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lady-plantagenet · 4 years

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What hasn’t already been said: The Spanish Princess 2

Episode 3: GOOD Grief! (we finally have a good episode on our hands)

To all those of you keen enough to have come back for another segment of ‘what hasn’t already been said: TSP’, as opposed to have just been scrolling when you see this - welcome back! (Scrollers you too <3)

Drawing of Thomas More’s Son AKA who Margaret Pole at this point wants to be the step baby momma of ;).

To anyone who’s seeing this for the first time: what this is a list of observations, jokes, reactions and criticism which occur to me upon a rewatch. I wait every week until Saturday to do this so that I have had my fill of scrolling through the tag and aggregating what has already been said. I tried doing a whole spoof (here where I gave up 10% in) but tbh a) I don’t know the history well enough b) it’s more time consuming than I thought and c) this series is just not as funny or as crazy as TWQ, so it’s untenable. Having said that: This is not a hatepost. I’m not hatewatching this series and nitpicking on purpose but expressing my honest views and trying to find the good in it as well as the bad.

Without further ado...

First Scenes:

LMAO the way Wolsey suggests they break their alliance with Spain is freaking hilarious because the actor delivers the lines as if he were a high school girl making a personal attack by suggesting the prom change its theme to 70s disco to the chagrin of the peppy up-and-coming rival.

Also @ Henry VIII looking like the peppy up-and-comer’s bff and shy stan with that pencil bite and small smirk when Catherine loses her cool against Wolsey.

I’m sorry... who is Henry married to again?

Also what is Margaret Pole doing at the council meeting?? I’m not saying I don’t like it.

Margaret Pole warning against certain repetitive thinking creating madness :(((

Attempted Naked Twister:

Oh Catherine, what is with you and all the other STARZ protagonists and that weird politcky bedroom talk? Who actually finds this sexy?

‘Catherine you are unnatural’ ooof that line delivery was somehow haunting.

Was the whole ‘I can’t be rushed you are off-putting with your overpowering’ a callback to Arthur and Catherine? Apparently there’s another writer for this episode so I won’t put all subtly past them.

Scotland:

‘Shitey men’ asdkjashd

Look I’m tired of all this ‘my children won’t be safe’ line getting repeated. Look mate, murder of royal infants and children was not exactly a common occurence, even in cases of deposition. The Princes in the Tower are an exception to this but a very infamous case for that reason. Child murder was extremely taboo. In situations like this with an infant kid, no one is going to bother murdering the babies and taking their thrones, the lords will just vie for power and make themselves de facto rulers and oust the queen. It’s not a question of safety but a question of holding power. Stop giving all women characters perma mummy brains.

Maggie being all caring:

‘Barnaby’ *scoffs* ‘Such an English name’ - OH MAN 0_0 is Catherine mocking them for trying to adapt ? Like I know it’s meant to show her envy for Lina, but it’s coming out all messed up.

Our girl Maggie’s smile screams I’m beating your ass in chess.

Anyhow this is the least histrionic we’ve seen Catherine so far.

Chaplain vs Catherine:

I’m interested how Catherine will feel at Stafford’s execution given that I have noticed this show build up to a friendship between them.

Why is everyone laughing at the whole ‘will you delight us with new schemes’ line was not that funny?

LMAO at Thomas Boleyn’s attempted brown-nosing.

You know what? Ruairi is a decent actor. When he says ‘so you admit it? you lost the child because you tried to be a man?” the actor conveys Henry’s troubled mind, lowkey scare towards Catherine and bewilderment all in one. The way his eyes do not move but just widen emotionlessly also gives this sense that he is being manipulated (which I guess they are going for with Wolsey). Then the whole choir music in the background.. I don’t know.. I’m liking this, it’s creating a vibe of a king of haunted and increasingly paranoid Henry. I’m sure they are going for that, so good.

Ursula Pole and Mama:

Maggie Pole say ‘riches don’t keep you safe’ with tears in her eyes :’(. Please tell me how this is not her thinking on her parents and granddad Warwick and what befell them ;’(.

I find Ursula refreshing actually, don’t get those types of heroines often. But they are making her similar to a gold-digger, an exhalted marriage was first and foremost considered a thing of honour. Noblepeople wouldn’t speak in such mercenary terms regarding their marriages.

Post Mary Defiance:

I love the ‘horse’ nickname from Brandon n’awwww

Also just realised what made TWQ so atmospheric - that wierd ‘oooo’ sound effect in the background when a character was being paranoid or worrying. They are using it during Henry’s ‘How is it that I have no sons?’ and it is just... so effective.

Catherine calling them ordinary children... she just keeps striking me as more and more classist. Like ok, I know every royal was... but still, I thought she was meant to see Lina as a friend and equal despite her race and status. To add the race element, this kind of rubs me the wrong way.

Also it is so clear by the end when Catherine states how the king is upset with her, she expects Maggie to ask her about it.. but she doesn’t lmao.

Back to Scotland until Sexy boy fencing:

I love me this soft boi. Angus <3 <3

I like how they address that some men don’t really like killing and that violence isn’t inherent in a man’s nature.

Oh man, are we supposed to look at Lina’s house and deplore the impoverished conditions? It would go for at least 3,000,000 pounds in today’s property market?

Is Catherine being particularly classist again with ‘Why u not becoming a butcher Wolsey, ey?’.

Though I will admit the ‘but giving meat to the poor is also good’ was one of her only smart comebacks.

Just realised, Catherine’s pink dress pretty as it is, looks straight out of the 1570s... why?

Montage and After:

You guys are right, there is this weird longing between Henry and Wolsey lmao. It is actually insane.

So basically Catherine is officially depressed

OOOFF we have Stafford as regent instead of Catherine. (edit: I suppose it’s cause they go to France which they didn’t historically? Also if Stafford is at home then what is his son later doing in France, why would he be there without his father. This show didn’t think this through)

Meg Singing:

An impassionate speech is not too anachronistic. But despite the title of this post (what hasn’t been said) I will reiterate that 16th century and Medieval people’s problem wasn’t that they were ashamed of their grief and didn’t cry. In fact, crying was somewhat more socially acceptable then than it even is now! Even manly men like Arthur were written as crying in literature such as Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. Obviously you couldn’t go overboard, but in truth crying was indeed often too performative rather than hidden too much behind doors.

Pole and More UWUWU in France and after:

I LIKE THIS INTELLECTUAL FLIRTING

It’s nice to see a depiction of romantic feelings between mature and level-headed subjects.

God Mary Tudor is so beautiful in this scene jesus. and the music when she was being presented was also very beautiful.

Maggie Pole getting given ‘a modest income’ yeah... she was one of the wealthiest peers of her day.

Also Maggie’s lady cousin not lady aunt Frost!

‘shaking of the sheets’ lmaoooo

William Compton cracks the hell out of me. I love this guy. He is just so creepy and twisted yet super keen and friendly. ahaha He looks like a riot, I hope we see him more. lmao tiles.

Also this palace feels very anachronistic almost 18th century-ish.

I like the Louis and Mary sequence, it’s nice seeing him trying to make her feel less scared, but OMFG when he lay on that chair.. for one second I thought they were trying to kill him off already.

Scotland: ‘Love is an open doooooorrrrr’ + Last Scene:

I ship Meg and Douglas ahhhh this soft boi x strong woman match is everything Henry and Catherine could have been.

I wonder... why is Lina speaking in Spanish more than Catherine. hmmm Are they trying to foreshadow Lina’s eventual return home and how Catherine become a true englishwoman?

Conclusion:

7.5/10

I cannot in all fairness believe it. This was actually decent. I’ve given up on historical accuracy long ago so by this point I’m focusing more on how it stands as as drama. I mean, TWQ was also a flop when it came to grasping the complex issues of that era but why do I feel compelled to rewatch it every year? Because it had atmosphere when it came to acting, music, certain aesthetics (though the costumes let me down often). It felt adequately gothic and dark, yet bright and jewel-lish when it had to be, sometimes both at the same time. Some one-liners were also memorable etc...

So far TSP 2 did not have any of this. Everything felt way too off and anachronistic. But not even consistently anachronistic. The music was also often very meh (though I just noted the absence of the spanish stringy theme that kept playing in season 1 - I guess I understand why), the dialogue very clichéd (‘alright lads let’s throw in the words: king, crown, power, fight, battle + other buzzwords and we have ourselves Shakespeare’) and so on... but I saw a change in this episode and I couldn’t initially point out what it was.

Upon rewatch, I identified some of the improvements (noted above) but above all: The producer was different! Boy does it show. Unfortunately, I think she is only for this one episode which really sucks. Come back! There is more chemistry between the couples, less predictable interactions, pervy Compton, cinnamonroll Douglas, better music, more scenic shots (e.g Douglas and Margaret in church) e.t.c. I hope it will match the rest of the STARZ productions in getting better towards the end.

Look it’s no masterpiece. But I’ll give credit where it’s due because at least this time it didn’t leave me feeling wanting and unsatisfied (if that makes sense).

#the spanish princess #the spanish princess 2 #lady plantagenet's series reviews #catherine of aragon #henry viii #mary tudor queen of france #margaret tudor #charles brandon #margaret pole

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lucabrenna · 3 years

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vimeo

Godfather of Harlem Title Sequence | EPIX from Peter S. Pak on Vimeo.

The Godfather of Harlem main title is an homage to the contemporaneous collages created during 1960s Harlem by African-American artist, Romare Bearden (1911-1988). He is best known for his photomontage compositions made from torn images of popular magazines and assembled into visually powerful statements on African-American life. We felt his art was appropriate to the show because it shared themes and portrayals of social inequality and the African-American experience that the show similarly explores. The tactile and tangible textures of collage as well as its ability to present and juxtapose different subjects from multiple sources within a single composition was highly influential to the main title design. “The cutting, fragmenting, and reconstruction involved in creating a collage provides apt metaphors for the trauma and violence of war and political oppression, the evisceration of the states quo, and the piecing together of new societal forms” (Rachael DeLue).

The main title INTENTIONALLY reflects many of the techniques, aesthetics, and themes of Romare Bearden, and is a purposeful design for the opening credits of the series not meant to stand separately from its cinematic purpose. Yet, much like how the show adds hiphop and other modern flairs that are anachronistic to the time period portrayed in the show, our main title also utilizes modern artistic principles for better readability by a modern audience. The complexities of Romare's collages, while appealing in its spellbinding intricacies, could prevent legibility of the credits or wouldn't read as well when only shown for a brief moment within the fast paced main title. Therefore, many of our Romare-inspired designs were simplified or redesigned in form and composition, from which similarities with modern and contemporary collages may have appeared in places. It is my hope that interest in the show and the main title will lead to a larger audience becoming newly aware of the artwork of Romare Bearden and other African-American artists.

It was a pleasure and honor to work on this project and give tribute to the fighters and activists of the past who fought for their American Dream, by any means necessary. As a minority as well as a child of immigrants, many of the societal issues and themes explored within Godfather of Harlem resonates with me. History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Whether it is equal rights, income inequality, racism, or drugs—to name a few—the show reveals how similar and relevant these issues remain to this day. It reminds us that the fight for the American Dream is an ongoing struggle, and each new generation has a obligation to bring forth positive change.

My Role: Art Direction / Design / Animation / Compositing

Credits: Client: EPIX & ABC Signature Studio: Digital Kitchen | Los Angeles Creative Director: Mason Nicoll Art Director/Designer/Lead Animator: Peter Pak Animators: Cisco Torres & Giovana Pham Producer: Jake Hibler & Michael Cates Executive Producer: Cynthia Biamon Music: Swizz Beatz track “Just in Case,” featuring Rick Ross and DMX

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wits-writing · 4 years

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Jojo Rabbit (Movie Review)

Taika Waititi’s latest effort as a writer/director, Jojo Rabbit, has been boldly advertised as an “Anti-Hate Satire.” It accomplishes this through its setting of late-World War II Germany to focusing its humor in on how hate gets normalized and perpetuated, sometimes infecting people at a young age with the added danger that they’ll never learn better. When hatred of an oppressed minority is packaged by a society as a “good” quality to have, it can produce children like the ten-year-old, blonde-haired/blue-eyed Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) who dreams of growing up to be Hitler’s personal guard and best friend, with Waititi himself as the boy’s imaginary version of his country’s leader.

His societally driven sense of right and wrong is challenged when he discovers a young Jewish women, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie), hidden in his house by his mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson). Jojo’s sense of normal getting challenged and torn down emotionally and literally as he tries to figure a way out of the situation without hurting his mother or betraying his own self-image as an ideal patriot.

[Full Review Under the Cut]

The movie’s framing of Jojo’s dedication to the Third Reich is clarified quickly by the opening credits sequence. Stock footage of Nazi rallies intercut with a sequence of Jojo excitedly running through his hometown on his way to a Hitler Youth training camp, while the anachronistic music cue of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by The Beatles plays in German. The boy’s fanaticism is marked in parallel with how a kid might feel about their favorite celebrity. An idea further set into stone by the propaganda posters of Hitler around his bedroom. It sets up Jojo’s naïve view of what his country’s been doing as something not only normalized but idealized.

Jojo’s worldview is the lens most of the movie uses to determine tone. Only a few brief scenes that are completely divorced of his gaze, often with the purpose of communicating the movie’s larger theme of empathy. Jojo’s simple desire in life is to be a good kid, defining that as being an ideal citizen and fitting in with what’s expected of him by his society. Taika Waititi’s performance as the imaginary Hitler the boy confides in demonstrates how his attempts to live up to these ideas are detached from reality, as the figment of the dictator brags about having “bomb-proof legs” and “eating unicorn for dinner.” It’s played into more when Jojo’s tasked with posting propaganda flyers around town and it cuts between the stern face of the actual historical fascist and the goofy smile of Waititi’s caricature. Working towards becoming the perfect citizen of his country at this point in history so their leader will recognize him is the fantasy of adulthood Jojo needs to get over before he can truly grow up.

His growth begins when being a good citizen contradicts being a good son to his mother after he discovers she’s been hiding Elsa in their house. His first reaction is to convince himself its somehow the young girl’s fault for “tricking” his mom. He slowly gets to know her through his comically inept attempts to interrogate her, so he can learn “Jewish secrets.” These interactions between the two involve Elsa prodding at Jojo’s belief in Jewish stereotypes. She recognizes him for what he is, a kid who wants to belong. McKenzie’s performance as Elsa goes through a wide array of demeanors that speak to the pain she’s been through. Going from confident around the mostly harmless Jojo, vulnerable in scenes with Rosie and desperate hide her fear when confronted directly with the danger of being persecuted. It’s complimented by Davis as Jojo witnessing and processing all of this, developing love for Elsa and growing away from the blind patriotism he held so dearly at the beginning of the movie.

Jojo’s development closely ties into his relationships with the two main adults in his life, his mom and Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell), the man in charge of the Hitler Youths in town. Their attitudes are informed by the movie taking place towards the end of World War II. Each of them sees the writing on the wall for Germany in their own way. Rosie’s comforted by the idea of the war and Third Reich coming to an end. She works hard to be there for Jojo, while fearing he may be too far gone to be brought away from the heinous ideologies of the Nazis. Efforts made in teaching to think of strength beyond the physical and into the emotional make for heartwarming moments of mother-son bonding. The role of Rosie requires Johansson to do some of the heaviest lifting in the movie, as her character forms the core of Jojo Rabbit’s idea of how love can help people save each other and live beyond tragedy.

Klezendorf, on the other hand, is a frustrated marksman demoted to organizing the Hitler Youths of the town after a battlefield injury took out one of his eyes. He sees the oncoming end of the war less as a cause for relief than yet another lost chance at battlefield glory. His infatuation with being a great soldier is a reflection on what Jojo could be if he doesn’t learn to better himself. That desire to fight and die in battle and prove himself is a desperate last grasp for validation from a governing body he doesn’t even seem that invested in at this point. Klezendorf and Rockwell’s performance makes for one of the most complicated pieces in Jojo Rabbit’s bigger picture and how someone ends up feeling about how he’s portrayed by the end could make or break their ability to enjoy the movie overall.

What elevates Jojo Rabbit into something exceptional is how Waititi’s script/direction, the performances of the cast, Michael Giacchino’s score and Mihai Mălaimare Jr.’s cinematography transition the movie’s tone into the final act. Any of the movie’s quirkier elements either fall away or succumb to the horror of war as it approaches and engulfs the town. It’s a shift set into motion by on of the most heart wrenching scenes in any movie this year and that mood permeates the remainder of the picture, accomplished without any character needing to utter a single word. It was this final portion of the movie that took it from an impressive feat of tone management up to that point and made it my favorite movie of the year.

If you like what you’ve read here, please like/reblog or share elsewhere online, follow me on Twitter (@WC_WIT), and consider throwing some support my way at either Ko-Fi.com or Patreon.com at the extension “/witswriting”

#Jojo Rabbit #Taika Waititi #Wit's Writing #Movie Review #comedy movies #Roman Griffin Davis #Thomasin McKenzie #Scarlett Johansson #Sam Rockwell

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amongxylophonesandglockenspiels · 5 years

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Bollywood Movies Part CLXXVIII

Firangi Mallah (Aamir Khan) is hired by the British to infiltrate Azaad’s (Amitabh Bachchan) band of freedom fighting bandits. As Firangi is brought into the fold, will he side with John Clive (Lloyd Owen) and the East India Company or with Azaad and Zafira Baig’s (Fatima Sana Shaikh) freedom fighters?

Thugs of Hindostan has an interesting premise, but the execution is terrible. The action sequences are too long and overuse slow motion. Katrina Kaif’s character of Suraiyya could have been good, but her music, dancing, and costumes are extremely anachronistic. I enjoyed the chemistry between Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as Firangi’s friend, but there isn’t a lot to recommend this film. Favorite song is Vashmalle.

Bauua (Shah Rukh Khan), a little person, falls in love with Aafia (Anushka Sharma), a scientist with cerebral palsy. However, he is unable to commit to growing up and leaves her on their wedding day to participate in a dance competition that would give him the chance of meeting the woman of his dreams: actress Babita Kumari (Katrina Kaif).

Zero is another romance that shows Shah Rukh Khan doesn’t know how to age gracefully and choose roles that will work for him instead of being the latest gimmick. It also can’t stick to what kind of movie it wants to be and takes too long. I liked Babita Kumari and her journey in the movie (except that really weird scene with Bauua), but she’s not the point of the movie. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub is great as Bauua’s friend Guddu. Favorite songs are Husn Parcham, Heer Badnaam, and Tanha Hua. None of the songs have subtitles.

Corrupt Inspector Sangram “Simmba” Bhalerao (Ranveer Singh) is transferred to Miramar. There he aids the local crime lord Durva (Sonu Sood) and helps carry out his dirty work for a fee. When Aakruti (Vaidehi Parshurami), who teaches poor children and reminds Simmba his own teacher as a child, is murdered by Durva’s brothers Sada (Amrit Singh) and Giri (Saurabh Gokhale), Simmba must decide whether he values people or money more.

TW for movie: rape, fridging. Simmba is pretty much exactly what I expected from a Rohit Shetty film. The first half is quite good because Ranveer Singh does a wonderful job inhabiting his character. The second half gets a bit preachy, but is still mostly good. I’m a bit sad Rohit Shetty decided to make it part of his SCU (Singham Cinematic Universe) because it made the ending feel a bit like a cop-out. Favorite songs are Aala Re Aala, Bandeya Rey Bandeya (audio only), and Mera Wala Dance. None of the songs have subtitles.

#the great venture into Bollywood #an example of anachronism in thugs of hindostan: during a song they do the charleston even though the movie is set around 1800 #another weird thing about thugs of hindostan is that the british officers speak to each other in hindi instead of in english #zero uses technology from lord of the rings to make shah rukh khan look like a little person which means that they used forced...#perspective and height doubles #simmba is a remake of the telugu movie temper #favorite of these is simmba

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literary-potato · 2 years

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Army of Darkness

Live watch

Linda’s hair is something

Very glad my archaeologist roommate never brought any ancient Sumerian texts home.

Loving the SFX in this recap

How did he attach the chainsaw to his arm?

This armor might be anachronistic.

The accents and language definitely are.

The medieval dudes can read Ancient Sumerian I guess? Good for them

HOW is his arm stuck in the stock when there’s nothing on the end of it?

What is Henry Fancypants’ accent????

Evil pit. Cool.

!!!!!!!! Blood fountain

!!!!!!!!!! ARROW’D

Incredible cinematography

Love that the evil monster’s first move is punching

Oh so that’s how the chainsaw goes on

Glad he still has gas

There is clearly room to go around those spikes my dude

Cool of them to let him climb out

Oh this should be a good duel

Amazing. Better than I expected.

Love to get shot and do a backflip

Love that this movie is committing to being WEIRD

She-bitch AS OPPOSED TO?????

HELL YEAH ROBO-HAND

GROOVY INDEED

Things with molecular structures

His shirt fell open amazingly quickly.

“Give me some sugar” she both understood that and went along with it with zero objection. Groovy

Why would you run??? Wouldn’t it be easier to stand still and fight them like you did in the pit?

What. The. Hell.

Zero visible burns.

Seriously what the FUCK is this sequence.

WHAT THE FUCK

“Good. Bad. I’m the guy with the gun.” Ok that feels like a famous line

Aw he’s burying him. How…sweet? Oh never mind it’s talking

WHO WAS THIS MOVIE MADE FOR I’m so confused who is the target audience for this humor? It’s all over the place

“It’s definitely an n word” incredible. The looking around.

“Help me” as she stands COMPLETELY still

More incredible SFX

Oh fun now the dead talk

Ok the dead now have multiple women. And now they’re…semi naked?

Wow this dialogue is corny.

This is a very long training montage given that Ash didn’t have THAT much of a head start on the dead

Someone went ham on the music in Act 3

Ok I looked it up and it’s the guy who did Darkman. That…. Explains a lot actually.

Is that…. Is That a tank train with spinning blades of death?????

I don’t know why “honey you got real ugly” is a funny line but I laughed out loud. Bruce Campbell’s delivery is A+

Double sword fight. Excellent.

WAIT HE STILL HAS THE ROBO HAND

#army of darkness

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Best Movies Coming to Netflix in October 2021

https://ift.tt/3CTZWZs

You feel that? There’s a sudden coolness in the air, and the smell of freshly fallen leaves out your window. If you listen closely, you can even hear the delight of passerbys as they realize everything suddenly tastes like pumpkins. Yep, spooky season is almost here, and that goes for Netflix too.

Ironically, the most popular streaming service in the world has chosen to play a bit of a trick on those users wanting a lot of new horror content. While the streamer is providing new original horror films and television programming from its in-house productions, most of the films Netflix is adding for the month of October are not scary at all. Nonetheless, many of them are still a treat. So here are the best movies to expect on Netflix in October….

A Knight’s Tale (2001)

October 1

In the grand tradition of The Princess Bride and Stardust (although this came out before the latter), Brian Helgeland’s A Knight’s Tale is an anachronistic fairy tale that works better than it has any right to. It stars Heath Ledger in one of his early heartthrob roles as a squire who pretends he’s a knight to compete in jousting tournaments around England. However, in truth this is really a ‘90s sports movie with all the clichés and trappings that entails—a fact the movie wears on its green sleeves.

As a film which begins with Queen music playing in Ye Olde England as crowds clap in beat with Freddie Mercury’s vocals, the film is a balancing act that somehow looks effortless in no small part because of its winsome cast, including Shannyn Sossamon, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, and a scene-stealing Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer, the famed poet and surprise wingman to Ledger’s Will Thatcher. And as Will, Ledger once again only hints at the deep reservoirs of talent and charisma we never saw fully realized.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

October 1

With the West Coast constantly on fire, the East Coast in danger of slipping beneath the Atlantic Ocean, and the rest of the country subject to extreme weather events on a constant basis, it’s a damn shame to realize that this powerful documentary—in which former Vice President Al Gore travels the country, speaking out about the dangers of climate change—is as necessary and vital as ever. It’s also jarring and depressing to understand that the United States still has not taken enough meaningful steps to stop this deepening crisis and even went backwards during the last four years.

Gore is much better here than he was on most of the 2000 campaign trail, weaving personal anecdotes and sentiments into the fascinating and sobering info dump that is the rest of the picture. If you haven’t seen it yet, An Inconvenient Truth (directed by Davis Guggenheim) is both moving and profound, and the kind of film one should share with one’s kids, if only out of respect for their future.

As Good as It Gets (1997)

October 1

Jack Nicholson won his third Academy Award (and second for Best Actor) while Helen Hunt won her first for Best Actress in this 1997 romantic comedy from director James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, The Mary Tyler Moore Show). Nicholson plays Melvin Udall, a wealthy novelist with obsessive-compulsive disorder whose misanthropic behavior turns off everyone he meets. But Melvin finds love and a family of sorts when he gets involved in the lives of a single mom and waitress (Hunt) and a gay artist (Greg Kinnear) who help him accept changes in his carefully controlled world.

Nicholson and Hunt richly deserved their Oscars, while Kinnear showed surprising range and emotion as the tormented Simon. Together, the three are a joy to watch as they begin to know and help each other. As Good as It Gets may dip occasionally (even frequently) into sentimentality, but watching Hunt and Nicholson win their hard-fought personal victories makes up for it.

Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)

October 1

Don’t Be a Menace to South Central and its unwieldy title is not necessarily what you’d call a great movie. It’s not even a good one, per se. But this early Wayans Brothers success is a genuinely hilarious flick—especially for young men who came of age in the 1990s when every Friday night offered another cautionary tale of “inner city life” at the multiplex. Yes, Don’t Be a Menace takes the piss out of great films about a distinctly Black American experience, such as John Singleton’s raw Boyz N the Hood (1991), as well as more heavy handed also-rans based in similar themes.

But at the end of the day, this is just a clever spoof on a once ubiquitous genre with moments of genuine comical brilliance displayed by Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans. From their riff on strapping young Laurence Fishburne as a father in Boyz to Shawn’s warning of the dire risk to young Black actors posed by rappers getting all the best roles in Hollywood, there’s still a lot to giggle about at this movie, particularly if you’ve never seen it.

Desperado (1995)

October 1

Robert Rodriguez’s first Hollywood movie is as much a remake of his career-making indie, El Mariachi (1992), as it is a sequel to it. With Antonio Banderas stepping into the role of the mysterious guitar-toting gunslinger, and his mission of revenge more or less repeating itself, Desperado feels like the movie Rodriguez wanted to make the first time. And if so, fair enough, because both flicks are a blast.

Indeed, Desperado is as stylish a mid-‘90s shoot ‘em up as you’re ever going to come across. With all the visual tricks and impossible angles that became Rodriguez’s trademark, and with Banderas at his most broodingly pouty, it’s a hard-R actioner that subtly plays like a comedy. The film also includes Salma Hayek’s breakout performance, which still sizzles to the touch 25 years later. Throw in terrific character work in the margins by Steve Buscemi, Cheech Marin, Joaquim de Almeida, Danny Trejo, and a cameoing Quentin Tarantino, and you have some fun Friday night fodder.

The DUFF (2015)

October 1

The teen rom-com heyday may have been in the 1990s and 2000s, but try telling that to Mae Whitman, who knocks it out of the park in 2015’s The DUFF, an adaptation of the 2010 novel of the same name. Whitman stars as Bianca, a high school senior who discovers she is viewed as “the DUFF,” aka the Designated Ugly Fat Friend by some of her (crueler) classmates. In an attempt to become cooler, Bianca makes a deal with her former childhood friend Wesley (Robbie Amell): she will help him pass science if he helps her un-DUFF. It’s a classic rom-com set-up, elevated by Whitman’s performance, her chemistry with co-star Amell, and the script’s savvy self-awareness.

Gladiator (2000)

October 1

When Gladiator was released, it came with some heavy cynicism from older critics who remembered the type of 1950s and ‘60s beefcake flicks it was emulating. What they didn’t get at the time—and which box office audiences and even Oscar voters eventually did—was Gladiator wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. Rather this a gorgeous and finely crafted distillation of those genre trapping in peak condition for modern audiences.

Movies

Why Gladiator Continues to Echo Through Eternity

By David Crow

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Antonio Banderas interview: The Expendables 3, Desperado

By Duncan Bowles

As the father of a murdered son, and husband to a murdered wife, Russell Crowe is magnetic as Maximus, the Gladiator who defied an emperor. And as that emperor, Joaquin Phoenix gives a curiously both sympathetic and repellent performance, which is far more fascinating than the one he did win an Oscar for nearly 20 years later. And like both performers, the whole cast and director Ridley Scott are in top form at telling this story. Their efforts flirt with the pomp and regality of opera, yet the spectacle is at times as lurid as professional wrestling. Frankly, 20 years later we wish they still made ‘em like this.

The Holiday (2006)

October may be a little early for a Christmas movie, but Nancy Meyer’s The Holiday is good enough to watch year round. The 2006 rom-com stars Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz as two women from different countries who decide to swap their homes for the holidays. Winslet’s Iris falls in love with tinseltown, and Diaz’s Amanda falls in love with Iris’ brother. With Jack Black and Jude Law as the film’s charming love interests, and bit parts for Kathryn Hahn and John Krasinski, The Holiday is the gift that keeps on giving. Fifteen years following its relatively lackluster box office debut, it remains a part of many people’s Christmas movie must-watch list.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)

October 1

Most people remember Angelina Jolie‘s initial turn as Lara Croft fondly, but fewer talk about her follow-up feature appearance as the adventuring archaeologist in 2003’s Cradle of Life. The sequel didn’t do as well at the domestic box office as its predecessor, but it is arguably a more enjoyable film, pitting Jolie’s Croft against Ciaran Hinds’ Dr. Jonathan Reiss in a quest for Pandora’s Box (yes, literally) with a hunky Gerard Butler by her side. The pulpy plot is silly and fun, punctuated by some clever fight and action sequences from director Jan de Bont (Speed, Twister). From deep-sea diving to leaps from Shanghai skyscrapers, there’s never a dull moment with Lara Croft, and Jolie somehow makes it all work.

Léon: The Proessional (1994)

October 1

As the movie that made Natalie Portman a star, Léon or The Professional (depending on which continent you are on) has come under fair scrutiny in recent years for its intentionally bizarre and uncomfortable Bonnie & Clyde relationship between Jean Reno’s Léon, an immigrant who pays the bills by working as an assassin for the nice pizzeria proprietor down the street (the always fun Danny Aiello), and the little girl next door, Mathilda (Portman). Only 12-years-old, Portman’s precocious antiheroine clings to Léon for protection after a crooked cop (Gary Oldman) kills her family, and then pressures him to train her as an assassin so she can get revenge… all as she becomes infatuated with the grown man.

It’s a strange film that shouldn’t work, yet does thanks to a dreamlike atmosphere achieved by director Luc Besson at the height of his professional talent, and because of a genuinely superb cast. Despite being a killer, Reno brings such childlike innocence and obliviousness to his titular character that he may as well be a French Forrest Gump. Meanwhile Oldman hams it up to high heaven in one of his career best scenery-chews. Then there’s Portman who’s heartbreaking, tragic, and bleakly funny all before she was even a teenager. Somehow it’s an enchanting action movie fairy tale that works better than it has any right to.

Malcolm X (1992)

October 1

Denzel Washington didn’t win the Oscar for Malcom X but he should have. In fact, this absolute masterpiece deserved many more accolades and appreciation in its time. A passion project for writer-director Spike Lee, who had to campaign for the film after Norman Jewison had been hired to direct, Malcolm X is a breathtaking epic. It might run at a length of nearly three and a half hours, but Lee keeps the pace nimble and engrossing as we follow the man who’d become Malcolm X from the 1940s through his ascension in the Nation of Islam, and his eventual assassination after leaving the organization.

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The film features perhaps the most riveting and relentless performance of Washington’s career as he channels the righteousness and anger, as well as the humility and anguish, of Malcolm. Washington and Lee’s portrait is that of a mythic figure, but also a fallible one who spends his whole life growing, learning, and affecting his world for the better. It’s one of the best American films produced in the 1990s.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

October 1

We’re aware that this Robin Hood movie has a checkered history. How could one not be when everyone recalls Kevin Costner’s “British” accent (or lack thereof)? Kevin Reynolds’ Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is certainly a flawed jaunt into Sherwood Forrest… but honestly it’s still a very entertaining one that’s better than you remember.

Thanks in no small part to Alan Rickman’s tremendous turn as the Sheriff of Nottingham, the movie soars while the English thespian redefines the term scene-stealing in his every walk-on. It earned him a BAFTA for his troubles. Almost as important, and less often cited, is the dynamic, thrilling score by the late great Michael Kamen, which in addition to providing one of the best adventure themes of the 1990s also led to the creation of the biggest song of ‘91, Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do (I Do It For You).” Throw in some fast-paced action filmed on actual English locations and a seriously merry acting ensemble—including Michael McShane as Friar Tuck, Nick Brimble as the best onscreen Little John, and Sean Connery’s iconic cameo as King Richard the Lionheart—and you have what’s still the best Robin Hood movie of the last 40 or so years, at least.

Step Brothers (2008)

October 1

An admittedly acquired taste, Step Brothers might just be Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s masterpiece. The pair began their professional collaboration on Saturday Night Live before graduating to their first zeitgeist-grabbing Anchorman in 2004, with Ferrell starring, McKay directing, and both co-writing. Step Brothers is their third of four films together, but it’s also the most pure: a distillation of their disdain for a certain type of toxic and anti-intellectual entitlement which sprang to the forefront of white American life in the 21st century.

Embodying that man-child selfishness is Ferrell as Brennan and John C. Reilly as Dale, two 40-year-old men who still live at home with their single parents. That nightmarish scenario turns out to be an aphrodisiac for Dale’s Dad and Brennan’s Mom (Richard Jenkins and Mary Steenburgen), which forces these two petulant avatars of their age into sleeping under the same roof. Demented chaos ensues in a film where McKay, Ferrell, and Reilly are at last free from being forced to redeem the assholes they’re mocking.

Titanic (1997)

October 1

Beset by production problems and massive cost overruns, James Cameron’s epic retelling of the doomed 1912 maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic is undeniable populist entertainment, blending melodramatic romance with disaster movie dread and scale. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio—in star-making performances—play a fictional couple who meet and fall in love on the voyage, escaping their class boundaries to spend just a precious few days together. And then that iceberg gets in the way.

The romance may test some viewers’ patience for the first half of this three-hour movie, but Cameron brings all his considerable skills to bear in its second half, making us see and feel each agonizing moment as the massive ocean liner goes down and takes 1,500 souls with it. Titanic is still one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, and there’s a reason for that: it’s an old-fashioned (except for the visual effects) Hollywood spectacle.

Zodiac (2007)

October 1

If you haven’t seen director David Fincher’s all-time masterpiece yet, what have you been waiting for? Fincher and his tremendous cast, including future Avengers Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr., plus Jake Gyllenhaal, Brian Cox, Chloe Sevigny, and more, trace in methodical fashion the long and fruitless search for Northern California’s infamous Zodiac Killer. Ruffalo’s detective and Gyllenhaal’s newspaper cartoonist take the search personally, too, becoming more obsessed the further their target seems to slip away.

Culture

David Fincher’s Zodiac: The Movie That Never Ended

By Don Kaye

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Zodiac Killer Code Cracked After 51 Years

By Tony Sokol

Fincher’s film is suffused with an eerie, mounting sense of dread that is compounded by the fact that it never truly pays off—aside from hearing his (unconfirmed) voice on the phone at one point, there’s never a real confrontation with the Zodiac, nor any sense of closure for anyone. The feeling that time, age, and death eventually wash away everything, even the best efforts of decent people to trap a monster, is perhaps the true horror at the heart of Zodiac, which may still be the best film of its decade.

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twilight-adamo · 6 years

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As Dreams Are Made On: The Mixtape - Liner Notes

Hello everyone! I am currently in the process of gathering my thoughts on Brave New World and trying to get the next installment of These Our Actors (which will focus on Rosalie) just right, in addition to trying to find my thread on Out of the Blue and other non-Twilight projects. This has been complicated by the fact that I’ve been fighting a couple rather nasty nose and throat bugs of late, and so this weekend I’m doing my best to relax and recover.

In the meantime, I thought I’d start offering up my notes on the Spotify playlist I posted a while ago and why I chose the songs I did. For anyone who didn’t see the link, here it is:

https://open.spotify.com/user/12153099402/playlist/5IYjYDbcM6qvQ2hgGnOCGF?si=orkjWU50SjKm7xbPSF_r5w

Since many of my choices do relate directly to specific plot points, there are potential spoilers ahead, so I’m putting this behind a cut. I won’t get through every song in this post, but I’ll add additional notes in subsequent posts as time allows.

As I think I mentioned before, I find playlists to be a very useful tool in my writing. It’s possible to spend too much time tinkering with playlists, of course, so I try not to do it in place of writing or outlining - this is just something I work on when I’m occupied with non-writing tasks that allow for a certain amount of downtime. Each song tends to relate to a plot point or an emotion I’m trying to evoke in a certain part of the story, and the sequence generally follows my outline of the plot, though I’ll sometimes put the playlist on shuffle if I’m feeling stuck and want to try and shake things up, and I sometimes end up adding, removing, or resorting various songs as my understanding of the plot evolves. Since As Dreams Are Made On is done, the current version of the mixtape - all 49 songs - is now pretty much in its final form, but when I’m working on a story, the associated playlist is very much a living document and subject to change.

Music has always been a hugely important part of my life, thanks in large part to my mother, who was an influence on much of my creative output. I tend to think of myself as a visual and verbal person first and foremost, but music has the power to set my mood, to reawaken old memories, to align my thoughts, and to soothe my emotional turmoil. My personal tastes are fairly eclectic - my mother favored country, and I’m still fond of the genre, but I also listen to a lot of pop, classical pieces, musical theatre, folk music, movie scores, and so on. Spotify has been kind of a godsend when it comes to building playlists, though there are unfortunately a few pieces which should be on the mixtape but aren’t simply because they’re unavailable on Spotify. I’ll try to make a note of those missing pieces in the appropriate sections.

Right, well, without further ado, let’s get to the songs.

Pieces and Pieces - The Rough and Tumble This song’s sort of a thesis statement for the whole story, in a way. The refrain, in particular, speaks to me of where I was going: Nothing is lost when it’s been found again / Everything’s found where it was lost. Cass/Bella (or CB, as I refer to her, when I’m not simply calling her Bella) has seemingly lost a great deal, but she comes to gain a great deal as well, and to recover things she thought lost to her forever. The line “I will make you mine again, pieces by pieces” also speaks to me of the story’s dramatic climax, where the nature of CB’s relationship with Alice becomes clearer.

Where Is My Mind? - Pixies Here’s where we’re getting into the actual sequence of events. This one might be a little bit of a cliché, but it reflects CB’s confusion when she wakes in the world of Twilight. It’s also just generally one of my favorite songs.

Turning Page - Sleeping At Last This is the first of many pieces pulled directly from the soundtrack of the Twilight films, and the first song that centers a character other than CB, as it reflects Alice getting hit by the mating bond full-force. It’s a lovely piece, but I think there’s an undercurrent of anxiety and some slightly ominous elements that suit Alice’s mood well. Love at first sight sounds like a pleasant prospect, but it’s also a frightening one, and neither Alice nor CB would have chosen it, given the chance to choose.

Iowa (Traveling, Pt. 3) - Dar Williams Another of my favorite songs. I listened to a lot of Dar Williams in college, and listen to her fairly often still, but I keep coming back to this one in particular. As a lifelong New Englander, famed for what my great-grandmother called ‘the Yankee reserve’ (which means we don’t tend to wear our emotions on our sleeves and generally we keep to ourselves), these lyrics in particular speak to me:

But way back where I come from We never mean to bother We don’t like to make our passions other people’s concern And we walk in the world of safe people And at night we walk into our houses and burn

So, to me, this song speaks of CB’s struggle with her own emotions as her life in Forks begins and she grapples with the mating bond and all it implies. And it also speaks to her background as a lifelong Bostonian, who doesn’t like to be a bother but nevertheless finds herself in a whole new social context and a position where she needs to reach out to others to survive.

Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs This is Rosalie’s introduction to the story. I don’t really know why, it just seems to suit her, somehow.

Bela Lugosi’s Dead - CHVRCHES It may be physically impossible for me to write about vampires WITHOUT using this song. I just felt like I had to fit it in somewhere, and the first meeting with the rest of the Cullens (sans Carlisle and Esme, of course) seemed like a good spot.

Looking for a Place to Shine - Deidre Thornell Hear the Bells - Naomi Scott I’ll be honest, I don’t have a lot of compelling reasons for these two. They just seemed to fit the sort of transitional period between the first meeting with the Cullens and Leah’s introduction a little later on.

Red Eyes and Tears - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Leah’s introduction to the story. Again, it just seemed to suit her.

New For You - Reeve Carney We’re back to Alice with this one. It sort of reflects her own emotional turmoil in dealing with the mating bond and having to accept that CB doesn’t necessarily reciprocate all her feelings just yet.

Fearless - Taylor Swift Well, this one actually comes up in the story, so you can pretty much guess where it fits in. Again, though, it’s one of my favorite songs, and speaks to the joy that I think love should carry with it, and the idea that love should drive us forward and make us better. It’s been a serious contender for the first dance at my hypothetical wedding for a long time (though “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri may be beating it out now).

The Mercy of the Fallen - Dar Williams More Dar Williams! This one...I don’t know. Somehow, it speaks to me of love and acceptance, of individuals who are all burdened and broken in their own ways reaching out and comforting one another. And that, in turn, makes me think of CB’s first visit to the Cullen house: her first real conversation with Rosalie, her introduction to Carlisle and Esme, all of that. This is where she really starts to build bridges, I think, and where she and some of the others begin to open up to one another.

Bella’s Lullaby - Carter Burwell, Dan Redfeld and Elizabeth Hedman This is of course one of my favorite pieces from the Twilight movie score, and includes a leitmotif that comes up more than once in both the films and in my playlist. I couldn’t find the original version from the score itself on Spotify, but this cover works. Of course Edward plays it on the piano at this point in the story, reading it out of CB’s thoughts, and I think she adopts it in a sense as a sort of personal theme. Every time I listen to it, it makes me think of soaring pine trees and crisp, cold air, and I find the melody very soothing.

Missing Piece: Star by Star - Cassandra Lease and Melissa Carubia Someday I’m actually going to get together with the friend who helped me with the arrangement on this one and record it. It probably won’t go up on Spotify, but I’ll likely post it somewhere. This is the song I wrote for my mother’s memorial service; the lyrics are of course reprinted in the story in their entirety. This is probably one of the most personal elements of the story, the point where I really started to spill my guts across the page. I obviously backed off a little from my own life once I introduced Callie to the story, but there’s still a lot of my soul buried in the text; sometimes, I think, too much.

Bella’s Lullaby (Extended Mix) - The Twilight Orchestra I’m not really sure why this shares the name Bella’s Lullaby when it doesn’t seem to have much to do with the shorter piece, but whatever. This is just a lovely piece that sets the mood for Alice and CB on the rooftop and the events that follow.

Possibility - Lykke Li Similarly, this is more of a ‘setting the mood’ song. I don’t think the lyrics quite fit, in their entirety, but this basically represents CB awakening to the possibility of forming a real attachment to Alice, despite her qualms.

Shake It Off - Taylor Swift Another (highly anachronistic) Taylor Swift song that shows up in the story itself. I can be an extremely basic white girl at times.

Bad Reputation - Avril Lavigne The Joan Jett version isn’t on Spotify! I don’t know what to tell you! This cover’s pretty good, though. Another Leah song, and something I imagine might be playing in the dive where CB introduces Leah to fried pickles.

Nothing to Lose - Minusworld My friend Melissa’s band! Get their EP, Giant Blazing Sword, wherever you buy digital music! Listen to them on Spotify and Bandcamp! Anyway, I think this is the track playing during Leah and CB’s encounter with the scary assholes in the alley, and when Emmett and the others get their big damn hero moment.

In Place Of Someone You Love - Carter Burwell, Dan Redfeld and Elizabeth Hedman We’re skipping ahead a bit here. This piece comes after the shopping scene and CB’s attempt to analyze Rosalie’s abilities, when she’s in the dream of the burning house, trying to save her memories.

The Forgotten - Green Day This piece represents CB’s emotions after she wakes from her brief coma, as she struggles with losing her memories and burning away parts of the world she left behind.

Black Is The Colour - Cara Dillon And this piece represents CB’s acceptance of her feelings toward Alice, her confession of love despite her reservations. It took me a while to find a cover I liked, as I very much wanted to use a version that had a woman singing about another woman, for obvious reasons.

Okay, I think that’s pretty much all I can handle for now. More to come soon!

#twilight fanfiction #twilight fanfic #twilight au #adamo #as dreams are made on #adamo spoilers #the mixtape #bellice #alice/bella

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jbergren · 4 years

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Godfather of Harlem Title Sequence | EPIX from Peter S. Pak on Vimeo.

My Role: Art Direction / Design / Animation / Compositing

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dweemeister · 6 years

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Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress (1957, Austria)

In three years, Romy Schneider had become the face of Austrian cinema. Appearing as Empress Elisabeth (”Sissi”) of Austria as part of Ernst Marischka’s Sissi trilogy, she is, as always, luminous and gracious in the role that became hers. German-language media would, decades afterwards, sometimes refer to Schneider as “Sissi”. This final film – Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress – is the least escapist in an otherwise popular, romanticized series that gave Austrians a source of cultural pride while trying to rebuild from the wreckage of World War II. It is also a solid summation of what Ernst Marischka wished to accomplish with these films: an opulent royal drama with enough good-natured humor to attract the widest possible audience. All three films are holiday season television traditions in German-speaking nations and elsewhere, even if the second and third never quite recapture the charm of the first. For Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress, Marischka assembles his regular cast and crew one last time.

In Sissi: The Young Empress, we witnessed (anachronistically) as Sissi (Schneider) and Emperor Franz Joseph (Karlheinz Böhm) became King and Queen of Hungary, forming the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Court life is insufferable as usual, Franz Joseph’s mother Archduchess Sophie (Vilma Degischer) continues to dictate Sissi’s schedule, and Hungarian Count Andrássy (Walther Reyer) has confessed his love to Sissi. Scandalous! Much of the film concentrates on lingering tensions between Austrians and Hungarians (Sissi is more popular than Franz Joseph in Hungary, given that she has learned Hungarian), Sissi’s extended bout of tuberculosis and recovery in Madeira and Corfu, and ongoing Italian nationalist sentiment in Milan and Venice (at the time, both were possessions of Austria-Hungary).

The trilogy’s regular supporting cast of characters returns: Franz Joseph’s father Archduke Franz Karl (Erich Nikowitz); Sissi’s mother Duchess Ludovika (Magda Schneider, Romy’s mother); Sissi’s father Duke Max (Gustav Knuth); Sissi’s eldest sister Princess Helene (referred to as ”Néné”, Uta Franz); and the recently-promoted comic relief in Major Böckl (Josef Meinrad).

As always, there are historical inaccuracies abound. Sissi’s fight with tuberculosis, though often discussed among Austrians when recounting their history, is probably just an unfounded rumor. Her stay in Hungary’s Gödöllő Palace occurred after that rumored affliction, not before. Lastly, Sissi’s first daughter, Sophie, who appears in the concluding moments, passed away very young after Sissi had temporarily moved to Hungary.

The latter two Sissi films feel like episodes in an extended plot, rather than their own, independent pieces. This should be obvious, but an individual’s appreciation of the sequels is dependent in the familiarity of what has happened before. Almost all of the character development is seen through Sissi, while everyone else remains as they were when we were first introduced to them.

How unfortunate, many Sissi fans will remark, that Romy Schneider came to dislike the role of Sissi so much that she refused to reprise he role when made aware of plans for a fourth film. Indeed, she is the greatest aspect of all three films and she, more than anyone else attached to these projects, should be able to say when there is nothing more she can provide to the character (Romy’s mother, Magda, lobbied her daughter to agree to the fourth film). Perhaps the role of Sissi might not have been the most dramatically demanding role that any actress might ever encounter, but with this valedictory performance that ranges between personal confidence to royal exasperation to physical fragility, it is the most layered portrayal of Empress Elisabeth yet, even if it is not the most appealing. Schneider, after Sissi, sought to develop her talents under some of Europe’s most noted auteurs all while occasionally starring in Hollywood films. Schneider would make one final appearance as Empress Elisabeth in Luchino Visconti’s Ludwig (1972, Italy/France/West Germany), but that interpretation of Sissi – misanthropic, scheming – is unlike anything seen in Marischka’s trilogy.

For co-star Böhm (who is simply sufficient here), a promising career stalled with the critical and commercial failure of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960), in which Böhm stars as the film’s cinematographer/photographer/serial killer. The sexual themes of Peeping Tom poisoned Böhm’s appeal to film producers, although he would continue working until 1980. From 1981 onward, he and his wife concentrated almost entirely on humanitarian work in Ethiopia.

As he did for the previous films, Marischka also co-produced and wrote the screenplay himself. Moreso than Sissi and Sissi: The Young Empress, this film tackles European politics from its opening minutes. Marischka’s take on how Hungarians, Milanese, Venetians, and others viewed Austria-Hungary is portrayed through some of the rosiest tinted glasses one could possibly find – the harshest words for the Austrian royals are mild, soon won over by Sissi’s deference, beauty, and charm. The intensity of the Empire’s ethnic relations and political power plays are minimized, assuming Franz Joseph’s and Elisabeth’s inherent righteousness. She must, according to the ever-demanding Archduchess Sophie, be at his side in these political affairs, but do and say little. But Sissi is not the passive type, and she assists in the well-mannered, considerate ways that she can.

This is best exemplified in the scene where Sissi and Franz Joseph attend a production of La Traviata at La Scala, an esteemed Milanese opera house. As the royal couple are about to take their seats to the tune of “Kaiserhymne” (music by Joseph Hayden and lyrics by Lorenz Leopold Haschka; you may recognize the melody as the German national anthem). Midway through the Austrian anthem, the orchestra abruptly switches to “The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” from Verdi’s opera Nabucco; the Italian nationalists in the audience stand up, backs towards the Emperor and Empress, singing in unison. Instead of leaving the opera (as others might have done) during this act of defiance, Sissi wants to hear the nationalists out and applauds when the piece is finished. Stunned by her magnanimous applause, the Milanese – actually the servants of the nobles who were refused to show up – are heartened by the respect she has shown to their demonstration. From a musical standpoint, this Verdi chorus was used as a protest song in nineteenth-century Italy for those wishing to see a unified Italian state; its popular use in Italian society was probably not what Verdi was intending, but that is the reputation the composition garnered (a reputation advanced by this film).

As they have been throughout, those working on the film’s technical departments are doing tremendous work. Costume designers Leo Bei and Gerdago have spectacular uniforms, gowns, dresses, and suits in every single moment of this film. Composer Anton Profes returns with Sissi’s violin-heavy leitmotif repeated across the trilogy. Production designer Fritz Jüptner-Jonstorff carries over much of his incredible work recreating dance halls and imperial palace hallways and rooms when Sissi is in Austria. Nowhere does it confirm or deny that the production shot at La Scala, so I cannot credit Jüptner-Jonstorff with what might be a fantastic reproduction of the terraced seating of the music hall. Cinematographer Bruno Mondi, hamstrung by all the interiors in the second film, is once more confined to imperial quarters. But the final sequence in Venice, utilizing the enormity of Piazza San Marco, is appropriately epic in scope and beautifully framed to conclude three years of a landmark in Austrian cinema.

The Sissi trilogy never appeared in their original theatrical cuts in the United States. Some years after, Paramount purchased the rights to distribute Sissi to American cinemas, but decided to splice the three films together into an abridged version. That version is Forever My Love (1962), and it is not recommended for any viewers interested in watching the Sissi films.

For an Austria just beginning to reassert its autonomy after years of destruction and desolation, the Sissi series offered respite from economic and political woes and a celebration of being Austrian. Some detailed parts of the storytelling and cultural references will escape the detection, the understanding of many. What remains for all to see is an amiable trilogy where a princess become and Empress, where a young girl accepts the duties of her public position and become a unifying force for a nation of different, conflicting peoples. Where Sissi is beginning to understand the desires and fears of the non-Austrians in the empire and the practices of the imperial family, she never loses her indispensable empathy for others. For all those who may see these films and even for those who see these works as sugary fictions, may we learn and live by that example.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

Also in the Sissi trilogy: Sissi (1955) and Sissi: The Young Empress (1956)

#Sissi #Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress #Ernst Marischka #Romy Schneider #Karlheinz Bohm #Magda Schneider #Gustav Knuth #Josef Meinrad #Erich Nikowitz #Uta Franz #Walther Reyer #Peter Neusser #Bruno Mondi #Fritz Juptner Jonstorff #Gerdago #Leo Bei #Anton Profes #TCM #My Movie Odyssey

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manukyan · 4 years

Video

vimeo

Godfather of Harlem Title Sequence | EPIX from Peter S. Pak on Vimeo.

The Godfather of Harlem main title is an homage to the contemporaneous collages created by African-American artist, Romare Bearden (1911--1988), during 1960s Harlem. He is best known for his photomontage compositions made from torn images of popular magazines and assembled into visually powerful statements on African-American life. We felt his art was appropriate to the show because it shared themes and portrayals of social inequality and the African-American experience that the show similarly explores.

I loved the tactile and tangible texture of Romare’s collages as well as its ability to present and juxtapose different subjects from multiple sources within a single composition. "The cutting, fragmenting, and reconstruction involved in creating a collage provides apt metaphors for the trauma and violence of war and political oppression, the evisceration of the states quo, and the piecing together of new societal forms" (Rachael DeLue).

The main title INTENTIONALLY reflects many of the techniques, aesthetics, and themes of Romare Bearden, and is a purposeful design for the opening credits of the series not meant to stand separately from its cinematic purpose. The true artist was Romare Bearden, and I was only an instrument. Yet, much like how the show adds hiphop and other modern flairs that are anachronistic to the time period portrayed in the show, our main title also utilizes modern artistic principles for better readability by a modern audience. The complexities of Romare's collages, while appealing in its spellbinding intricacies, could prevent legibility of the credits or wouldn't read as well when only shown for a brief moment within the fast paced main title. Therefore, many of our Romare-inspired designs were simplified or redesigned in form and composition, from which similarities with modern and contemporary collages may have appeared in places. It is my hope that interest in the show and the main title will lead to a larger audience becoming newly aware of the artwork of Romare Bearden and other African-American artists.

My Role: Art Direction / Design / Animation / Compositing

#video #collage #paper #Illustration #photo #texture #pattern #infographics #title #transition #magazine

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eduardomarin90 · 3 years

Video

vimeo

Godfather of Harlem Title Sequence | EPIX from Peter S. Pak on Vimeo.

My Role: Art Direction / Design / Animation / Compositing

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filmphreak · 6 years

Text

Adam & Eve Vs. the Cannibals

So I’m watching ADAM & EVE MEET THE CANNIBALS.

Yep. I’m watching a movie called that. By whichever name you’re calling it (this is a retitling - the original name had no cannibals in it). I like the CANNIBALS title best – obviously. I’m an Italian cannibal movie aficionado, so that makes my preference even stronger. But since I’m only partway through the movie, I cannot attest to the titular accuracy of what is clearly a re-monikering by a distributor for whatever market he was trying to reach. I’m guessing an American distributor redubbed it to make it more sellable to exploitation crowds.

Turns out, though, even though nothing remotely cannibal-y has occurred, it’s a pretty fascinating movie. And a pretty movie.

There is a depiction of Creation during the opening titles. Lots of lava and geological upheaval, plus some nice but probably not overly expensive color FX. It’s a groovy sequence. Following that, in the fresh, new world, something bursts from the dirt. A membranous cocoon out of which Adam tears himself.

Lonely, he goes on to sculpt the figure of a woman out of beach sand. But the rain comes to wash it away as soon as he’s done. In his despair, he fails to notice that the sand is being rained away from actual flesh. Adam is no longer alone.

And they explore each other and their new life and environment. They watch other animals reproduce (obviously built-in stock nature footage, but it works).

Then there is the serpent. I never realized before this movie how awesome Satan (as per the post-Judaic, Christian re-ordering of the primitive Eden mythos, but that is another chapter in another book entirely) sounds speaking in Italian. With a snake as avatar. Sweet!

Adam keeps trying to keep her from snacking on the forbidden fruit but eventually temptation overtakes and she succumbs. He joins her. Then they REALLY begin to explore each other.

But nature turns on them. A horrible wind blows through. Interestingly, so far God is represented here through manifestation as Nature. I can dig it. Happy God equals serene paradise, a hospitable enviro. Pissed-off God equals storms, volcanos (destructive rather than creative now), even boulders. (This leads to a great Indiana Jones-like scene. The FX are simple but a blast to watch.

Still no gutmunchers, but I’m hooked regardless. I suppose now that they’re booted from Eden and worrying about clothes and such, maybe now their luck will sour and cannibals will pick a fight. Who knows? But I’m on board for the ride.

Now they’re wandering in the desert, an environmental cue for the absence of God. And now the couple is bickering. The honeymoon is over.

NOTE: The loincloth in no way detracts from a strangely blond Eve’s sexiness.

Now, left-turn blinker. The couple discovers that nature is an antagonist to them now (i.e. they are suffering the consequences of God’s displeasure). God’s displeasure here takes the form of a stop-motion animated pterodactyl-ish thing.

At this point, I don’t care if cannibals ever come into the story. Because this movie just gets better and better.

NOTE: The togetherness in facing conflict re-bonds Eve. The archetypal imagery of the Judaic Eden myth is present here, and I even find some progressions of thought from the source. Interesting.

Oh, man. Cavemen. 2001: A Space Odyssey this is not. But exciting it is. Let’s see where this goes. One must wonder if these are the titular cannibals.

Sooooo … yeah. When you see the tribe of trogs back at their home in the side of a mountain or something, the whole cannibal movie parallels click. This isn’t exactly that, but there this movie (also Italian, fyi) and those cannibal flicks do share a lot of the same touchstones. Even if they are sometimes recontextualized.

And the way they start pawing at the blond Eve strikes a huge cannibal movie chord with me. Think Mountain of the Cannibal God, with Ursula Undress. I mean Andress.

This is just a really groovy primordial lost-in-the-jungle flick. Less violence and more archetypology. Go ask Joseph Campbell.

Anyway. Eventually the war of the sexes re-emerges as a stronger theme. Adam and Eve separate.

Did I mention this is an extremely beautiful movie? Adam may be alone now and left to jacking off and talking to himself, but he gives the film a chance to wander with him through some spectacular scenery. The whole movie has been a thing of beauty so far, and it doesn’t slack off now. Eve goes wandering through some foresty enviros of her own.

This leads her to more primitives. (Like she and Adam have been around for SO long yet.) Not trog, this time, actually more like the spaghetti cannibal movie cannibals, though I don’t know yet if they eat people. I’m starting to suspect not, as I think this title is completely gratuitous, yet oddly not 100% off base. The cavemen weren’t gutmunchers. I’ll have to see if these tribesfolk are or not.

Well, turns out there is a quite a bit of munching – but it all appears to be fruit and vegetables. Unless I missed something vital. Is this a commentary on the Old Testament’s pre-Noahite veggies-only diet as prescribed by Yahweh?

As soon as I say that, I think the captive Eve is being offered an animal to eat …. Oh, yeah, that’s an animal. Still, though, cannibalism this isn’t

And I still have to wonder if this isn’t a deluge-less analogy to the transition of vegetarianism to omnivorism in Genesis.

Uh-oh. Eve is learning to use her female allure, being all sexy and flirty for her tribesman guard. Damn freshy sexually awakened females (in our world, that’s teenage girls), wielding the weapon of their sexuality when they don’t even grok the immense power of those nuclear capabilities.

Still, she’s not without her just motives here. I mean, if somehow I was abducted by a primitive tribe fascinated by my fat (and sexy) ass, I’d flap my balls around if I thought that gave me a chance to manipulate my captors.

Oh, shit, and the cavemen meet the non-trog tribesman. I think some cannibalism just happened, like the cavemen ambushed a non-trog and had a quick pre-battle snack.

What a crazy, wonderful movie.

Yep, the cavemen combine warring with lunching. I mean, eating bits of your enemy is also deadly. Or a freshly killed foe won’t argue if you take a bite. So, yeah.

This actually excels expectations for viewers going in expecting another B-grade gutmuncher. Don’t get me wrong, my love for Italian cannibal flicks is broad and extends beyond the greats .But ADAM & EVE VS THE CANNIBALS solders part of the classic sketti gutmuncher into a wildly different yet markedly analogous piece of cinema. This movie benefits both from its freshness and its familiarity.

The movie is an artistic accomplishment, for sure. And I’m sure it pulled in lots of “exploitation” audiences. All around success? I’d happily grant this simultaneous arthouse/grindhouse status. (It isn’t as if the two didn’t overlap plenty.)

This one’s more of an onion than most Italian gutmunchers. And you never know what’s down in the next layer. I mean, now we’ve got a scenario where the cavemen have captured the non-trogs who captured Blondie Eve.

And, inevitably, Adam shows up pissed and stabbing semi-folks, brandishing his oh so phallic weapon (spear) around. And then we’re on the move, on the river, afloat in a bid for escape and freedom.

Now, I assume you recall that nature is not working synergistically with Adam and Eve, right? Well, let me just say this: Bear. OK, guy in a bear costume, but the scene manages to work anyway. And also to provide one of the scenes neater, if not overly bloody, scenes of violence. In your face, bear. Literally.

Segue. Now the film introduces the concept of pugnacious male rivalry for feminine affections. You could really study this one in a film class. Or psychology class. Awesomeness. They even work in a note of the female civilizing and taming effect on the male.

And then ADAM AND EVE VS THE CANNIBALS features what must be Creation’s first break-up! Or, maybe, just one of its first turn-downs. Still, it’s like high school before high school, right? Sniff!

(You could argue this is a really weird love story.)

Of course, it’s a lot of things. And the remarkable combination works wonders almost as great as Creation itself. (OK, maybe that was a tad hyperbolic. But I think my superpower is hyperbole.)

Awww, love scene. And that anachronistically vocal soft pop is back! Odd upon odd. Nothing if not a singular film.

NOTE: It occurs to me there is remarkably little nudity or violence compared to what you’d expect from such a film. Not that this movie has that big a category, Such A Film. I speak broadly.

NOTE: Adam and Eve stumble onto stock footage of bit cats eating a gazelle or whatever. They gasp. The music sounds oddly like Cannibal Holocaust’s score here. Only a watcher of these movies would notice that, but a watcher of these movies would notice that. A little tingle.

Now there’s snow and she’s in a more robe-y thing but she’s still sexy. Nice high leg slit (note).

I THINK ADAM JUST TOLD EVE “FUCK YOU”!

(*Rewind*)

Nope. Crap, he didn’t. He said “I told you.” As in, “I told you so.” The movie has resurfaced is war of the sexes theme, in a context of Eve feeling like Adam is treating her like a secondary citizen, lacking independence. There is a subtext of his questioning of her creative ability, which points to the patriarchal suppression of the divine feminine. The feminine creative power (womb) was an factor in primitive worship of the goddess. In this scene, Adam is using his creative skill to forge a weapon. She is making a little sculpture of an animal. Adam sees himself as useful and her as needing protection. (Of course, this also alludes to the male war tendency versus the female peace tendency.)

This argument of pragmatism – useful spear versus “useless” cub carving – points to the age-old conflict of what we can call War Vs Art. War can mean here – not necessarily just violent conflict between nations - any endeavor based on severe pragmatism. The stereotype of the father who sees no practical value in a child’s desire to act rather than, say, join the family business or become a lawyer. Those who who see creativity for creativity’s sake as without worth since it cannot turn a screw or fire a bullet or only rarely make money (Stephen King versus the world’s unpublished dishwashers who write in their sleep hours and hope – same dynamic as the struggling actor).

I won’t belabor it further. But, like I said, lots of onion layers here. A much better movie than maybe we had a right to expect?

The movie builds toward a tragic mood. Adam and Eve, lost and alone (but for each other, which shouldn’t be forgotten), nigh unto dying on a mountaintop blanketed in snow. Adam is ready to give up. But Eve encourages him. The ultimate transcendence of interdependence is reached. The film and its ideas achieve fruition. Adam and Eve are yin-yang. Only through their tribulations do they gain strength, insight and the ability to prevail.

Wow, an amazing scene of rumbling, cracking ice (more well-placed stock footage – I LOVE creative, mix-and-match filmmaking, sort of blending in found object art with traditional filmmaking). God is farthest from them. His wrath isn’t rage … but absence. The bleak world is breaking apart around them. But, of course, the desert of the soul provides the aridity for new spiritual growth.

Finaly, though, “wrath” recedes and a hospitable world is again alive around them. Life is peaceful. Their relationship with the divine is restored, as well as their relationship with each other. (There is so much subtext here – this film narrative is pregnant with meta like a babies-toting dog mom with a swingin’ ass tummy has puppies inside. I could say so much but it belongs in another essay, which perhaps I’ll get to one day.)

Also noteworthy is the reference to Earth’s cyclical nature, Persephone’s dying and rebirth, the seasons swirl, oroborous. Into this creative cycle is brought the focus point of Eve’s pregnancy. This is the final nearing climax of the film. The movie culminates at the altar of the creative sacred feminine. (NOTE: Again the music has a touch of Cannibal Holocaust melody, but more hopeful in tone.)

ADAM AND EVE VS THE CANNIBALS, neato title aside, is a gorgeous film, substantial. It offers not only grindhouse entertainment but also a heady delve into living mythology and archetypal truth. This movie is a gem and deserves more appreciation, but the nature of its uniqueness would fend off many a mainstream viewer.

I can at least ask you, dear reader (because what kind of egomaniac am I to assume more than one reader?), to go check this movie out. Please. Sincerely.

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broadwaybydesign · 7 years

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Something Completely Different: “Come From Away”

Most of the shows that I enjoy or review have very traditional costume designs. Come From Away is a major exception to that, and I confess, I wasn’t quite sure how to review the costumes for this musical until I sat down and started writing. These are not traditional costumes by any stretch of the imagination; what costume designer and Tony-nominee Toni-Leslie James has done here is take her inspiration from mundane, run-of-the-mill clothing in order to fit the theme of the musical. But lest that come off as a crack, let me be clear: there is nothing mundane about these costumes, or the work that they have to do.

A little background first: Come From Away is an ensemble musical set in Gander, Newfoundland in the hours and days immediately following the September 11th terror attacks. When the United States closed its airspace, thirty-eight planes were forced to make an emergency landing at the Gander airport, and suddenly a town of 9,000 had to double in size to take care of the passengers. The musical follows a handful of stories that are emblematic of the drama and human moments that accompanied these events. What is different is that the musical requires each of the actors to play as many as a dozen roles per evening, sometimes needing to change roles in the middle of a song, let alone a scene. And to accomplish that? Well, the only way to make it happen is through a quick costume change.

That’s where the genius of Ms James’ designs comes into play. Taking her cue from the everyday fashions of the early 2000s, she had to come up with a way to show that characters were different. But the costumes needed to be light and able to be changed quickly, with a single garment change in some cases. I’ll take a look at a few of the designs now, with thanks once again to Playbill for making its pictures available online:

I chose this still to illustrate what I was talking about by “mundane” clothing. Ms James has used street clothes here to outfit the characters because, frankly, most of the characters don’t have the chance to change clothes over the course of the week that they’re stranded in Newfoundland. What is interesting, however, is that Ms. James chose to work with a very muted color palette. I say that’s interesting because it helps to keep the visuals of the production somewhat somber; even with the showstopping numbers, the muted visuals remind us that what lurks beneath the surface of the musical is that it exists because of a tragedy.

But even with that, there’s some irony that Ms James engages in. One character, Hannah O’Rourke (played by Q.Smith), is the mother of a firefighter battling the blazes at the World Trade Center and spends much of the musical in a state of worry and fear regarding his fate. But despite having the most tragic role of the performance, Ms James puts Hannah in the single brightest costume of the musical, with a bright purple (almost a deep lavender) sweater. There’s a subtle commentary here: this woman is experiencing profound tragedy while clothed in a joyous color--because tragedy doesn’t discriminate and the human condition doesn’t always enable a person to prepare for terrible events. She was wearing something bright on her flight home...and that’s just how it is. Have a look at the color in this scene where she discusses her fear with Gander native/teacher Beulah (Astrid van Wieran; photo courtesy of Ford’s Theatre, home of the pre-Broadway production):

It’s still a somewhat muted color, but it’s clearly the brightest main garment in the musical. It’s an inspired choice by Ms. James, and it really stuck with me throughout the musical.

But there are some more fantastic choices made by the costumer here. I want to take a showstopping number to illustrate one of those single-garment-changes-the-characters moments I referred to above. Jenn Collela portrays any number of characters in the musical, for which she was Tony-nominated, and one of those is Capt. Beverley Bass; Capt. Bass is a real person who was indeed stranded in Gander during the events of the musical as a pilot for American Airlines. She was, in fact, the first female captain in American history and later was the first to lead an all-women flight crew. During the number “Me and the Sky,” Capt. Bass sings about her fight to become a pilot, overcoming sexism and skepticism to make it into the captain’s chair. Her all-women flight crew is mentioned, and the majority of the women members of the cast don flight caps to portray them and sing backup for their Captain:

The actresses still have the fundamental same costumes as they have throughout much of the musical (with the exception of Ms Colella, who has donned a blazer), but the addition of the flight caps makes clear their changed roles. It may seem almost “too” simple, but I really think that it works. This is democratic theatre in action: the focus is on the music and the characters rather than the costumes--by intentional decision of the costume designer. Come From Away isn’t intended to be showy and flashy, but it is intended to make sure the viewer understands who is who and what is going on.

Another example of the subtle change that Ms James makes in the characters through her costume and wardrobe choices is in how she shifts from a townsperson to a plane person (as the musical calls the stranded passengers). Brenda is one of the Newfoundlanders who gives up their time and home in order to help care for the town of Gander’s guests. Diane is a businesswoman traveling back to Texas from Paris. The two are played by the same actress in the musical (Sharon Wheatley), and the only difference between the two is a simple hair tie and the addition of an Armani blazer.

The first picture is Ms Wheatley in her role as Brenda, the second as Diane, the passenger. A quick change in hairstyle and the addition of the muted beige blazer means the difference between someone who was just dressed for their daily life as opposed to someone still sporting the garb from their last business meeting. That Ms James sourced the blazer from Armani is, I think, important; it’s a fashion house, and a quick google tells me that there wasn’t a retail outlet selling it in Newfoundland (let alone Gander itself) in 2001. Subtle as it is, Diane is costumed in a way that Brenda literally could not be. That’s an accomplishment that the audience should reflect on when they consider the costumes that have been put up here.

One more set of costume changes is important to illustrate why I think Ms James did such a fantastic job here:

Geno Carr portrays a series of characters in this musical, with the guise on the left being that of Oz Fudge, a Gander police officer (who, in real life, wears glasses exactly like those on Carr, according to Ms James), and that on the right being something...completely different. The matador uniform appears once in a fantasy sequence that one of Jenn Colella’s subsidiary characters (Annette) has regarding Mr. Michaels, the Spanish teacher. Even with a fantasy sequence, Ms James keeps the outfit muted, the only color coming in the form of some gold fringe and a few red and gold sequins. But despite the simple design and styling, it’s clear what it is supposed to be--and the muting effect reinforces that in times of tragedy, even the ridiculous can feel a bit otherworldly and sombre.

In some ways, I feel like using costumes that are drawn from what small-town people would have in their closets or what people would have on their backs during a plane ride is more challenging than working from scratch. Ms James had to make sure that her costumes were timeless (no pop culture references from today!) and non-anachronistic, and could be plausibly inserted in the early 2000s setting. She had to ensure that the costumes were relatable--”Hey, I could wear something like that” is the key theme here!--without being too common. And she had to make sure that they didn’t detract from the overall message of the musical: that during adverse moments, humanity tends to come out, even if there is pain and suffering all around us.

Come From Away is a triumphant musical that, in the words of Claude (Joel Hatch), the Mayor of Gander, in the concluding number of the production, “honor[s] what was lost, but...also commemorate[s] what we found.” The costumes do a great job of reminding us of both of those things: they honor what was lost through their sobriety, and what was found through their universality and relatability.

#toni-leslie james #come from away #broadway #theatre #musicals #costumes #costume design

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