Movie season

[shewhomust]

We are watching more television these days than we used to, mostly quizzes of one kind and another. But I saw out the old year with a trio of movies (and then, as I already reported, launched the new year with another one), For the record:

The Death of Stalin (2017)

Declaration of interest: the reason why I wanted to see Armando Iannucci's brilliantly cast and highly praised black comedy has nothing to do with any of those things. A friend (strictly a friend of the Bears, but how strict do we need to be?) is a professional background artiste, had a part in this film and had for once not complained that his contribution had been lost in the edit. I wasn't disappointed: being one of the specialist subset of background artistes with beards, P. had been cast as one of the bishops whose presence at Stalin's funeral causes such a scandal: his presence was one brief shot, but it was a highly recognisable close-up, and its dramatic impact was disproportionate. Other than that, I'd file The Death of Stalin under Glad to Have Seen rather than Enjoyed, which tells you more about me than about the film.

Fantabulosa (2006)

Michael Sheen plays Kenneth Williams as viewed by that most disdainful of audiences, himself - it's based on his diaries, which must have been extensively sampled and reviewed at the time of publication, because I've never read the diaries themselves, but it was all familiar ground. A brilliant performance, though of a rather one-sided portrait: I'm sure I remember Williams being genuinely funny, not just as the camp caricature he played in Hancock's Half Hour and the Carry On films, but as himself on Just a Minute. Speaking of which, I was disconcerted by the use of clips of Williams's real-life interlocutors (in this case, Nicholas Parsons) alongside Michael Sheen. Unexpected cameo: Kenny Doughty as Joe Orton (now Vera Stangope's sidekick).

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Finally, a movie that isn't even slightly bleak, and that I watched while doing some ironing (did I menton that durham_rambler was having a shirt crisis?). I haven't seen the 1991 animated version, but I was surprised how much the film reminded me of the Cocteau version (though why woulfn't it?). Inevitably, as with Jean Marais, the Beast is more attractive than the "handsome prince": but I also saw him as older. I loved his reaction when Belle says that her favourite Shakespeare is Romeo and Juliet: "Wny am I not surprised?" Belle ias not as studious or intellectual as she thinks, which makes her seem younger, too. Unexpected cameo: Emma Thompson as a teapot.

Comments

[sovay]

I wasn't disappointed: being one of the specialist subset of background artistes with beards, P. had been cast as one of the bishops whose presence at Stalin's funeral causes such a scandal: his presence was one brief shot, but it was a highly recognisable close-up, and its dramatic impact was disproportionate.

I am glad he was there and made a difference!

I'm sure I remember Williams being genuinely funny, not just as the camp caricature he played in Hancock's Half Hour and the Carry On films, but as himself on Just a Minute.

We haven't watched more than half a dozen of the Carry On films so far, having started in the middle of the cycle and then gone back to catch up in order, but I was really interested that his initial persona was much less camp and much more standard-issue smart-alecky but sympathetic intellectual, to the point where in the first film he's helpfully kind to a character everyone else ignores (partly because this situation strikes him as abjectly stupid) and in the second he gets a low-key straight romance (while reading abstruse physics textbooks and fortunately not actually operating on a fellow patient while high as a kite on nitrous). I don't think I have ever seen him as himself.

[shewhomust]

I am glad he was there and made a difference!

It's not the most grown-up or scholarly way to evaluate a film, but maybe it's as well to be reminded how external factors affect my reactions...

You've probably seen more of the Carry on ... films than I have, then - certainly more than I've seen in many years!

Well, 'as himself' begs a number of questions, and I suppose even on Just a Minute (radio panel game, so not exactly 'seen' ...) he's presenting a persina, a performance - as were all of the panel. But unscripted, certainly.