frog princess

LJ, I does not understand you. Why are you showing me posts from 16 May on my friends list?

Anyway. I finally saw Brokeback Mountain. I'd avoided it up until now because the story is such a slice of unremitting grimness that I was scared of what the film might be. And in fact I'm sorry I didn't watch it sooner because it was quite beautiful, drawing out the yearning and romance between them more than the book ever did. I liked the sense all the way through that the lives they were leading with their wives were essentially a replacement for the kind of domestic life they could never lead together, and that they might be imagining each other in those roles - it made everything all that much sadder.

I have had a spurt of reading...
Victorian Sensation by Michael Diamond. Laid to rest any further notions I had that people in the Victorian era were any more stuffy and repressed than we are. He looks at the notion of 'sensation' and how scandals and gossip would absolutely grip the nation, and for weeks on end. It's also interesting to learn how outspoken the music halls were about everyone and anything, particularly their 'betters'. He does a sort of review, going through: royalty, murder, sex, politics and the 'sensation' novel.

Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel, about a psychic medium and her traumatic life. 'Beyond black' is how she refers to the afterlife, the details of which she keeps secret from her public because it would upset them too much. Her banal life of being overweight, eating leaky sandwiches at motorway service stations and moving into in a 'new build' is undercut by the presence of her appalling spirit guide Morris. He lives in curtains and draining boards and likes playing with himself. Colette, her assitant, is aggressive and stony faced. I'm hugely enjoying it so far.

Vikings: Wolves of War by Martin Arnold. He writes in a very engaging and non judgemental way about the Vikings, who were basically a race of entrepreneurs, as far as I can tell. Rather violent ones, when they weren't farming. It's fairly short, so obviously there's detail lacking, but for an overview of who they were, their expansion, culture and the (sometimes scarily violent) change from paganism to Christianity, it's very good.

I saw Master and Commander tonight, in a packed theatre, in the front row so I had to swivel my head back and forth to see everything. It was marvellous. The battles. The music. The beautiful friendship. The hundreds of perfect little details, not one of which I can remember right now. Ah, well, I must go and see it again. Russel Crowe and Paul Bettany were excellent. And cute too

Thornton's have brought out something called 'Toffee cream liquer'. I own a bottle. Yum.

My nose hurts! I can't decide whether to go to work tomorrow or not. On the one hand, I feel slightly better than yesterday, but on the other hand I'll be trailing round the NEC all day, and that'll be quite hard work.

And I suppose the 'here's Johnny' line in the Shining is quite scary, or would be if it hadn't been done to death over the years. It was no.1 in C4's 100 Scariest Moments. I never really did like the film as much as the book. Kubrick made Wendy into such a drip, whereas in the book she's far more resourceful.

Two of my favourite (if that's the word I'm looking for) scariest moments are; the end of the Wicker Man- the dark silhouette of the wicker man is so horrifying- and the final scene of the 1978 version of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, with Donald Sutherland's inhuman scream. Chilling.

But, Donald Sutherland! I have a thing about Donald Sutherland, despite the fact that he's worn a moustache for most of his career.

Oh wow. I watched Gangs of New York last night. Daniel Day-Lewis stole that film - he was stunning. From the very first shot you see of him he lights up the screen and you think who the hell is *this*? I can't think of another perfomance quite like it. The character of Bill Cutting should have been risible- everything about him was ridiculous, from his butchery obsession to his clothes, moustache and hair. He could so easily have been a two dimensional baddie, but he wasn't - he had depth, and was deeply scary, yet like all the best baddies you're in danger of falling in love with him. And I'm sure Day-Lewis threw in some cheeky De Niro impressions along the way, as a little hommage. De Niro was apparently up for the part back when the film was originally supposed to be made, in the 1970's.

This is really a film to sit and watch a few times. Besides the main plot there were so many little historical notes, like the competing fire engine crews, and the street slang, and the fashions! And the history of Five Points itself was fascinating.

Trivia fact: Johnny was played by the actor who played Elliot in ET!