“Just think of all the moments that we'd spent
I just can't let you go, for me you were meant
And I didn't mean to hurt you, but I know
That in the game of love you reap what you sow”
From: Wishing on a star, by Rose Royce
In a recent interview, Richard Armitage has mentioned
that he believes his fans to be very well-educated people who are always
reading some interesting book. (Thank you for the kind words, Mr. A!) Well, I
could say the same about him, because he’s obviously intelligent and also seems
to be going through life with a book at hand. I’ve taken his advice on books on
more than one occasion. For example: the book that is responsible for the name of this blog was a suggestion from Mr. Armitage himself. Yes, Richard, that was
all you, see how you’ve inspired me!
 |
Richard Armitage + Books = perfection!
RA as Harry 'the handsome stranger' Kennedy in The Vicar of Dibley (2006) |
Sometimes, we even seem to have the same idea at the
same time. On 1 May, Richard was interviewed via telephone on Scotty and Nige's
radio show in Canberra, Australia, during his promotional press tour for the
DVD release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected
Journey (Thank you to www.richardarmitagenet.com for the audio file!) . One of the questions in that interview was: Which book are you
reading at the moment? And on the exact day that I had gone to the bookstore to
buy this exact book, Richard said: “I’m reading The Great Gatsby”. Coincidence?
I think not. More something along the lines of great minds thinking alike, I’d
like to believe ;-)
I wanted to read the book before seeing the new film,
and I’m very happy to say that I’ve now had the pleasure of doing both.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel (at only 167 pages, I
would actually rather call it a novella, don’t you think?), even though it’s
set in the summer of 1922, is more current than ever. It takes us to the
Roaring Twenties, a time of loosening sexual morals, the excesses of post-war
life in the US and a time of immense social upheaval. The social divides of the
previous decades had been shaken by the war and people were struggling to find
a new place for themselves, a new balance for their world and a new sense of
purpose for their lives.
The unprecedented economic prosperity (did Fitzgerald
in fact predict the stock market crash of 1929?), the new music of the Jazz
Age, and a renewed belief in the concept of The American Dream were bringing a
new sense of freedom and vigour to life in a city as glamorous as New York. Any
‘Noboby from Nowhere’ could be dirt poor one day and filthy rich the next, but
the difference between ‘old money’ and ‘new money’ was a cause for frustration
and resentment. People were trying to hold on to the conventions of the past,
while the world around them was changing at an unprecedented speed.
In the middle of all this, Nick -“My family is
something of a clan”- Carraway, moves from the American Mid-West to New York,
specifically to Long Island, where he rents a house for the summer in West Egg,
next to the grand mansion of the mysterious Mr. Gatsby, overlooking the bay of
East Egg, where the old established families reside.
“Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope.
I am still a little afraid of missing something, if I forget that, as my father
snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental
decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.”
Gatsby’s reputation precedes him. Everybody who is
anybody has been to one of his extravagant parties full of music, food and
alcohol. And even though they did not receive a formal invitation and many of
them have no idea who or what Mr. Gatsby is, they still flock to the
incandescent display of wealth and decadence in his house like moths to a
flame. Everyone, except Nick Carraway. Nick does receive an invitation: Gatsby
deliberately singles him out because Nick holds the key to the fulfilment of
his carefully constructed dream-like existence, his reason for breathing,
working, planning: Nick’s cousin, Daisy Buchanan.
“Sometimes they came and went without having met Gatsby at all,
came for the party with a simplicity of heart that was its own ticket of
admission.”
To avoid any spoilers, about the book or the film, I
will try not to talk about the events that take place in the story. But it is
beautifully written: intelligent and elegantly descriptive proze that never
lingers on insignificant details. The story moves at the same steady pass as
the roaring twenties that it describes. All I can say is, please read the book,
it is, with every right, a great contender for the title of ‘Great American
Novel’.
And then there was the film. Going to see the film, I honestly
tried to expect as little as possible, hoping that I would not be disappointed.
This is a film by Australian director Baz Luhrman, and
it has his typical signature all over it. If you’ve seen Moulin Rouge, you will be familiar with his luscious, decadent
style. Luckily, Mr. Luhrman always manages to find those stories for which his
particular style makes sense: the glamour and decay behind the scenes of the
glorious shows of the Moulin Rouge and the deafening contrast between the
roaring, lush parties in Gatsby’s mansion, the lustre and wealth of East Egg
and the poverty of middle America and the desolation of an abandoned house, overcome
by darkness, scandal and, most of all, regret are superbly displayed on the
silver screen.
Another element that contributes to the contrasts
displayed in this film is the use of 3D. The people sitting next to me in the
cinema were disappointed: they were expecting things to come at them and ‘the
people to step off of the screen’. To be honest, I was very happy that Luhrman
did not make anything fly out at me using the 3D technology to create false
layers. Instead, he used the technology wisely; creating a sense of depth in
certain scenes and making others appear very flat, in line with the emotion
that he was trying to convey. After a while, I no longer even realised that I
was looking at a 3D film (in spite of those horrible 3D goggles!), and that’s exactly
the kind of effect that a filmmaker should strive for. The decadence of the
parties, the strength of Gatsby’s emotional despair and the confusion in Nick
Carraway’s mind, in my opinion, seemed to benefit immensely from the extra
depth offered by 3D.
And I never realised how much emotion a white curtain
in 3D can contain until Luhrman used it to frame his introduction of the
carelessly beautiful Daisy Buchanan with it. That scene made me gasp out loud,
it’s extremely powerful.
Daisy Buchanan is extremely well portrayed by Carey
Mulligan. She embodies Fitzgerald’s description of Daisy:
“Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it,
bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her
voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing
compulsion, a whispered ‘Listen’, a promise that she had done gay, exciting
things just awhile since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in
the next hour.”
She’s careless and frivolous and her very essence
breathes upper-class and money. She’s a good girl, sticking to the conventions
of her upbringing and what is deemed proper for a girl in her position. She’s
out of touch with reality, endearingly selfish and careless with love.
Tobey Maguire plays Nick Carraway, and although Tobey
does so perfectly well, he was the only more negative element in this film. To
me, Tobey Maguire will always be Peter Parker, not just because he played
Spiderman, but also because he always seems to have stepped right out of a
cartoon, even when portraying a more soft and subtle character like Nick
Carraway. Even though we see this story from Nick’s point of view, it sometimes
almost made me think that Nick was insane or had imagined the whole thing. And
that must have been due to Tobey Maguire’s style, as that element is completely
missing in the novel.
Sorry Tobey!
Joel Edgerton, on the other hand, is superb as Daisy’s
husband Tom Buchanan. He gives Tom a huge upper-class ego, careless disdain for
the world around him, and the biggest double standards I have ever seen. He
strongly reminded me of Billy Zane’s portrayal of Rose Dewitt’s finance Cal
Hockley in Titanic. Tom seems to
possess a little voice in the back of his mind that constantly reminds him to
keep up the appearance of being untouchable. As long as everything happens
behind the scenes and what people see remains good and proper, there’s nothing
wrong with it. His entire character is based on perception and long-forgotten
achievements on the polo field. Well done Joel!
“They were
careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then
retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was
that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
But the biggest surprise of this film, to me, was
Leonardo Dicaprio. Yes, obviously I did know he was in this film, I just never
expected to be moved by his Gatsby. Leo has always been one of those actors who
simply seem to play every role as a slightly adjusted version of themselves:
Leo, to me, was always Leo. But not here: he was Gatsby; not only did he stick
so very well to Fitzgerald’s novel, down to the very detail of his character’s
facial expressions, but I could actually see it in his eyes. His demeanor would
change completely from one scene to the next, depending on whether he was
playing the accomplished businessman or the lovesick soldier. The despair, the
gentle hope, the deep disappointments of life, it was all right there.
“They’re a rotten crowd’, I shouted across the lawn.
‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put
together.”
In one particular scene, he managed to move me to
tears, and I was so surprised by my own emotional reaction, especially because
I knew exactly what was coming from the book. It’s the scene in the book where
Nick comes home and Gatsby is waiting for him. Nick has been out with Jordan
Baker who has asked him, on Gatsby’s behalf, if he would be so kind as to
invite his cousin Daisy to tea. I almost skimmed over those two pages in the
book, the scene almost seemed silly, but seeing Leo put so much more into this
short, insignificant conversation between the two men, made me realise its
emotional charge and made my heart leap in tender compassion for Gatsby. It’s
hard to describe, but Gatsby stole my heart in that exact moment. That was a
little tour de force, Mr. DiCaprio!
OK, I think I’ve rambled on long enough now, I'm sure
you get the general idea of why I liked the film. Please go and see it if you
have the chance, and read the book first if you can. Just like me, you will not
be disappointed!
The
Great Gatsby (2013)
a film written and directed by Baz Luhrman
starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton
