Movie Eye Candy Alert - Tristan & Isolde

[uwsman2]

This film opened wide on Friday the 13th... and promptly hit the top ten. It has nothing to do with Wagner's opera of the same name, being a dramatization of an original scipt conflating a variety of medieval legendary sources of the tale of the fatal love triangle of Tristan, Isolde, and King Mark.

Well, here's the eye candy alert, guys. Remember James Franco, who played the high school buddy in Spider Man and Spider Man 2? Little James Franco has grown up to be hunked-out Tristan in this engrossing medieval action flick! The boy has worked hard on his body and it shows. Definitely worth a look.

And the actor who plays King Marke, Rufus Sewell, is a totally hottie as well.

Previews now in theaters for Annapolis, a naval academy flick in which Franco also stars, has one brief flash of him removing a shirt showing muscular development far beyond the already fine look in Tristan.... To be continued, for sure....

[BgMstr4u]

I went to see T&I last night, and liked it. As a specialist in that period, I would take issue with the geography of different groups and with the idea that Saxons, Picts and Britons routinely interacted in the way that the movie sets up -- but hey, this isn't a documentary, and they have to get enough conflict going to make the movie last.

 

From a design point of view it is excellent. The costumes seem as authentic as they can be, and the buildings are as well. The fighting styles and weapons are the most authentic of all -- we actually have weapons from that period, after all.

 

Franco and Sewell are, well, just lovely. The complexities of the love triangle are played nicely, and the two men come off, in the end, as better than one would expect. I thought that Isolde was the weakest of the three, which is a surprise for those whose Isolde will always be Wagner's.

 

By the way, the great Isolde of the 60's and 70's died the other day -- Birgit Nilsson. What a great voice! A world that can produce a Nilsson is a world worth living in.

[+ Charlie]

When I first saw the trailer for the movie, I thought oh, no! not another retelling of a classic story in which the protagonists are unbelievably beautiful physical specimens rather than real people. However, if it interests younger people in seeing the Wagner version, that's fine. I agree about Nilsson; the last time I saw her was as the Walkuere Brunnhilde in Munich, on her 60th birthday--once she got warmed up, one forgot that she was an old woman and just basked in the glorious voice.

[whipped guy]

Ditto regarding Birgit Nilsson… How ironic that the premiere Isolde of recent times passes away when the movie version is released. I never saw her live… I don’t even care for the likes of Wagner… but shoot! What a voice! She WAS Brunnhilde… she WAS Isolde… To this day I cannot listen to the “Liebestod” and NOT hear Nilsson’s voice… and somehow I am sure that she was even more impressive in person! With a voice of that size I am sure she would have been clearly heard even in the standing room of the MET’s family circle. They just don’t make ‘em like that anymore!

[+ deej]

When I was in college (yikes! 30 years ago!) it was common for us poor music students to sneak into rehearsals for traveling orchestras, opera companies, and the like. I had the pleasure to observe several Chicago Symphony recording sessions when Solti was at the helm, for example.

 

The one experience that still gives goose bumps when I think back to it was Nilsson's "Isolde". Since it was an opening day run-through, most of the cast was singing at half-voice. Not Nilsson. She had two voices: on and off. It was glorious.

[+ Tom Isern]

Speaking of Wagner...may I digress?...I was once visiting Minnesota and saw the most hysterical tv commerical. Picture an older man sitting in the middle of a virtually empty room--just he and his tv--staring at the television with a bowl of popcorn in his lap--yes, think that scene in Fargo--20 below zero outside but the two cuddled up in bed watching tv and the blue light flooding the room. Cue the horns: (!!!) Suddenly a very large Viking woman with horned hat, spear, shield, and long blond braided pigtails bursts through the walls singing:

 

"Welcome to winter, in Minnesota, here is your fuel bill, ha ha ha ha!"

 

:-)

[Guest ReturnOfS]

Here is some movie eye-candy!! :7

 

http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/MYC2.jpg

 

 

Oh wait, I guess that this is the wrong movie.

[Guest showme43]

ummmm, is it out on dvd? :9

[Guest]

It's "The Beach" with Leo Dicaprio (quite available on DVD).

[Guest zipperzone]

>Here is some movie eye-candy!! :7

>

>http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/MYC2.jpg

>

>

>Oh wait, I guess that this is the wrong movie.

 

Leo could do with a little work on his tummy tum tum!

[Guest ReturnOfS]

>>Here is some movie eye-candy!! :7

>>

>>http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/MYC2.jpg

>>

>>

>>Oh wait, I guess that this is the wrong movie.

>

>Leo could do with a little work on his tummy tum tum!

>

 

The only work that Leo needs on his tummy tum tum in this pic is my tongue gliding all over it mmmmmm :9

[Bilbo]

I'll see your tongue and raise it to tongue and gentle teeth. Gnaw!}(

[CT Dick]

It looks hot. }(

 

Dick

 

http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/twentieth_century_fox/tristan___isolde/_group_photos/james_franco7.jpg

[Guest Dan]

RE: Movie Eye Candy Alert - Tristan & Isolde James Franco

 

When I saw the trailer for Annapolis, all I could think was: now there's a stomach I could shoot my load on!

 

Dan Dare

http://www.geocities.com/dandare_laca/DanDare4Hire.html

[uwsman2]

RE: Movie Eye Candy Alert - Tristan & Isolde James Franco

 

Yeah, the tummy's in great shape in Annapolis!

I wanted to go back and see Tristan again after it inspired me to work my way through the new Domingo recording of the opera. (One act at a time - 75 minutes of Wagner at a sitting is just about right.) I found listening to the opera after seeing the movie fascinating, noting the different treatments of the story and how the movie was in fact relatively faithful to the backstory of the opera that emerges from the dialogue (mainly in Act I). Of course, all "modern" version of this story are embellishments from medieval sources that are rather skimpy on detail... although it seems there was a real Tristan (of a slightly different name) on which the story is based, and at least the idea of a love-triangle of some sort between Tristan, an older ruler and a very young bride is at the heart of the old accounts.

 

But when I checked the schedules today, I noted that Tristan is playing at only one theater in Manhattan, on a matinee. That was fast, as it opened just a few weeks ago. I guess it didn't really catch on with the mass audience.