Movie News Archive

The Misanthrope

March 22nd
Keira lost out to Ruth Wilson at the Oliviers yesterday evening in London. Sky News had a quick chat on the red carpet on the way in, which I've uploaded here (7Mb). or on Youtube. Photos can be seen here and here. Keira has been praised for her choice of Erdem couture.
EDIT: Here's another interview, from Monday's BBC London.

March 19th
Well it's awards weekend, and the Oliviers are streaming live from this page. Not sure about non-UK viewers, but it's worth a look in. Keira wil be there, and Rupert will be presenting an award, according to this article. It's also live on BBC Radio 2.

March 12th
Tomorrow will be the last chance to catch Keira at The Comedy Theatre as the scheduled run of The Misanthrope draws to a close. Keira has said she hopes it will be the first of many theatre performances.

March 9th
The Oliviers will be covered live by BBC Radio 2 from 8pm to 10pm on the night, March 21st. Article. Listen live here.

March 3rd
There's a quick video chat with Keira at yesterday's luncheon over at ITN.

March 2nd
Keira attended the Oliviers Nominees Luncheon in London today. Speaking about her nomination for her debut stage role in The Misanthrope, she said: “[It's] like a dream come true. I never actually thought I would make it on the stage and then my debut, to then get a nomination, it’s extraordinary.” Plenty of pics and fashion analysis on the Newswire and here. Miu Miu is the label if you need to know (Miuccia Prada).

February 26th
You have just two weeks to catch Dame Keira in her debut West End performance in The Misanthrope. Official tickets are still available at the banner link above. No use waiting for the DVD, you know!

It's a full diary for Keira in March: Next Tuesday the 2nd, Keira will attend The Haymarket Hotel in London for an Oliviers Nominees Luncheon, and the ceremony itself is on the 21st. Inbetween are Keira's daily Misanthrope performances, with the celebrations to mark the end of The Misanthrope's run at The Comedy Theatre on the 13th. The Beautiful & The Damned may finally start filming in late March, according to rumours. Oh, and the lady herself is 25 years old on the 26th. With London Boulevard a possible April release, if you thirst for red carpet Keira, the drought may be over!

The Olivier Awards will be streamed online for the first time this year, reports the official site. As I mentioned recently, they usually only have interviews and award winner announcements, so this is great news (provided the servers hold out!).

February 16th
The Oliviers will not be televised in the UK, laments an article in Variety today. Given the launch of the excellent Sky Arts (which produced a great series Theatreland last year), and More4's launch of an arts and theatre strand, you'd think it would have got picked up, especially this year with such a Hollywood presence. The official Oliviers site will have cameras there for winners' announcements and interviews, and they'll appear online.

February 8th
The full list of Olivier nominations have now been published. The Misanthrope is nominated in Best Costume and Best Production Revival categories, as well as Best Supporting Actress for Keira. She will be up against Rachel Weisz, Ruth Wilson and her Duchess co-star Hayley Atwell among others.

February 7th
Keira has been nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance as Jennifer in The Misanthrope. This is fantastic news for a debut role as the Oliviers are the UK equivalent of America's Tony Awards, pretty much the Oscars of British theatre. The awards ceremony will be held in London on March 21st. Article - Official site.
Thanks Wavy

February 6th
A man has been arrested after harrassing Keira outside the Comedy Theatre for several days. Polish national Marek Daniluk was arrested on Thursday and is now due to appear on trial on June 4th. The ability to see your idol in a public street every night is exciting for many people (just see the faces and hear the delight of the people in the Youtube vids for confirmation of that), but for some people who, perhaps, are convinced she is appearing only for them, it 's very easy to cross the line.
Article - Latest on the Newswire.

January 17th
The Andrew Marr interview is online now at my Youtube channel. The BBC have a version of it (if viewable in your country). I've also put online a downloadable HD copy (56Mb) at Rapidshare and Sendspace.

January 11th
Keira will chat to Andrew Marr on his Sunday morning show on the 17th, from 9am on BBC1. Presumably it's a pre-recorded Misanthrope promotion, now that the tickets and reviews frenzy has died down. The production has benefitted greatly from these two huge stories, which literally ran for weeks and weeks. Damian also chats to Jonathan Ross on his BBC Radio 2 show this Saturday.

January 10th
Slow news time at the moment... But there are more Misanthrope reviews online

December 23rd
Here's another great audio review of The Misanthrope by a panel of critics on BBC Radio 4, and there's daily additions to the Plaudits page. The Guardian has an illustrated guide to the play.

December 19th
The Telegraph has a video review of The Misanthrope, and BBC's Front Row radio programme has a positive review too. More praise online.
Thanks Roger

December 18th
And so the reviews are in. Predictably, The Daily Mail rushed out a negative review first, knowing the world was waiting for soundbites from the critics. Sadly, it's the reviewers comments that have been picked up by the waiting world's media (it later amended the article to include more seemingly-negative comments). So intent was it on Keira-bashing, it omitted to review the other cast at all, including its lead, Damian Lewis. Happily, it was in the extreme minority as the rest of the press were impressed by Keira's performance.
Read Reviews - Photos - Video

December 17th
- Keira's co-stars Rosamund Pike and Jonathan Pryce, plus Charles Dance, Emilia Fox and Neil Pearson turned out for the official first night of The Misanthrope tonight.
- A few more articles in the press today: The Times 1 : 2 - The Guardian
- The official site has a gallery of production photographs online.

December 15th
Keira has revealed her concerns ahead of tomorrow's Press Night for The Misanthrope. She spoke to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme this morning. Listen to the interview - and an excerpt from the play - here.

December 12th
There's a profile of Misanthrope director Thea Sharrock in Saturday's Times. In it she talks at length about casting Keira and 'defends' Keira and her performance. The very title of the piece, 'Thea Sharrock Defends Keira Knightley' removes any hint that the article is in fact a very interesting potted biography of the woman and mother of two who is tipped to be the next head of The National Theatre. Not the best choice of words there from The Times. Defend Keira from what, given great reviews all week? If the title intends 'Thea Sharrock defends [her choice in casting] Keira Knightley', then it should say so. Surely The Times hasn't descended to sensationalist hooks for its headlines? You would think the world, or as the article puts it, the "rabidly baying public" is expecting, nay wanting, the press to rip apart Keira's performace at next Thursday's press night so The Times has asked the director to get her defence in early. I'm sure that wasn't the point of the interview, but you'd be forgiven for thinking that until you read the full text. Whatever the intention, let's hope this article's ambiguous title doesn't prove counter-productive this time next week. I'm absolutely convinced it won't.

The Independent has another article about Keira and the film-to-stage transfer vogue.

December 11th
A nice set of on-stage photos of Keira and the rest of The Misanthrope cast can be seen on photographer Geraint Lewis' web site. The Daily Mail also has some of the pics in an article today, despite some erroneous text. Baz Bamigboye redeems the paper as usual with a good review of Keira's role at the bottom of his column today.

December 8th
The BBC have helpfully provided Keira with a collection of advice from seasoned theatre thespians regarding stage nerves. Meanwhile, the London Evening Standard newspaper have spoken to a number of audience members about Keira's performance as they left the theatre.

Reviews as I find them will be published on the Plaudits page. Please let me know of any more you find, or submit your own review if you see the play. Thanks!

December 7th
The Telegraph has two articles today: an interesting interview with The Misanthrope's director Thea Sharrock and how she came to cast Keira. The other is an article on Keira's appeal which starts off quite objective then descends rapidly into unjournalistic personal opinion. Strangely, the same analysis-cum-rant was published in the Sydney Morning Herald today. Add your comments if you feel strongly enough about it.

December 6th
- Keira's stage door was besieged by fans after last night's first performance of The Misanthrope. A number of pics can be seen here and here.
- Meanwhile, the film to theatre transformation angle gets another outing in today's Independent. One of the quotes in the article states: "Their names above the door sell tickets, but in the vast majority of cases if they aren't good enough they will be found out." From the subsequent posts of last night's IMDb reviewer, such as this one, this will not apply to Keira. The beauty of repeated performances, of course, is that it can be honed and improved upon. Press Night isn't until the 17th, so there's plenty of time to iron out the creases, as t'were.
- Edit: Here's the first pic of Keira on-screen. The official site may have some more soon. - - About 50 people have joined the KeiraWeb Twitter page today since I posted about The Misanthrope - I'm slowly catching up on Ashton Kutcher :)

December 5th
Tonight was the first preview performance of The Misanthrope. A first positive review has been posted, and even a nice Tweet ! Professional criticism can make or break a theatre run, so those are the ones to look out for. You can send me your review of the performance, pics, or anything else at the email address above.

Playbill has a preview of the play and players. The Guardian has a short preview, too, while The Times has a Hollywood Comes To the West End feature.

To coincide with Keira's stage debut, London's National Portrait Gallery - just a few streets away from The Comedy Theatre - has a Michael Thompson portrait of Keira as its Photograph of the Month for December.
Thanks Tamise

November 29th
Keira, Damian, Tara and Misanthrope director Thea Sharrock are interviewed together in today's Sunday Times, with a new pic and a closer version here.

November 24th
The Telegraph has the first major promotional interview for The Misanthrope, with Damian Lewis.

November 21st
The Misanthrope web site has a gallery section coming soon with Rehearsal shots online now. Previews will now start two days earlier than originally announced, on December 5th. Tickets are available for the new date from the banner link opposite.

November 16th
There's a new promo still for The Misanthrope.

November 10th
The Misanthrope is one of The Times' Ten Hot Tickets at the end of this interesting article on the boom in British theatre. Tickets for all dates are still available by clicking the banner opposite.

October 30th
More cast has been announced for The Misanthrope, including Kelly Price and Nicholas Le Prevost. Article.

October 23rd
The first of The Misanthrope publicity shots has appeared on Baz's Daily Mail column today, with Alceste's disdainful looks at the images of Jennifer's celebrity 'attention'.

October 19th
The Misanthrope's star Damian Lewis gives his first impressions of Keira following the promo photoshoot on Friday.

October 16th
British theatreland is reeling in disbelief as to how The Misanthrope has taken £1million ($1.63m) in ticket sales in its first week, without ANY promotion whatsoever and before the cast had even started rehearsals. Of course there are fans of Damian Lewis and Tara Fitzgerald out there, but we all know the reason why people are chomping at the bit to see this production. Tickets are still on sale from KeiraWeb by clicking the banner opposite. The cast have now met for a photoshoot, according to Baz in this article.

October 9th
NEW PROJECT !!!
Keira is to make her London theatre debut in December, in a retelling of Moliere's 17th Century comedy The Misanthrope. She will play Jennifer, a flirtatious Hollywood film star who seduces the leading man, played by Damian Lewis. Keira is said to be "terrified but excited" at landing the role, and has stressed that she will not be the star of the show. However, it will of course be Keira who will bring in the ticket sales for the play, which opens with previews at The Comedy Theatre south of Leicester Square on December 7th and goes on until March 13th. There will be performances from Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm, plus a 2.30pm matinee on Wednesdays and Saturdays (no under-12s will be admitted). Although not Keira's first theatre role (she performed in 'United States' and her mother's play 'After Juliet' among others), this will be her most demanding role of her career to date, and it will be her performance that will be scrutinized. Once again, it was The Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye who broke the story, and it's the 'Keira Knightley's stage debut ' angle that has populated the newswires and media all day. Tickets are on sale now from our official ticket partner Ticketmaster (see the box on the right). Links: Official site - Read The Misanthrope