Movies at the Theatre
LotR: Fellowship of the Ring
Marvelous, fabulous, unbeatable. I only had one real complaint and compared to the mountain of wonderful things about it, that one thing seems small and irrelevant. Arwen proclaiming her love for Aragorn and her willingness to give up her immortality for him? It stuck out like a sore thumb, unlike some other changes that were made wisely and put in place seemlessly. Having Arwen rescue Frodo in order to give her a bigger part, perfect. Saving time by making it an accident that Merry and Pippin come along with Frodo and Sam, great. Showing the ring all the time even though it's always hidden in the books, fine. This love story? Why do they always feel the need to add a love story? It only took a couple minutes though and I absolutely adore Liv Tyler, so this was quickly forgiven for the most part. And Viggo Mortensen... well I just found out he is responsible for the best 'Lucifer' I have ever seen! What's not to adore.
Movies On Video or DVD
Stealing Beauty
One of my two all time favorite movies. This is the movie that caused me to fall in love with Liv Tyler and her ability as an actress. My complaint about the DVD would be that they seem to have made a mistake in the subtitling. When I saw this in the theatre and on VHS, all languages that are not English get subtitled in English. On the DVD you get nothing. I'm confused by this. I'm not sure what to do. So much is lost if you can't understand the exchanges in Italian and French and German. So if you've never seen it, you must rent it on VHS.
Shadow of the Vampire
A fun story set during the making of the silent film, Nosferatu. Everyone on the set wants to know who the star is. It's seems that Murnau has found the real thing. Everything gets out of control as the vampire star eating the crew. Murnau seems to care at first but it becomes evident that he will do anything to finish the film. This movie tells the story of film makers as blood sucking monster more then it spoofs the movie Nosferatu. My favorite scene is when the vampire accidentally flips a switch and a door opens allowing sunlight to fill the room. I laugh pretty hard as he runs away.
Books
The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint - Novel
I had a hard time getting into this one, even though I had been dieing to read it. I'm used to his books flowing forward at a quick pace, but this one had a lot of back story in the first half. A lot of remembering and telling you everything that leads up to the current time. Once he got caught up and everything was moving forward it was great. My only complaint is that it didn't flow as well as it could have. The story was still well written and I am glad that Jilly finally had her story told.
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay - Novel
Fabulous! Just as I'd been told by more people then I can remember. It is complex and yet he keeps it all together. Things don't always go where you expect and the ending is complicated and not altogether 'happy'. There was one thing about the ending that I thought was unnecessarily sad, but other then that it was well worth the month it took me to read all 673 pages.
(finished reading on 20 Jan 2002)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling - Novel
I'll bet you don't need one more person telling you these are good books. You've heard it right? Well, I will say that if you are inclined to read really fun kids books they are worth your time. They are very well written, but are indeed aimed at kids 10 - 14 years old. This is the third book and the story is continuing to develop and become more complex. She even surprised me at the end.
Giant Bones by Peter S. Beagle - 6 Short Stories
If you already like Beagle, you will enjoy this book. Lovely stories all told from a story tellers perspective. Each story begins with someone telling a story to someone else. It's an interesting angle. I enjoyed it quite a lot.
Moonspeaker by K.D. Wentworth - Novel
Disappointing for me. A lovely idea, but not too strongly written, and a little too predictable for my taste. You will only really like this if you are looking for a quick read and don't mind (or possible you prefer) a story that is about women prevailing in a male dominated society to show that they are really the 'dominant sex'. I don't buy this crap personally. I think men and women are different. I don't think either is superior.
Berlin by Charles de Lint - Novella
Reprinted in the anthology Life on the Border
I really enjoyed this story. It's well written and the dragons didn't hurt either! Berlin is set in Bordertown. There are anthologies called Bordertown, Borderland, and The Essential Bordertown. Going one step beyond Elves and magic returning to the world, it says that even dragons really exist.
Charles de Lint is my favorite author. I enjoy reading everything he has written. If you haven't read anything of his, you are really missing out. One prerequisite is that you must enjoy fiction. His style is popularly called 'Urban Fantasy'. I adore his ability at story telling.
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