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Tuesday, May 24, 2005

helloooo...

Okay, I'm pretty sure I blogged already today, but I drank a tank of coffee around 10pm, so even though it is Very Very Late, and the demon spawn will wake me Very Very Early with a demand for breakfast (a sandwich, on toast, with mayonnaise, mustard, ham, cheese, sliced pickles, and sliced tomatoes, and a glass of water with a piece of lemon perched on the rim), I am wide awake. There are two loads of laundry staring at me, and I am not folding them - I hear Kelly saying "shame on you", but I can't help it. I cannot fold laundry without something else to do as well, and it's much too late to start a movie.

Oh! speaking of movies, I have an interesting request: He Who Must Be Humored is planning a seminar in a year or so, on The Middle Ages in Film. He wants movies set between about 400 and about 1400 A.D, from different eras of the Movie Age, to look at how the popular image of the Middle Ages has changed over time. I have appointed myself the task of finding suitable movies, and am delegating it to you, my lovelies. Because it's interesting. He will definitely be including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but for others, it is not yet decided. Some limitations, because there must be limits (he can't show 200 movies in one semester): Europe, please. I know that movies on Feudal Japan would be fascinating, but that's outside the scope of this class. Also, fantasy films with a sort of medieval flavor are out - no Legend, no Willow, probably no Princess Bride. And probably no Shakespeare. He's definitely Renaissance, and while I think some of his tragedies were set in the Middle Ages (Lear and Macbeth leap to mind, though I could be wrong there), when you watch the movies you're having to filter through both the filmmaker's ideas about medieval Europe, and Shakespeare's as well, which might be a bit too much. I forgot to ask him about TV series...Blackadder might be good, and some of the Brother Cadfael stories have been televised as well, I think. Oh, and no cartoons, so Redwall is right out.

While we're at it, does anybody remember a movie about medieval Iceland, the director was named Hrafn something, I think, and the heroine had a daughter named Sol...something about doomed love...I saw it at the Grand Illusion in 1991 or so, and I think DrBob would like it, but I can't remember the title. Film fans? Anyone?

Can't wait to hear your suggestions. Remember, we're talking about summer 2006 at the earliest, so if you think of anything over the next year, I'd love to hear about it.

1 comment:

Kelly said...

I could be getting time periods mixed up (I'm no good with that stuff), but Queen Margot is a study in brilliance, set while Catherine De Medici was alive, and of course there is the 13th Warrior, though that is probably too early. Avoid King Arthur, please. I absolutely love The Lion in Winter, that could be good. And there is Ann of a thousand Days (I haven't seen that) which could be good (I think it had Helena Bonham Carter and Carey Elwes in it). Restoration was a pretty decent movie, though it might be set too late. I liked Gladiator and... hmm. Brain shutting down. Cofee neded. Wil b bck.