Season 1: the cast in characteristic poses and outfits Dear friends and readers, This is the second of two descriptive blogs on the 1st season of Downton Abbey. In the first (episodes 1-3) I suggested some basic paradigms (Austen, Trollope, Upstairs Downstairs), filmic techniques (computer enhanced photography, using rich colors continually, nothing bleached out), and [...]
Archive for February, 2012
Downton Abbey, the 1st season: the crowded canvas
Posted in 20th century culture, Costume drama, Downton Abbey, Film adaptations, film studies, historical fiction, Movies, political novels/films, Trollope, tagged Downton Abbey, heroine's text, Julian Fellowes, penelope wilton, upstairs and downstairs on February 29, 2012 | 7 Comments »
West End Cinema Opera & Ballet seasons
Posted in 20th century culture, Film adaptations, mozart, Music, opera, Theater, tagged Don Giovanni, Esmeralda, il trittico, puccini, West End cinema on February 22, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Don Giovanni — the costuming was effective Dear friends and readers, Tonight Jim and I began our third season of opera and ballet at the West End Cinema, Georgetown, DC. It was here we saw Fiennes’ Coriolanus this past Saturday. I’ve not been writing about these (how much can I write?) but we have seen [...]
Shakespeare’s Coriolanus: a film by Ralph Fiennes, featuring Vanessa Redgrave
Posted in 20th century culture, Costume drama, European Renaissance, Film adaptations, film studies, history play, listserve life, political novels/films, politics, Renaissance, tagged caius marcius, Coriolanus, ralph fiennes, shakespeare, Vanessa Redgrave on February 19, 2012 | 7 Comments »
… blood streams through the firmament … Marlowe (Doctor Faustus) Caius Marcius, called Coriolanus (Fiennes) waiting for suppliants Dear friends and readers, Do what you have to do to see this film. Maybe it’s not worth a plane ride, but if it’s a longish trip by car (4 hours is not too much to drive) [...]
Downton Abbey, the 1st season: Pride & Prejudice as UpstairsDownstairs with plenty of Trollope mixed in
Posted in 20th century culture, Costume drama, Downton Abbey, political novels/films, politics, tagged dowager duchess, Downton Abbey, Edwardian, elizabeth mcgovern, Julian Fellowes, robert crawley, sir toby belch, twelth night on February 16, 2012 | 28 Comments »
Opening shots of Episode 1 — a train rushing through the countryside (much made of new machines in Edwardian era) Dear Friends and readers, Only one year behind! I’m so often decades behind (I fell in love with the Poldark mini-series and books 2 years ago), that to be 10 to 15 years late is [...]
The Met HD Wagner’s Gotterdammerung
Posted in 19th century novels, 20th century culture, Met HDOperas, Movies, museums, Musical, novels of sensibility, opera, Theater, tagged gotterdammerung, HD Met opera, Wagner on February 12, 2012 | 7 Comments »
Brunnhilde (Deborah Voight) and Siegfried (Jay Hunter Morris) Dear friends and readers, Well, we saw this opera yesterday — all 5 hours and 50 minutes of it. Some of that was intermission — 2 of about 25 minutes each. A few scattered thoughts and notes: I just was overwhelmed — totally won over — when [...]
Lorca’s Blood Wedding at Source Theater
Posted in 20th century culture, modern art, mystery-suspense, political novels/films, politics, tagged blood wedding, Federico Garcia Lorca, mark halperin, red rose, reinsel, theatrical experience on February 9, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Mother (Deidre LaWan Starnes) Dear friends and readers, Jim and I saw a well done moving production of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding tonight at the Source Theater and I write to urge all those within driving distance of DC to come and see it. As translated by Tanya Ronder and directed by Shirley Serotsky, [...]
Prime Suspect: Errors of Judgement (5); Last Witness (6): life from below
Posted in 20th century culture, feminism, mystery-murder book, mystery-suspense, novels of sensibility, political novels/films, politics, women's art, womens' films, tagged Helen Mirren, Immigration, Steven Mackintosh, terrorism on February 7, 2012 | 7 Comments »
Hilen Mirren as Jane Tennison, around the time of Inner Circles and Errors of Judgement (1995-96), promotional or posed shot. Dear friends and readers, Another blog on the brilliant and uncloying Prime Suspect. I’ve just finished watching Prime Suspect Season 5 (Errors of Judgement) and 6 (The Last Witness). Although 7 years apart, the perspectives [...]
Charles Dickens and Sandy Welch’s Our Mutual Friend: A book of a river
Posted in 19th century novels, 19th century poetry, 20th century culture, About this blog, autism, Autobiographical, Charles Dickens, gothic, political novels/films, politics, rape, tagged Our Mutual Friend, Sandy Welch on February 2, 2012 | 6 Comments »
Filmic rendition in Welch’s movie of the famous opening scenes of Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend: opening shot of movie; Lizzie (Keeley Hawes) at center; John Harmon (Steven Mackintosh) back from the dead and drowned the last Dear friends and readers, Over the past 10 weeks I’ve been listening to Mil Nicolson (Librivox) read aloud Dickens’s [...]
