Little Voice

Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Jane Horrocks Director: Mark Herman Original UK Premiere: 1999 Dvd Release: 22nd January, 2001 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Widescreen, PAL, Region 2 Encoding

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Little Voice is a 1998 British film directed by Mark Herman & adapted from Jim Cartwrights play The Rise & Fall of Little Voice. It stars Jane Horrocks as a shy girl who discovers she has a remarkable talent for recreating the voices of famous singers, including Judy Garland & Shirley Bassey. She is subsequently taken on & promoted by sleazy showbusiness agent, played by Michael Caine. Caine won a Golden Globe Award for his performance & Brenda Blethyn was nominated for an Academy Award. However, many critics expressed surprise that Horrocks was not nominated, particularly as the film showcased her uncanny vocal impressions. The movie was filmed on location in the seaside town of Scarborough in North Yorkshire. Posters Of Little Voice

Michael Caine was robbed of an Oscar. He gives his finest performance in a decade as big-talking small-time agent Ray Say, a paunchy, pale life-of-the-party hiding his desperation under gold chains & cool bravura. When he hears the almost magical voice of Jane Horrockss meek little LV fill her bedroom with the rich voice of Judy Garland, he sees his ticket to the big time. Little Voice is ostensibly LVs story, & in fact the original play was written for Horrocks, whose amazing vocal impressions of Garland, Shirley Bassey, & Marilyn Monroe form the centrepiece performance of the film. But as directed by Mark Herman , the story of this mousy girl who shuts herself in from a bellowing world is just as overwhelmed by the bombastic characters as LV herself. Brenda Blethyn babbles a blue streak as LVs overbearing mother, Mari, an ageing widow who escapes her unhappiness in carousing & becomes almost pathologically jealous when Rays attentions turn from her to LV. As Ray puts his dreams on the line for LVs showcase, he reveals his true self: a venal man who spits & barks out his bottled-up anger in an astoundingly bile-filled delivery of Roy Orbisons Its Over. The showstopping moment once again overwhelms LVs tale, but Caines performance is so astounding it seems a fair trade

Brenda Blethyn is a British actress & an OBE. After studying at the Guildford School of Acting, she went on the London stage, where she won the London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1980 for Steaming. She had a reputation as a Shakespearean actress on stage by the time she won two key roles in the BBC s complete works of Shakespeare during the early 1980s, playing Cordelia in King Lear & Joan of Arc in the Henry VI cycle. She did a great deal of British television, including several episodes of Alas Smith & Jones & several series of the sitcom, Chance in a Million, before debuting in films in The Witches in 1990. But it was her performance in Secrets & Lies which garnered her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1998 she was again Oscar nominated, this time for Best Supporting Actress for Little Voice. Blethyn has also appeared in A River Runs Through It & has done voice actor work in The Wild Thornberrys Movie. Posters Of Little Voice

Editors Choice: Little Voice, Blizzard, Piccadilly Jim, The Sleeping Dictionary, Sonny, Saving Grace, Girls Night, Night Train, View DVDology

Jane Horrocks is an English comedian & actress. She was born in Rossendale Valley, Lancashire. She went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art & joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. She lives with writer, Nick Vivian. They have a son, Dylan & a daughter, Molly. While working on a play directed by Jim Cartwright she used to warm up by doing singing impressions of Judy Garland & Ethel Merman. Cartwright was so impressed with her that he wrote the play & the movie Little Voice just to show off her talent. Absolutely Fabulous, Bad Girl, Boon, Heartland, Henry IV, Hunt for Venus, La Nonna, Leaving Home, Never Mind the Horrocks, Nightlife, Red Dwarf, Road, Roots, Some Kind of Life, Suffer the Little Children, The Garden, Welcome to the Times Posters Of Little Voice

Editors Choice: Little Voice, Raymond Briggs Ivor The Invisible, The Blobs, Discworld, Wyrd Sisters, Watership Down, The Street, Spot, View DVDology

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