Vid commentary: Pour Lui
The vid: Pour Lui (James Bond movies)
I had to find *some* escape from reading mountains of tax code, so here is a vid commentary. On a vid that very few people have watched! But that is OK, because I still really want to talk about it. I love Bond and I love Vesper and I love them together and apart and alive and...not...and I am obviously still ( Read more... )
I had to find *some* escape from reading mountains of tax code, so here is a vid commentary. On a vid that very few people have watched! But that is OK, because I still really want to talk about it. I love Bond and I love Vesper and I love them together and apart and alive and...not...and I am obviously still ( Read more... )
since she was kind of working for the baddies, do you think she was really tortured?
It's a bit silly when you sit and contemplate alternate ways that it could have worked out (AS YOU WILL, she says to self), but in terms of telling the story of Bond that we know to be true, it was inevitable YES, again. because i am that one who will ALWAYS, GOD BLESS MY HEART, write alternate universe! ;__;
And so she removed herself from the equation. jesus, yeah, like when M is all like...she must have known she was going to die. she was already dead. her fate was sealed, she just needed to make sure he was okay.
is about WATER. The water of spring and rebirth and abundance and then the water of fetidness and filth and death. It's no accident that Quantum of Solace is harsh and extreme and full of nothing resembling solace. The element at the center of the plot, the element being held hostage by Quantum is WATER. In this sequence in the vid, we go from Vesper's watery death to aridness and dust. He is the machine. The soul that was in bloom has dried up and is a wateland. These are some of my favorite shots in the vid and none of them are from actual QoS movie footage, but from the trailers (including the most iconic image from QoS, the "Bond with gun on rocky terrain" shot). WHY CAN'T I STOP SAYING YES? i kind of mirrored this in my fic... everything about them is water, they are blue eyed, things happen with water like the beach and sailing and her death and absolution for her when they sit in the shower, she is haunted by it. in the end, he is parched and dry and she has too much water: she drowns in it.
She is horrified by the brutality of the stairwell fight. Vesper Lynd is a femme fatale. Vesper Lynd does battle with her sharp tongue and withering looks. This is not her scene. But by God, she is Bond's brother-in-arms here. She kicks in when he needs her. And the intimacy of the shower scene...well, it's a bit more than just friendship, but it's Bond exhibiting true caretaking and not just trying to get into her pants (the CR script makes a very specific point about the scene the next morning, when he looks in on her sleeping -- she has slept alone, he hasn't capitalized on that closeness the night before).
yeah she's a femme fatale, but i don't think she ever meant to be. i think she protects herself too well--but she's so vulnerable, when it comes down to it, that everything she's built up, all her walls, mean nothing. she'll always be betrayed by her own feelings. and i LOVE how she was so AFFECTED by helping him in the stairwell, she knew she had to but damn, it hurt her so badly to do that. i think she's so tender on the outside, and just like every hard outer shell, it's brittle--it caves so easily.
...here, where he looks a hundred years older. No, a million. Also: YUSEF, I H8 U. GOD YES it's my favorite part!!!! favorite part!!!!
Oh, right, Vesper doesn't matter (and then he pockets the photo). Oh, yeah, he's not going to go chasing after Yusef (except he does). Deny everything, Bond. he's my soulmate. when i rewatched qos, it killed me how many times they played death of vesper/the bitch is dead, and god how his grief and rage was pulsing through the screen. it was scary as hell. intense.
YEAH. there you go. ilu!
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Replying in dribs and drabs:
since she was kind of working for the baddies, do you think she was really tortured?
No, there wouldn't have been any point in torturing her, so I don't think she was (though Valenka, Le Chiffre's gf might have knocked her around a bit for kicks...she looked like the nasty sort). I've imagined that scene in my head, when Vesper negotiates for their lives (but mostly for his). It becomes clear that Le Chiffre isn't going to get the password from Bond, so he's failed and Mr. White intervenes. Bye-bye, Le Chiffre. Then it's White who Vesper appeals to, convincing him to let them both go so that SHE can get that password from him. You mentioned what M said, that she probably knew right then that she was going to her death, but a part of her still hoped maybe somehow it could work out. And if it didn't, well, she got James out of there.
because i am that one who will ALWAYS, GOD BLESS MY HEART, write alternate universe!
God bless your heart indeed :-) And NO PRESSURE, but I can't wait for the next chapter of WYF!!
WHY CAN'T I STOP SAYING YES? i kind of mirrored this in my fic... everything about them is water, they are blue eyed, things happen with water like the beach and sailing and her death and absolution for her when they sit in the shower, she is haunted by it. in the end, he is parched and dry and she has too much water: she drowns in it.
Here, I'll say it, too, so you don't have to feel alone: YES! Once you start looking for it, the water (or lack thereof) is EVERYWHERE! It goes in lock-step with the stages of their relationship. And that last scene in QoS just kills me because the necklace in the snow is like her drowning again, this time crystallized and frozen like Bond himself.
I did a lot more with water/elements in the other vid that I was working on before this one. And what the hell, here's the draft of it where I left off. I used footage of Daniel Craig in Layer Cake because it's way too fucking perfect -- getting to see moments of despair that Bond wouldn't display in public and OMGSHOWERSCENE that even had the right color palette to mesh with Vesper's drowning.
More Vesbond meta later, you can count on it!
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you know, that scene with the necklace in the snow gets me every time. seriously. he never left. god.
and when he's pulled her body from the depths, and he's doing CPR hard enough to break a rib, and he leans down for mouth to mouth and knows her to be gone and....kisses her in that way he does....
god. i want that.
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Yep, I agree, "femme fatale" was not at all a role that she aspired to and her outer shell is really so very fragile. When you think about it, she's an absolute *fool* for love -- she gets herself into the business of double-agenting and betraying queen and country for Yusef, then goes furtherinto chaos when she falls in love with James. They're SO much alike, all posturing and defenses and beautifully-groomed exteriors that barely mask their own vulnerability and recklessness of the heart.
And it's much like that in the stairwell scene. They are both very affected by that interlude of violence, though of course he's trained to it and she isn't. Eva does such a great job of showing how repulsed she is and how utterly out of her element...but when it comes to it, girl's got steel at her core and she works right by his side. I was so happy to have those lyrics to pair with those shots (and visually, I just looooooove that shot of them running down the hallway towards the stairwell where he grabs her hand, both so urgent and breathless).
you know, that scene with the necklace in the snow gets me every time. seriously. he never left. god.
Yeah, "I never left"...so patently false that it hurts my heart. Dude, M *knows*. You don't have to bluff for her. But then again, I suppose it is necessary...not so much for M but for himself.
he's my soulmate. when i rewatched qos, it killed me how many times they played death of vesper/the bitch is dead, and god how his grief and rage was pulsing through the screen. it was scary as hell. intense.
I know, the main Vesper motif is used CONSTANTLY in the QoS soundtrack! Between the musical references, the photo, the necklace and HIS FACE, I really felt like her presence (absence is more accurate, perhaps) permeated every frame.
Speaking of the music, here's an uber-dork observation -- Vesper's main theme element is roughly the inverse of Bond's theme. I'm sure David Arnold did this intentionally...a way of relating them as two sides of the same coin with related musical motifs. Try it -- go to this virtual keyboard and play E - G - C1 - B. Those are the first four notes of the classic James Bond theme. Now play C1 - B - G - E (not exactly the inverse, but a descending version) and you have the opening notes of her theme.
Time to stop the scary fingers from typing and go to bed...
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i think vesper hates being so defenseless, i think she hates wearing her heart on her sleeve. i think she wishes she could be more like james--because they say when we're in love, we look for someone with the parts of us that are better than what we have, like puzzle pieces. they ARE so much alike.
both so urgent and breathless).
BECAUSE they are the same person kind of and it's really creepy in a freudian psychoanalytic way but... god. it aches in my chest!
I suppose it is necessary...not so much for M but for himself.
yeah, he's got a long road convincing himself he never left. but i was reading a lot of bond trivia, and one of their songs is "la vie en rose" by edith piaf.. in later films and books, the song is playing and he makes them stop it.. he always drinks the vesper martini... SO many things to remind him that he does on purpose. at one point, one of the bond girls is going to die and he's like, how the hell am i going to introduce her to vesper when we get on the other side? and i feel like him getting married is only an echo of pain for vesper, not anything for tracy whatsherface...
ever read wicked by gregory maguire? ever read son of a witch, the sequel? the way the boy in son of a witch MISSES elphaba is exactly like that, he HATES HER FOR LEAVING HATES HER but his hatred is so poignant and his missing her so acute the prose will leave you breathless with how much he hates her and misses her... this is what qos reminds me of. he hates her misses her hates her misses her hates her misses her... and hatred and longing are, just like them, two sides to the same coin...
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YES! That's in Goldfinger -- I'm reading the Bond novels (ever-so-slowly, since enormous amounts of reading for class leave little time for pleasure reading and the Bond novels are not always what I want to pick up when I *do* have time) and when I read about that part, I had to pick up Goldfinger and find it. It's also mentioned in On Her Majesty's Secret Service that he visits her grave every year. Oh, my heart. Have you read Casino Royale? It's actually quite a good book...the last section was far more emotional than I expected.
ever read wicked by gregory maguire? ever read son of a witch, the sequel? the way the boy in son of a witch MISSES elphaba is exactly like that, he HATES HER FOR LEAVING HATES HER but his hatred is so poignant and his missing her so acute the prose will leave you breathless with how much he hates her and misses her
I haven't yet (but I plan to, love the musical)! But that certainly does sound like Bond after Vesper's death...inconsolable rage burning like blue flame in him. Which is why I love QoS. I don't think it works as a standalone and I get why it fails for those who didn't lose their hearts to James/Vesper in CR. But for those of us who did? I needed to see the repercussions of her death -- rather than having the whole experience roll off Bond like water off a duck -- before the franchise moves forward.
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qos definitely isn't a standalone, it's so dependent on bond's grief, his turning into that blunt instrument. i don't know how folks couldn't have lost their hearts to b/v, but i guess people aren't always as hardwired for romance as we are. :) it just NEEDED to happen. i needed to see him have sex with someone who meant nothing to him, and see karma come back to him for that--and i needed to see him with a worthy bond girl and not even go there with her because of his grief. and i needed to see him pocket that photo and keep that necklace. honestly i bet he went back and picked it up, i bet he kept it!
lol i definitely wrote vesper as knowing she was going to die in WYF, so i made her write a little will too... he got her cats! and her vinyl collection! that was just me being perverse, haha.
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Heh, true...I should have qualified by saying I found it better than I expected. Fleming is certainly not among my favorite authors.
honestly i bet he went back and picked it up, i bet he kept it!
In my head, I imagine M picking it up and giving it back to him later, telling him sternly that if he forgets what happened, he's at risk of forgetting what he learned from it. Heh, she'd view it as a teaching moment.
i made her write a little will too... he got her cats! and her vinyl collection! that was just me being perverse, haha.
I love it! :-) It makes me crave some sort of crack!fic or graphic where Bond snuggles kitties (a million kinds of wrong, but OMGSOCUTE).
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