Jai guru deva om

All right, I promised (Tom) I would talk about Julie Taymor's Across the Universe and that's what I'm going to do.

I liked it. A lot.

If you like the music of the Beatles (and if you don't, you might be trying too hard to be alternative and contrary), you pretty much have to like this film, because it's all about the Beatles - and not just their music. There are clear parellels between the lives of the characters and the life of the band, including a rooftop concert.

My one criticism (that the story starts too conventionally), admittedly, doesn't hold much water, as it makes perfect sense within the context of the Beatles. The Beatles started out like a dozen other bands, playing rhyme and blues riffs with silly, conventional lyrics. This is reflected in the story - boy travels to America to find his father; he meets a love and falls in love. As the 60s roll on, and the music of the Beatles becomes more experimental, Julie Taymor, the genius behind the live -action The Lion King, gets a chance to shine with shunning visuals and puppets.

I was a little apprehensive about how the music would be incorporated - Beatles' music tends to assume an iconic status, after all - but I was completely happy with how the songs were incorporated into the plot. At times, the new circumstances were interesting shifts ("I Wanna Hold Your Hand" as a song from a closeted lesbian cheerleader to another cheerleader); other times, new circumstances added a new depth to the song ("As My Guitar Gently Weeps" as an elegy for MLK Jr, or "Let it Be" as an anthem for the Detroit riots).

Nothing's going to change my world

I thought this post was going to discuss Julie Taymor's Across the Universe, which I saw this past weekend. However, when I found out this afternoon that Deborah Kerr died, I decided to change gears and remember Kerr.

In his autobiography, A Life in Movies, British director Michael Powell reflected on the special relationship he shared with Deborah Kerr (pronounced Carr - "Kerr rhymes with star," as early studio press releases claimed): “I realized that Deborah was both the ideal and the flesh-and-blood woman whom I had been searching for ever since I had discovered that I had been born to be a teller of tales and a creator of dreams” (413). Powell’s observation about what he perceived as a dual identity – at once ideal and earthly – fittingly characterizes a quality of Kerr’s screen identity in British films, which Powell himself helped crystallize: the struggle between two identities to form one complex screen persona.

Kerr first came to the public’s attention portraying Jenny in Pascal’s Major Barbara (1940). Even in her first few roles, Kerr’s obvious beauty and star quality stood out. A contemporary review remarked:

She certainly attracts the attention of everybody who comes near her, for she is
what they call a "Botticelli blonde"---reddish-gold hair, light blue eyes, and a
face capable of expressing "spiritual wistfulness."… She is a lovely girl. She
is crystal fresh in quality. She has intelligence, and that uncommon quality of
common sense which endear the best young American actresses to the world's
audiences.

(Picture Post 7 December 1940)

She was likely best remembered for her role as Anna in The King and I, but Kerr leaves behind a substantial body of critically acclaimed work: Powell and Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and Black Narcissus (1947), Korda's Perfect Strangers (1945) From Here to Eternity (1953, and The Innocents (1961) to name but a few.

I try to be like Grace Kelly

Yeah, so I haven't posted in a long time. Sorry about that. My dog ate it.

Not much to report or review - my job has been taking up the majority of my time. Since Sept 25 I've been teaching an intensive course that adds 6 in class hours to my week (and that's not including prep and marking time). It'll be wrapping up on November 6, which can't come fast enough. Not that it's a bad group of students or anything. Truth be told, this might be the most dedicated group I've had. It just takes a lot out of me. When I get home, all I want to do is nap.

On Tuesday we had another Booth College movie night, and we screened Hitchcock's Rear Window for a group of 10 or 12.


I was responsible for leading discussion afterwards, and while I'm not sure how well that part went, response to the film was generally positive. I hadn't seen the film in a couple of years and had forgotten how much I love it. There's just something awesome about seeing classic films on a big screen. Next month: Double Indemnity.