11:35 am - avoiding the topic Saw the 1979 version of Dracula last night. It's not extraordinary (except perhaps for the liberties it takes with the original story) but it has an even-handedness that some more recent versions lack. Frank Langella plays the Count as intellectual, compelling, and charismatic, but not overtly creepy or 'metro'; his seduction of (in this version) Lucy Seward is believable, because he generally seems affectionate towards her and she towards him. (NB there's no poorly played lost-love/reincarnation narrative as there was in Francis Ford Coppola's version.) Because of the civilized of most of the movie, the scenes where it does go over the top are almost comically misplaced; the discovery of Mina Van Helsing (no seriously) as a vampire and the climax between Van Helsing et al. and the Count are happily brief and rely too heavily on special effects. There are also interesting gender narratives that I can't quite address in brief here, sadly. This version compares favorably enough with the Guy Maddin version from 2002; they have the same sense of swooning romanticism, although Guy Madden's plays much more with silent film techniques and beats one over the head with the colonialist subtext. If you're sick of slick Dracula reimaginings, either of these two films might be your antidote.
In regard to your movie 'Bone Eater,' not to be confused with 'The Bone Snatcher,' which also played last night: never do a monster reveal before the opening credits. While I understand that your opus suffers from many flaws, I believe that correcting this matter would make it bearable for at least the first five minutes.
Most sincerely yrs,
Ursula
P.S. Stop casting Casper Van Dien in all your movies; you're only protecting him from the social Darwinism of the acting world. His failed acting genes must die out in order to allow mankind to evolve.
07:46 am - Gueh. Via jetjapan, an awesome scene from Japanese drama 花より男子2:
To sum up, 'Oh no! It's New York, and I can't speak English, and there are black men throwing a basketball at me!!!' I had some thoughts upon viewing this, as follows: 1.) Awesome, Japanese TV. Way to be not only racist, but incredibly stupid. 2.) Ummm, I doubt that they would actually have known that she was from Japan. I further posit that they would not have cared where she was from, certainly not to the point of taunting her about it. 3.) Typical. Shout out for Doumyouji and there's consarned Hanazawa Rui with a handgun. In emo pants. With awful English. 4.) The great city of New York issued a license to carry a concealed weapon to that guy? 5.) Given that these young men are apparently the mugging type, what are the odds that in this particular scenario, Hanazawa Rui is the only guy carrying a gun? I don't remember 花より男子 being quite this benighted.
Mix it up a little, writers. Try doing a feminist character that's fun, or a rich Latino, or something. Because, yes, even your flying-running-up-the-wall-reverse plot twists are getting a little hackneyed. Current Music: trucks
04:36 pm - cue holiday crafting Nothing better than settling down for a long winter's craft with a couple of pine branches, a big jar of acrylic gloss medium and some fake gold leaf. I'm so excited about having Christmas this year- not so much about the presents, but about decorating the place. I'm working on my wreath right now. Somebody send psychological help. O_O;
P.S. Holy Jesus- Giada DeLaurentis's entire family is frickin' gorgeous. Not fair.
P.P.S. Current girl-crush: Bond Girl of the Millennium Eva Green. I've been wanting to see The Dreamers for a while now- this is just another good reason. Current Location:home alone Current Music: Arrested Development
09:19 am Was reading this review of a documentary on burlesque on Slate. The author hints at one of the most intelligent criticques of Third Wave feminism- i.e. the fallacies inherent in the idea that women are and have always been their own empowerers and that working in the sex industry was empowering. This kind of historical revisionism (which Third-Wavers are so willing to toss about) always bothers me, just as the singleminded victim mentality of Second-Wavers does- they're not all beautiful, empowered goddesses, ladies. The average prostitute in the 16th century was not doing it to break free of society's oppressive restrictions on her- she was doing it to eat. This is why the so-called 'post-feminist' viewpoint on sex workers etc. doesn't hold up to any sort of scrutiny: it doesn't acknowledge that the vast majority of sex workers were and are doing it out of necessity. They didn't have the luxury of forming that LUG-esque fascination with it and doing it as a hobby or a means of 'self-actualization' or what-have-you. While a scant few of them may have become famous or loved or wealthy, for most it was about the bottom line of paying the rent and feeding the kids. One sometimes gets the feeling that Third-Wavers are just retrospectively glamourizing any profession that was predominantly female because it was so; e.g., strippers, secretaries, librarians. Gone is the admiration for women who excelled in traditionally male fields; how many people still talk about Amelia Earhart, or Madame Curie, or Indira Gandhi? We shouldn't have to compare with men, the Third-Wavers tell us, because we have our own fields to excel in. Frankly, it's demeaning and disgusting. Yes, go ahead, embrace sex workers, give them back their dignity, celebrate them, even, but stop pretending that they're emblems of empowerment already. Women are capable of greater and more meaningful things. ... Some day I hope to write a really thorough and coherent criticque of the Third Wave, because there are so many maddening things about the very idea of 'post-feminist' feminism. Sadly, that day is not today. Current Music: Shakira, La Pared
03:12 pm - things what suck So I saw the movie Wit, starring Emma Thompson, the other day in the hotel in Wenatchee. While I wouldn't say it's specifically about cancer, it does go pretty indepth with regards to the utter suckfest that is chemotherapy... It's a good movie. Never mind that I cried through half of it. Anyway, today I was sitting down to the afternoon classless lull that is my blessing and my curse when my supervisor turned to me with this huge long e-mail, in English, mainly salient information regarding a chemotherapy drug called- temozolamide? I suddenly can't remember the name. As it turns out, a friend of his has a high-school-aged daughter with an inoperable brain tumor and they're looking into treatments not available in Japan, which apparently covers a lot of chemotherapy. I tried to help him through it as much as I could- and I thank god that I did all that magazine research for Mom back in the day- and wondered all the while- what is the recovery rate for chemotherapy, in general? I mean, I realize that the mere fact one has to do chemo means one's chances are a little on the slim side to begin with, but with already established drugs how many people are actually cured and move on to happy, metastasis-free lives? Just wondering. ._. Current Mood: curious
12:50 pm - muwahahahaha. haha. Sorry, but I just found this while mucking around on spoilerslayer.com. I like how my baby is, like, totally in the moment and everyone else is just, 'Huh?' His expression in particular fully embodies my feelings about Angel. Other shots of the first episode of Angel season five are available at Comics Continuum.
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ursako's journal
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