This month we watched Saving Mr Banks.
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama Plot: Author P.L. Travers reflects on her childhood after reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big screen
Key Characters: Major characters are P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson); Walt Disney (Tom Hanks); Ginty (Annie Rose Buckley); Travers Goff (Colin Farrell); Ralph (Paul Giamalli)
Filming Location: California, but story setting included Australia, London as well as California.
Review: This was enjoyed by the group. The performance by Annie Rose Buckley as Ginty (the young PL Travers) was considered as outstanding. It provides some history to the making of Mary Poppins, as well showing a lot of the linkages between the author’s early years in Australia and the story she tells in her books. These include a lot of references to flying, the umbrella her aunt brought when helping the family, references to the wind, even the tuppence that Michael wants to use to buy food for the birds is similar to the tuppence the author’s aunt gave her. When discussing who we would recommend the film to, we decided it would be suitable for anyone. We rated it as 5 out of 5.
Other comments: The author’s real name was Helen Goff, but wrote under the name P L Travers – her much loved father’s name was Travers Goff. There were some aspects of Australia that we felt were not quite correct, for example, a kangaroo on a lead. If made today, could it be improved by filming the relevant parts on location in Australia? While based on the early life of the author, as is often the case, there are some inaccuracies, one of which is the author’s age when they moved to Allora in Queensland. In real life she was only three, but the movie has her as considerably older.
For information: A movie that is topical now is called I Am Michael, recommended by one of our group as worth watching. It is available from the library and for streaming on Netflix.
Our September session is on 11 October. We will be watching Barefoot in the Park, filmed in 1967 and starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford.
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama Plot: Author P.L. Travers reflects on her childhood after reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big screen
Key Characters: Major characters are P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson); Walt Disney (Tom Hanks); Ginty (Annie Rose Buckley); Travers Goff (Colin Farrell); Ralph (Paul Giamalli)
Filming Location: California, but story setting included Australia, London as well as California.
Review: This was enjoyed by the group. The performance by Annie Rose Buckley as Ginty (the young PL Travers) was considered as outstanding. It provides some history to the making of Mary Poppins, as well showing a lot of the linkages between the author’s early years in Australia and the story she tells in her books. These include a lot of references to flying, the umbrella her aunt brought when helping the family, references to the wind, even the tuppence that Michael wants to use to buy food for the birds is similar to the tuppence the author’s aunt gave her. When discussing who we would recommend the film to, we decided it would be suitable for anyone. We rated it as 5 out of 5.
Other comments: The author’s real name was Helen Goff, but wrote under the name P L Travers – her much loved father’s name was Travers Goff. There were some aspects of Australia that we felt were not quite correct, for example, a kangaroo on a lead. If made today, could it be improved by filming the relevant parts on location in Australia? While based on the early life of the author, as is often the case, there are some inaccuracies, one of which is the author’s age when they moved to Allora in Queensland. In real life she was only three, but the movie has her as considerably older.
For information: A movie that is topical now is called I Am Michael, recommended by one of our group as worth watching. It is available from the library and for streaming on Netflix.
Our September session is on 11 October. We will be watching Barefoot in the Park, filmed in 1967 and starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford.
With all the movies we watch, we look at them as literature – literature in a different medium, that of film. This helps to focus the discussion, covering ideas around genre, characters, plot, but also adding the aspects that relate to film, such as cinemascope, music and atmosphere.
Joy Shirley
Joy Shirley
