rymenhild

I saw Serenity on Friday. I saw Mirrormask today. While I enjoyed Serenity and would certainly be willing to see it again, it doesn't even share a 'verse* with Mirrormask. I walked out of the theatre today absolutely dazed, having lost most of the facility of speech. (If I said anything particularly stupid to anyone who was there with me, I apologize. My brain fell down the rabbit hole.)

In the absence of coherent critical language with which to approach Mirrormask, I suppose I can fall back on the old love-child-of-X-and-Y cliché, thus: If Hayao Miyazaki fathered a child on the entire cast, crew and design staff of Cirque de Soleil, and dressed the baby in garments made from early works of Mark Rothko, the infant might look something like Mirrormask.

Go, my friends. Run. This movie will not be in theatres very long; it may not be in theatres near you at all. If it is, you need to see it.

* Translation for benefit of non-fans: 'Verse is short for "universe" in Firefly and Serenity slang.

ETA, before I put the computer away: I had heard they were cutting all of the theology out of the Narnia movie. The idea upset me; Narnia without Christianity is just as far from the spirit of the text as His Dark Materials without anticlericalism.

Therefore, I was thrilled when I saw the trailer preceding my roommate's Hitchhiker's Guide DVD. Immediately following a shot of the Professor's mansion, white words appear on a black screen: "In this house there are many rooms." Of course, a casual viewer without a stake in the idea of Narnia as Christian allegory might not recognize John 14:2. Nevertheless, if the filmmakers are willing to cite the "New Testament" (Query: Is the politically correct term "Greek Bible"?) in a trailer available to the general public, there is real hope for Narnia.

***

I will be absent from all things LiveJournalish (and, in fact, all things computerish) from now until Wednesday night, due to the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah (the New Year). May you all have a good and sweet New Year. May this year, 5766 on the Jewish calendar, bring us a better world than the one we saw last year.

Greek lawyers are threatening to sue the Hollywood makers of the new film Alexander the Great for depicting the king as bisexual.

I never thought a film could get into trouble for too much historical accuracy.

Also, I have been promising various friends music for quite a while.

Isabella ~ Mediaeval Baebes
There is nothing medieval at all about this song, and very little that is medieval about the group. I like the song's (and the group's) not-quite-Goth, not-quite-techno, not-quite-New-Age, just-slightly-hypnotic aesthetic.

Democracy ~ Leonard Cohen
This song gives me hope, even in late November 2004.
It's coming from the sorrow in the street / the holy places where the races meet.