(no subject)

[trinityvixen]

I dreamt last night that some problem closed the browser I was using at work, thus losing all the artists at DeviantArt that I'd found and not yet gone through. I woke up in the middle of the night really annoyed and yet relieved by this--I was free! Free of the elf pictures and goth characters! Nope, browser working just fine when I got in.

I also dreamt that I was back at my sister and brother-in-law's place for Christmas, and that his joke gift had been a GIGANTIC Hawai'i shirt from my sister. It was yellow with black and white and gray flowers, the typical print, but had a lovely brown bottom piece that I liked a lot. Unforutunately, it looked like you could have put two sumo wrestlers into it and they would still be swimming in fabric. It might have worked as a sheet for their bed, which is a California King, and even then, I'm not sure you'd be able to find the bed through it. I have this distinct image of Jotham holding it up and it just expaaaaanding until it was floor-to-ceiling between collar and hem. My brother-in-law is 6'5" and not tiny. He vanished behind the thing.

*

Saw Pan's Labyrinth last night with a whole host of people. It started out as moonlightalice and I and escalated from there. She brought wellgull, I brought my former roommate. She brought two more people, I brought two more. Her friend balanced out former roommate's friend's boyfriend, and the match was a draw.

Oh, and the movie was good. Sad, horrific in ways that few reviews I'd read had mentioned (though feiran kindly warned me when she saw it Friday), and, okay, so I was a little clueless about the politics (I turned to moonlightalice for an explanation of specifics and began with, "Okay, so I know nothing about Spain, uh, when did this happen?") but it was a fairy tale so it was easy to figure baddies from goodies, even when the goodies were a little scary, too (uh, maybe it's just me, but I would have preferred the fairies stay bugs--just saying). Enjoyable, but I'm not raving about it. Maybe that's being saved for Children of Men.

Comments

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

I had no idea until this morning that it was set during/after the Spanish Civil War. Now I want to go see it, which I hadn't previously.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Was the Spanish Civil War during, before, or after WWII? Because, what with my American history, I recognized Eisenhower and that was about it (okay, I've heard of Franco, too).

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

The Spanish Civil War was over by the time World War II started. I haven't seen the movie, but I heard it's set in the 1940s, and Franco is rounding up old republicans and sending them to concentration camps.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Uh, then I'm really confused. What would Eisenhower be doing anywhere around Europe if it wasn't WWII?

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

It was WWII, the Spanish Civil War was pretty much over. Franco, however, continued to imprison and execute people afterwards. That, from what I've heard, is the setting for the movie.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh. Okay. So, he's not really in power, he's just winding down. Gotcha.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

I wish I'd known people were seeing this movie. I lack the will to see it alone, and I don't think Ben's interested. But meh, if it's not rave-worthy, maybe I'll save it for DVD.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Enjoyable throughout, a bit slow on the pacing, but pretty harsh and gritty in a realistic (versus "noir"-ish) sense. You'd probably really like it, but yeah, lots of grossness, too.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

Bah. If there's grossness I'll definitely have to watch it on my own. Maybe I will anyway, though, if I'm not busy every weekend from now til it closes.

[lizzatherussian.livejournal.com]

Gaaaaah I really wanted to see it very much.

[fairest.livejournal.com]

Whoo. I hope the raw brutality didn't upset ex-roomie too much.

I was happy with the film. It's just the way I like my fairy tales--dark, where the fairies can eat you. ;)

So! I think the fairyland adventures were really happening, while E thinks they were all imagined--what's your take?

I can't actually make the last comment I have, comparing the opening to another movie, because it'll spoil it for those who've seen the other movie. But anyone who sees it should tell me whether their minds immediately went to the other movie, too.

Did that make any sense? I'm going to lunch now.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. Given the ending location, I'd say it seems that the fairies were real to her if not to anyone else, which isn't an answer for or against either explanation. I'll talk to you about it in person. Remind me which film you mean that it was like when we talk it over?

And Lisa was okay. moonlightalice was a tad traumatized.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that there is a way to answer that. They seemed real enough for her, but many fairy tales end with a "they lived happily ever after," and perhaps she was happy for all the ever after she saw?

I think the scenes of comeuppance were certainly fairy-tale-worthy though.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Not with the way you-know-who died. He deserved worse.

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

I am still so traumatized.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

From the movie or from my stupidity? Kidding. Yes, it was pretty traumatic. I still don't recall seeing the first guy killed because as soon as that looked like it was going to happen, I looked away (I. cannot. stand. things. being. shoved. in. well, you know, you were there).

[cbreakr.livejournal.com]

If it weren't for the fact that I finally watched Jin-Roh a couple of days ago, Pan's Labyrinth would have been the most depressing film I'd seen in a long, long time. Went out drinking with some old Fed people, saw the film at Sunshine, left completely sober and just wanting to go home. Stunning, but too harsh to get me enthused (and yeah, that first guy who died really set the mood).

Now, as for Children of Men... visually/technically amazing, the single-shot action sequences are unbelievable, Michael Caine is great. Something about the film just didn't click for me, though. It felt too clinical sometimes, like the story was told impersonally. The first half was plodding, but the second half made up for it by being really intense. It was good, but I don't know how I feel about it.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The comment I made about Pan's to some folks last night was that it felt real--as in they studied in depth the actual horrible things people do to one another and put that onscreen. The way the first guy died? There were things that could be done to him, things you could do with the weapon used, but I hadn't counted on them doing it without either using the blunt end or breaking the glass for the purpose. Boy, howdy.

And I do want to see Children of Men still, just I think I need to watch Totoro or something else ridiculously adorable and nonthreatening on repeat if I ddo.