I.
I've finally seen "Wonder Woman" (it did come out later in the Netherlands and then I was travelling and had no time to breath). I left in love - it was a flawed movie (that boat trip was just hilariously wrong), but oh, did it do things right. I did stay out of the overall discussion, for various reasons, but two thoughts that I keep coming back to.
1. Am I happy that they went for the "wrong war". I am so, so, so tired of American stories using WWII as a backdrop. I know that it is part of the history of the character, but well ... Sometimes, if we tell the stories anew, we need to change them.
2. When writing this, I am sitting on a plane, the passengers boarding walking past me on the way to their seats: people flying from Munich to Amsterdam, from Germany to the Netherlands. And it brings it home once again: Gal Gadot would stand out among them - for being somewhat darker, somewhat different, foreign enough to be seen as "not one of us". Is it my own experience talking? Perhaps. I'm pretty sure they have not thought of this, making an American movie. But to me, with my experience of being the other in Western Europe, with the movie taking part in UK, Belgium and France, with Gal Gadot's own Israeli background, this is an Jewish woman, a woman representing an ethnic minority, a woman representing a certain Middle-Eastern look that would draw racism and discrimination, being powerful on screen. This gives me so freaking many feelings.
II.
American Gods. (Thanks,![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
giallarhorn!) I'm two episodes in and I love it. I found the Bilquis sex scene less impressive than the online discussion let me to believe, but it *was* well done. The casting so far has been superb - different from what I thought (in my imagination, Shadow was rather Native American than black), but working in a way that is definitely overwriting my assumptions. The only thing I wish for were proper prononciation for the Zorya's names, especially among the Zoryas and Czernobog. But oh well.
III.
They did change Druckfrisch to a bi-monthly schedule, didn't they? I am so freaking sad about it, it still is perhaps the only German TV show worth watching D:
IV.
Also seen the two first seasons of Voltron. Meh. I will give it another try - in the end, the next season has Lotor. But so far it gives me zero feelings. It does certainly not help that even as a kid, I loved the vehicle Voltron version a lot more than the lion one. I'm kind of sad about this - I really wanted something else to be fannish about (not that I grow tired of Marvel/Loki but I have the distinct feeling that the whole universe goes into a direction I do not like). Oh well.
(Both Wonder Woman and American Gods are too good. Fannish needs a story with enough holes to feel them up with imagination but at the same time not enough to totally throw me off. I'm strange like that, it's hard to get me there, only very few shows ever managed.)
Crossposts: http://pax-athena.dreamwidth.org/777244.h
comments over there.
I've finally seen "Wonder Woman" (it did come out later in the Netherlands and then I was travelling and had no time to breath). I left in love - it was a flawed movie (that boat trip was just hilariously wrong), but oh, did it do things right. I did stay out of the overall discussion, for various reasons, but two thoughts that I keep coming back to.
1. Am I happy that they went for the "wrong war". I am so, so, so tired of American stories using WWII as a backdrop. I know that it is part of the history of the character, but well ... Sometimes, if we tell the stories anew, we need to change them.
2. When writing this, I am sitting on a plane, the passengers boarding walking past me on the way to their seats: people flying from Munich to Amsterdam, from Germany to the Netherlands. And it brings it home once again: Gal Gadot would stand out among them - for being somewhat darker, somewhat different, foreign enough to be seen as "not one of us". Is it my own experience talking? Perhaps. I'm pretty sure they have not thought of this, making an American movie. But to me, with my experience of being the other in Western Europe, with the movie taking part in UK, Belgium and France, with Gal Gadot's own Israeli background, this is an Jewish woman, a woman representing an ethnic minority, a woman representing a certain Middle-Eastern look that would draw racism and discrimination, being powerful on screen. This gives me so freaking many feelings.
II.
American Gods. (Thanks,
giallarhorn!) I'm two episodes in and I love it. I found the Bilquis sex scene less impressive than the online discussion let me to believe, but it *was* well done. The casting so far has been superb - different from what I thought (in my imagination, Shadow was rather Native American than black), but working in a way that is definitely overwriting my assumptions. The only thing I wish for were proper prononciation for the Zorya's names, especially among the Zoryas and Czernobog. But oh well.III.
They did change Druckfrisch to a bi-monthly schedule, didn't they? I am so freaking sad about it, it still is perhaps the only German TV show worth watching D:
IV.
Also seen the two first seasons of Voltron. Meh. I will give it another try - in the end, the next season has Lotor. But so far it gives me zero feelings. It does certainly not help that even as a kid, I loved the vehicle Voltron version a lot more than the lion one. I'm kind of sad about this - I really wanted something else to be fannish about (not that I grow tired of Marvel/Loki but I have the distinct feeling that the whole universe goes into a direction I do not like). Oh well.
(Both Wonder Woman and American Gods are too good. Fannish needs a story with enough holes to feel them up with imagination but at the same time not enough to totally throw me off. I'm strange like that, it's hard to get me there, only very few shows ever managed.)
Crossposts: http://pax-athena.dreamwidth.org/777244.h
- Current Location:schiphol
Comments
Yasssss! Considering that we're still in the centennary period for WWI, this was awesome. And considering how I spent three semesters immersed in early WWI military history in my master's and came away with some honest to God academic trauma, it was gratifying to see that the war that is mostly ignored in Germany (after all, and this is one of my favorite military history pet peeves, basically every major nation involved in WWI except Germany commemorates the armistice with solemn celebrations, poppies and "Lest we Forget" and official holidays all over. In Germany, in contrast, it's "Humpta humpta humpta tätäräääääääääää KARNEVAL!" I will never get over the considerable amount of issues I have with this) was basically dragged back kicking and screaming into the conscience of the general public.
Personal favorite tidbit: Ludendorff as villain, because the real Ludendorff drifted off into some kind of esoteric nazi cult after the war and was forever pissed off that the nazis would court Hindenburg but would not even consider giving him any role in their new government at all. In early WWI, Ludendorff was being hailed as the "Hero of Liege" and fancied himself responsible for the last actual battle victory the Germans had in WWI (Battle of Tannenberg, in August 1914. I cannot get over the fact that this was the last battle the Germans won in that entire war, and it still dragged on for four more years). In truth, his biggest "achievement" (and I'm using that word with a heavy ironic undertone here) was turning Germany from a monarchy into a de facto military dictatorship, with him, Hindenburg and the OHL (Oberste Heeresleitung) acting as a kind of junta with the Kaiser as a figure head. Willy had his part in letting this happen, and neither Hindenburg nur Ludendorff made it any better.
Anyway, enough gratuitious WWI trivia for today ;) What I didn't like about the move was most of the male cast. Like... half of them were totally superfluous? And the weird romantic subplot thing was, too? Like, they could have left that out and spent way more time on Fräulein Doktor because honestly, she was one of the most interesting villains we had in a long time. Why spend time with a romantic subplot that isn't working anyway when you have a great, scary and ruthless villain right there at your disposal? (personal thing yet again: as someone who underwent basic NBC training and has developed a pretty strong dislike to having to wear a gas mask, I find NBC warfare in general and the chemical warfare part of WWI in particular the most scary part, so Fräulein Doktor's plan to develop a chemical agent that would render gas masks useless scared the fucking hell out of me...)
In any case, I do think that using WWI also make the overall narrative stronger: this is a Diana who lives through the horrors of first WWI and then WWII that is, in this world, caused without any "godly" intervention, and who still believes in humanity. Not sure whether this is a point they were thinking about making, but I am allowed to interpret this world in a certain way and it *would* be a strong point, I think. (I have to admit that I started the movie thinking that she may have given up on humanity and loved to see this particular assumption - which yes, in part is an expectation knowing the genre and the lately popular grimdark take on it - proven wrong.)
Yes, more Fräulein Doktor would be great. (But then again - she survived? So who knows whether they may end up re-suing her?) I was OK with the romance subplot, to be honest. Not that I loved it but it was minor enough and they did a good job, at least to me, of not making this either her first love or her first sexual encounter; the conversation on the boat seemed rather clear in that regard. There was a sentence about "love" when Diana was talking about humanity in general in the end that was off (reminded me of some of the stupidity they also brought up in "Interstellar"), but oh well ... It's still a Hollywood movie.
I am in complete agreement with you re: American Gods. 3 episodes in and I'm loving the casting. It really is the book on screen. And like you, pronunciation of Zoryas bugged me - with getting so many things right, they couldn't get a Russian person to teach them pronunciation?
But overall it's a minor point. I am already planning on washing and thus ironing again soon to see one more episode asap :D
Yeah, it seems like a lot of people were somewhere close this day! I missed my parents in Munich by perhaps half an hour, too (they were visiting some museum there).
And I've seen the announcements for the meeting. The tutorials made me myself actually all excited, it so close to real data now ...!
Re your comment on Gal Gadot - I would have thought that actually she's more 'palatable' to a Hollywood palate because she isn't much darker, isn't particularly Middle Eastern looking - and that being an Israeli is much more acceptable for a lead than other Middle Eastern 'looks'. I'm aware that I'm coming at this from a position of privilege as a white non-Jewish Western European perspective so I'm not dismissing your viewpoint at all, just presenting mine for discussion - if that makes sense.
I think our two points do no contradict each other. She is more "palatable" to Hollywood that an even darker actress would be. In the USA she would likely be able to pass as white or even consider herself white; a lot of American Jews with European roots I know do - to me this is still a shock every time even though I understand why this is the case in the USA, but I've been told and shown too often that people do not see me this way. That's why keeping the story in Europe was so important to me, why seeing her working in Louvre mattered, although I doubt that either was intended to be read the way I read it. It's like my Turkish colleague who is seen as white and European in the States but Turkish and Middle Eastern with all the discrimination implied in this in France (they are married to a French person and had to decide which country to actually settle in, deciding for the USA for this very reason).
Ansonsten: ja zu American Gods! Ich war am Anfang noch etwas skeptisch, was den ganzen digitalen Humbug angeht, aber Ian McShane war doch recht schnell Grund allein, die erste Staffel zu Ende zu schauen. Und Queen Gillian, natürlich. :D
Meinst du mit digitalem Humbug die Special Effects? Die finde ich einerseits auch seltsam andererseits frage ich mich auch, ob es nicht ein bisschen Absicht ist, um die traumähnliche, unreale Stimmung noch mal zu betonen.