An Offbeat Romance for You To Enjoy
Happy Christmas Eve morning all.
Assigned the Christmas Eve blog, I tried to think of something profound to say about the Christmas season. Nothing came to me. At the risk of sounding like a beauty pageant contestant, I wish for world peace, freedom and puppies for all. That being said, I’ve decided to post a movie review because that’s what I feel like doing and, dammit, it’s my blog for the day.
If you don’t subscribe to the Liquid Silver newsletter, SilverScope, please sign up now. The second December issue has my review of the wonderful movie A Home at the End of the World. Today I want to share another offbeat romance with you:
Stage Beauty
2004 – Lion’s Gate Films
Rated R - available on DVD
Stage Beauty, a gender-bending, unique film, gives us lovely Billy Crudup as Ned Kynaston, one of the most popular actors in seventeenth century England. In a time when women’s roles were played by men, Kynaston was billed “the most beautiful woman on the London stage.” But the times they were a changin’ and this arrogant actor’s star was about to burn out. When Ned’s wardrobe mistress, Maria (Claire Danes) dares to play Desdemona in a rival production of Othello, it sets into motion a chain of events that brings about the end of male actors playing female roles.
There are several wonderful things about this picture apart from the marvelous acting from the main characters down to the smallest supporting roles. First, it creates a framework for exploration of the genders, attempting to show the qualities of ‘woman’ and ‘man’ beyond the obvious physical differences. Actors like Kynaston were trained to erase all their masculine traits and to adopt feminine mannerisms in their performances. But the female stereotypes they emulated were caricatures of the real thing as Maria shows Ned in a touching and erotic scene in the latter half of the film.
The second intriguing note in Stage Beauty is the juxtaposition of two acting styles. At the beginning of the movie we witness old-style stagecraft, full of dramatic gestures and loudly proclaimed lines. At the end, when Maria and Ned perform the same scene of Desdemona’s murder and death, they display a realistic acting style that brings down the house.
Once is not enough. You need to view this film several times to catch all the nuances of each person’s performance. The movie is nearly stolen by Rupert Everett as King Charles and Zoe Tapper as his Cockney mistress. What a charming duo!
When your Christmas festivities are wrapped up and you reach that blah week between Christmas and New Year, I urge you to pack the family off sledding and treat yourself to an afghan afternoon on the couch with this fantastic flick.
Please, share a movie you have found and loved in 2005 and post it here. The winner of today’s drawing may select from the three books I have available, Home Bound, Bone Deep and Season Spirits. I’ll announce the winner on Monday due to the holiday.
Happy Holidays to all.
Bonnie Dee
Assigned the Christmas Eve blog, I tried to think of something profound to say about the Christmas season. Nothing came to me. At the risk of sounding like a beauty pageant contestant, I wish for world peace, freedom and puppies for all. That being said, I’ve decided to post a movie review because that’s what I feel like doing and, dammit, it’s my blog for the day.
If you don’t subscribe to the Liquid Silver newsletter, SilverScope, please sign up now. The second December issue has my review of the wonderful movie A Home at the End of the World. Today I want to share another offbeat romance with you:
Stage Beauty
2004 – Lion’s Gate Films
Rated R - available on DVD
Stage Beauty, a gender-bending, unique film, gives us lovely Billy Crudup as Ned Kynaston, one of the most popular actors in seventeenth century England. In a time when women’s roles were played by men, Kynaston was billed “the most beautiful woman on the London stage.” But the times they were a changin’ and this arrogant actor’s star was about to burn out. When Ned’s wardrobe mistress, Maria (Claire Danes) dares to play Desdemona in a rival production of Othello, it sets into motion a chain of events that brings about the end of male actors playing female roles.
There are several wonderful things about this picture apart from the marvelous acting from the main characters down to the smallest supporting roles. First, it creates a framework for exploration of the genders, attempting to show the qualities of ‘woman’ and ‘man’ beyond the obvious physical differences. Actors like Kynaston were trained to erase all their masculine traits and to adopt feminine mannerisms in their performances. But the female stereotypes they emulated were caricatures of the real thing as Maria shows Ned in a touching and erotic scene in the latter half of the film.
The second intriguing note in Stage Beauty is the juxtaposition of two acting styles. At the beginning of the movie we witness old-style stagecraft, full of dramatic gestures and loudly proclaimed lines. At the end, when Maria and Ned perform the same scene of Desdemona’s murder and death, they display a realistic acting style that brings down the house.
Once is not enough. You need to view this film several times to catch all the nuances of each person’s performance. The movie is nearly stolen by Rupert Everett as King Charles and Zoe Tapper as his Cockney mistress. What a charming duo!
When your Christmas festivities are wrapped up and you reach that blah week between Christmas and New Year, I urge you to pack the family off sledding and treat yourself to an afghan afternoon on the couch with this fantastic flick.
Please, share a movie you have found and loved in 2005 and post it here. The winner of today’s drawing may select from the three books I have available, Home Bound, Bone Deep and Season Spirits. I’ll announce the winner on Monday due to the holiday.
Happy Holidays to all.
Bonnie Dee
SExed by Bonnie Dee at 7:50 AM
10 Comments:
Bonnie sonds like a wonderful movie!!!
I have Cinderella Man sitting here to watch and well, I own Collateral. Cruise is great but from a characterization standpoint, Foxx is amazing *g*
I highly recommend RAY which just brought me to tears and made me tap my foot.
"Under the Tuscan Sun" which I only watched one night because there was nothing else on. It was a treat (and I'm NOT a chick flick person). I laughed, and yes, I cried.
"Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" I hadn't read the book(s) and it was so much more than what I expected--again bring your hankies.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Pride and Prejudice and The Narnia Chronicles: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Merry Christmas Eve, Bonnie!
I would talk about a movie but I just got back from Vegas where I saw Cirque de Soleil's "Mystere" and it was beyond wonderful! I encourage everyone if you can see any of the CdS shows...DO! Absolutely fantastic. Took me to another world....
Good morning everyone and Merry Christmas Eve!!
I love the topic Bonnie. Last night my son invited me to join him at the movies to see the new King Kong. This is not the type of movie I usually go see, but it was a chance to spend time with my son, so off I went.
First, if you go see this movie use the ladies room before you go in and don't chug a soda or water during it, because it's long...like three hours long and if you get involved like I did, you aren't going to want to leave until the end.
I really enjoyed this movie. There were a few of those ewww scenes, but I have to tell you, they did a great job with this one. I don't want to give anything away, I will just say that one of my fav scenes in this movie is near the end and there is ice involved.
Because this movie has been around for years I knew the ending, but that ice scene was very well done.
Now for my most favorite movie of 2005 The Narnia Chronicles. What a wonderful, rich, enchanting movie. I loved it.
I'm also a big Harry Potter fan and have to say the Goblet of Fire was another TBA when released on DVD.
Meljprincess,
I've never seen Cirque de Soleil in person, but I've seen five or six of their PSB specials and loved them all.
Happy Holidays everyone.
Michelle Hoppe
www.michellehoppe.com
I really enjoyed Capote which was a really intense film based on Capote's life while he was writing the book In Cold Blood. This film was riviting. Also I really liked Fantastic Four which had great special effects. I loved the comic books as a child and was happy to see Fantastic Four made into a movie. Ray was also a very interesting movie.
Annalissa....I wanted to see Capote becuase I so vividly remember reading In Cold Blood even though it's been about 20 years!
I'm a movie junkie and I have to say I loved Walk the Line. I'm not a huge Johnny Cash fan or even a Joaquin Phoenix fan...until I walked out of that movie. I was all..."wow...that was awesome." My mom agreed. I'll even forgive her for starting to sing along in the movie considering she can't carry a tune to raise the Titanic.
2005 was also the Year of Riddick for me. Grrrowf. That's all I'll say on that movie (cuz you know I don't flog it enough on this blog).
2005 also brought the not-up-to the hype Transporter 2. Jason - what the heck were doing wearing your shirt? I had to recover by watching the first one (80% of the movie with his shirt off ladies...grrrrowf).
I also liked Ice Princess. I'm such a Disney wuss. I bawled in that one. Okay I also cried in Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. I'm a sucker for teen coming-of-age flicks. There. I've said it.
Merry Christmas!
Sounds cool, Bonnie, and very intellectual.
My fav movies? God, I have to admit I like action/adventure movies. Speed, and yes, even Speed II -- love that Jason Patric. Yummy. All the Die Hard movies. Broken Arrow. All the Indiana Jones flicks. Well, you get the picture. I like adventure.
Color me a Joe-Bag-of-Doughtnuts movie goer.
Rae Morgan
Happy Holidays!
The one movie from 2005 that I can actually remember--okay, besides HP4--is Serenity, based on the canceled TV show Firefly. Loved the movie and finally got the DVD set of the show. Not a romance though.
Shara
www.sharalanel.com
I loved Stage Beauty, but of course anything with Billy Crudup hits my DVD immediately, so I'm prejudiced. As for movies I've enjoyed...hmm...I guess Star Wars 3 and In her Shoes. I haven't had much movie time lately.
Robin
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