Husband has been hankering after seeing one of the Pirates of the Caribbean set of movies ever since they first appeared, thinking they'd be of a similar genre to the Indiana Jones series. I've been less keen, especially to go see any of the Pirates tales on the big cinema screen. In a thrift shop recently, choosing five DVDs so's to take advantage of the "$1 each if you buy 5" offer, Husband spotted Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest; I couldn't wriggle out of including it! Back home, I'd kept slotting it back to the bottom of the pile of "to watch" materials, until this week. Husband got his wish, we watched it, but he was disappointed in the film. He found that it was certainly not in the same league as the Indiana Jones offerings. I watched out of curiosity. Johnny Depp is a fascinating character (see my archived post here). His highly camp portrayal of pirate captain Jack Sparrow wasn't at all what I was expecting, but then that's the Depp trademark: the unexpected.
Three things I kept noticing in the movie reminded me of other things:
#1 In a lot of the farcical action sequences the situations, reactions and and facial expressions of Depp and others kept bringing to mind those old Wile E. Coyote cartoons. I swear they must have studied those, or at least had them stashed away in their memory banks.
#2 I did admire the fantastic arty makeup/costumes of the crew of The Flying Dutchman who were half man/half sea creature. I can't find detailed photographs, but this, see left, will give some idea. I was immediately reminded of the art of Italian 16th century painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo. I wrote a post about him in 2010 - HERE. Some of his work:
WATER
FIRE
AIR
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EARTH
#3 Reminding me of something else in a very different context from the film: in movie scenes on a fictional island called Pelegosto, inhabited by a tribe of cannibals, there were some huts, constructed in rather artistic forms, from wicker branches. Again, I can't find a photograph of the scene I'd like to show, but this will suffice:
Three things I kept noticing in the movie reminded me of other things:#1 In a lot of the farcical action sequences the situations, reactions and and facial expressions of Depp and others kept bringing to mind those old Wile E. Coyote cartoons. I swear they must have studied those, or at least had them stashed away in their memory banks.
#2 I did admire the fantastic arty makeup/costumes of the crew of The Flying Dutchman who were half man/half sea creature. I can't find detailed photographs, but this, see left, will give some idea. I was immediately reminded of the art of Italian 16th century painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo. I wrote a post about him in 2010 - HERE. Some of his work:WATER
FIRE
AIR
.jpg)
EARTH
#3 Reminding me of something else in a very different context from the film: in movie scenes on a fictional island called Pelegosto, inhabited by a tribe of cannibals, there were some huts, constructed in rather artistic forms, from wicker branches. Again, I can't find a photograph of the scene I'd like to show, but this will suffice:
 |
| Husband and I both immediately said, "Bet those were inspired by erm....erm...whatsisname??" His name is Patrick Dougherty, we recalled later, a sculptor whose speciality is large works in wicker/willow - example above, more can be seen via Google Image. |
Twilight, I love your site.:) Giuseppe Arcimboldo's work is amazing and inspiring - makes me want to pull out my collage materials and start creating. I also enjoyed your older post on this artist; thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteLooking at his work, I guessed (intuited) there might be a Uranus-Neptune connection, so I checked. Sure enough, there was a square in effect between Uranus in Gemini and Neptune (conjunct Chiron) in Pisces during 1527 and 1526; *maybe* there was something in his chart that allowed him to tune-in to this energy in such a profound way.
That's funny about the similarity between Captain Jack Sparrow and the cartoon character - I'd heard Depp based his character on Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, but I can definitely see Wile E. Coyote too!
LB ~ Glad you found Arcimboldo interesting! Yes, the square between Uranus and Neptune must have been pumping up the creativity and inventiveness factor during those years. Whenever one of the outer planets have transited Gemini we seemed to reap rewards in the arts and sciences. Pluto in Gemini people - when they were good they were not just good but flippin' amazin'! :-)
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing an reference to Keith Richards in respect of these Pirate movies too, but skimmed over it. I couldn't even remember what he looks like, never having been a fan of the Rolling Stones and their doings.
I understand that the two are good friends though, so no doubt Depp has studied Richards' mannerisms at close quarters and some of the crazy rubbed off. ;-)
Comment from Vanilla rose which was published under the 2010 post (possible by mistake)~~
ReplyDeleteVANILLA ROSE
Plus, JD bought a half-blind horse that was going to be euthanased. Bless. And he turned up at a primary school in London after a little girl there wrote to him.
April 07, 2013 7:46 AM
Twilight responded...
Really? That has moved him up many notches in my estimation! :-)
I'll copy your comment to the current post too, VR - maybe you intended it to be there anyway.
April 07, 2013 8:53 AM