Rating:
A little like the remarkable event it dramatises the unearthing of the famous Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk The Dig yields treasure after treasure.
The acting glitters brightest, but Simon Stone s direction, Moira Buffini s screenplay and Mike Eley s cinematography are just as cherishable. It s a film of enormous, completely enveloping charm.
Moreover, it is especially welcome at a time when the rules of period drama, doubtless influenced by the success of The Favourite (2018), are being redrafted.
On TV, hits such as Bridgerton and The Great rely heavily on sex, glib anachronisms, flashy camera work, more sex, deliberately flamboyant acting, over-the-top design, and still more sex.
Sometimes you just don’t want a movie to end. The characters are so vivid and multidimensional, the milieu so inviting, the circumstances so compelling, you don’t want to let go. “The Dig,” starring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes, is such a movie.
Suffolk, England, with the nation on the verge of war with Germany in 1939, may not sound comforting, but you would be surprised. Despite the prosaic title taken from the source novel by John Preston (based on the true story of the discovery of the Sutton Hoo treasure), “The Dig” is a tale bathed in warm nostalgia and a romanticism steeped in British stoicism, one that allows room for not only the melancholy of classic melodrama, but also sharp wit and a genuine sense of wonder.
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The Sundance Film Festival is now underway, and even with a smaller program and mostly virtual events, it has still sent bolts of excitement through the air. New movies! Fresh filmmakers!
As it should be.
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Festival organizers have quite shrewdly leaned into all the ways this year can be not just unusual but special, crafting a unique online experience from waiting rooms to screenings, Q&As and even virtual hangout sessions. While screenings are ticketed, events and panels including a series of L.A. Times talks are free.
“When I was growing up in Cambridge, I didn’t come to Suffolk much. I had a few trips to Ipswich for swim meets but that was about it. I certainly didn’t know the area around Woodbridge and when we went to look at for the film, I was completely blown away and fell in love with the area.”
He said that Suffolk looked nothing like the rest of Britain and very much had its own identity. “It reminded me a lot of the Netherlands actually – very flat. There are lots of rivers and waterways crossing the landscape which gives it a very Dutch feel. I like the fact that Basil has to transport himself and his bicycle by ferry, by boat, to get to where he needs to go.”