Vampire flicks have always been alluring to me, since as a child I was smitten by Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee[phpbay] Maybe it was "Nosferatu" that started things off, but I believe that he was a little too hideous and directors quickly learned that a sexy Dracula is a better idea (with apologies to Max Schreck)[phpbay] Several other vampires have certainly left their mark, including Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in Anne Rice's "Interview with a Vampire" and Stewart Townsend in the follow-up, "Queen of the Damned[phpbay]" "Dark Shadows" was one of my favorite television shows as a teenager; I'd run home from school in a tizzy to see it[phpbay] So that I would enjoy "Twilight" kind of went without saying, especially with this surge of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson mania[phpbay] Where there's smoke, there's fire, right?
A romantic vampire movie produced by, directed by and starring women[phpbay][phpbay][phpbay][phpbay][phpbay] Wow[phpbay] Finally[phpbay] I took a class called "Women in History" about a year ago and it was depressing to learn how women's contributions to society and the world at large had been diminished, squelched or plain destroyed[phpbay] Hypatia of Alexandria was a brilliant philosopher, mathematician and astronomer and inventer who lived around 350 AD[phpbay] She was murdered by a horde of monks and her works were all burned by marauding zealots[phpbay] Only some correspondence between her and one of her students survived[phpbay] Many women throughout history had to hide their gender as writers, artists and performers[phpbay] You may have heard of how women who wanted to serve their country bound their breasts and went into battle posing as men[phpbay] Virginia Woolf once said, "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman[phpbay]" So in a way, "Twilight" symbolizes a moment in our time when women can stand toe-to-toe with men, at least in pop culture[phpbay] (We have still not elected a woman as President, but that is another essay entirely[phpbay])
As a video producer myself, I appreciated the muted tones of the film[phpbay] I've observed a creative use of filters to define a series or a movie[phpbay] For instance, "CSI Miami" employs rich, gorgeous colors while "Supernatural" desaturates color, using pastel accents[phpbay] In "Twilight," Bella's rusty red truck moved across the landscape of the film like a drop of blood on an ingenue's pale skin[phpbay] Some of the special effects were excellent[phpbay] When Edward Cullin flies Bella Swan to the top of the tallest tree in the forest overlooking the Washington coast, the wire work was impeccable[phpbay] Edward's bursts of speed, and his showings of great strength were cinematically delicious[phpbay]
Kristen Stewart's awkward teenager alongside Robert Pattinson's otherworldly 300-year-old vampire made for mesmerizing screen chemistry[phpbay] I was happy that they didn't play "cat and mouse" with their feelings about each other for too long[phpbay] Maybe director, Catherine Hardwicke, as a woman who knows what women really want, had a heavy hand in that[phpbay] Why not just be up front from the very beginning, like Bella? Why mince words and hide your feelings? The tension was so strong that it took nearly the entire movie to see the two of them kiss[phpbay] No disingenuous sex for sex's sake here[phpbay]
Bella is a girl who knows what she wants, and she wants Edward, forever[phpbay] And we, the audience, all want it to work for them[phpbay] It's a good thing that "Twilight 2" is in the can[phpbay] Bella and Edward may be young forever, but Robert and Kristen won't[phpbay]
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