#but I love how dramatic the french and czech translation is! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fairytaleslive · 4 years ago

Note

Hello! thank you 4 your answer. I recommed to see Bells of Autumn, it's so beautiful. I love too much "How to wake a SleepingBeauty". It's very brilliant! I love also "3 Nuts 4 Cinderella". Old Czech movies are so good. I remember a live action Swan Lake. Do u know it? Has in Czech Republic some adaptation of this beloved tale? and do you know if there's a movie based on old French tale "Histoire de Blondine, Bonne Biche et Beau Minon"? I love too much this tale!

Hi again!

I will answer your second question first: no, there is unfortunately no Czech adaptation of French tale "Histoire de Blondine, Bonne Biche et Beau Minon". I wasn’t familiar with this fairytale myself, but I’ve read it here (with the help of Google translator) and it is a really nice tale, thank you for your recommendation!

Now regarding The Swan Lake, yes, we have a live-action fairytale film based on the Swan Lake. But you should keep in mind that it's a VERY LOOSE adaptation (e.g. the witch never transforms into Odette, the Prince never mistakes the two). There also seems to be some mild influence from Disney's Little Mermaid (Odette cannot speak when she meets the Prince for the first time, he has a dog of a similar breed as Prince Eric's).

The film is called The Queen of the Lake ("Jezerní královna"/"Die Seekönigin"). You can watch it here if you don’t mind the lack of subtitles (fairytale films are usually easy to follow even with no translation).

It was shot in 1998 by Václav Vorlíček (yes, the same director that created Three Wishes for Cinderella and How to Wake a Sleeping Beauty), though honestly, his later movies never reached the high quality of his earlier comedies and fairytales from 60′s and 70′s.

Details: In the 90's, director Václav Vorlíček made a deal with German TV to make 3 co-production fairytale movies with German production team. All three fairytale films star both Czech and German actors.

The result of the cooperation were the following movies: 1) The Magic Pouch ("Kouzelný měšec"/"Das Zauberbuch", 1996) 2) The Firebird ("Pták Ohnivák"/"Der Feuervogel", 1997) 3) The Queen of the Lake ("Jezerní královna"/"Die Seekönigin", 1998)

Possibly to make the films more attractive to German viewers (who are used to more gritty fairytale films), they are more dramatic/dark than the usual Czech fairytales.

I would say that the first one – The Magic Pouch – might be the best among them due to its lighter/more comedic nature in comparison with the later two. Even then, personally, I don't love these three movies, although they do have their good moments.

And I should warn anyone who wants to watch them with kids (SPOILERS AHEAD): - In The Firebird (which is imho one of the worst fairytale films ever created btw), the hero's nice younger brother DIES at the end. - In The Queen of the Lake, the titular Queen kidnaps kids and uses them as child slaves for pearl-picking; the climax is extremely dramatic and the main couple and a random kid are nearly sacrificed to a meat-eating giant fish. I wish I was kidding, but that's literally what happens.

Plot of The Queen of the Lake (so you can see that it really has little in common with The Swan Lake):

Odette is one of the princesses who were kidnapped by the evil Queen of the Lake. The Queen kidnapped the girls, so the eligible Prince Victor wouldn't have any suitable choice from princesses of the neighboring kingdoms and was forced to consider her (the Queen) as a prospective bride. She transforms the girls into swans and sometimes forces them to dance for her in their human shape, but she takes away their voices.

Odette manages to fly away and is shot in the wing by a friend/servant of Prince Victor (the servant is played by the nice prince from How to Wake a Sleeping Beauty film btw, only here he's a comedic relief character).

Wounded Odette changes back into a girl and the two men bring her to the castle to get her help. She and Victor quickly fall in love but she cannot tell him her name or what happened to her. (...this is a giant plothole btw, she could have literally write it down with her healthy hand, she is an educated princess...). Their found happiness is cut short when Odette is found by the Queen’s henchman, brought back into the lake and forced to sort out pearls as a punishment.

Meanwhile, Victor’s parents send him to court the Queen of the Lake. Fortunately, he receives a item that helps him to meet Odette in his dreams and she is able to tell him everything and warn him against the Queen. Victor then resolves to change places with his servant. While the servant spends time with the Queen, Victor learns his way around her underwater castle and finds Odette. After some misadventures and especially dramatic climax, they manage to escape and to save the enslaved children. Taking the magic wand from the Queen, Victor and his friends transform the swans back to princesses and they catch the evil Queen and turn her to stone. Victor, Odette and the rescued princesses are reunited with their families who came to their aid.

My humble opinion: I am not ecstatic about this movie; it lacks heart, it is unnecessarily dramatic, some scenes lack basic logic and the parts that take place underwater suffer from very bad lighting (which the director also later complained about, apparently). But it has quite cool costumes and sets, a beautiful main couple and a decent soundtrack.

(pictured) Max Urlacher as Prince Victor and Jitka Schneiderová as Princess Odette

#Anonymous #asks #Jezerní královna #The Queen of the Lake #Václav Vorlíček #french fairytales #Histoire de Blondine Bonne Biche et Beau Minon

8 notes · View notes

de-boeldieu · 6 years ago

Text

My Aviation Films List

I know some of you might be wondering why I did this to myself, and the answer is simple; I’m bored and I like movies, and I stumbled across so many films that I felt it was my duty to watch some regardless of quality. Oh boy did this prove to be a challenge.

There were a total of 22 movies on the list. Two films I was unable to watch Journey Together ( 1945 ) (anything on the film seemed to be lost, unfortunately), and a 30 minute Hitchcock French propaganda short called Bon Voyage ( 1944 ) (version I watched was slightly screwed up, and some of the English subtitles were translated incorrectly).

However, I was able to watch every other film on the list! Granted, completing this took a LOT longer than I anticipated.

I’m not quite sure how I should go about writing, but I suppose I will rank each film to my own personal opinions of what they were like, with a brief summary, and any small notes I had whilst watching. If you’d like a more in depth summary or any additional details I had while watching the film, ask me, or look the name up if it interests you.

Also I’d just like to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to anyone who takes the time to read some of these. You’re ace.

In order, from my favorite to least favorite:

1. La Grande Illusion ( 1937 )

Oooh my god you guys, this film made me cry so hard. Trust me, the dramatic music on the title card is there for a reason. A French film set in WWI, where French pilots get captured and sent to German POW camps where they make attempts to escape. It also has low key socialist sentiments. Some parts are a little cheesy because it’s a 30s film, but still amazing.

The only thing I was not terribly fond of was the last half hour or so, just really wasn’t my thing. But overall? Absolutely brilliant.

2. Dark Blue World ( 2001 )

A Czech film about two WWII Czech RAF pilots and their friendship, both loving the same woman. This one will also make you cry. Really beautiful film.

I was super worried that the romance in it was just sort of going to be thrust in there, but it certainly was not. Drama was great and all the characters were super memorable and had their own personalities. Highly recommend this one.

3. Riders In The Sky ( 1968 )

Another Czech film about WWII Czech RAF pilots. About the dynamic between a bomber crew and how they cope with the war, and the Battle of Britain. It’s adorable and I highly recommend this one too.

4. Into The White ( 2010 )

A Norwegian movie based on the story of how an RAF bomber crew and a Luftwaffe bomber crew both get shot down in the middle of Norway, and then had to learn to get along and work together to survive. What a wonderful film. Some parts can be predictable, but as a whole good. An interesting character study. Also it gets bonus points from me because it has a ginger, Scottish RAF Air gunner.

5. Wings ( 1927 )

A VERY long silent film. Takes place during WWI, two American fighter pilots, both in love with the same girl, and another girl is in love (requited) with one of them. About their rivalry and friendship, and how they deal with training and the war. The training scenes were delightful. I was worried I was going to get bored, but it was actually super excellent (and sad too). The camera work was brilliant and the musical score was amazing. It also has the first ever on-screen same-sex kiss. A really great film, even if silent films aren’t your thing, there’s SO much drama in this one. If you already love silent films, you will adore this movie, but I’d recommend it to most anyone.

6. The Dawn Patrol ( 1930 ) & ( 1938 )

About an RFC commander during WWI, who is distraught over casualties, an RFC captain, and his friend. The captain lashes out at the commander over the casualties as well after the death of a friend. Eventually the captain replaces the commander and starts to understand the stress of the job the previous major had, as his friend begins to lash out at him.

I thought it was an interesting take on both the pilots and the authorities in the RFC during the war. Both provided interesting perspectives.

I can tell you right now, unless you’re dedicated like I am, the 1938 version of The Dawn Patrol is MUCH better than the 1930 one. I’d recommend watching that version, if this movie interests you.

7. The One That Got Away ( 1957 )

About the only Luftwaffe pilot to ever escape from British POW camps. Usually I’m very wary of films that have WWII German characters, but this was very well written and remained predominantly neutral through the whole thing. Lots of clever escapes. If you like Luftwaffe pilots, escape films, and / or old movies, you will adore this film.

8. The Dam Busters ( 1955 )

A damn fine film. About the invention of the RAF “bouncing bomb” used to destroy German dams in WWII, and the RAF Squadron that flew the Lancasters to drop them. The writer of the movie was R.C. Sheriff, the original author of the play Journey’s End. Really enjoyed every aspect of the movie, my only complaint is that it was dreadfully long. Overall, a good movie, if this sort of thing interests you.

9. One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing ( 1942 )

Hands down the most intense opening scenes I had watched in any of these movies. About an RAF bomber getting shot down over Nazi occupied Holland, and they have to escape to England without being caught.

I remember being really engaged in this movie and I quite enjoyed the witty British banter. A good movie, if you like old ones.

10. La Grande Vadrouille ( 1966 )

A French WWII war comedy film about two Frenchmen who help a British bomber crew who crashed in France escape to Britain. Very strange? But also funny? But also a little dated but also incredibly hilarious? I was just really intrigued by it honestly. Reminded me of a few Monty Python sketches, despite this film being made years prior. You will either really enjoy it or not at all, but if it interests you, I’d recommend giving it a watch.

11. The Eagle And The Hawk ( 1933 )

Takes place in WWI and is about two American pilots, and various other ones, and how the war affects them, some more than others. I remember this movie surprising me quite a lot, which I think is good for a war film dealing with the sudden deaths of your comrades. Good movie, although not as well executed as The Dawn Patrol.

12. Reach For The Sky ( 1956 )

This one is LONG. About Douglas Bader, pretty much. A cute film though. You will like it if Bader or famous World War aces are your cup of tea.

13. Aces High ( 1976 )

So this movie was based off Journey’s End, except with aeroplanes. It also draws from Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis (a book I’ve been meaning to find and read). If you know the plot of that play (and now more recently a movie), you will know the plot of this movie, except the names are changed. It’s a character study of three RFC pilots during WWI and the life expectancy of “Green pilots” AKA newly trained pilots.

Was a cute movie, not as good as the Journey’s End film from this year however. A lot of awkward silences and I really didn’t understand why? There was also a L’Armée de L’Air Officer who was having NONE of the British banter.

But if you liked Journey’s End and wished there were more pilots then you will enjoy it. The movie might be an interesting watch for those of you who are fans of the original play and / or movie as well.

14. The First Of The Few ( 1942 ), also titled The Spitfire

About the invention of the Spitfire fighter plane. Good if you’re really into aviation. Really liked the witty banter, however.

15. Johnny In The Clouds ( 1945 ), also titled The Way To The Stars

A romance drama. Takes place during WWII in Britain. Initially about two RAF pilots, one married and the other one with a girlfriend that he goes through a serious of hardships with. Then the 8th USAAF come, then it’s about two USAAF pilots and one RAF one, and the widowed wife. One of the USAAF pilots looks and acts like a Tarantino character. Really boring until the Americans come. I’d recommend this to people who like period romances and dramas, but the cultural stuff between the Brits and Americans was pretty good. An alright movie that takes a little bit to get into.

16. Memphis Belle ( 1990 )

REALLY CHEESY. About 8th USAAF in Britain, the bomber crew of the B-17, Memphis Belle. Except it’s not actually the crew, it’s just characters based on them. I remember the dialogue being cheesy, but still somehow better than Flyboys. Also felt pretty entertained the entire thing. A nice detail I liked was that all the bomber crew had their own individually painted A-2 jackets. Characteristic of mostly American bomber crews, and I thought that was a unique touch.

If you like cheesy, feel-good, American WWII movies, you will really like this film.

17. The Red Baron ( 2008 )

About Manfred von Richthofen. Not super accurate, but a decent amount of research done. I remember it being boring, but some of the camera shots were beautiful, looked like paintings. Boring though.

18. Angels One Five ( 1952 )

About an RAF Squadron during the Battle of Britain, except it’s more about the superior officers in that Squadron rather than the pilots. Boring, but the camera work was super high quality for a 50s film? There’s a scene where a Hurricane crashes into a base home. But mostly just officers talking and ordering folks around.

19. Twelve O’Clock High ( 1949 )

Incredibly dull and boring. Nothing but USAAF generals talking, then a bomber scene that was also boring. Flat, bland, and uninspired camerawork. Would not recommend.

20. Flyboys ( 2005 )

I’m sure many of you lads have seen my rant on this film. It’s an ugly, awful, waste of film. I can’t describe the plot of the movie, because there really isn’t one, except that a group of American volunteer pilots, called the Lafayette Escadrille, go to war. That’s it.

I found myself either laughing or yelling at the absolute ridiculousness of this film. It’s dreadful, but depending on your sense of humor, it’s VERY entertaining.

Would recommend watching it drunk, for an even more enhanced experience. I’d also suggest it if bad, horribly inaccurate, and ridiculously American action movies are your thing, you’ll have an absolute blast.

Thank you so much if you took any time to read even just one of these. I super appreciate it, this list was loads of fun and a rollercoaster of emotions. Thank you to those of you who enjoyed hearing my ranting about these bloody things.

#AHHHHH ITS DONE LADS #FINALLY #its been MONTHS im so sorry #what a fantastic journey this has been #i am not a critic these are just my opinions!#anyways i hope this was at least a very interesting read #c’est moi

13 notes · View notes

caveartfair · 7 years ago

Text

The Short, Scandalous Life of Austria’s Most Tortured Artist

It’s seldom that an artist receives a first solo museum show decades after death. But then again, few artists have the haunting magnetism and drama of Richard Gerstl, whose rarely exhibited work is currently on view at Neue Galerie in New York City.

A lesser-known contemporary of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Gerstl was a bona fide rebel whose short life ended tragically in suicide. He was a man at odds with Austria’s fin-de-siècle society, rejecting anything that smacked of tradition or discipline. For Gerstl, even Klimt’s controversial Vienna Secession movement—which sought to break the mould and move away from Austrian conservatism in the arts—was too haughty and bourgeois. (He refused any association with the group, and once declined participating in a show alongside Klimt.)

Some might argue that Gerstl’s proto-Expressionist style evolved in diametric opposition to his peers, but it’s not quite that simple. His amalgamated aesthetic was born out of a commitment to experimentation and irresolution.

The artist’s earliest self-portrait, Semi-Nude Self-Portrait (1902-1904), suggests the divergent influences that surfaced in his work. He indexes the diamond torsos of Greek Archaic and Egyptian sculpture, ordering his painting with rational proportions and anatomical perfection, but renders himself androgynous and flat. The young Gerstl is portrayed against an aquamarine background, with a bright halo around his head.

Is it a nod to Byzantine mosaics depicting Christ and Lazarus? And does this imply that Gerstl sees himself as a savior? Not necessarily. The halo also highlights Gerstl’s buzz cut—a conspicuously anachronistic hairstyle that was associated in his time with psychiatric patients. Mad or divine? Gerstl’s painting evokes the tortured genius trope of our greatest artistic masters.

And like so many great masters, Gerstl has a traumatic life story, one that culminated in a torrid love affair with Mathilde, the wife of his close friend and famous composer Arnold Schönberg, in 1908, and the artist ultimately taking his own life. After being caught in flagrante, the young painter slumped back home, destroyed his papers, tied a rope around his neck, and plunged a knife into his heart.

It’s not like unstable men were a rare find in Vienna, however. After all, this era contained a number of tortured eccentrics who were well-versed in Sigmund Freud’s seminal psychological tomes. Schiele comes to mind: a man so driven by his erotic inclinations that the small Austro-Hungarian village of Krumau (now part of the Czech Republic) literally ran him out of town for painting undressed, nubile teens. Yet Schiele’s scandals are mere postscript compared to Gerstl’s provocations.

A young virtuoso, Gerstl chafed under the strict conservative tutelage of Christian Griepenkerl at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. When Gerstl left the academy in 1901, he went without formal instruction for three years. That isolation magnified his dueling traits of narcissistic self-assuredness and shy insecurity. Years later, he would completely alienate himself from Viennese society by refusing to participate in the honorary procession of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.

Unsurprisingly, Gerstl was intensely lonely, and his solitude took a toll on the artist’s work. The most unsettling example is Gerstl’s Full-Length Self-Portrait, Laughing (1904). Undone by negative comments from a viewer who visited his studio, the artist tore into his self-portrait, defacing it with blue paint and cutting the canvas into two unequal halves.

What remains is an awkward, tragically duplicitous image of the artist. Gerstl looks handsome in his three-piece suit and nonchalant pose, but his face betrays him. There is something forced about his smile and an uneasy quality in his eyes. The dark void behind Gerstl reverberates with this looming sense of dread; a depressive cloud preparing to swallow him whole.

Gerstl’s destructive tendencies became a hallmark of his expressive style. The ripping of paintings would later evolve into the scarring of the canvases’ surfaces, the faint trace of a brush stem interrupting his impasto layering of pigments. He was known as a full-blooded painter, often foregoing any sketches or planning. And without much official instruction, he looked to the work of painters outside of Vienna.

He became enamored with a more international style of painting, including the French Pointillism of Georges Seurat and the often gloomy compositions of artists like Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh.

The influence of Seurat is palpable in Gerstl’s various portraits from 1906. Portrait of the Artist’s Father, Emil (1906) is unabashedly French-inspired. The artist positions his father directly in the sun, creating a makeshift spotlight. The extreme contrast between light and shadow frees Gerstl to experiment with his pigments. Here, his eye for color truly shines, as he mixes deep yellows, reds, and blues to create a strikingly sullen image of his elderly father.

Mathilde Schönberg, however, was Gerstl’s most infamous muse. After Gerstl’s alienation from Vienna’s artistic community, he found a quick friend in Arnold Schönberg, whose experimentations in atonal music equally made him an avant-garde outcast. Schönberg hired Gerstl to teach Mathilde how to paint, hoping she could earn the couple some extra money through commissions. Despite Gerstl’s infatuation with Mathilde, he and Arnold maintained a healthy and productive friendship—each inspired the other’s art form.

With the Schönbergs, Gerstl explored the rougher effects of his paintbrush. Mathilde Schönberg (1907) is one of the artist’s best-known works. The composition is hastily painted, eschewing any sense of depth or proportion. Mathilde vibrates off the picture-plane, her solemn face and crossed hands dramatizing the withdrawn impression she apparently made on men.

Naturally, Gerstl saved his most terrifying, daring experiments for himself. He translated the freehand method of Pointillism into daunting acts of auto-aggression, contorting his face into rabid caricature. Self-Portrait, Laughing (1907) unmasks the artist’s mercurial nature that he concealed in earlier work. Here, too, laughter signifies annihilation. The artist fades into smudges, with his shoulders barely receiving any definition.

Oddly enough, the artist’s final self-portrait retreats from this abstract style. Nude Self-Portrait with Palette (1908) looks like Vienna’s reaction to Pablo Picasso’s “Blue Period.” Gerstl’s figure is sharp, defined, and geometric. The painting is washed in blue hues—possibly a reference to his earliest self-portrait. Here, however, he is nude, suggesting his transition from boy to man. Gerstl has cropped the painting at the calf to emphasize and center his sex. Yet the artist looks pale, emaciated, and distant.

The artist’s final painting was a nude portrait, not of himself but of his forbidden lover, Mathilde. More so than his first portrait of her, Seated Female Nude (1908) suggests a hurried rendering of Mathilde’s likeness. Gerstl has intentionally obscured his subject’s face, leaving her purposefully unfinished or willfully destroyed. What remains is a hazy outline of her body, drawn with a puerile emphasis on her breasts and sex.

The result is a seemingly post-coital image with a nefarious quality. The mirror behind Mathilde indicates that this dalliance took place in the artist’s studio. It was the same mirror that Gerstl would later hang himself in front of.

Dead at the age of 25, Gerstl is outlived by only 60 of his paintings. Most of these are currently on view at Neue Galerie, providing a glimpse into Gerstl’s sprint toward destruction. But while he lived, Gerstl found more in painting than many of his contemporaries could imagine, transfusing emotion into pigment.

Whereas Klimt and Schiele cage their subjects in gilded patterns and disfiguring perspectives, Gerstl is interested in freedom. He pries emotional reality from the canvas above all else, allowing intimate portraits to vibrate with instability, conflict, and self-loathing.

—Zachary Small

Gerstl, Semi-Nude Self-Portrait, 1902-04. Courtesy of the Leopold Museum, Vienna.

Gerstl, Self-Portrait, Laughing.

Gerstl, Grinzing, 1906. Courtesy of Galerie St. Etienne, New York.

He became enamored with a more international style of painting, including the French Pointillism of Georges Seurat and the often gloomy compositions of artists like Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh.

Gerstl, Portrait of a Man (Green background), 1908.

Gerstl, Mathilde Schönberg. Courtesy of Belvedere, Vienna.

Gerstl, The Schönberg Family, 1908. Courtesy of MoMOK, Vienna.

—Zachary Small

from Artsy News

#Artsy News

0 notes