December Delights!

Shout Out's Pink Sofa guest is Dru Marland talking about "Becoming Drucilla" by Richard Beard - with Bernie reading extracts from the book - Plus lots lots more - Hear the show here- Shout Out!
 

Brian's Beginners: Ballroom Dance for Beginners DVD - Bernie was lucky enough to be in these filmed classes - so why not join him, Brian and the rest of the gang as we tackle the waltz and the foxtrot - just in time for Christmas!

Global Alliance for Banking on Values

Another Great Review For Release

"The performances are uniformly superb, Daniel Brocklebank, Bernie Hodges, Garry Summers all bringing believable characters and the situation that they find themselves in to life."

"the prison’s creepy, latex glove wearing gang leader, Max (Bernie Hodges). This is a man who proves, in vintage James Bond villain style, that you can be quiet and menacing at the same time, as long as you have a bunch of thugs to do your dirty work." 

http://www.eurekapride.com/talk/showthread.php?t=25039&highlight=release

Gay Celluloid on Release

Gaycelluloid.com have given Release a very good review including a very affirming description of my role as Max:

" it is Bernie Hodges’ psychotic performance that lingers with you long after the end credits have rolled, his unnerving soft spoken delivery of surgical glove attired cellblock boss Max alarmingly getting under your skin."

You can read the full review here. 

New York New York!

Start Spreading the news....
It opens today....(that's the 1st October 2010)
Release is gonna be apart of it
New York New York!

And here is the link to The New York Times review - where I am described as "an unnerving Bernie Hodges".
That is all i could wish for... Apart from being over there to see it myself..fingers crossed for next time.

And...If you can make it there....your gonna make it....Anywhere.....

Variety is the spice of life!

In stark contrast to our little review in the village voice we actually made it into Variety! Who accentuate the positives about this film - thank you RONNIE SCHEIB

After penning the gritty, teen-gang kitchen-sinker "Shank," Darren Flaxstone and Christian Martin don helmers' hats for their priest-in-a-prison pic, "Release." A swoony, ill-digested amalgam of Christian symbols, guilt-ridden flashbacks, sadistic shower-stall attacks, lyrically passionate sex scenes and dreams of liberation amid pussy willows, pic wears its beating heart on its tattooed sleeve. Opening Oct. 1 at Gotham's Quad Cinema, "Release" may offer enough tender nude boffing and extended glimpses of charismatic lead Daniel Brocklebank, sans dog collar, to lure those geared more to fleshy than spiritual epiphanies.Pic exalts the emotional and physical union of the beatifically smiling ex-Father Gillie (Brocklebank), jailed for practicing familial euthanasia, and compassionate prison guard Martin (Garry Summers). Against them are allied the hypocrisy of the church, the capriciousness of the law and the cruelty of a demonic penal system. This particular hellhole is ruled by a creepy, blue-latex-gloved inmate, Max (Bernie Hodges), who exacts bloody vengeance on a hapless teen (Wayne Virgo) while guards complacently look on. Max even strikes fear in the breast of the prison's sex-starved femme warden (Dymphna Skehill).


Read more: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117943755.html?categoryId=31&cs=1#ixzz116AR66Rq
Visit Variety.com to become a Variety subscriber.

Release and the Village voice

The producer of Release sent me a link to one of our harsher reviews last night on the eve of the film opening at a cinema in New York.

Well I sent Michelle a little thank you note for her trouble:

Hi Michelle

Thank you for taking time to watch our film and giving your comments to the world about it.

People seem to either like or hate this film and you obviously fall into the later category.

I personally stand by the film and how I portrayed the character of Max.

Rightly or wrongly it was a stylized performance for a stylized film - which myself and everyone involved put a lot of hard work in to.

This is all too easy to forget  trivializing it in a couple of lines on website.

However the gift of laughter is rare and I'm glad to have given it to you with my portrayal of this character.

You'll be pleased to know my next role - in a film called Buffering - is intentionally comedic - I hope you laugh at that one too.



Kind regards

Bernie Hodges
the laughable villain