Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Ents Are Revolting (As Far As The Stevieling Is Concerned)

Mrs Stevie and I have just finished a marathon session with Mr DVD player, and concluded our two-week Festival of Not Letting The Stevieling Watch Confusing Japanese Cartoons by Hogging the TV.

The program so far:
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
The Other Boleyn Girl
Elizabeth R
Easy Rider
Blade Runner, the Definitive and This Time I Really, Really Mean It I'm Not Kidding Edition.

I found it hard to believe, but Mrs Stevie had not seen any of these before. She had read "The Other Boleyn Girl" and so complained bitterly about the many changes the director had made to the story. The most damning in her eyes was the making of Mary the elder sister rather than a fouteen year-old younger sibling of Anne. I explained that having a 14 year old not only married, but then prostituted to the whims of Henry VII by her family only to become pregnant by him (and thence be discarded in favour of Anne) was so un-P.C. that it would never have gotten made in today's climate. She got thin lipped and said some harsh things about me. I tried explaining that I had nothing to do with the production, but it was very much a rearguard action in what was now a full-blown rout. I struck my colours and yeilded the field.

Next up on the agenda will probably be Othello and Hamlet, both Brannaugh productions that we've not seen. Then it will be a concerted Blade Runner retrospective, since the set I was given includes three release versions of the movie and a workprint. Interestingly, the three theatrical releases are on one disc. The different scenes are automagically interpolated according to the version selected for play (a feature I've wondered at the absence of on several other movies, notably LOTR). Ridley Scott has demonstrated it can be done. Now there is no excuse for other filmmakers to not include all the versions of their movies on one disc.

The Stevieling has taken to her room complaining of an Anti-Anime bias in the visual arts division of Chateau; Stevie Ents Incorporated, and she's right.

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