Wednesday Double Features – World War 1 Comedies

by on February 5, 2020 at 10:04 am
Posted In: Rhapsodies

I started my selection for the week in the general theme of world war one. As I looked for films I hadn’t seen, or thought would go with films that I had already put on my list. The end result was a couple of weeks of material. The first pair on my list was World War Comedies… or at least ones that said they were comedies on the Google.

The first film on my list, Richard Attenborough’s  Oh What A Lovely War!, tries to tell the entire story of the war to end all wars in a series of musical vignettes. 

Wednesday Double Features - World War 1 Comedies - Oh what a Lovely War

This film is a mess while it makes good use of its all-star cameos, my favorite is Maggie Smith as a Music Hall performer getting young men to enlist. The rest of it is all over the place. One minute it’s a satirical romp, the next it’s a straight documentary and the next, it’s a sermon. I liked it the best when they did theatrical symbolism but there wasn’t enough of it to carry the film.

Wednesday Double Features - World War 1 Comedies - The Girl and the General

The next film on my list Pasquale Festa Campanile’s The Girl and The General, tells the story of Pvt. Tarasconi, Umberto Orsini, an Italian soldier, having slept through a battle, manages through sheer luck to be the only survivor of his regiment after they are defeated by the Austrians. Somehow he manages to capture an Austrian general, the only problem is in order to be rewarded he has to get him back to Italy, a nearly impossible task. With the help of a peasant woman named Ada,Virna Lisi, he’s certainly going to try.

This film really didn’t work for me. For the most part, I found, it very flat and I had a hard time having any sympathy for any of the cast.

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Wednesday Double Feature French Animation, Animals and Crime

by on January 22, 2020 at 9:14 am
Posted In: Test

I wanted to do one last week of fluff before I went back to watching films with a little more meat on them. So I went back to my favorite mediums of illustration, specifically, French animation. Films that were technically children’s films, but just artsy enough that maybe they’re not. To narrow down my selection a little bit, I watched films about animals and crime. 

Wednesday Double Feature French Animation, Animals and Crime - A cat in Paris

The first film I watched, Jean-Loud Felicioli and Alain Gagnol’s, A Cat in Paris features Dino who by day is the beloved pet of a mute girl named Zoe, who just happens to be the daughter of the police superintendent. At night he is the accomplice of a cat burglar named Nico. It’s only a matter of time before these two lives meet.

Cat in Paris is a beautiful film with a wonderful aesthetic that looks as if Pablo Picasso had considered animation as a career option. 

Wednesday Double Feature French Animation, Animals and Crime - Ernest and Celestine

My second film Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner’s Ernest and Celestine. Based on a series of children’s books of the same name by Gabrielle Vincent. It’s all about a bear, Ernest, and Celestine, a young mouse girl, who become friends despite living in a world decided between bears who live on the surface and mice who live underground with both sides distrusting the other. This regrettably leads to them unintentionally becoming partners in crime.

This was an amazingly sweet and delightful film. It’s done in Flash but it’s hard to believe it by looking at it. It looks as if it’s done in watercolor. It’s a wonderful tribute to its source material which I am happy to have discovered after watching this film.

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WuXia Steampunk

by on January 8, 2020 at 8:02 am
Posted In: Test

I needed something to clear my pallet of the holiday season. So I went for something different, steampunk wuxia. The movies I saw were listed as a two-parter, doing a very loose retelling of the origin of the Chen style of the martial art t’ai chi ch’uan which, at the time, I assumed would be like John Wu’s Red Cliff. Based on that, I decided to watch them back to back. They weren’t quite the two film epic I expected but were still quite enjoyable.

WuXia Steampunk tai chi zero

The first film of the two Stephen Fung’s Tai chi Zero tells the story of Yang Lu Chan aka the Freak (Jayden Yuan) born with a strange growth on his skull called the “Three Blossoms on the Crown,”. This gives him the ability to memorize any martial Arts technique he watches. When this bump or hit, he becomes an unstoppable berserker. 

The downside is it’s slowly killing him. He is told the only way to save himself. he has to seek the Village of Chen where we can be taught by Master Chen (Tony Leung). When he arrives at the village, he discovers that everyone in the village is a martial arts master(even the adorable eight-year-old) and it is forbidden to teach the village’s techniques to outsiders. All of his attempts to get to reach Master Chen are thwarted by the villagers led by Master Chen’s daughter Chen Yu Niang (Angelababy) 

Meanwhile, the Chinese government wanders expanding the railway and regards the village as an inconvenient impediment. They Decide to deal with it using the army and giant steam-powered automatons. 

This was mostly a fun film, with tongue firmly in cheek. The fight choreography was well done what I especially liked about it was, was the captioning where Each character is introduced along with the r actor case dependent on the popularity of the actor) in large letters. 

WuXia Steampunk tai chi hero

The next film of the two, Tai Chi Hero continues where Zero left off, With the British East India company who have been backing the Chinese government, wants to deal with The village of Chen once and for all. 

Meanwhile, Yang Lu Chan has married Chen Yu Niang to become part of the village And and his new brother in law shows up, who may be working for the British. 

This film was perfectly entertaining and had some good action bit, but 1 thought it lacked a lot of the charm of the first film. 

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Happy Festivus!

by on December 23, 2019 at 3:16 pm
Posted In: Rhapsodies

Just realized that Festivus was today, So I had to crank this out fast.

In this Rhapsodies Illustration, Paul and Nancy celebrate Festivus with "Feats of Strength."
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Finally, Our New Couple

by on December 23, 2019 at 8:28 am
Posted In: Rhapsodies

Here’s a sketch of our New couple. Kristoff Claus, better know as Kris Kringle (he plays younger in folklore) and Treasure. I’m sure they’ll be happy together.

Two more original character designs for the darling wedding couple Kristoff Claus, otherwise known as Kris Kringle, and his fiancée Treasure.
Kris and Treasure
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Meet The Brothers Claus

by on December 20, 2019 at 9:48 am
Posted In: Rhapsodies

As I mentioned in today’s strip, we’ve met these guys before. The brothers Claus, Ray and Lesley are Santa’s two oldest sons. They don’t show up in Christmas folklore because they generally do all of the things that need to be done that people don’t like to talk about. In the past, they’ve had a noticeably different agenda than our heroes. Though they’ve helped them more recently… whether Peaseblossom likes it or not.

Ray, when he’s not messing with you, will assure you it was all just business. Lesley just wants to be friendly… In a slap you on the back, crushing handshake, sort of way. (His wife, Sophie keeps him in line.)

A Character sketch of the Brothers Claus, Ray and Lesley, Santa's two oldest sons.
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