#oh you like bill nighy too

[zalia]

Experiencing Destiny 1 as a D2 player

I picked up Destiny 1 in a sale recently despite being told a lot about its problems, and honestly I'm really enjoying playing it! I feel a bit like a time traveller visiting important places and events from the past.

I also have friends who played Destiny nearly from the beginning and it's fun to go back and go 'ooooh that's what they were talking about!'. I am also very aware that if I had started playing it without already being invested, I would be having considerably less fun. (Also, being fair, much of the fun is doubtless novelty after playing *mumbletymumble* hours of D2 over the past couple of years).

But it's genuinely been really interesting from a design and narrative perspective going back to it and seeing where the story began and how things have changed and I wanted to ramble about it. Full disclosure, I have played up through the first couple of missions of The Taken King. There are also things I can't comment on such as Crucible (because getting enough players for a match has not happened yet), events (no longer happening) etc. Also haven't managed to run a raid yet but hopefully will eventually!

I will start with the bad, to get it over with. A lot of stuff here will be well known and honestly it's probably less interesting than the good/thinky stuff.

The Bad

Oh boy I have maligned D2's New Light introduction so badly since it is miles ahead of D1 just by merit of actually having one! D1 gives you the opening run through the Cosmodrome where they tell you what buttons to use and then refuses to explain anything ever again. (This very definitely ties into it being a game I enjoy now but would probably not have enjoyed if I wasn't already invested)

You don't realise how many QoL improvements D2 has until you have to go to orbit and select a new destination every single time. Also no fast travel points. And no you cannot just look at a map of the place you're traversing. Fashion is difficult too.

Up until Taken King, I am not sure why they bothered hiring voice actors for anyone except Ghost, Elsie Bray, and maybe the Speaker. And I have no idea why they hired Bill Nighy for that part (I mean I do, it's because they wanted to use Big Names for marketing but still...). The Vanguard could easily be replaced with cardboard cutouts because they are basically uninvolved in anything until Taken King begins. I know they aren't involved in every seasonal plot now, but they do appear and develop.

The story and writing is... well, it makes an attempt to exist. It does not succeed until The Taken King. I went in knowing what happens in the story and I'm still not actually sure what happens in the story because it is basically someone's pre-first draft bullet points of a narrative. The only reason I knew I was starting different storylines is because the mission popup tells you which storyline it is. 'I don't have time to explain why I don't have time to explain' is a meme for a reason, but another bit which I think illustrates the point well is from House of Wolves. Petra tells you that Skolas has entered the Vault of Glass and this is bad so you need to stop him. It is never explained before then what the Vault of Glass is, what it does, why it would be bad for Skolas to be in there, or... anything. While D2 can be obtuse, and sometimes leaves important info in easily overlooked lore tabs (or in vaulted content), it at least tries to tell you what the story is. I feel like D1 actively resents that players do not read the bullet points and fill in everything the writers had in their heads. Another example is the Devil's Lair strike. it's the first one you take on in D1, and after doing it in D2, I was expecting backstory and build up. Nope, you just get sent in with nothing to really explain what is going on, who the House of Devils are, what a Servitor is... I know it had troubled development and the story got torn apart and remade very close to launch, and it really shows in the early stuff. It's a series of missions that were made and then had to be strung together with the thinnest of threads. It gets better in Taken King, but at times is still not great. You first encounter the Taken on Phobos, I think Ghost asks about what they are. I was expecting more discussion about them and what they are and how horrifying it is. But nope, they just exist now and we're all fine with that.

So. Much. Grinding. The pinnacle grind was annoying in D2, the grind to just get your light up in D1 is so much worse. You will be doing bounties desperately to try to get your rep up with the various groups just so you can actually get fragments of story and quests. You will be grinding just to level up your subclass and it takes ages.

The places you visit are very expansive - even the Cosmodrome is significantly larger - which is great when they're used well, but a lot of the time they feel very empty, there to make you play for longer to get between areas than because there is anything to do.

The Good

The game is gorgeous! I'm loving getting to see Venus and Mars and the Dreadnaught. They're beautiful environments. Everything feels very expansive which can be very cool (as above, it can also be less good). When used well, it feels like there are so many mysteries and secrets hidden in this abandoned world. There are hidden bunkers and spaces, huge Vex structures and ruined cities, tunnels burrowed beneath the Cosmodrome and the Taken King's dreadnaught. It's genuinely fun to explore (up to a point).

It does an excellent job of making you genuinely feel like it's post-apocalyptic and the existence of humanity is precarious. And you, the Guardian, are brand new and everything is trying to kill you. You don't have multiple gods stored in your vault in the form of guns! Everything feels more dangerous. For example, I think if D2 is your intro, you look back at the Great Disaster and the first Crota fireteam and go 'but how did that happen when I go onto the moon and take out ogres with a single punch? The biggest threat in the Abyss in Crota's End is falling into a pit or getting hit by a pendulum! Yeah no I get it now. In D1 you are much less powerful and it makes swarming thralls and normal enemies much more of a threat. Things feel dangerous in a way that D2 rarely manages. I'll talk about this a bit more in depth later.

By making your supers and abilities less powerful, they have weirdly made them more useful. In D2 I usually save mine for bosses since it feels like a waste to use them on normal enemies. In D1, it makes absolute sense to use your abilities basically as soon as you have them. You should absolutely use your Golden Gun on a normal Hive Knight or Fallen Vandal!

There's some great atmospheric touches. I love hearing the snippets of distorted music when I'm near a Rasputin bunker. Going into some of the ruined buildings on Mars or Venus where it's dark and suddenly seeing so many red Vex eyes staring back at you is chilling.

The opening mission of Taken King is fantastic. Genuinely creepy and the Taken in general in D1 feel much scarier and threatening than in D2.

All the different enemy factions are different colours and designs! I love that!

Weapons still go brrrrr in a very pleasing way. And getting new gear feels genuinely satisfying in a way that it rarely does in D2. I junk 99% of the armour and guns I get in D2, in D1 I end up being much more considering of whether something is useful. Legendary weapons and armour feel precious!

I keep picking up random Warmind weapons to turn into Banshee that I know lead to an exotic quest and I am enjoying the feeling of that being another Secret Thing I am discovering.

Honestly, I really like Banshee's weapon bounties - you get given a prototype weapon to test out and gather data by doing certain things (killing X number of a certain enemy etc.) and that gains you rep. And you can then order a legendary version of the weapon from him to be delivered the next Wednesday.

Thoughts/Observations

Knowing that the 'original' story was seemingly going to focus more on Rasputin, and an exo version of him getting stolen by the Hive makes the appearance of some of the Hive areas on the Moon make more sense. There's some bits that are high tech in a way that feels very at-odds with what we see of the Dreadnaught and, other Hive locations which lean much more towards the organic and magical.

Similarly, Rise of Iron feels a lot more hard sci-fi than much of what Destiny has become, and has such a huge Rasputin focus. I believe it was partially developed by an outside studio, so I do wonder if it was based, at least in part, on the 'original' story of Destiny, and was either too far into development, or the other studio just never got the memo about the change in tone.

Vaguely related to the above, but way more speculative, I wonder if Banshee was originally meant to be a Rasputin exo, then that story got shifted to Felwinter, but the seeds were used for the story of Banshee having been Clovis Bray.

Honestly while it's fun to think about, in general I find the obsession parts of the Destiny community have with 'the original story' (of the 'maybe they're finally going back to the original story!' type where the unspoken idea is that this was the perfect undiluted pure story that was 100% planned and set in stone) to be fundamentally misunderstanding how creating stories work. I can guarantee that even if that first story had been used, after 10 years of multiple writers etc. it would still be in a very different place than where the people who came up with it initially thought it would go. It would have evolved and changed and shifted, even if it was following the same vague plan. That's just what stories do.

Oh wow, suddenly all the Nightmare Hunts in Shadowkeep make way more sense! I get it now!

Actually I get a lot of references now XD

Oh wow Shaxx sounds so depressed. I guess this was before he started therapy.

So many identical caves...

Thoughts on Power Creep

D1 leans much more into the post-apocalyptic setting and it does an excellent job of making the existence of the Last City, humanity, and Guardians feel precarious. Everything seems more dangerous, more of a threat. You really are part of the last bastion of humanity. And there's a few ways this is done.

First, you are much less powerful. Yes, you have supers and grenades, but they do much less damage (and are much less flashy) than in D1. There has been a huge amount of power creep! You won't be one-shotting bosses, even normal Vanguard Strike bosses with golden gun easily.

Legendary weapons feel rare and special, and I am still using Blue weapons at times because sometimes I have to just to get the higher light level. I have reached level 40 and have only just got my first exotic armour pieces which I bought from Xur! They are FR0ST-EE5, an exotic I have never bothered with in D2, but in D1 the recharge for abilities when sprinting is genuinely handy. I don't have any exotic weapons at all yet!

It leads to a very different playstyle - I play much more carefully because I cannot just charge in with something like Osteo Striga and wipe out a room with a few shots. In D2 we have killed multiple gods, taken down an Empire, and forged alliances. In D1, we're just some random Guardian and the gameplay reflects this.

And I hate to say this, but I also kind of get the YouTube/Stream BNFs who complain about things not being hard enough. It's just... they're completely wrong about the reasons and the solutions.

They seem to think that what is needed is more enemies with higher health, and nerf Divinity because it makes it too easy, and everything should be designed to stop normal players being able to do it. And it... it doesn't work? Ghosts of the Deep was fun, but holy fuck the health bars on the enemies make it feel grindy and dragged out. Legend Avalon was a slog because there's Too Much - too many elements at the same time so it's just overwhelming instead of fun. (Starcrossed on legend is tough, but feels more enjoyable and managable. I'm looking forward to doing it again instead of dreading it).

More difficulty isn't what makes D1 feel harder, being weaker is what does this. I have no doubt that if I could put my D2 stuff against D1 enemies I would decimate them. But in D1 I am a lone Guardian with scavenged gear and yes, I have the Light and can be resurrected, and it gives me an edge vs normal humans, but not a crazy amount.

In D2 I have so many exotics and weapons that I can just throw them away. I can have intricately crafted builds to take on any enemies! I am basically one of the most powerful entities in the solar system.

And that's not something you can really scale back. They did it with Red War at the start of D2. Maybe they could do it as a result of Final Shape and do smaller stories focused on Earth and recovery and what you even do after your purpose for fighting for so long is gone (and I think there is value in those stories! I would love it personally). But uh... I don't think most people would actually be happy having everything nerfed on such a scale. Give up your 999,999 Celestial Nighthawk boss damage, for a Golden Gun that with a bit of luck might one-shot a yellowbar?

Give up a lot of creativity in terms of what you use and how you play, in exchange for a tougher game with way less choice for builds, but one that is potentially more atmospheric and in-keeping with the post-apocalypse and the dangers of the solar system?

I don't have an answer for that! And it's not even the most important thing. Gamer BNFs gonna always want to prove that they're better than everyone at pressing buttons, and forget that the majority of players are casuals. But it's been interesting playing a different type of difficulty, rather than the forced difficulty of insanely high HP and Too Many Things.

Power creep is a real issue in a lot of long-running media (just look at superhero movies, or many many monster of the week TV shows). You're in a position of feeling like you need to one-up yourself every time. Every new villain has to be the biggest and baddest, and so you have to become more and more powerful to combat that, which means the next villain has to be even bigger and badder.

With Destiny we've gone from a scrappy underdog, to a god-killer.

I'm reminded of Osiris talking about Saint in The Sundial lore.

'I watched him grow from neophyte to demi-god'.

King of fitting for us to have done the same as Saint's inspiration.

#destiny 2 #destiny 1 #destiny the game #meta #gaming #video games #my thoughts

[mariacallous]

When I was 12, I was hooked on James Bond, both Ian Fleming's elegantly pulpy novels and the cartoonish movies they spawned. One day, my friend's older brother, who went to Harvard, tossed a paperback onto my lap and said, "Here's the real thing, kid."

The book was The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, the 1963 thriller by John le Carre. I opened it expecting a racier version of what I found in 007 — you know, Asian thugs with steel-rimmed bowlers, gorgeous women as sweetly pliable as taffy. What I got was a dankly bitter tale of betrayal ending at the Berlin Wall. I hated it. It was just too sophisticated for the adolescent me.

You see, le Carre wasn't merely a better writer than Fleming, but a reaction against him. Where 007 fought amusingly acronymed groups like SPECTRE, le Carre conjured a Cold War hall of mirrors in which spy craft wasn't about knife fights and hot sex, but about gambits and machinations in which it was hard to tell the good guys from the bad.

His masterpiece was 1974's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy — not merely the greatest spy novel ever written, but the source of a 1979 BBC adaptation that's the greatest spy show ever made. In anticipation of a new film version that's coming out in a few weeks — the story, you see, is irresistible — the series has just been re-released on DVD, along with its sequel, Smiley's People. Watching again, I found it every bit as gripping as the first three times I watched it.

The great Alec Guinness stars as George Smiley, an honorable spy chief who's been ousted after a shakeup in British intelligence — known as The Circus. But once it becomes clear that there's a mole, or double agent, high up in The Circus, Smiley is brought back to catch him. He does this in the old school, pre-Google way, by sifting through papers and questioning anyone who might be involved, all in a style that's unsettlingly calm.

Bluntness isn't Smiley's thing. He's like the world's greatest poker player, all quiet observation, laconic dialogue and unreadable reactions. As played by Guinness, a master of the ambiguous smile, Smiley exudes a melancholy kindness that may not be kind, and a knowledge of human frailty that's profound — yet not profound enough to keep his own wife from cheating on him.

When le Carre first became famous, he was celebrated for being so realistic. Yet his fictional world is actually every bit as mythological as Fleming's. It's just subtler. In fact, Tinker, Tailor offers the seductive fantasy of entering a secret world, one imagined with alluring richness. We breathe a conspiratorial mental atmosphere in which Every Single Word might be important. And we encounter an oh-so-proper bureaucracy in which the deadliest snakes aren't the Soviets, but the colleagues slithering around your office. Here, even the most devout patriot will be sacrificed by his own side in the great chess game of Cold War politics.

Like millions of others, I can't get enough of this stuff, but for a while it all but vanished. You see, le Carre's brand of espionage tale was rooted in the Cold War, which offered the neatness of two opposed sides facing off. When communism collapsed, so did the contemporary spy novel. The West lacked a clearly defined enemy.

Happily for spy stories, though not for the world, it has one again in radical Islam. And almost predictably, we've begun seeing le Carre-tinged espionage stories — like Showtime's current series Homeland, in which Claire Danes plays a CIA agent who doesn't quite trust anyone, not even her own bosses, and PBS's Page Eight, starring the wonderful British actor Bill Nighy as a canny old spy who stumbles upon volatile knowledge he'd sooner not know.

I can recommend both. Yet truthfully, neither can rival Tinker, Tailor, an almost perfect fantasy for those of us less thrilled by shootouts or chases on jet-skis than by the exposure of what lies hidden. In fact, what makes le Carre's spy stories so primally gripping is that, at bottom, they're not actually about espionage. They're about secrets and lies and shifting identities — which is to say, they're a metaphor for our own daily lives. Except, of course, that Smiley's story is really, really exciting.

[footnoteinhistory]

Hey gamer 🫡

I’m not done with my movie week yet but I’m at 3/5 and I’ve gotta get my thoughts out before I forget them. I’ve watched Love & Mercy, The Boat That Rocked, and the Vanishing:

Love & Mercy: I liked it! I’ve never been a huge Beach Boys fan, I love a few of their songs but mostly know their “surfing cars california” era. I knew they got more experimental and profound later on, but I saw their later work as…. kind of an “also ran” next to the Beatles. This movie’s studio scenes exploring the recording process have really opened me up to a new perspective on some of these songs. And oh my god was Paul Dano great in the role.

I would complain that the plot was kind of free-floating… the Landy situation felt compressed and too-easily resolved, and the flashbacks seemed more historical than narrative. But plot aside, it’s nice just to have the window into Brian Wilson’s life. (And it’s not 1:1… but his mental state in adulthood hits close to home for me. Very emotional movie)

I listened to a lot of Beach Boys the next day… I’m sorry to say Pet Sounds still doesn’t quite land for me. Even the BB’s most avant-garde songs are so quintessentially Cheesy Sixties. I’ll always just be a Beatles freak 😔

The Boat That Rocked: Ms. InHistory I am not exaggerating at all when I say this is my favorite movie ever. It’s so cozy and funny and has so much heart… I really can’t put it into words. Surely nobody could watch this movie and not yearn to live on Radio Rock themselves?*

Mr. Hoffman was great, right off the bat w/ the title sequence he’s just cool. Maybe not as cool as Bill Nighy’s character…… My favorite gags were Bob’s introduction and every Thick Kevin scene.

*or maybe other people just haven’t harbored a deep, unfulfilled love for the sea and sailing as long as they can remember. Who knows.

The Vanishing: Interesting. Good movie. It’s definitely going to become one of my “oh, you should watch” films. It doesn’t leave you with any questions, and it didn’t leave me with any observations to make………..

Thank you so much for the recommendations! I never would have run into these movies on my own, and they’re exactly what I hoped they would be. I’m really having fun.

I’m on to A Late Quartet as soon as I can work out where to watch it 🫡

I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed these!! My biggest fear is giving terrible recommendations and wasting people’s time, so yayyy glad I’ve done okay!

Love and Mercy: I was in a similar boat as you—didn’t know/listen to much of The Beach Boys, but spent the next day with Pet Sounds and a lot of Brian’s stuff! The film was SO emotional for me too. I had a friend who loved The Beach Boys and struggled with the same mental health challenges as Brian. They died three years ago and idk, seeing Brian get real help and create his art and grow old and be happy (that live performance during the credits 😭) just really got to me, missing them and wishing we could talk about it. Oh Paul Dano is incredible.

The Boat That Rocked: I’M SO GLAD YOU LOVED IT!!! Despite several faults, it is so much FUN! The Count is one of my favorite PSH characters ever, if I was forced to choose I might say he is THE favorite. One of the best set stories is from the actor who played Midnight Bob, who said everyone in the cast was constantly competing to see who could make Phil laugh the most :) Best soundtrack ever and I’ve spent hours (if not days and weeks) daydreaming about living on that boat.

Apparently director Richard Curtis made a five-hour cut. It’s my dying wish to see it someday

(Did you watch the U.S. release or the UK/Euro release? The European one is maybe 10-15 minutes longer and most importantly has a scene with Phil dressed up as Santa)

The Vanishing: “It doesn’t leave you with any questions, and it didn’t leave me with any observations to make” true!!!! Very straightforward—it just made me feel so so so scared (and claustrophobic). To connect it with the 60s music theme of the other two films, I’ll quote Marmalade’s 1969 hit: “The world is a bad place, a bad place, a terrible place to live.”

#my first instinct was to say ‘you can borrow my DVD of A Late Quartet!’ before I realized that’s probably impractical #pepsinister #ask #movies

[bridgetfm]

What would you do if you could live forever?

      “uh, probably like... watch all of agnes varda’s films. then move onto maya deren. oh, ingmar bergman, too! i’m like, seriously behind on my bergman and the flying saucer are showing this movie bergman island soon and i’m guessing a working knowledge of ingmar’s like, pretty crucial. i’d also dig out my twilight jane fanfic from the archives, and option it to be turned into a movie in three parts. she deserves her story to be told, why shouldn’t it be by an emotionally stunted teenage girl. other than that, i’d probably do a bill nighy in about time and just... read literally every book i’d always wanted to and never got the chance to. and form an alt-rock post-punk feminist band where we sing exclusively about slasher movies, serial killers and buzzfeed unsolved mysteries.”

#⥂ bridget matusiak. ╱ musings.

[maxwell-grant]

If there was a Shadow animated series or movie, who would you like to see as voice actors ?

Ooh! Nice question, weirdly I hadn't really thought about this one, usually my casting picks tended more towards live-action even though I generally prefer voice acting.

I can never really come up with a single, definitive answer as to who I'd want to play The Shadow himself. For live-action, I fully second @oldschoolcrimefighters's choice of Oded Fehr, and he's got a great voice for it too (the voice is the most important thing when it comes to The Shadow). Jeremy Irons, if I recall, was supposed to play the character in the 80s when they were kicking around movie projects, and he's DEFINITELY got the right voice for it. Another one that comes to mind is Bill Nighy, based off his role as Rattlesnake Jake (snake-like is a good word to describe how The Shadow should talk). A good choice for a more elderly Shadow would be Charles Dance.

Personally, I'd prefer to cast a less-known actor in the role, because I don't think audiences should be able to recognize or be familiar with The Shadow when he speaks. I wouldn't want people to go "oh it's that guy from this", because it's The Shadow speaking, and no one else. I would prefer to cast someone really obscure, someone with theater and villain experience. So for now, I'm gonna say my number one pick for The Shadow himself would be Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, based off his performances from The Dark Crystal and True Detective. He lacks the venomous hiss that Frank Readick had, but he definitely has a deep, strong and unique voice that can be overpowering in both cruelty as well as warmth, and you definitely want that for The Shadow.

Harry Vincent is a deceptively tough call, because he seems like an everyman character and he kind of is, and usually people don't pay much attention to that, but it's perhaps the most crucial role other than The Shadow himself, because Harry's the guy who's gonna have to carry us into the adventure, he is the main character. For the moment I'm gonna say Ben Schwartz, who really impressed me by achieving the monumental task of making Sonic the Hedgehog genuinely likeable (okay, I joke, I don't actually hate Sonic, but Ben Schwartz is easily my favorite voice the character's ever had). Someone young, strong, spirited, charming, as friendly as The Shadow can be scary, but who can carry the dramatic moments and self-esteem issues Harry has to overcome.

My two picks for Margo Lane in general would be Yael Grobglas, who is one of the main reasons Jane The Virgin was worth watching (the other being Jaime Camill) and Rhea Seehorn, who so far has not gotten the shelf full of Emmys she deserves for KILLING IT in Better Call Saul. Yael is who I think of to play Margo as the high-society chameleon and con woman who crash landed in The Shadow's network, who can be both humorous and cool. Rhea is who I'd cast to play Margo as the fearless and manipulative badass with an enigmatic past who takes no shit from anyone and has a willpower that matches The Shadow's own. I guess it depends ultimately on just how much of a role Margo is going to have.

For Clyde Burke I'm not too decided but for now I'm gonna say Jack DeSena (who voiced Sokka), someone who also sounds young and high-spirited but is more energetic and funny and more of a troublemaker, to make for a contrast with Harry. For Moe Shrevnitz, I'm thinking John DiMaggio. If it was live-action I'd pick John Goodman. Simplest way I can describe the reasoning is: you want someone who's got a good "Ben Grimm" quality to them, because Shrevy does. You want someone who's rough and funny and lovable, like he's gonna get into a fight to save you and then take you out for ice cream.

For Cliff Marsland you want someone who is a bit older than Harry or Clyde, but not that old, someone who's believable as a gangster but also a good, stern friend who's got your back. He might be a little too old for the role but Clancy Brown is the one that comes to mind.For Hawkeye, I'm thinking Tom Kenny. Joe Cardona I'm thinking Steve Blum.

My version of Slade Farrow I imagine being played by John Malkovich or J.K Simmons, purposefully older than all other Agents and The Shadow himself and convincing as both a criminal mastermind as well as the humanitarian friend and mentor he ultimately is.

Haven't really decided one for Shiwan Khan or other characters yet.

#replies tag #the shadow #pulp heroes #pulp fiction #harry vincent #margo lane #clyde burke #cliff marsland #joe cardona #moe shrevnitz

[rose-tinted-juls]

juliana's comfort movies

updated: 15.06.2021.

dead poets society (1989)

main actors: robert sean leonard, ethan hawke, robin williams

short summary (imdb): "maverick teacher john keating uses poetry to embolden his boarding school students to new heights of self-expression."

why i love it (in a few words): incredible actors, loveable scenes, heartbreakingly good performance, perfectly written lines, i love robin williams, dark academia aesthetic, full of adorable (and attractive) characters

hacksaw ridge (2016)

main actors: andrew garfield, sam worthington, luke bracey, vince vaughn

short summary (imdb): "world war ii american army medic desmond t. doss, who served during the battle of okinawa, refuses to kill people, and becomes the first man in american history to receive the medal of honor without firing a shot."

why i love it (in a few words): incredible actors, ww2 movie, true story, inspiring and breathtaking, really graphic (this can be a warning as well)

little women (2019)

main actors: saoirse ronan, timothée chalamet, emma watson, florence pugh

short summary: "jo march reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the march sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms."

why i love it (in a few words): the aesthetic, so many incredible actors, i love this story (loved the novel and the original movie too), somehow it's so relatable, i absolutely adore greta gerwig

good will hunting (1997)

main actors: matt damon, robin williams, ben affleck, stellan skarsgård

short summary (imdb): "will hunting, a janitor at m.i.t., has a gift for mathematics, but needs help from a psychologist to find direction in his life."

why i love it (in a few words): i love matt and ben and i'm so impressed that they wrote this whole thing so young, inspiring, somehow relatable even though i'm not a math genius, the aesthetic, the actors' performance oh my, as i already said i absolutely adore robin williams, young matt damon looks breathtaking (sorry not sorry)

the godfather i & ii (1972, 1974)

main actors: al pacino, james caan, robert de niro, robert duvall

short summaries (imdb): "an organized crime dynasty's aging patriarch transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son." and "the early life and career of vito corleone in 1920s new york city is portrayed, while his son, michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate."

why i love it (in a few words): for some reason i have a thing for mob things, i love al pacino (phenomenal acting talent, pretty attractive), this one's a true classic, literally oldie but goldie

dunkirk (2017)

main actors: fionn whitehead, mark rylance, tom hardy, harry styles

short summary (imdb): "allied soldiers from belgium, the british commonwealth and empire, and france are surrounded by the german army and evacuated during a fierce battle in world war ii."

why i love it (in a few words): i love christopher nolan's movies, ww2 movie, perfectly written script with all the needed things, so many amazing actors and characters, the cinematography

memo (2016)

main actors: tamás lengyel, áron molnár, péter haumann

short summary (imdb): "an ambitious psychiatrist is researching a strange and unique mental state: hypermnesia, just so he could help his amnesic father. when he finds a patient with hypermnesia, he decides to take him out of the mental hospital at his own risk and study him. an unusual relationship is formed between the two men, which starts to endanger the doctor's career, his marriage and even the patient himself."

why i love it (in a few words): it's one of the few hungarian movies that i truly love, amazing actors that i love so much, such interesting story, could watch whenever and endless amount of times

back to the future i, ii & iii (1985, 1989, 1990)

main actors: michael j. fox, christopher lloyd, lea thompson

short summaries (imdb): "marty mcfly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent thirty years into the past in a time-traveling delorean invented by his close friend, the eccentric scientist doc brown." and "after visiting 2015, marty must repeat his visit to 1955 to prevent disastrous changes to 1985...without interfering with his first trip." and "stranded in 1955, marty learns about the death of doc brown in 1885 and must travel back in time to save him. with no fuel readily available for the delorean, the two must figure how to escape the old west before doc is murdered."

why i love it (in a few words): could watch endless amount of times, i love michael j. fox and christopher lloyd, they are perfect for these roles, it's funny interesting and so enjoyable, time travel

when harry met sally (1989)

main actors: billy crystal, meg ryan, carrie fisher

short summary (wikipedia): "the story follows the title characters from the time they meet in chicago just before sharing a cross-country drive, through twelve years of chance encounters in new york city. the film raises the question: can men and women ever just be friends?"

why i love it (in a few words): so much fun to watch, honestly though somehow it's so fanfic like, these two actors oh my, this is the standard of romantic movies, it set the bar to high so no romcom ever could reach it, oen of my favourite romantic movies ever

about time (2013)

main actors: domhnall gleeson, rachel mcadams, bill nighy

short summary (imdb): "at the age of 21, tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. his decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think."

why i love it (in a few words): i love domhnall and rachel SO MUCH, bill nighy is in it and he's phenomenal, this is such an interesting concept, it makes me think and try to live my life with a more positive mindset, this is my other favourite romantic movie ever, it makes me feel so happy whenever i watch it, time travel

#juliana's comfort movies #movies to rewatch whenever #movie rec #thought i'd share #maybe this list makes more people love these movies and find them comforting as well

[cuntinaclownsuit]

i realized i might have been a bit too "stern" with my statement about roeg's intentions because i don't think he ever said that directly but i listened to a TMWFTE commentary by roeg, bowie and buck henry some time ago and something he said gave me the impression that a direct book to movie adaptation wasn't his goal. the commentary also painted a pretty good picture of how he worked as a filmmaker for someone like me who isn't that familiar with his work. tbh he seemed to have interesting ideas but i still don't "get" what he was trying to do with TMWFTE. 🙈

but yeah... i don't really have much more to say about the 1976 film that you didn't say already. the only thing i somewhat disagree with is the cult movie thing. as someone who loves weird and nonsensical movies i can quite confidently say that sometimes bizarre, poorly-written seventies sci-fi is enough to be considered a cult classic. 😂 but i do get your point and i'm sure bowie had a lot to do with the movie's popularity. i sure as hell watched it solely because of bowie. i just didn't expect to get so emotionally attached to the story and characters. of the novel i mean. i'm ready to yeet almost everyone in the movie out of the window.

but all in all i don’t really have that strong negative/positive feelings about the film. if i compare it to the novel it’s a mess but if i watch it just for the aesthetics and unintentional comedy it’s alright. i mean candy clark's overacting paired with bowie’s ”nonacting” is very funny to me for some reason.

i just really really really wish someone would make an accurate film adaptation of the novel. is that really too much to ask??? there's two movies and one series already you'd think that someone is bound to get it right at some point even by accident.

oh my god this ask is turning into a whole-ass book again and i still have so many things to say. i'm sorry you can honestly tell me to shut up or just stop replying to me if this gets annoying. i promise i won't be offended!

i had to google kodi smit-mcphee because i had no idea who he is (although apparently he won a golden globe at some point lol) but i think he'd be an excellent choice for the role of thomas jerome newton. i also liked your idea of focusing on the anthean culture more. i really loved how the book described newton's thoughts and feelings and all the information about his home planet and way of life gives a deeper understanding of where he's coming from. literally and figuratively.

btw i watched the trailer for the new TMWFTE series and i think it's meant to be a sequel of some sort?? i looked at the cast and it had chiwetel ejiofor listed as "the alien" and bill nighy as thomas jerome newton and in the trailer bill nighy says "i brought you here to finnish what i started" so the series seem to take place after what happened in the book. i could be wrong but if i'm not it completely changes my mind about the series. i'm still a bit disappointed but a sequel is far better option than another inaccurate screen adaptation of TMWFTE imo. visually the series look good to me. the only thing that i'm not too crazy about is the heavy use of CGI in some parts because 1. my eyeballs are sick of it already and 2. it tends to age fast and poorly. but i guess it can be cool if it's used tastefully.

okay i thought i was finally done but there's one more thing i need to say. 😂😂 the reason why i like the idea of a sequel is that there's more room for creativity with less of a chance to completely fuck up the original story line. BUT it is still possible to mess something up and i think i already spotted a potential problem in the trailer but i think i'm just gonna keep it to myself because it might be explained in the series so i'm not gonna jump to conclusions just based on a trailer.

ok now i'm done.

Don't worry about book-length asks, I'm enjoying this conversation thoroughly! I've been a fan of the novel for almost five years now and I've never had anyone to talk with about it before.

And you're right about the cult movie thing - I didn't think of that. It probably wouldn't have been as iconic without Bowie, but it certainly still could have been. It's definitely strange enough, and I understand having an affinity for those kinds of movies, because I do to (just not that one 😂) . Like you said though, I wouldn't have watched it, read it, or probably even heard of it if Bowie wasn't in it.

I didn't pick up on the new one possibly being a sequel. You're right, I think that has a lot of potential to be considerably better than another inaccurate adaptation. And it's interesting, because David Bowie himself pretty much wrote a fanfic sequel to TMWFTE, the play Lazarus from 2015. I watched that play last year, and although I thought all the actors were great, the singing was great, and it was really fun to watch, I honestly did not understand what was happening most of the time. If the new adaptation is a sequel it will be neat to compare the two. And yeah, the CGI could definitely be toned down. I really hope we reach a point where filmmakers used a mix of CGI and practical effects, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope for that. Anyway, knowing it might be a sequel and not an adaptation, I think I'll probably give it a try when it comes out.

Also, one last thing I wanted to point out: in my last ranting I was a bit too harsh on the screenwriter for the original movie. The dude's name is Paul Mayersberg and I want to say, for fairness sake, that he also co-wrote the screenplay of another Bowie movie, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, with Nagisa Ōshima (the director) and that is a FANTASTIC movie. It's also based off of a book called The Seed And The Sower by Laurens van der Post. I haven't read it so idk about accuracy but it's still a great movie and I've got to give him credit for that after I continuously insulted his writing in the last post 😂

#the man who fell to earth #david bowie

[night-unfurls-its-splendour]

The Critique of Manners Part IV

~Or~

A Very Amused Review of Emma (1972)

One doesn’t really know where to begin with this one. I’ve watched a few of these 70’s/80’s period drama adaptations, but I’ve never written a review for one. I think the tricky thing is it doesn’t feel fair to judge them against more recent adaptations because the approach and quality are so very different to modern television making.

But people do. I’m sure it’s different for people who grew up watching these, who are just used to them and their objectively terrible, stagey quality and can look past that particular weakness on the sheer power of nostalgia.

So I’m going to try and find a middle-ground here where I ignore the stagey and obviously dated aspects and judge it primarily on its value as an adaptation – is it faithful to the book?

Let’s dive in.

Cast & Characterization

Normally I would start with Emma and Knightley but this time I’m gonna switch it up a bit and do them last because… well we’ll get there in a bit.

Let’s start instead with Mr. Woodhouse. I have to say, I kind of like this take. The 1996-7 and 2009 adaptations all kind of went for the same type of older man: a bit stout, or in Michael Gambon’s case… however you would describe Michael Gambon. With Donald Eccles, however, this version goes for a rather more frail looking Mr. Woodhouse; in fact to compare him to any recent Mr. Woodhouse, I suppose he comes closest to Bill Nighy (although the general characterization is of course very different.)  He’s a ridiculous but lovable soul who seems always, of course, worried about his own health and comfort, but in his own selfish way, concerned for his friends and family as well. My only complaint is that maybe they over-utilized him.

I thought the casting of a plump Mrs. Weston (Ellen Dryden) was an interesting choice, and definitely different from other versions. Her acting was actually really good too.

I wasn’t quite so pleased with the characterization of Mr. Weston, on the other hand. I have huge issues with this script vis-à-vis the men, but Mr. Weston and Knightley in particular. The problem with Mr. Weston is how he’s written as just verging on uncouth at some points. There are way too many rustic contractions here: “Ain’t I looking well too, Miss Emma?!’ “’Ark at that eh? The sly young rogue!” “Oh I think it looks tolerably gay and festive, don’t it?” and then just throwing himself back on the grass and chortling when Emma makes her fateful Box Hill faux pas? Like, what the hell? I’m not saying he shouldn’t use a few casual contractions (“How d’you do?” for example) but he seems almost like a positive country bumpkin and I don’t think it’s appropriate; he doesn’t talk like that in the book and I’m just all-around not here for it.

Constance Chapman, a well-respected character actress of the time was cast as Miss Bates, while Molly Sugden, of Are You Being Served? fame was WASTED in the bit-part of Mrs. Goddard. If you ask me, they should have swapped this casting, since I think Sugden, an outstanding comedienne, could have done so much more with the Miss Bates role than the usual wittery-old-lady style chattering Chapman delivered.

Mr. Elton was played by Timothy Peters (Right) and was, eh, adequate. They did slime him up a bit by having him over-eagerly offer to fix Emma’s bootlace, which she points out isn’t entirely appropriate for a man to do, especially the vicar and it’s pretty funny; but other than that, he has all the appearance of being a pleasant young man, as Mr. Elton should – becoming less pleasant as the story progresses.

One John Alkin (left) played Mr. Robert Martin, and he, too, was adequate. There’s not much of him and, since Mr. Martin wasn’t one of those characters this version decided to approach more three-dimensionally, there’s not much to say about him. 

Frank Churchill is… OMG IT’S PRINCE HARRY FROM BLACKADDER!

Ahem. Yes, Robert East (BETTER KNOWN AS PRINCE HARRY FROM BLACKADDER) plays a very agreeable (and smarmy, but not too smarmy) Frank. I think honestly this is as good as this part could get in the 70’s, although at 29 he was a little too old for the part.

John and Isabella, in an interesting (?) casting choice, were played by brother and sister duo, Yves and Belinda Tighe. I actually really liked Yves’s John Knightley (he’s actually one of the more handsome John’s, in a 70’s kind of way; for note-taking purposes I have nicknamed him “Not-Harrison-Ford”), but his sister as Isabella seemed kind of old and had just a really annoying voice. Also she doesn’t look at all like Doran Godwin, and Emma and Isabella are supposed to look somewhat alike.

The real casting stand out for me in this version is Fiona Walker as Mrs. Elton, although she too was a little old for her role, I’ve said before that there are no bad Mrs. Eltons (only bad accents) and she just absolutely nailed the insufferable chatter to a definitive standard (until the recent adaptations – 2009 onward).

I did however, get the feeling in this version that they kind of wrote in a through-line where Mrs. Elton is putting the moves on Mr. Knightley (to the point where they actually wrote out Mr. Elton from scenes he should be in) which was one of those unnecessary deviations which made me raise an eyebrow and also was just… weird.

Now my question is – why do all of the young women in this series kind of look like evil dolls?

Debbie Bowen, from a strictly book accuracy perspective is one of the most accurate Harriet Smiths I’ve seen – in fact we don’t get another this accurate (to my way of thinking) until Louise Dylan in 2009, who fits roughly the same model (fair and shapely). Its Bowen’s acting I don’t like, but I know that in the 70’s, this kind of simpering acting for this kind of character was just unavoidable. It was the style at the time, so I’m cutting her a break critically; but the performance just doesn’t cut it for me.

This Jane Fairfax (played by Ania Marson) is not my favorite interpretation of this character. At first I thought she was going to be alright, but in her first scene she bursts out and actually shouts in frustration at her chattering aunt (which she has some basis for, I’ll admit, since Miss Bates, in her muddle-headed way, could very well have unwittingly spilled the beans about Jane and Frank) but this is far more feeling than we should even have a hint of from Jane at this point. The whole reason Emma doesn’t like Jane (other than the fact that Emma is an attention whore and Jane steals her thunder by being so admired and accomplished) is because she’s timid and demure and reserved.

But the biggest problem I have with this Jane is that she can’t even fucking sing. I know they write it away as her having a sore throat (Which I think is a pull from a different part of the book?) but this was just egregiously bad to me. This is the only time in the series they show Jane singing so it’s never actually established that Jane really is more accomplished than Emma (although they don’t show Emma herself singing or even playing at all either.) Could the actresses just not sing well so they decided to write around it? You could have dubbed it; you had that technology in the 70’s!

OK. Now it’s time to talk about Doran Godwin. I’ve never seen her in anything else so I don’t know if it’s just that she can’t act, but I have no idea what she was going for with this portrayal of Emma, and this is something so consistent and unique to her that I, for once, can’t justify blaming it solely on the director because you can’t direct crazy-eyes. They just happen; and they happen A LOT in this series.

I’ve struggled to find the words to sufficiently describe my feeling about Doran Godwin’s facial expressions and her acting in this adaptation. In my ribbon rating notes I think I describe her as a “witchy automaton”? I stand by it. Every time she talks to someone her eyes go very wide and she sort of looks like she’s trying to hypnotize everyone in Highbury. The effect is just absolutely inhuman. I never thought I’d ever see anyone with more patently crazed Crazy-Eyes than Timothy “Crazy-Eyes” Dalton – but man, Doran “Hypno-Witch” Godwin just stole the prize. Perhaps she escaped from the set of a Doctor Who? telling of the story where Miss Woodhouse has been replaced by an android.

You have scenes such as this in episode 2 , where Harriet is trying to get Emma to acknowledge Mr. Elton calling after them as they walk past the vicarage, and Emma ignores her by mechanically continuing to talk, looking straight ahead with laser focus. Of course, Emma is intentionally ignoring Harriet because she wants Mr. Elton to follow them, but that wasn’t quite apparent to me until the end of her ramble – which I had assumed she was forced to complete due to some directive in her programming. I have more to say on her characterization, but we’ll get to that in a dedicated section of the review.

John Carson might actually be one of the better Knightley’s, but I’m sorry – at 45 he was just too old. This is something you can play around with in other characters (Mr. Weston and Miss Bates after all, have no stated ages in the book) but not only do we know how old Mr. Knightley is in the book, they state in the show that Emma is 21 (Doran Godwin was actually 28) and that Mr. Knightley is sixteen years older than her – 37 or 38 – and John Carson is CLEARLY no 38. This obviously-over-forty appearance does have an effect on how I view his banter with Emma, and it’s more avuncular than the older-brother feel that Mr. Knightley and Emma should have.

Whether by direction or actor’s choice, Carson’s Mr. Knightley speaks in a way that just doesn’t feel period to me. He has a very sort of 20th Century, stock British, hearty-good-fellow manner, that dates this adaptation pretty badly and feels old-fashioned (but not in a Regency/Georgian way) even in the 70’s.

Sets & Surroundings

Normally at this point in the review I would talk about the British manor houses and estates used and how they measure up to the book descriptions but the publicly funded BBC ran on a much tighter budget in the 70’s (apparent in the production values and number of obviously bad takes that they just decided to leave in, in everything they made) and as such they couldn’t afford to film in and rent out large estates quite as much, so this has the trademark 70’s/80’s BBC sound-stage quality of all of their other productions of the period. That said, this production actually has some of the better sets I’ve seen and that’s saying something, for being made in the 70’s. The walls didn’t actually shake when doors were closed, and it didn’t feel as stagey as some other Austen serials of the time. (This doesn’t improve the very “on-cue” acting in the series, but I have to give credit where it’s due.) I believe they may used a real manor house for the exterior of Hartfield (and not a landscape pastel) and maybe some of the interiors too? I can’t say for sure, and I would love to tell you what house and where it is but I can’t find any credits on it. I’ll just say that I think it’s very suitable and leave it at that.

Costumes

Much like today, the BBC almost exclusively used, re-used and rented costumes for their period productions. Almost every costume in this series was also used in the 70’s and 80’s BBC productions of Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Pride and Prejudice (P&P being the overwhelming common denominator – almost every one of Emma’s evening dresses and pelisses was seen, primarily on Caroline Bingley.) Some of the shawls have been picked out in BBC Austens as recently as 2008.

For being made in the 70’s the costumes in this production are really kind of nice. They don’t date themselves too badly. The ones that do feel 70’s retro, in fact, were mostly styles borrowed from period accurate fashions that just happened to coincide with contemporary 70’s tastes, and which aren’t often used in Regency costumes today because, well they don’t coincide with our modern tastes. For the most part, they look well-made (although some of them do have that stiff, dingy polyester look to them and there are definitely some plastic pearls here and there).

I’m quite pleased with the silhouettes which don’t suffer from Square Bust/Boob Droop syndrome the way the 1980 P&P does. All of the assets seem to be lifted and shifted in the right places.

Daywear

I like Emma’s blue day dress the best of all her day-wear looks. It’s a rich color and has pleated cups (Also on her white day dress) which is a style I really love.

Emma wears the gauzy… let’s be kind and say ivory instead of “Yellowish” ruff during the day A LOT (Emma Pic 2). It’s a popular look on Jane Fairfax too (Jane Pic 2) and I just… I don’t like it. Not that it’s not period appropriate (because it unfortunately is) it just makes them look like Dr. Seuss characters to me, especially worn with short sleeves which is something these dramas do a lot and I hate it. It just makes the person in question look very awkwardly disproportionate to me, especially because. if they had long sleeves to go with it (which would be more correct from a historical authenticity standpoint) it would even it out so much better. Compare Jane and Emma to see what I mean. The single layer ruffle (Emma Pic 1) is much more agreeable to me. (I wanna point out that Jane wears the same green dress without any partlet or undersleeves for strawberry picking at Donwell, which is blatant Eveningwear-For-Daywear™ and looked really out of place since everyone else was wearing day-appropriate attire).

Emma’s wider, cuffed, long sleeves and Mrs. Elton’s puffy segmented Renaissance sleeves are exactly what I mean about period accurate styles that suit the 70’s in a way that they just don’t jive today. Even Harriet gets some.

Mrs. Elton Orange ™ is another crayon color Crayola should consider I think.

Harriet gets stuck with a lot of brown outer wear but her day clothes are otherwise pretty nice. I especially like the ivory and blue number (Bottom right) and her white day dress with blue accents (Top right) which I think is the nicest thing she wears in this whole series. 

Evening Wear

Emma’s evening wear confines itself pretty exclusively to cool purples and blues except for her white ball gown. I find this interesting because other versions tend to dress Emma in warmer colors and pinks (As I’m very partial to purples and blues, I love all of them). I can’t say it’s inconsistent with Emma’s cold characterization in this version. Mrs. Weston’s evening gowns are uniformly amazing. I especially love her blue party dress, which is my favorite in the series.

Both of Harriet’s party dresses are characteristically pretty and girlish. The pink is a bit fussy for me but I love the blue one (which has a lot more detail but I couldn’t get a full length shot of it.)

I’m pleased that Jane is given a bit of a break from the Jane Fairfax Blue ™ trope with her evening wear. She has one light blue evening gown and gets a few green numbers, most notable being her mint ball gown. Her beige party dress is absolutely tragic though.

Mrs. Elton’s evening color seems to be chartreuse (Which I think was also the case in the ITV version? ITV fans back me up.) Her black overlay/spiky number is iconic of the Austen Bad Girl, but her ball gown is a bit disappointing in its simplicity to me.

I would love to have seen a full length shot of Isabella’s black and purple number because I have a suspicion THAT would have been my favorite but I just can’t make out enough detail on it.

Zig-zag patterns on the skirt are a huge theme in this version, which is so of the period. Mrs. Cole (shout out to another future Are You Being Served? familiar, Hilda Fenemore) looks straight out of a fashion plate in her dark green party dress, which has (drumroll please…) a padded hem! 

Outerwear

This version has SO MANY PELISSES AND REDINGOTES. Are they all nice? No. No they are not; I particularly hate Emma’s fugly salmon number that she wears for Strawberry picking/Box Hill. Mostly because she looks SO over-dressed compared to everyone else who’s wearing loose fitting light clothes (except Jane, who’s wearing an evening dress). Just looking at her makes me hot. I’m also NOT a huge fan of her pink winter cloak. The one trimmed with… faux ermine? One can only assume. It looks awfully tacky.

That russet pelisse tho! This is one of my all-time favorites. It’s SO. PRETTY and so detailed (See this number on Jane in P&P ’80). I think her gray fur-trimmed pelisse is pretty fabulous too, but I do not like the hat she wears with it. The brim is kind of a funky shape to me.

I know I’ve criticized brown before, but I do like it in moderation and this version is astonishingly brown-free for being made in the 70’s, so I really like her red/brown velvet spencer, especially with the cream dress and gloves, and her hat has some amazing decoration.

Jane and Mrs. Weston are the only other characters who get pelisses/redingotes. I’m not a fan of Mrs. Weston’s fuchsia number, and while I like Jane’s, it does put itself solidly in the Jane Fairfax Blue™ category.  

Harriet gets pretty much only one form of outer-wear, her brown school cloak (a different brown school cloak from the one in the ‘97 version, in case you were wondering) and while it’s pretty dull, it’s hardly unexpected. Here it is paired with her rather ugly blue bonnet, with yellow ribbon. The bonnet features heavily in this episode.

To be honest for the most part I totally forgot about the… 

because a lot of it is very standard. No dandy standouts here, but overall it’s pretty okay and I’m really pleased to say that there are no bib-cravats. That’s not usually so much a problem in Regency Era stuff (Since ruffles were going out at around this time), but you can really distinctly see that the ruffles (where ruffles there are – usually on older men which is good) are part of the shirt and distinctly separate from the cravat. Also there are LOTS of high collars and they’re not comically high to the point where they get wrinkled, like they were in Emma. (2020), so points for that also. These are the screencaps I gathered going back over it for posterity.

Mr. Knightley doesn’t really get a lot of cool outfits. His best is his purple velvet evening jacket which somehow manages to not look ostentatious (but is his only dress jacket), and his gold-topped Prussian boots (which you should just be able to see bottom right.) The worst though… I’m sorry, (looks up costumer’s name) Joan Ellacott – do you really expect me to feel the weight of Emma’s cock-ups when Mr. Knightley is rebuking her in such a cartoonishly proportioned top hat? It’s like being scolded by the Mad Hatter. All of the men’s hats are pretty flared in this series too, and I’m not totally sure but, I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that flared top hats are not right for this period?

I think Mr. Weston only has one day outfit (which, in keeping with his characterization is pretty farmer-chic) and one evening outfit. Frank’s dark green day-jacket is a pretty standard look on him and I don’t think we get a fresh look until his fabulous blue jacket/yellow waistcoat combo that he wears for Strawberry Picking/Box Hill. I believe his evening jacket is also dark green but it was tough to tell. Again I think he has only one set of evening-wear. I would expect Frank to have more, since he’s such a dandy.

Mr. John Knightley doesn’t have much to write home about in terms of evening kit, but DAYUM, his blue traveling coat is DOOOOOPE. 

Let’s Talk Script

This adaptation was directed by John Glenister and Dramatized by Denis Constanduros.

Now I’ve seen a lot of positive reviews for this on IMDB calling it the… let’s see here… “The best Emma I’ve ever seen” and “The most true to the novel”… *Takes off spectacles and sighs heavily* I’m afraid I have to disagree. Several people also really love Doran Godwin’s Emma (We’ve already gone over why I don’t, and I have also seen reviews that name her and her lack of charisma as the main sticking point preventing them from really enjoying it, so I’m not alone). I’ve also heard it described as “sensitively handled” “Intimate” and “The most faithful to the spirit of Austen” and so forth, and again maybe it’s that prejudice against the stagey production and… no there’s definitely some other reason I have a problem with this version.

Let me make this clear – I don’t totally hate it, and I’m not here to shame the people who really love this version. Once again – if this version gives you what you want from the story I think that’s great for you. I, myself, like it pretty well and I think it’s one of the better early BBC Austen serials. It’s certainly not boring; but I do want to go over some of the changes that were made and choices in the script.

Some of them aren’t really that egregious, but they’re annoying in that I think they didn’t need to be made and don’t really add anything. Characters being added to scenes where they didn’t need to be and written out of scenes where their presence was missed. Like writing Mr. Elton out of Box Hill (And really the whole second half of the series, to facilitate Mrs. Elton flirting with Knightley), and adding Miss Bates into the after-dinner scene, I think at the Randalls Christmas party? I’m sure this was done for expediency but you have six episodes. It’s not as though you’re strapped for time.

Particularly praised, as far as I’ve seen, is the scene at Christmas when Knightley and Emma make up after their argument over Harriet. It takes place in the nursery, which I suppose isn’t an unreasonable place for Emma to be fawning over her niece (in the dramatization she seems to have been feeding the baby, where in the book she is playing with her). The book doesn’t specify where the scene takes place, although I assumed it to be a downstairs room, and I’m not sure that it’s entirely appropriate for Emma and a man (even one connected to her family through marriage) to be alone in an upstairs room together with the door closed and no more chaperone than a baby. But in spite of this, perhaps inappropriate, level of privacy, the scene feels less intimate to me than the book, where in the course of the conversation, where Mr. Knightley takes the baby from Emma “in the manner of perfect amity” and holds her himself and it is very adorable and sweet. In the dramatization, Knightley sort of just stands next to Emma’s chair and leans down a bit. After this conversation in the book, John comes into the room to talk to George, while in the show Emma puts the baby in the cradle and they leave the room to go downstairs.

But there are more outstanding changes that just feel wrong to me. When confronting Emma about her meddling in Harriet’s response to Mr. Martin’s proposal, Constanduros changes “What is the foolish girl about?” to “What is the stupid girl about?” it’s not that big a change, but it makes Mr. Knightley sound unnecessarily mean.

I’ve already mentioned the, er, additions regarding Mr. Weston’s dialogue and Mrs. Elton, and Jane shouting at Miss Bates; but by far the biggest, worst additions were made with Emma. The worst, I think, is the handling of this scene in Episode 4 when Harriet is feeling heartsick following Mr. Elton’s marriage.

And for those of you who don’t wanna follow the link, here’s a transcription:

Emma: Now Harriet! Your allowing yourself to become so upset over Mr. Elton’s marriage is the strongest possible reproach you could make to me!

Harriet: Miss Woodhouse –

Emma: Yes it is! You could not more constantly remind me of the mistake I made, which is most hurtful!

Harriet: Oh Miss Woodhouse, it was not intended to be!

Emma: I have not said “think and talk less of Mr. Elton” for my sake, Harriet, because it is for yours I wish it. My being hurt is a very… secondary consideration, but please, please Harriet, do learn to exert a little more self-discipline in this matter.

Harriet: {Looks down} Yes, Miss Woodhouse.

Emma: We are all creatures of feeling; we all suffer disappointments, it is how we learn to suffer them that forms our character. If you continue in this way, Harriet, I shall think you wanting in true friendship for me!  

Harriet: Oh, Miss Woodhouse! You, who are the best friend I’ve ever had? Oh what a horrid, horrid wretch I’ve been!”

Emma: Oh now Harriet – (She’s gonna console her now, right?)

Harriet: Oh yes, I have, I have!

Emma: Harriet, control yourself! (ha ha bitch, u thought) Now, you will tie your bonnet, and you are coming with me to call on Mr. And Mrs. Elton at the Vicarage…

Harriet: Oh, Miss Woodhouse –

Emma: Yes you are! And I’m sure you will find it far less distressing than you think.

Harriet: Oh, Miss Woodhouse, must I?

Emma: Yes, Harriet; but you may borrow my lace ruff if you wish.

Harriet: Oh may I, Miss Woodhouse? Oh, thank you!

(Look how evil she looks! She looks like she’s planning on baking Harriet into a pie!)

While this scene is in the book and much of the dialogue is also from the book, it’s the lines that were added that stick out to me. Emma does tell Harriet that her allowing herself to become upset over the Eltons is a reproach on Emma more than anything else and reminds her miserably of the “Mistake [Emma] fell into” but from this point, the script takes a left turn from the firm but kind appeal to Harriet to move on for both her happiness and Emma’s own comfort, to a far more manipulative strain.

Even after Harriet apologizes, she goes from simply appealing to Harriet to let herself move on, to basically telling her that she’s a bad friend. She treats Harriet like she’s unreasonable for feeling this way, where in the book Emma is very understanding and feels that “she could not do too much for her; that Harriet had every right to all her ingenuity and patience…” and only after Harriet goes all afternoon with Emma soothing her and no improvement in her spirits does Emma take any kind of reproachful tack whatsoever.

    In this scene, Emma says that her own happiness is a secondary consideration (this is stressed much more in the book) but from the way she says it, it seems more like she just wants Harriet to shut up about it rather than actually meaning it. (This is a very prominent example of Emma’s not seeming to really like Harriet at all in this version, only tolerating her presence.)

AND THEN she does something which Emma in the book most certainly did NOT do and forces Harriet to come with her to visit the Eltons, as if to put her on the spot and test how good a little friend she will be. I can’t express how disgusted I am by the changes and interpretation here. This is the culmination of the general through-line of Emma’s manipulative characterization being taken to an extreme. She looms over Harriet sounding, by turns, like a school marm and a saccharine nanny. She’s like a (very) low budget version of Tilda Swinton as the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia. 

My question about all of these changes is simply: Why? They don’t improve the story or the characters. They’re not big, but a lot of them just strike me as weird and unnecessary, but I guess there’s no accounting for artistic license.  

Final Thoughts

So is it a faithful adaptation? I often find this a more complex question to answer for myself than one would think, since inflection and line delivery and even, at some points, intention behind what the characters say tends to be up to the interpretation of the person reading the book.

Is the dialogue faithful? Other than the many changes I’ve mentioned (and the numerous cuts and edits I didn’t – and besides no screenplay can be 100% faithful), for the most part yes.

Are the characters accurate to description / faithful in their portrayal – again this tends to be subjective and opinions vary. In my opinion, Emma is not. I’ve mentioned that Knightley is too old, and Emma not only seems more intentionally manipulative than I believe she’s meant to be, and also just does not seem 21. She acts and looks like a much older woman, especially when preaching at Harriet) but she’s also very gawky, and Emma is supposed to look very healthy and glowing.

So my book accuracy rating meets in the middle at a 4.5. It’s NOT the most faithful adaptation I’ve seen, nor is it the most fun or the most intimate, but it’s not totally a travesty either and there are good things in it, even with a robot witch playing the main lead.

Ribbon Rating: Tolerable (43 Ribbons )

Tone: 4

Casting: 5 (Witchy automaton Doran Goodwin plays opposite avuncular good-fellow John Carson. Fiona Walker stands out as Mrs. Elton.)

Acting: 5 (Doran Goodwin is by turns crazed and mechanical with some momentary touches of what might be actual emotion. Raymond Adamson way over-acts Mr. Weston as a hobbeldy-hoi, verging on uncouth.)

Scripting: 4

Pacing: 4

Cinematography: 4 (A bump up from the usual 1 or 2 for TV dramas of the time. Surprisingly less stagey than expected.)

Sets and Settings: 5

Costumes: 7 (Very clearly of the 70’s but drawing on perfectly accurate styles that jived well with contemporary taste)

Music: 1 (Plinky, poorly played piano music. Only used for intro and outro I think? Jane Fairfax can neither play nor sing.)

Book Accuracy: 5 (They changed a lot of small details. Lines are changed unnecessarily (Calling Harriet “Stupid” rather than “Foolish” – Why?) Mrs. Elton seems to have a thing for Knightley? People present when they shouldn’t be, others absent when they should be present, again without any apparent reason.)

#jane austen emma #jane austen #regency #period drama #costume drama #emma 1972

[someguynamedstevewrites]

My Roommate is an Apparition: WHAT A HORRIBLE NIGHT TO HAVE A DAD - Part 1

Based on characters created by @reddpenn

————————————-

It was Saturday afternoon and Lily was dancing around in a baggy shirt, baggy sweatpants, socks, and jamming out to Michael Jackson’s Thriller; blasting it out from her computer’s speakers.  She had been vacuuming the floor, washing dishes, gathering trash, and doing other reasonable adult chores with a spring in her step.  Lily was feeling fantastic and even if someone told her that her car had been towed and had a $300 fine, she wouldn’t have cared and continue to dance.

She was, to put it bluntly: hyped.  

Something she had been looking forward to for a very long time was coming and Lily could not contain her glee.  On the wall, her calendar had a big red circle around March 7th: the upcoming Thursday.  In the pantry were a wide variety of snacks, munchies, treats, and goodies (some of them were leftover from the Pink Panther marathon a few weeks back, but were never opened, so they were still good).  Visions of possible ways to decorate the apartment to celebrate floated through her head as her heart beat with excitement.  To most others, this Thursday wasn’t anything particularly special, but In about six days...

...Castlevania Season Three was going to premiere on Netflix.

————————————-

As Lily danced while she worked, a pair of eyes were watching from the walls.  Lily knew they were there, but didn’t mind, since she knew those eyes belonged to her apparition roommate.  Their name was “Tulpa” (since that’s what they said it was when Lily asked) and recently, Lily had begun addressing them by name as opposed to simply “Roommate” or “Roomie”.

“Hey Tulpa!” Lily called out to the pair of eyeballs embedded into the wall, “Hope you don’t mind the music!”

Materializing from the wall, the nose-less, ear-less, long haired, spiky-toothed being moved closer and stared at their roommate doing the “Boogie of Unreachable Back Itch” with a puzzled look on their face.  The apparition couldn’t remember the last time they ever saw Lily look this happy.  Usually, she wasn’t nearly this energetic on her days off when doing chores, so something good must have happened.

“Why... are you... dancing?” Tulpa asked quietly in their trademark raspy voice.  Unfortunately, they were too quiet since Lily didn’t hear a word they said over the music coming from the computer.

“Lily...”  her roommate called out slightly louder, “Why... are you... dancing!?”

Once again, Lily couldn’t hear a thing and her ghostly roommate was starting to get annoyed.  They needed to do something to get her attention, and in a way that didn’t disturb the neighbors, frighten Lily, or result in something breaking.  (The two of them had a very long chat about it after “The Pink-ening” back in February.)  Eyeing Lily’s computer, Tulpa got an idea and hovered over to it.

One quick YouTube search was all it took to change the music to something Tulpa was more... familiar with.

“IN THE HEART OF TRANSYLVANIA!

IN THE VAMPIRE HALL OF FAME, YEAH!

THERE’S NOT A VAMPIRE ZANIER THAN

DUCKULAAAAAAA!!!”

*click*

————————————-

Lily stopped the music and looked at Tulpa with a half-smile on her face.  “You rang?” she said jokingly.

“Why... are you... dancing?” asked Tulpa.

Lily chuckled to herself, “I’m glad you asked!” she said joyfully, “One of my favorite shows has a new season premiering this Thursday!  Castlevania!”

“Castle... vania?” Tulpa asked inquisitively.  Despite being an apparition with no physical organs or body parts, they did have a memory, and something about that name seemed familiar.  Almost reflexively, Tulpa said, “Simon... Belmont?”

Lily raised an eyebrow and looked at her surprisingly knowledgeable roommate.  “You know about Simon Belmont!?”

“Mega... Man...” Tulpa continued, “Kid... Icarus...”

Lily was going to ask what Tulpa was talking about when her phone began to ring.  Walking over, she picked up her smartphone and answered knowing exactly who it was on the other end.  From the phone came a baritone voice that could best be described as “Overly Hammy”.

“YOOOOUUUUU HAVE MET WITH A TERRIBLE FAAAATE!  A GREAT CUUUUUUURSE HAS BEEN PUT UPON YOOOOOUUUUU!  OOOOOooooooooooo!”

“Hi Dad,” Lily answered with a smile.

“Hey sweetie!” came a cheerful voice over the phone, “Looking forward to this Thursday!?”

“You bet I am!” beamed Lily, “Did you hear they cast Bill Nighy to play Saint Germain!?”

“I did!” her father beamed back.  

————————————-

As father and daughter chit-chatted on the phone, Tulpa looked over Lily’s shoulder with a slight look of envy.  They could see how happy Lily was on the phone talking with her family.  Tulpa, however, hadn’t used a phone in a very long time, and they were kind of amazed at how far phones had come.  Any phone that let someone watch cartoons on it was the best phone ever in their book.  Deep down, they wished they had one of their own.  The apparition gave a breathless, wistful sigh as it watched Lily talk, but then Lily’s face was suddenly no longer smiling.

————————————-

“What do you mean THIS weekend?” she asked over the phone.

“Well I did say I was coming over the first weekend of March, didn’t I?”

“Yeah!  March 7th and 8th, right!?” Lily asked starting to feel a little panicked now.

“Noooo...” her Dad trailed off, “I was talking about this weekend.”

“Dad!  This is not the first weekend of March!  It’s the last weekend of February!” Lily said with exasperation,

“Tomorrow’s March 1st, and a Sunday, right?” her Dad pleaded his case.

“Yeah!  But the first weekend of any month usually means the first FULL weekend of any month!  It doesn’t count if it’s half-and-half!” Lily stated as a sinking feeling began to form in her gut.

She could hear her Dad shrug over the phone, “Oh well, my mistake then.”

“YEAH!” said Lily, “I don’t even have the place cleaned up yet.  I’m not ready to have company over!”  Her roommate noticed that Lily was looking at them when they said that.

“Honey, you know I don’t care if the place is cleaned up or not,” her father said.

“I DO!” Lily almost shouted. 

Despite her protesting, the apartment was actually looking good that Saturday.  The vacuuming was finished, dishes were being washed in the dishwasher, trash had been taken out, the display cases for her rock collection had been dusted off, and the apartment was, for all intents and purposes, presentable.  The real problem was that Lily hadn’t gone over her Dad’s visit with Tulpa yet to  make sure they understood how to behave themselves.

“Look,” Lily began to beg, “Could you just stop by and visit next weekend?  It’d work a lot better for me.”

“Yyyyyyeeeaaahhhh...” her Dad said while trailing off, “...about that...”  As soon as he finished saying the word “about”, Lily began to feel a little nauseous as she whipped around to look at the front door.  Beads of sweat were starting to form on her forehead as the dreaded noise she feared most came from her front door.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

————————————-

Lily practically dropped the phone as her pupils shrank and panic began to set in.  She turned to her roommate, and tried to grab their hand.  Unfortunately, given Tulpa’s natural state of transparency, Lily’s hand went right through theirs.  Realizing that wasn’t going to work, Lily began to frantically move her arms and make gestures to get Tulpa to hide.

Tulpa, meanwhile, wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but picked up on Lily’s gestures and went into one of the bedrooms.  Lily then closed the door and walked quickly over to the front door.  She opened it up, and just as she suspected, there was her Dad standing right outside with his phone up to his ear.

“Hey, Hey, Hey!” he said with a smile, “Guess who’s here!”

Lily had to use every muscle she had to contort her face into a forced smile, “D-D-Dad!  Hi!”  There was no mistake that it was him.  There were very few people who would consider a T-shirt that had an 8-bit pixel sprite with the caption “Uncle Vlad’s Wall Chicken” on it as “casual going out” clothes.  It was a Christmas gift she had gotten him a few months earlier, and while she was glad to know it fit him okay, seeing him out and about in it was somehow incredibly embarrassing.

“May I come in?” he asked politely.

“Uhhhhh...”  Lily stammered, “C-Could you give me a second.  I just, ummm...” she trailed off while trying to think of an excuse, “...need to pick up some laundry off the floor.  Yeah.  Don’t want you stepping on any... underwear or socks or anything!”  Lily’s laundry had already been cleaned, folded, and put away, including the towels in the linen closet, but her Dad didn’t know that, and she was banking on it.

“Sure!” her Dad agreed, “I did kind of drop in unannounced.”

“THANKS DAD!” Lily again almost hollered as she had to hold herself back from slamming the door when she closed it.  She immediately ran to the room where Tulpa was and looked her square in the eyes.  “Okay,” she began, “I know this is sudden, but my DAD is here!  I’m going to need you to be on your BEST behavior while he’s here, okay?”

Tulpa blinked and looked at Lily with their usual vacant expression on their face.  “...why?”  

“BECAUSE... Because...” Lily trailed off as she tried to think of a good reason.  Tulpa couldn’t be seen by anyone other than her, and she wasn’t entirely sure if other people could hear Tulpa either.  But her ethereal roommate was somehow able to make the entire apartment pink last month all the way down to the toilet paper, and could hold and carry things in their ghost-like hands.  “...I don’t want to scare him off!” was the best excuse Lily could think of off the top of her head.

Tulpa nodded, “...okay...” she said.  Lily detected a hint of them sounding disappointed, but she’d find a way to make it up to them later.

“I’ll make it up to you later!”

[See? Told yah!]

Tulpa wasn’t entirely sure why Lily was acting so strange all of a sudden.  She was acting as though her Dad would be able to see them even though they both knew that wasn’t possible.  Despite this, Lily still seemed uncomfortable with the whole situation, and not wanting to trouble their friend, Tulpa nodded.

Lily followed up with a quick, “Thank you!” before turning around to dash to the front door.

————————————-

Opening the door again, Lily gestured to her father to come on in, “Make yourself at home!” she said like she knew full well just how cliche it was to say.

“Don’t mind if I do,” her Dad said with a smile as he walked in.  It was then that Lily noticed the backpack he had on.  She recognized it as the “Electronics” backpack her Dad carried whenever he was taking a laptop or any other electronic device with him to places.  He headed straight to the living room, took his backpack off and began fishing around inside of it.

Lily gulped, “Did you bring-?” she began to ask before her Dad pulled out a family treasure from inside the backpack.

“Indeed I did!” he said proudly as he cut her off.  In his hands was one of his most prized possessions:

A Nintendo Entertainment System.

It was the same NES that he got back when he was fourteen years old in 1986.  He had been a video game fan ever since the early days of Atari and took meticulous care of his game systems to make sure they lasted and functioned for decades to come.  Even in his middle-ages at forty-eight years old, he still had the same passion for video games as he did when he was a kid.

Only one question was on Lily’s mind which she had no trouble verbalizing: “Why?!”  

Her Dad grinned a smug grin as he reached into the backpack and pulled out a small, black, plastic sleeve that contained an NES cartridge in it.  It wasn’t just any NES cartridge either; it was Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse.

Seeing that cartridge gave Lily mixed feelings.  She could remember the times growing up with her father when he would insist that she sit down and play video games with him.  But it often wasn’t so much to play them as it was to lecture her about them.  He would regularly go on and on about the history of video games, how significant they were to modern society and culture, nifty bits of trivia, and for Lily, NOTHING took away the fun from video games more so than trying to make them an educational experience.  In the back of her head, she knew they weren’t all like that; she still had many good memories playing games with her father (and playing the same games her father was lecturing about whenever he WASN’T lecturing), but the look in his eyes told her that this was going to be another one of his signature talks.

“Dad,” Lily pleaded, “No.  No, please!  Can’t we just, I dunno, watch Castlevania on Netflix?  Maybe check out the Japanese dub or something?”  She knew exactly what was about to happen.  He was going to connect the NES to her TV, put Castlevania III in, and then play it while talking about how the game eventually became the show she adored with voice acting by Richard Armitage and Graham McTavish.  All this to “prepare” for the season premiere in a few days.

Unfortunately for Lily, her father shook his head and said, “Now I didn’t spend my high school years breaking down blocks for wall meat and whipping away Medusa Heads for nothing.  C’mon!  Don’t you want to see your old man defeat Dracula?”

The answer to that was an emphatic “NO!” from Lily, but she wasn’t about to hurt her Dad’s feelings.  While it wasn’t how she planned to spend her Saturday, she figured that as soon as he got it out of his system, the sooner he could head back home.  Plus, talkative as he was, he was still rather decent at playing difficult video games even at forty-eight years old.  As long as everything went well, he ought to be able to finish the game in about an hour; two hours tops.

————————————-

Meanwhile, a pair of eyes was watching from the bedroom door (as in, within the bedroom door) as Lily’s Dad effortlessly hooked up the NES to the TV.  Tulpa began to remember some of the people that used to live here also had video game systems like the one Lily’s Dad was hooking up.   They were pretty interesting, and Tulpa was somewhat curious about them even if they weren’t cartoons.  Eager to see more of what was going on, they poked their head out more and more from the door.

Lily sighed as her Dad continued to fiddle with the cables behind the TV, and turned around in time to see Tulpa who was now poking their head out in full view.  Before Lily could say or do anything...

“AAUUGGHH!!”

Lily spun back around and looked at her father who looked like he had seen a ghost...

...but he was actually looking at the jumbled mess of pixels on the TV screen.  “Aww man,” he groaned, “I thought I cleaned this already!”  Turning to his daughter, he asked, “Hey can you reach into my backpack and grab the Q-Tips and alcohol?”

Sure enough, there was a bottle of Isopropyl alcohol and Q-Tips in the backpack, and Lily deftly fished them out and gave them to her man-child of a father.  Or was the correct term “Child-Man”?  Lily wasn’t quite sure but pushed that thought to the side as she said to him, “Hey, I’m gonna use the bathroom real quick!  B.R.B.!”

“Okie dokie,” her Dad said as he happily cleaned the game cartridge pins.  He always found something so cathartic about cleaning cartridges and getting them to work.  It was almost zen-like.

Of course, Lily did not go to the bathroom.   Instead, she walked right over to Tulpa’s levitating elongated neck and head, opened the door they were peeking out from (which pulled their head out of the door), and marched in with a mixture of disapproval, frustration, and worry on their face.  “What are you DOING!?” she demanded with her teeth clenched and her voice lowered.

“Want to... see,” Tulpa said bashfully.  Lily noticed that they weren’t looking her in the eyes.

“It’s just my DAD and his games!” pleaded Lily.

“I’d like... to meet... him,” said the curious ghost.

Lily turned to look at the door, then back to Tulpa, and raised her thumb like a hitchhiker to point to the door behind her.  “Him!?” Lily said incredulously, “What for!? He can’t even see or hear you anyway!”

It was true that Tulpa could not be seen by anyone other than Lily, and Tulpa knew that all too well.  Not a single living soul was able to see or truly hear them any time before now.  Lily was the exception and neither of them had any idea why.  But, the apparition thought to itself, the person out in the living room was Lily’s father.  What if...

“AH HA!” Lily practically jumped from her father’s victorious cheer, “I GOT IT!” he crowed from the living room.   Lily did a small face palm as the shout gave her flashbacks to when she was eight-years old and her Dad would practically scream at the top of his lungs every time he died playing Ninja Gaiden after Lily had gone to sleep.  Few things were more terrifying than being woken up out of a deep dream by the shrill shrieks of your own father.

Lily turned to Tulpa and made a shushing gesture, “If you’re gonna watch, just... make sure not to touch anything so he won’t know someone’s there, okay!?”

Tulpa nodded, somewhat solemnly, as Lily stepped out to join her Dad in the living room.  Inside the room Tulpa was in, there was a large mirror attached to a vanity table.  The inquisitive incorporeal individual looked at its reflection in the mirror.  They could see their matted hair and large googly eyes, as well as lack of facial features, and for the first time in its existence, began to think about its appearance.

No one before could see them, so what they looked like never really mattered.  Lily was the first person who could see Tulpa, and she accepted them for just the way they were.  That was something they really liked about Lily.  At the same time though, they never thought about how they wanted others to see them if they could see them.

Tulpa thought about how Lily included them in the things she did, and how much they enjoyed spending time with Lily.  Even if they weren’t watching cartoons, the time they shared was always fun and enjoyable.  They wanted to get to know Lily better, and what better way than by getting to meet her Dad?  Wouldn’t it be better if they were all together?

Sure he probably wouldn’t be able to see them, but...

...maybe he could?

And if he could, what would he think of them?

What would Tulpa want them to think of them?

Continuing to stare at themselves in the mirror, Tulpa made a decision.   It was going to take all of their concentration, but “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”  It began by taking a very, very, very deep breath.  They sucked in as much air as they could, practically inflating themselves like a balloon.

Once they had inhaled as much as they could, they held their mouth shut and tried to squeeze the air out using whatever specters had for muscles.   The human equivalent would have been if someone were to hold their breath, pinch their nose, and try to get their ears to pop.   A small popping noise could be heard in the room, as Tulpa succeeded in popping out some ears.

————————————-

Back in the living room, Lily was resting her arm on the armrest of the couch, with face resting in the palm of her hand, and looking extremely bored.  Her Dad was already sitting on the opposite end of the couch, navigating Trevor Belmont through Stage 1 after showing off how the game’s prologue fit the Netflix show’s narrative.  Lily was, naturally, not paying attention to any of it as her mind was somewhere else completely.

“What am I doing?” she thought to herself, “Why does it matter if Tulpa’s out here or not?   I mean, it’s not like Dad can see them or anything.”  As she thought to herself, deep down she came to realize what her problem was.  It wasn’t about her Dad meeting Tulpa, it was about Tulpa meeting her Dad!

Despite him being good natured and an affable person, he was still her Dad, and Dads by definition tended to be embarrassing as Hell!  He had actually researched Dad jokes and has kept an arsenal of them up his sleeves ever since Lily could remember.  He rarely ever acted like an average 48-year old man in public, and some times, Lily would feel ashamed that between the two of them, she would be considered the adult.

(During the Christmas season, he saw all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1-Up Arcade Cabinets on display in Wal-Mart and would always turn them on and set the volume to maximum!  According to him, he was trying to recreate the “arcade atmosphere” of his youth.)

But despite the occasional embarrassment, he was still her Dad, and she wouldn’t trade him for any other Dad in the world.  He was always open minded, and whenever he didn’t understand something, he made an effort to try and understand.  Like that time he asked her to show him her rock collection and tell him about all the different kinds she had and what made them so unique.  He was always a cool Dad like that.

He raised her the best that he could and helped her with her homework.  He drove her to places she wanted to go when she was little, and took her to theme parks, the zoo, science centers, museums... he was always actively involved in her upbringing and that meant a lot to Lily.

The sound of a door opening and closing could be heard from the hallway.

“I’m overreacting, aren’t I?” she thought to herself.   “I should have just asked Tulpa to sit down and watch him play. I mean, misery loves company, right?   And plus he-“

It was at that moment that Lily’s eyes began to widen as she realized she had just heard the sound of a door opening and closing come from the hallway.  Her Dad turned around at the noise and Lily whipped herself around at breakneck speed.  She nearly choked on her own spit at what she saw.

It was Tulpa. 

 It was definitely Tulpa...

...But they looked human!

They had a nose, two ears, and opaque, pale skin.  Their hair still looked matted and unwashed, their eyes were still large, and their teeth still looked sharp even though they were a bit more rounded.  They were wearing a turtleneck blouse and a long skirt that went all the way down to their ankles.  On their feet were white socks which were probably there since Tulpa hadn’t really gotten the hang of manifesting realistic feet yet.  And they were definitely female (or going for the feminine look).

They looked kind of like that one really tall girl from that really popular anime everyone kept talking about, “Hands Off My Aerosol Can” or something like that.

There was a brief moment of silence in the room that felt like it stretched on for an eternity (even though it only lasted a fraction of a second).  Lily’s Dad was looking right at them, or at least, in their direction.   Lily could tell Tulpa had “dressed up” to meet her father, but doubted it would have mattered since there was no way he could-

“Hi there! You must be Lily’s roommate!” greeted Lily’s Dad.

...To Be Continued...

#my roommate is an apparition #Tulpa #reddpenn #Castlevania #fanfiction

[an-unseen-academical]

Oh HI these look fun!! 11,12,15,16,17 and 18 for the movie asks please my dear!! 🤍

Thank you for asking!!! ❤️

I enjoyed answering these a tiiiny bit too much so the answers may be a tiiiny bit too long haha

11: Are there any movies you watch on special occasions every year (Christmas, Halloween, birthdays, your mother’s aunt’s wedding anniversary, etc.)

If you're Russian, don't judge me, because I do watch the Irony of Fate every New Year's Eve and I know all the lines 😂 I think none of my active followers are Russian, though, so I'll provide a screenshot from this masterpiece that says it all:

I also watch the Czechoslovak—DDR Cinderella called Tři oříšky pro Popelku / Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel around Christmas, HP Prisoner of Azkaban around Halloween, and the Cornetto trilogy or at least Hot Fuzz as a birthday treat

12: What movie do you most associate with your best friend(s)?

I guess I'll go for tumblr friends as well 😊

You with Ninotchka, Vivacious Lady, The Lady Vanishes, and now Hot Fuzz (I SCREAMED) and Little Women as well

@now-im-a-belieber apart from what you already said for me... obviously, Kelly Gang, BoRhap, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Best Years of Our Lives etc. etc...every Bill Nighy film...

@wecomrades Ready Player One, now! Also, both of us have been associated with Jojo Rabbit so that, too!

15: Are you a fan of period dramas and if so, what era do you enjoy best?

YES! Period dramas superiority! Any era! Well, mostly the 19th and 20th centuries but there's just physically more of them than earlier eras? Also, period sitcoms! Blackadder is phenomenal. Still hoping for another season of Upstart Crow, as well.

16: Name a movie you love that you would recommend to just about everyone.

I had to really cling on to the word "everyone" to narrow the choice down to Hugo (2011). I may have already recommended it and I will again.

17: Name a movie you love that you consider an acquired taste.

If I understand correctly and an acquired taste means something I think not everyone would like, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I've seen people outraged with it haha But it was love at first sight with me

18: Name a film you like directed by/starring a filmmaker/actor you normally don’t care for.

Hmmm let's say Knives Out. Bond films, old and new, sadly remain a huge gap in my education so Daniel Craig was going unnoticed until Knives Out, very charming. And don't even get me started on the film itself btw because oh my god...!

#ask games #a futile attempt at a tagging system 😅

[adamwatchesmovies]

I, Frankenstein (2014)

I’m certain that somewhere, a bunch of teens will see I, Frankenstein and love it. Not enough to rewatch it frequently but enough to form warm memories of it. Like a fine wine aging, the nostalgia will grow more powerful over time. Any blemishes their under-developed brain noticed will fade until one day, I’ll be there to tell them “oh, you remember liking this movie? Sure I’ll watch it with you!”

After the events of Mary Shelley’s novel, the monster (Aaron Eckhart) discovers his artificial birth places him in the middle of a secret war that has been going on for centuries. 200 years later, the demon prince Naberius (Bill Nighy) and his hellish followers are on the verge of creating an army of soulless minions to defeat the gargoyles who protect mankind. An innocent scientist name Tara Wade (Yvonne Strahovski) is stuck in the middle when she resumes Victor Frankenstein’s research to create life.

There are things I’m willing to forgive this movie for, others that I cannot. The Frankenstein Monster not aging is fine. Demons and Angels and Gargoyles fighting for mankind, the business about special weapons needing to be used by/against the celestial creatures is fine. It's the premise; the movie's got to happen SOMEHOW. I don’t care for the blending of the scientific and the fantastical in my Frankenstein fan fictions, but it could be interesting if well done.

This picture is more concerned with being “cool” than telling an actual story. Why is it demons vs. gargoyles instead of angels? because the former would be too generic. Not that the gargoyles are any different from angels since they even fly and pray. The clear comparison is with films like Blade and Underworld. In those stories, it makes sense for the creatures of the night to hide from humanity. They operated better if people believed they were mythological creatures. Why do the gargoyles operate in secrecy? I don't know. The concept of a “secret war” gets dropped halfway through anyway. I’m certain potential sequels would pretend that’s not the case, but after the rampant destruction in open streets, the next morning’s newspapers all around the world would read on the front page “Demons are REAL! Convert today and believe in our Gargoyle defenders! (page 1-3, 9, 11-14) Also, legendary Scientist Dr. Frankenstein no longer consider a myth, see pages 4-8”.

I, Frankenstein exists in a realm where there is no logic, only potential for style. The gargoyles fight with medieval weapons, or weapons inspired by the Middle Ages that are so stylized they become cumbersome to wield. They should at least be fighting with weapons they can use from the air, far away from the gravity-bound demons, so how about bows and arrows, or slings if they can’t use guns? Oh right, I forgot that fights where humans shoot at each other aren’t nearly as visually impressive (not to a thirteen-year-old anyway) as chaotic brawls where flying rock monsters are getting dog-piled while swinging swords and using elbow knives to defend themselves.

I know it’s the criticism everyone will start with, but how am I supposed to believe that Frankenstein’s Monster was ostracized and hated on-sight when he isn't ugly? Frankenstein’s Monster is nothing more than a handsome, ripped Aaron Eckhart with some scars on his face and body. He fits right at home next to Beastly. The demons he fights against, they’re downright lame. Regular people with makeup uncannily similar to the kind we saw in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The gargoyles are better - it beats seeing guys with feathered wings again - but to me, the fact that they can appear human makes them ten times duller. And it makes the movie look cheap.

I, Frankenstein has the good grace of never being boring. Combined with some good-looking fights and special effect sequences, it allows me to award it a lone star. In terms of plot, it never deviates from the mold. The instant you see a character you’ll be able to tell “Bad Guy”, “Love Interest”, “Traitor” or “Checkpoint Boss”. It’s a soulless patchwork of other movies put together. You get the Underworld plot, throw in some generic bad guys whose motivation is “being evil”. Add in a love interest, a reluctant protagonist who is "deep" and mysterious because he’s lived for ages but just wants to be left alone, cake on the special effects, and introduce us to a mythology that looks shiny on the outside but has no weight to it. There you go, you have I, Frankenstein. (On DVD, December 13, 2015)

#I Frankenstein #movies #films #movieReviews #FilmReviews #StuartBeattie #frankenstein #KevinGrevioux #AaronEckhart #BillNighy #YvonneStrahovski #MirandaOtto #SocratisOtto #JaiCourtney #2014movies #2014films

[365days365movies]

February 27, 2021: Love Actually (2003) (Part 1)

We gotta start this Recap.

Just trust me here, this one’s gonna be a lot. Why? Because this is Love Actually.

And I really want to talk about it, I REALLY do, but...this is not only a long movie, but an anthology, so it’s gonna be...complicated. But, I will say one thing. If you’ve been reading this since January, then you’ll know that this blog was inspired by the book Shit, Actually by Lindy West, a collection of hilarious movie essays that I love. And, yeah, this film is its namesake. So, although I want to go more into it, we gotta get started. Sorry for the rush, but...TRUST ME.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

An airport! We see families and other loved ones reunited at Heathrow, as narration begins, telling us that love is everywhere. After name-dropping 9/11...TWO YEARS after it had happened (too soon, David), he states that “love actually is all around.”

Got it. So, as the 2003 film All Around begins, singer Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) is trying to sing a Christmas-themed version of “Love Is All Around,” which is pretty goddamn bad. His recording manager Joe (Gregor Fisher) agrees. Jamie (Colin Firth) tells his sick girlfriend (Sienna Guillory) that he loves her, and he takes off for something that he can’t attend.

Daniel (Liam Neeson), a fresh widower, calls his friend Karen (Emma Thompson) a mom bidding her daughter a good day as she heads to school. Jack (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page) are...air humping on a set? I need to know more. Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Juliet (Kiera Knightley) are getting married in a church, with their friend Mark (Andrew Lincoln) as the best man. And FINALLY, David (Hugh Grant) has just been elected as the new Prime Minister, where he meets Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), a member of the household staff.

...Well, that is a lot. Goddamn. So, this is an anthology movie, huh? I’ll try to cover this as smoothly as I can.

Peter and Juliet say their vows, and as they walk out, they are surprised by a rendition of the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love”, organized by Mark. At the wedding is Jamie, whose brother is at his apartment when he returns home early. He’s there to fuck his girlfriend. Oh. Shit. Well, sorry, Jamie. 

Also at the wedding is Colin (Kris Marshall), a waiter and messenger who’s been trying to woo British women, but is constantly failing. When talking to his friend Tony (Abdul Sallis), he insists that he’s going to the USA, where the women will appreciate his accent. Tony tells him to simply accept that he’s a “lonely, ugly asshole”. Colin, in response, calls himself a God of sex on the wrong continent. A pair, these two.

Tony is a production assistant, working on the film that Jack and Judy are in. They’re apparently professional stand-ins, actors who substitute actors in film set-up, in order to figure out lighting and cinematography. Neat! Well, normally. Here, they’re standing in for a sex scene, and they ask Judy to go topless, to see how best to frame the shot. And it gets...increasingly awkward. And it’s pretty goddamn funny.

Meanwhile, a funeral. Oof, tone whiplash right there. It’s a funeral for Daniel’s wife Joanna, and she leaves behind him and her son, Sam (Thomas Sangster AKA fuckin’ Joffrey, but I won’t hold that against him). Back at the wedding, Mark stares on longingly at the dancing Peter and Juliet. A woman asks if he’s in love with Mark, and he replies no.

At an office building, another guest at the wedding, Sarah (Laura Linney), is a worker at a graphic design company run by Harry (...awww, Alan Rickman). His secretary Mia (Heike Makatsch) brings her in to Harry’s office, where he tells her that he and everyone else in the office knows that she’s in love with fellow worker Karl (Rodrigo Santoro), and that he should get it over with an ask him out. He walks by her, and she doesn’t say anything, while also recieving a call...from someone she refers to as “babe”. Well, I feel a little infidelity coming on.

On Mia’s radio, Billy Mack’s shitty Christmas song is playing, and a radio host agrees as Bill’s brought on for an interview. Bill shares the sentiment in what must be the most depressing radio interview I’ve ever heard. In that interview with Mikey (Marcus Brigstocke), he basically completely sabotages his own record, and probably his entire career. This interview is followed with news about the Prime Minister.

David, new PM, has been bonding more with Natalie, and the two definitely appear to like each other. He also comes up in conversation between Judy and Jack, as their stand-in sex scene has progressed to basically just straight-up sex, which feels...I feel like this doesn’t fucking happen with stand-ins in movies...right? Like, come on, that’s a LOT of breached privacy, and I feel like it’s not that realistic. Anyway, the two use the opportunity to make small talk, and Jack tells Judy that he appreciates having someone to talk to. She agrees, and it’s cute in an extremely awkward way!

Production assistant Tony is heading home, and is getting a ride from Colin, who announces that he’s bought a ticket for a trip to the beautiful land of Wisconsin, where he will certainly meet some hot, hot babes. Tony does not agree.

Back at Harry’s office, he and Mia plan the company Christmas party. Mia unsubtly notes that she kinda has the hots for him, and he’s not saying no. Meanwhile, Daniel and Karen are talking about the fact that his stepson Sam seems to be having a lot of trouble, understandably, and Daniel’s not doing much better. 

Karen does her best to help him through it, and Daniel does his best to help the troubled Samuel. But he can’t coax much out of Samuel to figure out what’s wrong. Samuel finally opens up, but tells Daniel that he’s in love. Daniel’s surprised, but he insists that he’s in love, with a young woman named Sansa Stark, but he must find a way to ensure her loyalty, if ONLY HER NOBLE FATHER WASN’T IN THE...right, sorry, Game of Thrones.

OK, anyway, Sam’s in love, and in complete agony about it. Daniel tries to coach Sam through his feelings, and is genuinely being a supportive-as-hell stepdad. Also in love and in agony is Sarah, staring at Karl from afar one night as the office closes down. And then, also in agony is Jamie, fresh off of his breakup with his cheating girlfriend. He’s in a GORGEOUS AS FUCK house in the French countryside, and sits down to write.

Back in London, David tries to get to know Natalie a bit better, and they...I mean, they’re 100% gonna get together by the end. We’re just working through the romantic folderol right now. Natalie leaves, and David asks a portrait of Margaret Thatcher is she had that problem, calling her a, uh...a “saucy minx.” Well, OK.

Billy Mack is on a television show, continuing his press tour and reminding us once again that he used to be addicted to heroin. Joe is not happy. Mark, an artist, calls Peter, and is put on the line with Juliet. Peter asks him to “be nice,” but when he they talk to each other, he’s rather short when she asks for some of his footage from the wedding.

Back at Harry’s, Mia is laying it on fuckin’ THIIIIIICK, Jesus, while Sarah ends up pining once more for Karl. At his college in the French countryside, a new housekeeper, Aurélia ( Lúcia Moniz), has been hired to take care of his place. However, there’s a serious language barrier between the two, as she’s Portuguese, and he’s too talkative, goddamn. It’s awkward. It’s a little awkward.

David’s got a meeting with the President of the United States (Billy Bob Thornton), who IMMEDIATELY notes Natalie’s attractiveness. Political tensions are also rough between the two and their administrations. The two have a private meeting later, and David leaves the room for a moment. However, when he goes back in, he sees Natalie kissing the President! Whaaaaaaaat? That’s a...fucking terrible idea, Mr. President, what the FUCK? HAVE YOU HEARD OF BILL CLINTON

The next day, at a press conference, David gives into his rage about the affair, and he acts more assertive towards the President, noting that he won’t bow to the President’s bullying. Wow. International crisis time because of a fuckin’ girl! Who’s the saucy minx, now, Thatcher? WHO’S THE SAUCY MINX NOW

Right afterwards, he gets a call from his sister: Karen. Huh. She notes her frustrations with his actions, but he’s too busy and hangs up. She states her frustrations to her husband: Harry. DOUBLE HUH. After everything, though, David retires for the night. The radio station plays a song for him, and David responds by dancing around 10 Downing Street. And it’s hilarious. And I love it?

At Jamie’s cottage, he and Aurélia start to bond regardless of their language barrier, and their conversations seem to gel with each other, despite them not understanding that themselves. It’s actually...kind of cute. I dunno, I kind of like it. I think it’s sweet. Overly saccharine, yeah, but sweet as the two fall in love. Yeah, I’m a fuckin’ sap, what can I say?

Juliet visits Mark, who’s once again acting fairly cold towards her. She confronts him about it, and notes that she wants to genuinely become friends with him. Mark seems to agree with this, but still notes that he has no video of the wedding. And yet, she finds it, only to discover that Mark doesn’t hate her. Actually, he likes her. Actually...he loves her. And, uh...fuck, yeah, he LOOOOOOOOVES her. And she figures that out once she realizes that the video of the wedding doesn’t feature Peter in it AT ALL.

Y’know, I’m really worried that this is becoming an infidelity situation, but I have to admit...Mark’s a good man, and a great friend to Peter. He knows that he loves Juliet, but he keeps his distance for the sake of his friend. And that is...actually amazingly honorable. Damn. You’re a good man, Mark.

At 10 Downing Street, David asks his assistant Annie (Nina Sosanya) to put Natalie in another position, as her presence is distracting him. And that is...responsible. That’s pretty damn responsible. OK, I can dig it. She’s soon replaced, and you can see that David is saddened by that.

His sister’s best friend's stepson, Sam, has just gotten bad news. His crush, Joanna (oh, yeah, his crush has the same name as his deceased mother, forgot to mention THAT little tidbit), is going back to the USA. After discovering that she’s American, Daniel decides to cheer him up by watching Titanic together. AND AGAIN. This relationship is adorable, and I love Daniel’s hardcore good dad energy.

Jamie and Aurélia need to bid each other goodbye, as Jamie is headed back to England. However, as they part, Aurélia kisses him goodbye, which seems to break him a little. Meanwhile, Billy Mack has shot a video for his terrible song, which inspires Sam to perform in a school concert to get Joanna to fall in lover with him and get her to stay. But he doesn’t play an instrument, and chooses to learn the drums, to Daniel’s dismay.

At Harry’s company Christmas party, Mia is hitting HARDCORE on Harry, which Karen notices. She’s speaking to Sarah, and encourages her to dance with Karl, while to two stand in front of Mark’s photographs, and...

TOO MUCH. IT’S TOO GODDAMN MUCH

I...I gotta take a break, and we’re at the halfway point anyway. See you in Part 2.

#love actually #richard curtis #hugh grant #liam neeson #colin firth #laura linney #emma thompson #alan rickman #keira knightley #bill nighy #Lúcia Moniz #Thomas Sangster #Andrew Lincoln #Chiwetel Ejiofor #Martine McCutcheon #Martin Freeman #Joanna Page #Heike Makatsch #Nina Sosanya #rodrigo santoro #user365 #365 movie challenge #365 movies 365 days #365 Days 365 Movies #365 movies a year #userniamh #userkristen #usereve #userjelena #romance february

[spideyanakin]

Dead Men’s Chest

Tom Holland x Reader

A/N; I recently rewatched all of them, didn’t know how much I missed them.

Synopsis; Tom never watched Pirates of the Caribbean and you’re outraged.

🧚🏻‍♀️Masterlist 🧚🏻‍♀️

“aGhhH.” You rolled from the couch onto the floor. “Lockdown day 1578946362.” You whined.

“C’mon, it’s not that bad.” Tom said sitting on the couch where you only had your legs, your whole upper body lying on the floor. 

He laughed at the sight of you and placed two cups of tea on the table. 

“So what are we watching?” Tom rubbed his hands excited to see what movie you had picked. He turned the Tv on and pressed the Disney + logo. 

“I was thinking we go with Dead’s Men Chest.” You smiled looking at him from the floor.

“Dead’s men wha?” He blankly looked at you for a second. 

“Dead’s men chest!? Pirates of the Caribbean 2! You know with Davy Jones the octopus guy.” You said it like it was common knowledge; which was for you.

“Oh, um I never watched Pirates of the Carribean~” He scratched the back of his neck a little ashamed. 

“What!” You sat up still on the floor. “You never watched Pirates of The Caribbean!? How did I not know that!?” 

“Um... No.” He gave you a shy smile.

“What! Ok where watching it now! like im not even going to take no for an answer!” You stood up and grabbed the remote.

Tom took a sip of his tea admiring your fuss. 

“I still can’t believe you have never watched Pirates of the Caribbean AND PLUS YOU’RE A Harry Potter fan !!”

“What? Johnny Deep plays in Fantastic Beast.” He laughed trying to make sense of what you were saying. 

“Im not talking about Johnny Deep!” You whined. “Im talking about BILL NIGHY WHO PLAYS THE THIRD BEST VILAN IN HISTORY OF CINEMA!.” 

“Who are the first two?” 

“Number one Darth Vader, and Number two Voldy, why you ask?” You replied like it was more than common knowledge at this point.

“Fair enough.” Tom nodded in agreement.

“ANYWAY! AS A HARRY POTTER FAN YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT OUR LEAST FAVORITE MINISTER OF MAGIC PLAYS THE THIRD BEST VILLAIN IN VILLAIN HISTORY.” You pointed at him with your remote. “But he’s not in the first movie.” You grumbled and sat near Tom. 

“Still can’t wait to see it.” Tom chuckled before pushing you closer to him and kissing the side of your head. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” 

#tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #TOM #tom holland x reader fluff #peter parker #peter parker x reader #Peter Parker x you #peter parker x reader #Peter Parker x y/n #pirates of the caribbean #dead men chest #spider #spiderman #spider man x reader #spider man x y/n #x reader #lockdown #movie

[hello-dobs]

Favourite memories from Emma?

Oooh boy, okay:

Myself & another maid finding a tennis ball in the garden & played a very intense game of footie in regency dresses while Emma & Mr Knightly were sharing their first kiss in the drawing room

Bill Nighy asking me what I was reading & proceeding to tell me he's a vampire whilst singularly asking me if I watched Underworld & each time I tried to say no, he just asked if I watched the following one etc.

Eating some of the real cakes that were gonna be thrown away

Angus Imrie's daily hugs

Spider hiding within my dress at my costume fitting

Sharing a pot of tea with another extra on the stream side in Boughton-On-The-Water on the first day of sunshine ever & talking about our love of Charlie Cox

Callum Turner singing a football chant of "YOU ARE FUCKING SHIT, YOU ARE FUCKING SHIT, YOU ARE, YOU ARE, YOU ARE FUCKING SHIT" all the while dressed in Regency clothing

The quiet & sweet disposition of Johnny Flynn

Rupert Graves smiley warm face on days when you needed it & didn't know he was in

"Can I get a venti soooyy laaatteee with extraaaa sooooyy, I mean I can have dairy but I just looovee saying soooooooooyy" "Oh my god, are you mocking them?" "Noooo, I'm Americaaaaaann" (She was mocking a certain person that no one liked)

The director of photography getting me a cheesecake because I'd never had one before. Hint: I now fucking love cheesecake

Meeting the best trio of people that I worked closely with who were just so supportive & loving to each other and myself. On one of the first weeks, I nearly broke down crying because I was so furious about something and one of the guys literally wrapped me in a hug, held me close & said "It's okay, I got you." I'd never felt so exposed & vulnerable on a film set before & he just saved me.

Johnny Flynn improvised a whole three minute song on piano that flowed like he'd played it a thousand times??? Ugh, talent.

Mia Goth being an absolute cutie

"You had six weeks with us & on the last day you ask to learn to knit?" Not my costume fitter.

My costume fitter being the best teacher of knitting, so calm & gentle when I've been around sharp & snappy teachers before.

Bill Nighy fist bumping my hand way too hard that my knuckles cracked

Production not finding me for four hours, you have to stay in your green room or near it, because I was tucked up under my coat having a nap & I really looked like a discarded coat on a sofa because I am smol

Dancing about the entrance hall because we nailed a complex rehearsal of a scene

T A C O T R U C K

Nearly telling Harry Holland that he'd make a great body double for Tom Holland without realising he was Harry Holland.

My friends stacking up random items on me as I slept

Bringing in a notebook & trying all the different fancy teas, blending them with other fancy teas & milks, sugars etc & giving them a rating.

The SFX showing me all the forbidden behind the scenes photos of the Downton Abbey movie that was due to be released later that year.

Bill Nighy, Anya Taylor-Joy, and I dancing on the stairs as he sang (I can't remember the song, it was like a 50's/60's song and it was something along the line of "get me some juice, bom bom bom bom! nansbsjdjd get on the loose bom bom bom")

We found a swing?!

Bill Nighy just staring down a screaming child until it stopped crying

"Holy shit" was uttered by a lot of people as I changed out of my maids costume into a sleek velvet dress with makeup done followed by one lovely comment of "I didn't know you could make yourself even hotter" everyone that afternoon was shook

Gemma Whelan: "Good morning :)" Me: "Good morning! :D" Also me: !!!Yara fucking Greyjoy!!! (This was all happening when the new & final season of GoT just aired)

Coming back to find my crossword puzzle had been completed but it's okay, I forgive Bill Nighy

Andy: "Let's pretend we're telling each other something funny & we'll laugh & Holly will just laugh with us hahahahahah" James: "hahahaha!" Me: "HAHAHAHAHAH" Andy:"HAHHA Everytime" Me: "Oh, you're doing that thing again? For fucks sake fuck you 🤦‍♀️"

Myself & Lesya getting teary eyed on our final day as she shut the mini van door, then losing our minds as we called back together two weeks later for a reshoot.

Being wildly slapped on the shoulder by a makeup artist because Dusty Springfield's 'Son of a Preacher Man" came on the radio as he was telling me all day that I need to play her one day but I didn't know who she was. I now love Dusty Springfield.

Josh O'Connor being a shy boy around new people but also being the sweetest tall boy & I'm so glad he's lovely because I loved him in The Durrell's but he said the Nacho cheese joke & that's unforgivable

James' magic tricks?! I was shook hun

We got our own trailers?!?!?!?!?! That never happens!!!!

All four of us climbing into a bed & having a big ol' nap

#Emma #Jane Austen #Emma 2020 #Josh O'Connor #Callum Turner #Johnny Flynn #Bill Nighy #Angus Imrie #Anya Taylor-Joy #Gemma Whelan #Rupert Graves #Dusty Springfield #Downton Abbey #Mia Goth #Harry Holland #Tom Holland

[scottishoctopus]

//Just started following your blog and you're doing amazing! I haven't seen Pirates of the Caribbean in a long time but your portrayal of Davy Jones is perfect! Bill Nighy would be proud of you!!//

WHAT IS WITH THE SUDDEN LOVE TODAY MY HEART CAN'T HANDLE THIS

THANK YOU! And I also like to think Bill Nighy would definitely be proud of all the things and backstories I've wrote about his character in POTC too.

But there's also that anxious part of me that's like "Oh no I don't think I'm writing Davy Jones as he is in the movies, I don't think it's fitting for his character to be like that."

Thankfully, I don't really get those thoughts often!

#[asks] #if it werent bill nighy playing davy jones in potc then i probably wouldnt be fangirling over this character and creating headcanons #and especially a backstory that im still adding more to #bill needs more credit for his performance honestly #how has he not got a bloody oscar

[talesofafangirlwithadvr]

REVIEW: EMMA (2020)

Anytime a new adaptation comes out I’m always very hesitate to watch it. Will it live up to its previous incarnation? Why are they making another when there’s already so many? And if it’s based on a book+has had many films already=I can be a very harsh critic. However, with the more reviews I read about Autumn de Wilde’s new take on Jane Austen’s novel, the more pumped I got. (I was upset I had to wait till March as it was in select theaters this February.) I am very happy I got to see it because I enjoyed it a lot. So whether you are a Jane Austen/Emma fan, have seen Clueless once or twice and are curious about the source material or want to escape from all the Corona virus news for a bit, I would highly suggest venturing to your local movie theater to see it. More than likely you will have the theater basically to yourself, like I did. 

Spoilers for the source material are bound to come, so if you are still reading the novel or want to be a bit surprised I would suggest skimming this section. 

Bill Nighy portrayed a fantastic Mr. Woodhouse.

The way this film was marketed it continually brought up how Emma is Jane Austen’s comedy. Now, all of Austen’s work is comedic, but Emma could have some things we will find especially funny as it could be the farthest from our lives (just like it was back then for Austen’s readers). In this adaptation I really could feel the humor attribute making this a true comedy in my eyes. Most of that is thanks to Bill Nighy’s performance. 

Mr. Woodhouse’s hypochondria is his biggest character trait and is always a laugh as he is often given some of the most ridiculous statements. (ie: Cake not being good for children.) Nighy strongly delivered on this and also brought a new characteristic to him (and I’m not just talking about the amazing patterns he wore). He did a great job with physical humor. I loved his interactions with the servants. Which, speaking of...I really liked how much involvement the servants had. This version, specifically, had the most servants shown (compared to previous Emmas) and while they never spoke (as would be expected during this time period) there was SO much humor present. From finding the draft for Mr. Woodhouse out the window (”Miss Taylor would have felt it”), moving all the screens (still a great way for Mr. Woodhouse to show he knew something was going on between Emma and Mr. Knightley) or quickly turning their backs. They also helped to show how rich these characters really are. As social class is a huge part of this story. 

Anya Taylor Joy is poised and highlights Emma’s social class.

With Joy’s portrayal of our lead heroine, I felt like we got an Emma that was very accurate to the novel, but one we do not often see. Here, you got a true sense of Emma’s wealth (as her maids are seen dressing her or fitting her for a new outfit, as well as the ornaments in her hair) as well as her selfishness. By this I mean we got a look into Emma’s world and how she wants to see what she desires. This was seen very early with Emma’s reaction to Miss. Bates in church and then also when they meet Miss. Bates in the shop and hear of Jane’s letter. Other adaptations seem to give her the air of compassion (even if it is just in her face and then she talks badly later). As a very big fan of BBC’s 2009 Emma and of Romola Garai’s Emma it was hard for me to not compare the two versions. Of course, starting with Emma in this role allows for a larger character development, but I still would have liked to see a little more interest in others. 

I loved how many lines were super accurate to the novel. I could often recite what was coming up next. (Yes, I know I’m a big nerd.) 

Johnny Flynn quickly becomes one of my favorite Knightleys.

Again, another hard thing about so many adaptations, seeing so many versions of these literary characters. As I mentioned with the section on Emma’s character specifically, I am a big fan of the BBC’s 2009 mini-series, so whenever I think of Mr. Knightley my mind goes to Jonny Lee Miller (or Brent Bailey from Emma Approved). 

*swooning*

But where was I... oh yes! After watching the trailer I wasn’t sure about this Mr. Knightley (I wasn’t super familiar with Flynn), but he quickly grew on me early on in the film. I really like the early allusions of him and Emma liking one another. His “rivalry” with Frank Churchill made me chuckle every time. I thought it was strange they never brought up how he knows Emma or why he’s over all of the time. Especially when her sister came with all of her kids. Her husband is Knightley’s younger brother, but it’s never mentioned. That could help with not focusing on Emma and Knightley’s large age difference. I like how here we didn’t hear any of those creepy statements like how he remembers holding her when she was a baby. I LOVED their dance (as I expected I would. It’s a HUGE moment) and their reaction afterward was precious: watching them both come to terms with what just happened and how they were feeling. I honestly thought they would admit their feelings right then. It was a PERFECT addition. When Emma asks Frank to stay, and Knightley is obviously upset, but she’s clearly asking for Harriet. Oh the drama! It was great. I was worried the strawberry picking at Donwell wouldn’t have happened, but it followed this scene, which was great because now Emma was aware of her growing feelings and then Harriet is swooning over Knightley who is ignoring Emma. It feels like something straight out of high school (no wonder why Clueless works so well).  

While I loved the addition of this scene, I did feel like the end was a bit rushed, especially once we get to Box Hill. For me Frank and Jane’s reveal always feels weird, but that felt even more forced (although you do get more glances from them in the film) and I understand we don’t have a full 4 hours to show everything, but it just felt like a lot all at once. Despite all of this the proposal was still great and very accurate to the novel. I just don’t understand the nose bleed.

Justice for Harriet with Mia Goth

Emma and Harriet Smith’s relationship is one that I always find problematic. If Emma didn’t feel lonely after losing Miss Taylor/Mrs. Weston she more than likely would not have met Harriet Smith and taken her “under her wing.” Harriet’s life gets turned upside down. She goes from getting proposed to by the farmer, Robert Martin, to turning him down, thinking she’s in love with Mr. Elton, getting her heart broken, falling in love again, but then being wrong about that one too. Then in the end she winds up with Robert Martin, who she would have been happy with in the first place. Mr. Knightley says it well, when he mentions how the more time Emma spends with her, the more she will be out of her world and not apart of Emma’s. Often, I don’t feel justice for Harriet at the end of the film because of the way they treat her character. She is a main focal point at the start of the novel, but then other matters seem to become more serious. In this film, I think I have finally seen one of the best ways her character is handled, specifically at the end of the story. When Emma abruptly stops Knightley during his proposal, it is because (at first) she thinks he will tell her that he loves Harriet (as she just professed to Emma), but in this film we see Emma have this realization as she is about to say her true feelings to Knightley in response to his proposal. Something clicks in her that it is not right. Now my first thought was because of her father. Mainly because of how against change he is. But it is actually for Harriet, which I thought was really refreshing. And then the next scene is us seeing Emma telling Harriet what happened. But it doesn’t stop there. We get to see Harriet finish her story and even share a loving moment with Robert Martin before Emma and Knightley truly unite. It was a very nice touch to this film. 

Go see Emma. You’ll love it as much as I did and then want to watch a bunch of different adaptations afterwards because you can never get enough! 

#emma #emma woodhouse #emma 2020 #autumn de wilde #jane austen #historical dramas #period pieces #bill nighy #anya taylor joy #johnny flynn #emma approved #emma 2009 #mia goth