Sunday, September 18, 2005

Subliminal Screens

Note to the reader: boy oh boy does this post ramble. It does, however, in some attempt at repentance, include links to those rambled upon.

I've always been fairly unsophisticated and yet mildly critical of movies, the former because, well, I'm a violist, and the latter probably because I had some technical training in it while in university. Music and the occasional book is enough of sophistication for me, and the training had things to do with subliminal messages of camera panning.

Had a glance through Yahoo! Movies (a nice place to chill, though the new rolldown advertising is buggy as hell) of the young screen stars that were all the rage when I was back in school and it was a little surprising that out of a largely male-dominated field (the likes of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Julia Stiles came later) the one person who made it past mere teen stardom is female: the ever fabulous Christina Ricci, though her newer movies weren't big blockbusters.


I'm a sucka for admittedly cheap movies juxtapositioning normalcy with the life of some actually respectable royalty or presidency. Remember King Ralph? Popcorn movie supreme, great stuff. And I've come to realize that more than half of the actors/actresses of The West Wing were taken from The American President, though everyone had a different role there (talk about political reshuffling - or musical chairs: the last one standing when the violist stops has to stay in the room with him). I would have even enjoyed Chasing Liberty if Mandy Moore included an ounce of redemption in her spoilt-brat routine. My favourite actor for US President? Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact, not the least because of going against the stigma of always having a Caucasian at the top, far better than Glenn Close's role of a weak Vice President in Air Force One (she's totally fab otherwise though).

Apparently there'll be another installment in the Indiana Jones series, which will star Harrison Ford (not bad for 63!) and Sean Connery. The letdown of the new Star Wars hasn't diminished my expectations, coz more often than not the Force is still with Steven Spielberg, though on the musical side John Williams has his hits and his misses. Now only if they add in Anthony Hopkins in an Indiana Versus Hannibal epic, with Carol Burnett as comic relief.


Hannibal to Indiana: "I think I’ll eat your hat."

It'll be interesting to see how Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning fare in the next five years (I'd like to say ten, but I'm freaked out in imagining myself at the age of 36).

In the meantime I hope no one figures out the subliminal messages we're sending out in viola solos.

2 comments:

eg9 said...

what? violas are capable of transmitting subliminal messages? surely you jest... there must be some degree of sophistication in the medium or the method for that to be possible..

AF said...

dearie, violas are very sophisticated, they are! it's the VIOLISTS that pose the problem... thankfully we're very good at faking it nonetheless. :P