Loving the modern fairy tales…
I pretty sure I’ve never blogged about a movie before (although I love movies and come from a family packed with filmmakers (4+ at the last count)). Last night I was a little overtired and cranky (yes, like a child) and so we watched Penelope. I was so charmed by this film. Christina Ricci is great, Jame McAvoy is cute and totally charming and Reese Witherspoon (who produced it) is just totally rad and very relaxed. From a design perspective the sets are lovely and evoke a fairy tale perfectly — it seems a bit like living in an Anthropologie world. Ricci’s clothes seem to be completely from Anthropologie and the film is set in a steampunk-esque world of modern technology and old fashioned fashion (but really well done — the whole film is funny and smart and not too over the top). I totally have a thing for modern re-tellings of fairy tales and would also suggest Spindle’s End, Beauty and Rose Daughter by Robin McKinnley, one of my favorite authors.
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July 17th, 2008 14:54
Ohh I just saw an ad for this and want to see it! Thanks for the review!
July 22nd, 2008 09:46
Aw, this was playing in both directions on a trip I took to SF a couple weeks ago. I really enjoyed it, enough to watch bits of it again on the trip home! I agree about the aesthetic–very appealing and very fairy-tale, since you couldn’t really peg where or when it was taking place. I especially liked McAvoy’s apartment. (On a side note, why is he so hot? It’s puzzling; I thought it was the accent but it turns out he remains smoking with an American accent. Hmm!)