#like the good old film noir vibe
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Okay, All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade is out in the states, so time for a listen and a rambling track by track reaction. I'm listening to the whole album through and writing my thoughts, and then listening to it once more and adding any other observations.
I've already heard Run Run Run, and like I said before, it feels very classic Carl track. It's very catchy. I think I have the same complaint as everyone else, which is that it feels over-produced. No one should autotune the Libs, the whole point is that they're a bit wonky. Also I don't like that they've fucked with the equalizer and the vocals sound weirdly muffled? Also, upon this listen-through, this song reminds me a little of Frank Turner, which is a weird musical callback to like 2012. My favorite thing in any song is when the instrumentals cut out and it's just drums and vocals, so I love that as the ending of the song. This whole album has so many varied cultural references which I find very entertaining. Does Peter yell "Get your pants off" or "Get your hands off"?
Already I like the lyric to Mustangs A LOT. Feeling a Lou Reed influence there. Love Peter's high-pitched backing vocals and also the Pigman reference. I really love Libs songs where it's just a little scene set to music. And this is exactly that, in such a good way. Again, not a fan of the mixing. What is it with producers these days and mixing so shittily that the vocals get lost in the background instruments, and everything gets muddied? I had the exact same complaint with the last Manics album. Anyway, love the little jokey bits at the end. The second verse about the nun is such fantastic imagery. (Lastly, I thought it was Mustang, singular? But it's plural on Spotify?)
I Have A Friend has an AMAZING chorus I love it. Also that solo guitar bit from Carl right after, I literally could see him hopping up and down in my head. Love Peter's rolled R's. Okay, upon listening the second time round I really really really like this song. The lyrics are incredible. I think they're my favorite on the album. Social commentary but also absolutely beautiful and amazing imagery.
Merry Old England has a bit of a Hamburg Demonstrations vibe to it, which I love. The further I get into this song, the more I love it. It's such a creative and sarcastic critique of Tory policies and all that. Again, I've criticisms about the mixing. Also the pretty violins makes me miss Miki Beavis's wonky violin in Madres, which I think suits Peter/The Libs way better. Still, they add a nice touch.
Ohhh I love Man With The Melody, the clear pretty vocals. I like that each of the Libs have their own verse, that's so cool! Fuck the autotuning though. I really like this song. Melodically it sounds like a sequel to Milkman's Horse, and thematically a sequel to Fame And Fortune. It sounds like a "reply" or a look back at Anthems. Very pretty, with the lovely piano and minimalist guitar.
Hahahha Oh Shit! feels soooooo early 2000s American pop, in a fun way. It reminds me of something but I can't quite put my finger on it. Something that was on the radio a lot in like 2003 or 2004 maybe? This is clearly a Fun Song, like a slosh your drinks around while dancing all goofy type song. Peter's "And that was the news today" at the end is so silly. I think this track is my least favorite but it is fun.
I already know I love Night Of The Hunter. Firstly because anything that uses the Swan Lake motif has my heart instantly. But also because I love the lyrics, I love when Peter writes songs about noir-type vignettes. Finally, some good shared vocals that aren't drowned out by instruments. Gosh, I love the lyrics of this song, I love the dual meaning in that it is technically about an actual noir film but could easily be talking about Peter's past as well. I really like that the lyrics get priority on this one and the instrumentals are pushed back in the mix with the Swan Lake motif coming forward sometimes. It feels like it needs that minimalism.
The guitar on Baron's Claw is already great from the start. I hear Peter's taking a leaf out of Daniel Darc's book with the close-in breathy vocals, which I'm so into because since I learned about Daniel Darc from Peter and Frederic Lo I've actually fallen in love with his music too. Melody-wise it's very close to The Glassblower from the Fantasy Life album, which is my favorite song off that album, so I'm not surprised I like this song too. I like the story in the song and I like the jazzy brass and piano and Peter's vocals. It feels like it's being sung in a smoky jazz bar. This one is so good.
Shiver is sooo catchy. I find myself humming it sometimes at work even though I haven't yet absorbed all the lyrics in my memory. This is also the real "Libertines mythology" song, so of course it's good. The fact that the lyrical subject matter is made up only of criticizing the monarchy and talking about specific Libertines lore is just so them. It's so short, though! I wish it were longer!
The guitar on Be Young is so chaotic lol. It reminds me of Horrorshow a bit. Okay, actually this whole song is chaotic. Melodically, lyrically, it sounds like they were crashing around in the studio while recording, which is very fun. The random calypso bridge bit is so....random! I like it, just a surprise in terms of musical style change. Suddenly they're the Clash! A fun way to pay homage to influences, I think. Also Carl yelling "Woo!" and then collapsing into a cough at the end is really really funny.
I can definitely hear the early-ness of Songs They Never Play On The Radio. You can tell the scaffolding is there from that early set of Libertines-to-Shambles transition songs like East Of Eden/Love Reign Over Me/Merry Go Round etc. I really really like the guitar on this one. And the vocals are so nice. Again I don't like the mix, where Peter's voice is a bit overtaken by the muddiness of the backup singers and instrumentals. But I do like this song a lot. The lyrics are pure Libertines mythology. Ahahah the dogs howling! The bit of acoustic and messing about and chat, I really like that. I think it's a really lovely ending to the album, just a glimpse of them obviously being friends and having fun. It's like a beautiful reply to the question "What became of the likely lads?"
As I've only listened through the album in full twice at this point, I'm sure my thoughts will change over time. But at the moment I think my favorite is torn between Night Of The Hunter and Baron's Claw. I Have A Friend and Songs They Never Play also are just so lyrically good. Least favorite is definitely Oh Shit. I'm excited to see which songs grow on me and in what ways.
#squash rambles#the libertines#all quiet on the eastern esplanade#hilarious that the libertines currently have better and more interesting social commentary than the manics *ahem*
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Something pisses me off that people in the fandom reduce all the criticism of the episode with Marinette's trauma to the fact that people in the fandom are stupid or love Chloe too much and hate Marinette
No, people don't like this episode because it has no respect for the viewer and it has many problems that are revealed later in the same season, on top of that, I question whether Adrien's trauma was addressed at all in a respectful way, or whether they justified everything by that he is a senti monster? Exactly
By the way, defenders of this episode, I hope you were going after Felix like you were going after Chloe? Oh no, wait, he was a victim of domestic violence and he was rich, so like Chloe, but he was a boy, so his trauma is more important
But coming back, this episode with Marinette's trauma is problematic on many levels, mainly because it fucks with the logic even more than in the first season when in the episode "Origins" when they rescued Chloe, and then in "Lady Wi-Fi", the chat noir suspects that Chloe it's a ladybug and don't ask about logic, because there is none
Not only does Kim and Chloe make so much sense that Chat Noir from the episode "Lady Wi-Fi" could give a high five on this topic, but calling it "Feature Sharpening" is an understatement, it's more like Thomas had too much to drink before writing the entire script for the episode, and like a typical kid, he created the episode like one of the "Scooby-Doo" movies, where Scrappy-Doo was an out-of-character character in order to be antagonized (Because the fandom didn't like him, so it's better to kill off the whole character this way)
What's the best way to end the story of a father who abuses his child? Give him a statue, the fandom will 100% love it
Seriously, Thomas, we all know you didn't write this episode for traumatized people, but just to go the way people did to kill Scrappy-Doo, which was to kill Chloe herself so that the fandom would hate her and Kim in the process suffered, because why not?
And by the way, to explain your imaginary daughter with your ex…
The standards of this series also contributed to the reception of this episode, and I would also like to remind you that Zag wanted redemption for Chloe, but Thomas himself did not want it, so when Zag left to create the film, Thomas went to destroy the whole Chloe, because like a child he cannot reconcile with this, that a fictional character can have any development and tried his hardest to kill Chloe like a Scappy-Doo movie, seriously Thomas, I understand a lot, but as a creator you should use it to your advantage and not kill her off because you hate your character so much (Like a child what creates illustrations of cartoon characters dying because he hates them)
Seriously, this show has 00's to 2010 vibes, but today? Such productions are more annoying than entertaining (And I say this as a 01-year-old)
This writing by Chloe and Kim seriously has Scrappy-Doo movie vibes to me
So the episode with Marinette's trauma is even more irritating, because anyone sensitive will notice what Thomas did here and it is a seriously conscious murder of his characters.
The context of this episode makes you feel offended rather than understood by the creator, because it's not about empathy towards people with trauma like Marinette, but about killing off the characters of Chloe and Kim
No matter how much I love the trope of the main character who, over time, turns out to have a trauma that the viewer doesn't know about, this show fucked it up and resulted in a not-so-good taste
It's just the context of this episode that causes it, I'm seriously sensitive to this way of writing and it has irritated me since I was a child, I was hoping that the newer the cartoons, the more it would disappear, but then Thomas appeared and did my hated trope, but turned it up to the max
Sometimes I wonder why many great creators get as few seasons as possible, while Thomas gets more
Because no matter how much I liked this show, after Chloe's arc fell apart and the writing fell apart because killing Chloe is more important than everything else in this show, it made me fed up
And because of creators like Thomas, many people consider animations as worthless and only entertainment for small children, because Thomas' writing style is effortless (And even productions for preschoolers can handle it, yes, I'm talking about "Bluey"), just as little as possible, and the fact that the fandom swallows everything has a simple task in this topic
Thomas had a good idea, but Miracolous's greatest enemy was Thomas himself
Damn, it's hard for me to come back to the series, but "Ladybug PV" is awesome, so Thomas himself has gone backwards in the development of his work, literally.
Ok, Felix was still problematic (It was chat noir back then, for those who don't know the history of the miracolous creation process)
But if Thomas could develop the character… Oh no, wait, he can't, that's why Felix became Adrien
By the way, Mr. Pigeon and the mime from the first season appeared in this version, just an interesting fact
I also have the impression that the characters had a better design than in the current series
There was another 3D version, which also looked amazing, so the version we got is the worst and this thought kills me, because this series could have been something more, but Thomas himself killed it, i.e. the creator killed his creation before showing it in its entirety to the world (Congratulations, Thomas)
Yes, I had to let go of all my frustration with the show and the fandom, because it's fucked up that when you criticize the bad writing of Marinette's trauma, people come up with their theories on why you do it, not why you do it and why you don't like it
#cartoon#cartoonist#ml critical#ml fandom salt#ml ladybug#ml salt#ml writers salt#ml writing salt#miraculous ladybug#adrien agreste#marinette dupain cheng#chat noir#chloe bourgeois#thomas why?#thomas astruc#thomas astruc salt#miraculous ladybug salt#ml writing critical#anti thomas astruc
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XDINARY HEROES AS AESTHETICS.
🌐 seya : before we dive into an amazing world of web-aesthetics, there are few things that i’d like to point out. first of all, i chose aesthetic for each member based solely on my associations with their vibe. meaning: i associate the vibe of aesthetic with them, rather than the history behind it. secondly, some of the information was gathered from such sites as:
https://cari.institute/aesthetics.
https://www.are.na.
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org.
now that we got that out of the way — enjoy!
𝐠𝐨𝐨 𝐠𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐥 : 𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐊𝐈𝐓𝐒𝐂𝐇
“baby boomer & silent generation revival of various 1940s-1950s cultural iconography, design, and kitsch associated with diner, drive-in's and malt shop culture. jukeboxes, poodle skirts, 1950s advertising kitsch, neon, chromed-out automobiles, metallic paneling, 'american graffiti'-style fonts.” — ©️ cari institute.
diner kitsch – aesthetic familiar to everyone, yet not that many people know it’s actual name (or that it is, in fact, an aesthetic!). checkered floors and walls, milkshakes, burgers, neon signs and, of course, waitresses on roller skates — these things define diner kitsch. originating from 1950s, when diners were seen as a place, where you could enjoy a hearty comfort food and have a good time with your family or friends it was finally revived in our years through media that depicts mainly high schoolers or travelers of any sorts, going out for a dinner.
🌐 seya : i chose diner kitsch for gunil because he is literally the embodiment of a nerdy boy who would definetely hang out with his group of friends in a place like that. doing homework, reading comics, getting cookies on the house because of how often they visit a diner… 🥤🍔 yum!
𝐤𝐢𝐦 𝐣𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐮 : 𝐍𝐄𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐑
“the term neon-noir is a film genre, but it can also represent an aesthetic. this aesthetic includes a brooding, mysterious, cyberpunk, and dangerous atmosphere. the neon-noir aesthetic can be related somewhat to the sibling-genre neo-noir (without the “n”), including avant-garde fashion, femme fatale style, dark clothing, technology, and neon lights.” — ©️ wendy zhou (from her blog wendyzhou.se)
neon-noir (also known as future-, cyber-, tech-noir) was born in the film industry around 1980s, when sci-fi was blooming yet again. not so popular in web, it is still quite known in gamer community, thanks to such games like “cyberpunk 2077”, “anno mutationem”, “blade runner” etc. this aesthetic is mixing old-school noir with futuristic elements, giving it a whole new look. neon signs, robots, androids, futuristic technology are going hand in hand with good old detective genre, accented shadows, rain and fog.
🌐 seya : i find this aesthetic to be the most suiting to jungsu. i can imagine him in this type of setting so well and i’d actually like to read or even write something, where he is portrayed as a detective in a mysterious and futuristic setting!
𝐤𝐰𝐚𝐤 𝐣𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐨𝐤 : 𝐀𝐂𝐈𝐃𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐅𝐈𝐗
“rule-bending, medium-blending "instagram grunge". full of horror vacui, chrome type, oddball textures and self-referentialism.” — ©️ cari institute.
originated in the 1990s and revived in 2010s, acidgrafix (also known as: acid graphics and acid design) aesthetic is mainly seen nowadays on the covers of music albums. bright colors (usually red, orange and neon green, neon yellow, neon purple), wireframes, distorted images, liquid metal forms – all of these are key elements of acidgrafix. the term acid, as you might’ve already guessed, came from the acid house and rave culture. it first appeared on flyers, used to promote and to invite people to raves. smiley faces (of course, resembling nothing else but the actual drug), op-art-esque patterns, sci-fi futurism – all of these were such an eye candy for party-goers, that soon enough this style overtook the music industry. after being long forgotten in the 00s, acidgrafix finally found it’s new home in instagram, where musicians would design their insta-stories and albums with all of the key details of this aesthetic.
🌐 seya : aaand this is the part that i was worried about the most. this aesthetic took it’s origins not from the best culture, but i still find it’s style being quite suiting for gaon. it’s bright, innovative and bold – just like he is!
𝐨𝐡 𝐬𝐞𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐦𝐢𝐧 : 𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐏𝐔𝐍𝐊
"the millennial and gen-z iteration of edgy grunge aesthetics, associated closely with "pop punk" and the store hot topic." — ©️ cari institute.
*puts a cd in the drive, "girlfriend" by avril lavigne starts playing* now that we're in the mood, let us find out what the hell is a teen punk. the dirty, the angry, the free and THE wild – this aesthetic conveys the whole essence of the rebellious period that every teenager eventually goes through. you can usually see this movement being expressed through clothes, style, make up and, most importantly, music, rather then the way you could draw something or edit a photo. mainly seem in early 00s, teen punk found it's new home in hearts of people through nostalgia that overtook us all as soon as pandemic started. this aesthetic combines different colors like foggy green and blue, obviously black, red and pink (yes, the tricolor of emo aesthetic is very important here). essential details of teen punk are denim jackets, torn jeans, big ass t-shirts with logos of musical groups, fishnets and those humongous military boots that everyone used to wear. the pioneers of this movement are mainly musical artists, like the infamous avril lavigne, all-time favorites my chemical romance, green day, paramore etc.
🌐 seya : now i need you to look me dead in the eyes and say that THIS isn't his aesthetic. bro literally dresses as if hot topic was more grunge and still managed to survive.
𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐲𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐣𝐮𝐧 : 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐓𝐈 𝐏𝐎𝐏
"first wave of corporate appropriation of graffiti culture. typically includes urban streetscapes & iconography contemporary to the time period (eg. trash cans, brick walls, chain link fencing, street lamps, sidewalks, industrial elements, general 'urban decay'). it's also associated with that eras' portrayal of street, hip hop, & punk culture." — ©️ cari institute.
disclaimer: this part is mostly retelling of an article from this site: https://www.grafftergallery.com/2023/08/graffiti-pop-art-vivid-intersection-of.html | i really don't think that i would be able to express myself better than they already did, so let me give the credit to the rightful authors!
this aesthetic is a firm proof of the dynamic between street culture and the world of art that was born in early 80s and was especially popular till the 00s. bright colors, bold splashes of different patterns, provocative slogans, popular singers, models, tv personalities – it screams fight for the freedom of self expression. this movement is first and foremost was heavily affected by socio-political issues, causing street artists to voice their concerns through art. graffiti itself is a rebellious act (you're literally damaging private property) and when you mix this with media icons and pop culture that was thriving, you're guaranteed to have all the attention that you need.
🌐 seya : i feel like this aesthetic really suits jun han because in my eyes he is one of the most brave idols in terms of expressing himself through his style and art.
𝐥𝐞𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐨𝐧 : 𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐑𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐌
"let's take a look at what is included in such aesthetics as retro-surrealism (also known as airbrush surrealism and included in the subgenres of retro-futurism), shall we?"
retro is an imitation or conscious derivative of a lifestyle, trend, or art form from history, included in music, fashion, or looks. the retro art movement always invariably revives and in one way or another refers to everything that happened in the past. surrealism is an art direction that always strives to revolutionize human experience. it balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. combining these two trends of media art, we get abstract paintings made in the style of sci-fi comics from the 70s-90s. very often they feature elements such as musical instruments, outer space and electronic objects such as telephones, radios, televisions, etc. usually such paintings are airbrushed, which gives them a slightly hazy, matte effect, typical for surrealism (promotes immersion into the unconscious me thinks!).
🌐 seya : i love, love, LOVE this one so much, i just had to give it to my favorite boy jooyeon! i feel like this one suits jooyeon just because he looks like that one dude obsessed with weird ass comic books, always going around with his old mp3 player and vibing to daft punk bangers. sorry not sorry, no one is getting this image out of my head.
#xdinary heroes#goo gunil#kim jungsu#kwak jiseok#oh seungmin#han hyeongjun#lee jooyeon#jun han#o.de#xh#🌐 : seya talks.
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2023 wrapped: kdrama edition!
taking a page from @dangermousie, here's a list of all the kdramas ive watched this year, in order from least liked to most liked! because i dont have a spotify wrap-up to share :'D
cdrama one here!
and i'll do a webtoon one too /o/
overall i didnt watch too many kdramas this year, and finished less. kind of a "meh" kdrama year for me overall (with 1-2 exceptions). with that in mind, full disclosure that i didnt love a ton of what i watched this year in kdramaland:
we barely knew ye: ones i dropped only a few eps in
sweet home 2. dropped after ep 2. direction it went in is v much not my thing, my fave surviving characters were either killed off or put on the bench, and im not that motivated to see what happens next. might jump back into the franchise if word-of-mouth on s3 is good, we'll see
moon in the day. first ep was actually great and i enjoyed it a lot!! but im not doing cancer storylines rn so that killed momentum. may try this one again later
king the land. watched the first ep. simply did not vibe.
death's game. ditto ^
black knight. i LOVE a good dystopian scifi. this was not that. i was really bored after the first ep and didnt bother with the rest
my dearest. i watched the first ep and liked it, but just wasnt in the mood/wasn't immediately hooked. i'm going to give this one another try when i hit the Angsty Sageuk craving again
dramas i watched at least half of
6. twinkling watermelon.
it's pretty wild to put what i believe is the current #1 show on mydramalist as my bottom pick for the year, especially since it's written by my favorite screenwriter, but here we are. this one is far from objectively the worst drama but it's here because it made me the most mad!! the female lead and second male leads were both off-putting and selfish to me, and the whole drama i was actively rooting for ryeoun's earnest and endearing male lead and shin eun soo's underwritten second female lead to escape and have mother/son adventures on their own away from the rest of everyone else
5. arthdal chronicles: sword of aramun.
sigh. i was a big believer/supporter of this season, even with all of the recasts. but despite a few moments of brilliance, it was overall a slog to watch and just kind of joyless. too much time spent on the ago tribe, too many nonsensical victories and deus ex machina coincidences, and the bag was very much fumbled with some of the characters (particularly saya, who was to me the most interesting character in s1 and you KNOW ljk could have rocked that ruthlessness). positive standouts were kim ok bin flawlessly scene-chewing as taealha and lee joon ki working what he was dealt
4. worst of evil.
adored this drama for the first 2/3rds! it was gritty, neo-noir that reminded me a lot of the old school hong kong crime films like infernal affairs. lots of style, great acting, messy and flawed characters. but the last arc/ending was a boring dud for me. still very much enjoyed the ride up to that point though!
3. perfect marriage revenge.
so! much!! fun!!! just. full commitment to making a show as gloriously makjang/soap operay as it could get and it was a blast watching because of it. made on pocket lint for a budget but it rocked what it had and a special shoutout to lee min young's absolutely fantastically camp evil stepmother. the excitement died down a little toward the end, but still a good time overall
2. the glory, part 2.
a satisfying ending to a really excellent first half. love that the female lead just got to execute revenge and there was no moral or sanctimonious hangups about it. enjoyed the way the ending was set up as "the adventure continues," and all in all this was a really solid and enjoyable dark drama! only thing that was kind of a bummer is that the time split between airing the first and second halves killed the momentum a little, but that's entirely netflix fuckery and not the fault of the show
moving
hands-down the best kdrama i watched this year, and possibly my favorite kdrama ever. i didnt plan to watch this one because im sick of superhero everything, but the cast got me wanting to at least try it and omg im glad i did. great acting from literally everyone, wild action scenes, and just beautiful characters and dynamics across every level. the family narratives are so, so good and the whole show is expertly grounded in the concept of planting seeds so your children can see flowers. please give this one a try if you're on the fence about it!
2023 kdramas that i plan to watch (but didnt get to yet!)
my lovely liar
a good day to be a dog
my perfect stranger
revenant
mask girl
bloodhounds
my demon
AWARDS
Favorite ship: juwon and jihee from moving absolutely destroyed me in the like 3 eps they were in, so they win this one. he's a gangster who gets the shit kicked out of him for a living and loves stories with happy endings. she's a weary but always brave sex worker (coded, but still) who decides to trust a lonely man crying in the street. i never thought a motion-sensor light could wreck me the way theirs did. "you have worth to me, and i have worth to you."
Favorite FL: song hye kyo's dong eun in the glory just barely edges out han hyo joo's mihyun in moving. song hye kyo needs to play, like, all the villains and anti-heroes ASAP because that's been the most fun ive had watching her. she took on a dark character and rocked it
Favorite ML: juwon from moving, definitely. to quote my older post:
Moving really said hi this is Juwon. he has scars from gunshots all down his arm. he opened a chicken restaurant. he’s a gangster. he loves pro wrestling because the good guys win. he tried to rip out his own galbladder to prove a point. he’s a proud girl dad. he is unkillable. he stands in the street and cries.
Favorite 2FL: lee min young's incredible, over the top, villainous camp queen lee jung hye from perfect marriage revenge was just so much fun to watch and she ate every single scene she was in. 10/10 would watch her throw lawn chairs in a ballgown all day
Favorite 2ML: i would die for bongseok from moving. precious sunshine child who deserves only the best
Best Cast: im a broken record, but moving. so many characters with such great depth given to them and this was truly an ensemble show A+++
Best WTF: yura eating her paternity results in perfect marriage revenge!!
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Gotham Knights 1x07 "Bad to Be Good"
Thank you to the writers, Allegre Rodriguez & Michelle Furtney-Goodman.
Loved this ep overall. Also bless this series for how it films Misha Collins. Who is himself a work of art.
Following on that theme from the past few eps, Cullen's concern about saving the painting from the black market, where it would wind up hidden from public eyes, is very community-minded of him. He also genuinely cares about the role of art. Steph also takes this up, as we're told they talked about "the importance of art." But also during their coffee and art talk, found a link to their immediate interests and needs.
Harper wonders why she or the Knights should care about works of communal value. She only gets interested when Steph tells them the paintings were all owned by Alan Wayne, which is a link to the Court of Owls. Harper needs a specific and immediate purpose link that involves self-preservation or protecting people she's close to before she cares. Cullen and Steph see a bigger picture but are also motivated by the specific interest and needs, they do both.
Carrie and Duela are a really fun chaos duo, opposites conspiring together and bickering the whole time. Carrie's judging-you-both faces at Eunice and Duela, the epic eye-rolls, Carrie regretting all her life choices, Carrie's thinking FML how did I wind up in this mess. And then Duela eye-rolling over Carrie. Comedy gold. The beginnings of that friendship was unexpected. They're demonstrating different points on the morality and ethics scale. This show has a lot of moral relativism. "Potato, tomato, little bird." Carrie was morally right, but wrong in this situation, Duela isn't ethical, but Duela's antics allowed them to save Detective Green's family.
Eunice stabbing Duela's hand with the ballerina from her music box was very hard core.
Turner seems like he's emerging as more of a leader in this ep. He's also using the bat-toys. Following his dad's legacy, but in his own way, not trying to be Batman.
I immensely enjoy how Misha plays every scene in this like the lead in a classic Hollywood noir or suspense thriller. He's got some great Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart vibes going on. That shot of the cordless phone ringing, looming ridiculously large in foreground, is also vintage Hollywood, Hitchcock kind of style. Misha has the range, the gravitas, and the camera adores him. And Harvey's a whole meal of a character here (on top of being an absolute snack), one of the few decent Gotham leaders, a regular guy in over his head, wondering if he's going mad, trying to solve the mystery, plagued by his inner demons, while being a good person, but shadows over his shoulder.
Lauren Stamile does a great job playing Rebecca March. Her role here is the femme fatale of classic Hollywood. Vulnerable, sincere, yet a touch dangerous. Doesn't mean Rebecca is lying. But anyone who's watched some of those old films knows there could be some plot twists. I wonder where this arc is going to lead.
Steph tending to Harper's wound outside the warehouse and in the end scenes. Their cute flirting. The little smiles. After Harper saved Steph from mobster bullets, Steph taking care of Harper's bullet wound. Enemies to reluctant allies to sorta kinda friends to lovers? Yes please.
Cressida going to Harvey for help...might be sincere. It's looking like all of Gotham is in deadly peril, so much so that Cressida's fear for the fate of millions is overcoming her fear for herself. If the Court's bigger picture plans are a lot more dire than just controlling Gotham financially and socially. Something has scared her badly. Or it's another ploy.
That's one of the fun things about this series, there's a lot of layers, and secrets inside secrets and things not being what they seem.
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The mob Boss au?
mob boss au
ok so i’m tagging @kuwdora bc i was supposed to answer her ask from The WIP Game from idk years ago probably, BUT
mob boss au
so: modern with magic setting, 1930’s prohibition era, film noir style gangster au feat betrayal, gun running, vicious retaliation, iorveth as a femme fatale, you know, all the good stuff
Foltest is from one of the big old style mob families, but he’s been taking it in a new direction, divorcing himself from his father’s legacy. Roche is his best enforcer, hired on as a teen when Roche took out the pimp who ran the brothel his mum worked at, and was brought in for discipline and then kept. Foltest can use that kind of fire and spark. point it somewhere useful and who knows what might happen.
the Blue Stripes are Roche’s personal crew, built out of a gang of orphans and other street rats Baker St Irregulars style, and absorbed into his family structure. any time Foltest puts out a hit on someone with a family, any kids gets adopted into Foltest’s family to show them what real loyalty looks like.
the Scoia’tael are a much older gang, built out of the remnants of old neighbors and the old Aen Seidhe residents of the city, and worked more along the lines of a local militia protecting their neighborhood and running off intruders, until these new gangs started vying for territory, the Temerians and the Nilfgaardians and such. more mutual aid, if not entirely altruistic
bc all of this is heavily inspired by the Irish mob, there’s also a through line of religious discrimination— Roche is fantasy!Catholic and had guiltily buried his mothers practices for the sake of his boss/lover. his patron saint is fantasy!St Jude, saint of lost causes and things despaired of. Foltest is fantasy!Protestant and negligibly that at best, and doesn’t understand all this superstitious nonsense. Iorveth was forced into the equivalent of a residential school and had fantasy!Catholicism ground as salt into his wounds, and is (understandably) bitter about it.
Geralt is a well intentioned cop, working for Emhyr, the chief of police and fighting against a system designed to fuck him over.
Saskia is the bright eyed new District Attorney who’s putting in a bid for mayor of the city, working with the Scoia’tael to clean up the streets, ruining Foltest’s plans, and also still a dragon
this is Mostly Vibes, Partially Plot, but there are some words about it, and more on the back burner bc i fucking love an overly complicated au lol
violence and gun kink snippet:
also this all started bc i put roche in a funny hat and the KM discord took off with it, which is where most of my ideas come from
#the witcher#vernon roche#wip game#iorveth#foltest of temeria#witcher 2#mob boss au#my writing#vernon roche in a funny hat
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top nine first time watches of 2023 tagged by @dizzymoods
this accidentally posted while I was working on alt text during a work break, so not everything is complete but the photos align with the text below.
#1 top film and theater experience of the year) watching Fremont in Fremont as a former Fremont resident
(2023, Babak Jalali)
2) Animalia (Parmi nous) via Sundance streaming
(2023, Sofia Alaoui)
becomes a truly mystical experience. like ppl are gonna make comparisons with certain Soviet films but let this one stand on its own pls
3) Bravo, Burkina (2023 , Walé Oyéjidé) via Sundance streaming
4) Cry of the City (1948, Robert Siodmak) at Noir City.
My fave of the films I was able to catch at the various festivals here throughout the SF Bay, though for top experience I was grateful to finally get to the Castro Theatre for two SF Silent Film screenings before Another Planet changes the seats...
5) The Blazing Sun (Siraa Fil-Wadi) (1954, Youssef Chahine)
screencap found here
6) There is No Evil (Sheytân vojūd nadârad)
(2020, Mohammad Rasoulof)
The "Bella ciao" scene alone is iconic! Yet it is just one moment within a devastating and strident cinematic statement.
7) And Then We Danced (Da chven vitsek'vet)
(2019, Levan Akin)
If you have had any rigorous dance training, you can tell how good this film is- down in the details, telling story through movement.
8) Journey to Epcot Center: A Symphonic History
(2023, Defunctland/Kevin Perjurer)
screencap found here
I SUPPORT KEVIN IN ALL HIS ENDEAVORS
9) Baticano (2023, Stillz)
Imagine my surprise when I turn my TV and one of the best modern homages to German Expressionism and 30's-50's Western studio horror, starring Bad Bunny as Nosferatu and Steve Buscemi as a "mad scientist." The depths of the black parts of the screen alone... pure! black! contrast! Not the telltale flat digital black-gray!
Benito may be no Max Schreck, but Stillz was on a roll for the rapper's videos last year, and now I feel less... embarrassed? that I was repeatedly hypnotized by the hyper-Coachella vibes of the "Where She Goes" video... Stillz has skills.
Or at least knows how to shoot what I like.
Runners-up are many, but I want to highlight:
a) a small but solid run of horror viewing in October, from the adrenaline of As Above So Below to all the subtext James Whale snuck into The Old Dark House. Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde should be counted as one of the best Hammer horrors imo. On the borders of the horror were Mother Joan of the Angels, La Llorona, and the more witchy fantasy The Five Devils.
b) sidestep into Indonesia with May the Devil Take You, which may not be at the tip top levels of Impetigore but still a uniquely wild ride. Headshot sets standards on the action side, and you can definitely spot Gareth Evans' Indonesian industry training in his English folk-action-horror foray Apostle.
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five times they didn’t take a polaroid (and one time someone else took one)
my contributions to @lovesquarefanbook :D
Rating: G
Ao3 Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Realtionships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir / Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Tags: five time, polaroids, getting together, aged up, prom, wedding, future kids, fluff, FLUFF ALL AROUND, inspired by music, marriage proposal, slow dancing, pre-reveal, post-reveal, prpr
Number of Words: 4635
Summary: Snapshots of Adrien and Marinette's love story as they grow up - and always, always more in love
Read on ao3
Author Notes: This was written for the Happily Ever After Zine, and I have some amazing memories tied to it. More than half of it was written on a bench in the park in front of my dorm building and like. The vibe alone still gives me life.
For maximum enjoyment, check out these songs:
The Good Old Days - Macklemore (ft. Kesha)
Hymn for the Weekend - Coldplay
Queen of Hearts - We The Kings
Best Day of My Life - The American Authors
Let's Get Married - Bleachers
Praf de stele - Vița de vie
Fireflies - Owl City
Which you can also find in this Spotify Playlist
1. The Good Old Days
When Adrien gives her his present, he’s positively beaming, and his excitement is contagious. His joy translates into curiosity for Marinette, and as she asks if it’s okay to open his present on the spot, he gets even more excited.
It’s not a big box, and the packaging is clumsily done. She loves it all the more. But however much she tries, she still has to tear it to get to what’s inside.
“A couple months back I heard you say that you hate taking pictures because you always drop your phone,” he says at the same time as she finally looks inside.
A camera. And boxes upon boxes of film.
“Now you have something you can’t drop as easily,” he continues.
Marinette can only raise her eyes and gape at him.
He’s positively glowing.
Somehow, she musters some words, looking at the camera one second and him the next. “But this is a Polaroid,” she says in lieu of a proper response. It’s expensive, it’s too much, it’s perfect. “With tons of film!”
He chuckles. And winks. “Go wild!”
“But this must’ve cost you a fortune!”
“Not really,” he says, but he must see the doubt in her eyes.
He leans forward and puts his hands on her shoulders, hitting her with a proud grin. He’s not even trying to hide how pleased with himself he is.
“You deserve so much more! This is just a small present and I hope you like it.”
The last thing she’d want is to make him feel like she doesn’t like his present, but it’s a weird feeling. He might be saying it’s not much, but it doesn’t feel like it.
“I love it!” she sputters her response, mind almost as blank as all the film in the box. “But wow, it feels like a lot.”
Adrien takes his hands off her shoulders, clasping them behind his back and rocking back on his heels.
She misses the warmth of his closeness but at least she can breathe a bit more normally.
“How about this,” he starts again, changing tactics. His expression is thoughtful but there’s still that note of excitement that hasn’t left his eyes. “Since I got yours, I’ve been thinking about getting one for myself too. How about I do that and we become Polaroid buddies?”
On the one hand, she doesn’t want him to spend even more money on her. Can it even be considered spending money on her?
But on the other, she likes the idea of sharing this little thing with him. She imagines them going on photo-taking dates. Being silly, and serious, and artistically invested in the littlest of things—together. And it’s her birthday. She’s allowed to be selfish. Especially when he seems so happy at the idea.
So she gives a tentative nod—and his face lights up again.
“I hope you’ll have so much fun with it!” he says, beaming at her.
It’s her turn to wink at him. “We’ll have fun together.”
“You don’t have to wait until I get mine to start taking photos with yours, though!”
She hums, bringing the camera out of the box to inspect it. She has no idea what to do with it, but she still points it at him.
“I can do this, then?” she asks, smirking as she mimics snapping a photo.
His face takes on the most precious expression—so betrayed, that she can’t help a laugh.
Still chuckling, she puts the camera back in the box not noticing Adrien taking out his phone. The snap of a photo brings her back to reality, and he grins at her, quickly switching off his phone again.
“You won’t even show me?” she asks, raising an eyebrow at him, while trying to sneak a glance at the dark screen.
“Nope, mine now.”
“Then I’ll just have to surprise you with a picture too.”
He lifts a shoulder in a careless half-shrug, but his eyes twinkle and his smile is wide. “I guess it’s on, then.”
Two days later, his chat bubble pops up with three new messages, fired all at once.
He bought his own Polaroid—the exact same model as hers. And Marinette has a photo-date to overthink, scheduled for the next day.
2. Hymn for the Weekend
The déjà vu hits her like thunder and lightning: just a quick flash, but strong—and echoing.
It’s nothing unusual. Just her and Chat Noir at the end of their patrol. The sun is casting him in bronze and gold while the slight summer breeze is turning the moment into something ethereal.
After months of photo-dates, it’s muscle memory, really.
She takes her yoyo, turns it to him, and snaps a picture of his profile in all its glory.
He looks like a snippet of a dream that leaves Ladybug still watching the picture of him even after he turns curious eyes to her.
An eyebrow raised, a corner of his lips quirked up in the beginning of a smile.
She snaps another quick photo.
“You reminded me of a friend right there,” she says, fighting the pull of the picture and reluctantly taking her eyes off of it. Did he remind her of Adrien only after she took the picture? Did she take the picture because he reminded her of Adrien in the first place?
“How so?” he asks, raising his second eyebrow as he turns to her properly.
He makes an exaggerated sound, groaning like an old man as he pulls his legs under him and settles into a more comfortable position.
“I have this friend…” she starts, not quite knowing how to continue.
They take photos together, but it’s more than that. They go on dates, but they’re not quite dates. They spend too much time in front of Adrien’s car talking about the school day and their future plans, and it’s nothing and everything all at once.
She settles on, “We’ve been going around the city to snap pictures for a couple of months now.”
Chat Noir’s face brightens with every word, somehow.
“I didn’t know you were into photography, M’lady!”
“Yeah, I never expected to like it so much,” she admits, opening the gallery on her yoyo. The two pictures of Chat Noir greet her right at the top of her list, innocent and condemning all at once.
She’d been resisting the shy urge to take pictures with her yoyo. It’s no fun if she can’t show them to anyone. But every now and then, every time she sees a building covered in green, or an old couple holding hands, or kids being kids—every time she sees a special moment, she feels the urge to immortalize it in shiny paper and pin it in the album she’d been building.
But the most special of moments are the ones she and Adrien had been competing over—the ones only they are privy to. Sweet little smiles, sunbeams, leaves dusting their shoulders with light; a secret they’re not even aware of and which the other somehow manages to capture.
She still has pictures she hasn’t shown him, all arranged carefully in an album of their own, decorated with washi tape, and fancy markers, and little illustrations she hopes will make Adrien’s day when she finally gives the completed album to him.
And in those two pictures—in those two pictures Chat Noir is Adrien. Lost in thought and ethereally beautiful.
“I’ve been taking a lot of photos recently too,” he says, leaning forward to take a peek at her gallery.
She resists the urge to shy away and reluctantly hands him the yoyo.
“Promising profile pictures, right here,” she says, trying to change the subject. She wants to share every detail with him, yet she wants to hide away those two pictures and put them in a special frame fitting for how precious they feel.
She doesn’t really understand why they feel precious.
“And replace the masterpiece I already have?”
She shakes her head, hoping he thinks it’s a response to the meme he’s had as a profile picture ever since he’d made a Twitter account, but she’s just trying to shake off the feeling that there’s something she’s missing.
The habit seeps into their hero lives, tens of new pictures appearing on her yoyo and his baton.
Two months later she finally finds out what she was missing.
She prints out those two first photos.
One, she adds to Adrien’s album with a smile and a mischievous glint in her eyes. The other, she keeps to herself, to pin in a corner of her corkboard.
3. Best Day of My Life
Chloé could not conceive the idea that they wouldn't have a movie-worthy prom at the end of high school.
Sometimes her stubbornness truly did wonders.
She wanted a prom, so she had a prom—held in her father’s hotel, barely any different than her last birthday party.
But the photo booth is new—set up nicely in a corner, a sparkly curtain as background and a table full of props right beside.
It’s the first thing Marinette notices when she enters the room with Alya, Nino and Adrien, eyes going back to it even as Alya leads them to their table.
Chloé is impatiently tapping her foot when they get there. Her shoes make the sound carry even over the music. It’s just background noise for the moment, only loud enough to cover up the emptiness.
“Took you long enough,” she says, slightly annoyed.
Marinette turns right in time to catch her rolling her eyes, so she quirks an eyebrow as she sets down her purse on the table. She meant to say something, but her mind chose to focus entirely on the way Adrien pulled a chair for her, instead.
She sits down and hopes her makeup hides the blush she feels rising to her face as Adrien pushes her chair and takes the seat next to her.
“We aren’t even late, no one else is here yet,” Nino says, taking off his blazer and rolling his sleeves.
“Well, you’re the organizers, you’re supposed to be here early.”
Marinette is quick to respond. “You hired an entire team to make sure this runs smoothly. You didn’t let us lift a finger for this.”
Not that it affects Chloé in the slightest. “You’re the organizer’s friends, you’re supposed to be here early.”
“You got bored and told me to hurry up,” Adrien finally speaks up, snorting, but Marinette has seen his excitement.
He could barely contain it.
If Chloé hadn’t called him, he would’ve showed up early anyway. Chloé only called an hour early. He’d shown up on Marinette’s balcony even earlier, catsuit dissolving into slacks and a navy button-up, sleeves rolled up his forearms and a tie hanging undone around his neck.
He made Marinette do the knot. Then started pestering her to dress up too.
Then Chloé called and she actually did start to dress up
“My point exactly.”
“Well, we hurried up,” Alya said, pouring herself a glass of water and watching Chloé over the brim. “What now?”
“Now you wonder at my competence and then we go take pictures.”
They laugh. Because it’s their prom, and it’s like in the movies, and it’s surreal. And it’s funny, it’s so funny, how they’re here and living a moment that’s supposed to be big, and important, and big.
It’s their moment.
And, well, isn’t it? They’re alone in an enormous ballroom, and their excitement charges the air like electricity before a storm.
Marinette takes a hold of the camera hanging from her neck and takes it off with a sigh, glancing at the photo booth. “This is useless isn’t it?”
It wasn’t a burden per se. But it was still bulky enough to be slightly inconvenient. And it was one more thing to keep an eye on all night.
“Of course not,”Adrien jumps in, taking it from her hands fast enough that she doesn’t have time to react.
They’ve been doing it long enough to know what’s going to happen next.
Marinette closes her eyes, but she’s smiling.
The camera shutters and a photo comes out with a whoosh that she’s all too familiar with.
Before the first people start showing up, they’ve already hit the photo booth three times. They have complete reign over the machine, and they can pick whatever props they want.
Marinette especially loves the set of photos where all of them are wearing wigs and laughing at each other instead of paying attention to the screen.
The night is less magical than she imagined, yet somehow more. Just in a different way. There’s laughter—a lot more than she’d expected. And dancing—a lot of jumping around rather than the slow dances she’d been hoping for. And there’s their group stuffing their faces with the Dupain-Chengs’ fantastic pastries that Chloé made sure wouldn’t be missing.
Then, there’s the waltz. It’s the epitome of what she’d dreamed of—and it’s not. It’s her, and Adrien, with absolutely no space between them, laughing the whole time, as Adrien looks at her like she’s the stars and the moon, and—is it really something new? Is it not how she looks at him as well?
She dares a spark of hope, but she’s too busy enjoying the moment—being content—to really think about it or be disappointed that nothing really happens. There’s no dip and kiss at the end, there’s no dramatic confession following their clumsy attempt at being dramatic dancers.
The night is young until it isn’t, and when they go for a final round of photos after most students have already left it’s just their group again. Marinette’s feet hurt, and her cheeks hurt, but she’s happy.
She picks up a headband with antennae on top and hands Adrien one with cat ears—a subtle nod at everything they’re hiding, just for them to see and remember.
He’s holding a thin stick with a message to his chest, so close to him, she can’t see what it’s written on it, but she smiles. He returns the smile as he takes the prop from her and puts it on his head with a mischievous excitedness she simply loves.
She sets up the machine, and takes a quick look at Adrien on the screen. The countdown has already started, but he’s not looking at her, he’s looking at the message with a thoughtful expression.
She doesn't think much of it, until she’s next to him, eyes still glued to the screen, and the message is turned around for her to finally see.
It’s reversed, on the screen. Seen in the mirror. But she could read those words upside down and in a hundred languages and still know what they mean.
The count is down to one. She hears the snap of the photo, but everything is already lost to her. It’s only Adrien and the Comic Sans “I love you” he holds with a nervous expression, and his eyes—on her, only ever on her.
That first photo catches her with an open mouth and wide eyes. The second, has Adrien handing her the message—clumsily, somehow still unsure, as if she hasn’t been dreaming of that for the past too many years. The third—the third shows her with her hands on his cheeks and their eyes locked together carrying a conversation only they can understand.
And the last, gloriously big, bigger than all other three, with a fancy generic message at the bottom to remind them it’s from their prom and nowhere else—the last shows them finally, finally kissing.
4. Let’s Get Married
There are icy webs covering the locks on Pont des Arts, and stray snowflakes lingering on them when the wind doesn’t blow.
Adrien catches a picture of her looking at one before she even has the time to register what he’s doing.
His laughter fills the air with warmth when she raises her polaroid to take one of him as well.
He puts the photos safely in a bag he always carries for these dates and goes to give her a quick peck on the cheek.
The kiss was only half an excuse to get close enough to ask quietly, “Is he still there?”
A quick glance over his shoulder gives her the answer. He is. He’s barely trying to be sneaky anymore.
The man has been following them for the better part of their date—clumsily, probably a beginner, still eager for the easy money that came with intruding in a celebrity’s personal life.
After they first noticed him, they tried ignoring him.They’re not doing anything interesting, just taking photos the same way they do every month on photo-dates which have long since become tradition. But the man is persistent.
So Marinette nods and Adrien catches her hand in his with a resigned sigh. “I’m starting to doubt he’ll get bored of us.”
“You’d think he would after watching two people walk around and take pictures of random things for an hour.”
He pouts at her. “I only took pictures of you! Please, give me some credit.”
“Always, Chaton. But you should really slow down or we’ll need to buy another album before spring is even here.”
“Can’t help it when you’re the most beautiful person to walk the earth,” he says, squeezing her hand and going for a quick peck.
Eyes half lidded, she doesn’t give up. “You see me everyday.”
“And every day I thank God for that.”
The kiss they share is a proper one this time, sweet and warm, though still much too quick. For a second, they’re silent after.
“I can't wait until you’re the first thing I see in the morning,” Adrien finally says.
She can’t either, but she can’t help teasing him either way. “Bleary eyes, and morning breath, and all?”
“And messy hair and the most gorgeous eyes, yes,” he responds, giving her a wink.
She sees the moment he gets the idea. He squints the slightest bit as his eyes gleam with more mischievousness rather than love and blissfulness.
“I think I know how to deal with our stalker.”
“He does not need to know we’re moving in together.”
He laughs, because it’s absurd but because it’s still a bit surreal too. They’re doing it. They’re moving in together.
“I mean, that would work too,” he says, still chuckling. “But that’s not what I had in mind.”
She quirks an eyebrow. There’s an extremely simple solution to this, and she still feels obligated to say it—just for the sake of it, really.
“We could just continue our walk, get into the bakery like we planned and get it over with quietly.”
But.
“But where’s the fun in that, princess.”
After all, birds of a feather flock together.
So she moves her head with a curious little shake and waits for him to voice his idea. He doesn’t disappoint.
“We could give them the real big news.”
She squints her eyes. “Not even all of our friends know yet.”
“We better get around to telling everyone faster, then. The photos would take at least until tomorrow to come out though.”
And then, with his most Chat Noir smirk, he lands the killing blow. “I can make it look like an accident.”
It’s her turn to laugh.
“I’m not even wearing gloves, he might have already seen the ring.”
“I think he needs to be hand-held into taking his precious picture,” he says, raising her left hand ever so slightly and asking for permission with his eyes.
She can’t help the giddy smile on her face—she’s been wearing it almost constantly for the entire two days they’ve been engaged.
Marinette briefly entertains the idea of being responsible, but she’s too happy to think rationally. She wants to shout her happiness to the whole world, she wants to talk about his love for hours on end, she wants everyone to know, and even though they’d discussed keeping their engagement a secret, they knew they couldn’t escape it getting out with how much people still fawned over Adrien.
So she lets him raise her hand further, bringing it to his lips in a cheeky kiss that still fills her with all the warmth in the world.
Maybe the paparazzo misses that too, but they stop paying attention to him, and in the twenty minutes left until they’re back to her house, they change the subject altogether. Talking about their future wedding is much better after all.
And when, properly zoomed in and dramatically showcased, the picture of Adrien kissing her hand—her ring—makes the front page of a gossip rag the very next day, their wedding becomes the talk of a lot more people.
5. Stardust
As the confetti explodes in the air around them and the fireworks in the cake light up their faces, Marinette feels so overwhelmed with happiness she could cry.
After a year of talking, and planning, and preparing, she and Adrien are married.
Adrien’s eyes are already on her when she turns her head to him, his gaze already soft and even more loving than usual. The fireworks bring to life a spark that was always there but which now everyone can see, not just him, not just her.
Their glasses clink as they toast, and the people cheer.
They’re on top of the world.
She’s having the time of her life.
Though her feet ache, Marinette is still reluctant to take a break and just sit down.
She goes outside instead, and even though she’s not exactly inconspicuous, she’s still able to steal a moment for herself on the furthest edge of the pool outside of their venue.
She watches the fairy lights hanging above, glimmering in the still water below.
The summer night is still warm, but there are few people enjoying it. Most of the guests that haven’t left for the night yet are inside, taking advantage of the remaining moments of music and fun.
The night is beautiful, but the end of the party is looming in the calmer atmosphere and the music that only faintly reaches outside anymore.
Arms crossed lightly to her chest and eyes focused on the lights, she doesn’t notice Adrien until he gives himself away.
The telltale click of his old Polaroid going off startles her—and has her smiling.
“You’re a sight to behold, My Lady,” he says, catching the photo coming out of the camera with practiced ease and slipping it into his vest’s pocket before it even starts showing.
His sleeves are rolled up his forearms and his tie has long since been abandoned on the back of his chair. He’s glorious.
“That’s the pot calling the kettle back, Chaton.”
She lifts up the camera hanging from his neck and turns to put it away on a lounge chair nearby.
They gravitate towards each other like they always do, her arms around his neck and his around her waist the second she’s back, all the space between them lost as they embrace.
The music inside is a boppy tune from before they were even born, but it’s music, and that’s all Adrien needs to start swaying gently, with small movements of his feet that Marinette has no trouble following despite her tiredness.
They’re in their own little bubble, and Marinette wouldn’t change it for the world.
“Tired, Bugaboo?” he asks after a minute or two of rocking away in silence.
Her only response is a neutral ‘mm’, but she tears herself away from him to see him better.
The proximity makes her catch a stray sparkle in his hair and whatever she wants to say is forgotten as she focuses on that instead.
“There’s confetti in your hair,” she realizes with a chuckle.
“There is?”
She hums a confirmation, but doesn’t make any move to take it away, and neither does he. “Stardust,” she says, eyes drifting back to his.
So the confetti stays, and they keep swaying, gentle smile brightening his face more than the fairy lights.
“Maybe we should go back in,” he says after a while.
She only gets back closer and grumbles, “Too tired.”
But he picks her up with years of practice in sweeping her off her feet, and startles a squeak out of her—and a giggle.
“People will think we’ve left.”
“People can see to their dances and leave us alone for a second,” she mumbles, arms tightening around his neck, but as he starts walking back towards the venue, she gets a better idea.
Tearing herself away from his warmth for the slightest bit, she finds the confetti and takes it away. “Stardust privileges revoked,” she says, trying to tease him.
She could never beat the master.
“Only if you left me,” he whispers, the corner of his mouth going up. And rubbing his nose to hers, he puts her back down.
Later that week, Alya sends Marinette a picture with no context and no caption. It shows her beside the pool, but in the background, Adrien is carrying Marinette, faces close together and noses touching.
+1. Fireflies
Marinette looks at the muffins on the cupboard with a frown and a hand on her hip.
She’d overestimated how much vanilla they had in their kitchen.
She calls for Adrien, hoping he’d go on a shopping trip as impromptu as her baking, but there’s no response.
It doesn’t take her long to find him, but the sight she’s met with stuns her.
There are pictures everywhere, scattered on the floor and in open albums thrown carelessly around Hugo’s room, with Adrien, Hugo and Emma in the middle of their mess, completely absorbed by the stories in front of them.
Their old cameras are there too—on Hugo’s desk, proud, but dusty. It’s been so long since she’s seen them—since they’d touched them.
She couldn't even remember when they’d put them in the attic—she couldn’t even imagine what prompted Adrien to bring them down.
Her family beckon her to them when they notice her, and she decides her muffins can wait.
The realization that they let go of this hobby is bitter. They used to go out regularly for photo dates, they have so many photos they don’t even know what to do with all of them, the memories are sweet.
There are even still unopened boxes of film beside them—all expired.
As she goes back to the kitchen with Adrien in tow, she gives voice to her thoughts; the idea of buying more film and picking their polaroids up again is thrown around, although more as an abstract thing.
But soon enough, as she’s covering the muffins in whipped cream instead of the vanilla neither of them felt like buying, and Adrien stealing muffins like there’s no tomorrow, the telltale shutter of a polaroid makes them realize how much they’ve truly missed it.
Hugo, ever the spitting image of his mother, stands there with the camera in hand and his father’s grin on his face, his sister just a step behind him with the other Polaroid in tow.
“I wanted to see if they’re still working,” he says, and they’re curious too.
They fill the time needed until the photo finally shows with muffin tasting and banter, but Marinette can’t help stealing glances at the film far too often.
The final picture is tinted yellow and has black stains around the upper edges. But there they are, her and Adrien in all their glory, being as in love as they’d been as kids.
Over her shoulder, Adrien lets out a chuckle.
The next day he’s home with a bunch of new boxes of film and an excited grin on his lips.
#five time#polaroids#getting together#aged up#prom#wedding#future kids#fluff#FLUFF ALL AROUND#inspired by music#marriage proposal#slow dancing#pre-reveal#post-reveal#prpr#“my fics”#“fanfic”#miraculous ladybug
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How do you feel about the Ford Family?
This question brought to mind the Conan plays video games series, where he rates each video game at the end by saying on a scale of 1 to 166 where 1 is average and 166 is average and 17 is really good, he'd give it a 44XXIV or some equally nonsensical rating. If A is for A plus, and F is for failure, I'd rate most of the Fords an E in that they exist.
Most especially, Owen Ford merely existed to me; his function in the plot was Leslie's new husband haha. Same with Kenneth. He had "captain of the football team in high school" vibes, and to be fair, that's who he was intended to be. Rilla was the popular girl who lives in a bubble only to get slammed with the reality of WWI. Persis always fascinated me because her name is really cool, but I don't think we ever really learn much about her either.
Leslie though...Leslie almost seemed like someone out of a noir film. The first description we get of her IS something out of a movie:
The girl was tall and wore a dress of pale blue print. She walked with a certain springiness of step and erectness of bearing. She and her geese came out of the gate at the foot of the hill as Anne and Gilbert passed. She stood with her hand on the fastening of the gate, and looked steadily at them, with an expression that hardly attained to interest, but did not descend to curiosity. It seemed to Anne, for a fleeting moment, that there was even a veiled hint of hostility in it. But it was the girl's beauty which made Anne give a little gasp—a beauty so marked that it must have attracted attention anywhere. She was hatless, but heavy braids of burnished hair, the hue of ripe wheat, were twisted about her head like a coronet; her eyes were blue and star-like; her figure, in its plain print gown, was magnificent; and her lips were as crimson as the bunch of blood-red poppies she wore at her belt.
Beautiful and hostile--that summarizes Leslie Ford. I've talked about her before, and my take on her is that she isn't a good friend, but she is a good character. Leslie Ford is hard to judge because she's like a skittish wounded animal in a trap who's willing to gnaw off its own leg to escape. She's rude to Anne, including the scene where she tells Anne that since Anne's baby died, now they can truly be friends (!!) even if the narrative presents it as acceptable. She is by far the most interesting member of the Ford family (although, to be fair, she also receives the most attention from the story). She's standoffish, hostile, cruel, and above all, heartbroken. Most of Leslie Ford's actions are explained by the fact that she is heartbroken. Not due to a lost love, like Miss Lavender, but due to traumatic events that would be impossible to forget--such as seeing her 8 year old brother be crushed by a wagon wheel.
To be honest, I always wished for another glimpse at Leslie's life after AHOD. I know we get snippets of her living her best life in Japan and so forth, but I wonder at the radical flip her life did in a matter of weeks. How could you react to something like that? After so many soul destroying things happen to you, would you be able to accept something good? What was that transition like for her? Did she wake up in the middle of the night years later, dully thinking she needed to check on Dick only to realize? I love LMM because of her happy endings, and I'm delighted Leslie got hers, but she's such a rich character that I kind of wanted more. I don't think the things that happened to her are the type you're able to forget, even if everything gets resolved. Personally I'd have trust issues for the rest of my life haha (Esp. after the twist with her husband, I would literally be doubting my entire world forever lmao). I also just realized she's Rilla's future mother in law, which is an interesting intersection of personalities.
So, to the point, most of them are decent but Leslie is a cut above the rest. Of all the characters in Anne, she probably has one of the darkest storylines, from watching her baby brother die a violent death to a coerced marriage. It's interesting to me that Kenneth doesn't seem to have been affected by his mother's traumatic background at all although we do get so little of his perspective, and it reminds me of the Blythe children appear not to know that Gilbert and Anne ever disliked each other or that Anne was neglected as a child (see: Di Blythe being shocked in Ingleside about Anne saying she was very hungry as a child, or TBAQ in which the kids are astonished at their parents referring to old spats).
#leslie ford#kenneth ford#aogg#anne's house of dreams#lm montgomery#yes i'm off tumblr for lent but according to the RULES I can have today off#no i will not elaborate
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Update on that story with the lit professor who’s writing a book on Scorsese for those of y’all who are interested:
So I’m in graduate school for creative writing. I’m working on an urban fantasy/noir mob novel that’s VERY VERY gay so naturally Mean Streets is on the reading/watching list I made for myself – my own syllabus, if you will. I first watched Mean Streets during an American cinema class in undergrad and fell in love with everything about it. It’s guys being dudes being goofy and yet the filmmaking is so raw and honest and kinda documentarian – just a week in the life of a couple of lost neighborhood souls, etc.
ANYWAY as a graduate student one of my requirements is to take some “elective” classes, i.e. non-creative writing stuff, so I thought that since I had a good experience crossing over into the lit dept. this past fall (’22) I’d do it again! When I reached out to some MA Lit friends to see which professor would be a good fit for me, they all recommended the same guy. He teaches modernism and also is an accomplished film scholar, especially when it comes to noir and gangster cinema.
So I reached out to him being like hey I think I want to take your class but I want to know a little more about it first, and because he’s old he decided to SCHEDULE A PHONE CALL instead of meeting online or in office hours loool. I do not like phone calls but I agreed, so this past Friday he called me and we had an absolutely WILD chat. We started off talking a little about the class and at this point I’ll admit modernism isn’t my thing with one exception. I mentioned in my email to this professor that noir/crime stuff is totally my vibe and so we were talking about that a little, and that’s when I brought up Mean Streets. It was actually in relation to Hemingway because that’s one of Charlie’s favorite authors, according to the script – which whew boyyyy we don’t have time to unpack ALL of that right now.
Where I’m GOING with this is that the professor was very willing to talk gangster movies with me. He knew so damn much about Mean Streets and I could hold my own in a conversation with him. He was talking about the frenetic filmmaking and then was like “I grew up in an Italian neighborhood much like that in Chicago, the culture impacts everything.” We were talking about honor codes and he was like “Charlie’s a prisoner of his religion” and I was like yeah for sure, he’s holding his hand over open stoves. Then he was like “you wouldn’t know this but I’m writing a book about lesser discussed Scorsese films” and in my head I was like !!! I still don’t care for modernism but I gotta take this class. He seemed impressed, or at least happy, that Mean Streets was still being discussed because it’s not as if it’s, say, Goodfellas or The Departed.
So yeah that’s what I’m doing next fall :))))
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vera talks mlb: the movie — thoughts and drabbles
I cant even breathe rn, I watched the movie 4 hours ago and here’s my (now) settled thoughts about it.
picture of how I felt in that moment:
warning: spoilers for the MLB movie :DDD
so I have been a fan of this show since it came out, god I was FUCKING 16 then and now I’m 24 jfc…. it’s so wild how much time has passed.
now, the main show was SO good until season 4. I stopped watching the show all together because of how messy the plot was, Gabriel being the biggest pos known to man & how stalkerish they made Marinette (not to mention totally delulu and borderline insane (though, with all due respect, its a lot for a 15? 16 year old ???) but they could have written it better imo.)
not only Marinette but Adrien still being a small minor role (it’s always ladybug doing the damn thing but chat noir is left doing nothing it’s fucking sad he deserves so much better) and him just being shit on the last 3 seasons. he deserves more screentime and character development.
I also couldn’t handle adrien being a senti-monster, but we ain’t gonna talk abt that.
so I left the fandom all together.
but this movie. this. god. damn. movie.
this is HOW THE SHOW SHOULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN THE FIRST PLACE. the character development with Marinette and Adrien is AMAZING and feels more realistic to me— they really drive on how unlucky Marinette is and how lucky adrien is (to an extent for adrien, but I digress). and the whole library scene made me giggle it was so cute. Marinette being infatuated but not a stalker was nice to see.
movie ladybug & chat noir sparked my feelings for the fandom all together. how cocky chat noir is, ladybug being anxious to fail but finding solace with chat made my heart all warm. every scene they had together I was kicking my feet and screaming like a child. (they own me, lol)
I have to specifically mention THE FUCKING FIGHT SCENE WHERE CHAT NOIR HAS LADYBUG PINNED TO THE WALL BC WHEN IT HAPPENED I HAD TO PAUSE, LEARN HOW TO BREATHE AGAIN, COLLECT MY THOUGHTS AND CONTINUE. THE PURE TENSION IN THAT MOMENT. “I really should go home now.” “don’t” DO YOU WANT TO KILL ME ?!?!?! GOD IM STILL SCREAMING ABT IT 😭😭😭 they had electric hearts babe DONT EVEN LIE
their chemistry in the film just. made me feel things. they have an amazing dynamic and it was utilized. i wish it was more prevalent in the show series—the banter was everything.
I definitely was caught off guard when cristina wasn’t singing, but I got used to it
master fu was also super good too !! I defo prefer him in the show but movie fu slayed
chloe being chloe but not overdoing it made me :)))).
even alya and nino were written exceptionally.
tikki was written well, loved her, but plagg made me give him the side eye… where is his annoying ass. he can make fart jokes but please keep his sly demeanour.
gabriel was extremely well written, might just be the best character that was re-vamped imo. his storyline made sense and it wasn’t completely heartless…. using the miraculous and him slowly getting weaker and weaker made so much sense. (the musical number tho, SO FUNNY)—but god, when he found out chat noir was adrien he stopped. stopped everything. he loves his son so much, just as much as he loves emilie. we’ll see where the potential next movie goes with him, but lord his character is what I wish show gabriel was like.
the end scene at the ball made my jaw DROP. marinette looked amazing in her dress oh my god— and then the almost kiss I was MAD but also happy bc after that it opened the door for a sequel so ILL TAKE IT.
also when marinette takes off adrien’s mask and puts it on was so fucking cute 😭 the atmosphere was all warm and wholesome.
also giving props to chloe because her gold dress ate down.
sabine gave me helen parr vibes and i don’t know why.
tom being the overprotective dad 😭
anyways, i probably missed some things
but this movie, in my opinion, ate the show for breakfast and became the meal i’ve wanted for several years. MOVIE IS 1000x better than the show series and i stand by that statement forever.
if you haven’t seen it, watch it immediately.
#otp: behind the masks#ml spoilers#miraculous ladybug#ladybug and chat noir#miraculous awakening#ladybug and cat noir the movie#ladybug#tales of ladybug and cat noir#chat noir#adrien agreste#marinette dupain cheng#hate it all u want but the character development/plotlines outsold the show and gave them so much more depth#:D#viv speaks
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playlists <3
hello!! i thought it might be fun to put some of my playlists in a nice lil masterpost because 1. why not and 2. some of the moots have mentioned they liked them 🥰 there may be some concept playlists but hang in there!! they’re still bops!!
coming of age film - vast array of decades and vibes! basically these songs would be Great in a coming of age movie :)
rage becomes her - angry girl music <3
love. - mix of classical and other genres! this is basically what i think love feels like!
it feels so scary getting old - mostly modern stuff, good to cry and yell to!!
stargazing on the river - for what it says on the tin <3
rolling up to encounter a powerful deity ✨ - escapism, babyyyy!!! or my Weird Songs playlist
11 savile row - kingsman movies my beloved <3 basically just spy-core and good songs for fight scenes wrapped in one lil playlist!!
that’s MY demon boyfriend! - the inherent sex appeal of liking a spooky bitch!!! only the best vaguely unsettling songs :)
nicotine and whiskey - perfect vibes for a rundown bar that never loses the smell of smoke and liquor
pov: you’re a canadian tween in the 2010s - throwbacks <3
morally ambiguous heroine in a noir film - mostly classic rock, all vibes!!
3am kitchen songs - songs for dancing with your love in the kitchen <3
movie scores that i would die for - a playlist for all you film/classical music lovers :)
so you’re a vampire. - halloween i miss you with all my heart, aka the spooky songs!!
thank youuuu!! hope you enjoy <3
#music#classic rock#alternative#classical music#indie music#film scores#compilation#playlists#spotify
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You don't need to respond to this but if you get inspiration for your Pinterest board you are more then welcome
I hc that he dances but to really old jazz music so I imagine a record player playing vinyls of old musicians
He gives me retro themed diner vibes. Don't ask me idk
I feel like he would sometimes dress Aggro in those cat onesies
Candles. Idk what you're supposed to do with this but I feel like he and sweetheart just have a bunch of candles
If he were in a fantasy or royal au he'd be a fallen prince or something
Because of hot boi winter I think of a camp fire or a fireplace
Idk if this helped lol. If it did, I'm glad it did. If it didn't, well at least I'm anonymous lmao
Hope you have a good day/night!
this did help! ty for the assistance 🙏🏽 i love the association of milo with film noir or jazzy aesthetics as a whole, it just. works. also ur so right with the fantasy au, "fallen prince with something to prove" is Heavy with milo
i hope u do as well! it's damn near almost 2 for me so, goodnight!
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What Did I Watch: #22
Nothing.
Kidding.
I watched too many western series. Thanks to Skam and all of its remakes. I decided to just not caring about kdramas, cdramas and thai dramas. New challenge and new territory, that's all I need. But obviously we can't just go away from the things that shaped us. Below I've listed all the series that I watched on the past weeks.
Skam France
wtFock
I kinda wish to watch all of the Skam's remakes that is out there but it was hard. Like I struggled a lot with using google drive and so on just to download the episode. I had to save it in my cloud drive for re-watch purpose. But still, it was too damn inconvenient for someone that used to this kind of stuff back when I was a little bit younger. Right now, I just hope the show that I want to watch available in any streaming services.
Yet, there's a reward for every effort that we put. Those shows are freaking good. I could biased because I love the original one. But nope. I legit thinking Skam France shot in film camera because it was flawless. And the acting in wtFock made me in awe. These kids were first-timers and still they even better than any teenager actors that I came across before this. Gosh. What a joy just to find a show which trigger you in a good way and taught me in life better than a freaking preacher.
God, I miss Axel.
Eyewitness
I was bored okay. And tumblr gives me this weird algorithm and then I found this little gem. The perfect epitome of 'be gay, do crime'. I feel inclined to have the show more into noir-ish vibe but then, it didn't go there. I want to like it so bad but the camera language was terrible at times. When I look at on who's the director, well it's the least surprising name out there. Ha.
9-1-1: Lone Star
Because it was on a freaking trending topic for days.
Abbott Elementary
Actually this is the first time I finished a whole season of sitcom. And thank god, it was funny enough for me to continue.
Meng Hua Lu
On hold indefinitely. Its feminism point of view felt too unrealistic. Plus, they weren't willingly to go there for the sake of censorship. Fortunately the romance, for the first time, was actually make sense and look at that shot. Beautiful. Stunning. Gorgeous.
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Team Connie all the way. We all should just make older siblings union. He deserves all the hugs in the world. I relate to him, me, a 27 years old spinster, relate to a freaking teenage angsty boy. He had a lot of baggage and I couldn't imagine when Susannah really really [redacted] how bad he can be.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
WHAT A FINALE.
Thank God I could live long enough to see this. To see Deborah Chow performed magic on my screen. To look at Hayden Christensen back as Vader, my fucking role model. Yes you read it right. Darth Vader is someone I'm aspire to be. And Ewan McGregor, hands down this is Emmy-nominated performance yall. Come on. COME. ON.
Maybe it was nostalgia or whatever. It was clearly a nostalgia that brought us to our screen, to increase our expectations, and to connect with a certain joy which probably last appeared more than decades ago. It was nostalgia and legacy, whichever it is, evidently set me up into this journey that led to Star Wars. A great reminder I was build like this because of Star Wars. The interest which initiated early by my father. The very first movie that I watched before I knew anything else is A New Hope and that memories engraved deeply in my heart. So, by watching Obi-Wan and absorbed any kind of life values contained in it, felt like a full circle to me. Everything is finally coming back to its own place.
And let's remind people, you can't create someone more tragic than the life of Anakin Skywalker. No one could ever come close to him.
#skam france#wtfock#eyewitness#obi-wan kenobi#meng hua lu#the summer i turned pretty#what did i watch
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'Netflix's new thriller Ripley landed on our screens on Thursday and viewers have wasted no time getting stuck into the series.
Adapted from Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, the eight-parter is set in 1960s New York and stars Andrew Scott in the titular role of Tom Ripley, a streetwise opportunist who's hired by a wealthy industrialist to retrieve his wayward son, Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), from Italy.
Soon, Ripley has wheedled his way into Dickie's life, while the latter's girlfriend Marge (Dakota Fanning) grows more suspicious. What follows is a deadly game of lies and deceit...
Taking to social media, viewers heaped praise on the new series, with many binging multiple episodes in one sitting. One person wrote: "The new miniseries #Ripley starring Andrew Scott on Netflix is so good!! Highly recommend!!" while another commented: "Binged the first 5 eps tonight… couldn't take my eyes off the screen…stunningly shot, deliciously noir, #AndrewScott is utterly spellbinding, as I knew he would be. Mesmerising from the start."
A third person compared the show to the 1999 adaptation, which starred Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow. "Watching #Ripley on @netlfix and this is giving me all of the noir vibes Matt Damon never could. It's so good," they penned.
Other viewers couldn't help but comment on the stunning cinematography of the series, which is filmed in black and white. One fan wrote: "Watching #Ripley and I love the way it's photographed. Stunning b&w. It's a bold creative choice when b&w [equals] old to so many, instead of a thematic and aesthetic one. More, please."
A second person remarked: "Two episodes in and @netflix's #Ripley is sheer class. Love the languorous pace, the b&w cinematography and measured performances," while another added: "#Ripley #AndrewScott beautifully shot, beautifully directed, beautifully acted, just wow. Can Andrew surpass this delectable level of talent? The atmosphere delivered by the black and white cinematography was genius!"
Many also applauded Andrew's performance as master manipulator Tom Ripley, with one person writing: "Started #Ripley on @netflix. Andrew Scott is one of my favourite actors to watch because his character work is always so precise and layered. It's a treat to watch him do his thing!"
A second penned: "Andrew Scott is superb so far in #Ripley, such a talented & versatile actor who is insanely brilliant at what he does."
Director Steven Zaillian described Ripley as "a petty criminal who feels he deserves better than his meager circumstances", telling Netflix that Andrew is the perfect fit for the role because "he has the range to play the many personas of Ripley".
Speaking about his character on Radio 4's Today programme, Andrew said: "I think he's an anti-hero, that's what I think he is, and I think it's up to me to make the audience imagine what it’s like to be Tom Ripley, not to be a victim of Tom Ripley. That's what we should feel like.
"We should empathise with him, and I don't necessarily think that that's the job of an antagonist or a villain. Tom is the protagonist in this, and so for that reason I just don't see him in that way."'
#Ripley#Netflix#Steven Zaillian#Twitter#Andrew Scott#Patricia Highsmith#The Talented Mr Ripley#Johnny Flynn#Dickie Greenleaf#Marge Sherwood#Dakota Fanning#Matt Damon#Jude Law#Gwyneth Paltrow
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Movies I watched this week (Year 4, week 3)
The candidate, my terrific third thriller by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, about the fall of a (short!) fixer enmeshed in an overwhelming web of political corruption. Spanish 'House of Cards' meets 'Michael Clayton'. Sharp staging and fast story-telling, but it suffers from a bit too sudden ending. 8/10.
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2 Finnish works, both starring Alma Pöysti:
🍿 Fallen Leaves, my 11th (?) dark film by Aki Kaurismäki. Sad and dreary lives of two lonely people, existing at the lowest levels of society. Part of his 'Proletariat' series, it tells of the same type of characters he always does: Menial workers who speak little, communicate without expressing themselves verbally, smoke and drink too much, who resort to chance meetings to lift them out of their gloomy lives.
At the same time, there's a strong 'Brief Encounter' vibes here, and a love story that ends like 'City lights' (with a dog named 'Chaplin'). 9/10.
🍿 Tove is a completely different kettle of Lohikeitto soup. A feel-good, often sunny biopic of Tove Jansson, the highly successful creator of The Moomins [which I never read and didn't really know].
It lovingly depicts her formative years, as she develops her beautiful art style, and discovers love, mostly to another bohemian woman. Alma Pöysti's acting is on a class of its own, unrecognisable when compared to 'Fallen Leaves': She's centered, strong, desirable. The scene when she kisses her (life-long) lover for the first time is tender and heartwarming. 8/10.
*Woman Director
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Zhang Yimou's beautiful melodrama One second from 2020. A heartfelt metaphor about a political prisoner during the 'Cultural Revolution' who escapes from a work camp in the desert in order to search for his 14 year old daughter. An ode to the "Magic of Cinema" both as a tool for Maoist propaganda, as well as a fountain of emotions.
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Jar city, my 4th sad film by the terrific Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur. Apparently he's been filming mostly in Hollywood the last decade, but everything I've seen by him is from Iceland. Another atmospheric police procedural Nordic Noir, grey and bleak, about murder mystery, old secrets from a small town, and parallel relationships of pain between fathers and daughters. 8/10
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2 versions of the same tragic infatuation:
🍿 La Chienne ("The bitch") is an early-sound film by Jean Renoir. Meek, middle-aged Michel Simon is lost in a loveless marriage, falls for "Lulu", a prostitute, and is being exploited for money by her abusive pimp. It opens with a puppet show that declares that this story is not a drama or a comedy and has no moral message. But it's a cruel and cynical triangle of love, greed and betrayal.
🍿 14 years later, Fritz Lang remade the same Caution Tale into Scarlet street, a Hollywood version, made under the constrains of Production Code Administration of The Hays Office. Edward G. Robinson as "Chris Cross", the henpecked husband and Joan Bennett repeats their previous Lang roles from 'The woman in the window'.
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"I didn't squawk about the steak, dear. I merely said that I didn't see that old horse that used to be tethered outside here"
W C Fields' last film Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, with a script he wrote under the pseudonym Otis Criblecoblis. Also with Margaret Dumont as 'Madame Hemoglobin', Fourth Wall break, real laughs, crazy scene of falling from an airplane, a zany car race finale, and this exceptional Diner Scene. 8/10.
🍿
4 Soviet movies:
🍿 "To my dear father, from Makhmud".
Zerograd is another kind of weird. An absurdist Russian fairy tale. An engineer arrives at a sleepy town, and among the very mundane trappings, some details inexplicably stand out: A secretary who's completely naked, a cake he didn't order in the shape of his own head, a rock 'n' roll chef who commits suicide because the engineer didn't taste the cake. It's Kafkaesque and bizarre. 7/10.
🍿 "Yo Soy Fidel!"
My 2nd by Mikhail Kalatozov (after 'The cranes are flying') I am Cuba, Cuban-Soviet propaganda film about the Cuban revolution. Forgotten for decades because of its socialist messages, it was 'rediscovered' in the 1990's and regained its place among the world's top movies. Especially in regards to its cinematography, and dazzling camera work: Includes some of history's greatest tracking shots [equal to and better than with 'Goodfellas' Copacabana Club, 'Touch of Evil' and 'The Player' openings, 'Path of glory', etc.] Written by Yevtushenko: Guernica for cinema.
[Not Cubano, but I've been listening to Rita Payés's Nunca vas a comprender 100 times or more, and it reminds me of some of the scenes here.]
🍿 The Steamroller and the Violin, Tarkovsky's very first film, made for his film school diploma finals. A sweet story of a 7 year old violinist who befriends a steamroller driver, it gives similar innocent vibes as 'The red balloon'.
🍿 Chess Fever, my first silent comedy by Pudovkin, the influential developer of montage theories, and who feuded with Eisenstein about the political purpose of the edits. It also was the basis for Nabokov's novel 'The Luhzin defense'!
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The cute Australian comedy The dish, my second by Rob Sitch (after 'The Castle'). How a remote radio astronomy observatory in New South Wales helped relay live-TV feed during Apollo 11 Moon landing. One implausible problem was to have only 4 guys manning the whole operation.
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"Seven years of hamburgers..."
Behind the locked door, my first episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour TV show. Gloria Swanson punishes a gold digger who married and then killed her daughter.
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I haven't seen A simple favour for a couple of months, so here I go again. Why is it so appealing to me? it's mostly because of how sexy-cute Anna Kendrick is. My previous structural analysis from a few watches ago still stands. 10/10.
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2 documentaries of the week:
🍿 "This is the dawning of the age of asparagus..."
The Disappearance of Shere Hite, a compassionate story of a most amazing trailblazing woman. She dared talk publicly about masturbation and "intercourse" (what we now call 'fucking'), when even the words 'Clitoris' and 'Orgasm' were not permitted in most newspapers. I bought and read her 600 page report then, but let's not talk about the 70's.
Oh, sexual liberation in misogynist America, the culture that hates woman so much, it keeps oppressing them in today as it did for hundreds of years! It's blood-boiling tragic. 7/10. (Photo Above).
*Woman Director
🍿 I knew it would be painful for me to watch the 2023 documentary Israelism, and it surely was. A brave review and critique of the American Jewish relationship to Israel. How it calcified into a harsh dogma, embodying a narrative that Israel is a peace loving democracy. This dogma does not allow for even a tiny tinge of rebuke, and aligns itself today with the worst at the white-nationalist coalition. It follows two disillusioned American Zionists who come to realize that the propaganda they heard since birth covers a vast system of oppression, and their struggle to see what is really happening in Palestine.
Watching the heartbreaking realities of life under apartheid [even before the current genocide] felt like the worst stomach churning horror movie I've seen. Utterly depressing.
8/10, and if not for the overwhelming, constant mood-setting soundtrack, it would score even higher.
🍿
The hidden face, is a shallow Colombian thriller about a woman that 'disappeared'. It starts out bland, with uninteresting main characters, but midways drops one hell of an De Palma twist. 4/10.
🍿
A Few Shorts:
🍿 Jada, a sad little story about a homeless 7-year-old black kid surviving on her own on the streets of Venice Beach. The performance of the little girl who played her was tremendous. 8/10.
🍿 Pony, a 30-minute gem about the cutest 5-year-old girl, who has to spend a weekend with her jaded rock musician uncle, when her single mom must go out of town. The little actress is so so sweet, and she asks him questions like “How do bumblebees poop?”. Unsentimental, unexpected. 9/10.
*Woman Director
🍿"When you get an opportunity, it’s nothing more than a chance to be disappointed".
In The Dishwasher, a chef at a fine dining restaurant in New York City asks a Mexican dishwasher to find good tortillas. As good as any food movie - 7/10.
🍿 In Civil, a new door-to-door salesman, who is black, is invited inside a house for the first time, to demonstrate his set of kitchen knives, only to discover a confederate flag hanging on the wall.
🍿 A cute one note concept: A man is told by his doctor that he only has 1500 Words left to say, after which he'll die. His shocked reaction at the doctor's office depletes all but the last 50 words...
🍿 "Are you talking Dueling Banjos?..."
In Training Wheels, a socially-inapt woman rents a male escort for 48 hours, in order to practice 'relationships' before a 'real' date.
*Woman Director
🍿 In Dream of aces, an uncharismatic magician shows a simple card trick in a 'secret' gathering and explains how he learnt it. It's all tell and no show. 1/10.
🍿 And, I'm also looking forward to see the new short 'The heart' by new female filmmaker "Malia Ann"...
*Woman Director
🍿
(My complete movie list is here)
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