Divinely Stupid Dramaturg
I went to see Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood today...it was cute but I have seen better chick-flicks. I also preferred the books. In my opinion, you can tell from the writing that the author is a novice; but I think if she keeps on writing she will just keep getting better. Those two books are pretty cute/touching/girlie, after all.
The screenwriter made some changes that I do understand and some changes that I don't. Some pretty major structural changes were made but I can forgive that because maybe it seemed like the best choices to make to fit a book into 2 hours. I have more trouble with other changes, though... These ladies say "bebe" very standard-frenchy, like "beh-beh," which I have never heard before in my life except in french class at school; real Louisiana cajun french pronounce it "beb" or "behb." And really, I should know because my dad's whole family is cajun french and I've grown up my whole life with people throwing french right in in the middle of an english sentence. So that's a little bothersome; I'm thinking, "Come on, dramaturg! Didn't you do your research?"
Three more elements that I did not like. In Vivi's teenage life in the 1930s-40s she was in love with a boy named Jack, who played cajun fiddle. There are some very nice scenes in the book describing the sound of that instrument and how Vivi loved it so much. However, for some unknown reason, the screenwrite or director or someone has changed it so that he now plays guitar instead. There's no real reason for this; the character is only featured for maybe 5 minutes of screen time...why change it? Is it because it was just too ethnic? Midwest America wouldn't understand the romance of a young man who plays the fiddle on a sultry Louisiana night? Weird choice, to change that.
The final two elements, what really spoiled the movie for me in some ways, are that in one of the last scenes of the movie a black jazz processional band is featured at a private birthday party, and a King Cake is the cake on the table rather than a birthday cake. Okay, here we go: black jazz processional bands are not easily hired for lighthearted events, as they are usually made up of members of a church and take their duties very seriously, OR are available for hire to the public but only to the Super-Rich. A black jazz stand-up band is another matter and I would have accepted that a stand-up band was hired to play a party. Um, dramaturg?
Now to the King Cake. Mr. or Ms. Dramaturg, do you even know what a King Cake is? Are we really supposed to believe that these 4 older women, devoutly Catholic older women, would light a King Cake on fire and then extinguish it with a fire extinguisher? Let's forgive for a moment that the movie is set in the month of October; let's just address the question of whether or not these Catholic ladies would set a pastry that goes hand-in-hand with Twelvth Night and Baby Jesus on fire.
So really, that's it. I was just bummed by the lack of study that went into these elements; the director attempts authenticity with the (mis)pronunciation of bebe, eradicates authenticity by changing the fiddle to a guitar, makes a ludicrous stab at introducing further cultural elements by use of a black jazz processional band, and blatanly expresses that s/he knows nothing about Louisiana Catholicism by setting a King Cake ablaze.
That's it, really. Other than that, it was pretty cute.
I went to see Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood today...it was cute but I have seen better chick-flicks. I also preferred the books. In my opinion, you can tell from the writing that the author is a novice; but I think if she keeps on writing she will just keep getting better. Those two books are pretty cute/touching/girlie, after all.
The screenwriter made some changes that I do understand and some changes that I don't. Some pretty major structural changes were made but I can forgive that because maybe it seemed like the best choices to make to fit a book into 2 hours. I have more trouble with other changes, though... These ladies say "bebe" very standard-frenchy, like "beh-beh," which I have never heard before in my life except in french class at school; real Louisiana cajun french pronounce it "beb" or "behb." And really, I should know because my dad's whole family is cajun french and I've grown up my whole life with people throwing french right in in the middle of an english sentence. So that's a little bothersome; I'm thinking, "Come on, dramaturg! Didn't you do your research?"
Three more elements that I did not like. In Vivi's teenage life in the 1930s-40s she was in love with a boy named Jack, who played cajun fiddle. There are some very nice scenes in the book describing the sound of that instrument and how Vivi loved it so much. However, for some unknown reason, the screenwrite or director or someone has changed it so that he now plays guitar instead. There's no real reason for this; the character is only featured for maybe 5 minutes of screen time...why change it? Is it because it was just too ethnic? Midwest America wouldn't understand the romance of a young man who plays the fiddle on a sultry Louisiana night? Weird choice, to change that.
The final two elements, what really spoiled the movie for me in some ways, are that in one of the last scenes of the movie a black jazz processional band is featured at a private birthday party, and a King Cake is the cake on the table rather than a birthday cake. Okay, here we go: black jazz processional bands are not easily hired for lighthearted events, as they are usually made up of members of a church and take their duties very seriously, OR are available for hire to the public but only to the Super-Rich. A black jazz stand-up band is another matter and I would have accepted that a stand-up band was hired to play a party. Um, dramaturg?
Now to the King Cake. Mr. or Ms. Dramaturg, do you even know what a King Cake is? Are we really supposed to believe that these 4 older women, devoutly Catholic older women, would light a King Cake on fire and then extinguish it with a fire extinguisher? Let's forgive for a moment that the movie is set in the month of October; let's just address the question of whether or not these Catholic ladies would set a pastry that goes hand-in-hand with Twelvth Night and Baby Jesus on fire.
So really, that's it. I was just bummed by the lack of study that went into these elements; the director attempts authenticity with the (mis)pronunciation of bebe, eradicates authenticity by changing the fiddle to a guitar, makes a ludicrous stab at introducing further cultural elements by use of a black jazz processional band, and blatanly expresses that s/he knows nothing about Louisiana Catholicism by setting a King Cake ablaze.
That's it, really. Other than that, it was pretty cute.
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