by Carmen Ferreiro"Way down in Missouri" the song that opens the trailer (http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3239184153) for Winter's Bones tells us, 17-year old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) lives with her two younger siblings and her mentally ill mother. Life is tough for her. Yet Ree struggles to keep her family fed, her siblings in school and proudly refuses to ask for help. "You don't ask for what should be offered," she admonished her six year old [...]

I fell in love with medieval times long ago, probably as a child while reading Robin Hood, or The Sword in the Stone. But it was a couple of years ago, upon discovering The Lion in Winter, that my love became a passion from which my last novel Requiem for a King was born.The Lion in Winter was written by James Goodman in 1966 as a play that was later made into a [...]

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." This, the first sentence in the book The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley describes perfectly for me the mood of the Argentinean movie The Secret in Their Eyes.For one, it takes place in Argentina, a foreign country, literally. Because it was filmed in Spanish, has English subtitles. But the "foreign" quality of the film cannot be translated so easily. The formal way [...]

by Carmen FerreiroAs The Secret of Kells starts, a wild eyed goose runs amok through fields and village, up and down the scaffold that frames the walls of the abbey, being chased enthusiastically by a red haired, blue eyed boy and four different sized friars."This won't hurt a bit," the boy says, when he finally catches the reluctant animal. And proceeds to pull four feathers from its tail.The feathers will be used by [...]

Directed by Dean deBlois, Chris SandersBased in the book by Cressida CowellWe meet Hiccup, the unlikely Viking hero in the animated movie How to train Your Dragon, as his hamlet is being attacked by dragons, once again.The dragons sweep over the village setting the thatched roofs afire and breaking havoc among villagers and sheep alike, while the warriors retaliate with arrows and mighty blows of mallets and swords.This, Hiccup tells us, is how [...]

The Young Victoria is an enchanting love story that ranks a close second to my all time favorite Pride and Prejudice (the 1995 BBC miniseries version with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth).What makes Young Victoria even more remarkable is that it is a true story.Victoria (Emily Blunt) becomes queen at 18 upon the death of her uncle. Although she loved her uncle, she is so elated at her newly acquired freedom that, when [...]