Oscar Best Picture: The Hurt Locker (2010)

Moving swiftly forward in time from the Broadway Melody, we watched The Hurt Locker tonight, which won in 2010. I'd not actually seen it before and was looking forward to it. It's a great film, very tense. I was debating with my husband how we would rank it compared to Wings (1927), which is, so far, the only other Oscar Best Picture winning war film we've seen. It's really tricky. Wings, which is a silent film, is very dated and the plot seems obvious now (although, in 1927 it probably wasn't so much). I liked The Hurt Locker better, but I think both should be judged in the period in which they were made. Wings, with its aerial special effects, revolutionised war films. Similarly, I think that The Hurt Locker has also moved the genre forwards with its unrelenting look at the uncertainties and dangers of war.

So, anyway, it's still early days yet, but my personal ranking goes: 1. Rain Man, 2. The Hurt Locker, 3. Wings, 4. The Broadway Melody.

The Broadway Melody of 1929

I watched The Broadway Melody of 1929 yesterday as part of our Oscar Best Picture winners challenge. It's the second winner and the first talking picture to win. It's also the first musical as we would recognise them (i.e. with the songs moving the plot along and telling the story).

As a piece of cinema history, it's an interesting film. The plot centres on two sisters: Hank and Queenie, who have a Vaudeville act and are trying to make it on Broadway. Hank is engaged to Eddie, who helps get them into a Broadway revue show. With forbidden love, self sacrifice and sibling rivalry, it is well acted, but very dated. If I'm honest, it is not a film that I would particularly want to see again, or really enjoyed. That said, however, it is an interesting film. There are actually only a few songs in the film - it's clear that what made a musical was not really settled in 1929 (unsurprising, given the fact that talking pictures were still a novelty and, due to this, a silent version of the film was also produced). It's worth a watch as a piece of cinema history, but probably wont be many people's cup of tea...

Go Back Further in Time

Issue 141 (April 2014) of Your Family Tree magazine is now available. I wrote the cover feature 'Go Back Further in Time', which looks at the best medieval records for family history research and gives tips on going back to 1066 and, perhaps, even further.

The key to taking your family back before 1066 is to find a 'gateway ancestor' in the medieval period. This is an ancestor with royal descent, since only established royal genealogies break the 1066 barrier. For example, I wrote a book about Bessie Blount a few years ago and still carry out a lot of research into her family. Although the Blounts were a fairly minor gentry family, they were descended from an illegitimate son of Richard, King of the Romans, who was a younger son of King John's. John's grandmother, Empress Matilda, was a great-great-granddaughter of King Aethelred the Unready and the family can therefore trace their descent all the way back to the ninth century kings of Wessex and possibly further. Fascinating!

Tracing Medieval Female Ancestors

The April 2014 issue of Family Tree magazine will be hitting the shops in the next few days (and is also available online at http://family-tree.co.uk). Look out for my article on tracing medieval female ancestors. I look at the best sources available for finding your maternal family, whether high or low status, in the period between 1066 and the early sixteenth century.

Stoneleigh Library Event

Join me at a World Book Day event at Stoneleigh Library on 23 April 2014 at 7.30pm. I will be talking about how I go about writing a history book. Using Anne Boleyn as an example, I will set out how to locate sources and set out a biography of a historical figure. There will also be a question and answer session. Details of how to get a ticket are on the poster below.

Oscar Best Picture Challenge: Rain Man (1988)

For the next film in the Oscar Best Picture winners challenge we moved forward several decades to 1988's Rain Man. The film, starring Tom Cruise as selfish and shallow Charlie and Dustin Hoffman as his brother, the autistic Raymond, is a real classic. It presents a journey of self-discovery for Charlie as he and the brother that he had forgotten he even had take a road trip towards California.

Rain Man is set when it was made - in the 1980s. As such, the technology is fascinating. I loved the Sony Watchman portable TV! It was a serious departure from Wings, which we watched the previous week. I enjoyed both films, although for different reasons. Both are very much of their times and Rain Man, as the more recent, seems more relevant today. I was thinking about ranking the Oscar winning films. It's obviously a very personal thing and everyone will have a different hierarchy. So far, for me, it is Rain Man first and then Wings. I think, for me, Rain Man will eventually be very high up the ranking!

A Worthy Womman Al Hyr Lyve

Issue 3 of the Discover Your Ancestors bookazine is now available (and will be for the next year). You can buy a copy at WH Smiths or online at http://www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk/

I wrote an article on the lives of medieval women for the bookazine ('A Worthy Womman Al Hyr Lyve'), which aims to bring women of the period out of the shadows, as well as giving ideas for sources that can help you learn more about women's lives. Did you know, for instance, that a married woman had no legal status and could own no property or goods? Also, find out why the fourteenth century French knight, Geoffrey de la Tour Landry sat down to write a 'self-help' book to teach young girls how to be virtuous. Women make up fifty per cent of the population and, although often less visible than men in the medieval period, it is still possible to learn about their lives.