6 posts tagged “movies”
Terribly disappointed by the film of The Golden Compass. The whole thing was cut like a highlight reel -- all action, zero contemplation -- with scenes (such as in Mrs. Coulter's lodgings), presented as actual montages, chirpy music and all! How one is supposed to be able to form an emotional reaction to this material in spite of all this is a mystery! The terrible dialogue didn't help much, either. Was somewhat hoping for a make-up kiss of sorts when Daniel Craig would do his "thing" at the end, but then the movie just ended. Pffft!
Interesting that the US version credits "Northern Lights" as the original source material, as I'm not aware of its having been printed here under that name. Am pleased by that, of course -- you're looking at the woman, after all, who special ordered the first Harry Potter movie from Canada in order to get her philosopher's stone fix.
Am working my way through all six hundred-odd pages of Absolute Sandman #1, and have come to the realization that I'd really like to draw a comic myself. Just one page would be enough. Maybe one of these days...
It's May, and Seattle is sunny at last, & plastered with pink:
Here's to our first snow-free month of 2008. Please?
Odds & ends, because it's all I feel up to:
Could tell that Elizabeth: The Golden Age wasn't exactly to a level with its predecessor, but it was too easy to lose myself in its costuming and set design. Those dresses! (swoon) ... sadly, all Clive Owen's subplots were dead weight, I felt, and I'm pained in saying so as I love Clive Owen dearly.
Alan Moore love fest continues: Top 10 #1 was great, eagerly awaiting book 2; League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1 a fun read though more of a simple diversion.
<3 Heart Station, as expected.
Officially filled up on $4 gas last week, but too shellshocked to come to terms with it 'til now.
Didn't warm to Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett until her final, heartbreaking duet with Toby. Anthony and Johanna? Ugh. Johnny Depp, unsurprisingly, continues to amaze.
Am not feeling like jumping on GTA IV's bandwagon with the rest of humanity. Truly, when would I play?
These little guys were hanging out with their mother just outside my building's rear entrance (am not sure why, but immediately the cover of Beatles For Sale came to mind). They hadn't been there long, at least not in this state -- you could still see eggshells on the ground. Was immediately flush with newfound sense of renewal, and v. timely so... and oh, but they look cosy, don't they?
Just looking at them made me feel warm, too, and loved.
Thanks for the well-wishes, all. Really, and truly, mean it...
Hit my deadline & have been laying v. low the past few days, a happy feeling indeed! Sweeney Todd is sitting next to the television, waiting to be watched. Finally saw Juno. Persepolis was just so good, must see movie version stat -- if I can find it. Elsewhere on the to-consume list: Top 10 #1, Absolute Sandman #1, Heart Station, Lost Odyssey. Plan to try to fit as much as possible, plus relax, the next five weeks, inasmuch as one can do that whilst preparing to move.
Need to admit, though I feel uncool doing so, that I don't really get Daniel Clowes.
Please excuse me while I girl out and talk Brontë for a bit! I've always loved Jane Eyre and its film adaptations, and somewhere in the last year and a half managed to catch up on most of what's out there. Obviously, most recent on the landscape is the 2006 television version with Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson. It was certainly pretty, but I came away somewhat cold. They tried to up the Gothic mood in a way that kind of came off as kitschy, and I never really got over Stephens' smirking turn as a cyber-suited Bond villain. How perfectly unfair of me! I did like Jane here; she's nearly perfect, but I think the quality of adaptation turns on the Rochester in play, and he doesn't quite do it for me.
Finally, finally, the 1944 film starring (and probably more than a little directed by) Orson Welles is available on DVD, so I've been able to patch up a criminally large hole in my Jane Eyre bibliography. However, it's more of a required supplement than a primary version. There's some fascinating cinematography; I especially love the sequence at Lowood where Helen (Elizabeth Taylor!) first meets Jane. Orson Welles is, well, Orson Welles, with all you'd expect from that fact. Joan Fontaine is just a little bit too refined as Jane.
Timothy Dalton was the Rochester of my swooning teenage years, and though I still love him, there's a theatrical bombast there that kind of takes away from the immersion of the 1983 version. Still, very nearly everything is perfect here, including Zelah Clarke, who is either freakishly short, or only in comparison to Dalton. St. John Rivers is an epic tool in this version, though, so if you're a fan of the man with the Good Book, this will not please. I will guarantee you won't find a better wedding scene than the one Dalton puts on in here.
Have you seen the 1972 Jane Eyre starring Sorcha Cusack and Michael Jayston? You've probably never even heard of it, but as far as I'm concerned, it's the best version out there. This is finally out on disc as well, and in surprisingly fine shape (it looks much better than the 1983 set). Picked it up based on internet buzz, and immediately fell in love. Certainly I think Jayston's the ideal Rochester: gruff, distant and yet charismatic; simultaneously witty, passionate and hurtful. You could say he's Captain von Trapp without the entourage or the edelweiss, and there's even a physical resemblance to be seen. I was also pleased the narrated bookends to many scenes, read straight from the book.
And Sorcha Cusack has amazing eyebrows.
Terrible versions, both from the '90s: Franco Zeffirelli's motion picture version with William Hurt (??) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (whose recent Jarvis Cocker-produced album, 5:55, I did enjoy), and A&E's version with Ciaran Hinds (amazing in Persuasion, terrible here, and goddess forgive him for Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life) and Samantha Morton (generally wonderfull, but here, not so much).
oh, and before i forget: they were shooting a movie or something on nathan road, near mongkok. i've seen my share of korean film, but i've no idea who this is. celebrity encounters are no fun without names! help me out?
