Tonight I was back in Shakespeare mode. I watched the classic 1935 version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which I bought from Amazon. If you are a fan of TCM, you may have seen all or part of this movie. They show it a few times a year and this is how I discovered it. I saw a few minutes of it at Pearl's one day a couple months ago and right away I knew I needed to own it.
As far as reviewing it, I'll start by saying that I was blown away tonight, seeing it all the way through for the first time. Cinematically, it is in my opinion one of the greatest films ever made. I did some Googling afterward and learned that director Max Reinhardt had staged a live production of the play at the Hollywood Bowl, and apparently a lot of what you see in the film was adapted directly from the stage. It's a simply phenomenal production, with the bulk of the 143 minute film taking place in an enchanted forest filled with dancing, balletic fairies photographed in a dreamy gauze. The Fairy King and Queen look like mythical creatures and the air sparkles around them. An adolescent Mickey Rooney plays "Puck", Shakespeare's mischievous Boy-Spirit of The Woods, who acts as an agent of the Fairy King, played by the great Victory Jory, who could play any character in the world. The Fairy King, frustrated over the custody of a Changeling (do some Googling), wishes to cause havoc in the lives of two lovelorn couples who are traversing the woods. He sends Puck to sprinkle drops from the leaves of a magic plant onto the eyelids of the lovers, to confuse who is in love with whom.
As always with Shakespeare, t'would be far better for you find a plot synopsis that rely on my description. But you can rely on my highest possible recommendation for the film because you've never seen anything like it. It's pure fantasy, looks like a dream and is wonderfully cast and acted by big names such as Cagney and de Havilland (in her first screen role), early screen comic Joe E. Brown and a host of other talents. A small caveat because it is William Shakespeare, so you've either gotta be in the mood if you are a casual fan or are unfamiliar with his plays, and also because it is a long film, almost two and a half hours.
However......if you already like Shakespeare, or have seen a play or a movie or two, and are discovering that you are enjoying his work, then stop whatever you are doing and see this movie right now.
It's a truly amazing motion picture, especially for 1935, and just for the art direction, cinematography, costuming and staging, it will never be surpassed for the type of film that it is.
I'd bought the dvd a couple of months ago and had it sitting around, but it's length at 143 minutes precluded me watching on a work night, so I'm glad I still had it unopened for tonight, because it was the perfect movie to see after yesterday's disappointment with another CIA FOIA denial.
I am sorry if I went off a bit in my blog last night. I always feel bad in retrospect the next day if I have said anything hurtful or mean spirited, because I don't mean to. I do try to articulate my frustration which is very real and very hard to deal with, but I also know that my take on the situation is only mine, is only one side of the story, and even though I know how it has affected my life, I don't know how it has affected Lillian's life, or what she has been through.
When I hold in my hands a letter from the CIA and I read their responses to my requests, the enormous truth hits me all over again, the way it first hit me in 1996, when I realized the gravity of what had happened:
We were involved in a National Security situation, an emergency situation that brought out the CIA, and also military, headed up on scene by two very important political figures, one a former Governor of California, and the other a Governor of another state who went on to become The President Of The United States of America.
The thing is, when you live with it for over twenty years as I have, not knowing the entirety of what happened or why, it can become blase. You never get an answer, and so you try to go about your daily life, and What Happened recedes somewhat as you work, and go to concerts or whatever, and now it's something in the back of your mind : "Yeah, I was kidnapped by a psychopath and then Bill Clinton rescued me". And it feels like some "waaaay back" thing in your mind, and you even get a superficial ego boost from it, because of Bill Clinton, and the CIA......
But then the hammer comes down, because you feel the reality of it, of how horrible it was, how terrifying and inexplicable. How it felt that a group of people, people like Gary Patterson and Mr. Rappaport, wanted you to die. And how the army came out. You remember what you saw, things that seem beyond belief but that you know you witnessed. So you start writing letters, because the question of "why" never goes away. It stays with you every day of your life. And when you don't know the answer to "why", to something of this magnitude, you get frustrated. To put it mildly.
And suddenly the "why me" ego boost comes crashing down in flames like a 9/11 skyscraper, because you remember what it was like to be inside the house of Jared Rappaport, or at the house of Gary Patterson, people who tortured you. And you know that your friends were in on it, because they were involved in drug deals.
But you also know that the CIA doesn't cover mid-level drug deals. They do much bigger things.
And so you still don't know "why".
And man is it ever hard to deal with. I mean, for me, you have no idea how hard it is for me on a daily basis just to think about it every day.
I don't want it to affect my life anymore. I want it to be solved and I believe it is profoundly wrong to keep it a secret any longer, because it has affected my soul. I worry, "what if I became a 90 year old man and I still didn't know what happened"? What if I died not knowing?
That could have great effect on the passing of my soul.
So I hope things will turn around before then, but I have seen how this thing has changed people, and that is why I mentioned Lillian last night. I know it was not her fault and that she would never have wanted something like this thing to happen, whatever the hell it was.
All I wanted to express was how difficult it is for me to still not know what happened or why, after almost 25 years of trying. I don't want to get old and die not knowing, is all, because it would affect my soul, and this is not a joke or something to be taken lightly.
That's all on the subject for tonight. It's not right for the CIA to deny my requests, but they do. /////
Elizabeth, I hope you got your camera filter fixed with the glue remedy. I am of the same school of fixing anything with glue or tape, lol. I think you can "jimmy-rig" just about anything and get it to keep on working, so I am guessing in your case the glue worked. :)
I had fun this evening taking pix of webs up at Aliso.
That's all for tonight. See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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