Anne Boleyn vs. Abbie Hoffman vs. the Nazis
My reviews of "Chicago 10, " "The Counterfeiters," and "The Other Boleyn Girl" are in the Chicago Sun-Times and RogerEbert.com. Guess which review this is from:
Mary Boleyn: "You know I love him."Anne Boleyn: "Well, perhaps you should stop."
Sassed her, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
If Russ Meyer had made "The Other Boleyn Girl," Anne and Mary Boleyn would have yanked some hair, scratched some eyeballs, walloped each other in their respective kissers, and the movie would have been all the better for it. Just imagine: "Beneath the Valley of the Tudorvixens": Meee-oww!
As it is, "The Other Boleyn Girl" is a sullen genre picture, hardly as vivacious as Meyer's uncategorizable sexploitation films, and not as edifying, either. It's built on sturdy old generic conventions, as familiar as those in any slasher film or naughty-nurses potboiler.
Comments
An historic? I hope you only meant it as a joke about that antique use of an before h when the emphasis is on the second syllable.
JE: Not just a historical usage, but a British one. Notice parentheses.
Posted by: Raymond Ogilvie | February 28, 2008 11:00 PM
Yeah, it's more of a British mistake to make, no? The same way a lot of Brit friends call the eighth letter of the alphabet "haich." I, on the other hand, use received pronunciation correctly. I am ever so posh, don't you know...
That Chicago 10 flick is very interesting - the trailer is great. I always thought it was the Chicago Eight, though, which then became the Chicago Seven, when it was decided to try one of the defendants separately.
And Steven Spielberg is making a film about those events as well, no? I remember reading something about his approaching Sacha Baron-Cohen for the role of Abbie Hoffman.
Posted by: Ali Arikan | February 29, 2008 05:33 AM
Ali: "An historical" is good ol' proper "BBC English." Same with the word "herb" (American English does not pronounce the "h"), or treating nouns that represent groups as plurals ("the crowd are going wild"; "Manchester have won the cup").
The director of the colourful "Chicago 10" (though he doesn't explain it in the movie itself) decided to add in Bobby Seale plus the two defense attourneys -- er, attorneys -- for a total of 10. And, yes, "The Trial of the Chicago 7," written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Spielberg, is supposedly in the works. SBC as Abbie: I'd love to see that. Philip Seymour Hoffman may play William Kunstler. I want to buy my ticket now.
Posted by: jim emerson | February 29, 2008 12:41 PM
Abbie Hoffman portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter. Think about it. Keep thinking. Little bit longer. Okay, stop.
Posted by: Jonathan Lapper | February 29, 2008 05:50 PM
Actually, the only thing that seems remotely interesting about this movie is Anna Torrent as Catherine of Aragon. I personally consider her performance in "The Spirit of the Beehive," one of the finest ever made. But of course in this movie she is not playing a seven year old girl. So how does she do?
Posted by: partisan | February 29, 2008 06:07 PM
Jim: Of course, you are right. The usual gentlemen (and ladies) at the Beeb prefer to use "an historical;" yet they don't say "an histerical." Still, considering RP's emphasis on enunciating consonants at the beginning of words, they should think about revising their speech patterns.
Another common mistake, which one wouldn't expect from the BBC, is the way they complement gerunds with pronouns in the objective case, rather than the possessive: "Me doing," instead of "my doing," etc.
As those kerazee Romans said, Abeunt studia in mores...
Posted by: Ali Arikan | March 2, 2008 11:40 PM
All I know is that the x-ray spex they used to sell in the back of comics--you know, the ones that let you have hours of fun staring at the bones in your hand or seeing right through the lady's sheer dress to her underwear?--were an hysterical optical illusion. I'm sure the army were waiting in line to get a bunch for top secret ops.
Posted by: Dane Walker | March 3, 2008 03:49 PM