Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

Awix (3310 KP) rated The Two Popes (2019) in Movies

Dec 6, 2019 (Updated Dec 6, 2019)  
The Two Popes (2019)
The Two Popes (2019)
2019 | Biography, Comedy, Drama
'And it's in nomine patris from me...' '...et in spiritus sancti from him.' Slightly oddball true-life drama doesn't go quite as far as that, but is still much funnier and lighter than it sounds from the capsule synopsis - any film which sees the college of cardinals going into conclave while Dancing Queen plays on the soundtrack, and droll enough to show the two pontiffs watching the World Cup final together (Germany-Argentina, of course) obviously has something to say for itself.

The question is what that is. No doubt the decision to make the film a comedy-drama was partly inspired by concerns it could be offputtingly talky, but the talk works when it's delivered by two actors like Pryce and Hopkins, working with a very good script. The film is arguably biased in favour of Jorge Bergoglio, who is presented as warm, human, and compassionate; his life story is explored in much more detail than that of Joseph Ratzinger - but then again you could say the film does Ratzinger a big favour by largely ignoring the elephant in the room and his role in covering it up. Most of the film is very plausible, and it's only near the end that you begin to suspect how much of it is complete fiction. Still, it's engaging and plausible fiction, and - some distracting hand-held camerawork aside - mostly very well played and filmed.
  
40x40

Elizabeth (1521 KP) rated Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Shows

Jul 20, 2020 (Updated Jul 20, 2020)  
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
1979 | Drama, Musical
9
9.0 (3 Ratings)
Show Rating
Immersive (2 more)
Songs
Performances
Food distribution (1 more)
Limited set
Immersive theater at its best
Another show that my daughter and I saw as it was on its way out. It was our first time seeing an immersive show so I made sure to get us tickets at the tables rather than the stadium seating.

It was a tiny little theater with a stage smaller than I've seen in some schools so you couldn't help but feel like you were part of the show. Because of its small size, it was a fixed stage, with no room for set changes. There were different sections of the stage to make it feel as though you were in the pie shop or the barber shop.

During some of the dance numbers, the cast would dance on the tables we were seated at. Even if you opted for the stadium seats, there was some movement of the cast through those seats as well.

When buying the tickets, you had the option to purchase tickets with or without pies. They had both meat pies and vegetarian pies. When we arrived, they had run out of pies even though we'd purchased ahead. Instead of being able to eat them prior to the show, we had to pick them up after the show was over. It wasn't a huge deal, but when you're hungry and can smell other people's pies, it can be a bit distracting.
  
The Rite Of Spring by Igor Stravinsky
The Rite Of Spring by Igor Stravinsky
2012 | Classical
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I thought we ought to have one classical album as I do play a lot of classical music at home. I thought about Chopin’s Nocturnes but they didn’t change anything. The Rite Of Spring really was, for me, the first punk album. It was the most uncompromising vision. In the period it was done, no one was doing anything like Stravinsky. He was writing parts for instruments that didn’t have those notes, so they had to have new ones made with extra notes so the orchestra could play that piece. That’s forward thinking. The whole story of the making of the album is so fantastic – that Stravinsky has no money and Coco Chanel comes along and invites him to live at his house and Stravinsky sits in a room alone writing all these parts for all these instruments. It’s extraordinary and a remarkable achievement. Then, the fact that on the opening night in a swishy Parisian theatre the audience hated it. They think it is the most terrible row and now it is acknowledged as one of the great masterpieces of the 20th century. It’s too good a story and I admire his commitment and his inventiveness and his absolute passion to making that record work. You listen to it and think "how did anyone ever do that?" Anyone who hasn’t heard The Rite Of Spring and likes music should really take a listen."

Source
  
The Night Circus
The Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
4
8.1 (106 Ratings)
Book Rating
165 of 230
Book
The Night Circus
By Erin Morgenstern
⭐️⭐️

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love - a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

This took way too long to read I got seriously bored. I know this is a super popular book but for me I just didn’t like it. I fell into the hype I don’t know why I keep doing it to myself!