Part XXX (2)

Saturday, 8 December 2007 15:21
montagnarde1793: (frimaire)

Something random I noticed when I was browsing: that ridiculous picture from the Antoinette movie with Antoinette wearing stockings tied up by blue ribbons... did anyone else notice that they're tied above her knees? This was a convention in drawings from the era of women putting on their stockings, but this was only done to increase the drawings' worth as erotica (on a rather tame level, of course, mostly): the higher the stockings were tied on, the higher they could lift the skirt. However if one were to try to tie stockings on above the knee, unless by some bizarre freak of nature one's knees were larger than one's thighs, they would fall down. So basically, it's just one more instance of the makers of that movie unwittingly using the imagery of caricatures of Antoinette. Idiots.

Random bad news

Saturday, 1 December 2007 13:30
montagnarde1793: (maximebust)

Several items, of varying levels of angry-making (in no particular order):

1. The first is, I made this post before, and much better, I might add, but livejournal decided to eat it. So I'm in a rather bad mood because of that.

2. Schama's horrible art history show, the one that called David a "monster," apparently won an International Emmy. [Insert rant on how there is no justice in the world--which I'm not going to rewrite, but you can imagine how it went--here.]

3. I don't have any more excerpts ready just yet, which might be bad news or good news, depending on how you look at it. (Though the next one won't be nearly as bad as some of the others, fortunately.)

4. A. O. Scott, the NY Times critic who actually gave the Antoinette movie a good review, just called "the triumph of the human spirit" an "empty cliché." It explains some things, at least.

5. I just saw Massenet's "Werther," and I loved it so much I'm now reading the original novel (but not in the original German, since I don't speak a word of it). It was just so beautiful and depressing--this last part being why this might be considered bad news, as it's probably the last thing anyone needs. (I suppose, you would think I would have had enough of beautiful and depressing, but I guess not... If I were depressed about my own life instead of a) the current state of the world, b) historical events and their treatment, and c) 18th century novels and the 19th century operas based on them, I would probably be considered rather emo. But I'm not really self-absorbed enough to think that my own life is worse than all the above-mentioned... So no, I don't really qualify.)
So anyway, go and listen to "Pourquoi me réveiller...?" on youtube. It's so beautiful... *sighs* Seriously, go listen to it.

montagnarde1793: (Maxime)
Sorry to replace the promised rant with something else....I know you're all *so* disappointed.

But I have another article on the Antoinette movie that should....well, it's a frightening article (not *as* bad as some, but considering the source it's pretty pathetic). 

Why? )

In more upsetting news, my sister saw the movie at the New York Film Festival and is now *defending* it. For example, I got mad about the fact that anyone non-noble is portrayed as being part of an faceless mob--like some angry monster to devour the *innocent* protagonists that the audience are going to sympathize with because they've spent the past I-don't-know-how-long learning about their thoughts and emotions. People can't be expected to sympathize with a crowd, not if they don't get to know them through repeated close-ups. This movie (obviously) does not do this...the idea is that people will symphatize with Antoinette, and that can't happen if they sympathize with the people. My sister, while regretting this choice, defends it as understandable in order to retain Antoinette's viewpoint. She didn't seem to be able to explain why anything should *ever* be taken from Antoinette's viewpoint for any reason, however. 
She also said the film was very good cinematographically--as if that matters, considering the content!--and that Coppola was not trying to make a historically accurate film; that she "did not understand" the politics of 18th century France. Well, doesn't it follow logically that if one cannot understand what one is doing, one should not be doing it? 
Ugh.
........just kill me now. >____<
montagnarde1793: (Maxime)
Now for an article and a link which should have ranting, but don't because....they just don't. XD

Item One )

Item Two: I don't know how many of you have seen the new and decidedly un-improved version of the Antoinette movie's website, but the production notes are truly frightening.....In related news, the one supposedly "authentic" piece of music there was written by Scarlatti, an Italian composer who died in 1725. Does anyone else think the odds of that being played in Versailles during Antoinette's stay there are just a *bit* low?

Next Post: The root of all that is wrong with American politics, brought to you by my ever-so-annoying-and-obviously-biased AP US History class, and my review of Manon, as performed this past Saturday evening at the LA Opera (including rant about alternate stagings and how they never show my favorite operas--or they show them at times and in places there is no way I can possibly be).
montagnarde1793: (Je voudrais te dire...)

It's funny how that can happen when you haven't even spoken to a person.

But in 2nd period Film Lit, when everyone shared their favorite movies, some guy who had gone to Switzerland over the summer--and whose name I have conveniently blocked out--said that Marie-Antoinette was his favorite film. 

So, opinions: is he willfully counterrevolutionary or does he just have bad taste?

...Or both. *shudders*

In other first day of school news, I didn't get Creative Writing, hence why I'm stuck in Film Lit in the first place, but my other classes shouldn't be too terrible. (I hope!)

...On a completely unrelated note, I'm going to see Massenet's Manon next month, and am quite happy about that.....And I got a new series on the Revolution--conveniently called La Révolution--by Robert Margerit. Reports on the accuracy and general goodness will be forthcoming. As will much art, as soon as I can hook up my scanner.

I promise it won't be as long until my next post as it was between this one and the last...I was just having internet issues before.

Antoinette movie

Monday, 29 May 2006 10:25
montagnarde1793: (Maxime)
This movie is really going to suck. Muchly.

http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=384772

Apparently the People are reduced to the stereotypical "angry mob" so if the average viewer does not like barbie-pink!Antoinette, they'll have little choice in sympathies, because she and the rest of the Court will be the only human characters.

It's a lot easier for most people to sympathize with one person, even if she is the most annoying bimbo they have ever seen, than a "mob" with a good reason to be angry!

That said, from what I can tell, Liberation is treating this with irony, and seems to be pointing out that the subject matter is somewhat....irrelevant: big surprise there!
...at any rate, it's not a positive review, and I like the publication overall, so...
montagnarde1793: (Maxime)

Apparently I am the only member of the CSI to not actually be a member of it! 
LJ would not allow me to post a reply to citoyenne [profile] maelicia's post on reviews of the movie-which-shall-not-be-named. I sense a conspiracy, and I demand justice!
...Haven't we got some sort of department for that???

And I want Sofia Coppola's head. On a pike. I will parade it outside Kirsten Dunst's window.

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