Mostly happy endings
What great stuff you've been posting...
Films v books: Thomas the tank engine: brilliant choice. (It helps if the original is that dire, of course! Plenty of room for improvement.) Very interesting to hear about Ladies in Lavender, too. The scriptwriter, by the way, was Charles Dance himself. I read an interesting article about him in which he lamented how he used to play thinking women's crumpet (eg in White Mischief) but is now only offered aged roles (eg Gosford Park). This may be partly why he turned to directing and wrote the screenplay too. Perhaps he's an example of - occasionally - men getting typecast like women do once they cross 35, or whatever the line is.
I found myself agreeing with both Valerie and Helen S. I certainly liked Valerie's point about applauding authors who can acquire their readers' empathy without leaving them in a state of hopeless misery. But, like Helen, sometimes I can't even cope with that fairly reasonable-sounding formula. Which, I guess, is often due to either the author being just too good at what s/he's doing, or the issue being one on which I'm hypersensitive. (We all have short-circuits in our brains, don't we, where we react disproportionately to certain issues.) While they're reductive, I do appeciate the explanation of the certificate on the back of video boxes. I can tell before I start that I'm not going to be subjected to particular things like heavy drug use. Like Helen, I'm very careful about what I watch and read reviews ad nauseum for this reason. Although the price I pay is plot spoilers...
So, yes, I think Helen's right, and it's a very fine line between things that are authentic and yet uplifting (enough). And we all have such different places that we draw the line for different issues and in different mediums. Which is why like-minded friends are so USEFUL in this...
Sometimes I feel rather childish for demanding happy endings. Although at least I'm not abnormal. Griffin Mills in The Player (great film: dark, funny and yet nothing to haunt anyone. Have any of you seen it?) describes: "certain elements that we need to market a film successfully... suspense, laughter, violence. Hope, heart, nudity, sex. Happy endings. Mostly happy endings". (The reply comes back: "What about reality?".)
Films v books: Thomas the tank engine: brilliant choice. (It helps if the original is that dire, of course! Plenty of room for improvement.) Very interesting to hear about Ladies in Lavender, too. The scriptwriter, by the way, was Charles Dance himself. I read an interesting article about him in which he lamented how he used to play thinking women's crumpet (eg in White Mischief) but is now only offered aged roles (eg Gosford Park). This may be partly why he turned to directing and wrote the screenplay too. Perhaps he's an example of - occasionally - men getting typecast like women do once they cross 35, or whatever the line is.
I found myself agreeing with both Valerie and Helen S. I certainly liked Valerie's point about applauding authors who can acquire their readers' empathy without leaving them in a state of hopeless misery. But, like Helen, sometimes I can't even cope with that fairly reasonable-sounding formula. Which, I guess, is often due to either the author being just too good at what s/he's doing, or the issue being one on which I'm hypersensitive. (We all have short-circuits in our brains, don't we, where we react disproportionately to certain issues.) While they're reductive, I do appeciate the explanation of the certificate on the back of video boxes. I can tell before I start that I'm not going to be subjected to particular things like heavy drug use. Like Helen, I'm very careful about what I watch and read reviews ad nauseum for this reason. Although the price I pay is plot spoilers...
So, yes, I think Helen's right, and it's a very fine line between things that are authentic and yet uplifting (enough). And we all have such different places that we draw the line for different issues and in different mediums. Which is why like-minded friends are so USEFUL in this...
Sometimes I feel rather childish for demanding happy endings. Although at least I'm not abnormal. Griffin Mills in The Player (great film: dark, funny and yet nothing to haunt anyone. Have any of you seen it?) describes: "certain elements that we need to market a film successfully... suspense, laughter, violence. Hope, heart, nudity, sex. Happy endings. Mostly happy endings". (The reply comes back: "What about reality?".)
posted by Emily @ 6:14 PM
<< Home