sunburned and dreaming of Curt Wilde
Jun. 30th, 2003 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lobelia321I am very distracted by Orli pics.
But I dreamed of Curt Wilde.
T'h feel asleep again! And then mocked relentlessly!
Velvet Goldmine
The best thing about the film: Arthur's smile at the end. That smile is just to die for. It transforms his face and it transforms the film and watching it the third time I realised you could never stop watching this half-way through because all of me was quivering and anticipating *that smile*.
The smile means it is not a tragedy after all. And the smile is also elusive: the narrative is not stitched up but left in a lovely floating space.
The frame story is Citizen Kane but so wonderfully twisted and subverted.
What reminded me of Citizen Kane (which is, btw, a film I don't love tremendously): the frame story: journalist goes out and interviews people around a legend (Kane), incl. former starlet-wife, now come down in the world and sitting in a seedy bar; the flashback structure this entails; the interspersal of news stories; the voice-over.
I love how we get drawn into Arthur's world slowly and almost without noticing. I started out not quite knowing whom to identify with, whose pov to go with: first Oscar, then Jack Fairy, then Brian, all seen from afar, though (as became clear to me in retrospect). Arthur at first seems to be just one more of the lot.
But for me the jolt came with the moment when he says to Mandy Slade that he likes her smile. That is not the objective outsider journalist of Citizen Kane! Suddenly, he's interacting with the protagonists of the plot!
And then of course, the jolting melting wonderfulness of the moment when he follows Curt onto the rooftop. I think my mouth literally fell open first time round. All of a sudden, you realise that far from the 'objective' (if inconclusive) story of the journalist ofCitizen Kane this is *Arthur's* highly subjective tale. The reason that Curt Wilde is the emotional centre of energy of the film is not, as I presumed up until that moment, because of Brian Slade's love for him, but because of *Arthur's* own emotional investment in Curt! (Curt, in other words, is totally cathected for Arthur.)
And then we, the viewers, because of having been softly-softly coerced and encouraged into identifying with normal old Arthur's pov, not with the larger-than-life rock star people, suddenly we, too, are sucked into the story. *Sutured*, as the arty-farty filmy people say (and it is only now that I appreciate the usefulness of that term!) - stitched into the narrative, utterly drawn in and ourselves implicated.
The larger-than-life quality of the stars was also perfectly captured. I'm not yet totally sure how Todd Haynes pulls that off: a mixture of lighting and camera angles and sheer charisma effect.
I love the evocation of the machoness of that era:pre-women's movement, even in a way pre-gay rights movement, pre-era where men were allowed to be pretty so they were pretty in an extreme,non-mainstream way. There's the savage raw energy of that masculinity as well (Curt!).
Although all the talk is about and the (putative) quest is for Brian Slade, it's Curt Wilde who mesmerises (or who mesmerised me) -- and then I thought, of course, because it's Curt Wilde all along who mesmerised Arthur. We *thought* he was searching for Brian, but in the end he was really searching for Curt. And,ultimately, for himself. Brian remains a mask.
I also liked the jokes on names although I haven't been able to figure out all of them. Brian = obviously Brian Eno, and Slade is Slade. Curt = perhaps Curt Cobaine?? (and how do you spell that?) And Wilde = Oscar. Not sure about Arthur or Tommy Stone. (And btw, is Tommy Stone played by J. Rhys Meyers? Because a different actor appears in the credits.)
I love the nostalgia we are made to feel for a moment that, on the surface of it, is utterly trivial. And how the film is about more than just this particular historical moment.
I love the passion, and I love the One True Love. This is what reminds me of my swoondom for Bollywood. Bollywood is utterly het (the third world isn't quite up to this level of gender playfulness yet) but it is at the same time so outré and camped up, and what reminded me of my lust for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (another film I watched ten times in a row) was the fact that both are, sort of, musicals, both have a tragic and a happy love, and an utterly passionate One True Love. And both have beautiful, larger-than-life stars.
In other news
In unspoilered news, I had a glorious day ensconced in recliner in garden, Observer in one hand, glass of gin&tonic in the other, legs in sun, head in shade, fruit salad on grass next to Jane Smiley's Good Faith, print-outs of my non-fandom recs and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
freyafloyd's FOTA, for Ewanish re-reading. Plus CD-walkman in lap with Cold Play in ear, to be removed at intervals for auditory input of birdsong, t'h going 'Fuck, I've sprained my ankle', and t'sons going 'Can I have another nutella bread?'
Oh, those long languid days of summer... Well, they ended last night with downpour but still. Use 'em or lose 'em.
And nothing like ending a day in t'sun with some delightful marital experiments and the losing of a few more points on the purity scale.... *grins in lewd languid manner*
But I dreamed of Curt Wilde.
T'h feel asleep again! And then mocked relentlessly!
Velvet Goldmine
The best thing about the film: Arthur's smile at the end. That smile is just to die for. It transforms his face and it transforms the film and watching it the third time I realised you could never stop watching this half-way through because all of me was quivering and anticipating *that smile*.
The smile means it is not a tragedy after all. And the smile is also elusive: the narrative is not stitched up but left in a lovely floating space.
The frame story is Citizen Kane but so wonderfully twisted and subverted.
What reminded me of Citizen Kane (which is, btw, a film I don't love tremendously): the frame story: journalist goes out and interviews people around a legend (Kane), incl. former starlet-wife, now come down in the world and sitting in a seedy bar; the flashback structure this entails; the interspersal of news stories; the voice-over.
I love how we get drawn into Arthur's world slowly and almost without noticing. I started out not quite knowing whom to identify with, whose pov to go with: first Oscar, then Jack Fairy, then Brian, all seen from afar, though (as became clear to me in retrospect). Arthur at first seems to be just one more of the lot.
But for me the jolt came with the moment when he says to Mandy Slade that he likes her smile. That is not the objective outsider journalist of Citizen Kane! Suddenly, he's interacting with the protagonists of the plot!
And then of course, the jolting melting wonderfulness of the moment when he follows Curt onto the rooftop. I think my mouth literally fell open first time round. All of a sudden, you realise that far from the 'objective' (if inconclusive) story of the journalist ofCitizen Kane this is *Arthur's* highly subjective tale. The reason that Curt Wilde is the emotional centre of energy of the film is not, as I presumed up until that moment, because of Brian Slade's love for him, but because of *Arthur's* own emotional investment in Curt! (Curt, in other words, is totally cathected for Arthur.)
And then we, the viewers, because of having been softly-softly coerced and encouraged into identifying with normal old Arthur's pov, not with the larger-than-life rock star people, suddenly we, too, are sucked into the story. *Sutured*, as the arty-farty filmy people say (and it is only now that I appreciate the usefulness of that term!) - stitched into the narrative, utterly drawn in and ourselves implicated.
The larger-than-life quality of the stars was also perfectly captured. I'm not yet totally sure how Todd Haynes pulls that off: a mixture of lighting and camera angles and sheer charisma effect.
I love the evocation of the machoness of that era:pre-women's movement, even in a way pre-gay rights movement, pre-era where men were allowed to be pretty so they were pretty in an extreme,non-mainstream way. There's the savage raw energy of that masculinity as well (Curt!).
Although all the talk is about and the (putative) quest is for Brian Slade, it's Curt Wilde who mesmerises (or who mesmerised me) -- and then I thought, of course, because it's Curt Wilde all along who mesmerised Arthur. We *thought* he was searching for Brian, but in the end he was really searching for Curt. And,ultimately, for himself. Brian remains a mask.
I also liked the jokes on names although I haven't been able to figure out all of them. Brian = obviously Brian Eno, and Slade is Slade. Curt = perhaps Curt Cobaine?? (and how do you spell that?) And Wilde = Oscar. Not sure about Arthur or Tommy Stone. (And btw, is Tommy Stone played by J. Rhys Meyers? Because a different actor appears in the credits.)
I love the nostalgia we are made to feel for a moment that, on the surface of it, is utterly trivial. And how the film is about more than just this particular historical moment.
I love the passion, and I love the One True Love. This is what reminds me of my swoondom for Bollywood. Bollywood is utterly het (the third world isn't quite up to this level of gender playfulness yet) but it is at the same time so outré and camped up, and what reminded me of my lust for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (another film I watched ten times in a row) was the fact that both are, sort of, musicals, both have a tragic and a happy love, and an utterly passionate One True Love. And both have beautiful, larger-than-life stars.
In other news
In unspoilered news, I had a glorious day ensconced in recliner in garden, Observer in one hand, glass of gin&tonic in the other, legs in sun, head in shade, fruit salad on grass next to Jane Smiley's Good Faith, print-outs of my non-fandom recs and
freyafloyd's FOTA, for Ewanish re-reading. Plus CD-walkman in lap with Cold Play in ear, to be removed at intervals for auditory input of birdsong, t'h going 'Fuck, I've sprained my ankle', and t'sons going 'Can I have another nutella bread?'Oh, those long languid days of summer... Well, they ended last night with downpour but still. Use 'em or lose 'em.
And nothing like ending a day in t'sun with some delightful marital experiments and the losing of a few more points on the purity scale.... *grins in lewd languid manner*
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 07:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 07:39 am (UTC)Whatever happened to vibrator love in the end?
Have you seen Velvet Goldmine?
How is t'job?
How is t'counselling?
How is t'eyebrow? It thought of you when I saw this: Eyebrow's Orli.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 08:54 am (UTC)Well, you see, there was this great barrage of questions...Ha.Having wanted me five days a week (though they only got four) last week, the job has said they haven't got anything for me this week after today! Which is good (on time front) and bad (on money front). Unfortunately the only phone plug is in the back room and that's where my housemate watches crap tv all evening and it's a bit odd to be livejournalling away while she's there; so if I'm only getting home in the evenings then it's difficult. Also the contents of my brain are all a bit crowded. The job is clerical, intelligent monkey work but the working-professional persona takes energy to put on and take off! God, how dull it would be to make a whole life out of working in that sort of environment, I am reminded again.
I have seen Velvet Goldmine. I found the plot a bit blah and couldn't bring myself to care too much, but I was visually and sexually mesmerised! I don't think I have anything intelligent to say: I think Ewan's bouncing penis hypnotised me. I confess to a certain use of the rewind button.
I cannot cope with Orlando's poufy hair of the moment. It's a terror to behold. Fine when he's shirtless and necklace-bedecked as poufy old Paris but in modern clothes?? Eek!! Like some 70s disco horror. Though the photos are lovely with all their facial expressions and crinkles round the eyes and lack of fashion-model-poutiness. He's an offensively delightful looking man. Is it his wonky squashed eyebrow in that one that makes you think of me?
I think I am getting there with the vibrator! I can't quite seem to tip over the edge but I can get very close before having to resort to the usual again. Or the other strategy is to do the usual and use the vibrator internally and whee! is that good. Even if I never manage to get to "look mum, no hands" I will still be rather pleased.
Have only seen the new counsellor once and shan't again till next week. It was all a bit odd because it was like starting again but not; or she was starting again but I wasn't. I just wanted to keep talking from where I thought I was at but she needed me to start at the start to know what I was on about. And it sounds so pathetic and small and tentative when I try to summarise it and that was sort of awful. This one talks (and emotes) far less than the other one, who was much younger and newer to it. It's maybe like inexperienced tutors tend to talk too much, but I quite liked her talking. Well, it's early days yet. I don't think I was all that comfortable in the first session with the first one either, so we'll see.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 09:19 am (UTC)Yes, of course it was the squashed Eyebrow! Iconable!
And you are not into curly!Orli. *boggles* Which one were you into then? Kelly!Orli? Whitetrash!Orli?? I am aswoon over curly!Orli. I have no defenses against that vision. It's the curls wot got me back into the man, and it's the curls wot's keeping me there. And I am already used to the horror that is love-of-the-70s-look from the days of Karl-longhairandbeard-IamCatStevens-pics. And what with having gone completely awol over the 70s glam fest that is Velvet Goldmine, I am defenseless on the 70s front as well.
Plus, I used to like Gilbert o'Sullivan in my dimmest, pre-teen years. (Am re-discovering the inner dag.)
Hm, VG. T'h fell asleep because of plot blahdom and too much slashiness. I, however, waxed arty (and hotty) over t'plot. (See t'post.) Ewan's bouncing penis is a fucking on-screen miracle. Ewan as Curt Wilde *kills me*.
Why do I still not own a vibrator? Oh yes, laziness, never having the credit card next to the computer, not having credit on the credit card, more laziness. Ack. Must redeem this. Must be able to share the quilting bee!
I never warmed to my counsellor but I now find that that is not a bad thing. Others, I've heard, give advice and stuff but I think in the end it's good that mine doesn't do that. Because it's not the counsellor who does the work (as my friend in the US pointed out), it's you, and it's what you put in. So who they are doesn't really matter all that much, as long as they are not completely un-conducive. And I think sometimes I had anti-counsellor feelings because I was having anti-me feelings and not wanting to go to places where I thought I had to go during the sessions. Do you agree with Lazulus that in k/d epic it was a Karl-Sue rather than a Dom-Sue? Am pondering the meaning of that.
It took me 5 months to have the feeling I was getting anywhere at all with the counselling. But I am so glad and grateful that I went in the end. And you're not waiting till you're 40! So that'll be at least 15 years of extra life enjoyment over me!
Working in t'real world is a good antidote to being bored with dissertation. It is also ficfodder and a means of later feeling superior to protected little brats who never went out into the real world. I am ridiculously proud of all the shit jobs I survived. Worst one ever: fashion boutique (I lasted half a day). I was also a check-out chick at Jewel Foodstores (do they have them in Melbourne?) and at Woollies, a microfilmer, a chambermaid, a document destroyer for a detective agency (pre-computerisation!), a teacher of German and English as a foreign language (best job of the lot), a furniture salesperson, a silkscreen printer, a factory worker in a lightbulb factory, a waitress in a coffee shop and other things I have now forgotten.
But academic is definitely the best. For me, at least.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 10:04 am (UTC)Arthur is the heart of VG! You really have to hear
*hugs lobelia tight*
The ending is so gorgeous. Arthurs's smile! It was so obviously the start and not the end for Arthur and Curt.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 12:35 pm (UTC)I love the open-ended narrative and the indecision of it. And so I had problems with your fic which explains why I haven't replied to it! I've been tormenting myself over it! Because I really didn't like having them go off with each other afterwards. For me, the ending is not at all obvious in that way. In fact, I prefer to see this as a one-off ships-in-the-night last-time-seeing-each-other kind of ending (although I love the fact of its openness so it *could* be something else -- I just don't like having it *fixed*). I can't see them together at all - Curt too much of an egomaniac, too larger-than-life, too hung-up on Brad still! And it's not a beginning for *them*, as I see it, but a beginning for *Arthur*.
Having said that, I did find it intriguing that you developed the possibility of them going off together, running into the street after him and so forth. This had not occurred to me at all! So it was interesting to think it through and see that yes, it was not *ruled out* by the ending as it stands -- but I was also dismayed by it. Too happy closure clappy.
But then I decided to see it as part of Christian's fantasy and that made it okay again. Because the rps and the fps bits intertwine, and if I read the fps bits as living inside Christian's head only, as projections of Christian's feelings for Ewan, then I can cope with that version of 'what happens after the credits'. Otherwise, no.
Omg, I'm going mad. I'm posting mile-long comments on this film! I am completely ga-ga!
You (and Jenn and Cal) tend to do this to me with your luringnesses!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 01:22 pm (UTC)Having said that, as far as the fic is concerned, yes it was Christian making it okay for Arthur and Curt so that he could cope with it not being okay for himself and Ewan. They were Christian's dreams. His subconscious was making it alright, giving himself a happy ending of some sort.
Or maybe I'm just a sad fangirl who covers her own lack of love by wishing it upon fictional characters. Now, there's a thought!
You (and Jenn and Cal) tend to do this to me with your luringnesses!!!
We live to serve...
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 03:12 pm (UTC)My preferred reading is this: Curt gives him the pin because he recognises him and he acknowledges him via the pin without having to say it. But the pin is also a way of saying good-bye and saying I'm done with this life now. I don't think the night on the rooftop was the Big True Love for them. I think it was a formative, significant experience for Arthur, that's haunted him all these years and that expressed something about himself that he hadn't wanted to admit or remember for a long time. And getting the recognition from Curt means closure. He is remembered.
For Curt, I think it was a one-night stand. It was a very lovely one-night stand but no more. Curt is still hung up on Brian: he's stalking him as he was ten years ago! And you're right, actually, come to think of it, yes, he may be ready to move on, which is why he's giving away the pin. But ...
Two hours later: Ack. I was called away from the computer and now I can't for the life of me remember how I was going to end this post.
Well, I'll just hit that 'Post Comment' button then. *gg*
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 03:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 12:36 pm (UTC)too hung-up on Brad still!
That should read 'Brian', obviously.
This comes from having written Maltafic all afternoon! I've got Brad on the brain!
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 03:15 pm (UTC)Hmm, I'd always assumed there was a punning reference to Kurt Weill.
The nostalgia is utterly trivial, but astonishingly successful -- works for those who are too young to remember glam rock first-hand, too, which is quite an achievement!
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 03:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 03:34 pm (UTC)Oh, you're so right. As you say, it's totally Arthur's story. I love his character, and I love that moment, and you saying this has made me realise something else, which is (if I may go all RPS on you for a second) that that particular smile completely insinuated itself into my Christian/Billy fic. No wonder really, since virtually everything I know about Christian comes from how he is in this film, and the snippets of him in the accompanying documentary on the DVD. So yeah - my Christian is a completely Velvet Goldmine Christian.
Other things - having just been watching the DVD extras, I've decided JRD is the Orlando of this film... Make of that what you will.
For me, the other great character in the film is Mandy Slade - I think Toni Collette is wonderful - the terrible, painful scene with the divorce papers, and then later in the bar with Arthur.
Oh - and another favourite scene: the bit with the dolls, and the child's voice-over. I dunno, it always makes me think of slash.
Curt = perhaps Curt Cobaine?? (and how do you spell that?)
God, at times Ewan looks so scarily like Kurt Cobain in this film. He's like Kurt and Iggy Pop's lovechild. (Incidentally, I think Kurt often played around with the spelling of his name).
Anyway, so after all your squeeage, I decided I had to rewatch the film tonight, and I seriously think I get more out of it each time I see it. I was accompanied by Flatmate C, and Non-Flatmate D. D hadn't seen it before. His verdict? "I love that shit!" His favourite bit? "The bit where they're fucking on the rooftop." Of course...
(no subject)
Date: 2003-06-30 04:13 pm (UTC)And that Billy fic you wrote was *that* Christian? Ack, I must now *re-read*!! I had never heard of Christian Bale when I first read that, of course, I just liked it (I treated him as an origfic) but I will scuttle and find it. (God, where where where in the mess that is my study?)
JRD - do you mean JRM? As in Brian Slade? And how is he the Orlando?
And Tony Collette *is* wonderful. Such a rocker's wife. Makes you also realise how the wives were *nothing*, they were just dishrags. I keep thinking about her lower lip - I don't know how they transformed her into this 70s babe. I think in the bar later she's absolutely wonderful and rather together, actually.
Re:
Date: 2003-06-30 05:43 pm (UTC)Ha! You see how lotripsized I am? JRM of course. And he is the Orlando because he waffles on in quite a similar way. But I think I prefer Orlando for waffling purposes.
And Tony Collette *is* wonderful. Such a rocker's wife. Makes you also realise how the wives were *nothing*, they were just dishrags. I keep thinking about her lower lip - I don't know how they transformed her into this 70s babe. I think in the bar later she's absolutely wonderful and rather together, actually.
Oh yes. I rather love her. And you're right about Mandy later on - she could be such a completely tragic figure, but TC doesn't quite play it that way.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-02 04:30 pm (UTC)I always thought that Tommy Stone, being an aging rocker(?) was a combination of Tommy (as performed by The Who, and The Rolling Stones.)
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-03 03:46 am (UTC)