Bad Sunday: Queen Eliza & Twilight

It’s that time of week.  Bad Sunday.  Where I write of bad things I have come across during the week.  Are you wondering where last weeks Bad Sunday got to?  Tough luck, because this tradition starts today.  I don’t want you to think that I’m a bad, negative person so I will start Good Fridays too (you see what I did there?)

BAD PEOPLE

Twilight Fangirls
You simple, rabid little girls.  Twilight is bad Literature.  Indeed, enjoy it all you want, even I did a little, but accept that it’s bad writing, please.  No.  Nobody cares that the film had Edward and Bella have the conversation about vampires in the forest instead of the car.  We don’t give a fuck.  We are rational human beings.  Someday, somehow, you too, will be rational.  We hope for you.  We really do.

Current and Near Future Endeavors

Here is a list with what I am currently engaged with, so expect a review soon, and what I am expecting to read, watch or listen to in the future.  In order.

BOOKS

Currently reading:

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Future reads:

• Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
• The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
• The Life and Death on Anne Boleyn by E. W. Ives

MUSIC

Awaiting reviews:

• A Winter Symphony by Sarah Brightman
• Spirit by Leona Lewis
• Funhouse by P!nk

Future listens:

• Bittersweet Symphony by Jade Valerie
• V for Vendetta Film Score by Dario Marianelli
• Tenor at the Movies by Jonathan Ansell

FILMS

Awaiting reviews:

• Twilight (2008)
• Howl’s Moving Castle (2005)

Future viewing:

• The Edge of Love (2008)
• The Duchess (2008)

I will try to get all of these done, so if you are interested in any, keep an eye out.  If anyone spots anything in my future endeavors that should be avoided at all costs, make sure to warn me!

The Best Films of All Time

I will say this. I do not like films. I am serious. I do not like romantic comedies, horror, science fiction, thrillers or any other genre for that matter as a general rule. For me to like a film, it either has nostalgia value, or it has to be artfully brilliant. The scores or soundtracks to films are a huge factor in my liking a film. Sometimes, a film can be downright silly, but extremely entertaining. This is why I think it may be worthy to mention the rare times a film has captured me and the ones I actually enjoyed.

Pride & Prejudice – Joe Wright
My favourite film of all time by a mile. First of all, it helps that I am a period drama fan, love Literature and most of all, adore Jane Austen. Even considering this there are plenty of versions of this classic and even more period dramas out there, but this one comes out on top. I must have seen it over a dozen times by now. I first went to see it at the cinema and I found myself grinning goofily at the screen as I willed the protagonists on with all of my heart and soul. Now, I hate RomComs, and I am no soppy female that swoons over handsome men on the screen, but I think my heart stopped when Mr. Darcy came out of the fog. Not only was it beautifully shot but Dario Marianelli‘s score at that point was just magical. Speaking of which, the score of this film is probably the element that sets this film apart from the others. The Pride and Prejudice score is by far my favourite album which I play from beginning to end over and over again. Joe Wright proves himself to be one of the most promising new directors with this film. Sadly, he was robbed of his Oscar.

Aliens – James Cameron
I think this is largely nostalgia, though it scared me when I was young. Strictly speaking, I do not really enjoy any of the films in this franchise. I find the second film, Aliens, to be the most tolerable. What I am in love with is the creature itself. I think it is a fantastic creation and it is the model of the Aliens xenomorph which I favour. The new CGI aliens in the latest AVP films do not cut it for me. I mean, the creature itself is so mind blowingly awesome. Every part of its body is sharp and deadly, it has, like, three mouths, it bleeds pure acid, so if you shoot it, you get gunked and you still lose, it is really fast, it swims, and it is born inside living hosts. That is an alarmingly lethal foe. And Ripley is awesome.

Karen Lindsey’s “Divorced, Beheaded, Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII”

This is a well researched and written book that gives a gliding over view of each of Henry VIII‘s wives.  Each of the wives, however, are not given equal page space, and as you can well imagine, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn have about four chapters to themselves whilst Jane Seymour has one, but is barely mentioned in it as the author goes on tangents about other things.  After the more fully developed chapters on the two first wives, the other four seemed to be tacked on as almost an afterthought.

This is quite understandable, given how much we know about Seymour, and how much we know about Boleyn and not to mention just how much had to occur to get Boleyn on the throne.  However, Catherine Howard‘s and Katherine Parr‘s chapters are almost neglected, only Parr’s chapter is fleshened out by the authors addition of Anne Askew; a Protestant Martyr.  Whilst very interesting, the author, who did her PhD research project on Anne Askew, has clearly thrown her in Parr’s chapter because the author favours her, and gives her the most tenuous link to Parr to justify it.