Ripper Street Review of Episode 2 (DEN OF GEEK)

Review Jamie-Lee Nardone

This week's Ripper Street plays out like a post-watershed Oliver Twist. Here's Jamie-Lee's review...


This review contains spoilers.

1.2 In My Protection

Imagine your worst nightmare: a plague of zombies, an infestation of giant spiders under the bed, or a massive scratch on your limited edition The Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray ... Now try and fathom something far more evil and you will have a vague idea of the level of depravity that the second episode of Ripper Street approaches. That’s right. Last week, it was Victorian snuff movies. This week, it’s Children Who Kill. And how. Think Oliver Twist, if Tarantino had been around offering advice to Dickens during a session in the local ale house, after devouring a year’s worth of penny dreadfuls.

The episode starts with the killing of a toymaker. A fourteen year old boy carrying the dead man’s possessions is brought to the police by a group of vigilantes who seek justice for the streets of London. This group is lead by George Lusk, played by Michael Smiley who, as usual, does not fail to impress. Assuming the role as a voice of the people with lynch mob mentality and the kind with lack of attention to details, he stirs up tension among the public and openly taunts Detective Inspector Reid (Matthew Macfadyen), claiming that he and his force are ineffectual and his mob need to do his job for him. Lusk rallies them to court and seeks the ultimate punishment for the boy, who refuses to neither speak nor deny the charge and is sentenced to death.


Enter Carmichael, played by the phenomenal Joe Gilgun of This is England and Misfits fame to stir things up as Whitechapel’s very own X-rated Fagin. Leading an army of orphan-criminals, he plays the perfect psychopath, demanding respect at all costs. And he’s not merely teaching them to pick a pocket or two. There’s something much darker going on with him.

But Reid is perturbed by the child’s silence, and aided by a concerned lawyer and orphanage governess, decides to get to the bottom of what actually happened and what is currently going on at the hands of Carmichael’s thirst for unyielding subservience, obedience and crime. Oh, and his army of teeny, tiny assassins.

READ MORE: http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/ripper-street/23985/ripper-street-episode-2-review-in-my-protection

5 Great Movies About London By Petulia Melideo of CONTEXT TRAVEL (THE DAILY TRAVELER)

Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady 

British cinematic heritage dates back to 1889, when English inventor William Friese Greene created the first moving pictures on celluloid film. Over the years, award-winning films, actors, directors, and locations (London in particular) have helped keep the UK in the spotlight. Here are five films that showcase London's beauty and unexpected corners of British culture.

Somers Town 
This unique story about a friendship between two boys takes place in London, around the time of the construction of the chunnel and the launch of the first Eurostar train (disclaimer: the movie was partially funded by Eurostar). Even so, it’s a delightful portrait of cross-cultural friendship in London that goes from ugly (Somers Town is still a less-than-idyllic neighborhood) to a joyful playground for Tomo and Marek, the main characters. It's worth watching to see the area around St. Pancras before its overhaul in 2007.

My Beautiful Laundrette 
A very young Daniel Day-Lewis puts on the hat of a troubled Londoner divided between his childhood friends—a group of lazy skinheads—and his love for a first generation Anglo-Pakistani man who is eager to change his fortune. The story is set during the ‘80s, at a time when England was struggling with the Thatcher government and social and racial tensions were high.


READ FURTHER:  http://www.cntraveler.com/daily-traveler/2012/04/Context-London

Charles Dickens Adaptations to Unspool During British Film Institute's Screen Season

10:12 AM PST 11/17/2011 by Stuart Kemp          

 

BBC Films

Trevor Nunn, Martin Jarvis and David Threlfall among the names on the event's roster of participants.

LONDON – Hollywood interpretations, rarely seen silent movies and British adaptations of the work of novelist Charles Dickens will all unspool as part of the British Film Institute's Dickens on Screen season beginning next month.

The season will kick off at the BFI Southbank in December with a brace of BBC TV preview shows -- The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Arena: Dickens on Film, a fresh exploration into Dickens’ contribution to film and TV history co-produced by Film London, written and narrated by season co-curators Michael Eaton and Adrian Wootton and directed by Anthony Wall.

From January through March 2012, the BFI Southbank will then play host to previews, screenings and panel discussions, with Trevor Nunn, Martin Jarvis and David Threlfall among the names scheduled to take part.

Movies set to unspool include everything from silent films such as Scrooge - or Marley’s Ghost (U.K. 1901) and David Copperfield (1913) to Hollywood’s interpretations including The Only Way (1926) and Jack Conway’s A Tale of Two Cities (1935) starring Ronald Colman. Also on the bill are British adaptations of the same story such as the 1958 version A Tale of Two Cities starring Dirk Bogarde.

BFI organizers said at the season’s heart will be David Lean’s Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), considered by many to be the defining movies made from Dickens’ canon.
Carol Reed’s Oliver! (1968) and Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist (2005) are also on the big screen roster.

The season is part of Dickens 2012, the worldwide celebrations throughout 2012 marking the 200th anniversary of the writer's birth.

BFI Creative Director Heather Stewart said it is not surprising Dickens remains the most adapted author of all time.

“Working with our partners, and with the BFI National Archive so rich with interpretations of Dickens’ work, we have the perfect opportunity to present the biggest and widest ranging ever retrospective of Dickens on screen – from the lesser known works to the classics,” Stewart said.
The appetite for adaptations continues unabated.

Mike Newell is currently shooting a big screen adaptation of Great Expectations starring Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter, due to be released in fall 2012. At the same time, the BBC is backing a television adaptation directed by Brian Kirk.

Hollywood reporter