Vampires are back in a big way. Not since Buffy, Angel, and Blade has bloodsucker-mania been so big. Much of the thanks-or blame-must go to Twilight. Twilight is the hit book-to-movie explosion that has the tween-to-teen set buying everything related.
But credit is long due to Dead Until Dark, the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, which has spawned the hit HBO series True Blood. Small town. Girl meets boy. Boy is a vampire. Love ensues. Some people don’t approve. Love conquers all?
Luckily this series isn’t that simple. The series is set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. It’s erotic, and violent. If you thought Twilight was too tame, this might be for you.
In this world vampires are out of the coffin, so to speak, drinking synthetic blood made in Japan, and living among … the living. Sookie is a sassy waitress who is also a mind reader. Bill is the new vampire in town. They court in old fashion Southern style—and local murders are the only complication.
Just be warned: the first book is the entire plot for the first season of True Blood.
3.5/5
This article was published March 24th 2009 from the Link and can be found in their archive.
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The moment after I first watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I knew I had to watch all of Audrey Hepburn’s films. Sabrina. Funny Face. Roman Holiday. Charade. My Fair Lady. Children’s Hour. I’ve been impressed by all of them. I recently joined Zip.ca, and received one of the films I had never seen or heard of; Love in the Afternoon.
Paris. Love story. Maurice Chevalier is a gem as he plays Hepburn’s private eye father, who keeps an eye on all of the love affairs around town. Hepburn stars as Ariane, a cellist who is wrapped up in the tales of love and betrayal she reads in her fathers files. She seems to have a childlike, inexperienced in love character. You can still see her hiding in the tree as a young Sabrina Fairchild in Sabrina- instead of the 28 year old woman she is.
It’s delightful. Shot beautifully and comically by Billy Wilder. It embodies Paris.
But…
The romantic lead is Gary Cooper. Normally not a problem, I loved him in Mr.Deeds Goes to Town. But that was when it was the 1930s, and he was 30 something. In 1957 when Love in the Afternoon is produced, he is 56 years old- literally twice Ms. Hepburn’s age. You simply can’t get over that the age difference.
One might question why this bothers one so much, when in Sabrina, which I loved, Hepburn’s love interest in Humphrey Bogart. At the time he was 55 and she was 24. Or even Fred Astaire- who was 58 when she was 28 in Funny Face.
Well I would argue a few things: a) Ariane stays young and playful, and doesn’t mature as Sabrina or Jo Stockton (Funny Face) does, and b) Cooper simply didn’t age as well as Bogart. Bogart’s characters were usually rough in one way or another and seemed to age well- but Cooper, especially in this instance played the youthful man- and it’s difficult to buy him as an American ladies man in Paris. And finally- c) Fred Astaire- he can sing and dance- and the love between the two comes more from comedy than seduction.
Over all it seems the answer to the question is… Gary Cooper was just too old. And didn’t have chemistry with Audrey Hepburn at all.
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Alexis Bledel as Rosie the Riveter in Glamour
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