Joshua and Naomi

[Gothick]

Haven't been keeping up with the shows as b'cast on Sci Fi (I have had almost NO time to enjoy videos lately), and I've hardly read every post here, but I am still surprised not to have seen a topic for the amazing scene between Louis and Joan where they discuss the death of their daughter, Sarah.  I believe the scene played at the beginning of the first episode yesterday (Wed.)  It's the one where Joan has the line about the little bird she heard singing at dawn.  The scene is absolutely heartbreaking--the expression of devastation on Joshua's face is still with me years after my viewing of it.  A wonderful moment between the two of them, and I defy anyone to watch this and claim Joan Bennett wasn't a great actress.

I remember somebody posting this as one of the most effective, memorable moments in the entire series.  I would definitely agree with that estimation.

In the post on the sources for the 1795 storyline, 2 other films that come to mind are "The Undead," a very cheaply made Roger Corman film of the Fifties, and "Berkeley Square" with Leslie Howard.

Best wishes,

Steve

[Cassandra]

Hi Gothick, I agree with you, it definetely was a heartbreaking & emotional scene.    The person I feel for most is Naomi, having to lose her two children in a matter of a week, has got to be the worst nightmare imaginable! To top it off, she has no one there to confide in or to comfort her.  Can you imagine having a sister in law like Abigail??   Josette is kind enough, but she's grieving herself.  Vicky could be a nice companion for her, but we all know that situation isn't going to work now, and the worst part is, she's not even allowed to go and visit her.  What a terrible & sad life!  

[Luciaphile]

Haven't been keeping up with the shows as b'cast on Sci Fi (I have had almost NO time to enjoy videos lately), and I've hardly read every post here, but I am still surprised not to have seen a topic for the amazing scene between Louis and Joan where they discuss the death of their daughter, Sarah.  I believe the scene played at the beginning of the first episode yesterday (Wed.)  It's the one where Joan has the line about the little bird she heard singing at dawn.  The scene is absolutely heartbreaking--the expression of devastation on Joshua's face is still with me years after my viewing of it.  A wonderful moment between the two of them, and I defy anyone to watch this and claim Joan Bennett wasn't a great actress.

It's funny you mentioned this (did comment btw, but in my column thingy) because although I am an ardent Joan Bennett fan, I thought she seemed a bit awkward in this scene, on target and then off.  She seemed more on target, IMHO, when they were in the mausoleum--that heartrending question she asked Joshua, "Why wouldn't you let me bury them in the ground?"

Luciaphil

[Philippe Cordier]

I am still surprised not to have seen a topic for the amazing scene between Louis and Joan where they discuss the death of their daughter, Sarah.  I believe the scene played at the beginning of the first episode yesterday (Wed.)  It's the one where Joan has the line about the little bird she heard singing at dawn.  The scene is absolutely heartbreaking

The episode aired yesterday.  I viewed it late last night when I finally got home.  I wanted to post something about it, but this is my first shot at a computer.

the expression of devastation on Joshua's face is still with me years after my viewing of it.  A wonderful moment between the two of them, and I defy anyone to watch this and claim Joan Bennett wasn't a great actress.

I thought the words of her soliloquy were lovely, though I also found her recitation to sound a bit like ... a recitation.  (Which is not to say that I haven't found Joan Bennett to have some very, very good moments in the series.)

(I was going to quote something from someone else's post here, but it looks like you can only quote from one post per response  ?!? .)

I made a note to check on who wrote that episode when I get home tonight. Whoever it was wrote lines that sounded positively Shakespearean. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the lines scanned as poetry.

If I haven't taped over the episode, I'll try to transcribe her speech and post it here. (But I won't have computer access again till next Tuesday night, and this topic will be long buried by then ...)

In the meantime, some lines from Shakespeare that Naomi might well have spoken:



Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:
Then have I reason to be fond of grief.


(Constance in King John, 3.4.92)

[Midnite]

(I was going to quote something from someone else's post here, but it looks like you can only quote from one post per response  ?!? .)

Vlad, here's how you can-- When your message window is open, you can see all responses in the topic if you scroll down far enough, so highlight the 2nd quote that you'd like to include, then copy & paste that text into your response, being sure to surround the quotable text with the following

Code: [Select]

[quote][/quote]To attribute the quote to whomever said it, you may choose to type "So-and-so said:" above all that, or you can type this

Code: [Select]

So-and-so's[quote]text[/quote]and it will post as:

So and so's

text

You might come up with another way to credit the quote, but however you decide to do it, the preview feature should be very helpful in getting it all to look the way you want.

If my explanation confused the heck out of you, go ahead and cyber-smack me!  Just so you don't do it at the Happiest Place on Earth.  

[Philippe Cordier]

Midnite, thank you for the instructions on quoting from more than one post.    (You'll note I DIDN'T quote/recopy your entire response directly above this in this post!   )

I did transcribe the opening scene between Joshua and Naomi from the episode where she informs him about Sarah's death.  However, I'm on a public computer with a 15-minute time limit, so I'm not able to transcribe the dialogue now.  Upon viewing the scene again, I noticed that it was much more dialogue between the two characters than I had thought (rather than a "soliloquy" by Naomi).

However, I do feel that my impression was correct about the poetic language in this scene.  It was the heightened language of tragedy.  Perhaps that was introduced in this scene because it is the most tragic event yet to befall the Collins family.

In particular, Naomi's concluding line of the scene scans as iambic pentameter, the meter used by Shakespeare.  I'm unable to reproduce scansion marks here, but will use CAPS instead of the accent.

She's GONE -- / SAR-ah / -- our LIT- / -tle GIRL / is DEAD

(with the substitution of a trochee [?] in the second foot.

Many of Joshua's lines also scan in perfect iambic form.

(No time to reproduce here)

I believe the dialogue in this scene was deliberately crafted to evoke this heightened sense of drama, and that Bennett and Edmonds were conscious of it.

[RingoCollins]

She's GONE -- / SAR-ah / -

That wasn't Joshua and Naomi - it was Hall and Oates!