Saturday, June 30, 2012

helena bonham carter

UK Vogue July 2012
Rarely does a film capture the essence of a novel. But the film A Room With a View, in my estimation, was superior to the novel. The novel was charming, but the film really captured the beauty of Italy, the English countryside, and the dilemma of each character. Nest of hair, starched linen, and a heart ready to bust out of her pinafore is the essence of Lucy Honeychurch. Helena played it perfectly. Her hair was a mountain, her lip the perfect pout, and her gaze ... always trying to find a glimpse of what could light her up. And she found it with the perfect match ... another soul looking for the answers to the questions. Remember the question mark that he drew on the back of the pensione's wall art? Come to think of it, I don't even remember his name ... the actor, yes. Julian Sands. I remember him as his father called him, 'My dear boy.' Perhaps it is that he was just the vehicle ... his name isn't important. The distraction of him at the window looking over the Arno ... no name necessary.

And of course I remember Freddy! The brother. I love Rubert Graves, the actor who portrayed him, and this was my first look at him in film. And what a look I got! I think that this is the only film that I've seen male nudity that was not deliberate or ... icky. When the screen was filled with 'my dear boy,' and Freddy, and Mr. Biebs tromping around a swimming hole naked! Goodness.

UK Harper's Bazaar June 


But back to Lucy ... the UK Vogue picture above is rather silly. I wouldn't have placed a lolly pop in her hand. She doesn't need it. The placement of her feet connote the child in her that is juxtaposed to the corset and wild fur off her shoulder with her strap. I like the picture in UK Harper's Bazaar better. Look how similiar she poses ... I don't think that she has a freckle, she's such the English rose. Of course, she's the dark rose. And so the snake on her head ... that's perfectly styled. She is after all, in her best work, Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter series! What I love about her in that part was for the fact that she was always looking down her nose at others. She never looked dead on at Harry or Hermione or Ron; instead, she gazes at them from a distance that her nose separates her from them ... she sort of smells them to see what they were up to at that particular moment. She smells their blood, and she wants to ... kill them for it as she's a ruthless, coldhearted, bitch (hey, that's what Mrs. Weasley called her when she zapped her to protect her daughter!)

But it goes back to ... Room With a View. As she so precisely when asked about which book that changed her life, "A Room With a View because if it hadn't been written I would have had a crap career."

Of course, Helena has been in the mags since her movie, Dark Shadows, is out now. I'm on the back end of the rush to see it, and it was showing in only one theater in the whole city last night. It's the typical Tim Burton-Johnny Depp production ... sort of creepy make-up, sort of off-beat characters, and a lot of ... camp. I don't really remember the series Dark Shadows well, but I have an impression of it. I understand why it didn't do well in the theaters ... it's too niched. Johnny is being Johnny, and Burton's world is as off-beat and spoofy as always. I liked the camp ... the story was a bit thin and the narrative wasn't consistent (is the girl the ghost, is the ghost the girl, what happened to her in the end because I saw a second fiend being made), but the 70's surreal world was a giggle and Michelle Pfeifer was a dream. Oh! I didn't mention Helena ... she plays the drunk psychiatrist brought in the Collins manse to deal with the little one who's mom is an apparition. Not really her best role, but there's an interesting scene with she and Johnny .... she is 'bowing' to him ... and in the end she's the last on the screen ... at the bottom of the ocean, eyes open and round as ever. Oh, Tim likes to see his wife on film.





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