Films

[altariel]

Last night glitterboy1 and I continued our Journey Through Film, and went to see Maid in Manhattan. Don't say anything. Given that it's not a film that's going to spring a shock conclusion on you, I had a lot of fun getting there. I realized that Ralph Fiennes looks like Odo from Deep Space Nine, and that made my visceral Fiennes-loathing a lot more understandable to me.

Afterwards I wondered whether such a film about transcending class could be made in Britain, or whether Maid in Manhattan reflects a continuing belief in the potential for individual transformation given currency by the discourse of the American Dream. glitterboy1 suggested I might dispense with theorizing and just watch the film.

Last week I saw Chicago and The Hours. Chicago was fun, but shouldn't have won Best Picture, not when The Hours was up for it too. Did I love The Hours? Did I. It's fantastic to see fanfiction made into film.

Comments

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I wondered whether such a film about transcending class could be made in Britain

In reviewing past efforts in that direction, we forgot one of the most obvious: My Fair Lady.


Did I love The Hours? Did I.

The Hours was wonderful. I am so sad that it was beaten by Chicago. Chicago is very good fun, and there's some surprisingly good singing and dancing (beside which some of the rest is very ordinary). But it really isn't that great a film. In fact, it feels so stagey, it's hardly a film at all.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

In reviewing past efforts in that direction, we forgot one of the most obvious: My Fair Lady.

D'oh! Yes, we did. And the film has a very different ending from the play. I remember how cross we were about it when we studied Pygmalion for GCSE.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

we studied Pygmalion for GCSE

You did that, too, did you? There must have been an entire generation of us reading the same three or four books.

Re:

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I didn't think you did GCSE?!? So was it all a lie that O-level was harder?

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I didn't think you did GCSE?!?

That's right, go on, make me feel old. :-)


So was it all a lie that O-level was harder?

Maybe they asked us harder questions, and expected a greater degree of insight. Or maybe that's total b*llocks. The 'Golden Age' is the last chance for the old to assert some superiority. Please leave us something.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

That's right, go on, make me feel old. :-)

Hee! To be fair, I was the first year of GCSE. Think of me as a laboratory rat.


The 'Golden Age' is the last chance for the old to assert some superiority. Please leave us something.

Indeed I shall, oh sagacious one.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Think of me as a laboratory rat.

hee! no comment.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Ah, but the message of Pygmalion is that removal of artificial barriers caused by resistance to "lower-class" accents permits Eliza Doolittle to be appreciated as an intelligent and vital person. The message of Maid in Manhattan is that a good-looking young woman looks better in someone else's $5000 evening gown than she does in her own $15 maid's uniform and therefore rich men are more likely to be attracted to her. Not quite the same thing.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I thought that there was perhaps a little more to Maid in Manhattan than that? We're shown from the beginning that Marisa is intelligent and vital, and she is already starting to use those qualities to advance her career. Certainly, it's the $5000 coat that first attracts Chris Marshall's attention. If you like, it removes the artifical barrier of uniform and dress. But, once she has his ear, it's her intelligence, vitality, and her sincere opinions, that keep his attention. If it were simply a matter of a $5000 coat, he would need to look no further than Caroline, who would be only too happy to take up with him. And, in the series of magazine covers at the end, it's seems that Marisa, having overcome that initial barrier, has taken her professional career from strength to strength.

I rootled around briefly in Pygmalion, Act III: Eliza, who is exquisitely dressed, produces an impression of such remarkable distinction and beauty as she enters that they all rise, quite fluttered. [...] Freddy bows and sits down in the Elizabethan chair, infatuated. (Taken from bartleby (http://www.bartleby.com/138/)). I don't know: my memory from school is a bit hazy by now! But on the face of it, this doesn't seem too different from either the first meeting in the Park Suite, or Marisa's entrance at the gala?

Sorry, I'm not disagreeing with you about Pygmalion, because I think you're right. I'd just prefer to say that Maid in Manhattan wasn't really that different?

Re:

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I have to confess, I haven't seen Maid in Manhattan so I'm going on the basis of reviews. But even though Marisa may be depicted as a lovable person, in effect Chris Marshall doesn't see her doing something brave, or intelligent, or loving, or funny--he sees a good-looking woman wearing a really nice outfit(which she obtained by dubious means).

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Altariel in sets-of-friends convergence moment!

I feel like the host at some kind of strange virtual cocktail party. I should make some introductions. glitterboy1 meet executrix. executrix meet glitterboy1. You have both been very generous to me on numerous occasions.

Re:

[executrix.livejournal.com]

There was that Gilbert poem about the Englishmen cast away on a desert island and built survival objects "As Alexander Selkirk used/But they could not chat together/They had not been introduced"--I sort of feel that "mutual contributions to Another's LJ" are an introduction, at least in the strange world of CyberCivility.

And thank you...any interaction with you has been and always will be a pleasure.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I feel like the host at some kind of strange virtual cocktail party.

I don't know which is more unlikely, you as the host of a cocktail party, or me as a guest. :-)

*waves to Executrix* I'm pleased to meet you.

Altariel: *Blushes* (Really!) Thank you. The occasions of your own kindness and generosity are too numerous to count, but are greatly valued.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I don't know which is more unlikely, you as the host of a cocktail party, or me as a guest. :-)

It could only happen online...