Vincent & Theo
Mar. 24th, 2009 10:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI watched Vincent & Theo last night. Didn't enjoy it very much.
Originally I was going to complain about the film's treatment of women. In particular I object to Johanna, Theo's wife (Theo is Vincent's brother), who is shown as weepy, whiny, and jealous of Theo's affection for his brother, despite the fact that in real life she spend thirty years after both Vincent and Theo were dead tirelessly promoting Vincent's paintings. Character assassination much?
But then I realized that the film portrays pretty much everyone in similarly unfavorable lights, including the Brothers Van Gogh. I am not sure the filmmakers meant me to come away with the impression that insanity infected most of the Van Gogh family, but I definitely did. Given that the movie centers almost entirely on the Van Goghs, and the Van Goghs spend most of the movie shrieking, the film is very difficult to watch.
As a matter of fact the only person who doesn't spend most of the film in a state of barely repressed hysteria is Gauguin. Gauguin is the only likable character in the film - Gauguin who spend his twilight years infecting twelve-year-old Tahitian girls with syphilis - partly because he spends most of his screen time with Van Gogh, and it's hard not to look good when your screen companion pins you to a bed, clutching a knife in one hand and your hair in the other, and forcibly makes out with you.
Yes, the filmmakers actually went there. Gauguin responds with admirable calm: he's all "Vincent. Sexually assaulting me will not make me want to stay in Arles." Vincent stomps off and has a temper tantrum.
Actually, this film did do one thing well: while I can't forgive Gauguin the Tahitian girls, if Van Gogh was even halfway like this I can't blame Gauguin at all for fleeing Arles as fast as his fat little legs could carry him.
***
And now for something completely different:
A number of people commented on Opera Gloves and Aliens that they thought Jack baking a pie would be made of awesome, and I was inspired, so:
Jack sat on Ianto’s couch, naked but for a ruffled pink apron. “Cherries are a sexy fruit,” he said.
“When they aren’t all over my kitchen,” Ianto agreed. “Extremely sexy. Stop moving your hands please?”
“Especially when they’re baked in a pie by a man wearing nothing but an apron,” Jack said, determined Ianto would appreciate his intended surprise.
"Very attractive," Ianto said soothingly, kissing Jack's wrist below the gauze. "You couldn’t have put on oven mitts when you took the pie out of the oven?"
"Oven mitts," said Jack, as dignified as palms covered with second-degree burns allowed, “just aren’t sexy.”
Originally I was going to complain about the film's treatment of women. In particular I object to Johanna, Theo's wife (Theo is Vincent's brother), who is shown as weepy, whiny, and jealous of Theo's affection for his brother, despite the fact that in real life she spend thirty years after both Vincent and Theo were dead tirelessly promoting Vincent's paintings. Character assassination much?
But then I realized that the film portrays pretty much everyone in similarly unfavorable lights, including the Brothers Van Gogh. I am not sure the filmmakers meant me to come away with the impression that insanity infected most of the Van Gogh family, but I definitely did. Given that the movie centers almost entirely on the Van Goghs, and the Van Goghs spend most of the movie shrieking, the film is very difficult to watch.
As a matter of fact the only person who doesn't spend most of the film in a state of barely repressed hysteria is Gauguin. Gauguin is the only likable character in the film - Gauguin who spend his twilight years infecting twelve-year-old Tahitian girls with syphilis - partly because he spends most of his screen time with Van Gogh, and it's hard not to look good when your screen companion pins you to a bed, clutching a knife in one hand and your hair in the other, and forcibly makes out with you.
Yes, the filmmakers actually went there. Gauguin responds with admirable calm: he's all "Vincent. Sexually assaulting me will not make me want to stay in Arles." Vincent stomps off and has a temper tantrum.
Actually, this film did do one thing well: while I can't forgive Gauguin the Tahitian girls, if Van Gogh was even halfway like this I can't blame Gauguin at all for fleeing Arles as fast as his fat little legs could carry him.
***
And now for something completely different:
A number of people commented on Opera Gloves and Aliens that they thought Jack baking a pie would be made of awesome, and I was inspired, so:
Jack sat on Ianto’s couch, naked but for a ruffled pink apron. “Cherries are a sexy fruit,” he said.
“When they aren’t all over my kitchen,” Ianto agreed. “Extremely sexy. Stop moving your hands please?”
“Especially when they’re baked in a pie by a man wearing nothing but an apron,” Jack said, determined Ianto would appreciate his intended surprise.
"Very attractive," Ianto said soothingly, kissing Jack's wrist below the gauze. "You couldn’t have put on oven mitts when you took the pie out of the oven?"
"Oven mitts," said Jack, as dignified as palms covered with second-degree burns allowed, “just aren’t sexy.”
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-24 04:25 pm (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uocI0H-ooes
no subject
Date: 2009-03-25 01:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-25 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-25 01:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-25 01:52 pm (UTC)The drabble, however, is great! So cute, and there is pie. Even, better, it's cherry pie!
Nobody understands how Jack suffers to be sexy. It takes so much more work than they realize. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-26 03:23 pm (UTC)Cherry pie makes everything better, though.