aljwritesphryne

[aljwritesphryne]

sometimes a family isn't a mom, dad, and kid. sometimes it's a lady detective, a deceivingly badass catholic, a butler named mr. butler, two inseparable commie taxi drivers, a ruggedly handsome divorcee, a himbo, a lesbian doctor, a 14 year old kleptomaniac, and aunt prudence

[aljwritesphryne]

Miss Fisher and The Crypt of Tears Movie 2020

My original pen and ink sketch by the artist Maxwell Tilse.  Sketched on the set of the movie and dated 17th October. 

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Jack: Miss Fisher, what did you do?

Phryne: Why do you think it’s my fault?

Jack: Because you always do something.

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Thoughts about Miss Fisher and Antony and Cleopatra

I saw Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra from National Theatre on Youtube the other week, and I really want to talk about the parallels between Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and the play – since this is the Shakespeare play that is most referenced of all in the show. Having finally seen the play, I want to explore this a bit!

Antony and Cleopatra is very present in MFMM. In “Ruddy Gore”, when Phryne challenges him to perform, Jack quotes lines about Cleopatra from the play for her and to her: 

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale  Her infinite variety: other women cloy  The appetites they feed: but she makes hungry  Where most she satisfies. 

It’s beautiful and so fitting to Phryne, and to Jack’s view of Phryne, and the way he speaks the last line is amazing (it also stops perfectly before the quote starts talking about “vile” things). Later, in “Murder in the Dark”, Phryne tries to persuade him to dress up as Antony to complement her Cleopatra in the masquerade. Jack replies with another quote from the play, suggesting he would then become “The triple pillar of the world transform’d / Into a strumpet’s fool” – one of the harsh characteristics of Antony being in Cleopatra’s thrall. Phryne dismisses the charges, pointing out that he is rather a single pillar, and has been for rather too long. (Especially poignantly put since he has only been divorced for a few hours at this point, which Phryne doesn’t know.) Finally, when they find the corpse in “Murder à la Mode”, Jack quotes a line from the play after Phryne has shown him the pearl: “He kiss’d, – the last of many doubled kisses, – / This orient pearl”, rather suggestively apostrophing the closeness between them (the pearl is a token of love sent from Antony to Cleopatra) and at the same time making a cunnilingus joke. Phryne smiles and diffuses the tension by pointing out that even Mark Antony probably wouldn’t want to kiss that pearl (which has just been used as a murder weapon).

So, you want me to perform, Miss Fisher?

For a reference, then, this is used unusually consistently.

Why? I would say that it’s used in several ways. Most easily, it’s a way to show the depth of Jack (he is more than “just a copper”, he knows his Shakespeare) as well as of Phryne and her flirting  – which also shows how well-matched they are. It brings out the sensuality of Phryne, and the energy between Phryne and Jack and how it could become much more, by bringing out the likeness to one of literary history’s famous love couples. But most of all, it interests me how the play simultaneously works as a parallel and a contrast to the duo we are watching – and how that says so very much about what the show is doing.

Antony and Cleopatra, National Theatre (Sophie Okonedo and Ralph Fiennes).

The parallels are many. Most strongly resonating is, I think, that both are love stories about adult, mature, accomplished, and independent people, who happen to find a strong passionate love in an age far from the teenages of Romeo and Juliet. They are capable, they have their own lives already before they meet – and then they meet someone they feel passionately about, and that love is depicted as so very tangible and real. Both Cleopatra and Phryne offer sensuality, pleasure, and fun to a person usually ruled by duty. Cleopatra is famed for her beauty, but also for her cleverness and capability (even if Shakespeare downplays that part, I’d say), and Phryne is as beautiful as she is clever. They are not afraid of “what people think” and very alluring to a man of honour who is used to follow the male order of the army and the police, accustomed to carry an “armour”. Antony and Jack are both competent, handsome, and worth to be admired. They are bound by duty, and by promises.

And this is where the contrasts take over from the parallels – because what is made of this are two very different things. Antony and Cleopatra, despite all the love, will end in tragedy, because love overrules duty. Antony will lose everything because he abandons the duty-bound ideal for pleasure and love (and a lot of horniness, to be frank), a chosen path that cannot be allowed in his world. [Note: It is very clear, though, that the characters around him still admire and love him, both his allies and his enemies; they simultaneously seem to feel he has gone astray and admire him for what he was.]

But this is not the case with Jack and Phryne. MFMM is not a tragedy, and the development of the plot shows us (and Jack) that a man can choose sensuality and love without losing his dignity. To go along with Phryne and her shenanigans is not to lose the path of duty, but a way to both complement and enhance it. Where Shakespeare’s play puts the male and the female as a kind of opposites, where the struggle between them threatens to bring the male down, in MFMM it is a mutually beneficial meeting.

“To be or not to be Mark Antony, that is the question.”

It is really notable in MFMM how the ���norm” on the male/female division is challenged and proved to be unnecessary. We have all noted how Phryne and Jack have traits that traditionally are seen to belong to both genders, and they are mixed up in a great way. Phryne doesn’t lure Jack away from something, she is not dangerous or allowing lust to override rationality. Rather, with Phryne the creators have taken what could have been that, and completely upended it, filling it with so much humanity, care, and interesting traits. Phryne is utterly female, but she is not female in a way that is opposite, dark, threatening, or alluring like a siren. She may look like Cleopatra, but she is no Cleopatra.

And by this I don’t mean to downplay the power of the character Cleopatra – she is interesting and there are many nuances also in her, of course. But she is still depicted as the downfall of an honourable man – the fact that he follows her is his flaw, taking away his bravery and leadership to instead disastrously follow her lead: “My heart was to thy rudder tied by the strings, / And thou shouldst tow me after: o'er my spirit / Thy full supremacy thou knew'st, and that / Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods / Command me.” 

This is not what Phryne does. She is not here to apologize, but she is also not here to be someone’s flaw or downfall.

In Antony and Cleopatra, the talk about male and female, and the threat of them becoming mixed or swapped, is really overt. More than once, Antony is depicted in female terms and Cleopatra in male, and since the outcome is tragic, this has the potential to be seen as a bad thing [the power of the characters, despite the tragedy, can also say the opposite, that it can be seen as a good thing but in the wrong world, but I’ll use the first line of thought here]. One example is this description of Antony: “he fishes, drinks, and wastes / The lamps of night in revel; is not more man-like / Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy / More womanly than he.”

And this will be my final point here, that this mixture of gendered traits is a parallel with MFMM – but in MFMM this is unanimously depicted as something good. The fact that Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries in this sense isn’t anything like (for example) Antony and Cleopatra is its real strength, and a place where the show feels so incredibly hopeful.

“Come on, Jack, Just one gaudy night,” Phryne says, echoing Cleopatra’s “Come, / Let’s have one other gaudy night” in the play.

Oh, and one more point! In the play, when Antony is going to war, Cleopatra helps buckle him up. In the show, Phryne helps to unbuckle Jack, or at least his tie, at the masquerade. That is such a fun parallel, and we get to see Jack a bit dishevelled – but again, this never compromises him, and when they need to chase a murderer, he is instantly ready to work.

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PS. I would love to hear your thought about this! Please feel free to both agree and disagree or pick out other parts of the parallel!

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[aljwritesphryne]

“….this would be a world without a certain Phryne Fisher in it, and what kind of world would that be?”

Death at The Grand

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Oh what a choice for Christmas Day! A total gift!

“I think you’ve earned the badge”

~ Game, Set and Murder

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Jack Robinson’s aesthetic💖

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miss s 旗袍美探 | su wenli

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MISS FISHER _ABC FANART CHALLENGE_ letter F New fanart for the ABC fanart challenge!!I love Miss Fisher… 

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I’m not losing you like this. Not after all the other stupid ways I’ve nearly lost you.

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears (2020)

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He’s got the hang of their relationship *very quickly*...

I know most of you guys don’t read Russian but it says:

She: I can only see you when there is a corpse around.

He: Same. If I see you, it means someone’s died.

Bwhahahahahahah

[aljwritesphryne]

Presumably, ‘Murder a la Mode’...

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ooohhh, Official English Subtitles incoming!!!!

Set in the Shanghai Bund in the 1940s, it revolves around a female detective who solve multiple cases. A Chinese remake of “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries”.

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Looking at the notes, *everyone’s* minds went there...

Every charged scene between Phryne Fisher and Jack Robinson

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I’ve finally watched Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears!!