Mini-review: Vertigo

Watched this classic Hitchcock film with kestrell recently. Not much to say about it, but two things stood out:

1) I always love Jimmy Stewart, but he does often play the same character. He sure gets to do some interestingly different things in the last act of *this* film. It's not very often that you plausibly worry about whether the JS character is going to go into a homicidal rage and kill thegirl.

2) It was weird-but-cool to see so many San Francisco locations that I had *been* at a few days earlier. If I do move, and get to know the city better, I shall have to re-watch this in a year or so, and see how much more looks familiar :-)

Mini-review: Vertigo

Watched this classic Hitchcock film with kestrell recently. Not much to say about it, but two things stood out:

1) I always love Jimmy Stewart, but he does often play the same character. He sure gets to do some interestingly different things in the last act of *this* film. It's not very often that you plausibly worry about whether the JS character is going to go into a homicidal rage and kill thegirl.

2) It was weird-but-cool to see so many San Francisco locations that I had *been* at a few days earlier. If I do move, and get to know the city better, I shall have to re-watch this in a year or so, and see how much more looks familiar :-)

Macbeth, Teller style

Sunday morning, early, myself, kestrell, londo, juldea, freerange_snark, and B all headed out on a road trip to see some bloody good Shakespeare.

Conversation between londo and myself in the AM:
L: Is there a reason I should use one shower or the other?
A: I wouldn't recommend trying to use both at once; likely to get messy.
L: Yeah, I haven't quite got that whole 'bilocation' thing down yet.

It turned out that freerange_snark had got even less sleep than me, so she elected to drive the whole way down, hoping (correctly, as it turned out) that I could then handle the whole way back. Both trips were free of incident, just lengthy.

Much lively conversation on the way down; less so on the way back as people zoned out and/or slept. Why *is* there a park in NJ named "Cheesequake"?

The show itself was excellent, though perhaps not worth quite the expense and effort that we expended to see it. If I had the choice to make over again, I might choose differently, but I certainly don't *regret* having gone. It was a unique theatrical experience, and it's hard to balance those against things like time and money.

Spoilers follow, in case you care. ( Read more... )

A thought about Macbeth that has little to do with this production, but which occurred to me while discussing it with the others. How good a king *was* Duncan? Macbeth says he's a great guy, but he's got a huge guilt complex. Other people who talk about Duncan do so in front of Duncan himself, or in front of his heirs, and may not be completely forthright. What we *know* about Duncan is that he just had to put down a rebellion, which doesn't put him in a very flattering light. Was he as much of a tyrant as Macbeth, facing foes of his own creation? That's one way to tell the story. Another, perhaps more interesting tack, would be to ascribe the rebellion to Duncan being *too* good a man -- too trusting and merciful, one who invites being taken advantage of.

The play has an interesting attitude towards honesty. The forces of Hell say nothing but scrupulously true statements. The arguable hero of the play, Malcolm, has by far his biggest scene entirely concerned with how good a liar he is. Perhaps what we have here is a progression: a king who is too honest, yielding to a king who is too dishonest, yielding to a king who forms a synthesis by understanding how effective politics require a mix of truth and lies.

Macbeth, Teller style

Sunday morning, early, myself, kestrell, londo, juldea, freerange_snark, and B all headed out on a road trip to see some bloody good Shakespeare.

Conversation between londo and myself in the AM:
L: Is there a reason I should use one shower or the other?
A: I wouldn't recommend trying to use both at once; likely to get messy.
L: Yeah, I haven't quite got that whole 'bilocation' thing down yet.

It turned out that freerange_snark had got even less sleep than me, so she elected to drive the whole way down, hoping (correctly, as it turned out) that I could then handle the whole way back. Both trips were free of incident, just lengthy.

Much lively conversation on the way down; less so on the way back as people zoned out and/or slept. Why *is* there a park in NJ named "Cheesequake"?

The show itself was excellent, though perhaps not worth quite the expense and effort that we expended to see it. If I had the choice to make over again, I might choose differently, but I certainly don't *regret* having gone. It was a unique theatrical experience, and it's hard to balance those against things like time and money.

Spoilers follow, in case you care. ( Read more... )

A thought about Macbeth that has little to do with this production, but which occurred to me while discussing it with the others. How good a king *was* Duncan? Macbeth says he's a great guy, but he's got a huge guilt complex. Other people who talk about Duncan do so in front of Duncan himself, or in front of his heirs, and may not be completely forthright. What we *know* about Duncan is that he just had to put down a rebellion, which doesn't put him in a very flattering light. Was he as much of a tyrant as Macbeth, facing foes of his own creation? That's one way to tell the story. Another, perhaps more interesting tack, would be to ascribe the rebellion to Duncan being *too* good a man -- too trusting and merciful, one who invites being taken advantage of.

The play has an interesting attitude towards honesty. The forces of Hell say nothing but scrupulously true statements. The arguable hero of the play, Malcolm, has by far his biggest scene entirely concerned with how good a liar he is. Perhaps what we have here is a progression: a king who is too honest, yielding to a king who is too dishonest, yielding to a king who forms a synthesis by understanding how effective politics require a mix of truth and lies.