Variations on the same theme

I don't often remember my dreams, but last night I dreamt I met Paul Bettany. Randomly, across the city. Don't ask me which city. He had weird facial hair (think Alan's at B3) due to filming some movie or other, and he was absolutely lovely when I walked up to him, which was such a relief. Hey, I'm used to the BDH, but I don't expect every star out there to be that cool to fans. But no, we chatted and he signed whatever scrap of paper I managed to find, and it was lovely and wonderful.

It was all in English, however. Why on earth did I not ask him to speak three words of French? Probably because I didn't want to scare him off by turning into a puddle of goo. He looked rather nonplussed at the thought of a sequel to A Knight's Tale, though, which about broke my heart.

Still. Best dream ever! Mhmmmmpaul. I even managed not to embarrass myself and be a horrible squeeing fangirl. I was perfectly articulate and did not leap on him.

Since it was a dream, I figure I really should have. Leapt.

So you travel away to Germany and come back to an internet connection and what do you learn? Heath Ledger as the Joker? Seriously? I'm going to ignore the fact that it meants Paul and Jude still won't be acting together (...now I'm wondering if they're gonna cast Jake Gyllenhaal as Harvey Dent) because I'm still rooting for Brideshead Revisited and that's all I need as far as those two are concerned. But seriously, Heath Ledger? What? Paul or Adrien would've been so much better. It's not that I don't like Heath, I do. Sometimes despite myself. But come on Well. We'll see how he manages.

In semi-related news, the road trip has allowed me to listen to His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (thanks so much, the_grynne!), and I am in full support and then some of Paul and Nicole as Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter. That scene between them at the end of the book? Oh yes. Oooooh yes. Each of Asriel's scenes made me pause the book and replay it in my head with Paul instead. So much love.

In other news, we got to Berlin safely. We can't seem to manage to connect our laptops, which is a pain, but at least we have a connection. Cologne was pretty beautiful, and mostly the photo exhibition we saw at the Ludwig Museum was amazing and makes me itch to write a little something. It covered the history of photography, with some of the first types, daguerreotypes, etc. Very interesting, and somewhat unsettling, too. Also, the Cologne Cathedral looks much better from the outside than inside. And there were street performers! Between that, the Starbucks, the cream cheese, etc, it felt more like an English-speaking country than anything else. Except for the bit where I'm lucky if I manage to put three words together correctly. What do you mean I studied it for five years I should manage? Ooops?

Anyway. That was your German update of the day.

In which "attractive" is a bleedin' understatement. And it's not a small picture.

( If I don't share it this picture will drive me crazy it's all in his eyes. )

So. Went to the cinema three times in the course of two days. Yay! Yesterday was BDH Day, with Inside Man (Chewie!) and Slither (Cap'n!), and today was, at last, V for Vendetta.

Apparently people tend not to have liked Inside Man? I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It's not so much about suspense, because everything is very figure-outtable, but it's well acted, well written, and very well directed I found. It was good to finally enjoy Clive Owen that much again, after Derailed, and Spike Lee knows how to direct him and make as much use of his voice as possible. Lovely. And so, yes, the BDH in this movie was Chiwetel "the Operative" Ejiofor, who I liked as much as ever. Wait, no, that's wrong, I didn't like him all that much in Love Actually, but what was there to like, honestly, he was barely in that movie.

And I'm digressing. Watching Chiwetel play in this movie made me think about how much writing a character played by this or that actor made you sensitive to the way this or that actor plays, in general. Writing fanfiction, at least for me, is partly about wrapping my mind around a performance, and what an actor relies on to create a character. And then, to transfer that into something that is adequate to the literary media, instead of cinema/TV. And then you become much more attuned to the way the actor plays, for any part. Anyway. That was the random thought of the day yesterday.

Now, Slither? I was actually disappointed, I won't lie. I'd heard so much good about this movie. I'm not saying it was a piece of crap, far from it. But it left me with the impression that, had it been made by Brits? I would've loved it as much as I did Shaun of the Dead. But as is? Maybe it's because I don't know the culture it parodies well enough, I don't know. I loved Nathan, and I loved Greg, and that young dark-haired girl rocks and the blonde's incredibly beautiful, but. I just didn't laugh all that terribly much. (Although I have to wonder, was the grenade "I don't think we'll need it" moment an allusion to Serenity? Because we all went *snicker* at that.)

And finally, V for Vendetta. I actually loved it. You Alan Moore lovers out there, what did he dislike about it? (Bear in mind that I have unfortunately not read the comic.) Hugo Weaving did an amazing job, although I couldn't dissociate the voice from "Hugo Weaving," which was a bit of a shame (and would have happened with Puresex too, had they kept him), but I got over that. All the actors were brilliant, with special kudos to Stephen Rea and Stephen Fry. Who I wanted to cuddle like crazy. I want to see Wilde again. Natalie Portman was pretty good, too. And some of the images were overwhelming. Some priceless lines, too. And oh how I love V's first scene. And the regular Shakespeare quotage. I might actually go and see it again. Maybe. Okay, likely not because I won't have time. But I wouldn't mind it.

I saw the Da Vinci Code trailer twice in two days. It's official, I cannot wait for this movie. Every shot of Paul has me squeeing like a fangirl on crack, which is exactly what I am, except I don't need the crack. He's so very creeptastic. (That said, Tom Hanks still makes me want to beat him on top of the head with a shovel. I can't help myself.)

And now I'm off to watch the second half of last night's Alias. Better be better than the first.