"The Runelords", "Game of Thrones" and the Problem of Endings

Longtime readers know that Nathaniel has a wee problem with addiction to fantasy literature. This proclivity is more masochistic curse than pleasureable blessing since fantasy literature is allergic to endings and there are few things Nathaniel likes more in storytelling than a brilliant finale. 

So last night I finished the first book of the The Runelords series "The Sum of All Men" by David Farland. I had heard that it would eventually be a movie so when my brother suggested I read it last month on my vacation, I gladly grabbed it for the airplane time. [Note: turns out the movie option ran out last year and Farland has the rights again.] The book concerns the young naive prince Gaborn whose quest to win the heart of a neighboring kingdom's progressive idealistic princess Iome is interrupted by an invading army of the Runelord Raj Athan who seeks to become "The Sum of All Men".

The conceit of The Runelords world is that, through magic rituals, people can gift their best attributes to others creating a stratified world where those in power are granted more and more of it as people sell their most economically viable asset to them be that beauty, strength, vision, intelligence, stamina (and everything else). It's sort of like the vampire economy that the USA is dealing with now as the rich and powerful decimate the weaker middle class in order to gain more and more and more (to infinity and beyond) for themselves to feed their insatiable greed and misplaced sense of entitlement. Never mind that once a Runelord has the strength of 1000 men, it hardly makes a difference to him if he has the strength of 1001... but it sure as hell matters to the weakling 1,001st man he's left behind in his greedy conquest. 

But let's not get into the ever-miserable discussion of the downward spiral of the actual world we live in. We're talking books and movies, the fake world we prefer to dream of!

Gandalf the Grey... no, WHITE. Most of the major characters in the book are those who have received "endowments" from others so they're all amazingly beautiful or super strong or what not; superheroes in medieval frocks and cloaks if you will. If they're not runelords they're wizards. The major wizard Binneman is basically Gandalf since he's very powerful, very wise, very old and his hair and wardrobe changes colors once he moves to the next stage of his power. But then, what wizard isn't Gandalf? He casts a long long shadow on fantasy literature.

More on Game of Thrones (with one major spoiler that's actually the absence of a plot development rather than a plot point) and The Runelords and franchise filmmaking after the jump.

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Centennial: Do You Love Lucy?

Today is the centennial of one Lucille Ball, born 100 years ago on this very day in New York. Her most famous incarnation was obviously "Lucy Ricardo" on television's beloved sitcom I Love Lucy. But until I Love Lucy and intermittently afterwards, she graced the silver screen, too.

The earliest entry in her filmography I've personally seen is the wonderful ensemble comedy Stage Door (1937) which is an absolute must-see for all actressexuals. No matter where you look on the screen in that film aboard a boarding house for Broadway dreamers, there's a screen goddess for your eyeballs: Hepburn, Ball, Rogers, Miller, Arden. Ball's last film was the ill fated musical Mame (1974) which is often ridiculed for its liberal use of ye olde 'smear the screen with vaseline' de-aging technique and for the quality -- or lack thereof -- in the singing. But even if Mame isn't anything like a classic, if you erase it from film history you lose that awesome scene of her and Bea Arthur crooning frenemy classic "Bosom Buddies" and we can't have that!

[Editor's note: Ugh, what is up with that clip. It's in widescreen but it looks like pan & scan. Is the aspect ratio off on all the vhs/dvd copies available?]

But the Lucy movie my mind always drifts to is Douglas Sirk's Lured (1947). It's worth a look for the curio factor alone, it being an early Sirk, a thriller which predates and predicts Hollywood's serial killer craze by a good 50 years, and an odd snapshot of a moment in time where it looked like she might become a dramatic screen star instead of the loveable goofball TV comic she was clearly meant to be. 

If you're interested in Lucy, there's a new book out called Lucille Ball FAQ which is a treasure trove of weird trivia. For example, did you know that she actually auditioned for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind (then again, who didn't?) or that she really wanted but just barely missed out on being Sugarpuss O'Shea in screwball classic Ball of Fire or that that she turned down the fabulous "Alexandra" in Sweet Bird of Youth? (Geraldine Page earned a well deserved Oscar nomination and got to fondle Paul Newman. What was Lucy thinking?)

A new book and a still from Stage Door (1937) with Hepburn, Ball and Ginger Rogers

Did you know that the first celebrity name-checked on I Love Lucy was the movie star Gregory Peck? Or that in one episode Ball mimics her Stage Door castmate Katharine Hepburn's most famous line-reading from that movie "the calla lilies are in bloom again"?

 The subtitle of the book is "Everything Left To Know About America's Favorite Redhead". I 'm not well versed enough in Ball's lore to know if that's accurate but the book certainly offers 'A Lot to Know About America's Favorite Redhead.'

What's your fondest memory of Lucille Ball?

P.S. Google is celebrating as they do with a cute tv screen and channel changer.

Second Star on the Right: Joanna Lumley

I don't think I've ever mentioned Joanna Lumley on The Film Experience pages. I've liked her in movies on occassion and of course she was regularly LOL-worthy as oversexed overboozed "Patsy" in AbFab back in the day. But I would like to formally apologize right at this moment for her absence on TFE because her latest move has won my heart several times over. 

She's currently lending her celebrity to raise funds to turn Moat Brae in Dumfries, the inspirational birthplace (of sorts) for J.M. Barrie's immortal Peter Pan, into a children's literature center. He claims his time there was among the happiest in his life.

Lumley says

I want to help raise the profile of this admirable project so that Peter Pan fans from all over the world can support this wonderful restoration."

Honestly that is SO fitting and such a worthy cause and now I just want to hug her. If I had plenty of £ I would throw it like fairy dust at this project.

The Link of Warrior

<-- Coffee Table Book Alert!
Photographer Tim Palen has immortalized the bodies of Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton for a coffee table book called "The Men of Warrior" that's out on August 9th (available for pre-sale now here or here). The book as we imagine it -- all we've seen is this cover -- is a smart marketing movie for the Warrior film in which the two fine actors play two sparring brothers. Obviously people will see this for the muscle abuse alone, yes? That's why people go to boxing matches, right? I don't know. I'd never go to one -- too bloody/sadistic for me -- but I'd happily look at photos. The book has a foreward by Tom Hardy and (presumably) a ton of pictures of him.

Links in the Ring
Kenneth in the (212) Have you heard about this Faye Dunaway / NYC apartment eviction story.
My New Plaid Pants attends the Wet Hot American Summer anniversary party. We were just celebratin' that.
GLAAD the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation ranks the TV networks on their LGBT inclusive. Top marks for CW and... ABC Family? How weird. who'da thunk it? Not that you can always trust GLAAD. They've made some weird suspect calls over the years. Showtime has a smidgeon more gay representation than HBO among premium channels.
Film Dr has some questions for those of you who have seen Cowboys and Aliens
aqui tinha a truth
Empire Steve McQueen's Shame starring Michael Fassbender has a UK release date (Jan 13th) still no word on the American release after its TIFF bow. 

Alt Screen no way! Lost silent Alfred Hitchcock film The White Shadow (1923) discovered/restored. Sort of.
The Critical Condition the ultimate pop song tournament continues into the second round. I like the second round less because I'm sure this is where all of my favorites start losing. Like "Edge of Seventeen" being bested by "Livin' on a Prayer" (thus far). That is so unright.
My New Plaid Pants which is hotter: Dominic Cooper or a Boston Terrier?  

Curio: Fotonovels

Alexa here.  Seeing Super 8 this holiday weekend left me with nostalgia for its template, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  And that brought to mind one of my favorite bits of 70s movie kitsch, Fotonovels. 

Fotonovels were "a collection of books that were filled from front to back with photos from a particular movie" and had "a shorter life than disco itself." Like comic books, but with real photographs! They were so exciting to me as a child. Grease was my favorite; before I even saw the movie I wore out my copy. I also loved Ice Castles (I was especially taken with the "Lexie" embroidered on her collar).  Recently, I scored a copy of the Close Encounters version. Here are some pictures of mine, as well as some I've spotted around the internet.

Click for The Champ and Ice Castles...

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