#nicholas cloister

[full-of-mercy]

Would he want to stay?

"...Hadn't given it thought."

But now he can't help it. The question is distracting, and maybe Nicholas looks a little irate at it with the way it furrows his brows and clenches his jaw, the way it makes his hands itch and tense-tighten in their grip on chain and frayed rope. Maybe he does look irritated, but the resonance that has become inescapable with touch and proximity speaks of something else entirely.

An ache. A pang of longing. It drives him into silence, into a hum that betrays his thoughts.

Hope.

Like this place, in this light, with this company, is true to its name. Hope. Alien and wondrous and so, so new, like so much in these past couple of days.

He never anticipated returning again, until it became inevitable, until it became the only logical place for all the strife and horror to come to an end. Never expected to find a home in another person, either, where things felt right, where they felt like they fit, even as the world burned and churned around them.

Home. Welcomed. Welcomed twice, thrice over. Not with fear but with open arms. Even if they saw him for what he is, something profoundly unworthy, and yet...

And yet.

The bell lands, and then they land, arms slung about one another's waists. Sweat-limned and dusty, they are a sight no-one sees, because for all the clamor they have the shell of the chapel to themselves. In the long shadows of waning day, Nicholas meets Vash's lips with a fervor bordering on desperate at first, a palm lifted to cup his cheek and caress and hold and keep.

Maybe for a moment or two longer than is strictly polite, than is precisely sane given there is no lock on the doors, he tastes. Tastes the salt of perspiration, the lingering sweetness of breakfast of hours past, the touch of canteen water, all the volatiles that make Vash smell like he does, distinctly and quintessentially him. He gentles his starved, parched affections, nuzzling in with a huffed chuckle, a hum, dizzy with it. Light-headed.

Euphoric.

It does not take long to gouge and scour the Eye from the bell's body. A good knife, some coarse sand. All that remains is a burnished patch of brass on the broader corroded piece.

Hopeland can melt it down. Make use of it. Or the two of them can return it to its spot later, because there is a later. There is today, and there is Tomorrow.

"Mm, would you want to stay?" When they are done. When the Terran forces are satisfied. It is a pipe dream. Something that Wolfwood does not see is plausible, but there is room to think about it. Some crowning unlikelihoods have already happened, after all.

Before long, it is time to leave the chapel. Perhaps it is time to leave the orphanage grounds entirely. When they make their way around back to the cloister building, they happen upon a racket, Livio roar-laughing as a pack of children hang from his arms and his neck, step-stomp-lumbering around in the shadow of shade-sails and the arches of walls. Miss Melanie lingers in the doorway, looking on with fond amusement. She waves to Vash and Wolfwood, ushering them back inside to insist that they clean themselves up, all with chiding tuts to hydrate, they look parched. 

“Dinner’s after sundown,” she calls after them.

There is a place for you. Our doors are open. 

Even as he attempts to keep his cool, gesture with casual acceptance, Nicholas wonders if he’ll ever become accustomed to it. 

“Rude,” Vash counters without animosity, He takes his time to trace the orphanage’s repurposed architecture from their vantage point. Feathers, wings, both lift and quiver in time to several breaths drawn and held as the not so distant past tugs at his heart. 

At the risk of stoking Nicholas’s ire, he idly watches over his shoulder as Wolfwood approaches the bell.

“Hey…would you ever want to stay? Here, I mean. At the orphanage.” Melanie would no doubt appreciate an extra pair of hands on the grounds and they would have little to worry about save the occasional bandits foolish enough to try their luck. Assuming they ever got close enough to set eyes on the main entrance to begin with. 

Somewhere safer, he doesn’t say. As if he should be the one to even ask. 

There are some downsides to thinking out loud, if not for the fact that saying nothing cost them so much more. They are only so many days in, navigating this and that and them and he has tomorrow if not today; a work in progress they’ll never finish. 

Taking up position nearby, Vash sets his jaw as they both leverage against the chains. Metal groans and a fresh layer of sun-glimmering dust coats them and the brittle bearings give way. The bell tolls one last time, resonating down his arms, his hands, through to his bones as the headstock tears from the inner walls of the tower. 

Vash thrusts out his wings. Broken stone and crumbling mortar rain down on the flared feathers and pinions that shield them as the bell comes down. 

Slowly, through their combined and maybe a sprinkling of luck, the brass relic is safely lowered and the scaffolding holds through the ordeal. The creaking underfoot as Vash toes the edge of the scaffold to peer down at their handiwork is only a little ominous. 

Swiping his palms together to clean them off, Vash shakes out like a dog with no remorse for where the coating of dust on feathers and wings might go. Where, in the grand scheme of things, does not matter much considering Vash catches Nicholas about the waist with his right arm and pulls them together shortly after. 

Nuzzle-kiss to dark, prickling feathers and this time Vash does not need the aid of his wings to grip the hanging chains with his prosthetic and ride them all the way down to the ground floor by stepping off the ledge and taking Wolfwood with him. When they finally reach the bottom, Vash indulges in catching Nicholas’s earlobe between his teeth. He grazes lightly across, after which he trades nibbles for kisses from cheek to nose to mouth.

“Alright, let’s get it done.”

One final scrubbing and the Eye will close upon Hopeland’s grounds for good. 

[newstodayjournal]

‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ Review: Keep Calm and Pine On

Like a corgi back-flipping over a bathtub of champagne, “Red, White & Royal Blue” starts with a giddy premise and has the derring-do to succeed. The setup is thus: Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the wild child of the White House, is commanded to clean up an international PR disaster by befriending Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), the cloistered British spare. In the film’s first half, the scions…

[scienceambersandfantasy]

Wandering Trolls by Charlie Scott

Sand Tribe by Biagio D'Alessandro

Orcs and Giant - The Gate of Tha 'Norrach. by Nicholas Cloister

Ara Versus The Broken, by Tim McBurnie

[weirdletter]

Red Mist, by Nicholas Cloister, via DeviantArt.

[siryl]

“Panphao” by Nicholas Cloister.

[alienseverywhere]

monster by Nicholas Cloister

[russianicons]

Mstislav I Vladimirovich Monomakh, also called Mstislav the Great, was the first son of Gytha of Wessex and Vladimir II Monomakh. Due to his mother’s line, he is often mentioned as Harald. His historical role was quite significant, as he built multiple churches, including St. Nicholas Cathedral and the St. Anthony Cloister, in Novgorod and Kyiv during his reign as the Grand Prince of Kyiv (1125-1132). The featured icon dates back to 1892 and depicts Mstislav I standing against the backdrop of Kyiv.

[drosera-nepenthes]

The birth of an heir to the Russian throne is attributed to the special intervention of the saints of the National Church. It is a matter of common knowledge that, three years ago, immediately after the youngest daughter of the Imperial pair had been born, orders were issued for holding of prayers of intercession on Sundays and holidays at the graves of various saints in the Russian Calendar. These orders were rigorously fulfilled by the pious Russian people. Frequently poor peasant-women were observed to sacrifice their last kopeck in the purchase of altar-candles and to kneel bearheaded before the shrines in which the bones of saints, entreating them to bless “Matuschka” (Little Mother) the Czarina with a son and heir.

The Imperial pair, too, made many pilgrimages to sacred spots, and especially at Moscow displayed the greatest fervour in prayer for a male issue. They visited the most celebrated cloisters of the ancient capital, attended the ritual of the Church at night-time, and descended into the subterranean passages of the churches, where beside the coffins of the miracle-works they implored the fulfillment of their devout wish. Father John of Croustadt also gather around him thousands of believers in united supplication. But it was not until August last, when the Imperial pair journeyed to Sarow to attend the glorification of the Holy Seraphim, that the people began to gain confidence in the consummation of their patriotic desire. There, at Sarow, the Czar and Czarina accomplished more than a thousand prayers, besides bathing in the holy well of the patron saint of infant children; and within a year of these pious exercises, as the Russian nation is observing to-day, not without a shudder of religious awe, a son and heir has actually been born to the Russian throne.

It is believed by those who are best acquainted with the Muscovite soul that the mere presence of the infant Alexis in the Imperial cradle will effect a wonderful improvement in the internal condition of the of the Russian Empire. Just prior to his birth, rumours of the ugliest description were circulating in more than one Continental capital attributing some highly placed personages the design of effecting a “palace revolution” in the interests of the autocracy. It is unnecessary to particularise those rumours. Their nature is sufficiently indicated by the observation of a German statesman, when he heard of the arrival of an heir at Peterhof, that is was the best life-insurance conceivable for the present Czar. Here in Germany the event has been hailed with especial satisfaction, in the belief that it will give the Czarina an augmented influence. Hitherto the Czarina has been unable to bring her power to bear on the policy of the Empire; but in Germany it is believe that this has been due to her misfortune and not to any lack of personality. Consequently her characteristics are being discussed with more than common interest. Among other things related of her is that she has found much pleasure in recent years in indulging in her undoubted talents of caricature. One person only did she refrain from depicting with her pencil – her husband. But a few months ago, at the special request of the Emperor Nicholas himself, she consented to caricature him. She rendered him sitting with a golden crown upon his head, in a cradle drawn by his mother!

That the head of one of the most superstitious nations of the world should name his son and heir after a Prince who was tortured and done to death by order of his father cannot fail to cause comment and surprise. And that is precisely what the Czar, of all people has done. True, he has reasons: the Alexis whose name the infant heir to the throne of All Russias is to bear was the only previous Czarevitch born to a reigning Czar, Peter the Great; and Nicholas II has moreover always evinced great interest in the miserable career of the murdered Prince, even impersonating him at a fancy-dress ball at the Winter Palace last year. Yet it is a strange choice.

The Sketch - Aug 1904

[malanddisexcellentadventure]

Giraffe Path

We’ve been in this city for over 7 years now and we feel like entrenched New Yorkers.  The good thing is we know some neighborhoods very well. We can tell you where to get the best bagels, pizzas, momos or xiao long bao. We know where the best cheap and free things are. We can negotiate the subway system even on the weekend when everything goes to hell. Unfortunately the bad thing is that we may gotten a bit jaded about living here, a little complacent about being in this place. When I came across this gem in the New York Times, (About 5 hikes you could do in New York City) it inspired me to put on my explorers boots again and to venture into places I knew existed, but not had the time or inclination to look into.

The Giraffe path, so named for its shape, especially the elongated neck, meanders from the northern end of Central park and stretches 6 miles all the way to The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park just below Inwood. The path covers various terrains, from flat to hilly, stairs, sidewalks and gravel. The path links 7 northern Manhattan parks and requires walking between 1 and 5 city blocks between the parks.

The parks you will encounter after leaving Central park are 

Morningside Park

St.Nicholas Park

A lunch stop at Famous Fish market 

Jackie Robinson Park

Highbridge Park (with the walkway into the Bronx)

and Fort Tryon park

Which leads to 

The Cloisters

Heres a link to the hike

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxoaWtldGhlaGVpZ2h0c3xneDo1YmQzNDQzNmYzN2ViNTUy

[writemarcus]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces the New MetLiveArts Season of Performances

Live performance returns to The Met's galleries and theater with a fall 2021 lineup that features an evening of music by Gavin Creel and more.

by Alexa Criscitiello Aug. 27, 2021  

The Met today announced a new season of live performances with in-person audiences beginning fall 2021 and a new Artist in Residence, the acclaimed dancer and choreographer Bijayini Satpathy. Beginning in October, performances will once again take place in galleries throughout the Museum, as well as in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, and will feature MetLiveArts commissions and leading international musicians and composers.

"MetLiveArts has always been an innovator in the field, producing compelling works that illuminate The Met's collection and galleries in new and often surprising ways," said Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director of The Met. "This season brings a range of powerful programs, and we are thrilled to again invite audiences back to the Museum to engage with the exhilarating performances we have ahead."

Limor Tomer, Lulu C. and Anthony W. Wang General Manager of Live Arts, commented: "After nearly a year and a half, we are so excited to welcome back our audiences to experience the visceral force and power of live performance and what it means to once again share energy and space with dynamic artists and fellow enthusiasts. We have always asked our performers to create works that challenge them, and this past year has put that invitation to the test for so many. This new season will include some of the most personal, unexpected, and inventive works of any MetLiveArts season."

Artists this season include Tony and Olivier Award-winner Gavin Creel (Hello, Dolly!; West End production of The Book of Mormon); a world-premiere work by Arvo Pärt at the Temple of Dendur; four-time Grammy Award-winner Angélique Kidjo in an intimate performance; the Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra with soprano Laquita Mitchell; and Heartbeat Opera's acclaimed original production of Beethoven's Fidelio.

During the past 17 months, MetLiveArts has presented virtual performances, including Sonic Cloisters, the popular ongoing series of electronic music concerts filmed in the galleries and courtyards of The Met Cloisters. While the Museum was closed to the public, there were new concerts filmed in the galleries amid the iconic art, as well as digital premieres of past performances-both of which have encouraged audiences from around the world to engage with brilliant musicians and The Met collection and spaces. The Museum's resident quartet, ETHEL & Friends, will continue their weekly virtual series, Balcony Bar from Home.

Performances will be ticketed and open rehearsals will be free with Museum admission.

Artist in Residence: Bijayini Satpathy

Hailed by The New Yorker as "a performer of exquisite grace and technique," the revered Odissi dancer Bijayini Satpathy will be the 2021-22 MetLiveArts Artist in Residence. She will premiere new site-specific works and collaborate with musicians, visual artists, and dancers. Satpathy launched her solo career in 2019, after 25 years as a principal dancer with the lionized Nrityagram Dance Ensemble based in Bangalore, India. As a soloist, Satpathy creates new works that reflect her interest in challenging the tradition and vision of Odissi, and for The Met she will explore that interest through performances in unexpected areas of the Museum's collection, with a special focus on works in modern and contemporary art. During her Museum residency, she will further expand her choreographic language beyond the Indian dance form and collaborate with a range of artists and Met curators.

Satpathy's residency will include in-gallery performances, extensive workshops with New York City-based students and professional dancers, and auditorium performances.

Open rehearsals will begin in January 2022 and take place in five gallery spaces throughout The Met, including the Astor Court; Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia; and the Fuentidueña Chapel at The Met Cloisters. All open rehearsals will take place during Museum hours and will be open to the public. Details about performances in spring and fall 2022 will be announced.

Fall 2021 and Early Winter 2022 Performances:

Gavin Creel: Walk on Through

Monday, October 25, 2021, at 6 and 8:30 p.m.

The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Tony and Olivier Award-winner Gavin Creel was a museum novice for most of his 20 years living in New York City. Invited to create a program for MetLiveArts, he spent countless hours over the past year exploring the Museum's galleries, finding inspiration, and falling in love with The Met. Experience Creel's newfound passion and sense of wonder for The Met in his newly composed songs that make the art sing.

Tickets start at $25.

Celebrating Arvo Pärt at The Met

Sunday, October 31, 2021, at 3 p.m., and Monday, November 1, 2021, at 7 p.m.

The Temple of Dendur

The Temple of Dendur is the setting for a world-premiere a cappella choral work from the beloved Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, composed to celebrate the reopening of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was destroyed on September 11, 2001. The Schola Cantorum choir are joined by Grammy Award-winning Experiential Orchestra in an evening of masterpieces composed over Pärt's career, which has spanned seven decades.

Tickets start at $65.

The Orchestra Now, Conducted by Leon Botstein:

Beethoven and Cristofori, The Piano's First Century

Sunday, December 5, 2021, at 2 p.m.

Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 illuminates the transformation of piano music, which began with Bartolomeo Cristofori's breakthrough invention of the fortepiano. The Grand Piano (1720) by Bartolomeo Cristofori (Italian) is on view in Gallery 684 at The Met Fifth Avenue and is part of the Museum's Musical Instruments collection.

Stravinsky, Picasso, and Cubism

Sunday, February 20, 2022, at 2 p.m.

Featuring Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments and Pablo Picasso's Man with a Guitar.

Igor Stravinsky's deconstructed and reassembled music from the 1920s was heavily influenced by the work of his friend Pablo Picasso. One of his masterpieces from this period is this concerto, which Stravinsky loved to perform himself.

Dvořák, Macdowell, and Delacroix: The New World

Sunday, April 10, 2022, at 2 p.m.

Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, From the New World (Mvt. 2); Edward MacDowell's Suite No. 2, Indian; and Eugène Delacroix's The Natchez

From their earliest encounters in the New World, Europeans were mesmerized by the Indigenous peoples of North America. French artist Eugène Delacroix painted a Natchez family as they fled the massacre of their tribe up the Mississippi River. Edward MacDowell's Indian Suite incorporated Indigenous melodies and rhythms, and the second movement of Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony was inspired by Longfellow's poem on Hiawatha.

All performances take place in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.

Tickets start at $30; $75 for the series.

Christmas with the Dessoff Choirs

Sunday, December 19, 2021, at 3 p.m.

The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Led by director Malcolm J. Merriweather, the Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra welcome the holiday season with two works by highly influential yet underrepresented composers: Margaret Bonds and Mary Lou Williams. The concert features The Ballad of the Brown King, a Christmas cantata by Margaret Bonds, and the great Jazz composer Mary Lou Williams's Black Christ of the Andes, along with some of Williams's other rarely heard choral works. The performance features internationally recognized soloists, soprano Laquita Mitchell, mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford, and tenor Noah Stewart.

Tickets start at $25.

Angélique Kidjo at The Met

Monday, December 27, and Tuesday, December 28, 2021, at 6 and 8:30 p.m.

The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing

Four-time Grammy Award-winner and "Africa's premier diva" (Time) Angélique Kidjo performs an intimate site-specific program devoted to the Museum's collection of African art. Set in the galleries of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, which are currently closed in preparation for renovation and reenvisioning, Kidjo's performance anticipates the vision and reinstallation of the galleries, underscoring the aesthetic qualities, authorship, provenance, and cultural context of the art to be displayed.

Tickets start at $65.

Beethoven's Fidelio

Heartbeat Opera

Thursday, February 10; Saturday, February 12; and Monday, February 14, 2022, at 7 p.m.

The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Adapted and directed by Ethan Heard

Music arranged and directed by Daniel Schlosberg

New English dialogue by Marcus Scott and Ethan Heard

When a Black activist is wrongfully incarcerated, his wife disguises herself to infiltrate the system and free him, but injustice reigns. In this daring adaptation created by Heartbeat Opera, Beethoven's classic is reimagined in the time and context of the Black Lives Matter movement. The opera will feature the voices of more than 100 incarcerated singers and volunteers from prison choirs.

Tickets start at $25.

For tickets, visit metmuseum.org/performances, call 212-570-3949, or stop by any desk in the Great Hall at The Met Fifth Avenue.

Your ticket includes Museum admission on the day of the event.

MetLiveArts performances require all guests age 12 and older to show proof of full vaccination (at least 14 days after the second dose of a two-dose series vaccine, or at least 14 days after a single-dose vaccine). Children under 12 must be accompanied by a fully vaccinated adult. The Met may require additional safety measures for these performances and will communicate such measures to confirmed guests in advance. More information on The Met's comprehensive safety procedures can be found on metmuseum.org.

[weirdletter]

The Demon II, by Nicholas Cloister, via DeviantArt.

[siryl]

“Alien Bipedal Insectoid” by Nicholas Cloister.

[danbenzvi]

Just listened to: “Doctor Who: The Legacy Of Time”

Time is collapsing. Incidents of chaos and devastation are appearing throughout the lives of one Time Lord and his many friends – all fallout from one terrible disaster. From Earth’s past and present to timeless alien worlds, from the cloisters of Gallifrey into the Vortex itself... The Doctor must save universal history – and he needs all the help he can get.

 1. Lies in Ruins by James Goss

On a strange ruined world, a renowned archaeologist opens an ancient tomb. Only to find another archaeologist got there first. Professors Summerfield and Song unite to solve a mystery. Then the Eighth Doctor arrives, and things really become dangerous. Because their best friend isn’t quite the man River and Benny remember…

Starring Paul McGann as The Doctor, Alex Kingston as Professor River Song and Lisa Bowerman as Professor Bernice “Benny” Summerfield.

Guest starring Alexandria Riley as Ria, Okezie Morro as Scavenger Captain and Beth Chalmers as Scavenger.  All other parts played by members of the cast.

 2. The Split Infinitive by John Dorney

A criminal gang appears to have recruited a member with time-bending powers. It’s a case for the Counter-Measures team – in the 1960s and the 1970s! The Seventh Doctor and Ace have their work cut out to save the day twice over, and make sure Gilmore, Rachel and Allison don’t collide with their past, or their future.

Starring Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace, Simon Williams as Group Captain Ian Gilmore, Pamela Salem as Professor Rachel Jensen, Karen Gledhill as Dr. Allison Williams and Hugh Ross as Sir Tobias “Toby” Kinsella.

Also starring Vince Leigh as Kazan and Glen McCready as Vince.  All other parts played by members of the cast.

 3. The Sacrifice of Jo Grant by Guy Adams

When pockets of temporal instability appear in a Dorset village, UNIT are called in. Soon, Kate Stewart and Jo Jones find themselves working alongside the Third Doctor, while Osgood battles to get them home. But this isn’t the first time UNIT has faced this threat. Only before, it seems that Jo Grant didn’t survive...

Starring Tim Treloar as The Doctor, Katy Manning as Josephine “Jo” Jones, Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart and Ingrid Oliver as Osgood.

Also starring Nicholas Briggs as Lieutenant Wallace.  All other roles played by members of the cast.

 4. Relative Time by Matt Fitton

Disaster strikes inside the Time Vortex, and the Fifth Doctor is thrown together with someone from his future… someone claiming to be his daughter! Kleptomaniac Time Lord, the Nine, believes it’s his chance to steal something huge. But Jenny just wants her dad to believe in her.

Starring Peter Davison as The Doctor and Georgia Tennant as Jenny.

Also starring John Heffernan as The Nine, Ronni Ancona as Thana, Mandi Symonds as Captain and Christian Brassington as Mr. Grigorian.  All other roles played by members of the cast.

 5. The Avenues of Possibility by Jonathan Morris

DI Patricia Menzies is used to the strange, but even she is surprised when the eighteenth century itself falls onto her patch. Fortunately, she has the founders of modern policing to help with her enquiries. And when the Sixth Doctor and Charley arrive, they find armed and hostile forces trying to change Earth history forever.

Starring Colin Baker as The Doctor, India Fisher as Charlotte “Charley” Pollard and Anna Hope as DI Patricia Menzies.

Also starring Richard Hansell as John Fielding, Duncan Wisbey as Henry Fielding, Delroy Atkinson as Wadmore and Sara Poyzer as Stables.  All other roles were played by members of the cast.

 6. Collision Course by Guy Adams

Fallout from the temporal distortions has now reached Gallifrey. To find the cause, Leela and Romana remember travels with the Fourth Doctor to the same world, at different times. The enemy is revealed, and it may take more than one Doctor to prevent the destruction of everything!

Starring Tom Baker as The Doctor, Louise Jameson as Leela and Lalla Ward as Romana.

Special guest stars Tim Treloar as The Doctor, Peter Davison as The Doctor, Colin Baker as The Doctor, Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor, Paul McGann as The Doctor and Lisa Bowerman as Professor Bernice “Benny” Summerfield.

Also starring Alan Cox as Tompino, Richard Earl as Punshon and Rebecca Kilgarriff as Ankarrie.  All other parts played by members of the cast.

Plus two additional discs worth of behind the scenes material.

[Standard spoiler policy in effect here: if it’s something mentioned on the Big Finish website, it’s not a spoiler.]

[raypunkzero]

Nicholas Cloister http://bit.ly/2WoWUuL May 25, 2019 at 05:42AM

[ryanmeft]

The Favourite Movie Review

If you happen to suffer from Anglophilia, The Favourite may very well cure you of it. America’s obsession with everything British owes a lot to the fact that movies and TV have painted our overseas cousins as being upstanding, intelligent, and just a little above it all. If Brexit hasn’t killed off that impression for you, take a look at this movie: the court is petty, the most common language is insults, the royal helpers fight like bloodthirsty schoolgirls, and the Queen is mad. How delicious.

It’s the early 18th century, and there are a few issues surrounding the rule of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman); namely, that she’s battier than a thousand-year-old attic. Among her many lovable antics: telling off the servants for things she told them to do, being pushed around in a completely unnecessary wheelchair which she likes being rolled very fast in, falling on the floor and screaming, demanding royal courtesy be paid to an army of rabbits, deliberately making herself sick on sweets, and generally being so out to lunch she frequently forgets there’s a war on with France. In fairness to her, this is England, so remembering when there is and is not a war with France is a full-time job. My only serious regret about all of this is that, while having wheelchair races with herself, she at no point shouts “Vroom vroom”.

These days, we might have sympathy for such an unfortunate soul, but Queens then and now are not so much persons as objects of political desire. The Tory party, here identified only as the opposition, wants to end War With France Number 76b quickly, because the taxes needed for it are taking money out of the pockets of wealthy landowners and, as Tory leader Robert Harley (Nicholas Hoult) sneeringly informs us, putting it in the hands of those darned merchants; one is reminded of the airline shareholders who griped that the employees were getting paid before they did. Anne’s primary confidant is Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz, and yes, she’s his ancestor), the Duchess of Marlborough. She wants the war, in which her husband (Mark Gatiss) is a leader, to be funded and fully supported. Just as you think she is the one of the two with the more honorable intentions, the movie corrects you: her support for her husband has more to do with the benefits of being married to a war hero than with any real affection. She is, in fact, shtupping the queen, something left in absolutely no doubt. This is a movie far more frank about sexuality and especially lesbianism than even most indie films dare to be. In that regard, it is incredibly forward thinking; at one point Anne is quite explicit about tongues and her preferred use for them. In other regards the movie’s attitude toward sex is less progressive but no less frank, as it is frequently used to attain power.

This fine arrangement is threatened by the arrival of Sarah’s cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) who has fallen on hard times after her father, from what I could gather, burned down both their house and himself. She initially becomes trusted by the Queen entirely by accident, in fact through the only unadulterated show of good Samaritanism in the entire movie. She will soon learn that in this place, no good deed goes unpunished. She evolves, if you can call it that, until she fits right in with the nearly murderous intrigues of royal life. Sarah pushes: she threatens her life, has her beaten, and attempts to humiliate, ruin and tear her down. Eventually, Abigail will become the better fighter, even engineering a scenario that leaves Sarah rotting in a brothel while she moves to solidify her own position. Nor are Sarah and the Queen the only ones to be used or abused by her. The film goes as far as to subtly suggest she, unlike Sarah, is not even that into sex, as she pursues marriage to a randy nobleman (Joe Alwyn), then loses interest once she has him, and the royal benefits the marriage provides.

What to make of the ensuing battle of wills between the deteriorating Queen, her bickering fixers, and the Parliament? I’ll tell you what not to make of it: the idea that this movie has a feminist viewpoint. It seems that way initially, with both nominal and real power in the hands of a woman. One of the founding, most cherished myths of the movement, though, is that the world would be an inherently better place if women grasped the shorthairs of power. It’s impossible to say if that would be true. What I can say is that the screenplay, written twenty years ago by historian Deborah Davis and “freshened up” more recently by Tony McNamara, practically dies laughing at the idea. It will be tempting for those who want to see Sarah and Abigail in a certain light to say they are only responding to the viciousness of the world they live in, but they voluntarily go far, far beyond any schemes cooked up by the pompous, white-wigged men of the government. The simple truth an attentive viewer might notice early on is that it really, truly would have been possible for the two women to come to some agreement. The other simple truth is that neither wanted to; both wanted to win at the expense of the other. It is not that the men are spared---they are variously pompous, corrupt, callous, or incompetent. It is that power in film is usually shown as mostly corrupting or being corrupted by men, and here women are equally as eager to get in on the game. Sarah’s complicity in this is the most tragic, as it’s clear she really does care about the Queen; yes, at no point does she actually stop trying to manipulate her. No one is spared: even the scullery maids are needlessly cruel.

The main triangle that comprises the heart of the drama is infused with three of the most gripping performances you’ll see at the movies. The irony of Rachel Weisz having her big breakthrough as the nerdy, shy girlfriend of then-more famous Brendan Fraser in The Mummy is strong; she’s since gone on to be the more dominant actor, and it isn’t close. She has one of those mannerisms that can control a room; later, when her more subtle ways of squeezing the Queen have begun to falter in the face of Abigail’s tactics, she gets more forceful, and such is Weisz’s presence that we are shocked when it doesn’t work. Stone’s big hit role in Zombieland was more hard-bitten, but she too would need meatier roles to display what she can really do, and here gets her best to date. She starts out truly just wanting a second chance after going through a hellish youth and being dumped into another bad situation. Eventually, those who would push her to be horrible learn a lesson, as she can be far more vicious than they ever intended.

Somehow, Colman’s Anne is constantly on the verge of sheer, out-in-the-yard-barking-at-the-moon lunacy, yet never devolves to the level of parody, and maintaining her insanity while also not becoming a Jack Sparrow-esque joke must have been among the more demanding things asked of an actor. Most of the water cooler talk centers around the more widely recognized Stone and Weisz, but Colman needs to be both stark raving mad and entirely sympathetic or the movie falls apart; we need to believe this is a person two intelligent, driven, vivacious women would be willing to get in the mud for, even as they manipulate her to their own ends. This is one of the few cases where we can safely impose modern ethics on the past. Anne is mentally ill, and should have been cared for, but there was no chance of that ever happening.

The world her court inhabits has been recreated by director Yorgos Lanthimos, working for the first time since before his critically acclaimed Dogtooth with someone else’s script, as a place that lacks the sumptuousness with which English finery, English dress, English buildings and English everything else are usually treated in American cinema. That’s probably because Lanthimos is Greek, and whereas Britain to us is the ideal parent---upright and mature yet far enough way that we don’t need to call that often---to him it may be just another country in Europe. The halls of St. James’s Palace (My best guess; the film never says) are not particularly ornate or beautiful, or at least they are not portrayed that way. Robbie Ryan chooses to shoot many scenes in near darkness, with candlelight, and the result is that much of the palace appears gloomy, close and not especially grand or even inviting; there is one moment in which Sarah speaks through a door whose other side is hidden by a tapestry when we could well believe the house as a setting for a ghost story. Nor are the actresses spared the visual signs of moral decay. Though the costume department drapes them in every bit of finery you expect from pompous royals, both competing women are literally drug through the mud, and Anne shows little care for her personal hygiene. We are reminded that this was a dirty world in more ways than one, and whatever glamorous ideas we might have of the past are shot out from under us. Like the highly underrated Marie Antoinette, almost the entire movie takes place within the cloistered walls of the royal residence; I doubt most of those involved in the drama ever spare a look for an actual citizen of the crown.

Lanthimos’s last film, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, inspired strong feelings in me. Specifically, it inspired the desire to beat it with a stick. I am morally opposed to films that seek to prove how much smarter they are than the audience. Similar to his more popularly received film The Lobster, The Favourite is quite intelligent in the way it approaches its themes: power, political games, and the puncturing of the myths we build for ourselves surrounding both royalty and the romance of the past. It ascends to greatness because it never once alienates the audience in order to say these things. Just leave your fantasies of ladies and gentlemen in flower at home; those guys aren’t in this movie.

Verdict: Must-See

Note: I don’t use stars, but here are my possible verdicts.

Must-See

Highly Recommended

Recommended

Average

Not Recommended

Avoid like the Plague

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[lesyoussoupoff]

The birth of Princess Zenaida Youssoupoff on September 2, 1861 was both a source of joy and anxiety for her parents. Although, her parents had married in 1856, five years before her birth, the question of her status as legal heir arose due to an ongoing dispute over the validity of her parents marriage. 

Prince Nicholas and Princess Tatiana Youssoupoff were first cousins, and as such their marriage fell within the Code of Criminal Laws: “For incest in the fourth degree of relationship, that is with a male or female cousins, the punishment is being cloistered for a term of six months to one year. In addition, in each case they are committed to church penance by order of their ecclesiastical superiors.” Because of the question of legality and scandal their marriage caused, the young couple spent much of the first years of their marriage traveling outside of Russia. 

Prince Nicholas Youssoupoff was forever grateful to Alexander II who ordered the church to recognize the marriage. Although the church bowed to the Tsar’s request, they refused to recognize the couples children as legal heirs. “Illegal marriage cannot become lawful in decade’s prescription...Should Lord bless your Excellency with an heir, Princes Alexander, Andrei and Nicholas Borisovich Golitsyn (closest Youssoupoff male relatives)  will by all means protest his being your heir in law, and lay claim to inheritance.” 

In order to protect his children’s inheritance, and prevent future legal disputes, Prince Nicholas registered all of his property and fortune under his wife’s name. When Princess Tatiana passed away in 1879, Prince Nicholas became guardian of his underage daughters and their inheritance. 

It was her father’s inventive planning which allowed Princess Zenaida to inherit the largest private fortune in Imperial Russia.