Self-indulgent cinema
Jun. 7th, 2008 12:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearCenter Stage came in the post from the DVD rental company this week - a melodramatic tale of final-year students at the American Ballet Academy. I had the vague impression that I've seen it before, but that may just have been because it was wholly predictable. I still thoroughly enjoyed it, though - despite the clunky script and less than stellar acting. This was partly because the dancing was amazing, but mostly because I love these kinds of films unashamedly, and have several more on my rental list.
Then, this morning, I went to see Penelope at the cinema, which I also really enjoyed. As well as the fairy tale plot and yummy hero (in the form of James McAvoy), it was really interesting stylistically. It managed to establish a familiar yet unique world all of its own, through a mixture of new and old technology (the cars were all old-fashioned and the journalists used manual typewriters, but the house had TV and modern surveillance equipment and the skyline of the city was all skycrapers). It also mixed up the geography by having parts of it filmed in New York and parts of it filmed in London (both masquerading as the same fictional city) and by having both American and English actors throughout.
The ending was a little odd, with the title character narrating the story to her primary school class and then asking them what they thought it meant. It rather reminded me of the old He-Man and Thundercats cartoons when the characters would re-appear at the end of announce the "moral of the story", which always really annoyed me because I thought it would be better for kids to work it out for themselves rather than making the show too obviously educational.
Here, though, two of the meanings suggested by the kids were "Rich people stink" and "It's always the mother's fault", which was quite amusing.
All in all, a good morning's entertainment.
Then, this morning, I went to see Penelope at the cinema, which I also really enjoyed. As well as the fairy tale plot and yummy hero (in the form of James McAvoy), it was really interesting stylistically. It managed to establish a familiar yet unique world all of its own, through a mixture of new and old technology (the cars were all old-fashioned and the journalists used manual typewriters, but the house had TV and modern surveillance equipment and the skyline of the city was all skycrapers). It also mixed up the geography by having parts of it filmed in New York and parts of it filmed in London (both masquerading as the same fictional city) and by having both American and English actors throughout.
The ending was a little odd, with the title character narrating the story to her primary school class and then asking them what they thought it meant. It rather reminded me of the old He-Man and Thundercats cartoons when the characters would re-appear at the end of announce the "moral of the story", which always really annoyed me because I thought it would be better for kids to work it out for themselves rather than making the show too obviously educational.
Here, though, two of the meanings suggested by the kids were "Rich people stink" and "It's always the mother's fault", which was quite amusing.
All in all, a good morning's entertainment.
