This is a really good Austen film, and kudos to Emma Thompson who wrote the screenplay (for which she won an Oscar). It sticks pretty close to the book, with some exceptions, and is very well cast. Thompson is much older than Elinor is in the novel, but this is not the end of the world and she does a very creditable job portraying her levelheaded character. The film is on one level about the lives and loves of the Dashwood sisters. It is also, however, a study of the differences in the way Elinor and Marianne deal with these things. Elinor's cautious and prudent behaviour is contrasted with Marianne's impulsive, feelings-based responses. We are invited to decide for ourselves which is the better approach.
Last night we watched Sense And Sensibility, the 1995 movie adapted from Jane Austen's 1811 novel of the same name. It stars Emma Thompson as Elinor Dashwood, Kate Winslet as her younger sister Marianne, Hugh Grant as Elinor's awkward suitor Edward Ferrars, and Alan Rickman as Col. Brandon. This is a really good Austen film, and kudos to Emma Thompson who wrote the screenplay (for which she won an Oscar). It sticks pretty close to the book, with some exceptions, and is very well cast. Thompson is much older than Elinor is in the novel, but this is not the end of the world and she does a very creditable job portraying her levelheaded character. The film is on one level about the lives and loves of the Dashwood sisters. It is also, however, a study of the differences in the way Elinor and Marianne deal with these things. Elinor's cautious and prudent behaviour is contrasted with Marianne's impulsive, feelings-based responses. We are invited to decide for ourselves which is the better approach.
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On Friday I had a really stressful day at work and left at five o'clock tired, out of sorts, and with a tension headache which I couldn't get rid of despite taking several Advil over the course of the afternoon. While on my way home, one of my sisters called and said that some of the family was getting together at another sister's house for an impromptu dinner. Despite feeling worn to a frazzle I went and was able to unwind under the influence of good food, good conversation, and the antics of my nephews. After supper we drove down to the waterfront in Eastern Passage, walked along the boardwalk, and got some ice cream. Walking in the crisp sea breeze with a two scoop cone of Oxford Blueberry, the last twinges of my headache faded away completely. Thank goodness for family and ice cream! Below is the ice cream song from Anne of Green Gables: The Musical. I saw it in Charlottetown, PEI years ago and of all the songs in it, this is the one that sticks in my head: Speaking of family and odds & ends...or odds, anyway... my brother-in-law (the one with nine kids) finished the laundry the other day and, feeling ambitious, told the kids to bring all their odd socks so he could try to match them up... Lastly, I'm going to try something a little different: having a themed week (or two). Recently, purely by coincidence, I found myself watching a couple of movies set in space while at the same time being immersed in a book about the space race. I was also watching some Star Wars: TOS. Since I was accidentally following a theme, I thought I might have a go at doing it on purpose. So, for the next little while, I'm going to be reviewing/discussing some space-based works of fiction and nonfiction. Related Posts: This image is from the 1943 film The More The Merrier which stars Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn. Set in Washington during the very real housing crisis there during W.W. II, much of the film takes place at Connie Milligan's (Arthur) apartment which, to aid the war effort, she decides to sublet, placing an ad for a female tenant. Who she actually gets is retired gentleman Benjamin Dingle (Coburn) who, because his hotel suite won't be ready for a few days, needs somewhere to stay. He talks a reluctant Connie into subletting to him and then, without telling her, promptly sublets his room to Sgt. Joe Carter (McCrea) who needs a place to stay while waiting to ship out. Dingle decides that he doesn't like the looks of Connie's staid fiance and decides to try to play matchmaker for his landlady and tenant. Shenanigans ensue. The above scene is one in which Mr. Dingle manages to lock himself out of the apartment. Related Posts: Episode 2 of the Netflix series The Toys That Made Us tells the sometimes sketchy history of Mattel's Barbie doll. Barbie was the brain child of Ruth Handler, Mattel's co-founder. During the 1950's she was frustrated that it was impossible to find any type of female action figure for her daughter- Barbara- to play with, while there were lots of male ones for her son, Ken. Her daughter enjoyed playing with the paper dolls which came with a lot of paper dresses and accessories, and Ruth toyed with the idea of making a three dimensional version of this. Then, on a trip to Europe, Handler saw the German Bild Lilli doll which was very similar to what she had been visualizing. But there was a problem. Lilli was the subject of a racy comic strip in the German tabloid Bild; she was a saucy character who made a living, um... escorting rich men. Her doll was made, not for kids, but rather as an adult gag gift. Ruth bought one of the dolls, brought it home and completely redesigned it with the help of Jack Ryan, an engineer who formerly designed missiles. After all, whatever you think of Malibu Barbie, she's a heck of a lot more wholesome than Call Girl Lilli. Mattel green lit the Barbie doll and bought the copyright for Lilli, so that was the end of the shady career of Barbie's scandalous ancestor. The documentary details the soaring success of the Barbie doll, the body design and stereotype controversies ("Math class is tough!"), her declining popularity, and the face lifts and occupation changes she undergoes in an attempt to remain relevant. Perhaps the lowest point in Barbie's history occurred in 1978 when Handler was forced to step down from Mattel after pleading guilty to fraud and producing false financial reports. White Collar Crime Barbie. Of all the people interviewed for this episode, my favourite is Judy Shackelford, who was VP of girls' toys at Mattel from 1976- 1986. I would have bought a doll modeled after her: Tough Cookie Judy. She gleefully relates how a source she had informed her that Hasbro was designing a series of rock star dolls for girls (Jem and the Holograms). Judy mobilized her team and in record time they designed and produced Barbie and the Rockers, releasing their collection first. Hasbro then looked like they were copying Mattel when Jem and the Holograms hit the shelves, Judy cackles triumphantly. When speaking about the Bratz craze in the early 2000's which nearly derailed the Barbie market, Judy obviously thinks Mattel mishandled the situation. If Bratz had appeared while she was running things, she says with a militant gleam in her eye, "We would've killed them." I believe her. Love Barbie or hate her- I was always kind of indifferent- this episode of The Toys That Made Us gives an interesting peek behind the curtain at the origins of the most famous doll ever made, and details the ups and downs of her sixty-odd year existence. I didn't enjoy this episode quite as much as the first one, but it was still well paced, informative, and eminently watchable. I imagine it would be even more interesting if you actually played with or collected Barbies, which I didn't. I did have a couple, given to me as birthday gifts: horrible things happened to them at the hands of my brothers... I distinctly remember one of them having had all of her hair cut off and red pen marks all over her body. She was the survivor of a rabid dog attack (we had been reading the Value Tale about Louis Pasteur) and had sustained a lot of injuries but was eventually rescued by Spiderman. So as you can see, we weren't the kind of little kids who'd play Barbie Beach Party. Related Posts: My review of The Last Jedi has been pretty negative because, unfortunately, it was not a good movie. To conclude my thoughts on the film, I'm going to spend a bit of time examining the reasons why, in my opinion, it all went wrong. To begin with, there is a problem with the force and, to be fair, always has been. I said in a previous Star Wars review that the force reminded me of the Prime Directive in Star Trek: unevenly applied and interpreted however it needs to be to serve the plot. After The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, I've decided that it's more like Trek's "technobabble"- useful for getting the plot out of any corners it's painted itself into. The rebels are trapped in a cave? Rey can levitate rocks. Leia's been blown into space? She can create a force-bubble and propel it through space. Ghost Yoda can suddenly call down lightening and burn things, so why didn't he or Obi-Wan ever do this before, during dire situations when it would have actually been helpful? Luke is needed somewhere after refusing to go... no problem: he can project himself through the force. Projection Luke is solid when he needs to be- hugging Leia, fighting Kylo Ren- and not solid when necessary- being shot at, and also fighting with Kylo Ren. It's become the ultimate deus ex machina, used whenever a quick solution is required, which means that the movie never has any clever or surprising resolutions to crises. Problem two: the humour in The Last Jedi doesn't work and it's frequently deployed at inappropriate times. For example, the Poe Dameron 'phone jokes occur right before they go into battle and a huge amount of people are killed, making the silly humour seem tone deaf. Same thing with the moment when Rey hands Luke his old lightsaber. It is- supposedly- a desperate time; the First Order is ascendant, Luke's best friend has been murdered by his own son- Luke's nephew- and the Resistance, along with Luke's sister, is in danger of being totally wiped out. Rey has sought out the Jedi hero of the original rebellion, desperately seeking aid. What should be a dramatic moment is then undercut with a cheap sight gag: Luke tosses the lightsaber over a cliff. A further problem is that these jokes not only undercut the drama, they underwhelm it. To be blunt, they simply aren't good enough to justify their existence. The General Hugs/ Hux thing and the "Your Mom" joke aren't even funny so it's difficult to see why the writers would choose to insert them and stop the drama in its tracks. Problem three: The Last Jedi is a terrible sequel to The Force Awakens. In my review of The Empire Strikes Back, I discussed what made that film a great sequel. Well, TLJ does just about everything wrong. Instead of being a bridge between the first and third films in it's trilogy, this movie goes about undermining the importance of- or outright killing- every plot point from the first film. The Force Awakens set up a mystery about Rey's parents: it's shot down in this film. Snoke is introduced as a formidable foe in TFA, but is killed quickly and easily by Ren in TLJ. Ditto Captain Phasma. We're led to expect the dramatic return of Luke Skywalker, but that too is a disappointment as his appearance is milked for cheap laughs... that's an unfortunate turn of phrase now that I think about it. Luke's role in TLJ is a frustrating waste of time, which I'll discuss in greater detail in my next Star Wars post. Related Posts: We had been planning to finish off the Anne of Green Gables sequel, but a couple of people who've been watching it with us couldn't make it last night, so we watched something a little different in tone: High Noon. High Noon, released in 1952, is the tale of Will Kane, the marshal of a small town in New Mexico who is retiring because he has married a Quaker- Amy- who is opposed to guns and violence. Just as they are getting ready to leave town, Will gets word that Frank Miller, a violent criminal whom Kane had sent to jail, has been released and is coming in on the noon train. Three members of Miller's gang are waiting for him at the station. It's obvious that they are planning on getting revenge on Will, as Frank Miller swore at his trial that he would come back and kill Kane. Amy begs Will to just follow their plan to leave town, but Kane knows that Miller and his men will only follow and they'll be caught in the middle of nowhere with no guns. In addition, he still feels an obligation to the town, whose new marshal has not arrived yet. Unfortunately, a lot of the town does not reciprocate that feeling of obligation and Will has a hard time finding allies to stand with him against Miller and his thugs. As the clock ticks toward noon, Kane is a stark, lonely figure on a dusty, deserted street- alone but determined to do his duty as a lawman. This is one of the best western movies ever made. If you haven't seen it, find a copy. Related Posts: It's another nephew's birthday so I got this book for him, along with a bottle of candy, because he is a ten year old boy after all.
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