I doodled some fictional ladies today.
Reblogged from my personal Tumblr! I was in the mood for drawing awesome ladies today. Of course, seeing as I included Cathy Earnshaw and Daisy Buchanan, my definition of “awesome” is…flexible.
I know I haven’t updated in a long time, but fear not—real life (blecch) is a little crazy for me right now, and I haven’t had time to watch anything lately. I never plan on abandoning this blog, though, so thanks for your patience and for sticking around.
Who’s ready to discuss the BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME according to 11-year-old me?
Yes.
There are so many things to love about the ‘94 version of Little Women: Susan Saradon! Wino Forever at the top of her game! Claire Danes, Master of the Ugly Cry! Kermit Bale! Gabriel Byrne even shows up to make stupid Dr. Not Laurie less stupid (no less not Laurie though, so, still a little stupid).
Let’s get to it.
Downton Abbey Series 2 promo! Oh man, I cannot wait. I’ll probably never review Downton Abbey properly* because I am lazy and a TV show provides way too much material to try and sort through, but I will say that if you didn’t watch Series 1, DO SO IMMEDIATELY or else I’m afraid I’ll have to rethink our relationship. Sorry. I have standards to maintain.
*Just imagine me drooling all over the scenery, Mary’s outfits, and Anna and Mr. Bates (Anna and Mr. Baaaaates!) if you decide you need the full review experience.
This is…rather poorly photoshopped, but! Daniel in uniform! Nurse Sybil! Dame Maggie, Our Lady of BAMF (I wonder how she’d feel if she knew that a sizable chunk of traffic to this blog comes from people Googling her son in various perverted contexts)! And is that a new maid I spy? Ahh, so excited.
(via apriki)
I fully expected to hate this movie. Beatrix Potter’s books were a HUGE part of my childhood, so I was already on the defensive, and the previews made it look way too cutesy and twee.
To my surprise, I really liked it. It was sweet and fluffy, yes, but in a nice way, not a “and now I have diabetes of the soul” way. Very enjoyable! UNTIL IT WASN’T. We’ll get to that.
Mad spoilers ahead:
That’s right, kids. Period pieces aren’t all balls and bonnets and fluffy courtship. Sometimes they’re hilariously overwrought Gothic horror, and Keanu Reeves is there for some reason!
Who wouldn’t willingly spend the night at this man’s house, amirite?
I’m going to lose my English Major Merit Badge for saying this, but: Dracula, the novel, is a bit of an oddball compared to many other literary classics, because it’s, well, actually fun to read. It’s a hot mess, structurally, and all the Victorian pearl-clutching re: female sexuality and women’s roles in society is obnoxious, but it’s still a rip-roaring page turner. Stoker put a lot of research into it, but it reads like a drunken fever dream, in a good way.
Francis Ford Coppola’s version is like a drunken fever dream, too. In a drunken fever dream way.
Spoilers and a few NSFW caps ahoy.
So I decided to re-watch Atonement the other day because I hate joy, I guess? Man, this movie is beautiful. Beautiful and SOUL-CRUSHING. I’d read the book before the film came out, so I knew what was coming, but still. But. Still. I can only imagine the reactions of a virgin viewer:
Ooh, pretty.
WOW, so pretty.
Sexytimes! All riiiight.
Uh…hmm.
Wait, what?
No! You can’t do that!
NO. WHAT. NO.
Oh, okay, maybe…?
NO. NO. WHAT IS THIS. HOW. WHY. STOP.
FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—
…And so on.
This gif made me giggle, but it also sums up why I really liked Matthew MacFadyen’s Darcy. Colin Firth is the standard, of course, but let’s face it—Darcy is a pretty unrealistic character (which Austen seemed well aware of). If it walks like an arrogant ass and talks like an arrogant ass, it’s probably an arrogant ass, not a duck secretly amazing and noble dreamboat. Matthew made it clear that Darcy’s initial coldness stems from his extreme discomfort in social situations, and as a fellow introvert who sometimes comes across as way more aloof than I intend simply because I can’t figure out what to do with myself when I have to interact with other humans, I sympathized. It smoothed his progression from pompous jerkface to totally rad dude for me.
That’s not to say that I don’t love Colin, or that his performance wasn’t believable. He’s just really, REALLY good at playing pompous jerkfaces, probably because he and his face are so much better than everyone else.
This gif also sums up how I feel about not updating in so long. I’M SORRY. Life is being stupid and full of all this, like, stuff I need to do, which is really annoying. When did I ever give the impression that I liked doing things, life? Because that was a gross misrepresentation.
Anyway, I’ll be back soon with real posts, I promise.
(Source: vampirecircus)
I still haven’t seen the new Jane Eyre, which bugs. I’m not the biggest Bronte fan—this Kate Beaton comic neatly summarizes my feelings (you go, Anne!)—but still, I’ve heard it’s good and I like Mia Whatsernameska. I haven’t seen Michael Fassbender in anything, but he’s definitely easy on the eyes:
Now, okay. I don’t mind that the movie people cast a good-looking dude as Mr. Rochester, because, well, they’re movie people. They’re going to do that. I just wish they’d therefore leave out the scene where he asks Jane if she thinks he’s handsome and she says no, because it makes her look like an idiot (or a flustered schoolgirl trying to deny her crush) instead of someone who speaks her mind and doesn’t put up with Rochester’s crap—which is why he loves her, and why she’s awesome, so altering the dynamic of that exchange kind of undermines a lot of important stuff, is my point, and hey this is a long sentence so I’ll stop it riiiiight….now.
Ciaran Hinds is probably the most Rochestery Rochester to be cast in a recent adaptation, but he’s still far from ugly, which, in the book, is how Rochester is described approximately 5,000 times.
(That’s, uh, quite the intriguing mustache/neckbeard combo. It looks like he’s wearing a hair bonnet, with a hair ribbon tied under his chin. Which is totally gross, and why does my mind do these things to me?)
Timothy Dalton is kind of middle-ground: he’s got the dusky coloring, heavy brow, and general cragginess going on, but still: handsome. Complete with chin dimple and “I was totally James Bond for a while, btw” swagger.
Yes, that’s William Hurt . Yes, he played Mr. Rochester. So…that was a choice somebody made.
Ahhh, that’s better. (Hey, I said I didn’t mind a handsome Rochester! And Toby Stephens ROCKED that shit, man. He was sexy and charismatic and didn’t get bogged down in the “I am a tortured, brooding GOTHIC HERO OMG” ooze, but was still a sarcastic asshole. Which the role requires.)
So, this is a poll. Tell me which Rochester is your favorite, yes, BUT ALSO: who would you cast as Blindy McWifeHider? Because we all know we’re in for another adaptation (or ten, or a million) before too long.
via nationalpost
Yeah, yeah, I know. But attractive British people in fancy outfits are relevant to this blog’s interests, okay? I didn’t stay up to watch this, but I checked out clips on YouTube, and aw, they were so nervous and adorable.
And that dress. Is. Amazing. AMAZING. Well done, Princess PerfectHair.
Somebody marry me already. Or at least buy me a carriage. I will accept a small one so long as it’s sufficiently gilded.
(via royallovestory)
I’m back! With one of my very, very, very favorite movies, Peter Weir’s Picnic At Hanging Rock. It’s beautiful and creepy, the two best things to be!
Here, have a story that’s only funny if you’re a nerd like me: I was chatting with a friend a while ago as I was re-watching this film for, I don’t know, the frillionth time. She asked me what I was watching. I told her. She asked me what it was about. I said—honestly, in my devious way—“Sex, mostly.” Intrigued, she scurried off to see for herself.
A few hours later, I received this disgusted message: “Ugh, I keep forgetting that you were an English major. All that symbolism got you hot, didn’t it?”
Yes. Yes it did.
