I am so happy I finally got to see 'Stage Beauty'. It's heady - not with the stench of inch-perfect period drag and perfume, but with thought and insight. It is spirited and cheerful about its anachronisms. It even has a smart soundtrack. The fact that Billy Crudup has incredible hands also helps. For some reason I cannot now remember I had expected to be troubled by its treatment of gender, but that final exchange between Maria and Kynaston, where Maria asks him, 'And what are you now?' and Kynaston answers, 'I don't know', repeats this, almost awed by the revelation yet utterly at ease with it - I could have wept yes. Yes to this film, damn your cynical damnations of the human psychology, yes because 'I don't know' is a more powerful and true and audacious answer than 'this' or 'that'.
I am listening to the B-52's and my two-year old stash of Italian pop. False nostalgia reigns.
3 comments:
Oh yes.:) It's gorgeous, isn't it?
I'm not sure how much of my reaction to it is due to the wonderfullness of the movie itself and how much is Billy Crudup. He does have nice hands.
Incidentally, I rented the movie a few days before it was shown on tv. I am an idiot.
I enjoyed the great Rupert Everett as Charles II, I must say. No one mentions him.
It was especially amusing because I was fresh off a viewing of his droll little performance in an Italian horror movie called Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore). Absolutely priceless film.
I absolutely adored the film, and was so incredibly excited to discover it was going to be on Star Movies! But a large part of my fascination had to do with Billy Crudup, and not just his hands.
I did think it was bit wrought, though.
Really like your blog btw - and agree that other leagues, especially the South (or is it Latin?) American leagues need to be on the telly. There is literally no better football - the feeling that anything can happen, that the crowd could end the game, and most of all the pure joy of football...
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