POETS UNITED - DARK MOON, NEW MOON

“We are all like the bright moon, but we still have our dark side.” ― Kahlil Gibran 

In the Poets United site this week the Midweek Motif theme is Dark Moon, New Moon. My contribution is below:
  
Mistress Moon

Dark Mistress Moon,
You hide your face tonight,
(In shame?)
For mischief’s afoot
And all sorts of foul deeds need to be done… 

O, Moon, my Moon,
You of the radiant countenance
(So pure!)
You’re kind and gentle
When you shine and leaves with silver shower. 

Harsh, Moon, when you veil
Your beauty in dark crêpe,
(In mourning?)
You hide your sadness
And you let your anger, cruelty and vileness beget. 

O, Moon, my Moon,
Your gibbous fecund glow,
(In pregnancy…)
Generates blessings
When you touch with light caress all womankind. 

Dark Mistress Moon,
With sharpened sickle,
(So deadly!)
Tonight you’ll cut

The thread of life of those who dared offend you. 

O, Moon, my Moon,
Tomorrow night reborn,
(In innocence…)
You’ll smile and heal,
And give back hope and dignity to those wronged.

MOVIE MONDAY - MALEFICENT

“Until lions write their own history, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” – African Proverb

We watched the 2014 Robert Stromberg movie “Maleficent” at the weekend. It starred Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Sam Riley and Imelda Staunton. This movie was based on the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, especially so the 1959 Disney animated version. However, the movie is different from many other such Disney movies: It not animated (although there are quite spectacular special effects and computer generated imaging); it is not a musical (thankfully!) and it takes a slightly different tack to the conventional fairy tale in that there is a bit of grey in the tale, rather than the stark black and white of most fairy tales.

The Maleficent of the title is of course the “evil” witch of the classic Sleeping Beauty tale and Angelina Jolie makes this her movie while playing this role. However, is Maleficent really evil? Or rather, if she is, what turned her evil? We get to see the whole story and the classic tale has a new feminist twist.

The movie starts with Maleficent as a beautiful, pure-hearted young woman having an idyllic life growing up in a peaceful forest kingdom. One day an invading army threatens the harmony of her land. Maleficent rises to be the land’s fiercest protector, but she suffers a ruthless betrayal and her heart turns to stone. What transpires is a tale of vengeance. The way that Maleficent interacts with the young princess Aurora makes this movie one of redemption.

The movie is difficult to classify. It isn’t really for the younger children as it is quite dark and has some disturbing images and complex themes. Yet, it really is not one that will satisfy many of the “grown-ups”. Perhaps it is a film for the adults with a young heart. The CGIs are quite spectacular and Jolie pulls all stops out to play her role with a great deal of gusto. There is quite a lot of good chemistry between Maleficent and her familiar man/crow “Diaval” (played by Sam Riley). Elle Fanning as Aurora is satisfactory, but she still has to earn some acting stars to play against the top brass of the acting world.

Overall, we enjoyed the movie and recommend it to the young at heart who enjoy a bit of stuff and nonsense and fantasy. There is a bit of a sub-text of feminism and the reclaiming of the old fairy tale for the new-age 21^st century woman, but it is kept under control and doesn’t interfere with the story too much.

MOVIE MONDAY - THE DRESSMAKER

“There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us, and not we, them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.” - Virginia Woolf

For Movie Monday today, an Australian film, the 2015 Jocelyn Moorhouse movie “The Dressmaker” starring Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth, Hugo Weaving and Judy Davis. The film is based on Australian author Rosalie Ham’s Gothic novel first published by Duffy & Snellgrove on January 1, 2000. The story is set in a 1950s fictional Australian country town, Dungatar, and explores love, hate and haute couture. The novel is divided into four sections, each named after a different fabric and representing different phases in the story: Gingham, shantung, felt and brocade. I have not read the novel, but the quirky film was interesting and entertaining.

The plot centres on Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage (Winslet) who returns home to rural Australia after spending time abroad becoming an accomplished fashion designer. Much of the story hinges on her childhood: As a child Tilly was sent to a boarding school in Melbourne by Sergeant Farrat (Weaving) as she was accused of killing the boy who bullied her. Her mother, Molly (Davis) initially doesn’t recognise the adult Tilly on her return o town and thinks she is dealing with an impostor. Molly eventually accepts her into her home and Tilly transforms it into a couturier’s salon where she begins to make haute couture clothes for the women of the town. In the meantime, she becomes romantically involved with Teddy McSwiney (Hemsworth) whom she has known since they were children. The town still hasn’t forgiven Tilly for apparently killing the boy and believe she is cursed. Tilly’s plan is to exact revenge on all those who did her wrong and she will apparently stop at nothing to succeed...

The film is episodic in nature and difficult to classify into a single genre. There is quite a great deal going on and there are many characters introduced throughout. Many familiar Australian actors get lines in this movie and it’s great to see them doing their thing so well. Kate Winslet assumes a fantastic Australian accent and it certainly complements Hemsworth’s drawl. Judy Davis is fantastic in her role, which deserves a supporting actress Oscar.

There are moments of hilarious humour, moments of poignancy, great sadness, frustration and quirkiness. A true roller-coaster in terms of everything that is going on. Part of the film’s charm perhaps is because of this failure to classified and pigeon-holed and it can be considered to mirror life in this respect. There is poetic license, of course, and an almost magical realism about the situation as well as an unconventional ending. Given the film’s title and the short publicity blurb I read about it before seeing it, I thought it was going to be a standard chick-flick, but no, it doesn’t fall into that type either.

The sets, costumes, cinematography and authentic touches of the 1950s era were extremely well done and one felt transported back in time, watching this idiosyncratic tale. I would recommend it anyone and I would say that it was quite an entertaining two hours we spent watching it. The film has a great message, as well, about the few bad people who are hasty in making terrible judgments and who are able to influence a whole lot of others, thus making life miserable for everyone…