uk comedy is in a nadir

[catalog]

"It's easier to reimaging the past than it is to contemplate the present"

 

[sufi]

actually notting hill is a special example as hollywood parachutes in there regularly - there's a particular tension about the way it's portrayed on film as a sort of archetypal london, but disneyfied (Paddington films, those effing terrible hugh Grant films... for example), that particular britishness of richard curtis, which is "diverse" and modern, but, erm, without black people or un-posh folks,
notting hill as the edgy farthest corner of mary poppins london

and of course totally inaccessible to normies anyway due to astronomical rent/housing - that's @shakahislop's self-fulfilling prophecy of representation driving reality

 

[sufi]

and of course totally inaccessible to normies anyway due to astronomical rent/housing - that's @shakahislop's self-fulfilling prophecy of representation driving reality

and in a way, Mcqueen's sanctification of NH history is also part of that process,
putting the area's black history in a sort of cinematic vitrine

 

[sufi]

The UK is really protected from that dynamic I think given that so much of what's on tele and especially films are set in this kind of weird foreign continent, America, where almost none of the UK audience has ever been

in the other direction: as a brit it's fascinating to experience being in america for that reason, we have a special insight & understanding as @luka might say*,
we know these scenes so well, both the specific locations but also the generic; the petrol station, the diner, the NY street scene, the West coast boardwalk, the backwoods, the freeway etc etc etc so it's a trip to find yourself physically in that incredibly familiar space for the first time.

i was entertained to experience for example early 90's Harlem from behind the windscreen of a Lincoln, (still, of course quintessentially a screen based experience). i had to stop at a garage and purchase twinkies, so familiar my whole life from the ads in comic books.

* & you wonder if that is behind how clever clogs brits get ahead in hollywoodland

 

[sufi]

@blissblogger to thread!

 

[sufi]

@blissblogger to thread!

also PAGING @craner FFS

 

[luka]

How far we have fallen