Monday, Monday
Nov. 19th, 2012 09:08 amA week of travelling ahead means regular tv reviews next week. Including the latest Merlin episode, which I have watched but won't discuss until I've seen the follow-up next week, either. However, I come bearing links:
Elementary:
Some observations on the segregation of the queen: Joan Watson character study. Quiet and smart, like Joan herself.
Skyfall:
Something like this hasn't happened since![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
futuresoon created lovely art for a Heroes story of mine, and it started off my week with a happy squee: my M and Bond meta seems to have inspired a beautiful drawing called The Queen of Shadows and her Knight in the Underworld.
Avengers:
Time and Place: in which Maria Hill and Nick Fury have to go undercover at a society gig, and Natasha is very amused. Everyone is competent and is it's so very enjoyable to read!
Various actors:
Jodi Foster, one of my favourite actresses (also a good director) and one of the few who survived being a child star and followed it up by an impressive adult career, turns 50 today. (Can you believe it?) I would link an article in English in celebration of her birthday, but I can't find one right now, so here is one in German. She did, however write an article herself - defending Kristen Stewart, whom she had worked with when the later was 11, and being withering about the paparazzi. Choice quotes: "I have been an actress since I was 3 years old, 46 years to date. I have no memories of a childhood outside the public eye. I am told people look to me as a success story. Often complete strangers approach me and ask, How have you stayed so normal, so well-adjusted, so private? I usually lie and say, “Just boring I guess.” The truth is, like some curious radioactive mutant, I have invented my own gothic survival tools. I have fashioned rules to control the glaring eyes. Maybe I’ve organized my career choices to allow myself (and the ones I truly love) maximum personal dignity. And, yes, I have neurotically adapted to the gladiator sport of celebrity culture, the cruelty of a life lived as a moving target. (...) I’ve said it before and I will say it again: if I were a young actor today I would quit before I started. If I had to grow up in this media culture, I don’t think I could survive it emotionally.(...) The point is to survive, intact or not, whatever the emotional cost. Actors who become celebrities are supposed to be grateful for the public interest. After all, they’re getting paid. Just to set the record straight, a salary for a given on-screen performance does not include the right to invade anyone’s privacy, to destroy someone’s sense of self." The entire article is here.
Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Roger Rees: I think I've linked to this before, but was reminded of it the other day, and just in case I hadn't, and/or someone missed it, here are three awesome Brits in 2010 when Patrick Stewart and Roger Rees, both of whom had acted in Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen, presented an award to him. I can't decide whether my favourite bit is Patrick Stewart correcting Roger Rees' pronounciation of "Magneto" (well, he would!), or Sir Ian flirting with them both, the the choice of song they had for Ian McKellen accepting his award.... aw, just watch it.
Ralph Fiennes: a very good interview, mostly apropos Dickens, as he's playing Magwitch in the most recent Great Expectations and, as I found out for the first time via this interview, Charles Dickens himself in a film based on Claire Tomalin's biography of Ellen Ternan, The Invisible Woman. (Good choice, casting director. I can definitely see Fiennes with his talent for obsessive types as C.D.) He also talks about Corialanus, the film he directed, and the late Anthony Minghella, who directed him in The English Patient: "There are only a few directors who have a language for nurturing nuances of performance with any real skill. A lot of directors love their actors, admire and want to help them but he was exceptionally perceptive; he invested in teasing out, developing and nurturing."
“
Elementary:
Some observations on the segregation of the queen: Joan Watson character study. Quiet and smart, like Joan herself.
Skyfall:
Something like this hasn't happened since
futuresoon created lovely art for a Heroes story of mine, and it started off my week with a happy squee: my M and Bond meta seems to have inspired a beautiful drawing called The Queen of Shadows and her Knight in the Underworld. Avengers:
Time and Place: in which Maria Hill and Nick Fury have to go undercover at a society gig, and Natasha is very amused. Everyone is competent and is it's so very enjoyable to read!
Various actors:
Jodi Foster, one of my favourite actresses (also a good director) and one of the few who survived being a child star and followed it up by an impressive adult career, turns 50 today. (Can you believe it?) I would link an article in English in celebration of her birthday, but I can't find one right now, so here is one in German. She did, however write an article herself - defending Kristen Stewart, whom she had worked with when the later was 11, and being withering about the paparazzi. Choice quotes: "I have been an actress since I was 3 years old, 46 years to date. I have no memories of a childhood outside the public eye. I am told people look to me as a success story. Often complete strangers approach me and ask, How have you stayed so normal, so well-adjusted, so private? I usually lie and say, “Just boring I guess.” The truth is, like some curious radioactive mutant, I have invented my own gothic survival tools. I have fashioned rules to control the glaring eyes. Maybe I’ve organized my career choices to allow myself (and the ones I truly love) maximum personal dignity. And, yes, I have neurotically adapted to the gladiator sport of celebrity culture, the cruelty of a life lived as a moving target. (...) I’ve said it before and I will say it again: if I were a young actor today I would quit before I started. If I had to grow up in this media culture, I don’t think I could survive it emotionally.(...) The point is to survive, intact or not, whatever the emotional cost. Actors who become celebrities are supposed to be grateful for the public interest. After all, they’re getting paid. Just to set the record straight, a salary for a given on-screen performance does not include the right to invade anyone’s privacy, to destroy someone’s sense of self." The entire article is here.
Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Roger Rees: I think I've linked to this before, but was reminded of it the other day, and just in case I hadn't, and/or someone missed it, here are three awesome Brits in 2010 when Patrick Stewart and Roger Rees, both of whom had acted in Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen, presented an award to him. I can't decide whether my favourite bit is Patrick Stewart correcting Roger Rees' pronounciation of "Magneto" (well, he would!), or Sir Ian flirting with them both, the the choice of song they had for Ian McKellen accepting his award.... aw, just watch it.
Ralph Fiennes: a very good interview, mostly apropos Dickens, as he's playing Magwitch in the most recent Great Expectations and, as I found out for the first time via this interview, Charles Dickens himself in a film based on Claire Tomalin's biography of Ellen Ternan, The Invisible Woman. (Good choice, casting director. I can definitely see Fiennes with his talent for obsessive types as C.D.) He also talks about Corialanus, the film he directed, and the late Anthony Minghella, who directed him in The English Patient: "There are only a few directors who have a language for nurturing nuances of performance with any real skill. A lot of directors love their actors, admire and want to help them but he was exceptionally perceptive; he invested in teasing out, developing and nurturing."
“
