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trulycertain · 2 days ago

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Finished Veilguard about a week back. My thoughts on the character writing (massive spoilers herein):

The character writing... feels like DA2 to me. Not enough time and too much internal upheaval. The characters are fascinating and I like them! But they're sketches - albeit often beautiful, interesting ones - not finished paintings. (Origins and Inquisition's definitely feel like paintings to me.)

It's not about writing ability. A lot of old hands who wrote beloved stuff were on here. Trick Weekes, obviously, who gave us Solas and Bull and so much other good stuff; Sheryl Chee (who wrote Leliana and Isabela and has my hat forever for them); Brianne Battye, who wrote Cullen in DAI, whose arc I adored; Mary Kirby got to write Varric and part of Lucanis; Sylvia Fetekeuty gave us the beautiful, tightly-worldbuilt quests and politics like Orzammar, and In Hushed Whispers - heck, she wrote Josephine… I honestly just think it's a lack of time and clear direction due to so many game leads being in and out.

I love all the intra-crew interaction, it's really awesome to see. I like that I can tell companions have their friends and favourites and smoochfellows (I'll be honest, I did not call Taash/Harding, I thought for sure Taash and Davrin would end up with something going on, though I also did not call Neve/Lucanis and judging from their friendship, I bet that romance would be wonderful - they're probably my favourite team to take out other than either of them with Emmrich, or Bellara + Emmrich - I love magic talk.) The team meetings are a great idea that reinforce that. Also, I really love the fact that companion banters will play in the Lighthouse too (I realised after I reloaded and got a similiar conversation post-coming back that it's the same as banter when you're out walking - so it'll advance with personal quests, and if there's a pairing you don't usually take out with you, you still get a chance to catch the odd interesting chat). I do wish it were still a three companion team, though - even more because of this. I also love the tiny things, like Lucanis adjusting his meals for the fact Rook is a tea drinker and Emmrich is a veggie. (God do I relate to "vegetarian who talks relentlessly about their special interest while others sigh and takes a while to work out what to do when flirted with".) I love that companions pick up their banter again if it's interrupted by fights! Wonderful quality-of-life improvement thing, and also a bit more realistic feeling. People get bored and talk, and wonder things while they're wandering.

I absolutely love the plot of this game. I think it follows through on so many ideas in such a cool way, and I love Solas in this game, and the art and performances are beautiful. It has lots of respectful, loving tie-ins to the past games and clearly is thinking about them. I just think the companions, much like DA2, are fantastic ideas that just needed a bit of time.

I mean, let's take Neve - my romance, trope catnip for me in "tired mage who's not afraid to just deck someone, PI, stoic, normally male tropes applied to female chars, sharp-dressed" - as an example. Veilguard does more natural conversation flow - you can't sit and quiz companions on their selves and backstories like a job interview. But because you only get investigation options in chats anyway, you only get to ask companions about stuff they want to talk about. Which means with Davrin all you'll know is Wardens and Assan, mostly, but you can at least ask him about his past. With Neve, all you get is Dock Town, depression and fish.

I found out a lot about her backstory and family after my first playthrough - because you only get that through banters and taking out the exact right team. DA2 did this too, and it was a sign of rushed writing. As opposed to DAO and DAI, where you have their basic conflicts sketched out for you, but banters add colour, context and nuance - but regardless of team you take out, you get the basics. And they'll tell you stuff, if you ask and show interest.

Lucanis, Neve and Harding talk far more amongst themselves about some actually pretty key stuff, but not to Rook - unlike Emmrich, Taash and Davrin, who when you've spoken to them long enough will tell you a bit about them, and you can go, "Oh, I see how they got like that." Like, Neve is laetan from a soporati mostly templar family, and that elevation of having a sudden mage in the family basically tore her family apart nearly as badly as Fenris'. The class and mage stuff is major to her self-identity and why she's in Dock Town. But despite her fondness of Dock Town, her accent has no class markers except "posh London" and none of this comes up if you don't take exactly the right team out; I found some of this out through Reddit, of all places.

Now, you may say, "Isn't that replay value?" I'd argue not, when you're in an RPG that sells itself on its ensemble cast. Neve's introductory dialogue establishes that she's Minrathous and really cares about her city. And that she's a PI. The rest… is plot exposition. And it mostly carries on being exposition, albeit in a stylised way. So she has a liking for fancy hats, is pessimistic and is exhaustedly principled and love-hates Minrathous… but you knew that in her first five minutes. Even the fried fish thing, which exemplifies her love for the city and how she's grounded even though she's a mage? Ten hours in at least. And even if you play a Shadow Dragon who is also from a military family and felt left out? You get more opportunities to talk about that with Tarquin than Neve.

By contrast, here are some examples of character details that were well-done replay/"thanks for paying attention" value:

I adored many char moments, like her being wary of Emmrich but liking Manfred - calling him "Fred" - and eventually warming to them both, and her helping Taash out on gender and recognising some of this because she knew Mae and Tarquin, and Lucanis trying to feed her something healthy… but other than the middle part, all of this pretty important character growth is in easily missable banters. DA2 did this too and it drove me nuts. I took her everywhere with me because I liked her so much! And I still knew none of her backstory. Because Tevinter Nights and banter fill it in. You learn very little; you'll come out of the game thinking exactly the same of her as you did at the start. She's beautiful and every trope she's made out of is gold and her actor has a gorgeous voice, but compare a character like… heck, not even Dorian - Sera, or Bull, who offered new perspectives on Ferelden and the Qun (post-Blight and working-class, Ben Hassrath). Neve has an arc so tangled with her city that it feels like you should have got more of a glimpse of everyday working class Tevinter life through her, which I would love to see explored, and you just… don't. Noir PIs are tied to their cities, the one is a metaphor for the other, and it feels like they did that metaphor so much better with Hawke as a battered allegory for Kirkwall.

In Inquisition, let's say you never talk to Dorian past recruiting him. You never even find out he's arguing with his dad, never mind that he's gay. You still get that he's a very gifted mage, pretends to be arrogant, let down by his mentor and "not everything from Tevinter is terrible." You don't get his family history, that he hates the cold and has allergies, the nerdy magical talk, the necromancy nerdery… but you get a sampler plate of "preens, principled, proud Tevinter mage". You get a good picture even if it's incomplete.

In some ways, you actually get to know the Viper better if you choose Treviso. Less overall interaction, maybe, but you get that great scene with him mourning the dead and his response to him being Blighted, and the stuff with Antoine and Evka. And then you get that codex upon his kidnapping confirming his family name, but you have to have been paying attention to the lore to know why him being a Vesperian is such a big deal. You still know who he is and why he's here even if you barely interact with him, though.

I also loved, on Tarquin, that you get to know a bit more about him either way, but it's only if you save Minrathous that you get to know just how sad he is about the Viper not trusting him, how much they talk, the fact he's the tired admin - such a mood - and the fact he's not cis. You've shown your commitment to the Dragons by then, it's not just trotted out as a basic "getting to know you" thing with a character who isn't otherwise loud and proud. Whichever city you save, the finale confirms he's actually probably a mage, too - you see him using what looks like frost/accuracy magic, briefly. My guess is that either a: like Felix, he wasn't strong enough in it to achieve much rank b: he was limited by class c: his dad went, "Nope, if you're a man, you're a soldier now.")

Those two Veilguard choices felt like such great replayability. Like I said with DAI's banters: you get the basics, but certain choices you make give you access to new info which suddenly recontextualises and illuminates things for you. I particularly enjoyed talking to Tarq as a fellow Shadow Dragon from a fellow military family. The tired wry understanding felt very real.

I really like the whole cast, but the most... I don't know, finished? characters feel like Solas, Emmrich, Bellara and Tash. Perhaps Davrin, though he still needed a little time. I adore Lucanis (and startlingly, may like Spite even more!) but I definitely feel like he needed more time and writer stability. Emmrich lets you in on his fears and his worries a good while after knowing him, and also lets on that he's grown up in the Necropolis and it's all he knows, and that he spent time talking to spirits and was more in tune with them as a kid than most. That's not structured as an exposition dump. You have to do his personal quests to see them, but they're very much "friend decides to let Rook in on something, embarrassedly" and "come to see my favourite place". The spirits you meet are as part of other side quests and that stuff comes up naturally. Taash's intro tells you right off their mum is constantly criticising them and doesn't like them "acting butch", that criticism is due to their mum being very Qunari, and that they're really into dragons. If you pursue their quests, you get them coming out, a thorough discussion of how they feel about this stuff, them being a jerk with Emmrich, their bluntness getting them into trouble sometimes, and certain rituals and friendships in the Lords being influenced by it. So you get told all that, sure… but you also get to see it spread and ripple. There's an arc. And almost all of that you can get even without the "right" banter. Davrin's Dalish background is relevant to the plot and is a matter-of-fact part of who he is, but if you pursue his quests you get to find out about him working out whether to hide/suppress the gentler parts of himself, that he was an adorable kid, that he's into whittling, and that he's very no-nonsense about the Evanuris' bullshit because he is a stoic who gets the job done and his Warden identity takes priority, even while his Dalish upbringing informs his personality and his hunts (imo this was very well done).

You might say, "But isn't 'Characters stand around telling you their tragic backstory' the BioWare Problem?" Yeah, sure! But there's a natural build with these above examples. And shoving stuff into banter is still telling, not showing; there's no writerly sleight of hand there, either. I'd also argue that one of the reasons people have often spoken about Emmrich looking out for their Rook, or having more connection with their Rook, is that his chats with them are written much more in the Inquisition style than Veilguard's, though there are some exceptions.

Another thing: characters rarely interject/add their tuppence in quests compared to the other games, has anyone noticed this? That also gives me fewer chances to clock their stances on things, or whether they hide behind snark, or their pet issues. Same with location comments/colour commentary, which are such a tiny thing but really do help with a feeling of reactivity (BG3 did this great, but it's a very different genre and devcycle, so I'm just gonna compare past BioWare). There's no "Smell the oppression" in the Gallows or "Should've brought a sweater" in Noveria or "It must have been some time since templars [in the Hinterlands] faced a mage of any talent" or… most of Garrus and Miri bitching about Omega. I can think of, maybe two? (Half of Fenris' interjections were a slightly more complex, "ugh, I don't give a shit, can we get back to hunting slavers", but you still caught that he hated blood mages, liked the Guard and Isabela, and had an incredibly dry sense of humour.)

That lessening of dialogue, to me, points to a lack of time. My theory is the plot was laid out and carefully tooled, and companions were written/rewritten last, when the timeline was tight. As folks have pointed out: for all his faults, Gaider was famously a tight lead who gave writers their favourite characters to encourage ownership and investment, said Weekes' concepts for Solas were fantastic but made them rewrite him several times because he was coming off so unlikeable, worked very closely with VAs and always got stuff in on time. Also, he has never said this, but Weekes and Busch have always said he did the vast majority of worldbuilding and pretty much all the reveals in the plot were stuff laid out in the writers' room during/after DAO, and Weekes has said they knew of this stuff and it was passed onto them. So I think a lot of it may be upheaval and his absence being… keenly felt. It always seemed like there was a lot more Gaider in DA (compare how many characters he wrote) than there was Drew Karpyshyn or Casey Hudson in ME. DA2 was still messy as hell even with him very much involved, though, so *shrug*.

I very much enjoyed Solas' dialogue, though. That felt all Weekes, and like they were at their most passionate. Bits of it felt very Mordin, actually.

I do think everyone did a fantastic job pulling together not just a coherent but enjoyable and at times very beautiful product after such a difficult devcycle. I would argue they did a much better job than with DA2. There's a lot of skill and thought in this. It feels much, much more finished than DA2. It's just a lot more "action" than "RPG" in terms of party mechanics and dialogue. That still makes it feel like a complete, enjoyable action-adventure game, whereas DA2 was much more RPG with a lot of its mechanics but felt indecisive and unfinished to the end. I also think it's a good intro to the series, though the first hour might be a bit confusing. You get a good intro to the Wardens and Mourn Watch and Tevinter. Also, I love Arlathan and I could write essays on why. It just felt like, unlike most DA entries, the plot was stronger than the people this time round.

#tru plays veilguard #meta #ie me rambling

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usagirotten · 1 year ago

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Review: Napoleon: the fanciful portrait of a legend

Historical figures have caused curiosity and controversy over the years, those who have spoken about them have their point of view of what could or should have happened, and even more so in the events that they try to represent. From the Bible and its interpretation of what the life of Jesus Christ was like to characters who partially changed the course of humanity, either through their scientific discoveries or through the conquest of territories in the name of an empire. The cinema has seen in these characters an opportunity to relive events in a more real way that has served not only to entertain what has happened but even to pretend and educate taking this as a reference in history classes at all school levels but not as something reliable and credible. Along with this, wars and great battles have been the protagonists of great film productions, director Ridley Scott has been a very versatile director when telling his stories, he has left space science fiction and robots for something more complicated, narrating the life of one of the most controversial, misunderstood and controversial men to this day, in 2023 the film Napoleon premieres in movie theaters, which promises that we will see something completely different from what we know.

What is the film about?

A personal look at the origins of the French military leader, his relentless journey to power, and his rapid and ruthless rise to the emperor, the story is told through the relationship between Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix) and his wife and only true love, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby). Many film and television productions have tried to narrate the events around Napoleon Bonaparte, we cannot deny that as a historical figure, he has been very relevant to the modern history of humanity, his military tactics led him to become a war leader and to form his empire, it is not surprising that these projects have had their successes and failures, each one has tried to contribute something new and in a different way from how things were supposed to be. The idea of bringing this biographical project to the big screen doesn't sound bad at all, the different thing is the approach that they want to give it. Although we know that Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power and founded an entire empire, we also know that the great love of his life was Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher from La Pagerie/ Josephine Bonaparte/ Joséphine de Beauharnais, some events in the film can be questioned, this type and genre of film have very specific rules and one of them is to respect the chronology of events. As audiovisual material we can say that this work by Ridley Scott is almost impeccable, the setting, the costumes by Janty Yates and David Crossman, the cinematography by Dariusz Wolski, and the art direction are extremely well planned and cared for down to the smallest detail, yes We put the script aside and its story is a spectacle like the ones this director usually presents, creating atmospheres that look and feel real is not easy at all, much less nowadays when as an audience attending a movie theater we are more demanding. The film opens with these quotes: 1789... French Revolution... The people enter the revolution through misery... and end up in misery through the revolution... The French emerged from the deception due to a lack of food and general economic depression... The anti-royalists soon violently destroyed King Louis XVI and 11 thousands of his supporters... and then they focused on the last queen of France, Marie Antoinette... While an ambitious Corsican artillery officer named Napoleon Bonaparte seeks a promotion... The above already puts us in the context of what we are going to see, the opening sequence foreshadows the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, the future emperor of France, the execution and beheading of Marie Antoinette, and how a man has the ambition to be the best of all and bring victory to France, which would give way to great political tension in 19th century Europe, then the Napoleonic Wars begin where we see only a little of the Battle of Toulon, the Battle of the Pyramids, the Battle of Austerlitz and of course the Battle of Waterloo which is the star. All this action happens while a subplot develops that involves the courtship and romance with Josephine de Beauharnais and at times it becomes her story and not his to change the pace and tone of its narrative again, we move on from the romantic drama to the action and vice versa, this is confusing for the viewer, the original 4-hour version changed to be able to be shown in cinemas, the cuts that were made are noticeable and evident, we go from one thing to another without having a context previous, the dialogues feel heavy and this is boring at times.

It is more than evident that the script written by David Scarpa takes too many creative liberties and breaks the rules, he tries to give his characters an underdevelopment that is very short for the time they have on screen, the rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte, and his tactics. warmongers that led to the death of millions of his people and that concluded with his death in 1821, there are impressive sequences that aim to show the horror of war from the bullets that pass through bodies to the burning silhouettes that flee from their attackers. The letters written by Napoleon to Josephine are the axis of everything and are expressed through the voice-over that tries to develop a romance that is not very credible, flat, and without an emotion that feels authentic. Josephine is and is not there, is and is not, and the dialogues between them are extensive and with very little substance, she represents herself as a very practical woman who lives in a chaotic and problematic time in which the French people expel a group of egomaniacal rulers to hand over the reins of power to someone who is crazier since he is just a misunderstood man. This seems to be a film about two people who come to see power as a goal in their lives, he about France and then continental Europe and she about this powerful man who becomes obsessed with her beauty, this sounds more like an exchange of personal interests than a couple who wants to establish that love is the most important thing and what gives meaning to their existence. Napoleon as a character does not define his personality, he is installed in being the one who has control of everything at all times and does not allow us to see that man who is supposed to have a sensitive and romantic side that falls in love not only with the person who is the love of his life. but to us as an audience, the key point of the film is this strange fixation that he feels for a woman who according to his script was not so much interested in him as a man but as a figure of power. The film as such goes from being something biographical and historical to a fictional drama with action, its protagonist from what we know of history was a brilliant strategist who won victories but who did not stop being a genocide, Scott portrays him in a fantasy way in a mix between an action man and a superhero, his rise in each battle won happens too quickly, as viewers we do not have time to see how it happens and the same thing happens with his romance, we go from point A to point D where There are already things that happened and that are important to continue its development. The common thread that is romance is something that little by little is diluted until reaching the point of separation because after a decade of marriage, she still has not been able to give him a child, on the other hand, the tactical brilliance, the ruthless cunning of this man on the battlefield, and his excessive ambition for power but in everything else, we are never given a clear and concrete idea of why anyone should follow this emotional madman into a battle, if we talk about territorial power, the political issue must also be addressed and things put in context and there be a justification because we are talking about historical facts and that does not happen here, in fact it is completely absent. As an interpretive film based on real historical events, it is more than very entertaining and combines its action well with acting. Scott as a director is exuberantly confident in his already characteristic cinematographic style, he knows and handles epic narration very well and has demonstrated it in films. such as Gladiator (2000), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), and The Last Duel (2021), his style has led his productions to be more spectacular than accurate, this genre needs more of a very specific base story than just visuals.

The lack of care in its editing means that several of its sequences, such as the estrangement of Napoleon and Joséphine and their subsequent pseudo-reconciliation, occur in a period of only a few minutes, or when it is mentioned that 15 years have passed since it began, we are missing material to know what happened in all that time, it is very unlikely that a two and a half hour film can cover life as grandiloquent as that of Napoleon, the result feels rushed and incomplete, so free is the version that We never see him holding his hand inside his jacket like that classic image, nor is there any mention of that saying that greatness is measured from the head to the sky, this is not based on popular assumptions but on a personal assumption of what is believe it was In this case, we are going to think carefully, we are going to say that the cut that is currently in theaters is edited for this format and that it is missing 2 hours of footage in which we will surely see things in more detail, with a more fluid narrative and with the complete development of the characters, this is not a justification to say that this work is bad but nor to say that it is good, nor can we deny or affirm that it is one of Scott's worst works if there is 4-hour footage it is because It was conceived like this to take advantage of time, its result so far is something media that remains pending, this is perhaps why its failure at the box office is due. One of the possible big flaws it has is its protagonist, Joaquín Phoenix has shown more than once that he is a wonderful actor, but for this film, a Frenchman was needed who understood, felt, and reflected all the greatness of Napoleon and not an actor American but we understand that this is just something based on something and nothing more, on the other hand, we have the language, it was never thought or conceived to be spoken in French, so this is the biographical film of a French character in the English language, a commercial product that is neither intended to educate nor be historically accurate is just problematic and confusing entertainment like scathing satire and random criticism and not that relentless conqueror who was only truly alive when he was surrounded by so much death. In the end, we can say that after so much action, drama, and a supposed romance things are transformed into something reflective of its central character, an account of what he has done and how it affected his life and changed the course of a nation, the spectacular The Battle of Waterloo is exactly what we all wanted to see. It does not disappoint, on the contrary, it is the best part of all. The film closes with these quotes: Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5, 1821, after 6 years of exile in Saint Helena... He led 61 battles... - Toulon 6000 - Marengo 12000 - Austerlitz 16500 - Borodino 71000 - Waterloo 47,000 in one day - Invasion of Russia 460000 From 1793 to 1815 there were 3,000,000 deaths...

His last words were France, Army, Josephine... In the end, the reflection and question that it leaves us with is, and all this for what? as historical data to make it a little more credible it is fine but it never takes the trouble to present its justifications well and falls into the trite cliché that it is just a point of view, a more generalized and modern idea, something spectacular but very flat and without substance, good actors in good shots with a good technical and very creative team, a segment that represents a very important part in the history of humanity that only looks good. The cast includes, among others, Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, Ben Miles, Ludivine Sagnier, Youssef Kerkour, Ian McNeice, Matthew Needham, John Hollingworth, Sinéad Cusack, Phil Cornwell, Édouard Philipponnat, Catherine Walker, Mark Bonnar, Davide Tucci, Sam Crane and Rupert Everett who do a very good job that could have been much better if the direction and script had a defined and more concrete direction. The music composed by the British musician Martin Phipps is a great success, pieces that go from the moving to the spectacular without losing its personality, a work that without being excessively orchestral manages to live up to what is required. In conclusion, Napoleon is a half-finished film that leaves us half-finished even in this review, there is not much to say or give a spoiler about its content, it is a matter of time before the full 4-hour version is presented on Apple TV, and we can see and decide if this is a work that is worth becoming a classic or not, while this happens we are left with a product that does not fulfill what it promises, that strives to be something that it is not, for be complicated, boring and meaningless, that deceives itself by breaking its own rules, that is only high quality audiovisual entertainment but very forgettable. Napoleon is now available in cinemas in your country. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBmWztLPp9c Read the full article

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silent-era-of-cinema · 4 years ago

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John Gilbert (born John Cecil Pringle; July 10, 1897 – January 9, 1936) was an American actor, screenwriter and director. He rose to fame during the silent film era and became a popular leading man known as "The Great Lover". His legendary breakthrough came in 1925 with his starring roles in The Merry Widow and The Big Parade. At the height of his career, Gilbert rivaled Rudolph Valentino as a box office draw.

Gilbert's career declined precipitously when silent pictures gave way to talkies. Though Gilbert was often cited as one of the high-profile examples of an actor who was unsuccessful in making the transition to sound films, his decline as a star had far more to do with studio politics and money than with the sound of his screen voice, which was rich and distinctive.

Born John Cecil Pringle in Logan, Utah, to stock-company actor parents, John Pringle (1865–1929) and Ida Apperly Gilbert (1877–1913), he struggled through a childhood of abuse and neglect, with his family moving frequently and young "Jack" having to attend assorted schools throughout the United States. When his family finally settled in California, he attended Hitchcock Military Academy in San Rafael. After he left school, Gilbert worked as a rubber goods salesman in San Francisco, then performed with the Baker Stock Company in Portland, Oregon, in 1914. He subsequently found work the following year as a stage manager in another stock company in Spokane, Washington, but he soon lost that job when the company went out of business.

After losing his stage job in 1915, Gilbert decided to try screen acting, and he quickly gained work as a film extra through Herschell Mayall. Gilbert first appeared in The Mother Instinct (1915), a short directed by Wilfred Lucas. He then found work as an extra with the Thomas Ince Studios in productions such as The Coward (1915), Aloha Oe (1915), Civilization (1915), The Last Act (1916), and William Hart's Hell's Hinges (1916).

During his initial years in films, Gilbert also performed in releases by Kay-Bee Company such as Matrimony (1915), The Corner (1915), Eye of the Night (1916), and Bullets and Brown Eyes (1916). His first major costarring role was as Willie Hudson in The Apostle of Vengeance, also with William S. Hart.[6] Viewed by studio executives as a promising but still "juvenile" actor at this stage of his career, Gilbert's contract salary was $40 a week ($940 today), fairly ample pay for most American workers in the early 1900s.[7] Gilbert continued to get more substantial parts at Kay-Bee, which billed him as "Jack Gilbert" in The Aryan (1916), The Phantom (1916), Shell 43 (1916), The Sin Ye Do (1917), The Weaker Sex (1917), and The Bride of Hate (1917). His first true leading role was in Princess of the Dark (1917) with Enid Bennett, but the film was not a big success and he went back to supporting roles in The Dark Road (1917), Happiness (1917), The Millionaire Vagrant (1917), and The Hater of Men (1917).

Gilbert went over to Triangle Films where he was in The Mother Instinct (1917), Golden Rule Kate (1917), The Devil Dodger (1917) (second billed), Up or Down? (1917), and Nancy Comes Home (1918). For Paralta Plays, Gilbert did Shackled (1918), One Dollar Bid (1918), and Wedlock (1918) and More Trouble (1918) for Anderson, but the company went bankrupt.[7] He also was cast in Doing Their Bit (1918) at Fox and then returned to Triangle for The Mask (1918). Gilbert also did Three X Gordon (1918) for Jesse Hampton, The Dawn of Understanding (1918), The White Heather (1919) for Maurice Tourneur, The Busher (1919) for Thomas Ince, The Man Beneath for Haworth, A Little Brother of the Rich (1919) for Universal, The Red Viper (1919) for Tyrad, For a Woman's Honor (1919) for Jess Hampton, Widow by Proxy (1919) for Paramount, Heart o' the Hills (1919) for Mary Pickford, and Should a Woman Tell? (1919) for Screen Classics.

Maurice Tourneur signed him to a contract to both write and act in films. Gilbert performed in and co-wrote The White Circle (1920), The Great Redeemer (1921), and Deep Waters (1921). As a writer only, he worked on The Bait (1921), which starred and was produced by Hope Hampton. For Hampton, Gilbert wrote and directed as well, but he did not appear in Love's Penalty (1921).

In 1921, Gilbert signed a three-year contract with Fox Film Corporation, which subsequently cast him in romantic leading roles and promoted him now as "John Gilbert". The actor's first starring part for the studio was in Shame (1921).[10] He followed it with leading roles in Arabian Love (1922), Gleam O'Dawn (1922), The Yellow Stain (1922), Honor First (1922), Monte Cristo (1922), Calvert's Valley (1922), The Love Gambler (1922), and A California Romance (1922). Many of the scenarios for these films were written by Jules Furthman.

Gilbert returned temporarily to Tourneur to costar with Lon Chaney in While Paris Sleeps (1923). Back at Fox, he starred in Truxton King (1923), Madness of Youth (1923), St. Elmo (1923), and The Exiles (1923). The same year he starred in Cameo Kirby (1923), directed by John Ford, co starring Jean Arthur. He went into The Wolf Man (1923) with Norma Shearer, not a horror film, but the story of a man who believes he murdered his fiancée's brother while drunk. Gilbert also performed in his last films for Fox in 1924, including Just Off Broadway, A Man's Mate, The Lone Chance, and Romance Ranch.

Under the auspices of movie producer Irving Thalberg, Gilbert obtained a release from his Fox contract and moved to MGM, where he became a full-fledged star cast in major productions. First starring in His Hour (1924) directed by King Vidor and written by Elinor Glyn his film career entered its ascendancy. He followed this success with He Who Gets Slapped (1924) co-starring Chaney and Shearer and directed by Victor Sjöström; The Snob (1924) with Shearer; The Wife of the Centaur (1924) for Vidor.

The next year, Gilbert would star in two of MGM's most critically acclaimed and popular film productions of the silent era: Erich von Stroheim's The Merry Widow and King Vidor's The Big Parade.

Gilbert was assigned to star in Erich von Stroheim's The Merry Widow by Irving Thalberg, over the objections of the Austrian-American director. Von Stroheim expressed his displeasure bluntly to his leading man: "Gilbert, I am forced to use you in my picture. I do not want you, but the decision was not in my hands. I assure you I will do everything in my power to make you comfortable." Gilbert, mortified, soon stalked off the set in a rage, tearing off his costume. Von Stroheim followed him to his dressing room and apologized. The two agreed to share a drink. Then Gilbert apologized and they had another drink. The tempest subsided and was resolved amicably. According to Gilbert, the contretemps served to "cement a relationship which for my part will never end."

The public adulation that Gilbert experienced with his growing celebrity astounded him: "Everywhere I hear whispers and gasps in acknowledgment of my presence... he whole thing became too fantastic for me to comprehend. Acting, the very thing I had been fighting and ridiculing for seven years, had brought me success, riches and renown. I was a great motion picture artist. Well, I’ll be damned!"

Gilbert was next cast by Thalberg to star in the King Vidor's war-romance The Big Parade (1925), which became the second-highest grossing silent film and the most profitable film of the silent era. Gilbert's "inspired performance" as an American doughboy in France during World War I was the high point of his acting career. He fully immersed himself in the role of Jim Apperson, a Southern gentleman who, with two working class comrades, experiences the horrors of trench warfare. Gilbert declared: "No love has ever enthralled me as did the making of this picture...All that has followed is balderdash."

The following year, Vidor reunited Gilbert with two of his co-stars from that picture, Renée Adorée and Karl Dane, for the film La Bohème (1926) which also starred Lillian Gish. He then did another with Vidor, Bardelys the Magnificent (1926).

In 1926, Gilbert made Flesh and the Devil (1926), his first film with Greta Garbo. Gilbert first encountered Garbo on the set during filming of the railway station scene, and the chemistry between the two was evidently instantaneous. Director Clarence Brown remarked approvingly that he "had a love affair going for me that you couldn’t beat, any way you tried." Garbo and Gilbert soon began a highly publicized romance, much to the delight of their fans and to MGM.

He made The Show (1927) with Adoree for Tod Browning then did Twelve Miles Out (1927) with Joan Crawford and Man, Woman and Sin (1927) with Jeanne Eagels.

Gilbert was reunited with Garbo in a modern adaptation of Tolstoy's 19th-century novel, Anna Karenina. The title was changed to Love (1927) to capitalize on the real life love affair of the stars and advertised by MGM as "Garbo and Gilbert in Love."

Gilbert made The Cossacks (1928) with Adoree; Four Walls (1928) with Crawford; Show People (1928) with Marion Davies for Vidor, in which Gilbert only had a cameo; and The Masks of the Devil (1928) for Victor Sjöström.

Though officially directed by Edmund Goulding, Gilbert, though uncredited, was responsible for directing the love scenes involving Garbo. He was perhaps the only person in the industry whose "artistic judgment" she fully respected. As such, MGM approved of this arrangement.

Gilbert and Garbo were teamed for a third time in A Woman of Affairs (1928). His last silent film was Desert Nights (1929).

With the coming of sound, Gilbert's vocal talents made a good first impression, though the studio had failed to conduct a voice test. The conventional wisdom of the day dictated that actors in the new talkies should emulate "correct stage diction". Gilbert's strict adherence to this method produced an affected delivery that made audiences giggle, and not due to any particularity in Gilbert's natural speech. Indeed, the "quality of his voice compared well with that of co-star Conrad Nagel, regarded as having one of the best voices for sound."

Gilbert signed an immensely lucrative multi-picture contract with MGM in 1928 that totaled $1,500,000. The terms of the agreement positioned MGM executives Irving Thalberg and Nicholas Schenck, both sympathetic to the star, to supervise his career. Gilbert, however, frequently clashed with studio head Louis B. Mayer over creative, social and financial matters. A confrontation between the two men, one that became physical, occurred at the planned double-wedding of Garbo and Gilbert and director King Vidor and actress Eleanor Boardman. Mayer reportedly made a crude remark to Gilbert about Garbo, and Gilbert reacted by knocking Mayer to the floor with his fist.[24] While this story has been disputed or dismissed as hearsay by some historians, Vidor's bride Eleanor Boardman insisted that she actually witnessed the altercation.

In the all-star musical comedy The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929), Gilbert and Norma Shearer played the balcony scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, first as written, then followed with a slang rendition of the scene. The comic effect served to "dispell the bad impression" produced by Gilbert's original "mincing" delivery.

Audiences awaited further romantic roles from Gilbert on the talking screen. The next vehicle was the Ruritanian romance His Glorious Night (1929), directed by Lionel Barrymore. According to reviewers, audiences laughed nervously at Gilbert's performance. The offense was not Gilbert's voice, but the awkward scenario along with the overly ardent love scenes. In one, Gilbert keeps kissing his leading lady, (Catherine Dale Owen), while saying "I love you" over and over again. (The scene was parodied in the MGM musical Singin' in the Rain (1952) in which a preview of the fictional The Dueling Cavalier flops disastrously.)

Director King Vidor speculated that the late Rudolph Valentino, Gilbert's main rival for romantic leads in the silent era, probably would have suffered the same fate in the talkie era had he lived. Gilbert's inept phrasing, his "dreadful enunciation" and the "inane" script as the genuine sources of his poor performance, that drew "titters" from audiences.

The persistent myth that John Gilbert had a "squeaky voice" that doomed his career in sound films first emerged from his performance in 1929 with His Glorious Night. It was even rumored that Louis B. Mayer ordered Gilbert's voice to be gelded by manipulating the sound track to give it a higher, less masculine pitch. Later, after analyzing the film's sound track, British film historian Kevin Brownlow found that the timbre and frequency of Gilbert's speaking scenes in His Glorious Night were no different than in his subsequent talkies. Brownlow also reported from that analysis that Gilbert's voice, overall, was "quite low". With regard to the alleged manipulation of Gilbert's footage by Mayer or by anyone else, television technicians in the 1960s determined that the actor's voice was consistent with those of other performers on the same print, casting doubt that any targeted "sabotaging" of Gilbert's voice occurred.

Film critic John Baxter described Gilbert as having "a light speaking voice", a minor defect that both MGM and the star "magnified into an obsession." Despite any conflicting opinions or myths surrounding the actor's voice, Mayer's lingering resentment and hostility toward Gilbert remained apparent, especially after MGM's star signed a new contract for six pictures at $250,000 each. Those ill feelings fueled additional speculation that Mayer deliberately assigned Gilbert bad scripts and ineffective directors in an effort to void the contract.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cast Gilbert in a film adaption of The Living Corpse by Tolstoy re-titled as Redemption (1929). The bleak atmosphere and maudlin dialogue presaged the disaster looming in the stars’ personal life and career. Gilbert's confident screen presence had vanished, while his use of the exaggerated stage diction that elicited laughs from the audience persisted. In one scene Gilbert declares ominously "I’m going to kill myself to let the whole world know what it has lost."[34]

MGM put him in a more rugged film, Way for a Sailor (1930) with Wallace Beery. He followed it with Gentleman's Fate (1931). Gilbert became increasingly depressed by progressively inferior films and idle stretches between productions. Despite efforts by studio executives at MGM to cancel his contract, Gilbert resolved to thwart Louis B. Mayer and see the six-picture ordeal through to the end.

Gilbert's fortunes were temporarily restored when MGM's production chief Irving Thalberg gave him two projects that were character studies, giving Gilbert an excellent showcase for his versatility. The Phantom of Paris (1931), originally intended for Lon Chaney (who died from cancer in 1930), cast Gilbert as a debonair magician and showman who is falsely accused of murder and uses his mastery of disguise to unmask the real killer.

Downstairs (1932) was based on Gilbert's original story, with the actor playing against type as a scheming, blackmailing chauffeur. The films were well received by critics and fans but failed to revive his career. In between, he appeared in West of Broadway (1931). Shortly after making Downstairs, he married co-star Virginia Bruce; the couple divorced in 1934.

Gilbert fulfilled his contract with MGM with a perfunctory "B" picture – Fast Workers (1933) directed by Browning. He left the studio in 1933, terminating his $10,000 a week contract.

Exhausted and demoralized by his humiliations at MGM and his declining success at the box office, Gilbert began to drink heavily, contributing to his declining physical and mental health.

Gilbert announced his retirement from acting and was working at Fox as an "honorary" director when, in August 1933, Gilbert announced he had signed a seven-year contract with MGM at $75–100,000 a picture. The reason was Greta Garbo insisted that Gilbert return to MGM to play her leading man in Queen Christina (1933), directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Garbo was top-billed, with Gilbert's name beneath the title. Queen Christina, though a critical success, did not revive Gilbert's poor self-image or his career. Garbo was reported to have dropped the young Laurence Olivier scheduled to play the part, but director Rouben Mamoulian recalled that Olivier's screen tests had already eliminated him from consideration.

Columbia Pictures gave Gilbert what would be his final chance for a comeback in The Captain Hates the Sea (1934) in which he gave a capable performance as "a dissipated, bitter [and] cynical" playwright. But the off-screen cast of heavy drinkers encouraged his alcoholism. It was his last film.

Biographer Kevin Brownlow's eulogy to John Gilbert considers the destruction of both the man and his career:

"The career of John Gilbert indicates that the star, and the person playing the star, were regarded by producers as separate entities, subject to totally different attitudes. Gilbert, as an ordinary human being, had no legal right to the stardom that was the sole property of the studio. When Gilbert, as an employee, tried to seize control of the future of Gilbert the star, the studios decided to save their investment from falling into the hands of rivals, [so] they had to wreck their property. Other properties – books, films, sets – could be destroyed with impunity. But the destruction of a star carried with it the destruction of a person…it seems somewhat abhorrent that it took such tragedies as that of John Gilbert to bring us our entertainment."

Gilbert was married four times. His first marriage, on August 26, 1918, was to Olivia Burwell, a native of Mississippi whom Gilbert had met after her family moved to California. They separated the following year and Burwell returned to Mississippi for a while. She filed for divorce in Los Angeles in 1921.

In February 1921, Gilbert announced his engagement to actress Leatrice Joy. They married in Tijuana in November 1921.[44] As Gilbert had failed to secure a divorce from his first wife and the legality of Gilbert and Joy's Mexican marriage was questionable, the couple separated and had the marriage annulled to avoid a scandal. They remarried on March 3, 1922. The marriage was tumultuous and, in June 1923, Joy filed for legal separation after she claimed that Gilbert slapped her face after a night of heavy drinking. They reconciled several months later. In August 1924, Joy, who was pregnant with the couple's daughter, filed for divorce. Joy later said she left Gilbert after discovering he was having an affair with actress Laurette Taylor.[47] Joy also claimed that Gilbert had conducted affairs with Barbara La Marr (with whom he had a romance before his marriage to Joy), Lila Lee and Bebe Daniels. Gilbert and Joy had a daughter, Leatrice Gilbert (later Fountain; 4 September 1924 – 20 January 2015). Joy was granted a divorce in May 1925.

In 1929, Gilbert eloped with actress Ina Claire to Las Vegas. They separated in February 1931 and divorced six months later. Gilbert's fourth and final marriage was on August 10, 1932, to actress Virginia Bruce, who had recently costarred with him on the MGM film Downstairs. The entertainment trade paper The Film Daily reported that their "quick" wedding was held in Gilbert's dressing room on the MGM lot while Bruce was working on another studio production, Kongo. Among the people attending the small ceremony were the head of MGM production Irving Thalberg, who served as Gilbert's best man; screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart, whose wife Beatrice acted as Bruce's matron of honor; MGM art director and set designer Cedric Gibbons; and his wife, actress Dolores del Río. Bruce retired briefly from acting following the birth of their daughter Susan Ann; however, she resumed her career after her divorce from Gilbert in May 1934.

Before his death, Gilbert dated actress Marlene Dietrich as well as Greta Garbo. When he died, he had recently been slated to play a prominent supporting role in Dietrich's film Desire.

By 1934, alcoholism had severely damaged Gilbert's health. He suffered a serious heart attack in December 1935, which left him in poor health. Gilbert suffered a second heart attack at his Bel Air home on January 9, 1936, which was fatal.

A private funeral was held on January 11 at the B.E. Mortuary in Beverly Hills. Among the mourners were Gilbert's two ex-wives, Leatrice Joy and Virginia Bruce, his two daughters, and stars Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Myrna Loy, and Raquel Torres.

Gilbert was cremated and his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale in Glendale, California.

Gilbert left the bulk of his estate, valued at $363,494 (equivalent to $6.7 million in 2019), to his last ex-wife Virginia Bruce and their daughter, Susan Ann. He left $10,000 to his eldest daughter Leatrice, and other amounts to friends, relatives and his servants.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Gilbert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1755 Vine Street. In 1994, he was honored with his image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.

#john gilbert #silent era #silent hollywood #silent movie stars #golden age of hollywood #classic movie stars #classic hollywood #old hollywood #1910s movies #1920s hollywood #1930s hollywood

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mariposalass · 4 years ago

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Parols for Christmas

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Summary: Mari and friends are making parols for the self ship community’s Yuletide Dance event.

Setting: Mari and co.’s house in Daly City, California; a few days before the Yuletide Dance event

Notes: This is for the Selfship Yuletide Dance Event hosted by @selfshipeventhall. My contribution is all about parols (star shaped lanterns from my country), you can read more about them here. For this event, in addition to the parols, I will bringing in my dearest Philip, our kiddo Edelgard, my little sister Kairi, and my friends Sora and Kirby. Here is a great tutorial you can watch and try to make a parole if this is your first time making one. This one is actually short but I want to keep it simple.

Tags: Christmas, Christmas season, Yuletide Dance Event, Yuletide, happy holidays, Filipino culture, asian selfship, parols, Defying Time, Renewed Potential, Lady of the Eagles, Swift Keyblader, Princess of Light, One Tuff Puffball

“Mother, how is this one looking so far?” Edelgard asks her adopted mother as she lifts up a parol lantern for an event they will be taking part of in the week.

“It’s not that bad sweetheart,” Mari tells her in a reassuring voice, “It doesn’t have to be super perfect, everyone will still appreciate the effort though.”

“Your mother does have a point, love,” Philip smiles back at his child, “Don’t let the stress to get the best of you. We’re doing this as a family.”

“Poyo, poyo!!!” Kirby squeaks as he places plenty of stickers onto his parols which are small due to him being a small baby puffball.

There is a lot of activity going on in the living room with pieces of tissue paper in different colors, rolls of flat reed, bottles of glue, hot glue guns, spools of strings and wire, LED tea lights, and assorted items to decorate the body of the parols. With Harry and Issa being focused on raising Chris and Serena at this time, they didn’t have the time to go out, especially with the whole world’s current state; however, Sora and Kairi offer to help out with the whole thing, even though the poor Keyblade Wielder has some problems trying to make without making some mistakes on the first time.

Although Mari was initially thinking of just bringing Philip and Edelgard along for the dance, Kirby’s instant pleas grew too much not to ignore that she relented, then Kairi suggested of taking her and Sora as well, which she agreed, since she didn’t want them to be left out on the fun. It wasn’t long for them to make plenty of parols that begins to pile up on the coffee table.

“Phew, that’s a lot of those parols,” Sora plops into the sofa, feeling rather exhausted from making so many of them, although the sisters and Edelgard snicker a bit, wondering about what he was talking about.

“Poyo poyo, poyo. Poyo!” Kirby triumphantly cheers as he finishes his parol for the season, raising it up like Rafiki lifting up Simba in the Lion King.

“Looking really great, Kirby!” Kairi smiles back at him while giving him a pat of the head.

“Well, that’s as many as we could make for the Yuletide dance,” Mari sighs as she looks on the finished result of days working on those star-shaped lanterns, “Hopefully they will impress the party goers soon enough.”

“Though not as beautiful as you, my beloved,” Philip cajoles at her while she blushes in response.

“Father, this is no time to tease Mother like that,” Edelgard jokingly reprimands her (really actually) old man. Philip chuckles a bit before he gives both women loving kisses on the cheek, which they both appreciate. Sora looks on, trying not to tear up while Kairi sighs in the lovely scene between the unlikely small family as she tells him, “You know something, Sora. Do you ever consider having kids in the near future?”

“Erm, is that a little too soon?” Sora looks at her befuddled.

“No, I was just checking, silly,” she playfully teases him, “I have no plans to have kids right away, just not now.”

“Oh okay then, if that’s what you said,” he nods in reply.

While the world outside is filled with uncertainty, there is still hope and love to fill up the world with, and Mari’s large wild bunch certainly knows that. As wildly different as they are as individuals, their shared love and respect for one another is nothing to scoff at: they try to be supportive of one another, no matter what. And maybe, this holiday season may not be as sad at all.

The End

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pokemonruby · 5 years ago

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🍓 xavier and wren!

xavier:

i speak about them so often that i feel like i’ve run out of trivia at this point... well, if there are any repetitions i apologize in advance.

- xavier considers themself an Epic Gamer™ and unsurprisingly has a penchant for minecraft. and yes, they actually enjoy playing minecraft - it is not simply for the sake of memes. though that is the only “modern” game that holds their interest; they much prefer retro titles such as the older pokemon games (especially pokemon crystal), earthbound, megaman, and kirby.

- let’s throw in another pokemon-related question just because i can... their favorite ‘mons include gengar, dragonite, blastoise, and quagsire! they also have an affinity for dragon-type pokemon in general.

oh, and while they don’t play the more recent titles that often, they adore the shinx line.

- their hair is naturally light brown, but turned white due to the... severe trauma they were subjected to during childhood. this is sometimes referred to as “marie antoinette syndrome”.

- if xavier hypothetically had a youtube channel, people would assume that all of their videos are just clickbait because of the absurd challenges listed in the thumbnails... but they actually commit to those challenges, regardless of how dangerous, illegal, or downright impossible they may appear.

- their birthday is may 30th and they are a gemini... to absolutely no one’s surprise. fun fact, though - that was the exact date when i originally created xavier, so i consider it a national holiday.

- they have not cut their hair once in the past decade or so... hence why xavier is constantly referred to as “rapunzel”. but the idea of losing even a single strand of their so-called “beautiful locks” frightens them more than anything in the world.

- xavier is 5′7″, so they’re fairly average... but is a little annoyed by the fact that their boyfriend still manages to beat them by a few inches.

- xavier’s go-to weapon is a baseball bat adorned with spikes... let’s just say that they’re prepared for the zombie apocalypse when it ultimately comes around.

- their favorite meme is bongo cat, but nyan cat is a very close second. xavier is fond of cat-related memes, needless to say.

- they have the entire bee movie script memorized by heart, and i am not even kidding about that. whenever xavier wants to lawrence to do something for them, they’ll tempt him via torture by doing a dramatic reading of the entire script and slowly kill off his braincells.

- they are gay as fuck

wren:

- it’s a known fact by now that wren adores flowers, and i’ve stated on multiple occasions that his absolute favorites consist of snapdragons, hyacinths, carnations, and asters. but he is also fond of lillies and anemones as well.

- wren, embarrassingly enough, used to write a lot of... fanfiction during his youth. specifically with a self-insert he invented with the main antagonist of his favorite novel... meaning that wren has a thing for bad boys, in spite of his gentle nature.

- wren and jevon will occasionally do duets together - with a violin and piano respectively. wren does not consider himself on the same level as his brother yet, but jevon has been teaching him everything he knows - in exchange for lessons on gardening.

- wren is the kind of person who will dress like he’s going to a business meeting when it’s just a casual outing. well, considering that wren is a prince and all, he feels that he must always look professional... and his closet comprises solely of tailcoats and suits, anyway. thankfully, he’s been receiving some fashion tips from his sister, elena.

- he suffers from severe social anxiety, to the point he cannot look at a stranger in the eyes without breaking down. while wren has worked to improve himself, it’s an incredibly slow process... and given that he is basically a shut-in, he doesn’t have many opportunities to practice. the only people he can maintain a proper conversation with are... well, his siblings.

- nonetheless, wren is also quite the romantic. he has spent the majority of his childhood indulging in romantic literature and daydreaming of the day when he could possibly sweep someone off their feet... but the wren of his imagination is a far cry from his actual personality, unfortunately. one time wren stepped on a ladybug and he cried about it for an entire week.

- people have also compared wren to that of a mouse, given how quietly he speaks... along with his overall jitteriness. only his siblings have mastered the “language of wren” thus far.

- wren is nonbinary and bisexual, predominantly using he/him pronouns but doesnt mind they/them either!

#oc tag

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ljones41 · 6 years ago

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"MANSFIELD PARK" (1999) Review

"MANSFIELD PARK" (1999) Review From the numerous articles and essays I have read on-line, Jane Austen’s 1814 novel, "Mansfield Park" did not seemed to be a big favorite among the author’s modern fans. In fact, opinions of the novel and its heroine, Fanny Price, seemed just as divided today, as they had been by Austen’s own family back in the early 19th century.

When director-writer Patricia Rozema was offered the assignment to direct a film adaptation of "Mansfield Park", she had originally rejected it. She claimed that she found both the novel and the Fanny Price character unappealing. In the end, she changed her mind on the grounds that she wrote her own screen adaptation. The result turned out to be an adaptation filled with a good deal of changes from Austen’s original text. Changes that have proven to be controversial to this day. One obvious change that Rozema had made centered on the heroine’s personality. Rozema’s script allowed actress Frances O’Connor to portray Fanny as a talented writer with a lively wit and quick temper. Mind you, Rozema’s Fanny continued to be the story’s bastion of morality – only with what many would view as sass. Rozema also allowed the Edmund Bertram character to become romantically aware of Fanny a lot sooner than the character did in the novel. Because of this revision, actor Jonny Lee Miller portrayed an Edmund who seemed a bit livelier and slightly less priggish than his literary counterpart. Characters like the Crawfords’ half-sister and brother-in-law, the Grants, failed to make an appearance. Fanny’s older brother, William Price, ceased to exist. And in this adaptation, Fanny eventually accepted Henry Crawford’s marriage proposal during her stay in Portsmouth, before rejecting it the following day. But the biggest change made by Rozema had involved the topic of slavery. The writer-director allowed the topic to permeate the movie. Austen’s novel described Fanny’s uncle by marriage, Sir Thomas Bertram, as the owner of a plantation on the island of Antigua. Due to a financial crisis, Sir Thomas was forced to depart for Antigua for a certain period of time with his oldest son as a companion. Upon his return to England and Mansfield Park, Fanny asked him a question regarding his slaves. Sir Thomas and the rest of the family responded with uncomfortable silence. Rozema utilized the Bertrams’ connection to African slavery to emphasize their questionable morality and possible corruption. She also used this connection to emphasize Fanny’s position as a woman, a poor relation, and her semi-servile position within the Mansfield Park household. Rozema used the slavery connection with a heavier hand in scenes that included Fanny hearing the cries of slaves approaching the English coast during her journey to Mansfield Park; a discussion initiated by Sir Thomas on breeding mulattoes; Edmund’s comments about the family and Fanny’s dependence upon the Antigua plantation; oldest son Tom Bertram’s revulsion toward this dependence and graphic drawings of brutalized slaves. These overt allusions to British slavery ended up leaving many critics and Austen fans up in arms. One aspect of "MANSFIELD PARK" that impressed me turned out to be the movie’s production values. I found the production crew's use of an abandoned manor house called Kirby Hall to be very interesting. Rozema, along with cinematographer Michael Coulter and production designer Christopher Hobbs, used the house's abandoned state and cream-colored walls to convey a corrupt atmosphere as an allusion to the Bertrams’ financial connection to slavery. Hobbes further established that slightly corrupted air by sparsely furnishing the house. I also found Coulter’s use the Cornish town of Charlestown as a stand-in for the early 19th century Portmouth as very picturesque. And I especially enjoyed his photography, along with Martin Walsh’s editing in the lively sequence featuring the Bertrams’ ball held in Fanny’s honor. On the whole, Coulter’s photography struck me as colorful and imaginative. The only bleak spot in the movie’s production values seemed to be Andrea Galer’s costume designs. There was nothing wrong with them, but I must admit that they failed to capture my imagination. I cannot deny that I found "MANSFIELD PARK" to be enjoyable and interesting. Nor can I deny that Rozema had injected a great deal of energy into Austen’s plot, a bit more than the 1983 miniseries. Rozema removed several scenes from Austen’s novel. This allowed the movie to convey Austen's story with a running time of 112 minutes. These deleted scenes included the Bertrams and Crawfords’ visit to Mr. Rushworth’s estate, Sotherton; and Fanny’s criticism of Mary Crawford’s caustic remarks about her uncle. I did not miss the Sotherton outing, but I wish Rozema had kept the scene regarding Mary’s uncle, since it did serve to expose Fanny and Edmund’s hypocrisy. Other improvements that Rozema made – at least in my eyes – were changes in some of the characters. Fanny became a livelier personality and at the same time, managed to remain slightly oppressed by her position at Mansfield Park. Both Edmund and Henry were portrayed in a more complex and attractive light. And Tom Bertram’s portrayal as the family’s voice of moral outrage against their connection to black slavery struck me as very effective. In fact, I had no problem with Rozema’s use of slavery in the story. I am not one of those who believed that she should have toned it down to the same level as Austen had – merely using the topic as an allusion to Fanny’s situation with the Bertrams. Austen had opened Pandora’s Box by briefly touching upon the topic in her novel in the first place. As far as I am concerned, there was no law that Rozema or any other filmmaker had to allude to the topic in the same manner. However, not all of Rozema’s changes had impressed me. Why was it necessary to have Henry Crawford request that he rent the nearby parsonage, when his half-sister and brother-in-law, the Grants, resided there in the novel? If Rozema had kept the Grants in her adaptation, this would not have happened. Nor did I understand Sir Thomas’ invitation to allow the Crawfords to reside at Mansfield Park, when Henry had his own estate in Norfolk. I suspect that Sir Thomas’ invitation was nothing more than a set up for Fanny to witness Henry making love to Maria Bertram Rushworth in her bedroom. Now, I realize that Henry is supposed to be some hot-to-trot Regency rake with an eye for women. But I simply found it implausible that he would be stupid enough to have illicit sex with his host’s married daughter. And why did Maria spend the night at Mansfield Park, when her husband’s own home, Sotherton, was located in the same neighborhood? And why was Fanny in tears over her little"discovery"? She did not love Henry. Did the sight of two people having sex disturb her? If so, why did she fail to react in a similar manner upon discovering Tom’s drawings of female slaves being raped? Many fans had complained about Fanny’s acceptance of Henry’s marriage proposal during the visit to Portmouth. I did not, for it allowed an opportunity for Fanny’s own hypocrisy to be revealed. After all, she claimed that Henry’s moral compass made her distrustful of him. Yet, upon her rejection of him; Henry exposed her as a liar and hypocrite, claiming the real reason behind her rejection had more to do with her love for Edmund. Unfortunately . . . Rozema seemed determined not to examine Fanny’s exposed hypocrisy and dismissed it with an intimate scene between her and Edmund; the revelation of Henry’s affair with Maria; and Edmund’s rejection of Henry’s sister, Mary Crawford. This last scene regarding Edmund's rejection of Mary revealed how truly heavy-handed Rozema could be as a filmmaker. In Austen’s novel, Edmund had rejected Mary, due to her refusal to condemn Henry for his affair with Maria and her plans to save the Bertrams and Crawfords' social positions with a marriage between Henry and the still married Maria. Mary's plans bore a strong resemblance to Fitzwilliam Darcy's successful efforts to save the Bennet family's reputation following Lydia Bennet's elopement with George Wickham in "Pride and Prejudice". In "MANSFIELD PARK", Edmund rejected Mary after she revealed her plans to save the Bertrams from any scandal caused by the Henry/Maria affair – plans that included the potential demise of a seriously ill Tom. The moment those words anticipating Tom's death poured from Mary’s mouth, I stared at the screen in disbelief. No person with any intelligence would discuss the possible demise of a loved one in front of his family, as if it was a topic in a business meeting. I never got the impression that both the literary and cinematic Mary Crawford would be that stupid. In this scene, I believe that Rozema simply went too far. The director’s last scene featured a montage on the characters’ fates. And what fate awaited the Crawfords? Both ended up with spouses that seemed more interested in each other than with the Crawford siblings. I suppose this was an allusion to some fate that the Crawfords deserved for . . . well, for what? Okay, Henry probably deserved such a fate, due to his affair with Maria. But Mary? I would disagree. Ironically, both Rozema and Austen shared one major problem with their respective versions of the story. Neither the Canadian writer-director nor the British author bothered to develop Fanny and Edmund’s characters that much. In fact, I would say . . . hardly at all. "MANSFIELD PARK" revealed Edmund’s penchant for priggish and hypocritical behavior in scenes that featured his initial protest against his brother’s plans to perform the "Lover’s Vow" play and his final capitulation; his argument against Sir Thomas’ comments about breeding mulattoes (which Fanny expressed approval with a slightly smug smile) and his willingness to accept his family’s dependence on slave labor; and his support of Sir Thomas’ attempts to coerce Fanny into marrying Henry Crawford. The above incidents were also featured in the novel (except for the mulatto breeding discussion). Not once did Fanny criticize Edmund for his hypocritical behavior – not in the movie or in the novel. Instead, both Rozema and Austen allowed Fanny to indulge in her own hypocrisy by turning a blind eye to Edmund’s faults. Worse, she used Henry Crawford’s flaws as an excuse to avoid his courtship of her and later reject him. Henry’s angry reaction to her rejection was the only time (at least in Rozema’s movie) in which Fanny’s hypocrisy was revealed. Yet, not only did Fanny fail to acknowledge Edmund’s flaws, but also her own. For me, the best aspect of "MANSFIELD PARK" proved to be its cast. How Rozema managed to gather such a formidable cast amazes me. Unfortunately, she did not use the entire cast. Two members – Justine Waddell (Julia Bertram) and Hugh Doneville (Mr. Rushworth) certainly seemed wasted. Rozema’s script failed to allow the two actors to express their talent. Waddell’s presence barely made any impact upon the movie. And Doneville seemed nothing more than poorly constructed comic relief. I almost found myself expressing the same belief for actress Lindsay Duncan, despite her portrayal of two of the Ward sisters – Lady Bertram and Mrs. Price. Her Lady Bertram seemed to spend most of the movie sitting around in a drug-induced state from the use of too much laudanum. However, Duncan had one memorable moment as Fanny’s mother, Mrs. Price. In that one scene, she gave emphatic advise to Fanny about Henry Crawford by pointing out the consequences of her decision to marry for love. Victoria Hamilton fared better in her nuanced performance as the spoiled, yet frustrated Maria Bertram. She effectively conveyed how her character was torn between her pragmatic marriage to Mr. Rushworth and her desire for Henry Crawford. Frankly, I believe that Austen gave her an unnecessarily harsh ending. James Purefoy gave an interesting performance as the Bertrams’ elder son and heir, Tom. He expertly walked a fine line in his portrayal of Tom’s disgust toward the family’s involvement in slavery and penchant for a wastrel’s lifestyle. The late actress Sheila Gish gave a slightly humorous, yet sharp performance as Fanny’s other aunt – the tyrannical and venomous Mrs. Norris. I believe that the movie’s best performances came not from the leads, but from three supporting actors – Alessandro Nivola, Embeth Davidtz, and the late playwright-actor Sir Harold Pinter. The literary Henry Crawford had been described as a seductive man that quite enjoyed flirting with or manipulating women. Nivola certainly portrayed that aspect of Henry’s character with great aplomb. But he prevented Henry from becoming a one-note rake by projecting his character’s growing attraction to Fanny and the hurt he felt from her unexpected rejection. Embeth Davidtz gave an equally compelling performance as Henry’s vivacious sister, Mary. She skillfully portrayed Mary’s more endearing traits – humor and sparkling personality – along with her cynical views on authority and talent for cold-blooded practicality. However, not even Davidtz could overcome that ludicrous rip-off from 1988’s "DANGEROUS LIAISONS", in which her Mary briefly stumbled out of the Bertrams’ drawing-room, mimicking Glenn Close, following Edmund’s rejection. It seemed like a flawed ending to a brilliant performance. For me, the film’s best performance came from Sir Harold Pinter. His Sir Thomas Bertram struck me as one of the most complex and multi-layered film portrayals I have ever come across. I find it astounding that this intimidating patriarch, who considered himself to be the family’s bastion of morality, was also responsible for the corruption that reeked at Mansfield Park and within the Bertram family. And Pinter made these conflicting aspects of the character’s personality mesh well together. Rozema added an ironic twist to Sir Thomas’ story. After being shamed by Fanny’s discovery of Tom’s drawings of abused slaves, Sir Thomas sold his Antigua estate and invested his money in tobacco. However, since U.S. states like Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky were the world’s top producers of tobacco at the time, chances are that the Bertrams’ benefit from slavery continued. I suspect that if actress Frances O’Connor had portrayed the Fanny Price character as originally written by Jane Austen, she would have still given a superb performance. O’Connor certainly gave one in this movie. Despite Rozema’s refusal to openly acknowledge Fanny’s flaws in the script (except by Henry Crawford), the actress still managed to expose them through her performance. Not only did O’Connor did a great job in portraying Fanny’s wit and vivacity, she also revealed the social and emotional minefield that Fanny found at Mansfield Park with some really superb acting. I first became aware of Jonny Lee Miller in the 1996 miniseries, "DEAD MAN’S WALK". I found myself so impressed by his performance that I wondered if he would ever become a star. Sadly, Miller never did in the fourteen years that followed the prequel to 1988’s "LONESOME DOVE". But he has become well-known, due to his performances in movies like "MANSFIELD PARK", "TRAINSPOTTING" and the recent miniseries, "EMMA". In "MANSFIELD PARK", Miller portrayed the younger Bertram son, who also happened to be the object of Fanny Price’s desire. And he did a top-notch job in balancing Edmund’s virtues, his romantic sensibility and his personality flaws that include hypocrisy. I realize that Edmund was not an easy character to portray, but Miller made it all seem seamless. Considering that Austen’s "Mansfield Park" is not a real favorite of mine, I am surprised that I managed to enjoy certain aspects of this adaptation. I will be frank. It is far from perfect. Patricia Rozema made some changes to Austen’s tale that failed to serve the story. Worse, she failed to change other aspects of the novel – changes that could have improved her movie. But there were changes to the story that served the movie well in my eyes. And the movie "MANSFIELD PARK" possessed a first-rate production and a superb cast. More importantly, I cannot deny that flawed or not, Rozema wrote and directed a very energetic movie. For me, it made Austen’s 1814 tale a lot more interesting.

#jane austen #mansfield park #mansfield park 1999 #patricia rozema #frances o'connor #jonny lee miller #harold pinter #alessandro nivola #embeth davidtz #victoria hamilton #lindsay duncan #justine waddell #hugh bonneville #sophia myles #anna popplewell #james purefoy #sheila gish #period drama #costume drama

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londontheatre · 7 years ago

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On October 22nd at the Harold Pinter Theatre, a host of stars will gather to perform scenes from Shakespeare’s plays in response to modern-day refugee video stories. The evening will be directed by Jamie Lloyd. All profits go to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR.

A cast including such luminaries as Bertie Carvel, Lee Evans, Martin Freeman, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Wunmi Mosaku, James Norton, Jack Whitehall, Olivia Williams & many more will join together to create a one-night-only, never-to-be-repeated gala event in support of the millions of forcibly displaced people around the world. The evening includes a special guest performance by actor Jay Abdo, himself a refugee of his native Syria.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s ‘refugee’ speech from ‘The Book of Sir Thomas More’, written as a plea for tolerance during the London riots of May 1517 (500 years ago this year), ‘Whither Would You Go?’ pairs scenes from Shakespeare, read by stars of stage and screen with genuine refugee stories from around the world.

Jamie Lloyd says ‘Whither Would You Go? uses the words of William Shakespeare to highlight our shared humanity. When we focus on what we all have in common, we can start a conversation. With more than 65m forcibly displaced people in the world – the highest levels ever recorded – we should be talking and we should be acting.‘

Stephen Fry, who participated in the inaugural event in LA said ‘Shakespeare has always been a friend to the marginalised. Who better to champion the needs of refugees worldwide?’

Olivia Williams, LA event alumni & London cast member said ‘Contributing to Whither Would You Go? is the answer to the question, ‘what can I do to help?’

‘Whither Would You Go’ is the creation of Ella Smith & Emma West, both actors & producers who wanted to harness the power of storytelling to bring tangible help to refugees. Their inaugural production took place in Los Angeles in March and sold out. Further productions are now planned for New York & Sydney.

We are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. An unprecedented 65.6 million people around the world have been forced from home. Among them are nearly 22.5 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.

Cast of WWYG LA Photo by Mark Brown

Often the first on the ground to help those forcibly displaced by conflict or persecution, UNHCR is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions. All profits from ‘Whither Would You Go?’ go directly to UNHCR – the UN Refugee Agency.

Best known for his work with his eponymous theatre company (The Jamie Lloyd Company) for Trafalgar Transformed at the Trafalgar Studios, Jamie Lloyd has been credited with drawing new people to the theatre and introducing plays to a wholly diverse audience. He is a proponent for affordable theatre for young and diverse audiences and has been credited with ‘redefining West End theatre’ (Nick Curtis, Evening Standard – ‘Jamie Lloyd: The Playmaker‘). He has an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for ‘The Pride’ at the Royal Court – and has been nominated a further four times. His production of ‘Passion’ during his associate directorship at the Donmar Warehouse won an Evening Standard award for Best Musical. He has also worked at the National Theatre, the Old Vic and in the West End.

A refugee of his native Syria, actor Jay Abdo’s career was cut short in 2011. During a trip to Beirut where he spoke to a reporter from the Los Angeles Times, Abdo spoke out against the Assad government and how they were “responsible for killings within their borders”. After returning to Syria, Abdo began to receive threats and was intimidated and criticized for his lack of patriotism. As a result, he moved to the United States in October 2011 to escape persecution. He joined his wife in Minnesota, where she was studying as a Humphrey fellow at the Fulbright Program and the couple later moved to Los Angeles so he could start acting again. After working several odd jobs, including delivering pizzas for Domino’s Pizza and driving an Uber, he finally began to land major roles again, including QUEEN OF THE DESERT with Nicole Kidman, A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING with Tom Hanks & most recently 1ST BORN with Val Kilmer & William Baldwin.

Bertie Carvel is currently starring as Rupert Murdoch in INK at the Duke Of York’s Theatre in the West End, and on screen as Simon in the BBC’s hit drama DOCTOR FOSTER. Previously he starred in JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL, COALITION, BABYLON and as Miss Trunchbull in MATILDA, THE MUSICAL in Stratford-Upon-Avon, the West End and on Broadway (Olivier award for Best Actor in a Musical).

Over the past decade Lee Evans has received rave reviews for his West-End theatre roles including; Samuel Beckett’s ENDGAME alongside the legendary Michael Gambon, Mel Brooks’ musical THE PRODUCERS with Nathan Lane plus Harold Pinter’s THE DUMB WAITER, with Jason Isaacs – for which he received the London Theatregoers’ Choice Award – and Clive Exton’s BARKING IN ESSEX. Lee has won many accolades in the comedy world including ‘Special Contribution To Comedy’ Award at The British Comedy Awards 2011, the highly coveted ‘Perrier Award’ and the Time Out Award for Comedy. He has experienced huge success as an international film star with major starring roles in FREEZE FRAME THE MEDALLION, THE MARTINS, THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, MOUSE HUNT, THE FIFTH ELEMENT and FUNNY BONES. He has also starred in several television series and television films; DOCTOR WHO, THE DINNER PARTY and THE HISTORY OF MR. POLLY.

Currently treading the boards of London’s West End in Jeremy Herrin-directed ‘Labour of Love’ for the Michael Grandage Company, Martin Freeman was most recently seen reprising his role of ‘Dr. John Watson’ in the much anticipated fourth series of SHERLOCK on both BBC One in the UK and PBS in the US. Martin is currently filming Ryan Coogler’s sci-fi drama BLACK PANTHER, alongside Danai Gurira, Michael B. Jordan, Andy Serkis, Forest Whitaker and Lupita Nyong’o. Martin takes on the role of ‘Everett K. Ross’ in a story concerning the story of new ruler ‘T’Challa’ defending his land from being torn apart by enemies from outside and inside the kingdom of Wakanda. The film will be released in February 2018.

Prior to this, Martin was seen in Crackle’s new drama STARTUP, alongside Adam Brody and Edi Gathegi. The series TX’d in September 2016 and ran for 10 episodes. Martin will also be seen in the big screen adaptation of Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s GHOST STORIES. The thriller also stars George MacKay and Andy Nyman and is due to be released later this year. 2017 will also see Martin in the feature film adaptation of award nominated short CARGO. The post-apocalyptic thriller also stars Anthony Hayes, Caren Pistorius and Susie Porter.

Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s theatre credits include: DEATH & THE KING’S HORSEMAN, ANTIGONE, EDWARD II & Guildenstern in ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD (NT 50th Anniversary show) for the National Theatre; A RESPECTABLE WEDDING, JOE TURNER’S COME & GONE, THE CHANGELING & FEAST for the Young Vic; THE LOW ROAD for the Royal Court and HAMLET for the Barbican.

His film credits include: THE DOUBLE, DOCTOR STRANGE, JUSTICE LEAGUE, PADDINGTON 2 & MARY POPPINS RETURNS. Kobna’s TV credits include the BBC’s LITTLE BRITAIN, PULLING, SILK, FATHER BROWN, CLASS, WAGSTAFFE & THE SPLIT, as well as PHONE SHOP & MIDSOMER MURDERS.

Wunmi Mosaku’s theatre credits include: Jeremy Herrin’s THE VERTICAL HOUR, Debbie Tucker Green’s TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION & Vicki Featherstone’s CYPRESS AVENUE for The Royal Court; MR. BURNS for The Almeida & TIGER COUNTRY for Hampstead Theatre.

Her film credits include: STOLEN & MY BABY for the BBC, Stephen Frears’s PHILOMENA, PAN, FANTASTIC BEASTS & WHERE TO FIND THEM, BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE & MACBETH. Wunmi’s TV credits include: SILENT WITNESS VIII, MOSES JONES, BLACKOUT & Stephen Poliakoff’s DANCING ON THE EDGE for the BBC; FATHERS & SONS, SCOTT & BAILEY & VERA II for ITV and BLACK MIRROR: PLAYTEST for Netflix.

After graduating from Cambridge University, James Norton immediately went on to study at RADA. He is a bright star in the British acting landscape which was confirmed when he was selected by Screen International to be one of their highly prestigious ‘Stars of Tomorrow’.

James can currently be seen in FLATLINERS, the reboot of the hit 1990 sci-fi horror. He stars alongside Ellen Page, Diego Luna and Nina Dobrev as the character of would-be doctor ‘Jamie’. The story follows a group of medical students who conduct near-death experiments in order to explore the afterlife. James has recently completed work on the AMC/BBC One crime drama MCMAFIA, which is anticipated to release in 2018. Written by Hossein Amini and directed by James Watkins, the story follows Alex Godmanthe, English-raised son of Russian exiles with a mafia history, who has spent his life trying to escape the shadow of that criminal past, building his own legitimate business and forging a life with his girlfriend Rebecca.

James is also set to star alongside Imogen Poots in the Donmar Warehouse’s production of BELLEVILLE, penned by Amy Herzog. Directed by Michael Longhurst, the pair play American expatriates whose marriage violently unravels when they move to Paris. Faith Alabi and Malachi Kirby round out the production, which runs from December 7th to February 3rd.

Jack Whitehall is an award-winning comedian, writer and actor. As a successful and much sought-after stand up, actor, writer and presenter, Jack has firmly established himself as one of the UK’s most exciting and successful comedy talents, a status cemented by his People’s Choice Award for the King of Comedy at the 2012, 2013 & 2014 British Comedy Awards.

2017 saw Jack film a new adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel DECLINE AND FALL for BBC2 alongside David Suchet and Eva Longoria. This autumn sees Jack co-star in a new travel series with his father, Jack Whitehall: TRAVELS WITH MY FATHER which airs on Netflix and his arena tour, JACK WHITEHALL AT LARGE will also air as a Netflix Special later this year. In addition, Jack has co-written a new series for Sky 1 – BOUNTY HUNTERS is a comedy drama and sees Jack co-starring alongside Rosie Perez and Robert Lindsey – which will air this autumn.

Olivia Williams studied English at Cambridge University before training at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Theatre credits include: For the National Theatre; Mosquitoes, Waste, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Richard II. For the RSC; Peer Gynt, The Wives’ Excuse, The Broken Heart, Wallenstein, Misha’s Party. For the West End: In a Forest Dark and Deep. Her TV credits include; Counterpart, The Halcyon, Manhattan, Salting the Battlefield, Playhouse Presents, Case Sensitive, City Hall, Dollhouse, Miss Austen Regrets, Krakatoa, Agatha Christie, Jason and the Argonauts, Friends, Emma, Van Der Valk, Ruth Rendell.

Olivia’s film credits include; Victoria and Abdul, Man Up, Altar, Maps to the Stars, Sabotage, Last Days on Mars, Seventh Son, Hyde Park on Hudson, Anna Karenina, Now is Good, Hanna, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, The Ghost Writer (ALFS award Supporting Actress, NSFC award Supporting Actress), An Education, Flashbacks of a Fool, There for Me, X-Men 3, Tara Road, Valiant, To Kill a King, The Heart of Me (British Independent Film Award, Best Actress), Below, Man from Elysian Fields, Lucky Break, Born Romantic, The Body, Dead Babies, Four Dogs Playing Poker, Sixth Sense, Rushmore, The Postman, Gaston’s War, Wesley, A Brand from the Burning.

Whither Would You Go? Sunday 22 October 7:30pm Harold Pinter Theatre Panton St, London SW1Y 4DN Tickets £50-200 Tickets http://ift.tt/2fPMzon MORE CAST ANNOUNCED SOON…

http://ift.tt/2xXDSOT LondonTheatre1.com

#IFTTT #LondonTheatre1.com

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mariposalass · 6 years ago

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Pokemon Self Ship AU

Cue in the X & Y era Pokemon Anime Theme Song

Thanks to a bunch of Pokemon reblogs, memes and posts flying all over Tumblr (and especially those of my little precious PokeBirds and now Scorbunny & the other Galar starter Pokemon with Sword and Shield announced to be released by the end of the year), I’ve gotten the ‘Make a Pokemon self ship AU’ bug that I decided to make some stuff based around the Pokemon series. I tend to suck in mainline games, haven’t touch Pokemon Go beyond seeing videos and my folks playing it at one point, but I’m well aware of the franchise, know most of the Pokemon, and saw the Anime a couple of times. Note this AU won’t include anything related to Gen. 8 as Sword and Shield won’t be here until the end of this year, so hold your horses and watch out for spoilers, people! Here’s the long as heck of post of Pokemon AU headcanons:

Much of the main story here is in Kalos (the Gen. 6 region) and has both game and anime influences all over, though other regions will be featured in one form or the other, however me and my f/os are isolated from the story of both the X &Y game and anime for the most part. And yes, real life animals exist in here as well!

Mari hails from Cyllage City (the location of the Rock Gym in X and Y) in Kalos, but due to her job as a travel writer, she has been on the digital nomad’s life since finishing college. Her adopted siblings Harry and Kairi, her boyfriend Philip, and best friends Issa & Kirby join her in her journey all over the Pokemon world.

How did she met them: Harry and Kairi were adopted into Mari’s family when they were 11 (Harry), 9 (Mari), and 7 (Kairi) respectively after the social services brought the kids over to her family if they want to take them in: The Dursleys here were killed in a flash flood at Amberette Town (and were not nice people from what she has heard) while Kairi’s grandmother died from natural causes whereas her parents died young from unknown causes. The siblings met Issa (moved in from Hoenn) and Philip (moved in from Unova) through the Pokemon Summer Camp, while Kirby flew into the Tan house by accident. No really, that last one isn’t a joke. Issa and Harry have been dating since college and have yet to get engaged at the moment.

Mari works as a full time travel writer, which means she currently spends most of her time away from Cyllage City and sometimes from Kalos; she does write stories on the side as well. In addition, Harry works as a Pokemon Ranger, Issa is a journalist (she’s also Alexa’s co-worker so she does know Viola to an extant), Kairi is honing in her Pokemon Performer capabilities, Philip is now Professor Sycamore's assistant, and Kirby is, well, Kirby, enough said.

Despite the fact that Fennekin, Chespin, and Froakie are the starter Pokemon of Kalos, Mari, Harry, and Kairi ended up getting a Piplup, a Rowlet, and Torchic who’ve stowed in a cargo ship mischievously during the start of their Pokemon journey at 11, 13, and 9. The bird Pokemon sneaked into the Tan house at night, distracted by the scent of the food her mom was cooking then and she in turn panicked upon seeing the stray Pokemon wanting some of the dinner as well. They have since evolved into Empoleon, Decidueye, and Blaziken after years of training and evolving and act as the main leaders of their teams. Had Empoleon didn’t came into her life early on, she would’ve pick Fennekin as her starter Pokemon.

Many of Mari’s Pokemon are gained throughout her travels as a part of her travel blogger job: she gained a Gardevoir and a Roselia in Sinnoh as a Ralts and a Budew respectively, a Beautifly in Hoenn as a Wurmple, and an Alolan Vulpix in Alola. Only Empoleon and Umbreon (as an Eevee) were caught within Kalos, thought the former came about because of the starter birds sneaking into her childhood home years ago.

Since Mari didn’t plan on being a Pokemon Performer unlike Kairi, she decided to do Gym Battles in Kalos whenever she is at home, though she isn’t going to enter the Kalos Pokemon League any time soon in the near future. So far, she has the Bug, Cliff, Plant, Voltage, and Fairy badges: she hasn’t earned the Rumble, Psychic, and Snowflake badges.

She just so happens to be good friends with Clemont and Bonnie in this AU, although she didn’t knew of their adventures with Ash, Pikachu, and Serena until she was visiting Kanto near the end of the main game/anime storyline wherein Clement sent her an email about what happened during their journey around Kalos.

Almost every other F/O of mine are either in Cyllage City or in Lumiose City in this AU.

Believe it or not, Mari had an encounter with Diancie when she was 6 when her family visited Terminus Cave on a family trip. While she was exploring the cave, she was nearly blinded by the pink aura Diancie gives off and got a good glimpse of the Jewel Pokemon before she (This particular Diancie here is a girl, so…) vanished from her sight. Since then, she vowed to meet her again and hopefully catch her as an integral part of her team. This is what caused her high school blind date to dump her because he literally thought she was this insane to think that she saw Diancie face to face; his FC is this guy from the same group as Mari’s FC.

#self ship #self shipping #self insert #pokemon #pokemon au #aus #my f/os #au #Renewed Potential #Steel Blossoms #One Tuff Puffball #Phoenix Wiz #Princess of Light #familial f/os #platonic f/os #romantic f/o #i wish i can add more known and future f/os here but the space in tags...

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mariposalass · 6 years ago

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Cafe AU Main Post (The Cozy Place Cafe)

Okay, this is probably a big silly long post of nonsense, but I’m really serious about making this Cafe/Coffee Shop AU a thing big time. Having been to my fair share of hanging out in Starbucks, Coffee Bean, and smaller cafes (including my time in college), I can safely say that I would love to imagine an AU where me and many of the fam bunch run a cafe in the awkward love child of FRIENDS, The Office, and Parks and Recreation.

So if you don’t mind the madness that will ensue here, then click and read this thing:

So, Mari’s family runs this cozy cafe for quite a long time in the heart of (insert name of whatever city in the godforsaken world). Harry and Kairi are obviously still adopted into the family, at just ages 9 and 5 respectively here. The cafe’s name is The Cozy Place, lame name based off the Good Place TV show (might change it someday).

The Space Grumps himself, 12th Doc, is the main manager of the joint; sure, he’s a grumpy old Scottish fart who always feels that he’s surrounded by idiots (customers and employees alike whenever they give him a hard time), but he’s quite a lovable goofball once you get to know him more. Loves to listening to rock music (although he wouldn’t let you in on it), wears shades occasionally, awful in being not socially awkward, carries a fob watch at all times, and doesn’t do hugs. He’s basically the kids’ mentor to teach them the ropes and one of the oldest members in the staff.

Kirby is a loyal new employee in charge of cooking food along with Michiru & Ron and taking orders in the afternoon shift, but since he’s new to the job and a little baby, he’s pretty slow on doing his assigned task. And he has a tendency to occasionally eat what food he makes, still, he’ll try to resist the temptation for the most part and is always happy to see customers new and old.

Michiru and Ron handle much of the food preparations like pastries (with the head baker Jacob Kowalski), salads, sandwiches, pastas, soups, and more. Michiru is the Lesbian Team Mom who is kind, friendly, and always there to talk to, though she can be sneaky in speculating the everyday madness within the team, holds shipping guessing games during off hours, and she can handle such madness so much before she could snap back in sharp anger. Her girlfriend Haruka, their friend Setsuna, their foster daughter Hotaru, and the Inner Senshi are regulars to the cafe; sometimes Michiru would give the Outer Senshi something to eat for the day ahead before the next shift starts. Meanwhile, Ron is the witty sarcastic joker who never fails to multitasking the stuff he’s given, although he does have insecurity issues being mostly underappreciated by his own family and he does have concerns over his siblings being more off-kilter than he is (mostly with his older twin brothers Fred and George). It got a little worse when his sister Ginny tried to flirt with Harry and Ron had to reprimand her in front of the public out of concern; since the incident, she has moved from trying to get Harry’s attention to dating an unknown person instead.

Hermione is the dutiful by the books barista who wouldn’t dare to break the rules in everyday life and in work but does do it anyway in mild amounts. One of the well-read of the staff (outside Mari, Philip, the Doctor, and Michiru), has an adorable awkward relationship with Ron, manager of the library in the cafe, and knows nearly all drink recipes by heart and mind.

Harry is the kitchen manager of the cafe: responsible for checking & ordering ingredient supplies and running the kitchen, Team Dad, knows how the business works, normally chill guy to talk to, but man this guy has a temper! He’ll crush you with brutal honesty if you’re being a jerk. Has a crush on Issa (who’s a regular frequenting the place as a journalist working nearby, to which he responds through shy blushing and ducking under the register), best (overprotective) brother to Mari and Kairi, and bad customers & employees’ worst nightmare. Harry never lets them to get away with it and will make bad customers to leave and bad employees to do kitchen chores as a punishment should they get out of line.

Kairi is the resident latte art maker: people never forget the creative doodles she makes on their drinks (thanks to her art degree) & her calligraphy-like way of writing their names in the cups, up and about in fulfilling orders, and always there to give you a smile. Dates Sora the barista, and can be too much of a chatterbox at times.

Sora and Riku also work as baristas: Sora is the adorkable excitable bean and Riku is the calm & collected dude. The kids’ childhood friends, and since Sora & Kairi are dating, Riku will tease the two out of fun and Mari & Harry often join him as well for the same reasons. Sora finds it really awkward to deal with that they’re working altogether under one roof, although Kairi doesn’t seem to mind it in ever.

Marina may only work in the cafe part-time on weekends and holidays and being mute can be an obstacle for her when it comes to getting orders, but she’s a dedicated employee willing to help out, has a patience of a saint, and is quick in taking orders on paper like a soldier at war, although her usual self-sacrificing habit can be taxing on her mental health and it does worry Mari, the cafe staff, and her adopted folks a couple of times. It doesn’t even help that Ventus also works as a part-time employee in the cafe too, which leads to tons of adorable crush moments between the two as they help out the business. Mari’s family wants to make sure that the cafe is safe for everyone to come over and to work in regardless of religion, race, sexuality, disabilities, etc., and especially with Mari being autistic and Harry being a survivor of child abuse. The cafe taking in Marina and a few others further strengthens this belief even more and they are hoping to find and train more employees with disabilities in the near future, as well as treating them right as they do with Marina.

Mari is the assistant manager to the Doctor and the actual heiress to the business, but she’s basically the heart of the group: ensuring that the whole place doesn’t burn and running efficiently as heck. Will mince you with harsh brutally honest words if you dare to cross her, the customers, her family and friends, and everyone else. Quite smart for her age, though her Asperger-induced social awkwardness can be a weak point and it frustrates her a lot.

Philip is another new hire to the cafe and is low key having a noticeable crush on Mari, but he couldn’t spill it out. He and Mari don’t usually see each other often due to him working in a different shift, but there are multiple times when the cafe is understaffed and needs more back up during the more intense rush hours, and he is assigned to the same shift as Mari’s schedule: that’s when sparks do fly between them and it gets adorable and awkward at the same time. Their mutual friend, Theodosia Burr, is a regular taking up Law and she highly suspects that Philip is hiding his feelings towards Mari, hence her constant nagging on him to go on a date with Mari (which is not happening, yet).

Issa, as said above in Harry’s section, is a rising star journalist whose work place is near to the cafe, and that fact is helpful for her whenever she needs to get something to eat or get her coffee fix. Her frequent visits has become more awkward on Harry’s part as he began to develop romantic feelings for her as she does, but he’s such as nervous wreck that he would duck and hide whenever he sees her face to face for longer than he wanted to. Ahk’s her co-worker in the news agency in this AU: not too crazy for coffee but enjoys the ambiance of the place and does like other food & drink offerings as well.

As for everyone else? They’re all cafe regulars, the same applies to nearly all the self shippers and other f/os I know of. Sure, some of them can be rowdy at times, but they’re not that terrible compared to the ruder customers the cafe rarely gets. It’s because the cafe won’t tolerate any crap from the nasty customers and they simply avoided the cafe anyway.

#coffee shop and cafe au #coffee shops and cafes #aus #au #self shipping #self ship #self insert #my f/os #familial f/os #platonic f/os #romantic f/o

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