When I First Set Eyes on Her



"I am Catwoman. Hear me roar"

This post is, of course, part of the Pfeiffer blog-a-thon that Nathaniel over at The Film Experience has organised where bloggers all over the world celebrate the great one's birthday by writing anything at all about her. Click the link and check out what the others have to say...

My Pfeiffer post details my introduction to Michelle. It was 1994- 6 years old, coming home from school (that was St. Thomas' Prep back then) I passed the Liberty cinema. There, right next to the entrance, was a small poster reading Batman Returns (because living in Sri Lanka means, or used to mean, it always takes two years for a movie to grace the big screen). Being the Batman fanatic I am, I was thrilled - Finally! A Batman movie! I immediately scanned the names that were listed and drew a blank. Michael Keaton? Michelle Pfeiffer? Danny DeVito? Who were these people? I turned to my mother, sitting next to me, and asked "Who's Michelle Pfeiffer?", her reply was "Michelle Pfeiffer? She's a famous actress,"...

After that the movie wouldn't leave my mind. Months would go by before the film actually came to the screen (or at least it felt like that), and I could not get that poster out of my head. Every day, on the way home, I'd try to sneak a closer look, and when I was at home, all I could think of was seeing it. When the day finally came, My family, a few friends and I went to see the film. It was love (or at least lust) at first sight: from the moment La Pfeiffer stepped on screen as the mousy secratary, Selina Kyle, I couldn't take my eyes off her. When it finally came to moment where she stepped into the window frame, clad in skin-tight black leather, backed by a neon sign reading 'Hell Here' and purred "I don't know about you Kitty, but I feel so much yummier" I was hooked. To this day I can't watch that performance without being awe-struck. Wow. Pfeiffer and Tim Burton took that character, made her a 100 times more twisted that she ever was on paper, and came out with a character so dark, so confused and so downright sexy that one could only sit back breathless. By the film's last third, where Selina and Bruce Wayne dance to Siouxsie and the Banshees' 'Face to Face' and she asks "Does this mean we have to start fighting?", you have been taken on a rollercoaster ride, and damn that big yellow duck for coming in and cutting the scene short. After seeing that film Michelle has never left my mind, even when she decided to abandon serious films and slum it romantic comedy hell for the remainder of the nineties. White Oleander gave us the greatness that is La Pfeiffer on top of her game and hopefully there's more coming but even if there isn't there'll always be moments like Stephanie Zinone singing 'Cool Rider' in Grease 2, Elvira coming down in the glass elevator in Scarface, Angela throwing the drink in her boss' face in Married to the Mob, Susie Diamond singing 'Makin' Whoopee' on top of that piano in that red dress in The Fabulous Baker Boys, Frankie baring all for Johnny, Countess Olenska meeting with Archer after all those years in The Age of Innocence and, of course, Catwoman licking Batman's face under the misletoe.

The 29th is La Pfeiffer's birthday, so go out and rent one (or eleven) of her movies. You know its the right thing to do.

Happy Birthday, Michelle. May Halle Berry burn in the eternal fires of hell for tarnishing the good name of Catwoman.

I Love Country

That's right. I said it, and before you scoff and wonder 'wtf?' go download these songs. I assure you your ipod needs them:

Jolene, Dolly Parton
Long Gone Lonesome Blues, Hank Williams
Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash
Mr. Bojangles, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Ring of Fire, Johnny Cash
Fancy, Bobbie Gentry
Ode to Billie Joe, Bobbie Gentry
Let it Ride, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
Jackson, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash
My Baby Don't Tolerate, Lyle Lovett
Portland, Oregon; Loretta Lynn and Jack White (of the White Stripes)
Coal Miner's Daughter, Loretta Lynn
Foreget About It, Alison Krauss
Top of the World, Dixie Chicks
Man of Constant Sorrow, Soggy Bottom Boys
Harper Valley PTA, Jeannie C. Riley
Honky Tonk Badonkadonk, Trace Adkins
You'll Think of Me (Live), Keith Urban
I Wish I Was the Moon, Neko Case
9 to 5, Dolly Parton
I May Hate Myself in the Morning, Le Ann Womack
Why Should the Fire Dire, Nickel Creek
Show Your Bones, the Yeah Yeah Yeah's follow-up to 2003's Fever to Tell is at once bitter, romantic, sweet, harsh, perfect and imperfect. The band returns with a cleaner sound than before but the musical direction goes in the other direction with Karen O & Co opting to tackle bitterness and breakups after tackling love (in their own, slightly twisted, way) in their debut LP. Even though the songs seem harder on the surface there are little flourishes of sweetness and softness, like the acoustic guitar that opens the lead single 'Gold Lion', that add a certain sweetness to the record. It's still a little early for me to be clear on how I feel about the record, but, so far I'm loving it. And isn't 'Phenomena' some kind of perfect?

Also, this album is all kinds of awesome:


The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced- March looks slightly intriguing but the American Civil War usually bores me?

I'm currently reading Capote's In Cold Blood, which is proving to be Excellent. Of Capote's other works I've only read Breakfast at Tiffany's, which I loved, does anyone know if Music for Chameleons is worth getting? Also I'm planning on reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky but I'm a little scared, should I be? Reading Ulysses made me feel so inferior that I stopped reading and put it away in order to read it after I turn 30- I know I should read it and I was genuinely excited to, but I felt like I was in over my head. Also bought The Shipping News after Mahangu said it was a MUST read (Incidentally, I also read Brokeback Mountain and I agreed with what you said about Jack).

I've been a little out of it cos I just got back from India, which was great- I had no idea that Bombay was such a beautiful city- and school starts tomorrow. It'll be my last 9 days of school, which still hasn't really sunk in yet but I suppose that's because I have a fucker of an exam coming in June.

Look out for the Pfeiffer blog-a-thon that begins on the 28th in order to celebrate God's gift to cinema on her 48th (or is that 49th?) birthday...and while we're talking film, I finally saw Mommie Dearest the other day-LOL "No wire hangers EVER!!!"

And I guess that was your accomplice in the woodchipper


Lost Ones

I've just come back from the Bishop's College Auditorium where the Vanishing Point Company are performing their play Lost Ones. wow. Its not often that we see a performance of this nature round these parts- the physicality, creativity and inventiveness of the production was inspiring. Lost Ones tells the tale of a man, a succesful writer, who's past comes to haunt him in rather 'unusual' ways.

I was very impressed- the production was quite near flawless, every piece of the puzzle: direction, the ensemble, the writing and, especially, the art direction came together to present an electric performance. They'll be performing on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Go See It.
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