Monday, November 16, 2009

Midseason Awards!

Okay, so I'm finishing up #52 as I'm working on this, and since I liked Cole's recap so much I'm going to steal it for mine (imitation being the sincerest form of flattery).  Here are my quick hits after viewing #50:

Best line #1: "I am unknowing" - Death

Best scene #1: The witch making her unearthly moan as she's splattered with the blood and bile of a dog.

Best costume #1: Skat with his cloth bells over split tights and rooster-themed cap.

Best line #2 "If everything is imperfect in this imperfect world, then love is most perfect in it's perfect imperfection." - Jons

Best scene #2: Joff manages to pretend to eat a chicken leg and yet doesn't actually take a single piece of chicken into his mouth.  Seriously, watch it.  He takes about 6 "bites" that don't remove any chicken, and then licks his fingers.  It's like watching someone without teeth try and eat corn on the cob.

Best action sequence: Jons slamming Raval down to the table and nearly slitting his throat, but holding back at the last second.

Worst action sequence: Joff's "bear dance".

Best cameo: The squirrel who pops up onto the stump of Skat's tree after it was cut down.  It wasn't staged at all, which means that the squirrel ran onto a movie set directly towards a tree that was falling.

Best makeup: Bengt Ekarot as Death.  They actually used enough white makeup that he didn't have full use of his face, which kept it frozen in a terrible unflinching mask.

Best speech: Still Anders Eck's.  Really, the movie makes itself in that scene alone.  Watch it.

Best line #3: "This is my hand.  The veins pump blood through it.  The sun is still in the sky.  And I, I Antonius Block, am playing chess with Death." - Antonius Block

Best use of music: The first appearance of Death.  Bergman introduces Block and Jons buffetted by blasting sea breeze and surrounded by crashing waves, then immediately fades them down to a whisper as Death is suddenly standing a few feet away.  It's such a drastic and gut-wrenching jolt into silence that it's almost as if the natural world itself holds its' breath in fear and respect for the grim messenger.

Best line #4: "Your life, oh fool, hangs by a thread...short is your day." - Skat, acting as Death

I officially love this movie.

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