Little Time Capsules: London's Tube

These vintage film posters and advertisements were recently uncovered in a London Underground tube station at Notting Hill.  The passage is closed to the public, as it's been out of use since the late 1950's, but getting to look at the pictures is like seeing a little time capsule.

It's like a preserved graphics museum.  Although looking at images of this old subway station tunnel makes me think of Celia's watery ending from the movie Atonement... my step-sister Courtney is reading the book now, and has made me want to pick it up.  Or, at least re-rent it, if nothing else for the emerald dress.

Celia's final hours hiding from an air raid in a soon-to-be-flooded tube station.

Taking A Break From Research

I'm trying to read every article I can find about the book and movie The Taqwacores since meeting the film maker at SXSW, and I came across this photo from a piece written by a columnist upset that Kathryne Bigelow made no mention of Iraq in her Oscar acceptance speech for Hurt Locker's best picture win, which can be seen as reflective as a national disregard for the people affected by events in Iraq on a daily basis.  I don't know; this photo is some kind of haunting.

Eat Pray Love a movie!?

Oh goodness... another movie about a woman who's lost and subsequently sets out to find herself, writes about it, and all the spheres of Heaven align.  That's two now, after Julie Powell, surely it must really be possible to do then?  For every story that gets a movie made about it, there has to be thousands that aren't publicized, right?

Hard to imagine when sitting at my table, littered with receipts, bills, twenty golf pencils I emptied out of my high school backpack of unknown origins, dog hair all over the floor, running late for work trying to eat a bowl of cereal, no pay raise or extended vacation in sight, and there's always a choice to be made between writing, reading other people's writing, being social, keeping the house from rotting, and trying to do my best at work while stretching myself too thin with hobbies.  Writing always loses.  Saving up to travel always loses.  It's easier to splurge on something that's $20 when trying to put the rest towards car payments, etc, than it is to say: I want to save up thousands of dollars for a fairy tale trip around the world that I will never have the time off or savings to take.

But that's just being cynical, right?  Right?

I'm slowly reading Committed, but not for lack of loving it.  Now I'll have to pick up Eat Pray Love before the movie is released.

Thank you to Tulips and Tea for the heads up about this trailer!  I can't wait to see it.  I already have a girl crush on Elizabeth Gilbert, Julia Roberts playing her won't help cure it.

"The Runaways" Press Screening - Thanks GRC!!

While I kinda-sorta wish I could say I got an invitation to a press screening of the Joan Jett & Cherie Currie movie The Runaways because of this blog, I am no less excited to say that I got to see the film because Emily Marks of Girls Rock Camp is awesome, and invited Elizabeth and I to Friday's press screening.  Thank you Emily!!  I was so excited that I dressed up in my best day time rock star attire for the 11 a.m. show.

At the screening I sat next to the writer from the Austin Statesman, who diligently had his steno pad out and ready to take notes.  Dude, I didn't get your name, but I'm gunning for your job.  Watch out.

 

Despite having to close my eyes on multiple occasions due to the drug-induced-perspective shots of blurred pictures and spinning cameras, I enjoyed the movie.  I loved Kristin Stewart in the film, as she was hard but feminine, nonchalant but determined, which is how I envision Joan Jett.  I enjoyed Dakota Fanning as well, especially when she flips two birds to an auditorium of heckling teenagers during a Bowie song in a talent show, but watching her sexually charged performance, knowing she's still a kid, was a bit unsettling.  Although, perhaps since Cherie Currie was a kid, maybe that's what the directors were going for?  I also walked out of the theatre wanting a pair of black leather pants a la young Joan Jett.  I'm still glad platform shoes have (mostly) stayed in the seventies and strip clubs - they scream "traction." 

Elizabeth told me I looked more dressed for a premiere, but I'd put my level of glee for a press pass on par with a premiere invitation.

Shorts: Target
Heels: Cole Haan
Shirt: Michael Kors
Scarf: Old Navy
Necklace: Buffalo Exchange
Purse: Kristin Todd in Little Rock

Dakota Fanning, Joan Jett, Kristin Stewart, Cherie Currie via Fanpop

I kept hearing the film referred to as the "Joan Jett" movie, but the majority of it was dedicated to Cherie Currie's story - her back story, her family, her rise and fall due to drug abuse and stress.  Joan Jett was presented more as the catalyst for Cherie Currie's career.  The only back story we hear about her is that she does, indeed, have a mom.  Oh, and some sketchy boyfriends, as well as a penchant for telling gender biased guitar teachers who claim "girls don't play electric guitar" that they can go... you know.

My birthday falls after the era of Joan Jett being integrated into my pop culture vernacular, but it's evident what kind of a music revolution she helped spawn for female musicians, a revolution that the creators and participants of and in Girls Rock Camp are all beneficiaries of, including myself. 

After the movie I went in to work, (possibly worst work day ever?  I think I have less hair now), and then had plans to go to the Blanton Museum's first Friday event.  I got there and whatdayaknow, the event is bimonthly now.  I'll have to pull the sparkle tights out again in April.

I wore jeans to work, since I work with kids and all, and those shorts are a little, well, short, but afterwards I changed back into these pink shorts and added a little pizazz to go out on the town in the evening hours.

Tights: Michael Kors, clearance at Indigo in Little Rock

My friend Phil plays drums and lets me pretend that I know how. 

The Blanton wasn't a total bust - I did get to take a picture. 

The Runaways comes out on March 19th, and I highly recommend you put on your highest high waist pants, fluff your hair, and go see it.  If anything, it'll put you off any drug addictions you may have contemplated developing.  Or make you scour the internet for vegan leather pants... not that I'm doing that now.  *cough*

Julia Child, High Heels, Julie Powell, & Mirrored Lives

Eirik and I just finished watching Julie & Julia, my third viewing, his first, and after my experience Monday night in the mustard heels, one of the most notable images in this film is Meryl Streep as Julia Child cooking in three inch platform heels (and pearls). 

I read an article about the costuming of the film that said Julia Child would have more likely been found in sensible shoes with a shorter heel and that the high heels only served to help give Meryl Streep the appearance of height.  But regardless of historical accuracy, it can't be denied that women of earlier eras were far more likely to be found functioning in high heels in a regular basis, and for that, I tip my absent hat to them. 

In college, after moving out of the dorm into my own apartment, I made all of my own bread from scratch.  One night, my friend Lela came to help, and we decided we were going to bake the bread in heels, red lipstick, and pearls.  I wore my best 60's scarf to compliment the ensemble, which included the jeans I ripped a giant hole in when I tripped over my own foot in the senior parking lot in high school and fell on my face, (in front of boys, which should definitely be mentioned here, in a public forum).  We aren't going to talk about the bangs.

Moving right along...

In the extra features of the film, one of the directors talked about how Julia Child always viewed herself as a teacher, rather than a writer.  Several of my co-workers have mentioned my continuous talk about my past three years as a classroom teacher and my identification as a teacher versus my new position, and of course I started making comparisons between myself and the woman I admire.

At one point, in the film itself, Julie Powell compares herself to Julia Child in that they were both secretaries, married to nice men, etc... and it turned my mind to thinking about mirrored lives.

Eirik and Lennon both tease me that I like the movie so much because I am very similar to Julie Powell - melodramatic, aspiring writer who can't fathom the idea of actually being a writer, blogger, (duh), project oriented... mostly banal details that describe lots of people, but regardless of origin, I still love the film. 

Most of my love stems from the idea of two women who don't start life with a certainty about where they are going or how they are going to move forward, but somehow life unfolds for them in an organic way they could not have devised or planned by scheming a certain trajectory, the way it seems everyone else I know has done.

When I look back on high school and college, (and at the dawn of the new year it seems appropriate to do so), it would seem as though everyone I knew had a strong sense of self and idea of where they were going, while I've just been drifting from one undertaking to the next.  Naval ROTC, international relations, English literature, poetry, teaching, various boyfriends, cities, states... I am unsettled and unsure of where the next foothold is. 

It's reassuring to know that a blind start is not the recipe (pun intended) for a disastrous finish.  While I can't mirror myself on any historical or popular personage, I'd like to think that the unplanned path is not an impossible one. 

And I suppose that the desired end depends greatly on how one measures success.  For myself, I've always set the bar of success on a writing career and comfortable finances, neither of which I've achieved.  But, knowing that Julie Powell didn't get there till her 30's, and Julia Child till her 40's or 50's, let's me know I have plenty of time, and that's a comforting thought.  Especially when Facebook inundates my news feed with marriage and baby announcements, a proclamation of semi-solidified paths that make me feel even more fluid and unstable.  But this is not reality, and my fluid path will allow me to hedge my own way about things, or at least that's one of the things I hope for 2010.  That, and more movies I love to watch on repeat.  

Anything Else (But Boring Movie Posters)

Continuing the Christmas weekend, Lennon and I are now in Dallas with his parents enjoying soft couches, acoustic guitars, grilled cheese sandwiches, and tomato soup.  While browsing my Google reader, I found a link to the ten best movie posters of the decade.  In between all of the films I've never heard of, I found this poster, with its vintage map and candy red cartoon apple, that stood out from the rest:

I had to read the blurb underneath it to realize that I've seen this film, and really like it.  For the American sensibility, here is the poster that was released in the US:

Really?  Those are for the same movie?  I always thought that the US version looked a bit stupid rom-com for the Woody Allen-ness stamp that permeates the film, but I never realized that the poster was an intentional dumbing down for American viewers.  I'm suddenly insulted!  The jokes on them, though, considering the surge in public enthusiasm for vintage maps, posters, and anything resembling an art house origin.  Lennon and I just bought a vintage map print of London for his sister from Target. 

My interest in design has always been present in my art journal obsession, but is piquing in my desire to tweak my blog design to something stream lined and pretty.  If you've been visiting the site directly, you'll notice I've changed the banner and colors, but it's still not 100% satisfactory - I'll have to work on my tech savvy.

Regardless, I want to watch some Woody Allen now.

Stupid Ladders! & Other Christmas Loot

A few of my favorite things from my Christmas gifts that I wanted to brag about:

• Oversize farmer's market/grocery bag
• Plaid PJ pants (Santa stops by early to bring all of us PJ's on Christmas eve every year)
  
• Burt's Bees gift set with seed packet (won at the family Dirty Santa gift exchange)
• Fender guitar picks in assorted thicknesses
• Ulta makeup - eye liner, shadows, lip gloss.  I love Ulta.
  
• Pink iphone case to replace my gaudy electric blue one
• Bare Minerals powder/foundation.  I'll have to test this out and report back.
• Vegetarian Times subscription - this will be especially helpful when I sign up for the CSA!
• Sparkly nail files
• Button picture frames (my dad actually got these in the gift exchange, and he let me have them)
• Stila smudge pots - I have a big one in green and love it, so now I have all the colors!
• Julie & Julia DVD - I haven't read Julie Powell's book, but I did read Julia Child's book My Life in France and loved it.  I especially love that neither of them found their creative calling until their 30's/40's, and this is reassuring on days when I feel as though I missed some sort of life's calling boat by not getting on board by 20.
• Cranium (Lennon's gift, which I get to play with)
• Joy of Home Brewing book (Lennon's from me).  A home brew store just opened in Copperas Cove by the Walgreens, and Lennon and I went in and spent almost an hour talking with the owner about how to brew beer and wine at home, and the vineyard that he owns.  As soon as I clear out some under-stairs closet space, we are SO brewing our own beer.
• I also got new floor mats for my car... much needed, since I skimped on them when purchasing my car from the dealership.  Now there's a hole under the gas pedal where my heels have dug out the fabric.

What did you get that you love?? 

My niece, Shelby, squeezed herself into a gift box, and her daddy promptly put the lid on top.  Then she popped out to surprise Aunt Courtney.  Shelby was very excited about her own present - Stupid Ladders.  I don't think I will ever call that game by its proper name again.

Story Corps + The Things That Haunt Us

Germans in the Woods from Rauch Brothers on Vimeo.

One of the blogs I check regularly is Waging Nonviolence, and I can't help but re-post this video they highlighted from Story Corps.  The animated video illustrates the words of WWII veteran Joseph Robertson, who fought at the Battle of the Bulge, and his memory of shooting one German soldier, that has stayed with him for over sixty years.  Coming from a military family, having gone through ROTC, anti-violence to the point of vegetarianism, etc, etc... stories like this stand out as critical to highlighting the psychological affects of war, which, while still following the Ft. Hood story closely, seems even more important to bring into the public sphere of consideration.  And no matter what you think about war - you should familiarize yourself with Story Corps, because it is just THAT awesome.   

Perks of the Job: Free T-Shirts, and a Wee Bit About the Austin Film Society

Working in a non-profit may not come with glamour or high-pay, but one thing I do get plenty of: free t-shirts!  Earlier this week, Jonny Stranger game me this one from the Austin Film Society.  At first, I saw it was a large and was afraid I would swim in it, but to my glee (surprise!?) it fits perfectly.  To my chagrin, upon viewing this photograph, I realize I neglected to consider that using a mirror would result in the words coming out backwards... sigh.

I didn't know this when I first moved to Austin, but it's quite the film hub.  My step-sister's first job interview was with Troublemaker Studios, and then I was informed that all of the celebrities staying in town can be spotted on South Congress because they stay in the Hotel San Jose.  I've never been much of a celeb-spotter, but I did work at the Bunch of Grapes in Martha's Vineyard one summer, and I checked out Spike Lee and Michael J Fox; I certainly felt special at the time. 

I've never been much of a film buff - but I am snob enough to turn my nose up at beloved movies such as Elf, (no matter how much I love Bob Newhart), and my students' first question when I brought in a movie was "Does it have subtitles?" (with a long groan). 

Nonetheless, I regret having missed the Austin Film Festival this year - but it won't happen again.  Until then, I'm happy being a patron of Austin orignals I Luv Video and the Alamo Drafthouse, and now that I'm signed up to follow AFS tweets, maybe I'll be more up to date on screenings and premieres, or accidently swagger into the background of a movie set - seeing as Austin IS a "blockbuster location."

Oh - and I can't forget my hand delivered copy of P.O.V. - I appreciate every little bonus I get.  And I doubly appreciate Jonny's comic on claymation, as he's been working on claymation with my students, and I enjoy his Prometheus reference, being an English teacher at heart.  Bottom line: yay free stuff.  I'll call it my non-profit swag. 

I also get to beam over cool things my kids make with Jonny, like this!  Wish I had this program in Arkansas ten years ago...

Little Rock Central High School's GSA Club

Last night I got in bed and curled up with the latest issue of NEA Today.  Even though I'm not teaching this year, I'm still a member of the National Education Association, and receive their magazine as a benefit.  The cover stories "Literature in the Digital Age" and "Religious Groups Reach Out to Schools" initially attracted me to the October/November issue, but reading through it, I turned the page and got very excited to see a photograph of a familiar sight - Little Rock Central High School.

Most people recognize Central High as the infamous sight of the Little Rock Nine, where Little Rock public schools attempted integration for the first time by enrolling nine students from the all-black high school across town.  One of the most famous images of this incident is that of Elizabeth Eckford attempting to enter the school while separated from the other eight.  The incident gained national press when the National Guard was called in, Little Rock's white population went crazy, and the following year all schools were closed to eliminate the possibility of integration.  I'm happy to say, as a Little Rock native, that this is not the climate in Little Rock any more.  When I was in eighth grade, the 40th anniversary of the incident rolled around and President Clinton came to speak to the huge, multi-ethnic crowd.  In fact, I'd venture a guess that Central High is now majority African-American.  There are also a lot more private schools in Little Rock with large white populations... but we won't get in to that now. 

The facade of Central is still just as grand as ever, but I remember visiting friends there when I had a day off from my private school, and some of the walls were crumbling in the classrooms.  Luckily, (prepare for a bad pun), walls aren't the only things that are still crumbling at Central, (and in all fairness, they might have repaired that problem since I was last there).

 

The article I turned to in NEA Today was called "The Power of One," and was written to encourage teachers to embrace students of the GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bi, transgender, queer) community in order to prevent incidents ranging from bullying, to dropping out, to suicide.  The driving point of the article is to remind educators of the importance of "adults who will stand up for (the GLBTQ students)" being present in schools.

Aside from both loving the message and bitterly thinking about how my job might have been in jeopardy if I had ever proposed sponsoring a Gay Straight Alliance at the last school I worked in, I got excited to see that the curly haired youth on the far right is Devon Beardon, a student I had the pleasure of meeting at CAR - the Center for Artistic Revolution, in Little Rock when I visited their youth section - DYSC - Diverse Youth for Social Change.

Both CAR & DYSC are amazing programs headed up by Randi Romo, who is Devon's grandmother, and who I also had the extremely good fortune of accidentally meeting at a poetry reading at Sticky Fingerz, during the Arkansas Literary Festival that Lennon and I volunteered for last April.  When I told Randi about seeing the article, she said there was one false bit of information - that a former Central student profiled, Jeanie, had not been beaten up in front of teachers in the Central High parking lot, but that she had been bullied, and an administrator had threatened to expel her if she brought forth any more complaints about her treatment.  I hope whoever said that to her has since been fired.

The article also details the importance of teacher support for ALL students, establishing groups like the Gay Straight Alliance, which we had at my high school in northwest Arkansas when I was a senior in 2002, establishing policies against intolerable behavior - including my pet peeve - calling things "gay" - (ask any of my former students - my class was a no gay/retarded zone!), and participating in the Day of Silence, which students at my last school did do on their own.  The next one coming up is April 16, 2010.  I want to get one going at my current school through the Youth for Unity program!

Another element of the article was the suggestion of incorporating characters and literature into the high school canon of required reading.  I had the book Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger, about a transgender teen, on my classroom library shelf, and it was checked out multiple times, and the students who read it enjoyed it and recommended it to others without any raise of an eyebrow, (it was the administration and parts of the community that I saw as ultra-conservative).  It was also telling, to me, that a film like Milk came out (no pun this time) and met success in a city like Little Rock, that is often overlooked by the cosmopolitan crowd.

I hope that with the recent speech by Obama, as well as other advances in cultural dialogue, will encourage schools and students to catch up with the age of tolerance.  It would seem obvious that a society divided by prejudice and hate can not thrive, but then one hears the term "gay" slung around hallways as though it had no tangible affect on individuals, and it becomes clear that the collective empathy of American society still has a long way to go.

Even after teaching Elie Wiesel's Night and a holocaust unit, there was still a large disconnect in students between the lessons of history and their daily lives.  A unified front is necessary to quell the accepted intolerance practices that permeate modern speech and thought.  I'm happy to be a part of an organization like NEA that backs cultural acceptance of all people - old and young.

Texas Rollerderby Calvello Cup Championship

Last night was the Texas Rollerderby Lonestar Rollergirls (yes, that's a mouthful) end-of-season Calvello Cup Championship bout. I'd always been curious about Rollerderby, as there are lots of stereotypes about it floating around, as well as allusions to it that sparked my interest - starting with Sam's mom on Clarissa Explains it All to my favorite cake receptionist, Mary Alice, joining a team in Baltimore on Ace of Cakes.

In Austin, I first saw tickets for sale from girls in short skirts on skates down on South Congress during a First Thursday event. That night I only picked up a flier about TXRD, but later learned that I work with the manager of the TXRD team the Hellcats, Jonny Stranger. Prior to that discovery, he was known only as the film instructor that comes in to my after-school program to teach kids about movie making in conjunction with the Austin Film Society.

He's now become my ten-dollar-ticket man, since he sold me tickets to the first bout I went to, the Hellcats vs. the Rhinestone Cowgirls, with the Hellcats kicking the "rhiny's hineys," (read amongst the clever fan signs at the bout, amongst which was also "Who doesn't like Pussy?").

I like Jonny, in addition, because he once told students, during a stop-motion-animation class, that the human eye always assesses a scene and asks two questions: "Is it safe?" and "Is it beautiful?" A quote that now runs through my head often.

Since Jonny is my connection to the roller derby, Lennon and I attended the bout sporting all the pink we could find. And FYI, that hat is 100% his, and not borrowed from my belongings.

The Hellcats dress in pink jumpsuits that look like sexed-up car mechanic jumpers. Bloomers, fishnets, and helmet adornments are all the skater's preference. When they rolled onto the banked track, they brought in black roses and laid them on top of the opponent's helmets.

The Hellcats were up against the undefeated Cherry Bombs, a neon-green-sporting team that entered the stadium wheelding chain saws, guns, hockey sticks, and baseball bats. I was intimidated from twenty rows up.

The physical danger associated with Roller Derby is very real. At the last bout I attended, I was unsure how much of the fighting was legit, since many of the girls seemed to be laughing and very friendly off the track. Jonny told me that usually tempers will flare between two individual skaters, and others who jump in do it good humoredly and in an attempt to break up real scuffles. There were DEFINITELY real scuffles this time around. At least two instances with one skater throwing down another and beating her, and then a critical member of the Cherry Bombs - "Cherry Chainsaw" - twisted her ankle on a fall (I, and everyone else in the stadium, saw her foot go around), and broke it (like, compound fracture broke it). She started screaming and the entire stadium stopped what they were doing as ambulances had to be rushed in, morphine drip started on sight, and the track dismantled so she could be carried out on a gurney. Ouch.

After watching our first bout a few weeks ago, Lennon and I rented Hell On Wheels, the documentary about the origins of Texas Rollerderby, and there were several shots of broken bones, one showing a girl's foot hanging off of her leg, and later described as "held on by her skin and her tights." A collection went around the stadium for Cherry Chainsaw as she was being tended to, and $4,000 was raised on the spot.

Lennon's sister Laura came to visit us yesterday, so we took her to the bout as well. Some brother-sister fighting commenced in the stands.

Now that the movie Whip It is out, I suspect the popularity of Rollerderby will explode. One of the characters in the movie, Razor, is based on Jonny Stranger, long hair and all. So Jonny issued a formal challenge to the actor, Andrew Wilson (also a Texan), to a TXRD style two-lap no-rules dual around the banked track. I didn't think Andrew had accepted the challenge until the end of half-time, when Jonny rolled out on quad skates with a jammer helmet on and sporting leather shorts. Andrew cheated a little... he had on rollerblades.

Evidence that I need a much better camera aside, here's Jonny and Andrew lined up waiting for the whistle signal to start the dual.

On the far side of the track, you can see Jonny and Andrew wrestling here to prevent the other from getting ahead. This happened several times during their two laps around... and Jonny still won :) Go Austin!

In the documentary I learned the origins of "spank alley," which has evolved to be a row of front-row seats for lottery winning ticket holders, and then later is the line-up of everyone with a birthday in the house so they can receive spanks from all the roller girls. I think some people without birthdays snuck up there to get a spanking.

My co-worker Elizabeth also bought tickets from Jonny, and saved us seats in the stands, also known as the "thunderdome" in derby-speak.

The final score - Hellcats 44, Cherry Bombs 37. One of the announcers is Wesley Page, and the other announcer joked that he is Ellen Page's brother (the star of Whip It). I'm curious to know if that is true or was just a quip.

Although I feel bad for the Cherry Bomb's loss after the injury of one of their star players, I'm still glad the team who's colors I was sporting won. I can't wait for January and the next season to roll around! (haha - I'm taking cue from the incessant puns of the announcers).

Until then, I just have to satiate myself by getting over to the Alamo Drafthouse to watch the movie.

Sold!

How happy am I: simply stellar.

When I watched shows like Flip That House, I always wondered how in the world the people got the money to do these projects. Now the terms "creative financing" and "luck" suddenly take on meaning. Oh, and I need to mention "humungo risk" and "stupidity." That about covers it.

I watched the movie The Kite Runner tonight, and I'm quite certain that once I push the "sold" sticker out of my mind, I'm going to sit down and weep.

The Other Boleyn Girl

With the boyfriend out of town I am finally free to do all of the girly things I've wanted that have been growing into a rather lengthy list.

First thing to tick off: going to a chick flick (period films are automatically girly) with a fellow first year English teacher. The best part of the evening was in the first five minutes, when standing in line to get Sarah a sprite - a brave, pimpled and baby fat full young man behind us began chatting both of us up about what movie we were seeing. We humored his advances and eyed each other as we debated via ESP if we should inquire as to his age (16 - max) and reveal that the "girls" he chose to flirt with were literally old enough to be his teachers at 24 and 27. Oh, and one of us is two months pregnant, and as luck would have it we are teachers. Funny and creepy all at once. Also a reminder why I don't teach in the district where I live - running into students on the weekend is not my idea of relaxing!

The film, The Other Boleyn Girl, almost killed itself within five minutes as the dialogue and opening scene were both terrible and utter cheese. I liked it, though, for the same reason I liked Marie Antoinette. The costumes were sumptuous and I like it when the idea of royal figures is translated for modern audiences as total rockstar - because that is the royalty a modern audience understands. I did not like the dichotomy of Anne and Mary's personalities, though. Mary became 100% victimized, self-sacrificing angel and Anne never really deviated from crazy bitch after returning from her anachronistic trip to France. Although, there was something about the rape scene that added a sense of Anne's humanity in the film and seemed to symbolize Henry VIII's desire to literally devour women (just like he did food when got old, fat, and pus-full). Also to the film's credit, it did a good job of highlighting the exploitation of women as a means to political ends. Even Anne's ambitions were framed by the insatiable desires of her male relatives. While the extent of outside scheming in Anne's rise to power in order to garner wealth for her family may be stretched and fabricated for this movie, the concept of woman as pawn is by no means a unique occurrence in history, sadly. Sad, too, is the ending of the movie. But like Titanic, you walk into the theatre knowing the proverbial boat is going to sink. Unlike Titanic, though, I am much happier watching Jim Sturgiss play out a tragic male lead than Leo. Beautiful boy. Final verdict: good girls-only movie, but next time I'm going for romantic comedy rather than romantic period tragedy. In defense of Anne's decisions though - Elizabeth is an incredible asset to world history, but it's sad her mother's life had to be forfeited in order to set the course for her birth. On a happy note - more Jim!