The Last Station.

I went with my mom to see The Last Station, which is one of the better biopics I've seen. It's about the final years of Leo Tolstoy and the tale involves the issues of his copyright. His wife, Sofia, wants to retain those rights, while Tolstoy wants to donate them to the people. (There are multiple ways of spelling both her name and his--I've seen both used).

I'd been getting a number of searches for Sofia Tolstoy as of late, and many have been finding my poem on her. She was very emotional and high strung (as both the film and her diaries show) and Leo would have been a pain in the ass to deal with, b/c he was one of these types who believed wealth was bad, etc.

Tolstoy is a very overrated writer--Anna K is a good book but not a great one--it is very politically preachy in parts. (Flaubert's Madame Bovary is better) and War and Peace has too many characters and not enough development. That is a book that is very much a chore. If you want something very long, Thomas Wolfe is better. Also, Tolstoy was a terrible art critic, and he was one of these who only thought art could be good if it agreed with his politics, which is dumb. So the man had his biases and blind spots, but of course, the movie makes him out to be nothing short of a "genius."

This is one of the better biopics, however, because it focuses only on the last part of his life, rather than trying to stretch it all out--from crib to coffin. But the added love stories (and reducing the film to be about 'love') was both very trite and Hollywoodish. I would just for once like them to make a film about the lives of a couple and have it NOT be about love--or that is, not make love the focus. Iris did it, Sylvia did it, Nora did it, etc.

But the film is well acted and odd that Helen Mirren sounded more Russian when she played Ayn Rand than when she played an actual Russian living in Russia.

The Queen.

I watched the film The Queen the other day, the one that of course won Helen Mirren the Oscar. She definitely did a terrific acting job, though the film itself was rather straightforward and dull. Or maybe that's just because it's about a bunch of uptight Brits. Oh and James Cromwell was in it too, and he was just as great. It just shows the range he does have, from playing the Queen's hubby to George H.W. Bush.

The film focuses around the event of Princess Diana's death, and how the Queen refused to address the issue publicly. I actually got this DVD when it was selling for like $5 at Circuit City's liquidation sale.

You can watch the trailer here if you're interested.



Pretty much it's just standard directing, no real great shots. More like a "made for T.V. movie" than a real film. Why don't they make those anymore? They were at least campy fun. Straightforward but well acted. If you didn't know of this period of history, the story itself isn't that interesting to stand on its own. I don't think that years from now many will care what the Queen did after Diana's death. But this does give a slice of the Royal Life, if that's what you're into.