I love the story of Olympia. It's probably most famous as it appears in the opera (and movie), The Tales of Hoffman (Les Contes d'Hoffman.)
Hoffman loves Olympia. She's pretty, charming, and talented. She's also a robot. He doesn't know this, and brushes off his friend's warning that "[they say] she's a dead thing, or never was alive!" Hoffman learns the truth at a party. Her feuding creators break her to pieces before his eyes. He's horrified.
Everyone laughs at him.
Ouch.
If you've never seen The Tales of Hoffman, you may want to peek at the trailer*. It's a very strange, yet very charming film.
4 comments:
Interesting, I see how the pieces fit together with your name :-)
The new painterly style you're using is really beautiful. Such a sense of texture with all the dabs of paint.
Hope you feel better soon!
Hi Ghost,
Yes, that's why my Second Life (and subsequent gmail identity) identity is named Olympia.
Thanks for complimenting the brushwork. I've been challenging myself to use some of the weirder brushes in Painter. This was a pointillism brush, but I cheated and used way more colors than a "real" pointillism painting.
You KNOW something's up when the TRAILER's very strange. :) (Actually, it was really just the voice over that creeped me out. You think his directions were: No, once more. And rrrrrrroll those r's!
Hi B.B.
The fact that the trailer is aimed to fans of an earlier (and then recent) movie dates the it.
2008 viewers hear
"From the people who gave us [some old ballet movie], starrring [some old actor} and [some old actress] and [some old singer] etc... And did you notice it's in color?"
The narrrratorr is over the top, I agree. Then again the movie (and the opera) is weird too. Not artsy "Twin Peaks" weird. More like "Enchanted Tiki Room" weird.
Post a Comment