He's so done
Not me scrolling through the Conclave tag only to see no one talk about the deliberate positioning and framing of the women in this movie.
Pulling up this movie I completely expected to only encounter Sister Agnes as the one woman we see in the trailer, the conclave a space that has been kept from the female members of the church. Now, color me surprised when I started the movie and most of the establishing shots we got were focused on all the women working in the Vatican.
And it is such a deliberate choice, it does the film a disservice not to talk about it.
Because while Cardinal Lawrence is having his fifteenth breakdown during sequestering and Bellini finds the ambitious asshole within himself, Ray does all the leg work, and Bel---- we see the women work.
We see the kitchens, we see them cook, we see them stand aside. Most of the time when the Cardinals are conspiring it is the women who interrupt because they are busy working, walking, running errands.
And there is power in that.
I think it is very deliberate how often (and with such lingering gaze) the camera shows us the lives of the other half - partially to connect to the wider themes of the movie, on how Bellini asks for women to get more power but never thanks them, and how Benitez stumps them all by thanking the women preparing their meals when asked to say the prayer (considering his own probably tumultuous relationship to gender within the church).
But it also stands in direct opposition to a long tradition in story telling: servants don't exist. How often the heroes of a regency romance are "alone" because the two hand maidens and three maids don't really count.
Conclave doesn't do that.
It doesn't let us look away.
Between all the petty drama, the politics, and the real life consequences of the conclave, we never stop looking at the people doing all the work.
Yes, we follow the ups and downs of Lawrence and Co, but in doing so the movie reminds us again and again of the women working the kitchen.
And that was just such a powerful artistic choice in a movie about a famously misogynistic church... I loved it. And I had to talk about it.
This is so dumb but I'm directing a production of the prom rn (stay with me) and there's a line where they flip through what's trending on Twitter. Well, since Twitter isn't a thing anymore I changed the line to be what's trending on tumblr and we send them the trending list in the moment
My ask is please please please on Friday (Jan 10th) we use the byler tag SO MUCH that it gets in the top three trending and can be mentioned in the show 😭🫶🏼
Do people seriously think that a show centered on nerds and social outcasts...
... shows how awful the popular kids can be...
... villainizes anti-gay bullies...
... sides against abusers...
... supports LGBT+ people...
... has interracial romance...
... embraces being different...
... turns an expected hetero romance into a beautiful platonic friendship...
... criticizes moral panic/evangelism...
... makes the "town freak" our hero...
... shows that love can overcome hate...
... and whose characters don't want to recreate the nuclear family...
... do we really think that show will let a suffering, traumatized gay boy's love be the device for a conventional white hetero couple to be the show's "main relationship"?
Has the show even set-up Mike and El, who met through trauma and circumstance while they were children and have repeatedly lied to each other, for a lifelong commitment?
Who's actually delusional?
And who sees this show for what it is? And what it's clearly setting up?
-teambyler
(This is a companion to "How the Duffers have set Will up for a happy ending in Season 5")
ive decided to become a Lawful Good edgelord abt driving a car. *looks broodily away from you* what's wrong...? no, you wouldn't understand. I've been burdened with a great and terrible power. a lethal metal machine that obeys my every whim but which whispers dark things to me...tempting me to move ever faster, to grow careless in my movements... I've seen this power corrupt many others. my father. my great-aunt veronica. I've seen them neglect the wisdom of the turn signal. I've seen them text while driving. every day I must remain vigilant lest I become over-used to this dark power......
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