Whatever happened to "Audrey Rouget"?: A screen biography of actress Carolyn Farina - The O'Dea Fixation

Here is the long, un-awaited review of Whatever happened to "Audrey Rouget"?: A screen biography of actressCarolyn Farina. Actually, it isn't a review, just a few rambling thoughts.

If you follow the blog of a fellow named Julian O'Dea, you might notice he has a tendency to write about an actress whose career as a star spans one movie. The obsession he has might lead one to think him a bit strange and well he might be.

The movie in question, however, is a jewel and said actress he has a thing for played her role to perfection.

Julian's blog ranges to a number of subjects from haiku, to art and nature and movies and women among other subjects. It is women and movies that he often dwells on, especially one.

The women thing is not something we who have only a superficial knowledge of the Aussie world understand. The men from down under have a rep as macho mateship types. As a rule, stereotypes can be relied on to a great extent, but those we get from movies and TV might not be too reliable.

Whatever happened to "Audrey Rouget"?: A screen biography of actress Carolyn Farina is a collection of information about the movie Metropolitan and the woman who played a, if not the, central role.

I can't say, I have the same fixation as Mr. O'Dea. There are other movies I like a lot, but would never read a whole e-book about, let alone write one.

That having been said, I must agree with the author that it is a great film. One I think about a lot, though differently in some ways. After all, it takes place in my country and in a city I've visited often.

Among the links about Metropolitan is one for Udolpho. The man had an interesting blog that I would read. The ebook link is now dead as the impresario of Udolpho has gone on to host a website called MyPosting Career that can be described as a club of folks frothing at the mouth. It can be interesting, but is unworthy of him.

On the Udolpho site, there was, if I remember correctly, an Amazon link to Metropolitan. Udolpho wrote about it with a lot of care and made me wish to see the movie, which I borrowed through our inter-library lending system.

It was back in 2007 and I wrote about it on this blog. Viewing the movie led me to concur with the man's thoughts, though at this remove, I can't say I clearly remember them all.

Another blogger, the Black Sea, commented that I should also watch Barcelona and though I liked it, it did not feel the same.

The Black Sea also noted the Whit Stillman interview with Charlie Rose. Stillman spoke of the self-sacrificing of the men of the upper-crust as the Titanic sunk and contrasted it with Cameron's view of the plutocrats in his movie. Stillman had it right, but today's. 001% probably would take a sauve qui peut attitude.

Now the ebook itself has value as the place to go to find out everything Mr. O'Dea has written about Carolyn Farina, the movie and the character of Audrey as well Whit Stillman and some tidbits about the other actors.

Mr. O'Dea also was influenced by the Udolopho blog. I was surprised that is where he found out about it.

Julian writes of Metroplitan, “It is a surprisingly hard film to parse and interpret. I think this is because it is hard to place it in time; it was a time of rapid change anyway; and Stillman’s intent, and his level of irony, are hard to determine.”

I suppose so. There are some markers of that dizzyingly rapid change that Americans from the Northeast of a certain age (mine) might get, but not many unless they were born into that life (I was not).

It is a tale of decline. The lads were sent to prep schools to become gentlemen and that is noble, but not much help on Wall Street. They, especially Charlie, know it. The boys might take solace from the fact that most of the villains of the 2008 crash were not high-Sassenach, but they probably are not hanging out at the Hamptons these days, let alone hitchhiking return trips.

The young ladies were also sent away to boarding schools, more probably to be “finished” rather than career women, other than, say, in publishing.

For the men, and women, as well as the rest of us, it is a different world now.

I've never read any of Jane Austen's books so I am at a loss for some of what Mr. Stillman is trying to convey. I do think I get it from the scene where Carolyn defends convention. It was an important part of the movie and I may not have got it had I not been prepped for it by Udolpho.

Audrey loves Tom.  This is the part I don't get.  Mostly what comes out of his mouth is drivel and he not especially forceful.  He comes into his own at the end, sorta.  His letters to Serena that came into Audrey's possession must have been brilliant.

In a not overly large e-tome. Mr. O'Dea has compiled as many links as he could as well as his own thoughts as gleaned from his own pages. This is not to say he is done. there are a number of entries on his blog about Audrey that were posted after the ebook came out. I for one encourage him to keep at it, otherwise it would probably be a life down at the pub with his mates.

Actually, that doesn't sound all that bad.