I have been in the biggest movie-mood. For the past two weeks I swear I must have watched around 10 movies. Breaking Dawn was amongst them and I am ashamed of myself. I think I read Twilight in eighth grade once and I liked it but that was also around the time where the hype was becoming absolutely ridiculous about the movie, so I got over it quickly. Although I'm not a fan at all of the series or of the movies, I've somehow managed to get dragged along to the midnight premiering of the first two films and I saw this past one the day after in came out (older sister wanted to "bond" with me...). I'm not going to write about it because I couldn't' care less about the movie and I'm not into that kind of fantasy fiction genre.
Two movies that I will write about, however, are Welcome to the Dollhouse and Quills - pretty much polar opposites in all senses.
Before dinner on Thanksgiving last weekend, I sat in my room with a glass of wine and watched Welcome to the Dollhouse on my laptop. I don't even know what to say about this movie, I just thought it was great. Heather Matarazzo (who I recognized as Mia's best friend in The Princess Diaries) plays Dawn, this geeky, 7th grade girl who everyone hates for whatever reason, and is neglected by her parents who dote on her younger sister. She falls in love with this beefy high school senior and kind of dates this kid in her grade who threatened to rape her after calling him "retarted." The thing is that this movie is filmed in such a way that makes everything I have written above absolutely hilarious. It's such an awkward 90's film, I love it.
The second film that I want to write about is Quills. Made in 2000, the movie takes place in the French "Reign of Terror" era in the late 1700's. It is about the Marquis de Sade's erotic fantasy writings during his stay in an insane asylum at Charenton. His stories were depicted as blasphemous against the Catholic church. Geoffrey Rush plays the Marquis (magnificently, might I add), Joaquin Phoenix is the conservative and prude Abbé, and Kate Winslet is Madelyn (Maddie) the laundress of the asylum who was one to enjoy the Marquis' writings and to enable him to continue with his stories in such dyer conditions. Of course, I find the Marquis liberal view during such a constrictive time to be incredibly intriguing and inspiring. But what I find so outstanding about this movie was the Marquis's commitment he had to his stories. What is about to be written could be considered a spoiler: When Abbé took his quills, paper and ink away, he wrote with a chicken wishbone and red wine on his bed sheets to give to Maddie (which earned her a brutal whipping), when they took his bed, sheets and almost every bit of furniture away from his room - he smashed a mirror, pricked all of his fingers and with the glass filled all of his garments with stories, when his clothes were taken away - he whispered his stories through the holes of the walls of his inmates (similar to a game of Telephone) to have it written by Maddie at the end, and when he was chained and isolated in an underground cell - he wrote with his own filth on the walls. Disgusting, yes. But somehow still magnificent. And by magnificent, I mean the absolute necessity he felt to have his stories (no matter how sexually explicit and violent) written and read.
On Wednesday I went into the city to see the Broadway revival of Godspell. Let me just profess my abundant love of this play right now. We did a production of it as my school's Spring musical last year, I played Gilmer. When we first found out that we would be doing Godspell as the Spring musical, a solid majority of everyone involved in the theatre program at my school's reaction was "What the fuck?". No one really knew about the play, or didn't like the religious aspect of it. But when we got into the middle/end of rehearsals and finally the performances, everyone fell in love with it. The messages that we were trying to get across through the stories we told, as well as the musical itself, are still extremely relevant and meaningful. Not to mention that all of the music is incredible. To add onto this fantastic show we were putting on, the cast bonded so profoundly. I miss it all. Anywho, onto the real Godspell on Wednesday. Everyone in the entire cast was so tremendously talented that it made me hate myself...not really, but still. Now, Uzo Aduba was hilarious (everyone was, but she just stood out to me) and Lindsay Mendez is my favorite. I don't mean to, but I feel like if there is ever a show/movie/musical...etc that I'm watching, I normally subconsciously pick a favorite character for whatever reason. Lindsey Mendez just so happens to be that person in this case (qurlfran kicked azz in "Bless the Lord!!~). At the end of the show I was a bawling mess, so much so that I could't stop crying even as the cast was doing their bows. I also got teary in the way beginning for "Save the People" - which is actually a very upbeat song. I couldn't help it though, I was so moved. Their rendition of "Beautiful City" absolutely blew me away (that song is optional in this show, and the directors decided to not include in my school's production). I also found there to be this huge difference between the emotion this show evoked from me while I was watching it as opposed to when I was performing it six months ago. You all should go and see it. Right now. Go. No, finish reading my blog and then go.
Just watch the first three minutes of this video of Lindsey Mendez and the cast rehearsing "Bless the Lord" Ugh. So good.
I've also stumbled upon (not actually stumbled... I found on Tumblr to be technical) "This Is Hanging Rock Comics" and this girl is insane. Absolutely insane with her illustrations that are such accurate depictions of teenage lyf ~.
I've also made the decision to say "Yes" to more things. Saying "No" only holds you back, I've decided. Totally having a Jim Carrey Yes Man moment right now.
Since I've been on this Kate Winslet-movie-watching-spree lately, I've been feeling a lot better about my body. She is just such a real woman. American society has this completely distorted standard of what is considered beautiful. What has also inspired this epiphany was the fact that when I went to the Met about two weeks ago I realized my love for the ancient Greek and European statues. They're gorgeous, and the female bodies were gorgeous as well. I'd like to try my best to ignore what society tries to shove down our throats and to follow my own definition of what I find beautiful.
WOW, what an amazing post! So interesting.
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