And should you glimpse my wandering form out on the borderline

[sovay]

Happy birthday, ungodchild!

My poem "Migration" is now online at Lone Star Stories. It was written in 2006 as an exercise in mainstream poetry, which failed, but I'm not complaining about the results.

Two nights ago was a DVD sale at Barnes & Noble. Guess who now owns Criterion's 1938 Pygmalion? I should probably write something more eloquent about this film than sorry, Rex Harrison.

Today was my grandfather's birthday observed; my aunt Naomi is in from San Francisco, and my brother and his fiancée crashed earlier this evening. To anyone who has ever wondered if it's possible to make a lemon meringue shortcake, the answer is yes, but it has an incredibly short lifespan.

This cold should buzz off, please. I have things I need to do.

Comments

[sovay]

Leslie Howard, right?

Leslie Howard. I love him.

I was thinking about your review of Pimpernel Smith the other day; when I first saw it I was maybe seventeen, and dismissed it out of hand because I didn't like (Raymond Massey?)'s version of Chauvelin.

Do you mean The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)? That is Raymond Massey, who I'm also very fond of. What about his Chauvelin doesn't work for you?

(I've never actually seen another version, unless you count the original cast recording of the Frank Wildhorn musical.)

and possibly would have to be cast piece-meal using cross-time image-capture technology that doesn't as yet exist, except for Pepsi commercials.

*snerk*

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

No, that's odd...I was sure you reviewed Pimpernel Smith, a (then-)updated version that someone did during the initial years of WW2 which pits Howard as a guy-who-is-like-the-Pimpernel against the Nazis, at one point. Weren't you talking about having rented a VHS version of it from the library, because it had never been released on DVD? Or am I just INSANE?!?

Anyhoo: I know I saw that, and I know I didn't like the Chauvelin, whoever he was--I think because he wasn't even vaguely as morally grey and yet genuinely committed as Chauvelin should be. Of course, my liking for Chauvelin comes in large part out of my sympathy for all the people behind the French Revolution...I'm a big fan of Robespierre, for example, even in all his hypocritical, OCD, Goddess of Reason-worshipping weirdness. But yeah, I get a big kick out of Chauvelin being a former ci-devant aristo who actually believes more strongly in the Revolution than some of its backbone members do. And it's simply a lot harder to feel that way if you make the dude in question a Nazi.

[sovay]

I was sure you reviewed Pimpernel Smith, a (then-)updated version that someone did during the initial years of WW2 which pits Howard as a guy-who-is-like-the-Pimpernel against the Nazis, at one point.

No, no, you are not hallucinating—I did watch and review Pimpernel Smith last year. I'm sorry. It was your mention of Chauvelin which confused me, especially since Leslie Howard stars in the 1934 Scarlet Pimpernel. I hadn't realized you'd ever seen Pimpernel Smith! No one else I know has. I really shouldn't be surprised.

I'm a big fan of Robespierre, for example, even in all his hypocritical, OCD, Goddess of Reason-worshipping weirdness.

Can we hope for a cameo in Year Zero?

But yeah, I get a big kick out of Chauvelin being a former ci-devant aristo who actually believes more strongly in the Revolution than some of its backbone members do. And it's simply a lot harder to feel that way if you make the dude in question a Nazi.

I don't know. There is a character like that in Powell and Pressburger's 49th Parallel (1941)—a latecomer to the Party who makes even his commander, a Nazi for the last eleven years, nervous. Converts are hardcore.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Year Zero has waaay too many characters as it is. Though I think I at least mentioned Citizen R. a couple of times in "Year Zero" the short story...

Never saw 49th Parallel, though I know I should. You're much more caught up on the Powell/Pressburger ouevre than I am, aside from say Peeping Tom. But yeah, converts are hardcore; that's the lure of it, isn't it?

[sovay]

Never saw 49th Parallel, though I know I should.

A Canterbury Tale (1944) is the one I lean on people to see—I think it's their best and strangest and it is one of my favorite things on film. But I recommend all their work I've seen. Even A Matter of Life and Death (1946), which mostly leaves me cold, has some neat brain science and an escalator between heaven, earth, and hell.