September 2012
i finally eat and i ate way too much mac n cheese and i just pooped at my friend’s house great.
thanks man
August 2012
occasional riots of bloom: What does Lermontov want? →
riots-of-bloom.tumblr.com
Lermontov & Page (Source: Quite Continental)I first saw The Red Shoes in 2010 with my boyfriend. It was a beautifully restored 35mm print, at a small, local art house movie theater, on our first Valentine’s Day together. My boyfriend, a big Powell & Pressburger fan, had seen it many…
OMG THIS!!
I was just thinking yesterday, while driving to work, that the great thing about Emeric Pressburger’s scripts is that he creates ambiguity and tension in them and that combined with the casting, creates something that defies labels. Is Boris gay, bisexual, asexual???? No one bloody knows and it doesn’t matter. I think we are in the post-identity phase of sexual understanding and Emeric was the harbinger of that with his crazy, kitchen sink, anything goes mentality. I think Emeric just wanted everyone to get laid all the time. Waste no beds. Waste no quiet dark nights, carriage rides or visits to stables. They all should be put to use. Go forth and get busy!!
Agreed, so much! And of course, to make it palatable for the mainstream audience of the time, everything is overlaid with a 100% sincere and genuinely likeable heterosexual cover story. Which is an amazing feat for The Red Shoes in particular. I try not to throw off the phrase “coded as queer” too lightly, but for serious, how can you code a character so queerly as Boris (those sunglasses! that dressing gown! “Now I understand we are to be spared that hhhorror!”) and yet still end up with a story that can be believably & open-heartedly interpreted as a straight love triangle? Oh, P&P. Talk about pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
To me the one flaw of The Red Shoes is the casting of Marius Goring as Julian. He just isn’t a plausible rival for Anton. However Marius does have a nice chemistry with Anton so that gives us another way the love triangle could work.
Oh I am going to throw my two penn’orth into the ring here, to mangle a metaphor. As the Lermontov debate is a glorious never ending one. :D
All of the above aboves, really. And then some. The Red Shoes synchro-drinko rewatch threw up more questions than answers, as they always do. And a wholehearted disgruntlement at Marius’ miscasting (look at how glorious he is in AMOLAD, and how flat and unappealing he is in TRS) which makes it hard for us to understand why Vicky chooses him at all. He’s not an equal match for Boris or ballet.
At the risk of sounding reductive, I was struck by how similar Boris is to Sherlock (or rather, vice versa - and I mean Sherlock, not ACD Holmes. Although we all know Pressburger can’t resist a Holmes reference!) It’s not just the red buttonhole of (possible) homage. It’s that for Boris The Work is paramount. What does he say to Vicky at the end: lovers come and go, sorrows will pass. I don’t think he’s never been in love, or been attracted to someone, I think he’s deliberately chosen to sacrifice that side of himself for The Work. He is a very tightly controlled man. (Which is why whatever it is that he starts to feel for Vicky is so destructive for him). But he is also a man who has an incredible magnetism (the scene with Julian is very seductive) which he uses to his advantage with everyone. I certainly don’t think he’s asexual. Look at him eating a grape. Look at the sugar cube! Jesus. (Oh, that is the breakfast that keeps on giving.)
I’m not sure Vicky is ever in love with him (she does call him a monster, and it’s telling that she has a photo of Julian but a caricature of Boris on her dressing table) but she’s drawn to him, as much as she is to the dance. (You would have to be dead not to be.)
Oh, dear lord. This film. The more you worry at it, the more of a tangle it becomes. This is the genius of Emeric. And also the thing that makes you go: *shakes fist Tennant style* “PRESSBURGER!”
Clapping my hands at “the breakfast that keeps on giving.” I think Boris is in love with Vicki but it’s all so twisted up with jealousy and work that he doesn’t really know where it begins and ends. The Sherlock comparison is interesting. I think they are both characters that are accused of heartlessness who the audiences sees as being a raging cauldron of feels.
Ahh, Emeric…more questions than answers.
ONCE MORE WITH FEELING:
uh Laney, think about the prom some more… cause’ we’d have an ok time I think
