#though I may see what Michael Sheen is posting on twitter | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

borninwinter81 · 4 months

Text

William Blake - an introduction for Good Omens fans

I have sent @neil-gaiman an ask regarding his feelings toward the poet/artist William Blake a couple of times, but no doubt due to the size of the poor man's inbox I haven't received a response. So I did a Google search to see if he's spoken about Blake before, and it did indeed come up with a fair few hits. I think you might enjoy seeing this Twitter post if you haven't already, the painting is from William Blake's illustrations to Paradise Lost.

It's not surprising that an author like Neil Gaiman might have an interest in Blake. A visionary from a young age, his imagination was such that he was surrounded by angels made visible in his mind's eye, and he interpreted these visions through poetry, painting and engraving, and self-printed and published many of his own works. This gave him complete freedom to say exactly what he wanted.

Though he had a passionate faith in God, he also had a deep distrust of the church as an institution, and disliked the use of religion as a means of control. This poem from "Songs of Experience" perhaps summarises his feelings best:

"I went to the Garden of Love,

And saw what I never had seen:

A Chapel was built in the midst,

Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,

And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door;

So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,

That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,

And tomb-stones where flowers should be:

And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,

And binding with briars, my joys & desires."

In his poetry there is often an incongruity with the generally accepted religious ideas of what is good and evil, Angel and Demon. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (there's a title that should make any GO fan sit up and pay attention) he tells us that "in the book of Job, Milton's Messiah is called Satan", signifying that he feels it is Lucifer/the devil who is the true Messiah of Paradise Lost.

He gives us The Voice of the Devil and Proverbs of Hell, and has Angels being transformed into Demons through enlightenment. He tells us that Jesus broke all of the 10 commandments, yet was still virtuous because he acted according to his own morality rather than rules.

The god-figure of his later works, Urizen, generally comes across as malevolent, seeking to bind and control, whilst Los, the Satan/Messiah figure represents freedom, imagination and creativity.

"Restraining desire" and acting contrary to your own nature seem to be the only real evils for Blake.

He expressed his faith through a love of the world and the beauty in it, summed up in this quote:

"When the Sun rises do you not see a round Disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea? O no no I see an innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty".

He saw "God" in everything, in all the wonders we have around us, and considered writers/poets and religious prophets as essentially the same, since they both have a connection to the divine, and express it through stories.

It's quite ironic that probably his most famous poem, Jerusalem (the one that starts "and did those feet in ancient times walk upon England's mountains green"), was made into a very popular church hymn, yet it is supposed to be satirical in nature. The poem recounts the myth that Jesus may have visited England in his boyhood, and Blake is expressing his disbelief at that notion and the unworthiness of England.

Did I have a point to all this? Mostly to show my hand as a massive Blake nerd, but also to hopefully demonstrate that there's a lot of common ground between his ideas and those expressed in a show/book like Good Omens, and hopefully to inspire some of you who may not be familiar with Blake to seek him out. In particular I'd recommend The Marriage of Heaven and Hell to any and all.

EDIT: I should have thought to include this, here's Michael Sheen reading a Blake poem. I have the CD this is from, he reads several by Blake, as well as other poets I love ❤️ 😍

youtube

#william blake #good omens #good omens book #good omens 2 #good omens s3 #neil gaiman #crowley #aziraphale #english literature #literature #poetry #go2 #good omens s2 #good omens season 2 #book omens #michael sheen #Youtube

1K notes · View notes

ingravinoveritas · 1 year

Note

Have you seen Anna’s latest photo of her and Michael? Doesn’t Michael look so sad and tired? I feel like the whole vibe is just like they’ve just had a fight and are trying to keep it together for the camera, and the kids.

Hello, Anon. I did indeed see the picture that Anna posted last week, and it's honestly hard to know where to begin. First, let's get a visual up, for anyone who hasn't yet seen it:

What I first thought of when seeing this pic was, "How does this even look like a night out?" They're posed against a blank blue wall that gives no context as to where they are or how this has anything to do with a night out. But what came to mind next was that AL posted this specifically because she wanted the same thing that Georgia got when she posted a picture of her and David in an Insta story earlier in the week, which is to have people sharing it all over Twitter and gushing about her and Michael being "couple goals."

The problem, though, is that in the pictures Georgia posts, David at least does not look like he is being held hostage in them. It's that even though those pictures may be posed, Georgia is very adept at being subtle and making them look spontaneous. AL, however, is not...and the harder she tries to make her and Michael's relationship look like Georgia and David's, the more obvious it is that it's not.

What truly confounds me is that we're expected to believe Michael is happy in that picture, especially when we look at it side-by-side with this picture that was taken just one day prior:

When I look at the picture on the left, to me, that is the real Michael Sheen--the man who loves being out in the community and meeting people. In the picture on the right, that is Michael playing a role, the version of himself that exists in AL's fantasy/idea of what their relationship is...but it's clearly not a role he believes in (the difference is particularly visible in his eyes, which are sparkling and bright in the picture on the left, in stark contrast to how dull and lifeless they are on the right). And the thing for me is, if Michael doesn't believe in that role, then why should any of us? It just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

Overall, though, it's just...really a terrible picture? Even the composition of it next to the picture on the left is so strange, because they're both selfies, yet Michael looks so subdued in the picture with her--perhaps that sad/tired vibe that you were describing, Anon. AL clearly had agency over when/where that picture was taken, and yet she still chose to post it. There were so many choices being made here, and it's sort of mind-boggling to me how astoundingly bad a lot of them were.

To make matters even worse, just a few days later, it came to light that the big "night out" was them going to see a play at a community theater in Swansea, and Michael meeting with people from a charity that he supports, Adferiad Recovery:

Yet there was no reference made to any of this in AL's Insta post--not of the play, nor of the charity of which Michael is a patron, and which she could've easily mentioned. If this was in fact the night out in question, it makes it seem like she was using him for PR and making his work about her. It also seems like she had no problem being purposely misleading about what happened while showing how little she cares about his charity work in the process.

The sad thing is, this isn't even the first time she's done this. In the week before the Insta post, it came to my attention that AL retweeted two of Michael's Mab Gwalia videos, and immediately followed that with a retweet of this:

For those who may not have keyed into the meaning behind the acorn emojis in the caption, Anna seems to be bragging about Michael staring at her tits. (Though personally that is not even remotely close to my interpretation of this picture.) Painfully unfunny, and embarrassing as all get-out to boot. So she retweets the videos of his charity for PR, but it's when she retweets this picture and writes in her own voice that her true nature comes to light, which seems to involve not caring how bad she makes him look.

When the Insta picture was posted, I had several people DMing me about it, so I'd like to wrap this up by sharing a few things that were said, as I think they perfectly sum up what my feelings are. One person said to me that Michael and AL "can’t achieve the same look of happiness together as they can apart" and that "the weird distance" between them "is always present." I'm just not getting "couple" energy from them in that picture, and if Anna's reason for posting it was to convey that, I'd say she achieved the opposite effect instead.

The other thing I'd like to share comes from @thetardisisblueandroseistoo, in response to the fans who did share the picture on Twitter (though I didn't see it on any other social media channels, strangely enough) and who have gushed over Michael and AL as "couple goals":

"[...]All four people [Michael, AL, David, Georgia] are "couple goals" because they're presenting as straight, white, and monogamous. They are comfortable to consume and stan when presented like that. But if you pause and think maybe David and Georgia are open, David is very probably at least bi, Anna is collateral, and Michael is a serial womanizer that fell in love with his married male co-star, that's a lot less comfortable to think about. Fans project onto them, but instead of these people having the same problems that "normal people" have, they evidently have no problems at all. They're projecting an idea of infallibility onto all of them."

As anyone who follows my blog knows, I ardently ship Michael and David. But when I talk about their relationship, it's always from the perspective of what might be, and what seems probable from what has been publicly presented. Do I also discuss fantasies involving the two of them? Absolutely. But (I hope, anyway) that distinction between reality and fantasy is clear, whereas I don't see that at all in the people who vigorously defend Michael and AL's relationship. These fans see what they want to be true of that relationship, rather than discussing the reality of what the situation might actually be.

My aim in having these conversations on my blog and answering these Anons is to let people know that it's okay to ask these questions. It's okay to see Michael and David (and AL and Georgia) as human beings, instead of as "perfect" or "flawless." And it's okay for us to be honest about what we are seeing, especially when pictures like this are posted and stand out to so many of us for all the wrong reasons.

So those are my thoughts on the picture from last week. How accurate (or not) I may be in my observations, who knows. But I think it speaks volumes that more and more people seem to be noticing the marked difference in Michael's appearance and expression in pictures with AL versus with other people, and how that does not seem to bode well for their relationship. I guess we'll just have to see what happens...

#anonymous #reply post #michael sheen #welsh seduction machine #the more i think about it the weirder this all seems #michael is a talented actor #but he can't hide his true feelings as himself #also a relationship does not equal true love because there are kids involved #i'm just saying #the opposite of love is indifference #and that is what i see #relationships #anna lundberg #discourse

62 notes · View notes

neighbours-kid · 5 years

Text

Maypril

Remember when I said I wanted to try and write a blog post for each month? Well, that terribly failed, as you can probably tell. But hey, better late than never, right?

So this is….Maypril, I guess. Or Apmay? Errrr—

Anyway. April and May were sort of stressful, which resulted in me not having the time to conjure up a blog post about each month, and am only now, already half through June, doing so.

April started out pretty neat, though. I spent a long weekend in Lugano with a dear friend, and we had a grand old time even though the weather could have been better. We went to a museum, explored the city for a while, talked shit about some art pieces that could be found everywhere which we found terribly ugly, and had great food. We also met up with one of my twitter friends and hung out with her, which was rather lovely. We had fantastic food that day, and I still catch myself sometimes thinking about it and just nearly melting into a puddle of goo because I remember how fucking incredibly tasty it all was. We also spent a day in Milano, which was also rather lovely, and had some nice evenings in, watching Doctor Who and drinking wine.

After that, I feel like it got kinda hectic. It suddenly dawned on me that it was already April and that by the end of May this term would already be over, which meant that sooner rather than later, my exams would be coming up. So yeah, hectic. I also spent my entire week of holidays working at my friend’s dad’s workplace instead of reading a book I should be reading (or, well, starting to study for the exams in general), and saw a couple of dope movies (most memorably, Shazam! and Avengers: Endgame, both twice).

Naturally, both movies sent me into some, eh, interesting spiralling places. Shazam! made me gush about my dude Zac to everyone who wanted to hear it (maybe the occasional who didn’t want to hear it), but you can read all about in my post about it. Endgame on the other hand….well, I was devastated. I love the movie, I still do, but I also couldn’t think about anything else and just spent my time thinking about the last eleven years and what Marvel, and especially Tony Stark have meant to me. So, I guess you could say, I was in mourning for the rest of April and maybe some of May too.

May absolute upped the ante on the hectic bit. Exams coming up, less time to study, weekends spent reading and re-reading material, cramming information into my brain, hoping that it’d be enough to pass. Especially my English exams this term were critical, since they were of the “have to pass this or else I can’t continue studying English” variety. But, luckily, I passed all of my exams with pretty okay grades.

In May I also went to Fantasy Basel (which, for those who don’t know, a small convention in Switzerland), where I was able to hear John Howe speak about his work, which was rather lovely. I also bought some Iron Man comics that day, and just generally had a grand old time. May also had some great movies in store — Detective Pikachu, The Hustle, and Rocketman — which I all enjoyed greatly and can only recommend to everyone. I also went to see a performance of some of my friends in the department, my friend’s exhibition of her final project at school, and went to the English department’s wonderful summer party, which was just a blast.

And then, on the very last day of May, came finally what I had been anticipating for months: Good Omens. After a four-hour extra session for one of my classes (because we had missed a bit during the semester), I was finally able to hurry home, get all things ready, and cram the six hour-long episodes into my evening before I had to go to bed so I could get up early the next morning for a wedding.

Needless to say, Good Omens has been absolutely perfect and a dream come true. I don’t think I’ve ever loved an adaptation of a book so much. Michael Sheen and David Tennant have given everything into the roles of Aziraphale and Crowley, and have honestly, as I have said so many times since it came out, given me my fucking rights to live. They—and basically everyone involved in making the show—have poured their hearts into this project and it just shows. I love it with all my heart, and—ask all my friends—I can’t fucking shut up about it. It. Is. Magnificent. But, I won’t gush about it here for too long, I want to make a separate post for it at some point, when I’ve finally been able to get my thoughts in order without my general reaction just being AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!

I don’t want to make this much longer than it already is, since it’s already been a while that these things happened. Gonna try my damnedest to not let myself slip again and actually write every month.

Talk to y’all soon. Be good, be kind!

#may #april #blog post #monthly blog #good omens #university #shazam #endgame #marvel #avengers

1 note · View note

blschaos3000-blog · 4 years

Text

Its 3:52 pm

Welcome to “8 Questions with…..”

In doing this series and especially of late,I have been really blessed to be able to talk to a lot artists that I have on a “wish list”. These are people whom I really want to talk with but I don’t think I’ll get a chance to. Ashley Kate Adams was on the list. I first was introduced to Ashley Kate and her talent when the cheetah and I watched a excellent film called “1 Message“. Its a story about a young woman who gets breast cancer amd who is slowly falling into a deep depression. When the young woman meets a man online while tracking down her family tree,the connection changes her life on so many levels. This is a movie that I loved quite a bit and I thought Ashley Kate Adams did a great job in what I found later was her feature film debut and she was only 21 when she filmed it. Since then I have been following her career and chatting once in a while on Twitter. Last week I decided to take a chance and ask Ashley Kate for a interview and to my surprise answered “Yes,I do” within 5 minutes. While we were talking,I asked about her new big project,”Boy Hero” which is set during the 1954 Senate Comic Book Hearings and where publisher Williams Gaines and his legendary EC Comics were grilled because of the content. It was also during the height of McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklisting,a dark and despairing time (as well as a forgotten period). As soon as we as a society are allowed ,Ashley Kate is kicking “Boy Hero” into high gear and we’ll be posting updates on how the film is progressing. * As you can see,Ashley Kate is a woman on the go,go,go!! I am so happy that we got a chance to catch her in mid-stride so she could slow down enough to answer her 8 Questions…….

Please introduce yourself and tell us about your latest project?

Hello! My name is Ashley Kate Adams & I am an actress, producer & writer living in NYC! Right now we are so excited to be introducing Frankie! The Musical Cast Concept Album to the world. It releases this Friday, May 29th, on Broadway Records and will be available everywhere music can be streamed. Frankie! The Musical (@frankiemusical) is written by 16-year old Composer and light, Elise Marra. The album is produced by AKA Studio Productions & Mitchell Walker! Our other main project is “Boy Hero”, a feature film inspired by the Comic Book Trials of 1954. I wrote the 1950’s period film which was inspired by a panel I saw called “When the American Librarian Saved Comics” by Carol Tilley. The film is rounding out development and will be Produced by AKA Studio Productions, Pigasus Pictures & AR Productions and will film in Cincinnati! Please follow us (@boyheromovie) for more exciting updates on fundraising development and production of the film.

(Michael Kushner Photography)

How have you been coping with Covid-19 pandemic? How are you staying creative and focused?

I have been thinking a lot about this recently. I’ve been coping with Covid-19 productively. I think many things prepared me for this, the main being thing being the sudden loss of my father in 2016 to cancer. During that time I had to learn to balance many things in conjunction with being completely gutted out with grief. During that time I turned to creating to heal myself and process my emotions so during this pandemic I have followed suit. I’ve actually been working at home with my production company since 2011 so that routine feels like a continuation. We were very lucky, we had just gotten many incredible projects like Frankie! in the can before it felt as if the world froze. Now these projects are able to bring joy to others during this time. On Friday’s I’ve been going LIVE with #BYOP to lead conversations on Grief & Productivity for the Creative @ashleykateadams on Instagram. It’s been important for me to try to help folks navigate this time!

When did you first catch the acting bug and what was the reaction like with your family and friends?

I don’t know if I ever caught the acting bug I was kind of just born into the industry. It is what our family does as our family business. You know some families might have a restaurant or a heating & cooling company, we are performers. My parents, who also majored in musical theatre in college (that’s how they met) were VERY honest with me about how hard my future was going to be to move to NYC and pursue this full-time but they knew it was what I was called to do. And I got to make space here for my sister 10 years my junior, Audrey Belle Adams, who recently began her adult career also based out of New York City.

How did you land the lead role in your first feature film “1 Message”? What three things did you take with you from the experience? How important is faith to you?

I actually landed my role in “1 Message” thanks to my father. He pitched me at a dinner meeting where the director happened to be. I then auditioned and got the role. That film taught me a lot. The first was that leading a film and being on camera 14 hours a day, 6 days a week is an extremely challenging job. Which leads me to the second thing, I learned how to treat actors on set. The “1 Message” experience is one that seeded in me the need to become an independent film producer to make sure I was always taking care of my actors in an extremely supportive way. Environment, transparency & discernment are everything on a project. The third thing I learned was how strong and aware I was even at a younger age on set. Faith is important to me. It is important to me to believe in something much bigger than yourself.

(Michael Kushner Photography)

Which do you like more? Doing TV/film work or live theater and why?

I love both equally but for different reasons. Right now I am very much falling deeper in love with film. I love learning and because I was raised literally at a theatre, in film there is still so much to learn for me. I love each new project on any side. It’s a blast to me navigating each nuance!

(Michael Kushner Photography)

What have been the three pieces of advice given to you in regards to being a performer?

Wow! Great question. “Your best secret weapon is yourself”. That was taught to me by the head of my musical theatre program at CCM, Aubrey Berg. He was correct. I would say the next is to “Be a kind person who people enjoy working with” from Sandra Rivera of Dancensation Studios and the most recent from this past winter break to “Keep saying yes to the right things and keep expanding” from one of my high school mentors, the great Gail Benedict.

(Michael Kushner Photography)

What roles challenge you most as an actress and how do you adapt to make the role yours?

Wheeew. For me the biggest challenge of my actor life was doing “A Christmas Carol(e)”, a one- woman show, directed & written by Alex Freeman. It was terrifying because it was only me on stage for 70 minutes. All I could do to survive it was to walk through it and continue to adapt. Every. Single. Second. I had to be truly present without a fourth wall. There was no protection, no sheen. I love hiding behind characters. I revel in it. It allows me space for courage to be more vulnerable. I’m a weirdo, my prep is usually reading, researching and then I adapt my breath and body. Everything else just kinda happens. The magic of acting!

How did the idea for #BYOP come about? What makes a good producer in your opinion?

#BYOP (Be Your Own Producer) came from seeing the need for it. As a producer, actor and creative I can only take on so many projects full time at once but #BYOP allows me to be available to you and your project on an hourly basis. It also teaches content creators how to producer so they can become sustainable and independent! During the pandemic it expanded to teaching these intentions in a group digital setting. The brand is continuing to grow and diversify. In development are many exciting new pieces, perhaps something you could listen to and something you can hold. Stay tuned and be sure to follow @ashleykateadams for updates! ! ; )

(Michael Kushner Photography)

You created a one woman show called “A Christmas Carole” for the theater, where did you come up with the idea and how hard is doing a one person production on a nightly basis?

I helped to create the show but I cannot take credit for the idea or writing on that one, that was my creative partner in crime, Alex Freeman. We put it up in 6 days with the help of our two amazing stage managers. It’s exhausting and exhilarating doing a one person production. I lived like a nun during the day to stay calm and preserve all of my energy for the performances. I still can’t believe I did it!

How important are awards to you as a performer?

Awards are not important to me as a performer, but the respect and nod that comes because of them is appreciated. I got my first best actress award in 2018 for Alex Freeman’s two-hander “Love” at the New York Theatre Festival. It’s hard being a woman in the business on every side. Especially as a Producer. So when a group of people decide not only that you “did well” but that you should be “acknowledged”, that is nice.

You love to sing,what makes a good song and which three Broadway scores would you love to sing if given a chance? Who is your favorite singer/band at this moment?

I do love to sing! It’s a part of my identity even though I’ve been more internal as of late with my creativity. I would say three Broadway scores I would love to sing through would be “Waitress”, “Sunday in the Park with George” and “The Sound of Music”. My favorite singer is my sister, Audrey Belle Adams @abelleadams, always and forever because she has the most flexible vocal instrument I have ever heard and my favorite band right now is M.N.O.P. @MNOP_music. They have rockin’ folk punk music, a kick butt lead female singer & a really cute drummer : )

How important is self-promotion to you and your career?

Self-Promotion is a large part of a creative career. In the age of social media & “influencers”, it has to be. I have not always been good at it. I had to learn to produce others to get comfortable producing & promoting myself.

What do you like to do on your down time?

In my downtime I like doing yoga, going on walks, listening to true crime podcasts, reading, taking class and spending time with my loved ones.

The cheetah and I are flying over to watch to you in “A Christmas Carol(e)” but we are a day early and now you are stuck playing tour guide,what are we doing?

If A Christmas Carol(e) played NYC and there was a day off I would say to spend the morning in Central Park, afternoon around Bryant Park popping into the Strand Book Store & the Bean coffee shop and to spend the evening in the theatre district enjoying an OPEN Broadway. Late evening in the village hopping venues and listening to live music!

(Michael Kushner Photography)

I want to not only thank Ashley Kate for chatting with us but also for being inspired to make “Boy Hero”. I cut my fanboy teeth reading EC Comics growing up. When I read William Gaines bio and found out just how close that comic books were to being banned,it was shocking. Without Gaines and a slew of others,including many librarians fighting this censorship,there would no “Star Wars”,Marvel or DC or many cultural icons we take for granted today. Like I wrote before,this is a forgotten piece of American history and much respect to Ashley Kate and her production team on making this film to hopefully remind us of what we almost lost.

Ashley Kate has several different ways that you can keep track of her and her various projects.

You can follow Ashley Kate on her InstaGram page. You can check out Ashley Kate’s next project via her IMDb page. You can also follow “Boy Hero” on InstaGram as well. You can also visit Ashley Kate’s personal website by going here.

Thank you for reading and supporting (and sharing) Ashley Kate’s interview. Feel free to drop a question below and stay tuned for updates about “Boy Hero”. You can also read past “8 Questions” interviews by going here.

8 Questions with………..actress/producer Ashley Kate Adams Its 3:52 pm Welcome to "8 Questions with....." In doing this series and especially of late,I have been really blessed to be able to talk to a lot artists that I have on a "wish list".

#8 Questions With #actor&039;s life #Alex Freeman #Ashley Kate Adams #Boy Hero film #Broadway #Frankie the Musical #live theater #multi-talented #Music #New York City #Producer #singing

0 notes

hellosaltysaladcollectionstuff · 4 years

Link

Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is virtually certain to win the Oscar for Best International Film, and it is not out of the running for Best Picture or Best Director, either. It unanimously won Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, and critics has lauded it as the greatest film of an exceptionally strong year, and perhaps even one of the best of the decade. It has brought belated, much-deserved attention to South Korean Cinema. By any measure, it has been a success that has likely exceeded the wildest dreams of anyone associated with it. What, then, should be made of the existence of a black & white version set for a theatrical release this year?

The monochrome cut received its international premiere at the 2020 International Film Festival Rotterdam, and perhaps the most important and immediately noticeable thing about it is that it works, at least for the most part. Exteriors and shots looking out the basement windows of the Kim family suffer slightly; the same lack of shadows that look so great in color photography feel emptier than they ought when converted, and occasionally a fuller palette is essential for depth perception, meaning deep space shots and alleyways look a bit muddled, but much of Parasite makes use of hard-edge lighting that converts well to black & white, and there can be little doubt Bong made a point of color correcting every shot for maximum effectiveness.

And it is effective. Color aside, re-watching Parasite at IFFR was a pleasure that reinforced the excellence of the film's script, which, from the beginning, lays out all the character information for the viewer in ways that can only be appreciated on a second pass and manages to foreshadow each development with nary a heavy hand. The black and white component, meanwhile, was realized even before the Cannes premiere, so it isn't fair to call it a cash-in devoid of artistic consideration. Bong himself has called out the differences. He has been quoted saying, "I watched the black & white version twice now, and at times the film felt more like a fable and gave me the strange sense that I was watching a story from old times" and that this version is "more realistic and sharp."

Both of Bong's points are aligned with expectations. The cinematic history of B&W has given it two primary connotations. Depending on its use, it can play up feelings of nostalgia and oldness or of grit and realism. When color cinematography was first invented, its expense made it rare, and it was usually reserved for big-budget fantasies and epics—think The Wizard of Oz or Gone with the Wind—while noirs and drama stuck primarily with monochrome stock. With the growing ubiquity of the black & white television in the home during the 1950s, epics and sword-and-sandal films became more common, and color (and CinemaScope) became a way of differentiating cinema from television, eventually becoming the standard. Black & White, in turn, became a way of imaging a bygone era, though other artistic deployments by independent and arthouse directors kept the gritty connotations alive, so much so that Michael Haneke decided to shoot The White Ribbon in color but release it in black & white (perhaps more directors seeking a Palme d'Or should consider straddling the line between the two forms).

History and cliché hold true with the B&W Parasite. The film is much grimmer with the color drained away; the audience seemed reluctant to laugh at the same moments that threatened to bring the house down the first time around, as if the new sheen demanded something different from the viewer. The vibrant colors and sunlight coming in from the windows give the Park family mansion an idealistic, almost fairy-tale like quality. To witness, then, a saturated splotch of red on a "bloodied" napkin be so incriminating takes that quality to the point of absurdity. The bright colors of the peaches that the housekeeper reacts so violently to, as well as Da-hye's fondness for the festively colored fruit, lends a dark humor in the color original that is missing in monochrome, where peach fuzz becomes an almost unidentifiable poison. Everything, as Mrs. Park might say, is "deadly serious."

After watching Parasite for the first time, the bright sunshine in the yard of the Park home as Ki-woo reads his letter to his father is vivid and memorable, almost overshadowing the cut back to reality that follows it. The same sequence in black & white cannot help but underscore the falseness and the uselessness of Ki-woo's dreams; suddenly the hints throughout the film—that he will go to university, that he's qualified as a tutor, that he himself has demonstrated the "vigor" needed to succeed on exams—are not hints of hope but notes of tragic irony. The unraveling that begins when the Park family heads out on their camping trip is similarly stark, playing less like a rupture or break from what came before and more like a moment of self-sabotage or fatalistic inevitability for which the Kim family must be banished once more to the basement.

The "oldness" Bong speaks of is less evident in a film that gives prominent screen time to cell phones and discussions of wi-fi, but if it feels like a fable, it could be because the film's class war overtones reverberate through the past to the present day around the globe. "When you put our four salaries together, the amount of cash flowing from their family to ours is immense," Mr. Kim gleefully observes to the delight of the class warriors in the audience, a bit of redistribution that is unjust only insofar as it does not go far enough. It hardly differs from the justifications offered by characters such as Bonnie & Clyde, Jesse James, and Robin Hood in countless earlier films. The setting may be new, but to call this "a story from old times" requires only historical awareness and a little imagination.

Yet, Parasite is not unique in its post-release black & white treatment. Both Logan and Mad Max: Fury Road included such cuts on their home video releases, and going further back, Frank Darabont's The Mist and Bong's own film Mother received similar treatment. On some occasions, one might suspect these films have something to prove: they are not "merely" entertainment or blockbusters, but carefully made films with artistic merits, where the perceived seriousness and artistic merit of a black & white presentation is a way of convincing skeptics and reassuring insecure fans.

Taken alongside another recent trend, however, the re-edited theatrical re-release / expansion (such as the one that propelled Avengers: Endgame past Avatar for the top-spot on the unadjusted box-office gross chart, or the ones that gave a modest bump to Midsommar and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), it's hard not to see an industry that is desperately clinging to relevance doing whatever it can to pad its profits and prove that they do, in fact, still make them like they used to, glorious black & white and all. How ironic that as the renewed threat to make the movies obsolete ramp up in a never-ending (but perhaps revitalized) "Golden Age" of Television, the movies turn back to black & white, not only for art-house fare like Roma and The Lighthouse, but also for hits like Parasite, Mad Max, and Logan.

Follow Forrest Cardamenis on Twitter - @FCardamenis

from FirstShowing.net https://ift.tt/3b3de8M

#Blogger

0 notes

ingravinoveritas · 2 years

Note

Ok but the fact that the Tennants have a literal pride flag garland in their garden. (GT's story from this morning). That just made me smile.

(Not to mention that giant rainblow flag we've known them to have in their house. Like, they just have that. Similiar to a Tardis in their garden or a Michael Sheen cutout in their bedroom, they just have that)

I love that level of support and the values they share and also automatically teach the kids. It's so cool to see. Especially because it's easy to wish everyone a happy pride month on your Instagram and leave it at that - if you even do that. But they're owning what they're saying, it's authentic, you can see that there is real enthusiasm with real values behind their support.

It always makes me happy to see these things from them and after catching a glimpse of their decor during pride month (or maybe it's there all the time) I just had to mention it 🌈 <3

Hi, Anon! First, let me say that your ask earns 10,000 bonus points for the mention of the Michael Sheen cutout in David and Georgia’s bedroom. That is just *chef’s kiss* and yes. So much yes... To address the rest of your ask, I did see the posts from Georgia’s Insta stories last month--both the one you mentioned here and then a second one also featuring a Pride theme. Let’s get them here for the visual:

When the first story was posted, I remember wondering where this was coming from, as I don’t think Georgia has ever been this vocal about Pride in years past. I had initially hoped this was perhaps in support of David being bi (more on that in a minute, in response to another Anon), but it seems now that these posts are in support of Wilfred, who appears to be using they/them pronouns.

The other thing is that I do feel some degree of concern, because although I agree with you, Anon, that Georgia and David are owning their support of Wil and that this is something that’s continued on past Pride Month, we are still talking about a 9-year-old kid. And it would be unfortunately easy for Georgia to seemingly support Wil, but then turn around and make these posts and these gestures about her, in an effort to score points in a “Look at me, I’m a cool mom of a queer kid!” kind of way.

Is that what’s happening here? I hope not. I would love nothing more than to be wrong, but Wil was recently featured in an article in the Daily Mail (in relation to their role in Casualty), and already the people in the comments are tearing them apart and making all sorts of vicious comments about their gender identity. I’ve seen fans on Twitter discussing Wil, too, and while seemingly far more benevolent, let me again remind you that we are still talking about a 9-year-old child. It’s one thing to speculate about David’s sexuality or his and Michael’s relationship here, but it is entirely different when it’s a minor who cannot defend or speak for themselves and who, up until recently, had their face blurred out/censored on Georgia’s Insta posts.

And while I understand that Wil is starting their acting career, that doesn’t mean throwing them straight into the deep end, either, or that it’s okay for Georgia to seemingly give the green light to this type of discussion. If it came down to it, though, I think David would absolutely put himself in the line of fire to protect Wil, in whatever form that may take. Because if Wil is indeed queer/struggling to figure themself out, I think David understands it on a personal level, and would want to be there for Wil, to make them feel safe, because no one did that for him when he was going through it.

That’s what this is really all about, in my opinion. Rainbow flags and socks and face paint are all great, but can ultimately end up being performative if there isn’t tangible, meaningful action behind them. I hope that Georgia is and will continue protecting Wil. I hope that this support and flourish of Pride will last throughout the year, and will be extended to David if he ever decides to come out. Most of all, I hope what we’ve seen is as authentic as it appears to be, for Wil’s sake, and the sake of all the other kids.

So those are my thoughts on Georgia’s pride posts. I appreciate you sharing yours with me, too, Anon. Thanks for writing in! x

#anonymous #reply post #david tennant #soft scottish hipster gigolo #georgia tennant #wilfred tennant #gay pride #if i can provide another example #Michael has made pride posts but also donated to a fan's GoFundMe for gender confirmation surgery #talking the talk but also walking the walk #and it seems to have a great deal of personal meaning to him as well #i'm just saying #happy pride month indeed #discourse

31 notes · View notes