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dweomeroflightI slept over at my best friend's house and we watched Coraline. Thoughts under cut:
I enjoyed this movie alot and I loved the imagination involved and the obvious love and effort that went into the art direction. Some parts reminded me very much so of Tim Burton which makes sense seeings as Henry Selick was director on Nightmare before Christmas and also worked with Burton on James and the Giant Peach. I was thinking though, and this is only personal preference, that I do find more emotional connection in Burton's Corpse Bride than I did in Coraline. I think this is because in Coraline, the strange and the unusual and the fantastical ie the unknown and the Other is evil under a cloak of fascination, whereas in a Burton film, the emphasis is on The Other finding him/herself through imagination. I associate with that theme alot more.
I love that in Corpse Bride, the land of the dead IS more fascinating and IS pretty much everything it appears to be, and yet in spite of this, Victor still chooses to go back to blue scale boredom of real life for love. in other words, I love that even though he belongs more in the dead world, even though things there are happier and free-er, he chooses to take what he has learnt back home with him. I think that is more powerful than something like Coraline where the fantasy element is already known to be the wrong choice to make. In Corpse Bride Victor could have gone either way and both choices would have made a degree of sense. I think Corpse Bride is one of the loveliest kids movies I have ever seen and I cry alot through it. Maybe I just associate more with being that Other and that's why I love Burton films so much. Any thoughts?
Helena Bonham Carter in Enid Review
The other week I slept over at another friend's house with my Helena forum buddy, Elise (we met at the Burton exhibition in Melbourne but she lives near me and even goes to the same uni lol! We're good friends now.) We ended up watching the BBC tele movie, Enid, based upon the life of Enid Blyton, children's writer of my youth. It was hard having my percepions of Enid shot down but if they were going to be shot, at least it was done by Helena. Also, Matthew McFayden, he of Keeley Hawes marriage and Spooks love was there and was pretty awesome himself. Four scenes really stuck out for me. One where Helena and Matthew were running around a room having a pillow fight (don't try to pretend you're acting Helena! I know you do this ALL OF THE TIME) as husband and wife, one where Helena has a breakdown by herself in the house and collapses in sobs to the ground, one where Helena tells her kids they are going to eat their pet rabbit due to war time restrictions, and one where she invites small children in her readership to her house for a tea party but does not allow her own children to come downstairs.
Helena was in every scene and turned in another very good performance. I'd say it's up there in my top five Helena performances though the more I watch and the more she does the harder and harder it is to pick these days. I think Helena has gotten better and better with her acting in these later years and it's been a privelage and a "bloody wonder" to watch as now I suppose I am a rather long time fan. From her performance as The Woman in Conversations with Other Women, to Maggi in Magnificent Seven (BBC), to lady Totty in the supurb Wallace and Gromit movie, to the Corpse Bride, to Bellatrix Lestrange and Harry Potter to Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland, to now Enid and The King's Speech, in recent years she has gotten me every time without a bum note. There was awhile there where I thought she might have been losing it in the early 2000's, with the exception of The Heart of Me and was going to fade away into obscurity but I think she's going to hang on. Who knows? Helena the next Judi Dench? With performances like this oh yes please! Some of the scenes in Enid are amongst the best I've ever seen Helena pull off and I'd have to say the emotions she exhibited here are second only to Nicola's performance in 1.4 of Luther (which is something I feel I am unlikely to ever see again, not even from Helena, though she does enjoy surprising.) Anyone seen this? Thoughts on it? On Helena and her career?
The other day the BBC tele movie Skellig was on the ABC and I of course had to watch for John Simm.
Both me and my JS fandom buddy thought this was pretty average. John Simm had a rather minor part and it certainly wasn't anything new from him. I also felt that the movie itself couldn't decide what genre it wanted to be and this affected the story itself. Was it a drama? A fantasy? A Raoul Dahl novel? A dark comedy? A supernatural cum horror thriller? I couldn't tell. Search me. Anyone else catch this?
HELLO MY NICOLA BUDDIES. READ ON HERE...
Nicola in the radio play Bad Memories reviewed under this link:
Oh Bad Memories oh you play thing you. What were you about eh? Good thing Nicola was a main character in this or I'd have deleted you from my ipod after one listen. This play was a supernatural thriller. However, the beginning felt very much like a whodunnit. The police officer and Nicola's character Rachael, were both looking for ways to explain the ghost of Mary. This goes on for about half the play. This is fine of course and I'm all for suspense but when you find out that Mary is just a crazy insane murdering ghost and that's all there is to it, the ENTIRE beginning of the play is rendered pointless on a relisten. Also, Rachael being the fifth body? Called it from about ten minutes in. And don't even get me started on the idiotic use of time travel. I watch Dr Who. Time messing has consequences, so don't use it as a plot device unless you get how it works, PLEASE! On a relisten you get left with a ghost who murders for reasons unknown, and Rachael dies. Everything else is rendered irrelevent. Oh well, the bit about racist swallows was funny and I did enjoy Nicola's scream of DOOM. Thoughts oh Nicola fandom friends?
Nicola in the ITV mini series The Last Train under this link (She's not doing so well on my blog today :P):
This is a post apocalyptic six part mini series written by Matthew Graham (Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes). It's from the 90's and was a bit of fun to watch but not Nicola at her best. It was fun to see Nicola play a rather unlikeable character however. The first two parts were great and I really liked the conflict being set up between the survivors but this ultimately fizzled out into nothing and I stopped caring about events whenever Nicola wasn't on screen. I felt that the seperation between Nicola''s chaarcter Harriet and the others could have been played up more, because come on, in reality that is what would happen. Either they would threaten her with violence to tell them what she knows, they would try to manipulate her to get the information, or they would dump her, or she would dump them. Sigh, I was really excited for any one of those scenario's happening.
Also, crucifiction scene at the end? Shock value and unnecessary. Surely ARK could have explained why they needed to get inside the tower nicely first. Jonathan was a twat. What Harriet saw in him I'll never know and why was Hilde running at all? I found the ending very unsatisfying after a previous five hours of investment. The characters could have been developed alot better too and come on kill off more of them. There was far too many to keep track off or to care about.
Nicola was her usual capable self but it's nothing we haven't seen before. I'll be honest here and please don't shoot me, but I think that Nicola, like Helena, has improved ALOT in recent years. I'd say from about series four of Spooks onwards its been wham wham I AM AWESOME from her, but especially since leaving Spooks and coming back WOW. Series eight and nine of Spooks saw some of her best performances ever I think, and Law and Order was a very, very good performance too (review coming up upon a rewatch. The dodgy quality I originally watched it on was not conducive to observing fine acting), and Luther LUTHER MAN. JUST LUTHER. I will eventually review Luther but just NICOLA IN LUTHER. SEE IT. SEE IT NOW. I have been a serious Helena fan since the age of ten. I have praised her performances into infinity but SERIOUSLY NICOLA. IN. LUTHER. BEST PERFORMANCE I HAVE EVER SEEN FROM ANYONE IN MY LIFE. AND YES THAT INCLUDES MIRANDA RICHARDSON PLAYING THREE DIFFERENT EVER MORE MERGING PARTS IN CROENBURG'S SPIDER OK!!! NOT EVEN MIRANDA CAN COMPETE. NOT EVEN HELENA. IT. WAS. ABSOLUTELY. INDESCRIBABY. AMAZING. It will forevermore be my yardstick by which I measure every actress's acting ability. I could be 80 and I'll still not see a guest performance like it ever again. Do you get that I liked Nicola in Luther ALOT? IT WAS SO, SO GOOD. Made me a proper Nicola fan that performance did.
Anyone into Marion Zimmer Bradley? I'm not. Reasons below cut.
Hey guys, guess what! Feminism does not mean all men are bad and all women are great. Not all Christians are bad and all pagans good. This is the ultimate problem I have with Zimmer Bradley. She relied on absolutes to tell the story and the plot conforms to the black and white morals and REALLY PISSES ME OFF. I couldnt stand Mists. Jeeesus. Mary Stewart's Merlin books are far more historically accurate, far less shock valuey, and far less sledge hammery frankly. God I hated The Firebrand. So much potential wasted and all because the story was in absolutes again... except worse this time, NONE of the characters were developed at all beyond Kassandra. Life is not black and white. Please don't write it like it is.
Whew and finished. I still have to watch Helena in Toast, rewatch Nicola in L&O and do Ashes to Ashes series three write ups eventually. Stay tuned ;)
I enjoyed this movie alot and I loved the imagination involved and the obvious love and effort that went into the art direction. Some parts reminded me very much so of Tim Burton which makes sense seeings as Henry Selick was director on Nightmare before Christmas and also worked with Burton on James and the Giant Peach. I was thinking though, and this is only personal preference, that I do find more emotional connection in Burton's Corpse Bride than I did in Coraline. I think this is because in Coraline, the strange and the unusual and the fantastical ie the unknown and the Other is evil under a cloak of fascination, whereas in a Burton film, the emphasis is on The Other finding him/herself through imagination. I associate with that theme alot more.
I love that in Corpse Bride, the land of the dead IS more fascinating and IS pretty much everything it appears to be, and yet in spite of this, Victor still chooses to go back to blue scale boredom of real life for love. in other words, I love that even though he belongs more in the dead world, even though things there are happier and free-er, he chooses to take what he has learnt back home with him. I think that is more powerful than something like Coraline where the fantasy element is already known to be the wrong choice to make. In Corpse Bride Victor could have gone either way and both choices would have made a degree of sense. I think Corpse Bride is one of the loveliest kids movies I have ever seen and I cry alot through it. Maybe I just associate more with being that Other and that's why I love Burton films so much. Any thoughts?
Helena Bonham Carter in Enid Review
The other week I slept over at another friend's house with my Helena forum buddy, Elise (we met at the Burton exhibition in Melbourne but she lives near me and even goes to the same uni lol! We're good friends now.) We ended up watching the BBC tele movie, Enid, based upon the life of Enid Blyton, children's writer of my youth. It was hard having my percepions of Enid shot down but if they were going to be shot, at least it was done by Helena. Also, Matthew McFayden, he of Keeley Hawes marriage and Spooks love was there and was pretty awesome himself. Four scenes really stuck out for me. One where Helena and Matthew were running around a room having a pillow fight (don't try to pretend you're acting Helena! I know you do this ALL OF THE TIME) as husband and wife, one where Helena has a breakdown by herself in the house and collapses in sobs to the ground, one where Helena tells her kids they are going to eat their pet rabbit due to war time restrictions, and one where she invites small children in her readership to her house for a tea party but does not allow her own children to come downstairs.
Helena was in every scene and turned in another very good performance. I'd say it's up there in my top five Helena performances though the more I watch and the more she does the harder and harder it is to pick these days. I think Helena has gotten better and better with her acting in these later years and it's been a privelage and a "bloody wonder" to watch as now I suppose I am a rather long time fan. From her performance as The Woman in Conversations with Other Women, to Maggi in Magnificent Seven (BBC), to lady Totty in the supurb Wallace and Gromit movie, to the Corpse Bride, to Bellatrix Lestrange and Harry Potter to Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland, to now Enid and The King's Speech, in recent years she has gotten me every time without a bum note. There was awhile there where I thought she might have been losing it in the early 2000's, with the exception of The Heart of Me and was going to fade away into obscurity but I think she's going to hang on. Who knows? Helena the next Judi Dench? With performances like this oh yes please! Some of the scenes in Enid are amongst the best I've ever seen Helena pull off and I'd have to say the emotions she exhibited here are second only to Nicola's performance in 1.4 of Luther (which is something I feel I am unlikely to ever see again, not even from Helena, though she does enjoy surprising.) Anyone seen this? Thoughts on it? On Helena and her career?
The other day the BBC tele movie Skellig was on the ABC and I of course had to watch for John Simm.
Both me and my JS fandom buddy thought this was pretty average. John Simm had a rather minor part and it certainly wasn't anything new from him. I also felt that the movie itself couldn't decide what genre it wanted to be and this affected the story itself. Was it a drama? A fantasy? A Raoul Dahl novel? A dark comedy? A supernatural cum horror thriller? I couldn't tell. Search me. Anyone else catch this?
HELLO MY NICOLA BUDDIES. READ ON HERE...
Nicola in the radio play Bad Memories reviewed under this link:
Oh Bad Memories oh you play thing you. What were you about eh? Good thing Nicola was a main character in this or I'd have deleted you from my ipod after one listen. This play was a supernatural thriller. However, the beginning felt very much like a whodunnit. The police officer and Nicola's character Rachael, were both looking for ways to explain the ghost of Mary. This goes on for about half the play. This is fine of course and I'm all for suspense but when you find out that Mary is just a crazy insane murdering ghost and that's all there is to it, the ENTIRE beginning of the play is rendered pointless on a relisten. Also, Rachael being the fifth body? Called it from about ten minutes in. And don't even get me started on the idiotic use of time travel. I watch Dr Who. Time messing has consequences, so don't use it as a plot device unless you get how it works, PLEASE! On a relisten you get left with a ghost who murders for reasons unknown, and Rachael dies. Everything else is rendered irrelevent. Oh well, the bit about racist swallows was funny and I did enjoy Nicola's scream of DOOM. Thoughts oh Nicola fandom friends?
Nicola in the ITV mini series The Last Train under this link (She's not doing so well on my blog today :P):
This is a post apocalyptic six part mini series written by Matthew Graham (Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes). It's from the 90's and was a bit of fun to watch but not Nicola at her best. It was fun to see Nicola play a rather unlikeable character however. The first two parts were great and I really liked the conflict being set up between the survivors but this ultimately fizzled out into nothing and I stopped caring about events whenever Nicola wasn't on screen. I felt that the seperation between Nicola''s chaarcter Harriet and the others could have been played up more, because come on, in reality that is what would happen. Either they would threaten her with violence to tell them what she knows, they would try to manipulate her to get the information, or they would dump her, or she would dump them. Sigh, I was really excited for any one of those scenario's happening.
Also, crucifiction scene at the end? Shock value and unnecessary. Surely ARK could have explained why they needed to get inside the tower nicely first. Jonathan was a twat. What Harriet saw in him I'll never know and why was Hilde running at all? I found the ending very unsatisfying after a previous five hours of investment. The characters could have been developed alot better too and come on kill off more of them. There was far too many to keep track off or to care about.
Nicola was her usual capable self but it's nothing we haven't seen before. I'll be honest here and please don't shoot me, but I think that Nicola, like Helena, has improved ALOT in recent years. I'd say from about series four of Spooks onwards its been wham wham I AM AWESOME from her, but especially since leaving Spooks and coming back WOW. Series eight and nine of Spooks saw some of her best performances ever I think, and Law and Order was a very, very good performance too (review coming up upon a rewatch. The dodgy quality I originally watched it on was not conducive to observing fine acting), and Luther LUTHER MAN. JUST LUTHER. I will eventually review Luther but just NICOLA IN LUTHER. SEE IT. SEE IT NOW. I have been a serious Helena fan since the age of ten. I have praised her performances into infinity but SERIOUSLY NICOLA. IN. LUTHER. BEST PERFORMANCE I HAVE EVER SEEN FROM ANYONE IN MY LIFE. AND YES THAT INCLUDES MIRANDA RICHARDSON PLAYING THREE DIFFERENT EVER MORE MERGING PARTS IN CROENBURG'S SPIDER OK!!! NOT EVEN MIRANDA CAN COMPETE. NOT EVEN HELENA. IT. WAS. ABSOLUTELY. INDESCRIBABY. AMAZING. It will forevermore be my yardstick by which I measure every actress's acting ability. I could be 80 and I'll still not see a guest performance like it ever again. Do you get that I liked Nicola in Luther ALOT? IT WAS SO, SO GOOD. Made me a proper Nicola fan that performance did.
Anyone into Marion Zimmer Bradley? I'm not. Reasons below cut.
Hey guys, guess what! Feminism does not mean all men are bad and all women are great. Not all Christians are bad and all pagans good. This is the ultimate problem I have with Zimmer Bradley. She relied on absolutes to tell the story and the plot conforms to the black and white morals and REALLY PISSES ME OFF. I couldnt stand Mists. Jeeesus. Mary Stewart's Merlin books are far more historically accurate, far less shock valuey, and far less sledge hammery frankly. God I hated The Firebrand. So much potential wasted and all because the story was in absolutes again... except worse this time, NONE of the characters were developed at all beyond Kassandra. Life is not black and white. Please don't write it like it is.
Whew and finished. I still have to watch Helena in Toast, rewatch Nicola in L&O and do Ashes to Ashes series three write ups eventually. Stay tuned ;)
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 01:52 am (UTC)Anyways, I really want to read a good fantasy book. Suggestions? :D
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Date: 2011-01-24 01:57 am (UTC)Not at the moment no :(
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 08:33 am (UTC)Have you read T.A. Barron's Merlin Series? I really enjoyed it. I need to finish up his sequel series to it. But I definitely recommend it. It starts with The Lost Years of Merlin.
If you've read those, let's see there's always the Song of hte Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce. I don't have all my fantasy books in front of me and sadly I've forgotten a few as I read them all as library books and didn't buy them. But I can have more suggestions if you're familiar with these.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 10:11 am (UTC)Hehe, yeah, I've read all of Tamora Pierce's stuff I could get my hands on. I can't wait for the new Beka Cooper book! :DDD But any suggestions are much appreciated and welcome. ^^
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 07:43 am (UTC)Sorry for being really bad at commenting lately :/ I did hear about you meeting Nicola, and I'm really quite happy for you that you got to do that. :D I know how happy I'd be if I met any of my greatest rolemodels. ^^
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Date: 2011-01-24 11:46 pm (UTC)Lol dw about it. I don't comment sometimes too, it happens :P Haha you must be so bored of my blog with all of my Nicola love spurting left right and centre :P Sorry!
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Date: 2011-01-24 08:38 am (UTC)But I don't really think that's a common theme of Gaiman's because in Stardust the Other ends up being hte place the hero is meant to be....then again I haven't read a whole lot of his.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 10:21 am (UTC)I quite enjoyed Bad Memories and more so on a second listen. I don't normally like scary things like that at all so I kind of surprised myself. I didn't analyse it at all because I knew it would fall apart if you looked too much into the plot and the time travel etc. It was really obvious what was going to happen to Nicola's character and I found myself willing it not to happen, even on the second listen when predictions for the ending had already been confirmed. It's not a play that I will listen to often but it's on my ipod for when I might want to revisit it again. Also, Rupert Graves keeps on popping up in things since I listened to this. No matter who Nicola stars with, they seem to be all over my screen in other things afterwards.
My thoughts about The Last Train seem to change depending on what mood I'm in. I watched all of the episodes back-to-back one day when I had nothing better to do. It was an epic ride and I enjoyed it at the time but if I think about it in more detail then I find problems with it and can agree with you about several of the things you mentioned above. I don't think it is something that I will watch again but I loved having Nicola on my screen. I will watch her in almost anything, I think.
LUTHER. LUTHER. LUTHER.
Nicola's performance in Luther is the best performance in anything ever. I agree! I knew she was a great actress before watching but she totally blew me away in this. I can't get over her performance. She deserves awards!! Give them all to her! YES.
NICOLA NEEDS HER OWN SHOW. A NEW LEAD ROLE. PLEASE.
I'm hoping to rewatch Nicola's L&O soon too. And I'm really looking forward to your A2A write-ups.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 11:43 pm (UTC)I'm a writer myself so I get hyper critical of writing in scripts. I can't help myself :P
And re The Last Train, I loved having Nicola on my screen too! Don't get me wrong there! Short hair = yum ;) But I don't think I would have bothered to finish if it wasn't for Nicola being in it.
OMG LUTHER. I KNOW RIGHT. THERE REALLY ARE NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE NICOLA IN LUTHER. I TRIED IN MY LETTER TO HER AND GAVE UP AND JUST WROTE BAFTA MANY TIMES INSTEAD. IT WAS FECKING AMAZING. I HONESTLY DOUBT I WILL EVER SEE ANYTHING LIKE IT EVER AGAIN. GAH NO WORDS...
I CONCUR. NICOLA MUST HAVE HER OWN SHOW DAMN IT.