well that's embarassing

confession: i just watched never been kissed.

ag! i know. it's drowning in bad acting, terrible wardrobe, predictability, plot holes, etc. but i somehow convinced myself that it would be better coupled with my french homework. it wasn't.

but a small discovery was: it was james franco's first film! i noticed him lurking in the background in a black leather jacket looking all cute and james dean-y. and so i immediately imdb-ed. and yes! james franco's first film, everybody. take it or leave it.

lady jane

oh heyyy 1986.

i just spent the last half of my night watching the historical biopic lady jane. trevor nunn (a theatrical director with little film credit besides this) interprets the true historical account of lady jane grey, queen of england for nine days sometime in the 1500s, as a love story. but a tragic one--as in england, in the 1500s, political intrigue often leads to beheadings, and so it does here. but in this case it apparently also leads to cary elwes (as her husband, guilford) making faces like this:

hotttt.

most of the 2 hours and 20 minutes of lady jane are helena bonham carter (who stars as jane) lookin' like an awkward bird. at this stage in her career, she hasn't fully grown into her acting skills or her face. sometimes she's just a pair of eyebrows. but in this role, i think it works. the character [jane, that is] is an awkward, bookish, sheltered young girl who finds herself both married and in line for the throne of england in a very short amount of time.

for me, the best part was the first half, which i found to be cinematographically brilliant. the movie opens with an extended winter hunting scene that is achingly beautiful, reminiscent of the bayeux tapestry or breugel's hunters in the snow. it sets the perfect tone for the rest of the film.

somewhere in the middle there is a time that captures the spirit of the best part of jane and guilford's fictionalized life: the time when they were together, and in love, and alone. in one scene, jane wears a nightgown and man's boots in the dining room, where the lovers pass up their obligations and smash glass goblets for wishes. it's beautifully executed; the young actors somehow portray both the intensity and the silliness of their situation.

however, some parts seemed awkward or stilted, particularly the dialogue thorughout. but, like helena bonham carter's early acting skills, it worked. a sexually tense scene finds helena bonham carter explaining protestantism to cary elwes while he stares unabashedly at her breasts. but when they kissed i still found it sweet and true.

after they inevitably fell in love, my interest in the plot lagged and mingled with the usual sense of dread that comes with watching a movie based on irreversible historical fact. it was still, surprisingly, interesting, though, shifting the focus towards the short, idyllic reign of jane and guilford. they run about the palace giggling, they give the royal wardrobe to the poor, and they re-issue the shilling with its former worth in silver. they live out the political ideals they once smashed goblets for. it's revolutionary, a little, like secretly they were sort of hippies long before their time.

in they end they, of course, die, as we all knew going in they would. and the question i ask myself everytime i watch a movie like this is answered by a line uttered by jane, "well still." so the lovers die and the throne is taken by bloody mary, who will undo what good has been done, but jane and guilford were together and they changed things and they smashed goblets and ran around a palace and made promises and loved. well still.

3.5/5 stars. it's worth the experience. and if you aren't convinced to watch it now, consider this:

cary elwes is unapologetically adorable. also it's on netflix instant play.

the happiest halloween

i know, i know.

we said we'd post exciting october things but here it is, the last day of october, and we've barely posted all month. SOOOORRRY.

also happy halloween!!

i was considering making a halloweenier post, but lately i've been listening to this song on repeat, and it's hardly halloweeny. it's more like...Stuff You Listen To When You're In Love.

maybe you're in love with a person or a dog or maybe the world or yourself or a book or a movie. but me, i'm in love with the world today, and that makes me that annoying, giddy girl that walks around singing to herself and eating chocolate cake. but i love it! (duh. i love everything.)

no more sulking about in my cut-off wedding dress quoting the virgin suicides! only yellow dresses and candy corn and dancing around and tasty coffee all day looong!

here's some happy things [that i will try desperately to relate to halloween]:

movies:
-penelope
a fairy tale--that's halloweeny right?--about a girl born with a pig face. (not to be confused with this girl with a pig face.) christina ricci, james mcavoy, really cute clothes, magical sets, and some reese witherspoon-ing. (something about reese witherspoon makes me love everything! she's so happy and blonde and wholesome or something.) one of the final scenes is even at a halloween party!!

-she's the man
the poster movie of my generation? don't tell me you don't love this movie. amanda bynes, channing lots-of-abs-or-something, that really funny guy who plays the principal, and the plot of twelfth night! this was the first movie i was allowed to watch in a theater with no chaperones, and for me it will always be full of decent jokes that i will never not laugh over. plus, shakespeare is all about crossdressing. you know what else is all about crossdressing? HALLOWEEN. bam.

(a quick list of my fave nineties/00s teen flicks: she's the man, 10 things i hate about you, john tucker must die, easy a)

coffees:
-quick, capitalize on starbucks' pumpkin spice latte opportunities! you've got nine hours[ish] till the pumpkiniest holiday ends. also, sometimes on halloween they give out free cookies and stuff. run, run and give the corporate machine your cash!

tv:
-what's creepier than the trope's fave tv show TWIN PEAKS? (answer: nothing. nothing is creepier.) halloween it up and laugh with dale cooper and the gang. just try not to, in your lovey state, focus too much on the whole dead people/double lives aspect. (extra points to anyone in a twin peaks costume. double triple extra points to anyone dressed as audrey horne because i love her.)

books:

-today is not a day for books! i can't sit down and focus. today is a day for archie comics! read about the trials of archie, betty, and veronica. dress up as jughead. laugh with moose and reggie or one of the other characters whose names escape me because it's been ten years (a lie: it's been like two) since i've read an archie comic.

-or read the article in usa today about THE HAPPIEST WOMAN IN AMERICA! (it's me!) (no it's not!) (but i feel that way!) (the point is the happy!)

so go, tropers, and curl up with a slice of fallin' in love pie (waitress reference, anyone?) or do as i do and dance around the room to "stars" on repeat then hide in the closet and wait for your roommate to come home.

OCTOBER!

media binging aka the overload

lee friedlander (from MoCP), rushmore cover art, david jackson & james merrill (found on this blog)

lily collins (from teen vogue), audrey horne and dale cooper (found here), i am curious--blue


i am overloaded with fascinating/entertaining/worthwhile media right now.

to name a few (and by a few, i mean all):

1. i just now (literally three minutes ago) finished the unutterably awesome familiar spirits: a memoir of james merrill and david jackson by alison lurie. i can safely say i almost never like memoirs, and this is my new favorite book. highest compliments.

2. on that note, finished the changing light at sandover by james merrill but feel i must go over it again after the above read.

3. also reading the shape of a city by julien gracq. class reading. it's not boring. but it's also not about or by james merrill, so i'm a little reluctant to dive in.

4. at last received the (amazing) zine by the author of hipster musings [isabel slone], plant magazine. the slogan on the cover is "fashion-feminism-nature" WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?

5. on the opposite end of the spectrum, a mysterious benefactor subscribed me to teen vogue two years ago, and i am still receiving them. thank you, mysterious benefactor! i do love clothes. and more than clothes, collages made from teen vogues. october issue in today [hellooo eyebrows. i like em.]

6. another class assigned book. [well sort of--the assignment was to pick any book of photography from the library.] i chose self portrait by lee friedlander. i think it is less serious than most photography books and also an inspiration for a photography project i would like to do.

7. also borrowed from the library the two wes anderson movies i have never seen: bottle rocket and rushmore (his first and second, respectively). so far rushmore is good, very wes anderson, and the only reason i haven't finished it yet is an inconvenient fire drill that put me off it for a whole day. bottle rocket still to come.

8. yet another film, this one swedish. vilgot sjoman's i am curious--blue (i might've chosen i am curious--yellow. but blue is my favorite color. obviously an academic decision.) as the back cover blurb states, "confronts issues of religion, sexuality, and the prison system" etc etc. the director cites influences like godard and fellini (particularly 8 1/2). it came out in 1966.

9. oh and! i'm watching twin peaks, just started season 2 and i WANT TO BE AUDREY HORNE plz. or dale cooper 'cause he's such a weirdo-genius. and i want dr. jacoby's glasses.

it's nice to live in a place with so many brilliant works and such easy access. (did i mention that i love my library? I LOVE MY LIBRARY.)

rainy day media

it's been raining for four days straight. these are good things to do when it rains for four days straight and also when the predicted forecast involves another four days of rain and you don't have a car so leaving your bedroom during a torrential downpour sucks:

1. watch literally any movie

"it's raining, let's watch a movie."

"what movie?"

"i dunno."

"sounds good."

though i myself am experiencing an unexpected urge to watch the devil wears prada. i think this is probably caused by rainy day activity number 5.

2. listen to bon iver

the best piddle around your house on a lazy sunday album ever is [of course] bon iver's for emma forever ago. low key acoustic tunes and the thought of justin vernon alone in a wisconsin cabin banging instruments around? it's just cool, OKAY.

similar suggestions for a more varied playlist: sufjan stevens (seven swans is my favorite album), fleetfoxes (go for the self-titled album, yeah).

3. read the short stories of dorothy parker

there's not much to say except they're awesome.

also i am about to start this book. it's a collection of several years worth of messages transcribed from ouija board seances. but at the end of his life, james merrill advised against using ouija boards. in-ter-esting.

4. do endless internet stumbling

here's some good things i've stumbled upon this week.

-some photo essays (5o most stylish new yorkers and where children sleep)

-some blogs (hipster musings and man repeller)

note: i post links to these as points of interest, not as things i necessarily like. isabel slone of hipster musings is intelligent and captivating enough for me to go through her entire blog archive in a week. (yeah, i've read them all.) also i never stop and think, "why doesn't this girl ever just wear shorts?" because she's a real live student who dresses like a real live [real cool] student. i also just ordered her zine from etsy. (in my justnow search for the link to that i ran across this little gem.)

meanwhile i think leandra medine of man repeller thinks she's doing a great service to women everywhere by being funny and nonchalant about men's opinions, but really is just encouraging women to believe in an omnipresent, judgmental male figure that has opinions. THERE IS NO SUCH MAN, leandra.

other note: i found the man repeller really difficult to read post by post, so for a summary of her whole outlook click here.

other other note: sorry that note turned into a rant. but just look at a cover of any fashion magazine. there's at least one story claiming they know, "HOW TO PLEASE HIM IN BED" or "THE TRENDS YOUR BOYFRIEND HATES" or "HOW TO HIDE YOUR UNFLATTERING BODY PARTS FROM YOUR BOYFRIEND WHO CAN NEVER SEE THEM EVER OR HE'LL PROBABLY STOP LOVING YOU". but none of them say, "IF YOUR BOYFRIEND HATES YOUR CLOTHES WHY ARE YOU DATING HIM?" or "WHO CARES". also for the man repeller to pin every [heterosexual] male as sartorially disinclined is kind of demeaning to men as well.

5. shop online

it's raining, so i might as well get everyone's birthday presents for the next year right right? this is how i justify the hours i've spent buying socks for someone whose birthday is in june. even now i'm flicking between the tab for this blog and modcloth's shoe page. but mostly i just want these awesome jeans from urban outfitters.

AND FINALLY an interesting and somewhat debunking fact to contemplate: on his deathbed, the cofounder of alcoholics anonymous demanded whiskey. [discovered during rainy day activity 4]

stuff i'm thinking about

[this post has no real subject.]

1. movies about the end of the world that i want to see really, really badly

melancholia
i've probably already posted about this. have i? whatever. exciiited.

another earth
just watched the trailer. end of the world movies are a new obsession.

2. covers by kevin barnes that i really, really like

harvest moon (originally neil young)
sidenote: i'm not endorsing the homemade video, just the song

starman (originally david bowie)

3. philosophical readings

(wellsortof). i have this book called 101 experiments in the philosophy of everyday life. it's well written and (as described on the back cover blurb) "irreverent and wise". and there's nothing i love more than irreverance. followed by wisdom that assures me that my irreverence is, in fact, wise in itself. but really, it's an easy to read philosophical pondering/workbook. experiments include #31-watch dust in the sun. #15-walk in the dark. #67-watch someone sleeping. it's a good book.

i go through brief and absurd obsessions. right now it's kind of anything listed above plus weird, dark scandinavian directors (specifically: ingmar bergman and lars von trier). i just can't help myself.

should i watch wild strawberries (bergman) first or antichrist (trier)? OR persona (bergman again)?

so many questions, so many kevin barnes covers.

That dramatic movie set in the 40s in a *prison*.

I thought The Shawshank Redemption was a Holocaust movie. Why is that? I think I was completely confusing it with Schindler's List. I'm glad I skimmed the summary on the netflix dvd sleeve before watching it, because otherwise I would've spent the entire movie waiting for them to get packed into a train and shipped to a concentration camp.
It seems the only thing I actually did know about Shawshank was that Morgan Freeman's in it. And what the cover looked like, which only worked to confuse me more, actually.
The Shawshank Redemption is about a man that becomes a prisoner. That's all you need to know. Not because there isn't more to it than that, but because, as I've mentioned before, I hate spoilers (but it's nice to know that you shouldn't be expecting something entirely different, --hehem, sadness and starving in Auschwitz--). But.. I guess you can know a little more...
It's a darn good movie. It's dramatic and sad and funny and thoughtful and glorious. Sometimes it gets really close to being cheesy, and sometimes it is cheesy, but I never seemed to really mind much. Oh, and it has a truly satisfying denouement, though in what sense, I won't say.
It saddens me that the only other noteworthy thing the director Frank Darabont directed is The Green Mile. Really? Two prison movies? (and back to back?) That kind of makes me wonder what Darabont's life has been like... Ah, well. The lives of the prisoners at Shawshank will more than suffice.

The Many Faces of Dustin

There's this thing called the Kuleshov effect which some of you film buffs that understand part of why this blog is called "The Trope" might know about. The idea of it, as exemplified by the picture on the right, is that the audience can accurately interpret the emotions of a character based on the editing used. Even if the actor has a completely expressionless face, one will believe he is displaying a certain emotion if it is juxtaposed with something using editing. So, on the right you can see this guy. You know he looks exactly the same in those three pictures, but when that face is juxtaposed with the little girl in the coffin, it will seem like his expression is sad. When he may or may not be looking at the soup, his expression seems hungry. His expression will even change to lustful when juxtaposed with the sultry woman on the couch.

The reason I'm giving this 101 course on the Kuleshov effect is to provide some background info before I state my opinion. When I first learned about the Kuleshov effect it was through my Intro to Film teacher, who took it so far as to say, "There is no such thing as actors." Maybe he doesn't really believe that but felt it would be more effective to shock us by saying something so resolute. If that's the case, well, then it worked. On me, anyway. Since then I've paid a lot more attention to acting in movies and realized that while we really do add a lot of the emotions ourselves because we can sympathize or understand what the emotions should be, there are and have been a few real, skilled actors, too. I've always thought a good actor is somebody that makes you forget he or she is an actor, but now I know he needs to shine on his own, too, rather than just with the editing, script, and whatever else.

Okay, now that I've written that little intro so that you don't think I throw the phrase around easily, I can continue.
Dustin Hoffman is a damn. good. actor. Here are just three reasons why:

The movie:                             The movie:                                The movie:
Tootsie                                   Rain Man                                   Kramer vs. Kramer
The role:                                The role:                                    The role:
An actor so desperate              An autistic savant that is            A workaholic father who
for work that he dresses          forced to travel with his             must adapt to being a single
as a woman to get a                 temperamental and highly         parent and have his first
role in a soap opera.                self-centered brother.                 meaningful relationship.
The challenge:                       The challenge:                           The challenge:
Playing a woman                    Controlling all speech,               Mirroring his own feelings.
convincingly as well               attitude, and mannerisms           At the time, he was going
as a man who begins              to create a very personal             through a divorce of his own
to understand the issues          picture of this autistic                 and was feeling many of
behind gender equality.          character.                                 the things his character was.
              
That man has some serious range. There's a lot of things that can be said about these movies and about Hoffman's acting in them, but nothing speaks better than the movies themselves, so go watch them if you haven't seen them already! Or rewatch them with his other roles in mind. Then come back here and let me know which one is your favorite in the comments.

the still point of the turning world [, man]

I hate this summer.

My antidote to the dread of endless summers spent at home? Sofia Coppola
movies.


omgggsofiacoppolamovies


I could try to write an accurate review of The Virgin Suicides. But I'll just end up raving about my adoration. I don't know what to say. It's hAUnting. pOIgnANt. Etc etc, encouraging movie critic words. But really. I love this movie. Buy it. Watch it. Understand the title of this post. It is perfectly executed. And I've watched it three times since Saturday. (I am obsessed with a movie about obsession!)

Next week, when I remember again how very much I truly love Sofia Coppola, I'll delve into her latest film (the moody and subtle but possibly too static? meditation on fame--Somewhere) with some semblance of actual structure. And massive love/lust for Elle Fanning's wardrobe in it.

In other virginal experiences, I am currently participating in my first ever Shark Week. What is it about Shark Week? Are sharks interesting in the way that serial killers are interesting? I don't know, but I wish Shark Week were more...celebratory. With more musical numbers in the style of that youtube video about narwhals. But then again, I've only been watching for an hour and a half.

And in things Kirsten Dunst, I am desperately awaiting the release of this movie.