#the fox portrait is probably a bit early but its so hard to find anything form his peek macaroni era

[amphibious-thing]

Macaroni: Caricatures vs. Portraits

The Fly Catching Macaroni - Sir Joseph Banks

[Left: The Fly Catching Macaroni, print, c. 1772, by Matthew Darly, via Yale University Library.

Right: Sir Joseph Banks, oil on canvas, c. 1771-1773, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, via Wikimedia.]

The Macaroni Painter - Richard Cosway

[Left: The Macaroni Painter, print, c. 1772, by Richard Earlom after a drawing by Robert Dighton, via The British Museum.

Right: Detail of The Academicians of the Royal Academy, oil on canvas, c. 1771-72, by Johan Zoffany, via The Royal Collection Trust.]

The Eclipse Macarony - Colonel Dennis O’Kelly

[Left: The Eclipse Macarony, print, c. 1773, by Matthew Darly, via The British Museum.

Right: Colonel Dennis O’Kelly, before 1787, by Johann Zoffany, via Illustrated London News, 4th June 1932.]

The Illiterate Macaroni - Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk

[Left: The Illiterate Macaroni, print, c. 1772, by Matthew Darly, via The British Museum.

Right: Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk, oil on canvas, c. 1770, by Joshua Reynolds, via Wikimedia]

Charles James Cub (The Original Macaroni) - Charles James Fox

[Left: Charles James Cub Esqr., print, c. 1771, by anonymous, via The British Museum.

Right: Charles James Fox, oil on canvas, c. unknown, by Benjamin Wilson, via Bonhams.]

[michelles-garden-of-evil]

Episode 18 Review: Making Biscuits

{ YouTube: 1 | 2 }

{ Synopses/Recaps: Debby Graham | Bryan Gruszka }

{ Screencaps }

Early morning on Maljardin. Exhausted from a day of shock and disbelief at the arrivals of her mother and Reverend Dawson on the island paradise(?) of Maljardin, Holly sleeps on the couch in the château’s great hall. Quietly, a fully dressed Jean Paul descends the grand staircase and stops behind the couch to cover her with a blanket. “Hi, Dad,” she says. “I had a dream. I thought that-”

I know that she’s probably a bit creeped out, but, honestly, I kind of envy Holly in this scene. There are days that I wish that I could wake up to see Jean Paul Desmond at my bedside. I know he has all kinds of issues and personality flaws, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find him cute and charming.

She tells him that she was dreaming about waiting for her father at home. “I know the feeling only too well,” he responds. “ Sometimes you know when memories haunt dreams, nightmares can follow.” I know that he is probably referring to nightmares about Erica’s death and/or to that freaky dream sequence with Raxl from the end of Episode 5, but still, I have to wonder if he, like Holly, lost his father at a young age. They reveal a little about Jean Paul’s father in the third and final arc of the show, but I don’t recall them discussing the specifics of his death beyond one thing that would be a spoiler to mention at this point. It would have been interesting to learn a bit about Jean Paul’s father in the Maljardin arc, but, unfortunately, we don’t.

So gallant! <3

We cut to a scene of Dan waiting impatiently for Jean Paul at the French Leave Café while talking to Vangie. Mostly, this scene exists so that Vangie can elaborate on why Maljardin is so hard to get to. “That channel is a cross between a tide and a continual tornado,” she says. “It's full of rocks and shoals. Actually, it’s never even been properly charted.” (Except probably by one of the des Mondes.) This is the only new information we get in any of the scenes between Dan and Vangie in this episode; the rest is nearly all recap, so I’m going to skip over most of it.

We return to Maljardin, where Holly and Jean Paul are sipping coffee from some dainty little cups. Before leaving for the main island, he asks her to attend Erica’s funeral, but she is reluctant because her mother and Reverend Dawson will be there. He advises her essentially to suck it up and go--which, as she points out, sounds like something "the good padre” would say. And then this happens:

I...don’t think that’s the generator.

Holly goes running upstairs and, just after, Jacques reveals that it was indeed he who tampered with the generator:

Love Jacques’ sarcasm in talking about the importance of the Holly portrait and how Tim and Holly may be “finished” before it is. And yes, the good Jacques portrait is back!

Next, we get what has to be the single most painful line of dialogue that the usually witty Jacques gets on the entire show: “Dear me, it does pose a dilemma,” says he about the situation with the Holly portrait that Boring Artist Tim is painting. “Pose, portrait, dilemma. A little play on words.” He snickers, indicating that at least he thinks the line is funny. “But I assure you I'm not playing games.” As Paflad would say, “BADOOM, and indeed, TSHHH!“

After the bad pun storm is over, he tells Jean Paul to bring Dan back with him to Maljardin because “[Jacques wants] to be sure that he doesn’t work against [him].” Cut to the second Dan and Vangie scene, where they recap nearly all the most important events on the show so far. It’s not all recap, however, as we do hear Vangie’s interpretation of the King of Wands, one of the Tarot cards featured last episode:

Vangie: “This way, a man of immense wealth and prestige and power in the world.”

“Reverse him, and he becomes the traditional card of ill-omen, a devil himself. Jean Paul Desmond...or Jacques Eloi des Mondes.”

And now onto the scene featuring the Matt-Holly-Tim love triangle, which feels endless because I can’t stand this subplot. I’m planning on writing a post someday explaining everything that’s wrong with this subplot and exactly why it doesn’t work, but I want to wait until after I’ve reviewed at least three more episodes featuring it. Nothing important happens in this scene, but we do get these lines:

Holly: "I wish my mother was on canvas instead of always on my back."

Be careful what you wish for, Holly. Someday you could have a portrait of Elizabeth Marshall that speaks to you constantly and manipulates you into doing things that make no sense to other characters. (Not a spoiler.)

The best Tim line on the show, and it’s a line flub. Go figure.

After the seemingly endless Tim scene ends, we return to the main island, where Jacques possesses Jean Paul while he is meeting with Dan. (He takes Jacques’ suggestions an awful lot, and I’m not sure if it’s because he actually agrees or because Jacques is manipulating him and he finds it too hard to resist.) We start with this shot of Jacques with ever-so-mildly creepy lighting:

Not scary, but it successfully conveys the message that Jacques has just taken control.

This scene makes up for the mediocrity of the rest of this episode. Jacques is his devilishly charming self, impersonating Jean Paul and making a fool of him by behaving far too cheerfully for a man in mourning. When Dan questions him, he insists that he’s only putting on a brave face and inwardly grieving, but Dan remains suspicious.

I must admit that I found this Jacques line--cheesy as it is--pretty funny.

Jacques, of course, takes advantage of the opportunity to troll him. Why not? For the first eleven episodes, he stuck to aiding Jean Paul and mostly just did things that they both wanted to do, with just a few exceptions like killing Dr. Menkin and giving Alison romantic dreams about him. Since Episode 12, however, he has been regularly screwing with Jean Paul’s life, trying to undermine nearly everything he tries to do in some way unless it also benefits him. By now, Jacques is in control of Jean Paul even when he’s inside the painting and so he probably feels he can get away with anything.

Anyway, remember when Jacques fired Dan in Episode 15? Well, he’s re-hired now and invited to Maljardin. He’s also more confused than ever, particularly because Jacques (who he believes is Jean Paul) keeps making faces like this:

BISSITS FACE!

For those of you who haven’t read my review of Episode 4 or who don’t remember it, Bissits Face™ is the name I gave to the cartoonish faux-innocent face that Jacques likes to make, where he opens his eyes extremely wide and purses his lips in a very cute way. The name comes from its resemblance to the face my cat makes when he makes biscuits, or “bissits” as I call them in baby-talk. I know the name is silly, but it is a silly face and probably not one you’d make in real life if you genuinely wanted to appear innocent--which is further evidence that Jacques thinks that he’s smarter than everyone else (and is probably right).

If his wrists weren’t crossed, he’d look like he was getting ready to make biscuits on that table like a cat.

Meow?

Of course, this isn’t his only bug-eyed expression, and he does keep those gorgeous blue peepers open quite a lot. I think that Colin Fox intended for Jacques to look “crazy,” which would explain all the wide-eyed expressions he has him make. Crazy eyes are, after all, pretty much standard acting technique for playing characters who are mentally disturbed to some degree. There’s an old French actor named Gérard Berner whom I’ve nicknamed “Crazy Eyes,” because, in the two miniseries I’ve seen him in (La dame de Monsoreau (1971) and Le roi qui vient du sud (1979)), he played characters with anger problems and, when said characters got enraged, he opened his eyes so wide that you would swear they were about to fall out of his head. This scene from Monsoreau is a good example, as is the one that follows it (Berner is the man with the longish hair and the silver doublet). Obviously, the intended meaning of Bissits Face™ is “I’m pretending to be innocent” and not “I’m angry,” but it’s still the same technique.

Gérard Berner (right) as François d’Anjou in La dame de Monsoreau (1971), demonstrating the crazy eye technique in a very different context.

Anyway, after Dan leaves to get ready to sail to Maljardin, Jacques and Vangie exchange a few words. By this point, she knows for certain who he is and that he will bring death to the island.

A rare instance of the subtitles getting Vangie’s name right.

I really like this exchange, so, as with many other exchanges that I really like, I’m going to post a full transcription:

Jacques: "Did you hear it all, Vangie?" Vangie: "Enough to make me wonder if I shouldn't contact the newspapers and let them find out the kind of man you really are."

Jacques: "You wouldn't do that, because you're afraid of my...power."   Vangie: "In this world...or the next?" 

Jacques: "Next world?" *laughs* "What are you talking about? You've been playing cards too much. It's dulling your senses."   Vangie: "My father is dead. I am now the Conjure Woman. My senses are greater than ever. There is evil roaming on Maljardin. It must be destroyed."

Getting nervous, Jacques?

Jacques: "Vangie! You and your witchcraft. It will be the death of me yet.” Vangie: "I'm after the Devil."

Yup, definitely nervous.

Jacques: "And he's after you!"

And then we have a marvelous little credits scene where Jacques sits down in the big wicker chair, looking enormously pleased with himself. He puts his feet up on the table in front of him, grins, polishes his ring, all while looking incredibly self-satisfied. I love this comment about it on YouTube: “I can imagine the director telling Colin at the end credits,'Ok Colin-Baby, now just sit there and look smug...that's it...more smug-more smug...annnnd got it!'”

Smug.

Smugger.

Smuggest.

This episode is typical of Wednesday episodes on this show: light on plot and heavy on recap and character interaction that may or may not be filler. The only important things that happen in this one are (1) Jacques brings Dan with him to Maljardin and (2) Vangie reveals to Jacques that she has become the Conjure Woman and therefore a powerful opponent. But neither of these happen until the final scene, so, in all honesty, one could skip over most of this episode without missing much save for Tim’s hilarious line flub.

Coming up next: Reverend Dawson holds Erica’s funeral and Holly discusses an interesting nightmare she had about her mother.

{ <-- Previous: Episode 17   ||   Next: Episode 19 --> }

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/woody-harrelsons-star-wars-garris-shrike-wilson/

Woody Harrelson's 'Star Wars' Garris Shrike and 'Wilson'

Woody Harrelson is certainly keeping busy having recently shot his truly live action film “Lost in London Live,” and on Monday, he confirmed that he’d be taking on the role of Garris Shrike in the stand-alone Hans Solo “Star Wars” movie. He did all this while promoting his latest film “Wilson” at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

He’s that busy shooting one film after another along with all the fun promoting that goes with it, but he really seems like he’s having a great time even though time is something he doesn’t have a lot of. He was a little hesitant about confirming the “Star Wars” news, but once he did, he let loose on his ability to lead. His character is Han Solo’s mentor.

The character is a part of Star Wars’ extended universe and was first introduced in A.C. Crispin’s The Paradise Snare, which was released in May 1997. The book was the first installment in The Han Solo trilogy and introduced Shrike as the man who swept Solo up and taught him how to be a criminal, essentially.

A quick description from the book on his character gives us this:

Han Solo was a child without a past, a Corellian street urchin, abandoned, foraging for scraps of food, when the cruel Garris Shrike whisked him away to a nomadic band of spacefaring criminals. Now, years later, Han fights his way free. His goal: to become an Imperial Navy pilot. But first he needs hand-on experience flying spacecraft, and for that he takes a job on the planet Ylesia—a steaming world of religious fanaticism, illicit drugs, and alluring sensuality…where dreams are destroyed and escape is impossible.

Shrike was a young bounty hunter, but his quick temper resulted in the deaths of many criminals he was supposed to capture. Following his failings as a hunter, he turned to a life of crime, “collecting a group of orphans whom he used in confidence tricks and thefts.” Although Shrike saved Solo from a life of homelessness, he was also a cruel man who would beat the young Solo when aggravated.

The film doesn’t have a title yet.

“I wouldn’t choose me,” the actor shrugged and then laughed at the premiere of “Wilson” at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

It will also star Aiden Ehrenreich as Han Solo. Donald Glover will play Lando Calrissian and Emilia Clarke has been cast as well but in an unknown role. The movie is scheduled to come out on May 25, 2018.

As for “Wilson,” it’s adapted from a graphic novel of the same name about a curmudgeon, played by Harrelson, who reconnects with his long lost ex-wife, played by Laura Dern, and discovers they have a daughter he didn’t know about.

Craig Johnson, the director of “Wilson” talked about the film and working with the always busy Woody Harrelson.

For his third feature film, Craig Johnson opted to do something he’d never done before — direct a screenplay he didn’t write. Still, he didn’t step too far outside his wheelhouse, as the project he helmed is a film adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ widely admired graphic novel Wilson. Woody Harrelson takes on the title character, an unbridled dog-lover who endures a series of outrageous misadventures when he reunites with his estranged and very messy wife, Pippi (Laura Dern), and bonds with their daughter he never knew existed. As with his previous comedy The Skeleton Twins, Johnson paints a deeply felt portrait of a lonely misfit trying to navigate the strange world around him.

You seem like someone who’d be a fan of Daniel Clowes, but how did you become involved with Wilson?

Craig Johnson: It was being developed by Fox Searchlight with a different director. When that director stepped away, it was sent to me as an available script to direct. I was familiar with the graphic novel. I’m a big Dan Clowes fan and even had the graphic novel on my shelf. The second I got a script called Wilson, I thought, “Oh my gosh! Is this the Dan Clowes novel that I love?” I just dove into it, read it in about an hour, and immediately knew I wanted to do it. At the time, I was reading a bunch of scripts. It was right after my last film, The Skeleton Twins, had come out, and I was lucky enough to be getting sent a bunch of stuff. Frankly, nothing was that great. This just stood out. It was unlike any other script I read, with its sense of humor and sensibility. I just jumped on it. I said, “Who do I have to kill to direct this?”

Since you typically direct your own scripts, what specifically was so appealing about this one?

It started with Dan Clowes. I was a fan of how he sees the world. It’s a bit of a shared sensibility in that we both have a lot of the misfit and outsider and the weird prickly people you don’t usually see movies about. It’s true that up to this point I’d only directed things I’d written. That was never a hard and fast rule for me. If something comes across and my voice as a director merges with the writing, I’m happy to take it on.

How different is the directing process when you’re working from another writer’s script?

In some ways, for better or worse, there’s more distance. You’re seeing it slightly at arm’s length, which can be helpful. Sometimes there’s a danger when you direct your own stuff that you can become precious about it and cling on to things that don’t serve the movie as a whole just because you love them. If it’s not your material, you can have more objectivity that will result in a stronger version of the movie.

How did you get along with Daniel during your collaboration?

It was a fantastic collaboration. I adore that man. He is a real sweetheart, which may surprise some people since he’s associated with misanthropic characters. He doesn’t suffer fools easily, but he really has a tremendously big heart and is interested in [people] that are easy to dismiss. That’s actually every character in Wilson.

Many of the events in Wilson’s life are tragic, but you find the comedy in them. How do you achieve such a balance?

The real key to the whole piece is striking that balance between the hilarious and the heartbreaking. Yes, there are a lot of heartbreaking events in his life, but I think it has a lot to do with Wilson’s attitude toward them. He’s undaunted. He’s not going to let anything knock him down. He’s the perfect example of someone who gets back on the horse. He does pass through something in his journey, whether it be a bit more self-awareness or a better sense of how to interact with the world. Yet he doesn’t give up his essential Wilson-ness. I think it’s the character that allows you to take these tragic events and see the comedic value in them.

This was such a wonderful and expansive role for Woody Harrelson. Dating back to his time on Cheers, no matter the role he plays his persona is that of a very likable guy. What did you see in him that made him the right choice to play a misanthrope?

He has such an inherent likability, which is why he gets cast as villainous characters. You just can’t stay mad at Woody for long. You will accept him as a serial killer or psychopath or as Wilson. Certain actors just have this presence and this warmth to them. We knew that Wilson needed warmth to him. The character is rough. He’s a difficult guy, but he’s funny and says things that make your jaw drop. That’s great for a graphic novel you can read in 20 minutes, but for an hour-and-a-half movie you need to latch onto something a bit more human in the character. Woody brings that humanity naturally.

As Pippi, Wilson’s messy estranged wife, Laura Dern has added another wonderfully eccentric portrayal to her résumé. How did you decide to cast her?

We wanted a Pippi that had a little more spark to her. When we thought of a Laura Dern version of her, this whole new Pippi came to light. I like to think that when Wilson and Pippi were dating 17 years before the start of the movie, there was this youthful volatility to them. It would have been the late ’80s, early ’90s, and I imagined Pippi as this ex-Van Halen groupie, involved in drugs with this hot temper — explosively volatile person. It just felt like the right Pippi for the Woody version of Wilson. Nobody does unhinged like Laura Dern. She can break your heart too. It’s not just a crazy person losing her mind. It’s a real human being who’s got her heart on her sleeve as well as your anger on her other sleeve. You can see her shift within a frame. She’s probably got the most expressive face of any actress I’ve ever worked with — just the way her mouth will curl up if she’s pissed off or the way her eyes will melt if she’s moved by something. It’s the magic of a brilliant actor.

For your previous film, The Skeleton Twins, you won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. What effect did it have on your career?

I’m literally staring at the award right now in my living room. When you start out as a filmmaker you spend a bit of time feeling like a fraud, like you’re illegitimate on some level and you don’t really know what you’re doing. To win a screenwriting award functions as a way to legitimize myself — maybe I’m not just kidding myself and I have a knack for this. Certainly, career-wise, it’s helped me tremendously. People are aware of it and it’s helped me get writing and directing gigs.

Wilson has already been set for theatrical release by Fox Searchlight. How does this change your Sundance experience?

It removes a giant cloud of existential angst, that’s for sure. [Laughs] I’m just hoping I don’t try to fill up that space with angst about something else. My hope is to go into the Festival and look at it as a celebration of the film. I’m happy to present it to the world and share it with people. I’m going to enjoy that aspect without wondering if the cow is going to sell at the market. It’s a rarified position to be in, so I’m not taking it for granted for a second.

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