{"id":21723,"date":"2026-10-09T06:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T19:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/?p=21723"},"modified":"2026-10-09T06:03:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T19:03:21","slug":"observer-fallen-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/2026\/10\/09\/observer-fallen-angels\/","title":{"rendered":"OBSERVER: Fallen Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Noel Coward\u2019s maxim for any actor was, \u201cJust say the lines and don\u2019t trip over the furniture.\u201d<br>The playwright\u2019s use of language was such that the lines and the situation did all the work. It is something those attempting to stage his works today should remember.<br>This film version of the Broadway production of Fallen Angels, a 1925 play that ran in March 2026, highlights just what Coward meant.<br>The art d\u00e9cor set (David Rockwell) was magnificent and Annette Jolles\u2019 direction for the screen made the play eminently viewable, but stage director Scott Ellis allowed the cast to say their lines with an extravagance which was almost melodramatic at times.<br>Fundamentally, Julia (Kelli O\u2019Hara) and Jane (Rose Byrne) reminisce about their pre-marital past which involved the same Frenchman, Maurice Duclos (Mark Consvelos) during a champagne-fuelled weekend while their husbands are away,<br>They learn this past lover is about to visit and they are both simultaneously delighted and fearful their husbands, Willy (Christopher Fitzgerald) and Fred (Aasif Mandui), will find out.<br>O\u2019Hara has some delightful moments of physical comedy that are not necessarily out of place as the women get drunk but the absurdity of their predicament and the contravention of the social mores of the day means that very little work has to be done by the actors to realise Coward\u2019s comic genius.<br>When Willy and Fred learn that Maurice is to take up residence in the flat above their floor, their British \u2018nice chap\u2019 sensibility hardly falters.<br>It is the audience that makes the connection first before the husbands cotton on. It doesn\u2019t require overstatement of any kind. The swaying of the chandelier above their heads says it all.<br>The film looks superb and it works as a great introduction to a master wordsmith, but it is difficult being British beyond England\u2019s shores.<br>Opening in Australian cinemas October 22. Distributed by Sharmill Films.<br><strong>Review by David McLean<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Pictured: Kelli O&#8217;Hara in Fallen Angels.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Noel Coward\u2019s maxim for any actor was, \u201cJust say the lines and don\u2019t trip over the furniture.\u201dThe playwright\u2019s use of language was such that the lines and the situation did all the work. It is something those attempting to stage his works today should remember.This film version of the Broadway production of Fallen Angels, a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_siteseo_robots_primary_cat":"none","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-observer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21729,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21723\/revisions\/21729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}