Carnival Links, Oscar reminder, and DW related clips

[selenak]

It's Carnival over here, and while I mostly hide from it - due to being busy with work - I'm not immune to the splendour and excitement it can have - elsewhere. I was lucky and able to attend the two most famous carnivals in years past, once in Rio de Janeiro, twice in Venice. Out of nostalgia and because I've gained some new readers since then, here are links to the photos and reports from these occasions:

Carnival in Venice I

Carnival in Venice II

Carnival in Rio

***

artaxastra, check this out! First trailer for AGORA, a movie about female philosopher Hypatia, and the reconstruction of fourth century Alexandria looks amazing. The trailer starts with the lighthouse which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world...


***

In case you missed the Oscars or just want to watch this particular bit again: Hugh Jackman's opening number, complete with Frost/Nixon duet co-starring Anne Hathaway.

Speaking of the ever useful YouTube: ever since the BBC named the actress who'll play the companion in this year's second Doctor Who special, I've been thrilled for two particular reasons:



1) I love the character of Evelyn Smythe in the Big Finish Audios and have often regretted that the laws of tv seemed to make it impossible for the Doctor to get a woman older than 50 as his companion on the screen as well. (Sarah Jane now of course fits the parameter, but now she's the heroine of her own show - a good thing, too, of course - while when she was a regular companion back in the 70s, she fitted the 20something general profile.) While ageism probably still holds a sway on the regular seasons, we'll get a break for the specials: Adelaide, the companion for the second special, will be played by the 57 years old and absolutely awesome

2) Lindsay Duncan. Whom some of you might not know, so I checked YouTube for clips featuring her and giving an impression of her range as an actress. Here are some results. Firstly, her death scene as Servilia in the tv show Rome. The feud between Servilia and Atia (the fabulous Polly Walker) in Rome serves as a driving force for the first and early second season. After the defeat and death of her son Brutus, Servilia calls out Atia for days, murmuring nothing but one sentence in front of her house - "Atia of the Julii, I call for justice". Eventually, Atia snaps, and this happens:

(Servilia isn't a sympathetic character on Rome, but a very compelling one. Here's a good vid capturing her overall storyline.)

Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman created the roles of the Marquise de Merteuil and Valmont in Christopher Hampton's stage version of Les Liasons Dangereuses (Glenn Close and John Malkovich in the film version). More recently, they teamed up again for Noel Coward's Private Lives, playing a can't live with/can't live without divorced couple, Amanda and Eliot. Here's a scene:

If you have the time, check out this medley of Noel Coward songs sung by them to photos of the stage production, and both of them accepting their best actor/best actress awards (which has a hilarious ad-lib by Rickman as Snape - Daniel Radcliffe was in the audience - for you Harry Potter fans).

Comments

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

It almost seems like everything about the Doctor is going "youth-oriented". Are they forgetting that so much of the audience comes from Classic Who and "is older"?

Glad to see they aren't totally ignoring older actors...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I disagree with your assessment. For starters, excepting Barbara Wright, I don't think there was a single Classic Who female companion over thirty. Several were supposed to be under 20 (i.e. Vicky, Susan, Ace - their actresses weren't teenagers anymore, but the characters were supposed to be), and most were supposed to be in their early 20s. So it would be utterly hypocritical to lament this as a new development. (Rather than lament this as a tv tendency in general, which is what I did.) On the contrary: I dare say Catherine Tate would not have been cast as a companion during the Classic Who heydays, let alone Lindsay Duncan.

As for New Who ignoring older actors, one look at the list of guest stars of the last four years would belie that assessment. Zoe Wannamaker, Simon Callow, Derek Jacobi anyone?

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

Point!

And Donna is my favorite companion of NuWho...

I should quit making inane comments when I first wake up. :p

Lindsay Duncan

[shezan.livejournal.com]

... and she's Mrs Thatcher in the Beeb's dramatization, to be shown Thursday night (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/4640527/Interview-Lindsay-Duncan-on-Margaret-Thatcher.html).

Re: Lindsay Duncan

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, great interview. I heard Andrea Riseborough was very good as young M., too.

Re: Lindsay Duncan

[kate-swynford.livejournal.com]

Yes, she was excellent. I had only seen her in The Devil's Whore before, and she was absolutely different and brilliant as Margaret Thatcher.

And, great news about Lindsay Duncan as a companion. Now, if they could just get Ciaran Hinds to guest star...

Re: Lindsay Duncan

[selenak.livejournal.com]

... and here's a review I just spotted! (http://wal-lace.livejournal.com/399241.html?mode=reply)

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

When they announced the 11th Doctor, I posted that my other hope (apart from a non-white-male Doctor) was an older, female companion. Lindsay Duncan is a great choice, though I rather suspect I'll be scared of her to start with, as I was on Rome.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

My other hope is that because her character's name, Adelaide, sounds old-fashioned, she might be the first "historical" companion we've had since a long while. (Since Leela? Or do I have a blackout and am forgetting someone? On screen companion, I mean, not counting Big Finish companions.)

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that would be fascinating! I don't even count Leela as historical, since she doesn't come from the past, which takes me back to...Jamie, I think! Definitely overdue, either way.

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

If you count Leela as historical, you'd have to count Jack, as he's from the future, too - and they picked him up in 1943! Oh, and Adam (if you count him) was from the (near) future, but it was so near as to be kinda irrelevant. And then there's River Song... :/

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

I've just watched the trailer seven times! OMG total love! When that first pan across the harbor starts it's like seeing a lover's face! I'm not kidding that it chokes me up. I have to see this movie, of course. And the blows on the doors of the Serapeum....

Later than I care to think about, of course. I never seem to have any perspective on that period, not without going all the way to Germania and Thraustila. Have you thought about doing it? I can imagine you would do wonderful things with it.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I predict great Alexandria icons at the very least. :) But I knew you'd be as excited about the trailer as I was.

Yes, I've thought about it, but I'd have a secondary character (and a female one) to survive, because the injustice of Hypatia's fate would otherwise make it too hard for me. (I mean, I've written tragic endings repeatedly, but there was always some hope, too...)

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

I know. Doing Hypatia would make Charmian feel like a birthday party! It's more than I could stand to write too. Charmian tore me up in little pieces and shredded me. I don't think I can go worse. But a secondary character, someone involved in this conflict but not Hypatia herself.... I'm still not sure I could go there, but maybe you could.

There's a reason why almost nobody does late Roman, isn't there?

With Thraustila there is at least an echo of hope. He lives, for one thing, and while Rome is sinking he's off to Koln to his family, who may get through this or not. But ultimately his way of life is not gone. Ultimately, he is the future. There's a direct line from him to Carolus Magnus, after all....

(And the sarcophagus in Aachen? The Persephone Sarcophagus? That is simply the most gorgeous synthesis. It's beyond breathtaking. I think I should have to write Carolus Magnus as That Guy!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Gillian Bradshaw does late Romans, and does them very well. I loved her novel The Bearkeeper's Daughter about Theodora, from the pov of her illegitimate son, and she wrote one set in late Roman Britain as well, contemporary to Marcus Aurelius.

Carolus Magnus as That Guy? That would be great, if you'd do it. Speaking of synthesis, do you know we had a Byzantine empress later, Theophanu? The Ottonians were a dynasty of powerful women. Otto I. was married to Adelheid who became regent after his death. Otto II was married to Theophanu - and she's called "empress" not "consort of the emperor" in the documents, which was really unprecedented - who as mentioned was a Byzantine princess - and died young, so she ruled for her son Otto III. Who also died young.

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about Carolus Magnus as That Guy. Though the research is daunting, as I don't know Carolingian hardly at all. My classes mostly went straight to Britain and stayed there until the Renaissance, so I have a bunch of guys named Aethelred in this period. And I never could get into them.

Nor formulate any real ideas about the period. Why, in your opinion, does the Carolingian Renaissane not "take"? Why doesn't this stick? Why don't we go straight from 800 to 1300?

No, I didn't know about Theophanu! That's really interesting. I'll have to look for her.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Well, one reason would be the grand split between the sons - first time we've documents in medieval French and German as well as Latin - the aftermath of Alexander effect, in other words. All the fighting. And Ludwig, who was Emperor after Carolus, was deposed by his own sons twice.

Theophanu: Here she is with her husband (http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Otton_II_et_Th%C3%A9ophano.JPG&filetimestamp=20060206041356), and notice they're both depicted the same size.

The wedding contract (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Urkunde01.jpg), which mentions she was crowned as Empress in Rome by the pope. She scandalized the court somewhat by bathing once a day, and also because she used a fork, but most of all because she signed her documents as Emperor, as had been the case with earlier Byzantine empresses ruling for their sons in Byzantium, but most certainly nowhere in the German speaking territories. So she was Theophanius gratia divina imperator augustus and is counted as a ruler among the list of German emperors.

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

Funeral Games! He's so often undone by the funeral games, isn't he? Managing to do this without the bloodsoaked funeral games is the trick, it seems. Though the mid 19th century version was fairly mild compared to some bouts of that fever. And in fact we won! *g*

That's interesting with the same size. I've seen that at Cluny, but I didn't remember it.

The wedding contract -- also fascinating. It's really interesting to me about the script changes. I learned Latin cursive a long time ago, and it's interesting to see how this is a halfway point between those forms and more modern forms of the letters, with a clear Greek influence in things like the capital As. I know next to nothing about medieval script, but it's a fascinating comparison.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

See, this is one of several reasons why I appreciate Richelieu. He had an ego like all ambitious men, but he knew he was mortal and would need a successor, hence adopted young Gulio Mazarini as his protegé, worked with him for years, asked Louis to appoint him as first minister when dying (er, when Richelieu was dying, though Louis XIII survived him only by months) and presto, Mazarin there to oversee the years from Louis XIII to adult Louis XIII. Now if all statesmen had that kind of foresight and ability to find a good successor...

I know next to nothing about medieval script as well, but I figured you'd appreciate it!

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. Rather than just let the chips fall!

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

I like that Rome clip, so I'm looking forward to Adelaide. Oddly, my first thought was: she would be great as old!Leela. Must be clothes/dialogue.

Older women are kind of getting bigger roles in television these days, aren't they? Esp. as powerful women, like on BSG, or Mrs. Petrelli, or Cuddy on House,

[selenak.livejournal.com]

And it's taken a long, long while, but yes, tv, more than the cinema, has noticed actresses can be cast as something other than love interests and grandmothers. *appreciates*

Old!Leela is an interesting idea, though I think the clothes are bit misleading here, as Servilia spends most of her time on the show looking very elegant, but in this case she does the very Roman thing of staging her death (and her death curse) the way it should be done, which means sackcloth and ashes, literally. (Something Rome was very good at was to get across how real curses were for the people. This isn't like someone swearing "damn you" to no great affect. Atia considers herself doomed after what you've just seen.)

[aralias.livejournal.com]

i think i saw this production of private lives. when you mentioned i assumed it was a film, but the two boat like balconies are really striking and memorable images. plus - i do remember rickman. odd that linsay duncan was there the whole time and i didn't know... though it was ages ago.

[kernezelda]

I very much enjoyed the relationship and conflicts between Servilia and Atia - very compelling, indeed.

[meret.livejournal.com]

Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman created the roles of the Marquise de Merteuil and Valmont in Christopher Hampton's stage version of Les Liasons Dangereuses

I saw that in London with the original cast, but didn't realize it was the same actress that played Servilla. Cool! :)

Thanks for the Agora link. I had no idea someone was making a movie about Hypatia. Now if they just don't fuck it up!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed, here's hoping. At the very least, though, it will make people curious about who Hypatia was (I had to explain to my rl friends, as they didn't know!), and if the film is good, all the better! *is optimistic today*

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

"Agora" looks really amazing, been looking forward to it for what seems like forever.

In other news: I loved Gillian Bradshaw's childrens books as a young adult. :)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

With a very few exceptions, I've enjoyed everything Gillian Bradshaw has ever written. *hearts*

Also, I only found out about "Agora" yesterday - when did you?

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I can't remember if it was before or when Rachel Weisz signed on. It was def. still being called "the untitled Hypatia project" because I didn't know it had a title yet.

[rivrea.livejournal.com]

I had no idea that there was a movie about Hypatia in the making. Thanks for linking to the trailer! I'm flailing madly now!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Me too, on both counts - I only found out about the Hypatia film yesterday, and now I'm flailing. (Hopefully, a lot more people will know afterwards who Hypatia was - I had to explain it to all my rl friends...)

[harmonyangel.livejournal.com]

I'm not a Who fan, but, dude, my mom's name is Evelyn Smith. That's kind of cool.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Evelyn in DW is what's referred to as an "audio companion" - i.e. she was invented for the Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish, which don't have to content with some of tv's limitations (such as budget, aging of actors and ageism of the audience) - and she's an awesome 55 years old historian who decides to travel with the whacky alien who's the show's hero. (Well, if you were a historian and you met someone who could travel through time and space, wouldn't you?) So your mother's name is anything but disgraced:)

[harmonyangel.livejournal.com]

Good to know! I doubt my mother would choose to travel around with a wacky alien, but in the right circumstances it's entirely possible.

I'm not sure I could listen to an audio play, sadly -- I'm such a terrible aural learner that even podcasts are a challenge.