mary queen of scots is a 2013 swiss period drama directed by thomas imbach .

it is his first film in english and french language starring the bilingual french actress camille rutherford .

the film portrays the inner life of mary , the queen of scotland .

the film is based on austrian novelist stefan zweig 's 1935 biography , mary stuart , a long-term bestseller in germany and france but out of print in the uk and the us for decades until 2010 .

the film was first screened at the 2013 international film festival locarno and was later shown at the 2013 toronto international film festival .

mary queen of scots ( 2013 film )

loves of mary queen of scots , the - 1923 silent film about the ill - fated queen .
heart of queen , the - 1940 ( also known as
mary queen of scots
and
das herz der königin
) german film about the life and loves of mary queen of scots .
margot robbie has officially signed on to join the cast of mary queen of scots .
mary , queen of scots looks delightfully insane | birth . movies . death .
this short film , one of the first to use camera tricks , depicts the execution of mary , queen of scots .
adelaide kane is mary , queen of scots in the pilot episode of ' reign . '
who ? : veteran english actress vanessa redgrave played the title role in the 1971 film mary , queen of scots .
mary , queen of scots - 2018 saoirse ronan stars as mary and margo robbie stars as elizabeth i .
remake idea : mary , queen of socks . same film but cast are socks .
mary , queen of scots - 1971 glenda jackson as elizabeth and vanessa redgrave as mary in this tale of rival monarchs .
who ? : irish actress saoirse ronan is to appear as the queen in the new film , mary queen of scots . it is expected to be released in 2014 .
anna boleyn - 1920 german made silent film about the second queen of henry viii .
there are no featured audience reviews yet . click the link below to see what others say about mary queen of scots !
reviewed at locarno film festival ( competing ) , aug . 13 , 2013 . ( also in toronto film festival — special presentations . ) running time : 120 min .
reign a strain of melancholy amid the giddiness : adelaide kane plays the young mary , queen of scots , on thursday night on cw .
friday 16 | 8 | 2013 · 11 : 00 · palavideo · sub . english
gunpowder , treason and plot - 2004 tv mini series covering the stories of mary queen of scots and her son james and the gunpowder plot of 1604 .
in the past , american actress scarlett johansson has been linked to a role as the queen of scots .
enjoyed it but being a mary queen of scots fan i didn ' t think they kept true to the history of her . soundtrack was also one of the worst i have heard running through a film .
i’m sorry if i sound disrespectful toward “mary , queen of scots . ” it is , after all , based on genuine british history .
the story of mary stuart gets another cinematic workout in mary queen of scots from swiss director thomas imbach , who adapts austrian author stefan zweig ’s biography mary queen of scotland and the isles into an intimate and serious - minded biopic that never quite gets into the head of the protagonist .
virgin queen , the - 1923 black and white silent film . diana manners stars as elizabeth i
thursday 15 | 8 | 2013 · 23 : 00 · la sala · sub . english , french
during the sixteenth century , the catholic mary , queen of scots engages in over two decades of religious and political conflict with her cousin , the protestant queen elizabeth i of england , amidst political intrigue in her native land .
switzerland , france · 2013 · dcp · color · 120 ' · o . v . english / french
subscribe to trailers : urltoken subscribe to coming soon : urltoken subscribe to indie & film festivals : urltoken like us on facebook : urltoken follow us on twitter : urltoken tiff ( 2013 ) - mary queen of scots trailer # 1 - camille rutherford movie hd a queen who lost three kingdoms . a wife who lost three husbands . a woman who lost her head .
historical dramas can be fun if you approach them in the right spirit , and i enjoyed “mary , queen of scots” a lot more than “anne of the thousand days . ”
australian actress adelaide kane is to play mary , queen of scots in a new us drama . but she is not the first actress to portray the troubled royal .
the film follows the true story of mary stuart ‘s attempt to overthrow her cousin queen elizabeth i , only to find herself condemned to years of imprisonment before facing execution .
there are a lot of not very good biographies of mary stuart . john guy’s biography on queen of scots : the true life of mary stuart is probably definitive for scholarly works . but if you’re not up for 600 + pages , try rosalind k . marshall’s much shorter mary queen of scots : truth or lies ( kindle edition ) , which focuses on answering the key questions about this famous but somewhat misunderstood woman .
mary , queen of scots , ranks among the most gripping figures in the romantic imagination , and she’s no stranger to artistic license , including stefan zweig’s 1935 psychological imagining , “maria stuart . ” thomas imbach’s adaptation of the zweig , “mary queen of scots , ” tries hard to capture the character of a woman torn between duty , love and realpolitik , yet [ … ]
over many years film - makers have been drawn to the real - life story of mary stuart , who became queen when she was just six days old .
screenings wednesday 14 | 8 | 2013 · 14 : 00 · palexpo ( fevi ) · sub . english , french
this article was amended on 19 august 2013 . an earlier version said that stefan zweig ' s book on mary stuart was out of print . this has been corrected .
since 1971 film - makers have tried to emulate the oscar - winning success of mary , queen of scots , starring vanessa redgrave and glenda jackson as the tragic scottish queen and her nemesis , elizabeth i . aborted later attempts include one by hollywood ' s actress - producer scarlett johansson and british director alexander mackendrick .
the trailer for mary , queen of scots appeared quietly online yesterday . and no , it ' s not for that upcoming cw television series . this film looks insane in the absolute best way possible , which is probably why it was picked as an official selection for this year ' s toronto international film festival .
in february 2013 , the cw announced its order of a pilot for a tv series based on the life of mary , queen of scots , created by stephanie sengupta and laurie mccarthy , and produced by cbs studios . part of the reason mccarthy chose mary stuart as the subject is because of her life history and multiple husbands , which makes her story
sexier
. the pilot was directed by brad silberling , with sengupta and mccarthy as the writers and executive directors ; sengupta left the team in may 2013 , leaving laurie mccarthy as the sole showrunner . on february 9 , 2013 , it was announced that australian actress adelaide kane would be playing the main character .
like biographies about elizabeth i , there are a lot of not very good biographies of mary stuart . john guy’s biography on queen of scots : the true life of mary stuart is probably definitive for scholarly works . but if you’re not up for 600 + pages , try rosalind k . marshall’s much shorter mary queen of scots : truth or lies ( kindle edition ) , which focuses on answering the key questions about this famous but somewhat misunderstood woman . the trial of mary queen of scots : a brief history with documents ( bedford series in history & culture ) is a short classroom textbook that addresses her trial and execution and offers the primary sources for those events .
dorothy vernon of haddon hall - 1924 mary pickford stars and directs in this early film set in elizabeth ' s reign .
white queen , the ( tv mini - series ) - 2013 series about the women of the wars of the roses ( featuring margaret beaufort and elizabeth woodville , among others ) based on philippa gregory ' s novel .
even as its reception was mixed , “mary queen of scots” provided a telling example of what , if anything , defines a typical locarno movie . carried by camille rutherford’s tender and individualistic performance , the movie finds mary in an uneasy cold war with the queen of england . though some audiences found imbach’s treatment of the material to suffer from an unearned brooding quality , “mary queen of scots” features an appealing reworking of familiar contents : while in many ways a traditional period drama , its time - shifting structure and dreamlike narration manages to critique the very strictures of the genre .
mary , queen of scots doesn ' t have a release date as of yet , so if you ' re heading to tiff , you can catch it in september . speaking of september , can this movie play fantastic fest ?
although she did apparently remain a virgin all her life , elizabeth was fond of meddling in the sexual lives of others . “mary , queen of scots” is largely concerned with this aspect of her reign , and that no doubt explains why it was made .
' a modern woman , passionate and fragile ' : camille rutherford as mary in thomas imbach ' s film .
when knighthood was in flower - 1922 the second film version of the story of mary tudor and charles brandon . silent and in black and white .
when knighthood was in flower - 1908 the first version of the tale of mary tudor and charles brandon . a silent , black and white short film .
also seen in : hanna , in which she played a teenage assassin opposite elizabeth i actress cate blanchett , and the 2013 movie the host .
reign was announced on the cw ' s 2013 autumn line - up on may 10 , 2013 , placing it in the thursday timeslot following the vampire diaries , its biggest hit in young women demographic . the show had its series premiere on october 17 , 2013 , in the u . s . in canada , the series airs a day earlier on m3 in simulcast with the cw on ctv two and on ! e canada .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
lady jane - 1986 helena bonham carter stars as the tragic queen of nine days .
exclusive : fast - rising british actor jack lowden has been set as the male lead in working title and focus features ’ mary queen of scots . lowden will take on the role of lord darnley opposite saoirse ronan , who is playing the eponymous royal , and margot robbie as her cousin , queen elizabeth i .
the film takes place from november 16 , 1560 to february 8 , 1587 .
the duration of a film . so long the movie goes on and on when you finish it .
the 22 - year - old is the latest in a long line of film and television stars to portray the queen , who was born at linlithgow palace in 1542 .
mary , queen of scots , ranks among the most gripping figures in the romantic imagination , and she’s no stranger to artistic license , including stefan zweig’s 1935 psychological imagining , “maria stuart . ” thomas imbach ’s adaptation of the zweig , “ mary queen of scots , ” tries hard to capture the character of a woman torn between duty , love and realpolitik , yet the very nature of the monarch’s often inconsistent behavior trips him up — that , plus a weak lead and an ambiguous relationship to the notion of costume drama . if not for mehdi dehbi’s high - wattage charisma , imbach’s “ mary ” would soon be forgotten .
the main international competition contained a mixture of fiction and non - fiction , traditional narratives and experimental film .
queen elizabeth - 1912 sarah bernhardt stars as the queen in this silent movie . also known by the french title les amours de la reine élisabeth
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
a short film depicting the execution of mary , queen of the scots . mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it . the executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down . after that frame mary has been replaced by a dummy . the axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body . the executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see . one of the first ' camera tricks ' to be used in a movie .
other actresses to have portrayed mary in films include zarah leander in the heart of a queen ( 1940 ) and magda sonja in maria stuart ( 1927 ) .
so the film essentially inverts the relationship between the execution of mary stuart and the spanish invasion . the actual invasion was a reaction to mary’s execution , whereas in the film , the execution is part of the scheme to set up the invasion . what the film gets right is the broad sequence of events , showing how the babington plot led to mary’s death , which in turn led to the armada war . with the exception of the detail about the pistol being unloaded as part of a deeper plot , the film’s changes to history are mostly in the way of simplifying the complex details of the plot and making the narrative clear to the audience . in that sense , i think this part of the film works better as history than elizabeth does . but as we shall see next time , there are other problems with etga .
the film fails to come together as anything beyond rudimentary , and that failure is distinctly directorial .
a strong candidate finally arrives thursday night . “reign” is a cw drama about the tumultuous teenage years of mary , queen of scots , which may be all you need to hear . but there’s more ! would it surprise you that mary’s ladies in waiting are named greer , kenna , aylee and lola ? it sure would have surprised the french court in 1557 .
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so i was on netflix the other night and it suggested that i watch reign , the cw show about mary queen of scots . and i thought , “ok . let’s give it a try . how bad can it be ? ” the answer is , it can be pretty darn bad .
mary queen of scots spends her childhood in france and is meant to become queen of france . however , her ailing husband dies and the young widow returns alone to scotland , a country devastated by war . elizabeth has just become queen of england , for mary she is like a twin sister to whom she can open her heart . mary weds again and gives birth to an heir to the thrown . her second husband , lord darnley , proves to be a weakling . when mary finds the love of her life , the earl of bothwell , she has darnley murdered and marries bothwell . horrified by this deed and the blind passion that motivated it , both the nobles and the people of scotland spurn her . to avert a bloody battle , mary is compelled to give up her beloved bothwell . in desperate straits , she turns to elizabeth for help . in response , the queen of england imprisons her . after 19 years spent in a golden cage , mary finds release at last : elizabeth sends her to the block .
mary queen of scots spends her childhood in france and is meant to become also queen of france . however , her ailing husband dies and the young widow returns alone to scotland , a country devastated by war . elizabeth has just become queen of england , for mary she is like a twin sister to whom she can open her heart . mary weds again and gives birth to an heir to the thrown . her second husband , lord darnley , proves to be a weakling . when mary finds the love of her life , the earl of bothwell , she has darnley murdered and marries bothwell . horrified by this deed and the blind passion that motivated it , both the nobles and the people of scotland spurn her . to avert a bloody battle , mary is compelled to give up her beloved bothwell . in desperate straits , she turns to elizabeth for help . in response , the queen of england imprisons her . after 19 years spent in a golden cage , mary finds release at last : elizabeth sends her to the block .
overall , the assembly of the film is rather plain , with only the occasionally dissonant score from russian composer sofia gubaidulina a standout .
also seen in : morvern caller , david cronenberg ' s 2012 film cosmopolis and synecdoche , new york .
mary stuart , named queen of scotland when she was six days old , is the last roman catholic ruler of scotland . her cousin elizabeth tudor , queen of england and her arch adversary , has her imprisoned at age 23 . nineteen years later , mary is executed , removing the last threat to elizabeth ' s throne . the two queens ' contrasting personalities make a dramatic counterpoint to history .
mary was queen regnant ( meaning she ruled in her own right , and not because she married a king , which makes her super fierce ) of scotland from 1542 to 1567 , and went on to become queen consort of france when king henry ii arranged for her to marry his son , the dauphin francis . but she was only queen in france for a year - - francis died .
that risk of a generational dumbing - down assumes , of course , that any of those children actually slog their way through this ludicrously written , dully cast , anachronistic blunder , which churns mary queen of scots though the cw gossip girl blender . all poor mary wants to do is marry her handsome prince and rule scotland and france combined , while kicking off her shoes now and then to dance , dance , dance ! why is everyone so mean to her ?
marie stuart ( which is the french spelling of her name ) was born in december of 1542 , the only surviving child of king james v of scotland and his french wife mary of guise . the scots and the french had for centuries maintained a traditional political alliance based on mutual hostility to england . starting in the 14 th century , it had been very convenient for france to be allied with scotland , because whenever the english invaded france during the hundred years’ war , the french could count on the scots invading england . for that reason , the two countries maintained what the scots termed ‘the auld alliance’ .
also seen in : 1966 ' s blow - up , 2007 film atonement and bbc drama call the midwife .
although the film has not yet been given the green light , it is likely to begin production later this year .
mary and her besties . note the distinct lack of sleeves or anything else to suggest the 16th century
mary was put on trial in 1586 , based on a bond of association passed by the privy council in 1584 . this bond , which mary among many others signed , allowed for the execution of anyone in the line of succession ( read : mary ) who was aware of any plot to kill the queen , even if they were not actively involved in the plotting . parliament followed this up with an act of association that provided for the execution of anyone who stood to benefit from a plot against the queen . so despite mary’s insistence that she was not subject to english law , and despite the fact ( or rather because of the fact ) that she was allowed neither legal counsel nor defense witnesses nor access to the evidence against her , mary was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death .
execution of mary stuart , the - 1895 directed by thomas a . edison , this is one of the first movies ever made .
blackadder part ii - 1985 miranda richardson plays a delightfully demented queen elizabeth i in this comedy series .
the 26 - year - old actress is set to portray england’s queen elizabeth , according to variety .
i didn ' t find this film as bad as everyone had made out , but i would caution that those looking for a cookie cutter version of mary ' s story will need to reconsider as you really . . .
there were many who believed mary to be the rightful heir to the english throne . when henry viii ' s eldest daughter mary i ( so many marys ! ) died , the crown went to the next heir in the line of succession : elizabeth i , her sister . but there were several catholics who believed elizabeth to be illegitimate ( she was the daughter of henry viii and anne boleyn , the latter of whom was labeled a traitor and beheaded , with elizabeth ' s birth declared illegitimate ) and mary , queen of scots , to be the rightful heir as the eldest daughter of henry viii ' s eldest sister .
in one of the film’s nicest touches , the catholic queen of scotland constantly writes letters to her cousin and rival , the protestant elizabeth i of england , in which she confesses her fears and hopes . the letters can be heard in voice - over and the figure of elizabeth becomes an almost spectral presence that haunts mary , as the english queen’s ambassadors bring along a new painted portrait of their ruler with every reply they convey ( they never met in real life ) . mary’s favorite courtier , the puppeteer rizzio ( mehdi dehbi , giving the film’s standout performance ) , also uses dolls of the two rival queens for his improvised plays , literally turning the complicated political games into child’s play ( and bringing those who ' ve forgotten their high school history lessons quickly up to speed ) .
seven seas to calais - 1962 italian film with the full cast of elizabethan characters . rod taylor as sir francis drake , irene worth as elizabeth i .
marie’s father died of a fever less than a week after marie was born , and as his only legitimate child , she then became queen . henry viii of england , seeing an opportunity to break the auld alliance , proposed that marie wed his son edward when she turned six . the scottish regent initially accepted the offer , but by july of 1543 , the deal had broken down and the scots renewed the auld alliance . in response , henry’s forces invaded scotland , hoping to seize the young queen . this invasion , which was nicknamed the ‘rough wooing’ , failed , but made clear to the scots that it was quite risky for them to keep mary where the english might grab her .
perhaps the biggest change that the film makes , however , comes immediately after the execution . philip ii of spain declares war on england , and walsingham suddenly realizes that philip was behind the whole plot in the first place . , because the spanish king has been reading mary’s correspondence . babington’s gun was unloaded so that elizabeth would survive , execute mary and give philip the justification to invade . walsingham begs the queen’s forgiveness for misunderstanding the whole situation , and elizabeth admits that she has erred in executing mary .
the film , which had its world premiere on home turf at the locarno film festival , will be released in november in germany and switzerland and will also be shown in toronto as a special presentation . it should especially appeal to history channel - type broadcasters .
crowned the queen of scotland before she was a year old , mary added to that pedigree when her first husband became france’s king and she became queen consort in 1559 . despite that auspicious start , things didn’t go well from there . she later married her first cousin , lord darnley , a bad match that ended with his murder .
nine days a queen - 1936 ( also known as
tudor rose
and
lady jane grey
) an early telling of the tale of jane grey , that begins with the death of henry viii .
a queen who lost three kingdoms . a wife who lost three husbands . a woman who lost her head .
ioana ruxandra bratosin played the queen as a young girl and clemence posey as the royal in her adult life .
kane auditioned when she was filming a recurring role on the third season of mtv tv series teen wolf . when kane got the part , the teen wolf writers wrote her character leaving the series . kane is part scottish on her mother ' s side , and did research on the historical mary stuart in preparing for the role . torrance coombs was announced as having been cast as sebastian , one of the leading characters , in march 2013 . sebastian is an original character created for the show , so coombs didn ' t have as much research in preparation for the role , though he faced the challenge of changing his performance from that in the tudors , another historical tv series he ' d been involved in . alan van sprang , who was cast as henry ii of france , modeled his performance after bill clinton . in november 2013 , amy brenneman was announced as having been cast as mary stuart ' s mother , mary de guise , a role that initially went to brenneman ' s private practice co - star kate walsh , who was unable to commit due to conflicting filming commitments . toby regbo was cast as dauphin francis in march 2013 .
apparently mary , queen of scots is too boring for series creator laurie mccarthy , so she constructs a ridiculous love triangle around young , dumb mary and hires an actress who thinks teenage girls aren ' t into , you know , being educated . that ' s why they ' ll accept a wafer thin slice of sugary stupidity like ' reign ' and the united states can continue its precipitous slide down the intelligence rankings of first world countries . well , that ' s what i got out of the pilot , anyway . oh , and nostradamus is a hunk . twitter
from swiss director thomas imbach ( whom i had never heard of , but now immediately want to watch his other films ) , the film takes a dark and unsettling look at the life of mary stuart , aka mary , queen of scots . i am so in love with this utterly bonkers trailer , with the large title cards proclaiming the film ' s tagline :
a queen who lost three kingdoms . a wife who lost three husbands . a woman who lost her head .
by the time it gets to that last line about losing her head , my fist was pumping . the trailer calls to mind the work of lars von trier , but there ' s also something in the tone and composition that reminds me of the trailer for salo . it ' s creepy and kind of off - putting , the way people just quietly glare toward the camera , and how the lead actress , camille rutherford , looks like a woman who has lost her damn mind . i look forward to having a weirdo double feature of this and blue jasmine .
glenda jackson , another well - known actress of stage and screen , played mary ' s cousin , elizabeth i .
a biography of the doomed monarch whose devotion to her cousin elizabeth i , and her duty to her country left her executed . through evocative visuals , the film examines her return to scotland , the exhausting struggles between catholics and protestants , her marriage to lord darnley , and her relationship with the earl of bothwell . thomas imbach s film presents a queen who lost three kingdoms , a wife who lost three husbands , and ultimately , a woman who lost her head .
ah , but reign , the cw ' s newest
historical
drama , is so relentlessly bad , so passionately inept , that in july the network felt compelled to defend to critics its right to take the story of mary , queen of scots , and turn it into something immune to facts ( because facts would make it boring to teenage girls ) and maintain that interpreting history as nonsensical teen pabulum was the god - given right of creator and executive producer laurie mccarthy .
a biography of the doomed monarch whose devotion to her cousin elizabeth i , and her duty to her country left her executed . through evocative visuals , the film examines her return to scotland , the exhausting struggles between catholics and protestants , her marriage to lord darnley , and her relationship with the earl of bothwell . thomas imbach ' s film presents a queen who lost three kingdoms , a wife who lost three husbands , and ultimately , a woman who lost her head .
when mary finally discovers the joys of intercourse with the man who would become her third spouse , the earl of bothwell ( sean biggerstaff , too puny to be credible as a queen’s sex god ) , she suddenly becomes a lioness willing to defy anyone that comes near her and a woman who’s more than ready to defend her right to marry him ( and , supposedly , have more of that magnificent sex , for once a narrative necessity the film rather oddly shies away from ) . but this kind of passion or clearly readable psychology that translates into action is absent for most of the rest of the film , including , quite crucially , on the battlefield in the last reel ( otherwise modestly but effectively staged ) .
shakespeare in love - 1998 joseph fiennes stars as the bard himself . dame judi dench plays the older queen elizabeth i .
virigin queen , the ( tv mini - series ) - 2005 bbc drama with anne - marie duff as elizabeth i .
so you might understand why mary may have been a little crazy . the english throne was a point of contention between mary and elizabeth i , and it didn ' t end well , to say the least .
stage director josie rourke is helming the film which is penned by house of cards creator beau willimon and based on the 2004 biography by john guy , the true life of mary stuart . working title’s tim bevan and eric fellner , and debra hayward are producing . shooting is understood to be starting this summer .
two uk productions are still at early stages , but a swiss film - maker has beaten them to it with a sympathetic psychological portrait set to be an art - house hit . zurich - based thomas imbach has directed , produced and co - written the film , with camille rutherford playing mary , which has been singled out for this season ' s festivals at locarno and toronto .
as part of a maiden public film screening at the salon indien , on december 28 , in paris , auguste lumière pivots the centre of attention around his baby daughter , as he tries to feed her from a spoon .
the historical babington plot involved a catholic effort to assassinate elizabeth and replace her on the throne with her catholic cousin mary i of scotland , who had been captured and held in genteel confinement in england for 19 years . walsingham understood that mary was the focus of numerous plots , since as elizabeth’s closest living relative she was naturally a factor in catholic plots to remove elizabeth . her letters show that mary was extremely well - informed about multiple conspiracies , but elizabeth was deeply reluctant to take action against mary . since mary was a crowned queen in her own right , executing her would provide precedent for executing elizabeth , and it would undermine the mystique that elizabeth felt was essential to her rule . walsingham tried without success to get his queen to take decisive action about her cousin .
private lives of elizabeth and essex , the - 1939 bette davis plays elizabeth i and errol flynn is the dashing earl of essex . also known as
elizabeth and essex
and
elizabeth the queen
like elizabeth , etga intertwines the story of elizabeth i’s love life ( or lack thereof ) with a story about a catholic plot to depose her and walsingham’s efforts to protect her . in fact , it actually recycles part of the first film’s plot . elizabeth features a plot against the queen that is a composite of the actual ridolfi and babington plots , with the jesuit john ballard featuring as the assassin . etga shows us the babington plot somewhat more accurately , but since john ballard was already killed in the first film , they decided to rename the jesuit orchestrater of the plot robert reston .
henry viii and his six wives - 1973 a film version of the bbc television series . keith michell stars again as henry , but the wives ' actresses are different from the television series .
the script appropriately makes mary’s relationship with elizabeth a key element , with the scottish queen refusing to cede any ground , though clearly her insecurities about her fellow sovereign to the south betray such confidence . having mary speak in the first person via unsent letters addressed to elizabeth reps a clever way of laying bare her emotional state and avoids the stolid tendencies of other historical pics , but as written here , the missives provide factual explanations and reveal a few anxieties without shining much light on mary’s choices .
young bess - 1953 jean simmons plays the teenage princess elizabeth . stewart grainger is thomas seymour and deborah kerr as queen katherine parr .
forsyth said mary ' s story shows human beings at their best and worst . the exhibition presents mary as enigmatic , leaving open whether she was betrayed or was an adulteress with her husband ' s blood on her hands .
we wanted to re - establish her as a vital , living queen ,
said forsyth .
in the same section featuring “manakamana , ” a movie exclusively focused on characters riding back and forth in a cable car over the course of two hours , the programmers included “pays barbare , ” an italian compilation of archival footage from the italo - ethiopian war , in addition to korean director hong sang - soo’s blithe dramedy “our sunhi . ” then there’s golden leopard winner “the story of my death , ” catalan director albert serra’s provocative treatment of the casanova story ( which included a cameo by dracula ) wasn’t the only anti - biopic in the section ; it also contained “mary queen of scots , ” an elegant period drama from swiss director thomas imbach .
swiss director thomas imbach tackles the story of mary stuart in a small - scale and serious biopic , headlined by camille rutherford and mehdi dehbi .
this movie was so good ! i went into it expecting a sad , meandering , cerebral period drama , and that ' s exactly what i got . it focuses on mary ' s childhood up to her imprisonment , with a few flash - forwards to her execution . the 20 - odd years of her actual imprisonment aren ' t included . the film makes the viewer feel rather lonely . written and acted impeccably , and the scenery and costumes are amazing . it rather reminds me at times of both the sullen , dreamy , rainy 2011
wuthering heights
film ; or the trance - like sunny
picnic at hanging rock
. this film is definitely a new favorite .
etga follows the basic facts of the babington plot , but it does make a few key changes . as noted , ballard was renamed so as not to conflict with the first movie . the film lays out the messages being smuggled to mary in beer barrels and walsingham’s monitoring of the plot , although how he discovers the plot is wrong . in the film , he simply arrests some catholics who give him the lead he needs ; also his ( i think fictitious ) brother william is a catholic entangled in the plot .
the general feel – the mix of water and hills , forest and mountains – is very good : the forests are a realistic blend of scots pine and birch . but it only reflects the highlands . that ties in with the view peddled abroad since queen victoria : that of a bare , rugged land , inhabited by wild men in kilts . it ' s also highly unlikely there were bears in medieval times : we think they became extinct in scotland in the prehistoric period .
showrunner mccarthy describes the show as deliberately taking liberties with history , and that it ' s more
entertainment
than history , while actress anna popplewell refers to the show as
fantasy history
, exploring the characters in hypothetical situations . actress megan follows describes the show as
24 for the pre - renaissance
, as they may extend historical events over a longer period of time . mccarthy adds that the show is designed to be interesting to a contemporary audience , so viewers who aren ' t familiar with history will be able to watch and relate to the characters . among the creative choices is the use of modern music in the show soundtrack , and its costumes . the show ' s costumes are designed by meredith markworth - pollack , who worked on the cw ' s other shows hart of dixie and gossip girl , who created different looks for mary and her ladies , each to complement their differing personalities . the ladies : lola , kenna , greer , and aylee , are loosely based on mary beaton , mary seton , mary fleming , and mary livingston who were ladies - in - waiting to mary , queen of scots .
darnley turns out to be a scheming fanatic intent on preventing any protestant inroads . following his early death , quickly passed over , mary unwisely falls for bothwell , who becomes husband no . 3 ; in reality , they were not married by john knox ( tony curran ) as the film suggests , one of many historical inaccuracies that add nothing in terms of plot or atmosphere . it’s hardly giving away the game to state that the pic ends just before mary’s arrest .
upon examination , this plot doesn’t work . if elizabeth had been assassinated , mary would have automatically become queen , and there would have been no need for a spanish invasion . executing mary was the last thing philip wanted to happen , because it meant that there was no catholic heir to the throne ( the new heir , mary’s son james , having been raised as a protestant ) , which would make controlling england after the conquest a bigger problem , since there is no catholic heir to put on the throne as a spanish puppet ( although as the widower of elizabeth’s older sister mary i , philip had his own very weak claim ) . had philip simply been waiting for an excuse , mary’s imprisonment would probably have been enough on its own . in actuality , the execution of mary forced philip to take action when he was probably reluctant to do so .
still , it cherishes a soap - opera approach to history , condensing several decades of pretty complicated diplomacy into an account of mary’s three marriages , her second husband’s bisexuality , elizabeth’s quirky affair with her master of horses , and so on .
mary went on to marry her first cousin , lord darnley , who wanted to reign as co - sovereign , but mary refused and started plotting divorce . darnley was killed in an explosion , and many believed that mary and her third husband , lord bothwell , were to blame for darnley ' s death . it ' s also been said that before mary married bothwell , he and his men abducted and raped her .
with the help of a magic cauldron , mephistopheles conjures up a variety of supernatural characters .
( switzerland - france ) a pathe ( in switzerland ) release of a pathe film presentation of an okofilm , srf swiss radio and television , srg ssr , arte , bachim film , takafilm , sciapode production . ( international sales : okofilm , zurich . ) produced by andrea staka , thomas imbach . co - producers , urs fitze , stefan hofmann , sven waelti , eric morfaux . executive producers , emilie blezat , sibylle sarah imbach .
elizabeth the queen - 1968 television play from 1968 based on the maxwell anderson play . judith anderson is elizabeth i , and charlton heston is essex .
mary’s short marriage to the young french dauphin , and then king , francois ii ( sylvain levitte , appropriately sickly ) , in 1558 , is done away with in a quick sequence that forms something of a prolog to the frenchified queen’s return to scotland , where she settles after her husband’s untimely demise .
reign opens in 1557 , with mary stuart ( adelaide kane ) 15 years old and living at a french convent . she and the young nuns play soccer until it’s time to have lunch outdoors . one of the nuns begins bleeding out of her mouth and ears and drops dead in her porridge ; it’s revealed that she was mary’s food taster , and so clearly there is a plot afoot to poison mary . the mother superior decides that it’s time to send mary back to the french royal court because the convent is unsafe .
when she quickly married the man suspected of orchestrating the killing , an uprising against the couple resulted in her being imprisoned in loch leven castle . forced to abdicate her throne to her year - old son , she failed in an attempt to wrest back the throne and fled for the protection of her cousin , england’s queen elizabeth 1 . mary had once claimed to be the rightful queen of england , a view embraced by catholics . perceived as a threat by her cousin , she was confined and ultimately executed for complicity in a plot to assassinate elizabeth .
tower of london , the - 1939 basil rathbone as richard iii . ( actually , this is sort of outside of the time period , but the character of henry tudor is included )
guy’s book has been said to dispel the popular image of mary as a romantic leading lady who achieved her ends through feminine wiles , and establishes her as the intellectual and political equal of elizabeth i .
mary is all set to marry her betrothed , that dashing , bestubbled stud muffin prince francis ( toby regbo ) . francis , however , has other ideas . so do his scheming mother , queen catherine ( megan follows , one of the few members of the cast who escapes with her reputation unscathed ) and his dangerously handsome half - brother bash ( torrance coombs ) .
imbach said his film stuck as closely to the facts as possible :
a lot of [ her life ] is still controversial . was she involved in the murder of her husband ? historians still have their battles on this . as a spectator , you can make your choices .
( there have been several film versions of richard iii . i ' ve included the best known . henry vii makes an appearance , so i guess it counts as a tudor movie ! see also
looking for richard , above
)
a whistle stop tour through the life of mary if know nothing about her . but no stopping to find out about anyone else and all the detail is missing .
who ? : nottingham - born samantha morton played mary in the 2007 movie opposite cate blanchett ' s elizabeth i .
the sound has been found in the form of an old edisonian recording cylinder . the cylinder was repaired , then walter murch ace mpse synced the film to the correct music in ( i believe ) 2002 . total running time is approximately 17 seconds .
the team of director charles jarrott and producer hall wallis , fresh from their triumph over “anne of the thousand days , ” needed to look no further than the rivalry between mary and elizabeth for their next historical soap opera .
crowning glories ? : her appearance in atonement - which starred another screen mary , vanessa redgrave - saw her become one of the youngest people to be nominated for an oscar .
delicately featured french actress camille rutherford ( low life ) stars as the titular queen but her delivery , in french and english , is often stilted and she struggles to illuminate the complexity of her character in the way zweig , partly inspired by the writings of his fellow viennese contemporary , sigmund freud , did . the young actress is not aided by a middling screenplay , by imbach and andrea staka ( who also produced ) and co - writer eduard habsburg , which favors historical chronology over psychological insight - - though the writers do have the good sense to end the film before mary’s famous head’s chopped off .
other forthcoming films include one by eric fellner and tim bevan , the team behind hits including notting hill . irish actress saorsie ronan is reportedly cast in the title role . the production will be directed by oscar - winning danish film - maker susanne bier . the co - scriptwriter , michael hirst , collaborated on the oscar - winning elizabeth , starring cate blanchett as the virgin queen .
spellbinding film - making , fused with histrionic , ominous photography and music , set in seasick pantomime . rutherford is masterclass in a star - making turn , and imbach imbued blocking like a theater pro . a
as the plot developed , it came to focus around a wealthy catholic named anthony babington , who was in what he thought was secret coded communication with mary via those beer barrels , never realizing that gifford and another member of the plot were letting walsingham decode and read the letters . the jesuit priest john ballard was working to gain spanish agreement to launch an invasion on england in mary’s name , while babington was being maneuvered to win mary’s assent to a scheme in which babington was to assassinate elizabeth , mary would be rescued from confinement , and then placed on the throne . mary eventually sent babington a letter laying out what she saw as necessary for any plot to rescue her from captivity . this letter on its own was probably enough to implicate mary in the whole plot , but one of the spies copied it and added a postscript in which mary appeared to agree to the effort to kill elizabeth . that was enough to let walsingham arrest ballard and babington , who were subsequently executed .
lowden , who won an olivier award for 2013’s ghosts , broke into features with yann demange’s ’71 and is next up in christopher nolan’s war epic , dunkirk , from warner bros . he is also starring in the biopic of the smiths’ frontman , morrissey , england is mine , and recently wrapped the stephen merchant - helmed feature fighting with my family . in 2016 , he played nikolai rostov in the bbc / weinstein co adaptation of war & peace . he’s repped by uta and conway van gelder grant in the uk .
henry viii of england discards one wife , katharine of aragon , who has failed to produce a male heir , in favor of the young and beautiful anne boleyn .


cuban story : the truth about fidel castro revolution is a 1959 film documentary narrated by errol flynn , and the last known performance work of his career .

it was one of two films flynn made about the cuban revolution during the early period when castro was publicly denying his communist allegiance , the other being the drama-documentary cuban rebel girls ( 1959 ) .

cuban story

the cuban story by herbert l . matthews , 1961 | online research library : questia
he also appeared in the documentary he made , cuban story , which was a far more substantial piece , and in hindsight , has become one of the key accounts of castro ' s revolution .
signed an option with a canadian company , lucid dreams , to co - write cuba saga , a tv series based on my father , errol flynn , and the powers that were in cuba . . . and use some of the cuban story footage . cooool subject
robin hood and the cuban revolutionaries is broadcast on radio 4 on saturday at 1030 bst .
the international journal of cuban studies , vol . 9 , no . 1 , spring 2017
eight cuban - american gainesvillians share their memories , hopes and everlasting connections with their beloved island nation .
cuban landed a job selling software , and eventually formed his own consulting business , microsolutions . cuban was soon an expert in the field of computers and computer networking . he also had a knack for building a smart , profitable company . in 1990 , cuban sold the firm to compuserve for $ 6 million .
cuban story taps into the feelings of injustice , unrest , and disillusionment felt by cuba ' s population at the time . the student demonstrations - the reaction of the people . it ' s about men who acted upon their convictions and conveys the time frame , the context , in which this took place . retroactively , it is fascinating .
but towards the end of his life , flynn was at the epicentre of fidel castro ' s cuban revolution .
hello all - my dad ' s film cuban story is now on sale on amazon . for those who are unaware of it - my father lived with errol flynn in havana during the last days of batista . together they filmed castro ' s rise to power - with errol flynn presenting and narrating the events featuring castro , che , batista and himself . urltoken
looking bloated and ill , he starred alongside beverly in cuban rebel girls , in what turned out to be his final film appearance .
cuban story , a truly revolutionary motion picture is certainly the only film in history to star both errol flynn and fidel castro ! back in the 1950s , errol flynn and producer victor pahlen owned a movie theater in havana . they happened to be there when castro ' s revolution broke out around them , so they took to the streets with their cameras to document history as it happened , at ground zero . the result was a unique documentary of castro
unfortunately , the cuban story is not clearly written . only two of the seven chapters , the one on castro and the concluding analysis of american journalistic response , are free from redundancy and disorganization . in expressing his contradictory hopes and apprehensions , gratification and disappointment , matthews scrambles criticism , rationalization and suggestions in no particular order . often , following his line of argument is like watching a tennis match . his own self - defense takes on a willy lomanesque incoherence .
i know that i will never feel completely at home in either country because they are both a part of me . that ' s the life of an immigrant , living on the spectrum of the hyphen , because i am now not just a cuban or an american , but a cuban - american .
in 2000 , mark cuban introduced himself to the nba community when he purchased the dallas mavericks for $ 285 million from ross perot jr . for cuban , a longtime season ticket holder , the chance to be a part of the professional sports world was a dream . the mavericks , however , were far from a dream franchise .
' s uprising , hosted by flynn , featuring unrivaled footage of the conflict and castro himself . circumstances outside their control shelved the film for nearly fifty years ;
cuban story
has never been screened , never seen , never released - - until now . all day entertainment is proud to have worked with the pahlen family to restore this landmark documentary from the only surviving negative materials , stored in england for nearly a half century . includes an introduction by producer victor pahlen ' s daughter , kyra pahlen .
after his freshman year at pitt , cuban transferred to indiana university . his understanding of supply and demand extended outside of the classroom . needing to make money to continue his education ( he was paying his own tuition ) cuban started giving dance lessons . that endeavor soon led him to hosting lavish disco parties at the bloomington national guard armory .
it was an accident that my interview with fidel castro in the sierra maestra on february 17 , 1957 , should have proved so important . there was a story to be got , a censorship to be broken . i got it and i did it - and it so happens that neither cuba nor the united states is going to be the same again .
with matthews , however , journalistic participation preceded commitment . as the new york times correspondent whose interview with fidel in february , 1957 , established the fact that the guerilla leader was still alive , and as the editorial writer who martialed the forces in opposition to batista , matthews indeed turned out to be the equivalent of an army division to castro . since the revolution has not developed in matthews ' image ; it would be simple to say that the cuban story has been written from a posture of disillusion ; but it would also be inaccurate .
after graduating in 1981 , cuban moved back to pittsburgh and took a job with mellon bank , just as the company was ready to switch over to computers . cuban immersed himself in the study of machines and networking . however , he had no real desire to hang out in his home city for too long , and in 1982 he left pittsburgh for dallas .
entrepreneur and professional sports team owner mark cuban was born on july 31 , 1958 , in pittsburgh , pennsylvania . cuban had a typically middle - class childhood . his father , norton , spent nearly half a century working at a car upholstery shop . his grandfather , morris chobanisky , emigrated from russia and fed his family by selling merchandise out of the back of a truck .
cubans are patient only because they have no choice . i’ve watched my parents go from working as a town director and school system supervisor in our homeland to working in housecleaning at a miami hotel . i’ve been through dental school twice . i’ve learned english as an adult . i’ve been ostracized by my cuban community for being chosen in the cuban lottery for a u . s . visa .
cuban faced additional problems around that time , as a sports illustrated report of sexual harassment and other forms of misconduct within the mavericks & apos ; front office had prompted the team to open an internal investigation . in march , an nba spokesperson said the league was reviewing an alleged incident of sexual assault involving cuban from 2011 , which ended with prosecutors declining to press charges at the time .
cuban exile and author carlos eire said :
at that point when flynn was there , castro ' s policies were purely democratic . his goal was to remove batista and stabilise the nation politically .
born in pittsburgh in 1958 , entrepreneur mark cuban has ventured into many diverse businesses . he made his fortune through the sale of startups microsolutions and urltoken in the 1990s , and later became known as the zealous owner of the nba & apos ; s dallas mavericks . cuban has also invested in film production , and has appeared on such tv series as dancing with the stars and shark tank .
despite the hardship of merely trying to survive , the cuban people managed to laugh , hug , kiss and dance . they welcomed me back with open arms during a time when it was unheard of and even shameful for cuban - americans to come home . amid this widespread poverty and ostracism , i was enamored with my country — its heritage , diversity , beauty , culture and its undying energy .
co - founder of the successful startup broadcast . com , mark cuban is known as the zealous owner of the nba ' s dallas mavericks and a star of the tv show ' shark tank . '
cuban again courted controversy in may 2014 , when he made some comments that were widely perceived as racist . on the subject of bigotry , he stated ,
if i see a black kid in a hoodie on my side of the street , i & apos ; ll move to the other side of the street .
cuban then explained that he tried
to always catch my prejudices .
cuban later expressed remorse for his comments , posting ,
i didn & apos ; t consider the trayvon martin family , and i apologize to them for that .
he also tweeted that
i have my failings . . . but a racist i am not .
cuban married his longtime girlfriend tiffany stewart in 2002 . they have three children together , daughters alexis ( born 2003 ) and alyssa ( 2006 ) , and son jake ( 2010 ) . the family resides in the dallas area .
in 2004 , cuban caught the attention of the security and exchange commission ( sec ) , which charged him with insider trading in regards to an internet search engine website . cuban claimed he was innocent , and in july 2009 the case was dismissed . however , the case was reinstated the following year . it was also during this time that cuban joined the series shark tank as a venture capitalist , allowing for the trial to be put on hold . in march 2013 , judge sidney a . fitzwater let the case go to trial once again . the trial began on october 1 , 2013 . later that month , he was officially cleared of all charges of insider trading by a texas jury .
well before president obama relaxed the travel restrictions , i quietly traveled back and forth to my country more than 80 times — sometimes for business , as one of gainesville’s cultural programs coordinators , and sometimes for pleasure . the architecture , music , dance , art and literature of the cuban people stand in a class all their own . i’ve been honored and fortunate to have worked so closely with some of the most renowned cuban artists in the world , in both my work life and in my personal life .
cuban showed himself to be the club & apos ; s biggest booster . choosing to sit with the fans , cuban egged on opponents and derided refs , and the mavericks responded positively to the new owner & apos ; s zeal . the team qualified for the playoffs in 2001 , set a franchise record for wins ( 57 ) the following year and made it to the 2006 nba finals before losing to the miami heat . in 2011 , the mavericks finally won the nba title by defeating the heat .
cuban & apos ; s go - getter attitude extended to the classroom as well . he started taking psychology classes at the university of pittsburgh during his junior year of high school . he then skipped his senior year and enrolled full time at the college .
la bodeguita del medio is a crowded bar in old havana , once a bohemian haunt , now a tourist trap with a three - piece band playing cuban standards in the corner . it still serves good rum cocktails , though . indeed , its walls are covered with graffiti
the story of cuba ; batista ' s regime , the rise and taking of power by castro and the administration of power by castro unfurls on film , including never seen before shots of castro and his men , the events at santa clara , his guerrilla trainer from mexico , fidel ' s entrance into havana , che guevara and the revolutionaries , batista ' s executions , fidel ' s first speech at the camp of columbia , the people ' s excavations of the student bodies killed by batista ' s men , the post revolutionary trials , and the executions that followed . . .
cuban also brought his business acumen to the world of film and television production by purchasing the landmark theatres chain and magnolia pictures in 2003 . he & apos ; s listed as an executive producer for such acclaimed movies as goodnight and good luck ( 2005 ) and akeelah and the bee ( 2006 ) , and further augmented his own celebrity with appearances in the popular tv series entourage and the league . in 2015 , cuban also showed up in the big - screen version of entourage , and starred as u . s . president marcus robbins in the disaster flick sharknado 3 .
my family has had a strong connection to ernest hemingway’s life in cuba for decades , and i followed that relationship , authoring a book based on my father’s friendship with the famous american author :
hemingway’s cuban son .
in addition , i’ve helped in the creation of three hemingway documentaries .
cuban also brought a touch of innovation to his ownership of the team . he was the first owner to launch his own blog , a swirling mix of his own tech insights and thoughts on nba basketball . the blog became wildly popular , receiving thousands of emails a day from his readers .
the cuban influx to miami enriched the area , bringing diversity and economic growth in the 1970s . my family helped many others as they acclimated to the states , but i was never to return to cuba again , until just two years ago . it had been 59 years since i’d last been .
his fortune making , however , was far from done . sensing that a new world awaited with the development of the internet , cuban and a business partner , indiana alum todd wagner , started audionet in 1995 . its formation was rooted in a desire to be able to listen to indiana hoosier basketball games online . the company , despite its early critics , proved to be a smash success . renamed broadcast . com , the firm went public in 1998 and soon saw its stock reach $ 200 a share . a year later , wagner and cuban sold out to yahoo ! for nearly $ 6 billion .
in february 2018 , with the mavericks owning one of the worst records in the nba , cuban admitted that he told his team that
losing is our best option
to obtain a top pick in the nba draft , a comment that drew a whopping $ 600 , 000 fine from the league .
plagued by poor personnel decisions and mediocre players and coaches , the club experienced more than a decade of non - playoff basketball games . cuban used his new role as owner to immediately change that . with his trademark enthusiasm and doggedness , he revamped the culture of the team and its roster , erecting a new stadium and pampering his players .
every major revolution polarizes observers into partisans , but it seems a singular power of the cuban revolution to excite in its onlookers a deep sense of participation . as the body of literature devoted to castro ' s victory grows , more and more books appear implicitly devoted to the impact of the revolutionary struggle on the author ' s thought processes and outlook .
like his grandfather , cuban displayed a tenacity for making a deal and carving out a better life for himself . at the age of 12 , he sold sets of garbage bags to save up for a pair of shoes he liked . in high school , he earned extra dollars any way he could , mainly by becoming a stamp and coin salesman .
while cuban has every reason to go into retirement mode , he & apos ; s done anything but that . he made a big foray into the high - definition tv market with hdnet ( later axs tv ) ; launched his own reality tv series ; and on the advice of his young daughter , was a contestant on dancing with the stars in 2007 .
cuban remained on top of technology trends by launching a social media app called cyber dust in 2014 . true to form , he also thrust himself into the national conversation when inspired , boasting he could beat both hillary clinton and donald trump as campaigning for the u . s . presidency heated up in 2015 . in july 2016 , the billionaire threw his support behind hillary clinton .
the state department ' s refusal to believe in the plasticity of the cuban revolution , is matthew ' s major regret . in his chapter on fidel castro , he complains :
each year since 1957 there has been a different fidel castro to deal with , yet each year - - each day , in fact - - he is treated as if the ideas he holds then and the policies he is following will not or cannot change .
my own work , however , is the impetus for my second book :
an island of oceans and skies : memoir of a cuban son . ” it’s based on my childhood in cuba , which is never far from my mind , as my family instilled within me the importance of keeping strong ties with our family left in cuba . i’ve visited my home country several times over the decades , and the new relations between our two countries is a welcome change .
online and off , cuban is an unfiltered force of opinion , a bombastic personality among the rather stodgy inner circle of nba ownership . he made waves when he referred to kobe bryant & apos ; s sexual assault case of 2003 as
great for the nba . it & apos ; s reality television , people love train - wreck television , and you hate to admit it , but that is the truth , that & apos ; s the reality today .
as new daily commercial air flights reconnect the u . s . with its so - close - yet - so - distant neighbor , change will be swift as thousands visit cuba for the first time . in the months and years to come , the opening of travel between the u . s . and cuba will alter perceptions forever . but for these nine cuban - americans who call gainesville home — representing thousands more like themselves — their deeply held memories of long - ago cuba are woven into the fabric of their lives . here are their stories :
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urltoken
newspaper articles written by film star errol flynn documenting his last years spent in cuba with fidel castro ' s rebels have been unearthed in a university library .
mention the name of errol flynn , and an image of a larger - than - life , swashbuckling screen hero comes to mind . or the sly grin of a sexual athlete who sparked the saying :
in like flynn .
it was a surprise to discover the famous actor moonlighted as a newspaper correspondent who wrote a number of articles about his adventures .
his features
me and castro
and
i fought with castro
for the new - york journal american remained unread for 50 years , buried in the archives of the university of texas at austin ' s center for american history .
i have always been a fan of flynn ' s films and believe he was a far better actor than he gave himself credit for .
errol flynn was cinema ' s biggest star from the mid - 30s until the late 1940s , thanks to his debut in captain blood and a series of swashbuckling epics such as the sea hawk , the dawn patrol and the adventures of robin hood .
but even i was unprepared to find the man who was a screen idol as robin hood to a generation of movie - goers in the company of revolutionary pin - ups fidel castro and che guevara . but , ever the hero , he admired those who fought on others ' behalf .
i was surprised to find there was a serious side to flynn - he sympathised with the republicans during the spanish civil war , and set off for spain
to follow in hemingway ' s footsteps
in february 1937 .
while in madrid , flynn condemned the fascist general franco . he was shelled , survived an aerial attack and narrowly avoided being machine - gunned by an over - enthusiastic republican .
errol ' s daughter rory flynn said the public image of her father did not accurately reflect the man who wrote two novels , an autobiography and newspaper reports .
she said :
it is said that he was a swashbuckling hedonist , but my father was a serious man .
he thought about things , he wrote books , he wrote poems and he wrote documentaries , this is not just something that came about .
he wrote for the hearst ( news ) papers . i think underneath it all , he was a journalist .
flynn had been a regular visitor to batista ' s cuba , where the dictator welcomed distinguished tourists , drawn to the island for its brothels and legalised gambling .
by the time he returned to the country in late 1958 with his teenage girlfriend beverly aadland , a lifetime of hard - living had taken its toll , and roles were hard to find - although ironically , during the dog days of his career , flynn gave two of his best - received performances - the sun also rises and the roots of heaven .
i feel that the citizens will know who you are . . . and it will cheer them to know that someone from the united states , whom they perhaps have seen on the screen , is interested enough to come and see them
flynn claimed castro invited him to cuba at the very dawn of the revolution .
beverly aadland said :
errol had talked to hearst newspapers in new york about interviewing castro , and through some contacts in the ' havana hilton ' , went up into the sierra mistra mountains to talk to fidel .
beverly was installed at the capital ' s prestigious commodore hotel , while flynn went off to the mountains with the rebels , spending five days with castro and interviewing him .
in his articles , he described how fidel castro told him that
no american knew him or his brother raul better than i did
and how he gave cuba ' s leader lessons in public speaking .
castro is quoted as saying to flynn :
i feel that the citizens will know who you are . . . and it will cheer them to know that someone from the united states , whom they perhaps have seen on the screen , is interested enough to come and see them .
flynn also reportedly had a brief encounter with che guevara , who did not recognise the bloated and faded film star when they met .
in other articles he described gun battles and how he was shot in the leg . he also witnessed castro ' s swearing - in as president in february 1959 .
but flynn was criticised for spending time with the rebels , and had to defend his allegiances .
he wrote :
ever since boyhood i have been drawn , perhaps romantically - to the ideas of causes , crusades .
beverly said she felt he did not realise castro would go on to be a communist .
i think he was a hero - worshipper , and i think errol thought that castro was a good guy trying to free the country for everyday citizens . i guess castro fooled him too ,
she said .
fidel castro and his men knew how to work the publicity machine , and there was freedom of the press .
this is one sign of how inefficient batista ' s repression was , basically if any foreign journalist or big star like errol flynn wanted to go and end up in the mountains , they ' d end up there .
flynn was impressed with the vigour of the revolution , and was behind two films made in cuba at the time .
but the film was panned as
a truly pathetic swansong to a mighty career
by critics .
in the last months of his life , flynn was beset by financial woes and ill health , his third wife patrice wymore wanted to divorce him and he was being sued .
he died in vancouver , aged 50 , on 14 october , 1959 , where he and beverly had travelled to sell his beloved yacht zaca to try and pay off some of his debts .
errol flynn ' s life was one of contrasts - a star who wanted to be an actor ; a legendary hedonist who wanted to be taken seriously as a writer and a man who deliberately placed himself in the heart of two revolutions .
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by herbert l . matthews . published by george braziller , new york , 1961 . $ 18 pp . $ 4 . 50 .
such is the nature of herbert matthews ' new book , and so it was with the works of jean - paul sartre , c . wright mills , jules dubois and warren miller . it follows that none of the writing on cuba thus far can be classified as objective history ; what has been produced is a literary extension of the issues and conflicts raised by the revolution . sartre and mills , to whom the revolution was like an overdose of hormones , totally altered their styles in trying to influence popular attitudes . mills even admitted to a quasi - military intent when he said that mobilization of public opinion against an invasion was a goal of listen yankee .
when hostility to castro mounted in this country , matthews came in for a disproportionate share of the retrospective blame . the national review carried what he himself admits is a clever cartoon , showing a happy castro saying
i got my job through the new york times .
the attack on matthews was far from humorous , however . the eastland - dodd committee questioned his failure to warn of the communist potential in castro ' s movement . the author ' s primary concern , therefore , is self - defense , and he argues passionately , if not eloquently , that truth in a revolutionary situation is not absolute but relative to the shifting logic of the revolution .
those who harped on the communist line later said : ' i told you so ,
matthews says of his critics - -
they helped to make their guess come true .
after an event happens , it takes on an inevitability and one feels that - it had to happen . . . . those who live close to the events , who are a part of them , who know that the forces and pressures involved at any given time in any particular circumstance are enormously complex . . . know there is no inevitability .
castro ' s political - psychological make - up is one of the subjects that matthews handles with a good deal of insight . there is notion in the united states that communism is so analogous to disease that it spreads by the same mechanism . thus throughout 1959 and 1960 it was suggested in the daily press and the newsweeklies that castro could easily become a communist by proximity to che guevara ( who was identified as a congenital communist ) . it was never hinted at this time that forced economic and political reliance on the soviet bloc could have the same effect .
some of the blame must rest with whoever edited the book for braziller . for example , criticism of the american ambassadors , arthur gardner , earl e . t . smith , and phillip bonsal is interspersed throughout the volume , and had it been collected and discussed within one chapter , a far clearer statement of what ambassadorial responsibilities entail would have resulted .
stylistically , sartre and mills may have altered their approaches too much , but matthews has adjusted his too little . the four - paragraph clusters of the editorial writer sever many logical threads ; and time and again there is a relapse into philosophical speculation and repetitive generalizations about the responsibility of the reporter .
matthews concludes by defending his integrity with such genuine and profuse emotion that his sincerity becomes almost embarrassing . it is not the sincerity of a man recanting ; the author ' s admiration for castro and sense of loyalty to the revolution ' s expressed ideals are real , while his disappointment is parenthetical . it is the insistence of a journalist who sees hope in any disruption of an impoverished , deprived society .
with both the iconic and the new , these eight local boston and cambridge - area establishments have come to define the harvard experience for students both old and new .
venture university aims to curate and develop emerging investors and entrepreneurs entering the industry .
the undergraduate awards programme 2018 , the world’s leading undergraduate academic awards programme , recognises outstanding undergraduate work and shares it with a global audience .
zambrero opens in harvard square and warwick , rhode island , donating a meal to someone in need for every burrito or bowl sold .
journalists rarely make history . this is not our function . we are the chroniclers of our times ; at best we provide material for history .
i am not accepting , for myself or for the new york times , either blame or credit for having started fidel castro on his meteoric rise to fame and power . he was a man of destiny who would somehow have made his mark , sooner or later . cuba was ripe for revolution .
the united states had a reckoning to pay for past policies . what adlai stevenson had called
the revolution of rising expectations
was exerting dangerous pressures . . .
the catholic historical review , vol . 89 , no . 3 , july 2003
peer - reviewed publications on questia are publications containing articles which were subject to evaluation for accuracy and substance by professional peers of the article ' s author ( s ) .
the nation , vol . 266 , no . 3 , january 26 , 1998
fidels new poster boy ; fidel castro : controller of cuba since 1959 . brother raul now runs a country with huge problems
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i was 9 years old when my family and i boarded a pan am flight from cuba to the united states with two small suitcases and no money in our pockets . i knew nothing other than we were going to go to miami beach for a little while .
that was in 1960 , and i wouldn’t return to my country for 32 years .
in february 1992 , i was living north of montreal , now a wizened 41 . it seemed as if all of canada traveled to cuba during winter , and i went with the flow , with no idea what was in store for me .
they called it the “special period . ” in the years following russia’s pullout from the country , cuba was devastated . its people , branded communists , left demoralized , anxious and very , very hungry . the form of communism i witnessed when i went back to my birthplace alone , ill - equipped and terrified seemed more like a totalitarian dictatorship .
i am proud today to be able to share my thoughts , theories and experiences with the world for the greater good of cuba and its people .
i was born in the city of matanzas , a city on the northern coast , 60 miles east of havana . called
the athens of cuba
, matanzas overlooks a wide bay into which three rivers drain . it had great neoclassic architecture and was the hub of literary , artistic and musical talent in cuba ( birthplace of two famous dances ,
the rumba
and the national dance of cuba ,
the danzon
) and to many gifted writers , composers , poets , and to the creator of the mambo .
nestled in the rich - soiled yumuri valley , matanzas is rich in sugar and coffee , which is why it was mostly populated by farmers from the canary islands and former plantation slaves . it is also the home of the world - famous varadero beach .
my family was not politically involved , but we cherished democracy . we left cuba with my maternal grandparents in 1963 . my grandfather had uncontrolled diabetes and we were allowed to leave cuba through mexico . when we left , we had to leave all our belongings . i had to leave my lifelong favorite pet , my dog , yuti , behind , which was painful for a 13 year old .
we were fortunate to start a new life in new jersey where my uncles lived . i finished high school there , went onto college at cornell university , and then to medical school at nyu in new york city . i came to uf to do my residency and training in pulmonary medicine and was offered a faculty position at uf college of medicine .
the situation in cuba has been difficult and extremely complicated . i miss my homeland . many people there have suffered through no fault of their own . the intended result of an extended embargo did not resolve the political issues there for either side . it is my belief that
one - on - one
communication with people does more for diplomacy and human rights than stern policies and dogma from political entities on either side . i have been to cuba twice in the past six years , and have relatives there so i plan to go back . i am hopeful that greater personal interchange between the two countries will allow for ease of personal liberties and further the importance of democracy and freedom as we are so fortunate to enjoy in our united states of america .
we knew things were bad , but i have memories full of love and happiness .
i left cuba when i was 28 years old , with my then - husband and eight other people . huddled together on a homemade boat made of two truck tire tubes and a crib’s safety handle , we headed to the united states in august 1994 . the three - day journey was harrowing , life - threatening , even , and i suffered from hallucinations , dehydration , and lack of food . our little float withstood waves of more than 15 feet until we were finally rescued by the u . s . coast guard .
they brought us to guantanamo bay , where i stayed as a refugee for eight months waiting to hear my fate . they let me in . in may 1995 , i arrived in the united states , and i got to gainesville a month later .
growing up in cuba from the mid - ' 60s until i left was hard , but i look back on the hardships as i saw them in my childhood . we knew things were bad , but i have memories full of love and happiness . my parents worked to the bone to provide for us best they could , and to help with the burden , i dropped out of nursing school to contribute to the family . i thought coming to the united states would allow me to more greatly help my family , so i made the treacherous journey in the hopes of a better life , both here and there .
for a decade after i arrived , i worked any job i could until i was finally able to open estevez travel out of my home in 2003 . for seven years i provided travel and legal services related to cuba , and in 2010 i opened an office in gainesville and have since been working with several universities , colleges and organizations to make organized trips to cuba .
my job now allows me to promote the relationship between my two beloved countries , while helping and visiting my family in cuba at the same time .
my family has had a strong connection to ernest hemingway’s life in cuba for decades .
i lived in cuba for the first eight years of my life , until my family emigrated to spain in 1972 . we weren’t there long , coming to the united states just two years later and settling in new jersey for the rest of my childhood .
here in gainesville , i’m acting coordinator for cultural programs at santa fe college , but i am more truly a visual artist and , over the past 30 years , i have exhibited my art in 20 one - person exhibits and in over 400 group exhibits in the united states , canada , cuba , costa rica , france , germany , italy , spain and china .
we went back . . . every summer , until the threat of nuclear war became too much .
i left cuba before castro took power . it was 1955 , and i was 4 years old . in the beginning , we went back to havana every summer , until the threat of nuclear war became too much in 1960 . the embargo against cuba began and flights were stopped . we didn’t know if we would ever see our relatives again , and we moved from new york city to miami to be closer to them , just in case .
though we stayed close to our family in cuba and maintained our traditions and faith , we were always fearful for their safety . those of us in america could not imagine the strife they were enduring — our own aunts , cousins , parents and grandparents .
growing up , our close knit family maintained our cultural traditions and our faith . we were very much connected to those in cuba , yet always anxious for the safety and well - being of our family .
visiting my 94 - year - old aunt and a cousin , still living in my grandmother’s old house , saddened me . the condition of the house was a testament to the struggle there and their will to survive .
my hope , moving forward , is that we directly help the people in cuba in terms of economic and educational opportunities . cubans do not want a welfare state ; we are a proud and industrious people and want opportunities to have a life of success and respect for human rights . let us hope we can achieve these goals with wise and judicious choices .
we left the country . . . just as my father was about to be arrested
before my parents came to the united states seeking refuge , their parents had traveled to cuba from spain seeking refuge in the late 1880s . i was born in 1954 in havana , to a school principal and an engineer . my parents had done it . they had made a better life for us , on the sacrifices their parents made for them . then , we had to do it all again .
everything changed when fidel castro took over . people were being arrested and imprisoned for handing out leaflets ; they were shot for not much more . we left the country through friends in the united states , just as my father was about to be arrested . arriving in 1960 , we were granted political amnesty .
despite the trouble there , my parents yearned to go back . they wanted the life they left behind before castro . they mourned the losses they had suffered . while most of my father’s family eventually made it to the states , my mother never saw hers again . we made a life here ; my siblings were born u . s . citizens . we love this country , but there is a hole , an empty place my soul longs for .
the embargo provided a powerful excuse for the castros to avoid responsibility for the dismal failure of their so - called revolution . they have amassed wealth while their people suffered more and more . they are dictators , not romantic revolutionaries .
i resent the depiction of cuba in the media . there is a romantic fantasy about what the country is .
people’s ration cards list bones as protein . people ' s homes are crumbling around them . the much - touted health care system includes hospitals with no medicines , clean sheets or working toilets .
while my heart longs for my homeland , i will not make the trip until there is far more change , and we are clear - eyed about what the reality is for those who live there . they should not have to wait for people in the u . s . to see the faded , crumbling cities and
vintage
cars to regain their hard - fought lives .
i worked in the treasury department . my wife was a supervisor of the school system throughout havana . on the side , i was a successful real estate salesman . i never realized how that hobby would change my entire life , would help me land safely , eventually , on the other side .
the people at the bank took all my money , everything i had . my account had been frozen along with countless others , and an old friend arranged for me to meet one bank in an old , broken - down building to get my safety deposit box . they opened it . they kept it . two thousand american dollars , lost . i left for the united states with $ 37 in my pocket . i told the government i was arranging to bring a light bulb company back to havana . i still can’t believe they allowed me my visa for that . it was 1961 .
my wife and two sons followed , on the even flimsier excuse of coming to celebrate my 37th birthday with me . they never returned .
within months , the house we bought in miami went underwater in a bad housing market . we were thrown out . everything we had just gained was lost .
gainesville was a thread of hope for us . channel 5 hired my wife , rosa , to teach spanish for tv . i joined her as soon as i could , but job prospects were low . i worked cleaning toilets , then fixing air conditioners for years until i could finally take the citizenship test in 1967 . i got my real estate license , and have now owned gore - rabell for years .
i’ve been back to cuba three times , including after my wife’s death in 2006 . each time , i saw the devastation that had overtaken my homeland and lonely remnants of what was once there .
i will go again , but i am 94 years old now . after 55 years , gainesville is my home . my wife is buried here , and here i will stay until the lord calls me home .
i’ve seen cuba go from financially strapped and rationed under russian support , to devastated and forlorn after the collapse of communist russia . and now i’m seeing the borders finally opening up . i am 36 years old .
growing up , we didn’t know we didn’t have much . when russia collapsed , we went from our meager rations to literally nothing . i had no shoes , hardly any clothes , no toys or food or medicine .
after graduating high school , i had to serve in the army where a rifle backfired into my face , nearly blinding me . despite the hardships , after my service , i managed to attend the university of havana dental school , where i was in my fourth year when my family won the visa lotto . we faced discrimination for accepting a way out of cuba — my mother was demoted and certain friends , relatives and professionals started treating us poorly .
when we left , we packed next to nothing , leaving everything we could with our extended family staying behind . they needed it more .
i learned english and went back to school , starting all over . i found a man i love , and i’m now a father to twin boys . my life is finally here .
traveling through cuba as an adult , the luscious mountains serve as a backdrop for the vast sugarcane fields , coffee plantations and royal palms . it’s idyllic , until the armed soldiers interrogate the driver of our 1940s family cadillac at the checkpoints .
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“before you guys were writing about me in the sports page , people were calling me crazy in the computer industry . people were calling me crazy in the systems integration industry . people said i was lucky . . . the more people think i ' m crazy and out of my mind , typically , the better i do . ”
in another instance , he attacked the league & apos ; s former director of officiating , ed rush , saying that he
might have been a great ref , but i wouldn & apos ; t hire him to manage a dairy queen .
the statement eventually found the chagrined billionaire putting in a day & apos ; s shift at a dairy queen in coppell , texas .
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mark zuckerberg has topped warren buffett to become the world’s third - richest person , according to the bloomberg billionaires index . the facebook co - founder trails only two other tech giants : amazon ceo jeff bezos and microsoft co - founder bill gates .
television star mark harmon has been on long - running shows such as st . elsewhere , chicago hope and ncis .
american swimmer mark spitz set a world record at the 1972 olympic games , when he won seven gold medals across individual and team events .
computer scientist and engineer mark dean is credited with helping develop a number of landmark technologies , including the color pc monitor , the industry standard architecture system bus and the first gigahertz chip .
mark burnett is a british television producer and director known for shows like survivor , the apprentice , the voice , sarah palin ' s alaska and the bible .