Beyond the Roundels

sovay asked me some more film meme questions when I complained about the questions in the other film meme making me talk about my A-Level film watching. I have managed to post my answers to these in less than a month after being asked them, so go me. And thank you sovay! <3

1. A film you watched for a favorite actor (of any gender) which you would not have sought out otherwise?

I wasn't really watching film for a long while, because I couldn't, so only my faves forced me back to it, and made it possible again, so it would be true to say nearly everything I've watched since about 2011. But here is one for each of my faves that have sufficient films in their cv to make it worth nominating one:

a. Dean Spanley (2008), because it's so obscure, and even if I'd stumbled over it in some other context, the very quality of the cast would only have been a warning sign, because it'd have to be terrible to still not ever have pinged my radar, or, afaict, anyone else's that I knew. But the Jeremy Northam tumblrs were enthusiastic, as were the 2-3 others who had actually seen it, so I sought it out, and I'm so glad I was finally able to snag a DVD because they were right - it's an oddity, but it's also a gem.

b. Girl On Approval (1962), which is a lesser New Wave/Kitchen Sink installment that starred Rachel Roberts with my man James Maxwell in the supporting role as her husband. I have a fascination with New Wave, brought on my Media Studies tutor who haunted the other post - we watched Look Back In Anger, Man at the Top & Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (& I also, long before, watched half of A Taste of Honey in my first year at secondary school. Only half was because that was when I first had ME/CFS). This gave me a deep, enduring and entirely grudging fascination with this brand of TV/Film, but also an appreciation of Rachel Roberts, who is amazing.

This is written by a female writer, about two main female characters, and it was the first UK attempt at a realistic film about fostering/social care etc, and I find it fascinating and well done, and worth a look if you have a similar interest in these kinds of films, social history of the era, or Rachel Roberts. (I can also attest it is well worth it for some of the earliest surviving non-fake-hair-assaulted James Maxwell, even if he is not in Rachel Roberts's league.)

c. If I had ever looked at The Lady Vanishes (1938) properly, I would no doubt have always have been taken with the summary, but I'd not got on with old films before then, so it was only watching Margaret Lockwood in 1970s TV, loving her in that and looking her up, that made me actually try it. It was a complete delight, and I've really enjoyed trying lots of 1930s & early 40s films I've watched off the back of that since, whether with or without Margaret Lockwood. I've still got a mixed track record with all-time Hollywood classics, but at least I know there are some things out there I do like!


2. A film you wish had been made with one of your favorites?

I'm not sure whether this is a role swap - this film would have been better with James Maxwell in it! - or a non-existent film they should have made with a favourite actor. I shall answer with something that is simultaneously both, in a way.

BBC Radio's 1991 'Christmas at the Wells' season of Victorian plays was great, but of all radio things I've listened to, the one that most made me pine for a live-action version was their London Assurance with Jeremy Northam as Dazzle. Someone should instantly have grabbed all the cast that could reprise their roles in visual format, or at least Jeremy Northam, and made them do it in a film, or a one-off TV thing. There is no film version of London Assurance, so it'd have been a general service to humanity anyway. I need to relisten to this, because I was new to it, but Dazzle wanders through it, idly bluffing and obliviously causing plot to ensue for everyone else, and I really really wanted to see him. It's set in the 18th C, so there would also have been excellent costumes. I am glad we had the radio, though.

(I loved The Schoolmistress even more but while I would enjoy a live-action version of that, too, it couldn't have Jeremy Northam as he was too old to play a 17 yr old even in 1991, except on radio, lol. Besides, it worked perfectly in that format, so I can just relisten to it anytime I wanted and be quite happy. Although it's such fun, someone should give it a go sometime. The world is always in need of an extra cheerful thing.)


3. A film it surprises people that you love?

See my below answer about me maybe not being the person to judge this - I feel most films I love are obviously films I would love, but then I would. I suppose, to go back to my previous film meme post, people are understandably surprised when I tell them that Schindler's List is probably my favourite film. (I prevaricate unless I feel like explaining my whole totalitarian regimes history story yet again, which I don't always.)

People do get surprised sometimes about that anybody likes the Star Wars Prequel trilogy best, I suppose; and I do! (I'm not alone by any means. ;-p)


4. A film you feel it should be completely obvious that you love?

All my films I love seem pretty obvious choices - to me, at least! But I read the description of The Lady Vanishes (1938) and went "that sounds like almost everything I like in one film" and it really was. The Winslow Boy (1999) was so obviously catered to me that I've been nearly watching it for years and it was first on my list of Jeremy Northam films to get, even if dodgy DVDs delayed it. Gosford Park was super-inevitable in so many ways. Watching The Mummy (1999) in a cinema in Aberystwyth (with wet feet, because I forgot you don't mess with the sea in Aber) was insta-love for multiple reasons, chief of which was A Librarian Heroine. *heart eyes*

idk, all my likes seem painfully obvious to me, but no doubt I'm more inexplicable to other people. Well. Occasionally, perhaps?

Have YOU been shocked by me liking a film??? Do I need to explain myself? I expect I will be very happy to do so.


5. A film you wish had been a television show?

A lot of book adaptations really need a TV serial format to do the book justice. I've been blanking on a particular example for 2-3 weeks now, though. But it'll definitely be some frustratingly over-lite classic lit book adaptation that missed something vital. I think lots of us round here know that feeling!

[I started this post in July 2018. I feel perhaps I should finish it before I have no memory of anything I watched any more. I already couldn't remember the things I watched in June when I wrote it, so expect even less sensible comments than usual.]


... or some of it, anyway. I have been recording films off the TV a lot lately, especially since I discovered Talking Pictures, which is a good enabler is you're into old British films (and TV). Some modern things may get in, too. I do watch them. I just don't always talk about them.

( Films under the cut before I forget them all )

1. There is a post-Yuletide friending meme going on here. (For all those interested in small fandoms and having new friends and not solely for those who took part in the exchange.)



2. sallymn picked three of my icons to talk about for a meme. All three of her selected icons were made by me:



This is Lynda Day from Press Gang, as played by Julia Sawalha, one of my formative influences (as anybody who's been subjected to long babbly comments on the subject over the years will know). She is editor of the Junior Gazette and dictator in the making, and "Fearless Editor" is what (I think) Spike calls her sometimes in the series, so it made both a good PG/Lynda icon and a generic writing one. (The icons I have now have to mostly have combined functions.)

(Press Gang was the first thing Steven Moffat did and I still think, in many ways, that it remains the best, and it is amazing and well worth checking out and not being put off by it being a teen show. It may be, but it was also one of the most remarkable UK TV shows of the 90s. /climbs down off sales pitch box*)




I got into Margaret Lockwood a while back and this is one of a bunch of icons I made from publicity shots. This one is still probably my favourite, but I might possibly swap it round. I use it for when I'm talking about films, even if they don't have Margaret Lockwood in, though that is naturally a sad lack. It also works as a sort of generic/neutral 'pretty' icon.




And this is Silver from Sapphire and Steel, as played by David Collings. He is the shiniest Element and I love him and made a lot of icons. (Photobucket has eaten all the links, but I still have them saved. I should put them all back up, I suppose!) I really like the scene where he steals the door handle and made a few icons out of it. My favourite one I had as a default for a while, but this was more neutral and multipurpose. I should probably try and get a Sapphire-Steel-Silver icon now that I can only have space for one S&S one, but I love Silver and also it doubles up for stuff to do with weird things, technical things, and other stuff with David Collings in, and any time I need to say "oops" or "sorry". (David Collings is always highly entertaining.)


* Like Lynda, I'm short, I need a box.

I've taken part in the last two challenges for iconthat - you make three icons for the comm, but I had trouble narrowing it down, so here are my challenge entries, plus a few extra for each.


Teaser:




( The rest of the icons under here )

Deciding on what to icon next takes far longer than making icon sets... Anyway, I remembered that I wanted to cap and icon some of the Margaret Lockwood films and as this set was clearly meant for The Wicked Lady (1945), that's what I did. (Featuring Margaret Lockwood, Patricia Roc, James Mason, Griffith Jones & Michael Rennie.)

Teaser:



( Why did you shoot that horse? I'd rather kill a man any day! )

Credits: Screencaps my own. Textures by tiger_tyger. The usual rules apply: want, take, have, credit. Comments = ♥ and hotlinkers will be shot down like a dog on the highway.

1. In Yuletide, I see that TWO people have offered the 1968 Dracula. I am all faint with the shock. I would have been matchable with just my three nominated super-obscure fandoms! (But possibly difficult.) In celebration, I removed one of my other requests. I was worrying about maybe not wanting it quite as much as the others - and two other people have similar requests so there's a chance of fic I will enjoy anyhow. (I don't think I've ever done that before.)


2. Over on AO3, someone has translated a previous Yuletide fic of mine (Of Elements and Existence) into Russian. I can't read Russian, but putting it in Google Translate suggests (despite its usual incoherency) that they did a good job, as I can certainly recognise my fic coming back at me.


3. I am continuing my voyage into old film! Well, old film containing Margaret Lockwood, anyway. I have now watched her first leading role in the 1938 Carol Reed film Bank Holiday. ( Not very spoilery review plus gifs )