Da Diva Does it!
Today was the Melbourne Cup - for those of you who don't know, that's the biggest horse race in Australia (they call it the race that stops the nation). Today will go down in the record books coz today Makybe Diva won for the third straight year! It's just unbelievable. People are actually comparing her to Phar Lap. The most incredible thing really is that she had a massive handicap due to the fact that she had the same jockey as the previous years. I'm not sure what it was but it was apparently the heaviest ever carried (by a mare anyway, I'm not sure about horses in general). The other amazing thing is that she's 7 years old. Other 7 year old mares are put out to stud & aren't interested in racing but she's just as brilliant and focused as ever! She's retired now after today's victory.
I felt very drab and boring going into the city on the train this morning. Heaps of people were all dressed up for the Melbourne Cup and had beautiful big hats on and everything. And this is Sydney - I can't even imagine what it would be like to be in Melbourne on Cup day!
I didn't actually get to watch the race unfortunately though coz I was in the movies. I went to see the new Pride & Prejudice with mum.
I must say I was pleasantly surprised - I actually like it even though Keira Knightly was Lizzy. I wasn't expecting much & didn't think a movie would be long enough to do it justice but they did really well. There were a few things I think were done even better that the A&E version eg. the clutter of Longbourne, the real countrification of Meryton society and the Bennets. There were some things that did jar though with the time period though: Elizabeth wearing her hair out - ummm sorry not past the age of puberty! Bingley being in Jane's bedroom - that would've caused as much scandel as the Lydia situation! Elizabeth yelling at her parents and sister's to leave her alone - ummm again not in that time period.
While most of the casting was really brilliant I couldn't stand Donald Sutherland as Mr Bennet. Gah! That and the fact that they wrote the character of Mr Bennet all wrong. I mean they made him seem a downtrodden man with very little backbone! While the female's did basically take over the house and he hid away with his books, it was only because he wanted it that way. I mean I've always thought of Mr Bennet as something of an older, male version of Elizabeth (of course he was never quite as wise as her etc but you get what I'm saying). They think alike and that is why they were always so close. Donald Sutherland's Mr Bennet was this almost mute bloke who didn't add anything to the film at all. And the worst part was that he appeared to have an affection for Mrs Bennet!!! GAh!
*sigh* Sorry. I really did like the movie! There were just these few things that grated. Oh yeah - the other thing was that Mrs Bennet was too caring and not silly enough. They made out that her meddling and overbearing ways were because she sincerely wanted her daughters to be well taken care of! Mrs Bennet doesn't have a sincere bone in her body! She wants her daughters married for the prestige. Yes the entailing of the estate was the main underlying factor of the urgency for their marriage (which the film dealt with well in my opinion) - but these serious factors are kind of beyond Mrs Bennet's total grasp. So yeah, I reckon the way they dealt with both the parents in this film kinda ruined it a bit. The actress playing Mrs Bennet was excellent, it was just the way they'd written the character that was wrong.
I'm amazed that I'm not spending this time bagging out Keira Knightly. I don't particularly like her and was pissed off to find out she was playing the role but I can honestly say she did I pretty good job. High praise indeed from me! I do like the way the sisters in this were very young and high spirited. It was well done. So was Jane & Bingley's shyness. I really liked the way the characters were flawed. When Darcy met Elizabeth at Pemberley they were both so nervous that they kept talking over the top of one another. I like the human frailty portrayed in many of the characters.
As for Mr Darcy. What can I say? Yummmmmmmmm! It's impossible not to compare him to Colin "Mr Darcy himself" Firth but I think he really did do a good job at portraying Darcy in a slightly different way. I liked the way Matthew MacFadyen's Darcy was quite vulnerable. Darcy was after all shy and that is to a degree why he had problems being the public focus and came across aloof. I think that knowing the story, you could see that he was shy and I really liked that.
Well I'm hungry so I'm off to get dinner. I promise that I'll get some Egypt piccy's up some time this week. I'm lazy I know.
I felt very drab and boring going into the city on the train this morning. Heaps of people were all dressed up for the Melbourne Cup and had beautiful big hats on and everything. And this is Sydney - I can't even imagine what it would be like to be in Melbourne on Cup day!
I didn't actually get to watch the race unfortunately though coz I was in the movies. I went to see the new Pride & Prejudice with mum.
I must say I was pleasantly surprised - I actually like it even though Keira Knightly was Lizzy. I wasn't expecting much & didn't think a movie would be long enough to do it justice but they did really well. There were a few things I think were done even better that the A&E version eg. the clutter of Longbourne, the real countrification of Meryton society and the Bennets. There were some things that did jar though with the time period though: Elizabeth wearing her hair out - ummm sorry not past the age of puberty! Bingley being in Jane's bedroom - that would've caused as much scandel as the Lydia situation! Elizabeth yelling at her parents and sister's to leave her alone - ummm again not in that time period.
While most of the casting was really brilliant I couldn't stand Donald Sutherland as Mr Bennet. Gah! That and the fact that they wrote the character of Mr Bennet all wrong. I mean they made him seem a downtrodden man with very little backbone! While the female's did basically take over the house and he hid away with his books, it was only because he wanted it that way. I mean I've always thought of Mr Bennet as something of an older, male version of Elizabeth (of course he was never quite as wise as her etc but you get what I'm saying). They think alike and that is why they were always so close. Donald Sutherland's Mr Bennet was this almost mute bloke who didn't add anything to the film at all. And the worst part was that he appeared to have an affection for Mrs Bennet!!! GAh!
*sigh* Sorry. I really did like the movie! There were just these few things that grated. Oh yeah - the other thing was that Mrs Bennet was too caring and not silly enough. They made out that her meddling and overbearing ways were because she sincerely wanted her daughters to be well taken care of! Mrs Bennet doesn't have a sincere bone in her body! She wants her daughters married for the prestige. Yes the entailing of the estate was the main underlying factor of the urgency for their marriage (which the film dealt with well in my opinion) - but these serious factors are kind of beyond Mrs Bennet's total grasp. So yeah, I reckon the way they dealt with both the parents in this film kinda ruined it a bit. The actress playing Mrs Bennet was excellent, it was just the way they'd written the character that was wrong.
I'm amazed that I'm not spending this time bagging out Keira Knightly. I don't particularly like her and was pissed off to find out she was playing the role but I can honestly say she did I pretty good job. High praise indeed from me! I do like the way the sisters in this were very young and high spirited. It was well done. So was Jane & Bingley's shyness. I really liked the way the characters were flawed. When Darcy met Elizabeth at Pemberley they were both so nervous that they kept talking over the top of one another. I like the human frailty portrayed in many of the characters.
As for Mr Darcy. What can I say? Yummmmmmmmm! It's impossible not to compare him to Colin "Mr Darcy himself" Firth but I think he really did do a good job at portraying Darcy in a slightly different way. I liked the way Matthew MacFadyen's Darcy was quite vulnerable. Darcy was after all shy and that is to a degree why he had problems being the public focus and came across aloof. I think that knowing the story, you could see that he was shy and I really liked that.
Well I'm hungry so I'm off to get dinner. I promise that I'll get some Egypt piccy's up some time this week. I'm lazy I know.