Watching: Colette

[white_hart]

2019's cinema-going is two for two on f/f historical costume dramas so far. (Sadly, this streak seems unlikely to continue, as next week will be Stan and Ollie which I expect to be utterly devoid of lesbians, alas. And the week after may well be Mary Queen of Scots which I suspect will be femslashy but without either actual lesbians or much in the way of actual history, at least in the sense of Things That Happened or Things That May Plausibly Have Happened, rather than Things We'd Really Like To Have Happened.)

Colette is a fictionalised version of Gabrielle-Sidonie Colette's marriage to the writer Henry Gauthier-Villars, better known simply as 'Willy', a writer and critic more inclined to self-promotion than to actual writing, employing a team of ghostwriters to produce the works published under his brand and eager to capitalise on his young wife's writing talent by publishing her 'Claudine' novels under his name. It's beautifully filmed, with an aesthetic very reminiscent of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings (I'm fairly sure that some shots were deliberately set up to invoke particular paintings) and stunning costumes; Keira Knightley is very good as Colette and Dominic West (plus some very impressive facial hair) is wonderfully Mybuggian as Willy.

It left me feeling rather embarrassed that I've never read anything by Colette. I do have a copy of Claudine at School that I bought years ago so I may have to dig it out and give it a try, though I wish I thought my French was anything like good enough these days to read the original (once, I could probably have managed it).

Comments

[sam_t]

I do the same thing. I do like listening to wordy things, but I generally choose audiobooks of things I've already read, or podcasts where missing small bits is OK, or selected bits of Radio 4 comedy. I miss less when running or knitting, more when doing housework (this may be just because I'm more likely to be interrupted and also more likely to be making distracting noise), and most when not doing anything else.

I was quite good at concentrating in lectures, but then I was making quite extensive notes. Unfortunately for the rare occasions when I sub in for the secretary in committee meetings, this does not appear to be a skill that has stayed with me.

[white_hart]

Fortunately (given that acting as secretary to committees is part of my job description) taking extensive notes still works for me!