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Three More Sleeps
Dec. 29th, 2020 09:20 amThe weather station Ailz wears on her wrist tells her the temperature is below freezing while the monitor in the garden says it's just above. We had skies yesterday which looked as if they had snow in them but if they did they kept it to themselves.
Yesterday evening I found myself watching Anna Neagle being Florence Nightingale. I liked how they got the hairstyles and costumes right- and how all the chaps (apart from Michael Wilding) had lots of hair distributed about their faces. I checked this morning and was pleased to find that Wilding's smooth chops weren't just a concession to a leading actor's personal vanity but an accurate representation of how Wilding's character- The Hon Sidney Herbert- actually presented himself. I reflected on how Hollywood films of the same period (mid 20th century) hardly ever bother with historical accuracy- and how the people in Westerns- for instance- never look like the Victorians they would actually have been. I was watching Red River the day before- and while some of the supporting cast are allowed stubble and long hair- and even John Wayne gets a bit towselled- Monty Clift never looks like anything other than a 1940s film star playing dress up. Red River is one of the greatest movies ever made- and I can forgive it just about anything- but one thing it isn't is a time machine. The Lady with a Lamp, on the other hand, looks like an 1850s photograph album that's been brought to life.
Three more sleeps and 2020 will be history.
Yesterday evening I found myself watching Anna Neagle being Florence Nightingale. I liked how they got the hairstyles and costumes right- and how all the chaps (apart from Michael Wilding) had lots of hair distributed about their faces. I checked this morning and was pleased to find that Wilding's smooth chops weren't just a concession to a leading actor's personal vanity but an accurate representation of how Wilding's character- The Hon Sidney Herbert- actually presented himself. I reflected on how Hollywood films of the same period (mid 20th century) hardly ever bother with historical accuracy- and how the people in Westerns- for instance- never look like the Victorians they would actually have been. I was watching Red River the day before- and while some of the supporting cast are allowed stubble and long hair- and even John Wayne gets a bit towselled- Monty Clift never looks like anything other than a 1940s film star playing dress up. Red River is one of the greatest movies ever made- and I can forgive it just about anything- but one thing it isn't is a time machine. The Lady with a Lamp, on the other hand, looks like an 1850s photograph album that's been brought to life.
Three more sleeps and 2020 will be history.
