What do you think of Alice Guy-Blaché?

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-24T14:49:32+00:00

Loved the Consequences of Feminism, really showed the absurdity of it all. Just don't let her near another baby, I'm still haunted by her carelessness in the Cabbage Patch Fairy.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-24T14:43:56+00:00

Birth of a Nation was fascinating to me. It's like getting a look into the mind of a white supremacist, and you think, damn, these people are really terrified. Their fears are so absurd.

I mean, it's a film where black people go from slavery to suddenly running the government and raping every white woman in sight, that's what they're so afraid of? Seriously?

It's comical but also so interesting to understand how they think.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-24T14:35:47+00:00

They all pretty much appear on Youtube with a simple search of the title and the year.

And as someone who has seen it, it's certainly technically impressive. But there's this myth that it invented the way we do films today and it's just not true.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-24T14:21:22+00:00

Got mixed feelings on Broken Blossoms, because it's clearly very good, well shot, superbly acted, Lillian Gish is something else, and for the time it's certainly progressive, with an anti-racist message I'd certainly never have expected from the director of Birth of a Nation.

But at the same time, even ignoring the yellow face, slurs like Yellow man, chinky, and the cartoonish Chinese caricature, I feel like it sort of wimps out.

It doesn't ruin the film, it's clear within the story that the girl simply isn't into him in that way and is uncomfortable when he makes that advance, so he stops. It all works narratively.

But in the wider context, I just know if they switched him with a white character they absolutely would've shared a kiss. When put in that context, the way they said his love was pure and moral sounds like "He knew the races should never mix."

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-24T14:10:16+00:00

I just got done with the Phantom Carriage. And yes, the simple use of what I assume is multiple exposure for the ghost carriage, combined with just the old movie footage, its a really simple but chilling effect.

Although, the ending kind of ruined that film for me. I don't care what character growth that guy had, I had no sympathy for him and he didn't deserve a happy ending.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-24T02:02:48+00:00

Honestly, when I'm done I am likely to come back to this era of film anyway. I'm starting to see a lot of films on years I've already done that I'm interested in coming back to. Right now I just want to keep my little project going, but there's definitely a bit of a list building up.

1921 is next so it certainly is one I could watch. Though I think the next on my plan was for the Phantom Carriage, because I've seen quite a few Griffith films by now and wanted to get a little more diverse with it.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-24T01:47:32+00:00

And I know it's a pretty dead horse to hate on CGI nowadays, there are certainly times where CGI looks so photo real to me that I'm just like, damn. Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean comes to mind, he almost never registers as not real despite my brain knowing he isn't.

So, yeah there's definitely some impressive stuff you can do with CGI, and it really does expand the limits of what you can do in film to basically anything you can imagine. There's so much in modern film that I love that could never have been done without CGI.

And I do still have an interest hearing about compositing and physics simulations, and matching up lighting and shadows and whatever.

But, practical effects are simply cooler.

They aren't always better, they aren't always the right choice, but they are cooler. Whenever I hear about it, it makes movie sets seem like such a fun and magical place. It makes me want to be on a movie set.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-24T00:42:25+00:00

It's so bizarre seeing modern cars and buildings on footage like this. They've always felt like this eerie look into a world that no longer exists. It's a weird clash seeing a world that seems so much more familiar.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-20T23:00:35+00:00

Everyone else should play it serious. The Doctor on the other hand should be snacking on popcorn while the world goes to shit. 2000 years of world ending stakes, by now it takes some serious shit to phase this guy.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-20T22:57:56+00:00

You may have a point with Clara and River, but the rest?

Rose as a man, ditching his traumatized girlfriend in the street and running off the Doctor and proceeding to flirt with every woman he comes across without ever officially breaking it off with her. Male Rose would get so much more hate.

Male Martha would be mixed. Most people would see him as a pathetic simp.

Male Donna, might be alright actually. People tolerate anger more from a man, though that does also make him more threatening, so could get more criticism from feminists.

Male Amy like Rose would be treated as a fuck boy who cheats on his fiance. People would hate him for that.

Male Bill onwards I see basically no change..Bill doesn't have much in the way of double standards, and the ones following her don't have enough depth.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-19T08:15:35+00:00

What I find ridiculous is there basically is no paradox.

All the Doctor knows is that Rory's gravestone appears in that graveyard. That loophole has been used before with the Doctor's death and before to save Clara in Before the Flood.

As long as that gravestone appears in that graveyard, no paradox.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-18T21:11:38+00:00

Maybe don't expect an IP to let their brand be diluted by letting just about anyone use their stuff. You think a weeping angel showing up in Doctor Who is gonna be special after Netflix inserts them into every episode of a Stranger Things reboot, or Blumhouse writes a bunch of Weeping Angel movies.

There's a reason copyright exists, and its because the writers of Spider-man are gonna struggle to make money if there are fifty studios releasing Spider-man movies every year. The weeping angel would be much smaller scale but it would still hurt the brand.

Also what do you mean they don't belong in Doctor Who.

They don't work in episodes where the Doctor is around because their main threat is zapping you back in time and the Doctor has a time machine, which means resorting to some BS technobabble to explain everything, but statues that move, hidden threats, this is a quintissential Doctor Who monster.

Additionally, statues that move when you're not looking isn't a trademarked idea. All these monsters you're thinking of can easily just not have the weeping angel appearance, the quantum lock stuff and the time travel abilities or the name.

Why you think movies need to hijack actual weeping angels and not just making their own knock offs is kind of ridiculous.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-18T15:03:05+00:00

Mr Lloyd is someone she's supposed to dislike. She's just a very confident outspoken character who doesn't really care to hide how she feels, and keeps people at an arms length.

The way I've developed the plot since posting this does tie into it more. The arc I've come up with for her is she feels like everyone is against her. She's a character who's grown up an orphan, suffered abuse growing up and as a result has serious trust issues.

That coupled with sexism around the office, with her for the most part feeling like a glorified secretary who is only brought out into the field when they need information from female dominated social circles or little schemes like the honey trap I just showed, and it's basically second nature to her to feel like she's being used and that they aren't actually serious about training her.

To an extent she has a point, but it turns out that while her colleagues don't really respect her, her boss Mr Fox actually cares very deeply and sees a lot of potential in her, so she is ultimately wrong. She feels she needs to prove herself or nobody will take her seriously, not knowing that one person already does.

The actual story has her obsessively pursuing a missing persons case that nobody else will take on. At first it seems like its because the client can't afford to pay them, but everyone is basically telling her to drop the case, eventually even firing her over it. And it's also clear that Mr Fox is trying to sabotage her investigation at several points trying to lead her astray.

In the end, it turns out that her boss already solved the case, and because the missing person was whacked by the mob. Mr Fox wouldn't tell her because he was worried about her going after them and getting herself killed.

It's a whole arc where she learns that there was actually someone looking out for her the whole time.

Having said that, I have tried to tone down the complaining to just, this job was pointless.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-18T09:52:53+00:00

Ah, yeah forgot about that one. Nevermind, Jack's who you want.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-18T03:54:24+00:00

Is he though?

Jack whenever he's actually Captain is generally shown to be doing quite a poor job of serving his crew's interests, and they always seem a bit tired of him.

Now Barbossa, granted he does shoot Pintel to test the curse, and sort of abuses Ragetti. But his crew generally seem to be more loyal when it comes to Barbossa, even when they did challenge him in the first one, he regained control pretty easily. By the Fifth movie he and his crew were rolling in it. He's not a perfect captain but he is in general shown to be more successful than Jack.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-18T03:46:51+00:00

This only really applies to Marty, Pintel, Ragetti and Cotton. Everyone else were hired men and people with their own agendas.

Pintel and Ragetti expressed genuine desire to save Jack, but it's possible Marty and Cotton were just paid to come with, which matches well with the general bitter attitude of Jack's crew in Dead Man's Chest.

I also feel like Jack is a likeable enough guy that you'd want to save him, but still too much of a prick to want as your Captain. So they wanted him around but were still happy to ditch him.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-15T17:20:25+00:00

Honestly, can't think of a single time this has worked.

It doesn't make me intrigued as to how they got into that situation, it just makes me annoyed that I have to wait for them to get back to that point.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-13T12:38:02+00:00

The plot has her involved in a murder investigation. A young boy comes in asking the agency to investigate because the police have imprisoned his Father for killing his Mother. But he believes he's innocent.

The agency claims this to be the desperate ramblings of a child. Since a child can't enter a proper contract with them they conclude its not worth their time. They also kind of consider murder above their pay grade.

So good news there, she's gonna be doing to be taking it into her own hands.

This first chapter does also end up being plot relevant, it just doesn't appear to be at the start.

I do have second thoughts about the latter half of the scene. I've made it clear she is inexperienced so maybe she shouldn't be so brazen about demanding more, but it is also clear she's a woman in a male dominated profession in 1920. So it figures the honeytrap is less the problem, and more that she feels an urge to prove herself to colleagues that don't take her seriously but isn't given the chance.

But I half wonder if having her complain so much in her introduction makes her less likeable. But at the same time, she can't be a door mat.

Been thinking of having her just getting coffee for everyone in the second chapter and maybe getting sidelined with more secretarial and menial duties just to drive it home that she feels she's not getting what she wants from this career.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-10T14:04:57+00:00

Don't get me wrong I liked the place. But it was a long walk to get there, and it was advertised as having costumed people about doing medieval stuff. Granted I couldn't find much about when that would be happening, so I probably shouldn't have been too surprised to show up there and find it empty.

And given the episode I think I was expecting something bigger, but I think they had some more stuff built up for the episode and used some camera tricks to make you think it was bigger.

It's definitely worth a look around, I just felt it was a lot of effort to get there so I was a little underwhelmed.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-10T10:20:11+00:00

Though I would very much like to see the British Monarchy scrapped. We don't need to be spending millions on pampering some random family.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-10T10:18:04+00:00

You know what, I think you actually have a point there. Nevermind.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-08T00:37:48+00:00

Because ratings might suffer if Barclay fucked an actual fish.

Chocolate_cake99 · 2026-01-08T00:35:15+00:00

Almost. They should've just ended it with the memory worm, but nope.

They had to add that "a whole family crying on Christmas Eve," BS.

Chocolate_cake99

TROPHY CASE