CINEMA

Saving Mr. Banks

This is a movie about the making of a movie but it doesn't matter if you've never seen the film in question, Disney's Mary Poppins from 1964. It was an adaptation of a children's novel by a British author, P.L. Travers, who for 20 years had refused to sell Walt Disney the film rights. When money problems forced her to compromise, she went out to Hollywood determined to stop Disney turning her book into something sugary and American. 

She failed, of course, but the story of her campaign gives Emma Thompson a great comic role as the difficult, sharp-tongued author. The real Walt Disney was not so relaxed and kindly as Tom Hanks' interpretation, however. But that's the problem with the movie as a whole-it's a Disney version on Disney history, too sweet and sentimental. Poor P.L Travers would no doubt be horrified to see what they've done with her life.FM

VOCABULARY

Sugary: ensucrat

Sharp-tongued: llengua afilada

The Monuments Men

Perfect timing? Just as George Clooney stars in (and directs) a film about the hunt for art stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War, the newspapers reveal theat an elderly German citizen has been hiding one billion dolars of masterpieces in his apartment. Sadly, critics report that Clooney's film lacks dramatic tension-for once, reality is more exciting that ficition, it seems...RM

VOCABULARY

Directs: dirigeix

Citizen: ciutadà

Hiding: ocultació

Masterpiece: obres maestres