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The article published on the website http://www.guardian.co.uk on May 20, 2013 is headlined "Taylor Swift wins eight Billboard awards. Justin Bieber, Gotye and Rihanna among the other big winners at music industry ceremony in Las Vegas". The article carries a lot of comment on the victory of Taylor Swift. A data journalist, James Ball,the author of the article pays tribute to Taylor Swift who was the big winner at the Billboard music awards, scooping eight out of her 11 nominations, including top artist and top Billboard 200 album for Red.

Speaking of Taylor Swift it is necessary to note that Swift gave a colourful performance of her hit 22, starting backstage and working her way to the main stage on the back of a bike with help from a dozen background dancers and a flurry of red balloons. Whereas Justin Bieber, who performed twice, won three awards, including top male artist, social artist and the fan-voted milestone award.

It also was mentioned that other nominees win at Billboard Music Awards. Among them, Miguel who had a show-stopping performance, Maroon 5 and fun. were nominated for 11 awards and walked away with one win each in pre-telecast announcements. Gotye and Rihanna had the second-most wins with four awards each.Nicki Minaj, who won the first award in the live telecast for top rap artist, beating out Drake, Flo Rida, Pitbull and Psy. "I definitely did not expect this one," she said.

The article concludes by saying that Taylor Swift was honored as Woman of the Year at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards! Swift was honored as Top Artist, Top Female Artist and Top Billboard 200 artist in ceremonies held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas where awards were handed out in 45 categories, 10 of them on the ABC telecast. Swift received the night's top honor, Artist of the Year, as well as Top Billboard 20 Artist, Top Female Artist, Top Country Artist and Top Digital Songs Artist. "Red" was Tops in the Billboard 200 and country albums categories; her "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was named Top Country Song.

To sum it up, I'd like to say that Taylor Swift's performance was awesome. She is the embodiment of everything right and a woman of great talent who brings a smile of pleasure to the audience’s faces.

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The article published on the website http://www.guardian.co.uk on May 19, 2013 is headlined"Eurovision prize goes to Denmark, but real winner is Swedish host". The author of the article Barry Neild, a freelance journalist, reports at length that the 58th instalment of the Eurovision song contest, which aims to draw nations together won the hot favourite, Denmark's Emmelie de Forest with 281 points for her song Only Teardrops. 

The author of the article Barry Neild points out that the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest took place on 18th of May. This weekend the action moved to Malmö in southern Sweden. The following 39 broadcasters have signed up: Albania (RTSH), Austria (ORF), Armenia (AMPTV), Azerbaijan (Ictimai TV), Belarus (BTRC), Belgium (RTBF), Bulgaria (BNT), Croatia (HRT), Cyprus (CyBC), Denmark (DR), Estonia (ERR), Finland (YLE), France (France3), Georgia (GPB), Germany (NDR), Greece (ERT), Hungary (MTV), Iceland (RÚV), Ireland (RTÉ), Israel (IBA), Italy (RAI), Latvia (LTV), Lithuania (LRT), FYR Macedonia (MKRTV), Malta (PBS), Moldova (TRM), Montenegro (RTCG), the Netherlands (TROS), Norway (NRK), Romania (TVR), Russia (C1R), San Marino (SMTV), Serbia (RTS), Slovenia (RTVSLO), Spain (TVE), Sweden (SVT), Switzerland (SRG SSR), Ukraine (NTU) and the United Kingdom (BBC).

It was revealed by the author of the article that Ukraine came third and Greece was fourth with the rabble-rousing "Alcohol Is Free". It is necessary to mention that Finland's Krista Siegfrids, meanwhile, ended her performance of Marry Me with an eyebrow-raising girl-on-girl kiss, but set women's equality back to 1977 with lyrics such as: "I'm your slave and you're my master." Then Iceland fielded Ingi Gunnlaugsson, a man whose hairstyle bore more than a passing resemblance to Dougal from The Magic Roundabout. After that, Azerbaijan's Farid Mammadov, who sang atop a Perspex box containing a man who, happily, turned out not to be magician David Blaine, and Roberto Bellarosa, an 18-year-old from Belgium, also scored fairly well. Then there was Romania's Cezar. Dressed like a vampiric Elvis, Cezar sang in an alarming falsetto surrounded by men and women dancing in tight lycra.

The article concludes by saying that this year’s winner of the Eurovision Song Contest Emmelie de Forest from Denmark is “overwhelmed, surprised but happy”. That’s what she told to us right after the show. She is very thankful for all the fans and viewers across Europe for the support!

Well, to my point of view, 2013 Eurovisioon Contest is a jolly period of time. So it’s hard to predict a winner, but Emmelie de Forest really deserves this triumph with her unforgettable song "Only Teardrops". As for me, her song has a really good melody and a good tempo. It also gives you something to think about; how we treat each other and the world.  Undoubtedly, it is melancholic and gives hope for the future.

Review 3 "Anonymous"

A couple days ago I was offered an opportunity of watching an awesome political thriller and pseudo-historical drama film, named Anonymous. And now I'd like to share my thoughts, feelings and personal view concerning this film. To begin with, let's consider its plot, cast, and development. 

ANONYMOUS 

Directed by Roland Emmerich

Produced by Roland Emmerich, Larry J. Franco, Robert Leger

Written by John Orloff

Starring Rhys Ifans,Vanessa Redgrave,Joely Richardson,David Thewlis,Xavier Samuel,Sebastian Armesto,Rafe 

Spall Edward Hogg, Jamie Campbell, Bower Derek Jacobi

Music by Thomas WankerHarald Kloser

Cinematography Anna Foerster

Editing by Peter R. Adam

Studio Relativity MediaCentropolis 

Anonymous is an upcoming historical thriller directed by Roland Emmerich. It stars Rhys Ifans and Vanessa Redgrave. It will be released theatrically in the United States on 30 September 2011. It is produced by Centropolis Entertainment and Studio Babelsberg, and distributed by Columbia Pictures.

PLOT


In Elizabethan England, political intrigue abounds between the Tudors and the Cecils for the succession of Queen Elizabeth I (Vanessa Redgrave), as the Essex Rebellion moves against her. The film follows the involvement of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans), as not only the incestuous lover of Queen Elizabeth, but also the true author of the works of William Shakespeare.

CAST



Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Elizabeth I. Redgrave commented that "It’s very interesting, the fractures, in this extraordinary creature.... I only hope that I've been able to respond to Roland in this script sufficiently to be able to just give a little glimpse of this fracturing, this black hole, with shafts of brief sunlight."
Rhys Ifans as Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford / "William Shake-speare"
Jamie Campbell Bower as young Oxford
David Thewlis as William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, longtime adviser to Queen Elizabeth. De Vere came to live in his household as a ward of the Queen at age 12 and became Burghley's son-in-law at age 21. Burghley is thought to have inspired the character Polonius.
Edward Hogg as Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, William Cecil's son and successor
Joely Richardson as young Princess Elizabeth
Xavier Samuel as Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, Shake-speare dedicatee and the focus of his sonnets; prospective suitor to Cecil's granddaughter Elizabeth de Vere
Rafe Spall as William Shakspere of Stratford
Antje Thiele as Lady de Vere
Robert Emms as Thomas Dekker, dramatist
Tony Way as Thomas Nashe, poet and satirist
Sebastian Armesto as Ben Jonson, poet, First Folio editor, and friend of Susan de Vere
Trystan Gravelle as Christopher Marlowe, poet and dramatist
Sebastian Reid as Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, executed for treason
Mark Rylance as a Shakespearean actor at the Globe Theatre
Sir Derek Jacobi as Narrator (Prologue)

DEVELOPMENT


Screenwriter John Orloff had penned the script back in the late 1990s, but it was shelved after Shakespeare in Love came out in 1998. It was almost greenlit as "The Soul of the Age" for a 2005 release, with a budget of $30 to $35 million. However, the financing proved to be "a risky undertaking," director Roland Emmerich told Screen Daily at the time. In October 2009, Emmerich stated, "It's very hard to make get a movie like this made, and I want to make it in a certain way. I've actually had this project for 8 years. It's always supposed to be my next movie, but this time I'm really going to do it because I'm already set to shoot on March 22 ."

In a November 2009 interview, Emmerich said of the film:

At a press conference at Studio Babelsberg on April 29, 2010, Emmerich noted that the success of his more commercial films made this one possible and that he got the cast he wanted without the pressure to come up with at least two A-list American actors.

IMPRESSION


First of all, I'd like to underline that this amazing film supressed all my imagination. There is no doubt that Anonymous was really worth-watching film. Of course, in the beginning I had to work a little, remembering the names, remembering the history of England. But it's worth it. The truth is that I was fully absorbed in the era of that tensed and gloomy time, watching with interest the fates of the heroes. That's why I found Anonymous to be a very entertaining film with excellent acting and a superb plot.

Pleasure Reading ( Theatre by Somerset Maugham) 6-10

In the next chapter  some more information about biographies of Julia and Michael was told to the reader. When Michael joined the troop, Julia had been playing in Middlepool for a year and had already become a local theater star. Because of Gosselyn’s attractive appearance young actress fell in love with him. But Michael accepted all her compliments not exactly with indifference, but as he might have accepted a compliment on a fine old house that had been in his family for generations. They spent a lot of time with each other, but unfortunately to Julia, she was only a friend for Michael. Character of Gosselyn was far from perfect – he was very greedy, but it wasn’t a problem for Julia. All her attempts to charm Michael were not successful.
But one day Julia was invited to Michael’s parents to Cheltenham. Of course she agreed. During this visit, on the first sight, elder Gosselyns were rather kind to her, but Julia realized, that at the same time they were taking stock at her. She used all her talent to receive their sympathy. And her efforts were praised. One evening Michael said to her, that she made a good impression on his parents and asked her to marry him. Surely she couldn’t deny him. And in spite of the fact, that she knew, that he didn’t really love her, Julia was more than happy.Soon all the troop knew about their relations. Michael didn’t hurry to marry, and he was planning to save up some money and to open his own theater. Julia didn’t like this situation, because she wanted to marry Michael as soon as possible. More of this one American manager offered a one year contract to Michael, Gosslelyn agreed. So he was going to leave Julia for a year.

Pleasure Reading ( Theatre by Somerset Maugham) 1-5

The story began, when Michael Gosselyn, fifty two year-old theater worker, met his wife Julia, a successful actress, in a room behind the scene. They had a conversation, and Michael told Julia about his new clerk. He added, that this guy was a devoted admirer of Julia’s talent. Then Gosselyn called his clerk and introduced him to Julia. Afterwards, the couple decided to invite young man to their house to lunch with them. During this visit, clerk was very shy, he smiled stiffly. But notwithstanding his general behavior, he payed some compliments to Julia. After the end of lunch, actress signed her own photograph and presented it to the clerk. Then her husband and the young man went away, and she started looking through her other photographs. After a couple of minutes she was completely in her reminding.
Then author gave small biographies of Julia and Michael to the reader. Gosselyn was mediocre actor, but in the beginning of his career, Michael had met Jimmie Langton, a flippant director, and joined his troupe. Because of this and his wonderful appearance, Gossleyn became rather famous. Julia had a different situation – she was a born actress. She began playing at the age of twelve, and after some period of time she was spotted by Jimmie, and invited her to join his troupe. He didn’t pay lots of money to his actors, but there was something extraordinary in his personality, and Julia agreed. In Jimmie’s troupe future conjoins met with each other.

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The article published on the website http://www.guardian.co.uk on May 6, 2013 is headlined "Iron Man 3: the superhero sequel suits up for a cinematic smash". The article reports at length Iron Man 3 opened with the second-biggest debut of all time in the US at the weekend – a staggering $175.3m (£113m) – to become the year's highest-grossing film so far.

The author of the article, Ben Child carries a lot of comment on the new Iron Man film, for which 20 minutes of footage was screened to bloggers and critics earlier this week, which was titled plain old Iron Man 3.
The author of the article points out that Downey Jr was unquestionably the star of the obscenely successful The Avengers, though the Hulk certainly gave him a good run for his greenbacks. With the $1.5bn (£990m) superhero ensemble having taken the genre into new territory in terms of popularity with audiences, an awful lot is riding on Iron Man 3. 

There is every reason to beleve that with an Oscar-winner,Ben Kingsley, as villain the Mandarin, one of Stark's best-known enemies, and the addition of Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall as Aldrich Killian and Maya Hansen, co-creators of the Extremis virus, Downey Jr was facing an entirely new level of adversity. Marvel apparently considered using the Mandarin for the first Iron Man film but decided it was too soon to introduce such a powerful figure, an entirely sensible move. Weak antagonists have been the traditional downfall of superhero sequels from Spider-Man 3 to the later Superman movies.


The article concludes by saying that Iron Man 3 arrived in the UK on 26 April and debuted in the US on 3 May and stresses that luckily, this was a film starring Downey Jr from the writer and director of Kiss Kiss with Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce and Don Cheadle. 

To sum it up,  I can't share the author's view as I have not seen Iron Man yet. Anyway I found this article very useful, and of good value. The message of the author was clear to understand his opinion to this film and  , of course, his hero Downey Jr. 

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The article published on the website http://movies.nytimes.com on May 2, 2013 is headlined
"It’s Tough to Keep a Tune, but Easy to Fall in Love". The article carries a lot of comment on Christopher Menaul’s “1st Night” , which was considred to be a pallid gloss of a work that teems with deception, disguise and mistaken identity, not to mention humor.

The author of the article Stephen Holden supposes that he beauteous Nicoletta (Mía Maestro), who inspired the wager,was a mezzo-soprano recruited by Adam Drummond (Richard E. Grant), a wealthy British industrialist, to perform in an outdoor production of “Così Fan Tutte” at his palatial English country retreat.


Then the author points out that the sole purpose of this vanity project was to give Adam, who dropped onto the lawn in his private helicopter, the chance to play Don Alfonso. And another main character of this film was Tom (Julian Ovenden), the dashing rake with whom he made the bet, was an aspiring opera singer who had talked himself into the cast by claiming to be a protégé of Paolo Prodi (Stanley Townsend), a pompous impresario he had never met. Halfway into his scheme to seduce Nicoletta, he fell in love with her.


It was mentioned that “1st Night” had a glint of social satire. It played as an arch, hammily acted farce that demonstrated the incompatibility of old-fashioned stage acting with modern film technique.

The article concludes by saying that 1st Night was opened on Friday in Manhattanwith Richard E. Grant (Adam Drummond), Sarah Brightman (Celia), Mía Maestro (Nicoletta Lampedusa), Julian Ovenden (Tom Chambers), Oliver Dimsdale (Philip Ford), Susannah Fielding (Debbie Drew), Nigel Lindsay (Martin Mays), Stanley Townsend (Paolo Prodi) and Emma Williams (Tamsin Ford).

As for me, I can't share the author's view as I have not seen " 1st Night" yet. Anyway I found this article very useful and of good value. The message of the author was clear to understand a plot and character characteristics of the film.

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The article published on a website http://http://www.guardian.co.uk on April 1, 2013 is headlined '
Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe set for starring roles in two classic tales'. The article reports at length that Harry Potter alumni Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe were lining up leading roles in two new versions of well-known tales: Cinderella and Frankenstein respectively.

The author of the article Andrew Pulver points out that Cinderella was seen very much in the mould of Disney's Alice in Wonderland and Oz the Great and Powerful, both highly visual reworkings of familiar tales.

It's an open secret that Watson, fresh from the well-liked teen flick The Perks of Being a Wallflower was being courted for Disney's live-action version of the Cinderella fairy story, to be directed by Kenneth Branagh. Then the author underlines that Watson had a somewhat tentative start to her post-Potter acting career, taking on a TV movie of Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes and a small role in My Week With Marilyn as she appeared to concentrate more on fashion-related work. And Daniel Radclifef, in his turn, was set to play Igor in Frankenstein, a new take on Mary Shelley's classic gothic horror novel to be directed by Scots film-maker Paul McGuigan.

Giving appraisal of the situation it's worth while mentioning that according to the Wrap, it would be "a sci-fi take on this classic story about a creature produced through a scientific experiment", and Radcliffe's character would "pathologically dirty and dressed in old clown's clothing".

The article concludes by saying that Radcliffe recently proved his chops in period horror with the Susan Hill adaptation The Woman in Black, and would next be seen as Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in Sundance hit Kill Your Darlings.

To my mind, this article really puzzled me from the very beginning till the end. I found it well-planed, logically-constructed, skillfully-built. Having read the article, I deeply desired to watch this wonderful fairy tale with Emma Watcson and Daniel Radcliffe.