XMFC again
Jul. 16th, 2011 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitThe housemate and I thought of going to see the last Harry Potter movie tonight, then contemplated how crowded the theater was likely to be and saw XMFC again instead.
I think I've developed two distinct tracks of reaction to this movie. One is all about characterization and relationships and moral issues, and the other is about OMG TEH PRETTY. On the way home, therefore, housemate and I talked about whether Erik could properly be called a sadist (lack of consensus: housemate votes yet, I vote no) and about his fondness for purple (blueish-purple pocket square and tie in the Geneva scene, purple turtleneck on the morning of the Cuba mission) and whether this means Erik chose to paint his Magneto helmet that color or whether Raven still might have done it as a joke.
I nearly disgraced myself by laughing during the scene in the Argentine bar; after Erik deals with the tailor and the bartender and then stabs the pig farmer in the hand for the second time, he pauses to brush his hair back from his face. And I cannot help thinking "Yes, Erik, you are both the prettiest and most badass princess in the kingdom!"
I even have Serious Thoughts about Erik's apparently endless wardrobe of glorious clothes. Erik must have come out of Auschwitz with a profoundly warped sense of self, having been persecuted throughout his childhood and then simultaneously imprisoned/tortured and told he belonged to a superior species while under Schmidt's control. Plus survivor's guilt, which I think Erik has about a metric fuckton of. So as he started to rebuild his sense of self and become an adult, there were a few particular things he drew on for both identity and self-esteem. His powers, his plans for revenge, and, I think, his beauty. How it must have amazed him to learn that people would be drawn by his looks; how he must have both cherished that power and, much of the time, loathed the people who wanted him. He's not indifferent to his looks, clearly; he plays them up in a very particular way, which is about cold, perfect untouchability. He emphasizes his body (none of Charles's baggy suits for him) but nearly always covers it up in turtlenecks and long sleeves and jackets. And of course at the end, as Magneto, he wears what is essentially a uniform. It's vastly less sexy (an interesting thing in itself--has he started to distrust that kind of power? is he trying to subsume Erik Lehnsherr and all his ordinary frailties like sex and love into Magneto?) but much more regal.
And then I think about how I want both of Erik's leather jackets, and the boots he wears at the Lincoln Memorial, and all of his hats except the Purple Helmet of Doom, and also his ability to wear a turtleneck without looking stupid. And I wonder if he was tempted, on leaving the Russian general's house, to take Emma's fur hat with him.
There's perhaps a third strand to my viewing experience, too, which is collecting details for fanfic. I noticed that during Charles and Erik's last conversation the night before Cuba, Charles is drinking whiskey but Erik has what looks like a martini with a lemon twist. Charles goes for tradition, Erik for cool modernity. (I also noticed that at the start of the kitchen scene with Raven, Charles is getting a bottle of champagne out of the fridge. He was totally planning to go up to Erik's room for a little two-person party.)
It was somewhat less delightful to realize that Edith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose" was played both (anachronistically) by Schmidt at Auschwitz and later in the Hellfire Club scene at the casino. The filmmakers have done a cruel thing to a great song.
I could probably ramble on more, but I'll stop before I actually bore anyone to death.
I think I've developed two distinct tracks of reaction to this movie. One is all about characterization and relationships and moral issues, and the other is about OMG TEH PRETTY. On the way home, therefore, housemate and I talked about whether Erik could properly be called a sadist (lack of consensus: housemate votes yet, I vote no) and about his fondness for purple (blueish-purple pocket square and tie in the Geneva scene, purple turtleneck on the morning of the Cuba mission) and whether this means Erik chose to paint his Magneto helmet that color or whether Raven still might have done it as a joke.
I nearly disgraced myself by laughing during the scene in the Argentine bar; after Erik deals with the tailor and the bartender and then stabs the pig farmer in the hand for the second time, he pauses to brush his hair back from his face. And I cannot help thinking "Yes, Erik, you are both the prettiest and most badass princess in the kingdom!"
I even have Serious Thoughts about Erik's apparently endless wardrobe of glorious clothes. Erik must have come out of Auschwitz with a profoundly warped sense of self, having been persecuted throughout his childhood and then simultaneously imprisoned/tortured and told he belonged to a superior species while under Schmidt's control. Plus survivor's guilt, which I think Erik has about a metric fuckton of. So as he started to rebuild his sense of self and become an adult, there were a few particular things he drew on for both identity and self-esteem. His powers, his plans for revenge, and, I think, his beauty. How it must have amazed him to learn that people would be drawn by his looks; how he must have both cherished that power and, much of the time, loathed the people who wanted him. He's not indifferent to his looks, clearly; he plays them up in a very particular way, which is about cold, perfect untouchability. He emphasizes his body (none of Charles's baggy suits for him) but nearly always covers it up in turtlenecks and long sleeves and jackets. And of course at the end, as Magneto, he wears what is essentially a uniform. It's vastly less sexy (an interesting thing in itself--has he started to distrust that kind of power? is he trying to subsume Erik Lehnsherr and all his ordinary frailties like sex and love into Magneto?) but much more regal.
And then I think about how I want both of Erik's leather jackets, and the boots he wears at the Lincoln Memorial, and all of his hats except the Purple Helmet of Doom, and also his ability to wear a turtleneck without looking stupid. And I wonder if he was tempted, on leaving the Russian general's house, to take Emma's fur hat with him.
There's perhaps a third strand to my viewing experience, too, which is collecting details for fanfic. I noticed that during Charles and Erik's last conversation the night before Cuba, Charles is drinking whiskey but Erik has what looks like a martini with a lemon twist. Charles goes for tradition, Erik for cool modernity. (I also noticed that at the start of the kitchen scene with Raven, Charles is getting a bottle of champagne out of the fridge. He was totally planning to go up to Erik's room for a little two-person party.)
It was somewhat less delightful to realize that Edith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose" was played both (anachronistically) by Schmidt at Auschwitz and later in the Hellfire Club scene at the casino. The filmmakers have done a cruel thing to a great song.
I could probably ramble on more, but I'll stop before I actually bore anyone to death.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 08:07 am (UTC)Erik might have stolen Emma's hat, but he was definitely eating her snacks! And I can't think of any other explanation for "Charles was getting champagne in the middle of the night and was surprised to get caught even before noticing his sister is naked."
no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 04:23 pm (UTC)I loved that. "Hmmm, I think I've throttled her enough now. Have fun, Charles. Oh hey, look, caviar!"
As for the champagne: the first two times I saw the film, I didn't look closely and I thought Charles was getting himself a bottle of beer. That would've needed no explanation, so I'm intrigued by the fact that really there's something much odder going on. It's like the filmmakers want us to imagine slash! (The actors certainly seem to.)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 03:47 pm (UTC)One of the things I've been thinking about is that Erik in some ways was better off than most people in Auschwitz--Schmidt would've ensured that he wasn't starved or forced to do hard physical work, and he was probably housed separately from the other inmates, in less awful conditions. Of course Erik had different forms of suffering imposed on him--Schmidt's torture, etc.--but I'll bet he feels guilty anyway.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 03:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 04:12 pm (UTC)Which leads to interesting questions, again, about his relationship to his own body. Part of the reason he's tall and strong is that he didn't spend a key year of his adolescence starving; I suspect there may be a certain amount of physical self-hatred that he deflects by thinking of his body as a weapon.