Films, Books, Slash

[rebness]

I keep meaning to post about so many things and then find myself caught up IRL. Anyway, for posterity, I wanted to write some brief reviews of a few films I've seen recently that really stuck out and also add in the requisite two pence worth on Potter. I won't put the films behind a cut because everyone knows that Edith Piaf is dead, Man on Fire is nearly four years old and everyone needs to know about Rope. DH of course, is behind a cut. 

Man on Fire

I have never seen a nastier, more morally depraved film than this one and bear in mind that I thought Hostel was a riot. Everything offended me, from the stereotypical Mexican characters, the propaganda with the noble American torturing people and that being okay because hey, he was rescuing the cute WASP girl, to the mean-spirited screenplay that tried to justify psychotic revenge. I don’t expect my films to be akin to watching an episode of Saved by the Bell with a neat moral lesson at the end, but I do expect it not to shove such asinine patriotic crap.

 

To top it all off, after painting the people of Mexico as nothing but corrupt, lawless animals and Mexico itself as a hellhole, the film ended with a tribute to “the wonderful people of Mexico city.” GTFO.

 

 

La Vie en Rose

 

For the last half an hour of this film, my chest was hurting me because I was weeping and breathing so heavily at each horrible thing. I never realised what an interesting and strange life Edith Piaf had, much less how songs like Les Trois Cloches and Je Ne Regrette Rien were so suffused with personal tragedy for her. I am so glad that I saw this film at the cinema; only the surround sound of the theatre could do her amazing voice justice. Wow.

 

Rope

I just want to say that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a slashier film, ever. Definitely one of Hitchcock's best - that 99% of the action takes place on the set is really effective. But still, if one of the main characters didn't so horibly resemble David Walliams, I'd have to seek out the inevitable slash fiction for this film. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

 

I loved Deathly Hallows. I was afraid that I wouldn’t after The Half-Blood Prince disappointed me so much, but this book was so thrilling and so satisfying and multi-layered. So many people screech that JK Rowling is a sell-out, but there seemed to be so much enthusiasm on each page that I was just carried along by it. I adored the spirituality of the book and that scene in King’s Cross was dreamy and moving; the imagery stayed with me for days after reading this book.

 

I am so happy that Snape was vindicated in the end, although his death was something of an anti-climax. What I really liked, and what so many Snape fans can’t seem to grasp, was that he was not a nice person, even if he did the right thing in the end. He didn’t give a damn about Harry, but his enduring love/obsession with Lily meant that he did the right thing for her.

 

There were few things I disliked, though there were some, of course. I’m certainly no Harmonian, but I still really dislike the character of Ginny. I don’t understand how, when Rowling has written such strong characters as Hermione, Luna and Bellatrix, that Ginny manages to be so two-dimensional and so annoying. I hated that whenever things were getting really tense, we had to cut back to Ginny being so super super brave and determined, with Harry obsessing over whether she was all right. DUNT CARE. I also couldn’t care less for Hagrid, but that’s neither here nor there.

 

Also, this book really brought on the lulz for me. There were so many funny things, namely picturing fandom going crazy as each ship was brought down,  but these were, for me, the lulziest moments:

 

• Hedwig’s death. It was just the way it was described as being so sudden, so all I could imagine was the perma-shocked expression of the O RLY owl as she fell.
• Hermione’s thinly-veiled rant about wizards being so obsessed with the size of their wands
• This:

 

Draco was on the upper landing, pleading with another masked Death Eater. Harry stunned the Death Eater as they passed: Malfoy looked around, beaming, for his saviour, and Ron punched him from under the cloak.

 

Oh, Rowling. It’s been an awesome, fun ride. Thank you. :D

 

I have to update properly, soon. Ho hum.

Comments

[haydenthorne.livejournal.com]

I've been dying to see La Vie en Rose. Thanks for the quickie review! I oughta get off my saggy butt and hustle over to the theatre before it's too late.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely do see it! I was uncertain about seeing it at first because although I really like Piaf's music, I'm not really one for biopics. There were so many stand-out scenes and although the French are notorious for treating La Mome with such reverence, this film didn't shy away from revealing how acerbic and constantly angry the woman could be.

[ladydaydream.livejournal.com]

There were so many funny things, namely picturing fandom going crazy as each ship was brought down

Ha ha, yes I was thinking that too! I loved the bit where Ron punched Malfoy as well.

I don't mind Ginny but I thought she was better in the earlier books.

I must put La Vie en Rose on my "to watch" list.

Hope you're doing okay. x

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Ooh, good. I hope you see it.

Some of the reactions have been downright hilarious. The craziest one I read was where apparently Rowling is an ignorant, disgusting British writer because she didn't address the Polish war effort whilst she was comparing Voldemort's regime to Nazism. Me neither.

[phable.livejournal.com]

Rope is one of my very favourites. The homoeroticism is pretty daring—I respect Hitchcock's nerve! I believe the original play was far more explicit, but there were limits to what could be allowed to make it into the film. For such an experimental film, it's very very effective.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

I found it really surprising that a film of that era was so blatantly homoerotic. Like you say, you have to respect his nerve.

I think that the one-set thing was really effective, too. For some reason, it just made the film so much more claustrophic and tense. When the sirens were screaming towards the end, I was filled with dread even though I had hoped the murderers would be caught throughout the film.

Definitely one of my favourite Hitchcock films.

[peregrinuscanus.livejournal.com]

Rope was the play at the Chichester Festival where John Barrowman acted alongside Tony Head and Alexis Denisof (Wesley) in the main roles - I can't imagine how brilliant it must have been - but Barrowman met his partner at that Festival.

It is a brilliant film though!

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! I wish I had seen it on the stage. I bet Barrowman would've been really good in it.

I really enjoyed the film - I hope they repeat it soon.

[pandorasblog]

Wow, I really want to see "Rope", now. For further thinly-veiled homoerotocism, see "Gilda". I couldn't believe they got away with some stuff in that. It's a brilliant movie, with all these taut emotions stretched between three characters in a casino. Awesome.