England, 1926. An American journalist looks for mystery writer Agatha Christie when she suddenly disappears without explanation, leaving no trace.
Dustin Hoffman Vanessa Redgrave Timothy Dalton Helen Morse Celia Gregory Paul Brooke Carolyn Pickles Timothy West Tony Britton Alan Badel Robert Longden Yvonne Gilan Sandra Voe Barry Hart David Hargreaves Tim Seely Christopher Fairbank Liz Smith Peter Arne Hubert Rees Donald Nithsdale Jill Summers Geoff Tomlinson John Joyce Irene Sutcliffe Ann Francis Hope Johnstone John Ludlow Ray Gatenby Show All…
El misterio de Agatha Christie, O Mistério de Agatha, Agatha Christie mysteriet, Hová tűnt Agatha Christie?, Il segreto di Agatha Christie, Mysteriet Agatha, Das Geheimnis der Agatha Christie, 아가다, 애거사, Агата, アガサ 愛の失踪事件, 아가사, 难补情天恨
PortugalM/6
USAPG
UK
Portugal
UK
USA
In 1926, world famous crime author Agatha Christie disappeared for about two weeks. I always had in my head the was found in Torquay dancing on Yes, We Have No Bananas, but a quick glance on Wikipedia taught me something else. The late director Michael Apted made a film which has a kind of duality in it. On the on hand, it's passionate and warm, on the other hand it's cold and distanced.
In December 1926, shortly after the publication of her novel The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, the popular writer Agatha Christie (Redgrave) disappeared. Ten days later she turned up at a spa, where she was registered under a pseudonym. This film provides a fictional account of the how…
Like Ronald Neame and Stephen Frears, Michael Apted can always be counted on to deliver an intelligent, well-made film, usually nothing to be excited about but a painless sit. Thus is Agatha, an imagining of what went on during Agatha Christie’s mysterious eleven-day disappearance in 1926.
The screenplay by Arthur Hopcraft, who delivered a brilliant dramatization of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy this same year, and Kathleen Tynan attempts to tell the story like one of Christie’s novels, with plenty of red herrings to mislead us about what is truly going on when Christie (Vanessa Redgrave) follows the mistress (Celia Gregory) of her husband (Timothy Dalton) to a health spa in Yorkshire. The screenwriters invent an American journalist (Dustin Hoffman) to…
De Niro, Hackman, Hoffman, Nicholson and Pacino...a journey
Hoffman #13
I'll admit it, I've been putting this one off a little. But I needn't have. It's an enjoyable, if slight, drama about Agatha Christie going awol for a week and Dustin Hoffman's reporter tracking her down.
It's a nice romance, a bit of a general change of tone from many of the films I've been watching in this challenge. Also it has a certain quirkiness to its very British energy.
It's a bit different to the previous film in the 'Dustin Hoffman plays an American out of his element in Britain' canon. (HINT...it was Straw Dogs)
the funniest part was the fact that Dustin Hoffman looks like a dwarf in a suit, standing next to Vanessa Redgrave, making her look like a giraffe
Continuing with Christie - this time with Agatha herself. I saw this once, ages ago, but didn't remember much about it. Based on fact but pure fiction, it's a mostly enjoyable, if rather odd little movie. Vanessa is one of my all-time favorites - on stage and screen - and she's never been more radiant. Timothy Dalton is devastatingly handsome, and those gorgeous, piercing green eyes add a little something extra to his performance as Col. Archie Christie, Agatha's coldhearted prick of a husband. As for Dustin Hoffman, was he ever truly believable in a period piece - other than Dick Tracy, I mean? And you know what? Dustin's the problem here. Had this just been about Agatha and what she was up to, this could have been a nail-biter.
I grew up reading Agatha Christie novels and was a big fan well into my mid teens. I also enjoyed the adaptations of her novels, so I was always a little disappointed that this biopic based on the intriguing, mysterious brief disappearance of the author in 1926, proved just as elusive to me during my days of fandom as Christie herself was for those 11 days AWOL. It was just never on TV, so I never got around to watching it until now.
It wasn't worth the wait alas. Maybe I'd have appreciated more when I was an avid Christie reader (I must admit its been some twenty years since I last picked up a novel of hers) but where…
Had no idea this existed until TCM aired it the other night. I've been a huge Agatha Christie fan since childhood, but apparently the writers of Agatha were not because this has no intrigue and no pulse. It's like Christie on quaaludes or The Hours without the emotional destruction. No fault to Michael Apted though, the film is gorgeous and it has just the kind of hazy look I'd want in a Christie fanfic. Even better, Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha. I'm obsessed! Talk about a glow up for Christie! She's excellent in the role. There's just one teensy eensy tiny issue and his name is Dustin Hoffman. He sticks out like a sore thumb, but, like, a really small baby's thumb. I do not like him kissing Agatha. I do not like him kissing Vanessa. Go back home Ratso!
This was sloooooow. Not that it was necessarily bad, but a 98 minute movie felt like it was 2.5 hours. Ugh. I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I hadn't read a book late last year that was also a fictional speculation of Christie's disappearance that had me rather hooked at the time. (I cleared it in a single night!)
Also, holy shit. Dustin Hoffman short king!!!!!!
I went into this expecting that this was going to be more of a mystery approach on Agatha Christie's disappearance, somewhat in line with her work or at least really seeped in how that was a real-life mystery. Instead this feels a bit more like a less captivating interpersonal drama that just wasn't that compelling for me. There's a few interesting touches, but so much of this just feels incredibly generic that don't really seem tied to Agatha Christie in particular.
Je me sens perplexe devant ce portrait de ma chère Agatha Christie. Dans les faits, je n'ai pas eu beaucoup de contacts avec elle hors de ses fictions, alors dans l'absolu, ce que je sais d'elle en tant que personne, en tant que femme, se résume à pas grand chose, c'est-à-dire aux grandes lignes de sa vie et à ce que je suis capable de connaître d'elle dans son écriture et dans ses personnages, et cette femme brisée, fragile et triste incarnée par Vanessa Redgrave est vraiment très, très loin (pratiquement aux antipodes) d'une Agatha le moindrement reconnaissable à mes yeux. Par exemple, au début du film, avant qu'elle ne disparaisse, on la voit se pitcher par terre dans les…
"Our situation is intolerable. I don't love you and you can not love me."
A fictionalised historical drama, Agatha imagines what happened to Agatha Christie when she disappeared for eleven days in 1926. The imaginings are partially what you might expect, with a twist or two thrown in for good measure, primarily viewed through an investigation by American journalist Wally Stanton (Dustin Hoffman). As a mystery, it's not that effective, but as a drama it actually succeeds reasonably well, largely because of Vanessa Redgrave's anguished central performance.
Credit-wise, I went into Agatha excited by the presence of the late Michael Apted, future director of The World Is Not Enough. However, I was struck most by the contribution of Vittorio Storaro,…
Watched belatedly for Vanessa Redgrave's birthday – I loved the hearty height difference between her and love interest Dustin Hoffman, the exaggerated struggle to get them both in the same frame, how far she leans down to kiss him. I suppose it's technically possible that when Christie disappeared, she was having an affair with a diminutive American reporter and tampering with spa equipment, but – like Hoffman's kiss – it does feel a far stretch.
