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heeytwelve · 4 years

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"That’s practically my type”

I remember someone really smart in internet was debating that Draco Malfoy has 100% chance to be Harry Potter’s boyfriend, cause he is, in fact his type. And if we look at Harry’s girlfriends, we kinda see the pattern (quidditch, outspoken, bravery, and have I mention quidditch? ).

But anyway, this post not about those, this post about how Chosen One of Carry On universe has his type too and why Agatha wasn’t just mistake of adolescence and how he changes his views on Baz when he become actively infatuated with him.

“I’ve wanted her since the first time I saw her—walking across the Great Lawn, her long pale hair rippling in the wind. I remember seeing her and thinking that** I’d never seen anything so beautiful.** And that if you were that beautiful, that graceful, nothing could ever really touch you. It would be like being a lion or a unicorn. Nobody could really touch you, because you wouldn’t even be on the same plane as everyone else. Even sitting next to Agatha makes you feel sort of untouchable. Exalted. It’s like sitting in the sun. So imagine how it feels to date her—like you’re carrying that light around with you all the time.

Let’s elaborate. He doesn’t fall in love with her - because of her academic success or because her parents rich or because she’s kind and caring. The type of attraction that works for Simon is so called - aesthetic attraction, attraction to beauty.

And before you blame him for being shallow, I say, having strong preference for beauty is quite common among the artistic people, who grew up in desperate poverty, in small provinces, poor houses where beauty is rarity (for instance, famous ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev was obsessed with beauty and collected a huge amount of beautiful things, because his poor childhood traumatised him). And, contrary to popular belief, Simon might have artistic tendencies, he sees beauty even dark creatures (goblins, *cough-cough* vampires), movements, colours and music.

Beauty for Simon is not a static thing to watch and enjoy the view, it’s not something he just want to own, it’s a force. Beauty protects him, it makes him untouchable, like nothing from of his previous (poor and mundane) life can touch him anymore, because he carrying the light, darkness will never reach him again. Agatha is not only his future, but also his shield. But - maybe it’s the same thing? Having future all sorted kinda shielding you from whatever you bump into.

He always mention her appearance whenever he talks about her - her clothes, her skin (”sparkles like she’s fairy”), her hair (multiple comparison with sun, light and halo). And when he decides to ignore the fact, that she quite possible betrayed him, it’s not only because he fear uncertain future but:

“She’s beautiful. And I want her. I want everything to be fine.”

Beauty as an attraction, beauty as a shield. Beauty is stability.

Now, before we talk about what all of this has to do with Baz, let’s bring up this quote:

“Like when I used to dream about becoming a footballer someday—or that my parents, my real parents, were going to come back for me.… My dad would be a footballer. And my mum would be some posh model type. ...

But we always missed you, Simon,” they’d say. “We’ve been looking for you.” And then they’d take me away to live in their mansion.”

I know, you probably roll your eyes now, like it’s stereotypical thing for poor kid in care to dream of, but isn’t that interesting, that Simon practically give us description of his future boyfriend and girlfriend as his dream parents? Now, don’t get me wrong, there is now perversion here, it’s just people he dreams to be with. People who potentially get him out of this awful reality and of course he will imagine them as the best people he can imagine - hence attraction to exactly those people. Now, we already know, that Agatha is beautiful as a model and she’s posh -Simon dwells how she good with regattas, polo matches, galas and he’s not posh enough for it. And right there, in next sentence, he mentions the only person who’s fit this interior - Baz. And let’s not forget about this:

“Baz walked into our room, much taller than me—and posher than everyone.”

There’s two interesting thing you notice when you will read Simon’s view for Baz. Simon never hesitates to use bold colours to describe how good Baz is. He never even doubts it, and Simon is not in submissive mode by any means. It’s just with Agatha - he sees the beauty and he admires it. But because Baz is evil, a threat (and potentially because he convinced that he’s heterosexual) AND Simon can’t just go in “I want him” mode, like he did with Agatha. There’s a big quote above about how Simon met Agatha and here’s one about how Simon met Baz:

“and Baz was walking towards me. Looking so cool. Like he was coming my way because he wanted to, not because there was a mystical magnet in his gut.”

Though, it is looks, Simon talks about, I want to emphasise, that while Simon is not in active infatuation phase with Baz, he still unleashes his other attraction type, attraction to power/strength. Here and in quote below he indicates one of Baz biggest powers - ability to look unfazed and perfect no matter what. Power of composure.

“but he looked fine to me—not a hair out of place. Typical.”

Back to father being footballer. One might wonder, why violinist and person so into academic success went to be the lead player in sports team? All popular movies tell us that you either this (nerd) or that (jock), and Baz suddenly both. Because he’s perfect. And because he has his personality and vampire personality. One might also wonder, had Baz overheard Simon’s obsession about being footballer/football in general before deciding to enrol to the team and collect all trophies... Anyway. Baz as footballer:

“He’s the same on the field as he is everywhere else. Strong. Graceful. Fucking ruthless.”

If you ask me, this is where Simon shows a bit his infatuation. Yes, attraction to strength, even ruthlessness (Simon is a fighter, he does appreciate good fighter too). But graceful - is about beauty. You see, I think, maybe because Simon carries traditional values he kinda does that thing: women’s modus operandi is beauty, men’s - strength, ruthlessness. Same with his parents - mum is model, father is fighter footballer. That’s ok. BUT when he starts to consider (even at the back of his mind) Baz as a romantic partner (it’s all starts when he sees that Baz is not a monster, that he’s a boy), he starts to notice his beauty more, than strength.

“He floats out over the moat and lands on the other side. It’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Infamous jeans scene, where Simon talking about Baz’ clothes (like he did w/Agatha) and literally checking out his arse:

“they do look like really expensive jeans. Dark. And snug from his waist to his ankles without looking tight.”

He starts to watch him aesthetically:

“I put my hand on his chest. I don’t have to step any closer to reach him. ... Baz swallows and licks his grey-pink lower lip. .. “he throws one of his pillows into my face. (It smells like him.)

“I’m watching him read—I swear he sucks on his fangs when he’s thinking.

The culmination of this development comes with “vampire club scene”:

““Every one of them must be so jealous of him. He’s everything they are, plus magic. Plus he looks the part, like he was born to be some sort of dark king.”

“Those vampires were in awe of you,” I say. “They wanted to put a crown on your head.

He has the skills AND he is royally beautiful. And Simon projecting his feelings to those night club vampires. The longer they in relationships, the more Simon dwelling on Baz beauty, just to show you this development, I’ll quote WS for a moment:

“I’ll be damned if he doesn’t look half glamourous. Like a boy Marilyn Monroe.… My brain gets kind of stuck on “boy Marilyn Monroe” for a while.”

...

“Baz casts his eyes down and smiles—girlishly, I would have said, but on him it’s not girlish. It’s, I don’t know, vulnerable.”

To elaborate, Marilyn Monroe is depiction of feminine beauty in popular culture and description of Baz as a bit feminine is something that would never happen in the beginning of “Carry On” setting. Of course, Baz opened up more to Simon (and this is important), but also Simon willing to see, no, he actually quite hungrily looking for this beauty. He is attracted to this kind of beauty AND I think, might be cause of his somewhat traditional views, he automatically looking for this in Baz, when he considering him as a partner.

BUT. Again as in WS - Baz being powerful and strong AND that being attractive (and arousing) to Simon is not going anywhere. So Simon’s type qualities - strength and beauty. (Not smartness and kindness, sorry Penny) though he does appreciate it. And lastly, let’s go back to Agatha. We talked about her beauty, but she’s also an athlete. A competitive one.

“I smile again and jump up off the bed, grabbing a pair of jeans and a purple sweatshirt that says WATFORD LACROSSE. (Agatha plays.)”

This sweatshirt Simon will proudly wear even in WS (Baz haven’t confiscated them yet :D ) - and if you think about it, it’s the way to show admiration too. And don’t forget the horse sports, she’s even more into sports than Baz (Baz would spend his summer practicing languages and violin - I believe his main passion, and football is just to unwind and fuck w/Simon, while Agatha would harvest prizes or skills in competitions). OK, no, he does play tennis :D So yes - as absolutely legit Simon’s type - Agatha do has these two qualities. They both do. Though not exactly in same proportions. Agatha radiates beauty, feminine beauty, you don’t have to watch closely to see it, it punches you in a face. But Baz is more powerful, as with Agatha, you don’t have to search for his power, it’s just there. And maybe this shift in quality proportions is what Simon needs at the end. But he certainly needs both. And let me finish this lenthy dwelling off with Baz quote, where he accidentally compares himself tells us this qualities proportions in Agatha:

“Wellbelove isn’t very powerful, but she’s gorgeous.”

There is interesting awareness between these two, but I will have a mercy and talk about it later.

#agatha wellbelove #tyrannus basilton grimm pitch #simon snow #simon snow salisbury #simon snow type #simon snow affection #carry on #wayward son #my texts #Carry On Meta #simon snow meta #agatha wellbelove meta #baz pitch meta

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bluewatsons · 4 years

Conversation

David Marchese, James Ellroy on his life in crime, his imaginary dog and the need to provoke, New York Times (August 19, 2019)

James Ellroy: I’ve had precious few moments, where I’ve said to myself: ‘Ellroy, you are the king. You’re the greatest crime writer that ever lived.’ The reflex kicks in . . .You’ve got more work to do.”

David Marchese: Almost all your books are set in the past,1 and I know that you’re intentionally disconnected from modern culture. Are you missing out on something important by not living more deeply in the times in which you live?

James Ellroy: I have a quotation here. [Ellroy removes a note from his shirt pocket.] This is the great pianist Glenn Gould on the great composer Richard Strauss. “The great thing about the music of Richard Strauss is that ... it presents to us an example of the man who makes richer his own time for not being of it, who speaks for all generations by being of none. It is an ultimate argument of individuality, an argument that a man can create his own synthesis of time without being bound by the conformities that time imposes.” That says it all.

David Marchese: O.K., I know you like to do shtick in public. Is that shtick2 about concealing anything?

James Ellroy: A lot of it is being the pit bull staked by chain to a spike in the front yard. I’ve been writing a book for a couple of years, and then they slip the chain off and I can run wild. But I realize part of it is a cover-up. My early life was horrible privation living with the unhousebroken dog and my dad3 telling me, “I [expletive] Rita Hayworth.” I passed that off as [expletive], and then 10 years after my dad died I saw a Hayworth biography in a bookstore and looked his name up in the index. It didn’t say he’d eh eh eh but it did say that he was her business manager between about 1948 and ’52.

David Marchese: Could any of your self-mythologizing stand to be deflated?

James Ellroy: The more I look at my own life, the more I realize that traumatic influences have played a part in it. I’m talking about my mother’s murder.4

David Marchese: Hasn’t your mother’s murder always been central?

James Ellroy: Yeah, it formed my mental curriculum. But there’s a particular aspect of my youth that has become distorted by repetition—like going to jail.5 It was not the big house. It was the jail of six-man cells and two stupid white guys, two stupid black guys and two stupid Mexican guys lying about their daring criminal exploits and their movie-star girlfriends. “Oh yeah? With Marilyn Monroe?” “Yeah, sure.” And also my breaking into houses6 and sniffing girls’ undergarments and stealing five-dollar bills. Technically it’s burglary, but it was craven. It was circumspect. It was very easy to do back then. People didn’t have answering machines. You rung up the phone, and if they didn’t answer they weren’t home. I did that 15, 16, 17 times over the course of two and a half years and got away with it.

David Marchese: You stopped around the time of the Manson family murders, right?

James Ellroy: Yes. That’s when people started having the security signs, “Patrolled by Bel Air Patrol.” So I quit doing it. I never stayed in the houses very long. Fifteen, 20 minutes. Maybe a half an hour. All together that was probably 10 hours of my life. But on a great many occasions I spent 12, 13 hours a day reading in public libraries. I wasn’t presenting information disingenuously, but looking back as an older, wiser person, I go, “I mostly just read a bunch of books.”

David Marchese: Are there any parallels between your state of mind when you were sneaking into people’s homes and your state of mind when inhabiting the life of a fictional character?

James Ellroy: Trespassing was about curiosity and yearning. It was for the girls at Hancock Park.7 Those girls live in me—Kathy, Julie, Peggy. I grew up a poor kid within a few blocks of this ritzy, WASP-y enclave. What I did required a certain concentration and was thrilling even though it was immoral. I was trying to sate my emotional hunger. For decades now, the only thing that has done that for me has been creating large-scale fictions set in the past.

David Marchese: Why do you pine for the past?

James Ellroy: There’s this old Stephen King quote. Someone asks Mr. King, “Why do you choose to write about such gruesome subjects?” He said, “Why do you assume that I have a choice?” Fate tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Hey, Ellroy. I got a job for you.”

David Marchese: My armchair-psychologist reading would be that you want to be back in the era in which your mother was still alive. And I have a hunch that your feelings about social probity and your conservatism are a reaction to the chaos of your adolescence.

James Ellroy: There’s a big element of truth to the latter. My feelings about probity are also about shame for my old disordered state and the crimes, albeit small, that I committed. As for my mother, Jean Hilliker, I’ve always marked historical events by whether she was alive for them. I’m always thinking about stuff like that.

David Marchese: In old interviews, you’ve described yourself as the kind of guy who spends his evenings brooding about the women in his life. Is that still the case?

James Ellroy: I brood like a dog. As far as my second ex-wife and once-again girlfriend, Helen Knode,8 and I go, monogamy was never the problem. It was cohabitation. So this is Helen’s idea—We have two pads. We’re in downtown Denver. I got a two-bedroom loft, and Helen has an identical one down the hall from me. I’ve got everything turned out exactly the way that I want it. Lots of pictures of bull terriers, pictures of my own book covers, the bust of Beethoven. I’ll sit at my desk and I’ll put my feet up and I’ll brood.

David Marchese: About what?

James Ellroy: About the new book, about this particular book tour. Mine is a big career, and people sometimes deny the solvency of the new books because they had a signature reading experience with a book way back. “The Black Dahlia,”9 that’ll be the only book for them. Or they conflate the movie “L.A. Confidential” with the novel “L.A. Confidential.”10

David Marchese: Are you only brooding on work?

James Ellroy: I’m very happy with Helen. I’m not brooding on Shirley Knight in “The Rain People,” which was a movie from 1969. Or Lois Nettleton on a couple episodes of “The Fugitive.”11

David Marchese: “The Fugitive” was such a weird show. There was always this implied sexual tension between Richard Kimble and whoever the lead actress was in a given episode, but nothing would ever happen.

James Ellroy: This is very, very interesting. “The Fugitive” exerted a deep pull on me. A romantic and sexual pull. Wherever Richard Kimble would go, the grooviest woman in the town — which somehow always looked like the San Fernando Valley — would gas onto him and they’d have their moment of truth and they may kiss a couple of times. But it was all unconsummated because he had to run from Lieutenant Gerard. The actresses on that show did a number on me. June Harding, Shirley Knight, Brenda Vaccaro, Diana van der Vlis, Suzanne Pleshette, Sandy Dennis. That’s the only time I’ve ever been obsessed with a TV show.

David Marchese: Aside from TV shows, what other products of the past do you miss?

James Ellroy: There was a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard in L.A. that had stores that sold wide arrays of perfectly fitting Shetland wool crew-neck sweaters, perfect saddle shoes, perfect tweed jackets and shawl-collar cashmere sweaters. You can’t find that stuff anymore. Nobody wants to dress that corny. You know, I also used to go [expletive] crazy buying women clothes. In ’07, I was on the loose in L.A. during the time of my divorce and I had a wingding with a woman. In the couple of months this wingding went on, I bought her $20,000 worth of clothes.

David Marchese: And then it ended?

James Ellroy: Yeah. She kept the clothes, which is O.K. Hey, I try.

David Marchese: I feel like maybe you romanticize women in a weird way. Where does that tendency come from?

James Ellroy: One day she was there, Jean Hilliker, and then one day she wasn’t. She died horribly. She’s been through a thousand metamorphoses with me. I finally realized that in the two memoirs I wrote that are very much about her that I didn’t get to the heart of her. It was because my gift is fiction. I’m not a journalist or a memoirist. Hence, Joan Conville12.

David Marchese: Trying to get to the heart of a person who died when you were 10 is like trying to catch smoke.

James Ellroy: Yeah, you can’t. I’ve overdramatized my mother. I’ve underdramatized her. Helen has told me a trillion times, “Leave your mother alone. Let her rest in peace.” I’ve honored her in fiction. I tried to get to the core of her in a dramatized fashion. I co-opted the exterior facts of her life. I don’t know if there’ll be a moment of peace with that.

David Marchese: When you say that your mother has been through a thousand metamorphoses, does that extend to your feelings about real-life as well as fictional women?

James Ellroy: I’m a sucker for a tall redhead. That’s for damn sure. I think that I’ve never gotten over sex.

David Marchese: What’s that mean?

James Ellroy: Just the whole thing. O.K., here’s a joke I first heard in the early ’60s. It’s a howler—“I want to find the guy who invented sex and ask him what he’s working on now.” Sex is a head scratcher. It remains prevalent. I was sitting with Andrew Wylie, my agent, in Columbus Circle a couple of days ago so he could smoke a cigar on his way back to the office. We were sitting there, talking a little, looking around a little, and I said, “There sure are a lot of healthy-looking young women in New York City today.” He said, “I don’t have to tell you, do I?”

David Marchese: In the past when journalists have asked you about your conservative politics, you sometimes give confrontational answers. Were those authentic reflections of your thinking or an expression of your urge to needle? I’m thinking about stuff you said about Obama.

James Ellroy: I don’t even remember what I said about Obama.

David Marchese: The word “hate” came up.

James Ellroy: I voted for him! But what did I say? That I hate him or something like that?13 I think it was a British journalist who I said that to. We were sitting in a hamburger joint in L.A., and he was pissing me off. He was hassling me about Obama, and I was like, what do you want me to say?

David Marchese: It does seem as if you’re often asked to justify your politics in ways that wouldn’t be expected of liberals. Why is your conservatism treated as something requiring explanation?

James Ellroy: Being conservative is considered by many people as a codified expression of—You’re not nice, you’re unenlightened, you’re not one of the gang, you’re not one of the humanists. It should be evident in “Perfidia”14 and “This Storm” that I despise totalitarianism. I write characters who are the good guys and who also occasionally drop the racial slur, the anti-homosexual remark, but with these characters racial animus is never a defining characteristic. It’s a casual attribute. I like the idea of race as anecdote. I live by anecdote. I live to the exclusion of epigram. Those who think that all people who would express racial animus do that because of a deep-seated hatred boiling within them don’t understand that at a certain time and place it was the common linguistic coin of the realm.

David Marchese: I understand that people have a tendency to define conservatism in narrow political ways, but what does it mean to you?

James Ellroy: I have always described myself as a Tory. Underneath my profane exterior, I’m very concerned with decorum, with probity, with morality, and I have a painfully developed conscience. I despise unconscionable acts, whoever is perpetrating them. Helen says that what I am more than anything else is a Protestant. That’s what it is.

David Marchese: Can you tell me what you meant when you said you live by anecdote and to the exclusion of epigram? Am I wrong in thinking that anecdotes and epigrams aren’t terribly dissimilar?

James Ellroy: We were talking about race. In my books, I deploy racial anecdote, unmediated by any kind of preaching, any kind of philosophy. For example, two months before the first Watts riot, I had adventures in South Central Los Angeles, repossessing cars, going around with an unscrupulous fellow, looking for street hookers. I had heard a rumor that if you want to get a girl, you go to Cooper Do-nuts on Western Avenue and Adams Boulevard. You talk to one of the counter guys there and he’ll always know somebody who will drive you around. Well, I did this. I was 17. 1965. The girls had themselves a couple of white tricks, that’s for damn sure. We had all kinds of adventures, driving around to one pad after another and shooting the [expletive] with all these black folk. It was a rollicking good time. So, I live in anecdotes like that. I see something, it makes human sense to me, and I’m on it like a pit bull.

David Marchese: Do you feel any internal friction between your conservatism and, for example, your obvious relish in the content of the anecdote you just described?

James Ellroy: There’s the old F. Scott Fitzgerald line.

David Marchese: About how the test of first-rate intelligence is someone who can hold two opposing ideas in his mind?

James Ellroy: Absolutely. It’s an old saw, and that’s me. Mine is a Christian ideal that expresses of the presence of God and the presence of sin. It’s that kind of duality. It’s banal in my case, and in my expression, in my every way of life. But you can only do the do-right so much before you’re going to have some reaction against it.

David Marchese: Critics have called your books nihilistic. But to my mind it’d be more accurate to argue that the characters in your books care too much. Does that make sense?

James Ellroy: You’re absolutely right, and nihilism is a maddening criticism to hear. Optimism is best expressed in “This Storm” by the two words “people change.” They do. Elmer Jackson enters “This Storm” as a good-natured, horny rube who has the common good sense to hate the Klan, because of their high jinks in his North Carolina hometown. He’s chastened by the events of the book, and he changes. The character of Hideo Ashida changes. Dudley Smith changes. William H. Parker changes. If people as hard-core and as driven by the animus of the times as these folks can change, that’s optimistic.

David Marchese: Reading “This Storm,” which is so much about American Naziism and racial paranoia, it’s hard not to think of the resonances between the time in which the book is set, 1942, and today. Were you thinking about those resonances as you were writing?

James Ellroy: People have asked, “Isn’t this novel with all the whacked-out right-wingers and left-wingers and anti-Semites and nativists and race hucksters really about America today?” I said, “Nah. It’s about America in 1942.” Nothing stands in for anything else. If I wanted to write a novel about America today I would damn well do it. I don’t think much about what’s happening today.

David Marchese: Do you read anything contemporary? Or is it mostly old crime stories?

James Ellroy: I’ve read Daniel Silva15 because a colleague at Knopf said, “You might like this guy.” And that’s that. I’ve read through a lot of anthologies of Library of America; American noir of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s and American noir written by women, the two volumes edited by Sarah Weinman. I’ve been going at that like a pit bull.

David Marchese: Speaking of dogs, tell me about your current bull terrier.16

James Ellroy: Helen and I have an imaginary bull terrier named Ingrid. We have a great deal of fun anthropomorphizing bull terriers. Ingrid is a reddish-brown and white bull terrier and also a psychopathic cop who’s immortal. Her first enforcement gig was with the pharoahs when they were whipping the Israelis into slavery. Ingrid’s also very badly alcoholic.

David Marchese: That’s too bad.

James Ellroy: Yeah, but she’s immortal. Wherever Helen and I live, Ingrid joins the Police Department and goes on the robbery squad. Ingrid does what a great many people would like to do. She phone-books suspects and shoots ’em in the back. The anthropomorphizing is all in good humor. There’s no explicitness. Ingrid’s idea of a man is the sodden, overweight, alcoholic police officers she’s seen in cop movies. Her favorite film noir actor is pudgy and corrupt Edmond O’Brien.17 We never get into the mechanics of a human man and a dog doing it or anything like that because Helen and I are very wholesome at our cores. I love dogs insanely. Though I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been bitten.

#greats #james ellroy #literature #crime fiction #enigmas #tragedy #interviews #eccentrics

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aion-rsa · 4 years

Text

9 Best TV Roles From Gillian Anderson

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Full-time TV goddess and part-time television detective Gillian Anderson is never far from our minds. Here are nine of our favorite TV roles from the actress, whose on-screen legacy reaches far past The X-Files franchise to British period dramas, eccentric Bryan Fuller shows, and animated snarkiness.

Dana Scully in The X-Files

Let’s just get this way out of the way, shall we? Not because Anderson’s turn as Agent Dana Scully over the course of 11 seasons (and counting?) of The X-Files TV show and two The X-Files movies should or could be diminished, but because most everyone is familiar with Anderson’s turn as the chronically skeptical FBI agent.

Dana Katherine Scully is more than a TV character. She’s an institution. I grew up watching The X-Files and having a female character who wasn’t the same cookie-cutter example of what it was to be a woman made me feel like much more was possible. Gillian Anderson’s understated, yet affecting portrayal of the character was a large part of that.

Scully was (and still is) complex and flawed. She is a scientist with a commitment to her Catholic faith. She is a skeptic who, nonetheless, believes in Mulder. And she is funny as anything—much of that down to Anderson’s dry, deadpan delivery (“Bad Blood” being a great, oft-cited example). If Gillian Anderson had to have one character define her career, she could do a lot worse that Scully.

Miss Havisham in Great Expectations

If you’re looking for a great Great Expectations adaptation, the 2011 BBC/PBS miniseries is not your best bet. If you’re looking for a role in which Gillian Anderson gets to chew up the scenery in a miniseries-stealing performance, this three-part series is for you.

Anderson is so often cast in understated roles, and she plays them incredibly well, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t gratifying to see her make moves as a completely over-the-top villainous character, like her turn as the bitter, mentally unstable, and highly-flammable Miss Havisham. As they should probably start saying in England: Come for the Dickens, stay for the Anderson.

Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier in Hannibal

Hannibal is not a show for the faint of heart, but it rewards viewers endlessly with its sumptuous visuals, unpredictably gruesome plot, and its ridiculously stellar cast. Gillian Anderson is only one of the many talented actors who make up this ensemble — including Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancy, Laurence Fishburne, and Gina Torres.

Remember how we were talking about how Anderson often plays understated characters? Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier may be the most understated of the bunch. Perhaps the most enigmatic character on a show filled with enigmatic characters, Anderson manages to imbue the sly, clever Bedelia with a complex vulnerability that her cold, proper surface only occasionally lets through. If you are a fan of Gillian Anderson or good TV, Hannibalis a must-watch.

Lady Dedlock in Bleak House

A big part of Gillian Anderson’s career renaissance has been Dickensian adaptations and this is, perhaps, the best example. The BBC did a 15-part (eight-hour) adaptation of Bleak House in 2015. Anderson took on the role of the cold, secretive Lady Dedlock and she is one of many deft moving parts in this brilliant retelling of the Dickens classic, which is much more fun than its lawyer-heavy premise might suggest.

Anderson seemingly agrees. She spoke with The Daily Beast about finding an appreciation for Dickens through her acting, saying:

One of the only things that I have regrets about in my life is my experience of school and education. I wish I had known how important it was to pay attention … My first foray into a lot of the classics has been through my work. It’s only after falling in love with the screenplay or adaptation that I’ve then gone on to read the novels themselves.

Stella Gibson in The Fall

If you’re and Anderson fan and haven’t yet watched The Fall,a Northern Ireland-set crime drama about the cat-and-mouse game between Detective Inspector Stella Gibson and serial killer Paul Spector (played by Jamie Dornan), then stop reading this and go do so now. Anderson plays Stella Gibson, an English DI who is brought to Belfast to stop the series of murders of young professional women that have been occurring in the city. The Fall has been celebrated for the fact that Anderson plays a character who is almost always male. She is extremely focused (and good at) her job, sees sex as a primarily casual habit, and doesn’t have the most robust of personal lives.

Anderson’s nuanced performance makes Stella a strong and sympathetic character — one who is deeply affected by the way that men take out their anger and frustrations out on women, and who knows how to navigate a world and professional space riddled with misogyny and casual sexism. Anderson has called Stella Gibson her favorite role, and it’s easy to see why. The actress is asked to do a lot in the BBC drama—and she more than steps up to the challenge.

Dana Scully in The Simpsons

Sure, this is really just a guest starring role on someone else’s TV show, but how could we not include at least one of Gillian Anderson’s animated turns? (She also appears briefly on Robot Chicken,as Fiona.) This X-Files spoof episode—”The Springfield Files”—comes in The Simpson’s eighth season and it is filled with in-jokes about the paranormal drama. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson basically just voice their characters, but — as A.V. Club‘s review notes — “Anderson is, if anything, even more restrained than she is on The X-Files, which makes her lines funnier.”

“The Springfield Files” is far from the best episode of The Simpsons, but it is another great example of the kind of range Anderson has. Sure, she may be playing another version of her most well-known character, but getting that same character across in voice work is far different from getting that character across on live-action TV. Anderson nails it.

Media in American Gods

Sadly, Gillian Anderson is no longer on American Gods, which has suffered a series of high-profile “departures” that began with the “exit” of showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green before Season 2. But we will always have one season of Anderson as Media, the mouthpiece of the New Gods, in this Starz adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s bestselling novel. As Media takes on the form of various celebrities and lives off the worship people give to their various screens, we got to see Anderson transform herself into people like Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, and David Bowie—a smorgasbord of eclectic Anderson performances all in one show! For one season, we truly were blessed.

Jean Milburn in Sex Education

For a show that is mostly about The Youths, Anderson certainly makes her presence felt in Netflix’s British dramedy Sex Education. Anderson plays Jean Milburn, a single mom to teen protagonist Otis (Asa Butterfield), and a sex therapist. When Otis somewhat accidentally shares some of the sex education his mother has been feeding him presumably for his entire adolescence to a school bully, he falls into the sex advice business, helping his classmates with their sexual struggles. As Jean, Anderson gets to be both wise and neurotic, a mother and not defined by it. She also gets to regularly deliver lines like: “Why don’t you start by telling me your earliest memory of your scrotum.” Honestly, we deserve this show and its brilliant casting of Gillian Anderson.

Anna Pavlovna in War & Peace

Still have room for one more Gillian Anderson-starring period drama? (You know you do.) In this lush yet somewhat soulless 2016 adaptation of Tolstoy’s tome, Anderson plays “glittering society hostess” Anna Pavlovna. Written by period adaptation master Andrew Davies and directed by Peaky Blinders‘ Tom Harper and featuring a cast that also includes Paul Dano, Lily James, and James Norton, War & Peace has a lot going for it even if it never fully capitalizes on its deep reserves of talent and, honestly, with such an expansive cast and Anderson in a supporting role, our fave only gets a small amount of screen time. But, per the usual, Anderson steals the show.

What are your favorite Gillian Anderson TV roles? Sound off in the comments below…

The post 9 Best TV Roles From Gillian Anderson appeared first on Den of Geek.

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milesstorms · 3 years

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Music is a very important tool to set the mood of just about anything. Music is such a powerful tool it could set the mood in a movie, at a party, or even getting mentally prepared for a game. A perfect example of how well music can set a scene is in one of the most famous movies of all time Jaws. When we hear the name of the movie we start playing the song in our head almost immediately. Not only does it let us know what’s coming but it also adds thrill because we are all on the edge of our seats waiting for Jaws to appear. Another great example of music setting the tone is how often the artist Tiny Tim is used in horror movies. His music is not only eerie but intensifies the scenes that are taking place in the movies. The theme song for the breakfast club “Don’t You” by the simple minds portrays a great image for how the movie is going to transpire. The impact the characters have on each other truly will make them not forget one another. It is amazing how much we can depict from a movie or a story just by it’s soundtrack. This is also the same for most people. You can tell what a person is like based on the music they listen to. You can also base your music you listen to based on your mood, that’s how these films do such a great job picking the music. They realize different music has different meaning and purpose. An example of that is the song “One Way or Another '' by blondie is used perfectly. It perfectly represents what is going on in the movie and is very upbeat and bright. Music is overall a very powerful tool to set tone in any situation. A short playlist to portray my adolescence:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7mAOJycZFhYS8elBYxo6os?si=e8b8127bf35a4f97

As ironic as it is I feel I relate to Cady Heron the most out of all characters in the different stories. She was a transfer student from South Africa and was in an American high school for the first time. This is very relatable because I went to catholic school all throughout elementary school and middle school. After finishing middle school at Sacred Heart in Monroe which is currently closed, my parents and I felt it was best for me to attend public school at Cornwall Central High School. Changing from a school that had 20 students in an entire grade to a school that has more than that in just one class alone. This movie is so relatable because it portrays a pretty accurate picture on how high school is and how fast rumors and drama spread. Also it shows the different groups of people form and create cliques. The people change how they act depending on who is around. This was all so different then coming from a small catholic school. Not to say we didn’t have our own drama amongst the small group but it was much less serious. In public schools being in a much larger setting would most of the time amplify the situation. I was not used to how fast stuff could spread and learned quickly to try to avoid drama at all costs. Being in a smaller classroom setting makes you feel more personable with everyone around you. In a big public school you could have class with someone year after year and still not ever interact with them. In Mean Girls some of the situations start because the “plastics” don’t want to be seen with someone who they feel is lower than them so much that they will judge one another for who they talk to. Although this has never happened to me personally I have seen plenty of friendships fall through because a person did not not like a friend of their friend. I have always enjoyed how relatable this movie can be.

Two films that I believe have the most themes in common are Euphoria and Mean Girls. Both of them being in a high school setting allows them to relay the same ideas to the person watching. The most common theme I see is rivalries between characters, they are not only jealous of each other but in competition to always one up each other. Even the “plastics” have their own rivalries within the group. They are all trying to impress not only the whole school but one another. I always find it funny how they have a code they have to follow to be seen out in public. The overall desire for people to envy them is absolutely absurd and overwhelms them. In Euphoria we see rivalries a lot in the men. Nate subliminally has a rivalry with any other male to be alpha. In group situations Nate is always the loudest, most aggressive person in the group. This is not by mistake. Nate wants everyone to know he is alpha in any social or group setting. This also is super relatable because no matter where you are there usually is a male trying to portray his dominance in his own way. Whether it is a bully in high school or the super loud obnoxious guy out at the bar they all carry the same motive. Another theme shared by these films is stereotyping. In the breakfast club each one of the students represents a different stereotype. KIDS is also another representation of stereotypes in a different way. Leo felt sleeping with only virgins would keep him free of sexually transmitted diseases. Portraying the untrue stereotype that virgins are free and safe from these diseases. While both movies use stereotypes in vastly different ways they all do tie into our everyday culture. Another theme represented by both the Breakfast Club and Mean Girls is a social hierarchy in schools. They show how interactions between the “popular” people are with the “nerds” in many different scenarios. In the Breakfast Club we even see the two social roles of a jock and a young man who gets in trouble too often. Usually in films these roles are tied together. It was interesting seeing the way they interacted with one another.

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womenandfilm5 · 4 years

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Diary of a Teenage Girl was a provocative ‘memoir’ of a 15-year-old girl named Minnie. Minnie narrates and literally illustrates her sexual relationship with her mom’s boyfriend Monroe. Minnie was also inadvertently sharing her relationship with her mother, best friend, and younger sister. The story is visually told through a color scheme that can be described as a vibrant sepia, using very muted yellows. Even the red in the bar scene seemed shy about it’s on vibrance. Additionally, we view this world almost exclusively through medium shots and a narrow depth of field. The camera outs a great emphasis on focusing on Minnie’s voice, perspective, and story. This film tells the story in a factual and non-judgemental way.

. Diary of a Teenage Girl was based on a novel by Phoebe Gloeckner. The screenplay was written and directed by Marielle Heller and premiered at the Sundance Festival in 2015. Then it had a limited release in August of that year. This is Heller’s debut film and it was very well received. Despite the topic of this movie, it didn’t seem to stir up much controversy. Which may be a testament to a negative trait in our society or maybe a testament to Heller’s careful telling of the story. Or perhaps it’s because the director, writer, the author of the novel, and many of the producers are women and so we feel more comfortable hearing this uncomfortable topic told from them. This movie was able to tackle several topics that well probably hold timeless importance.

. One of those topics is mother-daughter relationships. Charlotte and Minnie don’t have much screen time together and when they do it’s often disconnected and they are visually far from each other. Charlotte is often encouraging Minnie to show more and be a little more “out there”. Linda Williams mentions in her article that the relationship between mother and daughter is governed by the patriarchy. Women made to feel inferior and feel that they can compensate through making their daughters superior. Charlotte’s comments show this, she is very sexual herself and perhaps feels that how she gets her empowerment. She wants Minnie to show this same sexuality in order for Minnie to have even more power. Unfortunately, this just proves the disconnect that Charlotte has with her daughter, her physical absence translates to a metaphysical absence as well. This disconnect is further amplified when Charlotte discovers her daughter and Monroe’s relationship and insists that Monroe marries Minnie. She is horrified, trying to subdue her own embarrassment but she is still trying to find a way to maintain her daughter’s image through marriage. Marriage is a symbolism of “good sex”, as described by Gayle S Rubin, ( Rubin, 1984, p.11), and by having Minnie marry she becomes virtuous. But it has the opposite effect and pushes Minnie further into the “bad sex” category of things and Minnie endangering herself. Seeing such a “liberal” mom adhere to these standards shows how intrusive these social constructions really are.

. It was difficult to watch this movie in light of the big age difference presented. However, I felt the storytelling did create an interesting way to view power positions. The relationship between Monroe and Minnie was so that Monroe was in the power and manipulative position. But through this form of film Minnie was able to take back this power. Her drawings and recordings being the main part of that. She controls the narrative of the images, how we see Monroe is directly based on how she portrays him. She even drew the comic of the giant woman who was walking into town. She wasn’t a monster and she sure wasn’t nervous about where to step. She was sure-footed. Outside of the content of the comic the inspiration, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, creates solidarity and visibility for Minnie in a world where she’s otherwise alone. This cartoon shows even when her actions don’t seem to be empowering to the viewer she is a talented and strong young woman and we should see her as such. Rather than seeing her solely as a victim. .

. The scene that struck me the most was when Minnie was in the mirror looking at her naked body. But this scene didn’t have a focus on her body rather it was about her inner monologue. This scene is extremely intimate and vulnerable. The vulnerability is obviously shown through Minnie’s physical nakedness. The visual intimacy is displayed through the closeness of the shots and the shallow depth of field. Many of the shots were almost as though the audience was standing next to Minnie looking over her shoulder. Ironically she is talking about being unseen and alone which reinforced our presence as an audience. Furthermore, it reinforced the idea that young girls discovering their sexualities have little to no support. Rubin mentions the nineteenth-century ideology that is still being maintained and supported. One of the main ones being that premature interest in sex would hinder the growth and maturity of a child. Minnie’s loneliness in this scene shows the negative effects of suppressing a younger person’s sexual desires.

. In conclusion, the title Diary of a Teenage Girl was a very straight forward title and was exactly what you’d expect. Except it wasn’t. It was the diary of a girl but the implications were much bigger than that. Because Minnie was the wielder of her own sword, in this case the sword is the microphone of the recording device, she was able to have a power that is often not given to women let alone adolescent women. Minnie didn’t represent a character I related to in almost any way, nor was she someone I knew, but for once she was someone I understood. At first glance, this title may seem to imply that all teenage girls are the same but really it’s giving us one account. The article “a” in this instance means one person. Rather than the usage that repurposes “a” to represent an archetype and generalizes a group. In this case, a teenage girl is just Minnie. Not Minnie as a representation for almost every teenage girl in this time period. I thought that was an important distinction that was made in this movie and something that allowed me to enjoy the movie with a peace of mind. -- TC

. Dargis, M. (2015, August 6). Review: In 'The Diary of a Teenage Girl,' a Hormone Bomb Waiting to Explode. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/movies/review-in-the-diary-of-a-teenage-girl-a-hormone-bomb-waiting-to-explode.html

. Rubin, Gayle S. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality” (1984). The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Ed. Henry Abelove, Michele Aina Barale, David M. Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 3-44.

. Williams, L. (1984). "Something Else besides a Mother": "Stella Dallas" and the Maternal Melodrama. Cinema Journal, 24(1), 2–27.

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mtwy · 7 years

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SPIN

USA May 1985

Despite the May cover date, SPIN hit newsstands March 25th 1985

She’s a shiny heavenly body, a seductive look and a sexy voice. She’s sleazy, trashy, cheap and completely out of your price range. Fans dress like her, confide in her, pray to her. She’s our lady of Rock N’ Roll. If you desire her, that’s all right, she wants you to. Her nickname’s “Squeeze”. She’s Marilyn Monroe and Joan Crawford incarnate

Interview by Scott Cohen

CONFESSIONS OF A MADONNA

TRASH I like to look the way Ronnie Spector sounded: sexy, hungry, totally trashy. I admire her tonal quality. I don’t have a deep, throaty voice or a womanish voice when I sing. I think my voice sounds innocent and sexual at the same time. That’s why I try to tell people, anyway; but they always misconstrue what I mean when I say “sexual innocence.” They look at me and go “innocence, huh?” They think I’m trash.

SEXCESS I couldn’t be a success without also being a sex symbol. I’m sexy. How can I avoid it? That’s the essence of me. I would have to have a bag over my head and over my body; but then my voice would come across, and it’s sexy.

IDOLS My first pop idol was Nancy Sinatra. Go-go boots, miniskirt, blond hair, fake eyelashes - she was cool.

My first movie idol was Marilyn Monroe. The movie character I identified with most, though, was Holly Golightly; because when I first came to New York, I was going to parties and not fitting in. I loved Brigette Bardot. Especially in Contempt. She kept saying ‘Do you love me? Tell me what is beautiful about me.’ I can relate to that totally because I really care about the way I look. I wanted to look like Brigette Bardot. I wanted to make my hair blonder and wear pointy bras and go out with Roger Vadim. I also wanted to look like Jean Seberg in Joan of Arc.

When I was growing up, I was religious, in a passionate, adolescent way. Jesus Christ as like a movie star, my favorite idol of all.

LOOK-ALIKES If I were a girl and knew me, I’d want to dress like me. If I were a guy, I’d dress either like Gregory Peck, when he was really young, or James Dean. I’d either wear ripped jeans and a t-shirt or a suit and tie.

EATING OUT At one point I was living in New York and eating out of garbage cans. Actually, it was not a garbage can on the street; it was the garbage can in the Music Building on Eighth Avenue where I lived with Steve Bray, the guy I write songs with. (He’s useful Male #2 or #3. Depending on which article you read.)

I had been squatting in a loft, living there illegally, but it burned down. There was no heat or hot water, so I had all these electric space heaters around this little piece of carpeting I slept on. I woke up in the middle of the night surrounded by a ring of fire. One of the heaters had set fire to the rug and it was spreading. I jumped up and dumped water on the fire, which made it spread more. Then my nightgown caught fire. So I took it off, got dressed, grabbed a few things, like underpants and stuff - all my important things like tapes and instruments were already over at the Music Building, three blocks away - and I went over to the Music Building and started sleeping there.

I had a band at the time and was playing places like Max’s and C.B.G.B’s. All the money we made paid for the van that transported our equipment. We shared our rehearsal loft with another band, so they practically paid the rent for us, and all our equipment was in that one room. Steve and I slept between amplifiers. We budgeted what little money we had to about $1 a day. We had credit in all the Korean delis within a five-block radius of the Music Building and with our dollar we’d get some yogurt and peanuts. Then Steve and I would fight over whether we should mix the peanuts with the yogurt. He liked to eat them together and I liked to eat them seperately. When we’d run out of money, I’d pass by the garbage can in the lobby of the Music Building, and if it smelled really good - like if there was a Burger King bag sitting on top that someone had just deposited - I’d open it up, and if I was lucky, there would be french fries that hadn’t been easten. I’m a vegetarian, which is why I didn’t eat the burger.

MONEY The first real money I ever got was $5000 from Sire Records, and the first expensive thing I bought was a Roland synthesizer. The next big money I got was publishing money for writing songs. I would get $1000 for every song I wrote. I wrote most of the songs on my first album, so I got what seemed like a lot of money at the time, and I moved to the East Village and got my first apartment. With the next money I moved to a loft in Soho, which was triple the rent I was paying in the East Village. These were all necessary things. The first most extravagant thing I ever bought — that I felt really guilty about buying — was a color TV. I never had a TV before in the seven years that I had lived in New York. When I grew up I didn’t even have a color TV. So I got a color TV, a VHS machine and a push-button remote control.

BELLY BUTTONS My favorite button is my belly button. I have the most perfect belly button: an inny, and there’s no lint in it. I never wore a jewel in my belly, but if I did it would be a ruby or an emerald, but not a diamond. When I stick my finger in my belly button, I feel a nerve in the center of my body shoot up my spine. If 100 belly buttons were lined up against a wall, I could definitely pick out which one is mine.

CRUCIFIXES Crucifixes are sexy because there’s a naked man on them. When I was a little girl, we had crucifixes all over the house, as a reminder that Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. Crucifixes are something left over from my childhood, like a security blanket. I liked the way they look and what they symbolized, even before they were fashionable. I buy mine in Spanish bodegas, where they have rosaries in lots of colors. I have a really long one that looks white in the light, but glows in the dark. Every new-wave designer has crucifixes in their line. Calvin Klein doesn’t, but he’s Mr. Mainstream. Girls who buy Calvin Klein jeans don’t wear crucifixes.

BRAS I have to wear a bra. I’m the only one in my family with breasts. Bras that open in the front are best and torpedo bras are the sexiest. On my Like A Virgin record cover and in all the photographs, like when I did the MTV show, I’m in my bustier. Bustiers are very restricting. They have ribs that make you feel you’re suffocating and zip up the back. They’re tight and squeeze you in. I wear them because they’re very 19th centuryish. They have that really svelte look. I like the way it makes my body look. It’s very sexual. I have about five of them. I go to a regular lingerie store and get the basic nylon bustier, with no frills, and have it customized with lace or tulle. I wish I was flat-chested and didn’t have to wear a bra. It’s one extra piece of clothing to worry about.

RETURNING CALLS I used to call different management companies, agencies, A&R people, club owners, you name it, and no one ever returned my calls. If someone did, ten-to-one it was some horny old man who was in charge of listening to tapes and when he’d hear my voice, he’d want me to come in and bring the tapes, and then he’d put the make on me. Now when I call people they come right to the phone. Everyone except John Peters, the big Hollywood producer who did Flashdance and my movie Visionquest. He’s a real schemer—wheeling and dealing all the time — and the only one who doesn’t call me back.

SISTER MADONNA If I wasn’t doing what I’m doing, I would be a nun. The reason I’m not a nun is because you can’t take your own name. How could I change my name? I have the most holy name a woman can have. But if I had to change my name, I’d use my confirmation name, Veronica. I chose her because she wiped the face of Jesus, which I thought was really dramatic.

PHYSICAL ATTRACTIONS I dig skin, lips and Latin men. I’m attracted to bums. When I went to Paris, I hung out with Algerians and Vietnamese guys who didn’t have jobs, who just drove around on motorcycles and terrorized people. I’ve always been attracted to people like that, because they’re rebels and they’re irresponsible and challenge the norm. I try to rehabilitate them. I’m just trying to be the mother I never had.

VIRGINITY I wouldn’t like to sleep with a guy who was a virgin. I’d have to teach him stuff and I don’t have the patience. I’d rather deal with experience. When I say virgin, like in my song, I’m not thinking about sexual virgin. I mean newness. Even after I made love for the first time, I still felt I was a virgin. I didn’t lose my virginity until I knew what I was doing.

MONOGOMY The longest monogomous relationship I’ve had was 2 1/4 years, right before Jellybean, with someone who never wants to see me again. He’s the guy trying to run me over in my “Burning Up” video. It wasn’t just because I was seeing someone else. Our relationship was deteriorating anyway. But I’ve had my heart broken, too. All my boyfriends hurt me in their way, by lots of things, but I’m not telling you.

STEPPED ON MEN All those men I stepped all over to get to the top, everyone of them would take me back because they still love me and I still love them. I wish I was a million different people so I could stay with each boyfriend while moving on to another one. I learn more, want more, and suddenly-that person isn’t enough. The problem is, after you start to love someone, you start to hurt them. I get interested in somebody else and I latch on to that interest to get me through the other one. It’s awfully painful, but then I have this new guy to look forward to. Records The first song I remember hearing was “The Twist” by Chubby Checker. The first record I ever bought was either “Incense & Peppermint” or “Give Me a Ticket for an Airplane.” I don’t remember if there was music playing when I lost my virginity, but the best music to make love to nowadays is anything funky or soulful, like the Gap Band, Prince or the Isley Brothers. The best music to wake up to is “Moments in Love” by Art of Noise and the best music at the moment to workout to is anything by Prince, Lime, Bronski Beat or Bruce Springsteen. My first album was a total aerobics record. I make records with aerobics in mind. When I’m mad or have a fight with my boyfriend or hate my record company, I work out.

BAD PRESS I get so much bad press because people associate a girl who’s successful with a bimbo or an airhead. Sexy boys never get bad press. Do you think they’d bug Prince if he pulled out his dick on stage? If I ever did something like that, I’m the slut of the year.

FIGHTS Most of the fights I have with boyfriends are over how I’m not paying enough attention to them or I’m always off doing things for my career. Of course, I disagree. I have a lot of shit to do right now. I’m always surrounded by people. I have a very visible career. I got to go out West and audition guys to be in my videos and I got to kiss guys in my movies. But I always say it’s the quality of time and not the quantity of time. If you spend the time that you do have together not fighting, you might enjoy each other.

LITTLE MADONNA I was never a Girl Scout, but I was a Campfire Girl and a Brownie. Campfire Girls had the cooler uniform. I was never good at being part of an organization. When I was a Brownie, I ate all the cookies. When I was a Campfire Girl, I’d camp out with the boys and get into trouble.

FANTASY PHOTO Of all the great photographs in history, I’d most like to have been in one of me having dinner with John Kennedy, with Marilyn Monroe sitting next to him, singing “Happy Birthday.”

Madonna’s First Movie Young director Stephen Lewicki was throwing out old resumes and head shots when one fell from the basket. As he stooped to pick it up, he noticed, behind the unimpressive photograph, the last page of a handwritten resume that gave the same birthday as his, August 16. He re-read the letter, reconsidered the urgently hopeful face, and hired Madonna Cicconi to star in his first movie. That was just over five years ago and “star” might be stretching exaggeration, compared to where Madonna has since taken her career. A Certain Sacrifice is an hour-long melodrama of surprising intensity and value, shot, unfortunately, on Super 8mm, then edited on one-inch video to further visually obscure it In the movie. 20-year-old Madonna plays Bruna, a post-punk drifter, who meets a refugee from the suburbs in Washington Square’s fountain. The two become lovers and ultimately avengers of their own love’s desecration. Sleazy Raymond Hall rapes Brune in a coffee shop toilet but is hunted down and kidnapped by the lovers and Bruna’s former “family” of sex-slaves. In one of the massive, cathedral-like arches under the Brooklyn Bridge, Hall is executed in an eerie human sacrifice. Before shooting the rape scene, Lewicki instructed Charles Kurtz. who plays Hall, to tear Madonna’s shirt off when raping her, without telling Madonna beforehand. This heightens the intensity of the scene, which is played to perfection. Lewicki concedes to having had a mild, unconsummated crush on her and recounts one afternoon spent in Battery Park when he ate blueberry yogurt out of her ear. “That woman has more sensuality in her ear than most woman have anywhere on their bodies.” he says wistfully. But he was more concerned with her as an important element in his movie. In his opinion she is a good actress. Not another Garbo, except perhaps in mystique, but gifted. She really does want to act more than make music, he feels. Asked to sum her up, after much thought he concludes simply: “ambitious,” and tells how she seemed happy only when the center of attention, especially on camera. In the letter/resume she sent him, she wrote how drama class was an oasis in an otherwise mostly despised schooling. “For one hour every day all of the megalomaniacs and egotists would meet to compete for roles and argue about interpretation. I secretly adored each moment, when all eyes were on me, and I could practice being charming or sophisticated, so I would be prepared for the outside world.” One anecdote provides a revealing insight: apparently Madonna had already met her leading man, Jeremy Pattnosh, a couple of years earlier on a park bench, but he didn’t remember. Just before filming a key love scene with Pattnosh, she reminded him. Lewicki had already turned on the camera and so recorded it, though not the conversation. When he reviewed the silent footage, he saw a side of Madonna that “you never see, she doesn’t allow you to see. A tremendous vulnerability. She seems to have a tremendous need for approval.” Recently, Madonna, her fashion coordinator, Maripol, and her ex-boyfriend Jellybean went to Lewicki’s apartment to see the movie, which she claimed she liked. She talked constantly when she wasn’t on screen. As she was leaving, she stopped in the doorway and turned to Lewicki. “Well Stephen, f*ck you.” “What do you mean?” he asked. “Well we’ve always had an adversarial relationship and I wanted to keep it up.” Then she disappeared into the New York night, taking her entourage, mysteries and secrets with her.

#1985 #spin #magazines #thevirginera

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