Films (slight spoilers)
Tuesday, October 18th, 2005 11:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthHow I miss West India Quay UGC: as many films as I could be bothered with for £9.99 a month, a 14-minute trip on the DLR, ten screens, a bar.
Have not seen many films since I left SE8.
However, I did see Serenity last week:
Not much to say about this, I fear: I've never seen Firefly -- and don't feel any great urge, though no distaste either -- so lost out on the joy of seeing familiar characters on the big screen, and no doubt on a number of in-jokes, references, developments etc. (Also, have never really got the hang of Buffy, so missed out on all those references.)
It didn't feel especially original to me, but there was a nice rawness to it, a shabbiness to the setting, that reminded me more of the very first Star Wars film than anything else. Enjoyable and nicely done. Extra points for suggesting, rather than showing, the worst of the violence. Oh, and River was very cool: all you Firefly fans probably missed the sheer impact of her sudden hyperviolence.
... and Howl's Moving Castle at the weekend.
Have been wanting to see this ever since I knew it was going to be made: it's one of my favourite of Diana Wynne Jones' books, and I've seen enough Miyazaki films (most recently Laputa: Castle in the Sky) to be optimistic about the look and feel of the film. I was afraid I'd missed my chance, but luckily it's still showing in some cinemas.
This is very much a film based on the book, rather than a film of the book: Miyazaki has taken quite a few liberties with setting and plot -- the world of the film is post-Industrial Revolution, and grievously war-torn -- but has retained the spirit, and the core story, of the original. The landscapes -- especially the cloud-draped hills and the almost Impressionist flower-meadows -- are a delight: the interiors (Howl's bedroom in particular, all jewelled and gleaming and full of movement, quite unlike the spider-infested dump of the book!) equally marvellous. And there are some gorgeous scenes, of course: the castle expanding to fit 'inside' a new house; the castle striding over the fells (it's a flying castle in the original book, but the Baba Yaga hens' legs are an excellent alternative, as well as offering further plot possibilities); falling stars in the flower-meadow.
I'm not sure that the simplified plot makes quite so much sense, or comes to such a satisfactory conclusion, as the book: it loses some of the fairytale feel, with all that implies about just desserts and happy-ever-after. There's one aspect of the original which I was sorry not to see, a theme that runs through many of Jones' books: but perhaps it would have been less effective for an international audience of anime fans than for the juvenile British readership of the book. Ditto the John Donne references.
The dubbed version is probably easier to follow, but I'm still trying to scrub Billy Crystal's voice out of my head: it doesn't feel at all right to turn Calcifer, a million-year-old fire demon, into a joky Bronx type.
One possible area of confusion, especially for younger members of the audience, might be that Sophie, having been bespelled to instant old age (some mornings I know how she feels), is occasionally -- throughout the story -- drawn as young again. Doesn't happen in the book; makes a certain amount of sense in terms of how she's feeling; but then, how come no one realises she's under a curse?
Have not seen many films since I left SE8.
However, I did see Serenity last week:
Not much to say about this, I fear: I've never seen Firefly -- and don't feel any great urge, though no distaste either -- so lost out on the joy of seeing familiar characters on the big screen, and no doubt on a number of in-jokes, references, developments etc. (Also, have never really got the hang of Buffy, so missed out on all those references.)
It didn't feel especially original to me, but there was a nice rawness to it, a shabbiness to the setting, that reminded me more of the very first Star Wars film than anything else. Enjoyable and nicely done. Extra points for suggesting, rather than showing, the worst of the violence. Oh, and River was very cool: all you Firefly fans probably missed the sheer impact of her sudden hyperviolence.
... and Howl's Moving Castle at the weekend.
Have been wanting to see this ever since I knew it was going to be made: it's one of my favourite of Diana Wynne Jones' books, and I've seen enough Miyazaki films (most recently Laputa: Castle in the Sky) to be optimistic about the look and feel of the film. I was afraid I'd missed my chance, but luckily it's still showing in some cinemas.
This is very much a film based on the book, rather than a film of the book: Miyazaki has taken quite a few liberties with setting and plot -- the world of the film is post-Industrial Revolution, and grievously war-torn -- but has retained the spirit, and the core story, of the original. The landscapes -- especially the cloud-draped hills and the almost Impressionist flower-meadows -- are a delight: the interiors (Howl's bedroom in particular, all jewelled and gleaming and full of movement, quite unlike the spider-infested dump of the book!) equally marvellous. And there are some gorgeous scenes, of course: the castle expanding to fit 'inside' a new house; the castle striding over the fells (it's a flying castle in the original book, but the Baba Yaga hens' legs are an excellent alternative, as well as offering further plot possibilities); falling stars in the flower-meadow.
I'm not sure that the simplified plot makes quite so much sense, or comes to such a satisfactory conclusion, as the book: it loses some of the fairytale feel, with all that implies about just desserts and happy-ever-after. There's one aspect of the original which I was sorry not to see, a theme that runs through many of Jones' books: but perhaps it would have been less effective for an international audience of anime fans than for the juvenile British readership of the book. Ditto the John Donne references.
The dubbed version is probably easier to follow, but I'm still trying to scrub Billy Crystal's voice out of my head: it doesn't feel at all right to turn Calcifer, a million-year-old fire demon, into a joky Bronx type.
One possible area of confusion, especially for younger members of the audience, might be that Sophie, having been bespelled to instant old age (some mornings I know how she feels), is occasionally -- throughout the story -- drawn as young again. Doesn't happen in the book; makes a certain amount of sense in terms of how she's feeling; but then, how come no one realises she's under a curse?
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Date: Tuesday, October 18th, 2005 01:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, October 19th, 2005 02:39 pm (UTC)