Just like last week, waiting for , longing for something new to happen (since I'm not so interested in hellish homes or adverts ... please, give us something more!) I went on watching the little I hadn't seen yet from RA's work. A pleasant surprise was last week In Divine Proportion and even more pleasant was watching Miss Marie Lloyd (2007) this week.
This period piece tells the true story of Matilda Alice Victoria Wood (12 February 1870 – 7 October 1922) , English music hall singer, best known as Marie Lloyd. Her ability to add lewdness to the most innocent of lyrics led to frequent clashes with the then guardians of morality. Her private life was also controversial. Her first marriage to Percy Courtenay was a stormy one and ended in divorce in 1905. She quickly married Alec Hurley the next year and in 1910 met Irish jockey Bernard Dillon.
Richard Armitage portrays Marie's first husband, Percy Charles Courtney. Percy is not a likeable character, one of the several rogues in Richard's career ( Lee Richards in Cold Feet 5, Paul Andrews in Between the Sheets, Phillip Durrant in Miss Marple, John Mulligan in Moving On, Robert Lovelace in BBC4 radio drama, Clarissa).
At the beginning Percy is really intrigued by Matilda, whom he himself re-names Marie. As Richard stated in one of his interviews: "When Percy and Marie meet there’s an instant attraction and I think that’s because he recognises himself in her and admires her feistiness and her drive. There’s a balance of him seeing her as an investment he wants to develop but he also recognises something special in her, a real spark, like an untamed wild animal."
Richard's performance shows Percy quite involved in the relationship, enthusiastically supporting Marie, tenderly loving and romantically courting her. Only when he sees himself neglected by her, who is completely devoted to her audience and her successful career, he starts revealing his true nature, he lets his mask slip : he is an inveterate gambler and when he's drunk he's even aggressive and violent.
As usual RA's detailed performance makes Percy incredibly believable: each smile, look, nuance of the voice convey his temper both in his positive romantic initial pursuing and in his descent into betrayal , lasciviousness, violence.
Though his look as Percy is not the hottest we've seen, the Richard we admire is definitely there: you can recognize Guy's smirks, Mr Thornton's domineering smile, John Mulligan's deceiving charm, Harry J. Kennedy's sweet tones. Try to recognize them in this mini-film, about 30 minutes, containing all RA's scenes (apart from one with a naked prostitute on his knees. Forgive my prudery) . Marie & Percy's story is all in this montage . Enjoy it when you find some spare time ... if you haven's seen Miss Marie Lloyd yet, you can't miss it!
LOL!!! Let's hope she doesn't come back! Black-self, I mean! 'Cause I desperately want to reveal one of her secrets. Can you keep a secret? I can't! Well, I don't want to...Next Friday night, July 9th, black -self will be engaged and won't be writing her RA Friday as usual! Guess why?
She'll be at Roma Fiction Fest to see Strike Back screened in the Concorso Internazionale. John Porter on a huge theatre screen!!! Fingers crossed she takes me there too! Fingers crossed nothing happens to change her plans! She's such a dutiful bore! Always working...Will her husband let her go? LOL!!! We are not in the 19th century but she's so old-fashioned! I MUST GO THERE so... She must do her best not to miss it. Meanwhile, she got a pass for the Festival, being a teacher she could have one! Good God, boring teachers have got a reason to exist! Shhhh..She's coming back.
Must leave you and kiss you good night. Till next week!
Maybe black-self will succeed in her Strike Back mission and write an RA Satuday!
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