u/tigerdave81

Leslie Caron who is still with us was a major star at MGM in the 1950s primarily in musicals and comedies. However she became fed up of the narrow ingenue type roles she was given.
So she took the risk of staring in a gritty British New Wave movie - The L Shaped room, in which she plays a pregnant single woman living in a run down lodging house in Notting Hill, London. This is not the Notting Hill of Richard Curtis, but a Notting Hill of poverty, bed lice, greasy spoon cafes were outsiders end up living.
The film follows her relationship with the other lodgers who become a bit of a found family. From the sex workers in the basement (including Pat Phoenix better known for playing Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street) to black Jazz Trumpeter (Brock Peters), a faded old musical hall star (Cicely Courtneidge - who had been a musical hall star herself) and struggling writer (Tom Bell).
For its time it’s quite frank about sex, sexism and has sympathetic gay characters. Whilst not maybe quite up there with the very top tier of the British new wave (for me that’s Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, A Taste of Honey, Billy Liar) it’s still a very good film that in that community that rallies around Caron I think is a bit more hopeful then some of the other movies in that film movement.
It’s also a testament to Leslie Caron that she took such a risk that paid off in a great performance quite outside her usual lane.

*** spoilers and content warning ***

In the searchers there is a scene where Ethan rides off into a canyon a way from the others.
Ethan rides back Coatless obviously distressed and takes his knife and repeatedly digs into the ground.
Later we learn he found his oldest niece Lucy with the implication she had been r*ped and presumably murdered. He buried her on his confederate coat.

However is it’s possible Ethan found Lucy alive and murdered her? We know later he has murderous intent towards Debbie because of his racist views of ‘miscegenation’. Digging the knife into the ground has always made me think this.

There are other questions about The Searchers. It’s obviously implied there’s something between Ethan and his brothers wife Martha. Is Debbie actually Ethan’s child?

With the exception of Diana Rigg in OHMSS in the early decades of Bond established great actresses did not tend to be cast. There are great casting coups and good performances but it wasn’t a particularly prestigious gig for a female movie star or established actress.
You can put that down to the roles not being great but to be honest I imagine if they had a great actress the producers probably would have been forced to give them more to do.
That begins to change in the Brosnan era with casting Michelle Yeoh and Sophie Marceau and Halle Berry. Then the game has fully changed with the casting of Eva Green and Lea Seydoux.
I wonder if Eon / The Broccolis had been more ambitious who could they have cast.
Imagine what Romy Schneider, Jeanne Moreau, Claudia Cardinale, Pam Grier, Nancy Kwan, Isabella Adjani, Faye Dunaway, Kathleen Turner, Angela Bassett, Nicole Kidman or Sharon Stone would have done with roles.

I know they tried to get Diana Ross for the Solitaire role in Live and Let Die and Catherine Deneuve for Agent triple X in The Spy Who Loved Me, even though Jane Seymour and Barbara Bach do a decent job I think that casting makes more sense (especially for Live and Let Die).

Which actresses would you fantasy cast in Bond Movies.

i have seen quite a few liberal and left commentators saying with glee that Restore Britain causes difficulty for Reform, splits the right. However the rise of Restore should be a real cause of concern for anyone who opposes racism and the far right.

- They are dragging Reform to the right. Not that long ago Farage poured cold water on the idea of mass deportation. However under the pressure of Restore Britain which calls for mass deportations even of people with the right to remain or some with citizenship, Reform have shifted to a mass deportation and internment position. Restore is moving rightward itself and rapidly turning into a openly racist ethno-nationalist party in the tradition of the BNP but with much more influence and resources.

- Their social media reach is huge. Rupert Lowe has over two million followers on Facebook. On X Elon Musk seems to be promoting their posts massively. Farage by contrast with his GB new shows and clips is being left behind and the parties of the left are buried deep in the algorithms speaking to the already converted.

- Although Lowe's political history is pretty similar to some of the other Reform figures - basically a Thatcherite right wing tory who moved rightwards. he has opened up his party to fascists, neo Nazis and the street movements of the far right. Farage always at least publicly disavowed any links with former BNP members, the EDL etc. Restore came about partly because Rupert Lowe wanted to tear up any such cordon sanitaire. This means we could see actual fascist MPs elected in the next parliament.

- Rupert Lowe and the people around him seem to have some tactical nous that the far right have not been known for. At the lest local election which they knew would be a Reform triumph, Restore focused on Great Yarmouth and swept the board. I imagine their electoral strategy will remain to pick their battles. Message wise as well they seem to relentlessly focus on immigration, anti Muslim racism and law and order. The parts of their agenda that might prove less popular they don't really talk about- So whilst they are anti vax, anti women's choice, anti LGBT, Christian nationalist and have their fair share of antisemitic conspiracy theories they do not really talk about them. They stick to anti migrant, anti Muslims talking points, they leave their policies eye catching but vague, they seize on stories in the news and racialize them.

We need to be organising against Restore and not just Reform. Because even if they get 5% - 10% of the vote and win half a dozen MPs they pose a real threat of dragging politics in a increasingly dark direction.