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altarielI saw a bunch of films over the weekend that I'd not seen before.
First (thank you![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
msmanna!) Once Upon A Time In Mexico. I understand there is a plot in there somewhere but, frankly, it's unnecessary and I didn't let it trouble me at all. Which left me watching a very glossy and extremely violent film with lots of beautiful pictures and outrageous set pieces. Loved it.
Next up was Labyrinth: there's an episode of Friends where Phoebe finds out that people avoided showing her the sad ends of films when she was a child. Apparently someone was hiding away all the happy films from me, since I saw The Dark Crystal but never saw this. Anyway, I loved it. Wish I'd seen it when it came out. Terry Jones strikes me as the most well-adjusted person on the planet, and I'd like to be him when I grow up, although without the taking all my clothes off whenever there's a camera around me.
We bought The Quiet American on DVD ages ago, but only got round to watching it yesterday. Despite Michael Caine, I found it rather slight - I think I need spy dramas to be a bit more intricate than this one. It's set in Vietnam in 1952, and that made for some interesting reflection, but I think I'd be more interested to watch the 1958 version of it.
No, I hadn't seen Brief Encounter before. Yes, it's fabulous. Black and white sigh... The pictures are so much prettier.
Today, rather than take advantage of being at the start of the month to advance my work, I bunked off and went to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, or, Dumbledore, You Utter Utter Bastard. This happens to be my favourite of the books - it's the one with the most satisfying plot, I think.
And the film itself is without doubt the best of the three. I was afraid that there would be a dull start where we got all the repetitive bits like catching the damn train, but Cuarón dispenses with all that and gets straight into the story. He skips the goddamn Quidditch as well, thank god. So we're left with the plot which, as I said, is pretty good - it's the one where we start to learn the backstory about Harry's parents and their contemporaries. I loved the set piece between Sirius, Snape, and Lupin (love Lupin!), particularly knowing more about Snape's story as a schoolboy from the later books.
I find it heartbreaking when Harry realizes that his father didn't come back from the dead to save him, that he himself cast the Patronus spell. I do 'get' the point of this, but I would be very sad about it, myself. Harry seems to cope OK - but kids do, don't they? It's only later you get depressed about things.
The story is about adults being no damn use when you could really do with their help. That's a good theme for a children's book, I think. Most of the adults around Harry really try to look after him (Snape, Lupin, Black), but are caught out by their own failings. That's pretty true to life. The notable exception to this is Dumbledore, who could, given his character's set-up in all the books - but who really doesn't try terribly hard at all. It's largely a failure in plotting. It also reminds me of Goodgulf in Bored of the Rings:
Reader: Oh, Albus, Albus - can't you use all the power and respect with which you have been imbued in the text as leverage to persuade those in authority to believe Harry and Hermione's story about Sirius Black, thereby making things right and as an extra bonus not sending Harry back to that awful abusive home situation?
Dumbledore: Oh, alas. Oh, alack.
Bastard.
First (thank you
msmanna!) Once Upon A Time In Mexico. I understand there is a plot in there somewhere but, frankly, it's unnecessary and I didn't let it trouble me at all. Which left me watching a very glossy and extremely violent film with lots of beautiful pictures and outrageous set pieces. Loved it. Next up was Labyrinth: there's an episode of Friends where Phoebe finds out that people avoided showing her the sad ends of films when she was a child. Apparently someone was hiding away all the happy films from me, since I saw The Dark Crystal but never saw this. Anyway, I loved it. Wish I'd seen it when it came out. Terry Jones strikes me as the most well-adjusted person on the planet, and I'd like to be him when I grow up, although without the taking all my clothes off whenever there's a camera around me.
We bought The Quiet American on DVD ages ago, but only got round to watching it yesterday. Despite Michael Caine, I found it rather slight - I think I need spy dramas to be a bit more intricate than this one. It's set in Vietnam in 1952, and that made for some interesting reflection, but I think I'd be more interested to watch the 1958 version of it.
No, I hadn't seen Brief Encounter before. Yes, it's fabulous. Black and white sigh... The pictures are so much prettier.
Today, rather than take advantage of being at the start of the month to advance my work, I bunked off and went to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, or, Dumbledore, You Utter Utter Bastard. This happens to be my favourite of the books - it's the one with the most satisfying plot, I think.
And the film itself is without doubt the best of the three. I was afraid that there would be a dull start where we got all the repetitive bits like catching the damn train, but Cuarón dispenses with all that and gets straight into the story. He skips the goddamn Quidditch as well, thank god. So we're left with the plot which, as I said, is pretty good - it's the one where we start to learn the backstory about Harry's parents and their contemporaries. I loved the set piece between Sirius, Snape, and Lupin (love Lupin!), particularly knowing more about Snape's story as a schoolboy from the later books.
I find it heartbreaking when Harry realizes that his father didn't come back from the dead to save him, that he himself cast the Patronus spell. I do 'get' the point of this, but I would be very sad about it, myself. Harry seems to cope OK - but kids do, don't they? It's only later you get depressed about things.
The story is about adults being no damn use when you could really do with their help. That's a good theme for a children's book, I think. Most of the adults around Harry really try to look after him (Snape, Lupin, Black), but are caught out by their own failings. That's pretty true to life. The notable exception to this is Dumbledore, who could, given his character's set-up in all the books - but who really doesn't try terribly hard at all. It's largely a failure in plotting. It also reminds me of Goodgulf in Bored of the Rings:
Reader: Oh, Albus, Albus - can't you use all the power and respect with which you have been imbued in the text as leverage to persuade those in authority to believe Harry and Hermione's story about Sirius Black, thereby making things right and as an extra bonus not sending Harry back to that awful abusive home situation?
Dumbledore: Oh, alas. Oh, alack.
Bastard.
