What I have been watching recently

[nineveh_uk]

Cinderella, Scottish Ballet. So it turns out that what I really like in ballet is plot. There were fewer dance pyrotechnics in Scottish Ballet's production than in my recent cinematic Nutcracker, but I know very little about dance technicalities, and all I can say is that the choreography was charming, dancing looked very good to me, the orchestra was excellent, and Cinderella actually has a proper story*. As is the mark of a good ballet, I spent the next couple of days balancing on one leg and pirouetting around the place. The dancer playing the Prince had an extraordinarily young face that looked about 16, though the internet tells me he is about 26, which worked really well in terms of plot and characterisation.

All that plus the fantastic Edinburgh Festival Theatre, which has stalls the price of a London upper balcony containing comfy seats, ample legroom, good sightlines, and in the foyer a large bar and decent lavatories (the latter not actually in the foyer).

Carol, dir. Todd Haynes. I strategically skipped this in Oxford as it was on later in Edinburgh, which meant I got to go with my father and youngest sister (Mum being under the weather stayed at home). It was terrific, beautifully acted, and shot with enormous sympathy for the complex characters. While obviously the main focus of the film and its critical attention is the central love story, it also has quite a lot to say about class and how this relates to Carol and Therese's specific situations and options. I shall definitely be seeing it on DVD and will be going back to look again at Haynes' earlier Far from Heaven, to which it feels something of a companion piece.

Star Wars A good straightforward fun space adventure film, it does what it sets out to do, and it entertains the audience while doing it. Characters aren't deep, but they are deftly sketched by the story and feel plausible, and the plot moves at a good clip while remaining comprehensible, and it was blessedly free from stopping the action for pointless thumping. It looks good, the music is stirring, and it has Harriet Walter flirting with Chewbacca**. In short, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and I look forwards to the next one.

And Then There Were None What with one thing and another we didn't end up watching a lot of Christmas TV, but this was terrific. Gripping throughout, growing more and more tense as it progressed, and though I've not read the book the fairly minor alterations seem to have been neatly done. Performances were strong all round, but Maeve Dermody should be particularly recognised as an utterly convincing Vera. Personally, I like to think that were I trapped on the island with a serial killer I'd consider setting fire to the house, but on the other hand I would not be hampered in my actions by worrying about being exposed as a murderer.

All Aboard! The Sleigh Ride Christmas Eve on BBC4 ventured into Slow TV territory with this delightful two-hour film of a couple of women driving reindeer sleighs through northern Norway. It looks very cold, and very snowy, and there is no soundtrack beyond the ambient noise, and we taped it and it was perfect to watch on Boxing Day morning.

*Though I note the Wikipedia summary "After travelling across the world and meeting princesses with no success, the Prince begins to search his own kingdom, trying the slipper on every maiden who attended the ball. Back at Cinderella's home, love has allowed the Prince to defy the laws of time and space; though it is only the morning after the ball, he has already travelled the world and back again in search of his love."

**I'm wondering how that casting conversation went.

Comments

[tree_and_leaf]

blessedly free from stopping the action for pointless thumping

I could have done with a bit less of the Rathtar (sp?), and I suspect that future years won't be kind to those effects - but compared with the last Star Trek, or, for that matter, the Hobbit films, it was so much more restrained that complaints seem churlish.

[nineveh_uk]

I didn't mind the Rathtar, but I could have cut a bit more of the "weird patrons of the alien bar". But as you say, compared to ST:ID and the Hobbit it was very restrained. I feel that the art of making films that are no longer than they should be is an important and underrated one. There's the usual problem of being able to cross the galaxy in about five minutes, but that's probably something that just has to be accepted as the price of admission.

[aella_irene]

Housemate and I watched and loved And Then There Were None. We agreed that Vera and Philip Lombard were the horrible terrible no good murder couple of our hearts.

[nineveh_uk]

They were indeed awful people who truly deserved one another in a way that had lots of chemistry and viewer fascination.

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

Personally, I like to think that were I trapped on the island with a serial killer I'd consider setting fire to the house, but on the other hand I would not be hampered in my actions by worrying about being exposed as a murderer.
I found myself thinking even before the murders started just how unpleasant a situation it would be to have to attend a 1930s house party with a load of complete strangers on an island with no chance of escape. I'd be tempted to start a fire first thing.

(I liked And Then There Were None, but I preferred the book, I think; I found it much scarier and more effective at conveying the atmosphere of claustrophobic paranoia. I also felt that some of the changes in the adaptation weakened the plot slightly, by making more of the victims out-and-out murderers rather than those with plausible deniability; the latter feels scarier because of how they try to convince themselves and others that they haven't done anything so terrible, despite the fact that they totally have.)

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

Have you seen any Northern Ballet theatre productions? Absolutely amazing and I'm rather excited about 1984 which tours this year.

[sonetka.livejournal.com]

THAT WAS HARRIET WALTER? I enjoyed the movie a lot (fun popcorn flick, lots of good moments, just like the original) but totally missed that that was her! (Though I got the impression that the flirting was mostly on Chewbacca's side). I think that's because in my head she's still somewhere between Harriet Vane and Fanny Dashwood in terms of appearance. I'd been wanting to see the movie again anyway but this has definitely moved it up on the priority list :). I would like to see Carol very much but it means carving out time to go the inconveniently-located arty theater, but I may manage next weekend -- I haven't heard from anyone who *didn't* like it and that's a good sign.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I found the claustrophobic paranoia of the TV series very effective. If the book does it even better I'm impressed!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I have! Most recently Cinderella (http://nineveh-uk.livejournal.com/303304.html), but also their Dracula (fantastic), and a couple of others in the more dim and distant past. I really want to see 1984 - I loved the book when I was 11/12 (read because it was mentioned in The Demon Headmaster as a book that clever Dinah had read), and I haven't dared read it since middle school in case it didn't live up to it!

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

I saw the NBT's Dracula in the early 1990s and Dad and I still talk about how good it was. The only bad note I've ever seen was in Romeo and Juliet when Romeo looked in his 40s and it was all a bit creepy... They did an excellent Christmas Carol and A Midsummer Night's Dream set on a train.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

It was Harriet Walter! I knew that she had a cameo, so I was looking out for her, but I'd been expecting her to be an evil general or similar (and also I saw her live twice earlier this year, so I know what she looks like :-) ).

Carol was excellent. My sister, who is less interested in 'arty' films, was less enamoured of it than Dad and I were, but still enjoyed it. Worth a trip to the less convenient place!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I saw their Romeo and Juliet when I was a teenager, but fortunately with a less creepy Romeo. My favourite bit was the Dance of the Knights.

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

My Dad saw it a couple of days before with a different Romeo and when we conferred during the interval he agreed that the other Romeo was less...predatory. I don't know how old the dancer actually was, but he had a very hollow face which did not become the role...

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

I still remember my first reading of the book and the glowering sense of horror as the outcome became inevitable. I don't remember the housekeeper being quite so much of a victim in the book, but I don't think I've read it since university. Those nightmares were fun, but not quite as bad as the result of reading Crooked House late at night.

Has Burn Gorman aged at all in the past decade?

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Maybe that undead!Owen plot in Torchwood was closer to reality than we realised...

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. It sounds like he would have been a better Dracula!

[mrs-redboots.livejournal.com]

I was riveted by the sleigh ride, but the rest of my family scratched frightful dirt on it.....

[sonetka.livejournal.com]

"Good heavens! You raise all sorts of objections to a perfectly amiable and reasonably virtuous man like myself, and the next thing I hear is that you are wallowing in the disgusting embraces of a Wookiee. Upon my soul! I don't know what the modern galaxy is coming to."

One of these years I will have to make it over to London to see some of these people live. Alas, it's too late to see Rickman, but there are many others I'd love to see while it's still possible.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

My parents watched it twice! Though doing other things the second time, there are limits. I loved the lack of soundtrack, and hearing the ambient noise.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Peter might have a point there. It would be quite a crossover!

You'll have to watch out for the next Donmar Warehouse trip to New York...

I wish I had seen Rickman. I have long regretted not going to Dublin to see him in John Gabriel Borkman, a play I've really wanted to see.

[mrs-redboots.livejournal.com]

So did I. I can't think why nobody else in my family liked it!