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Silent night...

I haven't done much this week to be honest, as on Tuesday I had to go out for the day for something potentially important. I did however manage to finish the latest cross stitch. I changed it up a little, so I thought I would show you what it should have looked like compared to my finished piece. First, the original...



And here is mine. I'll be honest, the colours are different because I didn't have the ones needed, but I have so many other threads I thought a substitution would work.

It's not as pastel as the original is it? Personally I prefer the colours on mine for the most part, but I am not the recipient, just the stitcher, so only time will tell.

sound of honky tonk,
a story in black and white,
no words are spoken

This week's 'thing' was silent movies. I actually borrowed a couple, but so far this week (busy week!) I have only managed to watch one. The one I chose to watch first was Metropolis, by Fritz Lang.

For those who haven't seen it, it's a tale of interclass relationships, uprising against the upper classes, a rich 'boy' who realises the error of his ways when he chases a woman he fancies, a slightly nutty professor, with a few disasters and robots thrown in for good measure.

The first thing I will say is that it is a lot harder watching a silent movie than what we watch nowadays. The simple fact is, with audio you have the ability to look away, yet still keep up with the storyline. Look away at the wrong moment in a silent movie, and you could miss something crucial. It's amazing in this particular film to see the scale of some scenes, and the effects. This was in the 1920's, before CGI could whip up a crowd at a moment's notice, so every person who is there is actually there. Maria the robot is flawless in effect, and the woman who played both the human and gynoid versions was a fantastic actress to portray the vast alteration of persona for the false 'maria'. The acting may seem a little hammy to people watching it now, but they had to overact in order to portray the emotions they were feeling without words. Sure, there are a few words put onto the screen for important parts of the plot, but for the most part the actors had to rely on portraying what they needed to without that which we hold so dear. Interestingly, Hitler was so impressed with Fritz Lang as a director that he requested he make Nazi propaganda films for him. Mr Lang disappeared the very next day, running away rather than working with the Nazi's.

Sorry for the small post this week, I hope to make a few more things next week.

Ems



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