Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

If you fancy a night in watching a DVD, then take a look at the selection available at Island Libraries. At just £1 per night, they’re a great bargain. Ed

In 1997, Melbourne Australia, I was intrigued to review a film called ‘Gross Point Blank’, starring John Cusack and Minnie Driver, Joan Cusack and Dan Ackroyd.

A fusion of dark sarcasm, excellent soundtrack and strong character acting, this film revealed a side of enthusiastic, intelligent, madness that John Cusack portrayed extremely well.

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Ha ha. Do you know what VentnorBlog is called by the inner circle of the ruling Conservative council? Not VentnorBlog, the blog, or even that bloody blog as you might expect, but we hear on good authority, VB is simply referred to as ‘The Communists’.

Makes you laugh doesn’t it? Anything slightly to the left of Attila the Hun = Communists.

Oh well, what can you do?

Well if some of the lovely Tories weren’t already concerned about our lack of enthusiasm for Capitalism, they’ll be chocking on their dry sherries when they hear what John Hurt has to say when we chatted to him at the recent Minghella Film Festival.

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At the end of the Minghella Film Festival we caught up with Gioia Minghella, the founder of the Minghella Film festival.

Gioia told VB how thrilled she was that the festival was once again, a huge success.

Gioia played tribute to her daughter Sophie, who was prolific in programming the festival and working all hours for weeks running up to the festival. She also thanked the businesses who have supported the festival, particular the Quay Arts Centre for playing host to the weekend.

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A Jim Henson family fantasy for television seems an unlikely contender at a film festival, but at its screening in the Anthony Minghella theatre, The Storyteller drew heartfelt appreciation.

The series starred John Hurt, prematurely aged, rushing from one Grimm’s fairytale to the next in a pair of prosthetic ears and a false nose. He insists this was ‘nothing, really’, given his previous transformations.

Do children like ‘Art’?
According to Hurt, people are surprised when they find out who the series’ writer was. “When you say Anthony Minghella, they say, what?”

Initially, even Henson had his doubts about bringing Minghella into the project.

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The Minghella Film festival comes to an end tomorrow, but there is a great lineup of events throughout the day to enjoy.

The morning kicks off with screenings of The Storyteller in Quay Arts and Cineworld. John Hurt and Duncan Kenworthy will be attending the screening at Quay and taking part in a discussion following the film.

Lunchtime sees the Big Italian Brunch at Quay Arts hosted by Gloria and Eddie Minghella.

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We caught up with the actor Alan Rickman, who had worked with Anthony on this first major film, Truly, Madly, Deeply where he acted opposite Juliet Stevenson.

Have a listen …

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Very flattering and kind words about Anthony Minghella from Patsy Puttnam and her husband, Baron Puttnam, or David Puttnam as he introduced himself.

Have a listen …

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Up next is another in the series of Vox Pops from the launch of last year’s Minghella Movie Marathon.

It was a great evening, with hundreds of people gathered to celebrate Anthony Minghella’s life.

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At the launch of the Minghella Movie Marathon last year, we made our way through the crowds of Minghella fans and asked for their memories of Anthony.

Anthony’s great sensitivity seemed to strike a chord with many of the festival goers that night.

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If you’re planning to have some quiet nights in, why not try out the DVD or book collection at your local library?

Here are the latest acquisitions for Ventnor Library.

DVD
An Education – 3 Oscar nominations
Julie and Julia – Meryl Street – Oscar nominated for Best Actress

Fiction
Clive CUSSLER Spartan Gold – a Fargo adventure
Annie GROVES Hettie of Hope Street – heart versus head…
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Tonight sees the launch of the 2010 Minghella Film Festival.

The event kicks off with the UK premiere of ‘The Be All and End All’.

The feature length film written by Steve Lewis and Tony Owen tells the story of fifteen year old Robbie who has only one thing on his mind – losing his virginity. The problem is that he’s in hospital with a fatal heart condition.

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If you fancy a night in watching a DVD, then take a look at the selection available at Island Libraries. At just £1 per night, they’re a great bargain. Ed

Written by Ronnie Christensen and starring Anne Hathaway and Patrick Wilson – an actor of immense bravado for appearing in the extremely intense ‘Hard Candy’.

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If you were at the Minghella Movie Marathon last year, you might have spotted this avid Minghella fan (in the middle) who attended all the screenings throughout the weekend.

Robbi Holman could quite easily be defined as a Minghella Super Fan (in fact she was by the CP).

Why you might ask? Well, because Robbi flew all the way from Texas to attend the festival and flew straight back home again afterwards. That’s some devotion!

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During our quest of capturing vox pops at the Minghella Film Festival last year (more to come tomorrow), we caught up with actor Michael Maloney.

He came across as a really lovely guy, oozing warmth and charisma as he chatted about his friendship with Anthony.

He told us how as they worked together on a number of projects, he became closer to Anthony’s family and fondly remembers watching two world cups with them, going on to say that those who knew Anthony will remember his love of football, always willing to give his tactical opinions.

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The Minghella Film Festival returns to Newport this weekend, but the Festival is not just about screening Anthony Minghella’s TV programmes and films. There’s a great range of film/writing related workshops taking place too.

Make a Film in A Day
Kicking off on Saturday morning, the first workshop is a full day course being run in association with the Young Film Academy.

The hands-on Make a Film in A Day workshop will be led by award-winning trainers helping young people aged 13 – 19 to make a ten shot digital film, from planning through to post-production in seven hours.

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This coming weekend, as part of the Minghella Film Festival, the BFI will be back at Quay Arts with their Family Fun Days.

Last year, the workshops proved hugely popular with the Island’s young creatives.

A whole host of activities were on offer, all set around the theme of the No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (the last film Anthony worked on), from painting and drawing on a large mural, to creating plasticine models, animating and filming them, or face painting and making masks.

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Continuing our series of videos and podcasts from the 2009 Minghella Movie Marathon, up next is a chat we had with Reg Poerscout-Edgerton.

Reg was born and educated on the Island before heading off to develop his career in the film business.

His most recent work has included a role as casting director for Sherlock Holmes and RocknRolla.

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If you fancy a night in watching a DVD, then take a look at the selection available at Island Libraries. At just £1 per night, they’re a great bargain. Ed

From the ‘land of the brave’ hails a DVD that throws new light on the role of the detective and how they work and gives pursuit to solving a murder that at first seems almost impossible to even begin to understand.

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Need some distractions for the weekend ahead?

Try the library for a new DVD or book. DVDs at 50p for children overnight and £1 for adults

FICTION
J L CARRELL The Shakespeare curse – a sickening modern killer…Best Seller
Alexander McCall SMITH Tea time for the traditionally built – Best seller
John CONNOLLY The lovers – Best seller
Linwood BARCLAY Fear the worst …can anything be more terrifying?…
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The 2nd Annual Minghella Film Festival is now less than two weeks away.

Details of all screenings, workshops and plays are now available on Events On The Wight.

This year focuses on Anthony’s work in TV and radio and features a live radio play on Sunday afternoon read by Juliet Stevenson, David Threlfall and Dexter Fletcher.

We’ll be bringing you more details over the next two weeks of all events and choosing our ‘must sees’.

In the meantime, why not check out all the events and get your tickets secured.

If you fancy a night in watching a DVD, then take a look at the selection available at Island Libraries. At just £1 per night, they’re a great bargain. Ed

There have been occasional documentaries that follow the process of creation and through perseverance and attempts at understanding of the subject, something stunning or worthy of attention duly arrives.

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Need some distractions for the weekend? Try the library for a new DVD or book. DVDs at 50p for children overnight and £1 for adults

DVD
Michael Jackson – this is it
Up – the new Pixar
Pandorum – don’t fear the end of the world, fear what happens next…

FICTION
Karen ROSE Don’t tell – shhh..he’s coming for you…Best Sellers
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Rachel from IW Friends of Palestine Group tells us that ticket sales are going well for the Gaza event taking place this Thursday.

Peter Venner from Brading will be giving a talk after the screening of EyeWitness in Gaza at Quay Arts.

Peter will be talking about his journey to Gaza at the end of last year, as part of a convoy taking supplies to those in need.

Entrance is just £5, call 872997 for more info.

If you fancy a night in watching a DVD, then take a look at the selection available at Island Libraries. At just £1 per night, they’re a great bargain. Ed

If you have not heard of Chuck Palaniuk, an American writer, then ‘Choke’ is an excellent introduction into his perspective on ‘the land of the free…’, with its excellent dialogue and brave attempts at understanding of taboo subject matter, ‘Choke’ reveals the talent Chuck really has.

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In need of some light relief?

How about Weird Al Yankovic’s ‘White & Nerdy’ parody of Chamillionaire’s ‘Riding Dirty’.

Set the volume to 11 and sit back and enjoy.

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