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awardseason · 2 years

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2023 Oscars — Nominees

Best Picture “All Quiet on the Western Front” “Avatar: The Way of Water” “The Banshees of Inisherin” “Elvis” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” “The Fabelmans” “TÁR” “Top Gun: Maverick” “Triangle of Sadness” “Women Talking”

Best Director Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) Todd Field (“TÁR”) Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”)

Best Actress Cate Blanchett (“TÁR”) Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”) Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”) Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Best Actor Austin Butler (“Elvis”) Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”) Bill Nighy (“Living”)

Best Supporting Actress Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) Hong Chau (“The Whale”) Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Best Supporting Actor Brendan Gleeson (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”) Judd Hirsch (“The Fabelmans”) Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Best International Feature Film “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Edward Berger, Germany) “Argentina, 1985” (Santiago Mitre, Argentina) “Close” (Lukas Dhont, Belgium) “EO” (Poland) “The Quiet Girl” (Ireland)

Best Adapted Screenplay Edward Berger, Ian Stokell, and Lesley Paterson (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) Rian Johnson (“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”) Kazuo Ishiguro (“Living”) Ehren Kruger, Christopher McQuarrie, and Eric Warren Singer (“Top Gun: Maverick”) Sarah Polley (“Women Talking”)

Best Original Screenplay Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) Todd Field (“TÁR”) Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”)

Best Animated Feature “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” (ShadowMachine/Netflix) “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” (A24) “Turning Red” (Pixar/Disney) “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” (DreamWorks/Universal) “The Sea Beast” (Netflix)

Best Cinematography James Friend (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) Darius Khondji (“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”) Mandy Walker (“Elvis”) Roger Deakins (“Empire of Light”) Florian Hoffmeister (“Tár”)

Best Visual Effects “Avatar: The Way of Water” (20th Century/Disney) “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Netflix) “The Batman” (Warner Bros.) “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Disney/Marvel) “Top Gun: Maverick” (Paramount)

Best Editing “Elvis” (Warner Bros.) “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24) “Top Gun: Maverick” (Paramount) “TÁR” (Focus Features) “The Banshees of Inisherin” (Searchlight Pictures)

Best Production Design “Avatar: The Way of Water” (20th Century Studios/Disney) “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Netflix) “Babylon” (Paramount) “Elvis” (Warner Bros.) “The Fabelmans” (Universal)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling “Elvis” (Warner Bros.) “The Batman” (Warner Bros.) “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Marvel/Disney) “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Netflix) “The Whale” (A24)

Best Costume Design “Elvis” (Warner Bros.) “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Marvel/Disney) “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (A24) “Babylon” (Paramount) “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” (Focus Features)

Best Sound “Top Gun: Maverick” (Paramount) “Elvis” (Warner Bros.) “Avatar: The Way of Water” (20th Century/Disney) “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Netflix) “The Batman” (Warner Bros.)

Best Original Song “Hold My Hand” — Lady Gaga (“Top Gun: Maverick”) “Lift Me Up”— Rihanna (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) “Naatu Naatu”— Kaala Bhairava, M.M. Keeravani, and Rahul Sipligunj (“RRR”) “Applause”— Diane Warren (“Tell It Like a Woman”) “This Is a Life”— David Byrne, Ryan Lott, and Mitski (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Best Original Score Justin Hurwitz (“Babylon”) John Williams (“The Fabelmans”) Volker Bertelmann (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) Carter Burwell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) Son Lux (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Best Documentary Feature “All That Breathes” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” “Fire of Love” “A House Made of Splinters” “Navalny”

Best Documentary Short Subject “The Elephant Whisperers” “Haulout” “How Do You Measure a Year?” “The Martha Mitchell Effect” “Stranger at the Gate”

Best Live Action Short “An Irish Goodbye” “Ivalu” “Le Pupille” “Night Ride” “The Red Suitcase”

Best Animated Short “The Flying Sailor” “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” “Ice Merchants” “My Year of Dicks” “An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It”

#academy awards #oscars #95th academy awards #oscars 2023 #nominees #news

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bcacstuff · 2 months

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Day 2 Highlanders 7 con 20 July 2024 at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Birmingham

Fan Meet with Richard:

If he's a betting man there will be Rebus 2 (with a wink)

Hasn't read more than 4.5 books (of OL) couldn't get through the Gathering in Fiery Cross

Everyone's really sad about it ending

Doesn't like the stickers chosen for the Rebus books but the author did so he was outvoted

Charles & David Q&A

As part of training for the roles, they were taught them how to stand and sit using the "Alexander Technique" Demonstrating the "Alexander Technique" of how to stand up straight 18th-century style 👇

Question: if you could play another character who would it be: David - BJR; Charles - didn't know - fusion of LJG and Jamie

What won't you miss after OL ends - David travel; Charles didn't answer the question but said he'll miss his friends in Glasgow

Who would you go to a convention to see - Charles Eddie Vedder & Robin Kimmerer (author); David couldn't name anyone

Richard, Charles and Jamie Roy play Magic the Gathering (red: a card game) together almost every day when not working

When asked about a LJG series, David said if people want it he'd be up for it and people need to speak up about it

David and Charles singing O Canada 👍

Charles can walk on his hands - went back and forth 3x

Richard & Sophie Q&A

What song would describe your relationship on the show: Sophie - Lover (Richard joked Tolerater)

What role would you like to play: Sophie - Black Swan; Richard - Wolverine or Iron Man

Richard & Sam made different animal noises each take during the birthing scene

Hardest scene they had to film: Sophie - physically the ones with the horses; Richard - one where Brianna tells Roger Jemmy might not be his

If you could take a character ahead in time to see something - Sophie BJR to see Frank; Richard Jamie Fraser into the modern world - Richard loves Sam's reactions to modern things

What are you binge watching? Sophie - The Bear; Richard - Queen of the South and BBT

Sophie spoiler: Joey and I were in a tent (Richard adds "in the 80s")

Who would you go to a convention to see? Richard - BBT, Peaky Blinders: Sophie - Friends

They don't really get recognized in the UK but yes in the US "people in England don't really watch Outlander" (Sophie) - when they started in S2/3 it wasn't really "present", especially in Scotland.

Taken anything from set? Sophie very tempted to take the pearls but hasn't taken anything yet; Richard not yet either (made a joke about the musket balls and Lallybroch in the 80s trying not to spoil anything)

What song represents your character - Sophie "Girl on Fire" because she powers through things

Ed Speleers & Steven Cree

Favourite role so far - Jack Crusher (Ed)

Cree - best part of Outlander is the conventions

Favourite scene was when Bonnet kidnaps Brianna and they explain how he became what he is

Ed read for LJG and they came back to him the next year with Bonnett

Cree auditioned for Dougal (who's the guy who raised $250K for a film then never made the film? - ouch!!). Then they cast Sam and had to make Dougal age appropriate

What era would you time travel to: Ed - 60s: Steven - his early 20s

Sam created MPC and whisky "unlike the guy who embezzled $250K" (ouch again!! Cree used the word "embezzled")

Cree to Sean - how does it feel to be a millionaire? Sean - pass me your phone I'll call Sam and ask him

Cree was offered roles in Bridgerton 1 & 2 and said no after he read the scripts

Cree went on for 5 minutes about how Claire brought Jamie back to life in Monsters & Heroes - it was hilarious

Seems that the 2 of them (Cree and Ed) go way back and are good friends (Ed said Cree was the most excited when he landed the star trek role. They wouldn't ever have crossed paths on OL. They know each other's families too.)

Caitriona

Funniest lines she couldn't get through - where she asks BPC if the bite was from a monkey and when Ian offers to go looking for Jamie and Claire says "but you don't have a leg"

Prefers to be called Caitriona

They talked about the ending of the books and someone yelled "Sam knows" then she said Sam THINKS he knows

Will be odd knowing they're not going back to Scotland when they finish filming. Couldn't say if they're staying but her husband is from Scotland and her in-laws live there so they will be there in some capacity

Costumes in S8 are her favourite since S2 Paris

Thanked everyone and said how much doing the show has meant to her

Asked if she and Tony share the same musical taste. She thought they said Sam and Steve said "no, your real husband" (she does with Tony, "definitely not" with Sam)

To prepare for Claire & Frank since they had a history, she and Tobias wrote each other letters. Tobias would redact his because he was in MI6. They didn't do anything to prepare for Claire & BJR because she didn't know him

During the rapid-fire someone asked "Sam's whisky or Graham's bourbon". She said Sam's whisky but hasn't tried the bourbon (she doesn't really like bourbon it's too sweet)

All credits to my reporter at the con (who chose to remain anonymous), including the pics.

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denimbex1986 · 4 months

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'In 2018, when Steven Zaillian began writing a first draft of Ripley — his TV adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley — one item in his office made its way into his screenplay: the heavy crystal ashtray that (spoiler alert) kills Freddie Miles in the fifth episode.

But Zaillian’s foray into the story of con man Tom Ripley started long before 2018. Ten years ago, a unique proposal popped up on his radar — a TV series. “If it had been proposed as another movie, I would’ve said no,” he tells THR, “but as an eight-hour series, I thought, ‘This could be interesting.’ ”

For starters, he wanted the limited series — about a grifter, Tom Ripley, who covets, and then kills for, the lifestyle of his wealthy former classmate Dickie Greenleaf — to be in black and white. “When I first read the book, it’s how I felt it should look. Later, it was important to the story that it not be some kind of Technicolor Italy, that the story was more atmospheric than that, in a darker, more sinister way.”

Andrew Scott was promptly cast as Tom Ripley, says Zaillian. “I’d tried to cast him in a part in [the 2016 Emmy-winning limited series] The Night Of, but I didn’t know what he looked like because I’d only heard him in a movie called Locke: He played a character whose voice was on the telephone, and he created a rather full-rounded character with just his voice. He was my first choice.”

Scott received the entire series of scripts, a “highly unusual thing,” from the get-go. “I knew it was going to be very arduous — there was just such a huge amount of acting. I learned Italian for three or four months. Other than that, I suppose a lot of my work were things I had to work out on my own. And that was fine because I was dealing with a character who has a lot of secrets.”

Dakota Fanning, Johnny Flynn and Eliot Sumner rounded out the central cast as Marge Sherwood, Dickie Greenleaf and Freddie Miles. “When Steve laid out his vision for a cold, dark, noir aesthetic and tone, I was absolutely sold,” says Flynn (who played David Bowie in Stardust). “Dickie is a casualty in the story — everything is seen via Tom’s perspective — and I really liked that. It feels like he’s not completely real in a stylistic sense. He is what Tom sees of him.”

Fanning says she felt no pressure to mimic the performance of Gwyneth Paltrow, who played Marge in the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley. “There was relief that we were not trying to remake any iteration of the story,” she says, “and that we got to create our own versions of the characters.”

Zaillian wrote the first draft in a “quick” 18 months (it takes him a year to write a feature film, he says), and in November 2019, he and production designer David Gropman started location scouting. Their work continued until the COVID pandemic shut down production in March 2020, pushing the production design work to January 2021 and filming to July. “When we went back to Italy, most of Europe was still in lockdown,” says Gropman. “We scouted the Piazza San Marco and the Guggenheim Museum in Venice with not a soul in it. Strangely enough, it felt like the mood of the film and the world Steve wanted to show: very lonely and empty.”

Location scouting all over Italy, Zaillian and Gropman covered enormous ground, ultimately choosing to shoot in New York City and Italian locations: Atrani, Rome, Venice, Naples, Sicily and Capri. Three researchers in Italy, one in England and one in the United States helped the production designer nail down the aesthetics of the 1960s. “Obviously, there was color photography, but we’re not just looking at 1960 — we’re looking at those worlds 10 years earlier, because of course everything isn’t circa 1960: It was created, used and worn before that, certainly in styles and architecture,” explains Gropman.

Train stations figure prominently in the series as Ripley outruns his crimes by traveling through Italy, and Palazzo dei Congressi — built for the 1942 Universal Exposition — stands in for the exterior of the Rome train station. For the interior, 300 feet of platform was built at a train yard in Rome, and rotating columns differentiated the look of the Rome, Venice and San Remo stations. Five period cars were brought in from Milan. For Naples, Gropman used archival plans and photographs from the 1800s to re-create its station at a now-shuttered hospital in Rome.

The baroque sets gird the atmosphere of dread and beauty. Tom’s Rome apartment and its building’s stairway and elevator (the sites of some athletic body dragging), the interior of Marge’s Atrani apartment, and a Palermo pensione were all built on a Rome stage. Tom’s Venice palazzo was filmed at the Palazzo Polignac, while the American Express building was shot at the Palazzo delle Poste in Naples. Most stylish of all is Dickie’s Atrani mansion, which is the actual Villa Torricella in Capri. Fans can Airbnb it (sadly, there are no openings for months, though the fee is, unexpectedly, less than $300 a night).

Costume designers Gianni Casalnuovo and Maurizio Millenotti scoured photography books, vintage family albums found in street markets, and major archives across Italy. In the process, says Casalnuovo, they discovered “a treasure trove of unpublished photographs capturing everyday life, providing invaluable insight into the social fabric and atmosphere of each location.”

For Tom’s New York style, they researched fashion magazines and street photography to ensure a clear distinction between the American and Italian aesthetic. His initial wardrobe is modest, with off-the-rack clothing in simple cuts that “establish him as an outsider,” says Casalnuovo. By the end of the show, Tom is “clad in impeccably tailored suits, in luxurious textures that hint at a higher social status, and sports flashier accessories” — including plot-critical Ferragamo shoes — “all carefully chosen to project an image of success and belonging.”

Dickie Greenleaf’s ring, which establishes his privilege and propels the narrative as Tom takes on his persona, was created by a jeweler from detailed sketches inspired by 1950s magazines. Out of a series of prototypes, Zaillian selected the final (damning) ring.

Ripley was initially set up at Showtime, but moved to Netflix in February 2023 after the network decided not to proceed with the series. Initially, both Netflix and Showtime had been interested in making the show. Showtime required a color version of the series, which they also delivered to Netflix. (Netflix has no plans to release a color version.) As such, the series was not shot with a black-and-white camera, but with a standard Alexa LF that recorded color information; the filmmakers had the lab remove the color from the image files and create only black-and-white images for the dailies. “The lab essentially turned the color dial to zero,” says Elswit. With black and white, the DP continues, “Steve wanted to emphasize the play of light and shadow, not just in the world but also on people’s faces — the emotional reason why things wanted to [be felt] in monochrome.” Elswit says Caravaggio, the artist whose work is prominently featured throughout the series and is known as a master of light, was an inspiration.

Meanwhile, knowing their work would be seen in black and white presented a challenge for the costume designers. “We had to forgo the initially chosen vibrant vintage garment and fabrics. Instead, we focused on using shades of black, white and gray to create a distinct atmosphere for characters and scenes,” says Casalnuovo.

Scott, who notes that Zaillian doesn’t do rehearsals, says the first scene that was shot took place in Tom’s New York boarding house, in which he is defrauding somebody over the phone in episode one. Shortly after that, they filmed the Dickie Greenleaf and Freddie Miles murder scenes. “My biggest job was to keep my playfulness alive and to not get too overwhelmed by the enormity of the task,” says Scott.

Elswit says the most technically difficult sequence to shoot was Dickie’s murder on the boat. Because Zaillian wanted the scene to look overcast rather than lit by direct sunlight, the team shot the killing scene in a large swimming pool south of Rome, where they blocked the sky with charcoal silk, using a greenscreen to replace the sky and water, which were filled in by Weta FX in post. Editors Joshua Raymond Lee and David O. Rogers say they had about 2,500 VFX shots in the series, “significantly more than had been initially anticipated.” The boat itself remained stationary — three cameras and three cranes created the movement through and around it.

Despite the motorboat being still, “I was scrambling, trying to not drown myself,” says Scott. “This is, literally, trying to sink that boat with a little exhausted Irishman. And you’re not just doing it once. Steve likes to get a lot of coverage.” Flynn adds, “Some of the stuff of Dickie underwater is really me. They had me on a winch, pulling me down for a take. That was quite scary!”

As Tom disposes of Dickie’s body, there is no dialogue and no score, only Tom’s labored breathing, the whir of the motor, the wind humming and the water slapping against the hull of the boat, courtesy of sound supervisor Larry Zipf.

That murder scene, and an ensuing one — in which Tom deploys the ashtray as a murder weapon, drags Freddie’s body down his building’s stairs, into an elevator and through the streets of Rome, all the while treating the corpse as a drunken comrade — “were the most interesting and rewarding to cut,” says Lee. “Both of those scenes are essentially 30-minute silent films that land by surprise in the middle of the normal flow of the narrative.”

For Sumner, playing Freddie, who is dead for more than half of the episode, the choreography of being dragged around necessitated a week of rehearsals. “It was about four months of being known as ‘The Body’ on set,” says Sumner, laughing. “As bizarre as it sounds, because I was just lying there, it was physically quite taxing, the dragging around and not breathing for minutes on end. I’m sure they could have fixed that in post, but I wanted to do it properly.”

When sound is present, it becomes its own character in the show, through Tom’s footsteps echoing in a church, the clacking of his typewriter and the mechanical movement of the elevator. “Steve clearly planned the show with sound in mind, and really left room for the environments and ambiences to breathe and support a tone,” Zipf says. “Steve was always looking for opportunities for sound to give the impression of life outside the frame, whether it’s diegetic or in Tom’s mind.”

When Jeff Russo’s score — consisting of chamber strings, winds, English horn, harp, piano, mandolin and accordion — did come into play, it added to the tension and mystery of Ripley. “I envisioned music like what you would hear in a 1960s movie, something Ennio Morricone or Nino Rota would have done on noir thrillers,” he says. “We talked about threading Sicilian-style music and modern thriller-type music into the classic way of telling this story.”

Russo adds: “This is the first time I’ve ever done anything on this scale in black and white, and it makes the whole thing evocative in a way that color cannot.”'

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vintagerpg · 3 months

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LOL, wut? This is Lizardmen (1991). After Witches, which seems so in touch with the aesthetics and concerns of the new decade, this one is a very strange throwback. Roger Raup cover, but I don’t like it much. Interior art by David O. Miller doesn’t feel rushed so much as half-hearted. Editor is credited as Drake Mallard, which makes me think there wasn’t much confidence in this book, or that Darkwing Duck is bigger on RPGs than I realized. I suspect that this was an older manuscript tidied up and shoved out the door to fill an unexpected gap in the production schedule. The whole thing feels very thrown-together and careless. “Just print it, Bill, no one is actually gonna read it.” Except me, thirty years later. Thanks for that, Drake.

A lizardman for all seasons. Yeesh. It’s pretty apparent that no one involved in putting this book out cared overmuch, so I’m going to match that pace and move right along.

#roleplaying game #tabletop rpg #dungeons & dragons #rpg #d&d #ttrpg #Mayfair #Role Aids #Lizardmen.

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ilikethisacompletelynormalamount · 2 months

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To acknowledge all of those extraordinary people that Andrew thanked and congratulated, I'm adding the nominees from categories that don't always get attention, along with their interviews or featurettes.

Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Single Episode

Ripley - III Sommerso

John Bowers, Visual Effects Supervisor • Jason Tsang, Visual Effects Supervisor • Joseph Servodio, Visual Effects Producer • Maricel Pagulayan, Visual Effects Producer • Christopher White, Visual Effects Supervisor • Libby Hazell, Visual Effects Producer • Francois Sugny, Visual Effects Sequence Supervisor • Gaia Bussolati, Visual Effects Supervisor • Pepe Valencia, Visualization Supervisor

youtube

Outstanding Sound Editing For A Limited Or Anthology Series, Movie Or Special

Ripley - III Sommerso

Larry Zipf, Co-Supervising Sound Editor/ Sound Designer • Michael Feuser, Co-Supervising Sound Editor • Michael McMenomy, Dialogue Editor • Lidia Tamplenizza, Supervising ADR Editor • David Forshee, Sound Effects Editor • Bill R. Dean, Sound Effects Editor • Wyatt Sprague, Sound Effects Editor • Angelo Palazzo, Sound Effects Editor • Matt Haasch, Supervising Foley Editor • Igor Nikolic, Foley Editor • Dan Evans Farkas, Music Editor • Ben Schor, Music Editor • Jay Peck, Foley Artist • Sandra Fox, Foley Artist

Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie

Ripley - Vll Macabre Entertainment

Michael Barry, Re-Recording Mixer • Larry Zipf, Re-Recording Mixer • Maurizio Argentieri, Production Mixer • Michael Perfitt, Scoring Mixer

youtube

Outstanding Picture Editing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie

Ripley - III Sommerso

Joshua Raymond Lee, Editor • David O. Rogers, Editor

youtube

Outstanding Period Costumes For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie

Ripley - IV La Dolce Vita

Maurizio Millenotti, Costume Designer • Gianni Casalnuovo, Costume Designer • Ernest Camilleri, Wardrobe Supervisor • Teresa D’Arienzo, Assistant Costume Designer • Francesco Morabito, Assistant Costume Design

youtube

Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Period Or Fantasy Program (One Hour Or More)

Ripley

David Gropman, Production Designer • Karen Schulz Gropman, Art Director • Alex Santucci, Art Director • Alessandra Querzola, Set Decorator

youtube

Outstanding Cinematography For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie

Ripley - V Lucio

Robert Elswit, Director of Photography

youtube

Outstanding Casting For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie

Ripley

Avy Kaufman, CSA, Casting by • Francesco Vedovati, Location Casting • Barbara Giordani, Location Casting

Sources 1st image, quote

#andrew scott #dakota fanning #steven zallian #robert elswit #david gropman #many many more #ripley netflix #ripley #emmys 2024 #long post #Youtube

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adamwatchesmovies · 2 years

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A Christmas Carol (1984)

There are many adaptations of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol to choose from for your Holiday Christmas marathon. Many consider this 1984 version by Clive Donner the one to go with. If you ask me, no Christmas season is complete without viewing either Alastair Sim or George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge.

Ebenezer Scrooge (Scott) is a bitter miser who considers the ideals and spirit of Christmas pure humbug. He hesitates to give his underpaid assistant Bob Cratchit (David Warner) the day off and scoffs at his nephew Fred (Roger Rees) when he suggests a holiday dinner. One cold Christmas Eve, the ghost of Scrooge's former partner Jacob Marley (Frank Finlay) appears to him with a warning "You will soon be visited by three spirits, heed their counsel and change your ways or risk an eternity of suffering."

Though originally made for television, the production is top-notch. The locations/sets transport you to 1843 London like a Ghost of Christmas Past and the costumes all look authentic. The stage is set and George C. Scott is perfect for his role. You take one look at the actor and can see every time he's rolled his eyes at the concept of “charity”. He delivers the over-the-top dialogue like it was written for him but Scott also grounds it in reality. It makes the drama that follows that much more powerful. Scrooge is a miserable, horrible person… but he’s still a person. His journey through the many Christmases the ghosts take him through rouses intense emotions.

So much of what makes this story endure is the message. Christmas is a joyous time but under certain lights, it can be scary. That uniformly white blanket over everything, the lack of vegetation, the shortening days, the cold… the idea of ghosts visiting our world just fits. Simultaneously, you have this renewed hope of a saviour born, the explosion of generosity, and the potential for miracles. A Christmas Carol taps into all of those sentiments. There’s no talk of gifts of commercialism. It’s about the importance of relationships with loved ones and what you must do to keep them close to you.

There’s only one flaw with the film: the portrayal of the Spirit of Christmas Past by Angela Pleasence. It isn’t her performance; it’s that unless you know what the movie is trying to do, her role is puzzling. She’s supposed to be candle-like, a light that could easily be put out (which is why we see Scrooge extinguish her with his cap) but unless you know this, you’ll be left scratching your head. Otherwise, everything you want to see in this story is there. The comedy of a miser so cheap he won’t even spend money to keep himself comfortable, the drama over lost love and seeing a heart grow cold, the warmth of redemption, and the horror of the ghosts. As a child, I distinctly remember seeing the Ghost of Christmas Present (Edward Woodward) showing off Scrooge’s “children” to him and finding it terrifying.

It’s easy to become bitter around Christmas. Even if you don’t feel like the true meaning of the holiday has been eroded away with the focus towards gifts and expenses, there’s so much pressure, so many high expectations. A Christmas Carol is the perfect remedy to any bitter sentiments. Whether you see yourself as Ebenezer Scrooge and need to be shown the error of your ways or you’re his nephew and need your faith in others renewed, this is the movie for you. Its final scene always brings tears to my eyes. (December 14, 2020)

#A Christmas Carol #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #christmas movies #christmas films #clive donner #Roger O. Hirson #Charles Dickens #George C. Scott #Frank Finlay #David Warner #Susannah York #Edward Woodward #Roger Rees #Liz Smith #1984 movies #1984 films

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neonovember · 2 years

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Bourbon Decision’s

Steve Rogers mafia!au

summary: In light of your reappearance in New York, Steve makes a decision that begins the road to the relationship between you both. And you, begin to remember some familiar faces.

warnings; mentions of death, murder, angst and violence

a/n: so, this chapter gave us a little bit of a back story on how the reader ends ups in Brooklyn, and who her husband truly is. Your girl is a fighter! More parts coming soon…

The cursive lettering burns a hole through your chest, the edges cracked and plastered as you shove accusation down into your pocket. It almost feels poisonous, like simply touching it will make him come around the corner, reminding you that you would never be alone, that you were never going to escape him.

You’re able to hide your shaking hands from Caroline, who takes your silence as simple exhaustion, you fill ill, the bile rises from your throat and you pinch your arm to stop yourself from gagging.

You’re able to conceal your emotions well, your entire life and marriage has been holding up a mask, it was a dance that was all you knew, and all you would ever thank him for.

“You alright there sugar” Caroline looks towards you, eyes filled with concern and she takes notice of your wobbly legs. She reaches with a hand to steady you, but you ignore it, holding onto the granite counter, forcing your downturn eyes to look up at Caroline, you straighten your back.

“Yep, fine, I just need to use the restroom” You reply catatonically, a smile that doesn't quite reach your eyes has Caroline looking at you even more strangely.

You turn down the hall, passing David, his auburn black bun bopping to the tunes chirping out of a beaten-up purple stereo he gaggled a 17-year-old in exchange for a pack of Marlboros.

The smells of bacon grease and butter that causes the insatiable monster taking camp in your stomach to growl now has you running into the staff bathroom, the door slamming behind you as you dry heave the entire contents of your breakfast.

Wiping the spit falling from your mouth you turn on the tap, scrubbing your face clean and running a wet hand across your hair. The reflection staring back at you looks nothing like the woman just mere hours ago, a woman who thought she had escaped the biggest tormentor in her life, a woman who thought she was finally free. This woman, the one whose eye bags now seem deeper than before, whose skin looks dull and pulled across her body like skin on bone is bound and shackled by the haunted past that never seemed to wretch its fingers off of her.

Each time she thinks she has a chance at life, the chain wrapped around her neck tightens, and it pulls her back until she's dislocated and bruised. It shakes her violently and spits in her face, laughing and cackling, staring down at her in disgust because how could she have been so stupid? So foolishly naive?

You don't escape men like her husband, you just end up dead.

An overwhelming desire engulfs you, the need to survive and flee fills you strong, and for a second you glance at the back door that leads to the alleyway hidden from the main road. You've got enough cash on you to skip town, maybe hunker down in a dingy yellow motel for a bit until you feel

But what's the point? There was no plan B for what you did, your escape itself was a fucking plan B, and your head is still pounding from the success of it. You had gotten lucky, for the first time in your life, you had gotten lucky. You wouldn't get this chance again, this was it for you. Skipping town would do nothing, but prolong the inevitable, there were no steps ahead with the men you knew, at least let you die with your dignity.

You can't help but laugh at your stupidity, it racks through your body and has you bent over, gripping your stomach, before your shoulder shudders with cracked sobs, a hand muffles your wails as you run the tap, the last you wanted was for adiora to hear you.

You were just so exhausted your body weighed down with the fatigue and stress of your escape, the bruises and injuries you've accumulated over the years that never fully healed took a toll on you. You'd never gone a day without seeing how your body would look without the yellows and purples colliding, some ragged and large while others were small and deliberate. It made you walk funny, your manager had asked if it was a limp, if you'd be able to waitress with all the walking it included, you rushed to tell her it was nothing, just a fall that didn't heal right.

You needed this job, and youd do anything to get it

Caroline had told you you could get benefits for it, to help with rent and supplies, you smiled and told her you'd look into it, you didn't think it would be appropriate to tell her it was years of abuse.

Could the government pay you for that? Or would you be met with an officer at your door ready to drag you back to your husband because of course he had the governor on speed dial and the NYPD in his front pocket?

A tiny bubble of anger begins to set place in your chest, how dare he? He didn't even want you, the nights he’d bring home countless women told you enough. Why did he so adamantly want you then? Keep you chained and locked in the palm of his hand?

You've seen the other marriages in this line of work which were much like yours, transactional and strictly business. Except most of them had an agreement, you have yours and I have mine. Show up like you both are in love, clutching onto each other and keeping your lovers to the side.

Not him though, no, he wanted it all, you think he craved the power it gave him, to see you at his feet below him, your escape was the one time you felt like you had gotten him beat. You knew it wouldn't last long but damn did it feel good.

That man with golden hair looked at you so strangely, like he knew you from long ago, you'd shaken the sense of familiarity from your mind before it even began. This was New York, not Washington, no one knew you here. You were just a face, like any other, so why did he look at you like the sight of you broke him?

The fact of the matter was, your husband was an unstable lunatic who fed off the fear of others, he’d probably shot a few women who even slightly resembled you during the time since your escape, so why didn't that man drag you out of the diner and into one of your husband-marked vehicles?

There was only one explanation, one you couldn't bring yourself to entertain, but it still remained in the back of your mind, next to the hopes and dreams you had for yourself at 13.

The sounds of your name being screeched from the counter can be heard echoing towards you, the diner was horribly understaffed and don’t doubt that there is a mountain of things that needed to be completed since your meltdown.

You need this job, you were not about to lose it.

So just like the years you have been trained, you shove the impending emotions down your stomach, straighten your back, and practice your smile before slamming the staff door behind you.

It’s well past 11 when you finally finish cleaning up after the last of the patrons that exited the diner, the moon was cloaked behind deep grey clouds, providing little light to your walk home. David had offered you a ride, but you had declined quickly, the thoughts circling your mind would be too loud for a car ride. You didn't like walking home, especially this late at night, but you had no choice. You would not want to incapacitate someone else's day, especially now with a target on your back.

The flickering street lights provide a tiny sliver of direction to the beaten path cracked with concrete and dirt. A loud truck filled with men slowed as they neared you, you kept your head down, fingers pressed into your palm as you tried to avoid any confrontation. They screamed obscenities, before zooming past you, the smell of burnt tire lingering behind them.

There was a shortcut to your apartment complex, though the back alleyways were hidden from the main street, and you made a sharp turn to follow the insecure path through the suburban houses. It doesn't take long before you notice the unmarked car following shortly behind you, just a few streets back, enough to not look conspicuous but still get a clear view of you.

You tense, unsure of what to do, you push your house keys between your fingers, silently praying to god that it wasn't him. And it seems that god is on your side today, as the car pulls into a dark street, leaving you breathless and releasing your grip on your keys.

You don't waste any time running the rest of the way until the dingy apartment complex comes into view, your neighbour, a sweet middle-aged lady whose smile never quite reached her eyes and who let you use her gas was screaming at her son, a cigarette hanging from his mouth in open shock.

You smiled to yourself as you passed them, he looked towards you with raised eyebrows, pleading for some support. You weren't about to tell her how to raise her kid, she looked even more exhausted than you.

Jimming the door handle a couple times, you finally shoulder your way into the safety of your small but safe apartment. The soft caramel walls were chipped away at the edges, and the wallpaper was peeling but it was home. It was the closest thing to something that was yours, and only yours.

You quickly made yourself some time, to help calm the storm beginning to write inside your mind again, you hated coffee, it left you jittering and cold and you just wanted to sleep at this point.

After jumping into the shower, your waitressing clothes left sweaty and seeped with oil in the basket you finally found the solace of your cold bed. You invested good money into a solid mattress and covers, and it payed of by the softness and ease that engulfed you.

You reached for the book left on the side table, its spine broken in and countless stains and markings left on its pages. You had never gotten the chance to read, you'd been told it was a useless waste of time that could instead be used for more important things.

Now though, with the threat of your safety looming around the corner, you felt you needed to finish every book you started, in fear you mightn't ever again.

Your mind, however, was running 50 miles an hour and it so happened to find him, golden boy, again. He looked so different from the henchmen of your husband. They were all short and stoic, egregious muscles bursting through tight shirts, fingers dirty with blood and sin. They all had that hungry insatiable expression, like rapid dogs, they salivated every time they were given a task, to murder, to steal, to torture.

One particular night, when you left down the hall to the section of the house you weren't permitted to enter, the blood-curdling screams and moans followed by their laughter had you bolting out, they heard you anyway, and your husband had forced you to watch.

You just needed scissors.

This man though, his eyes shone with a different kind of darkness. One possibly more intricate and deeper than the sleazy men near your husband, and, it should have scared you. But it didn't, it pulled you closer like you wanted to dip your foot in and see how far it went. The sense of familiar you'd refused to feel filled you once again, a part of your mind was screaming at you, itching and shoving its fingers between bordered wood to get you to see.

Shaking your head you flicked to the dog-eared page, one thing you knew about the world you were married into, was all the men were obsessed with one thing, power and money, and they'd do anything to get it.

All of them.

The brown liquid sloshes against the ice as steve raises it to his lips, finishing it with one gulp. The familiar burn of liquor eases the tension in his shoulder, as he leans against the mahogany desk, hands folded against his chest.

“All I’m saying is that we have to act fast and we have to act now, every day that passes is another risk to the dominion, he's getting more and more erratic by the day” Sam murmurs, sitting on the plush velvet coach situated to the left of the expansive office, the high ceiling lights cast a glow across the room that does little to ease the tension.

Steve rubs his jaw, scratching at the stubble that has begun to grow, he's gotten so busy that he'd forgotten to shave. Steve’s mind is scattered, bits and pieces here and there, Sam was right, Matthews was getting even more unstable than he ever was, killing mercilessly without a second thought, leaving finger prints and blood and bodies. Sooner or later, he’d get the entire underworld exposed if he kept up with this.

“I know, I know, I just- I need to think” Steve begins, before Bucky interrupts quickly, his eyes roam Steve, squinting as he notices something off.

“It’s different this time, Matthews, it’s more than just his greed and psychotic tendencies, he’s lost something. And I have a feeling you know exactly what it is”. Bucky replies, eyebrows raising and he looks towards Steve.

Sam looks up rapidly, a grim look on his features as he takes in Steves silence

“Steve…what is it?” Sam replies, Steve was apprehensive to reply, eyes shutting for a few minutes, mind racking over the moments before, when he found you. Selfishly, in a way, he wanted to keep you hidden, a secret only he knew, but Sam and Bucky knew him long enough where they’d eventually find out.

“You know Matthews wife” Steve begins, Sam and Bucky lean in closer as they take in Steves tighten jaw and deep seated anger behind his eyes. Steve was a man of decorum, he’d rarely show his true anger, always hidden behind canine smiles and wolf like hunger, he was precise and meticulous with his rage. It’s what made him so powerful.

“The girl from your home town?, The quite one right?” Sam replies, confusion covering his features as he tries to connect the picture Steve was sewing in front of them.

His cracks as he remembers you, before Matthews and before he stamped out the light that always shone through your eyes, the oblivious innocence you carried that seemed to suck him in and ruin him for anybody else.

“Yeah, yeah, that one” Steve coughs before straightening his back

“Poor girl, I heard she didn’t even get a say, just woke up one morning with his claws in her. I haven't seen her in any of the charity fundraisers in a long time” Bucky says, hands running through his jet black hair as he recalls your frequent absence. It was strange, most men would flaunt their wives anytime they’d get the chance, especially one as gorgeous as you. Not Matthews though, he acted as if you were invisible, a burden, like a mother running after her petulant child. As if he wasn't the one that gave you no choice but to marry him.

“She's gone” Steve spits out, his golden locks fall to his face as he quickly pushes them behind his ear, no one else knew of your absence, besides your husband and him, you were still behind the shadows of his wrath. Now the shoe had dropped and it was real, you’d really gone and done it, you’d escaped him.

“What do you mean Steve, your telling me that girl escaped one of the ruthless mob bosses in Northern America? The one with all the guns and men and fucked up morality? The one who’s murdered teenagers?” Sam emphasis in open shock, moving to get up from the sofa and walk closer to Steve.

“I dont know when, I don’t even know how, but she got out” Steve says, a sudden urge to see you again fills him, he shakes it away quickly before it consumes him whole and ruins him.

“Holy shit, she really did it. She’s got some fucking balls” Bucky says, eyes widening as he comes to terms with the fact that you may not have been as innocent as they once thought.

“But, if shes out...she knows what will happen to her now? As much as I hate Matthews, he brought her immunity and protection, especially one from a family like hers, now-, now she’s a walking target.” Sam says it was inevitable, the mafia world wouldnt allow for such treachery, for such betrayal.

“Open fucking season” Bucky continues, eyes strained behind Steve towards the frosted window of the office. The planes of concrete fields stretch endlessly, the smoke of vehicles and Nee Yorks smoking problem floating through the deep grey clouds.

What was your endgame?

The question circles Bucky’s mind, he was always searching for an answer, a causation, and right now you had him stumped. Funny.

Steve nods, nocking his leather dress shoes against each other, loyalty ran thicker than blood in this world of theirs, and what you had committed was worse their murder.

“She disappears I know, trust me I do, probably ends up at the bottom of the Hudson at best, and at worst..” Steve says

He didn’t need to continue for them both to understand. Eyes failing to wince as they had grown use to the brutality of the mafia.

“But, I talked to her, earlier today, down by Brooklyn” Steve begins to say before both Bucky and Steve interrupt him quickly

“You talked to her?! Jesus, Steve, this has got to be a fucking joke, because I know the man infront of me. And he would be as insane as to talk to a mafia’s wife, let alone the king of the dominion. Hell, even being near her would count as a death wish” Bucky replies, eyebrows furrowed as the shock of Steve’s recklessness hung in the air.

“We can’t afford an attack right now, especially one from someone as psychotic as him and his lunatics” Sam reiterates, unsure what had gotten into their usually calculated and cunning friend.

“Listen dammit”, Steve grumbles, hands flying around him

“If I get her to share some information about Matthews in return for safety, we’ll be able to get ahead, plan an attack before he even registers she’s back in New York”

“Back, she was here before?” Sam questions, confusion filling his usual stoic features

“She was here a couple years back, something happened, bad, and since it’s Matthews you know it had to have been some extraordinarily catastrophic shit” Steve murmurs, eyes far away as if he’s mind was back all those years. His fist tighten involuntarily, and he quickly reminds himself to relax before they take notice of his sudden anger.

“No one knows what happened, not Santiago, not even Brock. All we know is that he changed after that, became way worse. Before, at least he could keep a handle on it, after what happened though, it’s like he’s wishing for a reason to rage”. Steve continues, Bucky and Sam nod following him, they had all noticed the shift in Matthews behaviour, even more drastic then, the entire underworld whispered behind masks and glistens of pistols about the mafia don and his mental breakdown.

“Your asking her to commit treason then?” Sam quakes, hand pressing into the deep wood of the chair.

“She already did when she walked out that door, you don’t just make a decision like that, no, not for someone like her. She probably stayed in that decision for days, if not weeks. She knows the risks she took.” Steve informs, arms crossing against his chest, he knew you weren’t as stupid as people thought you were, in fact he knew you better than most people ever would.

You were similar to him in that way, cunning in ways people didn’t realise, always hidden beneath false naivety.

“Well, you sure he’s still out looking for her? How do you know he isn’t pointing a fucking laser at your head right now?” Bucky begins eyes strained to the window again as if looking out for any incoming steel bullets.

Steve remains silent as he hums to himself, a pen between his fingers as he jots down your address on a haphazard note pad.

“Because she would have already been dead by now” He says finally, underlining the street name twice, before clicking it back into the desk drawer. Sam laughs, a hand coming to rest at his chest, the under suit creases at his ministrations and it reminds Steve that he needs to buy one that actually looks good on him.

“You’re one insane mother fucker Steve, I’ll give you that” Sam chuckles at the casualness of the blond’s demeanour.

Steve shoots a smile, a real one, his canines glint and for a second, it’s as if a wolf has taken it’s place over his features. The rosy reds of his cheeks contrast against the sand gold of his hair and suddenly Steve looks younger. Like the cruelty and immorality of the world around him hasn’t taken his soul and left a gaping black hole.

“That’s how we win, it starts with her” Steve replies with finality, his voice refusing any negotiation or persuasion.

It was final, Steve set his eyes on you, and he wouldn’t stop until he got exactly what he wanted.

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