Anne Billson

Film Critic and Journalist at Freelance

MY HOT BIO: auteur en filmcriticus, screenwriter, vertaler, fotograaf, evil feminist, wicked spinster, international cat-sitter. Likes frites, beer, chocolade.

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Articles

a dozen movie Easter eggs to feast on

3 weeks ago | msn.com | Peter Bradshaw |Stuart Heritage |Phil Hoad |Anne Billson |Laura Snapes |Lucy Knight | +6 more

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
Pink smoke, pigs and Pixar: a dozen movie Easter eggs to feast on

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Peter Bradshaw |Stuart Heritage |Phil Hoad |Anne Billson |Laura Snapes |Lucy Knight | +6 more

Archie Leach makes an appearanceOne of Hollywood’s most durable Easter eggs debuted in Howard Hawks’s His Girl Friday (1940) when Cary Grant’s character says: “The last man who said that to me was Archie Leach just a week before he cut his throat!” And in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) his character sits pensively in a cemetery where Archie Leach’s gravestone is to be seen. In Charles Crichton’s A Fish Called Wanda (1988), John Cleese’s character is called Archie Leach.
Julie Christie at 85: her 20 best films - ranked!

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Anne Billson

20. Hamlet (1996)There are many things wrong with Kenneth Branagh’s galumphing slab of actor-manager Shakespeare, but Christie as Gertrude is not one of them. Her casting might have been conducive to the Oedipal side of the Danish prince’s feelings towards his mother – if only the director’s bombastic performance had allowed room for it. 19.
Julie Christie at 85: her 20 best films - ranked!

3 weeks ago | aol.co.uk | Anne Billson

20. Hamlet (1996)There are many things wrong with Kenneth Branagh’s galumphing slab of actor-manager Shakespeare, but Christie as Gertrude is not one of them. Her casting might have been conducive to the Oedipal side of the Danish prince’s feelings towards his mother – if only the director’s bombastic performance had allowed room for it. 19.
From android to assassin: Daryl Hannah’s 10 best films – ranked!

1 month ago | msn.com | Anne Billson

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
From android to assassin: Daryl Hannah’s 10 best films - ranked!

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Anne Billson

10. The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)Looking as though she has strayed from another genre, Hannah plays Mickey Rourke’s girlfriend, a leggy aerobics instructor who keeps getting undressed. At least she’s more fun than Rourke and an insanely posturing Eric Roberts as deadbeat cousins ripping off the mob: roles originally written for Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Mickey Rourke, Daryl Hannah and Eric Roberts. Photograph: Mgm/Ua/Kobal/Shutterstock9.
Anora is nothing new - Hollywood has always been obsessed with sex workers

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Anne Billson

Anora emerged triumphant from last week’s Academy Awards presentation, winning five Oscars including best actress for Mikey Madison for her performance as Ani, a sex worker who elopes with the feckless son of a Russian oligarch, only to find herself at odds with his powerful family and their henchmen. As in his previous films, writer-director Sean Baker shows generosity and affection for the marginalised characters, and especially for its heroine.
‘Tears were running down my face’: why Bridget Jones 4 is the most moving romcom of modern times

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Barbara Speed |Catherine Shoard |Hollie Richardson |Anne Billson |Kira Cochrane |Gwilym Mumford | +2 more

The dropped toy bunnyI managed to cry before the opening titles, at a scene so innocuous that I must have disconcerted those around me. Bridget picks up her daughter’s stuffed rabbit, sniffs it, says “It stinks!”, then kisses it anyway. It hints at the radical self-acceptance our widowed protagonist seems determined to instil in her children – but it’s also testament to the amount of Bridget lore heaped into this film.
From Alice to Zelig via Rosemary’s Baby: Mia Farrow’s 20 best films – ranked!

Feb 6, 2025 | msn.com | Anne Billson

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
From Alice to Zelig via Rosemary’s Baby: Mia Farrow’s 20 best films – ranked!

Feb 6, 2025 | msn.com | Anne Billson

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