Nothing I may report, reading-wise, have some thoughts on movies instead
As regular readers may know, when I go off to Grayshott I tend to take some DVDs with me for evening relaxation watching. Last week I watched the following.
Dirty Dancing, which I have managed never to see before. And while I can somewhat concur with the essay on the movie by Kathi Maio [?sp] in which she points out that there is whatever is the classist version of 'what these people need is a honky' going on in the plot, there are few enough movies that have an empowered young woman with agency driving that plot and one which doesn't, it seems to me, close down her story.
As with Gidget, is this actually a romance plot or the one in which the rather geeky heroine finds a form of physical activity that is fulfilling and fun (no, no! I mean dancing, not shagging P Swayze!)? Also, at the beginning it seems to me a tad moot whether she is interested in Johnny or in Penny.
While my headcanon for what might happen next is not that Baby becomes a performing arts major rather than doing international aid and development, I do sort of envisage her (given moreover all the civil rights, anti-war, etc stuff about to explode) perhaps looking rather closer to home and in a more politicised than philanthropic missionary spirit with her activism.
Although: okay, we do get an abortion story in which nobody dies or is permanently harmed and the impregnator is a villain who reads Ayn Rand, but wouldn't it have been nice if there could have been some mention of contraception?
I Capture the Castle. Rather thumbs down, and I don't think this was entirely due to the slight defect on the disc leading to stuttering in some of the earlier scenes. There seemed to be made-up bits of voiceover, Thomas was far too young (in the book he's 15 and reading Freud, right?), Mrs Cotton was suddenly malign, and they completely bungled the 'breaking Mortmain's writer's block' sequence.
I realise that I am somewhat allergic to Bill Nighy doing manpain unless this is well-concealed by facial tentacles, and am not at all sure that this was the right choice to go with Mortmain. In the book he is not all about sobbing guiltily about how badly he treated the children's mother.
Also, you know that whole 'Rose is going off with Riley???!!!' thing that strikes the Buffy-watcher.
Two movie versions of Much Ado About Nothing - I took the Joss Whedon version with me, and, finding that one of the DVDs I had with me was unplayable, borrowed the Thompson/Branagh version from Reception.
Yes, I can sort of see giving it a b&w 30s screwball comedy feel, because of how much of screwball comedy basically reprises the B&B plot, but unfortunately, the actual play plunges into noir, pretty much.
Plus, the 1993 version has (mostly) actors who are clearly a lot happier speaking the lines and making them sound natural. Also, Emma Thompson, totally born to play Beatrice, no?
Curious costuming decision, though. The civilian population around Leonato's estate were all dressed in a sort of generic Early Modern style and most would not have looked out of place in a Breughel painting, but the Prince's forces appeared to have time-slid in from Ruritania c. 1900.
Was having thoughts about these rulers who think it is yay fun to play these games of masquerade and deception (though this theme is pretty pervasive in MAAN): this really takes a turn into the bleak with Measure for Measure but seems foreshadowed here. This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2197314.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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