Donna Freitas: September 2009 Archives

Jane Campion ('The Piano') returns to the screen with her latest and perhaps best work yet, 'Bright Star.' The film, about the poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, the girl who steals his heart and becomes his muse, is the best romance I've seen in ages. It's the perfect portrait of why eros is often better conveyed without the sex than with--a recent trend made evident through the popularity of Twilight, yet here is conveyed via a British costume drama without a vampire in sight.

Speaking of costumes, the setting for this film is not only beautiful, as we've come to expect from this sort of story, but most striking is the fashion sense of Fanny, Keat's love, who is constantly inventing new styles of dress she sews herself, the bright rose and pink colors of her ruffled gowns and day outfits stunning against the landscapes. This element of Fanny's character, combined with the poetry of Keats, read aloud beautifully by Ben Winshaw, the actor who plays him, makes for the perfect backdrop for two people to fall in love--Keats can't resist Fanny's striking presence and she can't resist his way with words. Best of all is that audiences do not have to wade through long stretches where the two lovers falter or are forced apart--once their romance begins it is the center and staple for all the scenes that follow, making for an incredibly satisfying film-going experience.

Warning though: it is a tragedy. I sobbed through the credits at the end. But if you like romance, it is not only worth it, 'Bright Star' is a must see.

Full disclosure: I am friends with (and proudly so) two of the women featured in the New York Times Style feature, "Seeing Yourself In Their Light," about today's new young women spiritual gurus, and how "there is a new role model for New York's former Carrie Bradshaws -- young women who are vegetarian, well versed in self-help and New Age spirituality, and who are finding a way to make a living preaching to eager audiences, mostly female."

Style reporter Allen Salkin explores the ways in which the next generation of spiritual seekers are re-imagining the divine, re-envisioning a spiritual life and practices, and, in some cases, like with Sera Beak, finding a way to sex up their spirituality, too--not too mention how they are all making a living doing so:

"Sera Beak, 33, the author of "The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark," is working on a documentary about women like herself. "We like to have a relationship and a career, but we know this internal search is a priority, too," she said. "It's one of the most important things you can do as young woman. You don't have to wait until you are middle aged." Her pitch line for the film -- " 'The Secret' meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a dark alley, naked" -- has attracted notable figures to be interviewed, including Tom Robbins, the author of "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues."

Stephenie Meyer's smash hit, Twilight (that's an understatement, of course), its corresponding movie series, and merchandising of everything you could possibly think of and more, originated from the genre of fiction known as YA (young adult). Since Twilight, it seems that (almost) every YA author (and their mother and/or daughter) has sought to somehow reach the Twilight grail by writing their own vampire novel--a trend which I reported on in a Publishers Weekly feature last year, entitled "The Next Dead Thing."

Publishers Weekly just came out with a similar feature and the verdict is: Angels are the new vampires in YA novels! In "An Angelic Autumn," reporter Karen Spring writes that:

"This fall publishers are introducing more than a dozen titles about angels--good ones, funny ones and especially fallen ones, kicked out of heaven...Publishers are rushing these new titles onto shelves. Simon & Schuster bought first-time author Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush in April and--based on requests by indies and chains, led by Barnes & Noble--pushed its release date up from spring 2010 to next month. The announced printing: 250,000. Random House bought Lauren Kate's Fallen in April and is publishing it in December. "[The trend] fits in with the vampire reader who wants something new," said Liz Marotte, Borders's YA buyer. Move over, Edward Cullen. Bad-boy angels are the new hotties. Like modern vampires, they can be gorgeous, immortal and otherworldly heartthrobs, unlike, say, zombies."

So there's no singing, but the grotesque and the bizarre mixed with the comic is how I've finally come to see HBO's most popular new series, True Blood.

The season finale on Sunday came with a heavy dose of ridiculous, soap opera-like melodrama: Marianne (the horned god worshipper) has planned a wedding, complete with white dresses, the local townswomen of Bon Temps as her bridesmaids and Sookie as her maid of honor (and of course, the all-important outdoor "meat tree" festooned with body parts, both animal and human--the latest in wedding decor). Sam, the shapeshifter, is to serve as her sacrifice that will call the horned god to Marianne, who will then stand in as her groom.

This less than heavenly wedding is evocative of Catholic nuns and priests who, through their vows, pledge themselves as brides of Christ, but the True Blood version is, in keeping with the show's regular insanity, so depraved, disturbed, and ultimately over done that it is impossible not to get a kick out of it.

So my verdict: True Blood is really a dark comedy with a dash of the chivalrous romantic thrown in here and there. I've long been on the fence about whether to continue watching the show, but seeing it through this new lens helps. I'm curious: what do you think? Can you see the comedy all over this series, especially its finale? And for you Twilight fans, can you stomach True Blood? Or is it too beyond the romantic for your taste?

Question: Is it possible that we've gone a little vampire overboard?

Answer: Naahhhh. Not according to me at least.

When LJ Smith's "The Vampire Diaries" series of books came out in the very early 90's, I read them as an actual young adult. (I know, how novel!) I don't remember them so well, but what I can say is that these vampire chronicles of star-crossed love and the requisite love triangle, did not do to me what my first read of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight did back before it hit bookstores. If you go back and read Smith's novels (they are now repackaged to appeal to today's teen), you might feel they are a little dated, too.

That said, while this series of vampire books may not be Twilight, it doesn't mean I won't be tuning in tonight to check out the CW's new television drama based on them. I mean, how can I resist at least watching the first episode (or 10) to give it a chance? Won't you? And, the show has already gotten amazing press and a decent review from Ginia Bellafonte of The New York Times today in her article, "Dear Diary: Bitten, and It's No Hickey." Pretty much all you need to know about plot is that for 'The Vampire Diaries' the love triangle is not vampire, werewolf, girl, it's good vampire, evil vampire, girl.

Despite the summer heat, Bikram yoga (hot yoga)--done at temperatures of at least 100 degrees and usually more--is ever more popular. I am not someone who can imagine subjecting myself to that kind of workout in dead summer, though in...

I learned something new today. Apparently, at least in Dubai, Ramadan is a time for more than daily prayer and fasting, it's a holy time for television, too: "it is also the Middle Eastern equivalent of sweeps month," according to...

Despite (or perhaps because of?) all the cannibalism, orgies, blood-sucking, and shape-shifting in season two of HBO's vampire-centric 'True Blood,' surveys say that 'True Blood' is a bona fide hit--HBO's biggest in the history of the network next to 'The...