Movie: Stage Beauty
Oct. 2nd, 2005 11:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thalia_seawoodI finally managed to see "Stage Beauty" yesterday which I had missed on the Film Festival.
What can I say: I enjoyed it so much that I've already ordered it from amazon.co.uk (where it's a lot cheaper than on amazon.de).
In case you've never heard of this movie before, here's the summary of the International Movie Database:
Set in the 1660's at a time when in live theatre women's roles were played by men, Edward 'Ned' Kynaston (Crudup) is England's most celebrated leading lady, using his beauty and skill to make the great female roles his own. But when Charles II is tired of seeing the same old performers, the ruler allows real women to tread the boards and men may no longer play women's parts. Ned becomes a virtual nobody, virtually overnight and seems headed for suicide till his ex-dresser turned actress Maria (Danes)takes it upon herself to make a man of him again.
The last part of the summary doesn't quite get the message of the film, though. It's not about Ned becoming a man again, it's about him becoming himself. In the final scene Maria asks Ned what he is now and he answers: "I don't know.". That's not a despairing "I don't know.", but a hopeful one. Because in truth by the end of the film he can be whatever he wants to be.
The fascination of this film for me is that it is a master-piece of questioning sexual roles and appearances.
We see Ned dressed up as a woman on stage playing Desdemona. Here his female performance is mostly artificial, but still fascinating. We see him in a dress after the performance is over and here he's all of a sudden strikingly real as a woman and yet also very much a man.
Maria on the other hand, plays a fierce Othello at one time.
There are many more moments of gender-bending, some are quite startling.
We also see women making decision and men following along - even though on the outside it's men who have the power.
I also love films that show how much morales and customs have changed over the year. I always find it funny when people are saying that everything used to be so much better in the past, people still had a moral code and no it's all going down the drain. Truth is that what is considered socially acceptable is always in flux. Back in the 16th & 17th century for example sexuality wasn't quite so defined. There were no terms for heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual as far as I'm aware of. And men wore their hair long and put on makeup.
In some regards we are freer nowadays, e.g. women can study and take up basically any profession they want, too. In others we are still quite caged in, e.g. it's still a topic if you're homosexual. It's no longer unacceptable, but people still need to come out of the closet. This kind of closet certainly didn't always exist in the past.
Back to "Stage Beauty":
The performances by the main characters are excellent, especially Bill Crudup and Rupert Everett are amazing.
I've seen thatisa_jera put up screencaps for the entire movie so if you want to sneak a look, go here:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v238/isa_jera/
What can I say: I enjoyed it so much that I've already ordered it from amazon.co.uk (where it's a lot cheaper than on amazon.de).
In case you've never heard of this movie before, here's the summary of the International Movie Database:
Set in the 1660's at a time when in live theatre women's roles were played by men, Edward 'Ned' Kynaston (Crudup) is England's most celebrated leading lady, using his beauty and skill to make the great female roles his own. But when Charles II is tired of seeing the same old performers, the ruler allows real women to tread the boards and men may no longer play women's parts. Ned becomes a virtual nobody, virtually overnight and seems headed for suicide till his ex-dresser turned actress Maria (Danes)
The last part of the summary doesn't quite get the message of the film, though. It's not about Ned becoming a man again, it's about him becoming himself. In the final scene Maria asks Ned what he is now and he answers: "I don't know.". That's not a despairing "I don't know.", but a hopeful one. Because in truth by the end of the film he can be whatever he wants to be.
The fascination of this film for me is that it is a master-piece of questioning sexual roles and appearances.
We see Ned dressed up as a woman on stage playing Desdemona. Here his female performance is mostly artificial, but still fascinating. We see him in a dress after the performance is over and here he's all of a sudden strikingly real as a woman and yet also very much a man.
Maria on the other hand, plays a fierce Othello at one time.
There are many more moments of gender-bending, some are quite startling.
We also see women making decision and men following along - even though on the outside it's men who have the power.
I also love films that show how much morales and customs have changed over the year. I always find it funny when people are saying that everything used to be so much better in the past, people still had a moral code and no it's all going down the drain. Truth is that what is considered socially acceptable is always in flux. Back in the 16th & 17th century for example sexuality wasn't quite so defined. There were no terms for heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual as far as I'm aware of. And men wore their hair long and put on makeup.
In some regards we are freer nowadays, e.g. women can study and take up basically any profession they want, too. In others we are still quite caged in, e.g. it's still a topic if you're homosexual. It's no longer unacceptable, but people still need to come out of the closet. This kind of closet certainly didn't always exist in the past.
Back to "Stage Beauty":
The performances by the main characters are excellent, especially Bill Crudup and Rupert Everett are amazing.
I've seen that
isa_jera put up screencaps for the entire movie so if you want to sneak a look, go here:http://photobucket.com/albums/v238/isa_jera/
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-02 12:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-07 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-02 08:54 pm (UTC);)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-07 09:24 pm (UTC)Yeah, I like it a lot; it's one of the few movies where I'm quite happy with a het romance. I think it's because it's such a non-stereotypical relationship. They are also both interesting characters with strengths and weaknesses - and they have chemistry! What more do I need? *smile*
Could I bribe you into writing Stage Beauty fanfiction by flattering my eyelashes? *g*
no subject
Date: 2005-10-03 07:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-07 09:28 pm (UTC)When I saw it in the cinema, I was a bit shocked at times, because nowadays it seems we're much more well-behaved. *g* But yes, I liked the shocking aspects,
tooespecially.I also realised that this is one of the movies that get better when I think about it. It hasn't faded yet, instead its impression gets stronger. Am very happy to have the DVD by now.