Ellen Page: today's Winona Ryder

2007's debatable Juno was a break out role for a young Ellen Page. This quirky comedy of a small town teenage girl carrying a child, however was not Page's first starring role, though definitely one of her most humorous. Juno made over $130 million in the United Stated. The humorous plot surrounding Page's character was so simple, yet Page brought such talent to the role she made the movie so much bigger than it was, between her hamburger phone and orange Tic Tacs.




Page originally broke into screen in the role of Maggie in Pit Pony (1997). Though her most intense role was most likely Haley in Hard Candy (2005). Hard Candy is a thriller about a thirty-two-year-old Internet pedophile and a young fourteen-year-old girl's revenge on him and other men like him bringing harm to young women. This chilling plot twister is a pure piece of genius with small dosages of dark sarcastic humor. Her intensity in this role cannot help but remind this blogger of a young Winona Ryder as Abigail in the Crucible (1996). Though the roles were rather differing both characters could be debatable considered crazy, more importantly though both actresses played these roles with such strength and passion. Though the plot of these two films could be compared as well, the roles these young women so beautifully captured were more importantly like wise.



It is clear Page and Ryder both are amazingly compassionate actress it would seem they choose similar roles too. Both are remembered for their more quirky roles such as Page's Juno (2007) and Whip It (2009) and Ryder's roles in Beetlejuice (1988) and The Heathers (1988), their more serious roles are what truly show them as great actresses. I find that Page's strongest roles include Haley, Hard Candy (2005) and Tracey, The Tracey Fragments (2007). My favorite roles of Ryder's include Abigail in The Crucible (1996) and Jo in Little Women (1994), both are filled with intensity and compassion I find.

The mystery of Alice

Recently popular dark film director, Tim Burton, released him $1000 million hit "Alice in Wonderland" inspired by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's 1865 hit, Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, also known as Lewis Caroll was bright young promising man, he was an amazing photographer. His favorite subject was a young girl by the name of Alice Liddell. She is featured in numerous photos of his. It is said that a possible relationship between the two may have occurred. Alice Liddell was the inspiration of his popularly known Alice in Wonderland. He originally told young Liddell the story, which at the time was only a dream, on a boat ride one calm afternoon.

Alice in Wonderland is a simple story of a girl who dozes off one afternoon and finds herself falling through a rabbit hole, as she enters a mystical realm of talking creatures, strange figures, and queer landscaping. The majority of people are familiar with the story because of Disney's 1951 classic animated version. Though this film is beloved there are many other versions of the classic. To manys' surprise Disney's 1951 version was not the original film of Alice in Wonderland. The character of Alice originally appeared on film in 1903 played by May Clark. There were a total of eight versions of Caroll's hit book before Disney finally captured this story. There has been an estimated thirty versions of this film.

Though I think what really makes Alice's story so memorable is the legendary tea party she finds herself at suddenly. This scene depicts Alice's character at a strange ever lasting tea party consisting of a tired dormouse, the insane March Hare, and a Mad Hatter. It is a particular enigma what makes this scene so memorable, perhaps the relation of everyone having someone not really sane in their life. It is almost an art to discover the different portrayals of the tea party, the scene being not only captured numerous times on film, but also in many pieces of artistic expressions. Popular actor, Johnny Depp, recently played the well known part of the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's 2010 version. Though Tim Burton's film follows the same theme as the original story of Alice, his version features an adult Alice revisiting her Wonderland from her childhood. Though it does not take the title of Caroll's sequel Through the Looking Glass, it is said to be a sequel to Alice in Wonderland however it consists of the same title. Mia Wasikowska does play a strong role as Alice in Burton's new hit movie. Though I find my favorite version of the classic tale is William Sterling's 1973 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland starring Fiona Fullerton as Alice. It is not clear to me why Fullerton's performance stands out to me above all others' however it is clear to me why I love this version of the film. The music in it is rather beautiful and I find it tells the story in an easy to follow way, in some version the story line seems to be lost or fragmented. This particular version of the film however is clear to viewer and has simply amazing scenery and such especially for the time. Though many find the scene with the dark ominous crow carrying away Tweetle Dee and Tweetle Dum to be frightening I find it shows Caroll's vision a bit more full then other version. After viewing nearly every version of the film I would be obliged to say the 1972 version is the best quality and expressed the story to its fullest, on the other side, I find the 1951 animated film to be surprisingly low on the scale, I just find some of it to be unnecessary. However everyone is opened to their opinion. Burton's new film however is definitely worth checking out if you are a fan of the story. Though there is nothing like a good old book.

This week I will be discussing another favorite piece of mine, The Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom of the Opera is the story of Christine Daae and her battle of love with the enigma character of Eric, the Phantom, and Raoul, her childhood sweetheart. This story expressed compassion, betrayal, rejection, and fear, but overall an abundant amount of pulchritude. The Phantom expresses his pain through his magnificent creations of art, he is a misunderstood character suffering with a beautiful mind cursed in a horrifying body.

Recently this story has entered my life for the second time in the past few years, showing a great importance and a lesson I must learn. Only a month ago we watched this movie in my school's art class, we were told to create a piece of our choice from being inspired from that movie. I created a pair of shoes after discovering a pair based around the story of Alice in Wonderland online. I think only now have I truly begun to grasp the true fascination behind this tale as old as time story.

I find we all have phantoms in our own everyday life. Even our own person is truly a phantom of a sort. We all wear a facade believe it or not. We all can deny it as much as we want, however we all wish to be accepted in society by our fellow peers. Which is why often we do what others think is best for us. Hence facades. We mask our emotions as people but more importantly mast ourselves, we mask what we have to give to this world.

The phantom is the purest example of this, he is such a beautiful individual with so much to offer, however his hideous face makes him unaccepted to the world and he has to hide who he truly is. It's truly a depressing concept, people changing just to please others, however we do it on a daily basis.

The underlying message here is clearly acceptance and despite many stories similar to it, I don't believe there is such a story to capture it as well as this one. Even Disney's hit 1991 Beauty and the Beast, nearly the same story, does not capture this with the same intensity as TPOTO. It truly is amazing how much the two stories do have in common however. Both show the symbolism of the rose, a beautiful thing with unkindness hidden within, hence the quote "even the most beautiful roses have thorns" -unknown. They also both consist of the symbolism of the mirror, showing that we all see what we wish to see, the mirrors both being broken further expresses this as our warped identities of ourselves. If you do notice these tales both even going to the extreme of making their female leads have similar physical appearance, both with brown curls and a dress hanging loosely off their shoulders. I would much rather watch TPOTO over Beauty and the Beast any day. This story has taught me so much about who I am and my views on society. It really has shaped my teenage years in the most possative of manners.