As of 2023, Sherlock Holmes is finally in the public domain in the United States -- which means that Arthur Conan Doyle's heirs and random other rights-holders can no longer insist that the character be free of any trace of homoeroticism.
buttondown.com/charliejane/...
a still of plated deserts from MARIE ANTOINETTE. Sofia Coppola invents instagram
Sofia Coppolaās film about Franceās final queen Marie Antoinette bloomed with controversy before the film even went into production. Rumours that proved to be true circulated in online film spaces that she was going to take an anarchic anachronistic approach to the period costume-drama. Her Marie Antoinette would be a deconstruction of period pieces and the mannered style thereināand cast the gluttonous queen in the guise of her career-long examination of the teenage girl as an outsider figure whose behaviour could be explained through Coppolaās tendency to self-identify with the aesthetic surfaces and caged emotions of these characters. It became more obvious that this would not be a studied and faithful adaptation when news broke that she was scripting from Antonia Fraserās newly revisionist biography of Marie Antoinette as her source material, instead of the more detailed and factual accounts of the monarch from Stefan Zweigās analytic biography. To make matters more profane, Coppola shot her fantasia of the beheaded glamour queen at her former kingdomāthe Palace of Versaillesāand she intended to debut her film at Cannes for a French audience.
She seemed to be courting controversy, and scandal followed the film after the divisive premiere. The film was booed, which is not exceptional for Cannes, but some in the French critical establishment took the film to task for the way it presented the facts of its revisionist history. AgnĆØs Poirier, the critic at the French Newspaper LibĆ©ration, wrote, āThe film is shocking because it is empty, devoid of a point of view, because the person who has made it has no curiosity for the woman she is portraying and the time that her tragic life is set in. The film director seems as unconcerned by her subject as Marie-Antoinette was indifferent to the plight of her people and the world she lived in.ā. Poirierās frustrations were somewhat tempered by his admiration of the colorful mise-en-scene, and it must be said that not everyone in the French intelligentsia were critical of Coppolaās vision; Jean-Michel Frodon, the editor-in-chief at Cahiers du Cinema found much to admire about Coppolaās film and made an argument for the film with an auteurist take on the material.
Marie Antoinette was always going to garner a sharply critical response within France, because the nature of Antoinetteās monarchy, and the French revolution that followed, is too explosive for a tepid response. Indifference might have been the worst of all possible fates: in Coppolaās own words, āit would have been worse if they hadnāt reacted at all.ā. It is true that Coppolaās Marie Antoinette presents itself as a hollow endeavor, but its cloistered world of ritual, feminine finery, and glamour at the expense of the noble peasant life of blood and dirt and responsibility and anguish is entirely the point. Marie Antoinette is told in a way that is extremely pleasurable in its surfaces of beauty, and in its elaborate and meticulous and jaw-dropping set-design, but there is criticism within the form itself. Alongside those aspirational qualities that Coppola self-identifies with as a daughter of filmmaking royalty, there is also condemnation and interrogation. Marie Antoinette asks viewers what is at stake when a white woman aspires to this type of lifestyle, and Coppolaās film wonders if there is something rotten when femininity is linked to such exhibitionist displays. However, the filmās brilliance lay in how there is still a seductive pull, and a longing for majesty within her images that persists, even with that critical valve of tension and criticism bubbling underneath the elaborate wigs, and the decadent costumes. With Marie Antoinette, Sofia Coppola has her cake and eats it too.
I wrote about Sofia Coppola's MARIE ATOINETTE for my reader's choice series. I dove into how the superficial qualities are actually the entire point of the endeavor and how it's the most complicated film she's ever made. Really proud of how this one turned out.
www.patreon.com/posts/patron...
Melt all the cybertrucks down & do something useful with the metal. I donāt care! Get them off the road so nobody has to see them!
The birth of the edge lord apparently š¤£
the council of weird old perverts in the NIN "Closer" video
everybody in charge of things looks like this now
My review for The Plague. A subtle and stylish debut exploring the horror of boys, men and the excruciating connective tissue between.
My friend @maggiemaefish.bsky.social is making a really cool horror short film that, knowing her, is going to be all sorts of equally feminist and fucked up in the best way. Please go support her Seed and Spark fundraising campaign if you're able!
Naming my security company after the giant evil eye that, crucially, was too distracted to see the actual threat sneaking in
The cover of "folkish" by kym deyn. Published by nine arches press.
Reading @kymdeyn.bsky.social's 'Folkish' and whispering "fuck offfff" after every poem because it's just so good.
Eating corn flakes for lunch because Iām an adult
Absolutely! Itās been wild reading these back to back.
Finished reading the 80s novels for my cyberpunk book... and boy howdy is there a whole lot of transphobia to unpack here. Don't worry, I got receipts.
The true horror of The Plague doesnāt arise from its titular affliction, but rather the creeping spectre of toxic masculinity which slowly bares its teeth.
HACKERS!!!
And also:
The Princess Bride
A Knightās Tale
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Fantastic Mr Fox
Matrix Resurrections
It looks like Stonewall UK has abandoned trans folk ā but gay people in power selling out their BTQ+ cousins isn't new.
I wrote a novel about it! If you haven't read it yet, PROUD PINK SKY explores trans lives in the world's first gay state.
Check it out! š³ļøāā§ļøš³ļøāš
www.redjon.com/proud-pink-sky
#books
Back when I was in school, kids always talked about how we'd get sent home if the sky ever turned the colour of television tuned to a dead channel. Then one day the sky *did* change to the colour of television tuned to a dead channel and we still had to go to class.
Pssssst I wrote a book, and it's pretty dang good. You should check it out--it's got queer found family, growing out of your trauma, and a cat with a prosthetic leg.
www.amazon.com/dp/B0GKX6C2ZR
Amen!
Progmata, is this a thing?
You know youāre getting older when even blowing your nose makes your back hurt
This is something Iāve felt and noticed too.
Also that, for some reason, within transmasc community we seem under-networked. Like itās harder for us to find and connect with our fellow transmascs.
If anyone else agrees or thereās any investigation into it, Iād be very interested.
Never!
You know it š
The day Iāve waited eight years for has finally arrived! Iāve started reading my daughter The Lord of the Rings.
Victorian slang for winning a prize is take the egg and I want to bring it back
On the anniversary of Tim Curryās birth I would just like to say that there are few actors who are as good as him at putting exactly the right amount of unhinged overacting and camp into a role to make it memorable.
The man is quite literally an acting genius and we are all better for knowing him.
Screen grab from Qubuz showing the album cover for Savage Imperial Death March by the Melvins and Napalm Death. The song playing is Comparison is the Thief of Joy
Napalm Death and the Melvins get it
The Sad Trans Lesbians would be a good band name.
If you like Nine Inch Nails, vegan food, and sad trans lesbians, this might be the book for you.