The "ABCs of BBM": Round 965! (Rules in first post)

[Toast]

 THE SHIPPING NEWS ***

Starring Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore. Written by Robert Nelson Jacobs from the novel by E. Annie Proulx. Directed by Lasse Hallström. (STC) 125 min.

The wintry, inhospitable climate of Newfoundland must suit Lasse Hallström's Swedish temperament. That would explain why the director's version of E. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News is a marked improvement on Chocolat and The Cider House Rules, his two previous attempts at Miramax-backed Oscar bait.

Kevin Spacey plays Quoyle, a man so meek and introverted, he nearly qualifies as autistic. He's felt like he's drowning ever since the day his father tried to teach him to swim by dropping him in the water and watching him sink. Then a vampy piece of trash named Petal (Cate Blanchett) hurtles in and out of his quiet life, leaving him with a daughter and a heart full of grief.

After the deaths of Quoyle's parents and Petal, Quoyle's aunt Agnis (Judi Dench) takes him and his little girl away from Poughkeepsie to "the place your people come from," which is basically a big rock on the East Coast where summer lasts for 15 minutes. Quoyle gets a job as a reporter and becomes immersed in the lives of the people there, paying special attention to the comely widow Wavey (Julianne Moore).

There isn't much to the story besides the gradual brightening of Quoyle's existence, assorted subplots about the village's colourful eccentrics (who, thankfully, aren't too colourful) and the revelation of big family secrets. But Hallström and screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs have downplayed the preciousness that sometimes marred Proulx's book and emphasized its core emotional theme about people learning to live with whatever has hurt them the most.

The film also features fine, subtle work by just about everyone in the cast: Spacey and Moore are likeably downbeat and unshowy, and the supporting roles are beautifully played by the likes of Scott Glenn as the paper's seafaring editor and Gordon Pinsent as an old-salt newspaperman. Pinsent also gets special props for providing the movie's most authentic Maritimer accent. JA

EYE WEEKLY

[southendmd]

Annie's story "55 Miles to the Gas Pump" in Close Range consists of two long, run-on sentences and one very short one.  Amazon describes it as "probably the shortest serial killer story ever told".

[memento]

"I've lived in Vermont for more than three decades, studied history at the University of Vermont and Concordia University in Montreal. In hindsight, I recognize that learning to examine the lives of individuals against the longue duree of events was invaluable training for novel-writing. In hindsight, I recognize that learning to examine the lives of individuals against the longue duree of events was invaluable training for novel-writing.

There were few teaching jobs in history in the seventies, and I shifted from academic study to freelance journalism and for the next 15 years wrote articles on weather, apples, canoeing, mountain lions, mice, cuisine, libraries, African beadwork, cider, and lettuces for dozens of magazines. Whenever I could squeeze in the time I wrote short stories."   

In her own words Literati.Net

[Toast]

'The stories are the rural equivalent of urban myths,strange narratives of violence and longing told with a precision and elegance that brings mercy to Proulx's themes of hardship and endurance.' Jane Shilling, The Times

Link

[southendmd]

Annie Proulx's prose is spare, stark, quirky and unvarnished.

[memento]

Annie is a former Vermonter.

[Meryl]

Annie gets her characters so right, they can make a reader wince in recognition.

[southendmd]

In her Story to Screenplay essay "Getting Movied", Annie relates that she spent much time xcogitating on how to make the dozy embrace sequence ring true.

[Ellemeno]

=question= Hey Players

I am confused about how some of the recent posts relate to our game.  They seem to have gone afield of what the rules cover.  I have superlatively high admiration for the individuals who play this game (and I ain't jokin'), and am frequently proven wrong in this thread, so could someone please help me understand how writing about Annie's Proulx's non-BBM stories fits here, perhaps by posting something from the Rules. 

Thanks in advance,

Elle

[memento]

Round 551!!
For a job very well done!!



The Screenplay