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Post by maz on May 6, 2009 16:48:22 GMT
I liked it enough to buy it, only to see the lovely marke tho.
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Post by eleanor on May 6, 2009 20:24:24 GMT
Hi maz, I enjoyed T&I but unfortunately it was a little spoiled for me because James Franco was so bad. I cannot understand why he was cast? Rufus was, as always, superb. As you say, a very human character and such a wonderful actor. He mesmerizes me. I did not find this film all together so good and was disappointed on the whole but certainly not from Rufus's point of view, just the whole production. In my opinion, it could have been better. Love Elliexx Ummmmm, who watches James Franco? probably no one...I've had more fun watching paint dry.. |
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Post by kate2009 on May 7, 2009 11:51:19 GMT
I liked it enough to buy it, only to see the lovely marke tho. Sorry, I mean I don't think the story is good, but RS is great... |
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Post by numbat on Jun 4, 2009 2:55:43 GMT
OK, I need to get T&I off my chest now because Lord Marke is haunting my dreams. He is the ultimate erotic combination of power, sexuality & tenderness. & i don't believe it was the script or the director or the producers which made him this way - it was simply Rufus. The producers said that initially they had doubts about casting him in this role because he always played, yes, baddies, but when they met him he was utterly charming. Throughout the commentary version, they spoke of Rufus knowing exactly how to play certain scenes and mesmerising the crew with his performances. For me, i think it's the touching - Rufus has beautiful, beautiful hands & lovely long fingers & he uses them brilliantly. From the moment Isolde steps out of the carriage he touches her constantly & lovingly. The tenderness he conveys through these touches is pure love & would certainly not have been written into the script. As for the kissing, well, don't let me get started on the exquisite gentleness of his tender lips (sorry girls). There is just no way that we can buy the traditional idea of Isolde being revulsed by Marke on her wedding night (i only hope Rufus has the good sense to realise that this doesn't have to be restricted to the screen - if he really loves like Lord Marke i have trouble understanding how he could ever, for a single minute, be unattached!!!). So, Tristan ............................ what is to be said about Tristan. Not much. I think i'll leave it at that. This was a movie made for the teenage market & i'm on the wrong side of 30, so read up on some comments here & there about James Franco from, you know, "young people" & they seem to think he's hot, so maybe the issue was not so much to get us to love Tristan, but to get the teenage girls to love Marke. Interestingly, the angle for this movie was the love triangle, rather than just the traditional legend of their elicit love bringing down an empire. & for that there needed to be a ....... love triangle. It made me smile when the producer said that the second love scene between Marke & Isolde (where she is clearly kissing him back - well why wouldn't you - i don't expect poor Sophia has been the same since!!!) was controversial - as she started the scene passionately making out with Tristan - but they wanted to show the audience her dilemma (mmmmmmmm dilemma?  ? excuse me - surely no dilemma here). So maybe, just maybe, Ridley Scott did achieve what he wanted in the telling of this tale - the ultimate love triangle? & for that to happen, Marke simply had to be a larger than life, drop dead gorgeous, tender, passionate man amongst men to make even the shallowest teenage girl understand the concept. & even though i'm not a teenage girl, i still cried .............. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcRUxgYNEc8 |
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Post by eleanor on Jun 4, 2009 8:08:13 GMT
Numbat, you have conveyed your thoughts and opinions on Tristan and Isolde beautifully (are you a writer?) I have singled out the above quote from your post because you have summed up my thoughts and feelings about Rufus exactly. I really do enjoy your posts.
Rufus for me is a sublime actor whose qualities have captured me completely. From all those years ago back in 1993-4, I knew that he was 'something else' and he won me entirely. It is a real pleasure to read your posts, thank you.
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Post by rueful on Jun 4, 2009 13:33:57 GMT
Another wonderful review, numbat! You're right, Rufus gave the character a depth that was not provided at all by the script. I have never heard the commentary, so it's very interesting to hear some of those insights. I would be very curious to see this with some relatively intelligent teenage girls and see who they fall for. The only reviews I have read are by adults, who of course are unanimous in their agreement that Rufus stole the show. I thought Sophia Myles also was wonderful, even managing to stay real as all of her acting skills bounced, unabsorbed, right back at her off the soggy wooden face of Franco. Rufus was so amazing in this role and Franco was so miscast that it just seems so unbelievable to me that even young girls would think Tristan the better choice. On the other hand, I think back to the summer all my friends drooled over Matt Dillon, preferring him to the obviously superior (in looks, charm, and intelligence) Armand Assante in Little Darlings.* So maybe it's foolish of me to think that girls now would be any less susceptible to floppy hair.** *Gosh, I had good taste, even then.  **Gosh, I sound like my mother. |
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Post by numbat on Jun 5, 2009 2:32:55 GMT
Hahahaha, thanks Eleanor - no i'm not a writer by any stretch of the imagination - obviously Rufus is having some surreal effect on me!!!. Oh, i wish i'd been hooked back in 93/94 like you because i'd have had all these wonderful years of Rufus lust admiration. I did get married that year so maybe i wasn't paying attention to other men (look what 15 years of monogamy marriage can do to you!!!). Now my daughter is only young, but i do have a friend with a 14 year old and the boys she describes as "hot" just make us laugh!!! So from a pure attraction (ie, not acting ability or talent) POV, maybe we can never understand the appeal that James Franco has for teenage girls. Having just watched A Knights Tale though, surely lovely young Heath would have been a better choice back then. He was cute & funny & sexy & unlike Franco, could actually act. My lovely 9 year old son has that blonde hair, blue eyed, West Australian beaches & sunshine thing going on, and he goes to drama class & would love to act one day. But now i'm just getting teary about the loss of Heath.................. So back to Lord Marke (who also gets me teary with his sheer magnificence), it was good to know in the end that (supposedly) he went on to defeat the Irish & lived as King to the end of his days. At least we know he wouldn't have died of smallpox with his vaccination scar being very much visible on his left shoulder throughout the bedroom scenes - he was certainly a man ahead of his time!!! (of course i only noticed this in passing, i would never have played those scenes in slo mo to watch his delicious chest, or the kissing, or the hands.................) ;D |
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Post by rueful on Jun 5, 2009 14:13:57 GMT
ROFLMAO! Hilarious observation, numbat! I never noticed that scar. I guess I was too focused on other body parts.
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Post by numbat on Jun 6, 2009 3:55:05 GMT
That's totally understandable in the circumstances Rue!!! |
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Post by numbat on Jun 10, 2009 1:55:59 GMT
Ok, because i am completely besotted with Marke & am unable to understand how any living, breathing woman over the age of 14 could possibly be in love with Franco, i present to you "What Isolde would really have been thinking if Marke was Rufus & Tristan was Franco" I hope it's not too sappy, but it is a romance after all!!! Sorry that it's a little bit long but i have edited it down as much as i could. And rufluvr, i resisted the temptation to use the phrase "& his other lovely bits" in the 3rd sentence even tho i desperately wanted to!!!! What Isolde Was Really Thinking: Isolde's love for Marke was deep, intense, unshakeable. On their wedding night she had resisted him, believing herself to be in love with another, but he had been patient and gentle and she was unashamedly his by morning. He had won her with his fingers, his body, his lips, his tongue & the true goodness of his heart. He fulfilled her in ways she could only have imagined & in the weeks that followed, her passion for him grew. When they walked together in the marketplace, each touch of his hand filled her with an electricity that left her breathless. She longed to be away from the daylight & the crowds & the noise, alone in their bedchamber with him. When he stood behind her on the parapet, touching her bracelet, her hand, his body warming hers & his hot breath on her neck, she struggled to stand. Her only thought was how it would feel when he took her that way later that night. & when he did, murmuring her name into the back of her neck, she knew there could be nothing else for her. And as her love for him grew, she wanted only to please him as he could please her. She wanted nothing more than to touch him, to be above him, under him, on him & when she ran her hands over his body, his eyes flashed black with the depth of his love. His lust for her was intoxicating, his love for her would break her heart. Her love for Tristan was different. She had felt passion for him in those lonely days in Ireland, but now she just pitied him. On her wedding night, she had whispered to him "I shall pretend it's you", but in the ensuing weeks as her passion for Marke grew stronger, her feelings for Tristan faded. She saw him watching, following her as she walked with Marke, she saw his closed off face, wooden, barely able to show any emotion & her pity grew. She finally agreed to meet with him when Marke & the warriors rode out because she needed to explain to him how she felt, but her body betrayed her. She couldn't bear to be the cause of his pain and when he came to her she comforted him in the only way she knew how. As this pattern continued, her guilt spiralled & she cried herself to sleep in Marke's arms because she wanted it to stop, wanted to stop betraying the man she loved. Tristan's love was clumsy & inarticulate & needy - he was the very antithesis of everything that was Marke. She tried to tell him, but all she could say was that Marke was a good man and she could not hate him. She tried to gently point out to him that they could never have a normal life together but he was deaf to her words. So on the fateful night of the coronation when he burned the boathouse & called her to the river to tell her the affair had to stop, her heart leapt. This is what she had longed for, for Tristan to see that it could not continue, for him to set her free to be with the man who held her heart. Her eyes filled with tears for she could see Tristan's pain, but inside her heart sang with joy. When the warriors came upon them in their final embrace, the worlds of the three lover's came crashing down. Each of them betrayed, each of them broken beyond repair. & when Marke came to her room seeking the truth from her, she could not give it. Could not put him in the position of having to forgive the unforgivable so she told him only about Tristan, told him her heart had always belonged to Tristan. The broken, desperate look in his eyes filled her with anguish but she could not tell him the truth for he was the King & they could have no future if he was to keep the respect of his people. He took just a single breath, almost a sob, and left the room. & with that her world ended. She was with Tristan when he died & was glad that he at least, never knew the truth. He believed in their love & took that belief with him to the grave. Before she disappeared, she planted two willows where he lay, to symbolise the love they had once shared, to remember his life. But after she fled quietly back to Ireland to live out her life in anonymity on the windswept western shore, she planted a single oak to honour the man she truly loved, her one true desire, her Lord Marke. Note to self (again) stop watching T&I (& i mean it this time!!)  |
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Post by tipou on Jun 10, 2009 2:41:47 GMT
NUMBAT!!
(applaud)
NUMBAT!
(standing ovation)
NUMBAT
(heartfelt cheers)
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Post by eleanor on Jun 10, 2009 8:24:56 GMT
This bit I LOVE!!! Numbat, you made me cry with this...I watched T&I yesterday for all the Lord Marke bits; God, Rufus is utterly beautiful in this role, there never was a man more beautiful physically, ever, on the planet, EVER!!!! And his gentleness toward Isolde (my heart cried out for him). Rufus has a magic that weaves throughout everything that he does and I am truly under his spell, forever.
Thank you numbat for your alternative version of T&I, it was really lovely.
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Post by rueful on Jun 10, 2009 17:10:00 GMT
Outstanding, numbat! Thanks for sharing it with us.
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Post by pendarim on Jun 10, 2009 21:39:42 GMT
YAY, numbat!!!!! Thanks for this, I love it!
Pen
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Post by pendarim on Jun 10, 2009 21:43:38 GMT
P.S.--The only way I could have managed to muster any sympathy for Tristan and Isolde would have been if she'd married Morholt instead of Marke.
Pen
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? excuse me - surely no dilemma here).
