The Last Station blah blah
I AM SO BAD AT POSTING, OMG. BUT HI! I'm back to livejournal again. :) For the time being at least... I meant to do a "this is what happened this year at school!" post, and also a "goals for summer!" post. and I will still get to those, SERIOUSLY I REALLY WANT TO.
But right now I just want to talk about how I watched The Last Station this yesterday evening, and I want to share my feelings about it.
That makes it look like it was all sex, sex, sex... which the first part of the movie kind of was, in a very subdued way. The story is about Tolstoy and his tempestuous relationship with his wife (they love each other very much, but she doesn't understand his philosophies), and also about the personality cult/movement that grew up around his writings. I didn't know about any of that, so it was interesting to learn a little Russian history. James McAvoy plays the main character, Valentin Bulgakov, who comes into the middle of the whole situation as a personal secretary, and a very devout Tolstoyan.
The trailer is also actually a pretty great representation of the movie:
It was really really beautiful, in the COSTUMING (gorgeous), and the acting, and the sets, and the locations. Just beautiful. And by the end, the characters were really interesting... but I don't know... I can't say I really enjoyed the movie. It kind of bugged me throughout, and I don't really know why.
James McAvoy was amazing, as always. I think he's becoming my favorite actor, mostly because he's just incredible at the acting. I also recently saw Wanted (which I also have mixed feelings about), and he was fantastic in that too. Him as Tolstoy's FANBOY was really great. He also has a super cute red beard!
But Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer were INCREDIBLE as Lev Nikolajevic and Countess Sofia. Amazing, and also adorable.
It was super funny to me, though, to have all of these incredibly BRITISH people portraying Russian people in their decidedly British way. I think Valentin (McAvoy) says the line "Yes, of course," about 10 times throughout the movie, and in a very good English accent. I wonder what the movie would have been like if it had been made by Russians... Because you can't escape the Britishness here. (Even if Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy were both doing accents that were not their own. It's kind of like Prince of Persia - these people are supposed to be Russian, why do they have to do English accents? Scottish and American are just as wrong...) Although everyone did a GREAT job with the Russian names, as far as I could tell.
OK I THINK I'M DONE RAMBLING NOW, HERE'S SOME PRETTY PICTURES FOR YOUR TIME.
ps. here's a review that says more about the plot if you want to read it.
But right now I just want to talk about how I watched The Last Station this yesterday evening, and I want to share my feelings about it.
That makes it look like it was all sex, sex, sex... which the first part of the movie kind of was, in a very subdued way. The story is about Tolstoy and his tempestuous relationship with his wife (they love each other very much, but she doesn't understand his philosophies), and also about the personality cult/movement that grew up around his writings. I didn't know about any of that, so it was interesting to learn a little Russian history. James McAvoy plays the main character, Valentin Bulgakov, who comes into the middle of the whole situation as a personal secretary, and a very devout Tolstoyan.
The trailer is also actually a pretty great representation of the movie:
Click to viewIt was really really beautiful, in the COSTUMING (gorgeous), and the acting, and the sets, and the locations. Just beautiful. And by the end, the characters were really interesting... but I don't know... I can't say I really enjoyed the movie. It kind of bugged me throughout, and I don't really know why.
James McAvoy was amazing, as always. I think he's becoming my favorite actor, mostly because he's just incredible at the acting. I also recently saw Wanted (which I also have mixed feelings about), and he was fantastic in that too. Him as Tolstoy's FANBOY was really great. He also has a super cute red beard!
But Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer were INCREDIBLE as Lev Nikolajevic and Countess Sofia. Amazing, and also adorable.
It was super funny to me, though, to have all of these incredibly BRITISH people portraying Russian people in their decidedly British way. I think Valentin (McAvoy) says the line "Yes, of course," about 10 times throughout the movie, and in a very good English accent. I wonder what the movie would have been like if it had been made by Russians... Because you can't escape the Britishness here. (Even if Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy were both doing accents that were not their own. It's kind of like Prince of Persia - these people are supposed to be Russian, why do they have to do English accents? Scottish and American are just as wrong...) Although everyone did a GREAT job with the Russian names, as far as I could tell.
OK I THINK I'M DONE RAMBLING NOW, HERE'S SOME PRETTY PICTURES FOR YOUR TIME.
ps. here's a review that says more about the plot if you want to read it.