Displaying items by tag: Willem Dafoe

NOSFERATU

US, 2024, 133 minutes, Colour.

Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgaard, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney.

Directed by Robert Eggers.

Nosferatu was the title of the early film version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1922, Germany, vivid black-and-white photography, angles, framing, Expressionist. The title was also used in 1979 for Werner Hertzog’s version of the story and tribute to the 1922 film. Now, a 2024 version, once again the tribute to the 1922 film, not only tribute but incorporating many of its visual aspects, and directed by Robert Eggers, only a few films so far in his career, but atmospheric, the Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman.

Since the 1920s, there have been Dracula and vampire films every decade, some serious, many British, some parodies, even the recent Renfield with Nicolas Cage’s Dracula, also featuring Nosferatus, Nicholas Hoult.

We are in Germany, 1838, wonderful recreation of the town, the streets and ambience, the homes, elegance. There is a very strong supporting British cast including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph ineson, Simon McBurney. There is also a lot of strong dialogue throughout, the point of view of the rationalist who does not believe in the supernatural contrasting with those who do believe and those who are pragmatic faced with unexplained phenomena.

The question can be raised, why another Dracula film in 2024. And will it contribute to an appreciation of the Dracula and vampire legends?

The first attempt at an answer is to consider this film as a drama apart from the horror. The focus is on a young woman, Ellen, Lily-Rose Depp in a striking and physically and emotionally demanding performance. She dreams, has mystical experiences, is in love, makes a pact – which, in fact, will be a diabolical pact. But, she has the possibility of living a normal life, marrying Thomas (Nicholas Holut), hope that he will support and save her. But, he is commissioned by his manager to travel to Romania to negotiate with a mysterious Count Orloc who wants to buy a Castle in the German town. Ellen is fearful as Thomas leaves, and rightly so…

There is mysterious drama, Thomas finding himself in a strange village, superstitious villagers, and then his encounter with the Count.

And the second attempt at and some is to consider the film as horror. The atmosphere at the castle is more than eerie, the suggestions of the malevolent presence of the Count, his face, his behaviour and cruelty, his threats, diabolical consequences. Is played by Bill Skarsgaard as monstrous Some direct horror scenes but always the sense of horror menace. And, when Thomas returns home, the psychological disturbances in Ellen and her erratic behaviour, the count killing his friend’s wife and child, the discussions with an expert (Willem Dafoe) and the explanations of vampire behaviour. And, as well, the town is besieged by a plague of rats. And, Ellen’s disturbed dreams, erotic menace and horror, the unmasking of the Count.

And so, we can ask what are the comparisons with other versions of the story, how well these variations work as drama and horror, and how we are immersed in a world of evil destroying hope and love.

1. The literary tradition of Dracula and Nosferatu, the late 19^th century, Bram Stoker’s novel? The cinema tradition, the 1922 version, the English language tradition of Dracula, serious films, horror films, comedy and parodies? Werner Hertzog and Nosferatu 1979, homage to the 1922 version? This 2024 version, homage, reworking the particular perspectives of the writer-director?
2. Audience familiarity with the story, the traditions, the variations? This version changing the names of the characters, the German city? Drawing on the basic ideas and themes from Bram Stoker and the Nosferatu films?
3. The style of filmmaking? The importance of colour, colour grading, black-and-white, vivid colour, scenes tinted, unsaturated colour, but sometimes with bright highlights? The overall impact of this colour experience? The framing of the film, the angles, the homage to the 1922 version, using its styles? The style of the dialogue, old classical style, all, sometimes arch and artificial, placing the audience in the period, Germany, 1838? The film presented as a modern interpretation of old filmmaking styles?
4. The framework, Ellen, young, the focus on her face, her calling out to the vampire to come to her? Her age, her commitment, her dreams, her melancholy, psychological states? The years passing, her marriage to Thomas, happiness, yet her melancholy, fears, love, his going away, her anxieties? Staying with Richard and Anna? Her dreams, her moods, their concern, a sense of what was happening to Thomas while away, the coming of the mysterious lover? The doctor, his concern, treatment, seeking out of Professor von Frantz, his diagnosis, treatment? Further dreams, the return of Thomas, the sexual encounter and her wanting love, the continuing menace of the mysterious shadow, the shadow coming to the house, overcoming her, the sexual encounter, the sun rising, her commitment, his sacrificing himself for her love?
5. The title, the focus on the vampire, the estate agent, Knock and his eagerness, Count Orloc wanting the house, sending Thomas, the buildup of financial advantage, for his marriage? Knock, his madness, in servitude to Nosferatu, his madness, in the cell, confrontations, killing the guard, the interview with the professor and the doctor? Death? The plague?
6. Count Orloc, in Ellen’s visions, the Shadow, skeletal, the long fingers and nails, Thomas arriving at the village, the village people and their fears, the atmosphere, singing and dancing, yet warnings, was going to the Castle, walking in the snow, the carriage, his experience in the Castle, overwhelmed by the count, violence, blood, his debilitation, escape, taken by the nuns, the Orthodox religious ceremonies, his leaving, out of the power of the Count, his return, debilitated, with the doctor, the professor, Richard, Anna’s death, the plague?
7. The Count, the voyage, in the container, the sailors, the Captain, the rats, the plague, the deaths, the ship arriving in the Port, the dispersion of the rats, the plague and deaths, deaths in the street? The Count, visiting Anna, her being pregnant, the blood? His attack on the two daughters, the deaths, Richard and the burials? The mausoleum and his visits?
8. The doctor, his concern, medical help, friendship with Richard, the reputation of the professor, going to visit him, persuading him to join in? The professor, his personality, reputation, researchers, the occult? The visits to Anna? The visits to Ellen? Thomas’ return? Richard and his scepticism?
9. Richard, friendship with Thomas, lending the money, Richard and his wife, the family, the boisterous two daughters, in the shipping business? His scepticism about the professor, the support of the doctor, his narrations, the death of the family, the burials?
10. The buildup to confronting the Count, the three nights, his approaching the town, coming to Ellen, her trying to resist? The scenes of his possession of her, her not being herself, her face, the town, Thomas and his shock?
11. Thomas and his determination, hurrying to the mausoleum, expecting the vampire, discovering Knock, his madness and death, through the heart?
12. The hurrying back, the encounter with Ellen, the sun rising, remains of the creature, Thomas and his grief, in the final image of Ellen and the remains of Nosferatu?

SATURDAY NIGHT

US, 2024, 109 minutes, Colour.

Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Senott, Corey Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O'Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, J.K.Simmons, Nicholas Podany, Robert Wuhl, Jon Batiste, Willem Dafoe, Paul Rust, Tracy Letts, Matthew Rhys.

This history/comedy/memoir was released at the 49^th anniversary of the opening show of what has become an American tradition, Saturday Night Live. While the program is screened in other countries, it is a particularly American television experience, comic experience, social commentary and criticism experience. While it touches the American funny bone, the response of audiences outside the United States might be something of hit and miss.

Which might be also the case with this film, American audiences relishing the re-creation of that first night, the tensions in the last hour and a half before going on air live. And there are many famous names appearing in this film, many of whom through Saturday Night Live became media celebrities – producer Lorne Michaels, comedians Chevy Chase, Jon Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Lorraine Newman, Billy Crystal, George Carlin… And Nicholas Braun as both Andy Kaufmann and Jim Henson.

In many ways, this is a frantic and frenetic film because that is the situation in which Lorne Michaels found himself, the decision to do something new in the mid-1970s, live performances, sketches, satiric songs, social commentary. While NBC allowed it, there was hostility from some of the bosses, dramatised here by the talent director, David Tabet (another sinister performance from Willem Dafoe), and the rivalry with the Johnny Carson show, also dramatised here.

This film purports to be a dramatisation of what actually happened on that night, October 11, 1975. While a lot of this may have happened, putting it all together in the one film means exhaustion for the protagonists, exhaustion for the audience.

So, very much behind the scenes, the young Lorne Michaels and his initiatives, sometimes naive, sometimes shrewd, often the target, trying to get the temperamental Jon Belushi to sign a contract, encouraging his writers, new talent, placating Jim Henson and his concern about the treatment of the Muppets, supported by his wife, Rose Schuster, and all kinds of practical disasters, lighting falling almost on top of the actors, authentic bricks knocked over and having to be reset again, his being squirted with fake blood…

This is very much the show must go on despite… Everything.

The ensemble cast is very effective. Gabriel LaBellel is Lorne Michaels (he had appeared as the young Spielberg in The Fablemans). The impersonators of the famous talent are very good, Michael Wood as Jon Belushi, most credible. Corey Michael Smith as a rather arrogant but quickwitted Chevy Chase. And, surprisingly after seeing him in the Maze Runners and other action films, Dylan O’Brien enjoying himself impersonating Dan Aykroyd. One of the best surprises is the arrival of Milton Berle, arrogant, full of disdain for the younger generation, visiting the set, performing a musical number – and the fact that the performance is by J.K.Simmons rather unlike anything else he has done and making quite an impact.

There are a number of character actors in the supporting roles as well as a number of new faces. It is all put together with speed, momentum, the visuals of the time ticking down, a final crisis as to whether they were permitted to go ahead, the final permission – and, as the cliche says, the rest is history.

BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE

US, 2024, 105 minutes, Colour.

Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, Nick Kellington, Santiago Cabrera, Burn Gorman, Danny DeVito.

Directed by Tim Burton.

In Beetlejuice folklore, you have to call out Beetlejuice’s name three times and he will appear. But, this time it needed only just one repetition. And here he is, 36 years after his first appearance, ready to entertain old fans and new fans.

Perhaps it is something about the world situation in 2024 that the highest moneymaking films so far have been quite a contrast, the violent fantasy of Deadpool and Wolverine and the wonderful exploration of human motor emotions in Inside Out 2. Now Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice has made over $100 million at the American box office on its first weekend. So, we can ask, is our world with all the wars, deaths in war, cost of living crises, in need of a fantasy distraction, an indulgence in absurd comedy.

Because, that is what we have here, absurd characters in over the top absurd situations, lots of jokes, special ghostly effects, Beetlejuice’s wisecracks, all kinds of unexpected dramatic turns. There is a surface world with strange human characters, Winona Ryder again as Lydia now a TV host on ghost appearances, her mother, Catherine O’Hara again as Delia, an eccentrically loud artist – but Astrid, Lydia’s daughter, Jenna Ortega, has grown up sceptical of the whole Beetlejuice ghostly world. Her scepticism is about to come crashing down. And director, Tim Burton, going back to his old fantasy styles.

In the meantime, there in the Afterlife, Michael Keaton is Beetlejuice, always sly, raucously comic, with a host of office secretaries, all skeletal bureaucrats, especially the hapless Bob, suited, but in for some tormented times because a callous janitor in the Afterlife, played by Danny DeVito, vacuuming and polishing, the machine in water, electric shock and opening up the store of dead severed human parts – especially, of Beetlejuice’s former wife, played exotically by Monica Bellucci who will pursue him relentlessly.

Fans of the original will be happy to get back into the Afterlife, the madcap visuals, the special effects, the eerie creatures… And there is plenty of plot, Astrid tricked into helping a ghost to regain his life, Lydia to the rescue and agreeing to marry Beetlejuice, his wife in pursuit, Delia ending up in the Afterlife, and, to cap it all, Willem Dafoe, seeming to appear in every other film these days, as a skeletal actor who is in charge of investigations, preening himself in his performance, modelled on television shows, of how the police ought to act!

And, right at the end, there is a very long wedding sequence, all kinds of mayhem with a performance of McArthur Park, everybody singing along…

Beetlejuice may not appeal to every audience, especially those who don’t have a high tolerance for dark fantasy. But, he will probably appeal, in his own very distinctive Michael Keaton way, to most everyone else!

KINDS OF KINDNESS

US, 2024, 164 minutes, Colour.

Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, William Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie.

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

Writer-directors, Yorgos Lanthimos, would probably agree that his perspective on life, especially in his earliest films, was “warped”. And, with Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, that his sense of humour was also “warped”. His kinds of kindness are not exactly kind. Something more like “destructive kindnesses”.

This is a film containing three films linked by themes and linked by the actors. It is a cinematic triptych. Each panel of a triptych to be seen by itself, but also with its links to the other panels, combining for an overall view. And this seems to be what the director wants here, three stories, and a linking theme. Overall, it is a theme of coercive power. And that coercive power means extreme manipulation of victims, tyrannical domination mixed with power complacency, physical and mental cruelty and violence. But, with his warped sense of humour, the director also offers wry satire.

The contribution of a core cast enhances the impact of the drama/humour. Emma Stone has proven herself with two Oscars, appearing in the director’s The Favourite and winning her second Oscar for Poor Things. She shines as the principal character in the third story, a story of a pseudo-messianic cult, she has a divinity in search of a religious figure who has the power to raise people to life. The power of the cult dominates her and her companion in the search.

Jesse Plemons (in 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon, Civil War) won the Best Actor award at the 2024 Cannes film Festival. He shines in the first of the stories, a primly rather straightlaced yes-man to a controller who can only be described as wicked (Willem Dafoe who also appears in the three stories). In a moment of moral questioning, his morale collapses, made to feel even more dependent than before, commanded to kill someone. By contrast in the second film, he plays a police officer is anthropologist wife disappears, reappears, his moral and mental collapse as he determines that she is a double. And this part of the triptych also introduces the theme of cannibalism.

Each story shows the versatility of the characters and the talent of the rest of the cast, Dafoe, Margaret Qualley with four roles including twins, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn and Mamoudou Athie.

So, after watching the three stories, the three panels of the triptych, the audience is left quite disturbed, moments of black humour, moments of horror, moments of disgust, some grim perspectives on the shallowness, the malice, the cruelty of human nature.

1. The work of the director, perspectives, offbeat? Greek background? International career and outreach?
2. The title, the tone, the issues? Irony, satire, absurdity? Black and bleak perspective?
3. The film as a triptych, the one film, the three parts interconnecting: coercive power, manipulation and submission, aberrant behaviour, sex and violence, violent deaths?
4. The work of the cast, in each story, different, appearance, accent, behaviour…?
5. The first story: the focus on Robert, exact, controlled, look and clothes, diet, relationship with his wife,+? The encounters with Raymond, his personality, appearance, speaking, controlling, with Vivian as his companion, the meetings with Robert, the international business, the order to kill the victim, Robert’s failures, change of heart, anguish, changing eating habits, going to Raymond, rebuked and rejected by Raymond, the past encounters, sexual? The gifts of the sporting trophies, the gift of the racquet, Robert and his wife, valuing the trophies? The disappearance of the is one? The buyers and the possibilities of selling the trophies, the bargaining? Robert and his encounter with Rita, organising the date, her being in hospital, his discoveries at seeing Raymond, her being controlled, failing with the killing? His change of heart, going back to Raymond, and the vicious running over the victim? And his contentment in the threesome?
6. The second story: Daniel, policeman, good service, friendship with Neil, the discussions, the meal, Neil and Martha, memories of Liz, the issue of the video, their watching, the shock of the group sex? Daniel, Liz surviving, the other members of the expedition dead? Hospital? His erratic behaviour, police work, the shooting of the passenger, licking the blood, being suspended? Neil trying to help? At home, the interactions with Liz, her behaviour, different? With her father, narrating the dream, dogs living as humans? Going to please Daniel, his withdrawing, not eating, asking her to cut off her finger, her cooking it, his giving it to the dog? Her frustration, his demanding the liver, her cutting it out? The alternate Liz, arriving, his embracing her??
7. Third story: the background of the cult, the members, garb, the enclosure, the rituals? The leadership of Omi and his wife? Manner, style? Emily and Andrew, members of the cult? Emily and her control, going to the morgue, choosing the girl as able to raise the dead, the attendant, the corpse, her attempt a raise the dead, her desperation, rejected? Emily and Andrew, their travelling together, a speedy and reckless driving, the mission, searching for the special person who can raise the dead? Emily, her visits to her daughter, leaving the presence? The encounters with her husband, her daughter? The invitation to the meal, the drugs and headroom, his rape, her being rejected by the cult? Her growing desperation, the instructions by Omi and his wife? Her dream, drowning, the rescue? Rebecca, coming to the diner, the explanations? Emily, her decisions, pretending to have the dog, wounding it, Ruth as the vet, kindly? The next encounter, bugging Ruth, Rebecca satisfied, killing herself, going to the morgue, the dead body, Ruth – and the raising to life? Andrew and Emily reinstated?
8. The mid-credits final sequence, the irony of the dead man raised to life, after being killed by Robert, raised by Ruth, and eating the sandwich and spilling the ketchup? Final ironies?

INSIDE

US/Belgium/Greece, 2023, 105 minutes, Colour.

Willem Dafoe, Gene Bervoets, Eliza Stuyck.

Directed by Vasilis Katsoupis.

Edgar Allan Poe had a story about the premature burial, on being buried alive and the threat of death. Ryan Reynolds starred in Buried, a drama with the same theme.

However, this is a story of an art thief, Nemo, yet another excellent performance from Willem Dafoe, who invades a lavish Manhattan apartment to steal paintings by Egon Schiele, fails to find a self-portrait and breaks the security, finding himself trapped, his contact breaking off the phone call.

So, Nemo is buried, a burial inside his deteriorating mind, and external burial and his means for survival in the apartment.

He tries every means for escape, even building a huge scaffolding with tables and furniture to try to reach the skylight and remove its bolts but this takes time and he is unsuccessful, even falling from the scaffolding and breaking his leg, having to construct a splint and limp around the apartment.

Extreme heat and cold, no food and water, water from the sprinkler from for the extensive garden within the apartment, dog food, fish from the aquarium. And his mind deteriorates. He can see on the surveillance screens the maid outside but she does not hear him, wearing earphones. And he has a dream fantasy about meeting the owner at a social.

Weeks pass, he finally lights a fire so that the extinguishers will pour water and alert outsiders – flooding the apartment but no response.

Nemo creates his own art on the walls of the apartment.

At the end, it is left to the audience whether he actually reaches the skylight and is able to escape – or not.

Screenplay was written in collaboration with the director whose only previous film was a documentary about a musician friend. The main author is British Ben Hopkins, Simon Magus, The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz.

1. The title? Literally in the apartment? Nemo trapped in his deteriorating mind?
2. The situation, lavish apartment, the works of art, Nemo as a thief, his contact, not finding the key painting, the search, breaking the security, his being trapped? The consequences for his survival?
3. The visuals of the apartment, lavish, the rooms, staircases, skylight and windows, the artwork, and gallery? The secret passage? The secret room for the self-portrait? The background score?
4. Willem Dafoe, his career, performances, skills in different characters? Age, appearance? Voice? The credibility of his situation, means for survival, consequences?
5. His background story, choices in the disaster, keeping art, art being ageless? For his background as an art thief? Appreciation of art? And his own artwork, drawings, telling his story on the wall? And the note to the owner?
6. The entry, the plan, security, his phone contact, not finding the self portrait, the breaking of the security, his contact breaking off contact? Stranded?
7. The two dramas of his being inside, inside his mind and its deterioration, externally and his attempt at survival?
8. The thermostat broken, the extreme heat and cold, finding clothes and coats? The refrigerator, the continued playing the song on opening the door, no food, no water? The huge garden, the sprinkler and the water? The trapped pigeon and its death? Building the scaffold, to reach the skylight, removing the bolts, making the tools? Eating the dog food, the fish from the aquarium?
9. Time passing, the strain, no contact, the compensation of the television? Focusing, focusing on time, on food, exercise, survival? Deteriorating?
10. The continued building, the bolts, his falling, breaking his leg, the splint, finding the painting, the smoke detector, the deluge of water?
11. The surveillance, his being able to see so much about side, but especially the maid, his name for her, vacuuming, eating lunch, the earphones and her not hearing him bang or call? Fantasies about her?
12. The dream, the social, formal, the discussions with the owner, the conversation?
13. His own art, drawing, sketching, the wall, the final note?
14. The end, the opening of the skylight – and whether Nemo escapes or not?

POOR THINGS

Ireland/US/UK, 2023, 140 minutes, Colour.

Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Vicki Pepperdine, Hannah Schygulla, Jarrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott, Kathryn Hunter, Margaret Qualley.

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

It is safe to say that we have not seen the film like this before. We have watched the unusual films in the unusual career of writer-director, Yorgos Lanthimos, films like Dogtooth, Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster, The Favourite. We have appreciated that he has a different kind of imagination, different stories and storytelling, and, with long experience of music videos, quite a talent for use of different lenses, angles, editing and pacing. Even so, we were not quite ready for Poor Things, but were alerted when it won the Golden Lion at Venice, 2023.

An attempt at a summary-content: an allegorical Odyssey of becoming human.

And the imagined setting, costumes, décor, manners, is 1895 (with a reference to The Importance of Being Earnest).

The initial image is somewhat overwhelming, a woman standing on a bridge, the camera looking up at her, and she falls to her death. But, the echoes of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein immediately come to mind, a strange scientist, Willem Dafoe at his best, with a deeply scarred reconstructed face, Dr Godwin Baxter, happy for people to refer to him as God. And, like Dr Frankenstein of the novel, he experiments to create life, the brain of the woman’s fetus inserted in her head. An different kind of Frankenstein-monster.

He calls his creation Bella. And she is played by Emma Stone, an extraordinary performance, with high demands made on her, dramatic, her having to move, in the adult body, from inarticulate infancy, to childhood and tantrums and uncontrolled behaviour, to learning vocabulary, to think, to move to an adolescent phase, discovering herself, her body, sensuality and sexuality, until she is well on the road to adult consciousness, absolutely devoted to God, her creator, but still wilful, not yet having a moral compass. The doctor has asked one of his students, Max (Ramy Youssef) to continually observe Below, take notes, have a record of her growth.

What will Bella’s place in life be? One obvious conclusion is that she should become engaged to Max who understands her so well. She is not averse to this. However, a foppish, self-centred lawyer Duncan Wedderburn, a surprising performance by Mark Ruffalo, comes to deal with contracts about Bella. He is attracted, seductive, she responding to the sensuality without understanding its consequences, without real emotion, deciding to go off on a trip to Lisbon, to Alexandria, a Mediterranean voyage, life in Paris. On the one hand, she enjoys it, a lot of sensuous “furious jumping”, he finding it hard to keep up with her, a gambler, and Bella, discovering the bodies of impoverished children, moved to tears and without any thought of consequences, taking all the money and giving it to charity (naïvely trusting worldly sailors).

On the voyage, the encounters a wise old woman, Martha (veteran Hannah Schygulla) and a cynical American, Harry (Jarrod Carmichael) who open her mind further, the world of philosophy, thought, books.

If this sounds intriguing, there is still a great deal more, Bella’s strange experience in Paris in a hotel-bordello, her return to England when God becomes unwell, the continued attentions of Max, and her actual husband identifying her, controlling her, and her having to make decisions, but with all kind of moral criteria that she has acquired.

Poor Things sounds a simple title but this is an intriguingly complex film, not quite like anything we have seen before.

1. The title, the character who could not even say the word “poor”?
2. The film as an allegory of human nature, instinct, intelligence, affections, moral choices? The human Odyssey?
3. The unique impact of the film, derived from the novel, interpreted by the dialogue and silences, the visual, black-and-white photography, bright colour, the range of lenses and angles, the period, costumes and decor, the aural music and sound background? Pace?
4. The prologue, Victoria, the angle, standing on the bridge, the clothes, falling into the water? Godwin Baxter, her survival, Mrs Pim as his assistant, the surgery, the brain of the fetus, inserted into Victoria’s body? The overtones of the Frankenstein story? Dr Frankenstein, his name Godwin, nicknamed God?
5. The “monster”, Bella, as the fetus in her mother, her brain taken out, a child in an adult body, initial articulation, infant behaviour, tantrums, smashing things, moods, food, impulsive, the awkward walk, the issue of discipline? Her brain becoming more mature, yet still a child’s, the issue of sensuality and sexuality?
6. Godwin, his scarred face, reconstructed? His continued references to his father and cruelty? His scientific stances, strict, no emotions, Mrs Pim, the experiments? Yet the production of Bella, his becoming attached, no children of his own, a creator-father, God, his providence guiding Bella?
7. The lectures, the atmosphere of the 1890s, the doctors, surgeons, the classes, demonstrations, the fops in the class and their arrogance? The reference to The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895? The period, atmosphere?
8. Max, for student, devoted to Baxter, defending him against the fops, his being ridiculed? His being employed, taking the notes, diligent, proper in the Victorian way, challenged, Bella’s childish behaviour, his prudish response, spontaneous responses?
9. Bella, her brain growing older, reading, opinions, venturesome, going to the roof? Sharing the views with Max? Her relationship with Max, his notes and continued observations?
10. Duncan Wedderburn, the lawyer, the interview with Baxter, the legal issues, paternity and family, Duncan as foppish? Curiosity about Bella, the growing infatuation, his foppish behaviour, his pursuing her, his awkwardness and blunders?
11. Bella, her brain more adult, the issue of betrothal, Max and his being willing, but his personal cautions? The contrast with the encounter with Duncan, the sensual, the appetites, the act of the furious jumping? Sharing the experiences, their affect?
12. The decision to travel with Duncan, Max and his reactions, Baxter and his reactions, thinking it temporary? Going to Lisbon, the experiences, sexuality, the city and its visuals, futuristic? Duncan and his ups and downs, his attitudes towards Bella, behaviour?
13. The music, Bella wanting to dance, going onto the floor, the crowds, who awkward motions, Duncan going to dance with her?
14. Going to Alexandria, the various encounters, Bella and her wandering, curiosity, her drinking, the effect, Duncan and his behaviour, the ups and downs of the relationship?
15. The decision to travel by boat, the effect, the antagonism, the encounter with Martha, her age, experience, encouragement, sharing the books, Bella reading Thoreau, Duncan throwing the book and the water, advanced understandings, Harry and his cynicism, the discussions of philosophy? The effect of these two, the serious discussions with Harry? The contrast with Duncan, his gambling, the irony of his winning so much money, Bella and her seeing the bodies of the babies, taking all the money, giving it away – and the greedy sailors taking the money? The consequences for Duncan, his rage, upset, treatment, put ashore?
16. Bella, going to Paris, surviving by herself, using her wits, going to the hotel, meeting the Madame, the explanation of the financial situation of the brothel, her not having any shame, presuppositions, the explanation of the sex, the money, the encounters with the various men, brutal behaviour, her becoming part of the business, the discussions with the Madame, with the other prostitute, the friendship, the lesbian experience? Duncan, arrival, his horror at Bella’s sexual behaviour?
17. Bella sending the cards, the writing and their sketching? God and his decline in health, Max with him, urging Bella’s return? The effect of coming back, Mrs Pim, more sophisticated Bella, her judgements? Duncan, and his wanting her?
18. The second experiment, the young woman, repeating the experiences of Bella?
19. Bella being recognised as Victoria during the travels, the appearance of her husband, his claims, going to his house, her experience of the relationship, his own behaviour, lifestyle, military, abusive, imprisoning her?
20. The buildup to an ending, the punishment for the husband, the animal brain?
21. Happy ending, Bella and her achievement, Godwin, Max and the marriage, happy ever after – or?
22. And everything in the perspective of irony and black comedy?