Watched Gods and Monsters last night. A couple of weeks ago I had read the book Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram, which I loved. I thought Gods and Monsters would be a lot better, considering who was involved, but I didn't like it very much. There were some good visuals (the scene of Brendan Fraser in the WWI gas mask had made me want to read the book and see the movie in the first place. I glimpsed that scene briefly somewhere, and it stuck in my head.). But the movie was just a pale shadow of the book, I think in this case mainly because it followed the book too closely. The book moves forward by showing us the fragmented mental state of James Whale, the phantom scents, and the endless parade of memory. In the movie we are limited to two senses, so I think following the book so exactly was a mistake. They should have played up the visual symbolism a lot more, and been more aware of their intentions. If you are going to read the book and watch the movie, I would suggest you read the book, then wait a long time to watch the movie. However long it would take for your impressions to start to fade. If you watched the movie first, I am afraid you might be put off from reading the book, which would be a shame. I recommend the book highly. And in one of those odd Synchronicities, recently I decided to put Remarque's All Quiet On the Western Front and The Road Back on my reading list - and James Whale, of course, directed the movie version of The Road Back.
I have recently been wondering why a lot of old, classic movies are being released on DVD (in very crappy versions) in TV aspect ratio instead of 1.85/1?? The IMDB lists Frankenstein as being shot on 35mm film in 1.37 aspect ration, and the DVD is 1.33. This is the aspect ratio the films were shown at? If so, when do we get the first 1.85/1 films?
What are the chances of a DVD being released of The Road Back? Does an original print exist? Does a print exist of the movie before it was recut? I would very much like to see that. (In modern times I would like to see a DVD of McTiernan's original cut of The 13th Warrior. Say what you will, I happen to really like the damn movie, and I would LOVE to see the original cut. )
Finished The Land of Laughs, which I enjoyed though I wasn't completely satisfied. The ending third I found a lot weaker than the first parts of the book. I am looking forward to reading the rest of Carroll's novels in any case. (Currently, I am in the process of working my way through a few different oevres - Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books, Robert Parker's Spenser (forget which way this is spelt, it's the opposite of the Faerie Queene guy), Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey series, and the complete works of Joe R. Lansdale (which I am almost finished, excepting some of the rarer chapbooks and uncollected short stories). Started working my through the Lemony Snicket books, but that stopped pretty quickly. I'll get back to them someday, but I have other stuff I want to read first. I also have to go back and begin working my way through Lawrence Block's Scudder books. I am sure there is more on my reading list (beside the recent decision to read all the books that movies I like are based on, which is an interesting and challenging task in some cases).
Tomorrow I get to go to the library! Whee!
A brief note to recommend Lost in La Mancha. If you like Terry Gilliam, or you are a movie buff, watch it. It's bizarre, it's tragic, it's magnificant, it's hilarious. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is a movie I would have loved to have seen. Rochefort looked great. Go Go Gilliam! He might have stolen #1 in my favorite all time director's slot. Sorry Mr. Milius. I think he bumped Walter Hill as well.
The List:
#1 - Terry Gilliam (for The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing)
#2 - John Milius (for Conan the Barbarian, Farewell to the King)
#3- Walter Hill (for loving westerns still (before Eastwood made it cool again), Last Man Standing, Wild Bill)
#4 - Tim Burton (for Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish, Batman)
#5 - Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, 1492 (Awesome! Don't care what anybody says, this movie rocks.), Black Rain, Legend. (Looking forward to Kingdom of Heaven and Tripoli as well (thank god Keanu is out.).
#5.5 - Jake Scott, Honorable Mention, Plunkett and Macleane. (Aw Hell, Tony Scott too for Spy Game, The Last Boy Scout and for being pretty consistent.)
#6 - Peter Weir (for Master and Commander, Dead Poet's Society
#7 - John McTiernan (for Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, Medicine Man, The 13th Warrior)
#8 - Kevin Costner (Dances With Wolves, Open Range)
#9 - John Woo - (Face/Off, Hard Boiled, MI:2)
#10 - Christophe Gans - The Brotherhood of the Wolf
Movies that almost put their directors on the list :
Cold Mountain
Secondhand Lions
Excalibur
Mountains of the Moon
Restoration
From Hell
Lord Jim
Silverado
Gangs of New York
Enough for now. Time to contemplate some real work.
Random musings on literature, writing, film, and raising a small child on my own, usually not all the same blog, but you never know...
Monday, July 19, 2004
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Blog Two - The Bride of Blog
Today has been mostly involved in relocating and rehousing and releasing some wild mice that were captured in my home. The original batch was captured during the winter, so I didn't want to release them as their chances wouldn't have been too good. Before the basement started flooding all the time this house was a mouse paradise, but now with the combination of the floods, my trapping, and the bumbling efforts of our cats, we seem to be running out of mouse problems. NOw it is just all the ones that ar hanging out in cages. Two males from the original capture each have their own Habitrail Mini, and seem to enjoy their lives, specifically The Wheel. They were seperated off from a group of females, that were pregnant, of course. So then I seperated out the male babies, but not quick enough. Mice breed very quickly, and as soon as a doe has a litter the male will breed her again. The problem is removing the males before they are sexually mature. Not fun when they are all wild. Today I released a total of five males, I believe. Two were recent captures that do not like caged life, the other two to three were from the Beta Batch, removed from the females and all showing good wild traits. They are now exploring the river valley, I wish them luck. Five more are on the slate to be released. We have two wild mice that were hand raised from babies, one before his eyes were opened. The male, Squeaker, is very tame, while the other, Mikki, exhibits wild characteristics. Mikki was near death when we found her. Both were captures by cats, and I didn't have much hope for them, but we nursed them back to health. There is also one wild female, Stubby, that was attack by her littermates losing part of her tail. I though she was going to die she looked in such bad shape, but she has been nursed back to health as well. These three will be staying, as will the two original males, Mr. Mouse and Achilles. There is one older female that is a recent live trap capture that might stay, as I think she might not survive long in the wild, and I think she might have been an escapee from the original Alpha Batch. It's pretty much up to her. If she exhibits a lot of wild behaviour and attempts escape, I'll let her go, if she is content she can stay.
Today I have been reading Harry Stephen Keeler, which is an experience. His writing is horrible and great at the same time! He describes things in minute detail in horrible run-on sentences, but he comes up with some of the most bizarre ideas that you can't help but be intrigued. http://www.blackmask.com/cgi-bin/newlinks/search.cgi?d=1&query=keeler to read some of his work on the net. Ramble House is reissuing his work in beautiful volumes, I want to own them all!
No writing yet today, did some research. Have two stories on the go right now, both involving historical time periods and semi-obscure myths. Seldom used in recent literature at any rate. One is set in Venice in the 1600's and the other in Poland during World War II. I am happy with the direction of both stories, I feel they are a step up for my writing style, though I think both will fall short of my original vision, simply because at this point in time I don't have the resources to do the kind of research I would like. Lawrence Block says in his books on writing that you basically fake what you don't know, as writers are basically liars anyway, but I like to have some autheticity to the stories. As much as I can put in at any rate. Often telling a story is a way for me to explore a period of time and an area that interest me, so the research is often as interesting or more so than the resulting story.
Also two thirds of the way through Jonathan Carroll's The Land of Laughs, which is a very well written book and very magical. Marvelous writer. Next on the block after this is either Kara Dalkey's Goa which I have dipped into a little already (and it looks marvelous) or Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. (I probably massacred his name). The latter was a best-seller in its day (this leads me to recommend Michael Korda's wonderful book on the bestseller, I'm unsure of the title at the moment, but it is very enlightening).
Well, it is off to cook dinner.
Today I have been reading Harry Stephen Keeler, which is an experience. His writing is horrible and great at the same time! He describes things in minute detail in horrible run-on sentences, but he comes up with some of the most bizarre ideas that you can't help but be intrigued. http://www.blackmask.com/cgi-bin/newlinks/search.cgi?d=1&query=keeler to read some of his work on the net. Ramble House is reissuing his work in beautiful volumes, I want to own them all!
No writing yet today, did some research. Have two stories on the go right now, both involving historical time periods and semi-obscure myths. Seldom used in recent literature at any rate. One is set in Venice in the 1600's and the other in Poland during World War II. I am happy with the direction of both stories, I feel they are a step up for my writing style, though I think both will fall short of my original vision, simply because at this point in time I don't have the resources to do the kind of research I would like. Lawrence Block says in his books on writing that you basically fake what you don't know, as writers are basically liars anyway, but I like to have some autheticity to the stories. As much as I can put in at any rate. Often telling a story is a way for me to explore a period of time and an area that interest me, so the research is often as interesting or more so than the resulting story.
Also two thirds of the way through Jonathan Carroll's The Land of Laughs, which is a very well written book and very magical. Marvelous writer. Next on the block after this is either Kara Dalkey's Goa which I have dipped into a little already (and it looks marvelous) or Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. (I probably massacred his name). The latter was a best-seller in its day (this leads me to recommend Michael Korda's wonderful book on the bestseller, I'm unsure of the title at the moment, but it is very enlightening).
Well, it is off to cook dinner.
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