Andrei Rublev, The Jewel in the Crown, The Picture of Dorian Gray, & the ends of Rome & Slings & Arrows

Andrei Rublev was a three and a half hour long film about a Russian 15th century icon painter. It's by Andrei Tarkovsky, who also did the original Solaris, another extremely long Russian film. That one, however, was far better than this one. There were some good scenes, scenes that I will remember far longer than the rest of this overlong film. Maybe if I cared about icons, or, say, Russians, it would have held my interest slightly. Eh. It's really just crazy topless witches and wandering around vast flat areas in storms. And some jesting. But a big eh to the film.

The Jewel in the Crown was a 14-hour long "limited series" about the end of the British Raj done by Granada Television for ITV, but it feels just as high quality as the best BBC production. Well, except for the occasionally muddled sound and soft picture, but that's probably because it's from 16mm film, which is basically all about that. The film itself is about a British officer, his grudge against a British-born Indian, and the many people touched by both, along with a lot about the Indian National Army (Indians who fought alongside the Japanese in World War II). It's quite good, and Tim Pigott-Smith and Charles Dance, along with Geraldine James do very well. It's quite worth the listing as one of the top British productions (although any list that has Pride & Prejudice at 99 is questionable). I do wish that it were a little less depressing of an ending. And a little less obsessed with homosexuality, but then, I guess British soldiers at the time were a little flamboyant. Or, at least, more accepting of it than say, we currently are. Somehow.

Speaking of British attitudes towards homosexuality, I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray, which I never had actually read before. I'd seen the BBC movie version with Peter Firth, Jeremy Brett, and John Gielgud, and was vaguely familiar with the plot before that. The problem I had with it was the typical Wilde-isms interspersed that seemed to serve little purpose other than social commentary. Then again, the whole book was commentary, so I'm not sure why those bothered me. Also, the subtext of homosexuality was ridiculously obvious throughout. It was nowhere near as good as his plays, but his best plays are pretty much perfect in almost every way, so it's a little rough of a competition. Oh well. After finishing it, I went by Second Story Books and bought my next six books. I look forward to filling in a couple more holes in my reading.

This weekend saw the ends of two show I watched. Rome suffered from being a little too bloody (especially all the decapitations and dismemberments) and sex-obsessed, along with playing fast and loose with history. I enjoyed it. And I'm sorry to see it end, but the thing had to have been extremely expensive to produce and never got as popular as the actual good shows on HBO. Slings & Arrows finished with King Lear and Sarah Polley. Along with lots of fun backstage shenanigans with the hooker and junkie musical. I know the series wasn't supposed to run beyond the third season, but the show was just very enjoyable, and I was sorry to see that they decided not to do another series. Although they did the three best tragedies.