I can't believe I'm still sick. I've just about run out of patience with it. To think I actually thought last night I might feel better to-day. I woke up feeling like a dry paste sculpture of myself. I think I shall try not leaving the house to-day.
I'm trying to cut down on activity in general, both real and simulated (Skyrim). Yesterday I watched the production I have of Das Rheingold and I started watching the fifth Doctor serial "Enlightenment" again. It seems to me three is always a crowd in the TARDIS. All the best chemistry between the Doctor and his female companions is so subtle it's easily obliterated by the addition of a male companion.* That being said, I think Turlough's the only male companion I really liked. Particularly after Adric, he's a more complex character played by a better actor. I love how he's duplicitous and cowardly without being annoying and stupid. It's a fine line sometimes.
And last night I watched The Fearless Vampire Killers.
At a time when it seemed many movies were reacting against the bright colours of 1950s cinema by making drab and grimy looking films, Polanski had a rather bold colour palette. This one looks beautiful, extraordinarily stylised, like a Disney movie made for adults.
Sharon Tate is so cute in this. I think it's the first time I've seen her in anything. And Polanski, as one of the leads, is an adorable dweeb lusting after her. But the most memorable performance is certainly Jack MacGowran as the Van Helsing parody Professor Abronsius.
The skinny old man in the scarf had a real knack for physical comedy and seemed to be a master at double takes, crafting a really endearing academic old fellow, so caught up in the romance of attaining and applying knowledge that, although he notices outrageous things around him, he doesn't seem to care very much.
The movie's a comedy that has the sense to know that treating its characters and environment with respect and creativity enhances the comedy. It seems mainly to be a parody of Hammer horror films, but in addition to looking a great deal better than Horror of Dracula, the characters in it are better drawn and the dynamics between them are more interesting.
The toying respect the vampire Count gives the professor, the perhaps equally superior respect the professor gives the Count for toying with him, the awkwardness of the kid Polanski plays stressed by his devotion to the professor and his lusts for the young women. It's all played so well.
*This doesn't include Jaime, because the chemistry was always between the Doctor and Jaime. The female companions weren't wired properly for the second Doctor.
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