no but the concept of eskel is actually god tier galaxy brain. like the first time we hear of him it’s when geralt remembers how they were both young stupid boys and got a beating from vesemir when he caught them teasing a captured bumblebee. and when we actually meet him, it’s from ciri’s point of view and she’s SO terrified of kaer morhen cause it’s this dark unfamiliar place and she’s just a little girl who’s already been through too much, and then there’s this guy whom she doesn’t know and who sounds angry and evil and wrong (the polish word for that was “zły” which can mean all those things and more) and whose face is so fucked up that at first she thinks that he’s not human. and then BOOM he smiles at her and cracks an unfunny joke and welcomes her to kaer morhen, welcomes her HOME and turns out to be the kindest gentlest most well adjusted Just Some Guy in the keep. iconic
As today is the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, it’s a great time to revisit Dinah from Devon’s memory of this historic event. And yes, still makes me laugh.
Rewatching Truman Show for the first time in a long time, and the detail that’s stuck with me this time is the set design.
The characters drive modern cars and hock modern products, but it’s all presented with a veneer of 1950s wholesome applecheeked Americana. Truman’s life is presented as an escape for the audience from the drudgery of the modern day, and the aesthetic they’ve chosen for this is the post-war economic boom. This is the simple time, the movie says. This is the good time. Doesn’t the modern day suck? Let’s go back and see our friends from the days when life was good.
And it’s a lie. Truman’s life is a lie, and the image of white picket fenced suburbia they’ve presented is a lie. It’s an elaborate construction to recreate a false memory that’s comfortable for advertisers. The movie is a satire, but it’s also a very blatant statement against the nostalgia for a golden age which never existed. It’s a lie. It doesn’t exist.
I don’t know. I’m spitballing. I’m biased because I despise mid-20th century Americana and I naturally treat it with hostility, but it’s very gratifying to see a movie kind of agree with me.
Let me tell you a story.
Earlier in the summer, I went to Florida with my friend. We decided to visit a town nearish to where we were staying called Seaside, as we had heard it was a cute place. What I did not know at the time was that Seaside is the place where they filmed The Truman Show. It was a “master-planned community,” constructed in the 80s to be the perfect beach town.
Seaside, FL
Seahaven
And yes, it really does look Like That. Not just in their tourist-agency photos, in real life it looks like that. Arguably the irl Seaside is even prettier than movie Seahaven, because the the office buildings where Truman works don’t exist; the town is 100% cutesy homes and little shops.
A massive blind spot in all the discussions about the film strikes is the fact that these strikes effectively shut down film work outside of the USA as well. And the bigger problem there is, at least in Canada, the unions actually do not allow striking because of safe harbor clauses.
My partner and a bunch of my friends work in film up here in Canada and will be out of work until the strikes are settled and they have NOTHING they can do to support the strike with their union, nor are they getting any of the support fundraising that the striking unions are getting. The entire industry has been stopped dead and its frustrating that some unions DISALLOW striking (and also havent made a single statement since BOTH strikes started!) and these crew members are invisible in the discourse and the efforts to support crew who are making no money.
This isnt me criticizing the strikes at all, if anything I want more film unions to strike. This is me frustrated that internationally people are losing work with no recourse or agency to join strike efforts. My city’s economy actually depends on film a lot, its shocking that governments arent making statements and putting pressure on to have strike demands met so that things dont fall apart
