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I went to my first meeting of a Book Club last week. We were reading The Scarlet Pimpernel (I know, right?) We met at one of the members' apartments, which was really comfortable and well-decorated and neat. How do grown up people do it?
She rented the 1934 movie with Leslie Howard, and I brought the Anthony Andrews so we could watch a scene or two for comparison. I think I talked it up too much, because they seemed disappointed. They loved Leslie Howard's campy, over-the-top Percy Blakeney; I've always thought Howard's is close-but-no-cigar to Andrews's, but they felt the opposite. They're pretty similar, really, and maybe it depends on which one you've seen first.
It was pointed out that the ridiculousness really works better in an old, black-and-white movie with really heavily-made-up actors and dreamy, out-of-focus filming (although I still insist that's an artifact of the poor surviving print), and that it seems out-of-place and silly in color with crisp close-ups. I guess that's legit, and Howard's Blakeney really is better than I remembered it. The moment when he's at the club talking to his subordinates, getting all passionate and leadershippy, and then an outsider walks in and he just looks up, and a change passes over his eyes, and he drawls, "Odd's fish" or whatever in that snooty, idiotic voice--it's just perfect. Chills!
But I still love Anthony Andrews the best of anyone, and nobody can tell me different.
Side note: From about the moment we sat down to watch, for some reason all I wanted to do was bring up how Raymond Massey is Canadian. Finally toward the end of the discussion of the movie I was like, so what accent do you think Chauvelin was trying to do, because it didn't sound exactly French. It almost sounded German. Maybe he's not very good at accents. Maybe they were trying to evoke a general sense of "other." Thats interesting. I know it's not his natural accent because he's Canadian.
I was thinking this is just because I'm a dorky know-it-all like my parents ("He's Unitarian Universalist, by the way"), but later I was listening to some This American Life episodes to get myself psyched for TAL Live, and there was a really old one I hadn't heard before called "Who's Canadian?" David Rakoff (who was NOT in the live show despite being credited) told Ira that, as a Canadian, he just KNOWS who's Canadian and he doesn't know how he knows it:
DAVID: If you mention a Canadian, a famous Canadian, in conversation to a Canadian without acknowledging it, there's a vague flicker over their eyes like the shadow of an angel's wing passing, and the conversation will go on and on, and then, just as an afterthought, they'll say, "Oh, you know, he's Canadian, by the way." Of course it's all you've been waiting to say the entire conversation.
IRA: Like if you and I were talking and I were to bring up--
DAVID: --Monty Hall--
IRA: --Monty Hall, which happens so often!
DAVID: I would be compelled. It's in my DNA.
IRA: You would actually say, at some point, "You know he's Canadian"?
DAVID: Not even "at some point," Ira. Let's try. Go on. You start.
IRA: All right. So anyway I was on the car on my way to work and that song from Bachman Turner Overdrive came on--
DAVID (overlapping): They're Canadian. That's how I do it. I don't even wait. "Bachman Turner Overdrive, they're Canadian." And then I'll tell you: "Taking Care of Business. They wrote that. They're Canadian."
Anyway, the point of all this is, I just found out that Nathan Fillion--TV's Captain Mal Reynolds/Captain Hammer/Castle--is from Edmonton. Enjoy.
She rented the 1934 movie with Leslie Howard, and I brought the Anthony Andrews so we could watch a scene or two for comparison. I think I talked it up too much, because they seemed disappointed. They loved Leslie Howard's campy, over-the-top Percy Blakeney; I've always thought Howard's is close-but-no-cigar to Andrews's, but they felt the opposite. They're pretty similar, really, and maybe it depends on which one you've seen first.
It was pointed out that the ridiculousness really works better in an old, black-and-white movie with really heavily-made-up actors and dreamy, out-of-focus filming (although I still insist that's an artifact of the poor surviving print), and that it seems out-of-place and silly in color with crisp close-ups. I guess that's legit, and Howard's Blakeney really is better than I remembered it. The moment when he's at the club talking to his subordinates, getting all passionate and leadershippy, and then an outsider walks in and he just looks up, and a change passes over his eyes, and he drawls, "Odd's fish" or whatever in that snooty, idiotic voice--it's just perfect. Chills!
But I still love Anthony Andrews the best of anyone, and nobody can tell me different.
Side note: From about the moment we sat down to watch, for some reason all I wanted to do was bring up how Raymond Massey is Canadian. Finally toward the end of the discussion of the movie I was like, so what accent do you think Chauvelin was trying to do, because it didn't sound exactly French. It almost sounded German. Maybe he's not very good at accents. Maybe they were trying to evoke a general sense of "other." Thats interesting. I know it's not his natural accent because he's Canadian.
I was thinking this is just because I'm a dorky know-it-all like my parents ("He's Unitarian Universalist, by the way"), but later I was listening to some This American Life episodes to get myself psyched for TAL Live, and there was a really old one I hadn't heard before called "Who's Canadian?" David Rakoff (who was NOT in the live show despite being credited) told Ira that, as a Canadian, he just KNOWS who's Canadian and he doesn't know how he knows it:
DAVID: If you mention a Canadian, a famous Canadian, in conversation to a Canadian without acknowledging it, there's a vague flicker over their eyes like the shadow of an angel's wing passing, and the conversation will go on and on, and then, just as an afterthought, they'll say, "Oh, you know, he's Canadian, by the way." Of course it's all you've been waiting to say the entire conversation.
IRA: Like if you and I were talking and I were to bring up--
DAVID: --Monty Hall--
IRA: --Monty Hall, which happens so often!
DAVID: I would be compelled. It's in my DNA.
IRA: You would actually say, at some point, "You know he's Canadian"?
DAVID: Not even "at some point," Ira. Let's try. Go on. You start.
IRA: All right. So anyway I was on the car on my way to work and that song from Bachman Turner Overdrive came on--
DAVID (overlapping): They're Canadian. That's how I do it. I don't even wait. "Bachman Turner Overdrive, they're Canadian." And then I'll tell you: "Taking Care of Business. They wrote that. They're Canadian."
Anyway, the point of all this is, I just found out that Nathan Fillion--TV's Captain Mal Reynolds/Captain Hammer/Castle--is from Edmonton. Enjoy.