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The Days are Just Packed! III of II -- the bullet post
Some loose ends to tie up:
~*~
As much as I loved England, I missed sleeping in my own bed, and I missed especially my internet. I arrived home to discover all these things had been released in my absence. I leave for a few days....
~*~
Finally, a movie review.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lizzieloudotcom asked if I planned to endure Perfume: Story of a Murderer in the name of my Rickman love, and I did.
I actually read this book in college for probably a Modern Lit class. I remember most of it. I remember more the professor introducing the book by describing the protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, as a "monster," but finishing the book and thinking that was a bit harsh. It was bizarre and confusing, but I just didn't get any real sense of Jean-Baptiste's motives, thought processes or methods.
In contrast, I thought the movie was very well done and very visceral, and helped me understand the character a lot more (and also succeeded more in portraying him as a "monster.")
Jean-Baptiste (JB) is born in 18th century Paris, left for dead by his mother under the table where she works in the fish market, but is saved only to be sent to an orphanage. The only thing that makes JB unique is his unnaturally powerful sense of smell (he can smell glass, for instance). Through a series of chance circumstances, he comes to work for a perfumer (Dustin Hoffman, who I thought had an awful French accent until I realized he was supposed to be Italian) in hopes of learning the secrets of preserving scent. He had previously encountered a beautiful young woman whose tantalizing scent he followed through the streets like a bloodhound, but sadly he killed her accidently and the odor was lost forever. This becomes his motive through the entire movie, to find and capture that scent and keep it always.
Hoffman teaches him about the 12 notes (ingredients) that go into a great perfume (4 head chords, 4 heart chords, 4 base chords), plus an elusive 13th note that magically brings the 12 to life. JB tries to experiment with preserving human scent on a prostitute, who gets a little skeeved out by his request and refuses, forcing him to kill her to continue the attempt. When this is successful, he then goes on a killing spree, collecting the scents of 12 beautiful women. The 13th crucial note has to come from Laura, the daughter of Rickman (at last! A mere 1 hour and 5 minutes into the film), whose scent reminds him the strongest of his first obsession. Despite her father's extraordinary lengths to protect her, JB catches up with her at last and his work is done (partially her father's fault, if you ask me; he takes her miles and miles out of the city to a remote monastery, locks her securely in her bedroom, but then leaves the key in full view on the bedstand while he sleeps instead of, oh I don't know, on a chain around his neck? Locked in a strongbox? Buried somewhere?) Unforunately he is arrested soon after and sentenced to death. Unfortunately too, this is where the movie becomes truly bizarre and had me saying aloud to no one at all, "Oh COME ON."
He's imprisoned with nothing but the scraps of filthy clothing on his back, yet is allowed to keep the bottle full of precious perfume in his pocket. When he's brought out to the pillory, he inexplicably dons a fine blue suit befitting a prince before dabbing on his perfume. As he steps out of the horsedrawn carriage (and I mean "carriage" as in what you see royalty riding around in, not the plain cart you'd expect to see a prisoner be taken to his death in) and wafts his magical scent over the crowd, they fall under his spell, crying out in joy that he is an angel, rushing forward to touch him lovingly, and then (god, I wish I was kidding), they all strip off their clothes and have a massive orgy.
It was so bizarre I thought for sure it had to be a dream sequence. And I didn't remember it at all at all from the book.
Fortunately Rickman is spared rutting like an animal (which, don't get me wrong, normally I'd be fully in support of), but he does run to the pillory meaning to carry out the sentence himself, then catches a whiff and falls to his knees weeping and begging JB's forgiveness. Oh now COME ON.
JB calmly walks away from the pillory, realizes that adoration from the masses isn't what he wanted after all (I learned from the making of featurette), and douses himself in the perfume to be torn apart in a bacchic frenzy, only to disappear completely from the earth without a trace. THAT I remember from the book.
The movie is beautifully shot, and I didn't realize what I liked about it until I read a review comparing it to Amelie. That's it exactly: frames deeply saturated in color and John Hurt's amusing voice-over narrative make this very similar. The young man who plays JB (Ben Whishaw) was perfect: at times handsome and sympathetic, at times unsettling and indeed monstrous. I see at IMDb that he's playing Keith Richards in an upcoming film and the resemblance occasionally is quite uncanny.
As I said, the movie helps a lot in making him seem more like a monster. Whether as a result of his orphaned, abused upbringing or something else, he is simply inhuman and incapable of forming a normal relationship with another person. All he cares about is smell; even when stalking his victims, he's not remotely interested in them sexually, only in transferring their essence to a bottle.
Alan is, needless to say, excellent. He gets to run (AGAIN), and his reaction to discovering his dead daughter is just heart-wrenching. However, I'm hardly the expert on fashion, but I just don't get the powdered wig thing. He looked kind of silly in his, then finally at the end we get to see him in his natural, graying blond hair and he is absolutely mouth-watering.
In summary, the movie is gorgeous to look at, the story is enthralling and the acting is superb (even the non-Rickman actors), until that stupid orgy scene at the end makes it all unravel. I didn't like it enough to buy it, but certainly enough to copy it. 3 out of 5
- I love London, but it's just so vast compared to Denver (or any city I've visited). At this point in my life I've spent almost an entire month there and still feel like I haven't seen half of what it has to offer. Jeff and his family are thinking of coming to America next year sometime and I feel like I have to start planning NOW how to entertain them in Denver, because there's just no comparison. I mean, most of the city shuts down at 10 p.m.!
- Londoners have absolutely no sense of personal space, I noticed almost immediately. They're used to being surrounded by lots of people all the time. I am not. I feel I adapted pretty quickly (riding the tube everywhere helped), but I'm really a small-town country girl at heart and I need to breathe; Denver is really as "big city" as I can handle on a full-time basis. Though I did admire the convenience and efficiency of public transportation in London. Denver still has a ways to go in that department unfortunately.
- Here's one picture I forgot to post:
Daddy's Little Girl
Roxana was the sweetest little girl when she was happy and smiling. But like with most 2-year-olds, when she reached her full fury, I wanted to be several continents away. I decided that the worst 10 seconds in the world are those between a child's first tantrum cry, and the second one while they're taking a really, really big breath. Fortunately this didn't happen very often. As with most children, it took her a day or two to warm up to me, and thereafter she couldn't get enough. I worried about traumatizing her with my departure, but Jeff assured me within 12 hours she would erase me from her memory completely.
- One thing I forgot to mention was the delay in my plane taking off from London. After a half hour of waiting at the gate, the pilot announced that a passenger had "gone missing" and they had to remove their luggage from the plane as a security precaution. Don't know what that was all about, but I'm thankful the Brits were on top of it.
~*~
As much as I loved England, I missed sleeping in my own bed, and I missed especially my internet. I arrived home to discover all these things had been released in my absence. I leave for a few days....
- Marilyn Manson: Eat Me, Drink Me -- I know Marilyn's not very popular in my circles, but I still keep buying his stuff. I loved Mechanical Animals (where Marilyn first discovered melody) and keep hoping for a return to that. In this CD I finally got it. The catchy melodies of Animals style combined with Tim Skold's industrial guitar riffs work well, and it sounds like Tim also talked Marilyn into venturing into the world of guitar solos for the first time. Throw in Marilyn's growling vocals and this was love at first listen for me.
- Linkin Park: Minutes to Midnight -- Another band most of my friends will probably be appalled to know I listen to. I can't help it. Chester sounds like the lovechild of a Backstreet Boy and Trent Reznor. A very angry boy band, if you will. I haven't listened to this all the way through yet, but I'll bet some fans will be disgusted by it. It sounds softer than previous albums, with lots of whining about the war and the terrible price paid by the poor who have few options other than to enlist. Like these guys know anything about it.
- South Park Season Ten -- Most of the episodes in this season are kind of hit or miss (for instance, when Oprah's minge and asshole not only talk (in male British accents, no less), but take hostages in hopes that she'll stop working so hard and play with them once in awhile. Seems like Matt and Trey can afford fancier designer drugs with all their fame. Don't even get me started on the Al Gore "Manbearpig" episode). But this season includes the World of Warcraft episode, which is absolutely brilliant and worth the purchase price alone. Even funnier than when the boys become anime ninjas!
- Last but absolutely not least, Serenity 2-Disc Collector's Edition -- Whatwhatwhat???!!?!!?!? How did THIS slip under my radar? (especially considering I've been shopping for Firefly stuff for weeks??) The website gives no indication of how gorgeous the packaging of this disc is. The front of the case is a plastic panel with just River, and the case beneath has Mal and the ship. The back of the box has a classy monochromatic holographic picture of some of the characters in action poses. This version thoughtfully includes all the features from the previous release (if the industry MUST double dip, I prefer they do it this way so I don't have to keep multiple copies of one movie on my shelf). And Joss and Nathan Fillion should do commentary for every movie ever made. That's all I'll say about that.
~*~
Finally, a movie review.
lizzieloudotcom asked if I planned to endure Perfume: Story of a Murderer in the name of my Rickman love, and I did. I actually read this book in college for probably a Modern Lit class. I remember most of it. I remember more the professor introducing the book by describing the protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, as a "monster," but finishing the book and thinking that was a bit harsh. It was bizarre and confusing, but I just didn't get any real sense of Jean-Baptiste's motives, thought processes or methods.
In contrast, I thought the movie was very well done and very visceral, and helped me understand the character a lot more (and also succeeded more in portraying him as a "monster.")
Jean-Baptiste (JB) is born in 18th century Paris, left for dead by his mother under the table where she works in the fish market, but is saved only to be sent to an orphanage. The only thing that makes JB unique is his unnaturally powerful sense of smell (he can smell glass, for instance). Through a series of chance circumstances, he comes to work for a perfumer (Dustin Hoffman, who I thought had an awful French accent until I realized he was supposed to be Italian) in hopes of learning the secrets of preserving scent. He had previously encountered a beautiful young woman whose tantalizing scent he followed through the streets like a bloodhound, but sadly he killed her accidently and the odor was lost forever. This becomes his motive through the entire movie, to find and capture that scent and keep it always.
Hoffman teaches him about the 12 notes (ingredients) that go into a great perfume (4 head chords, 4 heart chords, 4 base chords), plus an elusive 13th note that magically brings the 12 to life. JB tries to experiment with preserving human scent on a prostitute, who gets a little skeeved out by his request and refuses, forcing him to kill her to continue the attempt. When this is successful, he then goes on a killing spree, collecting the scents of 12 beautiful women. The 13th crucial note has to come from Laura, the daughter of Rickman (at last! A mere 1 hour and 5 minutes into the film), whose scent reminds him the strongest of his first obsession. Despite her father's extraordinary lengths to protect her, JB catches up with her at last and his work is done (partially her father's fault, if you ask me; he takes her miles and miles out of the city to a remote monastery, locks her securely in her bedroom, but then leaves the key in full view on the bedstand while he sleeps instead of, oh I don't know, on a chain around his neck? Locked in a strongbox? Buried somewhere?) Unforunately he is arrested soon after and sentenced to death. Unfortunately too, this is where the movie becomes truly bizarre and had me saying aloud to no one at all, "Oh COME ON."
He's imprisoned with nothing but the scraps of filthy clothing on his back, yet is allowed to keep the bottle full of precious perfume in his pocket. When he's brought out to the pillory, he inexplicably dons a fine blue suit befitting a prince before dabbing on his perfume. As he steps out of the horsedrawn carriage (and I mean "carriage" as in what you see royalty riding around in, not the plain cart you'd expect to see a prisoner be taken to his death in) and wafts his magical scent over the crowd, they fall under his spell, crying out in joy that he is an angel, rushing forward to touch him lovingly, and then (god, I wish I was kidding), they all strip off their clothes and have a massive orgy.
It was so bizarre I thought for sure it had to be a dream sequence. And I didn't remember it at all at all from the book.
Fortunately Rickman is spared rutting like an animal (which, don't get me wrong, normally I'd be fully in support of), but he does run to the pillory meaning to carry out the sentence himself, then catches a whiff and falls to his knees weeping and begging JB's forgiveness. Oh now COME ON.
JB calmly walks away from the pillory, realizes that adoration from the masses isn't what he wanted after all (I learned from the making of featurette), and douses himself in the perfume to be torn apart in a bacchic frenzy, only to disappear completely from the earth without a trace. THAT I remember from the book.
The movie is beautifully shot, and I didn't realize what I liked about it until I read a review comparing it to Amelie. That's it exactly: frames deeply saturated in color and John Hurt's amusing voice-over narrative make this very similar. The young man who plays JB (Ben Whishaw) was perfect: at times handsome and sympathetic, at times unsettling and indeed monstrous. I see at IMDb that he's playing Keith Richards in an upcoming film and the resemblance occasionally is quite uncanny.
As I said, the movie helps a lot in making him seem more like a monster. Whether as a result of his orphaned, abused upbringing or something else, he is simply inhuman and incapable of forming a normal relationship with another person. All he cares about is smell; even when stalking his victims, he's not remotely interested in them sexually, only in transferring their essence to a bottle.
Alan is, needless to say, excellent. He gets to run (AGAIN), and his reaction to discovering his dead daughter is just heart-wrenching. However, I'm hardly the expert on fashion, but I just don't get the powdered wig thing. He looked kind of silly in his, then finally at the end we get to see him in his natural, graying blond hair and he is absolutely mouth-watering.
In summary, the movie is gorgeous to look at, the story is enthralling and the acting is superb (even the non-Rickman actors), until that stupid orgy scene at the end makes it all unravel. I didn't like it enough to buy it, but certainly enough to copy it. 3 out of 5
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Someone at work saw that I had Marilyn Manson on my iPod (on the EAZ Musical Odyssey play list) and was SHOCKED! 'Oh please,' I rolled my eyes, 'you're so silly.' Then one of my eyes got stuck that way and she screamed and ran away.
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I also preferred Shaun to HF, but yeah. I think the sun shines out of Simon Pegg's arse and will watch just about anything with him too (the Simpsons Movie came with a trailer for "Run Fatboy Run" in London. Look for it on YouTube, it looks pricelessly funny).
People are so silly, being scared of Marilyn without ever bothering to listen to him. But being scared of your eye getting stuck is perfectly reasonable. Are you suggesting you'd like to hear some tracks from "Eat Me"?
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I did read the main London post, and all I can really say is that I'm so incredibly jealous. I've always wanted to make my way out across the pond, but it's going to be a while. And by then I'll be too old to attract naive British boys. It's almost enough to make me cry. But I'm still glad you had such a good time, I knew how much you'd been looking foward to it. So I can't be all that upset about it. :)
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I recommend it to everyone, though preferably in about 10 years when airlines regain their sanity about ticket prices.
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I can't think of what else I was going to say, because I am stuck on the idea that you not only buy that music - buy it, pay for it with money - but are looking forward to it! This from the person who introduced me to Muse! Head-shaking indeed.
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It turns out the movie was not copy-able (couldn't get the sound right). So I ended up buying it. Apart from that disastrous last 10 minutes, I stand by my opinion that the rest of it is very good.