Review: "Ariel", Sylvia Plath

I go back and forth on this book. At times it made me feel like I couldn't read, like I had cottage cheese for a brain. I longed for Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who

1. fucks severely, and
2. goes in for narrative.

But then I read the second half of the book, which is more narrative-driven, in a sitting and found myself entering into the collection much more successfully, grasping the rhythm and substance (if not the import of every line). Ultimately though, I do think I do better with narrative poetry. I appreciate imagery and sound, but not exactly as aims in their own right when the piece's conceptual coherence isn't rock-solid. (And it may be more solid here than I always appreciated: right now, I'm not a great reader of this form.)

Notes on "Hook" and "Bugsy Malone"

"Hook"

Most attempts to film period design end up looking like total shit after a decade or so. Productions tend to let their own era’s aesthetics eat a period. Their efforts to gentle whatever they’re invoking make the quotation look half-hearted, adding a clashing layer of datedness. This 1991 staging of a Victorian house, however, still looks great. In part that’s because “Hook” shares an aesthetic sensibility with its late Victorian source material. There’s a Peake-ish, illustrative quality to the film’s composition (“Slaughterboard” comes to mind.). From the set-design to the wirework the frames are busy, but harmonious and intelligible.

Rufio’s death feels oddly timed—I spent the whole final scene thinking about it, wondering if it would ultimately be undone. Marita suggested that this could be the point, but agreed that it could also simply be badly-executed. The publication history of this text (even before extra-Barrie adaptations) is so complex that my sense of the degree to which this decision could be a comment on the source material is muddled. At one point I found myself wondering where I remembered Hook being an Etonian from. The book? The play? It wasn’t necessarily important, just indicative of how messy the version history is and the impact of that on my reception.

***

"Bugsy Malone"

I had never seen this before. The script is pretty good, as are the songs. I had the weird feeling throughout that someone had written a solid 1930s gangster movie, but it was 1976 and no one would make it until the writer suggested casting it entirely with children (which doesn’t really change anything except the final fight sequence, but okay, sure). Apparently no: it was always conceived as pretty much what you see here.

- Per Wiki, the children do not sing. In fact almost all the singing was done by the songwriter, because the production was pressed for time.
- THAT’S JODIE FOSTER??
- Why shoot this in England? How many American kids did they have to fly over?
- The song about Bugsy does not describe Bugsy very well.

Review: "Blue Period"

“Blue Period” was a nice, tight anime about a high school boy who decides to stop fucking around and actually become a person, via the medium of painting. He pursues admission to a competitive art school, as do several of his friends. It’s kind of light, in something like a slice of life register, but it never struck me as badly structured or patronising. At its best, it was truly emotionally engaging. I’m sick to death of high school settings, but I still have time for the questions this piece used this time in a young man’s life to raise.

Some notes:

- A teen in "Blue Period": I should draw my girl’s bewbs, really blow this old lady's mind, haha.
Ancient art teacher lesbian: I love breasts. Do you prefer pillowy or jiggly? There are certainly arguments for both!
Teen:
Art teacher: Make sure to convey their smoothness, virgin.

- I did not twig that the protagonist’s friend was trans until she was dumped over it. Maybe that's more strongly indicated in Not the Dub. She's sort of romantic-interest shaped, and I wasn’t sure whether they were going to go there. Ultimately, it’s not clear whether more will eventually come of their relationship and not terribly important: their development as people and their friendship matters, whether or not it ends up having a romantic component. They took the time to really see one another, literally and emotionally. (Something similar could be said of the upperclassman who first inspires the protagonist to paint: this show is unique in that it gives a young male protagonist really central connections with women.)

- When they said that the trans character was studying traditional Japanese painting, I assumed that was going to involve some kind of identifiable heritage approach. The work she produced for that class seemed to consist of standard still-lives: nothing separates the assignment we see for that course from a Western art seminar equivalent. In Japanese art education, this term must refer to material use or technique? Whatever craft difference occurs must happen at a technical level, to the degree that there's not really a perceptible effect for a casual observer.

- It’s interesting that they build the large canvas. Western art students would rarely be asked to do that, especially at a high school level. My sister went through all of MICA and was rarely if ever asked to stretch. They seem to be working with pre-set parts, combining them to shape it thus? Maybe Japanese art supplies are more modular.

- “Did you guys know that SHARKS have EYELIDS? Sea creatures are WONDERFUL.” Aha, the energy the prep school art teacher has.

- The pastry chef friend is so good. The way he reached out to the protagonist was touching. I also found the protagonist’s ‘seeing’ his mom via sketching her moving.