I am freakin sick and it pisses me off!! Home sick today. Bad sore throat, which if I didn't have an hour + commute there and back wouldn't be so bad, but I do, so there. If I make less sense than usual, it is because I am sick. Luckily we have television again, and I have like 900 channels to watch. But all I have been watching is Zombie movies, which does nothing for my mental health, obviously... So I took a break yesterday (at the zenith of sickness) and watched a Val Lewton double feature starring my FAVORITE guy, Mr. Boris Karloff. Both films were very good. I am not in the "Val Lewton is a genius" camp, but I can appreciate his vision. Of the two films, I thought "Isle of the Dead" was far superior. Karloff plays a Greek Army General trapped on an Island with a few others because of an outbreak of the plague (that sucks. I think I have the plague right now.) As people start dying off, Karloff starts to lose his mind. Karloff gives a sympathetic performance as a man loosing his grip on reality.
Oddly enough, both of these films are based on works of art. "Isle of the Dead" is based on a series of paintings by creepy Symbolist Swiss Painter Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901). These paintings are really beautiful and worth checking out. The "Isle" of the film really captures this mood..
The second film "Bedlam" is not as good, but still enjoyable. Karloff plays a true creepy perv in this one. I liked the lead Female character played by Anna Lee. She starts out as a Bitch, and sorta remains a Bitch, even though she becomes the "hero" of the film. And she falls in love with a hot Quaker.
"Bedlam" was based on Hogarth's "A Rake's Progress". It is the final panel where the "Rake" ends up at Bedlam (Bethlem Royal Hospital), for all of his bad behavior. Once upon a time in another life I visited Bethlem when I lived in England. I was writing a paper on an Artist who did some time there. They actually have a little museum where you can buy souvenirs. I bought a Bedlam coffee mug. Of course the place is very civilized now. Time to take some more medicine and watch Gossip Girl..
1 comment:
Das Baby has been sick, as well, though very briefly- you wouldn't notice it on her blog, even. Of course, I've been wondering what struck her, and I now realize that it was a sympathy sickness for you!
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