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Re:Re:Re:Phantom of the Opera
Yes, it is sad and haunting and beautiful. It was a while ago I read the novel, and I remember enjoying reading it very much. But I don't remember what was in the beginning at all. I imagine it may have been rather dull. That would sure explain why I don't remember.
Yes, I remember looking at the trailer for the movie and being delighted to see that the music was based on ALW's score. He is brilliant and I loved the entire musical from beginning to end, which is really something to say. Most musicals, there are at least one or two songs that you just want to skip when you come to them. Not in Phantom of the Opera. It totally rocks.
Don't feel too bad about missing lines here and there. Maybe English being a second language for you has something to do with it, but don't count on it. We native speakers always have parts we can't figure out. We often make things up that sound right and aren't. I put a post about these misheard song lyrics, called "Mondegreens" over in the Slang/Expressions board. I hope people find it fun to read.
Anyway, if you are inclined to do some web searching, you'll have no trouble finding the lyrics to the songs. I find that it works better to look for a unique line from the song, rather than searching for the song title. That way, you're more likely to find more actual copies of the lyrics and fewer sites that simply talk about the song without telling you what the words are. So instead of searching for "Prima Donna", for example, I search for, "Prima Donna first lady of the stage," to make sure it pulls up actual lyrics.
Let me know if I can still be helpful to you in understanding the music once you know what the words actaully are. That's something I like to think I could actually do a better job of than the Internet. :-)
Zhu ni hen gaoxingde kanyinyue!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
# 48979
Re:Re:Phantom of the Opera selva
yup.it's soo haunting,eerie a story..romantic too.i havent watched the opera so..im not sure how it is(i bet it's good!!!)...i read the novel at first...the beginning of the book is a little boring (i have to say lol)...but when i end reading it..i cried...totally moved...that phantom could have been something if he had a even normal face...im sooo sorry for him..and his love...
talking about the music...totally cool!i mean in the movie...i think it's still Webber's...so beautiful...i do love what they sing in it...!melodious...beautiful...just one thing...heehee...sometimes i dont know what they sing...lol..my english is not that good enough lol...it's said that "that rare movie musical that is as good as it is on stage,hauntingly beautiful"...what do you think about the movie?i like it...hee hee
Peace
Selva
This is a reply to message # 48863
Language pair: Chinese, Mandarin; English
Category: Films/Movies
Post date: April 4, 2005
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Language pair: Chinese, Mandarin; English
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Mark S.
April 5, 2005
# Msgs: 10
Latest: April 10, 2005
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Re:Re:Phantom of the Opera
yup.it's soo haunting,eerie a story..romantic too.i havent watched the opera so..im not sure how it is(i bet it's good!!!)...i read the novel at first...the beginning of the book is a little boring (i have to say lol)...but when i end reading it..i cried...totally moved...that phantom could have been something if he had a even normal face...im sooo sorry for him..and his love...
talking about the music...totally cool!i mean in the movie...i think it's still Webber's...so beautiful...i do love what they sing in it...!melodious...beautiful...just one thing...heehee...sometimes i dont know what they sing...lol..my english is not that good enough lol...it's said that "that rare movie musical that is as good as it is on stage,hauntingly beautiful"...what do you think about the movie?i like it...hee hee
Peace
Selva
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Language pair: Chinese, Mandarin; English
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ricogurl
April 4, 2005
# Msgs: 10
Latest: April 10, 2005
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Re:Phantom of the Opera
I agree completely. It's a haunting, eerie story, and my favorite version so far was the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical. I could listen to that sound track for months on end.
Bravi! Bravi! Bravissimo!
I haven't seen the movie yet. I really hope they do it justice. Let me know what you think, selva!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA
Phantom of the Opera selva
Im soo excited about this moving coming out!and soo happy it got a lot awards..im from China,hehe..i love phantom of the opera...it's like one of my fav love stories in this world...the music..the story...the actors n actress.all great....hope that someone would love it too...it's really a great movie!the novel is better though lol...
PEACE
SELVA
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Language pair: Chinese, Mandarin; English
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Mark S.
April 3, 2005
# Msgs: 10
Latest: April 10, 2005
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Phantom of the Opera
Im soo excited about this moving coming out!and soo happy it got a lot awards..im from China,hehe..i love phantom of the opera...it's like one of my fav love stories in this world...the music..the story...the actors n actress.all great....hope that someone would love it too...it's really a great movie!the novel is better though lol...
PEACE
SELVA
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Language pair: Chinese, Mandarin; English
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ricogurl
April 2, 2005
# Msgs: 10
Latest: April 10, 2005
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Re:Re:Re:Re:Kill Bill
Layla Kill Bill 033005
Not everyone is aware that Kill Bill is based on Chinese Pulp Fiction, and that it is intended to be satirical, as Matthew seems to be hinting. It is very campy, very melodramatic, and when you watch it from this point of view, it is very funny.
It kind of reminds me of Shakespeare's most unpopular play, Titus Andronicus. It was written at a time when a new theatrical Genre called "revenge tragedy" was very popular, good examples of which could be found in Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedie.
If you look at, for example, The Spanish Tragedie and Titus Andronicus side-by-side, it appears that Andronicus is trying to one-up The Spanish Tragedie at every turn. Whenever there's a murder in the one, there's a double murder in the second. If a woman's tongue is cut out in the one, she loses her tongue and her hands in the other. When you consider that Shakespeare's Globe Theater didn't have the kind of special effects technology that we take for granted today, but that actors would unfurl, for example, a roll of red ribbon to simulate bleeding from a stabbing wound, it's easy to imagine that Titus Andronicus may have been intended to be very light, tongue-in-cheek, very satirical. Nothing at all like Julie Taymore's very dark, bitter Titus Andronicus with Anthony Hopkins.
Of course, Kill Bill doesn't use rolls of red ribbon any more than Julie Taymore does, but if you look at the special effects in the movie and how they are done, you may find something of the tongue-in-cheek (joking with a straight face) in Kill Bill as well. Anyway, I enjoyed it very much from that perspective, and in fact, I enjoyed it far more than I did Kill Bill 2, which I felt was just okay, and really didn't live up to the promise the first movie had set up for us.
The other thing that you should know about my feelings about martial arts movies is that I'm a big fan of dancing, and the old films with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers, Gene Kelly, and the big musicals with the huge production numbers. Martial arts, to me, is a very special kind of dance, and I really enjoy seeing how actors learn to use their bodies in these movies. I was particularly impressed with Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu on that count.
Layla, if you decide to see the movie, let us know what you think!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: English; Japanese
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Mark S.
March 30, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Romeo and Juliet Movie
Which Romeo and Juliet movie are you watching? Can you tell me the name of the director and/or the year of production? Or the names of the actors playing Romeo and Juliet?
I'm a huge fan of Shakespeare, and I've read Romeo and Juliet about fifty times. I'll tell you anything you want to know.
Basically, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet come from two families who have been feuding with each other now for so long that nobody rememebers what started it. R & J are a couple of starry-eyed kids, fourteen and thirteen years old, but they're passionately in love with each other. The conflicts between their "star-crossed love," the war between their families, and the prince's efforts to keep the peace in the city make Romeo and Juliet a very beautiful and a very tragic story.
My Renaissance English is pretty good, so if you need any help with the vocabulary of Shakespeare, let me know. There were quite a few words that we no longer use today, and a bunch of words that meant different things then than they do now. Also, the grammar was a little different (They might say, "Go you now," where today, we'd just say, "go now," for example. And they had an informal second person that we no longer use, but it works a lot like "tú" in Spanish: Formal: You are, you do; informal: Thou art, thou dost. And the third person singular was different: He hath, he sitteth, he goeth. But since we always include our pronouns in English even when our verbs are conjugated, that shouldn't be too hard to pick up. Anyway, let me know what your specific questions are. I don't know anything about how much or how little you know, so please bear with me and let me know if it sounds like I'm talking down to you or like I'm talking over your head.
If you find the movie really overwhelming, you might try picking up a copy of the play with annotations. There are a lot of really good ones. Folger editions are really handy, because they put the explanations on the facing page even with the lines they talk about, so they're really easy to find when you need them. I've had a lot of good experience with Arden versions, too. You may just want to go to the bookstore and flip through a couple of different versions and see which ones look the most helpful and easy to use.
Of course, the movie will skip some scenes, rearrange a few things, and so on, but if you read the play and get a feel for what's going on, it may make the movie a lot easier to follow.
Have fun, and let me know if there's anything else I can do to help. I'm always delighted to talk about Shakespeare.
Best Wishes,
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: Gujarati; Berber (Tamazight)
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Mark S.
March 30, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:New Police Story
Thanks for the tip, Josh,
My girlfriend and I are big Jackie Chan fans. He's really funny and slick, and his martial arts practice is as graceful artful as ballet, even when he's being clownish.
We'll keep our eye out for the New Police Story.
Best,
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: English; Spanish
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Mark S.
March 11, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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to sonia gomez
well,we can help each other.i happen to be an indian with quite good command over english and i know german too though have never got a chance to practise it.i will be only too happy to tell you about our culture and movies.what kind of movies do you like by the way?
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Language pair: English; German
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barun m.
March 11, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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has anyone seen the notebook?
well,this movie is soo romantic..(the notebook)i know it may be the same old stuff as many people would think..but it's really romantic,and i cried ...i wonder if there is something like that in the real world...so beautiful..if you like it too...tell me please
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Language pair: Chinese, Mandarin; English
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ricogurl
March 10, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:True
This is interesting:
I was curious enough to check this out on the International Movie Database (IMDB), and I found out that there is a 2004 movie called "True" and a 2005 Movie called "Paris Je t'aime" Both feature Natalie Portman, but they sure don't seem to be the same movie. There are also other movies by both names. Jennifer, can you make any rough guess about when the movie was made? Does 2000 make more sense than 1965?
Mark Springer,
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
February 20, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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