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melinoelliones · 1 year

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HI HI @suyacho MY BABY!! As your gifts are coming in very late I wanted to give you this!! Happy birthday! Can't wait to celebrate many more <3

Itto

Itto wanted to do something really special for your birthday so he gathered the entire gang to brainstorm

They all came up with the oddest of ideas but Itto knew they just weren't right so he decided to do it on his own

Shinobu offered to help but he really wanted to figure this out, you were his favourite person, his second half so why was this so hard for him

Shinobu knew how hard headed he was so she tried her hardest to give him suggestions without him realising it

Such as having lunch together with the gang outside and sightseeing (to find beetle fighting stops that were scenic)

Two and two finally clicked in his head and he came out to the gang with his amazing plan

A picnic followed by a simple walk around Inazuma, maybe point out the spots you two made the most memories

You defo surprised Shinobu with a sweet treat as a thank you to her help as you knew she had something to do with it

“Surprise!” Itto shouted, gesturing to the large picnic set up ahead, a large grin plastered on his face.

Itto had spent the entire day preparing for this picnic whilst you slept half the day away, usually he would have woken you up, but today was your birthday and you deserved a lie in, even if that meant you woke up at 7pm. He had laid out every type of treat he could think of along with a warm dinner as he wanted you to have a choice. A few small gifts he had boxed up for you were scattered around the blanket with a single letter addressed to you tied to the top of one.

“Baby are you oka~ aha I should've known,” he laughed, pulling you in slightly, kissing the top of your head as you covered your face. You were crying profusely, he knew you were a crier but he hadn't expected it to be so instant. “Lets go sit before the food gets cold” Itto urged, squeezing you into his side before helping you take a seat at the blanket.

“You really didn't have to do all this, I could have helped but I slept all day” you sobbed before your cheeks were met with Ittos hands, wiping away any last tears. “I know you could have, you probably would have done a better job at it too” he chuckled, “but I wanted to treat you today birthday girl, a picnic under the stars. And that's just the first part”.

“Everything looks amazing, I genuinely have no words” you sniffled, picking up one of your favourite dishes from the selection into your lap.

Itto leant over to leave you a small kiss on the cheek before grabbing his favourite yakisoba dish, “happy birthday baby, your night has just begun”.

#short but sweet #lets pretend I don't have 5 other characters in my drafts for this #I was struggling #I will add the others as I finish them!#meli x snow

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letterboxd-loggd · 1 year

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Satan in Prison (Satan en prison) (1907) Georges Méliès

June 1st 2023

#satan in prison #satan en prison #1907 #georges melies #short

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renegade--soul498 · 2 years

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Bittersweet Homecoming

Opening old wounds that one had buried and forgotten can hurt more that the ones that recently healed. Coming home and meeting an old friend was never supposed to be this bittersweet.

Mélie & Amicia. Post Requiem Epilogue.

This drabble was written in about 20 minutes while I was in a writer's block for another fic I should probably be writing in. I am not proud but I'm not sorry. Enjoy!

Fallen leaves crunch beneath boots that carry a soft march with them. It's a pace one takes while wandering, while feeling nostalgic, while admiring the surroundings. The forest ends at the sight of civilization, though abandoned and left to rot: a city that burned down, that couldn't be saved, the memories that once were warm are now painful to see up close. Amicia thinks it was a bad idea to go back.

Unbeknownst to the last de Rune, the last spark of life left in the God forsaken city is one that is trapped in by a collar– one that she didn't think she'd see again. The felon is barely breathing, afflicted by the Bite. It is embarrassing to not be caught for years but the one thing that kills her is a goddamn illness. Her mind's drifting but her senses still keep her aware, though one would think it is her mind playing tricks on her but she knows better when she recognizes the silhouette of a girl approaching.

She closes her eyes and smiles sadly. One's in relief and joy, because at least she got to see her again. Two in nostalgia and sorrow, because this may be the last time they see each other and she would've liked to see her while in a better state, physically and mentally, instead. Mélie doesn't try to speak, she knows her throat is dry and the effort may only get her closer to her demise. She just opens her eyes to regard the former noble. Amicia had changed a lot, Hugo's not with her, her clothes make her look more like a warrior than the princess she used to remember, her hair is short– shorter than she had seen a woman sport ever, and fuck everything and her miscalled sin, she looks regal even with all the dust and dirt on her. Mélie then wishes she hadn't left.

Amicia recognizes the blue eyes amongst the ashes and the scarred skin. The mischief is gone, the playfulness is gone, the voice that carried so much irony and sarcasm doesn't come and fill her ears, the banter doesn't happen; and so she just mourns in advance of what could have been. She walks over but notices that Mélie tries to move back, slowly and painfully in vain, as if not wanting her to come closer at all. She noticed the signs of the Bite while approaching but it didn't stop her, it hasn't stopped even after two years of his death.

Mélie tries to look up and meet her gaze, but the collar makes the action difficult. So carefully tiptoeing around to find the chains, she brandishes her sling and frees her old friend without touching her at all. The thief can barely stand but Amicia can't do anything but watch, feeling her chest tighten at the sight, unable to do anything – once again. She had already resigned herself to these situations. Every single friend and companion she had, died in front of her or in her arms. It didn't make it any easier though.

Amicia then wishes she had insisted a bit more.

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kathleenkatmary · 3 days

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Silent Short Sunday Mornings: 9/15/2024 Ratings, Reviews, and Rankings

Check out my ratings, reviews, and rankings for all of the movies I've watched for Silent Shorts Sunday Mornings so far at my letterboxd.

Click the title of each short to watch on Youtube.

01. Skyscrapers of New York (1906): 4/5

I really love the opening establishing shot of NYC. I can imagine some might say that it lingers too long, but since this movie is about people building skyscrapers, I feel like that opening shot showing the buildings of New York and just how much a part of the city's identity skyscrapers are is important.

This is similar to The Tunnel Workers in that there is a narrative here, but there's a lot of time dedicated to just showing people working at this real location and how everything operates. There are some big differences though, particularly in he way that Skyscrapers doesn't take the diversion into a constructed set that leans into the fantastical.

All of the scenes that take place at the skyscraper location seem to have been filmed at an actual skyscraper that was being constructed. And I think it's all done in an extremely clever way. Much of that time early on where we're just seeing the way the construction site operates without any narrative is used to establish the suspense of the climax, where the two men get into a brawl on the top of the construction site. I imagine that they used some simple and clever tricks to keep the performers safe (like, I'm betting they weren't just brawling on the beams super high in the air). But because we saw the site operating like an actual construction site, seeing how high up everyone was while working, seeing multiple men hanging off of a crane while it dangles in the sky, with the real city in the background to show just how off the ground they are, it cements the danger of the location in our heads. And that makes the tension and danger in that final confrontation feel extremely palpable and real.

So yeah, the narrative here is pretty flat and forgettable, but I'm okay with that because I think that it does such an incredible job of using its location to sell the tension and fear of what the narrative leads up to. It's such an incredible way of constructing the story around the location.

I also have a lot of appreciation for this as a piece of history. The 1900s really was when New York City started to look and feel like the kind of city we know it as today, and so much of that comes from the skyscraped boom of this time period. Having these great shots of New York City, especially as part of a narrative film rather than a travelogue, is so special. And centering the story on the skyscraper serves as an example for just how much skyscrapers were a part of the popular culture at the time.

The rest of the reviews are behind the cut...

02. The Tunnel Workers (1906): 3.5/5

I found this one really interesting, but for its sets/aesthetics more than its narrative (though I do have some thoughts about that as well). Outside of bookend scene that take place at the characters' home, the entire film takes place at the location of the tunnel. But that time is split. We start at the above ground part of the location, which looks to be a real location. It really does seem to have been an actual operation site. I suppose it could just be a really good set, but I don't think it is. Because once we get underground, that IS a constructed set, and any idea of realism is pretty much thrown to the wayside. It creates such an interesting juxtaposition, especially since we spend a considerable amount of the runtime at the above ground part of the location, just watching how things operate.

And then when we get underground, the set looks a lot closer to something you'd find in one of Melies's fantasy shorts than the simple reality of what we've just seen above. I think this was the good way to go, because I doubt they would have been able to succeed at making the tunnel look starkly realistic (and I imagine they wouldn't have been able to film in an actual tunnel of this type), so leaning into the artificial and somewhat fantastic feeling probably did work better. But I also think it works well for the narrative. It's when we get underground that the emotion of the story really kicks in and we get the emotional confrontation between the two men. So I think having the set look and feel more fantastical in nature really highlights those heightened emotions.

And that brings me to my thoughts on the narrative. I'm still kind of torn on how it all shakes out. Ultimately, it feels like there's a lot of runtime dedicated to showing stuff that really has nothing to do with the story. We spend quite a bit of time at the above ground part of the tunnel, and during that time we're mostly just seeing how it operates. I think that's fascinating to watch, but it's kind of a strange choice for the narrative and I don't know how I feel about it.

Overall, though, I think this ended up being a really creative and original way to tell a story that could have easily been straightforward and kind of dull otherwise. 03. The Hilarious Posters (1906): 3.5/5

When you watch a lot of silent shorts, Melies's stuff, as impressive as his effects were, can start to feel really repetitive. Eventually it does start to feel like the same stuff over and over, with either no plot or plots that exist simply to justify the effects.

So I found The Hilarious Posters a nice change of pace for him. It's a simple narrative framing, a bunch of posters essentially coming to life. But it does feel more like he had the idea and then found the effects and such to make it happen rather than the other way around.

And I really like how he did it. There are multiple posters coming to life at once, and it seems to be a combination of practical set construction for some of the posters and superimposition for others. I really appreciated that he used different techniques for different posters and went with practical on-set stuff where it would work rather than option for special editing effects for everything.

This is a nice change of pace for Melies.

04. Harlequin's Story (1907): 3.5/5

I feel like movies like this from the silent era are uniquely European, that they never could have been made in the US. While there are a few scenes that take place on constructed sets (which carry a nice dark fairy tale feel to them), I think what really sells the fairy tale feeling of so much of this is the fact that some of the outdoor scenes seem to have been shot in locations with actual castles.

Overall, I think that's what really stand out in this short. That fantasy fairy tale feeling really shines through. There is a kind of horrific moment that I don't think was meant to be where the main character is collecting the body parts of his beloved-turned-doll, but outside of that one moment everything else really feels distinctly and palpably "fairy tale".

Narratively, it's a lot more iffy. I feel like it would have been better served by more time establishing the relationship between the main character and his beloved before she's captured and he has to rescue her. That would have allowed for a more solid narrative an a better emotional resonance. There's a lot of time at the end dedicated just to dancing and stuff like that, and it's shot pretty uncreatively, which is a shame considering how well shot I think the rest of the piece is. So that time would have probably been better spent on building the narrative a bit more.

05. Passionate Drama (1906): 3.5/5

Okay, first thing's first… were 1906 swans just a lot more chill than swans now? Because I know from personal experience that if swans even so much as suspect that you might have food they get VERY aggressive. Those swans were too chill.

As for the actual movie… Pretty flat for something that's literally called "Passionate Drama". But I actually have some more thoughts on this one.

I'm really torn on the intertitle cards. While I think that intertitle cards are a great way to add a lot to a movie when used creatively, I also think that they can be incredibly effective when they're short and to the point throughout the entirety of a piece. That's how there's used here. The copy I watched didn't have English translations of the French intertitle cards, but because they were so brief and to the point I was able to pretty much get the gist of them. But this is a case where I think they would have worked better being a littler more flowery or over the top. Again, I have to point out that this is called "Passionate Drama", so the cards really could have been a good way to inject some of that passion and drama into everything else.

I think the bones of this story are good and there was a lot of potential here for a solid drama. Considering where the story goes, the wrong done to the main character by the man needs to be something that can really get us on her side. So I think making it more than just "she love him and they're together for awhile but then he leaves to marry someone for money" by adding a child to the mix, which makes the situation so much worse in multiple ways, really does that. It creates a solid justification for the way the main character feels.

The thing I appreciated most was just how it ended. I suspect some of that has to do with the fact that this is a French short rather than an American on. I'm so used to seeing films from this era being extremely moralistic in their storytelling, taking stories like this and making them about being a good person and doing the right thing and suffering making them better. So it's actually really refreshing to see something that doesn't do that. I feel like if this was from America it would just be a lot of the woman struggling in abject poverty with her child, wallowing in heartbreak and still loving the man from afar, but never hating him and never thinking of revenge, and then like making some awful martyr choice to like, raise his kid he had with the other woman or something. I love that instead of that kind of stuff she is presented as not just heartbroken, but angry, and rightfully so, that she takes such huge revenge, and that the movie then just ends without any kind of punishment or moralizing. It's a lot more satisfying to see a piece of shit man get what's coming to him rather than watching the woman who didn't so anything wrong be the one to suffer.

So yeah, this is extremely flat and lacking in any kind of emotion, but the basics of the story are doing so much that I appreciate that I can't help but really like this one and give it a pretty solid rating.

06. Silver Wedding (1906): 3/5

Really, when you think about, stealing gifts from a wedding is kind of the perfect kind of heist for a silent short, because it's not really something that needs a lot of planning and logistics, so it's something that can be showcased in a short runtime. I do think, though, that the drawback of that is the fact that a lot of the fun of heist and caper type stories is the planning and seeing the logistics and how they figure out to make it work. It's a lot less fun just seeing a couple of guys locking a door and filling their bag with stuff.

That doesn't mean this isn't fun, though. I think the scenes that bookend the actual 'heist' are where a lot of the entertainment of the short comes from. Getting to see everyone in this group of cheats and thieves getting ready for their scams and schemes, and then coming home with their spoils.

Really, I think the idea here was creative and fun, but there could have been more done with it, even with the limitations of filmmaking in 1906.

07. The Paymaster (1906): 3/5

A nice little drama that, unfortunately, can get a little hard to follow at points due to how poor the quality of the print is. It can make it difficult to tell characters apart sometimes. But even with that minor inconvenience, in the end it's still pretty clear what's going on in the narrative.

The shot composition here is nice, though everything being filmed in static wide shots does kind of kill moments that could be more suspenseful. Still, it's clear there was a lot of thought put into precisely how to frame the shots. Almost everything takes place outdoors (if I recall correctly there's only one scene that doesn't), and there are some really great locations, in terms of both just how lovely the outdoor scenery is and the choice of location made for each scene.

Overall I'd say this is a decent narrative short for 1906.

08. An Obstacle Course (1906): 2.5/5

Sam Reich should use this short as inspiration for an episode of Game Changer.

This is an interesting twist on the 'chase' comedy, which by 1906 was already pretty old hat for film. So it is nice to see a take on that kind of story that's centered on people willingly taking part in a silly 'chase' for fun and a prize rather than some wild comedy of errors. But because the whole premise is based around a voluntary obstacle course, so much of the things that typically make chase comedies work, like the escalation of chaos, just don't exist here.

It's all shot outside, though, so there are some great location shots.

09. Bobby and His Family (1906): 2.5/5

The coloring here is quite nice. It's clear that it was very carefully done as it's a lot more precise than a lot of other hand colored shorts from this era.

Everything else is pure nightmare fuel.

10. The Stepmother (1906): 2/5

Kind of a reverse Cinderella, but without the fantasy aspects to take the edge of off what really is an upsettingly realistic story. With the camerawork just being static wide shots, and without and kind of narrative flourishes, this really does just feel like a documenting of bad situation, so I really don't know how to feel about it.

#silent film #classic film #1900s film #1906 film #george melies #alice guy blache #film #movies #silent movies #classic movies #silent shorts #silent short films #silent short movies #short film #silent cinema #my movie stuff #lists

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