Mechtild's

Early tomorrow, I will be flying out east for my biannual visit to me dear old mum. She doesn't have internet access, so goodbye for two weeks.

Have a lovely, scrumptious Thanksgiving, you who celebrate it!

~ Mechtild

This manip was created to complement jan-u-wine's new poem, A Fairer Than Most Birth-day. She wrote it as this year's birthday mathom, but, since I already had prepared a Baggins Birthday post, showcasing a poem written several years ago from Bilbo's point of view--with a Frodo Art Travesty to go with it--I didn't post it. I promised myself, however, that I'd make a post for the new poem, complete with its own illustration.

The featured poem, which celebrates the renewed post-war Shire as seen through Frodo's eyes, cried out for Shire imagery. Since I'd already screencapped every trilogy scene set in the Shire, I decided a new Frodo Art Travesty was called for. The resulting image, Frodo in Ford Madox Brown's "The Hayfield", captures well for me the mood of subdued but intense reverie in Jan's poem, especially at the poem's end, when the time has become dusk and the moon has risen.

This year I have two splendid poems by jan-u-wine to celebrate September 22. On this, the Eve of the Birthday, I am posting a poem she wrote from the point of view of Primula Baggins, newly the mother of little Frodo. It is simply exquisite. (Tomorrow, on the day itself, I will post another gorgeous poem, written from the point of view of Bilbo.)

To illustrate this poem, I have used a detail from William-Adolphe Bouguereau's "The Young Gypsies" (painted 1879). I think it makes an evocative picture of Frodo and his mother, the young woman's face so lovely but melancholy, as if she already intuits what's ahead for her son, the child rosy-cheeked and cherubic, yet gazing directly at the viewer as if an older child were looking out of those eyes -- observant, self-possessed, wise beyond his years and, as yet, fearing nothing.

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This is another beautiful EE scene. The way it's filmed, lit, scored, acted, it's gorgeous. Best of all for me, the scene restores the character of Faramir. ( Read more... )



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The Houses of Healing scenes are some of my favourites in ROTK, in fact, in the trilogy. They aren't the book scenes, which are some of Tolkien's best, but they're beautifully done. Almost no dialogue is used, yet they convey the sense and feel of Tolkien's scenes powerfully, with a superb sense of mood, thanks to perfectly conceived shots, judicious editing, good acting and a gorgeously evocative score.

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Jan-u-wine wrote a poem a few months ago that I knew I wanted to present, but it did not go with the screencaps I was then doing. It had to wait, but no more. Jan-u-wine's poem is an ode to this beloved character, an appreciation both perceptive and beautiful. It came to Jan when she was browsing my LJ for Frodo images. She came across a work by taerie, a gifted LotR fan artist I met on the K-D messageboard.

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As you who looked at last week's Galadriel's Glade post know, Pt. 5 was the last entry in the ongoing Frodo screencapping project I've been working on since 2005. I started out just sharing images I'd made to use for Frodo manips ("Frodo Art Travesties"), but the entries became the impetus for thinking further about the scenes, book and film, and, eventually, showcasing poems by jan-u-wine. It's been informative and has increased my appreciation of both book and film. Thanks again to all of you who have visited over the years of the project.

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Notes: Very long essay ahead, wrapping up the final part of my last Frodo screencap series. I don't plan to do any other large-scale capping projects. I'll still make new caps to illustrate reflections or poems, but the ongoing project I've been working on since 2005 is at an end. I'll post a brief entry providing links for browsing the full collection in the coming days. But feel free to skip the essay and go straight to the caps and poem. As with the previous entry, in addition to my caps there are several spectacular caps by Blossom. Don't miss them. And visit Blossom's gorgeous Frodo website, In Dreams. Also featured is the brilliant conclusion to jan-u-wine's Lórien Suite. It appears below the fullscreen caps.

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Note: There were so many caps for this scene I had to divide it into two parts. The first half of this post contains the introductory comments, the book scene, the film text and half the screencaps. The second half, Galadriel's Glade Pt. 4b, contains the rest of the screencaps and the poem jan-u-wine has written inspired by both sections. At the bottom of this half's screencaps is a link to the second part.


In my opinion, Galadriel’s big transformation scene ("In place of a dark lord, you will have a queen") does not do well by Tolkien, nor by the films.
( Read more... )If the scene works for me at all (and it does, barely), it is because of the acting of Elijah Wood. ( Read more... )



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Here is the second half of the post, which includes more film text with accompanying caps, and the 4th entry in jan-u-wine's Lórien Suite. Written from Galadriel's point of view, it allows the reader deeply and thoughtfully into her experience of the encounter in the Glade.

Also featured are seven screencaps by Blossom. If you don't know her work from her gorgeous Frodo website, In Dreams, Blossom's screencaps are like no others. Each is a jewel, a little work of art. The caps below are from the EE edition of FOTR (in widescreen); mine, as usual, come from the theatrical version in fullscreen format.

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The following quote from "The Mirror of Galadriel" (fuller excerpt below), is a passage etched indelibly on my mind's eye:

She lifted up her white arms, and spread out her hands towards the East in a gesture of rejection and denial. Eärendil, the Evening Star, most beloved of the Elves, shone clear above. So bright was it that the figure of the Elven-lady cast a dim shadow on the ground. Its rays glanced upon a ring about her finger; it glittered like polished gold overlaid with silver light, and a white stone in it twinkled as if the Elven-star had come down to rest upon her hand. Frodo gazed at the ring with awe; for suddenly it seemed to him that he understood.

None of my favourite Tolkien illustrators have been able to capture this moment for me in visual art. I wondered what the filmmakers would do with it, considering the iconic nature of the vision invoked. ( Read more... )



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As mentioned in Pt. 1 of this series, the film scene is very different from the book scene it is based on. The most obvious difference is that there is no Sam in the film scene. But the main change is in the portrayal of Galadriel. At Henneth Annún, Sam tries to describe her to Faramir. ( Read more... )



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I love the caps for this scene. Except for "Nuclear Gladys" (as it was called on the messageboard I frequented while the films were coming out), the scene is uninterrupted cinematic gorgeousness. It's a different animal from the book's Lothlórien scenes, but as cinema it really works. The book's Lórien, with its images of jewel-fresh nature sparkling with "poignant freshness" under a golden sun, becomes a world of shadows , cold and luminous as if lit by a winter moon. Instead of a sense of safe haven, the Fellowship enters a realm pulsing with a feeling of foreboding and danger. Their Elven hosts warn rather than welcome. My book-reading self says, "this is wrong, wrong, wrong!" but my film-going self is mesmerised. Why does it work, and why does it seem faithful, even though it is so wide of the original? I think it's because it strongly evokes what Tolkien elsewhere said about Faerie.

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Spring is here, pretty much. It's about time. For the seasonal image fans, here's a brief visual update on how things are progressing.

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Hi, folks!

This is to say that I just got back last night from a two-week trip to see family. ( Read more... )

Because I can't bear to make a post with no image, here's a painting I think makes a good illustration of an Elven residence overlooking the Sea on Tol Eressëa. As soon as I saw it I imagined Frodo walking there, strolling or reading or just looking out to Sea, in case a ship might be arriving from Middle-earth.

Amalfi in Summer by Carl Frederic Aagaard:

~ Mechtild

The snow finally melted. On Friday, it actualy made it to 72 degrees. I got so hot I put on a short-sleeved shirt for the first time. Now, two days later, it's 32 and it's snowing.

Less than forty-five minutes ago, I took these photos:

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WHAAAAAAH!

~ Mechtild