so who is doing crime fiction? anyone? somone? god help us! (1 Viewer)

jessika

law chicky
Joined
Aug 19, 2002
Messages
737
Gender
Female
HSC
2002
Originally posted by YEAR11
yeah prob cos they're getting rid of King Lear for Advanced. I haven't read much yet but Snow has something to do with a court case doesn't it (welll as far as I can tell) isn't that crime?
there killing off King Lear?:confused: why?
 

Weisy

the evenstar
Joined
Aug 2, 2002
Messages
656
Location
Here
Gender
Female
HSC
2002
Originally posted by YEAR11
yeah prob cos they're getting rid of King Lear for Advanced. I haven't read much yet but Snow has something to do with a court case doesn't it (welll as far as I can tell) isn't that crime?
yeah, T-i-m-m-y's right. When you study it you'll realise generaically it's difficult to classify. Just because a book has a crime in it, it doesn't mean it's crime fiction.

ie. many would argue that The Big Sleep is actually a romance.

Yeah, I heard about King Lear as well - they're replacing it with Hamlet? (I don't remember). Did that happen for this year's HSC or is it for next?
 

t-i-m-m-y

Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2002
Messages
1,756
Gender
Male
HSC
2003
Originally posted by Weisy


yeah, T-i-m-m-y's right. When you study it you'll realise generaically it's difficult to classify. Just because a book has a crime in it, it doesn't mean it's crime fiction.

ie. many would argue that The Big Sleep is actually a romance.

Yeah, I heard about King Lear as well - they're replacing it with Hamlet? (I don't remember). Did that happen for this year's HSC or is it for next?
ah Weisy did u have trouble typing t-i-m-m-y well feel sorry for me lol my email is like that cept its all underscores...sorry a bit off topic by the way i'm doing hamlet
 

MiuMiu

Somethin' special....
Joined
Nov 7, 2002
Messages
4,329
Location
Back in the USSR
Gender
Female
HSC
2003
I don't know what they're replacing it with, changes are for calss of 2004 lucky bastards
 

Weisy

the evenstar
Joined
Aug 2, 2002
Messages
656
Location
Here
Gender
Female
HSC
2002
Originally posted by t-i-m-m-y


ah Weisy did u have trouble typing t-i-m-m-y well feel sorry for me lol my email is like that cept its all underscores...sorry a bit off topic by the way i'm doing hamlet
heh, why should i feel sorry for you, since you're the one who chose the email address? :p

King Lear and Hamlet are both great plays.
 

snakeoils

Why do I have this?
Joined
Nov 11, 2002
Messages
631
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2003
i must admit, nearly halfway in, crime fiction isnt as bad as i first thought... im getting into now, especially Minette Walters...hows everyone else finding it? :headbang:
 

timmii

sporadic attendee
Joined
Nov 9, 2002
Messages
928
I loved CF :D And we too did nothing in english classes :p I read CF a lot anyway, so i had a lot of fun finding related material etc - i got addicted to CSI during the year, and justified as "studying" (lol, did i even use it? no......;) )

Basically, its as interesting as you make it. Our lessons were completely useless, but i found my own material, drew my own conclusions and in the end found it pretty good! :D
 

McLake

The Perfect Nerd
Joined
Aug 14, 2002
Messages
4,187
Location
The Shire
Gender
Male
HSC
2002
Originally posted by timmii
I loved CF :D And we too did nothing in english classes :p I read CF a lot anyway, so i had a lot of fun finding related material etc - i got addicted to CSI during the year, and justified as "studying" (lol, did i even use it? no......;) )

Basically, its as interesting as you make it. Our lessons were completely useless, but i found my own material, drew my own conclusions and in the end found it pretty good! :D
Yeah, love the way you can justify to yourself that going to the movies to see "Gosford Park" is Eng work, just like TV is ...
 

sdpy

New Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2002
Messages
27
Location
East
Gosford Park

Gosford park was the WORST movie I've ever seen!! (With the possible exception of blues brothers 2000)
I was expecting a really good film but in fact I found it corny, tedious, predictable and totally uninspiring. We had to do an assignment on this film for class and I have to say, I was really struggling to get the word limit on that one!
Can anyone explain to me their love of this movie?
 

McLake

The Perfect Nerd
Joined
Aug 14, 2002
Messages
4,187
Location
The Shire
Gender
Male
HSC
2002
Re: Gosford Park

Originally posted by sdpy
Gosford park was the WORST movie I've ever seen!! (With the possible exception of blues brothers 2000)
I was expecting a really good film but in fact I found it corny, tedious, predictable and totally uninspiring. We had to do an assignment on this film for class and I have to say, I was really struggling to get the word limit on that one!
Can anyone explain to me their love of this movie?
It's so good. It analyses the upstairs/downstairs situation and combines it with crime. What isn't there to like?
 

1 more

fructis
Joined
Nov 11, 2002
Messages
177
Gender
Female
HSC
2004
Re: Gosford Park

Originally posted by sdpy

Can anyone explain to me their love of this movie?
I liked this film!

As other posts have mentioned, some of the best crime fiction texts to analyse are those that are rather playful with the conventions of the genre. The film is not about the murder, it is a beautifully filmed, visual and cultural glimpse of the relationships between the servants and the served.
It was a superbly intricate portrait of class relations at that time; Altman was just using the structure of that genre to study the society. I felt that the murder was just a background nuisance.
It is a different sort of movie to those out there at the moment. Almost the exact opposite to Harry Potter and its ilk. There's no action, only development.

I liked the myriad of characters, the parts of the dialogue that get lost in the background, and the ambiguity of the ending. It's a very effective way for film to recreate some aspects of daily life -- it's like going to a party -- you don't know everyone to the same extent, you don't hear every conversation, and at the end of the party, there is still stuff that is unresolved.

My only complaints were that I remember thinking those Inspector sequences were fairly pointless, given that the murder-plot itself wasn't central to the film. I think these scenes tipped the film over towards slapstick whereas the earlier funny scenes had been more subtle British humour. And Ryan Phillipe, he was a bit much.

I think you have to be in the mood.
I told my friends to wait for the dreary, rainy day... get comfortable, and just let the film go by and tell its story.

Oh and by the way, with the exception of RIH and being in timmii's class ;), I loathed the Extension 1 crime fiction course.
 

snakeoils

Why do I have this?
Joined
Nov 11, 2002
Messages
631
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2003
its definitely a film i want to watch before the end of the year... just waiting for it to not be a new release... im too broke to rent overnighters :p
 
Joined
Feb 23, 2003
Messages
111
Location
around here
i was really really disappointed by Gosford Park. all the trailers and everything looked SO good ... and the official website is pretty impressive, with that family tree and things. then i watched it... there were too many characters, which my teacher said is a technique of exploiting the genre, but oh so ridiculous and tedious!! like 1 more, i can see how it fits into crime fiction now, as using the conventions to explore other focuses BUT it's still painful to watch all those dreary meaningless scenes...
 

snakeoils

Why do I have this?
Joined
Nov 11, 2002
Messages
631
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2003
i feel like that towards PD James... we spend hours examining teapots and pretty birds... and nothing happens... many days later, someone loses some body parts, and after some obviously false leads, the killer is revealed... yet it almost seems like she just randomly chooses her killers cause nearly everyone has a motive!
 

1 more

fructis
Joined
Nov 11, 2002
Messages
177
Gender
Female
HSC
2004
Originally posted by ladypenelope85
i was really really disappointed by Gosford Park. all the trailers and everything looked SO good ...
I have heard several people say they were expecting something else -- more of a straightforward murder mystery -- In this case, I think the discrepancy between what was promised and what was delivered was clearly a failure on the part of the advertising campaign, and not the director.
anyhow, each to their own. :)

Originally posted by snakeoils
i feel like that towards PD James... we spend hours examining teapots and pretty birds... and nothing happens... many days later, someone loses some body parts, and after some obviously false leads, the killer is revealed... yet it almost seems like she just randomly chooses her killers cause nearly everyone has a motive!
i AGREE WITH YOU! I probably shouldn't be confessing this, but i actually didn't read skull beneath the skin, despite it being one of my set texts. i hated the way she wrote, it was so didactic, as though she didnt trust the reader to have an imagination... perhaps it may have developed into something better- beyond page 87!
 

malayz_angel

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2003
Messages
706
Location
iN thE ClouDZ....
Snow Falling On Cedars was what I'm hating about the course-- it's a boring book that has a really unsatisfactory ending!! I love crime fiction but I don't know how I can spend any longer thinking about this novel, even if it is meant to provoke controversy, with me, it's just provoking!!

"If nobody's perfect then I want to be nobody."
 

McLake

The Perfect Nerd
Joined
Aug 14, 2002
Messages
4,187
Location
The Shire
Gender
Male
HSC
2002
Originally posted by malayz_angel
Snow Falling On Cedars was what I'm hating about the course-- it's a boring book that has a really unsatisfactory ending!! I love crime fiction but I don't know how I can spend any longer thinking about this novel, even if it is meant to provoke controversy, with me, it's just provoking!!

"If nobody's perfect then I want to be nobody."
So skip bits and watch the movie (not that I would endorse doing this ...)
 

snakeoils

Why do I have this?
Joined
Nov 11, 2002
Messages
631
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2003
Originally posted by McLake


So skip bits and watch the movie (not that I would endorse doing this ...)
i actually found the movie MUCH more boring than the book... it took me about 3 attempts to sit through the whole movie - in the end i got it out on dvd, changed the spoken language to french, and watched it with english subtitles so i was forced to pay attention to it :p
 
Joined
Feb 23, 2003
Messages
111
Location
around here
lol, snakeoils i totally agree. again, like gosford park, the director of snow falling seemed to be very ... arty ... and put lots of focus on beautiful scenery, experimental camera shots and the creation of location rather than the telling of a good story... if only we were reading a book of gosford park...
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top