Media thoughts
Jan. 29th, 2025 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiI watched Nosferatu last weekend, and liked it a lot. I even go as far as saying it’s one of the best vampire movies I have watched. My son, who saw it before me, said it was a bit too slow for his taste, but for me the pacing was perfect. The photo and settings were simply gorgeous, and so were the costumes. I only saw one dress that I thought was a bit not quite right. There was a lovely attention to details, like the Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling, and the sequence with a naked girl on a white horse was lifted from an actual practice to find vampires. I also found the acting excellent, all round, with people acting like 19th century people, not modern ones in period clothes. The movie also refrained from making a villain of the rich friend who made some questionable decisions in the treatment of Ellen. He never acts like he does because he is evil, but because he is depicted as a man of his time. And he is also a loving husband and father, and a good friend.
My main criticism is on the subject of the vampire itself. I’ve no problems with making him monstrous, which Dracula in the novel actually is, and not always handsome either. And I think Bill Skarsgård did a great job menacing his way through the plot. As long as he was kept slightly out of focus I found him rather scary. But a lot of that disappeared when we were treated with closeups in great detail, and that took away a lot from the last scene for me. Also, all that heavy breathing? Since when do the undead breathe? But overall I thought it a very good movie.
I’ve watched a great deal of TV shows in the past few years, and many of them were very good. None has prompted me to write fanfic, that hasn’t happened since The Queen’s Gambit. I really enjoyed Shadow and Bone and thought it a pity we only got two seasons. Loved the costumes in that one too!
I really like Ncuti Gatwa as our new Doctor, and Ruby as a companion too. Though I like Jodie Whittaker as an actress, I was a bit sad that I didn’t like her Doctor very much. I wanted to! And I think it was a disservice to give her so many companions. I feel like the showrunners didn’t trust a female Doctor to own the show. I liked Sacha Dhawan as the master, though I don’t buy that the Master would want to destroy the universe- he wants to rule it! I thoroughly enjoyed getting Ten back, kind sorta, and that they finally let Donna have her memory back! The way she was treated always annoyed me. I don’t care if it was fan service. When it comes to Doctor Who, I’m all for the fan service. Needless to say I also enjoyed getting Tegan, Ace and Mel back. My prediction is that Ruby’s mystery neighbour is either Susan or Romana.
What I haven’t enjoyed are the news about Neil Gaiman.
Cut for talk about sexual abuse.
I heard about the accusations back in June, and believed them from the start. In my experience women who accuse rich and powerful men of sexual abuse, suffers greatly from it, and I don’t believe you do that unless it has happened. And since then it has just grown and grown. I don’t keep track of how many women there are now, but I firmly believe they are just the tip of the iceberg. I haven’t read the Vulture article, and I don’t intend to, as I think it would trigger me way too much.
I never kept track of Neil Gaiman’s personal life, as I’m mostly uninterested in any celebrities' lives, but I had a vague feeling he was a nice bloke. Like so many others I was clearly wrong. But I love, love, love his writing. The Sandman was enormously important to me in my late teens, and a bit later Neverwhere. Now I think I will never read them again. Or watch. I can’t stomach Marion Zimmer Bradley, after all, and The Mists of Avalon was one of the really important books of my teens. I know my personal feelings about this are nothing compared to the women who has been abused, but I’m still sad that some of my favourite books have been destroyed for me.
My main criticism is on the subject of the vampire itself. I’ve no problems with making him monstrous, which Dracula in the novel actually is, and not always handsome either. And I think Bill Skarsgård did a great job menacing his way through the plot. As long as he was kept slightly out of focus I found him rather scary. But a lot of that disappeared when we were treated with closeups in great detail, and that took away a lot from the last scene for me. Also, all that heavy breathing? Since when do the undead breathe? But overall I thought it a very good movie.
I’ve watched a great deal of TV shows in the past few years, and many of them were very good. None has prompted me to write fanfic, that hasn’t happened since The Queen’s Gambit. I really enjoyed Shadow and Bone and thought it a pity we only got two seasons. Loved the costumes in that one too!
I really like Ncuti Gatwa as our new Doctor, and Ruby as a companion too. Though I like Jodie Whittaker as an actress, I was a bit sad that I didn’t like her Doctor very much. I wanted to! And I think it was a disservice to give her so many companions. I feel like the showrunners didn’t trust a female Doctor to own the show. I liked Sacha Dhawan as the master, though I don’t buy that the Master would want to destroy the universe- he wants to rule it! I thoroughly enjoyed getting Ten back, kind sorta, and that they finally let Donna have her memory back! The way she was treated always annoyed me. I don’t care if it was fan service. When it comes to Doctor Who, I’m all for the fan service. Needless to say I also enjoyed getting Tegan, Ace and Mel back. My prediction is that Ruby’s mystery neighbour is either Susan or Romana.
What I haven’t enjoyed are the news about Neil Gaiman.
Cut for talk about sexual abuse.
I heard about the accusations back in June, and believed them from the start. In my experience women who accuse rich and powerful men of sexual abuse, suffers greatly from it, and I don’t believe you do that unless it has happened. And since then it has just grown and grown. I don’t keep track of how many women there are now, but I firmly believe they are just the tip of the iceberg. I haven’t read the Vulture article, and I don’t intend to, as I think it would trigger me way too much.
I never kept track of Neil Gaiman’s personal life, as I’m mostly uninterested in any celebrities' lives, but I had a vague feeling he was a nice bloke. Like so many others I was clearly wrong. But I love, love, love his writing. The Sandman was enormously important to me in my late teens, and a bit later Neverwhere. Now I think I will never read them again. Or watch. I can’t stomach Marion Zimmer Bradley, after all, and The Mists of Avalon was one of the really important books of my teens. I know my personal feelings about this are nothing compared to the women who has been abused, but I’m still sad that some of my favourite books have been destroyed for me.
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Date: 2025-02-01 10:07 am (UTC)