Mechtild's

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