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I finally saw a movie I've been curious about for a long time--Black Narcissus. Deborah Kerr leads a group of nuns into the Himalayas to start a convent, only you can't have convents in the Himalayas because the thin air and the wind make the nuns go funny. There's one nun in particular, Sister Ruth, who's barely sane when they show up and just deteriorates until she's completely crazed and wearing lipstick and a red dress! In a climactic scene she bursts onto the bell tower and I couldn't help myself from thinking, "And THAT is so what Draco should look like at the end of HBP in the movie!" The skinny, the crazy, the shadowy pink eyes, the pasty pale skin!
Much better than Jean Simmons playing the local (possibly half-white) girl who crawls around sexily like a cat and never speaks and wears lots of exotic clothing and jewelry, as well as a black wig and dark skin make-up. I know next to nothing about authentic jewelry, but her nose ring looked like a clip-on earring. Sabu, on the other hand, is a young general who at one point shows up in this white fur coat with shoulders that Joan Collins would have envied in 1984. David Farrar mostly goes around in little shorts and a smirk.
I also recently saw Around the World in 80 Days, where I learned an Englishman and his Mexican butler can span the globe while barely ever having to speak to non-white people. At one point they rescue an Indian Maiden educated in England from being burned on a funeral pyre...an Indian Maiden educated in England who's Shirley MacLaine in a black wig with a dot on her forehead.
I was actually surprised when a real Asian man showed up for a speaking part in Hong Kong. Then I realized he was a real Asian man is because the scene had David Niven addressing him in painful pigeon English so that the man could respond in perfect English and embarrass him. The joke wouldn’t work with a cameo appearance by Bing Crosby (or Peter Lorre, who played the other Asian speaking part). If we're going to believe Fogg's addressing someone in pigeon English they need to really be Asian--otherwise it's not incongruous when they can actually speak well. Yay! It’s just sort of funny the way the European/American places are cast mostly authentically (lots of British actors in Great Britain, French actors in France, American actors in America), but in between Europe and America it’s Shirley MacLaine as the Indian princess! Peter Lorre as the Japanese steward! Gilbert Roland as the sheik!
One other movie I saw I've been trying to think about why it didn't really work for me, and I think I've started to figure it out. ( Spoilers for American History X )
Much better than Jean Simmons playing the local (possibly half-white) girl who crawls around sexily like a cat and never speaks and wears lots of exotic clothing and jewelry, as well as a black wig and dark skin make-up. I know next to nothing about authentic jewelry, but her nose ring looked like a clip-on earring. Sabu, on the other hand, is a young general who at one point shows up in this white fur coat with shoulders that Joan Collins would have envied in 1984. David Farrar mostly goes around in little shorts and a smirk.
I also recently saw Around the World in 80 Days, where I learned an Englishman and his Mexican butler can span the globe while barely ever having to speak to non-white people. At one point they rescue an Indian Maiden educated in England from being burned on a funeral pyre...an Indian Maiden educated in England who's Shirley MacLaine in a black wig with a dot on her forehead.
I was actually surprised when a real Asian man showed up for a speaking part in Hong Kong. Then I realized he was a real Asian man is because the scene had David Niven addressing him in painful pigeon English so that the man could respond in perfect English and embarrass him. The joke wouldn’t work with a cameo appearance by Bing Crosby (or Peter Lorre, who played the other Asian speaking part). If we're going to believe Fogg's addressing someone in pigeon English they need to really be Asian--otherwise it's not incongruous when they can actually speak well. Yay! It’s just sort of funny the way the European/American places are cast mostly authentically (lots of British actors in Great Britain, French actors in France, American actors in America), but in between Europe and America it’s Shirley MacLaine as the Indian princess! Peter Lorre as the Japanese steward! Gilbert Roland as the sheik!
One other movie I saw I've been trying to think about why it didn't really work for me, and I think I've started to figure it out. ( Spoilers for American History X )
