And the winners are...

 Following our suspense story contest, here are the winners for 2023!

DARLING

     When I opened my tired eyes, I was in a dark and mysterious room that I did not recognize. I was dressed up as usual but I felt weird, my body seemed different. I walked out of the special room and again everything was different, that was not my childhood house. I was all alone and I had no memories that my parents had told me they had to leave the house. 

    I was walking in the huge corridor when I suddenly heard someone who seemed to be climbing the stairs. I pondered for a few minutes and then decided to hide. I entered in the nearest room, still nobody. The intriguing footsteps were coming towards the door. I felt afraid as well as panicstricken. I locked the heavy black door and hid under a wooden bed. While I was waiting the lights in the corridor were turned on. I watched under the door and I saw two black shoes. The man started to call me “Honey” nonetheless I did not understand why. I had never heard that imposing voice before. I went out of my little hide and turned the lights on.

     Suddenly I saw my face in the navy-blue mirror, I was older because my face was really different and I was taller. While I was looking at me in the huge mirror, the door opened, the man appeared with a bloody knife and said : “Darling, did you have a good sleep ?”...

Ellura, Léa, Louis and Paul - 2AB

Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin, 1936

Charlie Chaplin is known for being a whistleblower, an engaged movie director, indeed he made several engaged movies, Modern Times is one of them.

Modern Times can be considered as a critique, a manifesto against the inhuman and degrading working conditions that the factory workers had to face during the 30s.

    Despite being a comedy, Modern Times tackle the issue of huge lack of social justice in America during that time period. For example we can at some point in the movie factory workers striking their factory. and demonstrating in the street because they yearn a decent living wage. Charlie Chaplin is himself, living like an outcast in a run-down house.

    To conclude, Modern Time is a outspoken movie that is fairly thought-provoking movie about the American gig economy.

North and South 🎬

Adaptation of the eponymous novel North and South: romance and social opposition in Victorian England by Elizabeth Gaskell

Thus, what the North and the South offer is above all a social exploration, both regional and contextual.

Besides its compelling portrayal of England and its working class at the time, the miniseries' other big draw is the impeccable performance of cast members Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ash. Some of the main characters, a bit cliché since, will also drop out of the game

This is how we managed to learn more about the "hidden side" of the Industrial Revolution. North and South is a show not to be missed that will open your mind. 

Sacha 

Oliver ! by Carol Reed - A film review

 

 Oliver! is the film adaptation of Charles Dickens' most popular novel Oliver Twist. This brilliant musical follows the original scenario, adding some comic elements and beautiful vocals to it. The actors are well cast, and the scenery is very life like. The spectator is invited to a time travel back to the 19th century, during the industrial revolution.

Through this film we manage to observe a glimpse of the Victorian Era, as well as the harsh reality of this period. Reed's sophisticated directing highlights the orphan's emotions

 Sorry We Missed You realised by Daniel Blake in 2019

Billy Elliot

 

Billy Elliot is a coming-of-age comedy-drama film released in 2000. Story takes place during the miners strike in 1984 and 1985. 

I chose this film because the plot is unheard of and it really striked me when I watched it for the first time.

Stephen Daldry, the producer, really made a good job by paralleling both little Elliot emancipation and the professional life of his father which was being a miner in 1984. Also we don't often see a single father raising alone his child. He embodies the hard balance which a lot of miners had to deal with : keep striking or make a living for your family.

Iban

North and south

                               North And South

                                                            

This mini serie was realized by Brian Percival in 2004.

The story itself covers the two decades leading up to the years of the election of President Abraham Lincoln and the imminent proclamation of the Civil War.

We learn a lot about the contrasting attitudes to such controversial aspects as 'Slavery' and 'Abolitionists', and how these attitudes originated.

The series is beautifully crafted and is firmly tied to actual historic events ,vitale drama about social issues, social justice, the hardships of the poor working class, and human relationships.

North & South is a masterpiece and a beautiful and affecting love story. This four-part mini-series succeeds not only as an adaptation and very faithful but also on its own terms. The story here is still the beautiful, affecting and timeless story I fell in love with.