Breakfast at Tiffany's

I rewatched Breakfast at Tiffany's tonight. The first time I saw it, I must've been around 10 or 12. I didn't remember much about it except that it was sorta confusing and there wasn't really a plot. When you're 10 or 12, you kind of need a plot to keep entertained. But it's considered a classic and so when I was at the library picking up a hold on It Happened One Night, I decided to check it out too since I was on this whole classic movie roll (if a roll consists of one classic movie...rolling into two classic movies...yah!). So, there was a lot of stuff that I hadn't picked up on when I first watched it.

First of all, I didn't pick up on the basic facts about each character.

This is kind of what my 10/12 year old mind remembers from the movie: Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) is a flighty, charming party girl who gets paid $50 each time she goes to the powder room with someone. And Paul or "Fred" Verjak (George Peppard) is one of her neighbours who is also a writer and has an older lady friend. And there's also this weird neighbour, Mr. Yunioshi (Mickey Rooney), who's dorky and threatens to call the police on Holly all the time. Oh yeah, and Holly also had a cute cat, named Cat.

But now in my "mid to late 20-something" mind, I now realize that Holly's powder room visits and Paul in his bed with his older lady friend leaving money on the nightstand actually mean other things. Hmm, it's similar to when, after watching Dirty Dancing a million times in my childhood, I realized that Penny had an abortion and that Robbie got her knocked up but wasn't taking responsibility and that's why Baby poured that pitcher of water all over him. I'd watched that scene in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story where Bruce Lee and his girlfriend watch Breakfast at Tiffany's in the movie theatre but leave when Mickey Rooney appears on screen (first reaction when I watched that Dragon scene, to be honest, was, "What's the big deal?") bur I was still shocked and appalled and angered, etc. whenever Mr. Yunioshi appeared. With his coke-bottle glasses, buck teeth and pidgin English, he represents the worse of the yellow-faced actors. And they'd toss in things like him waking up and knocking his head against a paper lantern or him performing a tea ceremony (but spilling the tea because of getting startled by one of Holly's parties). Ergh! It almost makes you think that it's impossible for this movie to still be considered a classic! Almost...if Audrey Hepburn wasn't so impossibly beautiful, effortlessly chic, charming, etc.

I'm sure there have been other classic movies that have rage-inducing stereotypes in them although I can't think of any right at this moment (Sixteen Candles's Long Duk Dong? Is that movie a classic?). But the Mr. Yonioshi performance was a black stain on any enjoyment I could feel about the film overall and each Mr. Y. appearance pulled me out of the movie. I'd feel like calling someone an idiot but I didn't know who. Was Mr. Y actually in the original Truman Capote book? Or was he just added to the movie for "comic relief"?

I guess my memory of Cat was the only one that stayed intact.

I'd give it a 7 out of 10 with a mental suppression of the Yonioshi scenes.

P.S. To top it off, there is also a nasty librarian stereotype! You know, the bespectacled, shushing librarian with her hair up in a bun who yells out "Whaaaat are you doing to that book???" when all you're doing is trying to autograph it (but I guess for me, occupational stereotypes aren't really as offensive as race stereotypes).
And then Audrey Hepburn says that Tiffany's is a nicer place than the library. Tsk. You can't borrow jewelry, you know (unless you're a famous actress, I suppose).

Flight of the Conchords

My sister recommended this to me a few months ago. Jemaine and Bret are the two members of Flight of the Conchords, the 4th most popular folk parody band in New Zealand....they sing songs in various styles (sex-funk, sensitive soul, folk-indie-type) about how you're the most beautiful girl (in the room), how love is like tape, sweet love songs about what would happen "if you're into it". There's also the occasional David Bowie or Lord of the Rings tribute song.
In addition to the hilarious and deadpan lyrics, the tunes are actually pretty catchy. I enjoy acoustic guitar. Even if the songs weren't funny and were about death and dismemberment (and it's entirely possible that their songs could have both of these traits), I'd still give them a listen. They've got an HBO show now but I don't know when I'd be able to see their show outside of youtube. It is possibly about a folk parody band from New Zealand trying to make it big in America and the people they meet, both men and women, both big and small.
Incidentally, here is a youtube video of "Sello tape" (I don't know what that is, perhaps a New Zealand word for "scotch tape"?) - Sello Tape

Phoenix or Firebird

This will probably be a little hard to find in Halifax especially for someone without an "Asian connection" but I'm recommending this Korean drama. Unlike American dramas which can go on for years and years and years, Asian dramas usually have a fixed time period. In this case, Phoenix or Firebird lasted for 26 episodes of an hour each. Also unlike American dramas, there are two main characters, who you just know are meant to be together. Even though each person in the pair is going out with other people, you know that the whole series is working toward the eventual bringing together of these two main characters. There's none of that whole "supercouple which lasts for a couple of years but then the actor gets fired and they pair up the female character with another character to make another potential supercouple" thing - that took longer to explain than I thought, but you know what I mean. Other people may come and pair up, but it'll be useless since you know that they're not really meant to be with the main characters. Also, with the "serious" Korean dramas, often one or both parts of the pair die or have maimed body parts by the end of it.
So, the plot of Phoenix is: A poor but hard working and intelligent boy meets rich, spoiled girl in a car accident caused by rich, spoiled girl. Through some weird and rather contrived happenings, they end up falling in love despite the bad beginning. Then some twists and turns happen...I'll put the main twist in my attempted "spoiler colour" to highlight even though I'm not sure who reads this...
Rich girl and poor boy in Korea marry despite the extreme objections of her parents (her dad throws an ashtray to poor boy's head! And parents are also jerky in other ways). Girl can't really handle living in poor boy's poor place and, after a fight with boy (he doesn't want to depend on her parents for money), she gets into an accident where she loses the baby. They divorce and he moves to America on a scholarship, slightly bitter that she didn't fight more for their relationship. 10 years later, he returns to Korea and circumstances have changed. Poor boy is now Rich Guy and Rich girl is now Poor Girl and works as a maid. What's gonna happen when they meet again?
There's also the customary "love rectangle" (i.e. Main Guy and Main Girl both have Secondary Girl and Secondary Guy chasing after them). I don't know why but from the Korean dramas I've seen, Secondary Girl tends to be manipulative and slightly if not all out craaaaazy while Secondary Guy is usually charming and nice and caring but just doesn't cut it (usually looks-wise) compared to Main Guy. Secondary Girl in Phoenix is craaaaaaaaaaaazy! She deserves all those extra a's. I thought Main Guy was a little ugly at first, but he grows on you (especially after he gets a better haircut). Good performances all around. A good sign for me is when I clutch my heart when I watch something (also, when I talk to the screen) and I did that a lot of times! Also, I stayed up til 4am watching the drama on my laptop (it didn't work in the DVD player). That's a sign of "good Korean drama".

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Initial rating: (hoped for) 3 1/2 out of 5 stars;
Updated rating: 1 out of 5 stars
I'm only on the 7th chapter or so, but I gotta say that I like that Henry Tilney character. I think he's the first Victorian male protagonist I've met that's funny and has a snarky sense of humour but isn't all tortured (i.e. Mr. Rochester). And he's kind of weird, but in a good way. I was telling a friend of mine, I need to meet a young, Paul Rudd-ish guy for myself (Paul Rudd himself is kind of old - he's 38! And he's also married. And has a kid. Also, our "religious views" probably wouldn't mesh. And I've probably been thinking about this topic too much now).
This cover is a little misleading. I haven't read that much, but I think Northanger Abbey is supposed to be a parody of all those gothic-type novels.
Update: Ok, I'm giving this 1 out of 5 stars. The fact that it's Jane Austen does not a good book make. And Henry turns out to be a little patronizing. And there's no "heat" or whatever between Catherine (the main character) and Henry. Geez, I know you don't have to hate each other at first, but could you at least have some conversations that make me believe that you've fallen in love? Geez! Geez Louise!
But the basic plotline is kind of boring and stupid too. If the above paragraph didn't convince you not to read it, then I'm just going to outline the plot here: Catherine is bored. She goes to a ball and meets a bunch of sensible people (Henry and his sis). She then meets a bunch of stupid and annoying people (someone named Isabelle and her bro). She reads a bunch of stupid gothic novels. She takes a trip to Henry's dad's house. She acts infuriatingly idiotic and naive and thinks Henry's dad is some kind of murderer. Henry's like "What the heck were you thinking? Geez!" Then, it does turn out that Henry's dad is a jerk (although still not a murderer). Then Henry asks her to marry him and they get married. Whatever. This book was a waste of time. I had such high hopes for Henry too. Wah.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

4 stars
This may be the summer of Victorian drama and literature (as well as being the summer of my sister getting married =)). I started reading this on that free online literature Gutenberg thing and I read all of it in two days. Actually, I did end up skimming the last part, partly because my eyes were starting to dry up and partly because it was just that depressing. So, after that readathon, I had to rent the miniseries as well. For kicks, I also borrowed Thomas Hardy's least depressing novel, Far from the Madding Crowd but it was rather difficult to read. Maybe all the fated tragedy and heartache and helplessness makes Thomas Hardy easier to read.
Plot: Tess (Justine Waddell) is a somewhat naive country girl whom all the gods of fate seem to be conspiring against. She is seduced by Alec D'Urberville (Jason Flemyng), a slimy quasi-relative and tragedy strikes. Then she becomes a milkmaid, has a sweet little romance with Angel Clare (Oliver Milburn), a parson's son turned aspiring farmer. Alas, there's more tragedy in the form of hypocritical sexist Victorian values and chance meetings. Then, tragedy, tragedy, tragedy, and more tragedy until it starts to stop looking like an actual word.

By the way, no one really looks that great on the DVD cover, but Justine Waddell's hair is a lot more (I hate to use this word, but it's true) fabulous in the actual movie. Oliver Milburn looks a lot cuter in the movie itself too - usually, I'm not one for blondes. Even though, multiple times throughout the miniseries, I found myself shaking my fist at him on the screen and saying (yes, out loud) "Why, Angel, why???", I still thought he was cute. However, on the cover or in the movie, Jason Flemyng still looks like a moustache twirling, skeevy villain.

North and South (miniseries) - BBC Production

4 1/2 stars
So, I'm changing up the format...since this blog is no longer up for marking, I'm just using it to recommend things that I really enjoyed. And...I really enjoyed North and South.

It's another one of those BBC period dramas in the Pride and Prejudice vein where Boy and Girl meet, Boy and Girl rub each other the wrong way; however, Boy and Girl are also secretly attracted to each other in spite of (or perhaps because of) rubbing each other the wrong way; Boy and Girl undergo a Big Misunderstanding...yadda yadda yadda. I've realized that I really gotta love these love/hate stories...I only wish that I had my own glowering British gentleman with a cravat who I could hate at first sight, argue and exchange meaningful glances with and gradually learn to appreciate. But alas, I do not.

Anyways.

When I first heard of North and South, I immediately thought of that other miniseries - the soap operatic one about the American Civil War with Patrick Swayze - some may know what I'm talking about. However, this miniseries is about Northern England, with its industry and cotton mills and its contrast with Southern England, an idyllic countryside paradise. In this story, the North is represented by John Thornton (Richard Armitage), a self-made cotton mill owner, who comes into immediate conflict with Margaret Hale (Daniella Denby-Ashe), a Southerner who is forced by circumstances to live in the North and immediately hates it (and John Thornton). In addition to all that romantic "I hate you and yet I hold a strange attraction to you shown by my lingering gazes, inappropriate hand grazing and overly long handshakes", there are also another underlying storylines involving the conflict between workers and mill owners, strikes, family, etc. But I must admit that, I would often skip over the scenes of the labour leader rousing the workers to go on strike to get to more of the "lingering gazing" scenes. Because of this miniseries, Richard Armitage gained legions of female fans and I don't blame them. In addition to totally immersing himself in the multidimensional character of John Thornton, he's got that smoldering gaze down, he's got a great accent (youtube "Richard Armitage" and "Cbeebies" and you can hear him read bedtime stories...I'm not sure how exactly I found out this piece of information) and he's not that bad looking. According to some fans, he could potentially unthrone Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy as the BBC king of the smoldering gaze. I just hope he finds some more great roles like this one. He's currently in an adaptation of Robin Hood as Guy of Gisborne, complete with bad guy eyeliner, but this adaptation is apparently a little cheesy and over the top, according to what I've heard.
Besides Richard Armitage...the cinematography and music are great and are apparently extremely authentic to the period. Daniella Denby-Ashe is fine as well...although she appears a little emotionless and blank faced in some scenes, like her costar, she is also capable of giving good stare. And that's all that really matters.

Blankets by Craig Thompson (2004) published by Top Shelf Productions

4 1/2 stars
Blankets is a bit of a coming of age novel, but not in that annoying "ah, so that's the answer to everything!" kind of way. It's a seemingly simple story/memoir of Craig as a boy growing up in Michigan, as a teenager experiencing first love and heartache, isolation, embracing his gift for drawing...but the book's storylines also involve the helplessness of children, the heartbreak of divorce and broken dreams, sibling relationships, blindness to reality and Craig's struggles with the Christianity that he was raised in. This book involves a lot of things, actually. Thompson's drawings are often spare (he uses snow landscapes a lot) but sometimes elaborate (i.e. his memories and idealizations of Raina, his first love) and he captures the widest range of emotions on each of his character's faces. Craig's character is a sensitive, artsy, spills-his-feelings boy that I could love (unlike Perks of a Wallflower boy...) while the families of Craig and Raina are characters in their own right and aren't demonized or condemned for their sometimes questionable actions or opinions. This is a book that I had to finish in one sitting. I highly recommend it. I would recommend this for mature teens 14/15+. There is a bit of nudity and the storylines involve deeper and more complex issues that younger readers might not appreciate now...that sounds a little patronizing...especially since Thompson's growing up experience could relate to a lot of young people but they might only appreciate the conclusions or ruminations that Craig expresses after they've gone through the growing up experience themselves.