Fair Isolde...

[fajrdrako]

Yesterday I was googling for a picture of something, and stumbled across a picture of a beautiful blonde actress. "Who's that?" I asked myself rhetorically, and clicked on the picture. It turned out to be an actress I thought I didn't find attractive. It turned out to be Sophia Myles, in Tristan and Isolde.

So what's the difference? Hairstyle? A hint of medievalism? Lighting? The photo itself?

In any case, I must watch that movie.

Comments

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

I've recently watched that movie and I've found it not very impressive; I can't even explain why. But it's only my very subjective point of view. There is a mistake in the movie: Britania wasn't in this time Angel-Saxon.I really don't know why are the directors so ignorant, maybe because they have usually such a monster ego. I'd seen Sophie Myles before in a stupid vampire movie and I considered her very sexy (subjective point of view as well).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well. We'll see what I think of Sophia Myles when I get around to watching it. I suspect the directors think it's "mythic time" so it doesn't matter what they do with the history. I have mixed feelings about going to see Beowulf, which is coming out soon - if it hasn't already.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I have avoided it to preserve my sanity.
A mediævalesque setting, yet John Donne is quoted?
The totally bloody gorgeous Rufus Sewell is Mark, yet Isolde prefers Tristan (a rather less attractive specimen) without the excuse of a love potion?!!!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

No love potion? And who, given a choice, would pass up Rufus Sewell? - Not me! But the girl in A Knight's Tale did, though that's hardly an example of a sterling movie. It turned me off Heath Ledger forever, and I'd quite liked him - or at least tolerated him comfortably - in Roar.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I know. It makes no sense whatsoever. Rufus Sewell or James Franco? Anyone with taste would go for Rufus!

The girl in Knight's Tale was a vile spoiled brat, whom I hoped the hero would have dumped for the cute girl blacksmith. (Mind, I hated Heath Ledger in The Patriot too.)

But then, who the hell thinks Matt Damon is the sexiest man alive?!!!! Aaargh!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The girl in Knight's Tale was a vile spoiled brat

Granted.

I hoped the hero would have dumped for the cute girl blacksmith.

I like that idea.

Mind, I hated Heath Ledger in The Patriot too.

Yes, but I think I hated everyone in that movies except for Jason Isaacs. (Was he on my list? As I was composing it, he went on and off a few times.)

But then, who the hell thinks Matt Damon is the sexiest man alive?!!!!

Nobody I know. Perhaps his press agent did a deal with People magazine?

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think you listed the lovely Jason!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, I should have!

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Haha, my biggest problem with that movie was that ANYONE should have taken Mark over Tristan, wtf was she thinking? I mean, Mark is FABULOUS! Were we supposed to dislike him for some reason? I felt so sorry for him! Man, Rufus.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You make me want to see it even more.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Haha, it was good eye candy. Rufus was my favorite part.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Exactly! What the hell is wrong with the woman?!
James Franco (Tristan) is one of these white-bread, boring young boys off the juvenile lead production-line. And Rufus is… well, Rufus.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Yeah James Franco just doesn't cut it compared to Rufus. Now I need to watch this movie again just for Rufus!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

As my friend Elma the eye-surgeon astutely remarked, it may have something to do with people going around with uncorrected vision in the pre-modern period… Isolde may need glasses.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Or a brain transplant?

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Psychiatric help. Desperately.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's a good reason. I can't think of a better one!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

SO onice to know I'm not the only person around who appreciates Rufus.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Indeed: Rufus is much loved and cherished, especially when he's in mediæval mode, otherwise known as 'tinned Rufus'.
Here he is as Hotspur in Henry IV:



and in A Knight's Tale:

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

That last one is from The Honest Courtesan, btw. I was having trouble with the links to the pics, so didn't repost the whole thing.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

ooh, tinned Rufus is the best kind! He looks spiffy in armour.

Thank you for the so-very-pretty pictures.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Doesn't he? Before the shock of the revelation of probable blondness, I would have dream-cast him as His Loveliness. After 2 years, I'm still reeling from that. I've always preferred brunets.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Rufus does make a nice Conrad analogue, if you disregard colouring. I like the idea.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Yes!
He'd be great for the role if Conrad were more stereotypically Italian-looking (i.e. dark).

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

As long as you don't expect brilliance, you'll get a little enjoyment out of it. And a girl I went to high school with by the name of Cheyenne Rushing makes out with one of Tristan's friends in a few scenes. lol

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Cool! Nice name, too.

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

And not even a stage name. lol Her dad was our vet for years :)

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. I'm afraid first names like that tend to make me cringe… Ditto with 'cool' made-up spellings that some parents inflict to try to make their children's names look trendy…

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, trendy spellings are my biggest pet peeve. I see the oddest things come through here around orientation time (I work as a designer at a university). I can't imagine the poor child trying to learn to spell their name when every other person in the world spells it differently!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Over here, the sort of parents who do it to their children tend to be semi-literate anyway. They tend to be influenced by soap opera, pop and z-list celebrities: things like 'Dannii' and 'Chantelle' (which stems ultimately from the French name Chantal, but they're too illiterate to know that) and 'Kimberley'. Then, a bit higher up the social spectrum come the pseudo-hippie-ish ones, who spell 'Alicia' as 'Alisha', and so on. Aaargh!

I have a quite respectable mainland-European first name (after a Dutch friend of my mother's), but have had to put up with people garbling it for years. God knows what happens with some of the silly names…

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like "Alisha" as a name - but I thought it was a regular Hindu name, unrelated to the English Alicia. Maybe it's both!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

If so, that's no excuse for white middle-class, sandal-wearing types to use it, "just to be a bit, like, 'ethnic', man". They probably subject their children to tie-dyes and tofu.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Could be! And the fact that I've been through a tie-dyes-and-tofu phase myself probably makes the name seem all the more attractive.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I think it's as bad as the romance novelists who give names like 'Chandra' to a 13C English girl.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well - I think it's a pretty name (and I know two people named Chandra) but I wouldn't give it to a 13th century girl unless my setting was India.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

This depends on the name - I don't think it's necessary to spell a name the same way everyone else does, and when a name has a traditional foreign spelling (e.g., Caitlin) I don't think that it's an addvantage to anglicise it to Katelin. Or an advantage not to to that, either.

What's difficult is when it's a name that's really difficult to pronounce or spell in English, but that varies from place to place, too.

In fact, I think one of the worst names to spell is "Anne" or "Ann" - there's no way to know which it should be unless and until the person tells you. Ditto Lyn, Lynne, or Lynn.

Even my given name, Elizabeth - it's common enough, but in these parts it's just as likely to be spelled Elisabeth as Elizabeth.

Personally, I like unusual names - especially if they aren't fashionable as well.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

when a name has a traditional foreign spelling (e.g., Caitlin) I don't think that it's an addvantage to anglicise it to Katelin.

No, because it's pronounced "Kathleen", not Kate-lin. That's part of the problem, people adopting exotic spellings and not having a clue about the pronunciation. I used to get very peeved with a fellow student whose name was Catriona (Gaelic for Catherine), which should be pronounced 'Katreena' (perhaps with the mildest hint of a vowel between the ee and the n, like 'Katree-(u)na'. Like other posh English people who use it, she pronounced it 'Kat-ree-*oh*-na'. And then there are all the Nialls who pronounce it 'Nye-al' instead of 'Nee-al'.

I gave up trying to get people to notice my final 'e', so get the French pronunciation instead of the Dutch or German.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

because it's pronounced "Kathleen", not Kate-lin.

I didn't know that. It shows something about contemporary usage - !

I imagine part of the problem is not even knowing what language people's names come from, and then the secondary problem of not knowing how they pronounce them themselves. Like, for example, McKay or MacKay.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

One of the problems is people seeing names in print, and not having a clue how they are pronounced.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Depends on the name, since I'm not sure what you mean by "like that". I tend to like names of places being used for names of people - Florence, Venetia, Paris. Well, Paris for men. Paris for women has been ruined by Paris Hilton. Pity. And come to think of it, a person named Paris could be named for the classical hero, not the place.

When I was a kid I thought Cheyenne, Wyoming must be the most wonderful of places, because of its name. I always wanted to go there. Reading Annie Proulx's books cured me of that, but I still love the name. It has a beautiful sound.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I don't like place-names as first names, any more than I like surnames being used as first names (especially on women). And some of the American placenames make it sound as if the bearer is some kind of Country & Western act. I feel desperately sorry for the little British girl playing the lead in the Pullman films, who is called Dakota Blue; ditto the American child-actress, Dakota Fanning. That's child-cruelty. It manages to combine pretentiousness with trashiness, like the Beckhams calling one of their kids 'Brooklyn'.

Paris is a perfectly decent Classical man's name, but it shouldn't be used after the place, or on girls. 'Florence' is a curious one: while its modern use for women stems from Ms Nightingale (who was names after the place), in the Middle Ages it's Florens as a man's name, especially in the Low Countries. It is, however, very much a great-aunt name these days, suggestive of wrap-over aprons and curlers and scrubbing doorsteps. (I had a great aunt Florrie.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, since I like place names used as names, I have no particlar problem with Dakota, though it isn't one of the prettier ones.

I've known several people named Florence, usually shortened to Flo (infelicitous in my opionion, but not ugly), all of at least one generation older than me. Mostly two.

Florens, I like, for obvious reasons. Including its similarity to Lawrence/Laurence/Lorens, another name I like. I've never actually met someone with the name, though.

I just this morning came across someone in current news, named Amaury. I nearly cheered.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Is this the version from a couple years ago? Oh, yes, you must watch it! Many wonderful things are in it. Two of them are Tristan, who is smolderingly wonderful, and King Mark, who is utterly noble. I'm a sucker for that story, but even so, this was an excellent production and I hope you get time to see it someday.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I certainly plan to! Thanks for the encouragement.