Johnny Depp the Gender Bender?

[laurainlimbo]

in my effort to avoid all of the important things in life (exercise, studying, writing), I've been reading too much stuff on the internet. for all you Johnny Depp fans out there, I found this video slideshow of his adventures in gender-bending through the years. I've always loved him, and seeing all these clips makes me realize what a talented actor he really is. I haven't seen the movie Before Night Falls (though it was on my Netflix queue for about a year before I left the country). The only one of these I didn't like was Willy Wonka - Johnny went way over the top on that one, and his performance gave me nightmares! and of course on this slideshow they didn't include some of my favorite of his performances, like Donnie Brasco, Dead Man, Gilbert Grape, and Benny and Joon... (but I guess those were not considered "gender-bending"?)

I've decided that I don't want to see the new Alice movie. I'm sure that the whole cast is good in it, and I'm sure that visually it's very stunning... but I read this review on Slate's website, and it sounds like Tim Burton is taking WAYYY too many liberties with the story. I'm a purist - I can't see why people can't make movie adaptations that even slightly resemble the story, especially when you're dealing with something as classic as Lewis Carroll! And why make the Mad Hatter a love interest for Alice? there wasn't the slightest hint of that in the book.

I'm not trying to sound like a snob, but I wrote a paper on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass in college. I really loved everything about those stories! It's like seeing the Leonardo DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet - or any of these modern adaptations of Shakespeare. they don't work for me.

I know many people will disagree with me about this, but film adaptations work only when they stay true to the original author's vision. Why else do we want to see the film except to see a broader view of what we've read and loved?

anyway, that's enough of my soapbox. I'm back to staring at katakana and kanji and wondering if I'll ever learn Japanese well enough...

Comments

[laurainlimbo.livejournal.com]

I guess it's an adaptation, so Burton felt he had creative, artistic license. but I guess I'm not interested - LOL!

there are probably examples of movies that were better than the books - I've heard that was the case with Gone with the Wind. But the classics like Alice are best read, I think:)

thanks hon!
*hugs*

[serialbathera.livejournal.com]

True, sometimes those gambles with "adaptations" work well, and you enjoy it, and other times, not so much.

Hmm, I haven't heard that about Gone with the Wind, but I have had no desire to see movie, or watch book. I just read both Alice books for the first time recently and really enjoyed them. They are fun books :)

::hugs::

[laurainlimbo.livejournal.com]

Gone with the Wind is really a fantastic film - if you can sit through it! it's something close to four hours long. it takes patience:) the Alice books are great - and there's no copyright on them anymore, so I just downloaded a pdf file so I can read it again!

*hugs*

[serialbathera.livejournal.com]

hmm, maybe if I have 4 hours to watch a movie, I will think about renting GWTW. Yay for no copyrights, so you can read free stuff :)

::hugs::

[laurainlimbo.livejournal.com]

well I'd suggest watching GWTW in segments, an hour here and there. all at once it's pretty tiresome:)

*hugs*