Possible spoilers of Naked, Dragonking, Total Eclipse, Anonymous and David Thewlis' coiffures
Is it odd that I warn for Spoilers about movies that were released in 1993? One can never know though who hasn't seen that film yet ...
Since I have run out of Alan Rickman movies to watch, I am currently going through David Thewlis' movies. I've never been interested much in Thewlis-but then I saw his penis read more about his work as an actor and found his earlier movies.
(I love Snupin but I always imagined Lupin more like Aaron Johnson. Pretty, even on the girly side, with long lashes and blue eyes-to me he seemed like the perfect opposite to Moony, also it would have set him apart from Greyback, whose human side is more and more consumed by the wolf.)
So far I liked Mike Leigh's Naked where he is destructive, aggressive, aimless and possibly manic-depressive or schizophrenic. He's incredibly skinny and gaunt in this film and I was marvelling at his sharp cheek bones and his thin ankles. There was (not unfounded) criticism about the way women are depicted although I didn't find the film anti-feminist. It observed a group of dysfunctional people and their interactions but not promoting the behaviour. (Of course, it would have improved the plot considerably if the gals in the film wouldn't have been that pathetic.)
I watched Dragonking next, because the genre is more to my rather pedestrian taste. It had a younger Jason Isaacs in it but unfortunately almost everything about the movie was bad-the writing, the photography, the costumes, the sets, even the acting. One could see that nobody took that plot serious. It's hard to be invested in a film with Dennis Quaid as a knight … and Sean Connery as the voice of an animated dragon was an incredible waste of a great actor.
In 1996 the special effects were probably great, but the problem with special effects is of course that they date. (I remember re-watching The Fifth Element a few weeks ago and being appalled by the cheap look of the film.)
What really ruined the film for me though was David Thewlis' bad hair. Bad hair is worse than bad plot. Really. I have no trouble in switching off the tone and putting on music or playing video games while admiring pretty images … (a very useful habit when watching porn) … but bad hair?
Where did they even get the wig?
I had no choice: I had to switch off the film after fifteen minutes.
A few days ago I watched Anonymous where David Thewlis portrays William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth I.'s advisor. All the actors in that film were good. Rhys Ifans was excellent, Vanessa Redgrave was great, James Campbell Bower was pretty ... only the plot of the film, based on the theory that Shakespeare was in fact the 17th Earl of Oxford, was a bit dubious. I told schemingreader that the film was great except for the plot and she replied with "Awesome". :D
Since I don't know much about Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet? I've seen the movie ...) I was able to enjoy the film apart from the fact that David Thewlis didn't have enough screen time and was too overdressed. Couldn't they have written a scene in where he is bathing? Lolling around in his bed chamber eating grapes? There are enough gratuitous scenes where female actors have to get naked for no apparent reason.
Yesterday I watched Total Eclipse (the scene I'm linking to is possibly NSFW so don't click on the link while the boss is looking over your shoulder ...) with him as Paul Verlaine and Leonardo di Caprio as Arthur Rimbaud.
First-the good thing about it: David Thewlis is naked. Often. So is Leonardo di Caprio. Also, the'yre often naked together. They kiss and share a sex scene which I liked because Arthur tops Paul. We can't ever know if this is historically accurate, but I have a kink for younger men topping older men, so it's my personal canon now. Whenever people speak of Arthur Rimbaud I'll quietly think to myself, Yay, and he topped Paul, too! ;)
I could dwell on the film's failure to describe Verlaine and Rimbaud as artists and writers. Sure, they might have had a lot of sex and alcohol ... but I would have thought that first and foremost both men were deeply devoted to writing poetry. Without their work they both seemed to have been rather annoying, immature individuals which is not the actors' fault who did their best. The problem was the writing, but then it's rather hard to write about a genius if you're not a genius yourself. It wasn't really that important to me though, so I spare you the rant.
What irked me most, I guess, was David Thewlis' hair. Again! This time it was the lack of it. The entire movie doesn't concern itself with the fact that Verlaine, his wife and Rimbaud are from the same country, yet all speak in different accents but when it comes to Paul Verlaine's hair they insist on ... authenticity?
That enormous bald forehead of Thewlis distracted me from everything else. Even when he was kissing pretty and young and pretty young Leonardo I was just staring at this gigantic egg shaped, bald patch. Not only was it white it also somehow reminded me of a bum.
At least he often wore a top hat.
Lastly, have you noticed that almost every period drama has a seemingly unavoidable "naturalistic" market scene? Every director (or writer or producer) seems to think, when doing a costume drama, they must also have a market with red-cheeked women and men praising their prettily arranged fruits, baskets of apples, eggs and fish … and grapes, (there always must be grapes!) where the hero can wander around, fingering food stuff while delivering his lines. The whole scene is usually accompanied by a merry, folkloristic flute piece. Why? WHY?
Since I have run out of Alan Rickman movies to watch, I am currently going through David Thewlis' movies. I've never been interested much in Thewlis-but then I saw his penis read more about his work as an actor and found his earlier movies.
(I love Snupin but I always imagined Lupin more like Aaron Johnson. Pretty, even on the girly side, with long lashes and blue eyes-to me he seemed like the perfect opposite to Moony, also it would have set him apart from Greyback, whose human side is more and more consumed by the wolf.)
So far I liked Mike Leigh's Naked where he is destructive, aggressive, aimless and possibly manic-depressive or schizophrenic. He's incredibly skinny and gaunt in this film and I was marvelling at his sharp cheek bones and his thin ankles. There was (not unfounded) criticism about the way women are depicted although I didn't find the film anti-feminist. It observed a group of dysfunctional people and their interactions but not promoting the behaviour. (Of course, it would have improved the plot considerably if the gals in the film wouldn't have been that pathetic.)
I watched Dragonking next, because the genre is more to my rather pedestrian taste. It had a younger Jason Isaacs in it but unfortunately almost everything about the movie was bad-the writing, the photography, the costumes, the sets, even the acting. One could see that nobody took that plot serious. It's hard to be invested in a film with Dennis Quaid as a knight … and Sean Connery as the voice of an animated dragon was an incredible waste of a great actor.
In 1996 the special effects were probably great, but the problem with special effects is of course that they date. (I remember re-watching The Fifth Element a few weeks ago and being appalled by the cheap look of the film.)
What really ruined the film for me though was David Thewlis' bad hair. Bad hair is worse than bad plot. Really. I have no trouble in switching off the tone and putting on music or playing video games while admiring pretty images … (a very useful habit when watching porn) … but bad hair?
Where did they even get the wig?
I had no choice: I had to switch off the film after fifteen minutes.
A few days ago I watched Anonymous where David Thewlis portrays William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth I.'s advisor. All the actors in that film were good. Rhys Ifans was excellent, Vanessa Redgrave was great, James Campbell Bower was pretty ... only the plot of the film, based on the theory that Shakespeare was in fact the 17th Earl of Oxford, was a bit dubious. I told schemingreader that the film was great except for the plot and she replied with "Awesome". :D
Since I don't know much about Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet? I've seen the movie ...) I was able to enjoy the film apart from the fact that David Thewlis didn't have enough screen time and was too overdressed. Couldn't they have written a scene in where he is bathing? Lolling around in his bed chamber eating grapes? There are enough gratuitous scenes where female actors have to get naked for no apparent reason.
Yesterday I watched Total Eclipse (the scene I'm linking to is possibly NSFW so don't click on the link while the boss is looking over your shoulder ...) with him as Paul Verlaine and Leonardo di Caprio as Arthur Rimbaud.
First-the good thing about it: David Thewlis is naked. Often. So is Leonardo di Caprio. Also, the'yre often naked together. They kiss and share a sex scene which I liked because Arthur tops Paul. We can't ever know if this is historically accurate, but I have a kink for younger men topping older men, so it's my personal canon now. Whenever people speak of Arthur Rimbaud I'll quietly think to myself, Yay, and he topped Paul, too! ;)
I could dwell on the film's failure to describe Verlaine and Rimbaud as artists and writers. Sure, they might have had a lot of sex and alcohol ... but I would have thought that first and foremost both men were deeply devoted to writing poetry. Without their work they both seemed to have been rather annoying, immature individuals which is not the actors' fault who did their best. The problem was the writing, but then it's rather hard to write about a genius if you're not a genius yourself. It wasn't really that important to me though, so I spare you the rant.
What irked me most, I guess, was David Thewlis' hair. Again! This time it was the lack of it. The entire movie doesn't concern itself with the fact that Verlaine, his wife and Rimbaud are from the same country, yet all speak in different accents but when it comes to Paul Verlaine's hair they insist on ... authenticity?
That enormous bald forehead of Thewlis distracted me from everything else. Even when he was kissing pretty and young and pretty young Leonardo I was just staring at this gigantic egg shaped, bald patch. Not only was it white it also somehow reminded me of a bum.
At least he often wore a top hat.
Lastly, have you noticed that almost every period drama has a seemingly unavoidable "naturalistic" market scene? Every director (or writer or producer) seems to think, when doing a costume drama, they must also have a market with red-cheeked women and men praising their prettily arranged fruits, baskets of apples, eggs and fish … and grapes, (there always must be grapes!) where the hero can wander around, fingering food stuff while delivering his lines. The whole scene is usually accompanied by a merry, folkloristic flute piece. Why? WHY?