HAPPY NEW YEAR!
What better way to end 2014 than through one of my favorite scenes from Kubrick’s film adaptation of The Shining.
For those who have watched the film they understand the impact of this scene. For those still needing to see this classic piece of horror filmmaking then what better way to open up the new year than making a resolution to finally sit down and watch The Shining.
Well, 2014 is nearly over.
Soon, it will be 2015.
Soon, the present will become the future.
2014 will not go down in history as one of humanity’s finest moments. Considering all that’s happened over the past year, it’s hard for me to be surprised by the fact that several of my favorite films of the year were films that I would normally describe as being entertaining escapism.
In 2014, we needed to be entertained. We needed to escape.
Will 2015 be any better? What will be the way of the future? It’s a question that Leonardo DiCaprio asked at the end of Martin Scorsese’s 2004 film The Aviator and it’s a question that we’re still asking today.
2014 has been a very good year in the realm of great television. We have the perennial stand-outs like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Justified and The Americans. Some shows that have been brought down a peg or two in seasons past made a resurgence in quality and consistency with The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy.
Yet, it is with the new kid on the block that I pick my latest “Scenes I Love” and probably the most memorable scene on TV all year. The scene I speak of is the “seance” scene of the second episode of Showtime’s gothic horror series Penny Dreadful. This scene wasn’t even the big reveal in the episode but it ultimately set the tone for what’s to come for the rest of the series’ inaugural season.
The scene focuses on Eva Green’s character, Vanessa Ives, as she attends and participates in a seance held by Madame Kali in the home of renowned Egyptologist Ferdinand Lyle. It’s a powerful performance from Eva Green who has become an actor with a penchant for pulling off bravura performances in the small and big screen.
Green’s Ives has several more performances such as these during the rest of the season, but they all didn’t come with that first shock and awe this scene gave the episode and the series. It’s actually a shame that Green’s work on Penny Dreadful hasn’t garnered as much, if any, year end accolades. Her work as Vanessa Ives was that good.
The latest “Scenes I Love” comes courtesy of An Officer and a Gentleman.
This ending sequence to the film has become an iconic scene when one talks about some of the best romantic scenes in film. The film itself was your modern take on the age-old two people from the wrong-sides of the track falling for each other.
The ending scene made the film memorable in the end. It helped that the song written and composed for the film, “Up Where We Belong,” and sung as a duet by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes became as big of a hit as the film itself.
You know that a scene has become a cultural mainstay when The Simpsons did a parody of it which ended up being just as memorable as the original.
Up Where We Belong
Who knows what tomorrow brings
in a world few hearts survive
All I know is the way I feel
when it’s real I keep it alive the road is long
There are mountains in our way
but we climb the stairway every day
Love lifts us up where we belong
where the eagles cry on a mountain high
love lifts us up where we belong
far from the world below up where the clear winds blow
Some hang on to used to be
live their lives looking behind
All we have is here and now
all our lives out there to find
The road is long and there are moutains in our way
but we climb the stairway every day
Love lifts us up where we belong
where the eagles cry on a mountain high
love lifts us up where we belong
far from the world we know
where the clear wind blows
Time goes by no time cry
life’s you and I alive
Love lifts us up where we belong
where the eagles cry on a mountain high
love lifts us up where we belong
far from the world we know
where the clear winds blow
Love lifts us up where we belong
far from the world we know
where the clear winds blow
Love lifts us up where we belong
where the eagles cry on a mountain high
To our readers in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving from the Shattered Lens! Stay safe, be thankful, and enjoy the food!
Last week I put up as one of the entries for the 27 Days of Old School the classic song by Huey Lewis and the News. That song is “Hip to be Square” and I wrote how that song has become famous as not just being part of a great album of the 80’s, but due to the fact that it became the soundtrack to one of the best scenes from Marry Harron’s American Psycho.
Patrick Bateman’s personal take on “Hip to be Square” resonates not just as a description of the song but of the 1980’s as well.
“Do you like Huey Lewis & The News? Their early work was a little too ‘new-wave’ for my taste, but when Sports came out in ’83, I think they really came into their own – both commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He’s been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humour. In ’87, Huey released this, Fore, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is ‘Hip To Be Square’, a song so catchy most people probably don’t listen to the lyrics – but they should! Because it’s not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it’s also a personal statement about the band itself! Hey Paul!”
[spoiler]
It’s difficult to try and celebrate Halloween without at least remembering the classic John Carpenter film of the same name which help give birth to the slasher horror genre. Halloween has become a staple in my horror watching lists. It joins such other classic horror as the Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Craven’s The Serpent and The Rainbow.
Filmed on a tiny budget of $325,000 and released in 1978, Halloween would introduce to the film world one of it’s most iconic horror figures in the Michale Myers. The film’s opening would become famous in it’s own right as it didn’t just give us a look into Michael Myers backstory, but make the film audience become almost active participant in the murder that introduced us to our killer.
This extended introduction scene let’s the audience see through Michael Myers’ eyes as he stalks through the house towards his sister’s room where he commits his first murder. This point of view through the eye holes of Michael’s mask would be repeated several times throughout the film.
Happy Halloween from the Shattered Lens!
Halloween’s almost here and it’s time for the Great Pumpkin to bring gifts to all the good boys and girls of the world. Never stop believing, Linus.
Through the Shattered Lens 