Diva and Quills. I loved both of them. Diva is almost 30 years old and yet deals with some of the more pressing contemporary media issues – fandom, the break between reality and fantasy, copyright and the rights of the artist… all bound up in a really superb, well shot, well acted action movie with one hell of a soundscape.
Quills is a fantasy based on the life of the Marquis de Sade. It’s not real in any way, but it makes a rather disgusting case for artistic freedom, so I have to like it for that. The only reason I bugged Jeff into renting it was because it has the guy who plays Bill the Vampire in True Blood as a minor character (Stephen Moyer). But it also has Kate Winslet, Geoffrey Rush, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine, the ever amazing Patrick Malahide. Great script, but stagey and unsatisfying from a dramatic point of view. I just loved it anyway. Is there anything Geoffrey Rush can’t do? Joaquin Phoenix is great.
