Anna Friel, Bathory

As I sit here taking a break from working on my most recent story and listening to this Annie Lennox song "Why" (the video is literally me) I thought I would take a few moments to try and make an attempt at discussing the British actress Anna Friel. I don't know why exactly ... oh wait of course I do .. it's because she's been positively AWESOME in both of the two (yes just two roles!) that I have seen her in so far.

The first time I saw her was a few years ago when I watched Neverland, where she was introduced a few episodes in, and she played the most incredible pirate I think I have seen to dat on film. A  pirate which was so awesome, in fact, that I believe she actually even beat John Depp as Jack Sparrow...though it was apparent that she had probably taken some inspiration from him, too.

Nevertheless, Neverland is probably one of the greatest and most imaginative series I have ever watched on film, and I got to remembering it last night, and I went to look it up on my Kindle (where I watch things when I do watch) and, though Neverland was not available on the Kindle, I was reminded of Anna Friel again after all this time, and so I clicked her name to see what it would bring me and....I really couldn't believe my fortuna! For I stumbled upon a movie with her in it that was free on the Amazon Prime and dealt with that glorious and terrifying subject from, what was it, 14th or 15th century Translyvania known as Elizabeth Bathory. And, of course, since my latest story is dealing with a decidedly medieval setting, I decided I had to jump into it.

At first I was a little uncertain, because I thought it would have no magic in it, but guess what? Even on that count, I was pleasantly surprised: Not only was there magic in the film and an absolutely awesome witch, there was tons of it, even right down to rather trippy and hallucinogenic sequences that I never would have expected in a film like this. For the truth about most films that deal with a medieval setting is that they tend to forget the trippy and remember only the mundane.  Beyond all of that though -- and I really couldn't believe this! --- but there was also an entire subplot dealing with one of my favorite Renaissance painters of all time: Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio! I do not think I have ever seen Caravaggio on film here in the English world (there exists a fantastic film I watched in Italian of him) and so this was deeply moving to me.

But of course, this all leads  me up to what I wanted, or was at least hoping, to say about Anna Friel and why I love her, despite having only seen her in two roles: She is a decidedly and unapologetically "British" actress, in my opinio, and it really shows in these two roles to me, so I feel,  because I just don't think that an American actress would have done this Bathory role in the way that Anna Friel did it. It is not necessarily even the fault of the American actress though, in truth....what it really is, if you ask me, is the fault of the (mainly) American scriptwriters who, one imagines, are probably behind the majority of films and stories that come our way.  I can always feel a difference when I sit down to watch something that has been written by Brits or the other Europeans, and it is always very different than what the American scriptwriters give us, even if only in minute ways. This script was written by a fellow named Jurag Jakubisko, out of the Czech Republic, for example, and it really feels like a breath of fresh air for that exact reason, because I can assure my reader: Just like there is a difference in literature amongst the countries, so too is there a major difference in film. A major difference. The  Americans are great at films, don't get me wrong; but we have a lack of cultural memory in some way that constricts and cripples us - particularly when we want to write medieval sort of stuff....

 The inclusion of Caravaggio, for instance, I just ...something tells me, would have never happened had the script by written by Americans.  The film also, shockingly enough, might not have included any of the hallucinatory sequences because, I really cannot stress enough, Americans , on the rare occasion that they do decide to delve into pre-American history in their films, often tend to do one of two things: They either take the film dreadfully serious and give us nothing but the most true to life , non romantic people who have ever existed....or, on the other hand, they give you some sort of A Kid at King Arthur's Court type production, where everything has been rendered beyond ridiculous, and all sense of seriousness utterly lost. This film, Bathory, instead sits in that happy middle: We get a glorious view of what was going on in Eastern Europe  ... we get some castles and dungeons...we get a Michelangelo Caravaggio who hangs around playing a lute and, at times, even speaks in actual Italian and uses Italian city names like Firenze instead of Florence, and we also get a great story with Anna Friels character Elizabeth Bathory.....

So! There you have it. Bathory with Anna Friel... WATCH IT! And now let me get back to my dungeon crawling medieval romp (that is of course twisted American high fantasy)....

I am about to have my characters meet a high elf after finding a hole in a place called the Scorched Tunnels nd maybe I'll make the high elf  something like Bathory.... "OFFFFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"