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histoireettralala · 3 years

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Plot twists and dramatic scenes

" Paris makes fun for years of this stubborn hostility between the two rivals, Fouché and Talleyrand.People witness, as in a scene from Molière, the tireless variations of this comedy performed at the foot of the throne, and they laugh seeing the sovereign's two servants continually tricking each other and throw at each other hurtful flashes of wit, while their master, on his olympian peak, watches from above this fight which benefits him so much. But, while Napoleon and all the others expect from these two characters to keep up this amusing game of dog and cat, the two subtle actors suddenly change role, and start to seriously get along. For the first time, their common dissatisfaction toward the master becomes stronger than their rivalry. It is 1808 and Napoleon starts a new war, the most useless and senseless of all, the campaign against Spain [..] Fouché as well as Talleyrand disapprove this war which has no reason to be [..] but since the Emperor listens to neither, they get imperceptibly closer. Their letters, their advice, they know it, the emperor sweeps them away with irritation [..] So they try to publically protest, and they decide, since speaking has been taken away from them, to engage in a political pantomime, in a true dramatic twist, which is to ostensibly unite.

We don't know if it is Fouché or Talleyrand who organized this scene with such a perfect dramatic flair. In any case, here is what happens: while Napoleon fights in Spain, Paris is continually animated with feasts and worldly receptions; people are already used to have a war every year, like snow in winter and storms in summer. And, one evening of December 1808, Rue Saint-Florentin, in the house of the Grand-Chandelier, a thousand torches sparkle and melodious music is played, while Napoleon, in his dirty dwelling in Valladolid, drafts orders for his armies. Beautiful women- Talleyrand loves them so-, a dazzling society, high State councillors, and foreign ambassadors are gathered. People chat in a lively way, they dance, they have fun. Suddenly from all sides arise slight murmurs and whispers; the guests form astonished groups: a man just came in, the one among all one would have least expected to see here, this skinny Cassius, Fouché, whom, as everyone knows, Talleyrand hates and fiercely despises, and who never had set a foot in this house. But, look: with a studied politeness, the Minister of Foreign Affairs limps toward the Police Minister, kindly greets him as a guest and very dear friend, and graciously holds his arm. With conspicuous compliments, he leads him through the salon; then both enter a neighboring room, sit on a couch and have a quiet talk, causing in the whole audience a boundless curiosity. The following morning all of Paris is aware of this great event. Everywhere all that's talked about is this sudden reconciliation, so emphatically advertised, and everybody understands what it means. If cat and dog unite so ardently, it can only be the ministers' public disapproval of their master, of Napoleon. Instantly all the spies are at work to try and figure out what this plot means. In every ambassy immediate reports are busily redacted; Metternich announces to Vienna via special mail that "this union answers the wishes of an exhausted nation"; but Napoleon's brothers and sisters also sound the alarm, and in turn announce the emperor this stunning news with the utmost urgency.

The news flies speedily to Spain, and, even faster if it is possible, Napoleon, as if stricken by a whiplash, comes to Paris [..] This understanding between Talleyrand and Fouché affects him more than a lost battle [...] He answers Talleyrand's witty comedy with an equally dramatic scene. The whole gold-laden troop of courtiers, ministers and generals are carefully gathered here like accomplices: the way the emperor crushes the slightest rebellion against his will must be publically shown. The day before, he had Fouché come and, behind closed doors, harshly admonished him, and Fouché, used to such storms, kept quiet, excusing himself with clever, suggestive words, and disposing of some weight with apropos. The emperor thinks that, for this servile man, a quick kick will be enough; but Talleyrand, precisely because he seems to be the stronger, the most powerful one, will have to bear the brunt of this rebuke. The scene was often described, and the dramaturgy of History hardly knows a better one. First the emperor restricts himself to criticizing, in a general sort of way, the deceitfulness of some during his absence; but then, irritated by Talleyrand's cold indifference, he abruptly turns toward the man who, calmly, nonchalantly, leans on the marble fireplace, his arm against the mantle. And henceforth the lesson, previously rehearsed like a comedy, morphs in front of the whole court into a true fit of fury; the emperor heaps the foulest insults on his mature, experienced elder; he calls him a thief, perjurer, apostate, a venal creature who would sell his own father for money; he makes him responsible for the murder of the Duke of Enghien and the war in Spain. There is no washerwoman who would insult her neighbor in a more unbridled way than Napoleon insulting the duke of Périgord, the Revolution veteran, the first diplomat of France.

The audience is frozen. Everybody feels uncomfortable. Everybody finds that right now the Emperor looks bad. Talleyrand, so armoured against attacks that he once fell asleep, it is said, while was read a pamphlet against him, is the only one not to wince, much too proud to be offended by such insults. Once the storm has passed, he silently limps across the glossy floor and then, in the anteroom, drops one of these poisonous little words which wound more letally than the most resounding punches: " What a pity for such a great man to be so ill-mannered !" he quietly says, while the lackey puts his coat on him.

The very same evening, Talleyrand is removed from his dignity as a chamberlain, and with curiosity all jealous people probe Le Moniteur on the following days, to read also, among the official informations, the news of Fouché's dismissal. But they are wrong, Fouché stays. "

Stefan Zweig - Fouché

Note: Talleyrand's original remark calls Napoléon "mal élevé", which was surprisingly annoying to translate. It sounds fairly benign, but it's full of contempt- typical of Talleyrand. Unsurprisingly it's one of his most famous sentences.

#napoleonic #stefan zweig #fouché #joseph fouché #charles maurice de talleyrand périgord #napoléon bonaparte #plot twist: fouché & talleyrand unite and make a show of it #napoleon drops a war because this is obviously much more critical #do not leave your little monsters unattended #they might set fire to your whole house #talleyrand gets sacked #but is it really a problem for him #meanwhile fouché wins #but for how long?

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coffee-n-bagels-comic-universe · 3 years

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Major Updates to My Weird Idea (that includes my Nightside OCs)

Go check my previous post on this - HERE

This is mainly an update for @schizoauthoress , @the--blackdahlia , @spacelizardtrashboys , @enigmaticandunstable and @piratewithvigor and I personally think @nattinngrst might like this.

I went on a trip to the beach yesterday with my parents and my older brother (who I bored and annoyed with this idea and you'll see some of his influence in this here post)

Anything written in italics is meant to be taken as a joke as you read through this wall of text, sending good vibes as always, hope y'all are doing well.

The show is set in Canadian, Texas (real place: Wikipedia). I'm thinking of this show starting in the mid-to-late 90s (1996/1997).

I've managed to do several things with that weird sitcom idea, so, where to start, how about with the three potential titles:

1 - Neighbourhood Watch

2 - First Call

3 - First Round (Which my brother likes)

Here are some options for bar names, starting with the Cop bar:

1 - The Donut Hole

2 - The Roasted Hog (which my big bro suggested)

3 - The Sherriff's Outpost

And the Biker Bar:

1 - The Handlebar Inn

2 - The Steel Horse Saloon

3 - The Rebel Room

Next on the list of updates: Cast additions, character roles and (Finally after 2 days) Names for Everyone!!

I'll start with the Cop Bar's owner & staff:

Rosalina Asturias 'Rosa' (Played by Billie Martinez) an employee of the local cop bar. Didn't grow up in the town, moved here for work.

Violet Croft (Played by Eli Herne) an employee. Grew up in town, never left, has the hots for one of the guys in the local police.

Sunshine Crawford 'Sunny' (Played by Holly Di Antonio) an employee. Grew up in town, left for college and came back.

Roscoe Power 'Ross' (Played by Jimmy Hart) the loudmouth who owns the bar, grew up in town, used to be a car salesman.

Olesya Pavlovsky 'Olivia' (Played by Penelope Voronin) an employee who grew up in town and has immigrant parents, goes by 'Olivia' because she would rather you don't f*** up her actual name.

Winona Vance (Played by Sam Griffin Silver) an employee who moved here from New York, for unknown reasons, and doesn't really understand the small town, everyone knows everyone lifestyle.

Lavender Whittemore (Played by Victoria Lucifarian) an employee who grew up in England but moved to live in America, settled in Canadian, Texas due to her love of westerns.

Next: The Local Police Squad:

Sergeant Valentine Gautier 'Val' (Played by Bret Hart) recently promoted before the series begins but still on patrol duty, watches over his younger brother.

Corporal Buck Morris 'Buckshot' (Played by Davey Boy Smith) the gun loving corporal of the squad and the only one to have both 'work' and 'home' guns.

Captain Napoleon Cooper 'Crazy Cooper' / 'Captain Crazy' (Played by Jim Neidhart) the police captain, recently reassigned to Canadian, Texas as there were rumours abut him which interfered with his work in his previous location.

Officer Duke Gautier (Played by Owen Hart) the young, recently recruited brother of Sgt Gautier, often put on patrol alone to ensure less arguments, but always checked on by his brother.

Next: The Biker Bar's Staff:

Ozzy Rains (Played by Charles Wright) A biker and member of the staff who grew up just outside of town but loves his fellow staff members like family.

Brock Martel (Played by Henry Godwin) a biker and member of the staff who grew up on a local ranch and loves beer, football and the current Mayor's down-to-Earth style.

Vincent Gore 'Vinnie' (Played by Kane) the owner's son and a known fire loving 'freak' often protected by his surrogate family, the bar staff, Vinnie knows no better than 'ooh, cool looking fire' and must be restrained or have his hands swatted away to stop him burning himself trying to touch campfires.

Raven Knight (Played by Kirby Roussimoff) the only female staff member, but also the girl who does all the tough jobs when needed, has a side business of making and selling artwork, such as portraits to locals, has designed some of the bar staff's tattoos.

Harlow Gore (Played by Paul Bearer) the owner of the bar and a loving father to his son, took Murphy (Undertaker) under his wing when they first met and also treats him, and the rest of staff, like family.

Hunter King (Played by Phineas Godwin) Brock's cousin and a member of staff, taught Raven how to shoot a shotgun and his father owns a local tattoo parlour.

Sequoia Reed (Played by Rikishi) an employee and Frankie's (Yokozuna) cousin, also a surrogate cousin to Raven, having been best friends since childhood. Reed loves his job and his staff family and will defend both at any cost.

Lupe Zapatero (Played by Savio Vega) an employee at the bar and possibly the shortest member of staff, towered over by the tallest staff members but is not any less of a fighter because of his size, a former mechanic who loves nothing more than taking things apart and putting them back together while listening to metal / rock.

Murphy Graves (Played By The Undertaker) Manager of the biker bar and an excellent member of staff, has an outlaw rules vibe, as in he would say to the police "Your jurisdiction ends when you walk in my bar." Very protective of the staff, and the owner.

Frankie Wolf (Played by Yokozuna) the most relaxed and laid-back of the staff, Frankie would prefer to be in the kitchen making potential 'Culinary Masterpieces' as he would call them. Sequoia and Raven's (surrogate) cousin, views his staff mates as family.

Next: The Local Band (Named: Exoskeleton Samurai)/College Students

Quinn Thorn (Played by Jeff Hardy) the bassist to Ros' (Lita) vocals / lead Guitar and older brother Garth's (Matt) Drums, a face paint enthusiast and an English major in college who never seems to find time to study, but always has time to date somehow.

Roz Jerome (Played by Lita) the vocals and lead guitar for the band and an art major who actually studies, dating Garth (Matt) and met Quinn through him. Roz also studies Spanish and French.

Garth Thorn (Played by Matt Hardy) Quinn's older brother and the band's drummer, a major in psychology and a horror movie lover, Roz' boyfriend and almost totally devoted to her, even at the cost of his college work.

Next: The Local Townsfolk of Note:

Mayor Robert Sweet (Played by Jim Duggan) rarely seen, but apparently a good man with good ideas, helps out in volunteer projects and absolutely loves the town. Trying his hardest and people know this, and they love him. (did I meme correctly?)

Rusty Jarvis (Played by Mick Foley) the local hippie who has never left town, somehow managing to know both everything and nothing at the same town. (Very Dude Love with hints of Cactus Jack and Mankind) Does know how to fight when he needs to.

Redd Wayne (Played by 'Sycho' Sid Vicious/Justice) the local baseball/softball star, helps out at the local school/college teaching sports and likes Raven's artwork, he watches her draw when he can, runs the local little league & minor league baseball/softball games.

Earl Black (Played by Steve Austin) the most often seen regular at the biker bar, absolutely loves both the bar and the town, a hardworking guy who has befriended the entire staff (including Harlow and Vinnie) of the biker bar.

Lex Aston (Played by The Rock) a local struggling actor, teaching an acting class to pay the bills and an absolute ladies man, and for that reason he goes to the cop bar, to try and pick up one of the bartenders who works there, often favouring Rosa as she will jokingly flirt back.

Finally (for this section): The Degenerates and Their Benefactors:

Reign Yates (Played by Billy Gunn) Leon's (Road Dogg) best friend, often the getaway driver for the group and a scout for locations, often getting all the info on a place before telling Matty (H.H.H) and Dell (HBK). Often leaves town with Leon to get the heat off them. (and make out in secret)

Zelda Hooper (Played by Chyna) the only female degenerate but possibly the toughest, has a rap sheet as big as her arms, not to be trusted when around the other degenerates as she is usually the actual brains of the operation.

Matty Battle (Played by Hunter Hearst Helmsley) the co-leader of the degenerates, often protected by Zelda or Mark (Kevin Nash). does most of the talking but has the piss taken of him for his looks often by either other degenerates or locals who don't care for the degenerates.

Romeo Colombera (Played by Mike Rotundo/I.R.S) the right hand man of the mysterious benefactor, and often the lawyer for the degenerates as well as a taskmaster for them, telling them what the boss wants done and by what date.

Mark Rake (Played by Kevin Nash/Diesel) the tallest degenerate with a rap sheet as long as his leg, a former bouncer at a now closed nightclub, alongside best friend (and possibly boyfriend) Galo (Scott Hall) and now a bodyguard (when needed) for Matty and Dell (HBK, also boyfriends).

Leon Rose (Played by Road Dogg) best friend of Reign and a scout for the group alongside him. Has found every possible way to piss off other townsfolk and often in the most fights because of it, always on the police's radar for one thing or another and constantly leaving town because of it.

Galo Villalobos (Played by Scott Hall/Razor Ramon) the only (supposedly) Latino degenerate, raised in Canadian, Texas but his parents are from Cuba, Galo is a former nightclub bouncer (alongside Mark) Galo is known (for his ability to give minus fucks) as the most relaxed member of the group.

Dell Pain (Played by Shawn Michaels/HBK) the co-leader alongside Matty, a known flirt with people regardless of gender or sexuality, just to piss them off on some occasions. Dell grew up in town, knowing it like the back of his hand.

Giles Rennell (Played by Ted DiBiase) the mysterious benefactor of the group, bailing them out if needed, he stumbled across the group after seeing a police bulletin and decided to use them to cause enough chaos to guarantee a chance in the next mayoral election.

Zac Noel (Played by X-Pac) the shortest and youngest degenerate, Zac is often treated as the child of the group, being taught how to get away with crimes and trick the police into just letting him go by clerical error and tomfoolery.

Next on my list of updates: Season 1's episode list, episode titles, episode synopses, some spoilers, and the revolving door idea a bit further explained.

Series running order:

Biker bar episode

Cops on Patrol episode

Band/College Students episode

Cop bar episode (yes these are different)

Degenerates episode

(last episode of each season/series only) town meeting/town get-together (E.X: town hall meetings, the town getting together for a sports game or barbeque or restaurant opening)

1x01: Insert Coin to Start: The pilot episode of the series sees the local biker bar of Canadian, Texas installing two, brand new, arcade machines. After leaving for the night, the team finds the bar broken into and both machines missing with no evidence or possible suspects to the robbery. The team finds the machines relatively undamaged in an alleyway nearby. By the end of the episode there's still no suspects. B plot includes an argument between father and son, Harlow and Vincent which ends when Murphy gets involved.

1x02: Hot Pursuit: Newly instated chief of police Chief Cooper [Neidhart] makes changes to the patrol teams before tasking them with looking for any persons involved with (1x01)'s robbery and break-in, leading to a high speed chase later in the episode. B plot includes the squad coming to grips with the new, and much crazier, police chief.

1x03: Making Noise: Local band Exoskeleton Samurai [Team Extreme] are writing new music late at night while Roz [Lita] tries to study for a class the following day but, during a moment of quiet, they hear a break in a couple of doors down and attempt to see who it is. The group get a glimpse of Zac Noel [X-Pac] and Mark Rake [Nash] but not a full glimpse. Now aware of the local degenerates, the band try and forget about it and focus on their own lives until their apartment gets broken into when they're not there.

1x04: Donuts & Beer: The new cop bar opens on the other side of town, serving mainly (both savoury and sweet) bagels and donuts as well as beer (on tap and bottled), the fact it's slightly more risqué gets (both good and bad) attention on the place. Winona Vance [Sam] gets in a fight with Zac Noel [X-Pac] as she's locking up. Winona [Sam] being put in the hospital with a broken arm makes the rest of [Cop Bar]'s staff double down on getting justice for the near break-in.

1x05: Dirty Work: The first episode from the degenerates perspective. The degenerates are just causing general problems for the town without reason because it's fun' but it's quickly losing their interest as the heat on them rises. The end of the episode has Matty Battle [Triple H] receiving a call from 'Mister R' [DiBiase] offering him a deal.

1x06: Blue & Black: A brawl breaks out at [Biker Bar] following whispers that the people who broke in are in the building. The bikers who work at the bar threaten to hurt anyone who works for the rival bar if they try and mess with business while in the biker bar.

1x07: Captain Crazy: A rumour that the current captain was moved location and promoted to smooth over allegations that he may not be fully sane, Officer Duke Gautier [Owen] is determined to find the truth while Sergeant Valentine Gautier [Bret] and Corporal Buck Morris [Davey Boy] are determined to keep the peace and catch the local degenerates.

1x08: Broken Strings: following an argument with an ex girlfriend Quinn Thorn [Jeff] finds his guitar smashed and has to work odd jobs to buy another one (starting a potential series c plot). Garth Thorn [Matt] ends up in a fight with Galo Villalobos [Hall] which ends when Roz Jerome [Lita] smashes a table leg over the back of Galo's [Scott's] head, knocking him out and giving him over to the police.

1x09: Badges & Bottle Tops: Captain Cooper [Neidhart] stops by [cop bar] to talk with owner Roscoe Power [Jimmy Hart]. Meanwhile the Gautier boys [Owen & Bret] interrogate Galo Villalobos [Scott Hall] about what the degenerates are doing and why, getting no information about the mysterious benefactor over than he pays them a lot of money depending on what they do.

1x10: Paid off: The mysterious benefactor 'Mister R' [DiBiase] pays Galo's [Scott's] bail, getting him free for a while but side-lining him too. The benefactor remains hidden in shadow but Matty & Dell [Triple H & HBK] have a meeting with him to discuss money and the next job.

1x11: Written in Ink: the tattooed bikers on the staff encourage regular customer Earl Black [Austin] to get a skull tattoo on his back and even take him with them to the tattoo parlour they frequent, finding it to be burned to the ground with a 'freaks get lost' sign planted in the wreckage. Murphy Graves [Undertaker] dismisses the rumours that the arsonist is the fire fascinated Vincent Gore [Kane] and even gives him an alibi when the cops come looking for answers, putting blame on someone in town who knows about Vinnie's [Kane's] love of fire, which is nearly every person in town.

1x12: Sergeant Heartbreaker: Sergeant Gautier [Bret] is accused of flirting with the staff at [Cop bar] leading to a paid two day leave to get heat off of him while he's ordered to remain at home. Officer Gautier [Owen] and Corporal Morris [Davey Boy] are put on patrol together, leading to a high speed chase of Reign Yates, Leon Rose & Zelda Hooper [Gunn, Road Dogg & Chyna] after witnessing a mugging, assault and graffiti from the trio, the cops eventually lose them down a back road on private Giles Rennell's [DiBiase's] land they would need a warrant for.

1x13: Failing Grade: Quinn's [Jeff's] lack of sleep leads to him getting a fail on an test forcing him to do the semester again. Enraged by this Quinn [Jeff] considers leaving the school but is encouraged to continue following Garth [Matt] ending up in hospital following [1x12]'s assault and mugging on Garth & Roz [Matt & Lita].

1x14: Microphones & Megaphones: [cop bar]'s owner Roscoe Power [Jimmy Hart] installs a stage for local acts in the bar, leading to Violet Croft [Eli] performing later that episode (the closing of the episode into the credits) and the night before the first performance the bar is covered in graffiti, leading to a massive clean up effort from the staff and local volunteers (like Mick Foley & The Rock).

1x15: Trench Warfare: Romeo Colombera [IRS] the benefactor's [DiBiase's] right hand man and go-to lawyer gives the degenerates an list of jobs, run the police chief out of town by the end of the year, run the bikers out of town, and ensure that 'Mister R' [DiBiase] the benefactor wins the next mayoral election.

1x16: Fuelling Up: after closing up [biker bar] Raven Knight [Kirby] narrowly avoids being burned by her motorbike exploding in a ball of fire. Her boss, Harlow Gore [Bearer] tells her to take the week off, leading to her coming into the bar and sitting at the back of the bar, sketching the regular customers and having a long conversation with local sports star Redd Wayne [Sid].

1x17: Brothers in Arms: Together: the Gautier brothers [Bret & Owen] are put on patrol together leading to the arrest of Zelda, Matty & Dell [Chyna, Triple H & HBK] before the trio are bailed out, the brothers interrogate Dell Pain [HBK] (leading to a very 'basic instinct'-esque scene with Shawn in assless chaps and boxer briefs) who gives them no information on their behaviour and why they are doing the things they've done.

1x18: Night Time Fun: the band attends a college party, unknowingly with Zac Noel [X-Pac] also in attendance, leading to the trio being high and drunk and the Thorn brothers [Matt & Jeff] end up in a fight, almost being thrown out of college entirely for their actions the next morning.

1x19: Head or Hart: Violet Croft [Eli] and (officer) Duke Gautier [Owen] meet properly for the first time on a blind date, leading to them walking through the streets of Canadian, Texas at night. The date is quickly ended after Duke [Owen] spots Leon Rose [Road Dogg] spray painting [cop bar] and gives chase after handing Violet [Eli] his number.

1x20: Grunt Work: The degenerates have a group meeting about how to sabotage the town meeting, leading to Rennell [DiBiase] coming out of the shadows to lead the degenerates in a coordinated attack on the town hall. Leading to the degenerates waiting until the town meeting to begin the next day.

1x21: Town Meeting: Mayor Robert Sweet [Duggan] conducts a town meeting, leading to everyone airing their grievances with the degenerates recent spree of activity. At the end of the meeting, paint bombs hidden above the townsfolk go off all at once, covering everyone in bright, almost neon, green paint.

#Kayleigh's weird idea #any thoughts?

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meta-squash · 3 years

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Brick Club 2.3.2 “Two Portraits Filled In”

Hugo acknowledging how much more stressful and intense and exhausting life is for women while discussing Mme Thenardier is interesting. If Mme Thenardier’s life was hard and she was essentially ten years older than her actual age, then we must imagine how much worse it was for Fantine.

(I desperately wish any of the film versions of the Brick had cast Shawna Hamic from the 2011 US tour as Mme Thenardier. She was absolutely perfect in every way as that role. She’s also really really nice.)

Mme Thenardier is the opposite of Sister Simplice in how not-a-woman she is. Simplice is not a woman because she is essentially a sacred being, a sexless vessel of piety and faith. Mme Thenardier is not a woman because she lacks the grace, poise, frame, etc. Essentially, Simplice is not a woman because she is So Pious and Mme Thenardier is not a woman because she is So Brutish.

Thenardier appropriates and twists the history of the last of the Guard and Cambronne’s death in order to create a fictional glory for himself. Only he’s the lone survivor standing ground against the Hussars Of Death rather than Cambronne standing ground against English artillery. And he gets to survive it, in his story, because of course he does. Cambronne was great because he was defiant despite the fact that he didn’t survive. Thenardier is a sleaze, so he’s going to survive, because that’s what he does. He is the opposite of Cambronne, who will sacrifice his life for France and Napoleon; Thenardier will sacrifice others for his own benefit, and will try as hard as possible to survive himself.

Again, we see Thenardier as the embodiment of that sort of mobile cour des miracles that we saw on the field of Waterloo. He can and will change his manner and face and conversation to fit the circumstances. He can place his past or his origin anywhere in time or space that is most useful. He is an actor, a player on the stage of life in order to swindle whatever he can.

Thenardier plays the trickster role in this book. Some characteristics of a trickster: he breaks both societal and physical rules; he can often often shapeshift; his antics hurt or affect or discomfort the protagonists, but he is usually ultimately left untouched; often a trickster character will have gender variability, which we see in Thenardier’s letters to get money; he is often boastful and openly mocking of authority. We see all of these characteristics in Thenardier across the arc of the novel.

It’s so funny that Hugo says that “practiced eyes” found spelling mistakes in Thenardier’s bills, considering the severe amount of mistakes we see in his letters later on in Paris. Did he just become a worse speller when he left Montfermeil? Or was he better able to hide it because presumably bills only really need certain words?

I get the feeling the Mme Thenardier’s view of Thenardier (at least at this moment) is partially informed by her reading of romance books. She obviously isn’t living the life she wanted, and who knows if she was this brutish before being stuck with Thenardier or not. In any case, she wants something else, and that desire is probably increased by her romance novel-reading, and she start to see Thenardier as unknowable, and as the “object of universal desire” that she gets to have and be jealous over. I wonder how much her romantic propensities blinded her, and if she might have become jaded towards Thenardier even earlier than we see in the book. By the time the Thenardiers are in Paris, that veil has definitely fallen away and Mme Thenardier is much more willing to argue with her husband.

The sheer amount of abuse that Cosette endures is laid out in only a few examples here, but I’m sure it’s much more extensive. Mme Thenardier is physically abusive in a much more “forward” way, beating Cosette and knocking her around and insulting her. Thenardier, in character, is much more sinister. He doesn’t seem to actually interact with her much, but he disallows her shoes and probably takes other things from her like food and warm clothes etc. It was probably him that decided to make her eat under the table like a dog.

“The ideal of oppression was realized in this dismal servitude.” What Cosette is going through is extreme, but she’s another Symbol here. This is how society treats women, collectively. They are made to slave away, cold and hungry, to be called names and beaten and to be denied comfort. There aren’t child labor laws in France for about another decade. Cosette is one girl, one child, but we can imagine that there are many others like her out there. And the Thenardier’s treatment of her is ideal in keeping her oppressed: physical abuse paired with neglect and psychological abuse that renders her passive, silent, and terrified. However, later we see her true personality peek through, and the way her strength carries her through all this suffering.

#les miserables #les miserables meta #brickclub #lm 2.3.1 #les mis #les mis meta

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anna-hawk · 4 years

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Now you!! Which was the first show/movie you saw Jon on? And when was the moment you knew you were done for? 💕 (I hope you haven’t already answered this somewhere lol)

I have actually already answered but not directly on my own tumblr so I'll still do it.

It's actually pretty much the same as for @neatmonsterr. Like her, I probably saw him on Night at the museum first without taking notice. I was laughing too hard at the French actor who played Napoleon to look at anyone else.

Then came TWD. I'm actually a big zombie fan as is my husband and we'd heard a lot of good stuff about the show so we started on it. We all loved to hate Shane and I think I did find him attractive but his character kind of spoils it a bit at the end. It was still a shame he died because he really did something for the show and we've said so often with my family on pretty much every season after. I've come to like Shane with time.

Then I saw him here and there (Wolf of wallstreet, Grudge match) and I always thought : oh hey, that's the guy who did Shane. Definitely found him to my liking and different from the other actors I find attractive, but still as soon as the movie was over, I didn't go out of my way to look him up.

Then DD season 2 trailer aired (I'm very into Marvel and DC btw) and when I saw who would be on it I was very intrigued. The small scenes we got to see had me excited and I couldn't wait to watch it. And when it finally aired and Frank appeared, how Jon portrayed him, the story, the pain, his kindness (scene with dog and Karen amongst the best)... it was like a slap to the face. I was so, so flustered whenever he would appear. I've had celebrity crushes like all of us I guess, but I've never felt so strongly for a fictional character. I think Jon is amazing and deserves the best roles, but it's Frank I fell hard for. Let me tell you that watching The Punisher with my husband right next to me and trying to keep a straight face and not melt off the couch was NOT easy. Although he knows about my crush haha. "He is badass" he'd said lol

I haven't actually watched a bunch of Jon's movies I must admit. I was so obsessed with Frank until now that I didn't really go looking for his other stuff. But I definitely want to and all you guys fueled my love for this man even more 🧡

#myletternevercame #ask #about me #jon bernthal #our obsession

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bbclesmis · 5 years

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How giving Jean Valjean a Yorkshire accent helped Dominic West understand Les Miserables

BBC One’s new six-part series Les Miserables promises to be unlike any previous adaptation we’ve seen of the classic, epic novel. Georgia Humphreys speaks to its stars.

Chances are you’ll know the gut-wrenching story of Les Miserables. Whether you’ve seen the 2012 film, watched the musical on stage, or read the historical novel by Victor Hugo, it’s a depiction of the struggles of France’s underclass, and how far they must go to survive.

Now, six-part BBC One mini-series Les Miserables promises to delve deep into the layers of the classic story, which is set against the epic backdrop of 1845 France – a time of civil unrest.

It could barely be more timely given the ‘yellow vests’ protests that have erupted across modern-day France in recent weeks in anger at fuel tax rises and growing living costs.

Here, cast members Dominic West, Lily Collins and David Oyelowo tell us more about what to expect from the adaptation, which will air over the Christmas period.

The protagonist of the story is Jean Valjean, who is struggling to lead a normal life after serving a prison sentence for stealing bread to feed his sister’s children.

And for Sheffield-born West, star of The Wire and The Affair, the appeal of playing him is simple.

“He’s the best superhero that’s ever been written about,” says the 49-year-old Yorkshireman, who went to Eton after his father George made his fortune from manufacturing plastic vandal-resistant bus shelters.

Meanwhile, it’s a dream come true for Collins, 29 – who is the daughter of musician Phil Collins – to play orphaned, working-class Fantine, as she grew up loving musicals like Les Mis.

However, the actress, who played Snow White in the film Mirror Mirror, loves the fact that the BBC version doesn’t feature any singing.

“It’s really fun to play the part that people have played before, but in a way no one’s seen before,” say the Guilford-born star, who moved to LA as a child with her mother.

“We get to see her meet her friends, meet her lover, be wooed, and go out on dates and actually fall in love and have the child,” adds Collins.

“And then she goes on the journey that everyone mostly knows.”

Oyelowo, who was born in Oxford to Nigerian parents, takes on the role of Javert, a police inspector who becomes obsessed with the pursuit and punishment of convict Valjean.

And the 42-year-old admits he was pleasantly surprised when he was offered the part.

“It’s the kind of role that growing up in the UK you just accept, ‘Well, I love watching that, but that’s never going to be me’,” confides the actor, known for films such as Selma and A United Kingdom.

“I’m elated that we are in a time and a world where it’s not any sort of big move on the BBC’s part or Tom’s [Shankland, director] part or the producer’s part to approach me with a role like this.

“I’m just so glad that 12-year-olds that look like me are going to get to see images that I didn’t get to see when I was their age, and would have been formative for me.”

Much of the drama in Les Mis revolves around the cat-and-mouse relationship between the characters of Jean Valjean and Javert.

“Javert sees Jean Valjean as a mirror to himself,” explains Oyelowo.

“Javert was born in a prison, he was born to gypsy parents, he was born in and around criminality.

“And that is the thing he is pushing away from obsessively for all of his life.”

Both actors enjoyed scrutinising the text to develop their characters.

“We’ve spent a lot of time just trying to nail down what makes this feel real, because the book itself relies heavily on coincidence,” notes Oyelowo.

On exploring the motivations of their characters, West says his roots in Yorkshire helped with understanding the part.

“We had a bit of trouble at first, thinking, ‘What’s Javert’s problem? Why is he so obsessed with this dude?’

“But it all became easier when David starting doing Javert in a London accent, and I started doing Jean Valjean in a Yorkshire accent!”

Collins’ preparation, meanwhile, saw her speak to Anne Hathaway, who won an Oscar for her role as Fantine in the film.

She was told: “Good luck, and do your own thing.”

“I was heavily inspired by that movie,” she shares.

“But Tom also wanted it to be about the literature, not basing it on someone else’s work.”

She adds: “In any role I do there is a little bit of pressure to do my best because I’m my own harshest critic, let alone when you’re playing a literary character that people love.”

West says that because the book – which he calls “the best book” he’s ever read – is a lot less known than the musical, it takes the pressure off a bit.

“It’s huge, epic, magic, romantic, heroic, incredibly morally challenging and morally interesting.

“People will play this part forever because it’s a great classic part, and the reason is there’s so many ways to come at it.”

What also makes the tale timeless is its themes, such as guilt and revenge. And West also points out that there are parallels with today’s society in terms of the class struggle depicted in the show.

“Les Miserables is about the poor people and their fight against injustice and plutocrats running over them,” he says.

“It’s all pretty relevant.”

West admits he’s been “in tears all day” on set (the series was filmed in Brussels and northern France).

“I can’t stop crying,” he says. “I just love this man.

“It’s quite hard to make a good guy interesting, and really care about a good guy, but he’s just strong and courageous.”

He continues: “I’ve got loads of kids, and I’ve played a lot of villains and I don’t want to be a villain, I don’t find them interesting any more. So I love playing this hero.”

Collins agrees she’s been affected by filming the sadness in Fantine’s story.

“I obviously feel what my character’s feeling, but I also try at the end of the day to leave some of that at work.

“Even though I’m alone here in Brussels, I’m going out and spending time with people and also being able to see friends in London, and FaceTime ... I don’t have to live in a bubble.”

Filming away from home does of course poses its challenges, as Oyelowo, who now lives in LA, candidly reveals.

“I have four kids and a wife who I miss so terribly,” admits the star.

“But she and I have a two-week rule – we’re never apart for more than two weeks. So, a lot of flying back and forth. You make it work.

“But that’s partly why this is the first time I’ve done anything of this nature since I did Spooks, because it takes up so much time and I have young children. But this was one I couldn’t say no to.”

Script ‘demanded best actors’

Screenwriter Andrew Davies says the roles in Les Miserables called for the “finest available actors”.

“We were thrilled to be able to cast Dominic West as Valjean and David Oyelowo as Javert,” he told the Radio Times about his adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 19th century classic.

“That casting reflects the often ignored fact that France, like Britain, has a multicultural history going back to Napoleon’s time and beyond.”

Davies, known for acclaimed previous adaptations including Vanity Fair, Pride And Prejudice and War And Peace, added: “I have a reputation for bringing out, and (some say) even inventing the sexual element in the great classics.

“It is there in Les Miserables, too, but deeply buried.”

Watch Les Miserables on BBC One over the Christmas period. (x)

#les mis bbc #bbc les mis #dominic west #david oyelowo #Lily Collins #Interviews #articles

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chicagoindiecritics · 4 years

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New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: The Old Guard

THE OLD GUARD— 3 STARS

When it comes to the myth of immortality, the sweeping sentiments of Queen from the Highlander soundtrack say it best. Their song poses it as a pair of questions: the titular “who wants to live forever” and “who dares to live forever.” When Brian May’s lyrics continue, they wax “but touch my tears with your lips/touch my world with your fingertips.” Netflix’s new actioner The Old Guard, toplined by the age-defying Charlize Theron as the “who” pronoun compared to Queen, has its own heroic perpetuity and spits back “nothing that lives lives forever.” Her lips aren’t kissing a thing and nothing but murderous weapons are at her fingertips.

Charlize would be the one to tell Queen to take their romantic sweetness and shove it with harshness. That tone and timbre works just fine for the Academy Award winner who has been cementing this attitudinal career niche for the better part of a decade. Based on Greg Rucka’s 2017 Image Comics graphic novel featuring the art of Leandro Fernandez, The Old Guard combines its own brew of created legends intersecting modern settings and compulsions. Like its lead, The Old Guard has a toughness completely devoid of anything trite. The narrative screws might not be the tightest, but its aim is deadly enough to draw you in.

Theron, with a vitae including the likes of Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde, and Hancock, is no stranger to plots with unknown mythology. She is one of four warriors with unexplained immortality who have fought for centuries behind the frontlines of pivotal events on carefully selected missions. Her “Andy” is really the storied Andromache of Scythia. She is joined by the Napoleonic era Frenchman Booker/Sebastian (Rust and Bone’s Mathias Shoenaerts) and the Crusades opponents-turned-soulmates Nicky/Nicolo (emerging Italian star Luca Marianelli of Martin Eden) and Joe/Yusuf (Aladdin’s Marwen Kenzari). Here in a 21st century that is harder to hide in, the group are clandestine assets for hire who cannot be killed and wield a mix of venerable melee blades and silenced firearms.

LESSON #1: WHAT TIME LEAVES BEHIND— Time has brought both skill and lamentation. Booker, speaking often as the poetic nougat center of the movie, describes Andy as a woman that “has forgotten more ways to kill than entire armies will ever learn.” Repeatedly torn and re-torn over centuries, their internal scars push against the pay-it-forward hope of multiplying their efforts. These stoic mercenaries thought the world would be a better place after centuries of struggles, even if the people they saved seemed to go on to future achievements in life.

LESSON #2: LOSING A SOLDIER— Booker bemoans further “just because we keep living doesn’t mean we stop hurting.” Immortal as they may be, they feel each death and the recovery takes time. They speak of previous immortals (prominently featuring Van Veronica Ngo recently seen in Da 5 Bloods) they have lost where the healing power mysteriously stopped and their time to die arrived. Those weary losses weigh on their vast memories and indomitability.

A betrayal on a staged hostage situation in South Sudan from their most recent fence, the ex-government spook Copley played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, has put the team in the crosshairs of a London-based Big Pharma executive named Merrick (Harry Mellick, all grown up from his Dudley Dursley Harry Potter days). The millennial mogul feels “morally obliged” (*insert a fakely principled comic book plot laugh here*) to take their genetic code as a means for weaponized science and a windfall of potential health market profits.

LESSON #3: GAINING A SOLDIER— For the first time in over a century, a new individual has gained the enduring power and calling. God-fearing American Marine Nile Freeman, played by the second-billed KiKi Layne of If Beale Street Can Talk) survives a slit throat in Afghanistan and gains beacon mental connections with Andy and the others. The veteran ancients seek her out to assuage her fears, teach her their ways, and protect her newness from the pursuing Copley and Merrick. Nile becomes the exposition driver of the veiled “why” questions we’re all thinking.

Increasingly prolific director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball, Beyond the Lights) brings her talents to a new genre. Drawn to Strong Female Characters in every sense of the term, The Old Guard graphic novel was ideal material for the filmmaker’s stylish ardor. With Charlize Theron and KiKi Layne as her instruments, the film has a posture of determination over effeminate weakness that is wholly appreciated. Like many comic book films before it, The Old Guard relies heavily on their mentor/mentee dynamic. Layne continues to be a future star in the making and kicking ass alongside Theron will do her wonders. The confidence growth shows already.

One keen choice from Gina was the electronic pop selections merged into the action sequences adding backbeat to the nondescript danger music from the Oscar-nominated Lion team of Volker Bertelmann and Dustin O’Halloran. That inertia bears Prince-Bythewood’s fingerprints. Shot by Bigelow and Greengrass vet Barry Ackroyd and GPB confidante Tami Reiker, the movie balances bloody guts with gritty gloss to make this a very showy thriller. Editor Terilyn A. Shropshire makes the actors and the massive stunt team led by Marvel-experienced stunt coordinator Brycen Counts, fight coordinator Daniel Hernandez, and department head Sarah Greensmith look

It is a rare and welcome treat of compromise to see a graphic novel’s original creator granted the opportunity to pen his or her own film treatment. How many times have followers and fans seen works butchered by script doctors? Following Joe Russo’s recent fellow Netflix entry Extraction and Joe Kelly’s superior I Kill Giants from 2018 (a must-see gem available on Hulu and Hoopla), Greg Rucka received the chance he didn’t get with 2009’s forgettable bomb Whiteout. His improved craft on the written page since then is evident and it is given a fair chance on a larger stage.

The trappings and limitations of a graphic novel distilled and compressed for a single movie are still very much present. The Old Guard has a sky-high concept (think 2008’s miscue of Jumper with its attempt at applying a centuries-old saga) with a low energy for expanding ideas. Harry Melling’s sniveling Merrick villain is implausibly bad, even by comic book standards for a movie bending reality like this one. A swerving double cross in the climax is also feeble compared to the powerful and principled characters. Copley’s Mr. Glass/Pepe Silvia-level conspiracy wall and the tiny flashback snippets sending viewers back to ancient times tease rich and unharvested levels of referenced depth that could be far more interesting than the present. It feels like a heap of gravitas and world-building was left on the paneled page.

As sudden and kinetic as The Old Guard may play for a quick entertainment ride on your couch, a Netflix miniseries might have done Rucka’s five-volume work more justice than merely one movie and a tease at a potential sequel. Root for a modest franchise with Netflix’s deep pockets securing commitments from the creative team and on-screen talent. We’ll follow Charlize Theron and KiKi Layne anywhere. If given the chance, The Old Guard could build admirably.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#894)

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tube-thoughts-blog · 7 years

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tube thoughts vol. 2

zero stars - terrible, 1/2 a star - dull, 1 star - folly, 1 1/2 stars - lacking, 2 stars - fair, 2 1/2 stars - decent, 3 stars - terrific

zack snyder's 300: Rise of an Empire *Lady warrior commandeers the battle scenes and saves it from being a male meat fest like the first film.* 3 stars

rifftrax presents "Independence Day" *One way to make this movie more moronic would be if social media existed in its world at the time.* 3 stars with riffing 2 without

Cannon films "Ninja 3: The Domination" *Spunky shinobi, you must avenge me!* 3 stars

Septic Man *Municipal shit-storm* either zero stars for grossness or 3 stars for grossness and surrealness

"The Stuff" a Larry Cohen film starring Michael Moriarty *Ba-da-ba-ba-ba, I'm lovin' it.* 3 stars

Farscape premier episode *Awol from the ratcage.* 3 stars

Garth Marenghi's: Darkplace "The Creeping Moss from the Shores of Shoggoth" *Brocolli from space. I'd thought it had tasted odd.* 3 stars

Albert Pyun's "Omega Doom" starring Rutger Hauer *It's nice to know after we've killed ourselves off, through constant warfare, sentient robots will become gun nuts and start acting out cold war westerns.* 2 1/2 stars

Kenny vs. Spenny: "Who Can Sell More Bibles?" *The Devil is in the details.* 3 stars

Masters of Horror: Clive Barker's "Valerie on the Stairs" *Another bodice-ripper.* 2 stars

"I Spit On Your Grave" uncut 1978 either zero stars or 3 stars

"Beyond the Door" *Paranormal pregnancy with personality.* 3 stars

Twin Peaks: "The Condemned Woman" *Josie and the pine weasels* 2 1/2 stars

Lost and Found Video Night: Vol 7 -- 3 stars

Seinfeld: "The Frogger" *George's high score.* 3 stars

Kolchak, The Night Stalker: "Mr. R.I.N.G." *What's the difference between right and wrong? robot need to know.* 3 stars

Everything is Terrible "The Rise and Fall of God" *Homeschool is the answer.* 3 stars

Roger Corman presents Andrew Stevens' "Subliminal Seduction" featuring Sharknado's Ian Ziering and Critters' Dee Wallace Stone *CD-ROM Inception meets Tommy Wiseau's "The Room" type inept erotic thriller.* 3 stars

David Cronenberg's "eXistenZ" *Jennifer Jason Leigh penetrates Jude Law's port hole in order to play an addictive and twisted version of The Sims.* 3 stars

rifftrax presents "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" *Butter scraped over too much bread.* 3 plus stars with riffing 3 stars without

"Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone" *Han Solo babysits a brat-pack ginger cutie, Ernie Hudson is Lando, and Michael Ironside is a Darth Humongous who believes that Earth Girls Are Easy.* 3 stars

"Riddick" *Robinson Crusoe machismo* 3 stars

Farscape: "I, E.T." *My name is Mud.* 3 stars

Dominion: pilot episode *Bright light city gonna set my soul on fire.* 2 1/2 stars

"Thor: Dark World" *Science lady Padme pines for Adam of Eternia so that she inadvertently stumbles into the evil fudge and awakens the 9th Doctor Keebler Who causes the realms to converge like ornaments on an imploding Christmas tree.* 3 stars

"Priest" *Paul Bettany's Obi-Wan character is disenchanted with his forced retirement in a Catholic 1984 dystopia and his regret filled dreams lead to the wasteland where his fallen knights of the old republic partner, a cowboy from hell Karl Urban, lurks about with his horde of bloodsucking bandits and xenomorph vampires. A decent cameo from Brad Dourif as a snake oil salesman. This movie's biggest flaw is that it forgets the classic genre work of Sergio Leone, John Carpenter, and George Miller and instead mimmicks the cliche Matrix ripoff style hack work of Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil flicks.* 2 stars

"Scanners 2: The New Order" *If you get inside me, go gently, and easy on the nosebleeds. This kind of telepathic power in the hands of a fascist P.D., no thankee.* 3 stars

Joe Bob's Christmas Special: Charles Band's "Pets" *Inhabits the same universe as other weird, dumb kids' adventure comedies like 'Garbage Pail Kids', 'The Super Mario Bros Movie', 'Ernest Scared Stupid', and 'Problem Child 1 & 2'* 1 1/2 stars

Sami Rami & The Coen Bros present "Crimewave" aka "The XYZ Murders" *Reminiscent of the Three Stooges, classic Mel Brooks, 40s cartoons, humorous Tom Waits song tales, and the original SNL.* 3 stars

Udo Kier in "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss OSbourne' --sexploitation-- *Show me where it hurts. Fill me with hatred. My pleasure is seeing your dead body.* 3 stars

Masters of Horror: "Right to Die" *The crispy, vengeful ghost of Terry Shiavo.* 3 stars

William Lustig's "Vigilante" starring Robert Forster & Fred Williamson *Regular Joe nihilism* 3 stars

rifftrax presents Ridley Scott's "Alien" *H.R. Giger porn on the sattelite of love.* 3 plus stars with riffing 3 without

Josh Brolin is DC's "Jonah Hex" *Sometimes spooky, often dumb B-western that's sadly too gutless to show any blood n grit. Still it might fit into a marathon of 'The Quick and the Dead', 'Five Bloody Graves', 'Navajo Joe', and 'Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter.'* 2 stars

"Rhinestone Cowgirls" 1982 --xxx-- *Easy listenin' and screwin', plus plenty of other prickly situations protruding in Cactus Corner.* 2 stars

Kolchak, The Night Stalker: "Primal Scream" *Unfrozen caveman mauler.* 3 stars

"Shogun Assassin" *Daddy day samurai* 3 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs: Dino De Laurentiis presents "Orca" *starring Richard Harris as a salty sea-dog, Charlotte Rampling as a sensitive marine biologist, Bo Derek as a sexy shipmate and Shamu snack, plus the indian fella from 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' lending his wisdom by saying things like, "The old ways no longer work. Now, even our gods dance to a new tune."* 2 1/2 stars

"Baron Blood" *Decent dubbing, giallo lite, moody nightscapes, cursed castle, creepy stalking.* 2 1/2 stars

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace: "Illuminatum & Illuminata" *Interviewer: Do you believe in the Horned One? the actor Todd Rivers: You mean the Hoofed One? Interviewer: Yeah.* 3 stars

Beavis & Butthead: "Time Machine" *Butthead: 1832, that's like not now. Beavis: Yeah, aren't we more than that?* 2 1/2 stars

Twin Peaks: "Wounds and Scars" *"A country habit. We are so very trusting."* 3 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs: Wes Craven's "The People Under the Stairs" *A ghetto version of Twin Peaks' "Black Lodge" where "Hills Have Eyes" type inbred freaks are trapped in the cellar and "Sometimes further in is the only way out." in a twisted Tom & Jerry style game of cat & mouse.* 3 stars

Masters of Horror: "We All Scream for Ice Cream" starring Lee Tergesen, William Forsythe, and the kid from Bad Santa and Eastbound & Down *The Good Humor Man returns from the land of the popsicles to scoop out and dish some cold and sticky revenge.* 3 stars

Gun Fu John Woo and Risky Bidness Tom Cruise present: "Mission Impossible 2" *We've got the cure, we made the disease. Dianetics incorporated.* 3 stars

Tim & Eric present: Bedtime Stories "Hole" *Spitting surreal absurdism sometimes sidetracks the sinister suburban satire.* 2 1/2 stars

MST3K presents: Charles Band's "Laserblast" *Moppy-haired stoner with a muscle-van gets to rain down the fire of the lizard alien gods on his stereotypical 70s burnout and redneck cop enemies in his one horse desert hometown.* 3 stars with riffing 2 without

Farscape: "Exodus from Genesis" *A hot time in the roach maternity ward in the outer reaches of the universe, tonight.* 3 stars

"Saga, Curse of the Shadow" aka "The Shadow Cabal" *Somewhere between Peter Jackson's LOTR and LARPers that run around yelling, "Lightning bolt, lightnight bolt, lightning bolt!" 2 1/2 stars

"Night of the Loving Dangerously" --xxx-- *With the allure of his ever-wanton ex-wife, Traci Lords, private dick, Peter North, is pulled into a web of blackmail involving his ex's new fiance- a perverted CEO with everything to lose, Jamie Gillis, his naughty daddy's girl daughter, and gay son's snooping photographer boyfriend.* 2 1/2 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs: "Poltergeist" *Joe Bob maligns Spielberg's involvement with a Tobe Hooper horor flick, Heather O'Rourke gives me the sads, an 80s kids bedroom is full of nostalgic shit, the mom looks sexy even with a streak of grey hair, there's some kind of message about the sinister nature of suburban sprawl, a sassy medium with a drawl steals the show, and Joe Bob ponders the difference between "Go into the light" & "Stay away from the light."* 3 stars

Lost & Found Video Night Vol. 5 *Hot diggity tallyho* 3 stars

"Purely Physical" 1982 --xxx-- *Schmaltzy motel fornicating where the lovers' lips refuse to move when the pillow talk gets filthy.* 2 1/2 stars

Kolchak, The Night Stalker: "The Trevi Collection" *Fashion victims. Some hilariously bad acting from a witch.* 3 stars

"Gallowwalkers" starring Wesley Snipes *Spaghetti vampire western. The kind of movie Blade 3 should have been.* 3 stars

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi ---despecialized editions--- *Impressive. Most impressive* 3 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs: 1954's U.S. version of "Godzilla" & "Godzilla vs. Mothra" *Tokyo stompin' in a Texas trailer park.* 3 stars

"Manborg" 2011 *Will Ferrell's 'Westworld', Scott Pilgrim vs. Mega City 1, Napoleon Dynamite 2: Judgment Day, Tom Green's 'Total Recall', Jim Carrey's "Battlefield Earth', Sam Raimi's 'Mortal Kombat: Annihilation', Paul Verhoeven's 'Army of Darkness', Patrick Swazy, Jacki Chan, Jake Busey, and Cynthia Rothrock in 'Revenge of the Sith'.* 3 stars

Masters of Horror: Stuart Gordon presents Edgar Alan Poe's "The Black Cat" *Pluto, the little devil.* 2 1/2 stars

rifftrax presents: "The Last Slumber Party" *More potty-mouthed and homophobic than a Wayans Bros. "Horror" "Comedy" "Movie"* 2 1/2 stars with riffing 1 1/2 without

The Outer Limits: George R.R. Martin's "Sandkings" starring Beau & Lloyd Bridges *Red menace* 3 stars

rifftrax presents: "Battlefield Earth" *L. Ron Hubbard's The Passion of the Prometheus as acted out by the rat-brained man-animal, John Travolta.* 2 stars with riffing 1 star without

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs: Mel Brooks "Spaceballs" 3 stars

rifftrax presents "Fantasic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" *Fate of world hangs in balance while obnoxious bantering, obnoxious celebrity style wedding is overshadowing focus, obnoxious background extras actors mug for the camera and stare at the pop culture status heroes, obnoxious twirling mustache Dr. Doom villain moments, obnoxious studio thinking Galactus is a stupid concept and yet going through with having his threat to earth being the plot-- leaving us with a cloud of lame spacedust* 1 1/2 stars with riffing 1 star without

Troma presents: Lucio Fulci's "Rome 2072: The New Gladiators" *Televised brutality in a cyber-disco dystopia where the cities of the future are painfully obvious scale models covered in Christmas lights and dirtbikes along with karate chops are still considered pretty badass.* 2 1/2 stars

--- Game of Thrones: Season 3 episode 1

*The inept, pudgy comic relief gets to stumble around in the snow avoiding ice zombies,

the dashing dwarf gets dissed by dear old dad,

the high class pimp positions himself near the daughter of the woman who always shunned his advances,

the would be future queen shows kindess to orphans and gets politely scolded for it,

a crow defects to the king beyond the wall,

a fiery zealot harshly deals with infidels,

a shiprecked war veteran brother puts himself back in harm's way to try to talk sense to his witch's pussy whipped brother,

the king of the north returns to his scorched hometown and imprisons his mum there,

a puppy eyed dragon mama sails with her seasick soldiers and goes shopping for baby slaughtering drone warriors while narrowly escaping creepy child with scorpion assassination attempt.*

3 stars

-------------------------------------------------------

rifftrax' Mike Nelson riffs "Predator" *"Speak mono-Slavic-ally and carry a big stick."* 3 plus stars with riffing 3 without

George Lucas & Ron Howard present: "Willow" *In order to save a red-headed bastard baby, Frodo Skywalker fellowships a force of ragtags including a Han Solo in Pocahontas drag, an indian in the cupboard Kevin Pollack, and a wizard lady trapped by spell in the body of a wombat.* 3 stars

rifftrax presents: "Twilight: New Moon" *A frigid, psycho chick gets dumped by her prissy, older, unhealthy obsession. she then begins having night terrors ruining the sleep of her closet gay lumberjack dad. next, she begins leading a lovesick puppydog around on a leash while getting wreckless on a mopad, attempting suicide for attention and all before going on a sisterhood of traveling pants adventure to a pretentious Anne Rice version of faggy Europe. 1980s teens were awesome. 2000s teens are awful.* 2 stars with riffing 1 star without

---- monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs:

"Slaughter High" aka "April Fool's Day"

*These jokers aint' f-f-f-foolin'. They like their drugs, they like their sex, they like their cruel pranks on nerds.

Unlucky for them, their 10th year class reunion takes place at the now abandoned old high school in the middle of nowhere on a rainy night.

It's the perfect setting for an old dark house horror mixed with Agatha Christie style revenge picture.

This is one of the best episodes of monstervision.

It features a classic 1980s slasher flick, it has the original mail girl, Joe Bob skewers the logic of the TNT censors, and he reads an awkward letter from a male admirer named Rufus.*

3 stars

---------------------------------------------------------------

"A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" *Freddy flew over the cuckoos' nest* 3 stars

The Outer Limits: "Valerie 23" *Do androids sleep mode with electric wet dreams? 2 be or R2D2? See, I could think of some existential questions to ask my prototype sexbot over a romantic dinner, especially if she were the first sentient being of her kind, and had Hulk strength for no apparently necessary reason.* 2 1/2 stars

Jamie Gillis in "Midnight Heat" 1983 --xxx-- *Rare grime. A gem of a different time. Seedy NYC.* 3 stars

Masters of Horror: "The Washingtonians" *Patriotic blue hairs set their wooden teeth on edge about the disclosure of that rich colonial tradition of chomping on cherry tastin' child flesh.* 2 stars

Farscape: "Throne for a Loss" *Rigel, the royal pain in the rear.* 3 stars

"Hellraiser 2: Hellbound" uncut *The stigmata of Sigmund Freud, from the makers of 'Scratch it, sniff it, squeeze it, suck it,' now available at finer novelty shops.* 3 stars

Twin Peaks: "On the Wings of Love" *Hangover cures, hidden secret half-sister, hallelujah for the hard of hearing, hometown beauty pageant queen hitlist, and hoot owl hieroglypics.* 2 1/2 stars

Monstervision with Joe Bob Briggs: Randy Quaid in "Parents" *A Norman Rockwell painting hanging on the wall behind the desk at the Bates Motel.* 3 stars

The Outer Limits: "Blood Brothers" *Twelve immortal monkeys* 2 1/2 stars

"Kill List" 2011 -- *This feels like it could be a Garth Ennis story. It has old mates drinking together and shooting the shite about life. It has acts of extreme violence almost to the point of dark comedy. It has a bleak poignancy. There's also the occult undertones like a Hellblazer comic.* 3 stars

William Hurt in Ken Russell's "Altered States" *Waiting, in a fish-bowl, for Godot.* 3 stars

Kolchak, The Night Stalker: "Chopper" *Stunt motorcycle riding, sword slashing specter with separation anxiety.* 3 stars

Farscape: "Back, and Back, and Back to the Future" *"Psychic Spanish-fly," alien lady combat, genetically structured spy seductress, quantum singularity also known as a blackhole used as a soul saving secret weapon of mass destruction that is seriously in jeopardy of being stolen or accidentally set off."* 3 stars

"The Wind" starring Meg Foster, Wings Hauser, & Steve Railsback *Swept up in stormy solitude and story.* 3 stars

The Outer Limits: "The Second Soul" *Lending our dead bodies, like they were used cars, to alien parasites, leads to some serious moral implications. Feels like a 50s style sci fi message about the dangers of multiculturalism given a more progressive twist at the end.* 2 1/2 stars

"Virgin Witch" --sexploitation-- *Prissy Galore throws a feisty spell when a group of dysfunctional devil worshippers decide they really, really fancy her.* 2 1/2 stars

Van Damme / Raul Julia "Streetfighter" *"Who wants to go home, and who wants to go with ME?!" Self aware dumb fun.* 2 1/2 stars

rifftrax' Mike Nelson riffs "xXx" starring Vin Diesel, Samuel L. Jackson, & Asia Argento *Double Ohhh Seven sez, "Do the DEW, dude."* 3 stars with riffing 2 stars without

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arabianculture-blog · 5 years

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Media

Prior to the Islamic Era, poetry was regarded as the main means of communication on the Arabian Peninsula.[citation needed] It related the achievements of tribes and defeats of enemies and also served as a tool for propaganda. After the arrival of Islam other forms of communication replaced poetry as the primary form of communication. Imams(preachers) played a role in disseminating information and relating news from the authorities to the people. The suq or marketplace gossip and interpersonal relationships played an important role in the spreading of news, and this form of communication among Arabs continues today. Before the introduction of the printing press Muslims obtained most of their news from the imams at the mosque, friends or in the marketplace. Colonial powers and Christian Missionaries in Lebanon were responsible for the introduction of the printing press. It was not until the 19th century that the first newspapers began to appear, mainly in Egypt and Lebanon, which had the most newspapers per capita.

During French rule in Egypt in the time of Napoleon Bonaparte the first newspaper was published, in French. There is debate over when the first Arabic language newspaper was published; according to Arab scholar Abu Bakr, it was Al Tanbeeh (1800), published in Egypt, or it was Junral Al Iraq (1816), published in Iraq, according to other researchers. In the mid-19th century the Turkish Empire dominated the first newspapers. In the Northern African countries of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria the French colonial power built a press link between mainland countries.

Media Values

Journalism ethics is a system of values that determines what constitutes "good" and "bad" journalism. A system of media values consists of and is constructed by journalists' and other actors' decisions about issues like what is "newsworthy," how to frame the news, and whether to observe topical "red lines." Such a system of values varies over space and time, and is embedded within the existing social, political, and economic structures in a society. William Rugh states, "There is an intimate, organic relationship between media institutions and society in the way that those institutions are organized and controlled. Neither the institution nor the society in which it functions can be understood properly without reference to the other. This is certainly true in the Arab world." Media values in the Arab world therefore vary between and within countries. In the words of Lawrence Pintak and Jeremy Ginges, “The Arab media are not a monolith.”

Journalists in the Arab world hold many of the same values with their news generation as do journalists in the Western world. Journalists in the Arab world often aspire to Western norms of objectivity, impartiality, and balance. Kuldip Roy Rampal's study of journalist training programs in North Africa leads him to the conclusion that, "the most compelling dilemma faced by professional journalists, increasingly graduates of journalism degree programs, in the four Maghreb states is how to reconcile their preference for press freedom and objectivity with constraints imposed by political and legal factors that point to a pro-government journalism". Iyotika Ramaprasad and Naila Nabil Hamdy state, “A new trend toward objectivity and impartiality as a value in Arab journalism seems to be emerging, and the values of Arab and Western journalism in this field have started to converge.” Further, many journalists in the Arab world express their desires for the media to become a fourth estate akin to the media in the West. In a survey of 601 journalists in the Arab world, 40% of them viewed investigation of the government as part of their job.

Important differences between journalists in the Arab world and their Western counterparts are also apparent. Some journalists in the Arab world see no conflict between objectivity and support for political causes. Ramprasad and Hamdy's sample of 112 Egyptian journalists gave the highest importance to supporting Arabism and Arab values, which included injunctions such as “defend Islamic societies, traditions and values” and “support the cause of the Palestinians.” Sustaining democracy through “examining government policies and decisions critically,” ranked a close second. This view is further endorsed in Kirat's survey where 65 percent of Algerian journalists agreed that the task for the press is to "help achieve the goals and objectives of development plans. Such an approach to media fits within the larger scope ofdevelopment communication and journalism. The extent to which professional and political aims conflict is a subject of study for scholars of the Arab world's media.

Magazines

In most Arab countries, magazines cannot be published without a government-issued license. Magazines in the Arab world, like many of the magazines in the Western world, are geared towards women. However, the number of magazines in the Arab world is significantly smaller than that of the Western world. The Arab world is not as advertisement driven as the Western world. Advertisers fuel the funding for most Western magazines to exist. Thus, a lesser emphasis on advertisement in the Arab world plays into the low number of magazines.

Radio

There are 90 private radio stations throughout the Middle East and North Africa. (list of private radio stations in the Arab world)

Arab radio broadcasting began in the 1920s, but only a few Arab countries had their own broadcasting stations before World War II. After 1945, most Arab states began to create their own radio broadcasting systems, although it was not until 1970, when Omanopened its radio transmissions, that every one of them had its own radio station.

Among Arab countries, Egypt has been a leader in radio broadcasting from the beginning. Broadcasting began in Egypt in the 1920s with private commercial radio. In 1947, however, the Egyptian government declared radio a government monopoly and began investing in its expansion.

By the 1970s, Egyptian radio had fourteen different broadcast services with a total air time of 1,200 hours per week. Egypt is ranked third in the world among radio broadcasters. The programs were all government controlled, and much of the motivation for the government's investment in radio was due to the aspirations of President Gamal Abdel Nasser to be the recognized leader of the Arab world.

Egypt's "Voice of the Arabs" station, which targeted other Arab countries with a constant stream of news and political features and commentaries, became the most widely heard station in the region. Only after the June 1967 war, when it was revealed that this station had misinformed the public about what was happening, did it lose some credibility; nevertheless it retained a large listenership.

On the Arabian Peninsula, radio was slower to develop. In Saudi Arabia, radio broadcasts started in the Jidda-Mecca area in 1948, but they did not start in the central or eastern provinces until the 1960s. Neighboring Bahrain had radio by 1955, but Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Oman did not start indigenous radio broadcasting until nearly a quarter century later.

Television

Almost all television channels in the Arab world were government-owned and strictly controlled prior to the 1990s. In the 1990s the spread of satellite television began changing television in Arab countries. Often noted as a pioneer, al-Jazeera represents a shift towards a more professional approach to news and current affairs. Financed by the Qatar government and established in 1996, al-Jazeera was the first Arabic channel to deliver extensive live news coverage, going so far as to send reporters to "unthinkable" places like Israel. Breaking the mold in more ways than one, al-Jazeera's discussion programs raised subjects that had long been prohibited. However, in 2008, Egypt and Saudi Arabia called for a meeting to approve a charter to regulate satellite broadcasting. The Arab League Satellite Broadcasting Charter (2008) lays out principles for regulating satellite broadcasting in the Arab world.

Cinema

Most Arab countries did not produce films before nation independence. In Sudan, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, production is even now confined to short films or television. Bahrain witnessed the production of its first and only full-length feature film in 1989. In Jordan national production has barely exceeded half a dozen feature films. Algeria and Iraq have produced approximately 100 films each, Morocco around seventy, Tunisia around 130, and Syria some 150. Lebanon, owing to an increased production during the 1950s and 1960s, has made some 180 feature films. Only Egypt has far exceeded these countries, with a production of more than 2,500 feature films (all meant for cinema, not television). As with most aspects of Arab media, censorship plays a large art of creating and distributing films. "In most Arab countries, film projects must first pass a state committee, which grants or denies permission to shoot. Once this permission is obtained, another official license, a so-called visa, is necessary in order to exploit the film commercially. This is normally approved by a committee of the Ministry of Information or a special censorship authority". The most significant taboo topics under state supervision are consistent with those of other forms of media: religion, sex, and politics.

Internet

The Internet in the Arab world is powerful source of expression and information as it is in other places in the world. While some believe that it is the harbinger of freedom in media to the Middle East, others think that it is a new medium for censorship. Both are true. The Internet has created a new arena for discussion and the dissemination of information for the Arab world just as it has in the rest of the world. The youth in particular are accessing and utilizing the tools. People are encouraged and enabled to join in political discussion and critique in a manner that was not previously possible. Those same people are also discouraged and blocked from those debates as the differing regimes try to restrict access based on religious and state objections to certain material.

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flockxtogether · 7 years

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Happy Birthday, Daehyun

This is something I’m sure everyone and their mother is doing as long as they are a BABY and love B.A.P as much as I do, but I feel like I need to put out my own birthday wishes for Daehyun today, because he’s impacted not only my life but the lives of so many in such a positive way. I don’t want to just write some fanfiction or something unrealistic, I don’t want to joke around, I just want to get out my raw feelings for the man I call my ultimate bias, because whether he’d be my bro, my boyfriend, or just another strange face on the street, he’s the most beautiful person I’m happy to say I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.

How do I really start this? I’m not sure, but I feel like I’ll end up just rambling if I’m not careful, not that I would ever mind rambling about someone I have come to love more and more as every day passes.

When I first got into B.A.P I didn’t know I’d end up here. He was my bias at first because I simply didn’t know the other members, and then as time went on my bias seemingly switched for awhile, because I was getting to know them and for a time all I could focus on was Himchan. Sometimes I do these little self-rps where I just talk to myself and come up with scenarios with idols, and I choose who I’d want to be with romantically. Of course it’s unrealistic, but it’s just for fun and I suppose it’s not harming anyone so why not? But I was so tired one night I just fell asleep instead of doing one of my little self-rps like I usually do, and I kid you not I had a dream about both Himchan and Daehyun.

It’s one of the most memorable dreams I have ever had and I don’t think I could ever forget it. It was so simple but it spoke volumes. When I woke up I broke into a fit of tears due to this dream. Let me explain it to you.

In this dream I was in a black void, nothing was around me, you couldn’t see the floor below my feet, everything was just blackness, and I was simply walking. I was walking towards Himchan, who was quite a bit a ways from me. As I neared him though, he gave me this gentle smile and lifted his finger to point in the direction I was coming from. He wanted me to look behind me, so I stopped walking and turned around. What, or more appropriately, who, I saw behind me was Daehyun. He had his arms open wide, ready for me to run into them and get a hug, and he had a happy, huge smile on his face. I remember looking back at Himchan, and him waving me onward, telling me silently that it was okay to go, just go. Go. And so I did. I ran to Daehyun, I ran into his arms and he hugged me and wouldn’t let go, and as the dream ended there, I was left with one final, silent message. He was waiting for me to come home. I woke up that morning and realized my Ultimate Bias was no longer Key from SHINee, the first group I’d ever gotten into. It was Daehyun. He had been my B.A.P bias all along and it was like he was just waiting for me to realize it and come back to him, but now I also realized everything I thought about idols was wrong, because I’d never in my six years of K-Pop thought I’d change Ultimate Biases, leaving Key behind as far as that title went seemed unthinkable.

Of course, I’ve come to realize Key in all likelihood wouldn’t mind, and it’s not like he even thinks about it, he’s never met me and doesn’t know I, as an individual, exist, so I don’t have to feel ashamed or upset or like I’m betraying him. At the time though I kind of refused to believe Daehyun had taken his spot, and I didn’t admit it until after their Live on Earth concert in Atlanta in 2016.

That concert set in stone that I couldn’t deny it anymore, and that Daehyun had really shaken my world in a way no one ever had before, and no one has since.

You see, it may sound silly, or maybe you’ll write me off as crazy, I am mentally ill after all, depression and anxiety, what have you, but the truth remains in tact no matter what I do. I am in love with an idol. I am in love with Jung Daehyun.

This might piss a lot of people off, there are a lot of people in the k-pop community who claim that an idol is “theirs” as if they are their property. I don’t mind, I know a lot of that is just a combination of immaturity and an over-abundance of excitement. I don’t mind if people hate me. I don’t mind.

What I mind is that I’m in love with someone I am hopeless to ever really know. And I like to think I do know him. I follow him very closely, I watch his body language, his eyes, his facial features, more than just his words, to really know the emotions behind the smiles he has to wear on camera. I know his tells, I can see when he’s stressed or tired and doesn’t want to show it, yes, I know a lot about Jung Daehyun, but... I don’t actually know him, right? Because no matter how closely I follow him or how much I study every little detail of his being all I can see is what’s on camera, and people change on camera, idols /have/ to change on camera.

The Jung Daehyun I wish I knew is the real one. I want to know the man who is only coming to terms with his own skin tone, I want to know where his thoughts lie and why he’s so ashamed. Why does he feel he’s not beautiful, why does he truly hate himself and worry so much about being overweight? What is the /core/, root problem where such self-esteem issues lie. I yearn to be the person who knows the little details, who he can talk to any time he needs someone. I often find myself just wishing I could be the one who tells him yes, you /are/ loved, and know that he believes me, that he truly trusts my words.

I want to know everything about him from his favorite freckle on his own skin to what he had for dinner three weeks ago on Sunday. I want to meet his family, I want to love and support them, I want to see how he grew up and be a part of his world as it is now. But I can’t.

All I can do is love him, and tell myself that the few seconds I got with him to say thank you, the one picture I have to commemorate the moment is still worth everything. And it is worth everything, I just wish I had more time.

The things I love about Daehyun? It’s everything. He is intelligent, and dedicated to his career, and more than that, to B.A.P. He has talked about how the other five members have become the most important people in his life, how he wishes B.A.P could be forever. He /loves/ them and he wouldn’t give them up for the world.

Beyond his intelligence, dedication, love, and loyalty for B.A.P and everything he does and what it all means to him, he still knows how to have fun. He likes to joke around, he wants everyone to be happy and jump around and have a good time. He hates the idea of other people being sad and upset so he works even harder to make those around him happy. He does everything for us, for his fans. BABYz mean the world to him. I don’t even have to mention his tattoos, do I? One for the other members of B.A.P, and one for us, for his BABYz. If you want further explanation on them I can tell you all about them, just ask, but for now let’s just continue.

Something that actually bothers me is that people seem to only see the part of an idol that is their on-camera presence. What I mean by this is that when you are an idol you are given, by your company, an image that you have to show on the camera. This would be for some, the “happy virus” of the group. This is Daehyun. That’s all fine and dandy, but what’s not okay is what this means.

See, Happy Virus types like Daehyun, Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Taehyung, and others like to jump around and have fun. They have way too much energy so they’re constantly bouncing off the walls and raising the mood of the group and the fans around them. But how fans perceive them is that if they are having so much fun, it must mean they’re idiots.

Chanyeol and Taehyung are prime examples of this, where people think they are simply stupid, just because they like to laugh and have fun. It doesn’t make any sense to me that anyone would assume ANY idol is stupid. Every idol you see is not only dedicated and hard-working, because really how far have you gotten compared to them, but they are extremely intelligent and I know each one of them could sit down and have a serious conversation, and this includes Daehyun.

Watching his stage presence, when he is singing he is extremely focused. In fact he’s so focused that at their Party Baby Tour in Atlanta this year, he was looking right at me and didn’t even see me because he was /so/ concentrated on singing and doing his very best. Most of the concert I actually noticed his rather serious expressions, because as much as he likes to joke around and jump wildly across the stage, his career is no joke to him. His passion is what makes him who he is.

He is so dedicated to singing and has come so far that he is the only idol who makes me literally emotional every single time he sings. I have never known anyone who could make me emotional at every note they hit. Even my mother, who often complains about me playing “that Korean music,” stopped and told me one day that he has a beautiful, powerful voice. He is so dedicated to his singing that even for his current musical, Napoleon, when others have joked about him being an actor he has /adamantly/ denied them. He has said multiple times, no, I’m not an actor, because acting is not what he wants to do, acting is not why he is in this musical. Singing is what he wants to do. Singing is why he’s in this musical.

He’s not in it for fame, he’s not in it for money, he wants people to remember him by his voice, not his face, and he wants people to remember him by his voice because the more people that remember him, the farther it means he’s come. Each new person that says, “Oh yeah I remember him, wow his voice is amazing,” is a marker of how far he’s come and each new fan is a marker of his furthering success, and that’s all he wants. To be successful at the one thing he loves more than B.A.P, more than BABYz, more than life itself. Singing.

No matter who he ever ends up with in a relationship, if anyone, the one thing I want to see is that that person supports him in his career 100% and more. I want to know that the person who stands with him for life stands with his voice and talents as well, with his passion. I want them to support every tour he goes on, every musical he stars in, and I want them to remind him every day that beyond just his amazing talent and passion, he as a person is so, so loved.

It’s weird to me to think that I could write so much, that I could be so in love with this one man, and yet there are so many out there who hate him. And why? At the root of it, they hate him because he hates himself. Most people who don’t like him assume he fat shames, but as an overweight person myself, I’ve done the research and that’s..really not it at all. Any time Daehyun points out weight, it’s not because he cares about your weight, or mine, or anyone else’s. It’s because he cares about his own, and he’s terrified of being overweight himself.

Because of his lack of self-confidence and his troubles with people who hate him for having dark skin, he hates himself for his dark skin, and to be overweight on top of that, in his mind, would just make him even uglier than he already thinks he is. He is just starting to learn to accept that he has dark skin, not because he likes it, but because he’s realizing it’s not something you can change. I really hope people remind him daily that his darker skin tone is beautiful, because in person, let me tell you, it looks like he’s been kissed by the sun, like he’s absorbed a ray of light and he’s shining brilliantly. He is gorgeous, absolutely, magnificently stunning. And yet..he thinks he’s ugly. So he worries about his skin tone, and he worries about his weight, even though he has nothing to worry about. And looping back to something I said earlier, I guess all of this is why I wish I could be the person he talks to about these issues, the person who tells him that he’s beautiful and lovely just the way he is, inside and out, and that he would truly, honestly believe me.

But as of now..that can’t happen. So a birthday wish will have to do. And to the idol, to the /man/ who stole my heart, who I love more than anyone or anything else in the world, thank you. You’ve saved me from suicide attempts and you’ve done so much for me and so many around the world. Thank you for everything you are and everything you’ve done. Thank you for filling my life with so much love and hope. You are beautiful, and wonderful, and even in your imperfections, you are perfect to me.

I love you so much, and I hope your 25th birthday is absolutely amazing and so-filled with love.

#daehyun #ultimate bias #happy birthday #happy birthday daehyun #daehyun birthday #bap #jung daehyun #bap daehyun #shinee #key #shinee key #chanyeol #taehyung #baekhyun #typist speaks #sorry its long but its so important to me

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theotherscarmanthewoman · 7 years

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Series One Episode 43: We shamble on through this hell, taking on more secrets to sell (and other stories)

Insert Spartacus Joke Here

Dun dun dunnnnnn.

I can’t remember whether I was surprised the first time I saw this so honestly can’t comment on the efficacy of the reveal, but he was always a shifty customer.

The Doctor gives precisely zero fucks as to whether this makes any sense or not and just wants to get Susan out of jail. NOW. Stirling says he can use his authority to get them all safe passage to wherever they want to go, and Ian has to grab his Space Bro by the wrist to stop him being the adorably cantankerous bastard he so desperately wants to be in response to all this faffery. I have missed these little touches (figurative and literal).

Anyway, Ian delivers the message that Stirling needs to get back to Blighty with whatever info he has. Apparently Webster mumbled a lot of strange things, but Ian can’t remember them now. Until of course Stirling triggers it by telling them that he needs their help finding out about a meeting with Paul Barras tonight on Robespierre’s orders. Ian remembers Webster saying something about Barras and a meeting and The Sinking Ship, which Jules tells them is an inn and ideal for a meeting. Ok then.

So Stirling’s plan is that Barbara and Ian to attend the meeting, seeing as how he and the Doctor are too recognisable now. Then once he has the info he needs, he’ll be free to help them. The Doctor says it’s nonsense and too risky, which is rather touching. Babs is all for it, and ropes Ian in, too. The Doctor agrees because Susan. Yadda yadda preamble let’s get to the shitty disguises already.

Also, in case anyone thought I'd forgotten about this week's Wildhorn Shoehorn:

youtube

(Side note: can Barbara and Ian ride horses? Because apparently The Sinking Ship is a two-hour ride away. Who cares. DRESSUP TIME.)

The moon goes behind a cloud, and thunder crashes, and the sign of The Sinking Ship flaps in the storm. And JOY OF JOYS Barbara is in the world’s most ginormous mob cap that sits on her mighty bouffant like a giant mushroom with frills. Or a jellyfish the size of a large cat. Anyway, Babs is serving Jules wine and making snarky comments about how shitty the trade is in this pub. Apparently they’ve bound and gagged the innkeeper and left him in the wine cellar, which means our faves get to do some play-acting. It’s nearly closing time, and while Babs is running the bar, Ian is busy drilling a hole through the shelves so they can see into the back room from the bar. We know this because Ian is trying to drill through a wine bottle that’s making a clinking noise; Babs, quick on the uptake, moves it to one side before it can attract attention.

Operation 'Tardis Wine Cellar' is go.

In said back room, Ian is resplendent in a Poldark hat; Babs comes in to tell him he’s through, and the two of them back their way back to the bar, into which an important-looking Citizen (Barras) has just walked. Ian is…is he trying to do a French accent? Actually? I don’t know, but he shuffles over to the Citizen and takes his cloak, sounding like the unholy spawn of Maurice Chevalier and assorted Eastenders publicans. He ushers the Citizen into the back room, and Babs comes in to offer him refreshments; she is doing a French accent straight out of the kind of Carry On film that has French maids in it, and ascertains that there will only be two people meeting in the back room. As the other guests leave, Jules too vacates the premises, and Ian tells Barbara that as soon as the other guest comes, she can lock up. Because apparently he is now the landlord boss of her barmaid persona?

The other guy indeed arrives, wrapped in a scarf, and neither Babs nor Ian sees his face as he goes into the back room. But when the guy pops his head around the door of the bar, Ian does see his face and excitedly motions Babs over to him—and tells her it’s Napoleon Bonaparte! HE’S GEEKING OUT SO HARD. Though how can he tell? I’ve seen portraits of Napoleon and literally the only thing I know is that he’s short with a Napoleon hat, and this guy isn’t even that short. Still.

In the back room, Napoleon and Barras talk. It’s long and historical and educational and I’m going to summarise by saying that they plan to arrest Robespierre tomorrow and then execute him without giving him a chance to talk and thereby rally support. He’s basically Saruman after Helm’s Deep. Then Napoleon is going to be in charge of shit. Barbara and Ian eavesdrop. I’m sorry that wasn’t particularly nuanced, but life is too short.

Back at Aristo HQ, Stirling is horrified by the idea of Napoleon as ruler of France. Lol dramatic irony, et cetera. Babs seems to be the one relaying the specifics, seeing as she actually knows the history of the period, so she’ll know about it initially being as one of three consuls and all that. This makes sense, and I approve. Stirling is concerned that Napoleon will rise to greater power, but before Babs et al can be like ‘lol well yeah that’s a thing that happens’, the Doctor cuts in tells him their only concern now is Susan.

Stirling, however, is in agreement with Jules that they don’t want a military dictatorship, and wants to go and try to stop Robespierre being arrested. Babs is gloriously incredulous:

BARBARA: You'd keep Robespierre as ruler of France!? STIRLING: If I thought it was the only way... JULES: We need a strong government, but not a military dictatorship. And it could happen. BARBARA: It will happen! DOCTOR: Oh, save your breath, my dear. (To Stirling and Jules.) Do as you think fit. I'm going off for Susan.

I adore this. ADORE it. Because obv Babs and the Doctor know that Stirling is trying to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted: Napoleon will be ruler of France, and of course it seems crazy to them that anything else would happen, though of course to Jules and Stirling the future is still indeterminate. It’s rather poignant, actually, in its way. I also adore the continued affinity between the Doctor and Barbara since The Aztecs, after their both having experienced the desire to break the rules and change history. Though Babs clearly doesn’t want to see history changed, it’s still interesting that the Doctor is speaking to her as he did back then as a fellow time-traveller—a novice time-traveller, yes, but still a time-traveller. I also like that this is one of the earliest instances in Classic Who in a historical where we get to the point where history is about to run its course and suddenly everyone disentangles themselves from the plot and essentially gets the engine running for a quick getaway.

Stirling, however, still has the urgency of a man who believes he can alter the course of a history he doesn’t yet know is predetermined, and starts ordering people about: Babs is to wait outside the prison and keep watch while Jules sorts out a getaway carriage for the Doctor and Susan, and Ian is to come with him to try to prevent Robespierre’s arrest. The Doctor tells Ian he may as well go with him if only to make sure Stirling keeps his part of the bargain, and the ‘save Robespierre’ party leaves in a flurry.

Babs tells Ian to take care. And then cracks up laughing:

DOCTOR: What is it? What do you find so amusing, hmm? BARBARA: Oh, I don't know. Yes, I do. It's this feverish activity to try and stop something that we know is going to happen. Robespierre will be guillotined whatever we do! DOCTOR: I've told you of our position so often. BARBARA: Yes, I know. You can't influence or change history. I learnt that lesson with the Aztecs. DOCTOR: The events will happen, just as they are written. I'm afraid so and we can't stem the tide. But at least we can stop being carried away with the flood! Now, Susan and the prison.

I *love* this. Seasoned time-traveller and novice time-traveller, talking about history, talking about time. As I say, it’s a continuation of the bond they formed during The Aztecs. I love the contrast between the Doctor’s resigned, almost saddened attitude to being unable to stem the tide and Barbara’s new appreciation for the absurdity of it all. It’s a contrast to her profound frustration during The Aztecs, and suggests that this is a natural part of the character development of those who wander in the fourth dimension. She’s still in the giddy stage, apparently. It’s also nice that she’s able to have these moments when her part in history seems absurd to her but it doesn’t counteract her willingness to fight with Ian over the importance of history, even if it can’t be changed. Though it seems there is in fact a difference in the quality of the two kinds of selfishness she encounters in Ian and the Doctor: Ian sides with whoever isn’t trying to kill them in this serial and then makes a moral judgment about what the other side deserves; the Doctor does so without moral judgment and (when he’s with Barbara at least) with a real sense of regret. You do get the feeling that he’s tried to change history before and lost, and that he’s paid a price for it. Which, in my head, may or may not have something to do with his willingness to protect Susan at all costs. I do worry at the slightly ‘fuck it’ attitude Barbara is developing in these matters, but as a time-traveller she’s still very inexperienced, and you get the sense that she’s still going to have to reconcile this giddy fatalism with her sense of what actually matters. And it’s the Doctor who’s going to have to get her through that, not Ian. Character development win.

Barbara, your Jafar is showing.

Back in his office, Robespierre is bolting the doors and going for his gun. Outside, the soldiers are breaking down the door. Robespierre is trying to bluster his way out of it as Stirling and Ian rock up outside the doors; Stirling want to go in, but Ian holds him back; we hear a gunshot. Robespierre is dragged outside with a surprisingly unbloody gunshot wound to the jaw. Stirling asks why Ian held him back, and Ian says Robespierre is finished. They’re taking him to the prison, and now it’s up to the Doctor to get Susan out before they get there.

Outside the prison, a storm is brewing, and the Doctor and Barbara are sheltering under a porch of some sort. They are generally adorable wishing one another luck and safety, and the Doctor goes off to get Susan.

In the prison, everyone is drinking. The Doctor tells the jailer Lemaitre was shot, and tells him that he himself was sent to Paris to ensure Robespierre’s downfall. He gets the jailer arrested for being Lemaitre’s accomplice, tell him he can’t decide whether he’s a rogue or a half-wit or both, and then pretends to give him the benefit of the doubt...then tells him to release the prisoners to ready the cells for Robespierre’s cronies.

Gif by Cleowho

Outside on the porch, Babs is looking on concernedly as violence rages around the prison offscreen; Ian arrives, and she tells them Robespierre’s been taken to the prison. There is casual clinging. Babs tells Stirling where they need to go based on what she remembers from the map. Well, she is their navigator, after all. Ian spots Jules.

Back in prison, Susan is finally let out of jail and tumbles sobbing into her grandfather’s arms. GIVE HER SOMETHING TO DO ALREADY. When he tells her they’ve a carriage waiting, she looks so relieved it only confirms my theory about Gallifreyans being generally allergic to squalor and requiring regular doses of luxury and/or fanciness. They see Robespierre being dragged by, again with his surprisingly bloodless jaw. Pausing only to observe how yesterday everyone lived in fear of Robespierre whereas today they…don’t, he and Susan leave the jail. FINALLY.

Susan is finally out of narrative jail.

Back on the porch, Ian is chatting with Jules; Ian tells him to remember the name Bonaparte. Babs is busy charming Stirling into not asking any more questions about where they’ve come from/where they’re going, despite her knowing how he feels about wanting to see England again. Susan and the Doctor rush on, and Susan hugs her Space Parents; everyone fucks off sharpish. Except Stirling, who has a moment with Jules, in which he speculates that the good people of Team Tardis ‘don’t know where they’re heading for’. Careful, Stirling, the Doctor gets pretty irate at that sort of talk.

There follows some footage of a childishly-drawn map mixed in with stock footage of a carriage rolling along. This means our heroes are Travelling.

And OH AT LAST they’re back in the Tardis. Everyone is half-in, half-out of their eighteenth-century gear, and Susan is playing dressup with the Doctor’s feathered hat. Then this happens:

DOCTOR: Well, I can assure you, my dear Barbara, Napoleon would never have believed you. IAN: Yes, Doctor, but ah, supposing we had written Napoleon a letter, telling him, you know, some of the things that were going to happen to him. SUSAN: It wouldn't have made any difference, Ian. He would have forgotten it, or lost it, or thought it was written by a maniac. BARBARA: I suppose if we'd tried to kill him with a gun, the bullet would have missed him.

Dark shit, Babs. Even if you are being deliciously wry. But then a gorgeous thing happens: the Doctor chides his giggly crew, not just because he’s a grumpy old so-and-so, but because even though they can’t change history, that doesn’t mean that what they do doesn’t matter:

DOCTOR: Our lives are important, at least to us. But as we see, so we learn. IAN: And what are we going to see and learn next, Doctor? DOCTOR: Well, unlike the old adage, my boy, our destiny is in the stars, so let's go and search for it.

And there it is! There’s how you reconcile being a time-traveller powerless in the face of history with any sense of self-worth! That’s how you don’t crack up! Even if whatever will be will be, your life is still important, not because of what you do but because of what you see, what you learn, and what you find. And, beautifully, it’s not just the destiny of the Gallifreyans any more—it’s the destiny of all four of them, not trying to get home but trying to find that elusive something else. No, YOU’RE crying.

SQUAD GOALS

WHAT IS THE DESTINY OF TEAM TARDIS? WHERE IN THE STARS WILL THEY FIND IT? WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO SEE AND LEARN NEXT? WILL SUSAN HAVE MORE TO DO IN THE NEXT SEASON OF DOCTOR WHO? DOES NOBODY CARE ABOUT GETTING HOME ANY MORE? MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL, DID THEY TAKE A FEW BOTTLES OF DELICIOUS FRENCH WINE ABOARD THE TARDIS?

Summary (as applicable to this episode)

Does it pass the Bechdel test? Only if you're being very, very generous.

Is the gaze problematic? Nope.

Is/are the woman companion(s) dressed 'for the Dads'? No. Though Susan and Barbara finally get to show a bit of clavicle. Scandalous.

Does a woman fall over/twist her ankle (whilst running from peril)? Nope.

Does a woman wander off alone for the sole dramatic purpose of getting into trouble so she can be rescued later? Nope. But Susan's entire dramatic function for the rest of the serial is to be in need of rescue so as to keep using the prison set and keep Team Tardis in the thick of it.

Is/are the woman companion(s) captured? Susan is a continued state of captivity, but there's no actual capturing.

Does the Doctor/a man companion/any other man have to rescue the woman companion(s) from peril? The Doctor has to rescue Susan from prison.

Is a woman placed under threat of actual bodily harm? Ish? I'm assuming they're going to guillotine Susan.

Does a woman have to deal with a sexual predator? Nope.

Is/are the woman companion's/s' first/only reaction(s) to peril gratuitous screaming? No.

Does a woman companion go into hysterics over something reasonably minor? No.

Is a woman 'spared' the ordeal of having to do/witness something unpleasant by a man who makes a decision on her behalf/keeps her deliberately ignorant? No.

Does a man automatically disbelieve or belittle something a woman (companion) says happened to her? No.

Does a man talk over a woman or talk about a woman as though she isn't there? Stirling talks about Babs as though she isn't there when he says she can stand guard outside the prison.

Does the woman companion have to be calmed/comforted by the Doctor/a man companion/a man? No.

Is a woman the first/only person to be (most gratuitously) menaced by the episode's antagonist(s)? Not an enormous amount of menacing this week, but Susan is under most threat.

Is a man shamed into doing/not doing something because the alternative is a woman doing/not doing something? No.

Does the woman companion come up with a plan? No. Though Babs seems to be the only one who knows where the Tardis is parked.

Does the woman companion do something stupid/banal/weird which inspires a man to be a Man with a Plan? No.

Does a woman come up with a theory and is it ridiculed by the Doctor/a man? Yes a teeny bit, when Babs is being glib about bullets bouncing off Napoleon, but it's wry as hell, and the Doctor is ticking them all off for not taking their own importance seriously.

Does a woman call the Doctor out on his bullshit? No.

Does a woman get to be a badass? No.

Is the young, strong, straight, white male lead the person most often in control of the situation? Not really. It's mostly Sitrling and the Doctor.

Is there past/future/alien sexism? Not specific to the past, I wouldn't say.

Does a 'present'-day character call anybody out on past/future/alien sexism? N/A.

Does an past/future/alien person have the hots for a woman companion and is it reciprocated? N/A.

Did a woman write/direct/produce this episode? No/No/Yes.

Verdict

A gorgeous ending to a hit-and-miss serial that has some excellent moments but which I'm unable to forgive for its not knowing what the hell to do with Susan. I adore the continued bond between Barbara and the Doctor following their time-traveller chats in The Aztecs, and am enjoying seeing her character development, even if it's going down the 'everything is absurd, nothing really matters, mama, just killed a man' sort of route. I am also an enormous fan of the Doctor's firm but not unkind attitude to his wayward Space Childrens' flippant remarks about the (un)importance of their actions in the field of human history. His little speech at the end of the episode is really key to his character, and you do feel that this idea of their lives being important to them at least is what keeps him going through that sense of the absurd that we see is beginning to take its toll on the new time travellers. It's a kind of oddly virtuous selfishness that never quite wears off. I'm a little worried about Ian, who does seem to flounder a bit when he isn't playing at being the hero. Identity crisis looming. And Susan. Poor, poor, poor, poor Susan. I wouldn't be surprised if this were the serial that made Carole Ann Ford want to start looking for another job. So, at the end of the first series of Classic Who, Team Tardis is a proper squad, beginning to move towards looking for a collective identity/destiny amongst the stars. How wonderful.

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jillmckenzie1 · 5 years

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Go Like Hell

One of the keenest pleasures found in moviegoing is that of competence porn. A great comedy can flood your brain with endorphins, a solid horror movie can unnerve you days after you saw it, and the right drama can restore your faith in the essential decency of humanity. Even the much-maligned superhero genre can, when executed properly, provide viewers with something mythic.

That’s all well and good, but I really dig films about smart people doing a particular job with intelligence and competence. Consider Apollo 13, a film I absolutely adore. On the one hand, I understand perhaps 25 percent of the astronaut lingo in that film, and you could boil most of it down to, “The doohickey is broken! We need to fix it/replace it!” On the other hand, I know I’m in good hands with actors like Gary Sinise, Tom Hanks, and the mighty Bill Paxton, and the script painstakingly shows us they’re genuinely smart dudes working a problem.

Skillful competence porn immerses us into a world we’re not familiar with while making sure we a) understand the gist of the problems faced by the characters and b) are provided with interesting and bright characters we want to see solve said problems. Do you really need to understand naval tactics utilized by the British during the Napoleonic Wars to enjoy Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World? You do not, but that movie positively bombards you with details, while making sure you always get the bigger picture.

The tragedy is that competence porn used to be a mainstay of studios, and it’s now looked at as somewhat of a risk. Audiences show up for the MCU and Star Wars reliably, but that’s about it. Too often, due to financial issues and the abominable behavior of other viewers, many people make the split-second decision to pass on a good film and wait for it to hit streaming. Maybe you’ve seen the trailer for the new racing drama Ford v Ferrari. Maybe you thought to yourself, “Looks pretty good, but I’ll catch it on Netflix.”

This is me getting down on my knees and begging you not to do that.

To understand Ford v Ferrari, you need to understand the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Held in the French town of Le Mans since 1923, this fiendishly difficult race takes place upon a mixture of regular racetrack and closed-off roads. Most races fixate on speed. In order to win Le Mans, your racing team needs a car that’s both fast and reliable, and drivers with the ability to drive for long periods of time without a break. Did I mention the race takes place over 24 hours and that, in that time, your car will travel hundreds of miles? What I’m saying is, 24 Hours of Le Mans is hard.

We’re introduced to Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), a professional racing driver who won Le Mans in 1959. That victory would have propelled him to greater heights if not for a heart condition that compels his retirement. What do you do when you can’t drive fast? You design and sell fast cars and manage a few racers on the side. One of Carroll’s best is Ken Miles (Christian Bale), a hotheaded Englishman with no small degree of skill.

The bad news is that Ken’s arrogance has cost him a number of lucrative jobs, and his attitude costs him customers at his tuning shop. The good news is that, due to the egotism of rich men, Ken and Carroll have a shot at an opportunity. Automotive titan Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) sees his company in a slump. He demands solutions, and one of his junior executives Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) suggests a merger with Ferrari. It’s a good idea, considering Ferrari has won Le Mans for the last several years, and that the Ferrari brand is infinitely sexier than Ford. Unfortunately, Ferrari refuses to go along with the merger and colorfully insults Ford and his company.

As a result, we have a rich guy who’s very upset with another rich guy, and Action Must Be Taken. Ford is determined to destroy Ferrari at the 1966 Le Mans, and Carroll Shelby is just the man to design the car to do it. It won’t be easy, as Shelby, Miles, and the rest of the team must continually milk every last ounce of speed from the Ford GT40 prototype, as well as fend off problematic orders from Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas), Ford’s second-in-command.

I absolutely loved Ford v. Ferrari. You should understand that I didn’t approach this film as a racing fan. While I’ve always been curious about spending a day at a NASCAR arena, I truthfully couldn’t care less about car racing. Yet I respect the high degree of skill it takes to craft a machine designed to move at terrifying speeds, and I respect the reflexes and split-second computations needed to drive one of those machines and not die immediately.

Director James Mangold, fresh off of Logan, drops us into a world many of us aren’t familiar with. With a running time of two-and-a-half-hours, I feared being battered with talk of braking systems and RPMs. What I got was a fleet-footed and frequently joyful drama that shows the allure of speed and why men like Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby dedicated their lives to it. Mangold shoots the racing scenes with thrilling kineticism, yet the slower moments of drama are never dull.

My single note of complaint is that the film felt 10-15 minutes too long. Looking at the smart screenplay written by Jason Keller, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth, I had no idea where those bits of flab would be trimmed from. They do an excellent job of humanizing these people and, even if we don’t like them, exploring their motivations. For example, a lesser script would portray Josh Lucas’ Leo Beebe as a callow bootlicker. Instead, he’s written to be a company man from tip to tail, someone who thoroughly believes in the business principles of Ford, even if they collide with the “purer” motives of Shelby and Miles. That makes him a stronger and more interesting antagonist.

If there’s one thing you can always count on in a James Mangold film, it’s strong performances. As Carroll Shelby, Matt Damon is firmly in his comfort zone playing an ethical man nudged into a morally gray area. He’s good at this kind of thing, and he’s able to play the drama with humor and a light touch. Speaking of light touches, Christian Bale steals the show. He usually plays cold and reptilian men who are laser-focused on a goal and have no interest in relationships complicating matters.* As Ken Miles, Bale is still focused, but he’s warm, funny, and enormously likable.

If current trends continue, people will only venture out to movie theaters to see enormous blockbusters based on pre-existing IP. That would be a shame, because a certain kind of prestige drama will stall out and be left in the dust. Ford v Ferrari is too smart and too joyous a film to not reach the finish line.

*Putting aside his foolish Cookie Monster voice, Bale gave us one of the best portrayals of Batman. I liked him in the role, but he’s not exactly playing a likable guy.

from Blog https://ondenver.com/go-like-hell/

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misterboho · 5 years

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Dr. 2's Surgery with EthiopianAmerica at the Victory Gardens Theater

Patient: EthiopianAmerica

Surgery Date: 05-17-19

Parents: Director Sophiyaa Nayar, Playwright Sam Kebede

Siblings: Simon Gebremedhin, Gabrielle Lott-Rogers, Freedom Martin, Joseph Primes

Surname: Definition Theatre Company

Address: 2433 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60614

Insurance: Paperkutz

Symptoms: traditional, modern, tramodernal, assimilation blues

Diagnosis: Domestic smiling

"I just want to be happy! No bad things, just happy." -- Girma Kifle

Operation Overview:

The Kifles are the most darling black Americans behind the modern white picket fence since A Raisin in the Sun. Joseph Primes as Mr. Kifle is occasionally out back tootin’ his McCiggies before his boys get home from playing basketball or being successfully deferred from Harvard. He jostles their robust manhood with old school wrestling matches every now and then. He’s just too damn proud his new men. I was as tickled as his sons from his throbbing traditionalist optimism.

Mr. Kifle is the king of daddy-os with his skinny-fat beer belly and in-between afro. He is truly the senior papa of suburbia. All he needs is a sassy apron for those backyard BBQs with the Joneses and he will be the new Chief Americano. I could just barely tell that Joseph Primes was affecting his voice with a thick Ethiopian accent. So damn sexy he brought a tear to my eye.

The show started earlier than the official curtain up with Johnathan Kifle (Simon Gebremedhin) jammin’ to 2010 bangers like Katy Perry. John is almost as sexy as Papa, with all the deliciously disgusting awkward movements a 17 year old nerd can produce when provoked with Katy Perry. Simon Gebremedhin… is, The Black Napoleon Dynamite, if not worse/better. He just about dances as well as him too. I almost gave him my handkerchief.

The playbill was a resume: boring, blank, except for Sophiyaa Nayar’s essay on the work. My goodness have I been thirstier than a bankrupt hooker this year for an artistic impulse from a playbill. Did you know that Actor X is excited for their X Theater Chicago debut? If it wasn’t for the enlightening essay, I would have likely given up playbills cold turkey.

Freedom Martin as Daniel Kifle is John’s suave antithesis brother. He likes water bottle vodka and slow walks on the beach. Daniel is a too cool punk… that cares. In this instance it wasn’t cliche. Freedom Martin was legitimately experiencing the character, or else the playwright’s words would have likely miscarried. Bad boy roles are sad when they’re aped. They often are. Sad, bro.

The patient’s frame was electrifying. The stage had basic cube edges that outlined the main room. It lit up at heated moments with an instant symphony of different lights that one wouldn’t expect for a black box theater. It was literally cool, never cattle prodding pointless action. I wondered at first if it was too telling… it wasn’t. The acting and Nayar’s directing gave simple ideas force in this low concept play.

The low-key to high-key misogyny was accessible but clever. Gabrielle Lott-Rogers as Elizabeth Kifle was the best-fit choice for Kebede’s Elizabeth. Liz was the perfect paradox to live out the implications of burgeoning female dignity in suburbia where Papa still reigns.

Elizabeth Kifle’s sweet but never saccharine mommy-o-ism took my heart during high notes of domestic pathos while evoking my sobriety during her own clench for respect. Mr. Kifle consistently plays the “I planted the Tree of Life under your feet.” card while such a play is embarrassingly inaccessible to Mrs. Kifle, despite her owning half the house with her day job. Her vanity to clout a patriarchal respect is amplified by the contrast of her soft but competent personality. Gabrielle Lott-Rogers is Nayar’s secret sauce as Elizabeth Kifle is Kebede’s.

From this subplot, the actors combusted with the most deft power plays amongst each other that I’ve ever seen. It’s a wonder how they had so much energy and synergy for these basic, familial scenes. Nayar and her actors have the talent to create the most striking, natural moments from a simple story.

The audience watched the family watch too much TV. Yep. I’ll get the scalpel. Too much Jeopardy is bad for the soul. Perhaps it was necessary to lead into the Ethiopian, shoulder thrusting dance maneuvers. Again, more sexiness from Mama and Papa.

The familial theme was a bit cloy, but healthy, as it naturally is. In the beginning, it hurt the story because it elongated the exposition: e.g., watch the cute family do more cute family things that don’t move the plot forward with abrasion.

The worst error is Kebede’s ability to back up, or even squarely draw up, Mr. Kifle’s mysterious flaws. The story is isolated in the present because Mr. Kifle, as the blessed, central, “Tree of Life,” has his backstory missing and his tomorrowstory missing. They came from Ethiopia. They are traditional. They want a darling life in America. Jr.’s leaving for Big College. Okay, but it’s not enough, particularly to explain Mr. Kifle’s snake in the grass. His demons were seemingly born on stage. A single walk on character could cure this by giving him some context outside of his home. Where does he even work? Does he? I missed it.

Playwright Kebede, however, hits the mark with Mr., Jr., and Mrs. It must be their own nonfiction story, because it barely exists in the brief transition of cultural assimilation from Africa to America. The window of opportunity for this one generation story is as skinny as Jr. Does anyone notice that these stories are predominantly dated? One day, there will be one, assimilated, uninterrupted America.

As such, it represents a true masterpiece in modern American theater: combating the on-going battle of compromising Old America, New America, and EthiopianAmerica. The patient is in near perfect health.

Rx: More McCiggies

#Chicago Theater Review #Victory Gardens Theater Review #Director Sophiyaa Nayar Review #Playwright Sam Kebede Review #Definition Theatre Company Review #Dr. 2's Review of EthiopianAmerica #Dr. 2 Review EthiopianAmerica #stayinit #Simon Gebremedhin Review #Actor Gabrielle Lott-Rogers Review #Actor Freedom Martin Review #Actor Joseph Primes Review

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starringemiliaclarke · 6 years

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Press/Gallery: Emilia Clarke Solo Flight

VANITY FAIR – It may be another year before Daenerys Targaryen appears on HBO, but Emilia Clarke has wrapped up shooting for the final season of Game of Thrones and is prepared for the big screen.

On a rainy April afternoon, Emilia Clarke enters the bright, airy Egyptian galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art the way so many movie-lovers before her have: quoting Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally. Adopting the unsourceable accent Crystal uses opposite Meg Ryan in a famously improvised scene filmed in this very room, Clarke starts stuttering, “Pah-pah-paprikash.” Our amused if bewildered guide, too young to get the reference, adds the 1989 rom-com to her list of movie recommendations from Clarke, who has already gushed about the 2017 religious drama Novitiate. Chuckling over this unlikely double feature, Clarke assures her, “You have two incredible movies coming your way.”

One reference the guide does get: Game of Thrones, the HBO juggernaut which stars Clarke as its most unstoppable heroine, Daenerys Targaryen. In fact, the very tour we’re taking, put together by a company called Museum Hack, is based on the series, and offers a fan-friendly survey of the sometimes inscrutable displays of the Met. You don’t have to be an art historian (our guide is an aspiring actress) to understand what Greek fire, Damascus blades, heraldry, mutilated men, samurai kamon, the dragon-born St. Margaret of Antioch, and an early female pharaoh have to do with wildfire, Valyrian steel, house words, and Clarke’s world-famous alter ego.

And yet, despite her fame, Clarke has managed to spend a full half-hour in the museum sponging up our guide’s trivia without being spotted. For years, Clarke’s brown hair let her hide in plain sight, but she recently bleached it an icy Targaryen blond. So, why the invisibility? Maybe it’s her height. “We both have a thing about our stature not quite being what people expect,” says her co-star Kit Harington, who, at five feet eight, has six inches on Clarke. Maybe it’s her outfit—the gray overcoat, cream sweater, and jeans are a far cry from the cloaks and armor of Thrones. Or maybe it’s her bright, decidedly non-intimidating personality. “When I’m goofing around with my pals, I’m unrecognizable,” she says. Harington calls Clarke’s humor “naughty,” and it’s certainly true that her informal, expletive-laced banter is a far cry from Daenerys’s imperious tones. “Sometimes, if I’m in a really bad mood,” Clarke notes, “people are like, ‘Khaleesi!’ ”

Finally, the spell of anonymity breaks, thanks to a display of competitiveness worthy of Game of Thrones. Our guide has challenged us to photograph as many birds and dragons as we can find in the paintings and sculptures on the tour, and Clarke is approaching the task with her usual effervescent zeal. Standing in the shadow of a stone Hatshepsut, one of patriarchal Egypt’s first female pharaohs, she triumphantly displays one of the winged targets she has captured on her phone. “This little birdie: Boom!” she shouts, her voice ricocheting off the stone walls. A pair of young men look over, then descend, and, in thick French accents, ask for a photo. Clarke’s triumphant grin tightens into a polite, distant smile.

There it is: the face of Daenerys of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons, who, over the course of seven seasons, has climbed from powerless pawn to resolute conqueror, forcing one rival after another to “bend the knee” or burn. As Daenerys has risen, so has Clarke, morphing from a struggling actress and part-time cater waiter to an international superstar and symbol of feminine fierceness. That journey is “important and inspiring—particularly now, in our climate,” says her close friend Rose Leslie, who played the wildling warrior Ygritte in early seasons of Game of Thrones. “She’s at the forefront of representing independent women.”

We still don’t know if, as many expect, Daenerys Targaryen will win the right to rule the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, but we can be assured that Emilia Clarke will hang up her platinum wig for good when Game of Thrones ends its eight-season run, in 2019. There’s still a lot of filming and post-production work to be done, but Clarke has already shot her character’s final on-screen moments. “It fucked me up,” she says. “Knowing that is going to be a lasting flavor in someone’s mouth of what Daenerys is . . .”

Clarke has good reason to feel unsettled. Letting go of a culture-defining television role can be liberating, to be sure, but it can also be deflating—or worse. Jon Hamm may always be seen as Don Draper; Sarah Michelle Gellar is forever Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Jennifer Aniston will never not be Rachel. Fortunately, Clarke approaches this pivotal transition with a stubborn insistence on behaving like a normal, grounded human being. And her upcoming credits suggest that she’s greatly in demand beyond Westeros.

This month, Clarke, a self-described “achievement junkie,” joins the rapidly expanding Star Wars universe in Solo, a highly scrutinized origin story for Harrison Ford’s Han Solo. Her well-honed gift for concealing every detail about her work—“Everything in my life is a spoiler,” she says—helped her get into character. Director Ron Howard, a Game of Thrones fan, explains that Qi’ra, Han Solo’s childhood friend turned unreliable ally, is secretive, slippery, and morally questionable—“a much different sort of a character” from Daenerys.

If Solo becomes a major hit, it will give Clarke a rare chance to leap cleanly from one spectacularly successful genre franchise to another. But even if it doesn’t, she has no shortage of options. An active participant in Time’s Up, she has ambitious plans to write and produce her own material—and create new opportunities for other women in the industry. Discussing those issues, she begins to sound more like the fiery Daenerys. “It becomes harder to separate you from the role when you’ve been with it so long,” she admits.

Eight years ago, Dan Weiss and David Benioff were in trouble. Their pilot for Game of Thrones, an adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s popular A Song of Ice and Fire book series, was a disaster. Along with re-shoots, the pair were looking to re-cast a few key roles, including the pivotal part of Daenerys Targaryen. Tall, willowy, and fair-haired, Tamzin Merchant, the actress originally cast as Khaleesi, was a far more conventional match for the character on the page. The second time around, Weiss and Benioff took a fresh look at the character.

“Emilia was the only person we saw—and we saw hundreds—who could carry the full range that Daenerys required,” the pair explained in tandem via e-mail. “Young actors aren’t often asked to play a combination of Joan of Arc, Lawrence of Arabia, and Napoleon.”

When Clarke started on the series, Daenerys was downtrodden, occasionally objectified, and stranded in a subplot that kept the character geographically distant from the main story and the actress isolated from most of her co-stars. “I was cut off from the rest of the cast,” Clarke says. Over the years, as the famously cutthroat Thrones has thinned its sprawling ensemble, Clarke has risen in the ranks, snagging the show’s flashiest, most empowering moments.

In an era when network and streaming platforms alike are struggling to get anyone to tune in, Game of Thrones has become one of the last surviving holdovers from the must-see TV era. For a handful of weeks every year, HBO owns Sunday nights, with devotees watching live to avoid spoilers at the office Monday morning. Clearing its own very high ratings bar, Thrones commanded an average of 32.8 million viewers in its 2017 season. Its 38 wins make it the most-awarded scripted-TV series in Emmy history.

That glaring spotlight has made Daenerys a cultural touchstone—not to mention a costume-party staple, with Madonna, Katy Perry, Khloé Kardashian, and Kristen Bell among her many famous impersonators. At a recent charity auction, Brad Pitt offered six figures to spend an evening with Clarke and Harington, only to be outbid. Last year, Daenerys finally powered into the heart of the series, earning long-awaited screen time with Harington and the rest of the surviving stars. Clarke, who has been nominated three times for best supporting actress at the Emmys, may soon be gunning for lead honors. “Everything in my life is a spoiler,” Clarke says.

Clarke’s upbringing in the bucolic countryside an hour outside of London couldn’t be farther from the dysfunctional family dynamics that forged the orphaned Daenerys. Emilia’s mother, Jennifer, is a businesswoman who currently runs the Anima Foundation, a charity aimed at raising awareness of specialty brain-injury care, and her father, Peter, was a theatrical sound engineer who prized education above all else. “Your bookshelf should be bigger than your TV,” he liked to remind Emilia and her older brother, Bennett. “My mum, my brother, my dad, and I would sit around a table, and my happiest place was just discussing stuff,” Emilia says. “I really value intelligence. I’m one of the very fortunate few people who really likes their family. I just like hanging out with them.”

Clarke isn’t the first woman in her family to engage in high-stakes identity juggling. Her maternal grandmother wore light makeup to disguise the fact that she was half Indian, owing to her mother’s very secret affair with a mysterious man from the colonial subcontinent. “The fact that [my grandmother] had to hide her skin color, essentially, and try desperately to fit in with everyone else must’ve been incredibly difficult,” Clarke says. “So, yeah: history of fighters.”

Emilia’s parents saved up to send her to a pair of upper-crust boarding schools—Rye St. Antony and St. Edward’s, both in Oxford—but she never felt at home with her much wealthier classmates. “I didn’t really fit in, like everybody who ever went to school ever.” So she channeled her energy into performing. She was rejected the first time she applied to acting school, but eventually Drama Centre London claimed her from the waiting list when another student broke her leg and dropped out. There, she finally found the “artistically inclined” friends who would keep her grounded amid the circus of international fame.

The jet-setting Clarke clings tightly to her roots even as her life and career take her ever farther from the Home Counties. For one thing, she recently got her brother a gig in the Thrones camera department. “This job can be so alienating,” she says. “You’re in a trailer by yourself. You’re in a car by yourself. You’re in a plane. You’re in a plane. You’re in a plane. That’s what success looks like if you’re an actor. Success looks like being alone.” Clarke stays sharp by devouring “nerdy” podcasts on a range of topics from politics to science. “She’s so informed,” says Rose Leslie. “She has an opinion on every topic.”

Clarke’s father passed away in 2016 after a long battle with cancer. At the time, Emilia was in the U.S. shooting the upcoming thriller Above Suspicion and couldn’t break away to say her final good-byes. “It still sucks. Grief sucks. He doesn’t know what I’m doing now,” she says. “That’s it before I start crying.” After a couple of romances with famous men—first, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, then, reportedly, actor Jai Courtney, a brief souvenir from her Terminator Genisys shoot—Clarke swore off dating actors. In fact, she hasn’t been romantically linked in some time. When Solo premiered at Cannes, in May, she had hoped to walk the red carpet with her brother, and her goal in general is to keep her relationships out of the news. “The guys that I’ve met in my life that are dicks, I voluntarily walk the fuck away from them,” she says. “That’s just bad taste. People shouldn’t know about those choices.”

Clarke usually appears in public with various non-famous “mates” from her drama-school days. Her “perma-plus-one” is Lola Frears, daughter of director Stephen Frears. “I ain’t got me no celebrity friends,” Clarke says. “My squad? They don’t let me get away with anything. There’s not a lot of actors I relate to.” Leslie, a rare exception to Emilia’s rule, confirms that Clarke’s longtime friends keep her in check: “There would be a ticking off or a bollocking if they felt she was no longer the lovely lady that they have always known.”

The Star Wars tradition of featuring morally upright heroines, among them Carrie Fisher’s General Leia, Daisy Ridley’s Rey, and Felicity Jones’s Jyn Erso, was part of what drew Emilia Clarke to the role of Qi’ra in Solo, but it was the chance to break the mold that really sold her. “We’re going to hit you with a character that could very easily well be a dude, because you question her motives,” she says, sitting in a back corner of the Met’s no-frills cafeteria snacking on a pear and sipping English-breakfast tea from a paper cup. “That’s really fucking exciting in the Star Wars universe, because that has never happened.”

Before accepting the Solo role, Clarke had to ask Game of Thrones show-runners Weiss and Benioff for permission to complicate their plans for a final season by adding a demanding Star Wars filming schedule to the mix. They didn’t hesitate. “Solo felt like a great fit that would let her show off her versatility,” Weiss and Benioff explained. “Also, we figured she’d probably get to shoot a ray gun. Ray guns are something we just can’t offer, unfortunately.”

Swapping dragons for ray guns, Emilia Clarke was eager to prove her mettle in a whole new galaxy. But that plan hit a snag when the Solo production fell spectacularly and publicly apart. “I’m not gonna lie,” Clarke says. “I struggled with Qi’ra quite a lot. I was like: ‘Y’all need to stop telling me that she’s “film noir,” because that ain’t a note.’ ” Frustrated by the lack of direction, she turned to Solo’s father-and-son screenwriters, Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, for support. Then, four and a half months into shooting, co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller exited the project, citing “creative differences.” Production was put on hold until they were replaced by Ron Howard, a longtime friend of franchise creator George Lucas’s. With a brand-new director and an ambitious re-shoot schedule—Clarke reluctantly agrees when I call those first months “a high-budget dress rehearsal”—Solo still had to hit its opening date, in May of the following year.

Clarke says Howard’s arrival “saved” the movie: “All hail to [Lucasfilm president] Kathy [Kennedy] for hiring Ron.” Slipping into a mocking impression of herself, Clarke re-enacts a self-pitying therapy session with Howard over a private meal they shared before resuming production. “He even feigned enthusiasm!” she says. “I know for a fact he had that discussion with everybody. I think we all came to set feeling like his favorite. It makes for a really happy load of actors, with our egos.”

Howard recalls that dinner a bit differently. The former child star of The Andy Griffith Show saw in Clarke “the kind of pragmatism and a can-do spirit that often comes from people who have cut their teeth doing television.”

“I know some of how tough it was for her,” Harington says. “But she’s pretty tough as well.”

Clarke wasn’t privy to everything that led up to the director swap, but she wasn’t entirely surprised, either. “When it comes to that amount of money, you’re almost waiting for that to happen. Money fucks us all up, doesn’t it? There’s so much pressure. Han Solo is a really beloved character. This is a really important movie for the franchise as a whole. It’s a shit ton of money. A shit ton of people. A shit ton of expectations.”

Solo wasn’t the first troubled blockbuster to test Clarke’s resilience. If anything, the production of 2015’s Terminator Genisys was more chaotic. She watched frequent Thrones director Alan Taylor get “eaten and chewed up on Terminator. He was not the director I remembered. He didn’t have a good time. No one had a good time.” When the film underperformed at the box office, she was “relieved” to not have to return for any sequels. News of the rocky production traveled, and Clarke says the crew on the famously disastrous Fantastic Four, which was filming nearby, even had jackets made that read, AT LEAST WE’RE NOT ON TERMINATOR. “Just to give you a summary,” she says, laughing.

Rumors spreading between film sets is one thing, but the Solo tumult was covered exhaustively in the trades and on fan sites, adding another layer of pressure to an already pressurized project. “I hope we did it good, then, because people have all this gossip,” Clarke says. “I don’t want people to go, ‘That’s the bit where it all went wrong. That’s the bit, I know it.’ I just really hope that people have a good time, that it’s good, and, you know, selfishly, that I’m not shit and that people don’t write reviews going, ‘Oh my God, that’s, like, the worst acting I’ve ever seen in my life. Wow. How did they give her the part?’ ”

For all her anxieties about how her performance will go over, Clarke and I are both energized by the Solo footage we’ve seen. Clarke’s easy chemistry with Donald Glover, who plays fan favorite Lando Calrissian, is evident from their very first on-screen meeting. And though her shifting allegiances mean she has to play a range of emotions opposite Alden Ehrenreich’s Han Solo, she endows every twist with an undercurrent of romantic possibility. Tonally closer to the Indiana Jones movies than to, say, Rogue One, Solo marks the franchise’s return to lighthearted, fast-paced capers.

Clarke—who spends most Thrones battles on the backs of her C.G.I. dragons—was eager to jump into the fray with some hand-to-hand combat. “She had to deal with quite a large sword and some pretty elaborate fight choreography, and she made it look easy,” Ehrenreich says. With all the re-shoots and reconfigured plotting, she also had to fight to keep some of her favorite moments in. “That is going to be badass as fuck,” she told the filmmakers of a showstopping Qi’ra moment that made the cut. “Don’t forget your audience.”

Long before they shared a scene together, Clarke and Harington had become friends thanks to their time on the Game of Thrones promotional circuit. It was through Harington that Clarke met Rose Leslie. An adept mimic, Clarke impersonates a “smitten” Harington mooning over his on-screen lover and future real-life fiancée in the early days of the show: “There’s the best human in the world. She’s called Rose.”

Clarke has a teasing relationship with Harington. “I’ll tell him, ‘Kit, stop being a dick—stop being so grumpy.’ Like I would with my brother.” And as the two transition in these final seasons from real-life friends to partners in TV’s biggest romance (albeit one complicated by incest), the ribbing has only increased. “If you’ve known someone for six years, and they’re best friends with your girlfriend, and you’re best friends with them,” Harington says, “there is something unnatural and strange about doing a love scene. We’ll end up kissing and then we’re just pissing ourselves with laughter because it’s so ridiculous.”

“She’s goofy,” Weiss and Benioff confirm. “We have tried to let some of Emilia’s humor and light seep into Daenerys whenever possible. Who says conquerors can’t be funny?” A memorable Season Four conversation between Daenerys and her right-hand woman, Missandei, concerning a eunuch’s “pillar and stones,” for instance, is much more Clarke than Targaryen. Sadly, it’s unclear how much space there will be in the show’s climactic final season for bawdy, Clarke-ish humor. “I’m doing all this weird shit,” Clarke says. “You’ll know what I mean when you see it.”

In the final episodes of a show with a body count as high as Game of Thrones’, Clarke never really knows when she might be filming her last moments with a member of the cast. She’s also shooting for the first time with several of the show’s top stars, including Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams, who play the formidable Stark sisters.

Clarke is well aware that the strong women of the series are leaving some kind of imprint on the culture, but she’s saving up all her big-picture reflections on Daenerys for later: “This is going to be a Band-Aid that I’m going to rip off.” To help with that process, she started keeping a daily journal of her last season. With cell phones banned from the set due to security concerns, it’s her best hope of chronicling the final days of Daenerys. Selfies are off limits, but Clarke has asked set photographer Helen Sloan to snap the occasional behind-the-scenes photo. Both the journal and the photos, Clarke hints, may be available to the show’s fans someday.

Clarke is unsurprisingly, and contractually, evasive when it comes to specifics of the concluding six episodes. Heavy hints in the most recent season indicate that, in addition to contending with the usual climactic end-of-the-world crises, Daenerys will also be grappling with more intimate parenthood and family issues. Here, Clarke and her on-screen alter ego may have something in common. Friends like Leslie and Harington are settling down to build their own families (“Their wedding is going to be siiiiick,” Clarke says), and an old schoolmate recently made Clarke godmother to a highly photogenic baby boy who makes regular appearances on her Instagram account. She lights up when talking about him.

Talking about her own parents evokes other emotions. The wounds from the loss of her father are still fresh, but her mother remains an inspiration. If all goes according to plan, it’s Jennifer Clarke who will provide the map for Clarke’s very first post-Thrones steps. After the show ends, Clarke plans to re-create a road trip her mother took in 1972 to Yosemite and the redwoods of Northern California. With best friend and scriptwriter Lola Frears by her side, Clarke intends to spend part of the trip working on ideas for new projects. Her agents offered to take these ideas to “guys” with writing experience, but her answer to that was pure Daenerys: “No, I’m going to take it to me.”

Citing Reese Witherspoon, Greta Gerwig, and other actresses turned creators as inspiration, Clarke says she wants to work with as many female filmmakers as she can. As for the conventional industry wisdom that women can’t work together without infighting? “It’s fucking bullshit. It’s so annoying.” An active member of Time’s Up, Clarke negotiated with Weiss and Benioff in 2014 to ensure she maintained parity with her male counterparts. She and four co-stars—Harington, Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister)—reportedly each landed $300,000 per episode, a dazzling figure that skyrocketed to half a million per episode for the final two seasons. “I get fucking paid the same as my guy friends,” Clarke says. “We made sure of that.”

And while Clarke would be thrilled to have her own Lady Bird or Big Little Lies, that’s not all she’s after. She says she’s “desperate” to make documentaries and shine a light on underserved causes. “That’s the shit that gets me going personally.” Inspired by her father’s cancer ordeal, Clarke is especially passionate about the risks Brexit poses to the U.K.’s National Health Service, and she was recently named ambassador to the Royal College of Nursing. “That’s something I have in common with Dae-nerys,” she says suddenly, after several hours of explaining all the reasons she and her character are nothing alike. “I really feel for people and I want to help them. Not to sound too much like Oprah Winfrey.” She pauses, and thinks again. “Fuck that, I’m gonna sound like Oprah and I’m going to be proud of it.”

In the midst of the twin tornadoes of Star Wars and Game of Thrones, Clarke acknowledges that most of her choices these days are “studio choices.” And if Solo is a hit, Clarke could be working for Lucasfilm for years to come. But Harington sees something else in her future: “She’s done, far more than me or most people in the cast, these very high-budget, big-hitting blockbusters. Hopefully Star Wars continues for her and she does more of them. But I think she’s an incredibly talented actor, and I would love to see her do something which is a more focused character piece, because the ones she’s done are brilliant.” Clarke’s effervescent performance in 2016’s romantic weepy Me Before You—a surprise hit at the box office—hints at what she’s capable of.

Clarke wants to stretch herself, and explore a new-media landscape where creators no longer have to rely on large companies in order to get their projects made. “Everyone can. Get your iPhone out. Let’s do something. You know what I mean?” And with 17 million followers on Instagram, Clarke has the power to make and launch her own projects. Her recent Thrones-themed fund-raising Instagram video for the Royal College of Nursing Foundation racked up more than seven million views in just three days.

All that takes some of the heat off Clarke as she decides how to follow up roles in two of entertainment’s biggest franchises. She doesn’t necessarily need another monster hit. She can afford to take her time, listen to herself, and do something that feels true to who she is—whoever that may be.

The most obvious evidence of the blur between Daenerys and Clarke is the relatively new shock of blond hair on her head. “I did this, which was frigging stupid,” she says, fingering the blunt-cut ends of her bleached hair.

When Kit Harington trimmed his famous curls in 2015, fans were led to believe his character, presumed dead, wouldn’t be returning to the show the following season. (He did.) But Clarke swears her decision to go blonde has nothing at all to do with Daenerys’s fate. “I got to a point where I said I just want to look in the mirror and see something different. So I was just like, ‘Fuck it, it’s the last season. I’m going to dye my hair blond.’ ” Clarke jokes that she immediately felt remorse and bought nine baseball caps online. “But they don’t go with your outfit, so I don’t wear them.”

Clarke’s brown hair had always been her shield. The blond hair makes it harder to slip back into her pre-fame life. Partying with her old friends is tricky because their friends get “weird” about it, and she misses the mundane pleasures of, say, running errands for her mother. “What I get most heartbroken about is that those opportunities are almost completely gone.” Then she catches herself, and apologizes for moaning about the “champagne problems” of fame. “If I were reading this, I’d be like, ‘Cheer the fuck up, love.’ ”

Back underneath that statue at the Met, Emilia Clarke cranes her neck up to get a closer look at the ancient pharaoh’s smooth granite face. Hatshepsut wears a false beard that allowed her to pass more easily through the male-dominated world. Our guide points out a faint piece of carved string running up the pharaoh’s jawline holding the disguise in place. Thinking about it later, Clarke, who knows a thing or two about disguises, passing, alter egos, and powerful women, shakes her head in astonishment. “That is some fascinating shit right there.”

A towering granite Daenerys statue may never find its way into the hallowed halls of the Met, but it’s not clear Emilia Clarke wants that anyway. As we duck out of the Met a bit behind schedule, only to find that it’s raining and our sleek hired car is nowhere in sight, Clarke gamely suggests we rush out into the downpour and dive into the back of a yellow cab. Our driver doesn’t recognize Clarke, either, which puts her at ease. Unsure how to get to where we’re going, he passes his smartphone to her so she can type the hotel’s address into his G.P.S. “Don’t worry, mate,” she announces. “Your little app will get us there!” A satisfied smile plays on her face as the taxi twists, turns, and bumps along. She looks happier than she ever has riding a dragon.

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From Nell to Meghan: 10 romances between actors and royals

New Post has been published on https://getyourgossip.xyz/from-nell-to-meghan-10-romances-between-actors-and-royals/

From Nell to Meghan: 10 romances between actors and royals

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle walk down the aisle of St George’s Chapel at Windsor on 19 May, they will continue a long tradition of romances between members of royal family and the acting profession. Though not all of those romances ended happily, here are ten such relationships from the 17th century to today, from all across the world…

Writing for History Extra, Catherine Curzon explores…

Margaret ‘Peg’ Hughes (c1630–1719)

A portrait of Restoration actress Margaret ‘Peg’ Hughes. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Better known as Peg, Margaret Hughes holds the distinction of being one of the first recorded actresses to grace the London stage, appearing as Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello on 8 December 1660 at the Vere Street Theatre. Up until this point, women had been forbidden to act on stage at all, and it wasn’t until King Charles II issued a royal warrant declaring that female roles must be played by women in 1662 that actresses became a common sight, as opposed to young men dressed up to look like them. Peg was no young man though, and she not only bewitched her audience, but managed to steal the heart of Rupert of the Rhine, cousin to Charles II.

After Rupert’s death in 1682, Peg gambled away much of his bequest to her and sold off many valuables, including a necklace which was bought by the infamous Nell Gwynne. Peg died in 1719, having never regained the lifestyle she once enjoyed.

Nell Gwynne (1650–1687)

Actress Nell Gwynne, longtime mistress to King Charles II. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Perhaps the most famous of all England’s royal mistresses, Nell Gwynne began her career selling oranges to the patrons of a theatre on London’s Brydges Street, Charles II’s royal playhouse. By the time she was 14 years old, Nell was treading the boards as an actress and she found her niche as a leading light of Restoration comedy, soon becoming one of London’s most celebrated comediennes.

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, was unofficially appointed to arrange suitably impressive lovers for Nell. Seeing a chance to increase his own influence as well as her caché, he attempted to install her as the king’s mistress. Though Charles was married to Catherine of Braganza, the queen had long since learned to put up with his many mistresses, recognising them as a fact of royal life.

Nell was amenable to duke’s scheme, but informed him that she expected a retainer of £500 a year for the privilege. However, the role of king’s mistress was a privileged one, filled with luxury and opulence, and Charles had plenty of willing candidates to choose from – even without paying them £500. When he heard the figure Nell was demanding, Charles rejected the idea, but when he met her in 1668, he was smitten.

Despite plenty of rivals and other mistresses snapping at her heels, Nell bore two children by the king. The actress and the monarch were a couple until his death in 1685, often sharing Nell’s silver bed, upon which the couple’s images were engraved. On his deathbed, the king begged “let not poor Nelly starve”, and she certainly didn’t. Awarded a fat payment, she lived on for two more years before she succumbed to a stroke, possibly the result of syphilis.

Mary ‘Perdita’ Robinson (1757-1800)

Mary Robinson née Darby, who later became known as ‘the English Sappho’. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Mary Robinson knew all about reinvention. When her father abandoned his family in 1764, Mary’s privileged childhood ended with a bump. Married in her teens, she survived a spell in debtor’s prison thanks to her dissolute husband and took to the stage in a need for cash. Mary became known for her so-called ‘breeches roles’, in which she played men and flashed her famed legs, a part of the female anatomy that weren’t often on display in the Georgian era. It was as Perdita in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale that she caught the eye of the young and capricious George, Prince of Wales, the future King George IV.

The prince offered Mary a huge payment if she gave up the stage to become his official mistress and she accepted. However, the money was not forthcoming and soon he had moved on to new lovers, leaving Mary high and dry. With her reputation in tatters, Mary took up her pen and began a new career as a poet and novelist, earning herself the nickname ‘the English Sappho’.

Partially paralysed by a later illness, Mary died in 1800 aged just 43.

Dorothea Jordan (1761-1816)

Dora Jordan, a celebrated Anglo-Irish comedienne of the 18th/19th century, in a portrait by John Jones. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)

While Prince George was romancing Mary, his younger brother William made a play for Dora Jordan, a celebrated Anglo-Irish comedienne with a long list of lovers in her past. William and Dora lived together as man and wife for 20 years and had ten children.

However, the couple never married and – with Princess Charlotte of Wales likely to remain the only child of his elder brother and his bitterly estranged wife – William found himself closer to the throne than he had ever expected to be. Perhaps more importantly, William was desperately in need of money to settle his debts and knew that an official marriage might do wonders for his allowance.

He dropped Dora with a bump and promised her an annuity and custody of their daughters on the understanding that she wouldn’t go back to the stage. Unfortunately, when her financial situation led Dora to return to the theatre, William kept his word. He took the girls from her care and slashed her allowance accordingly.

Dora died in poverty in 1816 and left a heartbroken William to rue his decision. Ironically, even when he later made an official marriage, he and his wife, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, failed to produce any surviving heirs.

Marguerite Bellanger (1838-1886)

Actress Marguerite Bellanger, who was a mistress of French emperor Napoleon III. (Photo by Apic/Getty Images)

Marguerite Bellanger was born into abject poverty but thanks to a modicum of acting talent and a whole lot of charm, she wouldn’t stay there. She started her performance career as an acrobat and equestrienne and soon progressed onto acting, while establishing herself as one of the most popular courtesans in Paris.

Marguerite’s most famous patron was undoubtedly Napoleon III (the nephew and heir of Napoleon I), whom she met whilst sheltering from the rain in Paris’s Parc de Saint-Cloud in 1863. From that romantic beginning, the couple were together for a decade until his death and they had a son. Though Marguerite still had other lovers, Napoleon awarded her a generous pension and even a castle in which she and his son could live.

After Napoleon’s death in 1873, Marguerite moved to England and married an army officer. The couple eventually settled in France and it was there, in 1886, that she died.

Lillie Langtry (1853-1929)

Actress Lillie Langtry c1890: a bonafide megastar of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. (Photo by W. & D. Downey/Getty Images)

Anglo-American music hall star Lillie Langtry was a bona fide megastar of the Victorian and Edwardian era,and she had a love life that would keep any modern tabloid in material for years. As one of many mistresses to the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), Lillie was even presented to his mother Queen Victoria. During their three-year relationship, Lillie was happy to share her lover with both his wife and his other mistresses, seeming to enjoy not being tied exclusively to the prince.

Though the couple separated amicably, Edward wasn’t Lillie’s last royal fling. While still in a relationship with the Prince of Wales, she fell pregnant by Prince Louis of Battenberg(1854-1921). He was the son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and had been naturalised as a Briton, eventually changing his name to Mountbatten. Louis was a member of the Royal Navy, so when news of the pregnancy came out, the horrified Prince Alexander had his son sent to sea aboard the HMS Inconstant. The Prince of Wales, meanwhile, paid for Lillie to spend her pregnancy in Paris, where she gave birth to a daughter.

Lillie died in 1929 and to this day her name remains synonymous with the glory days of the British music hall.

Rita Hayworth (1918-1987)

Rita Hayworth and Prince Aly Khan, photographed at their wedding reception at the Chateau De L’Horizon, France. (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)

In 1948 Rita Hayworth, one of Hollywood’s most popular and celebrated actresses, gave up the silver screen for life as the wife of Prince Aly Khan. The prince was the son of Sultan Mahommed Shah, Aga Khan III, the Pakistani ruler of the Nizari Ismalis, one of the largest Shia Muslim communities in the world.

Sadly for Rita, her new husband had a weakness for actresses and two years later he was back in the very club where he and his princess first met, this time romancing Hollywood star Joan Fontaine. Rita took their daughter, Yasmin, and filed for divorce, convinced that Aly Khan would abduct the little girl if she wasn’t kept under guard.

The couple’s divorce was a tabloid favourite: as lawyers argued over whether Yasmin should be raised as a Christian or a Muslim, she played in the courtroom and even settled on the judge’s lap. Ultimately the court found in Rita’s favour and she was awarded custody of her daughter.

Grace Kelly (1929-1982)

Hollywood star Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco during their wedding ceremony at the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, Monte Carlo, Monaco, in April 1956. (Photo by Thomas McAvoy/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

As Hollywood royalty, Grace Kelly was beloved by cinema-goers across the world. Having earned an Academy Award for her performance in The Country Girl (1954), and starred in hits from High Noon (1952) to Rear Window (1954), it seemed the perfect fairy-tale ending when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956.

In fact, Princess Grace’s life was anything but a fairy tale. Her marriage at the age of 26 marked the end of her Hollywood career. She was forced to turn down the title role in Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller Marnie (1964) when the people of Monaco reacted with outrage to the idea of their princess playing a criminal. Further rumoured returns to the screen were similarly rejected as a result of Rainier’s wish for his wife to remain in professional retirement.

Instead, Grace dedicated herself to philanthropy and her three children. She also struck up a friendship with Diana, Princess of Wales. Sadly, Grace died at the age of 52 as a result of a car accident in 1982.

Koo Stark (1956-present)

Prince Andrew and Koo Stark, pictured together at a society party. (Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images)

Before he married Sarah, Duchess of York,Queen Elizabeth II’s second son Prince Andrew was known to date American photographer and actress Koo Stark. The prince and the actress met in 1981 and were together for two years. Their relationship came under intense public and press scrutiny, and the pressure of this ultimately caused the couple to go their separate ways.

More recently, Prince Andrew became godfather to Koo’s daughter and the couple remain friends today.

Clotilde Courau (1969-present)

French actress Clotilde Courau and her husband Emanuele Filiberto, the head of the Royal House of Savoy, at their 2003 wedding in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

In 2003, Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, had to swallow his pride according to Italian royal gossip, when his son, Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice, married politically outspoken left-wing French actress Clotilde Courau, a woman who had once been described by Rome’s La Repubblicanewspaper as “a militant anarcho-Communist”. Unlike many of the other actresses in this list, Clotilde refused to give up her career but continued to act, while using her official title of Clotilde of Savoy to pursue charitable activities.

Though the couple declared that they didn’t want to be treated as royalty but hoped to lead normal lives, Clotilde’s marriage to the grandson of Italy’s last reigning king continued the long history of relationships between members of the acting profession and royal houses. It is a tradition that will continue in Windsor this spring.

Catherine Curzon is the author of Queens of Georgian Britain (Pen and Sword Books, 2017). Curzon also runs an 18th-century themed website: A Covent Garden Gilflurt’s Guide to Life.