A story to start the weekend off right. It's a little over eight minutes in length and tells the story of the Silent Pool. What is the silent pool? Well, it's a real place in England and Christopher Lee, our narrator and official Cinema Styles October Kill Fest Month Spokesman, gives vague directions on how to get there. It's done in the old fashioned way, that is, a recounting of horrible events with a coda concerning spirits one might find there today. Here's the story. Enjoy.
8 comments:
What a thoroughly engaging story and even I'm amazed at how Lee had me from the wet-go. (I know, I know, I just won't wet that pun go.) I love old masters like him, who can command an audience by sheer power of their voices. Can you imagine a spoken word album by Leonardo di Caprio or Edward Norton? God, I think I'd rather cut off my fucking ears than hear that. The story itself isn't even that amazing (Hell-o? Where's the third act?!) but Lee really puts it across. I like hearing him give directions. OnStar should hire him.
"If you would seek to find the Bed, Bath and Beyond in North Brunswick, New Jersey, you must first chance to cross the Hudson River by way of the Lincoln Tunnel and, keeping due west, merge with haste and courage to Interstate 95 and continue your journey south for a distance of 23 miles. But beware... this is a partial toll road..."
Yes, if it wasn't Lee the story wouldn't be very engaging. There are six stories in all but I don't know if I want to do anything with the others. They all run along the same lines.
Your Bed, Bath and Beyond parody put me in mind of that Boris Karloff lighter ad you ran awhile back. Karloff made that one of the most entertaining commercials I've ever seen. His delivery and voice was everything. Edward Norton, who I think is a very talented actor, simply doesn't have a voice at all. He really doesn't. It sounds thin, reedy and a bit adolescent even now. And without a commanding physical presence either I can't see him as a star and yet he gets lead roles. I think he's much better served in small parts but at this point, ego and self-preservation probably prevent that.
I saw Norton in Off-Off Broadway plays back in the 90s, so no one is more surprised than I am that he turned into an A-list Hollywood actor. And there's nothing wrong with him, per se, he's just... bland. I thought he was absolutely ridiculous as the FBI profiler in Red Dragon - he looks like Pinto from Animal House.
Yeah, the era of guys like Lee and Vincent Price has really passed. It's not as if there aren't classically trained or seemingly classically trained British and Continental actors doing genre stuff... it's just that the filmmakers or the actors themselves don't follow through to the vein that the old masters mined so successfully. And maybe they're right to, maybe that moment and that style is just gone. But I do miss it. It's such an important part of my makeup, my childhood, the kind of presentation and storytelling ability that made me what I am.
I suppose their time has passed. Not to keep bringing him up but I really like John Thaw in Morse and think that television is the only refuge for these actors anymore, as far as leads are concerned. Thaw died young, although alcoholism made him appear much older than his forties and fifties in the Morse episodes, at 60 but after small parts in movies (including Phibes Rises Again) his classical style, voice and presence finally found a home with the BBC.
So when speaking of newer movies and actors I always have to qualify my statements so people don't misunderstand and think I'm an old grump claiming, "Everything today is shit!" Every year produces mounds of manure but also some excellent films. It's just that I'm not as interested right now in the way movies tell their stories in the present moment. I much prefer how they did it in the studio years, and the actors they used back then to tell those stories. And sell them.
Lee sells the story with his great voice and style. And knowing who he is doesn't hurt ... he's Dracula, for god's sake.
Of course di Caprio or Norton couldn't do this, but there are actors, perhaps, who could. Could Gielgud or Branagh or more recently Jeremy Irons do the same kind of thing? Has their time really passed, or are we just looking in the wrong place?
Rick, I see your point but I would still say that actors like Brannagh and Irons have a more modern sensibility to their acting than the Karloffs and Lees of the world. Irons does have a great voice though, no doubt and could handle a story like this with ease I believe. Brannagh I'm not as convinced. Gielgud I would put in an earlier generation with Karloff so I wouldn't really count him.
But I think we all agree the actors to do this kind of thing are still out there, like the late John Thaw I spoke so highly of, just not used enough. Or more precisely, the movies don't know how to use them anymore. Not that they always did anyway. Outside of horror Hollywood had no idea what to do with Karloff because their imagination was too limited and people like Orson Welles and Charles Laughton just confused the living daylights out of them.
I have nothing against Norton, I think he's a pretty cool actor (don't kill mee!). Christopher Lee has that wonderful voice and presence, in a similar way to John Hurt. They both have that instantly recognizable and very endearing quality to their speech and manner. In short, I wouldn't want to listen to Norton read something like that (although I enjoyed his narration in Fight Club and his speech in 25th Hour) but Lee, Hurt or someone like Stephen Fry could make most things sound good imo.
Dwardus, I think Norton's a very talented actor as I said to Arbo, just not a commanding presence. And since you brought up Stephen Fry may I just say he's terrific. I love anything he does.
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