period movies! (the 1840s)
Feb. 19th, 2011 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newmoonstarFinally watched The Young Victoria last night. It was much better than I expected. Of course, the real Victoria and Albert weren't so beautiful and glamorous and witty, but it doesn't matter, because it stuck to the basic facts, and morever, it was pleasant to watch. And the costumes!!! This is the best costume candy movie since Marie Antoinette! And an era I love, too, the late 1830s-early 1840s were filled with so mamy exhuberant styles, it's nice to see the full-out high fashion of the era, since usually this era is represented on film by Dickens adaptations filled with the more drab, somber versions of these clothes. I highly recommend this movie to happily while away an evening!
Another movie I recently saw on cable, set in the 1840's and feauturing some fine Parisian haute couture, is Cousin Bette. I recommend it only as eye candy though, since it's beautiful to look at, but it's based on an Honore de Balzac novel, so it's pretty stupid and bawdy. (Seriously, how many times do we have to see Elizabeth Shue's bare bum in this? I know it's supposed to be a running gag, but this is an R rated movie, and butt jokes are only funny to six year olds.) Hugh Laurie is in it, which whould normally be a recommendation, but he's much too young here (it was made in 1998) for the role he's playing, so any possibility of comedy gets lost because of it. But if you're bored with nothing else to do one day, it fills the time with pretty scenery decently enough.
Off to find more period movies! (This darn sore throat has been going on for over two months and getting worse all the time! I hope I can last till my appointment with the doctor! I don't know if there are enough historical dramas in the world to keep me distracted enough to not keel over pretty soon!!)
Another movie I recently saw on cable, set in the 1840's and feauturing some fine Parisian haute couture, is Cousin Bette. I recommend it only as eye candy though, since it's beautiful to look at, but it's based on an Honore de Balzac novel, so it's pretty stupid and bawdy. (Seriously, how many times do we have to see Elizabeth Shue's bare bum in this? I know it's supposed to be a running gag, but this is an R rated movie, and butt jokes are only funny to six year olds.) Hugh Laurie is in it, which whould normally be a recommendation, but he's much too young here (it was made in 1998) for the role he's playing, so any possibility of comedy gets lost because of it. But if you're bored with nothing else to do one day, it fills the time with pretty scenery decently enough.
Off to find more period movies! (This darn sore throat has been going on for over two months and getting worse all the time! I hope I can last till my appointment with the doctor! I don't know if there are enough historical dramas in the world to keep me distracted enough to not keel over pretty soon!!)
