stuff read and watched

[kindkit]

1) I just finished volume 11 of Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year anthology, which covers stuff published in 2018. These kinds of anthologies are always a bit of a mixed bag, but as usual I found most of Datlow's choices pretty good. Interestingly, the story that most truly horrified me is the one further away from genre horror, Joe Hill's "You Are Released." It's set pretty much now, and is about a bunch of passengers on a plane that's in midair when the world political situation starts to take a very, very bad, and very plausible, turn. It's scary 'cause it's true. (NB the story has a thread of "can't we all be civil to one another across political divides?" that I don't like at all, because no, we can't be civil to homophobes and transphobes and white supremacists. But it's powerful enough that I liked it despite that.)

No idea what I'm going to read next. I keep getting stalled on A Memory Called Empire, but I've got a bunch of other unread books.

What I really want to read is John Le Carré's newest, but even as an ebook it's $14.99. *sigh* And my library probably hasn't even ordered it yet.


2) I've been feeding my new obsession with Julian Firth by watching the episode of Jeeves and Wooster he was in (it's 3x02, and he's charming and pretty) and the 2015 short film Somewhere in Macedonia, which is adapted from letters by two gay soldiers during the First World War. It's not really all that good, but Firth is as good in it as he has time to be, and of course it would have been relevant to my interests even without him.

ETA: And here is the trailer for Devon Gothic, another short film with Julian Firth by the same director, Alice Evans. I find it a bit "everything I don't like about avant-garde short films, condensed," but YMMV.


3) I've also been rewatching Cadfael, by which I mean skipping all the plot stuff and only watch the bits with Brother Jerome and/or Prior Robert on screen. Because reasons.

Comments

[sovay]

and the 2015 short film Somewhere in Macedonia, which is adapted from letters by two gay soldiers during the First World War. It's not really all that good, but Firth is as good in it as he has time to be, and of course it would have been relevant to my interests even without him.

I had no idea that existed! Thanks for the pointer. (Even if it's only all right.)

[kindkit]

I don't think it's badly made, exactly, given that the budget was apparently whatever loose change the director found down the back of the sofa. It just doesn't say anything new. But I do like Firth in it, and it's interesting to see him play a character so different from what I've already come to think of as his character type.

[sovay]

It just doesn't say anything new.

I expected more of the letters themselves, less of the slice-of-life in the trenches. On the bright side, it's decided me to rewatch Derek Jarman's War Requiem (1989) for the first time in years.

But I do like Firth in it, and it's interesting to see him play a character so different from what I've already come to think of as his character type.

He's still so good at those sharp, sudden flickers of vulnerability, though: "You're so small and nobody even notices you. You can get away with it. You don't know how hard it's been for me."

[kindkit]

Yes--Firth's sergeant-major was the only character I found myself wanting to know more about. I'd watch a full-length film about him, and what I suspect is his sad and troubled history.

[sovay]

I'd watch a full-length film about him, and what I suspect is his sad and troubled history.

There's so much in that last, silent shot.

[sovay]

ETA: And here is the trailer for Devon Gothic, another short film with Julian Firth by the same director, Alice Evans.

I don't know what this filmmaker has against context or even credits, but at least she's got good taste in muses: "Echo Piano Lesson."

[edit] Oh, this is interesting: "Letters Home." Some of it is the same footage as the previous short, but here it's mixed with (or seen to derive from) what looks like background to "Somewhere in Macedonia." (So he must have been involved with the project from the start.)

I'm still not sure I understand her aesthetic.

[kindkit]

Oops, I just realized I never replied to this.

Yes, I do wish she would contextualize, or something. Even "Somewhere in Macedonia," which seems to be as close to straightforward narrative as she ever gets, could use it. Perhaps it's my thwarted inner historian, but I want to know about the letters, and who wrote them, and how they were preserved, and how they actually relate to the film, etc. (This is assuming that the description of the film as based on letters is even accurate.)

[sovay]

Perhaps it's my thwarted inner historian, but I want to know about the letters, and who wrote them, and how they were preserved, and how they actually relate to the film, etc.

It's the kind of thing I like to know, too.

[halotolerant]

adapted from letters by two gay soldiers during the First World War. It's not really all that good, but Firth is as good in it
Well that sounds relevant to my interests *g* I'm glad anyone wanted to make that movie, even if they couldn't do too great a job on it

Isn't he sweet in Jeeves and Wooster! I mean every male character except Jeeves is always totally useless unless they're evil (sometimes both i.e. Spode) but his hair is long and fluffy... *g*

[kindkit]

If you watch it, I'd love to hear what you think.

his hair is long and fluffy

And particularly charming when he's in a state of casual dishevelment, as in his first scene. He does the 1920s/30s style well. Actually he does costume drama well; he also looks great in the late 18th C costume he wears in "Chartered Streets," which sovay linked to a little while back.

It occurred to me recently that he would have been amazing as Bunny Manders from Raffles. Alas, he was still a teenager when the Raffles series with Anthony Valentine was made.