Musings of the Obsessive Kind
She's a mite whimsical in the brainpan.
Musings of the Obsessive KindShe's a mite whimsical in the brainpan. |
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| Dec. 2nd, 2008 @ 12:02 am Hanadan is not the only jdrama fond of sunlit kisses... | |||
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Current Mood:
 calm Oh, oh, oh I love Ice World (Koori no Sekai). I also cheated and watched the ending. Mind-twisty AND shippy! Happy sigh! Why have more people not watched this? ( Shippy caps from the ending. Does not give away murderer identity or anything like that ) | |||
| Dec. 2nd, 2008 @ 09:15 am Things are hotter Down Under | |||
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Current Mood:
 content Got your attention, did I? :) I am going to see Australia later and I am so excited I can hardly breathe. I adore Baz Lurhrman's movies (I have yet to see one I didn't love), I really like Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, and there is nothing like a period romantic epic to get me going giddy. Not to mention I always found Australia itself both amazing and a place I don't know enough about (I spent a month there in 2003 and it was love at first sight. I've been back once and would love to go back again so much). I have been to both Outback and Darwin - the places where some of the movie is set, so that makes me even more excited! Plus, just look at this trailer and tell me you don't want to watch it. I won't believe you! | |||
| Dec. 2nd, 2008 @ 10:02 am Best Screen Couple You Have Likely Never Heard Of | |||
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 Some of you might know that one of my biggest fannish loves is silent movies. I don't post about them on this LJ often but I do think there are few pleasures so purely, viscerally visual as a well-made silent movie. It's a very different art form from a modern movie but it's gorgeous. Some of my favorite movies of all time (Sunrise, The Crowd, Big Parade, City Lights, Seventh Heaven) are silents. Another thing, however, silents had that modern movies do not, is a phenomenon of "movie couples" rather equivalent to Bollywood "jodis", i.e. an actress and actor paired in a movie after movie together, becoming an established on-screen couple. Most of them were excellent. John Gilbert and Greta Garbo? sizzzzzzzle. And my favorite of the bunch was the pairing of the tiny, fragile-looking Janet Gaynor (first winner of Best Actress Oscar, in fact) and the tall, strapping Charles Farrell. They just...were so gorgeous on screen, together, with insane chemistry. Unlike a lot of other silent movie couples who sizzled with sexual chemistry in those pre-Code days, while Gaynor and Farrell were physical, their vibe was much more of just intense and protective romantic love, somewhat of a 'pure love' concept Asian movies seem to love. The most famous of their collaborations (and on my list of all-time favorite movies) is the super-phenomenon hit Seventh Heaven. Set in the slums of Paris pre-WWI, Farrell is a rough and gruff cleaner who works in the sewers. Gaynor is a street-walker and a horribly abused younger sister of an alcoholic. Their paths cross when Gaynor is being beaten on the street and the only one who intervenes is Farrell. Due to some circumstances, and his pity for her, they end up sharing his flat. Platonically, of course, but inevitably love blooms and then comes World War I...The interplay between them is gorgeous from the start. Such utter weakness and helplessness is completely alien to him and at first he feels only derision for someone who won't fight back. But he can't help but sneak peeks at her lying there in a heap at his feet too tired to even want to move. And being with her makes him able to slowly open up all the emotions that he never allowed himself to feel. And Gaynor is amazing, portraying someone whose soul has been almost brutalized out of her but who slowly begins to regain self-worth and courage in a supportive environment. It is gorgeously-shot movie with social commentary, star-crossed love, war and tragedy, and a happy end. What more can you want? This is a pretty glorious (and unspoilery) review of Seventh Heaven from Slant which basically encapsulates why I love the movie so: Review here. Someone made a very unspoilery (it covers only the first half of the movie) SH mv: Btw, while the quality of film in the vid is blurry, the one I have is much sharper and is gorgeously tinted. Give it a chance.  They starred in two other good movies: Street Angel (she is a wild spirit and he is an artist who falls in love with her) and Lucky Star where she is a village girl and he is a crippled WWI vet:  Awesome Slant review of LS is here. Check them out? Slant did a wonderful retrospective article on Frank Borzage, the director of Seventh Heaven (and a bunch of other great movies) and his films here. | |||
| Dec. 2nd, 2008 @ 11:47 am Quote of the Day: Ummmm...someone who is writing this is my twin soul | |||
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Current Mood:
I was browsing Slant's reviews for Frank Borzage movies (one of my favorite Silent and Classic directors. My post on Farrell/Gaynor reminded me of him) and came across this quote from their review of The River: chipperThe man is the idealized sex object here, and his watery purity adds to his long-limbed, smooth-skinned appeal. Allen John has never been with a woman, and he stresses that his mother died when he was young; he's looking for the ultimate Borzagian goal, a mother he can fuck, and he finds a doozy in the saucy-eyed, full-breasted Rosalee. Watching Duncan's adult, openly sexual movements and Farrell's hot sense of uncomprehending carnal possibility, we follow the couple's slow courtship avidly, as if it were an exploratory dance. (The review is here). Awesome! And full of id :) Ahhh, pre-Code! I think Frank Borsage would have been pretty good at writing manga :) | |||
| Dec. 2nd, 2008 @ 04:51 pm Splurge of silent (and not-so-silent) movie love! | |||
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 I have just so splurged and bought myself a New Year's present, Murnau, Borzage and Fox, a set released by 20th Century Fox which contains 2 Murnau and 10 Borzage movies, most of which I have desperately wanted on DVD, plus a documentary on the two directors. I...can't...fight it! Set here. So splurgy yet so wonderful. Now, if somebody would only do a King Vidor set! ETA: OMG, apparently they are doing a King Vidor set in 2009. I think The Crowd is the best silent movie I have ever seen, and Big Parade is the most anti-war (yet romantic) movie I have seen. And Show People is one of the funniest. Yes!!! | |||