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Jun. 19th, 2014 05:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* It's too early for cheers. The Racists won the appeals last time. "In Landmark Decision, U.S. Patent Office Cancels Trademark For Redskins Football Team:" http://thinkprogress.org/default/2014/06/18/3450333/in-landmark-decision-us-patent-office-cancels-trademark-for-redskins-football-team/
* The art cinema is actually showing Belle, so I dragged my barely functional ass out to watch it It was worth it. This movie was made with so much love and talent. Seriously, this movie had the look of something that everyone involved must have cared about. The acting was lovely and skilled, which is likely a given if you look at the cast list. It was beautifully shot and lit, sensitively directed, and whoever did the costumes really knew their stuff and did period appropriate things with ribbons you hardly ever see. The script didn't shy away from some things I did not expect them to reference and/or tackle. The people making this were well aware of period tropes that modern people pretend never happened, like the thing where people would be painted with black servants as status symbols. Art history books crop those pictures or light them incorrectly to erase the black people so they don't have to confront colonialism and the ugly power dynamics those portraits represent. This movie used those pictures as a powerful way of highlighting those issues without resorting to heavy handed dialog. I love the way this movie didn't lampshade a whole lot of class, gender, etc. issues while keeping the issue of race and the dignity and sanctity of human life in the center. There was so much going on in this movie, yet it never felt over packed. I love that Dido Elizabeth Belle got to be a complete human being instead of a symbol in this movie. That famous RL portrait of her with her finger to her cheek has fascinated me since I first saw it because of how richly her sense of humor and intelligence show through. So many portraits of that period show pretty women as ciphers, but her personality was so strong it rises above period portraiture conventions to speak across the centuries to the modern heart. So portion of that made it into the film, though I'm not sure any film could captures all of her.
Yes, Bring tissues.
* "Release day! "Lake Effect" and They Do anthologies:" http://rm.livejournal.com/2170472.html
* The Clutch:
* The art cinema is actually showing Belle, so I dragged my barely functional ass out to watch it It was worth it. This movie was made with so much love and talent. Seriously, this movie had the look of something that everyone involved must have cared about. The acting was lovely and skilled, which is likely a given if you look at the cast list. It was beautifully shot and lit, sensitively directed, and whoever did the costumes really knew their stuff and did period appropriate things with ribbons you hardly ever see. The script didn't shy away from some things I did not expect them to reference and/or tackle. The people making this were well aware of period tropes that modern people pretend never happened, like the thing where people would be painted with black servants as status symbols. Art history books crop those pictures or light them incorrectly to erase the black people so they don't have to confront colonialism and the ugly power dynamics those portraits represent. This movie used those pictures as a powerful way of highlighting those issues without resorting to heavy handed dialog. I love the way this movie didn't lampshade a whole lot of class, gender, etc. issues while keeping the issue of race and the dignity and sanctity of human life in the center. There was so much going on in this movie, yet it never felt over packed. I love that Dido Elizabeth Belle got to be a complete human being instead of a symbol in this movie. That famous RL portrait of her with her finger to her cheek has fascinated me since I first saw it because of how richly her sense of humor and intelligence show through. So many portraits of that period show pretty women as ciphers, but her personality was so strong it rises above period portraiture conventions to speak across the centuries to the modern heart. So portion of that made it into the film, though I'm not sure any film could captures all of her.
Yes, Bring tissues.
* "Release day! "Lake Effect" and They Do anthologies:" http://rm.livejournal.com/2170472.html
* The Clutch: