Reviews

Let's be honest, I'm sure Sally Lindsay is a lovely person in real life, but as an actress she merely plays herself in everything she does. She's totally unconvincing as an art/antiques expert - a branch of Greggs or a hairdressing salon would be more fitting. The poor woman seems to sleepwalk her way through the show, showing minimal awareness in what is going on around her. And why do most of the English community of a small French town seem to come from the Stockport/South Manchester area? I know that her fellow actors are her friends but I find this chumminess is casting irritating. Also, how come an unqualfied non-French speaking foreigner is allowed to actively participate in investigations by the French police? The plots are embarrasingly transparent - it's so obvious who the killer is before the fist ad break. This show is so lightweight that you aren't aware of having watched anything much when the end credits roll.

Why was this dire series ever made? It distorts, if not completely ignores, history, and deliberately misrepresents the characters (who after all were real people). This complete fabrication of the late Hapsburg court and the contemporary world in which it functioned is pointless. What is the viewer expected to take from this? Sure, there are some stunning locations and breathtaking interiors (my two stars are for those alone) but the costume designs act as a visual metaphor for the whole self-indulgent mess. No attempt whatsoever has been made regarding accuracy in either costume or hairstyles despite the availability of examples in contemporary portraits, fashion plate etc. Indeed, some of the gowns are less mid-19th century and more Dior's New Look of the late 1940's. I watched two episodes and gave up. A complete waste of time.

As a lover of Berlin and its history I was looking forward to seeing this series but what a disappointment it proved to be. Street scenes with cast members dressed in the clothes of the 1920s but filmed with modern traffic and graffitied buildings undermined the whole production for me and destroyed any historical credibility. To say it was a deliberate artistic decision is disingenuous and takes the viewer for a fool - I suspect it was either a case of insufficient funding or just not being prepared to make the effort. I switched off after half-an-hour. If you value any shred of authenticity in an historical drama avoid this shoddy production at all costs.

This movie is completely ruined by Sadie Frost who can't act and is rather too 'common' and for a period role. Shame really as it could have been rather good.

Agent DiNozzo ruins this for me. He's lazy, arrogant, dishonest, self-centered, sexist and an unpleasant bully. I suppose he's intended to be comically endearing but I can't abide this character. His never-ending cruelty toward agent McGee I find truly disturbing. I find comfort however in the fact that, if this was real life as lived today, he would be transferred if not sacked outright.

Watching this on Amazon Prime every night and now on the last season. My partner and I were thoroughly enjoying Castle and couldn't wait for the next episode until it dawned on us both around series 6 that we had a problem with the character of Rick Castle himself. Like Booth in Bones he has developed into an interfering, manipulative partner who uses the excuses of being 'worried' and 'wanting to protect' to control the female character. All we now can see is an insecure personality who only wants to be around his girlfriend/wife 24/7 by undermining any choices she makes to which threaten this cosy little set up. If Kate Beckett/Temperance Brennan were the smart, aware and ambitious women as they are portrayed I should think that they would soon feel completely smothered by these demanding, attention seeking men (if I was Beckett I would have taken a court order to ban her annoying husband from the 12th precinct for life!). Whereas I first found Rick Castle amusing now I just want to punch him. It was just the same with the ultimately insufferable Booth.

This film is a searing critique of West German society in the post-war wirtschaftwunder years. Despite the bright new consumer society of the 1950's the ghosts of the immediate Nazi past just won't go away. Lots of delicious subtleties to look out for: the policeman giving directions to the police station starts to say 'Adolf Hilter Platz' but just stops himself in time and the quotation from the Horst Wesel Lied in the soundtrack when the Prosecutor enters the court building. The comedy mainly stems from the Prosecutor's frantic attempts to suppress any evidence of his Nazi past. Roses for the Prosecuter must have trod on many toes at the time. Definitely worth watching today - like all good satire this is also a very funny film.

Where does one start? Like all other films about Mary Queen of Scots the plot line veers dizzyingly from the actual events of her life (for example Bothwell is portrayed as her enemy whereas he was actually one of her staunchest supporters). Zarah Leander is badly miscast in the title role - she's just too old and too statuesque for the part. This is painfully highlighted in her scenes with her four Marys. They were actually chosen to be her companions and were roughly the same age as the queen. In this film she comes across as a mother hen figure or a favourite high-school teacher to a quartet of slim young lovlies. The effects of this miscasting are hard to convey to English speakers but the nearest I can come to is to imagine Joan Crawford in the role emoting as she did in Mildred Pierce. The result is one of inadvertent camp comedy especially when La Leander lays on the patient suffering act which was her trademark (especiallyin her walk to the block). The sets, though, are magnificent - wonderful fantasies on renaissance Scottish and English architecture. The costumes too are as near to accurate as possible although there are some oddities such as Darnley's natty line in weird pointy shoulder pads and mini-kilts. Could have done without the miserable dirges that they felt obliged to give Zarah to perform, but she had to sing I suppose as she was, basically, known as an operetta/musical star. As it was released in 1940 the propaganda message is as subtle as the Blitz - perfidious Albion (Queen Elizabeth 1) being horrible to poor suffering German womanhood. I was interested to see Das Hertz der Koenigin but wouldn't be in any hurry to repeat the experience.

Great fun, a confection of murder-mystery, tap-dancing and comedy during the performance of a revue in front of a fashionable Viennese audience. Think Agatha Christie meets Busby Berkeley. The musical numbers are of the same spectacular quality as anything Hollywood was producing at the time and the cast is interestingly varied and roles well-acted. The show seems to consist only of two songs endlessly repeated (which took me days go get out of my head) and, be warned, there is rather too much frantic noisy tap-dancing. An excellent vehicle too for Zarah Leander who seemed, sadly, to be so badly miscast in quite a few films. She is presented here glossy and groomed to resemble some Art Deco statue set off with the kind of dramatic couture which makes her such an icon in some circles. (She wears too an intriguing dressing gown off-stage which seems to be made of black rubber, but perhaps that's just wishful thinking.) I've seen this film twice in as many months and look forward to seeing it again in the not-too-distant future.

Be warned: the characters and storyline in this film have no bearing on historical accuracy. For instance her husband, the Duc d'Orleans, is portrayed as being an incorrigible skirt-chaser,whereas his actual proclivities were notoriously otherwise! The costume designer seemed unsure whether the story was set in the seventeenth century or the eighteenth (it is supposed to be the early 1670s), while the hair and make up are firmly of the 1960's. Having said that it must be remembered that this film is in the genre of historical drama/comedies favoured at one time in Europe (which has its roots in pre-WW1 operetta). The good points for me were the light-hearted tone; the gorgeous (sometimes frightening!) Eastman colour; the spectacular settings; and the acting of the main protagonists. (Although physically Louis XIV reminded me of the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz!) A good all round family film but very much of its time.