Film Meme, redux
Aug. 25th, 2024 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritsovay asked me some more film meme questions when I complained about the questions in the other film meme making me talk about my A-Level film watching. I have managed to post my answers to these in less than a month after being asked them, so go me. And thank you sovay! <31. A film you watched for a favorite actor (of any gender) which you would not have sought out otherwise?
I wasn't really watching film for a long while, because I couldn't, so only my faves forced me back to it, and made it possible again, so it would be true to say nearly everything I've watched since about 2011. But here is one for each of my faves that have sufficient films in their cv to make it worth nominating one:
a. Dean Spanley (2008), because it's so obscure, and even if I'd stumbled over it in some other context, the very quality of the cast would only have been a warning sign, because it'd have to be terrible to still not ever have pinged my radar, or, afaict, anyone else's that I knew. But the Jeremy Northam tumblrs were enthusiastic, as were the 2-3 others who had actually seen it, so I sought it out, and I'm so glad I was finally able to snag a DVD because they were right - it's an oddity, but it's also a gem.
b. Girl On Approval (1962), which is a lesser New Wave/Kitchen Sink installment that starred Rachel Roberts with my man James Maxwell in the supporting role as her husband. I have a fascination with New Wave, brought on my Media Studies tutor who haunted the other post - we watched Look Back In Anger, Man at the Top & Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (& I also, long before, watched half of A Taste of Honey in my first year at secondary school. Only half was because that was when I first had ME/CFS). This gave me a deep, enduring and entirely grudging fascination with this brand of TV/Film, but also an appreciation of Rachel Roberts, who is amazing.
This is written by a female writer, about two main female characters, and it was the first UK attempt at a realistic film about fostering/social care etc, and I find it fascinating and well done, and worth a look if you have a similar interest in these kinds of films, social history of the era, or Rachel Roberts. (I can also attest it is well worth it for some of the earliest surviving non-fake-hair-assaulted James Maxwell, even if he is not in Rachel Roberts's league.)
c. If I had ever looked at The Lady Vanishes (1938) properly, I would no doubt have always have been taken with the summary, but I'd not got on with old films before then, so it was only watching Margaret Lockwood in 1970s TV, loving her in that and looking her up, that made me actually try it. It was a complete delight, and I've really enjoyed trying lots of 1930s & early 40s films I've watched off the back of that since, whether with or without Margaret Lockwood. I've still got a mixed track record with all-time Hollywood classics, but at least I know there are some things out there I do like!
2. A film you wish had been made with one of your favorites?
I'm not sure whether this is a role swap - this film would have been better with James Maxwell in it! - or a non-existent film they should have made with a favourite actor. I shall answer with something that is simultaneously both, in a way.
BBC Radio's 1991 'Christmas at the Wells' season of Victorian plays was great, but of all radio things I've listened to, the one that most made me pine for a live-action version was their London Assurance with Jeremy Northam as Dazzle. Someone should instantly have grabbed all the cast that could reprise their roles in visual format, or at least Jeremy Northam, and made them do it in a film, or a one-off TV thing. There is no film version of London Assurance, so it'd have been a general service to humanity anyway. I need to relisten to this, because I was new to it, but Dazzle wanders through it, idly bluffing and obliviously causing plot to ensue for everyone else, and I really really wanted to see him. It's set in the 18th C, so there would also have been excellent costumes. I am glad we had the radio, though.
(I loved The Schoolmistress even more but while I would enjoy a live-action version of that, too, it couldn't have Jeremy Northam as he was too old to play a 17 yr old even in 1991, except on radio, lol. Besides, it worked perfectly in that format, so I can just relisten to it anytime I wanted and be quite happy. Although it's such fun, someone should give it a go sometime. The world is always in need of an extra cheerful thing.)
3. A film it surprises people that you love?
See my below answer about me maybe not being the person to judge this - I feel most films I love are obviously films I would love, but then I would. I suppose, to go back to my previous film meme post, people are understandably surprised when I tell them that Schindler's List is probably my favourite film. (I prevaricate unless I feel like explaining my whole totalitarian regimes history story yet again, which I don't always.)
People do get surprised sometimes about that anybody likes the Star Wars Prequel trilogy best, I suppose; and I do! (I'm not alone by any means. ;-p)
4. A film you feel it should be completely obvious that you love?
All my films I love seem pretty obvious choices - to me, at least! But I read the description of The Lady Vanishes (1938) and went "that sounds like almost everything I like in one film" and it really was. The Winslow Boy (1999) was so obviously catered to me that I've been nearly watching it for years and it was first on my list of Jeremy Northam films to get, even if dodgy DVDs delayed it. Gosford Park was super-inevitable in so many ways. Watching The Mummy (1999) in a cinema in Aberystwyth (with wet feet, because I forgot you don't mess with the sea in Aber) was insta-love for multiple reasons, chief of which was A Librarian Heroine. *heart eyes*
idk, all my likes seem painfully obvious to me, but no doubt I'm more inexplicable to other people. Well. Occasionally, perhaps?
Have YOU been shocked by me liking a film??? Do I need to explain myself? I expect I will be very happy to do so.
5. A film you wish had been a television show?
A lot of book adaptations really need a TV serial format to do the book justice. I've been blanking on a particular example for 2-3 weeks now, though. But it'll definitely be some frustratingly over-lite classic lit book adaptation that missed something vital. I think lots of us round here know that feeling!
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Date: 2024-08-25 07:52 pm (UTC)And “ 1. A film you watched for a favorite actor (of any gender) which you would not have sought out otherwise? “
… Me currently looking up the filmography of the Blorbo 😳
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Date: 2024-08-25 07:56 pm (UTC)Heh, it has to be done! XD
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Date: 2024-08-25 08:59 pm (UTC)Thank you for answering!
b. Girl On Approval (1962), which is a lesser New Wave/Kitchen Sink installment that starred Rachel Roberts with my man James Maxwell in the supporting role as her husband.
You mentioned this one to me a few years ago; it sounded compelling and then never came around on any of my legally streaming media services. I will have to treat it the same way as Nothing But the Best (1964), which
(& I also, long before, watched half of A Taste of Honey in my first year at secondary school. Only half was because that was when I first had ME/CFS).
Did you ever get around to the second half?
There is no film version of London Assurance, so it'd have been a general service to humanity anyway.
I had no idea that was true! A service indeed, since it's never been produced where I could get to it that I can remember. (The 2010 National Theatre revival did play a local art house courtesy of NT Live, but I went to The Habit of Art instead. And imprinted on Alex Jennings thereby, so it all worked out.)
I loved The Schoolmistress even more but while I would enjoy a live-action version of that, too, it couldn't have Jeremy Northam as he was too old to play a 17 yr old even in 1991, except on radio, lol.
I know nothing about that one! Talk to me about it, even though it isn't a film?
(I meant the question in the sense of a nonexistent film that should have featured a favorite, but your double-sided answer works.)
people are understandably surprised when I tell them that Schindler's List is probably my favourite film. (I prevaricate unless I feel like explaining my whole totalitarian regimes history story yet again, which I don't always.)
I understand that one needing some explanation in general. I have never been able to watch it again.
A lot of book adaptations really need a TV serial format to do the book justice. I've been blanking on a particular example for 2-3 weeks now, though.
I can wait until it turns up!
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Date: 2024-08-26 09:39 am (UTC)Region coding and blocking is extremely annoying! I have it in reverse quite often, including, to add insult to injury, for UK things somehow only available in the US.
I had no idea that was true!
There doesn't appear to be any obvious sign of one at any rate. I went looking after I listened to it, in case, as I did with The Schoolmistress. A lot of plays have no film adaptations; only BBC Radio or TV ones, and a lot only via BBC radio, who are heroes in that department. And, aw, well, you had to go see the right one for you! <3
I know nothing about that one! Talk to me about it, even though it isn't a film?
I've only listened to it once, and I may have forgotten things, or intruding awful Victorian moments that might warrant warnings, especially from the start, where I was got very worried about where the whole thing was going (unnecessarily), but it was a light farce by Pinero that nevertheless ends very satisfactorily with a full on defence of the stage. The premise sounds terrible, though! I've been trying to type out a summary and given up - the pupil teacher, Peggy (Samantha Bond) blackmails Miss Dyott's terrible aristocratic husband, the Hon Vere Queckett (Gary Bond) into providing a party for the secretly married teenaged Dinah and Reginald (JN), which ends up with his friends and the remnant of the school having an increasingly chaotic night together, and it turned into such a delight. The runaway teenage match is so well-handled, Peggy's outmanoeuvres Queckett at every turn (he deserves it) & Reginald is such an emo teen he tries to stand and pine in the snow all night, and Miss Dyott (Hannah Gordon) has a big return at the end to give Queckett his final comeuppance of the night.
It was one that James Maxwell revived for the Royal Exchange in the late 70s, as director (with Patricia Routledge as Miss Dyott, who would have been great, I'd think.) So it was interesting to know what it was, and it cheered me up no end. I don't know what you'd make of it, but I enjoyed it so much, I rushed to my pc to see if anyone had ever done a filmed version that I could also have, but they had not.
I can wait until it turns up!
lol, could be a while!!!
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Date: 2024-09-08 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 07:07 pm (UTC)Thank you! Nice!
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Date: 2024-08-26 03:09 am (UTC)A lot of book adaptations really need a TV serial format to do the book justice.
I know, right?
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Date: 2024-08-26 08:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-26 01:42 pm (UTC)The "love" question makes me think of an enjoyable/light hearted movie so saying you like a not so cheery film makes it sound odd. Some of my fave movies are no fun really(!).
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Date: 2024-08-26 05:22 pm (UTC)You get points for trying, though! XD
The "love" question makes me think of an enjoyable/light hearted movie so saying you like a not so cheery film makes it sound odd.
Idk, I think you can love sad films very deeply too! They are cathartic or necessary or beautiful or just very well made or whatever. But I do like fun things too!
Some of my fave movies are no fun really(!).
Exactly!
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Date: 2024-08-26 10:21 pm (UTC)*crashes into this thread with my comfort genre of film noir and crashes out again*
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Date: 2024-08-27 02:41 pm (UTC)Aw! The miserable ones are the best;p
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Date: 2024-09-08 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-08 06:58 pm (UTC)And also, yay, that's so great! I do like it, and I do think it is very interesting, but also obv with the caveat that it has a young JM being cute with little children, so I am also a biased audience, heh. ♥
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Date: 2024-09-08 09:56 pm (UTC)I've just finished it, and you're right, it's really well done. I'm also biased, because I really like that realistic vibe of kitchen sink/new wave stuff, and this was no exception. I liked that not everything was perfectly sunshine and rainbows, and the way we see real people with real problems and real flaws just trying their best. The story still feels sadly very relevant today, doesn't it? I did like the open yet hopeful ending, and Rachel Roberts was definitely amazing! Thank you very much for the rec!
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Date: 2024-09-09 12:25 pm (UTC)Oh, excellent! I'm so glad you liked it too. And, yes, even with all the still fifties-ish elements, some of the things were very recognisable from issues with children in care today, sadly.
I did like the open yet hopeful ending, and Rachel Roberts was definitely amazing! Thank you very much for the rec!
♥
Rachel Roberts really is! I finally got to see This Sporting Life this year, although, like a lot of films I had to watch it downstairs, extra slowly, and it's not very cheerful so it was good but felt like an endlessly gruelling thing that took me about six weeks!! XD (I'd watch 10 mins, and then another ten mins another day and then want something more cheerful for the next two weeks, or be too ill to watch TV downstairs rather than lying down upstairs, which is why it took me that long.) But she was just so luminous in it, so compelling in such very mundane roles. (I don't know if that's a rec: it probably is if you don't watch it painfully slowly in ten minute stretches in which case it is not an enjoyable experience. It's the one that has William Hartnell in, at least briefly.)
But I do love GoA, and it is more optimistic tone of than many other New Wave installments, which is nice for a change. (Plus, my man, somehow without any fake hair attached to him.)