of The Avengers (1968) and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) in 1969 were among his best-known television credits.

Dickson first attracted notice with The Undefeated, a film about the difficulties faced by injured wartime combatants who were patients at rehabilitation centres in Roehampton, Stoke Mandeville and elsewhere, as they adjusted to life in the postwar world. A calculated but moving attempt to destigmatise state help for disabled people, the film quickly became a critical success after opening at the Edinburgh film festival. A recruitment drive for the Korean war appeared to curtail its wider circulation, but it was awarded best documentary by the British...

Welcome back to our weekly look at the new podcasts available at our “partners in podcast crime” the GeekCast Radio Network. As usual here’s our weekly look at the podcasts from Gcrn, This Week in Geek and the latest toy review videos from Baltmatrix, with descriptions and links to each and every podcast.

Interviews – TVShowsOnDVD’s – Gord Lacey & David Lambert

November 1, 2011 marks the 10 year anniversary of www.tvshowsondvd.com being online. TFG1Mike sits down with Gord Lacey and Dave Lambert to talk about the journey this amazing site has been on. We talk about how Gord started the site, how Gord and Dave met up, and lots of other TVShowsOnDVD Goodness! Listen Now

Gcr – Episode 30: Music Spotlight – 60?s & 70?s

In the 30th episode we here at GeekCast Radio are starting the music spotlight. Join TFG1Mike, Dave Double D Denis, and Chuckdawg1999 as they talk about the...

The nominations for this year’s British Independent Film Awards, due to take place on December 4 in London, were announced this afternoon at St Martin's Lane Hotel.

Shame, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Tyrannosaur currently lead the awards with an impressive 7 nominations each.

Following closely behind are We Need To Talk About Kevin and Kill List that received 6 nominations respectively while Submarine gained 5.

The leading men contending for Best Actor include Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor), Michael Fassbender (Shame) and Brendan Gleeson (The Guard).

In the running for Best Actress is Rebecca Hall (The Awakening), Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre), MyAnna Buring (Kill List), Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur) and Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin).

The Jury for this year’s awards is composed of actor David Thewlis, producer Charles Steel (The Last King of Scotland) and director Josh Appignanesi (The Infidel).

Films that missed out on nods include London Film Festival closing film,...

The three UK movies have received seven nods apiece for this year’s Moët British Independent Film Awards, due to take place in London on December 4. Each of them is battling for Best British Film Award, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor/Actress. The nominations were announced in London this morning. We Need To Talk About Kevin and Kill List each received six nominations, with Submarine following closely with five. Rebecca Hall (The Awakening), Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre), MyAnna Buring (Kill List), Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur) and Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin) are vying for Best Actress. Leading men competing for Best Actor include Gary Oldman (Tinker, Tailor), Michael Fassbender (Shame) and Brendan Gleeson (The Guard). Jury members for this year’s 14th awards include actor David Thewlis, producer Charles Steel (The Last King of Scotland) and director Josh Appignanesi (The Infidel). Titles that missed the...

David here with one last report from the London Film Festival. Master British filmmaker Terence Davies provided a suitably British closing film, with Rachel Weisz lost in The Deep Blue Sea...

"Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea," Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz) remarks at one point, naming the title of Terence Davies' latest feature, an adaptation of a Terence Rattigan play. It's Hester's voice that opens the film, too, disembodied over the dark blue background of the credits, reading a suicide note to her lover, Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston of Thor fame). Hester is drowning in the deep blue sea of her own adoration, because Freddie's love isn't strong enough to reciprocate and pull her back to the surface.

The Deep Blue Sea betrays its theatrical origins from the first shot, panning smoothly across the front of a row of houses, the edges of the frame misty...

The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn (PG)

(Steven Spielberg, 2011, Us/Nz) Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost. 107 mins.

If you forget Hergé's sacred source material and forgive the occasional creepiness of the animation, there's good fun to be had here. Guided by Spielberg's visual command, it's a boys' adventure with an Indiana Jones/Pirates Of The Caribbean rambunctiousness to it – a fast mix of dazzling action and comedy alcoholism that builds up so much momentum, it barely knows when to stop.

The Help (12A)

(Tate Taylor, 2011, Us) Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard. 146 mins.

The feelgood hit of the Us summer puts a cheery gloss on the civil rights era, as a Mississippi woman scandalously documents the woes of black maids.

The Ides Of March (15)

(George Clooney, 2011, Us) Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Evan Rachel Wood. 101 mins.

Clooney follows the campaign trail...

The 55th edition of the London Film Festival (Lff) starts tomorrow, October 12th, and runs until the 22nd. This year the festival will screen 204 features and 110 shorts from 55 different countries. A selection of films will compete for the festival’s 4 main prizes: the Best Film Award, The Grierson Award for Best Documentary, Best British Newcomer and The Sutherland Award (for most imaginative and original first feature). In addition, the British Film Institute will present its highest honour, BFI Fellowships, to actor Ralph Fiennes and director David Cronenberg, the first Canadian ever to receive the fellowship.

The festival comprises nine different sections, from big budget films by well-known directors, to first features, encompassing innovative new films from all over the world. There is a section devoted to European cinema, and special sections for British and French cinema. There are also separate sections devoted to shorts, experimental films, and classic films that have recently been restored.

Downton Abbey graduate Jessica Brown Findlay reveals the debt she owes to Maggie Smith, and do we really need so many films released?

Lady Sybil heads south

Jessica Brown Findlay can't believe she's about to make her movie debut in Albatross. "I had no idea what would happen when I got a little part in Downton Abbey," she told me. "Now I'm acting with Maggie Smith and the show's winning Emmys and I'm on posters." The husky-voiced star, 22, plays a wild child in the film, and is Lady Sybil Crawley in Downton.

"Maggie Smith is just inspirational – she told me to always give them a version of the line how you really feel it should be delivered, then do it their way: invariably, they'll end up using your way because it'll be the one with the most conviction." Using this advice she has now flown off for two weeks in...

David Cronenberg, the 1980s body horror auteur turned arthouse elder statesman, and the British actor turned director Ralph Fiennes are to be honoured by the BFI at this year's London film festival.

Both men will receive fellowships from the institute. Cronenberg's film A Dangerous Method is screening at the festival this year, as is Fiennes' directing debut, Coriolanus. The BFI also announced the nine-strong lineup of films which will compete for this year's best film prize, to be announced at an awards ceremony on 26 October.

Fiennes is perhaps best known for his Oscar-nominated turns in Schindler's List and The English Patient. He has become Hollywood's go-to guy for offbeat villainous roles, starring as the serial killer Francis Dolarhyde in 2002 Silence of the Lambs prequel Red Dragon and Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films. Other roles include crusading widower Justin Quayle...

This year’s shortlist is: 360 The Artist The Deep Blue Sea The Descendants Faust The Kid With A Bike Shame Trishna We Need To Talk About Kevin The shortlist for...

The British Film Institute is to award David Cronenberg, director of A Dangerous Method, and Ralph Fiennes, director of Coriolanus, a BFI Fellowship each. It’s the highest award the BFI can offer. Previous fellows include Clint Eastwood, Elizabeth Taylor and David Lean. This year’s ceremony will take place at Lso St Luke’s on October 26. A Dangerous Method and Coriolanus will both screen at this year’s London Film Festival, which runs between October 12-27. Meanwhile, the BFI has announced which films are in the running for the Best Film Award. 360, The Artist, The Deep Blue Sea, The Descendents, Faust, The Kid With A Bike, Shame, Trishna and We Need To Talk About Kevin will all be competing. Director John Madden (The Debt) will chair the Best Film Award jury, whose other members are actress Gillian Anderson, writer/director Asif Kapadia, producer Tracey Seaward, writer Andrew O’Hagan and director Sam Taylor Wood.

If movies have taught us anything, it's that finding love anywhere from the early 1900s to the 1950s was fraught with difficultly, especially in Britain (see The English Patient and Remains of the Day for reference).

The latest movie to test that theory is the Deep Blue Sea, which stars Rachel Weisz as the wife of a judge (Simon Russell Beale), who falls in love with a Royal Air Force pilot (Thor's Tom Hiddleston). The first trailer for the movie starts with the warning "beware of passion", which seems to be the general theme for British, period, romantic dramas (again, see The English Patient and Remains of the Day for reference).

The Deep Blue Sea recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to mixed reviews. The Playlist called it a "beautiful, woozy and heartbreaking tale of intense passion" while Screen International said the movie was an "an elegantly staged,...

After Sandra Hebron's nine years as artistic director, the BFI London film festival is enjoying record attendance and international acclaim. She tells Adam Dawtrey how it was done

For someone who describes her own taste in movies as "austere", Sandra Hebron certainly knows how to give audiences at the BFI London film festival a good time. Her nine-year reign as artistic director, which ends with the 55th edition, has coincided with the rising popularity of the event, an increase in glitz and red carpet glamour without ever compromising its commitment to serious cinema, and its transformation into a festival of genuine international stature.

Hebron, an elfin figure whose trademark knee-high black leather boots have their own fans, is leaving the festival on an all-time high, with last year's attendance a record 132,000, up 20% from when she took over in 2003. No wonder that the British Film Institute made sure to protect the...

At this year’s Toronto Film Festival, I was able to sit down with Tom Hiddleston for an exclusive interview about writer-director Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea. Starring Rachel Weisz, Simon Russell Beale and Hilldeston, the film is set in post-war Britain and it’s about the wife of a high court judge who walks out on her marriage and moves in with a young ex-raf pilot (Hiddleston), with whom she has fallen passionately in love. The film is an adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s classic play. During my extended interview with Hiddleston (who is great in Deep Blue Sea), we talked about how he got involved in The Deep Blue Sea, what kind of preparation he does and was it more involved than his other films because it’s based on a play, does he prefer a few takes or a lot, how faithful did they have to be to the script,...

[1] 2011's been pretty hit or miss with regard to dramatic romances. The year got off to a pretty strong start with Jane Eyre in the first quarter, but the more recent Water for Elephants and One Day both fell flat. I'm waiting to be swept off my feet by something beautiful and tragic, and I've got hopes that Terence Davies' The Deep Blue Sea will be just the film to do that. Based on a 1952 play by Terence Rattigan, the story revoles around Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz), wife of judge Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale). When she strikes up a passionate affair with alcoholic former Royal Air Force pilot Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston), she starts down a path that may lead to her ultimate destruction. Watch the trailer after the jump. [via First Showing [2]] I can't say I care for the trailer. I don't know whether it's the swelling music or...

After ten days of watching nearly 70 films and conducting a handful of interviews, the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival has concluded. While we just hit our three-year anniversary, it was actually my fifth year at the festival and it remains one of my favorite experiences of the year. While it is more straight-to-business than something like Sundance, the breadth of films available is stunning.

We covered as much as possible from upcoming major releases to indies that may never get distribution here in the Us. I’ve rounded up everything below, starting off with our top favorites. Note that I didn’t include Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Drive since it is now in wide release, but it surely would have made the top 10 and you can read our review here. Click the titles of films to check out our full reviews.

The Best

50/50 (Jonathan Levine)

Drawing from a dark time in his own life,...

Here is the first trailer for Terrence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea, an adaptation of Terrence Rattigan’s classic play of the same name. The film stars Rachel Weisz “as a London socialite and wife of a British Judge (Russell Beale) who’s caught in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot (Tom Hiddleston)”. The trailer is short yet it captures what kind of turmoil these characters are in for, should have waited for the divorce Weisz.

The Deep Blue Sea arrives in the UK November 25th, and likely North America by the end of 2011.

Watch it below:...

Today we have a trailer for "The Deep Blue Sea." But if you hope to see Samuel L Jackson get eaten by a shark, you may be disappointed. This new film is a romantic drama starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston (Thor). Check it out below. Plot: The wife (Weisz) of a British Judge (Simon Russell Beale) is caught in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot (Hiddleston). The story is adapted from Terrence Rattigan's 1950's play. "The Deep Blue Sea" is directed by Terrence Davies (The House of Mirth) and is set to hit UK theaters on November 25th. There is already a Us distributor on board and is tentatively set to be released at the end of the year. Trailer: If you cannot see the player, click here.

Here is the first trailer for Terrence Davies' The Deep Blue Sea, an adaptation of Terrence Rattigan's classic play of the same name. The film stars Rachel Weisz "as a London socialite and wife of a British Judge (Russell Beale) who's caught in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot (Tom Hiddleston). 

The film was written and directed by Davies (Of Time and the City, The House of Mirth). The Deep Blue Sea arrives in UK theaters on November 25th, and will probably hit Us theaters before the end of 2011. Check out the short trailer below and share your thoughts!

I love Weisz so this might be film I end up seeing. What do you think?...

Though the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival is over (see Alex coverage right here, and stay tuned for a big recap coming soon), that doesn't mean we're done seeing promotions for the film come out of the woodwork. Today's Tiff selected film getting the marketing machine moving is The Deep Blue Sea, an adaptation of the classic 1950's play of the same name by Terrence Rattigan. The film stars Rachel Weisz as a London socialite and wife of a British Judge (Russell Beale) who's caught in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot (Tom Hiddleston). See the short, but promising trailer below! Here's the teaser trailer for Terrence Davies'  The Deep Blue Sea: The Deep Blue Sea is written and directed by Terrence Davies (Of Time and the City, The House of Mirth) adapted from Terrence Rattigan's 1950's play. The wife (Rachel Weisz of The Constant Gardener...

First things first: The Deep Blue Sea has nothing to do with Renny Harlin’s cult 1999 horror movie about super-intelligent mako sharks. Moving on…

Deep Blue Sea is actually filmmaker Terence Davies’ adaptation of the acclaimed 1952 stage play by late British playwright Terence Rattigan (The Winslow Boy). As you will surely note after watching the promo trailer, this film is also very much an “artsy” period tale about the tragic romance between a married woman and an alcoholic Royal Air Force (R.A.F.) pilot.

Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz stars in The Deep Blue Sea as Hester Collyer, the wife of a respected Judge (Simon Russell Beale) - who begins a destructive, yet passionate, affair with the previously-mentioned pilot: a younger man by the name of Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston).

Hiddleston has really made a ...

Click to continue reading ‘The Deep Blue Sea’ Trailer Teases An Artsy Period Romance...

The trailer for Rachel Weisz’s latest project, The Deep Blue Sea, has just been released, but perhaps it should have been called The Small Golden Man. Based on Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play, the film features Weisz in a love triangle between her older husband (Simon Russell Beale) and air force pilot lover (Wallander’s Tom Hiddleston). Naturally, there’s a wizened older voice to warn Weisz’s heroine, “Beware of passion, Hester. It always leads to something ugly.” What follows is a series of dramatic conversations, blurbs featuring the word “swoon,” and beautifully filmed pulling back of curtains evoking...

Artificial Eye have unveiled an earnest new U.K. trailer for The Deep Blue Sea, a new adaptation of Terence Rattigan acclaimed play.

Written and directed by Terence Davies (The House of Mirth), The Deep Blue Sea stars Tom Hiddleston, Rachel Weisz, Simon Russell Beale, Harry Hadden-Paton, Ann Mitchell and Sarah Kants.

Hester Collyer (Weisz) leads a privileged life in 1950s London as the beautiful wife of high court judge Sir William Collyer (Beale). To the shock of those around her, she walks out on her marriage to move in with young ex-raf pilot, Freddie Page (Hiddleston), with whom she has fallen passionately in love.

The Deep Blue Sea will close the 55th BFI London Film Festival next month, before hitting cinemas nationwide on November 25.

Watch the U.K. trailer below:

Iframe Embed for Youtube

Source: The Playlist...

At one stage, 2011 threatened to be the year of Rachel Weisz, with no fewer than five films set for release and several potential awards contenders among them. But things haven't quite turned out as planned; she picked up good reviews for "The Whistleblower," but the film didn't get much traction, while both "Page Eight" and "360" got pretty poor reviews at Toronto, and "Dream House"... well, I mean, you've seen the trailer, right? Fortunately, there's one shining light in there: "The Deep Blue Sea," the much anticipated return of director Terence Davies with an adaptation of Terence Rattigan's classic…...

Based upon the stage play by Terrence Rattigan, The Deep Blue Sea stars Tom Hiddleston, Rachel Weisz, and Simon Russell Beale and is directed by Terrence Davies (House of Mirth). It is scheduled to hit theaters in the UK November 25, 2011 with no Us release as of yet. The play's synopsis is as follows: The Deep Blue Sea Terrence Rattigan "The Deep Blue Sea opens with the failed suicide of Hester Collyer, who has deserted her husband for the raffish charms of an ex-fightor pilot. During the play we watch her wrestle with the intensity of her love-and lust-for the younger man, who is having his own problems adjusting to post-war life.

San Sebastian Film Festival: Day 3

When you think about it shame is an interesting, if unpleasant, emotion. And although we can fear it on our own, in order for it to really get a grip, at least one other person needs to be involved. Somehow by accident rather than design it is a key emotion in two of the films I saw in quick succession - Albert Nobbs and Shame, and it's also present, although to a lesser extent, in The Deep Blue Sea and Take This Waltz.

In Albert Nobbs it is the fear of shame which drives the hotel butler of the film's title to want to keep a secret. Because...

One of the more memorable films at the Toronto International Film Festival was Terence Davies‘ postwar romantic drama The Deep Blue Sea. Based on Terence Rattigan’s play, it was a bit dry and I didn’t love Rachel Weisz‘s performance, but the restraint and emotion that came through are its strong suits. We recently posted a clip, but now the full trailer has arrived on I Love Film. Music Box recently picked up the film for Us distribution, so expect to see it sometime next year. Check out the trailer below for the film also starring Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale by clicking the image. We’ll pop in an embed when available.

Synopsis:

Postwar England has been a recurring and vital setting for Terence Davies. His semiautobiographical masterpieces Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, as well as the bulk of his rapturous documentary Of Time and the City,...

While at the Toronto International Film Festival I actually sat down to watch Terence Davies' The Deep Blue Sea, an adaptation of the 1952 play by Terence Rattigan, but it has a very slow and artful tone to the opening 10-15 minutes and my energy was running so low I just wasn't in the mood for that kind of film. I ended up leaving the screening and heading over to see Butter, a political satire that proved exactly what I needed at the time and that ended up becoming one of my favorite films of the festival. You can read my "A" review right here.

However, after leaving the theater I got in touch with Kevin from The Playlist to ask how The Deep Blue Sea ended up and he absolutely loved it, giving it an A himself in his review. While I don't regret going and seeing Butter, it...

Five years ago, says rising star Tom Hiddleston, smiling in a hotel room in Toronto, he could not have imagined that he would have a year like 2011. At the time, the gifted theater actor was shooting the Wallander crime series with Kenneth Branagh in Sweden. Hiddleston went to see Marvel's Iron Man and asked himself if he could ever star in a film like that. Cut to 2011 and Hiddleston not only starred as villain Loki in Marvel's Thor, directed by long-time collaborator Branagh, but also played light-hearted F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen's surprise hit Midnight in Paris, made love to Rachel Weisz in Terence Davies' adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play The Deep Blue Sea, and played Loki again in Joss Whedon's ...

It may have left Brian De Palma bored and unimpressed, but Variety tells us of Music Box acquiring The Deep Blue Sea, making Terence Davies‘ film the first English-language picture to be released by the company. Starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston, it’s set in 1950s London and stars the former as “the beautiful wife of high court judge Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale). To the shock of those around her, she walks out on her marriage to move in with young ex-raf pilot, Freddie Page (Hiddleston), with whom she has fallen passionately in love.”

Music Box’s managing director Ed Arentz called it “a major work”; some reviews have been positive, although some weren’t too crazy about what the director did with the play by Terence Rattigan. Still, the cast has me interested enough, and this intrigue is only increased when you take into account the...

In a deal closed prior to its final public screening in Toronto, Terence Davies' The Deep Blue Sea, starring Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener, The Whistleblower), Olivier Award winner Tom Hiddleston (Steven Spielberg's War Horse, Thor) and BAFTA and Olivier Award-winning theatre actor Simon Russell Beale (An Ideal Husband, London Assurance), has been acquired by Music Box Films, who have taken Us rights from Protagonist Pictures.

The Deep Blue Sea is Music Box's first acquisition of an English language film. In a swift move following the world premiere, they fended off competition from at least three other bidders, and the deal was concluded by Protagonist Pictures CEO Ben Roberts and Music Box's Managing Director nm2492490 autoEd Arentz[/link]. Music Box Films' recent slate includes the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, which collectively registered nearly $22 million in Us theatrical box office receipts.

Ed Arentz commented: "We,...

The Toronto International Film Festival ended yesterday and I have to say, it is the most exhausting film festival I have ever attended. Even compared to Fantasia, which runs nearly four weeks long, Tiff manages to suck all my energy. Perhaps the main reason why I find it so tiring is because screenings start as early as 9:00 Am and go until midnight, and somewhere in between you have to find time to write about the festival. This year’s Cadillac People Choice Award winner was a bit of a surprise, awarded to a film that no one I know saw, Nadine Labaki’s Where do We Go Now, a film Tiff describes as: “heartwarming tale of a group of women’s determination to protect their isolated, mine-encircled community from the pervasive and divisive outside forces that threaten to destroy it from within”. Our crew posted thier list of their...

The first clip from Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea, a film we had a chance to see at Tiff, is now online. Set to Jo Stafford‘s version of “You Belong To Me,” the brief scene is a romantic look at Rachel Weisz, dancing with Tom Hiddleston. Dave Robson gave the film a very positive review stating, “Fans of Terence Rattigan’s original play certainly shouldn’t fear a garish adaptation. The original is sensational, and Davies leaves it largely intact. Rattigan’s words are wonderful and any director would be lucky to have them. The dialogue he weaves into his plays is complex, at times subtle, and puts everything just so delicately. That’s all made it into the film. Davies version isn’t dumbed down for export, either—if you don’t understand what is meant by a “milk-in-first sort of person,” that’s a shame”. Here is the clip.

Terence Davies' The Deep Blue Sea with Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston hears Music. Adapted from the Terence Rattigan of 1952, The Deep Blue Sea tells of a wife of a British Judge (Rachel Weisz) who is caught in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot (Tom Hiddleston). Sean O'Connor and Kate Ogborn produce the film which also stars Simon Russell Beale, Ann Mitchell, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sarah Kants, Jolyon Coy and Elisha Stimson. Variety reports that this is Music Box's first pickup of a film which is in English, after distributing the hugely popular adaptations of Stieg Larsson's novels in the films The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with...

At this year’s Toronto Film Festival, I was able to sit down with Tom Hiddleston for an exclusive interview about writer-director Terence Davies' The Deep Blue Sea. Starring Rachel Weisz, Simon Russell Beale and Hilldeston, the film is set in post-war Britain and it's about the wife of a high court judge who walks out on her marriage and moves in with a young ex-raf pilot (Hiddleston), with whom she has fallen passionately in love. The film is an adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s classic play. Since the interview with Hiddleston was almost twenty minutes, I decided to break it up into two parts. In the coming days I'll post what he said about The Deep Blue Sea, but I wanted to start with what he said about Steven Spielberg's War Horse, Joss Whedon's Avengers , and Thor 2. Hit the jump for more. During the interview, Hiddleston...

The Deep Blue Sea

Directed by Terence Davies

2011, UK, 98 minutes

Terence Davies introduced* this film by entreating the audience to watch his film “with an open heart”. On the one hand, that’s good advice for any film, or any artwork in general. Expectation or limited foreknowledge can kill your enjoyment of a film. In fact, according to Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel used to shut his eyes and cover his ears during trailers because he didn’t want to spoil the film. Given that the film’s reception has been on the better side of mixed, I’d have to say that Davies may have meant his request as a plea.

Fans of Terence Rattigan’s original play certainly shouldn’t fear a garish adaptation. The original is sensational, and Davies leaves it largely intact. Rattigan’s words are wonderful and any director would be lucky to have them. The...

Rachel Weisz is a terrific actress at the height of her beauty and power who is trying to push good roles up the hill, with varying results, from The Whistleblower to Agoura. This year's Toronto Fest saw three movies starring Weisz, who returned to work with The Constant Gardener's Fernando Meirelles in the sophisticated European ensemble 360, Peter Morgan's remake of La Ronde, which was seeking distribution (review here), and David Hare's adept but surprisingly routine spy thriller Page Eight (review here), which offered her a juicy small role opposite Bill Nighy (trailer below). Weisz's tour-de-force performance carries Terence Davies' adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play The Deep Blue Sea ( reviewed here), which is a gorgeously old-fashioned and literate two-hander between an upper-class woman ...

The highlight of my recent Toronto screenings was Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne's The Kid with a Bike, which Danny Kasman covered extensively for Mubi when it premiered at Cannes. Tiff attendees were divided on whether the film's final section was difficult to assimilate, or whether it was the film's high point; I'm in the latter camp, and in fact was suspending judgment on the movie until the last scenes fired my enthusiasm.

Terence Davies' long-awaited The Deep Blue Sea, his first fiction feature since 2000's The House of Mirth, had its world premiere at Toronto this week. Davies has once again adapted a literary property, Terence Rattigan's play about a young woman who finds her fulfillment and her sorrow in physical love, much to society's discomfort. Despite my pleasure in Davies' stately rhythms and his loving attention to the material, The Deep Blue Sea made me wonder...

1. The Hammer: Grade C

Blunt, trite, cheesy, oddly funny.

2. Goon: Grade C-

Liev Schreiber is somewhat frightening in this typical poster.

3. Ice Age: Continental Drift: Grade B

How many of these scientifically inaccurate films are they going to make? With every new Ice Age film released, my seventh grade science teacher accidentally chokes himself with his tie.

4. Hell and Back Again: Grade D

This poster is optically dysfunctional. It makes me involuntarily crane my head to the side.

5. The Sitter: Grade C

I think I am getting tired of the poster featuring the protagonist with a dumb look on his or her face. Let’s take a moment to thank The 40 Year Old Virgin.

6. The Deep Blue Sea: Grade B

The muted colors give it an aged, discovered in the attic, type of look.

7. Detachment: Grade B

I like Adrien Brody, and I’m rooting for him with this film,...

Why round up reviews of both in one entry? Because Fernando Meirelles's 360 will be opening the BFI London Film Festival on October 12 and Terence Davies's The Deep Blue Sea will be closing it on October 27. What's more, both star Rachel Weisz and, of course, both have just seen their world premieres in Toronto. We'll consider them, though, in order of interest.

"So entirely immersive is Terence Davies's desire to recreate and analyze the ethos of post-World War II Britain that not only has he fulfilled his ambition to refashion Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea," writes Todd McCarthy in the Hollywood Reporter, "but he has created a theoretical sequel to Noël Coward and David Lean's Brief Encounter in the bargain. As intensely personal and deeply felt as it is, however, Davies's attempt to breathe new life into Rattigan's 1952 play is a rather bloodless, suffocating thing,...