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Post by Swampirella on Jun 6, 2020 18:41:23 GMT
Wasn't that "Laura Ingalls"? I remember watching that syrupy series as a kid, mainly to see what self-centred nasty Nellie Olsen was going to do next. Melissa Sue Anderson played the oldest sister, Mary. Laura, the middle sister was played by Melissa Gilbert. The youngest sister was Carrie, played by Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush. Mary Ingalls was the one who became blind in the later series. Yep, it was always satisfying to see Nellie get her just desserts, which she did regularly, together with her equally obnoxious brother, Willie. Sorry, I got my Melissas mixed up! And forgot she even had an older sister....
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Post by ripper on Jun 6, 2020 19:10:00 GMT
Melissa Sue Anderson played the oldest sister, Mary. Laura, the middle sister was played by Melissa Gilbert. The youngest sister was Carrie, played by Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush. Mary Ingalls was the one who became blind in the later series. Yep, it was always satisfying to see Nellie get her just desserts, which she did regularly, together with her equally obnoxious brother, Willie. Sorry, I got my Melissas mixed up! And forgotten she even had an older sister.... The reason I remember Melissa Sue Anderson so well is that I had a crush on her during the time she starred in Little house. I was actually surprised when I saw that she was going to be in a slasher and knew that I just had to see it. Not absolutely sure but I think she made Happy Birthday to Me around the time that she left Little House as a regular cast member, though I believe she made guest appearances after that.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Jul 12, 2020 18:58:31 GMT
My viewing over the past weeks has been a strangely comforting tour of 1970s and '80s British TV dystopia that has so far comprised the 1979 'Quatermass' (and its shorter film version, 'The Quatermass Conclusion', watched as part of a marathon viewing of Quatermass series and films), the BBC's excellent 1980s version of 'The Day of the Triffids', an ongoing viewing of the surviving episodes of 'Doomwatch', a revisit to the 1975 10 part adaptation of Peter Dickinson's 'The Changes', and is about to commence the 1979 ITV adaptation of John Rowe Townsend's 'Britain crumbling into anarchy' tale, 'Noah's Castle', before embarking on the original run of 'Survivors'. Along the way, I decided that - after owning a copy for well over a decade, it was time to finally get to grips with David Rudkin's 3 hour-long science-fiction /horror /fantasy /philosophical /mystery drama 'Artemis 81', particularly as I have been enjoying Rudkin's series of new audio productions, Placeprints... I'm still processing parts of Thursday night's viewing of 'Artemis 81'. I'd long put off watching it, fearing - as some opinions I've read would have it - a boring 3 hour pretentious mess of disjointed ideas. Well, how some of the ideas join up is part of what I'm still processing, but I was never bored. (I did get slightly anxious during the opening scenes - which had been as far as I'd got on a previous attempt - in case it ended up being 180 minutes of men in robes whispering at statues on alien beaches, but thankfully that wasn't the case.) It did feel like it could be split, like the deadly statue of Magog that fuels the more occulted parts of the story, into parts - something that Rudkin admits was deliberate when writing it, in case there was a need to split the production into two or three parts. There's a definite climactic episode ending halfway through, allowing a second episode to start as the protagonist finds himself recovering in an altered place. As it was, though, it was transmitted as a single production, slightly over 3 hours long, as part of the BBC's festive television schedule in December 1981, a fact that seems bizarre to contemplate these days. Even as I'm still contemplating the plot, I can firmly say I loved the visuals, a mix of brutalist, functional spaces and gothic, ghost story realms - the prosaic cross-channel ferry stuck in an eerie fog, the tower blocks and massive cathedrals. Hitchcock is in the mix, and referenced (I had to look to a taped-off broadcast copy to fill in the brief scene chopped from the DVD release due to copyright restrictions on images from Vertigo and other Hitchcock films - a scene that seems superfluous, I suppose, but which allows one character to accurately predict how the main character's storyline is going to proceed), and there's the ghost of an M.R. James influence too - shadowy figures, stained glass, runic writing and encounters in libraries (and Rudkin had already adapted MRJ for the BBC, and still shows his influence in current works) - as well as fleeting moments of Hammer horror. And a scene on a crowded tram with passengers covering their faces amid their coughing, infected fellow travellers couldn't have felt more 2020 if it had tried. A very good cast, particularly Hywel Bennett as the main character - occult novelist Gideon Harlax, whose fate seems to be entwined in the sort of science fiction horror he would write, and who makes the decidedly non-naturalistic dialogue feel more natural, and Dan O'Herlihy, who is excellent, as always, as the haunted organist, Albrecht von Drachenfels (a name so splendidly gothic that the other characters doubt it can be real, and who has a trace of the Dr Phibes about about him). Nice cameos from Ingrid Pitt, Ysanne Churchman, and Sylvia Coleridge, and Anthony Steel as a horror film director who stumbles into a real horror story. I think if I hadn't already been familiar with Rudkin's other work, such as 'Penda's Fen' or 'White Lady', I might have struggled with this... and I'm not so sure if I'd watched it on another day I might not have hated it. But I'm already on a second viewing (in two parts), with the commentary from Rudkin and director Alastair Reid, which is rather jolly and nicely informative - the play was originally intended to be a co-production with the BBC and Danish television, for instance, meaning a lot of Danish culture, cinema and superstition is included. I suspect I'll be watching it again in the not-too-distant future, as there's a lot of rich detail I'm already picking up from the visuals, and there's more to pick up on still, I suspect.
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Post by helrunar on Jul 12, 2020 19:57:17 GMT
Thanks, Daniel, for those fascinating notes. I've also put off watching this, for reasons similar to those you describe. Perhaps someday.
cheers, Helrunar
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Post by andydecker on Jul 12, 2020 21:10:09 GMT
Some horror movies on tv I still hadn't bothered with.
Jigsaw (2017) Not being a fan of torture porn, but I really liked the first SAW movies. The last ones were convoluted rubbish, a franchise done to death. So I had no hopes for this new one. But I like the actor Matt Passmore and thought to give it a chance. What a waste of time. The movie looked cheap and underfunded, had the aesthetic of a tv-movie. The traps were lame and, what was worse, tame. The writing was sub-par, a network cop-show is better done.
1408 (2007) I seldom see Stephen King movies any longer. This was nicely produced. But the hero bored me to tears, the plot - writer to debunk ghosts is beset by ghosts - has been done to death. I liked a few scenes, but overall I was bored.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jul 13, 2020 5:34:38 GMT
Along the way, I decided that - after owning a copy for well over a decade, it was time to finally get to grips with David Rudkin's 3 hour-long science-fiction /horror /fantasy /philosophical /mystery drama 'Artemis 81' Lurks, you've convinced me to have a crack at this.
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 13, 2020 8:14:01 GMT
Along the way, I decided that - after owning a copy for well over a decade, it was time to finally get to grips with David Rudkin's 3 hour-long science-fiction /horror /fantasy /philosophical /mystery drama 'Artemis 81', particularly as I have been enjoying Rudkin's series of new audio productions, Placeprints... I'm still processing parts of Thursday night's viewing of 'Artemis 81'. I'd long put off watching it, fearing - as some opinions I've read would have it - a boring 3 hour pretentious mess of disjointed ideas. Well, how some of the ideas join up is part of what I'm still processing, but I was never bored. (I did get slightly anxious during the opening scenes - which had been as far as I'd got on a previous attempt - in case it ended up being 180 minutes of men in robes whispering at statues on alien beaches, but thankfully that wasn't the case.) I love Artemis 81. I loved it back when it first appeared on TV (when it was widely slated by the critics) and I've loved it on more recent viewings. I don't find it pretentious (I like to hope I'm very sensitive to pretentiousness) - just remarkably and wonderfully odd. It's all of Rudkin's eccentricities writ large! It does, as you say, have some seriously (and largely unrecognised) Jamesian aspects, as well as being a sort of dystopian SF. The use of locations in Liverpool - the Anglican Cathedral and the Picton Library - is brilliantly done. If I remember rightly, MRJ is actually mentioned in the commentary - possibly in the Picton Library scene (featuring Daniel Day Lewis's earliest - or at least early - acting job)?
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jul 13, 2020 12:14:35 GMT
I've just accomplished the dubious feat of watching all five Pirates of the Caribbean films in a nine-day stretch. That's more than eleven hours of loud, frantic nautical action. Collectively, the films include as many undead pirates, sea monsters (including some hungry mermaids), and undead sea monsters as any viewer could want, though none of them would be scary for anyone over the age of ten. In the early going, I was entertained by Johnny Depp's antics and mannerisms as Captain Jack Sparrow, but I wound up seeing Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbossa as the most interesting character. The fourth movie, On Stranger Tides, lifts the title and concept from a Tim Powers novel, which I recommend over the film.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jul 13, 2020 12:42:36 GMT
The fourth movie, On Stranger Tides, lifts the title and concept from a Tim Powers novel, which I recommend over the film. Frankly, I remember little of either.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jul 13, 2020 13:01:58 GMT
The fourth movie, On Stranger Tides, lifts the title and concept from a Tim Powers novel, which I recommend over the film. Frankly, I remember little of either. The film is the one where Jack Sparrow, a conventionally attractive young man, and a conventionally attractive young woman chase a magical MacGuffin while double-crossing one another and trying to evade a sinister undead pirate. I would rank the Tim Powers novel below The Anubis Gates but above the other three novels of his I've read: The Drawing of the Dark, The Stress of Her Regard, and Last Call.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Jul 13, 2020 13:33:11 GMT
I love Artemis 81. I loved it back when it first appeared on TV (when it was widely slated by the critics) and I've loved it on more recent viewings. I don't find it pretentious (I like to hope I'm very sensitive to pretentiousness) - just remarkably and wonderfully odd. It's all of Rudkin's eccentricities writ large! It does, as you say, have some seriously (and largely unrecognised) Jamesian aspects, as well as being a sort of dystopian SF. The use of locations in Liverpool - the Anglican Cathedral and the Picton Library - is brilliantly done. If I remember rightly, MRJ is actually mentioned in the commentary - possibly in the Picton Library scene (featuring Daniel Day Lewis's earliest - or at least early - acting job)? As I recall, it was your enthusiastic memory of the production that sent me off tracking down a copy years ago, well before the DVD was officially released. It's just taken me a very, very long time to get round to it. You're absolutely right, it's not pretentious - and I love how Rudkin happily lists the very practical reasons for incorporating certain elements in the commentary - and it is odd and wonderful. It's the sort of thing you can imagine finding more favour slightly later on, when video recorders were more prevalent, as it rewards repeat viewings where the various linking strands become clearer. MRJ is mentioned in the commentary during the library scene - which becomes a sort of 'Casting the Runes'/Hitchcock mix. My favourite Jamesian moment is a quiet but menacing chill during the phone-box sequence with Anthony Steel's fading horror director. The cathedral scenes are incredible - that vast empty space, the running dogs - and that bell tower. All of the locations are very well chosen and used. Even if I hadn't enjoyed the script - which I did, and would love to see the actual screenplay - I think the visuals and atmosphere would have won me over. I was also delighted when, in the dystopian city with its own bizarre language, Gideon finds a market stall full of comics and books, including strangely familiar comics with alien titles. Aside from a 'Misty' annual, I was pleased to see that 'The Dandy', 'Beano', and 'Bunty' had crossed into another realm, as these are titles I've worked on over the years. Good to know I could have still found work on 'Fepiz', 'Edu', and 'Vueds' if I'd found myself transported there...
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jul 13, 2020 13:54:52 GMT
I would rank the Tim Powers novel below The Anubis Gates but above the other three novels of his I've read: The Drawing of the Dark, The Stress of Her Regard, and Last Call. Curiously, the Powers novels you have read are exactly the ones I have read, although I am not sure I finished LAST CALL. THE ANUBIS GATES is great, of course. Oddly, it seems Powers has continued writing even though we stopped paying attention; a recent blurb I saw today only lists works I never heard of as his previous hits.
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Post by ropardoe on Jul 13, 2020 15:12:32 GMT
I love Artemis 81. I loved it back when it first appeared on TV (when it was widely slated by the critics) and I've loved it on more recent viewings. I don't find it pretentious (I like to hope I'm very sensitive to pretentiousness) - just remarkably and wonderfully odd. It's all of Rudkin's eccentricities writ large! It does, as you say, have some seriously (and largely unrecognised) Jamesian aspects, as well as being a sort of dystopian SF. The use of locations in Liverpool - the Anglican Cathedral and the Picton Library - is brilliantly done. If I remember rightly, MRJ is actually mentioned in the commentary - possibly in the Picton Library scene (featuring Daniel Day Lewis's earliest - or at least early - acting job)? MRJ is mentioned in the commentary during the library scene - which becomes a sort of 'Casting the Runes'/Hitchcock mix. My favourite Jamesian moment is a quiet but menacing chill during the phone-box sequence with Anthony Steel's fading horror director. One of the guest G&S editors ought to persuade you to write a piece on the Jamesian aspects! That would be fascinating.
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Post by andydecker on Jul 13, 2020 15:17:18 GMT
I would rank the Tim Powers novel below The Anubis Gates but above the other three novels of his I've read: The Drawing of the Dark, The Stress of Her Regard, and Last Call. Curiously, the Powers novels you have read are exactly the ones I have read, although I am not sure I finished LAST CALL. THE ANUBIS GATES is great, of course. Oddly, it seems Powers has continued writing even though we stopped paying attention; a recent blurb I saw today only lists works I never heard of as his previous hits. Yeah, count me in. I started with The Stress of Her Regard, because I just had before read Simmons Hyperion and became interested in Keats, then I bought Anubis Gate and Earthquake Weather, which I never read. Recenty I discovered I missed a few, but as I had forgotten most about the ones I had read I didn't order them. I wonder if I would appreciate Stress of her Regard today more than 20 years ago.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Jul 13, 2020 16:04:20 GMT
One of the guest G&S editors ought to persuade you to write a piece on the Jamesian aspects! That would be fascinating. Now there's a thought I hadn't considered. With his recent 'Grim's Ditch' intended as a Jamesian homage, his stage adaptation of 'Oh, Whistle' from a few years back (which I didn't see, admittedly), and his adaptation of 'The Ash-Tree', there's a certainly a thread through Rudkin's work that 'Artemis 81' forms part of (I'm inclined to think of A81 as being formed from a series of interlinked fictions and gleefully embraced homages). I may have to give this some thought...
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