rivendellrose | Girl With a Pearl Earring

Went with

ladysonnet to see "Girl With a Pearl Earring" at the Seven Gables today - it's quite a cool movie. Really really pretty and visual. Lots of very long shots with no cutting, and the arrangment of many of the shots resemble the style of Vermeer's paintings. I was especially impressed with how they caught his lighting.

Scarlett Johanson (er... spelling?) did a lovely job - stunningly beautiful girl, with a prettiness that's like glass... sort of clear and perfect, simple. The detail in the movie was lovely, and the color... the lapis was to die for. I seriously had a viceral "ohmigod" reaction to the lapis powder.

Also, I adore the guy who played Peter, the butcher's apprentice. He was lovely.

Colin Firth was lovely, as always, but I almost feel that he wasn't right for the part. It's too easy to look at him and think "oh, Colin Firth" as opposed to "oh, Johannes Vermeer." Should've been an unknown for that part, possibly. Besides, it seemed like something of a waste of his talent, since he didn't really have a lot to do. He was predictably delightful with what he did have to do, though.

Also, we saw several really interesting previews for foreign movies (especially French, it seemed), and one for The Passion of Christ. Now, to be fair, I have been scowling and griping any time I see a poster for that... but the preview looked quite impressive. And it is sort of intriguing that they're doing it entirely in the languages that it would have actually happened in. I continue to think this is not really a proper subject for a movie, however... and I wouldn't be seeing it even if I thought it were. Not because I'm not Christian (although that might figure into it as well - I just am not so interested in the story as others would be) but because the damned thing is gonna be gorey as all get-out, and I can't handle that. Nope. Sorry.

I am amused that they cast Satan as a woman, however. That's honestly such a common "ooo, we're breaking the mold" thing that it's cliche now. But, especially since I think "she" is also the snake I saw in the preview, I'd still be interested to see how they pull off just that one clip.

I'm going to go read Hamlet now. Really. Although I might write a bit more of the extremely narcissistic (whee - a pun, sort of!) fic I'm writing, too.