#a decade of colin firth

[fictionandfixation]

Older Bachelor headcanons!

Older Bachelor stardew headcanons because I’ve been playing lots recently! All sfw, some mentions of smoking/alcohol 💕 also please bear in mind I am no SDV expert, so sorry if these go against canon occasionally!

Harvey ☕️🔬📚

• Secret smoking habit that he would rather die than tell anyone about. Not often, but during flu season when he’s stressed, you can find him cooped up in his room with an imported cigar or a Marlboro Gold, an espresso and an Agatha Christie.

• Plays classic soul, funk, golden oldies and jazz in the foyer of the clinic on an old-timey record player, and chooses every day from his large record collection. Frequently irritates Maru with the extent of his Doris Day enjoyment.

• Kind of wide-set - very broad shoulders, and quite tall.

• Packets of salted peanuts and cookies on the clinic foyer desk which he restocks every week.

• Goes to fetch you personally from the mines or Skull Cavern sometimes when you get knocked out. And he also keeps a vintage forest green car behind the clinic to pick you up in. He hopes one day you’ll wake up on the way back and compliment his tasteful vehicle choice or notice he’s bringing you home. You don’t.

• Best friends with Evelyn. Worst enemies with George.

• Tennis player. Plays with whoever will say yes in the mountains and always manages to punt the ball into the lake somehow. Also used to be in a rock climbing club at university, and has sort of sinewy forearms as a result.

• Outrageous flirt after a few glasses of Pinot Noir, mostly because I think he’s on the spectrum but also because I think it would help him stop being quite so nervous.

• Brown suspenders. Every. Single. Day.

• Gives Jas and Vincent candy after their checkup.

• “Sweetheart/honey” as a nickname for you.

Elliott 📜🖋️🐚

• Striped. Matching. Pajamas.

• Finds, forages and cooks mussels when he needs to impress someone. And on that note, very much a French cuisine enjoyer.

• If blue cheese has no fans Elliott is dead.

• Rizz master. Silver tongue. Read so much romance when he was a teenager that it has actively become a part of his personality to be a book boyfriend.

• Very willowy and slender. Metabolism of the gods. Puts away food like it’s nobody’s business.

• Can read several languages, but just can’t master an accent so never uses them in a spoken context. Definitely a student of Latin.

• English accent headcanon! Probably spent the first couple of decades of his life in somewhere high-income like Warwickshire, or (more likely) Cornwall or Exeter, on or near the coast. I am also envisioning him as having been to an old collegiate university like Durham, or maybe a college at Oxford (Merton I reckon).

• Writes and then burns poems about everyone he’s ever been in love with. Starts keeping them when he meets you.

• Chats fashion history with Emily and Haley.

• Religious about his collection of cravat-style ties because he’s seen the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice a few too many times.

• Frequent book club gatherings with Caroline, Marnie, Robin and Jodi (mostly because mothers love him, the main selling point here being that he has definitely read at least one Jodi Picoult book. He does not remember anything about it, he’s just glad to be invited).

“Dearest/my love” as a pet name.

Shane 🍺🍕🐓

• Snores. Very quiet about it though.

• I know a lot of people HC Harvey as oldest but I reckon it’s Shane. He also acts the most like a bitter old man whereas I feel Harvey is just ‘mature’.

• Could be convinced to grow a beard. Maybe.

• Goes for a jog three times a week. Hates it. Refuses to stop and really isn’t even sure why he does it himself any more.

• Secret Lana Del Rey enjoyer. Mainly a fan of Midwest emo, classic rock, nu metal and sometimes country but the kind of country where they sing about killing people and getting away with it.

• Raised by heavily Christian parents in the Deep South. Yes this is a Southern accent headcanon. Yeehaw.

• Lets Jas put eyeshadow on him sometimes. Shaves properly only when she wants to put makeup on him.

• Craft beer’s number one opp. Wants an ice cold tap Budweiser only, and if there isn’t enough head on it he will be asking for a refund. Not that Gus would ever do that to him.

• Has muscle with padding. Very strong, very wide in stature, but not lean at all. Biceps wider than your neck that you could (and would) use as pillows.

• Makes the most insane hangover breakfast known to man. Bacon. Pancakes. Sausage. Home fries. Butter. Syrup. You’re putting on a bit of healthy relationship weight for sure with Shane as your partner.

• “Darlin’/baby” user. “Sweet cheeks” as a joke. Kind of a joke.

Hope you guys enjoyed these!! I am down irretrievable for Older Bachelor content because I love ✨older men✨

Please let me know if you’d like some more for these characters or the other bachelors and bachelorettes!

[akajustmerry]

i think it's weird that ppl will point to lesbians saying they think a famous man is pretty or something innocuous like that as evidence they aren't a lesbian. because what you think and what you want to act on are 2 really different things tbh. for instance, ppl will tell me my "type" based on celebs i like or whatever because yeah sure i find certain features really pretty in my mind but when you actually look at the whopping THREE whole dates i've been on in a decade they were all with very different looking people that don't necessarily match my "type". it's very fucking silly IMO to treat someone's sexuality like a mystery that requires hard evidence to solve. i am not excusing the misuse of labels that perpetrate lesbiphobia or biphobia. i think people who want to dilute these historic identities to suit themselves because they haven't unpacked their own homophobia need to work on themselves. but people behaving like a lesbian saying they like colin firth movies somehow invalidates their lesbianism is immature af. sexuality isn't just about what you like, it's about what you actually want.

[dweemeister]

You must face the age of not believing Doubting everything you ever knew Until at last you start believing There's something wonderful in you

Dame Angela Lansbury, who died at her home today in Los Angeles at the age of 96, is perhaps best known today as Jessica Fletcher in the acclaimed TV series Murder, She Wrote and in the Broadway stage plays and musicals in significant parts that Hollywood never gave her. But well before that, the Irish-British transplant to America (she and her family left Britain at the height of Nazi Germany’s bombing campaign of her home nation) made her career as mostly a character actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She may not have been a major star billed at the top of marquees and movie posters during her time while contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), but she would come to be a recognizable figure to audiences of multiple generations – whether she might be playing a tough saloon owner with a belter of a singing voice, a schoolteacher just making ends meet, Elvis’ mother (despite a nine-year age difference), princesses and queens, the amoral and scheming wife of a political candidate, an emotionally manipulative mother, or a teapot matriarch.

She stepped onto a movie soundstage for the first time at seventeen years of age, while making Gaslight (1944) for MGM. Because she was still technically a minor, she had to be accompanied by a social worker while working on set. Despite this, director George Cukor and her co-stars (including Ingrid Bergman) treated her as equals, all of them recognizing right away her professionality and acting ability. Perhaps producers and studio executives might not have done the same, saddling her so often with character roles, but Lansbury – by all accounts – extended that same kindness Cukor and Bergman afforded to her to so many others over the decades, leaving a legacy that goes beyond whatever personal disappointments she may have had over the more considerable roles she never got to play.

Her distinction as Hollywood royalty came later in life, as our connections of Hollywood’s Golden Age are almost all gone.

Nine of the films Angela Lansbury appeared in follow (left-right, descending):

Gaslight (1944) – directed by George Cukor; also starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, and Dame May Whitty

The Harvey Girls (1946) – directed by George Sidney; also starring Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger, Preston Foster, Virginia O’Brien, Kenny Baker, Marjorie Main, Chill Wills, Selena Royle, and Cyd Charisse

The Three Musketeers (1949) – directed by George Sidney; also starring Lana Turner, Gene Kelly, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Frank Morgan, and Vincent Price

The Court Jester (1955) – directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama; also starring Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, and Cecil Parker

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) – directed by John Frankenheimer; also starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, and Janet Leigh

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) – directed by Robert Stevenson and Ward Kimball; also starring David Tomlinson, Roddy McDowall, Sam Jaffe, John Ericson, Cindy O’Callaghan, Ian Weighill, and Roy Snart

Death on the Nile (1978) – directed by John Guillermin; also starring Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin, Lois Chiles, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Jon Finch, Olivia Hussey, I.S. Johar, George Kennedy, Simon MacCorkindale, David Niven, Maggie Smith, and Jack Warden

Beauty and the Beast (1991) – directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise; also starring Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Rex Everhart, Jesse Corti, and Bradley Pierce

Mary Poppins Returns (2018) – directed by Rob Marshall; also starring Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh, Joel Dawson, Julie Walters, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, David Warner, and Dick Van Dyke

[faejilly]

so I wander into the kitchen and I hear Colin Firth's voice from the living room where Thing 1 is watching a movie and I think, despite not having watched that P&P in like a decade, Mr Darcy!

And then, because there's no way Thing 1 is watching an Austen miniseries, I have an immediate weird mental collage of period and romcom Colin Firths in my head, most of them from 20 years ago, none of which are any more likely to be Thing 1 Movies (except Mamma Mia but that's distinctive even from a distance 😅)

And only then do I finally remember Kingsman.

[onceuponaoneshotfanfic]

So I'm a hardcore Pride and Prejudice 1995 girlie, I think I saw the 2005 version maybe twice over a decade ago?? (I don't hate it, I just always figure if I'm rewatching P&P I might as well commit 5 hours of my life to it because Colin Firth)

But now I'm watching Succession and I'm now obsessed with Matthew Macfadyen so guess I need to rewatch 2005 P&P???

[cruciferousconspiracist]

Hollywood Wants You to Think That You're Fat, and That It's a Bad Thing

There I was, doing my annual re-watch of Bridget Jones's Diary because a) it's hilarious, and b) Colin Firth.

But I almost immediately became disturbed by a little detail I had never really noticed before. We all know that the movies set unrealistic body expectations for women. But maybe because I've been a Dietitian for a little over a year, it's hit me lately how often I'm watching a movie and they say a woman's weight, and it's an absurd number. Take Bridget Jones; one of her main personality traits is that she's "fat" - at a whopping 136 pounds.

First of all, there is no ideal weight, everybody is different. But let's get one thing perfectly clear! Renee Zellweger is 5'4", and 136 pounds is NOT a heavy weight for that height. I can't tell you how many times I have been watching something and a FULL GROWN WOMAN said she was 120 pounds or less, which could fall into the unhealthy/potentially malnourished range for a lot of people. Stop letting media make you feel bad about your weight in general, but especially don't let them lie to you like this.

Am I going to stop watching this movie around the holidays? No, it's not Bridget's fault that she was a character made for the nineties, one of the worst diet culture decades in recent memory. But I'm not going to let it make me feel bad about myself anymore, either.

[missyourflight]

some stuff i read and watched in december:

the buccanneers: never really hit the heights i wanted it to and most of the cast was not great! but kristine froseth is always watchable and kate winslet's daughter is darling, most importantly scotland doubling for cornwall was beaut. as ever god bless apple for spending money on nonsense

slow horses (s3): i don't know when river cartwright became my shit friend i'm unreasonably fond of but here we are! jack lowden v funny this season and i don't think it's just because i've decided he should be lymond in the billion dollar apple tv series that isn't happening and probably shouldn't bc who else is even blonde (harris dickinson?? i haven't seen the iron claw yet)

monarch: legacy of monsters: i started this and then due to my bad personality decided i had to watch all of the ~monsterverse for context, therefore godzilla december. strong threesome energy in the flashbacks, can't argue with wyatt and kurt russell playing the same character decades apart etc, love a disaster lesbian in crisis etc

~monsterverse interlude: most of these were silly, godzilla: king of the monsters was actively bad, godzilla vs. kong somehow my favourite due to the askars/rebecca hall (long beloved) combo plus all the neon. hollow earth let's go baby!

tokyo godfathers: loved this! love miracles in the city during the holiday season, love to listen to three different podcasts talking about the nuances of trans rep in subtitle translation etc

godzilla minus one: godzilla december! this one made me cryyy, the godzilla theme goes so unbelievably hard, cutest sweetest baby in the world, was incredibly happy to be emotionally manipulated by the endings etc

not going to get into all the christmas film rewatches but: coward's edit of the family stone (repeat the sounding joy!), crying at both little women 94 and little women 19 as per, moonstruck forever, bridget jones' diary colin firth the most sexually appealing colin firth 2 me etc

the wind rises: catching up with miyazaki before the boy and the heron and straight into my ghibli top 3, the love story stuff absolutely floored me

how to have sex: absolutely devastating god

the boy and the heron: very weird and beautiful and sad - saw the dub (robert pattinson you wonderful freak), seeing again with subs this week

jon krakauer, into thin air: a personal account of the everest disaster: i got about halfway through the first chapter and had to stop and ask my dad what the hell he was up to trekking to base camp on his own in the seventies. gripping, chilling, tragic

rose lerner, sailor's delight: rose lerner one of my favourite romance authors (true pretenses i love you forever etc), m/m age of sail romance set around the jewish high holidays with SO much longing and yearning my god

lizzie huxley-jones, make you mine this christmas: fun christmas romance - fake dating but she falls in love with the guy's sister! - that made me burst into tears like five pages in for reasons entirely unrelated to romance or christmas. a 2024 project for soph etc

barbra streisand, my name is barbra: did the audio version so even sped up i reckon i spent at least a full day and a half with barbra. as ever the parts about making things and artistic choices were the best parts, i respect her energy re: including every nice letter or compliment she ever received (my version of this would be reproducing nice ao3 comments etc). wild to me that she spent like 3 decades beefing with larry kramer trying to adapt the normal heart (with bradley cooper at one point lol) but i have to disagree with her impulse to tone down the gay sex to avoid alienating straight people!!

i am not here really but i was proud i managed to keep these little roundups going through the year so. happy new year friends

[mirambles]

Wahaj Ali to the Rescue…

I have been in a Kdrama slump having barely watched 3 dramas so far. Dropped 2 and one is ongoing. I have been watching a lot of crime and dark series in British and American TV. Farzi is the only Hindi series I have watched in this new year and I loved it 😍

I have been craving good series from the subcontinent and asked a few folks on twitter to recommend Pakistani dramas. I haven’t watched them in last 7-8 years. So after 3 dramas, I started watching Tere Bin and got totally bowled over by Wahaj Ali’s Murtasim!

So I hunted for more dramas of his and am currently watching Mujhe Pyaar Hua Tha which is also currently airing and his 2021 drama Ishq Jalebi. I’m so impressed by his acting, screen presence, charisma and charm with a capital C! The current craze behind him is reminiscent of the craze behind Fawad Khan a decade ago when people discovered Humsafar and Zindagi Gulzar Hain. There is none like Fawad and he is an eternal favourite, but I’m totally falling for each and ever character that Wahaj is essaying with such finesse and panache.

Be it the proud and arrogant but hopelessly in love Murtasim

Be it the soft hearted, reticent Saad who harbours one-sided love for Maheer (literally watching MHPT only for him, cause the show is an utter disaster of a melodrama that reminds me why I don’t watch many series from the sub continent)

Or my favourite character of his right now - Basim from Ishq Jalebi. Basim is so flawed - he is immature, impulsive, stubborn, a tad selfish, sometimes a man child and even carries an inferiority complex but once he realises he is in love with Bela , he fights for it like no one’s business. His comic timing and dialogue delivery is impeccable - his dynamic with his parents is best part of the drama after his lovely, soft chemistry with the female lead Mahida. Her soft spoken, caring , mature Bela is the perfect foil to Basim. The drama is also so wholesome with fun characters that there isn’t a single moment of boredom! It reminded me of my favourite Marathi show Eka Lagnachi Goshta (The story of a marriage).

Wahaj Ali is playing 3 absolutely different characters in the 3 dramas of his that am watching simultaneously and I cannot believe it’s the same actor. The mannerisms, the voice modulation, the gait , the look is completely different. That’s the hallmark of a great actor ! Colin Firth, Fawad Khan, Kim Seon Ho were my biggest actor crushes that gave the most epic characters in history of TV viewing and now Wahaj has entered this elite list. Actors when they are on my screen, I can’t take my eyes off the screen.

Wahaj Ali has saved my 2023 TV viewing cause I have seen his filmography and his drama arc is so similar to Fawad’s that I can’t wait to watch his dramas. Fawad’s Ashar & Zaroon, Wahaj’s Murtasim and Basim are all heavily flawed characters and yet both these actors have made us ladies swoon and fall in love with them thanks to their amazing acting abilities and effortless performance. It’s an added bonus that his voice , his mischievous smile and the look in his eyes when he is in love is totally swoon worthy!

So until I find the right Kdrama again, this space will be reserved to obsess over the awesomeness of Wahaj Ali 😉

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Dorian Gray

Rating: R

Director: Oliver Parker

Cast: Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, Rebecca Hall, Emilia Fox, Ben Chaplin, Fiona Shaw, Caroline Goodall, Maryam d'Abo, Douglas Henshall, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Max Irons, John Hollingworth, Pip Torrens, Michael Culkin, Nathan Rosen, Jeffrey Lipman Sr, Jo Woodcock

Release year: 2009

Genres: thriller, fantasy, drama

Blurb: Seduced into the decadent world of Lord Henry Wotton, handsome young aristocrat Dorian Gray becomes obsessed with maintaining his youthful appearance, and commissions a special portrait that will weather the winds of time while he remains forever young. When his obsession spirals out of control, his desperate attempts to safeguard his secret turn his once-privileged life into a living hell.

[alwayscoldj]

Revisiting the Magic: Top 10 Iconic Rom-Com Movies from the 2000s

The 2000s were a golden era for romantic comedies. These films gave us memorable characters, heartwarming stories, and plenty of laughs. As we look back on this iconic decade in cinema, let's take a trip down memory lane and celebrate the top 10 rom-com movies that left an indelible mark on our hearts.

"Love Actually" (2003)

Love Actually, directed by Richard Curtis, is a beloved holiday classic. Set in the bustling city of London, it weaves together multiple love stories, each with its unique charm. With a star-studded cast and moments that tug at your heartstrings, Love Actually is a true gem.

"The Princess Diaries" (2001)

This modern fairy tale directed by Garry Marshall introduced us to Mia Thermopolis, played by Anne Hathaway, who discovers she's a princess. The story of her transformation into royalty and her charming romance with Nicholas Devereaux (Chris Pine) is a heartwarming journey of self-discovery.

"Bridget Jones's Diary" (2001)

Renée Zellweger's portrayal of the endearing and relatable Bridget Jones made this film an instant classic. Following Bridget's hilarious quest for love and her tumultuous relationship with the charming but aloof Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), this rom-com is both witty and heartwarming.

"50 First Dates" (2004)

Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore's chemistry shines in this unique rom-com. Sandler plays a man who falls in love with a woman, played by Barrymore, who suffers from short-term memory loss. The film's humor and touching moments make it a standout.

"Notting Hill" (1999)

Okay, we're bending the rules a bit, but Notting Hill is too good to leave out. Released right on the cusp of the 2000s, this film starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts captures the essence of romance in the charming neighborhood of Notting Hill, London.

"The Wedding Planner" (2001)

Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey star in this delightful rom-com about a wedding planner who falls for the groom. The film combines humor, romance, and a dash of chaos in a way that's both endearing and entertaining.

"How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" (2003)

Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey team up for this battle of the sexes rom-com. Hudson's character attempts to drive McConaughey's character away in just ten days, but love has its own agenda. The hilarious antics and heartfelt moments make this a must-watch.

"13 Going on 30" (2004)

Jennifer Garner stars as a 13-year-old girl who magically finds herself in her 30-year-old self's body. This whimsical story explores the idea of second chances and the enduring power of childhood dreams.

"The Holiday" (2006)

Nancy Meyers' delightful film, starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, follows the lives of two women who exchange homes for the holidays. They both find unexpected love in their new surroundings, leading to heartwarming and humorous situations.

"Sweet Home Alabama" (2002)

Reese Witherspoon shines in this romantic comedy about a young woman who must confront her past, including her high school sweetheart, when she returns to her small Southern hometown. With humor and heart, this film captures the essence of home and love.

The 2000s gifted us with a treasure trove of romantic comedies that continue to warm our hearts and make us laugh. Whether you're a fan of quirky love stories, laugh-out-loud humor, or heartwarming tales of second chances, this list of iconic rom-coms from the 2000s has something for everyone. These timeless classics remind us that love, laughter, and a little bit of magic are the perfect recipe for a memorable movie experience.

[mariacallous]

That violent nullity James Bond having long outlived his creator, it has fallen to an interesting gang of alpha novelists and superhacks to keep him busy: since the death of Ian Fleming in 1964, more than 20 new Bond books have been written. The latest of them, Jeffery Deaver’s Carte Blanche, was published this year, and as recently as 2008, Bond nuts were solemnly delighted—or I was, anyway—by Sebastian Faulks’s even-better-than-the-real-thing novel, Devil May Care, which featured a partially lobotomized lead goon and a villain with a main de singe,or “monkey hand” (hairy wrist, non-opposable thumb).

Perhaps the most rewarding of the pseudo-Flemings, however, has been Kingsley Amis, whose Colonel Sun appeared in 1968 under the nom de plume Robert Markham. Amis’s Bond, while retaining the familiar psychopath’s obsession with menus, tailoring, and branded goods—“Bond almost felt relaxed, finding the charcoal-grilled lamb cutlets with bitter local spinach very acceptable”—is also a suspiciously Kingsley-esque conservative, deploring newly built houses and the rise of a “vast undifferentiated culture, one complex of super-highways, hot-dog stands and neon … stretching from Los Angeles to Jerusalem.” Amis would maintain a fierce moral allegiance to 007. Decades later, upon learning that John le Carré had described Bond as an “ideal defector” and “the ultimate prostitute,” he vented in a letter to Philip Larkin: le Carré’s comment was a “piece of bubbling dogshit,” he wrote, adding that he preferred Bond to the “dull fuckers” of le Carré’s own fiction.

George Smiley, le Carré’s enduring gift to the literature of espionage, is, of course, the anti-Bond. Across the sequence of novels in which he appears, peripherally or centrally, this secret servant of Her Majesty (like Bond, he works for British Intelligence, known in le Carré world as “the Circus”) is discreet to the point of self-erasure. Bureaucratically dowdy, rarely spotted in the field, a dull fucker by both instinct and training, Smiley drops no one-liners, romances no tarot-card readers, roars no speedboats through the Bayou. Bond has his ultraviolence and his irresistibility, his famous “comma of black hair”; Smiley has his glasses, his habit of cleaning them with the fat end of his tie, and not much else. There is a cultivated blandness to him, a deliberate vagueness of outline that at times recalls G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown—the little priest’s alertness to sin replaced, in Smiley’s case, by an extraordinary memory and a profound knowledge of “tradecraft.” Smiley is also a cuckold of near-mythic proportions: his wife, the glamorous and rarely-at-home Lady Ann, seems to sleep with everybody but him. (She has doubtless slept at least once with James Bond: he’s just her type.) When John le Carré dies, there will be no pseudo–le Carrés, rotating the clichés of Smileydom through their potboilers. Not only is le Carré more or less inimitable—less imitable, certainly, than Ian Fleming, whose style was essentially that of a school bully with a typewriter—but Smiley himself is too elusive a creature to be captured by any pen other than that of his creator.

News late last year of a movie adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy—the greatest of the Smiley novels—caused me to salivate mentally. Gary Oldman as Smiley? John Hurt as Control, the withered, irascible Circus chief? Colin Firth playing someone, anyone at all? The juices of anticipation squirted in my brain. In the autumn of 1979, every Briton with access to a television set was watching, with avidity and occasional bewilderment, the BBC’s gloomy, labyrinthine Tinker, Tailor miniseries—not least because, as le Carré modestly reminds us in his introduction to the latest edition of Smiley’s People, “the only independent channel in those days obligingly staged a strike and for six precious weeks the entire British viewing public had to choose between BBC1 and BBC2.” There were other reasons, too, for the general enthrallment. Anthony Blunt, a much-garlanded art historian and the Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, had just been exposed as a former Soviet spy, part of the Philby/Burgess/Maclean ring. Thus did current affairs conspire to lend a more-than-usual piquancy to le Carré’s vision of an Establishment honeycombed with treachery. In Tinker, Tailor, George Smiley is prodded out of retirement to unmask the mole who sits at the Circus’s top table: Is it busybody Percy Alleline? Roy Bland, “the shop-soiled white hope”? Dashing Bill Haydon? Or the Hungarian, Toby Esterhase? Alec Guinness, playing Smiley (25 years removed from playing Father Brown in The Detective), blinked myopically and carried inscrutable wounds. Around him at the Circus were men both loud and furtive in their natures, swaggering and self-concealing, as if simply to be born into the British ruling class was to sign up for a lifelong career as a double agent.

There had been other screen Smileys—Rupert Davies gave him a bluff inhumanity in The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, and James Mason drawled James Masonically and rather ineffectually through Sidney Lumet’s The Deadly Affair—but Guinness’s became at a stroke the definitive performance. Guinness-as-Smiley was monkish, fastidious, almost prim, bestowing here and there the faint, equivocal benediction of his Smiley smile. He had a doughiness of feature and a plumminess of tone. He moved as if he were wearing three overcoats. In restaurants he looked inexpressibly pained, but if you mentioned his wife his face would register nothing at all. Guinness’s only rival to date for the role has been Simon Russell Beale—the voice of a hooded, magnetic Smiley in a recent series of BBC radio plays.

The new model of Tinker, Tailor—opening in the U.S. in December—is, for me, problematic. Director Tomas Alfredson, previously known for the well-regarded vampire flick Let the Right One In, has reduced the already low pulse of the BBC version to a throb of nearly reptilian thrill-lessness. Which would be fine, except that much of the distinctive le Carré atmosphere has also floated away. Circus HQ, for example, in the novels a warren of pokey corridors with London traffic-grunt coming in through the windows, is rendered by Alfredson as a kind of totalitarian Reading Room, a soaring industrial/cerebral space in which ranks of eavesdroppers and codebreakers clack at their machines, and meetings are conducted in soundproofed cubes. It’s a chillier spy world, with wider gaps between people. The center of gravity provided in the novel by the Establishment, the clubbable Old Boys in their smotheringly furnished rooms—burgundy carpets, burgundy faces, overstuffed men in overstuffed chairs—has gone. Gone too is the heavy fellowship and ghastly heartiness, the endless belaboring of Smiley with the long syllable of his first name: Oh really, George!, George, you must see …, How’s the lovely Ann, George? Now they all communicate in leers of mutual suspicion: a Scandinavian reboot has occurred. Was the Cold War really this cold?

Oldman-as-Smiley, meanwhile, is blanker, harsher-voiced, impenetrable behind the huge reflective panels of his glasses. The wan little smile has become a grimace. Twice we accompany him in the laborious meditation of his early-morning swim in the Thames, watch him pushing pale-shouldered through the tea-colored water—to what end? We cannot possibly guess what he’s thinking. No clue! Smiley’s understatement has been overstated.

It’s very 2011, I suppose, to rub away the interpersonal texture and crank up the anomie. Didn’t the Bond franchise give it a go in 2006’s Casino Royale? Daniel Craig as a harder, icier Bond, hacking his ethically unencumbered way across a borderless post-9/11 globe … To strip down or minimalize le Carré, however, is to sacrifice the almost Tolkienesque grain and depth of his created world: the decades-long backstory, the lingo, the arcana, the liturgical repetitions of names and functions. Did you know that it was John le Carré who introduced the word mole (for “double agent”) into English? Also honey trap? He has enriched the language itself—a claim not even the most devoted Bondian, not Kingsley Amis himself, could make for Ian Fleming.

[tboybuck]

rules: post 10 of your favorite comfort movies then tag 10 people

tagged by @vecnuthy and @cuoredimuschio <33 thank you both so much i have now become an unskippable cut scene 😈

in no particular order:

scott pilgrim vs the world - my absolute number one go-to movie when i'm sick. if you ever ask me "what are you doing" and i say "watching scott pilgrim," you can bet your ass i have a cold at the very least.

slc punk - i could recite this movie word for fucking word. it's been two decades and i still don't know if i want to be matthew lillard or fuck matthew lillard

fight club - a part of me is embarrassed by this. most of me recognizes that this is where my appreciation for bloody men started.

baz luhrmann's romeo + juliet - i shouldn't have to explain this one.

jennifer's body - ahead of her time, a cult classic, for the gays, etc etc.

moulin rouge - baz luhrmann is a genius what can i say?

kingsman: the secret service - taron egerton my absolute beloved, sammy j villain of all time, colin firth the original old man i'd like to bend over a table, etc etc.

labyrinth - i've been obsessed with bowie my entire life. labyrinth was the beginning.

rent - changed my fucking LIFE.

anastasia - i had this movie on vhs, on dvd, and i had the soundtrack on cd.

probably double tagging here whoops: @steves-strapcollection, @patchworkgargoyle, @sidekick-hero, @starryeyedjanai, @sentient-trash, @corrodedbisexual, @matchingbatbites, @thefreakandthehair, @stobinesque, @legitcookie

[critical-chris]

Empire of Light (2022)

Empire of Light is the latest installment in the decades long trend of renowned filmmakers nodding to old cinema and the movie-going scenes of their past. Although the topic is one I can have appreciation for given the nostalgia of conjuring up images of your childhood, especially tied to movies which were such a big part of my growing up, these odes can be extremely hit or miss. When they hit they hit, like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood or L.A. Confidential, but when they whiff they WHIFF, like The Fabelmans or Hail, Caesar.

Empire of Light is directed by Sam Mendes, a fantastic director who has created critical successes like American Beauty, Road to Perdition, and 1917. He even directed arguably the best installment of Daniel Craig's run as James Bond in Skyfall, although he is responsible for what I consider to be the worst Bond movie in that run Spectre. Actually, I'd put Spectre at a tie with Quantum of Solace as complete misfires and absolute messes.

Jarhead was another release that I was a big fan of despite the mixed critical reviews it received. I'm a sucker for a good war movie, and this combined with 1917 makes Sam Mendes a reliable creator in that space. I haven't seen Revolutionary Road, although I can't imagine it's a bad film considering it has DiCaprio and Kate Winslet teaming up again. All of that being said, I would be excited for any release with him at the helm considering the success and great movies he has released up to this point.

When I saw the trailer for Empire of Light, I had no clue what the movie would actually be about but expected a generic storyline against the backdrop of an old, glamorized movie theater. The biggest draw for me to this film was Olivia Colman, who is an excellent actress I first became familiar with in the British detective drama Broadchurch. I loved the first season of that series, and thought the second was solid albeit completely different, but I refuse to watch the third season since I have a bad feeling it won't be nearly as good. I just don't see what else there is to explore in that storyline after the second season.

I had plans to see this film in the theaters but ended up missing out when other movies took precedence in my mind. Unfortunately, the movies that took precedence ended up being mid in every way possible and absolute wastes of time. I'm looking at you The Fabelmans and Avatar: The Way of Water. Instead, I inclined my bed to a 45 degree angle, settled under my bed covers, turned out the lights, and set out to watch this throwback drama.

Empire of Light is the story of Hilary, a cinema manager at a dying golden-age theater in an English coastal town plagued by unemployment and prejudice. She is depressed and sticks to a daily routine to manage her feelings of loneliness and mental health issues while juggling an awkward and quiet affair with her boss Colin Firth.

The theater then hires a bright-eyed early 20s black employee Stephen to learn the tricks of the business while he yearns to leave this town where he faces racial prejudice and hatred from the locals. Hilary is immediately attracted to Stephen, and vows to teach him about the Empire theater, although she confesses to never watch the movies playing.

Sam Mendes knows how to shoot a movie, it's obvious. The simple lobby of the movie theater, auditorium with grand curtains, and seaside town are all captured beautifully and keeps your eyes glued to the screen for each succeeding image. There is a perfectly shot scene at a carnival that is so well established and paced that I was hooked for the rest of the movie, no matter where the plot went.

Stephen and Hilary end up hooking up, giving Hilary a newfound vigor and renewed interest in life. Stephen finds Hilary to be a comforting presence and reliable confidant after he is discriminated against in the theater lobby one day, and discloses to Hilary his experiences being racially profiled in the town.

Then comes a rather odd scene. Up until this point, Colman's character seems depressed but otherwise normal and even-keeled. Hilary and Stephen go to the beach and end up streaking for a bit before settling down and building a sand castle. Stephen asks her some personal questions and Hilary starts to have a breakdown, smushing parts of the sand castle with her hands while shaking and nearly crying when answering. During the movie, this felt strange and out of place, but after watching a bit more the reason becomes clear.

One of the other employees tells Hilary they know about her affair with Stephen and to look after herself "based on what happened before." We learn that Hilary had prior issues being rude to customers, staying late at the theater by herself and refusing to leave, and eventually was locked up at the hospital and "came back quieter." It is revealed that Hilary's mental issues run much deeper than initially revealed, especially when she makes a scene at a big film premiere important to keeping the Empire open.

Hilary tells Colin Firth's wife about their affair, Firth accuses Hilary of being a schizophrenic and unemployable, and the only reason she has a job is that Firth promised the hospital he would keep an eye on her. Hilary is then taken by the police from her apartment back to the hospital.

Some time later, Stephen has a new girlfriend and has learned more about the theater business. He encounters Hilary on a seaside bench, but she is clearly subdued and potentially drugged up from her stint in the hospital. Hilary returns to work and is welcomed back with open arms by her coworkers. Then a riot happens outside, and a handful of white kids break in and beat up Stephen half to death.

Hilary visits Stephen at the hospital, and the two connect again like before. He later reveals he has been accepted to university away from the city and is leaving the next day. Hilary is forced to accept the one person she connected to is leaving, and finally sits down to enjoy a movie at the cinema and it fills her with that same drive for life, and Stephen goes off on his next adventure. Roll credits.

I really enjoyed this movie, while understanding all the criticisms and mediocre reviews given to it online by industry critics and general audiences alike. The most frequent negative I noticed the movie receiving is there not being a single identifiable theme or through-line. Not to mean there aren't clear themes from the plot and scenery, the drawback here is more about the film's identity and it seemingly not knowing what message it is trying to convey. I can absolutely understand that criticism.

The underlying message in this movie is despite internal drags or horrors of the outside world and society, cinema and kindness can connect people in unique ways and form emotional bonds. At least, that's what I got from it. However, the message isn't quite clear until the very end when Hilary asks Toby Jones' character to play her a film, having never actually watched a movie at the theater she works at, and is filled with happiness and joy at the enormous projection. The movie bounces between a number of other topics and themes, so I can understand that Mendes doesn't exude this one clearly throughout.

I feel this movie was not done any favors by its marketing and trailer either. The advertisements for the film make it seem like a 2 hour devotion to regal cinemas (not the brand, just the term) of the past and importance of theaters to society. While that message is touched on at points, I find the movie to be more about community and the power of authentic human connection which can be fostered by watching and discussing movies. I think if this was advertised as the emotional drama it is, some expectations from reviewers could have been altered and resulted in more positive reception.

Empire of Light is worth the watch for Olivia Colman's performance alone. She plays every complex emotion incredibly, from the character's lowest points of grief, instability, and loss, to her highest highs of love, joy, and true happiness. My only issue with the writing here is that Hilary is never really given a redeeming moment. Sure, she discovers the power of movies, but never has a moment to come back from the breakdown and falls she experience throughout the film.

Michael Ward plays Stephen well too, capturing the pain of being discriminated and hope for his future outside of this small town. The rest of the cast is fine, playing small parts or coming in for a scene or two with a line here and there. Colin Firth makes no real mark in my opinion, besides two weird sex scenes with Colman that you want to be over with as much as she does.

[theory-of-art]

7.2

McLuhan’s theories apply to today’s art world and contemporary society because the line between artist and audience is becoming more and more transparent. I’ve experienced this firsthand from both an art and a literature perspective and I can confirm that the different mediums communicate different tones. I would classify it as a shift in tone and not a full shift in meaning because pieces can have the exact same theme but the medium used will cause it to communicate it in specific ways. A piece commenting on the social isolation caused by technology in the twenty-first century would have an ironic tone if it was a digital medium and distributed through social media and an accusatory tone if it was a physical sculpture displayed infront of Microsoft’s headquarters. 

One way to look at this is book to movie/television adaptations. Author’s are artists that paint with words, thus their original book would be the original medium the story is told in. For this example Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice will be used because it has been adapted in multiple ways over the decades. Pairing Benjamin’s aura theory, Austen’s original novel can never have the same aura as it did in Regency England; however, the aura can change and adapt to the times the audience is experiencing it. Among Austen fans there are generally two camps, BBC and Joe Wright; those that prefer the 1996 BBC television adaptation starring Colin Firth or those that prefer the 2005 theatrical version directed by Joe Wright starring Kierra Knightly. The BBC version is longer than the 2005 version thus it is able to fit more of the intricate details of the original novel, but the 2005 version more effectively taps into the tone and emotional heart of the novel. Both are still communicating the established theme of first impressions often being wrong and love making us willing to change, but they have slightly different auras because they were geared to slightly different audiences. Additionally the television limited series and theatrical movie adaptations keep a fourth wall connection, making it hard for the audience to feel fully immersed in the story. However, if we take the YouTube series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries the medium allows for a more immersive, participatory audience experience as the story was interactive over social media (Twitter and YouTube). Again, it retained the original themes but the change in medium allowed for a different experience of the art. 

McLuhan, Benjamin, and Baudrillard’s theories all overlap into the experience of art in the digital and consumer age. Because we are surrounded by art, both consumer and aesthetic, the distinct experience of aesthetic experience through the viewing of artwork becomes subconscious and largely surface-level; by stopping to engage in metathinking as outlined by McLuhan, Benjamin, and Baudrillard’s theories we can experience art in a more deliberate way.

[therealmrdarcy]

This image collage was posted to Reddit by @michmemoirs (not sure if the same Tumblr profile), who highlights a scene in Bridget Jones' Diary where Mr. Darcy proclaims that he likes Bridget "just as you are." While the romanticism of this moment may be enhanced by the fact that Colin Firth is saying it, as many things in the Austen universe tend to be, I enjoyed how this meme contrasted much of our class discussion today. We discussed how Bridget Jones is a "flat" or "blobby" character, one who is easily reduced into caricatures or just vapid mirrors of actual people. While I generally agree with this point, having added that she seems like someone has "skimmed the top off a real person," I enjoyed the idea that we were playing into the hands of Helen Fielding/90s chick flick reflections: hating on Bridget Jones for being a vapid mess, when she could have value solely existing that way.

The setting of the 1990s is full of shallow media that is reflected in Bridget's mannerisms: comments on men in her life, judgment of her weight, and how she approaches alcohol and dieting, etc. This is often hyped up for comedic effect; however, we were quick to lay sole blame on Bridget herself, instead of the cultural expectations of the decade she was living in. When reflecting on her actions during the novel, even though she doesn't always enjoy these facts about herself, Bridget retains her own apartment, identity, group of friends, moves jobs, and holds some level of confidence throughout the novel. By Colin Firth declaring that he likes Bridget exactly for who she is, this collage sparks reflection that perhaps we should stop solely judging her for being flat at first glance and maybe look for why she was so enrapturing to women in the 90s (and to Colin Firth too).

[jottingjane]

Darcy x Reader One-Shot

Having been a fanfiction enthusiast for nearly a decade, I was so excited to find out we would have some time dedicated to the creative, yet chaotic, world of fanfiction. After watching Lost in Austen and feeling like it was an adaptation of a not-so-great self-insert fic, I sought out my own self-insert story on none other than Wattpad. Unfortunately, I could not find what I was looking for on Wattpad, AO3, or even Fanfiction.net, so I went to check out Tumblr and hit the jackpot. If you didn’t know before, fanfiction on Tumblr is very much known for the abundance of “[insert character] x reader” fic, which is exactly what it sounds like and what I wanted to showcase this week. 

X-reader fanfiction is a type of self-insert fanfiction in which you are written in the story yourself – “you” and the character of your choice are the couple being shipped in the story. Your name is literally Y/N, standing for your name, and you are supposed to read your name in place of it. They are typically written in second-person though sometimes you can find them written in first-person. I’m not exactly sure what the sole purpose of an x-reader fic is or what was in the head of the first person to ever write one, but if I had to guess, I would say that this is for anyone out there who wants to connect with a fictional character that they really admire. Personally, I am not much of a fan of x-reader fanfiction, but I think it’s a creative way for fanfiction authors to write about something they love in a bit of a different way and for lovers of different fandoms to interact with.

The one-shot I chose to read is called Boundaries and it’s Mr. Darcy x Reader in which you, Y/N, become a tutor for Georgiana Darcy and, you guessed it, fall in love with none other than Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy. The storyline is simple to comprehend and includes a wet Mr. Darcy as per usual. Though this fanfiction does not follow Austen’s writing style and has a modern tone, I was pleased to find that the author did incorporate some distinct features from Austen such as the adjectives “quiet handsomeness” in reference to describing Mr. Darcy. Additionally, the scene in which Mr. Darcy confesses his love to you reminds me very much of the adaptations. Though I have not seen either the 1995 or 2005 adaptations yet, I have seen many clips, including the infamous “bewitched” scene, which is what this love confession was giving.

I believe this fanfiction would fall under Darcymania. This was obviously very inspired by the adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, and I wonder if we did not have those adaptations, if there would still be a large amount of fanfiction like this and if it would include many of the scenes that it does. I’ve linked the one-shot at the top of my post if you wish to check it out.