I'm ready for my close-up, Mr DeMille...
Observation of work of today :
Well, you all know we get very, very desensitised to any image of body stuff. Reaction being 'oh, look, a tumour/surgery. Ooo, that's a nasty one - huh. where the hell did they pull that one from? Ooo, ooo, bile duct bits!'. Just had one of a very large excised tumour and the eye next to it. (tumour the main problem, and it turned out there was tumour stuff behind the eyeball and the eye wasn't working, so they removed it) Looked at the tumour first, then realised the eyeball? Reminded me of nothing so much as bits of things like Brazil and other sci-fi fantasy where the monitoring system/camera is an eyeball on a stick, whether organic or completely mechanical. Seriously. Current media? We're very used to seeing detached eyeballs, or the image of detached eyeballs.
Watched Sunset Boulevard last night. Ooooo shiny. One more reason to make my shrine to Billy Wilder bigger. Terribly, terribly cynical film, and of course, with the musical practically on an IV, you had me making comparisons (aside from the fact that bunches of the dialogue is transposed directly into the lyrics/stage dialogue) between characters and situations. Aside from being somewhat freaked out by Norma Desmond's eye-rolling and claw fingers. And going 'omg, Buster Keaton? Really?' (I'd known that a couple of silent names made cameos in it, but Buster Keaton was one of the bridge partners? Really?) Plus, much love for Cecil B. Demille. No, really. Just... shone in his cameo.
What's interesting is how characters are variously more or less cynical between productions. For instance, overall the Joe Gillis character is about even on cynicism - though the musical one is far bitchier and more bitter - though interestingly, the movie one is much more willing to take advantage of people/things. See the new clothes fitting scene where he makes far less protest about accepting expensive clothing and relaxes easier into playing the gigolo.
Betty Schaefer comes across as far more sarcastic/wide-eyed in the musical, but the movie one's more accepting of how the system works, and you get a feeling she knows how to play it better, which implies the wide-eyed is kind of surface.
Erich von Stroheim? A lot less imposing as Max than I'd have thought, though it may be due to his physical stature more than anything. Norma Desmond? Film version a lot less calculating and more inclined to hysterics than the musical. Mind you, from what I've heard, manipulativeness of Norma (knowing exactly what she's doing with the hysterical fits) varies on production and actress. Later ones *much* more manipulative than the early ones.
Listening to Doctor Who commentaries (Doctor Dances and Empty Child), as is my wont on tuesday afternoons, being the point of the playlist that I usually get to by tuesday afternoon. Have clearly listened to these two comms far too many times since I can anticipate every damn comment and point in the commentary in which it comes.
bigtitch posted some scaps of the extras on the third Torchwood dvd last night. Damn you, Matt Rippy and JB. Must you do this to my brain? Me and Meg stared and gibbered something chronic. And it is not helping my desire to write a WW2 story of two airmen in love. No I don't need to research this like mad. at all. Especially not in time for nano. Have learned my lesson, Nanowrimo needs to be a story I know inside out that I can extrapolate on and expand and twist.
Well, you all know we get very, very desensitised to any image of body stuff. Reaction being 'oh, look, a tumour/surgery. Ooo, that's a nasty one - huh. where the hell did they pull that one from? Ooo, ooo, bile duct bits!'. Just had one of a very large excised tumour and the eye next to it. (tumour the main problem, and it turned out there was tumour stuff behind the eyeball and the eye wasn't working, so they removed it) Looked at the tumour first, then realised the eyeball? Reminded me of nothing so much as bits of things like Brazil and other sci-fi fantasy where the monitoring system/camera is an eyeball on a stick, whether organic or completely mechanical. Seriously. Current media? We're very used to seeing detached eyeballs, or the image of detached eyeballs.
Watched Sunset Boulevard last night. Ooooo shiny. One more reason to make my shrine to Billy Wilder bigger. Terribly, terribly cynical film, and of course, with the musical practically on an IV, you had me making comparisons (aside from the fact that bunches of the dialogue is transposed directly into the lyrics/stage dialogue) between characters and situations. Aside from being somewhat freaked out by Norma Desmond's eye-rolling and claw fingers. And going 'omg, Buster Keaton? Really?' (I'd known that a couple of silent names made cameos in it, but Buster Keaton was one of the bridge partners? Really?) Plus, much love for Cecil B. Demille. No, really. Just... shone in his cameo.
What's interesting is how characters are variously more or less cynical between productions. For instance, overall the Joe Gillis character is about even on cynicism - though the musical one is far bitchier and more bitter - though interestingly, the movie one is much more willing to take advantage of people/things. See the new clothes fitting scene where he makes far less protest about accepting expensive clothing and relaxes easier into playing the gigolo.
Betty Schaefer comes across as far more sarcastic/wide-eyed in the musical, but the movie one's more accepting of how the system works, and you get a feeling she knows how to play it better, which implies the wide-eyed is kind of surface.
Erich von Stroheim? A lot less imposing as Max than I'd have thought, though it may be due to his physical stature more than anything. Norma Desmond? Film version a lot less calculating and more inclined to hysterics than the musical. Mind you, from what I've heard, manipulativeness of Norma (knowing exactly what she's doing with the hysterical fits) varies on production and actress. Later ones *much* more manipulative than the early ones.
Listening to Doctor Who commentaries (Doctor Dances and Empty Child), as is my wont on tuesday afternoons, being the point of the playlist that I usually get to by tuesday afternoon. Have clearly listened to these two comms far too many times since I can anticipate every damn comment and point in the commentary in which it comes.
bigtitch posted some scaps of the extras on the third Torchwood dvd last night. Damn you, Matt Rippy and JB. Must you do this to my brain? Me and Meg stared and gibbered something chronic. And it is not helping my desire to write a WW2 story of two airmen in love. No I don't need to research this like mad. at all. Especially not in time for nano. Have learned my lesson, Nanowrimo needs to be a story I know inside out that I can extrapolate on and expand and twist.