I’ve always been a fan of Will Vinton‘s work even at his most commercial. But obviously his side projects are a lot more fun. It’s funny watching this one now it doesn’t feel quite as irreverent as I had remembered it. Still watching the Three Wise Men trying to keep things serious while being interrupted by their doo-wop-singing camels are still fun… and it was either this or Quasimodo conducting Carol of the Bells.
On the suggestion of a friend I started experimenting with doing the ongoing theme of forgotten Oscar nominees whenever I didn’t have any better ideas,
To start this exercise I decided to begin with the year of my birth, 1968.
The first in my selection was Rachel, Rachel a drama directed by Paul Newman starring Joanne Woodward as a repressed 35 year old school teacher who gradually shakes off her shackles and finds sexual freedom after she runs into an acquaintance from high school. Technically it was good enough and did some interesting things switching back and fourth between Rachel’s dreary reality and fantasy life as well as an excellent use of flashbacks. Regrettably I’m afraid I was not really the target audience for this kind of film and while I found it competent I’m afraid that my attention span wasn’t up for it.
The other film on my list was one I’d been hearing about for years and was looking forward to seeing, The Lion in Winter.
An adaptation of the play of the same name this is a magnificent tale of court intrigue, a dysfunctional family and growing old. It’s extremely quotable and O’Toole and Hepburn are fantastic as two people who hate each other and are at the same time perfect for one another. The ongoing duels between verbal martial artists are quite addictive.
I only have problem with it. I think there is a difference between filmed plays and film adaptions of plays and this was definitely a filmed play. So much as I enjoyed the performances and the going on I did not find the directing or the cinematography very creative and found myself wanting to see a performance of the original play or different versions.
I was beginning to start working on a Christmas playlist to start later this week and I started by starting to look for Duke Ellington’s version of the Nutcracker Suite when out of habit I searched for a Rhapsody instead and found his arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue.
Now I try not to repeat most of the better known Rhapsodies too much (you know who; Gershwin, Liszt, Brahms and Queen) the whole point of these posts are to discover new material. But to listen to two of the greatest American composers combined… well… please forgive me my moment of weakness.
Today’s Sketches are a couple of northwest coastal masks from Seattle Art Museum’s collection.
From left to right they are
1. Kumkwaml – Underssea chief
2. Nulamala – Fool Dancer
3 Nuxalk – Human bird face
4 Nuxalt – Human face
My apologies when I was transcribing this I realized I didn’t know if the Salish words are the names of the masks or the names of the tribe that made it (though I’m mostly sure on 3 and 4)
I’m sorry if i’m going on and on about biking progress but today’s ride was getting into wondering if there’s something wrong with my stopwatch territory so I must crow!
The ride started out about average slowed down a little by the usual lights but well enough that I hit the five minute mark just as I turned into Greenlake. From there It went really well averaging a pace of 3.50 minutes a mile. But I was still certain that this was still in the new average category especially when I had to stop for a car and a dog and finally caught for about 30 seconds on my old nemesis… the light on 65th and Ravenna.
However when I got home I found that I had done it in 34.21 minutes an improvement from the previous record by over a minute! and while I am totally stoked my glee is slightly spoiled by wondering what my time would have been by catching that last light!
For this week’s theme I decided to take a break and do some lighter fare and watch some movies based on French comics.
I’d seen the first of the live action adaptation of Asterix staring Christian Clavier and Gerard Depardieu as Astérix and Obélix and enjoyed. I had intended to watch the second one Asterix and Cleopatra but got things a little mixxed up and ended up picking up the third Asterix and the Olympic Games.
LIke the first one this one was an enjoyable peice of fluff that doesn’t pretend to be a fun hour and a half it for anyone who is going in as a history buff don’t bother… The place name’s are the same and Julius Ceasar was a real person but other wise everything is pure fantasy what I like to call a “Flintstones” setting. But don’t let that bother you it’s one big live action cartoon that was never intended to be taken seriously.
My biggest problem with series as a whole is because Depardieu is a bigger name, Obelix gets much more screen time than Asterix the title character (Now played by Clovis Cornillac). It’s even more so in this film where Asterix and Obelix are virtually background characters in their own movie.
But it makes up for it with Depardiieu making fun of his own Cyrano role by providing romantic lines for the romantic lead minutes he does the same thing for his dog who is trying to get a poodles attention.
The next film I watched was The Rabbi’s Cat an adaptation of the series of the graphic novels by Joann Sfarr of the same name (also directed by Sfarr). I’ve been a fan of Sfar’s work for some time, and this is a glorious adaptation of the material providing a wonderful portrait of life in 1920s through the eyes of talking cat.
This is a glorious film beautifully animated recreating Sfar’s art perfectly. My only problem with it is that it is very much just a piece of the Graphic novels and while it is a very tasty slice of the cake you still miss the rest.
