(no subject)

[giddyant]

I have an unexpected free weekend as I'm not travelling to my parents' house and it's really a treat. I have the Christmas lights on, I made a hot whiskey for myself and I watched a bit of television. The Election 1918 special on RTE was actually really good. For those unfamiliar, it's the hundredth anniversary of the 1918 general election which was marked by two gamechangers - votes for women over thirty in possession of property and a tidal wave of support for Sinn Fein in Ireland. The coverage approached it like an election happening today, with experts (historians and sociologists) in studio discussing the results 'as they came in' and moderated by one of the regular presenters of election coverage. I quite appreciated the observation that De Valera made sure that he was seen to go to mass. A burn of the 1918 vintage, people.

Then I watched The Thin Man! It's such a delight! Free to watch on archive.org for anyone who wants. I read the book a few years ago, but the film is really its own animal. Its own extremely drunk animal. And the sequel has Jimmy Stewart! Well, I have to watch that.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, sounds good! And the 1918 thing, too.

The Thin Man is one of those things on my list, now I've started watching old films, but I need either a telly version or a DVD; I get a bit exhausted watching things online, so I tend to save that for special occasions.

[giddyant]

I highly recommend The Thin Man. It's just so funny. I hope you're able to get a copy of it.

[troisoiseaux]

THE THIN MAN!!! Such a delightful movie. When I was in high school, I loved the "Beyond Belief" episodes of the Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast (which is, like, a collection of serial adventure/mystery/sci-fi stories in the style of old-timey radio shows?) which, when I watched The Thin Man last year, I realized was just "Nick and Nora, but make it supernatural." I haven't read the book, but I'll have to check it out.

[giddyant]

I love Frank and Sadie! Their love is the best, after all. They're part of why I wanted to watch it, because I had heard it had inspired them in part.

The book's a bit more in the hard-boiled detective fiction genre than the film. I quite liked it as I like Dashiell Hammett's writing, but it's not as light as the film. Although, it's been a few years since I read it, so I just pulled it from the shelf to see and there's actually quite a lot of the same dialogue! That says a lot about my memory.

[paranoidangel]

That sounds like a great approach to the 1918 election - it sounds like they made it really interesting.

[giddyant]

They really did. They did something similar around 50 years ago and did a week of 'live' reports and analysis from the 1916 rising, Insurrection, which is fantastic television even watching now. I like that they've used that approach again.