Just to change the subject slightly, Child In the Night is being shown again -- here's the schedule (times are EST).

Child in the Night
110 minutes- USA, 1990, (CC), Video

Directed by Mike Robe and starring
JoBeth Williams, Tom Skerritt, Season Hubley
Darren McGavin, Elijah Wood

A child psychologist tries to jar the memory of a boy who witnessed his father's murder but can't identify the killer.

Fri Aug 27 06:10P on Lifetime Movie Network
Sat Aug 28 07:30A on Lifetime Movie Network

Hello Faculty Ladies

I had a bit of time this morning so did a little research on Chain of Fools/Bumblebee filming.

An article from Filmmaker Magazine for Spring 1998 here (http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/spring1998/prod_update/bumble.html) indicates that Bumblebee started filming on February 2 in that year - makes Elijah just turned 17.

I also did a little research on when and where Chain of Fools was made. It was originally to be named Shiny New Enemies and there is a Vancouver army disposal store here (http://www.squ-biz.com/gorillasurplus/) that is proud to say it was a location for the film.

The date for June 7 for commencement of filming that Moondancer found on Yahoo was repeated on a Jeff Goldblum unofficial website. Casting news on Frodo here (http://movies.go.com/news/1999/7/wood070899.html) dated July 8 1999

The 18-year-old Wood, last seen in Deep Impact and The Faculty, has been acting since the age of 8. His early film roles include The Adventures of Huck Finn and Flipper. Upcoming projects include Shiny New Enemies with Salma Hayek and Jeff Goldbum, and providing the voice of Tom Thumb in the animated feature The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina.

Possibly he filmed Chain of Fools in the window of time between his casting as Frodo and the actual announcement.

I saw Chain of Fools on video a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it - it was :lol: Whiteling, I will certainly check out the traktor website.

There's a lot of new ladies in the Faculty since I last delurked - glad to see that you are making yourselves at home and enjoying the discussion here. (Waves to Kumari from Queensland)

I also vote in favour of The War as a fine example of young Elijah's acting talent. I still haven't seen Avalon, Huck Finn or Radio Flyer - or All I Want or Ash Wednesday (or Flipper)!

Yikes, now I have run out of time!

(((Faculty)))

Thanks for the film recommendations. "The War" seems to be the clear favorite, though the comments about "Bumblebee" (e.g., "gorgeous," not to mention all this about chests ;) ) are certainly intriguing. And now there are all these links to other websites to pursue. Hmmm. This could become time consuming. (But what a great way to consume time!)

To raise a different topic: Does anyone besides me think that Elijah’s work in the LOTR films has been underappreciated by the critics? Sean Astin and Ian McKellen received (well deserved) praise in reviews, but it seems to me that Elijah’s performance was often passed over, or even singled out as one of the weaker points of the trilogy.

Maybe part of the problem is that while Frodo is certainly a plum role, it's also in some ways a thankless one. The character is gentle, thoughtful, even saintly, and much of his drama is inevitably internal. Sam gets the splashy heroics; Merry and Pippin get the comic relief. At the Grey Havens in ROTK, Frodo doesn’t even get to weep openly along with the other hobbits (not to mention the audience).

Also, so much of Elijah’s performance is physical, depending less on his voice than on the way he uses his body and that wonderfully expressive face. I confess that I have watched the LOTR DVDs with the sound turned off (don’t laugh -- it’s amazing what you notice when you’re not distracted by dialogue and music). This has been especially revelatory with regard to what Elijah is doing with Frodo. Some of my favorite nonverbal moments, just from ROTK:

In the “Journey to the Crossroads” scene (right after the Smeagol/Deagol prologue), the hunger and anguish that flit across Frodo’s face when he's fingering the Ring. (This is not nearly so creepy as the night scene in “The Two Towers,” where he is lying on his side and caressing the Ring in a way that is almost sensual, and very unsettling.)

Later in “Journey to the Crossroads,” his expression when Sam mentions that they’ll have enough lembas for the return journey.

After he tumbles out of Shelob’s lair, the way he frantically tears the trailing spiderwebs off him – sheer panic.

His face when he is dangling over the river of lava at Mount Doom. Does this man look as if he wants to go on living? (Sam can see it – “Don’t you let go!")

As Mount Doom blows up and Frodo and Sam stagger onto the large rock, the totally bereft expression that accompanies Frodo’s first words, “It’s gone!” (A moment later, he says, “It’s done!” with a look of relief. There's a passage in the book where, a year later, Frodo says, “It is gone forever, and now all is dark and empty.")

And have you noticed how, at the Grey Havens, he hugs each of his friends in a slightly different way: Pippin most tenderly (Frodo really enfolds him in his arms), and Sam most intensely (these two practically fling themselves at each other). I don’t know how much of this was Peter Jackson’s direction, but it’s certainly Elijah’s execution.

Other people's favorites? (I'm sure I'll find them as I work my way through past posts, but that's going to take a while. . . .)

Maybe part of the problem is that while Frodo is certainly a plum role, it's also in some ways a thankless one.
We've talked some about how both book-Frodo and Elijah's acting as movie-Frodo are underappreciated or overlooked by many people (in a way, it almost seems appropriate, although certainly unfair). And that, with as much acting experience as he'd already had, Elijah probably was aware of that when he took the part, so it was really a courageous career move for him. He hadn't read the book at the time, but he'd already memorized scenes from the script, including the Wheel of Fire speech which speaks volumes about Frodo's kind of heroism (as opposed to the more noticeable kind). He seems to have been more surprised by the amount of positive response the part received.

IMHO, two major things about his acting cause it to be often overlooked. First, it's so completely natural, that if someone hasn't seen him in other roles, or as himself, they might not even realize he's doing anything, if you know what I mean (as in a certain Homicide episode ;) ?). The other is the subtlety of it. Although I don't at all understand the reviewers who complain about Elijah's acting, I sympathize a bit with the ones who just don't notice it that much. A professional reviewer--who has to see lots and lots and lots of movies--is probably going to see most of them only once. OTOH, we tend to watch them over and over, concentrating especially on Elijah (while the reviewer, of course, has to take in the entire movie), using pause, frame-by-frame, reverse, zoom, turning off the sound, and whatever other tricks our DVD players can do--and I, at least, never stop picking up new things that I hadn't noticed before. IMVHO this is why his acting is so appropriate for geeks, and a perfect match for Tolkien :) . (And my sisters still can't figure out what purpose screencaps could possibly serve :rolleyes: .)

There have been some really great, appreciative reviews of Elijah's acting, too. I know many have been posted or linked to the past, so hopefully you'll run across them.


Other people's favorites? (I'm sure I'll find them as I work my way through past posts, but that's going to take a while. . . .)
O... M... E...! :eek:

The listing could go on for days (and then I'd discover some new ones :p ). But here are a few what you might call "Faculty classics" to start with:

First, one of the most famous sets of screencaps in Faculty archives--The 22 frames of the sword coming [i]out of Frodo's shoulder in FotR. (http://www.frodolivesin.us/id168.htm)

And what I still consider one of the best moments in film history--his turn toward the camera after Moria. (http://www.frodolivesin.us/id238.htm)

Then the scene at the end of FotR when he hears Gandalf's voice, (http://www.frodolivesin.us/id159.htm) giving him the determination to leave the Fellowship. Among other things, this has the epitome of nostril acting ;) .

The moment he wakes up (http://www.frodolivesin.us/id172.htm) at the beginning of TTT.

Everything you've mentioned from RotK (I have not yet begun to screencap! :p ) But "It's gone" (http://www.frodolivesin.us/RotK/id3.htm) and The End of All Things (http://www.frodolivesin.us/RotK/id4.htm) are certainly toward the top. Along with two things I can't link to yet :p -- when he's holding the Ring over the Crack of Doom and the absolutely perfect expression on his face when he says "I'm afraid I lost it."

Is that enough to start with :) :) :) ?

My apologies as I digress from a most riveting discussion, for I can't help but share this particular subject title from an e-mail that popped into my work account:

LAWATAN PROF. E.J. WOOD

translation: Visit by PROF. E.J. WOOD

Sigh. Like. I wish .... :z:

:p

The reason why Elijah Wood gets overlooked a lot?

I think that Pelagia and Tgshaw have already mentionned the main reasons but it wouldn't be the Faculty Lounge if somebody else - like me - didn't want to add another comment ;)

Just think of the oscars. What acting performances get noticed? Those actors who are "visibly" acting. Not that this is a bad thing. I have enjoyed some of those best acting performances but Oscar doesn't tend to look for subtlety.
I saw Mystic River recently for the first time and I understood why Sean Penn got the oscar for that.
A lot of those best actors have had a couple of previous nominations and people get the feeling that they were robbed on a couple of those occassions, so during a certain year...it seems that it's their time.
Denzel Washington deserved an oscar for Malcolm X and/or Cry Freedom IMO but I was a bit puzzled to see him get it for the movie Training Day.
Sean Penn deserved the oscar for Dead Man Walking IMO but again I was a bit surprised to see him get it for Mystic River (it was clearly a "see me act" role. He did it well, but was that the best performance of the year?)

Take Johnny Depp for example. I have seen him give many wonderful performances in indie movies. Roles, played with nuance. But for what movie role does he get a best acting nomination? For the spectacular Pirate movie. Don't get me wrong: I liked this movie and the success of the POTC film has a lot to do with the way Johnny played that role but again I'm surprised that Oscar overlooks so many roles and decides to reward this performance with a nomination.
Al Pacino's Oscar is also very weird to me. He was nominated several times but for what performance does he get an Oscar? Scent of a Woman. I think that's another case of "it's his year, regardless if other performances were better...we owe him an oscar" (and I'm a bit of a Pacino fan. I loved Dog Day Afternoon especially, although I think that he goes over the top a bit on some of his movie roles).

That's why Pelagia's first post was so interesting. She saw the homicide episode and concluded that Elijah was a brat.
In so many movies and tv movies, you don't SEE him acting. Like tgshaw says, it looks natural and it doesn't seem like it's costing him a lot to give this performance. It's seems almost effortless unlike the many performances that get singled out by critics.

It's not that critics didn't notice Elijah in LOTR. He did get good reviews, excellent sometimes and judging by the way other actors and directors talk about him, I get the feeling that he's well respected for his craft.
But for many critics, Frodo is a bit too passive for them perhaps (although that sounds stupid to me. On the outside he may look like he's undergoing things but on the inside he's fighting a very brave inner struggle) whereas Sam and Gandalf are more active.
It's been mentionned before but it kind of mirrors what happens to Frodo after the destruction of the Ring, doesn't it?


Edit to add at least one great review (FOTR review):
Wood and Mortensen especially--given the arcs of their characters over the trilogy, and if they keep on as they have begun--may be working on two of the greatest performances ever put on film. Elijah Wood was a gifted child actor only a few years ago, but he hasn’t outgrown his talent. In fact, he has a real star quality here that he’s only suggested before; with all the magic and special effects (and all the first-rate actors crowding the set around him), The Fellowship of the Ring is still a movie about him--the reluctant hero chosen for a task he cannot shirk.
- "Frodo Rules", article by Jim Lane, newsreview.com

Elijah Wood (“The Faculty,” 1998, and “The Ice Storm,” 1997) as Frodo, the ring-bearer, has a wide-eyed, milk white visage framed by black hair that gives an appropriate feeling of naiveté early in the film. This feeling soon disappears as the burden of carrying the ring of power weighs upon him. Though a young man, 19-20, he makes the older Frodo believable.
- "FOTR: faithful and fast moving", review by dr. Bob Blackwood, blackwood.org

And of course, there's that famous quote:
The Holy Cross College theater and film professor Steve Vineberg, who wrote the groundbreaking book Method Actors, puts Wood's accomplishment right up there with McKellen's. As Vineberg said in a recent interview, "Elijah Wood does one of the most difficult things I've ever seen an actor do: sustain the sense of a burden that's eating up a character while he's struggling to maintain his humanity."
- "At the centre of the Ring", article by Michael Sragow, Sun Movie critic
From: here (http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/movies/chi-031223dpfrodo,0,6446442.story?coll=mmx-movies_top_heds)

There's many more I could put in here but most of these have been mentionned before and...I got to go back to work now


ETA: Shining some Light on Everything (http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2004/Art/0819/featu1.php)
The film Everything is Illuminated is scheduled for release in America Aug. 12, 2005.

hallo ladies!!

after reading all latest post i just have to try to get a copie of the war
it seams like that one is something speciell it is one movie that i hávent been aibel
to see!!!!!!

moondancer:thank you for those early rewies it was fun reading them again!! :)

tg:thank you so much for the screencaps from lotr i just love those two
a speciell the last one!!! how can he just stands with the camera so close to his face and be crying like that??? :) like we hade sade before somethings about his acting maybe we never will found out!!he is just magic!!

tg:i hope its okej but i have found some pics i will attach them in here
do you think you can do avatars from one of this three it dosen`t
matter wich one of them i just love them all!!


oh, by the way,any news about ylla and her husband??
i pray they is okej :z:

LOVE/WOOD

Wood didn't make it all the way through the novel of The Lord of the Rings, and has yet to read Everything Is Illuminated. "I just sort of skimmed through the pages and upon doing that I realized it was vastly different from what we're doing, just upon first glance," he said. He plans on reading it after filming has ended. Schreiber's script is a loose adaptation, based more on the New Yorker article than on the book. Wood didn't want the different notions of the story to conflict while he was acting.

Remember a few days ago when someone (can't remember who - total brain freeze) speculated on this very idea? It looks like you were spot on! :) :)

Interesting thoughts on "See me act!", brats, and the thankless role of Frodo. I remember in that ABC special around the time when RotK came out, Sean Astin said that everyone else had something that they could use - like a prop, I guess. Elijah had only those two big, beautiful, (can't remember all he said) orbs. :) Sean said that he'd spent literally hundreds of hours looking into EW's eyes, and they were like eclipses, with the pupils partially obscuring the glow, or something like that. (mangled brain, here).

Welcome to all of the new people!

~grumpy
EII spoilers: What the heck do they need 30-foot CRICKETS for?!?! :confused:

From Pelagia:
it seems to me that Elijah’s performance was often passed over, or even singled out as one of the weaker points of the trilogy

Moondancer has already answered this - thanks for those other great reviews, Moondancer :k - hadn't even seen that Blackwood one before! There are a lot more of the best Elijah LOTR reviews on pages 183, 184 and 187 (inter alia) of this thread, Pelagia.

Overall, I really don't think Elijah's performance was singled out as weak (unless I’ve seen an unrepresentative selection, which is just possible). But no – for FOTR he tended to be praised to the skies (several reviews I’ve seen actually referred to “the much-praised Elijah Wood” and similar). See above.

By TTT and even the magnificent ROTK the novelty seemed to have worn off somewhat for the critics: my impression was that most of those who had been bowled over by Elijah first time round chose to enthuse about other aspects in subsequent reviews (or not to write at all). Pity. But there is a still a whole list of FOTR reviews on the Net here (http://uk.geocities.com/compleatsb2/lotr-reviews.html) (courtesy of the Compleat Sean Bean site :))
They tend to range from positive to rapturous where Elijah’s performance is concerned. There are just a few negative ones.

And I can’t resist giving you a special link to my all-time favourite FOTR review by Nigel Andrews of the UK Financial Times (sorry, those who’ve seen this 10 times before!):
here (http://specials.ft.com/timeoff/film/FT3N4ZHU6VC.html)

Last night, having realised (thanks to a neighbour’s 20-year-old son, who has never seen LOTR but has just borrowed all three of my DVDs of the theatrical versions (!) – will be fascinated to hear what he thinks) that I DO have Paradise on DVD after all, I re-watched the first half before dragging myself to bed at 1 a.m.

And what struck me most of all were … well, not exactly Froshadowings (Pelagia, those are one huge topic in this thread, but by now some way back), but some more of those amazing parallels we keep discovering between Elijah’s films.


SPOILER ALERT !!!!! (for those who haven't seen many EW films yet)


Forgive me if this has been said before and I’ve missed it, but Paradise is a combination of The War and Flipper! It has The War’s rural setting, child-inhabited tree, dangerous structures used as playgrounds, “social outcast” family and stricken married couple with strained relationship. And it has Flipper’s fatherless-boy-sent-away-by-Mum-to-stay-with-strangers-for-the-summer, not liking it at first but being won over, turning antisocial adults back into human beings, and messing about on fishing boats – I’d completely forgotten that fishing boat scene in Paradise!
[There are parallels with The Good Son as well, of course: once again the kid (this time motherless) being sent away to live with strange people and playing in tree houses with oddball companions and winning over the adults.]

OK, all of this may be standard “kid movie” fare, but it’s fascinating in the light of all the other parallels in Elijah’s films: above all the spookily similar (and equally strange) endings of Radio Flyer and Bumblebee and the equally spooky parallels between Huck Finn and FOTR.

End of spoilers!

It really is as if someone/something has been guiding Elijah’s film career from the start. OK, he might consciously or unconsciously have chosen to do Flipper because of its similarity with Paradise (as well as the dolphins :)), but did he do LOTR because of Huck Finn? Hardly! Having not read the books before filming began, it’s unlikely he was much aware of those similarities. He may be now, though - I'd love to ask him! All very, very interesting.

EDIT: Just seen the article about EII from The Prague Post, Moondancer - thank you yet again! Some great details there. Hmm .. fascinating to read what Elijah says about working with Liev !!!

hallo!!

just pop in to say i found the war!!!on dvd,they will send it to me
tomorow!!!!yes another ew movie for my collection!!!! :lol: :lol:

i now have:lotr.trilogy,flipper,faculty,ice storm,bumbelbee(bad copy vcr)
huck finn(vcr),hells kitchen(bad copy vcr),try 17

sorry for the exaitment couldent help!! :lol: :lol: :k

One of my favorite passages from the Financial Times review that serena posted:

This firm-browed, almond-eyed lad with the strong cheekbones and slim, symmetried descent of nose and mouth surely has escaped from a Blake painting?

Why, it's almost enough to make a "Facultite", as Mariole calls us, swoon! :p

Interesting end to the FT review (thanks, Serena), after comparing everything in FotR to the work of different artists, he says:
Isn't there a moral here, a moral deeper and more radical than anything in Tolkien (or anything that has been piped through to me by devotees)? That it takes a scapegrace to deliver true grace, as it has always taken artistic outlaws to rewrite the laws of art.
I didn't notice as I read through, but all the artists he mentions were considered "artistic outlaws," in some way, weren't they? [ ;) A piece of bait to find out if peaceweaver is lurking. ;) ] Well-written review there! When he wrote it he seemingly still hadn't read the book--wonder if he has by now, to discover that his moral isn't "deeper and more radical than anything in Tolkien" even if devotees haven't managed to convince him of that. :) Does anyone know if this same guy has reviews of TTT and RotK out there somewhere? His name sounds familiar, so someone has probably posted his reviews, and I've probably read them--but I can't remember :o .

-----------

Interesting article on EII, too (thanks, Moondancer). I wonder if the statement that the movie is based more on the NYT article than the book, and the one that called the NYT article an "excerpt," means that the movie will be concentrating on one particular section of the book? If a section was printed as an excerpt, it most likely has some ability to stand on its own.

-------

wood--IMO you have every right to be excited about finding a copy of The War -- It's a great movie! Congratulations and enjoy! :cool: :cool: I've copied the pics you attached, and will see how they work out. Some of the shots will probably make better avatars than others, so I'll do some experimenting. And judging from the number of views, I'd guess some other people have been enjoying them, too. :)

------

In response to zkg's EII spoiler question: Maybe someone's channeling Kafka :confused: :p . Idoru, William Gibson used that idea and turned it into a theme nightclub--who knows? ;) ]

you called, tg? :p

Yes, I have been lurking!

I had not read the review you cited, serena, thanks for a walk down memory lane. Now as to the artists he mentions, I know only Dore, Bosch and Blake. All good comparisons, methinks. Of the three of them, only Blake was a true rebel, constantly railing at the establishment. It's a lot harder to call the other two "rebels," though all three are certainly eccentric, or outside the mainstream of their times. None of them had direct followers, or a "school," though all three were influential on later artists, which is one of the ways that art historians identify artists as "important." Whether they were in a position to change the course of art, I dunno, but I will certainly accept the notion that Peter Jackson has changed the history of cinema!! :)

And I just guffawed at: "Farewell, Frodo Baggins, I give you the light of Air India." :D

Thanks, Moondancer, for posting the link to that interview. I am glad that Elwood is taking some time off--he's been working too hard! Sure hope he gets around to reading some of the wonderful novels his films have been based on... :rolleyes: That Schreiber based his screenplay on the New Yorker piece rather than the novel worries me a little, but I will try to keep an open mind. Delighted to hear that there is a release date; but it's a whole year away! :eek:

Hello to all new colleagues! And more familiar colleagues! And facultites!

Sending good thoughts your way, ylla!

And ainon, pray tell what is Professor E.J. Wood's specialty? :lol:

IMHO, two major things about his acting cause it to be often overlooked. First, it's so completely natural, that if someone hasn't seen him in other roles, or as himself, they might not even realize he's doing anything, if you know what I mean (as in a certain Homicide episode ;) ?). The other is the subtlety of it.


(Oh, good! I got a quote box!)

Yes, I agree that the naturalness of his acting makes it look as if he's NOT acting. Once you've seen him in other movies, you realize how completely he disappears into the character of Frodo! And for subtlety, one of the scenes you mentioned ("I'm afraid I lost it") is a perfect example.

Thanks for the links/references to other reviews. Maybe the less glowing ones stuck in my memory because they annoyed me so (along with such descriptions as "saucer-eyed," "bug-eyed," etc.!!). I got tired of hearing people say that Sam is the "real" hero of ROTK. But then, the book describes how, after the hobbits came home, it was Merry and Pippin (and Sam) who were admired and respected, while the Shire folk weren't very interested in Frodo's exploits.

But then, the book describes how, after the hobbits came home, it was Merry and Pippin (and Sam) who were admired and respected, while the Shire folk weren't very interested in Frodo's exploits.

Life imitates art, eh? And yes, I know exactly what you mean about "bug-eyed" -- gak -- one more time and I'm liable to throw something.

It was extremely curious, though, that the majority of the "bonzer" reviews (with a thousand pardons to my Aussie sisters for appropriating their word) for Elijah came from Fellowship, and not the boffo knockout ROTK (although of the three, FOTR is my favorite, hands down). Right from the beginning, we heard various people including such notables as Sir Ian Mc say, "Well, if you think he's good now, just wait 'til film three." So when those glowing reviews for him did not materialize, it started to become more and more frustrating.

Critics seemed to be stunned to find that he was so good in Fellowship, as if he were just a little wet-behind-the hobbit ears lad from Iowa who'd never even stepped onto a movie backlot before. In Two Towers, his part was less obvious and took less screen time, so correspondingly, the reviews were less enthusiastic about his acting. So is it possible that when ROTK came, they had run out of superlatives for our boy and just said, "Yeah and he was good in this one too" out of laziness? I suppose we'll never know, but I, for one, would still like an explanation to something that is, at best, inexplicable.

Hey -- maybe by the time the Platinum and Diamond-encrusted 10 Year Anniversary Super-Duper Extended Edition DVD hits the shelves, we might know the answer!

Serena

I think it is you I have to thank for recommending the director's commentary for Huck Finn . I listened to the commentary the other day, and it seems quite timely considering the current discussion. In the first scene, Stephen Sommers credits Wood with saving his career by saying that if Elijah had been a bad actor, Sommer's own career would have been over. Throughout the movie he praises Elijah's performance, noting how this ten year old kid could hold his own with Jason Robards, Courtney Vance, and Robbie Coltrane. And Sommers even makes a LOTR reference (the commentary was done ten years after the movie, which would be around FOTR).

I think Wood may suffer from the Michael Douglas syndrome. Michael Douglas is so generous with other actors, letting them carry the emotion of the scene if the scene calls for it, that he is often overlooked as a good actor in his own right. Wood does that. His performance as Mikey in tThe Ice Storm is beautifully constrained, as his character would suggest, but it may go by a reviewers' attention.

Welcome, Pelagia. I'm mostly a lurker on these boards, but I've enjoyed reading your posts.

I'm coming out of lurkdom to say a couple of "thank you"s. Serena and Moondancer, thanks so much for linking those reviews. I didn't start watching the films until FotR was long out of theaters so I never read any of those early ones. What a pleasure to hear them now! Better late than never.

The discussion of all of you has been so illuminating; your posts have shown me that Wood, the actor, is more interesting than I had thought he was. I knew little about him and his ideas about acting before reading this site.

Also, I must gush effusively to Hobmom. I have watched the slideshow versions of two of the four screencap shows you linked in post "8499." They were to die for. I was riveted! enraptured! Thanks so much!

-- Mechtild

Progress is in the works... :)
Didn't have any good news until today....Although hubby is still critical he has turned an important corner.
He is off life support systems and is breathing on HIS OWN.
I have hope...hubby who is 5ft. 4in. is a strong hobbit indeed!!!
While sitting on the steps of the hospital I was approached by a young woman who saw my husband's wedding ring that I am wearing on a chain.
It is a wide white gold band...very shiny
She smiled and said..." ring huh..."
I stopped her quickly...I knew what was in her head..
I said..."it may not be a yellow gold ring but it feels just as heavy."
A sweet smile was returned...And also a "stay strong"
WE FANS know each other don't we ;)
And we know the journey may not be easy but even the smallest....well you know the rest of that story..
Thank You to all that have asked how we are....we are climbing the stairs...slowly ....but progress is being made.

Love to all.....You all are important and special to me :k
Ylla
A special Hug to My Sam....can't wait to meet you in Boston :k

i just pop in to say a speciell
thanks to tg THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! :k :k

NOW I JUST HAVE TO DISID WICH ONE I WILL HAVE
I GUESS I WILL BE SHIFTING AROUND UNTILL I HAVE MAKE
MY MIND UP!!!!`

GLAD TO HEAR FROM YOU YLLA


LOVE/WOOD

Hey, good avatar, wood. :)

I like those moving avatars. One avatar of another member of KD (BarrowWight) is just brilliant: you know, the one with the little man rolling a snow ball up a mountain and when they're out of the frame...after a little while... you see the big snowball rolling down the hill again and the little man running after it :)

Anyway, on the A&F message board, somebody (Seven) posted an article from a Spanish magazine.
I don't understand Spanish myself but I know that it's a second language for a lot of Americans and you might enjoy reading it:
Vanidades - 20/08/2004 (http://www.esmas.com/vanidades/entrevistas/382694.html)

In the same thread on that message board: a Yahoo translation was posted:
Yahoo translation (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.esmas.com/vanidades/entrevistas/382694.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dvanidades%2Belijah%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8)
It's a dodgy translation but it seems like a good interview.
One quote from that:
How react people in individual, when she sees you by the street?
they?Bajan the window and they shout?Felicitaciones. Or four or five times have passed me, in hardly two days.
And the women how react?
?No seems to me that there is too much difference in that sense. Perhaps some approaches to me more, than in the past, but by the fact of to have seen to me in a film... That is not so interesting.
But it is to you easier to conquer women by your fame of superstar?
?Seguro, if it is that I want that type of women (is ed ***reflx mng).
And they do not interest to you?
?No (it is ed ***reflx mng with more force). It amuses to me when somebody says: much more easy to obtain a outside famous girl if. I answer to them: but is going to be alongside yours by your fame. What sense has? So it is just as if you were not famous, because now they want to lie down with your fame. It can be amused, sure but in terms to add some deep sense to him to your life... you are not going it to find with the fame.
Nor although it is for taking advantage of the adventure a single night with a woman?
?No I am a great admirer of that type of experiences. He is too uncomfortable for me.

The translation is funny at times, isn't it?
Essentially, mother was the inspiration, for me, in the actor race, because she looked for the channel to develop my energy, when he was small.
What type of energy? Badly behavior, perhaps?
?No, no. Energy of the good one, love to the life and much energy, with capacity to follow, to follow and to follow. Mother thought that she could be good making commercial of television that later finished being films. But never we had imagined it, because the things went away giving little by little.


Finally, the September issue of In Style (never heard of that magazine) came out and has a picture of Elijah.
They (apparently) asked a couple of stars what their best feature is. No prizes for guessing what Elijah seems to have mentionned.
"Eyes, to quote Pink Floyd, eyes are 'saucers full of secrets'", Elijah Wood
I found the scan in attachment in Undone's LiveJournal

AAAh! Moondancer, you're killing me :p !! First this translated interview ?CHÉ? :eek: :lol: - and than this gorgeous picture! *melts*
Many, many thanks :k

Wood, congrats on your great avatar :) !

Serena, thank you so much for posting the article of Nigel Andrews. Good to read his whole comment - I love his references to artists and Wagner nut I am I loved this part:
I refused to read all those tomes about elves, hobbits and creatures that whinged from dawn to dusk saying, "Oh dear, I've lost my ring." We get enough of that from Wagner, whom Tolkien evidently raided shamelessly. Finally though - price of my profession - I must go along to the movie: three hours of elves, hobbits and Sir Ian McKellen saying "Oh dear, we've lost the ring."

:) Well, stories with rings involved can be very interesting indeed!


Ylla, I'm so glad to hear the news!
I'm thinking of you and your hubby.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/whiteling/chagall_n.jpg

It was extremely curious, though, that the majority of the "bonzer" reviews (with a thousand pardons to my Aussie sisters for appropriating their word) for Elijah came from Fellowship, and not the boffo knockout ROTK (although of the three, FOTR is my favorite, hands down). Right from the beginning, we heard various people including such notables as Sir Ian Mc say, "Well, if you think he's good now, just wait 'til film three." So when those glowing reviews for him did not materialize, it started to become more and more frustrating.


Oh, Achila, you are so right! And maybe that's why my overall impression of Elijah's LOTR reviews was that they underrated him. The role becomes increasingly challenging across the arc of the three films, and Elijah rises to the occasion so beautifully; and I don't think that was recognized. When you compare the cheerful, rosy boy that we first saw sitting peacefully under a tree with a book, to the haggard, ill-looking man in the scene where he finishes writing "The Red Book," or the rather hollow-eyed one standing beside Bilbo on the quay at the Grey Havens -- well, what can I say?

BTW, I can't tell you all how relieved I am to learn that I am NOT the only person who uses the zoom, pause, slow-speed, and other DVD features when watching this stuff!

As Whiteling says, that's such good news, ylla! May your hubby continue his good recovery. Lovely Ring incident, too :)

from Moondancer:
The translation is funny at times, isn't it?

Um, yes. It's a very obvious machine translation. (Probably Babelfish, aka Systran.) I'll knock it into shape when I get the time (still haven't finished that Czech one, Hobmom .... and am not at home this weekend ... will try next week!)

I haven't seen any other Nigel Andrews LOTR reviews either (or have I? If so, he didn't mention Elijah much or I'd have remembered). Will do a search and try to find out.

EDIT: Achila, I just love "bonzer" and "boffo". May I borrow them too? :D Agree entirely with your thoughts, btw.

Pelagia, your remarks (and I have really been enjoying them, by the way) put the finger on it for me, that is, why Elijah didn't get singled out more for raves in RotK:

The role becomes increasingly challenging across the arc of the three films, and Elijah rises to the occasion so beautifully; and I don't think that was recognized.

I, along with almost everyone else, was wowed by Sean's work as Sam in RotK. I adored Elijah's work in it as Frodo, obviously, but Sean came through as Sam to a degree that I didn't think he had in him, to be honest.

But Sam's role in RotK simply displays more range than that of any other character in that film. Sam's role has been "coming along" in the first two films, but the rate of transformation is increased exponentially within the body of the third film. The resulting performance is thrilling to watch. Like no one else's in RotK, it's as though it has the "full arch" of Sam's development as a character in there -- all in one film.

Frodo, as you point out has an arch just as dramatic, if not more so, but it is stretched out over all three films. When reviewers are writing, they are writing about the film before them, tending not to take into account what came before -- not much, anyway. In a way, that is their task, to review the one film. If they are concentrating only on RotK, Sam's is the obvious stand-out role. His becomes the dramatic and emotive "center" of that film. In The Two Towers (I thought), it was Aragorn's role that showed the greatest degree of transformation. And, accordingly, Viggo tended to be singled out as the center of that film. In FotR, it was Frodo's role that showed the greatest transformation. Reviewers, accordingly, tended to identify Elijah as the center of that film (--along with ooohing and aaaahing over McKellen's fabulous work).

But now that the films are frankly being seen as a trilogy, as one huge saga, I am guessing -- and hoping -- that film critics now will be able to stand back far enough to appreciate the magnitude of what Elijah has done with Frodo over the course of all three films. Only that way can his performance as Frodo be properly assessed. What viewer, who has gone back and watched the first two films after having seeing RotK, has not been all the more impressed with the power and range of Wood's performance? It is certainly true for us fans, but I think it will be so for those who assess cinematic art and for audiences generally, as the films are watched and re-watched in the future.

Frodo, as you point out has an arch just as dramatic, if not more so, but it is spread throughout the three films. When reviewers are writing, they are writing about the film before them, tending not to take into account what came before -- not much, anyway. In a way, that is their task, to review the one film. If they are concentrating only on RotK, Sam's is the obvious stand-out role. His becomes the dramatic and emotive "center" of that film. In The Two Towers (I thought), it was Aragorn's role that showed the greatest degree of transformation. And, accordingly, Viggo tended to be singled out as the center of that film. In FotR, it was Frodo's role that showed the greatest transformation. Reviewers, accordingly, tended to identify Elijah as the center of that film (--along with ooohing and aaaahing over McKellen's fabulous work).

I think you've nailed it, Mechtild. Thanks! :)

What lovely messages from everyone! Thank you for all the reviews and quotes. It's so refreshing and invigorating.

from Pelagia
When you compare the cheerful, rosy boy that we first saw sitting peacefully under a tree with a book, to the haggard, ill-looking man in the scene where he finishes writing "The Red Book,"
Wow. Just, such an absolutely perfect comparison. I loved your post, and Mechtild's as well:

from Mechtild
What viewer, who has gone back and watched the first two films after having seeing RotK, has not been all the more impressed with the power and range of Wood's performance? It is certainly true for us fans, but I think it will be so for those who assess cinematic art and for audiences generally, as the films are watched and re-watched in the future.
I think there's little question these films will have staying power. I expect that appreciation for what Elijah has accomplished will only grow over time. (I was going to write "hope", but it seems to me too weak a work; I think already some re-evaluation of the films has begun, and I expect to see more in the future!) ;)

(((Ylla))) Best wishes to you and your hubby.

Apologies for posting this in this august thread, but in the light of recent topics it's just about defensible :D : TORN has an Insta-Poll asking who is the cutest boy in Middle Earth. Viggo is currently on 27.6%, Elijah on 20.2% and Orlando on 15% (clearly the very young fangirls aren't reading that site - yet!).

If you feel like voting (and you do, don't you? ;)), the link is here (http://www.theonering.net/index.shtml)

EDIT: Did you know there's a cycad (prehistoric tree) variety in South Africa called E. Woodii? Neither did I until May this year.

I HAVE VOTED!!!!! :k

COME ON LADIES VOTE!! :lol:

I NEVER HEARD OF IT EITHER!!

HAVE TO SEE OS WALNER IS PLAYING TABLE TENNIS
NOW TALK TO YOU LATER!!!!



LOVE/WOOD

OK, as I'm still sitting here in the office waiting for an interminable computer program to finish, I thought I'd make use of the time by cleaning up Moondancer's Spanish interview (or part of it, anyway):

- How do individuals react when they see you in the street?
- They wind the car window down and shout “Congratulations!”. That happened to me four or five times in only two days.
- And how do women react?
- I don’t think there’s much difference in that respect. Maybe more women approach me than in the past, but only because they saw me in a movie. That’s not so interesting.
- But your superstar status must make it easier for you to attract women?
- Sure, if I want that type of woman (laughs).
- So they don’t interest you?
- No (laughs even more). It amuses me when people say “It must be much easier to attract girls when you’re famous”. I tell them “Yes, but they’re going to be after you for your fame. What’s the point of that? It’s just as if you weren’t famous, because what they want to sleep with is your fame. It can be fun, sure, but if you want to add something meaningful to your life, you’re not going to find it through fame.”
- Don’t you ever take advantage of it to spend a night with a woman?
- I’m not a great admirer of that type of experience. I'm not comfortable with that.
- Do you ever steal women’s underwear, like your character in Eternal Sunshine?
- That’s not me (laughs).
- So for a woman to be able to seduce you, she has to know nothing about your career?
- Probably, yes. She doesn’t have to be ignorant of my career, but people very quickly reveal their motivation. And if they are interested in me because I’m an actor, it always shows up later. Those who know but don’t find it important interest me more.
- Is that why famous actors end up marrying other famous actors?
- Because they have a better understanding, yes. An actress understands that I travel a lot and knows that that takes up my life, because her life is the same. That too has its complications, but there’s no interest in the fame, because she is experiencing the same thing. It’s a mutual interest.
.........

- Essentially, my mother was the inspiration for my acting career because she looked for a channel for my energy when I was small.
- What type of energy? Bad behaviour, perhaps?
- No, no. Good energy, love of life and lots of energy, with the ability to go on and on and on. My mother thought I might be good at making TV commercials, and later they turned into films. But we never planned it, because things happened bit by bit.

Eliijah has gained one decimal point since I last looked.
Not that I put much trust in the representative nature of TORN polls (see earlier diatribes on that subject :D)

EDIT: And of course the ironic thing is that, if we are to believe Elijah's statements in the above interview (and why not?), he himself doesn't give a f*** about his standing in such polls.
Or does he? He is human, after all (I think ;)). So does he care, as those talk shows suggest, or does he genuinely not? Maybe it's a bit of both: he wants to be appreciated for himself rather than for his fame, but it's still gratifying to have fans (particularly if you don't see yourself as hot).

Thanks for translating again, Serena. You are a multi-lingual wonder!

Elijah once again shows insight and maturity beyond his years.

Pelagia (Btw - welcome to the Faculty Lounge) - Elijah did get some positive reviews for ROTK - I just dug these few out from my files:

From - Jeffrey Overstreet:

It is hard to imagine actors who could have portrayed Frodo and Sam better. No film that comes to my mind has portrayed a more intimate and powerful friendship. Their transformation from simple whimsical folk to battered, beleaguered survivors is heartbreakingly convincing. Astin will likely earn more acclaim and attention for his part; tearful breakdowns win awards. But Woods’ emotional performance equals Astin’s, a riveting portrayal of disintegration.

From John R McEwan. Re Elijah, Sean and Andy Serkis:

The performances of these three actors in this unforgiving landscape are like a three-way contest for most superbly realized character; their interaction is crucial to our understanding of the forces working on them, and they all perform astoundingly. Wood’s Frodo is so many miles from the way he was when we first saw him in the opening scenes of the Shire back in Fellowship; the heavy emotional and psychological weight of the ring is revealed in his eyes as he drifts ever closer to Mount Doom, where he must destroy the ring and save the world, and ever closer to the psychotic delusional state in which Gollum exists, where the ring’s destruction is the last thing he desires.

From Eric Lurio - Greenwich Village Gazette

Watching Frodo begin to completely disintegrate is heartbreaking. Wood is brilliant here,

Wood - Congratulations on your beautiful avatar.

Ylla - Let's hope the worst is over. Be strong. Sending hugs and :k to you, your husband and family.

Ylla, thanks for the update on hubby! Yay that he's off life support!!! :) :) Great story about the Ring on the chain; it's nice to get that bit of support from a stranger!

Many More insightful thoughts on Frodo's journey through the films from lots of people! Oh rapture!

Frodo's journey, for me, is summed up by Galadriel in TTT: "The Ringbearer's strength is failing".

Sam's journey is also summed up by Galadriel, in FotR: "Yet hope remains, while the company is true".

Sam's strength and courage was always there, but it took that journey to bring it to the forefront, and it, as well as the love between the two hobbits, was enough to sustain them both. Sam never looked back; he stayed the same strong hobbit through 13 hobbitlings (!), replanting the Shire, and becoming "Samwise Gardener", Mayor. But as Sam's star rose, Frodo's faded, and once again I think critics got Elijah mixed up with Frodo. I can't imagine a tougher role to play. As others have said before, the public likes to see its heros triumph over adversity, not fail at the crucial moment, and then fade into a pale, faded shell of the hobbit that we saw in FotR. :::: going off to bawl over "Into the West" ::::

~grumpy (Hey, critics! The big-eyed slightly geeky lad with his shirttails sticking out is *ELIJAH*. The short curly-haired big-eyed hobbit is *FRODO*. There's a difference! He's not really pale and faded; he was *ACTING*!)

(Hey, critics! The big-eyed slightly geeky lad with his shirttails sticking out is *ELIJAH*. The short curly-haired big-eyed hobbit is *FRODO*. There's a difference! He's not really pale and faded; he was *ACTING*!)

Prototype Public Service Announcement for Government-Sponsored Educational Campaign (For which there should certainly be grant funding available):


THIS IS ELIJAH WOOD:

http://www.imagemagician.com/images/tgshaw/outtakes/r9459025300.jpg

THIS IS ELIJAH WOOD ACTING:

http://www.imagemagician.com/images/tgshaw/outtakes/PDVD_09200.jpg

ANY QUESTIONS?


We now return to our regular programming...

Remember that Vanidades interview in Spanish?

Serena, thanks for translating my quotes. :k

I don't know if you were planning on translating the rest of it but I thought I'd save you the time and post the translation I found on A&F.
(I hope they don't mind. I'd ask their permission but I'm not a member there)
The translator has the username "White Magnolia" and she's Mexican. :)
Edit: I think that they copied your translation in their forum, Serena (without crediting)...so, I guess they won't mind that I copy theirs in here (with the credit) ;)

Here it is:
Elijah Wood

“I never thought about any bad thoughts because I wasn’t recognize for the Oscar”

The 11 Oscars that won the last movie of The Lord of The Rings haven’t take Elijah Wood’s feet from the earth. He might be an international star, but he keeps the friendship with lower status actors like the hobbits or he may accept characters less important like in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind, with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. Any other actor might be in the clouds by now, asking fortunes and giving priority to the economic factor against the quality. He is not like that. With huge modesty, we found him in the Four Seasons hotel at Beverly Hills, without bodyguards or assistants, but with the door closed to prevent the attention of any fan.
The memories of the lord of the rings are still fresh in his mind and when we found him with a ring around his neck, suddenly he let go the famous quote of the movie: “One ring to rule them all”. We could speak about women, about new movies, but the beginning of our interview just have one path to follow. And it has to do with a ring.

It seems impossible to think about any other question that doesn’t talk about the 11 Oscars that took the movie Lord of the rings… How did you react with such amount of awards?
-The truth is that I can’t describe it with words. It was an amazing experience to all of us. it became especial because there were many people from New Zealand, who worked with us in the movie. That way our group was pretty big at the Oscars.

It surprised you to get all those awards?
-Yes. The surprise was huge when we won all those 11 nominations. A lot of people might think that it might be crazy to say it. I knew that we had possibilities to win in some nominations, but no one of us ever thought about us winning all those Oscars.

Did you ever thought about winning the 12 Oscar, with your nomination for Best Actor?
-No, really I didn’t. we got so far after so much time, than the winning was to be recognize like a complete Best Movie. It was the most important for me. in my mind it never passed any resentment because I wasn’t recognize as an actor, or with the other actors, in any nomination. I was so happy and proud for the movie. We all share the Oscar, because we all are in the same team when we got in the experience and we are responsible of the Oscar as well. And when Peter Jackson called us to got into the scenery, in some way, even if it was so small, I could feel that I was the one who won that Oscar.

You filmed Eternal Sunshine with Kate Winslet, who actually was main character in the other 11 Oscars’ movie, Titanic.
-True, very true.

Didn’t you speak about it, while you were filming, and about the future like a super star?
-Not really. With Kate we spoke about Titanic, or about my experience with Lord Of the Rings, and about our connextion with Peter Jackson, because he was the director in her first movie.

How are you, the stars, between each other?
-We’re like job partners, without any kind of ego. When a movie is filmed with nice connections and chemistry, we, the actors, always are like one by one, the same, working the best we can. We create a family atmosphere. With Eternal Sunshine, it happened and we get to know each other very well. We hadn’t any kind of ego, or we never looked at each other like Hollywood actors. We didn’t have time for that. It was a low fund’s movie and we all were there because we wanted to do a good movie, we didn’t do it because of the money because we didn’t have it. we wanted to do a movie which we believed of.

But it wasn’t your character too small? In eternal sunshine?
-I was interested the movie because Charlie Kaufman, because he is one of the few writers, in Hollywood who always brings original ideas. And the director is super creative as well. They were the reason why I chose it.

Can you see how your scripts are different?
-Now, for me, its more easy to find certain roles and I find it quite wonderful. It’s the good thing about been famous or have certain kind of attention. And I get to have scripts and characters that some years before could mean to need a lot of auditions. I have more opportunities, it’s a fact.

There’s something in your life that you’d never want to forget? What’s the best that you can ever think of in the beginning of your career?
-The best I can remember about is to meet Paula Abdul in a filming studio, in my first job, it’s my first job that I can remember. Many years after I realized that the same video was directed by the Seven’s director and in that time I didn’t know anything about him. I was 8 years old, and I can’t forget how happy I was when I met Paul, because I loved her music.

Is it true that your mom search for you some work as a model, long before, because of all the energy you had?
-Yes. Actually, mom was the inspiration, for me, in my actor’s career, because it was her the one who search for the way to make my energy useful, when I was a kid.

What kind of energy? Maybe, bad energy?
-No, no. good energy, love for the life, and lots of energy to keep going and going and going. Mom always thought that I could be good doing some tv commercials which later ended like movies. But we never thought about it, the things happened slow and calmly.

He got his 23 birthday on January 28, but in last year’s December, he moved to New York , with his sister Hannah, (21). But the freedom ended too soon. “I was renting that apartment and I never used it” he told us “So, I came back to LA, to live with my mom, again”
His parents divorced nine years ago and with the success of the first Lord Of the rings’ movie he met his father, Warren Wood, who still lives in Elijah’s birth city, Cedar Rapids, in Iowa.

What would happen if someone erase from your memory Lord of the Rings?
-I’d be a completely different person LOTR would be erased from my mind. But I can’t describe how it’d be different. The movies and the experience that I learnt when I filmed them had a huge impact in me, like a human being, and in the same way, the time I lived in New Zealand. So many experiences in those years helped me to be built as a human being.

Any new tattoo?
-No. I’d like to put another one, but I don’t want to get another one just because of having another one. it has to have some meaning, something special. I have to find a reason to do it.

So you only have the one tattoo from the LOTR?
-Yes, it’s the only one. we all tattooed and we marked each other for life, to remember the experience that we lived together.

How do you keep the fellowship after finishing the movie?
-It’s a little bit broken, but we keep the connexion and that’s what is going to be with us all our life. Even if we can’t see each other every year, the friendship we have will never die.

How do the people react when they see you in the street?
-They open the window and tell me *Congratulations*. That has happened to me like 4 or 5 times, in only 2 days

And the women how do they react?
-I haven’t feel much different in that way. Maybe one come close to me more than in the past, but only because they saw me in a movie. That’s not interesting.

But it’s easier for you to flirt with girls with your super star fame?
-Sure, if I’d want that kind women (he laughs)

And you’re not interested?
-No (he laughs harder). It’s funny when someone says: I’d be so much easier to find a girl if I were famous. And I answer them: yes, but they’d want to be with you because of your fame. What kind of sense is that? So it’s the same if you’d not have the fame, but now they want you because of it. it may be fun, sure, but if we talk about bringing something important to your life… you’d not find it with fame.

Not even with a night only stand?
-I’m not such a fan about it. it’s too uncomfortable with that.

Don’t you steal the ladies’ underwear as well?
-That’s not me (he smiles)

If a girl tries to flirt with you, so she has to ignore your career?
-Probably, yes. She hasn’t have to ignore my career, but you get to know the people too quickly. And when they’re interested with me because of the fact that I’m an actor, I just know it. the one who knows it, but they don’t care, I’m more interested.

that’s the reason why the famous actors get to be with other actresses also famous?
-Because they get to understand each other. Yes. If an actress understand that I travel a lot, and that it consumes my life, because her life is the same. That brings its owns complications, but there’s not interest for the fame, because she has the same. It’s similar interest.


PS Ian Thorpe has left Athens. :( I'm going to miss watching that gorgeous man.
PPS Belgium will have another medal today. The fantastic Justine Henin. It's going to be silver or gold. The rest of the Belgians aren't doing that well, I'm afraid. Maybe Kim Gevaert.
PPPS: random bit of information: I hate flies and at least one fly that's been bothering me a lot won't know what's going to hit it in a minute or so. :mad:

When reviewers are writing, they are writing about the film before them, tending not to take into account what came before -- not much, anyway. In a way, that is their task, to review the one film. If they are concentrating only on RotK, Sam's is the obvious stand-out role. . . . In The Two Towers (I thought), it was Aragorn's role that showed the greatest degree of transformation. And, accordingly, Viggo tended to be singled out as the center of that film. In FotR, it was Frodo's role that showed the greatest transformation. Reviewers, accordingly, tended to identify Elijah as the center of that film. . . . But now that the films are frankly being seen as a trilogy, as one huge saga, I am guessing -- and hoping -- that film critics now will be able to stand back far enough to appreciate the magnitude of what Elijah has done with Frodo over the course of all three films.

That’s a marvelous insight, Mechtild. I never thought about it that way, probably because I didn’t really focus on Elijah until RotK, by which time I was already thinking of all three films as one big one.


Blossom – Thanks for the more positive RotK reviews for Elijah.

Serena and Moondancer – Thanks for posting the translations. I’m always impressed by how down-to-earth he seems (and at the same time how endearingly goofy he can be – the toenail-biting discussion on “Ellen,” anyone?).

tgshaw – A perfect choice of pictures (except for the absence of exposed shirttails) to illustrate zkgrumpy’s incisive point! I encounter many people who seem to have difficulty distinguishing between actors and the roles they play (particularly “big stars” -- some of whom, of course, invite this by always playing themselves). I think Elijah has been very smart in his choice of post-LotR roles, which seem at least in part designed to distance him from Frodo. His chameleon-like qualities, as well as his acting range, are definite advantages. IMHO, everything about him just screams “character actor!” Which is a good thing, for the long run.

Waiting for the video store to open at 10, to see if I can go find The War, or one of the other films you all recommended. . . .

Hi again everyone, Faculty-ites new and old. :)

Thanks for all the quotes from, and links to the reviews of Elijah Wood’s performance in FOTR. I didn’t make much effort to seek out reviews at the time the films were being released, but I had read little bits here and there, and it was rather noticeable that the majority of that the majority of (as Achila called them) the "bonzer" reviews (and feel free to borrow the lingo, Achila :p ) for Elijah were in relation to FOTR, whereas other characters were the focus of the reviews for TTT and ROTK.

But what I thought telling was the degree to which the rest of the cast in the films gave very positive reviews of Elijah’s performance (and, in Sean Astin’s case, made some very loud, very public comments about it). They saw the art of it first hand, and it obviously inspired their own performances, in my view.

I mean, really, what do reviewers really know? :rolleyes:

You have made a good point, Mechtild and Pelagia – the strength and beauty of Elijah’s portrayal of Frodo becomes almost overwhelming, once all three films are seen as one whole.

Ylla,I hope your husband continues to make a rapid improvement.

Don’t you steal the ladies’ underwear as well?
-That’s not me (he smiles)

Again, with the confusion as to who is who!

Okay, Tg, I'm stealing your public service announcement. One more time, for the press:

This is Elijah Wood:
http://home.ricochet.com/mdes/limages/lijgrin.jpg

This is Elijah Wood acting:
http://home.ricochet.com/mdes/limages/frohang.jpg

Any questions???

hallo ladies!!! :)

just pop in to say this!!i bought a gossip magazin yesterday
and it was an artikel about two twins i don`t know if you
heard of them but there names are Mary-Ann and Ashley
olsen and they started in a tv serie here. in sweden it is calde the house
is full (I can`t remember the english word for it ) .the point here is in erlier post we have discust child actor and this two are realy in big troubel
maybe this isen`t in intrest in here but i thought:WHAT LUCK IT IS THAT ELIJAH DIDEN`T END UP LIKE THIS.One of the girls is having drog problems and it seams like both of them has anorexia and they are only 18 years!!!!

it seams like elijah is very luckely with his family around him.
i guess Mrs wood has doing a great job!!! :k

and from those artikels moondancer posted it realy seams that he has his
both feets an the ground!!!! :k

fun that you liked my avatar having a little trubel to chose,maybe i will change it soon i have so many beatiful ones!!

we got our thirst medel to day.and tonight we have god chanse to
win gold!!!

talk to you soon!!

ylla ihope you man is okej you are both in my thoughts!!!


LOVE/WOOD :k :k
edit:
HAVE YOU VOTED? ORLANDY IS ON ELIJAHS TALE!!!!!! :(

I dunno, Mariole--looks to me like he's into some kinda character in that top pic (but I don't think I want to know which one :eek: )! :lol:

Wasn't sure how many non-Americans would get the parody on the anti-drug ads, but I didn't want to ruin the joke by explaining it. ;)

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Simul-posted with wood: The Olsen twins (Mary Kate? and... is it Ashley??) have had a big fan following among pre-teen girls in the U.S. for a long time. The show they started on was called "Full House" here (a bit of a pun on a card game, which probably wouldn't translate very well). I actually thought of them when we were talking earlier about limits on how many hours a child actor can work each day. Because very young children have very tight limits on their work hours, babies and young children are often played by a set of identical twins, so they can "trade off" playing the character and the director can get twice as much work done. On "Full House" the Olsen twins played the same little girl. As they got older they did more things, but always together, it seems. They've been popular right up to the present--they had a photo shoot (together, of course) in one of the "big" fashion magazines not too many months ago.

I don't know anything about their upbringing, except that they did start acting very young (younger than Elijah). And I'm not sure what to say about the anorexia, as this is the first report I've heard of it (kind of depends on how trustworthy that gossip magazine is, I guess). But the drug problems of the one (see, they're so much a pair that I can't even tell you which one :o ) have been mentioned in some fairly reliable magazines, so I'm inclined to believe that part of it.

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I don't have much to add except nods for the discussion on Elijah's acting in RotK and [lack of] reviewer response. The only other possible excuse I thought of was that there was an awful lot of everything crammed into the movie, and some reviewers seemed to run out of space before they got to talking about anything as unimportant as the acting :rolleyes: .

I have to say that IMHO many of the actors in major roles outdid themselves in RotK. When this topic came up (somewhere in the Trilogy forum, IIRC, but I might not), it was pointed out that this couldn't be a case of the acting getting better as time went on, because scenes were shot out of order. The most likely explanation, IMHO, is that the actors could finally be the fully-formed characters they are in the book, so the portrayals didn't seem to be "missing something." Among actors that we saw in all three movies, I'd put Viggo, Liv, and Dom (who I hope we see more of in the EE--the moments he did have were great) in that category.

I have mixed feelings about Sean A., but that's because of how the character is portrayed, not because of his acting. For example, the "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry both you and it," moment in the book is actually gentle--almost parent to child--and the "louder" way it's done in the movie still kind of throws me. But that's not Sean's fault. OTOH, he did a good job in the tower, where it's absolutely essential that the audience understand that Sam's having a difficult time letting go of the Ring. And his dialogue leading up to the Wheel of Fire speech, as well as everything during the End of All Things, was wonderful.

But, to save the second-best ;) for last, Billy Boyd blew me away. He had one scene in FotR--when he and Merry rush the orcs at the very end--that sent me searching for a frame-by-frame version of it just after the movie came out (so no DVD :( ). Besides thinking "That's amazing!" I also found myself sometimes thinking "Where did that come from?" as I never saw that level of acting out of him again. But it was there all the way through RotK--as with Viggo and (especially) Liv, I think until then Billy just hadn't been given a fully-rounded character to work with. But in RotK--Wow! Talk about being able to show what a character's feeling without saying a word. And, I almost hate to admit it, but I actually caught him in at least one "How did he do that?" moment (the only time I've seen anyone but Elijah have one of those). Notice that pulse in his neck while Gandalf's talking to him about death? I suppose there are ways to get that effect consciously, but IMHO it was an amazing piece of acting, however he did it. Of course, to put things in perspective, Elijah has those moments almost constantly, especially in RotK... :p

When this topic came up (somewhere in the Trilogy forum, IIRC, but I might not), it was pointed out that this couldn't be a case of the acting getting better as time went on, because scenes were shot out of order. The most likely explanation, IMHO, is that the actors could finally be the fully-formed characters they are in the book, so the portrayals didn't seem to be "missing something."

Well, to complete this thought, it's not that the acting got better, but that the actors knew how pivotal these scenes were, and had a lot of excitement about them, which comes out in their acting. As Pete said, ROTK is the reason you make the other two, and to some extent, I agree. The most exciting, most heart-wrenching, and most emotional scenes of the entire trilogy are in the third part so I personally think it has more to do with the story getting better and more challenging than the actual acting getting better.


And, I almost hate to admit it, but I actually caught him in at least one "How did he do that?" moment (the only time I've seen anyone but Elijah have one of those).... Of course, to put things in perspective, Elijah has those moments almost constantly, especially in RotK... :p


Aw, c'mon, tg, noticing another actor's great performance IS allowed here, especially since it certainly takes nothing away from Elijah to do so!

Aw, c'mon, tg, noticing another actor's great performance IS allowed here, especially since it certainly takes nothing away from Elijah to do so!
Oh, yes, definitely agreed :) . The only thing that seemed strange was seeing someone other than Elijah have a "How did he do it?" moment (i.e., doing something while acting that should be possible only for someone in the actual situation, usually something that's not under the actor's conscious control). That goes beyond a "great performance" and into the inner workings of the mind, and I'd honestly never seen anyone but Elijah do it. If we conduct microexpression research, we may have to put electrodes on Billy's brain, too :p . I'm sure we could find some willing research assistants in the Playgroup :p .

Originally posted by Achila:
Well, to complete this thought, it's not that the acting got better, but that the actors knew how pivotal these scenes were, and had a lot of excitement about them, which comes out in their acting. As Pete said, ROTK is the reason you make the other two, and to some extent, I agree. The most exciting, most heart-wrenching, and most emotional scenes of the entire trilogy are in the third part so I personally think it has more to do with the story getting better and more challenging than the actual acting getting better.

The fact that they didn't shoot in sequence makes the intensity of the best performances in RotK (Elijah, of course; and I also agree that Billy Boyd shines) all the more amazing. RotK is definitely "the most heart-wrenching, and most emotional." I'm sure people here have talked about the accounts of how PJ showed Elijah, Billy, and Dom a preliminary cut of RotK (editing pretty well completed, but not special effects). PJ said (and Elijah cheerfully confirmed, elsewhere) that all three of them started to cry halfway through.

Mariole -- your "This is Elijah Wood" picture! :lol: Anyone looking at that and knowing nothing else about him would definitely think that we are all crazy!

Have encountered serious dearth of Woodflicks at local video stores, Borders, and Barnes & Noble. Crumbs! These people have no taste! Am resorting to amazon.com (cheaper anyway). “Bumblebee” is apparently very hard to find??

Geesh!! I was going to mention that we were getting very close to a quite remarkable milestone: 200,000 views of this illustrious thread!! Thanks to all our lovely lurkers--do drop in and say hello sometime :k ! But by the time I'd written the rest of this post, then went back and checked the actual number, we'd gone over by 12!!

Methinks this calls for a celebration!! So I brought in our expert wine servers for the occasion (yeah, I know they kind of made a mess of things last time, but I figured we could give them another chance :D ).

http://www.imagemagician.com/images/tgshaw/off topic/capA2639-85.jpg http://www.imagemagician.com/images/tgshaw/off topic/capA2630-85.jpg

Ooops--another goof, guys. That should have been white wine, to go with the entree.

http://www.imagemagician.com/images/tgshaw/CoE/17.jpg


Have encountered serious dearth of Woodflicks at local video stores, Borders, and Barnes & Noble. Crumbs! These people have no taste! Am resorting to amazon.com (cheaper anyway). “Bumblebee” is apparently very hard to find??
I don't know what it is about that movie--it seems to be a very well liked movie among Elijah fans, so it don't know why it's so hard to find (but, then, this is the same "industry" that won't even put Chain of Fools on Region 1 VHS :rolleyes: ). When I bought the DVD a couple of years ago, it was as simple to buy as any other, although I thought it was a little strange that when it came it was specifically labeled as a Canadian version :confused: . (I got the VHS about three years ago, used, at half.com). Now it seems to come and go; I see it's out of stock at amazon.com at the moment.

As with Child in the Night, your best bet is probably getting a "used" copy (quotation marks because it seems as if most of the ones sold as "used" are actually new :confused: ). I've had good luck at half.com--was a bit worried when they were bought out by ebay, but I've bought something from them since and it went just as smoothly as before. The most important thing is choosing a seller with a good record. Achila has mentioned another used outlet, IIRC, but I can't recall the name :o .

But, in a piece of SSP, let me say that if you go to the page where I review
The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (http://www.frodolivesin.us/id138.htm), drop to the bottom of the page, and click on the DVD or VHS link to amazon, you'll get to a page that tells you it's "out of stock," but also lets you access any used ones available. I just checked, and there are about a dozen DVDs and over 20 VHS tapes. A lot of the DVDs, especially, are new or nearly-new, at a good price, and from very reliable sellers. Of course, you could also get there by doing your own search at amazon, but, well, like I said... SSP. ;) And it's also kind of handy (I hope). Since I've yet to see any money from my amazon links, I try to keep the attitude that I really put them on the site for visitors' convenience. :)

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I was looking at the CofD scene this afternoon and realized that I agree with Elijah on something I'd previously disagreed with him on. (That is, I now think he was right and I was wrong on something regarding LotR, but I'm trying not to admit it. :rolleyes: ) After Gollum gets the Ring (in the movie) Frodo fights him for it, and PJ evidently told Elijah that his motivation for that could be either still wanting to destroy the Ring and save the world, or fighting for the Ring because it still had a hold on him and he wanted it back. Elijah said, "I think I want it back," and that's definitely how he played it. Of course, there's no clue in the book since the fight doesn't occur in the book, but when I read Elijah's response I didn't think it was right--since Frodo was separated from the Ring, wouldn't his Ring lust end?

But then this afternoon when I was looking at the scene, I realized that Elijah's take on it was more likely. Bilbo nearly attacked Frodo over the Ring even after he hadn't seen it for some time (not as long in the movie as in the book but, still, more than the few moments Frodo's separated from it at the CofD). The Ring's also more powerful there than it was in the Shire, and in the movie we're starting from the base of the New!Improved!Stronger!Smarter! Movie-Ring. So I think Elijah's "wanting it back" was the right decision, after all.

So, anyway, since I gave my original opinion in this thread, I thought I should issue a retraction here :o . It's always nice to get rid of one of those little mental "buts" that limit how much I enjoy the movie. :)

As with Child in the Night, your best bet is probably getting a "used" copy (quotation marks because it seems as if most of the ones sold as "used" are actually new :confused: ). I've had good luck at half.com--was a bit worried when they were bought out by ebay, but I've bought something from them since and it went just as smoothly as before. The most important thing is choosing a seller with a good record. Achila has mentioned another used outlet, IIRC, but I can't recall the name :o .

Actually, my copy came from Amazon. Of course, for the longest time, they kept delaying it and delaying it and I thought I'd never get it. Almost fell over when it showed up one day, finally. Based on the condition of the box, mine looks like a new copy too.

TGShaw wrote

But then this afternoon when I was looking at the scene, I realized that Elijah's take on it was more likely. Bilbo nearly attacked Frodo over the Ring even after he hadn't seen it for some time (not as long in the movie as in the book but, still, more than the few moments Frodo's separated from it at the CofD). The Ring's also more powerful there than it was in the Shire, and in the movie we're starting from the base of the New!Improved!Stronger!Smarter! Movie-Ring. So I think Elijah's "wanting it back" was the right decision, after all.

I had the exact same reaction, both initially and then later. At first I wasn't so sure about that choice being the proper one for Frodo's character, but then I thought the difference might be that Frodo, at this point, has given in completely to the ring. He decided not to destroy it, claimed it, gave Sam that creepy little smile, and then put it on. True, he does the same in the book, but Gollum's end comes so quickly that we don't get to see the possible struggle.

I think it was a good call. My only problem with the scene is that I kept looking for Macauley Culkin to be hanging from Sam's other arm! :rolleyes:

But the look of despair Wood gives and Sam's "don't you let go" line were worth any unfortunate associations the scene might have had.

Mikey wonders if it's too late to bring some wine to the 200,000 views party.
http://home.ricochet.com/mdes/limages/wine.jpg

But what he finds is even worse than he expected.
http://home.ricochet.com/mdes/limages/horror.jpg

Hobbits have never been known for their alcoholic restraint.
http://home.ricochet.com/mdes/limages/singing.jpg

Nope, can no longer go for the serious post I was working on.

Just can't quit giggling over the pics TG and Mariole just posted.

The one TG posted of the SNL skit where Frodo opens the fridge--the "boy" (eh hem!! ;) )playing the hobbit looks eight years old!!!! :D

And Sean and Elijah in cowboy hats!! Mariole :k I needed such a cute, darling, adorable little note on which to end my day!!! Thank you!!

Ereshkigal wrote,

I think it was a good call. My only problem with the scene is that I kept looking for Macauley Culkin to be hanging from Sam's other arm!
Eresh, you're killing me, you wicked thing. Now I'm going to think of that when I watch the scene, dang it. :D

tg, Mariole, your pictures are a SCREAM! Thanks so much for posting them, along with the captions. That one in yours, tg, makes me want to go watch The Ice Storm AGAIN, though...

Thanks to all who have sent good thoughts and inspirations
Love all the newbies who have relooked at Frodo's growth through the trilogy
Don't ever forget Elijah is a secure and humble actor.
Although I agree IMHO he deserved a nomination....his time will come...EiI is coming ;)
Let's not forget why RotK won all the Oscars...Peter Jackson is a genius
This was an ensemble cast of all perfectly casted actors.
I am so happy Pippin's scene with Gandalf was mentioned...it is one of my favorite non-Frodo moments in the film..and let's not forget the beautiful and tragic editing of Pippin's song with Denethor's gorging of the red (blood) tomatoes...such fantastic foreshadowing of the blood shed in the battle....beauty and carnage....so incredibly moving.
I think Elijah being the Man he is ...is just incredibly proud to have been a part of this masterpiece.... we know and Jackson knows how Elijah's performance was a total leap of faith...to trust an 18yr old actor to CARRY a film.
Elijah's time will come....He is a consumate performer.
He will be around long after the 15 minutes of fame actors fade away.

Ask any director
He is a joy to work with.....he was born with this gift.

Save your money girls... we will be in L.A. before long..... celebrating his Oscar win...can't wait for that Party :D


Hubby is doing well...maybe out of ICU as early as tommorrow
I can go home and sleep in my own bed.
A special guy....thinks it's great I talk about a talented young man with people from all over the world....how secure and awesome is that!!

Wood I'll clone him for you!!!

Love to all
Thanks again for your Love and support :k

What i don't get is the Froshadowing in "Flipper", "Oliver Twist," and TBFA. :confused: and "Paradise." Am I missing something?

After watching these shows, what is the fuss all about?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/whiteling/WD_yeah.jpg

WOO-HOO Faculty! Congratulations on 200,000 views! Wetten, dass you also reach 300,000?


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/whiteling/Try17_phone_kl.jpg


"Oh, hi, this is Elijah Wood. Hey, if you see Lady Wendy around, please give her my best regards and a very happy birthday to her... will you, mate? Thanks!"

See, he is really looking after his fans ;) !


PS: Good good good news, ylla! Sleep well :k !

Ylla, great to hear that your husband is doing well. :)
Take care of that special guy of yours but also of yourself.


Happy birthday, Lady Wendy

I'm usually not the biggest fan of 'Anime' but I like this one (attachment).

Dropping in to say:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LADY WENDY

Hope you like your gif(t) (http://www.imagemagician.com/images/blossom/LadyWendy.gif)

Have a lovely day! What a great start - a telephone call from Elijah! :)

Ylla - so glad to hear your hubby is doing so well.

Quoted by Ylla:
A special guy....thinks it's great I talk about a talented young man with people from all over the world....how secure and awesome is that!!

Now he's the kind of man we love here in the Faculty. Give him a big hug from us all. :k

Love the 'EW' v 'EW acting' pics, Tg and Mariole.

Ylla, I have been lurking long enough to get the idea that your husband has been very ill and in the hospital. I am pleased to hear he might be getting out of ICU at last. I think you are right about that future oscar. It may take a while, though. As one of you noted above vis-a-vis Charlize Theron's oscar for Monster, it will probably a role like that -- both meaty and requiring de-beautification -- to do it.

Wendy! I did not know it was your birthday, but many happy returns of the day! Whiteling's photo of E.W. on the phone to you is just what I might wish for you myself. He looks sincerely pleased to hear your voice -- and so he should!

Great pics from everyone! Moondancer, love the anime--Elijah's "oversized" eyes fit right in there, don't they :) . I thought I had another anime pic saved of Frodo sitting on a rock thinking, maybe with Gollum nearby, but I can't find it now. (Okay, that gave me an urge to pull up the old "anime Frodo" avatar for awhile, even though it's not really anime--and his eyes are their real size there!)

And, Blossom, a wonderful gif as usual. I'd never thought of those first two shots, especially, being "echoes"--and I probably never would have on my own--but they really are, aren't they?

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http://www.imagemagician.com/images/tgshaw/shoulder/jawline3.jpg
Hurry up, Uncle Bilbo, or we'll miss Lady Wendy's birthday!
Have a great one!!

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ylla, so very glad to hear hubby's doing better. Hope you can go home and have a truly restful night's sleep. :k

And I just have to say "ditto" to your comments on the awards for RotK. Elijah had said earlier that all he really wanted was for PJ to be recognized, and his joy when that happened said it all. As far as the acting, IMO the SAG award for best acting by an ensemble said it all--not exactly an award to sneeze at. It would have seemed wrong, in a way, to single out one actor for an individual award (although I'm glad that a consensus seems to have been reached that Elijah was, actually, the lead).

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Kind of a weird experience listening to Michael Phelps and his mom being interviewed on TV a few minutes ago. He's 19 and, except for the fact that their first long separation will be when he goes off to the university in Michigan instead of an acting job in New Zealand (a little easier to stay involved in world-class sports while you're in university than it would be world-class acting), it literally could have been Elijah and his mother answering the questions. Her name's even Debbie!

The first thing they talked about was Michael giving up his spot in the final relay race last night so another teammate could have a chance to swim in it--what an elwoodian thing to do! BTW, he was also realistically modest throughout all the hype leading up to the Olympics. He was clear that he hoped and expected to win some gold, but he always brushed aside the predictions everyone else was making that he might break Mark Spitz's record of 7 swimming gold medals in one Olympics. (6 gold and 2 bronze ain't too bad.) BTW,BTW--They interviewed Mark Spitz a few days ago--my, he growed up handsome :p !

Back to this morning's interview: Michael's parents are divorced (I don't know for how long, but from the discussion it sounded as if Debbie's pretty much raised the kids on her own). Within the last two years--since Michael's become famous--his dad has wanted to rekindle their relationship, but Michael has decided that "this isn't the right time." His dad was in Athens for the Games, and it did sound as if Michael's open to it in the future, just not right now, so maybe there's a chance there.

When asked about the sacrifices she's made for Michael's success, Debbie said she didn't feel she'd lost anything at all, that as a parent she wants to see all her children go as far as they can (she brought up the fact that there are two more children in the family--not the interviewer).

And Michael, as I've heard him do before, talked about how grateful he was for how his mother has always been there, supporting him every step of the way (he didn't mention his father in this regard at all). The interviewer mentioned to Michael that "a lot of us as kids" wouldn't have been that aware and grateful for everything a parent did for us, and I thought, "That's really true. But I could name at least one more..." :)

I was trying to remember all the parallels as the interview went on, but there are probably some I've forgotten. I was very impressed, though. I wasn't sure how great of a young man this was a couple of weeks ago (Michael, I mean ;) ), but he's won me over. I guess I'll let him have that Cadillac I didn't think he should have bought :p .

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sc--Well, this isn't the best, but here's one example from Oliver Twist:

http://www.imagemagician.com/images/tgshaw/Previous movies/ot006700-resize.jpg http://www.imagemagician.com/images/tgshaw/Previous movies/cap6449-850-crop.jpg

TG – Thanks for the suggestions on finding Bumblebee. I had seen that it was “out of stock” at amazon.com, and wasn’t sure whether that meant that it would be back IN stock at some point. Will try other options.

I really enjoy all the pictures you people find. Lady Wendy’s birthday “caller” was especially gorgeous. (Am very glad that someone explained the one with the fish!)

On Frodo’s motivation for attacking Gollum at CofD: I always figured that Frodo was trying to get the Ring back. He couldn’t destroy it himself, so it would be hard for me to believe that he would suddenly turn all selfless and try to get it back from Gollum in order to destroy it. Anyway, if he had gotten it back, wouldn’t it just have taken him over again?? Good for Elijah for playing it the way he did.

This is one of those scenes over which I split myself in two: the “book-loyal” half of me that has qualms about PJ just making this up, and the film-loving half that acknowledges that it works well, dramatically. It certainly is consistent with how far gone Frodo has shown himself to be in the preceding scenes. And we know from the book (it’s only suggested in the film) that the loss of the Ring continues to prey on his mind.

ylla – I don’t “know” you, but best wishes for your husband’s recovery. I’ve been through a loved one's bypass surgery, and it’s tough for all concerned.

Hello, again! I am really really really enjoying the photos you all put in your posts. How does one do that? I see there is a selection box below for adding an attachment, but that's not the same thing.

Is there a "technical help" thingy on K-D that I should look at?

Thanks,

Mechtild

Pelagia:
(Am very glad that someone explained the one with the fish!)

For those who didn't see Elijah playing Frodo on Saturday Night Live--a sitcom skit in which Frodo and Gollum share an apartment---it was hysterical! TG occasionally graces us with new pics of said scene. Always good for a pick me up!! :)

(((ylla)))---glad to hear your husband is improving. Sounds like a lovely man.

(((blossom))) -- is your husband still on the mend??


Lady Wendy!! Happy Birthday!!!!

Oh my !!...Thank-you all for my Birthday wishes and especially the very generously talented Blossom for the truly wonderful gif, ( the second image sequence of which is the scene that I requested to be screencapped by Shadowfax when she was doing all that marvellous capping on her LJ not so long ago...this is an absolute faveourite of mine, particularly that utterly balletic fall under the influence of the Eye....)...and Moondancer, I just love the anime drawing of Our Fro...isn't it gorgeous !! Whiteling, you had me giggling over the photo of EJW in the phone booth...God, I wish !!! Thank-you all for your lovely pics and well-wishes for this day ( I'm forty-six you know !! :rolleyes: Hmm...don't feel a day over twenty-five :D :D :D )
I have to admit to being a little worse for wear this morning, due to a perfectly marvellous party last night...we had a Pub-style Quiz, loads of food and drink, ( rather too much drink, actually :D ) and later on, the Roulette wheel came out with much fluttering going on, as well as Blackjack at the other table !! Yes, a Perfectly Marvellous party all round !!!

Mechtild,
I am really really really enjoying the photos you all put in your posts. How does one do that? I see there is a selection box below for adding an attachment, but that's not the same thing.

Is there a "technical help" thingy on K-D that I should look at?

No, you don't really need any tech help from KD...all you need to know is that when you open the reply box, there are some little icons above the box where you type..the icon for "Insert Image" is the first little drawing after the bullet-points option...the one that looks like a little mountain range against a yellow sky ( ? )..just click on that, then paste in the url of the picture that you want to insert, and then click on it again...and Bob's your uncle, as they say...your pic-du-jour will appear as if by magic in your post, exactly where you want it ! ( TORC doesn't have this option, which may be why you haven't come across it before....)

Ylla,
That is such good news about your husband being out of the ICU and getting back on the road to recovery...a heart by-pass is one of those truly scary operations that you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy, isn't it ?!! I do hope he is fully recovered soon, and that life can get back to normal for you both...
My husband, too, is very well behaved and tolerent in the face of my love for a certain actor...he even refers to him, and also, all of you, as my Hobbity friend /s :D :D :D !!! I think that he has come to the conclusion that what he can't fight, he may as well accept...( and there is always the fact that he does have a thing for Audrey Hepburn :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: )

Oh, shucks, Wendy. It didn't work. It turned out to be a little box with a red square in it. I'll try it again later. Your party sounds as though it was a lot of fun, though!

-- Mechtild

For those who didn't see Elijah playing Frodo on Saturday Night Live--a sitcom skit in which Frodo and Gollum share an apartment---it was hysterical! TG occasionally graces us with new pics of said scene. Always good for a pick me up!! :)
To give credit where it's due, any pics I have from that show are originally from Hobmom. I'm trying to keep an eye on the SNL official site to see when that show might come up as a rerun--anyone here who didn't see it live last December 13 absolutely must see it if it reruns--which it had better!! The host is in on the writing/planning/rehearsing of that week's program, so even if you don't normally like SNL, do try this one: it has Elijah's fingerprints all over it. And, yes, that opening "sitcom pilot" with Frodo and Gollum as LaVerne & Shirley wannabes is absolutely hysterical. I said then and I'll say again :rolleyes: -- I don't know of anyone else who could play a parody of himself playing a parody of a character that he played seriously, and have each incarnation come out as a completely different persona. Airing the Saturday before RotK opened, there had to be a LotR-related skit, and sometimes things like that are awful. But this one managed to be cute, hilarious, and still somehow respectful of the character all at the same time (part of the respect, IMHO, comes from the fact that the parody of Frodo is so obviously not Frodo, because Elijah makes them totally different characters).

If anyone notices the show coming up as a rerun before I do, please :z: post the news here. I want to be sure to find someone with a decent TV to record it for me. Although Al Sharpton was on the week before Elijah first time around, the rerun of Sharpton's episode must have been scheduled purposely to coincide with the Democratic convention, because the next week there was a rerun, but not of Elijah's program. Same network as the Olympics, so SNL hasn't been on at all the last couple of weeks.

-----------------

Mechtild--If you try another pic and it still comes up as the "dreaded red x", you can leave the box there and someone can click on "quote" to go in and check your tags and see if there's anything wrong. Also, some sites don't allow direct linking to their images, so if the URL you're entering goes to one of those sites it won't work.

But this one managed to be cute, hilarious, and still somehow respectful of the character all at the same time (part of the respect, IMHO, comes from the fact that the parody of Frodo is so obviously not Frodo, because Elijah makes them totally different characters).

That may be because Gollum was the butt of the joke, not Frodo. He was basically shown as the long-suffering sidekick, which worked out just fine.

BTW, I'm sure everyone knows by now that this episode that Lij hosted was nominated for an Emmy for art direction. :)

I thought this was going to be an "ETA" but since Achila popped in I can make a new post :p :

After I submitted my previous post, I thought maybe I'd hop over and see if there were any post-Olympics episodes scheduled yet. No such luck, but on the thread for Elijah's episode I found this--just posted in June, so it wasn't among the remarks I'd copied (there) and pasted (here) just after the show aired.

i didn't really like Elijah until i saw this episode. he has incredible range and... what a voice. he totally opened my eyes. i watched the episode because i loved Jet before the radio started playing them every twenty minutes but i must say that now, i really REALLY like Elijah Wood. i hope they DO replay this episode...
thanks!
Awww.... Ain't that nice? :) :)

The little visit did remind me that Elijah's episode was rerun just a few weeks after it had been on originally--but surely that wouldn't take it out of summer rerun rotation, would it :eek: ? I wonder if the people making those decisions pay any attention to the message boards? This one is on the official NBC site.

Thanks for the tip, tg! I'll give it another go.

-- Mechtild

Edited to add:

Well, that didn't make the photos show up either. But at least it made links this time instead of the little white boxes with red X's in them!

Thanks for the tip, tg! I'll give it another go.

-- Mechtild

Edited to add:

Well, that didn't make the photos show up either. But at least it made links this time instead of the little white boxes with red X's in them!

I'm "old-fashioned" and usually type in the image tags myself instead of clicking on the icon, just because that's how I first learned to do it, but it should come out the same either way. Here's an example--a pic I chose mostly because it's small (gradual immersion therapy for those afraid of Flipper ;) ). If you click on the "quote" button you can see how I typed it in with the tags:

http://www.frodolivesin.us/966b5830.jpg

Are you having any trouble finding a picture's URL? If so, just right-click on the picture and choose "properties," and you'll see the URL. You need the entire thing, including the http:. (Are you possibly using the page's URL instead of the image's URL? That would, indeed, give you a link to the page. If you right-click on the picture of Sandy here, and choose properties, you'll see that the URL is exactly the same as what I've put between the image tags, because it's actually linking to that image on the web page, rather than to the entire page.)

Of course, that may not be the problem at all--I'm just guessing from the fact that you were able to make links but didn't get images.

Alright, tg, here goes again. Yes, I was using the URL for the page, I suppose, not realizing the difference, if I have the page with the one photo on it selected.

So:

This was to be Lady Wendy 's Birthday GROUP HUG shot. She was supposed to imagine her own head photo-manipulated onto the top of Liv's body and, in this way, enjoy being nestled in between Billy in front and Elijah behind (*snuggle snuggle snuggle*). What an honor when the actors are so talented and...etc.!
(Not a bad spot to be in, during a group hug, to my mind.)

So! I'm going to see if this works!

Nope. The white box.

OK, here it goes, yet again!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/mechtild/Elijah-grouphug-mmmmm.bmp

It worked! Hurray!!!!!

Here's Liv-Wendy, after the photographer has urged them to snuggle up even closer! Thank Orlando and Dom for putting on the pressure. Look at that girl squeeeee! But on a birthday, squeeing is permissible, surely!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/mechtild/Elijah-grouphug-whee.bmp

Thanks, tg, SO MUCH!!!!

Learning by lurking---now I'm going to see if I can do what mechtild can now do---

Testing one, two, three

http://bagendinn.com/elijah/images/teenlij/posed/press2.jpg

Happy Birthday to Lady Wendy! from Honey! and Huck

Look who got all dressed up for the occasion!
http://always.ejwfiles.net/images/huck25.jpg

OOOOH! I can do it too! :D

Ylla, I'm so glad to hear hubby is doing well. It seems we both have good guys who are sweet enough to accept our "Hobbity Friends!" Give him a gentle little hug from me!

TG and Mariole, love those "public service announcements!" :D

Honey!

I'm Home at last :)
Hubby has been moved to a step down unit
Could still have rough road ahead but he is stable enough for me to come home :)
Sooooo Happy :D
Again and Again....Thank You one and all for all your many gifts of friendship
How special are gifts of friends I've never met face to face...how I long to meet all of you...and put a face to your spirits
I can't put in words how much I treasure this little meeting place :k
I should go to bed...I haven't slept in soooo long but my excitement in being home has given me renewed energy.
I'll tuck myself in bed now with gratitude with all the many gifts of love and friendship that I have been blessed with :k

LOVE and THANKS to ALL
Ylla

(((ylla))) That's great news. :k

And if that ain't enough to lift one's spirits for the day, it's also Lady Wendy's birthday! :D

Happy Birthday!!

http://img-nex.theonering.net/images/scrapbook/12633.jpg

Nice time to do a little jiggle, eh? :D


Mechtild & Alyon, congratulations - you're now Elijahpicsharing-enabled! ;) :D

Moondancer, that's a beautiful AnimeFrodo!

Btw, just going back a couple of pages to off-topically about Billy Boyd, because hey, it's about Billy Boyd! Whom I love and adore, but not that that's why I'm going off-topically about him. I mean, this is serious Faculty analysis here ...


But, to save the second-best ;) for last, Billy Boyd blew me away. He had one scene in FotR--when he and Merry rush the orcs at the very end--that sent me searching for a frame-by-frame version of it just after the movie came out (so no DVD :( ). Besides thinking "That's amazing!" I also found myself sometimes thinking "Where did that come from?" as I never saw that level of acting out of him again. But it was there all the way through RotK--as with Viggo and (especially) Liv, I think until then Billy just hadn't been given a fully-rounded character to work with. But in RotK--Wow! Talk about being able to show what a character's feeling without saying a word. And, I almost hate to admit it, but I actually caught him in at least one "How did he do that?" moment (the only time I've seen anyone but Elijah have one of those). Notice that pulse in his neck while Gandalf's talking to him about death? I suppose there are ways to get that effect consciously, but IMHO it was an amazing piece of acting, however he did it.

Oh yes, that pulse in his neck during that scene ... lovely. :) Billy had said that there was an overall arc for Pippin over the course of the three movies, and IIRC he'd also talked about how it wouldn't be till RotK that everyone would realise how much Pippin had grown up. I've certainly enjoyed watching him grow.


Aw, c'mon, tg, noticing another actor's great performance IS allowed here, especially since it certainly takes nothing away from Elijah to do so!

LOL! Besides which, Billy Boyd was the first hobbit cast. ;)

Great picture, ainon. I loved that Jay Leno interview even just on my small PC screen.

Anyway, I really needed a break from my work (I'm not making a lot of progress today and I need a mental break from all the facts and figures).
So, what does a person do?
Right, see what she can find on Elijah Wood :)

So, I was reading an interview from 1996:
here (http://www.thatsyours.nl/elijahwood/index.php?f=int2)
He gave some good answers in that about a wide variety of topics.

Like when they asked him about 'the competition' like Jonathan Taylor Thomas and how he deals with it. He answers that it's all about finding good material and not about 'beating another actor'.

But a quote that intrigues me is the following:
Q. The War was a very deep movie. How does acting in movies like that effect you emotionally?
A. You have to put a lot of yourself into it, and conjure up emotions. Some actors try to think unhappy thoughts and make themselves sad. I don't really do that, but I try to make my whole body sad. I just completely put myself into the role while the camera is rolling.
We've talked about this before but I can't get my mind around this idea. Not completely.
How do you make your whole body sad without thinking unhappy thoughts?
Any ideas?
I guess that he acts on instinct but how does it work? I mean, how do you conjure up emotions without thinking happy thoughts or sad thoughts,...?
I would think that the two are connected. If you're body is sad, you think unhappy thoughts and vice versa. If you're sad, you're body will have a 'down' feeling.
Like I said, we talked about this before but when he tries to conjure up sad emotions, he does not seem to use his own personal sad emotions to do so. It's not an identification thing. It still makes me wonder how he does it. How to you make your whole body sad without making a link to yourself?

I really wish that someday, a very good and intelligent interviewer with some time on his or her hands would sit down with Elijah Wood and have a good, long conversation.

Alyon, great picture! Ta da!!!!!! I have not seen that one before.

Honey, you have the white box with a red X. When mine did that, it was because my link was from a site whose pictures can't be linked for some reason. So I copied the picture into Photobucket into my album, and then inserted it in here, which worked. Maybe that is what happened with your Huck Finn picture?

ylla, that is very good news indeed! I, too, cherished the support of a good group of posters on a thread (not this one; this was back in Jan.) during a time of family crisis; it was an invaluable respite to come away from all that each night and enter a somehow "real" if alternate world, a sort of virtual Imladris.

Ainon, I love the little dancing moment from which your picture comes. I am charmed by that, "what the hec?" spirit he can give himself up to.

Moondancer, thank you so much for linking that interview. I had never read it. I can barely believe he was fifteen when answering those questions in that way. As to your quote,

Q. The War was a very deep movie. How does acting in movies like that effect you emotionally?
A. You have to put a lot of yourself into it, and conjure up emotions. Some actors try to think unhappy thoughts and make themselves sad. I don't really do that, but I try to make my whole body sad. I just completely put myself into the role while the camera is rolling.

You then said,

We've talked about this before but I can't get my mind around this idea. Not completely.
How do you make your whole body sad without thinking unhappy thoughts?
Any ideas?
I am wondering if he means something else than, that he has no unhappy thoughts in his head.

A common approach to getting up and performing a scene is to think it out, consciously, to start. For example, an actor has a scene in which she must break down in tears. Typically many actors will try to recall an appropriate moment in their lives that made them cry, conjure up the memories, get into that, and tears will be produced. That's what was taught most often in acting classes way back when when I was in them. But E.W. never was formerly schooled. Didn't Ian McKellen compliment him in the FotR EE extras as a "fine natural actor"? Sir Ian never elaborated upon that, but I assumed he meant that Wood did what he did intuitively, or by instinct, when actually performing -- which was why, when asked, Elijah rarely was able to say what was going through his mind or be able to articulate minutely his motivation during such-and-such a scene the way a far more formally trained, intellectualized actor might, such as McKellen. Elijah had thought about the character of course, but when he got up to actually do it, he just "did" it. He had done it that way as a child with no formal training; he just has continued doing what worked for him from the start.

When he said,

Some actors try to think unhappy thoughts and make themselves sad. I don't really do that, but I try to make my whole body sad.

I may be way off, but I imagined him working like this: He would take in the direction for the take, mentally, thinking of what was supposed to have just happened in the scene (with Kevin Costner, for instance) -- "that made Stu really sad." So, cognitively, he certainly had an idea of what was required and what he wanted to do. But then, he would just let or "make" that cognitive information translate directly into a wash of feeling, without doing the "recall" process at all, and that "wash" of feeling would just sort of saturate through, as a total mood, to "make my whole body sad."

I have imagined it would be like when I've taken a "get in touch with your body" sort of movement class. If I let go enough, while tuning in to the voice of a gifted instructor, their directions ("now you feel the energy zooming up through the soles of your feet up through the top of your head..." etc.) can translate into what feels like a direct response. At their word, my whole body feels full of energy, seemingly all at once. (for example)

Perhaps E.W. has developed an intuitive technique, in which he has his own inner "gifted instructor," to whose voice he can "give himself up," without even knowing he is doing it or how he is doing it. He is, from what I have read in this thread, a very intelligent, reflective person -- and who has a broad range of knowledge, considering his lack of formal higher education. Yet, in his craft, in the act of performing a scene, he seems to leave all the conscious cognition behind. Or, that is how it feels to him, when he is doing it. My view is that his "thought" is so intuitive, while performing, that he simply isn't aware of how or in what way it is involved. It's there, it simply isn't conscious at that point. Also, that his preparation is so intuitively done, he just skips the step where most actors "think" or recall previous experience in order to produce an emotional response.

Well, that's my try at it.

I'm "old-fashioned" and usually type in the image tags myself instead of clicking on the icon, just because that's how I first learned to do it, but it should come out the same either way. Here's an example--a pic I chose mostly because it's small (gradual immersion therapy for those afraid of Flipper ;) ).

REALLY REALLY NEEEEDDD a much bigger version of that, tg -- no fair no fair to tease us so! :) :z:

I don't really have acting experience.
Well, I've done the odd thing here and there at school are at the 'scouts' but that doesn't really count.
But, if I try to understand it, those are the only experiences I can relate to.

I took some lessons on how to 'speak properly' (how to pronounce things properly) when I was a teenager (my parents' idea, not mine)
Part of the lessons had to do with 'feeling' your body.
Example: we had to portray a tree but not just by standing there with your hands in the air and "voilà, a tree" but....you had to 'feel' the tree. :rolleyes:
Gosh, I hated those lessons (although, I hate to admit it but I learned a lot from them)

But the thing I also hated was to think out the scene entirely before you had to do it. I just wanted to do it. Analyzing the hell out of a scene would destroy the scene for me.
am I making sense? Probably not ;)

You gave me a lot to think about, Mechtild. If my brain can get round your way of thinking :) I'll reply once more to it. (I find this topic fascinating)


By the way: didn't we talk about Elijah and books some time ago?
You know that you can listen to him read a kids' book? It's part of a literacy program.
The story Elijah did was 'me and my cat'
It's probably been linked to before, but for those who haven't seen it yet...it's cute. :)
http://www.bookpals.net (http://www.bookpals.net/storyline/index.html)

Are there sites where I can find link to pictures? Or do I really need to break down and get a photo-bucket account?

As far as Elijah's acting goes, it occured to me last week, watching Bumblebee again, that he almost acts in slow motion. I'm not saying this well, (trying to dash it off just before I go to work) but he seems to give us time to see what he's thinking. Where other actors sort of move fluidly, and in some sense more realisitically through a scene, he seems to have the power to attenuate time!

Like TG said last week, he showed us beautifully what Frodo was thinking, by showing what Frodo would have never allowed to show. But as compared to Elijah, most actors seem to be able to convey the big emotions, but not the transitional, and mingled ones so well as he. And I think partly his success at it is because he takes the time to do it.

Honey! trying hard to make sense

nop, i don`t gett it ,what adress is it i will write
after i have press the "mountain pic"?

i just have to do the way i can just hoping the picture won`t
be to small!!!!!!!!!TO SMALL!!!!I TRY AGAIN!!!NO,NOTHING WORKS TODAY!!
SORRY LADY WENDY I HOPE YOU LIKE IT ANYWAY!! :(

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADY WENDY!!!!! :k


LOVE/WOOD

Mechtild, wow - what a great post on acting! As Moondancer says, you gave a lot to think about :) ! As far as acting issues are concerned, the link to the Edward Norton interview which has been posted twice by now by our lovely Ainon (loved the "Saturday Night Fever" impression pic ;) , thanks!) is full of enlightening comments of this great actor on the topic in question. Ainon, if you don't mind, I link to it a third time :p .
Intuition and imagination seem to be the key words.


Edward Norton: I usually don't find I can pull on my own emotions. Sometimes, obviously, some extension of things you've felt can spin up, but it's much more of an imaginative process for me. Many people project onto actors the idea that they must be finding a particular emotion within themselves - from their own deep well - in the sense of the Method as taught by Lee Strasberg, or what's often very glibly interpreted as the Method. I've just never bought that or found it a useful tool. I've always subscribed to Stella Adler's maxim that an actor's greatest gift is his imagination. I find the most effective thing I can do is project myself into the given circumstances by using my instinct or empathic talent (though I hate to use that word) for understanding how other people express their emotions. It's an almost clinical ability to observe those emotions - to soak them up like a sponge and then turn around and represent them. I find that approach works best for me and is more in sync with the kind of roles I want to pursue. (...)

Q: Would you have been saying to yourself at that moment "Keep tapping because it's building up tension" or would you have been unaware of it?

Edward Norton: It happens intuitively. Once you've channelled into an emotion, all kinds of interesting things can happen and you learn to trust yourself in the moment. It's a broad generalisation, but I would say that acting on film often has a lot to do with what happens off the lines, through non-verbal gesture. I find that, on stage, more gets communicated through the language.

You find the complete interview here (http://www.edward-norton.org/articles/proj10.html).


Alyon and Mechtild - congratulations on your FPP! (First Picture Posting) :cool: :D

PS. Honey, you are making sense :)

REALLY REALLY NEEEEDDD a much bigger version of that, tg -- no fair no fair to tease us so! :) :z:
Yeah, yeah, one of these days I'll have to break down and buy both Flipper and Oliver Twist on DVD :rolleyes: . I got them both on VCD (Flipper from yesasia.com and Oliver Twist through the kindness of ainon :) ) back when the only way to get them in the U.S. was on VHS. So any screencaps I have from those two movies are from the VCDs--which technology doesn't lend itself to large, clear pictures the way DVDs do; if I make them much larger than that one, they start breaking up. I wasn't sure I wanted the DVDs of those movies enough to shell out the money for them, since I already had the VCDs. But I'm sure the desire for better screencaps will break through my resolve at some point :p . In the meantime, if physical injury is imminent ;) maybe someone with the DVD could ease Achila's pain--now that everyone's learned how to post images :) :) .

----And if you follow Moondancer's link to "Me and My Cat?" you can back up to the previous season of storytelling on the same site and hear/watch Sean Astin read "A Bad Case of Stripes" (that's close to the title, anyway). Too cute--it's so obvious he's a daddy :) .

----------------------

Mechtild--You've hit on one of the main reasons this thread is going on 400 pages with no signs of stopping (just the opposite!): the mystery of Elijah Wood's acting. The true essence of "How does he do it?" Since it is a mystery, everyone offers a different viewpoint--we've discussed that quote about making his "whole body sad" before, but your insights about the body-mind connection are different from any that have been come up with previously.

His acting is definitely natural, definitely intuitive... He does things that couldn't possibly have been consciously planned out ahead of time or, really, even at the time he's doing them. Not just how quickly, naturally and seamlessly he can move from one emotion to another, but the way he can show complex mixes of emotion. How do you consciously decide to show, for example, a moment of 25% fear, 20% anger, 40% firm resolve, and 15% of... something completely undefinable?? How do you move through an entire internal battle in the space of a few seconds, in such a way that the battle actually makes sense when watched frame-by-frame? How do you show emotions to such a minute degree of clarity that you actually have the microexpressions the character would exhibit at that moment--expressions that use muscles that scientific research says cannot be consciously controlled? Such are the mysteries the Faculty has taken upon itself to admire and to understand to what small degree we can. Elijah Wood as not only a source of beauty, but a cause for wonder... [And I don't want to put a smilie here, because it's really true!]

The route that still makes the most sense to me goes through his other-centeredness. There are examples of his being able to "read" people awfully well (this also connects to the microexpression research--there's a small portion of the population who can read those expressions, so wouldn't it make sense that they'd be more able to exhibit them?).

ETA: Several posts while I was writing--this bit from the Edward Norton interview that Whiteling posted is very close to what I'm trying to say:
I find the most effective thing I can do is project myself into the given circumstances by using my instinct or empathic talent (though I hate to use that word) for understanding how other people express their emotions. It's an almost clinical ability to observe those emotions - to soak them up like a sponge and then turn around and represent them.

And piecing together everything Elijah's said, he seems to connect directly to the character he's playing as he would to another person. He concentrates on the character rather than the emotions--but the emotions come through his connection with the character. IMVVHO, that's why he didn't want to change the dialogue in Ash Wednesday as some of the actors did--he'd gotten to know Sean through the script, and if he changed that he'd be changing Sean, and he'd have to "get into the head" of an entirely different person.

He said that while filming LotR, he'd go through the day thinking "How would Frodo feel about that?" for even mundane occurrences (IIRC, he gave the example of thinking that morning about how Frodo would have felt about what they had for breakfast). If you get to know a character that minutely, do you know what he's feeling when a Nazgul flies overhead without having to consciously work it all out mathematically? I dunno, but it doesn't seem to hurt.

Maybe seeing the character as a person makes it easier for him to keep that line between himself and the character that lets him drop into and out of character so easily? The one time we know of that he had to go off and recover after filming a scene was the Wheel of Fire. PJ kept telling him during the shoot to "go deeper." But, unlike most actors, instead of going deeper inside himself, he went deeper into Frodo. It was what Frodo was feeling that he had to recover from.

...but, as with any mystery, that all just adds more questions, doesn't it??

In the latest LOTR fan club magazine, Pete spoke about actors and the different methods they employ to portray their characters. He called some "suitcase" actors, in that they arrive on set, put their characters on, so to speak, and at the end of the day, take them off and store them for tomorrow. This seems to be Elijah's "method". He wasn't Frodo continuously, for sixteen months, just while the cameras were rolling. And various people mentioned this about him when he was a little boy, about how focused and disciplined he'd be during the filming, and then go off and play like any other child in between scenes. This too may be how he remained centered -- he never took any of it so to heart that it ruled him. He was always his own person, knew exactly who that was, and kept the acting very much in perspective.

Spy Kids 3D is currently running on one of the cable channels now (I can't remember if it's Starz or Showtime). And for those with the system, it's also available on On Demand. I fast-forwarded through the whole movie until it got to Elijah's bit (I've seen the movie before and believe me, this' the only part worth watching), and it's utterly unbelievable how he totally rules the film for the two minutes or so he's on screen. A lot of Elijah's expression is in his wonderfully mobile eyebrows, and he really uses them perfectly in this scene. When he's laying on the ground, watching his time run out and says, "Oops!" -- or when he talks to the kids about how they'll be able to have everything -- or "Cake" -- it couldn't possibly be done any better than that. And suddenly, a cheesy little kid's movie is elevated to something kind of great. Amazing.

http://www.alwayes.ejwfiles.net/images2/gear-outtake-2.jpg THANKS FOR THE LINK TO THE BOOKREADING
MOONDANCER!!! :)
IT WAS SO CUTE, AND HE DOSEN´T JUST ACT WITH HIS EYES
HE READS WITH THEM TO!!OR MAYBE WAS IT A KIND OF ACTING WHEN HE WAS REDING?!
IT WAS A FUNNIE BOOK ALSO AND I MUST SAY I LOVE TO HERE HIS VOICE
IT SOME KIND OF MAGIC IN THAT TO!!

LOVED YOU POST MECHTILD!! :)
THAT ONE I REALY HAVE TO THINK ABOUT, SO I FIND THE RIGHT WORDS
WICH ISEN`T THAT EASY FOR ME!! :(

I JUST DON`t GET THIS PICTURE POSTING
I CAN`T FIGURING OUT HOW TO DO THIS! :confused:
I BEEN REDING YOUR INSTRUTIONS OVER AND OVER AGAIN
MAYBE IF SOME ONE COULDE PM ME SOME REALY DETAIL INSTRUKTIONS
IT MAYBE WOULD WORK.MY MIND ISEN`T THAT GOOD ON COMP.

YLLA:I AM SO GLAD TO HEAR THAT YOUR HUSBAND IS OKEJ!!!! :k
BLOSSOM:I HOPE YOUR MAN IS FEELING OKEJ!! :k

YIPPI TWO GOLD MEDEL TO SWEDEN YESTERDAY!!!!
STEFAN HOLM IN HIGHJUMP
CHRISTIAN OLSSON IN (what is the name)TRIBBEL JUMP
AND CAROLINE KLYFT GOLD THE DAY BEFORE THAT
AND A BRONZ MEDEL TO TWO LADIES IN SAILING!!!

TALK TO YOU SOON,IHOPE

LOVE /WOOD

edit:YES IT ALMOST WORKED BUT WHY THE HECK
CAN`T I OPENING IT?I HAVE NEVER COULD OPENING THIS THINGS :confused:
WHY DIDEN`T IT COME UP A PICTURE? SORRY FOR NAGING ABOUT IT
BUT I AM REALY STUBEN,I WILL NOT NAG ABOUT IT ANY MORE!!

Honey and wood--I just sneaked a peek at your codes. You're both trying to link to the same site, and I don't think it's one that allows direct linking. You might have better luck with smaller, more personal "collections" than the big, well-known sites. I understand why a lot of the biggees don't allow it--every direct link uses their bandwidth, and if you had gazillions of people doing it, it would overload the system (and/or raise their webhosting bill).

There are some sites that give you free space to host your pics on the web. That way, you can copy an image from one of the big sites to your hard drive, upload it to your storage space, and then link to it from there. I started with imagemagician when it was free, and now it's a whopping 85 cents a month :rolleyes: -- But there are some sites that are still totally free.

[Which reminds me--If anyone is interested in those "moving avatars" that were mentioned (the little guy rolling the rock up the hill, etc.), I have the URL of one site that has a number of them--at home, of course, where I never think of it :rolleyes: . But with everyone here using an Elijah or Frolijah avatar, maybe that was just a stray comment and not a request. If anyone does want it, let me know. :) ]

Concerning pictures, I've found that the best thing to do is to open a free Photobucket account. You save your pictures in there and then a code is created for each one. Then you copy that code right into your message to the board and voila! Instant picture posting. It's very simple to use and although Photobucket goes down every once in a while, fairly reliable.

That moving avatar remark was mine, tgshaw. I like that little guy with a ball up the hill. :) I always keep staring at it for a bit.
I don't know if I'm going to use a moving avatar but I'd like to take a look at them.
I changed my avatar, yesterday. Discovered that it looked too much like Honeyelf's (and I love her avatar) so, changed it to something else.
The 50 by 50 pixels is really small, though. Lots of things look great on picture but once you resize it to the small size, there's nothing left of it.
The first version of my current avatar had him looking towards the left side of the screen - looking away from my username.
Now, go ahead and call me silly - but it looked like he turned his back on me. :( :D so, I mirrored it so that he faces my username. :p


Lots of my favourite actors seem to be the more intuitive type. Although, I like method actors like Dustin Hoffman.
I really like Edward Norton. It's no secret that I think Russell Crowe's a good actor.
This is a quote from a Crowe interview:
Crowe had a few moments to discuss what part of Maximus is Russell Crowe and what part of Crowe is Maximus. "He's a character." the actor barked in his surprisingly thick and gruff Australian accent. "He's a character I play. My job is called acting. So the only part of Maximus that bears any relation to me is the one that wears a medieval tunic, a skirt"

But doesn't Crowe draw at all on his own experiences...

"Listen, are you theorizing this whole thing or are you asking me a question? Have you got the whole acting thing down? The answer to that question is not about using part of you. Committing to it completely. And that's the way you try and achieve an emotional connection to the audience. If there's no emotional connection, there's no point in sitting around in a cinema, is there?"

One hesitates even to agree. Crowe makes a person nervous. How about this: What is the most difficult...

"That's a bad question,"
I can almost hear him say this stuff. :D However, I do feel a bit sorry for the journalist. If he likes the journalist and his or her questions, Russell's interviews are fascinating but he doesn't suffer fools easily and if he thinks your questions are stupid, he'll tell you in your face. He's very direct, that way.


Reminds me of that one time, during a press conference when a woman asked Elijah a question about Frodo and it was apparent that this female journalist hadn't done a lot of research because the question was kind of dumn.
IIRC, Elijah asked her if she had read the books.
She said no. She tried to but it had too many long and difficult words in it.
Elijah very quickly responded that perhaps, she should try again but this time with a dictionary and a thesaurus.
:D

You've hit on one of the main reasons this thread is going on 400 pages with no signs of stopping (just the opposite!): the mystery of Elijah Wood's acting. The true essence of "How does he do it?"
I love to read how other people view this. I don't think I will ever get to the bottom of this mystery but :) that's a good thing, in my opinion.
I'm looking forward to lots of "how does he do that?" moments in his career.

Reminds me of that one time, during a press conference when a woman asked Elijah a question about Frodo and it was apparent that this female journalist hadn't done a lot of research because the question was kind of dumn.
IIRC, Elijah asked her if she had read the books.
She said no. She tried to but it had too many long and difficult words in it.
Elijah very quickly responded that perhaps, she should try again but this time with a dictionary and a thesaurus.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! :::: choking ::::

Is there by any chance a place where that interview is saved? Do you know what it was called or where it was?

~grumpyandstillgiggling

Oh, I don't have a tendency to keep interviews.
I'll see what I can do to find it, grumpy, but it may take some time.

This is what I found on a Sean Astin related site about that reply:
From a Report on the New Zealand Premiere

One of the most amusing moments was during the press conference in the morning when this particular Australian media "supa sta" was dominating the conversation and asking inane questions. This little bleached blonde thing asked the actors if they had read the book. Hello...
Elijah Wood asked her if she had read the book and her response was "Erm, no, it had too many big words in it." Like a fox, Elijah retorted with: "Perhaps you should go and buy a dictionary and thesaurus and try again."
So, it was the New Zealand press conference for The Fellowship Of The Ring.

Maybe somebody else saved it?

alright--someone correct the details if my memory is wrong. But wasn't it Dustin Hoffman who talked about his own method of getting in character in The Marathon Man--and he talked about sinking into his psyche and walking around all stressed, but his co-star, Sir Lawrence Olivier always looked so fresh and then just went into the scene and afterwards left his character behind. And Dustin Hoffman asked him how he did it and his answer was something like ---"it's called acting."

I think the Method acting school--where an actor delves into his or her personal memories to come up with an emotion is mainly American. Thus I don't think Ian McKellan probably does much differently than Elijah on that score. Though he may have other techniques that he learned via formal training.

But correct me if I'm wrong.

I have the impression that Method acting isn't quite so prevelant as it once was. But it could just be my impression.

I think much of the work comes in imagining a characters history and thinking through their reactions--and actors may do that to various degrees. I think Edward Norton's descripton of being good at imagining your character makes sense...

I'm off for a week or so. RL calls. I will certainly miss wonderful Faculty discussion. I don't know how I'll ever catch up when I get back!!!
But I'll try...

(((Faculty))) :k

That moving avatar remark was mine, tgshaw. I like that little guy with a ball up the hill. :) I always keep staring at it for a bit.
I don't know if I'm going to use a moving avatar but I'd like to take a look at them.
A "duh" moment here :rolleyes: . I couldn't remember the URL of the site, so thought I'd have to wait til I got home. But it finally dawned on me that since I use their backgrounds, and their free button and logo making services for my website, I have it on my links page: http://www.grsites.com/ . You want the "Absolute Web Graphics" archive, then "clipart". Not all of them move, but there are a lot of possibilities. You do have to watch not only the 50x50 pixel limitation but also the file-size limit for avatars at KD (I don't remember what it is, but it tells you on the avatar-editing page). Some of those moving ones can have small dimensions but eat up a lot of bytes.

The 50 by 50 pixels is really small, though. Lots of things look great on picture but once you resize it to the small size, there's nothing left of it.
During the time I was making a lot of avatars, I learned a lot about "tweaking" them to make them look better at the smaller size. They usually need to be lightened, sharpened, and sometimes have the contrast or color balance changed. Yours looks pretty good, IMHO. There were some pics I tried to use that just wouldn't work, no matter what I did with them.

For those who weren't around at the time, that's where "anime Frodo" came from (the avatar I'm using right now). I was working from one of the "For Your Consideration" ads, and I tried everything I could think of to make it look right, with no success. Finally, in a moment of frustration I decided to see just how unright I could make it--and he ended up being the only avatar out of the dozens I made that I've selfishly kept for myself. :) And, yep, that feisty Fro actually came from a photograph of Frolijah. :D It's kind of a statement on how difficult those small pics are to work with that I've tried to enlarge anime Frodo, and it just doesn't work. He was made to be that size, and that's how he wants to stay.

-----
ETA:

The way I remember the Marathon Man story (I probably read it here :p ) was that Dustin Hoffman was staying up all night and subjecting himself as much as he could (within reason--I hope :eek: ) to what his character went through. When he came to the set all ragged and exhausted, Sir Lawrence said to him, "My dear boy, haven't you ever heard of acting?" :)

DH seems to have a sense of humor about it, anyway. One of the funniest scenes in Tootsie (IMHO) is when he's lost every acting job possible because he's so hard to work with (his character in the movie, that is ;) ). Finally the only work he can find is playing a tomato in a TV commercial (picture one of the "Fruit of the Loom" fruits, but as a tomato). He ends up walking off the set because the director can't tell him what his "motivation" is :D -- the director yelling, "You're a tomato! Tomatoes don't have motivation!" :lol:

I'm loving the discussion on different approaches to acting!

There's a good illustration on how talented actors of all ages can produce emotions on command in an anecdote from the filming of "National Velvet." Before filming a scene where Velvet, played by Elizabeth Taylor, has to break down in tears, Mickey Rooney, her vastly more experienced costar, tried coaching her on how to produce the tears. He told her that she should imagine her dog/mother/father/someone close to her dying right before the camera started rolling, and that would work. She just nodded, went to her mark, and when the scene needed it, produced the tears. Afterward, Rooney asked her what she used, and she just said, "Well, I imagined how Velvet would think about [the events causing the tears], and started to cry." Rooney said he never tried to coach her again.

Also, I remember recently seeing an episode of "The Directors," featuring Alan Parker, and he was talking about his experiences directing "Birdy," with Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine. He contrasted both actors' styles, since Cage was a Method actor, and he thought that Modine the best natural actor he'd ever seen. Cage remained in character throughout the shoot, much like Brad Dourif did for LotR, but Modine would turn it on for the camera, and then as soon as "Cut!" was shouted, he would go back to laughing and joking around the set.

Finally, over the weekend I bought the DVD for one of my all-time favorite films, "To Kill a Mockingbird." On the documentary, the director and writer pointed out how much emotion and feeling Robert Duvall as Boo Radley managed to convey in his few minutes on screen at the end of the film, even though he never says a word. I immediately thought that, if some idiot in Holllywood ever thought to remake that classic film, they should get Elijah to play Boo, since he's the only actor I can imagine coming close to Duvall's performance.

Alyon,

From the EE commentaries, etc., it would seem that Viggo was the most traditionally "method" acting lead actor. Ian McKellen sounded far more craftsman-like in his approach, from his interview clips. He described getting into the Gandalf portrayal working from the outside, in. He said he read and considered, thought about what Gandalf would sound like, (he'd have a raspy voice, as a smoker), what his body posture and movements would be (he demonstrated this in the interview, humorously) -- he sort of "put on" what he thought would be Gandalf's exterior self, his movements, his expressions, his vocal sound, and then got into the character that way. The "methody" way that I remember being made to learn (and which I failed at!) was just as thoughtful, but required a person to start from the inside -- you "feel" you are the character, after you have analyzed it, or "become" it -- and then the voice, the body posture, etc. was supposed to just grow out of that inward transformation, that original core of "believing" you are that person. Me, I only could do it the "Sir Ian" way: getting a handle from externals and then sort of "dressing up" as the character, until it was assimilated.

Elijah doesn't sound like he does either of these things. As I described above, his approach sounds less labored over intellectually, and much more intuitively accomplished. Once Katharine Hepburn was supposed to have been working on a film and watching a younger, method-trained actor studying and puzzling over how his character would open the door to the room, from his character's point of view. Supposedly she finally said, loudly, "For God's sake, just open the thing!" Or words to that effect. She sounded like she, a very bright, insightful woman and great actress, was also very intuitive in her acting approach; she made it look like "no sweat" - and like Sir Lawrence Olivier, was very "suitcase" -- when she walked off the sound stage, she was Kate.

Whiteling, I see something more like what E.W. might be doing in the remarks of Edward Norton in your quote and larger article. Though what E.W. does seems even less analytically worked out and even more intuitively done -- sort of "in the moment." I wonder if, out of the LotR actors, what E.W. is doing is more like what Ian Holm does, approach-wise.

In that EE interview, Sir Ian took a moment to contrast his own considered, fairly cautious approach with Ian Holm's. After saying how much he loved working with Holm, never having had the chance before, he said Ian H. was far more daring a film actor. He said each of Ian H.'s takes were different -- giving Peter myriad views of Bilbo, a different angle or line reading at every take. Sir Ian thought this more daring because it delivered so much more final control into the hands of the director and editor, who had the freedom to "create" Holm's performance, to a much greater degree than was true for an actor like himself. Sir Ian implied that he himself was not comfortable doing that, preferring to maintain as much control over the final performance as possible. I am wondering if Elijah's style is more like Ian H.'s, in its intuitiveness, but also its spontaneity, and responsiveness to the director. He seems highly suggestible --both to the wishes of the director and to his own flights of imagination, as to what is possibile, what might be "fun" or "interesting" to try or let someone else try through him. He seems willing to take risks to an inordinate degree in this way.

A final note: all of these actors sound very intelligent, thoughtful and imaginative, but extremely different in artistic style or approach and temperament. But if it works, then it's the right thing for that actor. I love what Viggo did with Aragorn and if it meant "living" the role 24/7 for him to be able to do it that way, then that was the right approach for him. But if others can do the "suitcase" approach and deliver beautiful performances, than that is the right choice for them.

Edited to add: Sharpe's Girl, we simulposted! I loved your examples, especially the one from National Velvet. And yes, Boo Radley would be a great role!

-- Mechtild

...I immediately thought that, if some idiot in Holllywood ever thought to remake that classic film, they should get Elijah to play Boo, since he's the only actor I can imagine coming close to Duvall's performance.
Well... as long as that wouldn't keep him from playing the Gregory Peck role, too. :p

And, SG, your stories remind me of Courtney B. Vance and Elijah during Huck Finn. (This has been posted many, many times, but that's how legends are made, right? :rolleyes: ) In the commentary on the DVD, the director talks about how he'd work with Courtney on Jim's motivation, etc., and Courtney would ask a lot of questions. Elijah evidently respected Courtney as an actor, because he started asking the director the same kinds of questions he'd heard Courtney asking. The director was smart enough to put a stop to that right away ;) , telling Elijah he didn't need to work that way, because he was a natural.

Mechtild--I agree with you on each actor needing to find his or her own way of approaching it, just as in any art form. IMHO the different kinds of acting have their own strengths. Just from what I've read in this discussion, I'd venture to say that the more intuitive type of acting is better at showing us sides of the character that possibly even the character isn't consciously aware of, while the more "method" type of acting might be better at acting out of the character's conscious motivations and emotions. Does that make any sense at all :confused: ? Would that make different types of acting better for portraying different characters? Aragorn, as a character, probably acts more out of his conscious thoughts and decisions than does, say, Frodo, who in the book (and, IMHO, in the movies) is an extremely intuitive person.

It's so much fun discussing something I know absolutely nothing about ;) :D . But everyone's comments certainly give me something to think about.

OK! Thankyou ezarchive! :D
http://www.ezarchive.com/ezarchive/AssetFile.aspx?id=127309&time=632288847953619802

Just testing! :D

Sticklebats! Why doesn't that work? Let me guess; I picked the wrong image hosting site? :mad:

Honey!

especially the one from National Velvet. And yes, Boo Radley would be a great role!

Boo Radley? Hmmmmmm...I can't see it but then we're talking about Elijah Wood, who could probably stand the role on its head.

Some movies, though, are so perfect that it would be entirely superfulous (sp?) to remake them, EW as Boo or not. Gregory Peck as Atticus is, IMGLO, irreplaceable. (BTW did anyone happen to watch an excellent series some years ago on PBS, called "I'll Fly Away"? Sam Waterston (sp?) was in it; I forget the lead actress's name. It had a very similar flavor to TKAM).

The worst "motivation" story I ever heard was about Margaret O'Brien on the set of "Meet Me in St. Louis". She was supposed to run around crying hysterically and beating snowmen into smithereens in the scene just after Judy Garland sings "Have yourself a merry Christmas". Her mother took her aside and told her that if she didn't do it right, that she'd have her dog put to sleep. You can see the results in the movie: a fantastic scene, but at what cost? :(

I think that whatever the British guild system does, it turns out some of the best actors *ever*. I suspect that what we call "natural" acting, so magical in The Lad, is a technique that the British system has figured out, and that British actors who go through that system learn. So where Elijah has been doing it since babyhood, practically, Sir Ian Mc. has gone through years of education and experience to accomplish roughly the same thing. Sir Ian has years and years of experience over Elijah, of course, but it didn't stop him (Ian) from being blown away by him. I'd love to know what Ian Mc.'s thoughts on what Elijah will be like in 20 years are... It's interesting, too, watching the two Sir Ian's (training and experience), Orlando Bloom (good training, not mucy experience) and Elijah (experience, natural talent) side by side. Again, IMGLO, OB has the talent and the training; he needs a lot more experience, though.

I would be very sad to see Elijah go the "method acting" route. I don't think he needs to, and I think it's an unnecessarily draining technique. It's very possible that The Lad could benefit from some formalized training, but please <insert name of benificent deity here>, it won't be in method acting.

~grumpy (now, did I actually *SAY* anything in this post?)

I think what Elijah would benefit from in terms of gaining a wider span of experience/skills for his career would be to try out the stage for a few years. It'd be interesting to see him develop the necessary full-body acting that the stage requires, even though the incredible skill he has with microexpressions, etc., would be lost in live theater. I really think that if he went off-Broadway or even worked with a non-NYC theater, such as the Goodman or Steppenwolf here in Chicago, or the excellent theater in La Jolla, CA (which I can't remember right now!), for an extended run of a classic play, would give him some skills that he doesn't have right now, and would only improve him in all of his acting venues.

(BTW did anyone happen to watch an excellent series some years ago on PBS, called "I'll Fly Away"? Sam Waterston (sp?) was in it; I forget the lead actress's name. It had a very similar flavor to TKAM).
I loved that show! I think one reason I liked Sam Waterston's character so well is that he was a "good guy" but wasn't perfect. Lilly Harper was played by Regina Taylor (don't be too impressed--I looked it up :rolleyes: ).

The worst "motivation" story I ever heard was about Margaret O'Brien on the set of "Meet Me in St. Louis"...
What a terrible thing to tell a little girl! IMVHO, that character needed serious psychological help to begin with (I think she would have enjoyed blowing things up and hanging GI Joe with Sandy Carver :( ), but no need to make the actress that way, too.

tg, that is an interesting point, about which acting approach might yield the best results, in which sort of character. Yet, was Lee's Saruman any less a performance than Dourif's Wormtongue? Lee certainly seems like a typical British-schooled craftsman and Dourif a full-scale American method person.

Grumpy, I agree that method seems like it would be a fruitless approach for Wood, but it has suited other actors very well. It just depends on the artist, I should think. But if Wood is a "suitcase" man, then the British training sounds like it would best suit him.

Sharpe's Girl, yes, the stage! I was fantasizing about Elijah playing a certain role, but wanting to see him do it on stage. I wrote the following about whether it was realistic to think him capable of doing stage work, based on quotes repeated from people in this thread a week of two ago. (I wrote this for a thread in another site.) After I post this, I PROMISE not to blab about this topic anymore!


I copied this bit of article from post #8391 (p. 333) of Serena's on K-D. I have cut bits out, but you can read the whole thing from the link she provides in her post. A particular part of it leapt out at me (bold emphases):

Different resources reported that, when she once saw a commercial, Elijah's mother thought that Elijah could "do" some TV-related jobs, as well. Thus, at the age of seven, she enrolled him in a local modeling school (...) in (...) Cedar Rapids. Half a year later, she traveled (...) to the International Modeling and Talent Association convention, in Los Angeles (...).

Later, Gary Scalzo, a talent manager, said that he relucantly had agreed being a judge at this convention. (...) When Gary was suggested, by some of his friends, to watch Elijah's performance, he took quite some time to take a closer look at him. Gary himself put it into words, "(...) I watched him for two whole days without opening my mouth. He was packed with personality and nervous energy. The big question I asked myself was whether I could control his energy."

Mr. David Guillod, one of those friends, who had suggested Elijah to Gary Scalzo, recalls "Oh!, he was such a cutie! I think what struck us was the simple fact that (...) when he walked out on stage, the room was silent. Elijah had this stage presence, and he commanded the stage with his smile. He did it with a natural charm and charisma, and he won the hearts of the people. It was just a quality."

I highlight this because I have been thinking again of roles I would love to see Elijah Wood perform. The part I have been imagining him in, however, works best on stage. It's been filmed several times, but on stage it has a magic that can't be reproduced on film. I have been thinking what a sensational "Puck" he would make in A Midsummer Night's Dream. But -- he's never done stage work! Would the charisma, the "magic" he projects on film translate into live performance?

Naturally, David Guillod's remarks jumped out at me--
[W]hen he walked out on stage, the room was silent. Elijah had this stage presence, and he commanded the stage with his smile. He did it with a natural charm and charisma, and he won the hearts of the people. It was just a quality.

Elijah made this kind of impression on this agent as a child, while on stage, in person -- not in a screen test. So, when I think of Elijah speaking those wonderful speeches--with that voice (and, I must admit, romping about in your usual Puck-the-mischievous-sprite costume--which is usually practically nothing ;))--and that face and body! -- Heavens! I'd make a pilgrimage to see him do it!

But would he be able to work with a stage director? Hmmmm... Here's what Gary Scalzo said of him as a child (also from Serena's post):

It was only a few days before his eighth birthday when I saw him perform his monologue. It was evident that Elijah was talented and enjoyed what he was doing, which is important. After the competition I talked to his mother and asked if Elijah would like to come to my office with her the next day and talk about the possibilities of an acting career. Elijah and I read some scenes together and he was wonderful. He read brilliantly. He's also very directable.

There is a Royal Shakespeare production of Midsummer from the end of the 60's that was filmed for BBC. I have seen it on TV and thought it quite excellent. Guess who played Puck, cavorting naughtily through the glimmering night-time wood, in a sort of leaf-covered thong? Ian Holm! And he was great! (He looked quite fit in the costume, too. No wonder he is still pretty spry as Bilbo.) Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren and David Warner were three of the lovers and Ian Richardson and Dame Judi Dench were Oberon and Titania, if you remember any of those actors.

I think I first thought of Elijah as Puck when I re-viewed FotR, right after what Dom called, "The Money Shot"-- his first close-up when Gandalf's cart is approaching. "Just think what a Puck he might make, merrily creating confusion among all the hapless lovers, full of mischief and wit!"

Maybe you Faculty-ites could see if you could persuade him to do a year of training abroad, hmmm? Then, Midsummer!

-- Mechtild

I'd love to see Elijah do some Shakespeare! Not the lead role, such as Hamlet, but a substantial supporting role, like the rejected son in King Lear (Edmund? I think that's the character's name!), or Laertes, Ophelia's brother in Hamlet, if there's a staging with actors in their early 20s instead of the usual mid-30s.

A quick note about Margaret O'Brien's character in "Meet Me in St. Louis," I love the fact that she's so bloodthirsty and into the creepier things in life. Not only does this make her a lot more interesting than most children in Hollywood films, but she's quite believable as a result--I knew at least a few kids at that age that were equally fascinated with things that go bump in the night.

Finally, I personally would hate it if Hollywood ever remade To Kill a Mockingbird (Gregory Peck and Mary Badham could never be equalled, IMO!), but I'm hoping that EW's performance as Kevin in Sin City will be at least something close to what he could possibly do as Boo Radley!

Love the recent postings....as I love the art of process
How people do what they do...esp. when done so well
Was thinking of what Moondancer said re: would love to hear a really good journalist interview Elijah's thoughts on his craft. I love watching" Inside Actor's Studio"...because they primarily talk about the craft and not the personal end of the actor's life.....you can always get the personal STUFF if you pick up" People" or the like.
I thought wouldn't it be great to see Elijah on that show...and then it occurred to me He probably would never agree to it. Reason being...I don't think his ego is big enough...I don't think he spends much time "analyzing" his performances.
He just performs to the best of his very natural ability...I can even imagine him "chatting-up" as the Brits would say ;).... James Lipton... and turning the focus away from himself...I think he's far to humble and modest to participate in a public arena where the FOCUS would be on him alone...

Too Bad....I'm with you Moondancer...I'd like to see more smart interviewers

I'd love to see a great in depth interview where they don't keep focusing on who he's dating and his sexual preferences etc..etc...
Would love to know more about his experiences in acting...
He must have some great stories :D

BTW..Husband is still making progress :z:

godmorning ladies!!

sitting here hoping The war will come in the mail to day!! :z:
i`m realy looking forward to see it becuse you all have been
talking so much about it in here!!!

love you discusion about approching diffrent caracters,i just whanted to say
I DON`T KNOW HOW ELIJAH DOSE IT it almost like he change buddy when he acts,
he even change his voice in some magical way don`t ask me how, i don`t now!i guess we will never find out how he dose when he acts!!

i agree with you ylla!! were ever you read about him its not often he
is speking about him self he always seams to talk about his fellow actors.
i don`t think it is his nature to speak about him self!!!

about posting pictures i give up :(

LOVE/WOOD

After Elijah Wood does Kevin in "Sin City" :eek: (Puts new meaning in the Goblin King. I imagine. I mean with the women he kills and then eats! then he mounts their heads on the walls like a trophy? :( ) Can British Dennis the Menance be far behind? :eek:

Is "Sin City" the same comic book series as "Eternal City?" or are they two difference comics? I saw the latter at the library and wondered if this was true? :confused:

Morning everyone!


I love watching" Inside Actor's Studio"...because they primarily talk about the craft and not the personal end of the actor's life......
I thought wouldn't it be great to see Elijah on that show...and then it occurred to me He probably would never agree to it. Reason being...I don't think his ego is big enough...I don't think he spends much time "analyzing" his performances.

Actually, they all -- and by that I mean, the LOTR cast -- was supposed to be on Inside the Actor's Studio at some point last year. Unfortunately, they had too many scheduling conflicts and couldn't make it work, so it never happened. But I suspect that it may at some point. Sir Ian Mc has already been on the show and the likelihood is that as his career grows and continues, Elijah may do it too.

While I agree with you that he doesn't especially care for ego stroking (and I don't really see that show as that anyway), I do think the more important impediment might be that he simply can't talk about his process because he doesn't know what he does either. Maybe as he gets older, though, and as his roles become more and more varied, he will take time to think about analyzing his "method" and be able to discuss it for students of the craft. Obviously, he has a lot to offer young people interested in becoming thespians, and has spoken of this already, so my thought is that the opportunity to do this show might intrigue him.


PS -- HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, LADY WENDY!

Achila,

I agree that it isn't all ego-stroke on Actor's Studio. But I very much agree with what you say here, based on the clips I've heard or read, talking about how Elijah performs:

While I agree with you that he doesn't especially care for ego stroking (and I don't really see that show as that anyway), I do think the more important impediment might be that he simply can't talk about his process because he doesn't know what he does either.

That's what I was trying -- at too much length -- to say a few posts ago. That was why, even though I could see similarities between his "approach" and Edward Norton's, they remain very dissimilar for the very reason you cited --"he doesn't know what he does." In the Norton interview, it is clear that Norton in conscious of and is able to articulate his craft: what he does and why he does it. Elijah, from what I've seen, just can't. When he was asked at the Lincoln Center screening of RotK (per Flourish's report, back in the winter), to articulate what was going on for him playing Frodo in the "sailing away" scene at the end of RotK, when he turned around and smiled, it seemed clear to me that he just didn't know. He seemed to me to be just fishing, after the fact, trying to find something to say for the sake of answering the question.

If he went on a show like Actor's Studio, I think, he'd end up talking himself into a hole -- saying things or being led to say things of an analytical nature that would actually be not true. What he does, at this point is both too intuitively done and too unconsciously done to bear any fruit under this kind of scrutiny and analysis. If he was honest, the show would take five minutes, since he'd have so little to say, describing how and why he does what he does at a conscious level.

I think so, anyway. But you all have read so many more interviews, I may have to think differently! :D

ylla, you said,

I'm with you Moondancer...I'd like to see more smart interviewers ( ... ) I'd love to see a great in depth interview where they don't keep focusing on who he's dating and his sexual preferences etc..etc...
Would love to know more about his experiences in acting...
This sort of interview I would love to see as well. I think we'd get much more out of him, if the interview was set up to be about his acting experiences, rather than trying to analyze his acting itself. Something annecdotal. A really good interviewer, then, could put what E.W. says annecdotally together, and perhaps lift up the themes or motifs he/she sees and speak to those. That might shed a little light, even if it is a light that peeks in from the side, rather than the direct operating room light of a show like Inside the Actor's Studio.

Achila and Mechtild, I agree with what you've said about the possibility of Elijah on Actors' Studio (which saves a lot of typing ;) ). I would have even pulled the same quote from Achila's post that Mechtild did, so I'll just continue it a bit:
...Maybe as he gets older, though, and as his roles become more and more varied, he will take time to think about analyzing his "method" and be able to discuss it for students of the craft.
I do think he's done some of this as he's gotten older. He went from "I'm sad because I want to help my brother and I can't" in Radio Flyer to an intense character study of Mikey Carver. (IIRC, it was around the time of The Ice Storm that he decided he wanted to take his acting seriously and make it a career.) And he has talked some about how he connects with a character--although, as was said, it usually comes out in anecdotes instead of abstract "techniques."

He has learned and grown over the years, putting a lot of effort into honing that natural talent. It's really obvious in some Froshadowings. The two turns toward the camera in The Good Son and FotR have some of the same elements in them (the same type of eye movement, that look straight at the camera that borders on accusation). There's nothing "wrong" with the turn in TGS; it's completely natural-looking. But if you compare it to the turn in FotR, it's obvious we've gone from a "kid actor" to an adult one who's learned much more about emotions and how to project them through a character. Even in the smaller example of Leo and Frodo after they've reached the top of their respective hills and fulfilled their purposes--In Leo we see the physical exhaustion, then the relief, then the realization of what's happened... In Frodo we see them all at once.

Of course, it's hard to find a character as complex as Frodo, which certainly let Elijah spread his wings in that role. And we've talked before about how, especially in his younger movies, the quality of his acting depended a lot on how good the director was (or wasn't). But after seeing how he pulled off that scene in the van in Ash Wednesday, with very little if any direction, I'm not too worried about that holding him back in the future.

As far as stage presence, besides the examples from when he was seven, there's also his appearances at fan events at which he seems to do awfully well. And SNL is shot (live :p ) in front of an audience, so even though it ends up on film it really starts as stage work--and he did pretty well with that, too. (The sitcom skit was obviously filmed beforehand, but everything else was in "real time.")

...and my first choice for a Shakespearean role for Elijah is still Ariel in The Tempest :) , although the other roles mentioned would be good, too.

I don't have anything to add, really. I haven't seen that Actor's studio program before but it sounds like a great program.
Still loving the discussion. :)

I did a search on some search engine I hadn't used before (for some odd reason) and it looks for MP3's and stuff.
Some things I've heard before but also new stuff, like some sort of press conference during the release of FOTR. Some of you may have heard this before but it was new to me:
http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/movies/oscars/oscars2002.asp (http://)
Most of it is old news but he tells a couple of stuff I haven't heard before.


One of those links has a couple of great MP3's.
Remember that movie nobody seems to be able to find? Day-O? This site has a couple of soundbites from that movie. It really cheered me up but...only problem is...really want to see it now. (scroll down a bit for the Day-O stuff)
http://members.dodo.net.au/~ljbooth/sounds.htm


If I find something else, I'll link it (if you don't mind).

hallo girls!!
i have now opend an account in photobucket
i have som pics in my album,but i still can´`t
get them in here!!!!! :confused:
what am i doing wrong :confused:
i will give up soon i have been trying almost all day!
and i have been trying to change the color and size
on the text when i write post nothing works :confused: :confused:

please is there someone out there i feel very ashamed becuse
mechtild explained it to me thank you so much :k but it seams
like i am out of my head i just don`t get it!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wood, sweetie -- you're almost there. You need to copy and paste the code that starts with [img] into your message.

Wood, I sent you a PM to see if I could show you where the "IMG" is one the photobucket page.

Sharpe's Girl, I love the role of Edmund in King Lear, and I love King Lear as a play. Yes, to that.

tg, I agree on Ariel in The Tempest as a fine role for him, but I like Midsummer, as a play, so much better than The Tempest, I yet would prefer to see him in the less arduous (though highly enchanting) role of Puck. (As if we're gonna see him do ANY of these! :rolleyes: )

OK, I think I've got this thing done now.

Jim explains to Huck that he really ought to find some younger friends, because all the birthday candles are breaking the bank!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v377/honeyelf/huckfinn-026.jpg
Happy Birthday, Lady Wendy!

Hugs,
Honey!

Enjoying the discussion of Elijah’s acting technique. Anything I was going to say (US Method vs. British techniques, Hoffman vs. Olivier, etc.) has already been said.

Shadowcat asked:

Is "Sin City" the same comic book series as "Eternal City?" or are they two difference comics? I saw the latter at the library and wondered if this was true?

I did a quick search, and couldn’t find anything indicating that Sin City has ever had any other title.

Also, I found the following in the August issue of Harper’s magazine, in an article about the evolution of comic-book superheroes. The article concluded with a paragraph about Frank Miller, author of Sin City and writer/codirector of the film (hope someone has not already posted this):

“. . . the extremity of his vision is unlikely to suit a coffee-table book. His graphic style is violent, unpredictable, innovative. . . . His stories, most recently Sin City, are informed by the police procedural, and yet transcend their form. They are funny, without being flimsy. His heroes do not ‘look real,’ but they feel human and, not infrequently, horribly inhumane. They are falling apart physically, are borderline psychotic, their psychoses produced by a commitment to morality in immoral times.”

(And those are the HEROES!)

Shakespearean role for Elijah: Sebastian in Twelfth Night. But then we'd have to find somebody to play his twin sister. . . .

One of those links has a couple of great MP3's.
Remember that movie nobody seems to be able to find? Day-O? This site has a couple of soundbites from that movie. It really cheered me up but...only problem is...really want to see it now. (scroll down a bit for the Day-O stuff)

I don't know much about MP3's. Do they play on Windows Media Player? Or some other program?

Your Day-O discovery sent me on another round--also using a different search engine than usual. I didn't find a copy of Day-O anywhere, but I did find, finally, *ta-da* an email address for Delta Burke for "personal questions and autographed picture requests." (Did you know there are people out there who write Designing Women fanfic? :confused: :eek: ) I also found a link to a non-profit organization she started that's kind of down my alley, so maybe I could even schmooz a bit on that, ya think? ;) All I'd been able to find on earlier searches were pages and pages of people selling her line of clothes on ebay :rolleyes: .

I haven't figured out what to say to her yet ("Hey, remember that little kid you said in 1992 was going to own Hollywood some day :p ?"). It kind of seems like this is the last chance--if Delta Burke doesn't know how to get hold of Day-O, who would? She could probably say what network it was on, which might help. With all of Elijah's other movies popping up here and there on TV--even Child in the Night once or twice--I wonder where Day-O's been? FES, if anyone sees it scheduled somewhere, rev up the VCR!

Pelagia,

Ooooh, Sebastian!

Shakespearean role for Elijah: Sebastian in Twelfth Night. But then we'd have to find somebody to play his twin sister. . .

He should play his own twin sister-- he could do a super Viola, I should think. It would be like "real" Shakespeare -- a boy playing a girl playing a boy. Lindsay Lohan, watch out! What a tour de force! And the tongues would never stop wagging -- or panting -- depending on the viewer. ;)

Could it be? Could it be? That a Faculty Member might see Day-O in the future? :)

V. Interesting discussion about acting techniques, colleagues. (About which I haven't a clue, so I cannot add anything.) It sure *would* be nice for EW to be featured on Actor's Studio. It'll come, it'll come. I've given up on hoping for a decent "professional" interview, though.

Wouldn't it be nice to see him do stage work? Lordy, I'd be there in a heartbeat! And if it were Shakespeare...hmmm...Puck would be a gas--and the symmetry of having "Frodo" follow "Bilbo" in the role would be cool. Ariel would also be interesting. But me, I see him in more leading roles. Like Romeo! (Why are you all looking at me like that? :o ) After all, if Leo di Caprio could do it, why not Elwood? Edmund in Lear would be great! Very meaty role. And why not Hamlet?! Anyone capable of Frodo at the Cracks of Doom was born to play one of the most interior-focused characters ever written.

Happy belated birthday, Lady Wendy! I see Huck is waiting for you to blow out the candles.

I don't know much about MP3's. Do they play on Windows Media Player? Or some other program?


I downloaded them but haven't watched them yet. But I believe they are Windows Media Player format. They'd probably run on RealPlayer too, but I sometimes have problems with that stuttering, so I avoid it if possible.


Your Day-O discovery sent me on another round--also using a different search engine than usual. I didn't find a copy of Day-O anywhere, but I did find, finally, *ta-da* an email address for Delta Burke for "personal questions and autographed picture requests."


Good work! But my question is, if this site has all these clips, SOMEONE must have the film they came from. Was there an email address anywhere on that site for contact? Worth a shot as well. I just went on the IMDB and someone in Australia appears to have seen it in 2000 (that site the clips were on was Aussie too, wasn't it?). So the plot thickens -- it was on TV down under 4 years ago.



I haven't figured out what to say to her yet ("Hey, remember that little kid you said in 1992 was going to own Hollywood some day :p ?"). It kind of seems like this is the last chance--if Delta Burke doesn't know how to get hold of Day-O, who would?


Of course, you will tell her how lovely she is, right??? LOL

I don't know much about MP3's. Do they play on Windows Media Player? Or some other program?
You can listen to those MP3's on your computer. No problem, tg. The sound quality was pretty good on my laptop.
Good luck with the Day-O hunt!

Achila, I didn't find an e-mail address on that website otherwise I would have contacted it. Those soundclips really made me curious again. Especially one soundclip where the dad tries to convince his little girl that Day-O is just an imaginary friend. He's not real. You can hear little Elijah screaming in the background.


Pelagia,
I don't know if you're interested but you can buy a video of The Bumblebee Flies Anyway on e-bay.
eBay item- Bumblebee (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=309&item=6317472430&rd=1)
The starting bid is $1,99 at the moment with just over a day left to place your bid.
This is a US offer only: "we ship to US zip codes only"
This is another offer for the DVD. You can buy that now for $6,99 (+shipping costs):
ebay item - Bumblebee DVD (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=617&item=6317955856&rd=1)

You can also find a "Chain of Fools" DVD/VCD there.
One of the comments is this: "You Are Bidding on A Brand New, And Original DVD/VCD that plays on US DVD players"
eBay item - Chain of Fools (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=617&item=6318706360&rd=1)
There's also a Region 2 DVD for sale on e-bay.

Next item: "Child in the night":
Ebay item - Child in the night (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=309&item=6317868620&rd=1)

A Radio Flyer video:
eBay item - Radio Flyer (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=309&item=6317922912&rd=1)

A Paradise video with a starting bid of $0,01 :eek:
eBay item - Paradise (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=309&item=6317256799&rd=1)

There are more items (like North, The War, The Ice Storm, The Faculty,...) in there but I guess that you'll be able to find those video's in rental stores and places like amazon more easily.

I don't know if you have used e-bay before but you can read about the reputation of the sellers of each item. I have used e-bay for a couple of items. I think that you can even contact the seller to ask him or her questions about the item.


ETA:
Found on OscarWatch.com. Good news for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
The New York Film Critics Have Set Date - good news for Eternal Sunshine:
New York, August 23 * The New York Films Critics Circle (NYFCC), in its 70th year of honoring excellence in film, will conduct the voting for its awards on Monday, December 13th at the Muse Hotel in New York.

The NYFCC awards are traditionally considered both a precursor to the Academy Awards and an alternative to them, in recognizing the best in feature, documentary and foreign language films of the year.

The awards will be given out at their annual awards dinner on Sunday, January 9th. The 2004 New York Film Critic Circle awards will be posted on December 13th on the NYFCC website * www.nyfcc.com * shortly after they are announced.

"Though it has not been an especially good year for film so far * with some obvious exceptions like "Eternal Sunshine" * I have high hopes for many of the fall releases," said group chairman Jonathan Foreman.

The scream on DayO seems to be the same sound heard in TBFA when Elijah asked a kid to check for head injury. :lol: Only deeper and more intense. :haha: And the eyes, pitiful, but somehow you want to slap him and say, "Get a Grip, Wimp!" :lol:

Also a word from the Artful Dodger would be nice. (What is Guy I want to Kiss and Slap at the same time. :lol: ;) )

Did Anybody have a problem with a mouse freezing in the middle of the sound clips? How annoying.then the computer had to be restarted. :mad:

I think my computer suffered from Elijah's Voice Overload. :mad:

Quote from Mechtild:

He should play his own twin sister-- he could do a super Viola, I should think. It would be like "real" Shakespeare -- a boy playing a girl playing a boy. Lindsay Lohan, watch out! What a tour de force! And the tongues would never stop wagging -- or panting -- depending on the viewer.

You know, when I made that comment about finding someone to play Viola, I was actually thinking exactly that -- that he could play both roles! But I was afraid to say so (worried about those wagging tongues) So I'm glad to see that someone else had the same idea. The only problem is that there are some scenes with both twins together, and we don't have the benefit of special effects on stage. Maybe Weta could come up with something. . . . A hologram???

Moondancer, thanks for the leads on Bumblebee and other EW videos. I also notice that it's available through Amazon Marketplace. Has anyone ever used them?

DK whether this is old news, but theonering.net has a link to a website that features Elijah reading a children's book called "Me and My Cat." Very nice picture, if you click on the book in the LEFT panel and then click on his name in the MIDDLE panel (picture turns up in RIGHT panel):

http://www.bookpals.net/storyline/index.html

I used the amazon marketplace before. Just had one bad experience there. Somebody send me a publicity copy: the movie gets interrupted every 15 minutes or so with the message that the copy is not for sale. So, I miss a couple of scenes. :mad:


Pelagia, that bookpal link with 'Me and my cat' is the same one I linked to a page ago. :)

Pelagia, you noted,

The only problem is that there are some scenes with both twins together, and we don't have the benefit of special effects on stage. Maybe Weta could come up with something. . . . A hologram???

LOL! Ah, I forgot what I myself had been suggesting! Right. Stage...this would be on stage. Hmmmm. Well, he could just hop from one side to the other while he spoke the lines of first Viola, then Sebastian....? I'm sure the audience would be indulgent, under these special circumstances. But I really would love to hear him deliver Viola's speech to Count Orsino (as the count's page, Cesario), telling how he/she would behave if he (she) were in love with Olivia, all the while swooning for Orsino. Also, that scene with Olivia in which Viola (as Cesario), is pressing Orsino's suit to Olivia, but Olivia is swooning over her as Cesario. What fun! It would have to be on film, though.

I don't know, Pelagia -- maybe it's just the thought of him dressed in that page outfit. :D Oh, I know, borderline swoon stuff. I'll be good.

Good work! But my question is, if this site has all these clips, SOMEONE must have the film they came from. Was there an email address anywhere on that site for contact? Worth a shot as well.
Always worth a shot, although it hasn't worked for me, yet, emailing sites that have pics available. Most of them seem to be publicity photos. Star Gallery had some new ones a few months ago--but they didn't keep track of who sent them the pics, so couldn't help. From the look of them, though, they're probably more pics that were always available as stills, rather than screencaps. Could be true with the soundclips, too--that is, might be from ads, etc. But you never know!!

I just went on the IMDB and someone in Australia appears to have seen it in 2000 (that site the clips were on was Aussie too, wasn't it?). So the plot thickens -- it was on TV down under 4 years ago.
I don't remember how long it's been since I contacted the guy who wrote that review on IMDb--between one and two years, IIRC--and have never heard from him. I joined IMDb specifically so I could "message" him :rolleyes: ; the membership's come in handy a few times since then, though, 'cause it lets me add my vote when movies get rated :) . I think that's still the only review posted at IMDb for Day-O.

Of course, you will tell her how lovely she is, right??? LOL
Oh, of course :) -- And since they give only an email address to request an autographed photo, they must not expect you to send a return envelope :confused: ? I'm certainly going to compliment the website of the organization she started to support people recovering from depression--I didn't really learn anything new, but then I've been "at this" for quite some time; very good basic info and encouragement. [And then add, "By the way..." :p ]

Between electrical storms and my schedule, I haven't been online at home much. But I think I may just go ahead and email her from work--it certainly wouldn't be the first incriminating history on my computer ;) .

-----If I'd been posting from home yesterday, I would have posted a pic of Huck Finn dressed as a girl for the Shakespearean discussion. :p

Hi Everyone!
This is officially my first post here. I've sort of been lurking around here for the past week or so, reading all of your posts, and I must say that you all are a great bunch! It's not often you find a community where everyone respects one another and provides intelligent, thought-provoking responses! I've enjoyed reading all of your comments!
That being said, I too agree that Elijah would make an excellent Puck in "Midsummer's Night's Dream" or a wonderful Sebastian in "Twelfth Night". Regarding the latter role, it would be difficult, though, to find a Viola who has the same kind of blue eyes as he. I tend to agree that it would be a challenge for him to play both the male and female (twin) roles. He certainly does have that androgenous (sp?) quality about him! ;)
At any rate, I wonder why he's never thought of doing theater before? It would be a great experience for him.

:) Welcome vardaelentari! Wonderful to have you join us. (BTW, do you have a preferred "short form" of your name? :o )

Regarding the latter role, it would be difficult, though, to find a Viola who has the same kind of blue eyes as he.
Until reading that, it hadn't struck me that Shakespeare suffered from an early version of the "Bobbsey Twin" syndrome*. That is, having fictional sets of twins, one male and one female, that are virtually identical except... one's male and one's female. I suppose with his love for mistaken identities and gender switches, that was almost inevitable, and it's certainly forgivable considering the state of scientific knowledge at the time. (I doubt if it would have mattered to him that he'd never seen an actual case :p .)

Not to say that a pair of twins of opposite sexes can't look a lot like each other, of course--they can be as much alike as any brother and sister can be (but not more). Two that look so much alike they could be mistaken for each other would take an infinite number of monkeys... well, never mind ;) .

Now that some topics are more publicly acceptable than in Shakespeare's time, there could be other ways of dealing with this--identical twin brothers, one gay and one straight, for example (but then you'd have to deal with the controversy of whether homosexuality is inherited or acquired, and would have to figure out how the coupling would work with the "victims" of the mistaken identities). I'd pay to see Elijah play that role :p ! And since some of the play would have to be rewritten, anyway, maybe it could be altered so both brothers aren't on stage at the same time?

---------
*This is a variant of the "Ghosts" syndrome, in which a fiction writer uses the scientific knowledge of the time to come up with something later found to be impossible--such as a son inheriting syphillis from his father in Ibsen's "Ghosts." [And, yes, I made up the names of both of these conditions, but I haven't heard of any others... ;) .]


At any rate, I wonder why he's never thought of doing theater before? It would be a great experience for him.
Well, he has thought about it, and talked about it a little--has basically said that he's interested but is kind of afraid of it. Seems he's had a few British fellow actors :) trying to convince him. I expect him to do it at some point--I don't think Elijah's ever let being afraid of something keep him from doing it (with the exception of going bungee jumping with Orlando :p ). I wonder if things such as being onstage at fan conventions, and hosting SNL, might not ease him into it a bit.

I suppose if you've been doing one thing since you were eight--putting all your effort into the techniques needed to do it well--it could be hard to switch to something that pretty much needs an entirely different set of skills. Kind of like telling a hockey player to go out on the ice and do a triple flip. Not that he couldn't learn to do it, but it might take some practice. Unlike a lot of actors, Elijah didn't even have the relatively common experience of acting in a school play, so all of his acting has been for the camera. So I can see how the stage could feel like "foreign soil" to him. But I'm sure he'll do it... I just have no idea when.

WELCOME VARDAELENTARI!!!!
I hope you will like it here as much as i do!!!! ;)

To day the wait is over i will look at the movie The war
tonight it arrived in the mail today,i am realy looking forward to this
movie!!!and i guess kevin costner is not a bad actor either thow i haven`t
seen to many movies with him!!

Talk to you later after i seen it!! :k

LOVE/WOOD

Once again, away for a few days and already there are stacks of fascinating new posts! Not to mention people - welcome, vardaelentari!
ylla, I’m so happy your husband is doing OK! Hope he continues to thrive.

Lady Wendy, I missed your birthday, but Elijah clearly didn’t:

http://webplaza.pt.lu/barbara/public-misc-239.jpg

Looks as if you nearly reduced the poor lad to tears of .. er, joy?
BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!

The Great Acting Debate:

from Sharpe’s girl:
It'd be interesting to see him develop the necessary full-body acting that the stage requires

from zkgrumpy:
I would be very sad to see Elijah go the "method acting" route

Me too. He could, I suppose, learn a few useful tricks – but the essential material is all in place already. From what I saw of SNL, which was essentially stage acting of a whole series of eccentric characters, Elijah already has all the body acting (not to mention live, real-time acting skills) that the stage requires. And such seasoned stage actors as Billy and Dom as well as the Sir Ians and John Rhys-Davies all attested to his acting ability, and I'm sure they weren't distinguishing between film and stage acting. It must have been gratifying for Elijah to have convinced Sir I McK - who initially thought him "too beautiful" to play Frodo (who should look like Everyman and hence ordinary) but became a total convert as soon as he saw the lad act :)

IIRC it was John Rhys-Davies (not Sir I McK, EW fan though he undoubtedly is) who called EW “such a natural talent” on the FOTR EE commentary. John went on to say that EW had the confidence and self-belief that a young actor must have if he’s going to be any good. Elsewhere he said how impressed he was in general with “our young Frodo: so mature, so giving, such a consummate professional”. (But then what's new ?? ;))

I could be totally wrong, but the tiny bit of “natural” (i.e. totally untrained) acting I’ve done gives me a sort of impression of how Elijah might go about his intuitive character interpretations (though at a totally different level, needless to say :rolleyes: ;) ) and why he has difficulty in describing it. I think it’s “simply” a matter of imagining yourself as that character, i.e. feeling your way into the character’s head/body space ("inhabiting the role", as they say) - not your own head/body space, note, which may be why Elijah said he didn't think about scenes from his own life when getting emotional as Stu in The War. If you start thinking about sad or infuriating or joyful experiences you have had, it distracts you from the character and the character’s quite different experiences, personality and motivations. Monndancer's becoming-a-tree experience is an example. For me at least, it’s far easier to act someone else’s feelings than my own – at least you have that person’s persona to hide behind rather than having to let your own hang out!
But crying to order may be different. I’m in awe of people who can do that - particularly with a film camera stuck in their faces and crew several feet deep all around! Most actors have huge difficulty with that – and on the stage, night after night in real time, it must be even worse. I really would be interested to know how Elijah managed the post-Moria scene and the one on the river bank before he sets off alone in the boat.
Did he think about sad experiences from his own life?

Congratulations, wood! We'll be waiting for a report.

...and i guess kevin costner is not a bad actor either thow i haven`t
seen to many movies with him!!

Okay, even though I just posted, I'm going to be proactive (or pre-emptive :p ?) and jump in here. I seem to like Kevin Costner's acting more than a lot of Faculty members do. He's bad at accents (but that probably won't bother you in The War, wood :) ), and IMHO he does best when he's in a kind of "everyguy" type role. But I actually liked him in The War (ignoring the accent), and found his character believable. (Elijah certainly deserved the top billing, though. :) )

ETA: I don't see any conflict between the "two sides" of the "Great Acting Debate" as Serena posted them--An actor could learn whole body acting without getting into method acting, IMVHO. Actually, Elijah already does whole body acting--each of his characters has a unique way of moving, etc. He'd just need to get the amount of exaggeration (projection) right, in both movement and voice.

If I were going to guess (which is all I can do), I'd think Elijah was acting out of Frodo's emotions at those two instances of crying on cue. I'm mostly basing that guess on our second-hand information (IIRC from Sean), that Elijah used Frodo's state of mind to do what he did with the Wheel of Fire speech. If he used Frodo's emotions there, I'd think he would have in the other places--especially after Moria, where the emptiness and devastation he shows has to be beyond anything in Elijah's experience, unless there's some "dark secret" we don't know about.

But, then, how do we account for the difficulty he had producing that "one tear" at the Mirror of Galadriel? :p

Well, he has thought about it, and talked about it a little--has basically said that he's interested but is kind of afraid of it. Seems he's had a few British fellow actors :) trying to convince him.

And he may have had other people telling him, "No Elijah, it's a bad idea -- you'll lose your film technique." That may be what he's really afraid of, moreso than being faced with a live audience.

Of course, as you pointed out, tg, the skills required for intimate work in front of a camera, and projecting emotions to the back row are quite different. In fact, I believe it was Sir Ian McK, whose career went in the opposite direction (i.e., from stage to film), who spoke of the difficulties involved with that transition. Perhaps his path was harder than it would be for Elijah, coming from film. Dunno.

And he may have had other people telling him, "No Elijah, it's a bad idea -- you'll lose your film technique." That may be what he's really afraid of, moreso than being faced with a live audience.
Back in the Dark Ages (before The Movies were released :p ), I had a little note on the one webpage devoted to Elijah's movies saying that I didn't want Elijah to do any stage acting until he was completely finished playing Frodo. I said it in a joking way, but was half serious, because of what Achila says there. I was afraid something would happen to those subtleties and minute nuances of emotion that I was counting on for Frodo. After seeing more of Elijah's versatility, I'm less afraid of that now; I guess I've come to believe he could handle going back and forth between the two kinds of acting. But, again, that's just a guess. I wouldn't want him to do anything that would affect his "camera presence" negatively, even slightly--IMVVHO (i.e., another guess :p ), if that started to happen he'd be aware of it.

...In fact, I believe it was Sir Ian McK, whose career went in the opposite direction (i.e., from stage to film), who spoke of the difficulties involved with that transition. Perhaps his path was harder than it would be for Elijah, coming from film. Dunno.
IIRC, both Billy Boyd and Orlando Bloom said that it took them awhile to get used to acting for the camera when they started filming LotR. Not nearly as much experience as Sir Ian McK, of course!!

---Added thought: I'd love to see the shooting schedule for LotR. I wonder how much camera experience Billy had before doing, say, that scene with Gandalf, when he does such minute things so well.

Thanks for all the warm welcomes! I really appreciate it!

Getting back to the discussion on whether elijah should do theater, I do agree that theater involves different acting techniques than film. Since elijah tends to be more of a subtle actor (especially how he expresses his eyes and emotions) in his films, I suppose he would need to learn how to convey feeling more bluntly for theater. It's harder to see subtle emotions in a theater, especially if you are sitting in the back row. (Not that I think he can't do it, mind you. . . I think if given the chance, he definitely could display some pretty strong emotions. . . wouldn't that be great to see! :D )
Although I personally know nothing about theater techniques, I gather you would need to learn how to project your voice and learn how to use your voice to convey feeling and emotion in order to captivate your audience. I seem to recall, when I saw Elijah at the Lincoln Center Trilogy event in January, that he does have the capability of projecting his voice. I was sitting in one of the back rows and I remember that he had a strong resonant quality to his voice. So I definitely think he could do theater if he wanted. I guess the real issue is whether he wants to do theater or not and whether he would be successful in the transition from film to theater. BTW, hasn't Liev Schreiber done a number of Shakespearean plays on Broadway? Perhaps, Elijah should consult him? ;)

Speaking of Everything is illuminated, I've just ordered this book. I tried to go to my local bookstore and they didn't have it! :mad: So, I had to order it online. From reading your comments on the book, I am looking forward with much anticipation to reading it!

Oh, just wanted to add something about Viola and Sebastian from Twelfth Night. Although, they are not obviously identical twins, I do recall when I saw this play in NYC a couple of years ago, that Viola does resemble Sebastian in physical appearance when she is dressed up as Cesario. At several times in the play, she gets mistaken for Sebastian. Therefore, it would make practical sense to get two actors who resemble each other in some respects. So if you had Elijah for Sebastian, you would need a woman who resembled him a bit.
Also, for anyone who enjoys a bit of history trivia. It seems that Shakespeare had twins with his wife, a boy and a girl. Sadly, though, the boy did not survive. I wonder if his own children were the inspiration behind Twelfth Night?

...Therefore, it would make practical sense to get two actors who resemble each other in some respects. So if you had Elijah for Sebastian, you would need a woman who resembled him a bit...
What about Hannah? Seriously? (Or not? ;) )

Delurking to say a quick hello to the Faculty and Harem!

Just a few thoughts on the screen vs live theater discussion. I recently talked to an actor friend of mine who does mostly tv and big screen work. He had just done a part in a play while getting his Masters at a university. He told me that you need a lot more stamina for a play than for film and tv as you need to sustain the character the entire time you're on stage.

Not sure if it'll work on a big stage (a la Broadway) but in your local small theaters, the audience is definitely close enough to catch those subtle nuances of expression, I think. You can also see the actor's entire body language as opposed to being limited to what a film director limits you to on the screen.

And speaking of Twelfth Night, I think the most recent version (on VHS at least) is Trevor Nunn's with Helena Bonham Carter. Imogen Stubbs plays Viola/Cesario and Steven MacIntosh (BBC's version of Dicken's Our Mutual Friend) is Sebastian. The "twins" work in this one as they're of similar build and coloring despite the differences in their eyes. I happen to like this version and the costumes are gorgeous.

K.

Welcome valdaerentali!

I don't know a lot about Shakespeare, as I said before (besides the stories everybody knows like Romeo and Julia, Hamlet,...).
But the rest? Puck who? :o
We did learn about Romeo and Julia at school here in Flanders but that had to do with a very old flemish poem that has a very similar and tragic lovestory as the main theme (a boy and a girl commit suicide because they aren't allowed to be together).

Can I ask those who know more about Shakespeare what they think of the known movie versions out there? Like Shakespeare in love, Hamlet (with Mel Gibson), Romeo and Julia (with whatshisname? mister Titanic)?
I liked movies such as "Much Ado About Nothing" but I don't know if it's a good movie version of Shakespeare's work.

PS I'm reading Fahrenheit 451 and I'm loving it.
PPS Remember a while ago when we found out that the movie Everything is Illuminated is actually more based on the short story in The New Yorker than on the book itself?
Does anybody have a link to that short story?

NOW I HAVE SEEN THE WAR :)

Were to begin?i don`t now!
i just say this i loved it :k it was a very beautiful movie about love
and war!!! and i must say that it was one of Elijahs best movie!!!!!
me and my girl who is 12 was aculy crying at the end!!!
TALK ABOUT EXPRESSION WHEN HIS DAD DIED!!!!!!
He realy showed the pain he was feeling!!!
Oh my he was so good in it!!!!

but how old was he?i think he must have been a teenager
becuse his voice was so dark,or?
again sometimes he seams so young and the next short he looks older
as you all can read i was blown a way by this movie
and kevin costner did a great job to!i realy liked him in
this one.i have seen him in dances with wolf and robin hood
and some other movies an think he is rather good.

Thank you so much for rekommend this movie!!!!!! :k :k

LOVE/WOOD

http://img.photobucket.com

WHY DOES THAT ONE COME UP?????? :confused: :confused: :confused:

wood--The War was released in 1994, so Elijah would have been 12 (more or less) during the filming.

While at IMDb looking that up (can you tell I'm having a rather boring day at work :rolleyes: ?), I ran across the following as a news item--on the "front page" so must be recent. It's not really on-topic, but it hearkens back to our earlier discussion on movies about Nazi Germany. I don't quite know what to think about it (seems even a monster could be affectionate to his dog, so I'm not sure what that's supposed to prove :confused: ). But I'll pass it on FWIW:
A Sympathetic Hitler To Appear in New German Film
An upcoming German film dealing with the last 12 days of Hitler has already begun to evoke controversy a month before it opens in German theaters. According to the London Daily Telegraph, the movie, The Downfall -- Hitler and the End of the Third Reich (Der Untergang -- Hitler und das Ende des 3 Reichs) from director Oliver Hirschbiegel features scenes in which Swiss actor Bruno Ganz portrays the dictator sympathetically, particularly in a scene in which, tears flowing down his cheeks, he shouts forlornly, "The war is over!" He is also seen treating female assistants kindly and showing fondness for his pet dog. The film was shot in Berlin, Munich, and St. Petersburg at a cost of $16 million, making it one of Germany's most expensive films ever.

I have been enjoying this wonderful discussion about the possibility of Elijah doing stage work, and it rung a bell in my head, so I managed to track down the place where I read about his attitude to stage acting..not much, I'm afraid, but, to the best of my knowledge, this is the only time he has been asked directly...
This was taken from an interview in London's "Time Out" listings magazine of November 7th-14th, 2001...

Would you like to act on stage?
EW: "Yeah, I have considered it. Facing one's fear- that's something that really freaks me out, so I really want to do it"


So it does appear that he is not afraid of doing things that scare him at least, and his positive response to the question seems to indicate that we may see him on stage sometime in the future...
Also from the same interview, this was at the top...an explanatory note about the questions being asked...evidently, the interviewer asked the regular message-board posters at Imladris.net to submit questions, not only for Elijah, but also for Peter Jackson too, ( the question about stage acting was one of those !! )...and then this little snippet popped up, and amused me somewhat...

Such web-literacy is good news for Brandy who posts messages to 'Lord of the site Imladris.net under the moniker 'Masseuse of Frodo's Harem'. I invited the fans contribute questions the night before interviewing Wood, and got a dozen good ones by morning. (Though the self-styled High Queen Of Arnor just said: 'I don't think I would ask Elijah anything - I'd just stare. There's something about his eyes...')

( Anyone here remember these two people who used to post at Imladris.net before the Frodo's Harem thread finally decamped to KD ?...:D )

Moondancer,
Can I ask those who know more about Shakespeare what they think of the known movie versions out there?

Well, for myself, nothing quite beats the Franco Zeffirelli film-version of "Romeo and Juliet" from the 70s, starring Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting ( whatever happened to him ? ) for sheer gorgeous romance and beauty of filming...and the fact that this was the first film-version that I saw may have something to do with it too..

As for other Shakespeare film-adaptations...in modern times, you just can't beat anything by Kenneth Branagh..."Henry V", and "Much Ado About Nothing" ( which is one of the very best romantic comedies that Wills wrote, imho ) are the two that come to mind immediately......
For older film-versions, then look no further than Sir Laurence Olivier, who was the absolute master, and the inspiration for Our Kenneth later on...

I didn't think that Mel Gibson did a bad job at all with Hamlet either...better than I expected !!

As for Elijah playing some Shakespeare, yes, I have to admit that Puck would be a great role for him..he has the right mischievious, elfin sort of face, as demonstrated by Frodo, in certain photos ...and "Midsummer Night's Dream" is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, especially when viewed as it should be, out under the stars of a hot midsummer night, by the sea, preferably, or failing that, in London's Regent's Park at their open-air Theatre in the Round....just magical !!!

As for other Shakespeare film-adaptations...in modern times, you just can't beat anything by Kenneth Branagh..."Henry V", and "Much Ado About Nothing" ( which is one of the very best romantic comedies that Wills wrote, imho ) are the two that come to mind immediately......
I was hesitating to mention Branagh's movies, because I love them as movies but don't know much about the plays they're based on. They seemed to be good adaptations, but I didn't know how "adapted" they were, if you take my meaning. The battle scene in Henry V is incredible, IMHO. And for Keanu Reeves fans ;) , he plays a nasty person in Much Ado About Nothing--and does a good job, IMHO.

..and "Midsummer Night's Dream" is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, especially when viewed as it should be, out under the stars of a hot midsummer night, by the sea, preferably, or failing that, in London's Regent's Park at their open-air Theatre in the Round....just magical !!!
How about a park in Omaha, Nebraska :p ? Every summer the two universities in the city sponsor "Shakespeare in the Park," when they produce two plays, on alternating nights, for a little over two weeks. They usually bring in several professional actors for the "big" parts.

But it really is in a park. The stage set-ups are usually quite ingenious (the audience members sit on the grass). For A Midsummer Night's Dream they built the stage so it incorporated some of the park's trees right into the set, so you did get the feeling you were seeing the characters in a real woods. I've seen a number of plays at that annual event, and that one was some years ago, but it's still the one I remember and enjoyed the most, because it just worked so well with the outdoor setting. I also enjoyed--but some purists might not have--that the costumes were from the 1920's. The men ran around with tennis rackets instead of swords, and there were "flapper"-style wedding dresses at the end. :)

--Moondancer, Puck is a fairy who likes to play tricks on people, and he pulls off some good ones during A Midsummer Night's Dream, mostly involving mixed-up romances, of course. :D .

Ah! The Franco Zeffirelli film-version of "Romeo and Juliet" is absolutely gorgeous. I think the actor who played Romeo did not age well, alas. Not so cute now. You might be able to google a recent pic of him. Have not seen the more modern version w/Leo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. Little sis saw it and liked it.

I would also recommend Richard III w/Ian McKellen where the setting is WWII Britain vs Nazi Germany, IIRC. Very intense.

Branagh's Much Ado is very sweet and like his Henry V very much. Lots of reviews compared Branagh's Henry V to the Laurence Olivier version and comes out solid.

Mel Gibson's Hamlet's ok. Not a big Mel Gibson fan.

Haven't seen the latests versions of Othello, neither the teen one (O, I believe it's called) nor the one w/the guy from Matrix (Morpheus) - blanking on his name now.

Puck - very impish fairy indeed. I think the latest version of Midsummer's got Calista Flockhart and Rupert Everett in a Victorian (?) setting. Oh and Michelle Phieffer as Titania, the Queen Fairy. That one's ok.

K.

I haven't mastered the quote box yet so I copied and pasted:

**But, then, how do we account for the difficulty he had producing that "one tear" at the Mirror of Galadriel?**

On the commentary track for FOTR EE (I would have to go back and listen to it to quote him but...) Elijah talked about PJ wanting him to shed a tear during that scene and he said he had difficulty doing it because acting with Cate Blanchett was slightly overwhelming to him. I believe he was in awe of her.

Is the "Wheel of Fire" speech you refer to the one on Mt. Doom with Sam holding him?

Is the "Wheel of Fire" speech you refer to the one on Mt. Doom with Sam holding him?
Yes... And thanks for the bit from the commentary on the tear. :) I can't think of anything else to say right now :o .

DK whether this is old news, but theonering.net has a link to a website that features Elijah reading a children's book called "Me and My Cat." Very nice picture, if you click on the book in the LEFT panel and then click on his name in the MIDDLE panel (picture turns up in RIGHT panel):


Oh, that is so *CUTE*!!! I listened to (and watched) the story all the way through. Elijah Wood can read stories to me any time!

~grumpy (But did he really say "Liberry"? :rolleyes: )(the 2nd time, it was definitely "library")(he even managed to make me feel really sorry for the mom :::: sniffle :::: )

Quote from Serena:

But crying to order may be different. I’m in awe of people who can do that - particularly with a film camera stuck in their faces and crew several feet deep all around! Most actors have huge difficulty with that – and on the stage, night after night in real time, it must be even worse.

I don’t think I fully realized, until watching the LotR “making-of” extras, how completely unnatural a film set is. Here you are, doing a big closeup in which you’re supposed to be having an intense, emotional conversation with someone, and you’re really addressing (as you said) “a film camera stuck in [your] face.” At least stage actors are more contained within the illusory world of the play; AND they have the advantage of being able to develop their characters through the normal arc of the drama. I still don’t know how the LotR cast were able to deliver such great performances, with the filming sequence jumping around the three films, not to mention being spread out over years.

IMVH (and inexperienced) O, I think it might be easier to go from film to stage acting than in the other direction: for a subtle actor to learn how to project things more, than for a stage-trained actor to learn how to tone things down to a “micro” level.

Regarding filmed versions of Shakespeare: The best version of Much Ado About Nothing that I EVER saw was on PBS (for ex-US people, that’s our poor, struggling public television system) years ago (back in the late 1970s). It was directed by Joseph Papp, starred Kathleen Widdoes and Sam Waterston, and had a “gay ‘90s” setting. I’m not usually crazy about temporal relocations of Shakespeare (haven’t seen Luhrman’s R&J yet), but this one really worked. It’s available on video.

Also very interesting: Al Pacino’s Looking for Richard, about a production of Richard III (rehearsals, etc.). Terrific cast: Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, Aidan Quinn, et al.


Quote from Mechtild:


I don't know, Pelagia -- maybe it's just the thought of him dressed in that page outfit.

Yes, I confess that I had that image in my head, too. :rolleyes: Surely, some intelligent director could think of a way to make this work!

Moondancer: Thanks for feedback on Amazon Marketplace.

Lady Wendy, did you in fact see "Midsummer's Night's Dream" at the open air theater in Regent's Park? I confess I have always wanted to go to that theater when I was living in London a couple of years ago, but I never got the chance. :( I am so upset I never did!! I think it would be absolutely wonderful to see a play there!! Anything by Shakespeare would be fine. . really. . . I'm not picky!! :p

Tgshaw, WOW! I would have loved to have seen "Midsummer's Night's Dream" at that park in Omaha! I really think that the best plays are those that are set in their natural habitat!! There's something so mystical and wonderful about plays set in the wooded areas. I once saw a play when I was a child that was set in deep in the woods. It was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen!! It was a medieval play and was set at night with these illuminating fire lamps all around the woods. It was unbelievable! I will never forget it!

Oh, Branagh is such the quintessential Shakespearean actor! I loved him in Hamlet, Much Ado about Nothing and Othello (He played Iago and was terrific!).

Getting back to Elijah, you know, I think I really need to see "The War". I have read everyone's posts about this film and it seems to be unanimous that Elijah's fine acting abilities are in rare form in this movie. It's not often you see that kind of acting displayed at an early age, but then again, he is exceptional!!

BTW, everyone can call me Cat if it's easier to remember. It's one of my nicknames. :D

Fascinating discussions regarding Elijah's acting style. He's certainly no method actor, is he?

While I understand that different actors have their own particular way of getting into and relating to their character, I would imagine that true method actors must be quite difficult to work with.

I remember reading about Daniel Day-Lewis - a method actor if ever there was one - when he was filming 'My Left Foot.' Apparently he stayed in character almost the whole time - during meal breaks etc. He insisted on staying in that wheelchair, 'in character' even when the cameras weren't rolling. I also recall reading that one of his more recent co-stars - can't think who it was or which film it referred to - said she only really got to know him - Daniel, the person - when filming had finished, as he'd been in character throughout the entire filming process. Could have been 'Gangs Of New York,' now I come to think of it.

The differing styles of acting - DD-L's and Elijah's - seem so far removed from each other, yet they can both result in equally compelling performances. I think of DD-L in that permanently intense state, all the soul-searching and trying to find the character in himself or himself in the character, or whatever - OK, so I've no idea what I'm talking about! And then my mind turns to the image of Elijah as Frodo and that wonderful moment under the tree roots, hiding from the Black Riders. There's Frodo, looking up, seeing this dark, faceless, otherworldly creature who's looking, sniffing, for him. He's being hunted, he's terrified, fighting the temptation to put on the Ring - then PJ calls 'cut,' and instantly there's Elijah, smiling at Billy, mouth open in awe and excitment, enjoying the thrill of the experience he, as an actor and a person, is going through.

We know how almost everyone involved in LOTR seemed to fall a little in love with Elijah - there are countless testimonies to that fact. He's like a breath of fresh air, and yet - for me at least - his Frodo is the most subtle, measured, heart-wrenchingly poignant performance I've ever seen.

Of course I recognize every actor's right to portray their character in the way they deem best for them. I may be wrong, but I can't help thinking that someone as open, honest and 'normal' as Elijah is as a person, combined with his almost inexplicable natural talent as an actor, makes for a much happier, (or easier, more relaxed?) working environment for everyone else involved. Just my thoughts. :)

Originally quoted by Tg:
If I were going to guess (which is all I can do), I'd think Elijah was acting out of Frodo's emotions at those two instances of crying on cue. I'm mostly basing that guess on our second-hand information (IIRC from Sean), that Elijah used Frodo's state of mind to do what he did with the Wheel of Fire speech. If he used Frodo's emotions there, I'd think he would have in the other places--especially after Moria, where the emptiness and devastation he shows has to be beyond anything in Elijah's experience,

Yes, Tg. I think Elijah simply 'became' Frodo almost at will. I think he saw things through Frodo's eyes, from Frodo's perspective. He reacted to storyline situations in the way he believed Frodo would react, having read the script, getting to know the character and empathizing with him - and that's what we see on screen. It's not Elijah - it's Frodo. Despite his youth, exuberance and his apparent ability to switch his character on and off, our boy is no less professional or gifted than any highly-acclaimed 'method' actor. He's extremely focused when he's working - there's evidence of that on the behind-the-scenes footage on TTT EE DVD. The camera was on Elijah during a very intense moment between Frodo and Sam, when the New Zealand army fired very loud ammunition close to their location. PJ says in the commentary that Elijah merely flinched and carried on with his performance, but I can't even detect a flinch there - that's professionalism for you.

This same discussion reminded me of a quote from that 'Bumblebee' article one of our newer members shared with us a few days ago - I think it may have been Shelbyshire?

Quote - from Martin Duffy. Director TBFA
..this film requires some very heavy performances. I was blessed to be working with Elijah because he has the ability to deliver all one could want and more without having to agonise over the work.

There you have it!

Tg - a few pages back you mentioned the 'Wheel Of Fire' scene, and how Elijah actually had to take some time out by himself to 'recover' from that experience. I've never actually seen any reference to that, and wondered if you can remember where you read about it.

Originally quoted by Pelagia
I don’t think I fully realized, until watching the LotR “making-of” extras, how completely unnatural a film set is. Here you are, doing a big closeup in which you’re supposed to be having an intense, emotional conversation with someone, and you’re really addressing (as you said) “a film camera stuck in [your] face.”

I don't know how they do it, either, Pelagia. On the FOTR commenatry track, Rick Porras remarks on Frodo's tearful scene on the banks of the Anduin, when he's steeling himself to go on alone, recalling Gandalf's words. Rick explains how the camera was only inches from Elijah's face, and how he was crying and just giving this amazing performance. That's our boy.

Regarding Elijah going on the stage. It would be great if he did, though I think it may be a while yet - weren't Dom and Billy trying to persuade him?

As for Shakespeare, I'm no expert. Puck would be good. I've always been quite fond of Puck - I had to perform a Puck scene in an acting class once -'Through the forest have I gone ... ' (IIRC) many moons ago, and I only went to keep my sister company!

Originally quoted by Lady Wendy: Re the birthday gif:

this is an absolute favourite of mine, particularly that utterly balletic fall under the influence of the Eye....

I'm so pleased your birthday gif actually featured one of your favourite Frodo moments, Lady Wendy. And as you mentioned the balletic fall - it follows right on after that middle section of said gif - I couldn't resist obliging you here:

Falling Frodo (http://www.imagemagician.com/images/blossom/FrodoFall.gif)

Welcome to the Faculty, vardaelentari. I'm sure you'll like it here.
And hello to Kilia24 - I know your name. Have you been here before?

Alyon - thanks for asking about my hubby. Unfortunately, he's back in hospital at the moment - hopefully not for long this time.

Ylla - Hope your dear husband is still making good progress. I don't know you, but have a hug anyway. I think you need it after the past few weeks.

Thanks for all the wonderful thoughts and comments, everyone. Intelligent and insightful posts, as always.

Cat - yes, that's much easier :) I just saw your post.
Originally quoted by Cat:
Getting back to Elijah, you know, I think I really need to see "The War". I have read everyone's posts about this film and it seems to be unanimous that Elijah's fine acting abilities are in rare form in this movie. It's not often you see that kind of acting displayed at an early age, but then again, he is exceptional!!

Yes, yes. Do see 'The War.' You won't regret it. One of Elijah's very best performances. And the music soundtrack is great, too.

re-lurking for a while.

A Belated but Many Best Wishes Lady Wendy for your birthday :k

I probably will be tied up with RL for awhile...hubby is anxious to come home and although I hate the thought they are releasing him IMHO....WAY too early
Most hospitals treat and dump patients out...
esp. when they are anxious to go home.....SO Blossom...I'll take that hug you sent...with love and pleasure :k

WELCOME...Cat....definitely...you will Love it here.
TG...I agree with you I also like Kevin Costner....actually liked WaterWorld...not so much for the story but felt his character was fascinating.
Moondancer...glad your liking Fahrenheit 451...if you like Bradbury's style ..You must give Martian Chronicles a try....so poetic in it's style.
As I've mentioned before...it's where YLLA originated. Let me know someday if you get around to reading it(it's a very short book).
I'll be lurking around mostly :D

Ylla :k

Ylla, I was just thinking about you and your husband, and hoping you were doing well. My prescription: lot's of gently administered Vitamine "H" (hugs); works wonders! Wasn't Ylla the shape-shifter character? The saddest part of the whole book for me.

I'm sorry to hear your husband is ill again, Blossom.

Welcome Cat!

Wood, congrats on obtaining "The War." I don't really like Kevin Costner, but I thought he graciously under-played his character. My sister caught part of "The War" on television once, the part after the dad dies. She said of Elijah "He was quite the little actor even back then." I offered to show her the whole thing, as there are scenes you MUST see. She refused; can't stand Mr. Costner that much! :p Her loss; maybe someday I'll talk her into watching the whole thing.

Saw IceStorm again the other day. Forgot how funny it was! Of course I remembered how sad it was. Watched the extra bit. What the heck was Sigourney Weaver thinking when she said she thought Janie was a good mother? :confused: I'm going to have to agree with our Lij on this one; "the parenting was just whacked!"

Don't know nothin' 'bout no actin', or that Mr. Shakespeare either, but I know what I like! Consequently I haven't had much to say. Back to lurkdom for me!

Honey!

PS Did you all see this at TORN? LoTR a turn-off to Girls (http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1075038.html) :lol: Makes me glad I'm WOMAN! :D

PSS TG, Hannah definitely!

Am I missing something, or during the God Diyonisus Festival, didn't Men dress as Women and Women dress as Men for one day?

And an actor who can probably pull off an adrogynus look was chosen to play him at Mardi Grau?

Clearly an odd thought is occuring here. :eek:

The Martian Chronicles you say, ylla? I'll see if I can find it in the library.
Thanks to those who recommended Bradbury. I'm always looking for good SF but it's rare IMO.
I find good SF books fascinating because they can make you really think about society and why the world is what it is. It can offer a different view from your own. Good SF writers seem to be original thinkers, people who are able to think 'outside the box'.

I love the Robot series of Asimov. I saw "I, Robot" yesterday and that was based on the concept of the books but not a real movie version of the books.
The thing I loved in that book was the search of a robot for humanity and his yearning to be accepted in the human world for everything he represents and not just be considered as a very modern house tool.
A robot gets an upgrade. He learns about emotions, dreams, hopes and yet, he's still just a machine, just a number.
It's a beautiful book but the movie is action packed. You see glimpses of the beautiful story in Sonny, the robot but it's drowned in the revolution of the robots. I liked the movie but I wanted to find out more about Sonny.

That's why I can understand that an actor who loves subtlety and nuance like Elijah has trouble finding good scripts.
I was reading an interview with that director of The Village (don't ask me his name). He doesn't have really big names in this movie and one of the advantages is that you have more room to play with. When there's a big Hollywood name involved, the public knows that those character won't die. Most of the time, it's not done.
In the Gladiator, Russell's character dies in the end and they (director and Russell) had to fight for that because the movie company didn't like that ending. They also wanted Maximus to have a relationship with the sister of the emperor. Russell also had to fight to keep that out because it didn't match the idea that his character was still very much grieving for his murdered son and wife. Hollywood wanted a romance in the movie and the makers of The Gladiator figured that a big budget movie doesn't need that to attract an audience.

So, I see Elijah working with a lot of free spirits in the movie industry, lots of independant movies and only picking up a big budget movie if it's challenging enough.

The differing styles of acting - DD-L's and Elijah's - seem so far removed from each other, yet they can both result in equally compelling performances
I quite enjoy Daniel Day Lewis as an actor.
I loved that book 'My left foot'. I read that before the movie. It was a book that really affected me and I was looking forward to the movie. Lewis (or is it Day Lewis? Is Day part of his last name or is it a middle name?) does a fine job! I also hear that he has a reputation for being difficult to work with because he can't let go of his characters when he's working on a film.

This is what Alfred Hitchcock had to say about directing method actors. It's from an interview session with a live audience for the British Film Institute.
BFI: We share a dislike of directing method actors, don't we?
AH: The method actor is OK in the theatre because he has a free space to move about. But when it comes to cutting the face and what he sees and so forth, there must be some discipline. I remember discussing with a method actor how he was taught and so forth. He said, "We're taught using improvisation. We are given an idea and then we are turned loose to develop in any way we want to." I said "That's not acting. That's writing." And that is why method actors today always turn up on set with a new script.

BFI: It's a very selfish way to act though, isn't it? It doesn't really include the other actor because they are off in their little world ...
AH: That happened to me once. I was doing a film with Montgomery Clift. He turned up with the scene completely rewritten. I said to him "Has it occurred to you that there is another actress in the scene?" I wouldn't let him do it.


PS Speaking of SF books. I once saw a great movie. It was a movie version of a classic book about a future in which humans are no longer 'born' but made in a lab and designed to fit the world. You had alpha humans (who have the most priviledges and are the thinkers), the beta humans (they are lower in the hierarchy and have to listen to alpha people), ...The lowest category of humans just had to do the dirty work in the society and were treated as slaves. The movie was about the revolution against that system.
Anybody know what book I'm talking about? I'd love to read it.
PPS I'm glad that 'Much Ado About Nothing' is a good movie version to those who are more familiar with Shakespeare's work. I really liked that and I consider it one of the best roles of Keanu Reeves but besides the gorgeous Keanu, it has such a great cast with the magnificent and wonderful Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington and so many others.
I haven't seen Brannagh's Henry V. I'll look for it in the rental store.

Quote from Blossom:

I remember reading about Daniel Day-Lewis - a method actor if ever there was one - when he was filming 'My Left Foot.' Apparently he stayed in character almost the whole time - during meal breaks etc. He insisted on staying in that wheelchair, 'in character' even when the cameras weren't rolling.

And I seem to remember that in preparing for The Crucible, DD-L spent a lot of time out in the forest chopping wood. And that to psych himself up for his character’s viciousness in Gangs of New York, he listened to Eminem CDs!

How about some suggestions for more modern stage roles that Elijah could try? (Might be less intimidating than Shakespeare for a debut in live theater.) The first one that came to my mind was the younger son in Long Day's Journey into Night. And on a much more obvious level: Benjamin in the stage version of The Graduate?

Quote from Honeyelf:

Saw IceStorm again the other day. Forgot how funny it was! Of course I remembered how sad it was. Watched the extra bit. What the heck was Sigourney Weaver thinking when she said she thought Janie was a good mother?

I had the same reaction to Sigourney’s comment! I first watched Ice Storm two weeks ago – my first exposure to “teenlij,” apart from his Homicide role. Elijah’s nonverbal talents are definitely on display here, since his character has relatively little to say. I can remember only two extended “speeches”: the “two squared” homework scene, and the “molecules” paper. And his face throughout that scene with Christina Ricci in the Nixon mask! Is Mikey doing this because he wants to, or because he thinks he “should” do it? Just amazing, and very touching. It made me feel guilty about every klutzy teenage boy I was ever unkind to. (That scene is followed by what I consider one of the loveliest parts of the film, where Kevin Kline carries Christina home through the autumn woods.)

Was surprised at how skinny Elijah looked in this! All sharp shoulders and elbows. Christina would have made two of him (which somehow makes his discomfort in the Nixon-mask scene all the more poignant).

I read the book after seeing the movie, and as somebody (I think) has commented here, Mikey is even more underwritten in the novel. The film, and Elijah’s performance, do a better job of creating a character who lives mainly inside his own head, and yet is subject to almost Zen-like episodes of total immersion in the moment. At least, that’s how I interpret the early scene on the football field, where he’s so transfixed by the image of the ball tumbling toward him that he forgets to catch it. (And, of course, that’s foreshadowing for what happens when he’s out in the ice storm.) And no, he’s not “stoned” in the storm. It is indeed “Mikey’s delight.”

I do feel that the stories of the “grownups” (which take up more screen time) are far less compelling than those of these poor, lost children (although Joan Allen is splendid).

Re: that blurb about LotR being a turnoff for "girls" -- What cave has that person been living in for the past three years???

hallo ladies!!!!

okej lets hope this will work out!!!! :z: :p

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/erendil/th_elijahheaddown.jpg

kross your fingers!!!!!

jippi i coulde i coulde but it became little small but i did it!!!!!!!!!
thank you all who helped me out!!!!

LOVE/WOOD

from Moondancer:
Speaking of SF books. I once saw a great movie. It was a movie version of a classic book about a future in which humans are no longer 'born' but made in a lab and designed to fit the world. You had alpha humans (who have the most priviledges and are the thinkers), the beta humans (they are lower in the hierarchy and have to listen to alpha people), ...The lowest category of humans just had to do the dirty work in the society and were treated as slaves. The movie was about the revolution against that system.
Anybody know what book I'm talking about?

Sounds like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932) to me, Moondancer. Well worth reading!

Tgshaw,
I was hesitating to mention Branagh's movies, because I love them as movies but don't know much about the plays they're based on. They seemed to be good adaptations, but I didn't know how "adapted" they were, if you take my meaning.

Well, Kenneth Branagh's adaptations are pretty much faithful to the original plays...with the best costumes and sets available, for instance, "Much Ado About Nothing" is set in a villa in Tuscany, I believe, which gives it that authentic flavour like nowhere else, imo !!
I really do reckon that he saw himself as taking up the mantle of a modern Olivier, and he was, indeed, described as such by many critics in the eighties, when most of these films came out...the other film of his I was trying to remember was "Othello", just a fabulous job !!

Cat,
Lady Wendy, did you in fact see "Midsummer's Night's Dream" at the open air theater in Regent's Park?

Oh yes, indeed !!! A most wonderful experience, and, yes, it sounds very much like the Omaha theatre described by Tgshaw...

Blossom,
Oh my...what an absolutely FAB gif :D:D:D...consider yourself elevated to Goddess status...
Thank-you so much for giving me an extra Birthday Frodo treat !!!

Moondancer,
I was just going to post the same guess as Serena, but she got in first, while I was typing !!!...it does indeed sound just like "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, and it's one of the greats, imo...

Wood,
Many congratulations on learning how to post a pic at last...took me ages to work it out too, not having any formal computer or Internet training...now there'll be no stopping you ... ;) :D

For anyone who is from the UK, lurking or not, you may like to know that "The Ice-Storm" will be showing on BBC2, at 10.30pm on Bank-Holiday Monday...just four days time...

Serena (Edit: and Lady Wendy by the time I got this posted :) ) beat me to Brave New World -- Partly because the book was written in the early 1930's--over 20 years before anyone knew how DNA worked--the way different kinds of people are made was changed a lot for the TV movie, incorporating more of what we now know about genetics. IIRC from the TV movie, it completely left out an extremely important part of the book's plot, having to do with an "uncivilized" man from outside the controlled environment being introduced to it--IIRC from the book, no one in the controlled culture has ever read Shakespeare, so he's the one who utters the line from The Tempest that becomes the title of the book. (If anyone did a feature-length movie that incorporated that part of the story, it'd be a great role for Elijah--just to keep things on topic ;) ). The book is also quite a bit darker than the movie.

If you want more modern books that involve the "construction" of people, IMVHO the best of the best is C.J. Cherryh's Cyteen. She has other books set in the same "universe" that are also good, but they don't come near Cyteen, which is one of the best books I've ever read. Like LotR, it's one continuous story but was originally published in three volumes--but it's sold as one volume now. Also like LotR, it has enough subtlety to it that I've picked up new understandings when re-reading it.

---- And, whoa, talk about good roles! I've thought about Elijah as the lead in that story, who's in his early-to-mid-20's for most of the book (there's an earlier section where he's 17, but that could be done another way if the age were a problem). The only drawback is that he's supposed to be a prime genetic "specimen" and because of that he's written as being tall. But I've already figured out a way around that :p ... (For anyone who's read the book--I'm thinking of Justin, not Grant. In fact, the height could become another difference between the [more-or-less] naturally produced Justin and the genetically-assembled-from-scratch Grant.)

-----------

From Blossom:
Tg - a few pages back you mentioned the 'Wheel Of Fire' scene, and how Elijah actually had to take some time out by himself to 'recover' from that experience. I've never actually seen any reference to that, and wondered if you can remember where you read about it.
All I remember is that it was fairly recent, and that the story wasn't told by Elijah. I think it was from Sean (the only other possibility is PJ). And I almost certainly found it through a link in this thread--since that's about the only way I find interviews :o . Sorry that I don't have time to hunt for it now... But a story about or interview with Sean from within the last few months would be the best bet.

-------

from Pelagia:
I read the book after seeing the movie, and as somebody (I think) has commented here, Mikey is even more underwritten in the novel.
Yes, IMHO Mikey is barely developed enough in the book to even be considered a character. His existence is probably most important after his "Oh, no" moment, because of the way it affects Wendy's father--which, IIRC, is developed more in the book, as is Wendy. Reading the book just made me that much more impressed with what Ang Lee and Elijah were able to do with the character in the movie.

-------

On the article about LotR being a "turn-off"--IMHO the best thing is to be seen reading the kind of book you like, in order to "attract" members of the opposite sex who have similar interests. If I had to choose between a seat next to a guy reading Jane Eyre and one next to a guy reading LotR, I'd definitely pick the second--the more ragged and battered the better (and that description might apply to either the book or its owner ;) :p ).

If I had to choose between a seat next to a guy reading Jane Eyre and one next to a guy reading LotR, I'd definitely pick the second--the more ragged and battered the better (and that description might apply to either the book or its owner ;) :p ).


Well, considering that Elijah has said one of his favorite books is Jane Eyre, I think the better option would be a seat next to *him*! :lol: But yes, I agree with you, tg. I'll have Handsome Geeks for $200, Alex!

Thanks for the book tips (Brave New World and Cyteen).
It's been noted and I'll look for them.
:)

I did a search in this forum and found a link to that bit of directing Peter did with Elijah Wood for the "Wheel of Fire" scene.
From the TORN message board archives (http://www.theonering.net/rumour_mill/rpg/viewer/main/401D2F59000AE58D.html)

Well, considering that Elijah has said one of his favorite books is Jane Eyre, I think the better option would be a seat next to *him*!
To get to know him and for wonderful conversation, yes, yes, yes! But the article was talking specifically about attracting possible romantic partners... I'm not against the pairing of older women with younger men, but when the woman's old enough to be the man's grandmother... well, it'd be a bit of a stretch for me ;) (and even more of a stretch for him, since he could certainly find someone more to his liking than me :eek: !) I'll take one who's as "ragged and battered" as I am :) .

----Moondancer, thanks for finding that link!

Moondancer- Thanks for finding the reference to Elijah's reaction to filming 'the wheel of fire' scene.

I'm going to quote it here because it is so moving and beautiful. Plus it's the perfect subject of consideration for this forum.

Here's what was posted at TORN.

Tears from Elijah and Sean (Movie and RL Moment)
I'm sure this has been commented on here in the past, but I wanted to post and reflect on a magic moment that occured at ComicCon2003 that I just came to hear of this morning from Goldilock1420.

Background

I was commenting to her that I marveled at how Elijah and cast were able to bring forth so realistically the tears and the raw grit required for the emotionally-wrought moments in ROTK (most particularly the "Wheel of Fire" scene at Mt. Doom). What Goldilocks added to my opinion however was to realize that Elijah, Sean and the Cast BECAME the characters and genuinely felt the true sadness that the characters did. As a result of that reality, PJ and crew were left in tears during the filming of that Mt. Doom scene as they were off-camera. Elijah became Frodo so intensely during this "Wheel of Fire" sequence that he was literally shaking during the it's execution. Seeing this, PJ softly encouraged: "That's it Elijah, now go deeper". And the result of this encouragement is apparently what we see on the big screen. It seems that this scene was so overwhelming for Elijah, that he had to silently leave the premises and to be alone for a while.

At Comic Con 2003

Goldilocks1420 then told me of an episode that occured at ComicCon 2003. Sean, Elijah, Andy, and others were on stage when a short clip of this same Mt. Doom scene was previewed for audiences in attendence. When the clip ended, Sean was seen turning to Elijah, and accepting him in his arms when Eli's overcome with emotion. This description brought me to tears, but imagine my response when she sent me a picture of the actual moment. It was Seans kiss and Elijah's head turn that did me in:


I think I have that pic from ComicCon somewhere. I have to go find it now.

please do hobmom!!!
i love to see it!! that scen alwayes makes me cryes!!!! :(

love/wood

I think these pics might be of that moment mentioned above.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/Hobbsy/lijsean_0617.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/Hobbsy/lijsean_0619.jpg

Yes, and the pic on the TORN site makes me cry too!

from Lady Wendy:
Kenneth Branagh's adaptations are pretty much faithful to the original plays...with the best costumes and sets available

True! He makes a point of sticking as closely as possible to the uncut play. I now have both Olivier's and Branagh's Henry V on DVD - must finally make a point of watching them :rolleyes: Olivier's is a total classic, of course, with that magical transition from obvious, artificial Shakespearian theatre ("wooden O") production to film epic as the theatre audience, true to the prologue, "pieces out the imperfections with its thoughts". Branagh's is far grittier and more "real", turning Henry back into a fallible human being in contrast to Olivier's demigod - and the full-length version is 4 hours long, but well worth the effort (IMHO).

But I could still see Elijah as Henry. There IS room for a third version!

And yes, Tg, he certainly would make an ideal Savage in Brave New World (I did see the movie aeons ago, but remember the book better - maybe because it's better).
Thanks for the tip about Cyteen, which I don't know at all ... but will find out ....

Blossom, I forgot to say (echoing Lady W) that you are indeed the Gif Goddess of the Faculty. (Sounds like a movie title, no? :))

i couldent see the pic at thorn!!! :(
is it someone who has it?? :z:


LOVE/WOOD

:) Blossom - hi back! I delurked a few months back, starting at the Harem, but RL's reared it's busy little head and have not had the chance to visit or post recently.

Daniel Day-Lewis (aka DDL amongst my friends) - I recall back when I was totally gaga over him, especially during "Last of the Mohicans," that articles would mention how he would get into (almost?) extreme measures to get into his character. He did survivalist training to get into his Hawkeye role and was so good he impressed his trainers. Also remember the articles on the movie in which he played an Irish man falsely accused of some terrorist bombing and he would insist on hanging out in a cold unfurnished jail cell and have his assistant throw a lot of cold water on him so he could get into the character. Blanking out on name of the period piece he did, the one w/Winona Ryder & Michelle Phieffer, but articles would mention that he insisted he be called by his character's name, Archie something. He's definitely one actor that feels he needs to stay/inhabit his role throughout the filming process.

Here it is, wood:

http://webplaza.pt.lu/barbara/9463.jpg

oh my god!! i start crying!!!!

thank you serena!!! :k :k

LOEV/WOOD

Moondancer - Thanks so much for finding that TORN article about the 'Wheel Of Fire' speech. Wouldn't you just love to see some behind-the-scenes footage of Elijah and Sean playing that scene, with PJ encouraging our boy? 'That's it Elijah, go deeper.' Oh the joy, and the angst!

Serena - that Frodo crawling up Mt Doom picture - it's enough to break your heart.

Hobmom - Lovely, lovely moment there with Elijah and Sean.

Quoted by Kilia24
Blanking out on name of the period piece he did, the one w/Winona Ryder & Michelle Phieffer, but articles would mention that he insisted he be called by his character's name, Archie something.

I think that would be 'The Age Of Innocence,' Kilia. My earliest recollection of DD-L's work was a BBC series adapted from a novel entitled 'My Brother, Jonathan.' It must be getting on for 20 years since that series aired, but I well remember DD-L's portrayal of a shy young doctor during the first world war. It was set in and around my neck of the woods too, and I loved it. I tried to get it on video a few years ago, but had no luck.

Quoted by Moondancer:
Lewis (or is it Day Lewis? Is Day part of his last name or is it a middle name?)

I'm fairly sure it's a double-barrelled surname. IIRC, I believe either his father, or uncle, was the poet, Cecil Day-Lewis.

Quoted by Lady Wendy:
consider yourself elevated to Goddess status...


As Huck Finn might say - 'Well, thank you for the compliment.' :)
I don't quite picture myself as a Goddess, but thanks Lady Wendy, and it was my pleasure to make that extra gif for you.

I wonder what's happened to our Gif Queen - for I still consider her as such - deluby.

Wood - CONGRATULATUIONS ON POSTING THE PICTURES. :)

A thought just struck me - For the first time since FOTR was released, I have no idea what Elijah will be working on next. OK, he deserves a rest, but it's always interesting to know what roles he may be considering.

Ylla - I hope things are still going well.

My hubby - who just spent his 42nd birthday in hospital - has today been diagnosed as being diabetic, to add to everything else! :( On the brighter side, he should be home soon, though he won't be best pleased at missing out on the chocolate fudge cake I had waiting for him!

Quote from Blossom, about the “Ring of Fire” scene:

Wouldn't you just love to see some behind-the-scenes footage of Elijah and Sean playing that scene, with PJ encouraging our boy? 'That's it Elijah, go deeper.' Oh the joy, and the angst!
Well, I guess we can all hope that it turns up on the RotK EE – along with Elijah’s audition video. I’d love to see that! (HAS it ever been shown in public anywhere??)

Quote from tgshaw:

If I had to choose between a seat next to a guy reading Jane Eyre and one next to a guy reading LotR, I'd definitely pick the second
And I’d definitely take the LotR reader over a guy reading Tom Clancy. . . .

Kilia24 – The Daniel DL movie where he was wrongfully imprisoned for IRA terrorism was In the Name of the Father.

DVD of The War arrived today. There’s my weekend entertainment!

Awesome "research" for that link Moondancer!

In an interview ?somewhere?, Elijah was asked what he felt was the defining moment for Frodo in the story regarding the ring. His reply was crawling up Mt. Doom, he falls forward, his face touches the ground and that sigh escapes from him, his strength gone. More my words than his but the point gets across.

I'm curious now if someone knows which scene it was which they filmed on a tennis court at a hotel because rain prevented then filming outside. If I recall correctly, Sean and Elijah weren't quite prepared to do that emotional of a scene but had to.

Thanks!

....which scene it was which they filmed on a tennis court at a hotel because rain prevented then filming outside. If I recall correctly, Sean and Elijah weren't quite prepared to do that emotional of a scene but had to. It was the part of the "Frodo sending Sam away" scene (Stairs of CU) with Sam is in focus. (I.e. you see Sam's face and the back of Frodo's head.) Frodo's side of it was filmed much later, at which time they asked to re-do the previous scenes, but PJ didn't think it necessary.
This based on my sometimes quite faulty memory.....

...'cause it makes sense to me in the state I'm in just now!

going a couple pages back (my, we've been busy!) Mech said:

He should play his own twin sister-- he could do a super Viola, I should think. It would be like "real" Shakespeare -- a boy playing a girl playing a boy. Lindsay Lohan, watch out! What a tour de force! And the tongues would never stop wagging -- or panting -- depending on the viewer.

Cat replied:
I tend to agree that it would be a challenge for him to play both the male and female (twin) roles. He certainly does have that androgenous (sp?) quality about him!

I'm kinda baffled when people say that. Is it his extraordinarily large and expressive eyes? Because he has some singularly masculine qualities as well. As proof (and because I can do it now!) I submit the following. (It also happens to be a very lovely picture, and one I'd not seen before. So there! :p )
Exhibit 1:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v377/honeyelf/panel9.jpg
Note his forehead. He has a pronounced supraorbital ridge ([n] a ridge on the frontal bone above the eye socket) which, almost without exception, a male trait. In fact it leads some to believe that the model for this picture was, in fact, male!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v377/honeyelf/mona_lisa_large.jpg

Moondancer:
PS Speaking of SF books. I once saw a great movie. It was a movie version of a classic book about a future in which humans are no longer 'born' but made in a lab and designed to fit the world. You had alpha humans (who have the most priviledges and are the thinkers), the beta humans (they are lower in the hierarchy and have to listen to alpha people), ...The lowest category of humans just had to do the dirty work in the society and were treated as slaves. The movie was about the revolution against that system.

I would have guessed "The Handmaids Tale" by Margaret Atwood. I loved that one! Try it, too!

Interesting things you say about "Gladiator." It sounds like they wanted a remake of "Braveheart." I think I would have loved that movie except for that stupid relationship with the queen! Good Gravy, that was "screen writer's license being freely exercised, wasn't it? (I confess to being woefully ignorant of Scottish history, especially as a person of Scots descent! :o ) Here's to independent directors! And our dear Lij for having the good sense to seek them out! :k

Blossom:
...I have no idea what Elijah will be working on next. OK, he deserves a rest, but it's always interesting to know what roles he may be considering.

Me too! I want NEWS!

Hobmom, thanks for posting those lovely pics of Sean and Lij!

Fondly, for all my faculty sisters, :k
Honey!

PS Don't you all think that when Elijah finally does a live stage production, that it will be time for a Faculty Moot?

H! saving her pennies toward the day...

I been lurkin' all this time, you guys.

Wood, YES!!!!!!!!! on your photo post.

Honey, just for clarity's sake, I was not of the opinion that E.W.'s looks should be described as androgynous. I thought E.W. would be great playing his own twin sister in Twelfth Night because I thought it would be a riot. He'd have such fun! -- and he'd look good doing it, I think, since "Viola" spends the play dressed up as a boy and is supposed to be able to pass as one, a really attractive one. I'd love to see him play those scenes opposite Viggo M. as Orsino, too. But would they get through one scene together with a straight face? Probably not. :D

I read many reviews which spoke [positively] of Frodo in FoTR as having a classical beauty that was "androgynous," BUT usually qualifying that by calling it "angelic," not "effeminate." I do, however, see his FotR beauty as that of a beautiful boy, not a beautiful man. But in no sense do I see it then or now as the beauty of a girl. His features are far too strong for that.

See...?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/mechtild/frodo-bilbodisappears.jpg

All right, all right. I'll go back to the Frodo swoon thread. :rolleyes:

--Mechtild

Well stated and illustrated, Mechtild! The fact is, if you cover up those big eyes, you're left with a very masculine -- I want to say "classically" masculine -- set of features.

I remember being shocked the first time I saw this scene from Try 17:

http://home.ricochet.com/mdes/limages/jones.jpg

I thought, "OMG! He's your classic fashion model!" And he is (sort of), from the nose down. Like the Mona Lisa comparison (loved that, Honey!), I think it's the combination of soft and hard features that makes his face so compelling. And it's shape, of course. And coloring. And expression. Okay, okay, so I know what I like! :p

Mech:
Honey, just for clarity's sake, I was not of the opinion that E.W.'s looks should be described as androgynous.

Oops! Didn't mean to say you were. I was just meaning to say that he has very masculine features. Even in that lovely, curly fro-wig he doesn't look in the least bit "Girl."

...E.W. would be great playing his own twin sister in Twelfth Night because I thought it would be a riot. He'd have such fun!

:lol: Where do I line up for tickets?

Mariole:
I think it's the combination of soft and hard features that makes his face so compelling. And it's shape, of course. And coloring. And expression. Okay, okay, so I know what I like!

You'n me both, sweetie! :D

Honey!

Honey said,

Even in that lovely, curly fro-wig he doesn't look in the least bit "Girl."

WHAAAAAT???? I thought the CREW CUT was the wig!

Mariole said,

I think it's the combination of soft and hard features that makes his face so compelling. And it's shape, of course.

Stop already with the "soft" and "hard" and "compelling" and "shape"!!!

(Whoops! Back the swoony site, before I am soundly beaten!)

Does anybody have a picture from "The War?" It's the one where he's standing on the porch with Mare Winningham as his mother. I just think his expression is so cute in it, and the way she had that forlorn mother look.

This is the only picture from The War with Mare Winningham that I could find; it sure came out tiny for some reason!


http://www.bagendinn.com/Elijah/images/teenlij/work/war/warpromo03_small.jpg

The Handmaids Tale" by Margaret Atwood.
It's on my list. Thanks for the tip.

Stop already with the "soft" and "hard" and "compelling" and "shape"!!!
:D




***Warning - another one of my rambling sessions coming up and it may be a bit depressing so....feel free to ignore this***



I have read on many places on the internet that lots of LOTR fans don't just like the story because it's a well-written story. Lots of people identify with it.
It often amazes me how much the story affects me on a very emotional level.

Why do I identify so much with Sam, the one leaving behind after Frodo sails away into the West.
Why does Annie Lennox's song do so much to me?
Why does Frodo's inner struggle touch me the way it does?

For some odd reason, wednesday was twin day. I was confronted with twins all over the place. On tv, on the internet, in the subway listening to a proud mother talk about her identical twins.
As a surviving twin, things got me down. I found it silly that this affected me so much but it did. I was a bit depressed for a couple of days but it's better now.
But it made me think and it hit me why I identify with the story

Let me explain this by including a quote from an article:
In a memorable interview, Enoch Powell described his sense of guilt and sorrow that he
returned from the war while so many of his contemporaries were killed. How much more
disturbing for a surviving twin who has lived with a brother or sister in the enclosed world
of the womb, only for the sibling to die in the last weeks of pregnancy, during delivery or
later in the nursery.

Surviving twins start life with a sometimes unbearable sense of guilt, for they blame
themselves for their sibling's death and subconsciously, or even consciously, suspect that
their parents also see them as murderers who have killed the other baby by taking more than
their fair share of the nutrition, or of the available space, in the uterus.

Surprisingly, the emotional and psychological problems felt by the surviving twin, which are
often expressed as depression and sometimes as behavioural disorders,are more intense if the
child has no recollection of the death of the other twin. Sometimes surviving twins also
have a sense of insecurity, for they reason that if the parents couldn't keep their brother
or sister alive, are they likely to do any better with them?

Coupled with the feeling that he or she is guilty, the twin who lives may also sense that
they have been deserted by the dead sibling, who has left them with an immense obligation to
make it up to the parents for the family loss. Thereafter they believe that they have to do
better, and be better, because of the death - emotions which can put a great burden on
shoulders which are not always strong enough to carry them.

So many of the emotions involved with this, I find in Tolkien's story.
So many of the incredible emotions are so well portrayed by these actors.

The last scene when Frodo says his goodbyes to the other hobbits. My heart goes out to Sam....leaving behind. The sense of loss that's going to stay with him but with the hope of seeing Frodo back one day.
Just like Sam wanted to protect Frodo from the effects the Ring had on him and having to witness how it affects him...I feel that I couldn't protect my sister. She still had to go.
On the river bank in FOTR, I somehow recognize a bit of the pain in Frodo when his tears are falling down his face. Elijah says so much there without any words (and with a camera and a crew very near....how does he do that?)
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not looking for any special sympathy here. Stuff happens in life. Most people have their cross to bear. We've seen examples of that in this very thread.
But, once more, I'm just grateful that Tolkien had such a grasp on human emotions and that Peter Jackson and his crew could honor that magnificent story. People have commented that Tolkien, having lived through WWI, understood 'post traumatic stress' and the guilt associated with having seen death and destruction and having survived it.
Those last chapters of Frodo in the Shire before he sets out for the West are so moving.


It still annoys the hell out of me when people say that LOTR is just a story of kids, for boys even. Yes, it's that but there's so much more to it.



**** end of depressing bit of rambling ****



In attachment: two screencaps from The War. The first one reminded me of the Sam and Frodo - Mount Doom scene
The second one isn't the 'forlorn' one, but it's still a great picture to look at. (Undone (LJ land) made those screencaps, by the way)

(why is she still posting attachments after all these explanations about posting pictures, I hear you say. Well, I'm stubborn and I'm sticking with attachments until I can be bothered to learn how to post pictures :rolleyes: :haha: )


Carry on. :)

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not looking for any special sympathy here. Stuff happens in life. Most people have their cross to bear. We've seen examples of that in this very thread.
{{{Moondancer}}} -- because everyone deserves some special sympathy when their particular cross gets heavier than usual. :k

But, once more, I'm just grateful that Tolkien had such a grasp on human emotions and that Peter Jackson and his crew could honor that magnificent story.
One of the amazing things about Tolkien is how deeply he understood such a variety of people and emotions. The set of "heroes" are all so different from each other, but he somehow seems to have grasped the inner reality of each of them. Which gives different readers (or sometimes the same reader at different times) someone to relate to.

And the posts about Gladiator (a movie I haven't seen) were another reminder of the tightrope PJ & company walked while making the LotR movies. I'm hoping we'll learn more of the behind-the-scenes dynamics after the last DVD comes out and everyone involved has moved on to other projects. But one thing that makes me want to kiss those bare feet ;) is knowing that PJ, Philippa, and Fran had to literally "fight off" New Line's directive that Frodo should fight off a pack of orcs in order to get to the boat at the end of FotR--I don't even want to imagine it :eek: ! Instead, we got an incredibly moving scene that puts us where the battle really is--within Frodo. No, it's not a typical Hollywood movie ending, but hurrah for that! And I know I've posted this before (and I still don't remember who said it), but after FotR was released, a Hollywood insider said that the most courageous thing PJ did in that movie was to include the scene of the Fellowship mourning Gandalf--that most directors would be too afraid to let the story stop for that amount of time. Courage comes in many forms--how many people have been touched because the screenwriters had the courage to include those two scenes? Here's a page made shortly after FotR was released, so it's somewhat limited. But for any who may have missed it: It's My Movie (http://www.frodolivesin.us/id181.htm).

It still annoys the hell out of me when people say that LOTR is just a story of kids, for boys even. Yes, it's that but there's so much more to it.
Whenever I read or hear that statement, I think, "I hope all those boys stick with the book long enough to understand what it's really about. What a difference that could make to the coming generation of men."

----And sc, is the scene from The War that Moondancer posted a picture from the one you're thinking of? Or are you referring to an earlier one? I haven't done many screencaps from The War, but I need to fix that ;) -- so if I know for sure which scene you're looking for I'll see what I can do, after I get home from work :p .

:::: sniffling about heart-rending picture of The Lad and Sean ::::

That's one of those pictures where I feel like I'm intruding on someone's private space. Geez. Incredible.

But it gives and inkling of what kind of daddy Sean Astin is, doesn't it? :)

~grumpy

(((Moondancer))) - here's a little picture for you. I thought you could like it - just a little water-colour painting I made some time ago. Although it is abstract, there is a new horizont visible (at least for me, and hopefully for you, too).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/whiteling/Horizont.jpg



----------

I have so little time (RL :eek: and my father is seriously ill :( ) and can nothing contribute what makes any sense, but I'd like to WELCOME you, Cat :) ! Feel at home here.


My thoughts are still with you, Ylla and Blossom :k !


(((Faculty)))

Thanks Whiteling! Beautiful watercolor painting, by the way! Very original. . I love the color scheme.

Moondancer, feel free to ramble anytime. . .your ramblings make more sense than anything I have ever written, that's for sure! Despite my incoherent thoughts, I did want to say that although I am not a twin and have no idea what losing one might feel like, but I do know what it's like to lose someone dear. Within the past year, I lost my grandfather, aunt and godmother and almost lost my mother. Luckily, my mom pulled through! :cool: Like you, I too identify with Samwise Gamgee. When I saw ROTK for the first time, i didn't cry for the Wheel of Fire scenes or even the Grey Havens. I suppose I was too much in a state of internalized emotion to really express it. My face just went blank white. It wasn't until I saw the last scene when Sam comes home and his daughter runs out to greet him and you hear Frodo's voice utter " My dear Sam. . . " that I just lost it. I still only cry for that scene now. . I cannot tell you why I cry at that point, but I just do. Some things just cannot be explained in words.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program. I do want to agree with everyone that Elijah does have very angular strong facial features. You know, his eyes are really spectacular but, since I have a thing with noses for some crazy reason, I must comment that his nose is quite nearly flawless. It is the quintessential Roman nose, as I like to call it. But I suppose it's his inner "sparkle" (which is reflected in his eyes and face) that makes him soft and luminous. I guess that's what I really wanted to say about him.


Okay, enough swooning. . somebody stop me!!!! Please!!!! :eek:

Speaking of classic features, and since it's Froday....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/aquila0212/frodo_david.jpg


Couldn't resist. I'm sure we've had this on here before, but vardaelentari's post brought it to mind again.

Here's one of a more modern nature:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/aquila0212/Angeleno_glow1.jpg

Moondancer, I mourn with you for your loss. There may be guilt, true, but I think the awareness of the lost one brings an extra dimension to life -- an immediacy and importance to events, and awareness of how amazing life really is. I lost a very close friend a while ago. At his too-early death, I thought, how can I honor his life? What can I do to make the world a better place, and live up to my potential? Yes, I'd like to save lives -- but I seem to have a flair for writing, so that is where I put my time. And when I feel the loss, I try to frame it in, "Thank you for living. Let me honor you for who you were, in this life, now." And it helps, although it also hurts.

I adored the screencap you found about Stu in the tower. What a gorgeous Froshadowing. Thank you.

Whiteling, what a gorgeous picture. I'm so glad you share your talent here.

Achilla -- okay, David might be more classic, but I think Frodo is cuter. ;) (I got to see David in person -- wow. Couldn't leave for 45 minutes. He truly arrests the eye -- another similarity, I think!)

Achilla -- okay, David might be more classic, but I think Frodo is cuter. ;)


I would NOT disagree -- LOL!


(I got to see David in person -- wow. Couldn't leave for 45 minutes. He truly arrests the eye -- another similarity, I think!)

Yes -- me too. Almost twenty years ago. Must be even more amazing now that he's blindingly white again. And the most incredible thing is the hush in the gallery when you reach the statue. For those of you who have never been, David is at the Uffizi in Florence, and stands 13.5' high in the middle of a rotunda. There can be fifty to a hundred people there looking at him at any one time, and yet, you can hear a pin drop.

Just got back from an all-too-short vacation to find much RL chaos of various kinds awaiting me--- :rolleyes: --- but I couldn't resist the attempt to catch up with you all, despite the phone company's persistent efforts to keep me off line lately.... (grrrrr).

I really enjoyed the discussion of Shakespeare films and agree with everyone who said Kenneth Branaugh RULES. I've seen the Sam Waterston version of "Much Ado" that someone mentioned, once years ago when I adored it and once recently, and after seeing the Branaugh one in between I've lost my heart utterly to Sir Kenneth's vision. I also had the privilege of seeing Patrick Stewart in "The Tempest" on Broadway a few years ago, and he was extraordinary. Perhaps we shouldn't hope that Elijah would start his stage career, if he plans one, with Shakespeare, though. That's rather a pinnacle for an actor, is it not? Not really an easy entry point to live performance, I should think.

I hate to burst anyone's bubble, I really do, but I know how much accuracy is valued here, and that's one of the things I like about this place. So, in the interests of accuracy, I'm going to point out before I slink away again that somewhere, perhaps on TORn itself, there was posted a correction to the quote and picture referring to Sean's description of Elijah reacting to filming the "Wheel of Fire" speech, that was mentioned here a page or two back. (Are you still with me?)

The correction, from someone who was there when the picture was taken, I think, was that the story and the picture are NOT associated in time. In other words, that picture wasn't taken after Sean talked about filming the scene but at some other time and place altogether.

Sorry! It would have been sweet to think it had been taken then, but apparently it wasn't.

Back to lurking, as RL allows....

Just realised I missed at least a page of amazing posts a few days ago .... sorry if I appeared to be ignoring them :rolleyes:

To make up for it - welcome, Vardaelentari and Cat !!
It's SO good to have new people posting here - especially 8/9 months after ROTK came out! No loss of interest in our Lij around here, clearly. As witness the spate of beautiful pics:

David? He wrinkles his eyebrows even more than Our Lad does! Quite spooky. Thanks, Achila! But Fro is definitely cuter.

Mona Lisa: have you been reading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code by any chance, Honey? :p :cool: It suggests (as others have, of course) that ML is (amongst all manner of other things) a self-portrait of Leonardo in drag. Definitely androgynous ... but nowhere near as beautiful as Frodo! Yes, I'm sure it's actually the very pretty wig that makes Frolijah look just a tiny bit androgynous. I personally wouldn't have him any other way.

Whiteling, that's a lovely watercolour you posted.
I'm so sorry to hear about your father. I do hope he pulls through.
And I know I still owe you a long email .... :k

Achila, I owe you an email too. Hope things are better than they were :k

Blossom, ylla, thinking of you ....
And Blossom, that was a wonderful post of yours a few pages back ...

Moondancer, thank you (once again) for that great Froshadowing in The War! Can see it now (too dark on my work PC ... confessions!)

Being - or once having been - a twin is something I can scarcely imagine. It must feel as if part of you is missing.
One of my friends has a friend who lost a twin while still in the womb. Shortly before he died, the surviving twin moved across to him as if to hug him goodbye. The surviving twin was born with cerebral palsy and unable to communicate, but he knew about his twin and cried when one day his parents talked to a specialist about that farewell. He began to improve after that, as if his illlness had been a result of his blaming himself for his twin's death.
Sorry if that's a bit OT ... but since all things are interconnected at some level, maybe it isn't so very far off topic. It was our wise Elijah who said he doesn't believe in the idea of regret, was it not?

Tg, Cat (Vardaelentari), Mariole,
Thank you all for the kind words. As I said, I wasn't really looking for any kind of sympathy but this place is full of fantastic members.
((((Faculty))))


Whiteling :k
Oh gosh. That picture is really beautiful. I like the use of colors. I have been staring at it for quite a bit and I love it. Thank you so very much for sharing your talents with us.
:k
I'm sorry to hear that your dad is seriously ill.


Blossom, Ylla,
Still thinking of you and sending you and your husbands positive thoughts. :)


Serena,
what an amazing story there. That farewell gave me goosebumps. Thanks for telling this.
The fact that he was blaming himself so much is recognisable. The guilt aspect is very real and it's not easy to explain (even to myself).
We were born too soon. I was in one of those incubators for 2 months. My dad saw the two of us together. When she died, the doctors put her beside me for a little while before I had to go in the incubator. An opportunity for me to say goodbye to her perhaps? I don't know.
My family wasn't able to come close to me for two months. The first time my mum was able to touch me was after that period and my dear mother kept on telling me that story during her life. It must have been so hard on her. She lost one baby and couldn't get close to the other.
I took too much space in the womb. She was weaker than me. The doctor thought that there was only one baby there because he could only sense me. The nurse saw that there was a big problem and allerted him that there were two babies and that we were in trouble. My mother needed a ceasarean. The doctor told her arrogantly: "I'm the doctor, you're the nurse. I'm the expert here. I'm telling you there's only one baby and there's no need for a ceasarean".
I was born first and I looked strong. Then came the surprise to that doctor: my sister was still waiting to be born and she was in deep trouble. She wasn't in the right position so they had to turn her and it took every bit of strength she had to be born. She was born 1/2 hour after me and she died 1 hour after my birth. A lung specialist later told my parents that she was strong enough and would have been allright if the right measures were taken at the time.
Oh, well. Such is life, I guess. Things like that happen.
I try to look at the positive side and I am blessed. I was born into a loving family. My life goes on without her and it's still full of wonderful things even if I do miss her (and that's hard to explain) I do feel like a part of me is missing but I will enjoy life for the both of us.


OK...enough of this, now. Moving on to more upbeat topics.


Achila, thanks for posting those pictures. He has beautiful lips (great shape), hasn't he?

Flourish, I saw the correction of that picture too in that TORN message thread. It's still a fantastic picture and shows the kind of relationship Sean and Elijah have. With their careers, it can't be easy to stay in touch but I hope they do.


Edit:
Tg, your site is a treasure cove. How did I not see this "It's my movie" page before? :)
What else did I overlook? Better do some exploring.

Edit n°2
Found in Undone's LJ: an article in the Czech press about the hotel Elijah stayed in (you can even read the note he wrote them afterwards):
http://www.arsys.cz/press/pdf04/Press_30_04.pdf

Achila: Loved the Frodo/David comparison. And since there seems to have been a delightful outbreak of swooning here (bone structure, eyes, nose, lips) – how about hands? Not the infamous bitten fingernails, but the hands – lovely white hands, they seem to be, in LotR. (End of swooning.)

Just finished watching The War. I can see why so many of you recommended it! What an amazing performance: completely natural, completely believable, subtle and “micro” in most scenes (too many to choose from), openly powerful in others (e.g., after his mother comes home from the hospital; after they pull Billy out of the water).

How old was he when this was filmed – twelve? And it was all there already, wasn’t it? The charm, the charisma, that grin! He even did that thing he does with his eyebrows (when he dropped the first smoke bomb into the tree house). And I was struck by how, in some places, his present face was clearly visible under the boyishness. I noticed it especially in the scene at the county auction, when Kevin Costner was arguing with the trashman. There’s a medium shot of Elijah in the car, and as he turns toward the camera, you can really see the striking bone structure.

And now I understand some of your references to “Froshadowing” (have to go back and find them all).

Also loved the girls’ musical numbers -- and Gimme Shelter on the soundtrack for the battle.

Thanks again for recommending this. It’s not a film I would have turned to on my own, since I’m not a big Costner fan. Are all of this man’s movies going to leave me crying my eyes out??? Surely Huck Finn can’t be this wrenching; or Radio Flyer (both of which have been recommended)? I can take just so much of this. . . .

Pelagia, this' one time I will say "Told you so!" -- LOL. Glad you enjoyed The War. Yep -- I don't especially care for Costner either, and had never see this movie until recently (although non-EW fan friends of mine had and recalled how great it was). I too was totally blown away by the incredible range he showed in this film. He seems to be good with accents (Oliver Twist, notwithstanding, but I don't consider that his fault -- I noticed there is no dialog coach in the credits -- seems impossible but...) and will hopefully do others in the future.

Sorrry about you lost moondancer!!
maybe this will cheer you up!!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/erendil/th_3340theicestorm-002.jpg

LOVE/WOOD

ITS NOT A VERRY HAPPY PIC!!
but if i`M not to wrong here i think you sade
the ise storm is one of your favurite movies?!
i hope you liked it!!

There have been so many moving personal stories in the last few posts! This perfomer, his films and his fans seem to act upon each other.

I wanted to add this photo of Signor Wood that I already posted elsewhere today, to complement Achila's "classical" shots above. It shouts Michelangelo's David to me:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/mechtild/Elijah-david-REG.jpg

Pelagia, I am so glad you enjoyed seeing E.W.'s performance in The War so well (and wood, too, who rejoiced over seeing it on a previous page--Achila, you already enjoyed it)! I, too, was massivley impressed by his work in it. We just watched Huck Finn last night, which was released in '93. The date in the IMDB for The War in '94. What a difference a year makes! It is like the films are inhabited by two different actors!

One of the things that distinguishes his performance, for me in that film is the way he fully inhabits the character of Stu. Like no other role he has played in a film (other than Frodo Baggins), he convinces me that he is that character and that the actor has been eradicated. I don't find even his body language and posture reminding me of him as himself or of him playing other roles. He just is Stu -- and Stu is such a complex, fascinating role! (--As you described it so well above, Pelagia. P.S. I sent you a "PM" i.e. a "Private Message" -- I say this because when I first got one, I didn't know to look for it!)

Now Pelagia, you wrote, I noticed it especially in the scene at the county auction, when Kevin Costner was arguing with the trashman. There’s a medium shot of Elijah in the car, and as he turns toward the camera, you can really see the striking bone structure.

Are you referring to this scene?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v382/mechtild/ElijahinTHEWAR.bmp

(((Moondancer))) your story is so filled with sadness for what might have been. I can see how you would see your own loss reflected in Sam's.

Serena, The Da Vinci Code? No, I haven't read it, and I'm not sure I ever will. I'd heard the theory about ML years ago. Perhaps the author of that story read the same article I did.

Cat, I couldn't agree with you more about the Nose! In fact his entire profile is just breathtaking!

And Pelagia, Yes! His hands! They are so expressive, just another lovely part of the whole! I love how he uses them to create a character. I'm really fond of that scene when Frodo's fainted from exhaustion after escaping Shelob's web, and Gollum both. I really love what he does with his hands as Frodo has the vision of Galadriel. His hands look helpless, empty in the way they lay palm-up on the grass. As if Frodo is accepting some strength that she can give him into his small, but not yet defeated hands.

Wood and Pelagia, I'm so glad you two have enjoyed The War! It's absolutely one of my favorite films, let alone fave Elijah films!

Just saw "Hero" at the theater. Incredible visuals! I recommend it.

But every time I go to the theater I almost hold my breath until the last 'trailer' is done. I'm always hoping that I'll see a trailer for maybe Hooligans, or Sin City (though it's a bit early for that.)

Honey!

But every time I go to the theater I almost hold my breath until the last 'trailer' is done. I'm always hoping that I'll see a trailer for maybe Hooligans, or Sin City (though it's a bit early for that.)
Rumor is that a Sin City trailer may show up in as little as two weeks or so. :cool: In the theatre, I assume.

One of the things that distinguishes his performance, for me in that film is the way he fully inhabits the character of Stu. Like no other role he has played in a film (other than Frodo Baggins), he convinces me that he is that character and that the actor has been eradicated. I don't find even his body language and posture reminding me of him as himself or of him playing other roles. He just is Stu -- and Stu is such a complex, fascinating role!
Absolutely--Stu is one role where Elijah simply disappears. And Stu is a character who's much more outwardly emotional than most of Elijah's characters, IMHO, which does make a big difference with the body language. It's not that the emotional subtleties aren't there, but they're more on the surface than in the more internal characters--completely right for Stu, who's had no reason to learn to "bottle things up" inside.

The other character (besides Frodo) that I'd put on the the "disappearing actor" list is Mikey in The Ice Storm. I first saw it after watching most of Elijah's other movies, and the difference that most struck me about Mikey was his voice. I think I spent most of my first viewing trying to figure out what in the world Elijah was doing to make Mikey sound so different from his other characters; it's as if his voice has to escape from somewhere before we hear it. I still don't know what he's doing, really, but I think it has something to do with his breathing. It may be connected with Mikey's body language/stance, as he's almost always bent over or slumped, which somehow closes his breath inside more. -- That's probably totally incoherent, and completely off the beam, but it's all I can make sense of. IMHO Mikey is an amazing, intriguing individual in himself, and--as I know I've said before--I bow to Ang Lee and Elijah even more after reading the book and seeing how they built this person (I hardly think of him as a character) from nothing. IIRC, Ang Lee said that he "identified" with Mikey, so perhaps there's something of himself in the character the way he and Elijah created him.

--------------

To add to what Pelagia and Honey have said about EJW's hands--Something else (like his eyes) where he had no control over what he "got," but has learned to use it so well. Longer-than-average fingers for more expressivity, and actually a bit larger in size altogether than you'd expect from his height. There are some places I really notice this, as when Frodo's embracing his friends at the Grey Havens. His hands are substantial enough that they can almost seem to enclose the other person (especially when he spreads out his fingers--wonder if that's something he's figured out, or if it's unconscious).

Added thought--OTOH, in the boat at the end of FotR, Frodo's hand is almost in a fist when he hugs Sam, and IMHO it's a very different effect. Frodo's the vulnerable one there, and it almost looks as if he's trying to "hang onto" Sam. (Someone tell me I'm not imagining all this :confused: .)

http://www.frodolivesin.us/98af4d10.jpg

http://www.imagemagician.com/images/tgshaw/RotK/TPDVD_129600-resize.jpg

--------------

Was going to add something to the sharings on loss ("discussion" sounds too impersonal), but will have to do that later.

(((Faculty)))

No tg!! YOU ARE ABSULUTLY RIGHT I HAVE THOUGHT THE VERY SAME THING
TO!!!!http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/erendil/th_34008.jpg

i also found this!!!!

LOVE/WOOD

Thanks, wood :) ! --

I really thought I'd lost it when I went into my screencaps to get the one from the Havens and in the caps where Frodo was hugging Sam it looked as if his hand was a fist again. I thought, "Oh, great--now what's the deep, dark explanation for that?" :rolleyes: But when I made the pic big enough, I saw that Frodo's hand looked like a "fist" simply because his entire hand wasn't in the frame. Whew! :p

http://www.imagemagician.com/images/tgshaw/RotK/TPDVD_130500-resized.jpg

....Okay, now I really must run off! :)

Hands...I love hands, I love watching them.

I've said this before but I've seen more beautiful hands than Elijah's but what makes them great to look at is the way he uses them.
:)

That whole scene at the Grey Havens is so fascinating from many angles.
Some time ago, at the TORN message board, there was this discussion about the fact that the three hobbits Pippin, Merry and Sam were so distraught and weeping and Frodo seemed so distant, not showing any emotion. That poster on TORN thought that Elijah was playing that too distant.
The entire debate following that (with a lot of people defending the way Elijah played that scene) was great to follow.
Reactions like: If you've seen people saying goodbye from their loved ones, you'll know how well Elijah acted in those scenes.


Wood,
You're right: The Ice Storm is one of my very favourite Elijah Wood movies (apart from the LOTR movies of course).
I did a search and found a great chat transcript I haven't seen before. Again, he gives some great answers.
http://www.geocities.com/nightrider_ejw/Prodigy_Interview.html
Edit: I've read the following and reread it. OK, it's not an earth shattering quote but...erm...I don't get it: :rolleyes:
I also go to model class--models as in vinyl and plastic models. Right now I'm working with Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars
:confused: Model Class - models as in vinyl and plastic models? Working with Emperor Palpatine? :confused:
Can you seriously go to such model classes?


Edit n°2 (here I go again with my edits):
One of the reviews I was reading about The Ice Storm:
***warning: may contain minor spoilers ***



"When it's cold outside, the molecules aren't moving. Everything is clean."

Everything is clean because nobody will admit what's going on. Even the president is on TV denying his wrong-doings. How can you expect anything more out of a couple of suburban families riding the coattails of sexual revolution? All the sex and drugs is so obviously empty, and I think that's the point of the film. At first viewing, the entire movie might seem empty, but then why shouldn't it parallel itself? You don't get to know the characters very deeply, but I think that's because nobody in the movie knows each other either. We sadly watch two families go about their lives nearly oblivious to one another. At first glance, you might think emotion is lost in the ending scenes because you haven't gotten to know the characters well enough to sympathize - then you realize that just might be the point, and then you do feel the pain.

The acting by all is quite good, but I particularly liked Elijah Wood. He doesn't seem to be receiving as much recognition as the others, but I still found him to possess quite a real sense of being. Christina Ricci is being acclaimed for her part as the misguided teenage temptress who looks for something more to her life in the pants of every available boy. Still, I say hats off remain to Wood, Joan Allen's subtle but believable performance as a lonely, unappreciated wife, and the always excellent Kevin Kline. Tobey Maguire did a fine job, but his character which, perhaps, was the most intact, sensible person in the story, seemed a little lost. He was needed, but perhaps he should've been used more.


*** / possible spoilers***

Review by E. Benjamin Kelsey.
Find the rest of it here (http://www.killermovies.com/reviews/the-ice-storm-review-5tn.html)


Bunniebugs,
Didn't I read somewhere that this trailer was going to be based on the film material they showed on ComicCon some weeks ago and that didn't have any Kevin images.
I hope the trailer will show up on the internet (but I think it will). It'll be great to get a feel of the movie.

Star Wars Model kit (http://www.collectorsgalleryonline.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CG&Product_Code=EPMK&Category_Code=SWM)

Model (or how to build models) classes do exist. Took one once when I was younger, I never built a model of a person/character like he did, I was more into ships, and model WW2 aircraft. :)

Quote from Mechtild on The War:

One of the things that distinguishes his performance, for me in that film is the way he fully inhabits the character of Stu. Like no other role he has played in a film (other than Frodo Baggins), he convinces me that he is that character and that the actor has been eradicated. I don't find even his body language and posture reminding me of him as himself or of him playing other roles. He just is Stu.

Yes, he is. I found myself sometimes thinking, “Who IS this boy? It sure isn’t Elijah.” And Achila, I agree that his southern accent was pretty good. DK if it was specifically Mississippi, but it wasn’t the generic “Southern” that many actors adopt.

Re the picture you posted, Mechtild: No, the shot I was talking about is from a later scene (I think), and is from his left side. And he’s full face (head turned toward camera), and the jawline (into which he has grown very nicely in recent years, I think!) is very apparent. I’ll have to see if I can find it.

tgshaw: Absolutely agree with your comments on Mikey’s body language in The Ice Storm. The sort of imprisoned voice, and the “bent over or slumped” posture, go with this kid being so interior, and defending himself against the rest of the world so much of the time.

Glad to see that I’m not the only person with a thing about Elijah’s hands! tgshaw, also glad to have confirmation of my sense that they are larger than one would expect. I, too, noticed the way he sort of clutches at Sam in the boat at the end of FotR – almost like a child clinging to his mother. Whereas in the Grey Havens scene, he’s the one giving comfort to his friends, and his hands are more enveloping. Beautiful pictures, tg (and now I’ll cry again – jeez).

Moondancer: About the TORN complaints that Elijah played the Grey Havens scene too “distant”: He looks grave and sorrowful, which is completely appropriate at this point in Frodo’s character development. He’s made his decision some time ago, presumably, and has come to terms with it; but this has just been sprung on the other hobbits, who are understandably distraught. So (as mentioned in the preceding paragraph) he’s the comforter here.

Mechtild: Here is a still from the scene in The War that I was talking about. Well, here's a link, anyway -- I haven't advanced to the point where I know how to add photos (will have to read over the instructions that everyone provided to Wood):

http://www.elijahfan.com/gallery/index.php?spgmGal=Movies/The_War&spgmPic=50&spgmFilters=t#pic

Welcome, Norte81 :)
Another new, uh, face :p ! It's gotten so busy here that if I log into KD and The Faculty doesn't have the most recent post in the Cafe, it's a surprise :) .

...and we know what a Star Wars geek Elijah is, with all the "toys" :p . That's one reason he was excited about playing a character that got made into an action figure. So I can certainly imagine him taking a class (even if it just means a group of fans getting together to work on the models).

-------------------

from Moondancer:
That whole scene at the Grey Havens is so fascinating from many angles.
Some time ago, at the TORN message board, there was this discussion about the fact that the three hobbits Pippin, Merry and Sam were so distraught and weeping and Frodo seemed so distant, not showing any emotion. That poster on TORN thought that Elijah was playing that too distant.
The entire debate following that (with a lot of people defending the way Elijah played that scene) was great to follow.
Reactions like: If you've seen people saying goodbye from their loved ones, you'll know how well Elijah acted in those scenes.
Something that makes that even more interesting is that we had a lengthy discussion about the very same thing in the Trilogy Forum (here at KD) shortly after RotK was released. Someone started it with a similar complaint, but the responses centered on Frodo's mental state at the time. That "flat affect" is one of the most telling signs of a clinical depression--and, IMHO, although serious depression was only part of what Frodo was going through at the time, it was definitely a part of it. He's simply not capable of showing a depth of emotion in that state, any more than someone with a broken leg could run the hurdles. IMO, Elijah played it perfectly, as did the others. And this is how it's always come across to me in the book, too. In the book, as in the movie, when Gandalf says, "I will not say: do not weep," he's not saying it to Frodo. (It's another sign of Tolkien's understanding of human emotion, I believe, that he wrote the scene that way, and I'm glad it wasn't changed in the movie.)

------------

In the -- Gaaa :eek: -- four hours since I was here last, I've accomplished exactly one thing :rolleyes: . Well, the beginning of one thing, anyway, and I'm hoping some Faculty members might be interested in checking it out :) . I've been getting some interesting emails from site visitors, and think maybe it's time to have a way for the comments to be shared with more than me. But by the time I tried to figure out even the simplest forum downloads, my head hurt--and there aren't really enough visitors for a full forum, anyway. So, instead, I've added a guest book, with the idea that it could serve as a place for people to share/discuss their thoughts.

For the next week or so, I'm considering it a "beta" version, and I've put it on a section of the site that isn't linked to the rest. So to get there you have to use the actual URL: http://www.frodolivesin.us/Pics . The plan is to add it to the "real" site when I do September updates (which will be very scanty, I'm afraid, given RL lately). So, if anyone wants to follow that URL just to see it and see how it works, please feel free. It doesn't look the way I expected it to, and I may try some tweaking, but it's "hosted" so I don't have as many options as I'd like. -- I chose the option to have the page look like others on the site, instead of cutandpastescripts "basic" format, and that ended up meaning that the background, font formatting, etc., that I chose so carefully were overruled by my page setup for the site. As long as it's usable, I don't really care, I guess. (Sorry if this is rambling; my brain is a bit sweaty :o .)

Anyway, feel free to leave comments, start a discussion, etc. Regarding the folks here, the one use I thought it might come in handy for is those discussions that don't quite know if they're about book-Frodo or movie-Frodo or how one was translated into the other. (I guess that discussion on the Grey Havens could be an example.) The whole site is kind of based on the idea that you can't really separate talking about the movies from talking about the book, so hopefully it'll be a place where some "merged" discussion can happen.

So, as always, we'll see how it goes. If it doesn't get used, I'll take it back down--but at the moment I have several insightful emails to respond to, and it'd be nice if there were a place where they could all respond to each other. :p

Quote from tgshaw re Grey Havens scene:

That "flat affect" is one of the most telling signs of a clinical depression--and, IMHO, although serious depression was only part of what Frodo was going through at the time, it was definitely a part of it.

Yes, that too. The term I have always used in my own mind is "burned out," for the way Elijah looks in that scene, especially when they first arrive at the quay. I also love the way that -- while Gandalf is saying goodbye, and the other three hobbits are crying -- Frodo (who sort of has his head down) glances over at Merry. I've always thought that he was thinking about how, in a few moments, he was going to have to deliver an even more devastating emotional blow to his friends.

tg, Pelagia, thanks for pointing out the altered voice for Mikey. I had read the body language clearly, but hadn't connected it to the voice. What a great film. I just adore him doing the "molecule" speech.

The rest of you, I want you not to talk about or show the hands anymore. I am trying to get a few things done around here.

Pelagia, that was such a good face shot you linked from The War, I am posting it:

http://www.elijahfan.com/gallery/gal/Movies/The_War/thewar-051.jpg

I've capped the Frodo and Sam scenes crawling up Mt. Doom and the Wheel of Fire scene pretty much frame by frame. There are hundreds of caps. Again they are best viewed in the slideshow mode and all saveable.

I thought this would come in handy for consideration after our discussion of how overcome emotionally Elijah was when filming these scenes.

Here..
http://rp.photosite.com/FSMordor2Crawling/

Here..
http://rp.photosite.com/WheeloFire1/

Here..
http://rp.photosite.com/WheeloFire2/

And here..
http://rp.photosite.com/WheeloFire3/

Here are some samples for those who can't take time to go through all of them. Sorry if they are kind of big.
http://rp.photosite.com/~photos/tn/2713_1024.ts1093660464437.jpg

http://rp.photosite.com/~photos/tn/2763_1024.ts1093670313156.jpg

http://rp.photosite.com/~photos/tn/2851_1024.ts1093670359890.jpg

http://rp.photosite.com/~photos/tn/3170_1024.ts1093672226000.jpg

http://rp.photosite.com/~photos/tn/3454_1024.ts1093674167953.jpg

http://rp.photosite.com/~photos/tn/3591_1024.ts1093674238968.jpg

http://rp.photosite.com/~photos/tn/3688_1024.ts1093674289000.jpg

http://rp.photosite.com/~photos/tn/3743_1024.ts1093674316828.jpg

http://rp.photosite.com/~photos/tn/3795_1024.ts1093674343312.jpg

http://rp.photosite.com/~photos/tn/3845_1024.ts1093674368812.jpg

All from here plus the caps I did before.

http://rp.photosite.com/

Hobmom! Those giant "Wheel of Fire" screencaps will be the death of me!

But what a way to expire... Thank you so much!

You're welcome, Mechtild. :cool: Enjoy.. if that's the right word. :D

The correction, from someone who was there when the picture was taken, I think, was that the story and the picture are NOT associated in time. In other words, that picture wasn't taken after Sean talked about filming the scene but at some other time and place altogether.


Hi, all. I believe Flourish is right, if I remember correctly, the hug and kiss on shoulder was in Hollywood at Egyptian Theatre in Feb. 2003. I was lucky enough to be in the audience and they were talking about how close they are, but I don't think it was about a specific scene.

This event was a showing of the TE of FOTR on a Friday night, TE of TTT on Sat. afternoon and ROTK on Sunday afternoon, all at the Egyptian in Hollywood. First night Peter Jackson was there and talked to the audience. Second night was Sean and Elijah, third night was Peter again, Fran Walsh, Phillippa Boyens and Howard Shore. It was awesome, one of my fondest memories from the days of ROTK-mania!

Edit: Might have special visitors on wrong nights. I know Peter was there Friday and Sunday, and I believe Mark Ordesky was there once, maybe Shore was there Friday night. Anyway, it was amazing ...

Lin

Oh, Mechtild – thank you so much for posting the photo from The War that I linked (and your companion piece). In the film, the underlying “adult” face is even more evident; as soon as I saw it, I was scrambling for the “Pause” button.

Hobmom – wonderful giant “samples,” especially #1 and #2, with Sam starting to pick him up (and the eyelashes very much in evidence). ;) Also like how the eyes in the other samples just keep getting bigger and bigger.

TG – your idea sounds very interesting; will check it out tomorrow (when I’m less sleepy).

Quote from Mechtild:

The rest of you, I want you not to talk about or show the hands anymore. I am trying to get a few things done around here.
:lol:

I thought capping the Wheel of Fire scene would be fairly quick.

I was wrong. It took me most of yesterday to cap and then into today to upload around 1000 caps. Talk about micro-expressions! :eek: I didn't want to miss one and I don't think I did. They are now available for much intense investigation. :)

Hobmom, thank you for posting those very large "Wheel of Fire" caps. It gave me the opportunity to look closely at Frodo's eyes there. My husband have been having a long running debate about whether his eyes were color-tweaked to make them gleam like Gollum's. I've maintained that they were not. And looking at your caps, I'm positive that they were not, only that it was the reflected sky, and the contrasting 'dirt' on his face. :cool: And I do remember reading/hearing somewhere, a comment by Andrew Lesnie, where he talked about Elijah's eyes looking bluer the dirtier Frodo's face got. I'm right! :p :haha:

And Mech, thank you for the pic of Stu! You really can see his 'grown-up' face there!

Honey!

Re : The Hands discussion...

I love Elijah's hands...not just his hands per se, but what he does with them, and the shots of Frodo hugging Sam, and then Pippin, that Tgshaw posted just go to illustrate the point...the amount of information he conveys about the difference between those two hugs is amazing !!

Just for your entertainment, here's a huge picspam link ( 19 pics ) of Elijah doing things with his hands, in various candid shots, from various photo-shoots and various wrap-parties etc...

Elijah uses his hands (http://www.livejournal.com/community/elijah_daily/199696.html#cutid1)

Oh my, that Elijah_Daily Live Journal Community throws up so many good pictures that you haven't necessarily seen before, I highly recommend you keeping an eye on it....

Hobmom,
Thank-you so much for all your FAB work, screencapping the Wheel of Fire scene...this is one of my favourite scenes, particularly where Sam picks him up off the ground and turns him over...Elijah is unconscious, having fainted momentarily, and he looks so at peace, as if he's just a sleeping child...

Honey,
Agree totally about his eyes appearing to be bluer and more piercing the dirtier his face gets...I'm pretty sure that there was no CGI-enhancement here...they wouldn't need to with his eyes being as they are :D

godmorning to you all!!!!!

those hands i just love them!!! and he jus them in so many ways!!
they seams to be so big,warm, trusty,if you know what i mean!!!!!! :p

and the eyes!!!!i don`t think they are cgi!!!why on earth should they have
to do that???no they are his very on beautiful eyes!!!

now i know how to post pics,but they alwayes turn out to be so small,i haven`t figuring out to make them bigger jet but i hope you don`t mind
them being small!!!! :(


LOVE/WOOD

Speaking of Voice differences. Think of "Flipper" when he says "Cool." and then "North." about his crack. That is a peaceful laugh riot.

I also noticed that the drawing of Bilbo on the comic book cover "The Hobbit" shows a large forearm :p When Frodo holds Sting, and is about to enter Shelobe's lair and holds up the Ring., what do we see? Frodo has Popeye like forearms. :p :lol:

Is there something about the Baggin's Men that deserves attention? :lol:

i defintiv thinks the baggins men deserves specell attention shadowcat!!!

aspecilly one his name beginns with F!!! :lol: :lol:

LOVE/WOOD

From Ian McKellen’s latest “e-post” (linked from TORN on 8/28):

Q: Having admired your performance in LOTR (and in X-men) as well as those of your co-stars Ian Holm and Christopher Lee in particular (no offence to the rest of the cast who were excellent as well) it occured to me that of the actors I admire the most in the world there is not a single one under the age of 50. . . . As a young actor myself I am interested in what gives all these great men and women such a powerful presence.

A: It's likely, isn't it, that with age and experience actors improve? A powerful presence however can be in-built so that quite young actors have an undeniable charisma, although that is perhaps to do with sex-appeal, which is ageless. . . .
Hmmmmmmmm. Sound like anyone we know??

Quote from Lady Wendy:

this is one of my favourite scenes, particularly where Sam picks him up off the ground and turns him over...Elijah is unconscious, having fainted momentarily, and he looks so at peace, as if he's just a sleeping child...
I love that scene, too, and for the same reason. And it's as if he's just totally played out.

tgshaw: I looked again at your post about The War, and noticed the following:

Stu is a character who's much more outwardly emotional than most of Elijah's characters, IMHO, which does make a big difference with the body language. It's not that the emotional subtleties aren't there, but they're more on the surface than in the more internal characters--completely right for Stu, who's had no reason to learn to "bottle things up" inside.

That’s such a good point. What a contrast with poor Mikey Carver! In fact, if you were going to give someone a crash course on “Why We Think That Elijah Wood Is A Talented Actor,” you could just show The War and The Ice Storm as an illustration of his range. (After that, any sensible person would voluntarily rush to see Frodo, right???)

You could almost set up an “external/internal” rating scale, with “10” representing Stu at one extreme (Totally Open Book) and “1” representing Mikey at the other (Totally Clenched). Then you could plot all of Elijah’s other performances along that continuum (for instance, Patrick in ESOTSM might be a 7). Although I think Frodo would probably slide around on the scale (now, there’s an image), depending on what part of the trilogy he’s in. Or do some of his other roles (and there are many I haven’t seen yet) lie outside even those extremes?

(Don't mind me; I use rating scales a lot in my job, and it sometimes leaks over into my real life.)

talking about thousends of expresion! how about this one
seams a little bit familier.or?!http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/erendil/th_thewar-069.jpg

Sorry to interrupt, but I just want to let Alyon and honeyelf know that I’ve emailed them some Hoot pictures and I hope the picture files aren’t too big to receive. Let me know if you don't get them. Also, you better watch Mariole. She’s such a natural on horseback she might forsake her Facultyness and become a Rider of Rohan one day. ;) Check out the Howard Shore thread in KD Festivals, posts #584 and #585 (cute pinto by the way). tg, when is the Faculty going to have a gathering? :)

Lovely Frodo pictures Hobmom! :)


(((Faculty)))

what pics esmaralda??

can you pm them to me to??please!!! :z: :z:

wood, about your little pictures, try clicking directly on the picture befor you save it to your photobucket account. Also try to right-click on the picture; sometimes this will produce an icon in the lower right corner of the picture that will make the picture bigger when you click on it. Hope that was helpful!

Pelagia, I like your Elijah character scale! I think those are probably the two extremes. I'm hoping that we'll see somebody more on the 8ish end of it when we finally get to see Matt in Hooligans, or even Kevin in Sin City. In fact I hope he doesn't get typed cast playing "internalized" characters either!

SC, I love Donato Giancola's Bilbo too! I'm not on my computer right now (on hubby's) or I'd post a pic just to everyone knows what we're talking about. Later though.

Honey!

Happy Birthday, CandyGirl!

http://www.vnn.vn/dataimages/original/images94428_elijah_wood.jpg

I've seen you lurk from time to time. Do drop us a line if you have the time.
Don't be a stranger. :)
I hope that this birthday is the start of a fantastic year for you.


http://img.stopklatka.pl/filmowcy/00400/00437/0.jpg
Btw, can you guess from which movie this picture is?


And finally (hope that at least one picture will show up)
Can you spot him in this one?
http://www.muellerworld.com/dsc3121/elijah_wood-71.3.jpg

I love that scene, too, and for the same reason. And it's as if he's just totally played out.
IMHO, if you wanted to put the essence of RotK--book or movie--into one scene, it would be Frodo using his last drop of strength and will to claw his way up Mount Doom.

Belated thanks to Moondancer for that chat transcript. Turns out that many of the things I've been saying "I read somewhere..." were there :) . And many thanks to Hobmom and all for the pictures and screencaps. [Later edit: I think it was Moondancer... just looked back through the last few pages to check, and can't find the right post :o . FES, it takes these last couple of pages a long time to load :eek:!!]

Happy Birthday to CandyGirl if you're still peeking in ;) .

You could almost set up an “external/internal” rating scale, with “10” representing Stu at one extreme (Totally Open Book) and “1” representing Mikey at the other (Totally Clenched). Then you could plot all of Elijah’s other performances along that continuum (for instance, Patrick in ESOTSM might be a 7). Although I think Frodo would probably slide around on the scale (now, there’s an image), depending on what part of the trilogy he’s in. Or do some of his other roles (and there are many I haven’t seen yet) lie outside even those extremes?

(Don't mind me; I use rating scales a lot in my job, and it sometimes leaks over into my real life.)

Okay, this will be a bit of a challenge. Let's see how far I can get...

I can't think of anyone who'd be higher than Stu on the "open" end. Even Michael in Avalon, *cough*Tom Thumb*cough*, and Huck Finn are somewhat introspective (although movie-Huck isn't nearly as introspective as book-Huck). Sandy's sullenness would keep him from challenging Stu for the title. The original (book) Artful Dodger could give Stu a run for his money, but Elijah's version is much different, for at least two reasons: Elijah's acting, which shows us there's more going on inside Jack Dawkins than he wants to admit, and the "Disneyfication" of the character, which combines the Artful Dodger and a "kinder, gentler" book character into one person.

But as I'm typing that--Good heavens! How could I forget? :eek: (Waiting for a trouting from the discoverer of "Nat angst")--there's Nat in Forever Young, who's pretty much an open book. As a "normal" kid, though, he doesn't have the emotional extremes that Stu does, so his openness isn't as noticeable (most visible in the plane, probably). So if we're looking at range of emotional expression, Stu would still be on top.

Hard to judge Wren (B&W)--partly because we see so little of him. But more unusually because IMVHO, it's one role where Elijah really doesn't do a good job of helping us know the character (not that it's entirely his fault). Probably toward the middle of the scale.

The other end of the spectrum is more difficult, IMHO, because there are different ways of being "closed" among Elijah's characters (of course-- :rolleyes: -- no two of his characters are going to be exactly the same about anything). I don't think there's anyone I'd put beyond Mikey Carver on the scale, but Barney Snow might need his own line--how do you judge someone who's not deciding to keep things inside, but has had them erased (or maybe had them shoved forcibly into a corner of his brain)? Luke in Child in the Night is somewhat in the same position--he seems like a very open/active kid in the first scene, before he's traumatized. Sean Sullivan has also been forced to be somewhat closed, but we don't really get a chance to know his true personality (his true self might be around that "7" with Patrick, from what we see of his interaction with his brother and uncle).

For Chain of Fools, how do you decide which Mikey II to rank :confused: ? We see a couple of scenes multiple times through his POV, and they're different each time. We don't always know when he's telling the truth, when he's purposely lying, and when he's delusional (his story about his parents, for example). Mikey II's probably not quite as "clenched" as Mikey Carver, but IMHO he's very likely even more screwed up mentally :( .

The characters whose basic component is nerdism (Casey and Leo) are probably somewhere towards the middle of the scale.

It's been a long time since I've seen Paradise or North. Elijah's character in Paradise is withdrawn enough that I remember that about him, but I'm not sure how you'd rank North.

We don't see Mark (The Good Son) before his mother's illness, so we don't know what he was like then. By the time we meet him, he's retreated pretty far inside himself, and having no one believe what he's saying about his cousin couldn't have helped.

There's one characteristic of Jones Dillon I love, because I haven't seen anything like it in any of Elijah's other characters -- his smoldering anger. It's not openly expressed until the later part of the movie, but it's close enough to the surface that you can see it bubbling up at times. Certainly not more open than Stu--even at the end, he's not going to let very many people read those letters.

[Let's see... that's 20... add three Frodo movies (he's definitely an introvert, but we see more of his emotion in the movies than we do in the book), and we get to 23... There should be 25, not counting The Witness (talk about closed in!) or Homicide :eek: . Who've I forgotten?? I'm sure I'll kick myself when I find out. :rolleyes: ]

Later Edit: Just realized one of the two I'm missing is Spy Kids--not a very big part. Still haven't figured out which other one I've passed over??

From Shadowcat (and wood ;) ):
Is there something about the Baggin's Men that deserves attention?
Well, Gandalf certainly thought so :) . IMVHO, it's that drop of elvish blood combined with good hobbit earthiness.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANDY GIRL!!!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/erendil/th_karate17.jpg

hope this will work!!



love/wood

nope dosen`t work have to try again!!it just won`t
get any bigger!!!! :confused: :(

wood, the picture that posts should be the same size as the one you saved, unless you've resized it in a photo editing program. As Honey said, be sure you've opened up the big version of the picture and save that. If you save the small "thumbnail" version, that's how big it will be when you post it (believe me, I learned that one the hard way :rolleyes: ). To be sure, you can check its size on "properties" before you post it--the one you just posted (from Homicide, I think?) is 160x120 pixels, which is about right for that small picture.


Aaaurrrghh... very embarrassed edit :o :rolleyes:
Can you believe the one movie I couldn't think of in my last post was Radio Flyer??!! How could I forget that one?? But Elijah's character there is a little hard to judge, too, isn't he? Of course, in one sense he's very closed because he's keeping a lot of secrets, but he does show emotions at times.

If it's the chat transcript, related to The Ice Storm, than the link is mine, tg.
:)

Making a grading list from 1 to 10. Isn't that a typical male thing to do? My male colleagues are always doing that.
Not that there's anything wrong with that of course.
The extremes seem right:
1= Mikey from The Ice Storm
10=Stu from The War

I haven't seen B&W and that animated movie (thumb and...)
I would rate Mikey II more to 1 than to 10. I would give him a 3 or so.
Wouldn't you rate the majority of his roles into the 1 to 5 range?
Isn't it funny that Elijah Wood always seems to get lots of praise for his ability to play roles who are more introvert and yet, one of his very best roles is the extroverted Stu.

I found this on a French site:
Loin du registre comique, il s'exerce à grandir en explorant encore et encore la mélancolie, les complexes, la maladresse... Il passe ainsi des univers de Levinson à Donner, de Reiner à Rodiguez, en flirtant avec tous les genres. Aimé des cinéastes, Elijah Wood, par son professionnalisme, attire les louanges même dans les mauvais films.
La quintessance de ses choix (sujet sombre, dramarturgie optimale, personnage mal dans sa peau, grand réalisateur) se synthètise dans The Ice Storm. Ang Lee en fait le symbole d'une adolescence perturbée, sans repères, suicidaire. Wood y est séduisant malgré la noirceur de son rôle. Le film emporte un réel succès à Cannes puis parmi les critiques. Wood est désormais crédible.
Translating from French to English isn't easy for me because they have a totally different way of constructing their sentences.
But loosely translated, that would be:

Far from the comic range, he searches to develop himself further as an actor by exploring time and time again melancholy, complexes (?), awkwardness,...
By doing this, he travels through universes from Levinson to Donner, from Reiner to Rodriguez, by flirting with all genres. Loved by the moviemakers, with his professionalism Elijah Wood even attracts praise for the bad movies.
The quintessence of his choices (dark topics, ultimate dramatic parts, characters who feel ill at ease,...) seems to come together in The Ice Storm.
Ang Lee makes him the symbol of the disturbed adolescent, without bounds (without reference marks?), suicidal. Wood is seductive here despite the dark side of his role. The movie was a real hit with the critics in Cannes. From this point on, Wood is 'credible'.


Note: when they write 'far from the comic range', they mean the typical sort of roles kid actors take on in family comedies, where the kid is mainly the tool to make the audience laugh through gags and so on.

I don't know if I would agree with everything here. I mean, wasn't he taken serious before The Ice Storm?
But maybe, through this movie, people could get a first peek at what he was capable of as an adult actor? People could see for the first time that Elijah was going to be able to succeed in making the transition from child actor to adult actor?

Even in his more open roles, Elijah seems to look for characters with a bit of depth. People who have more than one side and don't just laugh their way through a movie (if you know what I mean)


PS Closing ceremony of the Olympics tonight. According to the news on the radio here, the central theme is Bachus, god of wine. Wasn't Elijah the king of the Bachus parade during Mardi Gras (or something like that?)


ETA: It's a wrap! (http://www.worldmoviemag.com/index.php?request=News&key=461#)
Found in Undone's LJ.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/erendil/th_3436buhbye.jpg

i just give up i have try everything!!!!! :confused: :(
if you don`t whant me to post small pics i stop
and just write in my posts!!!

LOVE/WOOD

Moondancer, you wrote,

I don't know if I would agree with everything here. I mean, wasn't he taken serious before The Ice Storm?
But maybe, through this movie, people could get a first peek at what he was capable of as an adult actor? People could see for the first time that Elijah was going to be able to succeed in making the transition from child actor to adult actor?

Speaking ffrom my own perspective, the majority of "serious" film viewers probably hadn't yet seen him in a film. I certainly never did. Movies that he had been in before that, even the good box office ones, simply were not films I would have bothered to go see or rent. But I had been massively impressed by Ang Lee and so was keen to see The Ice Storm when it came out, only on that account. Also, The Ice Storm got very good reviews and was talked up as an important film, a serious film. That made me want to see it even more. Wood would have to have benefited from the exposure he got in this particular film, therefore. A whole slew of people who never saw his work before finally did, including me.


Ice Storm SPOILERS
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I beg to differ with the reviewer about the character of Mikey in the film, though. I did not get an impression of him as being disturbed (his brother sure was), but as extremely different, temperamentally. Where the reviewer got "suicidal" from, I don't know. Did he think Mikey got himself electricuted on purpose? No, he was too entranced in what he was looking at to notice: a key motif for his character, I thought. He was very much off in another mental world, but I thought it was a matter of having the sort of mind and aesthetical sense that simply was not shared by most anyone else. The molecule paper made sense to me! -- but it bewildered his hearers. I suppose I am being defensive because I was a "Mikey" sort of kid myself. But I learned better than he did how to assimilate myself -- eventually! -- so as to be viewed by others as a "normal" person ;) -- (Mikey didn't get to live long enough to do that, poor lad. )
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Thanks so much again for the translations and articles, Moondancer.

P.S. -- Pelagia, I was convinced by your "rating" observation, with Mikey and Stu at opposite ends of the extroversion-introversion spectrum. Very interesting!

*** Major "The Ice Storm" Spoilers to the end of this post ****







Did he think Mikey got himself electricuted on purpose? No, he was too entranced in what he was looking at to notice: a key motif for his character, I thought.

Mechtild, he sure seems entranced, yes.
He sees the world on a different level than the people around him.
But, I've got to admit...when I saw Mikey in this ice world, for example sliding on that pool ramp above the empty pool, taking lots of risks...for a couple of moments, I thought that he wanted to escape his life and his strange family and step into this beautiful ice world. For a bit, I wondered if he was contemplating suicide.
Perhaps not really 'suicide' but making a comparison of his life with his family and this ice world, which is easier for him to understand.
But, in the end, I don't really think it was suicide.
He just seems too enwrapped by the beauty of the ice world to see the dangers of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/erendil/th_3436buhbye.jpg

i just give up i have try everything!!!!! :confused: :(
if you don`t whant me to post small pics i stop
and just write in my posts!!!

LOVE/WOOD

wood, dear, is this what you're trying to do? You're almost there--in fact, I got this url from your post. I'll pm you--OK?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/erendil/3436buhbye.jpg

I just lost a post where I said pretty much the same thing Moondancer did about The Ice Storm.

First, about it being a "serious movie": in addition to what's been said, unless Barry Levinson was able to show Avalon there, TIS was probably the first movie Elijah had been in that was shown at Cannes, which a lot of movie people would consider important, and which would get it in front of a lot of important people (wonder if that had anything to do with Fran's being aware of it?)

About Mikey:

-------Ice Storm spoilers to end of post----------








I agree that Mikey wasn't directly suicidal. The DVD uses a phrase from the book for that scene: "Wandering out of life," and IMHO that fits pretty well. It's almost as if Mikey didn't really know--or pay much attention to--the boundary between life and death. The first time I saw the movie, I thought he was a goner when he walked out onto that ice-covered diving board. He survived that, then went sliding downhill in the dark in the middle of a road that was so slick a car would never have been able to stop in time, even if the driver had been lucky enough to see him before impact. Sitting and watching a wildly flailing live wire was at least the third time he wandered close to that boundary (and how many times might he have done things like that before?), and that time he simply slipped over the edge, because of where he was sitting.

I don't know if he just didn't think about things, or if he thought that in that perfect air nothing could harm him. Did he feel safe in that perfect space he imagined inside his head? What was he thinking when he went out onto that diving board, and bounced on it--or was he thinking at all?

The reviewer might have been coming from the idea that a lot of people who consistently do such dangerous things are suicidal, but perhaps can't admit it even to themselves. If we hadn't gotten to know Mikey and his internal world a bit during the rest of the movie, I might have thought that of him in this scene. But I don't think the idea fits Mikey--it's more as if something just.... happens... to him, without him really noticing.

Ice Storm spoilers:
*
*
*
*
*
tg and Moondancer, fascinating thoughts on Mikey. I see clearly that he did very risky things. His brother did, too, blowing up the action figures. But his brother did it out of rage and frustration, I thought. The things Mikey does, jumping on the ice-slicked diving board, sliding down the road -- are certainly actions which risk injury or death. (I wish I had seen the film more recently; it would help me argue on this. ) But I don't see Mikey as shown doing risky things for the same reasons at all.

I am thinking of the way Ang Lee has shot this sequence, which seems to be from Mikey's perspective. The overall sense I remember perceiving, as the viewer experiencing it from Mikey's perspective, was one of wonder or fascination or awe. He's bouncing lightly on the board; we hear the interesting little cracky-squeaky sounds that it makes; see his face, as if listening, listening; while looking, looking. It's as if he's on a natural internalized hallucinogen...completely engrossed in the "now."

With this in mind, I can see this "riskiness" as an escape sort of behaviour, but not as suicidal. From the objective person's view, what he is doing is courting danger. But from his internal point of view, even subconsciously, I am not convinced that "suicide" - self-destruction - is what is pulling or pushing him. He just seems utterly engrossed in the moment, directly reacting to what he sees and hears and senses. Doing this can function as a way of escape because while doing it, it's as if past and future don't exist. Engrossed in the present, he doesn't have to think about what just happened or think about what might be coming next. This experienced immediacy of his inner world can function as a respite. But it is so engrossing, it makes him oblivious -- to the point of distancing, even alienating himself from others, but also to the point of putting himself physically at risk.

Anyway, I think Mikey's a fascinating character with whom E.W. did a great job.

P.S. tg, Yes Avalon was a highly thought-of film and Elijah was noticed in it. But still, it was such a small role, I don't think many people would remember years later that "Mikey" and that little boy were played by the same actor.

Fascinating discussions going on here, as usual.

'The Ice Storm' is on TV here in the UK tomorrow (Monday) night.

Nothing to add, except - CANDYGIRL

This is for you. (http://www.imagemagician.com/images/blossom/CandyGirl.gif)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Phew! Only just made it.

Thanks to all for links, interviews, pictures.

Beautiful caps, Hobmom. I know - as does Tg - how it feels to capture over 1000 screencaps in one sitting - cramps our old codgers' fingers up something rotten! :rolleyes: :) I'm working on gifs from ROTK, and am almost at the 'Wheel Of Fire' scene. Shelob's Lair took forever to get through - over 150 separate gifs!!! (OK,so I repeated one or two in slow motion. It's one of my weaknesses - watching Frodo in slow-mo.) All your hard work is much appreciated, Hobmom. Thanks.:) Though you won't hear me complaining about looking at angsty Frodo - or Elijah - for hours on end.... cramped up fingers or not...

Carry on.

Blossom-
I know - as does Tg - how it feels to capture over 1000 screencaps in one sitting - cramps our old codgers' fingers up something rotten!

Yes, and mouse-arm-shoulder cramps as well. At least with my wheelie optical mouse I can move my arm around more than I used to with a regular mouse.

Yet, considering how long we waited to see these scenes I don't really mind. :)

Awesome screencaps Hobmom, thank you!

tgshaw: Oh, lord – I didn’t realize my little interior/exterior whimsy could get so complicated! (BTW, I looked at the URL you posted on an earlier page. It looks as if you have to sign the guestbook to read messages as well as to post? Or did I miss something?)

Mechtild, I second your view of Mikey’s character in The Ice Storm. I don’t think he was thinking at all about potential dangers, but as you say, was just “utterly engrossed in the moment, directly reacting to what he sees and hears and senses.” Same thing in the football scene. He doesn’t seem to have very clear boundaries between himself and the world (all those threatening molecules).

Quotes from Moondancer:

Making a grading list from 1 to 10. Isn't that a typical male thing to do? My male colleagues are always doing that.

Isn't it funny that Elijah Wood always seems to get lots of praise for his ability to play roles who are more introvert and yet, one of his very best roles is the extroverted Stu.
In my case, it’s a survey research thing (that’s my job). And it’s not actually grading, because it’s not good vs. bad; just a continuum – like a color spectrum – and something to play around with. As for why Elijah gets so much praise for his introvert roles, maybe it’s because such roles are often perceived as more difficult to play? (This could be another whole discussion; probably has been!) And perhaps his Stu is so natural that some people don’t even think of it as acting.

tgshaw: (BTW, I looked at the URL you posted on an earlier page. It looks as if you have to sign the guestbook to read messages as well as to post? Or did I miss something?)
You shouldn't have to. After reading your message, I went back and posted a much longer comment of my own (I'd previously put only a couple of little "testing" messages), to make the list of posts more obvious. The comments already posted are directly below the "Sign the guestbook" link. I may have to change the option I chose to have the guestbook look like the rest of the site, because it looks almost too much like the rest of the site--more than I'd expected. I thought there'd at least be a border around it or something. This is definitely in trial stage. (But it's so wonderful to find a guestbook that's free and adds no advertising, that I want to try to work out any problems with it. I'm also going to try their "random image" script to rotate screencaps on the main EJW page, if I can get it to work.)

If anyone else wants to look at the decidedly "beta version" of the guestbook, it's at http://www.frodolivesin.us/Pics (not yet connected to the rest of the site, so you need to use the exact URL to get there).

As for why Elijah gets so much praise for his introvert roles, maybe it’s because such roles are often perceived as more difficult to play? (This could be another whole discussion; probably has been!) And perhaps his Stu is so natural that some people don’t even think of it as acting.
IMHO, both of those are true. Elijah is so good at showing what's going on inside an interiorly-focused character, and IMVHO that's such a difficult thing to do, that he's probably often the best choice for the part. It was knowing that about him that made me so glad when I heard he'd been cast as Frodo, who's such an interior--as well as complex--character.

And Stu can seem quite natural--I didn't realize the level of acting there until I'd seen Elijah in some more movies. IIRC, about all I'd seen previously was Huck Finn and Avalon. I guess we've come to the conclusion that's true of almost any of Elijah's roles--he inhabits them so fully that it's hard to tell he's acting until you see him in a real range. (No excuse for those who can't see it in the LotR movies, though! If someone can't tell there's acting involved in going from Frodo at the beginning of FotR to any point in RotK, there's not much hope.)

Wandering into the Faculty again and getting very breathless from catching up. Happily breathless, mind. ;) There was also the wonderful treat last night of back-to-back FotR and TTT screenings on HBO Asia. Bliss! And then to see right here in the Faculty the Wheel of Fire screencaps in all their glory -- thank you, Hobmom! Thank you so much! :k

Norte81 and Cat, Welcome to the Faculty! And Happy Birthday, Candy Girl!

To celebrate the occasion, I shamelessly swipe the Eyes from TORn. ;)

http://img-nex.theonering.net/images/scrapbook/orig/13797_orig.jpg


((Wood)) -- the pic-posting, you're getting there!

(((Moondancer))) for sharing your story with us. :k

(((ylla & husband))) (((Blossom)))

*waves to Whiteling* :)

Hey there BunnieBugs and estella rose! Welcome back, Flourish! And thank you, Faculty, for the on-going discussions. A couple of additional thoughts:

Ice Storm -- I had the impression too that Mikey's molecules are incomprehensible to his friends because, well, what teenager talks like that? Even by geek standards he was really pushing it. And meandering off into the ... err ... toilet zone ... is a turn-off for the majority of listeners, I imagine. :p :D

Speaking of turn-off: so they say LOTR is a turn-off for girls? Sigh. Unfortunately I do have girl friends who think so. Oh, they enjoy the movies, but they're certainly not looking to read the books. And the fact that I have read the books simply makes them react with wide-eyed "How can you read something so thick?!" These are friends of mine who doread, mind you. Just that they don't read 'guy books'. :rolleyes:

And lastly, because everything does come back to Faculty topic one way or another, while I was going through a Quantum Leap website, randomly reading stuff, I came across a Q&A with the actors Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Dean Stockwell was a child actor in the 1940's who made the successful transition to adult acting, and is still working. So anyway, a couple of his answers tie in perfectly with what the Faculty was discussing several pages back about acting methods and kid actors. And as a bonus, he's talkin' about Mr. Gregory Peck. ;)



Question: ... First to Dean (Stockwell), I'd just like to ask you, what was it
like to star with Gregory Peck in "Gentleman's Agreement" when you
were seven years old ...

Dean Stockwell: Gregory Peck is a man of great stature. He was, of course, very young at the time. But physically he's a commanding figure, and I was very little, and the image and impression I had of him was like a statue of someone of huge importance of some sort or another. I realize now it was his stardom, his magnetism as a star. I didn't realize it then. Um, other than that I had a rocky time in that movie, to tell you the truth, I really did. Because -- and I'll tell you why, the man that directed it, a very famous film director, Elia Kazan, directed many classic movies, he had a way of working with the actors that evolved from the famous Actor's Studio in New York, Lee Strasburg and everything, which was the absolute opposite of the way I worked. 'Cause I had a way of working, even when I was six or seven, and so he was constantly trying to deal with me on this Actor's Studio level and saying, "Feel this and think that your dog was dead, or something, or your Mommy got hurt," or something, and I would have to sit and listen to him, and the minute he would stop -- and I'd try and give him the impression, "OK, OK," -- and go to something else, I would just go and do it the way I would do it. I'd put my finger in the corner of my eyes to make a tear come, and come in and play the scene. I didn't need to _do_ all that stuff. So that was a very tough movie. He's the only Method director I ever worked with.

Just before that, there was another question about dealing emotions while performing. The Faculty had been talking about that too, so here's Stockwell's take on it; I look at it from the POV that like Elijah, here's a fellow who's been working from the time he was a small child:

DS: Well, I personally don't find emotional difficulty as a performer. Um, I don't get involved in it in that way, it's not part of my craft in acting. It's the real life we all know that effects me emotionally, the acting doesn't; although I use my emotions, but the minute the acting is done, I'm not emotionally any different than before I did the scene, or the show. I may be wiser at the end of the show more than another, but emotionally, no.

http://www.quantumleap-alsplace.com/conventions/quantumcon1992_transcript.htm

----Back from doing some messing around with the guestbook. I "tricked" it into letting me add a background and border to the list of posts, so I hope it's less confusing now. That had the side effect of adding the same background and border to the sign-in area, which I think makes it easier to see, too. (I tried the option of using the script's "basic" set-up, but IMHO that was even more confusing, because you had to go to a new page just to read the posts.) I also cut my verbosity about in half; hope that makes things clearer, too :rolleyes: .

Thanks for taking a look at it, Pelagia. The comments really helped me see how confusing it was.


Great stuff from Dean Stockwell, ainon. Sounds like he and Elijah could have some good conversations :) . I have to say that I love Gentlemen's Agreement, enjoy Dean Stockwell's adult acting, and knew he was a child actor--but I don't remember recognizing him in that movie :o ! I'll have to pull out the video again and have a look.

I heard a song from The Who that talked about "Behind Blue eyes" and it made me think of Kevin and then Elijah. :eek:

Has anybody had a strange musical experience lately? :confused:

yes,shadowcat i have!!!!

i have a behind-the scen music video with elijah and the music
is To lost in you.i think it is sugerbabes woh sings it and everytime
i here that song i think about elijah!!!
Just becuse i have the feelings i have for him, this song tuches something
speciel in my heart!!!

LOVE/WOOD

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/erendil/frodonew21.jpg

kross your fingers!!!!! :z:

YES,YES!!!!I DID IT!!!!!!

One other comment about The Ice Storm -- this time about the “Nixon mask” scene: This is very different in the book (aside from the fact that there’s no mask -- some role playing instead). The scene in the book is from Wendy’s perspective, while in the film, it’s from Mikey’s; and he seems much less innocent in the book. But then, as we’ve said before, he’s hardly a character at all in the book – more like just a plot device. Moody – at the beginning of his description of Mikey’s trek through the storm -- even refers to him as a “minor character.”

Going back to honeyelf’s and Lady Wendy's comments (after Hobmom’s screen caps) about whether Elijah’s eyes were “color-tweaked” in the “Ring of Fire” scene: I do remember Elijah saying in an interview, regarding the Shelob’s lair scene, that “I got to wear white contacts and foam at the mouth, which was cool.” I assume that the contacts were in the scene where he’s all shrouded in spider goo (can’t think of a technical term this early in the morning) and Sam is cradling him in his arms? I don’t THINK his eyes look a different color when he’s stung.

The other place where they definitely do something with his eyes is the series of scenes between Weathertop and the Ford of Bruinen. Although I think the most remarkable thing about his performance in that sequence is those unearthly, howly gasps that he makes. They don’t even sound human (or hobbity). I assume that WAS him, and not a special effect from the Sound Dept.??

Quote from tgshaw:

IMHO, if you wanted to put the essence of RotK--book or movie--into one scene, it would be Frodo using his last drop of strength and will to claw his way up Mount Doom.

Yes! I went back and looked again at that scene in the book: “He raised his eyes with difficulty to the dark slopes of Mount Doom towering above him, and then pitifully he began to crawl forward on his hands.” The film is faithful to this. But I think PJ and Philippa and Co. (and Elijah, of course) improve on the original, by showing Frodo’s collapse and then having Sam to his aid. In the book, Sam apparently moves to pick him up almost as soon as he (F) begins to crawl.

tg, I looked at your site again. That is much clearer, esp. with your longer comment as an example. Before, I misinterpreted the “Comments” as a topic line, and thought there should be a link to the complete message. Duh.

One other comment about The Ice Storm -- this time about the “Nixon mask” scene: This is very different in the book (aside from the fact that there’s no mask -- some role playing instead). The scene in the book is from Wendy’s perspective, while in the film, it’s from Mikey’s
How does it work in the book?
There's role playing but no mask?

I was reading reviews of "The Ice Storm" on amazon.
Lots of remarks from people saying that "American Beauty" with Kevin Spacey was a rip off from The Ice Storm.
So, why does American Beauty get the Oscars and The Ice Storm not? Lots of reviewers answered Titanic. The Ice Storm was released in the Titanic year.
I like Kevin Spacey and I think the comparison with American Beauty is a fair one.
Maybe I'm biased here but I prefer The Ice Storm. It's a movie that rips your heart out but I really love that movie.


I was also looking for old reviews on the Ain't It Cool News site and I found a number of reviews of The Faculty.
People, who went to a special screening have send in their reviews.
One reviewer writes about Elijah Wood:
Josh Hartnett walked away with the film; he stole every scene he was in. I didn't see him in "H20", but this film should make him a star. He simply commanded the screen. Most characters weren't that well drawn, but Josh made Zeke complex and mysterious.
<snip>
So what about Elijah? His performance was good, but uneven. Did he baseline? Just when I thought he would, he just sat back and kinda went through the motions. At least he had more to work with than in "Deep Impact". I'm not saying he was bad, just not great. He did have some great moments, though. Hence the description 'uneven'. :-)

One last thing: from Elijah's dialog alone it would be rated R -- one B-word, one S-word, three F-words, and some behavior that I wouldn't want anyone to emulate.
"Did he baseline?" What does that mean?

Now, Harry from AICN is a friend of Elijah and here is his comment on that review:

Ok, from that review we get the word that JOSH HARTNETT is the best thing about the film, and that Elijah is a bit uneven. Hmmmmmm.... let us move on to the next review from a geek that just LOVED the film....

From one of the other reviews, I've pulled out this quote:
That's the fun part, to see a character in a horror movie really top himself and kick some ass. Elijah Wood's character is cool because we get to see him at his best AND his worst. We only see Zeke at his best. Thank you, Mr. Williamson, I guess that's to show us that he's the tough guy. Man, I don't get it. You did it well with Campell's character in Scream, how did you screw this one up? Zeke starts out like a lame riff on a bad boy and stays that way. No growth, nothing.
<snip>
Zeke is horrible. He really hurt the movie for me. Maybe if a different actor played the part, imbued it with a little humanity, a little sense that this is just a cool guy and not some uber-teen.
<snip>
Don't go and try to make him El Stud Boy because he's not. You've already got one of those in the flick. His name is Elijah Wood.

Yep, that boy is pretty damn terriffic in The Faculty. I don't even think Wood's character was written all that well (his final line with the monster certainly isn't, oh why oh WHY does he have to have a final line with the monster, God, it's dumb...Robert, please man, grab all the prints and cut that crappy line out). Elijah just really, really looks exactly like he should. He's got the body movements down, got the voice down. It ain't just him being himself. The kid is getting chased by ALIENS, man. Wood is good in this, he really is. It's a ton of fun to watch him. See, we get emotional involvement with him. He's the dork that gets picked on so so so bad and he deals with it like a dork would. Give Rodriguez an award for realizing the implications of a teenager drinking out of a juice box. And another award for Wood's cool as hell room, repelete with a hidden stash of nudie books.
Totally opposite reviews there.

Harry's comments:
Well gosh... as you can now see, John Robie here loved Elijah, hated Zeke (Josh Hartnett's character) which is the exact opposite of the first reviewer. Thinks I should've been in it longer, while the first one hated me, and then credited the greatness of the movie to Rodriguez despite the script. Also he loved the sound effects and the editing. Which are also counter to some of the others. I love this sort of thing. For me, it means coming out of the theater with a group of friends and talking for hours and getting into passionate damn arguements about subtle differences of opinion and major ones

I also looked for audience reviews on amazon and for Hartnett, I saw a lot of "He's hot" reviews.
Funny thing is that, just this morning, I saw a small interview with him (for Sin City amongst other things) in which he says that he wants to get away from the 'heartthrob" image (he was once voted amongst the most beautiful people in Hollywood) and that he needs to get away from that image if he wants more interesting roles, if people want to cast him because of his acting skills and not so much for his face (...)

I'm here as a total avoidance mechanism to delay a phone call I don't want to make. So I'm sure I'll find a lot to say :rolleyes: .

Yay, wood!! :k

Going back to honeyelf’s and Lady Wendy's comments (after Hobmom’s screen caps) about whether Elijah’s eyes were “color-tweaked” in the “Ring of Fire” scene...
I think we've talked about this before, but during filming it was thought the idea was to use contacts during the Mordor scenes to tone down Elijah's eyes--make them look "less alive". But now it doesn't seem that this was actually done, at least not from any comments by anyone involved, and not from the look of his eyes. So maybe the plans were changed, or maybe the "report" during filming was wrong--which many of them were :rolleyes: .

The other place where they definitely do something with his eyes is the series of scenes between Weathertop and the Ford of Bruinen.

As Arwen approaches:

http://www.frodolivesin.us/oneexpression/1a6cd2e0.jpg

http://www.frodolivesin.us/oneexpression/1acce2f0.jpg


...improve on the original
...of course, you realize... Them's fightin' words! :haha:
...by showing Frodo’s collapse and then having Sam to his aid. In the book, Sam apparently moves to pick him up almost as soon as he (F) begins to crawl.
If you read the next couple of pages, you'll see that Sam carries Frodo twice. First there's the "I can't carry it..." line, and he picks up Frodo and carries him. Then Sam stops, to rest his back, and Frodo says ("gasps," actually), "I'll crawl, Sam." Which is followed by, "So foot by foot, like small grey insects, they crept up the slope," which I'd say is the equivalent of what we see in the movie before the "I can't carry it..." line. So, they both crawl until they reach the road--where the incident takes place (that the movie puts earlier) where Frodo turns to face the Eye and falls "as one stricken mortally." It's after that, that Sam carries him again, until Gollum slams into him, as happens in the movie.

[See, sometimes you have to humor us True Believers :) . The book is a historical account of what happened. The movies are "historical drama." The movies might make something more exciting, or more visual, etc., but they can't make something better--you can't improve on what really happened.]

BTW, Pelagia, thanks for checking out the guestbook again. I'm glad it makes more sense now. :)

ETA: Simulposted with Moondancer, but I don't know that I have much to add. (But, hey, I liked that last line ;) . Ohh--and I totally agree about how great Casey's room was. Not so much about the porn :rolleyes: , but about the way his clueless dad thought he'd cut off his internet connection by taking out the phone line. Get the feeling they'd been through that before? :D )

Ohh--and I totally agree about how great Casey's room was. Not so much about the porn :rolleyes: , but about the way his clueless dad thought he'd cut off his internet connection by taking out the phone line :D .)
I once saw a bunch of screencaps from that room with an analysis of what's hanging on the walls, what he has on the desk, around his computer,...
I wish I kept those screencaps with the explanation because they were fun to watch. The clippings on the wall were incredibly detailled!


ETA:
Star Wars Model kit (http://www.collectorsgalleryonline.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CG&Product_Code=EPMK&Category_Code=SWM)

Model (or how to build models) classes do exist.
Hey!
So, they do exist.
Besides being too clumsy, I'm a bit too impatient to put together stuff like that. I usually end up wanting to throw out the whole damn model after smashing it really well. Needless to say that I'm not a model builder.
Just during the weekend, I read that being clumsy is typical for people who are born too soon. They tend to have a bad eye-hand coördination.
So...that's my excuse for being clumsy from now on. :D

Speaking of Star Wars kits, my brother was really crafty when he was a kid and used to built all these SW models and they turned out really nice! I wonder what the heck happened to them all. . . ?? I wonder if they have any re-sale value? Although, my bro would probably KILL ME if I sold them. . :lol: He was quite the Star Wars fanatic. He used to also paint all of his Dungeons and Dragons metal figurines. (Hmm. . I wonder if our Elijah was into D&D? He might have been??)
Oh, gosh, that theory about people who are clumsy were born too soon is so me! I am clumsy and I was born 2 weeks early. Ugh!!
Oh, I saw "The Bumblebee Flies Anway" the other night. I've never seen this film and I really liked it. The plot involving his memory reminded me a bit of ESOTSM. It had a similar feeling about it. It did depress me a bit, all that talk about cancer and dying :( . . . made me realize how precious life is.

I've uploaded pics from the movie. Hopefully they will work. It's two pics showing how expressive Elijah is with his hands.

Ainon!!! So good to see you. I've also been popping in and out as RL permits. I adore that QL transcript you found. I followed the show fanatically. I loved the dynamic between Al and Sam; the depth and humor that Dean Stockwell brought to the character really made it work. (Otherwise, he would have been just a shallow womanizer -- gah.)

Moondancer, I loved those dueling commenters from AICN. What a marvelous exchange, as was Harry's commentary. How do you find these things? :p

why oh WHY does he have to have a final line with the monster, God, it's dumb
Like Tg, I loved the last line -- if it's the post-death line, vs the "I am about to smite thee" line, which wasn't bad -- it was a turning point for the character, but the line itself didn't necessarily resonate. The very last line to me summed up Casey's whole life experience beautifully.

from tgshaw
The book is a historical account of what happened. The movies are "historical drama." The movies might make something more exciting, or more visual, etc., but they can't make something better--you can't improve on what really happened.
I love it! This is my philosophy exactly. Thank you for packaging it in such a neat, compact form! :k

Edit: Great pics, Vardaelentari! *sob*

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CANDY GIRL!

Because I know you're a fan of the ChinnyChinChin!:D
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v377/honeyelf/chinnychinchin.jpg

Hugs from Honey!

Like Tg, I loved the last line -- if it's the post-death line, vs the "I am about to smite thee" line, which wasn't bad -- it was a turning point for the character, but the line itself didn't necessarily resonate. The very last line to me summed up Casey's whole life experience beautifully.
I was assuming that it was the post-death line being referred to. I agree with your sentiments on both of the lines :) .

Edit: Great pics, Vardaelentari! *sob*
Oh, yes--especially following up on the discussion about how he uses his hands when he's hugging someone. Barney really is grasping onto Cassie, isn't he? Which is just how it should be.

Contrast with the way Leo holds Sarah after he finds her. He's risked his life to save and protect her, and IMHO it's a very protective embrace... Those spread-out fingers, again, trying to enclose her:

http://www.frodolivesin.us/100d1f560.jpg

OTOH, that first picture of Barney, especially, reminds me in a way of one of my favorite "hand shots"--when the WiKi is taking his sword out of Frodo's shoulder. The difference between the two hands is striking: his left hand, wearing the ring, is clawlike; his right hand is held in what I'd almost call a "delicate" way as he slips into unconsciousness:

http://www.frodolivesin.us/55808dc0.jpg

HERE IS ANOTHER PIC WITH HOW HE
USE HIS HANDS NOT ONLY WHEN HE HUGS
SOMEBODY BUT WHEN HE KISS SOMBODY GODBYE!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/erendil/34008.jpg


THIS IS SO FUN POSTING PICS!!!!!
if you think i do it to much please let me know!!!
sometimes they get big and i mean very big
see what i can do about that!!!

LOVE/WOOD

EDIT:I JUST WHANT TO THANK ALL
WHO HAVE HELPED ME WITH THIS
YOU ARE TRUE FRIENDS!!!! :k :k

THIS IS SO FUN POSTING PICS!!!!!
if you think i do it to much please let me know!!!
sometimes they get big and i mean very big
see what i can do about that!!!

LOVE/WOOD
:) I don't think any one person is doing it too much (I've certainly done my share!)--but from the way things have been going over the last few pages, we probably owe Moggy an extra donation or two :eek: :p .

[IIRC, what's most likely to cost him more money is a lot of pics so large that they "spread out" the width of the thread from what it usually is.--Can any mods confirm (or correct) that? :confused: ]

WHAT DO I DO WRONG SO THEY SPREED OUT SO MUCH
HAVE I LRGE THEM TO MUCH SORRY HOPE THEY DON`T KICK ME OUT!!!!!! :( :eek: WHONT HAPPEND AGAIN I PROMISE

LOVE/WOOD

WHAT DO I DO WRONG SO THEY SPREED OUT SO MUCH
HAVE I LRGE THEM TO MUCH SORRY HOPE THEY DON`T KICK ME OUT!!!!!! :( :eek: WHONT HAPPEND AGAIN I PROMISE

LOVE/WOOD

{{{wood}}} No one's going to kick you out! We all post big pics at times. (I think I have 3 or 4 on this page!) We just have to try not to go overboard, and we've been posting more than usual the last few pages. So I'm telling myself more than anyone to cut back a bit... :(

You'd have to have a photo editing program to resize the picture, so I don't know if you're able to do that. (I am, but I'm not able to use it when I'm not at home :rolleyes: ).

But I didn't mean to scare anyone or throw a wet blanket on things! :o :o Maybe just a good reminder to those of us who can afford to, to click on that "donate" button regularly to help Moggy keep this wonderful site going. And those who can't afford to donate shouldn't feel guilty about it--IMHO that's what community is all about. :k

i know you diden`t mean to scare anybody away TG!!!
i think it is good you remind us some times!!!no i don`t think i have
a editing program so i just have to think how big the pics are when i post them!!!
thanks
again TG fore the help and the reminder!! :k :k

LOVE/WOOD

[IIRC, what's most likely to cost him more money is a lot of pics so large that they "spread out" the width of the thread from what it usually is.--Can any mods confirm (or correct) that? :confused: ]

Here's what I remember about the bandwidth issue. Bandwidth gets used by all kinds of things - including the simple act of moving around in the site to view this or other threads. Pictures do use bandwidth, but so do smilies, and we don't discourage anyone from using those. ;) IIRC, the pictures that use the most bandwidth are those that are 'attached' to the post, because the actual picture has to be stored and accessed by this site. (This happens when you attach a picture that's on your computer, not on another web site.)

When you link to pictures stored elsewhere (i.e. photobucket, or another web site), it primarily uses the bandwidth of the other site when people are viewing it. Posting pics that are wider than the usual page size does use a little more, but primarily because it affects how much bandwidth is used when the page is accessed by people looking at it. The least bandwidth is used when you post a link to a picture that is stored elsewhere. (But that also makes these pages less pretty to look at. :D :D )

Don't feel badly about posting pictures. Bandwidth is bought in 'blocks', so it would take a lot of pictures to require more. Some of the threads have slowed down quite a bit, so there isn't as much pic posting going on in other threads, and that helps. However, it's always a good idea to keep in mind that Moggy does need donations to keep the site running, and it's a good way to thank him for being so welcoming and accomodating to everyone here in the Cafe!

(Small history for our new posters - almost all the threads in the Cafe originated from posters who were on another board. There was a mass exodus from that board for reasons I just won't get into now :( , and Moggy welcomed us here and set up a separate forum specifically for us. We received not only a warm welcome, but a lot of freedom to be ourselves and form real communities. We love our Moggy. :k :k )

Thanks for the info, Narya. I'd totally misunderstood the way attachments worked, and I've been around here for years :o . But now that I read the explanation, of course, it makes perfect sense. :)

And a definite ditto to--
We love our Moggy. :k :k

Narya-
and Moggy welcomed us here and set up a separate forum specifically for us.

And isn't our two year anniversary of that great event right around this time?

((((MOGGY)))))! :k

Where did those two years go? :eek:

thank you so much moggy for letting us be here!!!! :k :k

Ihave a questien to ask,i don`t know if we talked abot
this before, but in some scens elijahs(frodos) eyes looks like they are
almost green!one scen that i notict it most was when he
stands before Galadriel an getting his gift(i think) i don`t now
what it is maybe it is the colur on the kloke?his wering or
what it is?!
Is there someone else who have taking notic of this?

LOVE/WOOD