|
Post by numbat on Jun 27, 2009 7:12:35 GMT
Well, well, well. What IS going on here - i left this thread last night having a reserved and in depth discussion about Rufus's acting skills and the merits of this deeply disturbing piece of cinema, and come back this morning to find it has sunk into a completely shallow discussion of SEX SCENES - come on now people!!! What has happened while i was innocently dreaming of Charles II belly, brought on by last nights viewing of this: CHARLES II PIC DELETEDI barely think i can participate in this discussion for fear of being scolded by GE2 - but seeing as I DID NOT START IT - maybe i'll just add a couple of thoughts (not that i've ever thought about this subject before). Now firstly, i agree with rueful that i'm concerned about being rather disappointed with the sex in POTE for the very reasons she said - people, we may have to face the fact that young girlies do not view our Roof as quite as sexy & virile as we do (hence the Franco fiasco). Also, as the book goes on, Tom takes a lesser and lesser role as the young people become more prominent - so i think the best we have to hope for is the sex in the forest scene in the first episode or two - and surely they have to keep that one in because it does seem fairly crucial to the story. Secondly, do you think there's any chance of some very clever technologically advanced woman amongst us being able to put together a "best of" youtube video. Then, instead of having to trawl through endless hours of, you know, acting & storylines, we could just get all the juicy bits of our favourite DVD's together in one 3 minute package - because honestly, it feels like if we put them all together we would only get about 3 minutes of actual action anyway!!! I think we need to thank the irreverent tipou for that wonderful summary (it could only have been improved by photographic evidence!!!) - i obviously need to get hold of She Creature & In A Savage Land fairly smartly. And of course TOTS was only let down by a distinct lack of nakedness!!!! Charles II is fairly satisfying in terms of variety, frequency, positioning, smutty language & innuendo but as tip said, what we are still lacking is a complete scene with a beginning, middle and end!!! The Honest Courtesan probably meets all criterium fairly well starting with Marco THROWING her on the bed, a good (really good) amount of nudity and rolling around (um, what IS Marco doing in that shot where he is next to her and she is looking up at the ceiling - i don't think it's just a nibble of the ear having that effect!!!), but it's still just not quite............ enough. And as if to save us from ourselves, the whole scene has been summarised in the screencaps with this clever piece of innuendo: Gee, anyone would have thought that we couldn't be trusted!!!! ;D
|
|
|
Post by dirtygirldiva on Jun 27, 2009 7:24:08 GMT
|
|
|
Post by tipou on Jun 27, 2009 7:38:33 GMT
NUMBAT i knew we would agree in the end. how brilliant.
truly, there are tears in my eyes, as i applaud in earnest.
brava!!! bravissima!!!
(now, how do we get this "best of" video done, already.)
|
|
|
Post by judypatooty on Jun 27, 2009 13:51:55 GMT
Hahaha! Thank you, numbat!!
|
|
|
Post by rueful on Jun 28, 2009 3:44:52 GMT
You mean there was no image of a train gondola going into a tunnel?
|
|
|
Post by numbat on Jun 28, 2009 3:52:47 GMT
LOL, no thank goodness!!!! But i swear there are no screen caps of that scene other than that photo and one shot of them kissing!!! Similarly, Charles II and Catharine when they finally have their intimate moment - i tell you, someone has decided that we can't be trusted!!!
|
|
|
Post by rueful on Jun 28, 2009 13:49:10 GMT
I wonder why, when we've shown ourselves to be so trustworthy?
|
|
|
Post by numbat on Jun 28, 2009 14:04:41 GMT
Indeed rueful, indeed!!!!
|
|
|
Post by peach on Jun 29, 2009 1:35:24 GMT
numbat, how very well put. Yes when does the highlight reel come out??? Tip who can we speak to, to put that together???
|
|
|
Post by wichiwoman on Jul 4, 2009 20:29:57 GMT
I just watched this again. Is Albert in a different house at the end when he's watching the VCR and reading Nancy's emails? The kitchen doesn't look the same as it did during the first part of the movie. (Sorry if this has been covered before and I missed it.)
|
|
|
Post by vmaciv on Jul 5, 2009 4:39:15 GMT
Here is my prediction. Tom Builder is a prominent figure until about 4 hours into the movie. I think he will have some real love scenes with Ellen because they are important to understanding how the "boys" reacted to this. Tom Builder actually dies mid way through the book and therefore I expect the same. But the character of Tom Builder is every inch a concerned, loving husband and father as well as a rather courageous man. I hope that Rufus gets a chance to play the full character and somehow I do not think he would have taken the part if he did not get a chance to do it. I think in terms of sex scenes for all the characters they will not be the focus. I suspect the intrigue and the Cathredal will be. If the Scot Brothers do this then they will do justice to the book and all the characters.
|
|
|
Post by kate2009 on Jul 5, 2009 14:34:56 GMT
....................................
|
|
|
Post by eleanor on Jul 8, 2009 16:18:05 GMT
|
|
|
Post by numbat on Feb 4, 2010 1:09:04 GMT
Have moved this post from Downloading Nancy thread because it does contain spoilers and this is where we have really been discussing the movie - among other things (just in case anyone was confused!!!!!)Am wrung out and sobbing, so forgive me if this is a bit rambling and nonsensical. DN arrived from Amazon today - had watched it before (online) & discussed it at length (with tipou i think) so knew what i was letting myself in for. But what i wasn't prepared for was the difference between seeing this online and seeing it on DVD on my reasonably big flatscreen - so i can only imagine what it was like watching it in a cinema. The first time i guess what came across as most memorable was Nancy and her violent tendencies and the things she had Louis do to her. This time what struck me most was Albert's grief. What i feel strongly this time was that Albert was the victim. Nancy had no desire to live - she blamed him & their marriage whilst inexplicably still adoring her uncle and the way he made her feel when he was "hurting" her at the age of 7. Nothing in her life could measure up to that. Louis even offered her a reprieve at the end - he showed her the passion she said she craved and told her he loved her and didn't want her to die, but that was what she ultimately wanted. She didn't really want a better marriage or a better husband or passion or love - she wanted to escape life - to die. But through the selfish, childish attitude of her illness, she left behind a man whose life was forever broken, who would always blame himself for the choice that she ultimately made. He did react from the first moment she was missing and never for a moment stopped wondering and talking to his "friends" and wandering round the house picturing her and questioning her absence. He couldn't call the police because what would they have done when she'd left a note saying she was visting friends. It was over a year after Louis went to jail that Albert was still sitting in that house rereading those emails and the haunted look in his eyes is one of pure despair. She escaped and left him with the ruins of a life. I wonder if "outsiders" feel the same after watching this, or do we just feel Rufus's pain so much more acutely. It was almost unbearable to watch.
|
|
|
Post by numbat on Feb 4, 2010 5:43:15 GMT
Ok - my final thoughts on DN (haven't gone back and read what we talked about last year so hopefully i'm not just repeating the same old garbage!!!).
The thing with this film that makes it difficult to watch is that - apart from Nancy's behaviour - everything in it is so normal. Nothing has been glamourised or given the movie/tv treatment. Granted they have maybe overplayed the drabness by picking monotone coloured settings and clothes, but really - if you look around - how many of us truly have brightly coloured walls in every room in the house packed with quirky pictures and knick knacks, or fabulous views from every window, or multi-million dollar apartments in big cities??? I think we've become so used to movies presenting the world as better than it really is that when we come across a movie like this, it's hard to accept the "boringness" of real life.
There is no real soundtrack - no movie music to uplift us or manipulate us into feeling a certain way. There is just an odd synthesised backing that accompanies scenes that have no dialogue.
I don't think there's any makeup to speak of - the characters look like normal middle aged people complete with crows feet, open pores, blotchy skin & shaving rash (& yes that includes Rufus!!).
Clothes & furniture are not glamourous, Albert has a normal, boring job, he comes home & does normal, boring things just like we all do (if in doubt just refer to "The Last Thing You Did" thread for a full account of the amount of laundry and cooking and cleaning out of litter trays that WE do on a day to day basis!!!). We consider him mundane & uptight but if a camera followed you around when you got home to an empty house, how much more exciting would your life really be? He makes a drink, opens the mail, has a shower, reads a note from his wife, wanders around, talks to his workmate on the phone.
And in the middle of all this normality is Nancy, whose mental illness makes her childish and self centred, makes her seek out pain, makes her unable to accept help or see that she is destroying her relationship, makes her want to escape real life. Whilst for Albert, real life is all there is.
Because this is a movie, we expect him to be a hero, to step up and "save" her, but he doesn't and i think that's what we don't like about him. He's not Marco or Lord Marke or Petruchio or Mick Carpenter. He's just a normal bloke who is stuck in a dysfunctional marriage with a mentally ill - but outwardly functioning - woman. Yes, he should have done more, yes it was happening in front of him and he was hoping she would just get better and "snap out of it" but in actual reality, isn't it more likely that he, being a normal, ill equipped person, doesn't save her? When a person in Nancy's situation refuses to accept help, refuses to see the wrong in the path she is travelling, finds an enabler like Louis who is willing to help her achieve what she wants, what is a normal person like Albert to do? All he could ever have done is to have her committed to a mental institution and without the knowlege that we the audience had of her intentions, why would he have done that?
I love this conversation that Albert has, basically with himself, whilst feeding Louis cereal (sorry about the fruity language): "Sometimes I see prostitutes. Just pay em and get it over with. No mess. You think that's wrong in a dead marriage? F*** you, scumbag. That's why we couldn't end it. Couldn't handle the mess, watching her lose it. Maybe I'm not such a talker when it comes to f***ing communication. Living here in this perfect house. F***ing perfect bullS**t way of life. But I am what I am. What the f*** do I know?"
Instead of understanding that the marriage was slowly killing Nancy (and himself), he held it together FOR her, thinking that she couldn't handle the stress of a breakup. That's just typical man thinking - that's why so many of them don't understand why their wives turn around when the kids leave home and want a divorce. All along they thought they were doing the right thing, holding it together for the family whilst their wives are miserable and lonely (no reference to my own happy marriage to Mr Numbat of course!!!!).
After it all happened, Albert was destroyed. His life fell apart, he blamed himself (as wichi quite rightly pointed out, he was in a different apartment at the end so he probably lost the house). He was watching a video of the news report saying that it was a year since Louis had been sent to jail, so who's to know exactly how long after the event that scene was set. Yet he was still reading the emails and still had the bloodied razorblade in the bathroom cabinet.
As I said in the previous post, Nancy got what she wanted - release from her unhappiness, while Albert was left with a life of despair & guilt. And being a normal person, he won't find true hollywood love around the next corner - he will just live with it for the rest of his days.
I love him for that though - for his pain and his shaving rash and his socks and his imperfections.
But then, "what the f*** do i know?"
|
|