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ginger001
ginger001
04 August 2006 @ 11:24 pm
Too many things in one day  
* Got my brand new black 30 Gb iPod after going to three different shops... It looked like everybody had decided to get a new iPod to take with them while they were on holidays... I was thinking I couldn't get it. (Apart from that we also bought some things for the house in two of my favorite decoration shops La Oca (a Spanish company I think) and Habitat! (Btw, today was colder. This morning was absolutely great to get out on the street... it was absolutely fresh!! --> thing that improved my mood!)

*[livejournal.com profile] netnessie has posted a wonderful photo shoot of Toby Stephens with a red coat (I've seen some of them but not sure I saw all the ones she posted). You can see them and enjoy them HERE. They are in high quality (or pretty high anyway).

*[livejournal.com profile] alexandral is back from wonderful holidays so I think we all forgive her for not being around for a while ;)

* Has anybody in my friends list read a book by Ian McEwan titled 'Atonement'? I know more or less what it is about and the thing is that James McAvoy and Keira Knightley are filming a movie version of it, so I want to know about the plot and the characters. I don't mind some spoilers, but please don't tell me the end... I mean I need something like: 'the story is placed here, at this time, and it's about this boy, this girl, etc (elaborate a bit here)... and is a very sad story (or not), it has sad and happy moments (or not)...' and of course, tell me if you like it or not and if you recommend I read it. The movie will be released in a year so I have plenty of time to read the book. I asked because yesterday I started watching the movie version of 'Enduring Love' and although I just watched the beginning it doesn't look like a very optimist story (but I'm enjoying it for now and the actors are great).

*Another favor: We bought a bamboo food steamer that we were looking for for ages. If anybody have tips or advice about cleaning it properly or where to keep it in the kitchen or even tricks for recipes and you don't mind to share them with me, I'll be glad to know. I bought it to cook Dim Sum but it also looks like a very delicate thing to keep in shape for a long time... So, well, thank you in advance!



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[identity profile] alexandral.livejournal.com on August 4th, 2006 09:55 pm (UTC)
I am so glad you are feeling good today - it is cooler in UK this week too, though still nice weather. I forgotten to say how much I like you new layout :)
ginger001: friends[personal profile] ginger001 on August 4th, 2006 10:02 pm (UTC)
Thank you dear!!! I think I've changed twice quite fast lately ;) Maybe you missed a yellow layout I had a week ago or so ;)

Here weather is quite awful, too hot, quite unbearable really... but today it seems like it allows us to breathe and it was quite fresh... don't know how the weekend will be ;)
(Anonymous) on August 4th, 2006 11:09 pm (UTC)
Atonement
Atonement is a brilliant book, imo, but you really shouldn't know too much about it before reading it. And I can't even properly explain why without giving away too much.
The real question is, perhaps, if it's actually a good idea to read it before seeing the movie. Because if the adaptation is at all faithful then knowing one of them will lessen the impact of the other.
But some basic non-spoilery facts:
The three main characters are Briony Tallis, her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner who is the son of the Tallis family's housemaid. The first part of the book takes place during one very hot summer day in 1935. At that time Briony is 13 and Cecilia and Robbie (to be played by Knightley and McAvoy) are both in their early 20s. Something happens that day which profoundly changes the lives of all three of them and the rest of the book is about the consequences of that day and trying to come to terms with them.
The second part is set in 1940 with the second world war having a heavy influence on proceedings. And then the final and shortest part happens a number of years later.
Is it a sad story? To some extent that's up to the reader to decide. It's certainly not very cheerful, but I guess it would be possible to put a positive spin on it if one were so inclined.
I'd recommend the book to anyone, though. Especially people with an interest in writing.
ginger001: decisions[personal profile] ginger001 on August 4th, 2006 11:14 pm (UTC)
Re: Atonement
Thank you very much for your explanation and for all the recommendations!!! ;) I truly appreciate it!!!
[identity profile] syliasyliasylia.livejournal.com on August 4th, 2006 11:34 pm (UTC)
EEEE! Again, yay for the iPod!

Oh! I also saw that gorgeous Toby Stephens's pics... I was dumbfounded for several minutes of the prettyness of it! *hee*
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[identity profile] queenofthorns.livejournal.com on August 5th, 2006 03:11 am (UTC)
I love Atonement - I'm a big fan of Ian McEwan's in general, and Atonement is my favorite of all his novels. And god, no, not Keira Knightley IN EVERYTHING ... I just don't see her AT ALL as the lead character in this book. WHY?? ::Shakes FIST!!::

Err, and the only one of McEwan's books that I would consider remotely optimistic (and that only in an odd kind of way) is Saturday.
(Anonymous) on August 5th, 2006 07:00 am (UTC)
If there is a lead character surely it's Briony - to be played by Saiorse Ronan / Romola Garai / Vanessa Redgrave.
But why do you think Keira is wrong for Cecilia? She fits the physical description given and should be able to play someone who's a bit posh and seemingly aloof. She is perhaps a bit young for the 1940 part, but it wouldn't be possible for any one person to perfectly match both ages in any case.
And she's actually English, which is a rarity for someone playing a significant English character in a big(ish) movie these days. Becoming Jane, The Other Boleyn Girl, Brontë, Miss Potter, The Golden Age, V for Vendetta, etc. They all relegate British actresses to small supporting parts. I applaud Working Title for actually making this a very British production.
[identity profile] queenofthorns.livejournal.com on August 5th, 2006 04:30 pm (UTC)
Long story short - I don't think Keira Knightley is a particularly good actress (she seems to use the exact same mannerisms for every single role I've ever seen her in - and while they were charming in "Bend it Like Beckham", they're getting less so) and I think she's completely overexposed - there are other very competent and very pretty British actresses who, I feel, would do better as Cecilia. For example, someone like Rachel Weisz. YM obviously varies.

Also, I don't think Briony is the "main character" so much as the "author" - in that sense, I suppose she's "main", but I don't usually think of someone who is an observer to the degree that she is as being the central character.
(Anonymous) on August 5th, 2006 06:08 pm (UTC)
(Sorry about being impolitely anonymous, but I don't have an LJ account and only rarely comment so don't feel like registering.)

Briony is only the narrator in final tenth of the book. For the rest of it she's as much a character as everyone else, and clearly the lead if one lead is to be chosen. But even if you discount her, Robbie and not Cecilia would then become the lead, imo.

...

So it's not that you don't want Keira cast as this character. It's that you don't want her cast as any character ever :-). Seeing this is the case debating details about the character of Cecilia is unlikely to lead us anywhere on this question, so I just let that lie.

There are indeed many talented young british actresses and no doubt a fair number of them could do a fine job in this role. (Rachel Weisz is not one of them though. She's just too old. No one would believe her as a virgin in her early twenties.)

The problem, imo, isn't that Keira is capable of getting the odd meaty role. (And it really is only a few. From 2004 to 2006 she'll have been in a total of five movies, playing the lead in only two of them. Romola Garai has eight movies in the same interval. Scarlett Johansson nine.)
No, the problem is that most of the good parts are given to foreign "names" in order to secure financing (I assume).

Notice how they recently passed over Hayley Atwell for Scarlett in The Other Boleyn Girl. That would have been a great chance for Hayley and they already had an american (Portman) in the other large female role. And the film is even partly financed by the BBC. But no, it didn't happen. This very English story will not have a single British actor in any of the major roles.

So don't think that if Keira wasn't there it would automatically benefit some other young Brit. Who were the leads in Emma, Bridget Jones, Vanity Fair, Shakespeare in Love and who will be in the movies I mention in my earlier comment?



[identity profile] queenofthorns.livejournal.com on August 6th, 2006 02:52 pm (UTC)
I didn't realize they were FILMING "The Other Boleyn Girl" - I thought you were talking about the BBC production and was a bit confusing to me, as that starred Natasha McElhone, who was born in London!

I think Rachel Weisz is a lot more believable as a young woman in her early twenties (which is exactly what she plays in "The Constant Gardener", for example) than Keira Knightley is in costume dramas in general (leaving aside "Pirates", in which I think she does very well, but that's more fantasy than anything else.)

[quote]It's that you don't want her cast as any character ever :-)[/quote]

No, that's totally not it at all - I just think that casting directors see "young English ingenue" or something and they reach for her, even when she's totally unsuitable for the role. (And by the way, I think Scarlett Johansson is hugely overexposed and not right for many of her roles too).
As for all these other films you mention, well mostly just that I don't think The Other Boleyn Girl or Bridget Jones were particularly great book so I don't really care what they butcher in the films, whereas Atonement is one of my favorite novels ever and I'd rather they didn't muck it up. (And, by the way, I also happen to loathe the Gwyneth Paltrow version of "Emma" not just for the lead but for a lot of other reasons.)

I'm sure I'll go see it anyway, but the casting gives me pause, that's all.