Don Giovanni brooding (Mariusz Kwiecien) I must say that I have seen nobody on stage who has been a more interesting Character than that compound of Cruelty & Lust — Jane Austen, on a pantomime-burlesque, Don Juan, or the Libertine Destroyed, adapted from Thomas Shadwell’s Libertine, 15 Sept 1813 Dear friends and readers, I am [...]
Archive for October, 2011
An historically faithful (!) Don Giovanni on HD at the movies
Posted in 18th century, Costume drama, film studies, later 17th century, Met HDOperas, mozart, Music, Musical, opera, painting, Theater, Uncategorized, tagged HD opera on October 30, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Steve Olson’s Mapping Human History: how we came to look and live the way & where we do now
Posted in 20th century culture, science, tagged class lecture, evolution on October 27, 2011 | 5 Comments »
The excavation of Herculaneum, 18th century print He no longer saw the face of his friend Siddhartha. Instead he saw other faces, many faces, a long series, a continuous stream of faces – hundreds, thousands, which all came and disappeared and yet all seemed to be there at the same time, which all continually changed [...]
Prime Suspect 2 & 3: The Walking Wounded
Posted in 20th century culture, film studies, gothic, men's memoirs, mystery-murder book, political novels/films, rape, women's art, womens' films, tagged Helen Mirren, heroine's text, police procedural, Prime Suspect on October 25, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Jimmy Jackson (David Thewlis), Prime Suspect 3 Dear friends and readers, This blog may be read as a continuation of my blogs on Lynda LaPlante’s Prime Suspect (1), starring Helen Mirren, and “New hook-up culture another name for “old” casual encounter. In the first I showed the first mini-series was feminist, progressive, advanced ideas of [...]
“New” hook up culture another name for “old” casual encounter
Posted in 18th century, 19th century novels, 20th century culture, Autobiographical, feminism, rape on October 21, 2011 | 7 Comments »
Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) and Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) on their first night together: he’s lying about Darcy at the dinner, and later they have sex (Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2001) “New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large” — John Milton “the progress of reformation is gradual and silent, as the extension of evening shadows; [...]
Donizetti’s Anna Bolena on HD at the movies
Posted in 20th century culture, Italian culture, Met HDOperas, Music, opera, Renaissance, Theater, tagged HD opera on October 16, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Henry VIII (Ildar Abdrazakov) and Anna (Anna Trebenko) The historical Anne Boleyn (artist unknown) Dear friends and readers, Well the season started. Jim has bought tickets for the 3 of us for all but two of the Met-by-HD operas, and one of these Izzy is going to see on her own. We are planning on [...]
Emma Donoghue’s Passions Between Women: seeing what was there but I never saw before
Posted in 18th century, 18th century novels, Austen, Autobiographical, biography, feminism, French culture, later 17th century, novels of sensibility, women's art, tagged heroine's text, tipping the velvet on October 12, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Miss Eleanor Lavish (Sinead Cusack) from Forster’s Room with a View (Davies’s film) Dear friends, This is probably my third blog on Donoghue’s Passions between Women, maybe the fourth in which I’ve mentioned the book. I wrote about it to suggest that Jane Austen, her sister, Martha Lloyd, and Anne Sharp all show a pattern [...]
The Last September: Bowen’s novel, Walker’s film: peculiarly contemporary
Posted in 20th century culture, Costume drama, Film adaptations, film studies, historical fiction, mystery-suspense, novels of sensibility, political novels/films, romance, women's novels, women's art, tagged heroine's text on October 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
David Tennant as Gerald Colthurst (Lesworth in Bowen’s book) Dear friends and readers, My daughter, Izzy, is taking a course in Irish Literature this term and I find myself enjoying the books — and connected films — with her. (See Irish Authors!) I’ve long loved hyphenated-lit (Anglo-Indian, French-Canadian, Anglo-African) and two favorites are Anglo-Irish and [...]
Winston Graham’s The Walking Stick: Graham’s first disabled heroine
Posted in 20th century culture, disability issues, Disabilty studies, Film adaptations, Poldark, political novels/films, politics, Winston Graham, tagged heroine's text, polio victim on October 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
David Hemmings as Leigh Hartley painting Samantha Eggar as Deborah Dainton (The Walking Stick, 1970) Dear friends and readers, Yes, I’ve read yet another novel by Winston Graham: The Walking Stick (published by Doubleday, 1967). In his Memoirs of a Private Man, Graham says “judged solely by financial criteria, [it was] the most successful novel [...]
