Setsuled's Journal

I found my copy of Tom Waits' Alice. I'm so glad about it. It was wedged between the driver's seat and cupholder in my car.

I'm supposed to go and watch the Golden Globes with my mother and sister to-day. Since there shall be pizza, I suppose I shall definitely go.

Watched Martin Scorcese's The Age of Innocence last night. I hadn't seen it in many years and I hadn't yet read the book the first time I saw the movie. The movie is surprisingly faithful to a book that I would have thought difficult to translate into a motion picture. Although it does, of course, sidestep the primary difficulty by having a narrator--a woman's voice, presumably the voice of Edith Wharton. Filmmakers generally perfer to avoid narration when they can and the reason is pretty well illustrated in this movie--it slows the action and makes the movie a more passive entity. But it was absolutely necessary in this case and since the movie is so brilliant in every other way, it all works out. I liked the tricks used to make people standing around, saying things vaguely, into a scene that communicates the violent emotions underneath--be it use of colour tinting or unexpected close-ups or clever uses of sound. Daniel Day-Lewis does much for this, too, being able to express a great deal without saying anything.

The movie lacks some of the humour of the book, particularly at the beginning. But it does very well capture the characters and their incredibally subtle, delicate relationships.

It really is a beautiful, terrible story.