HIGHLA-L Digest - 10 Aug 2004 to 11 Aug 2004 (#2004-145)
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There are 6 messages totalling 453 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Four dvd Commentary: The Immortal Cimoli (2)
2. AP Interview (2)
3. Bond poll (2)
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Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 22:13:53 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Four dvd Commentary: The Immortal Cimoli
The html version of the commentary w/screen captures can be found at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/Season4/Cimoli.htm
COMMENTARY: Donna Lettow tells us that Cimoli had an interesting
genesis, that the French writers who couldn’t write in English well
enough to actually write scripts, suggested a circus story. It merged
with a theme that David Abramowitz had wanted to do, which was the Damon
Case story – the living embodiment of “It’s what we do.” It was the firs
time that director Yves Lefay had done an HL show, and Donna thinks it
went well. Season Four was so emotionally pact that this episode gets
overlooked. It is a somewhat lighthearted episode about the nature of
Immortality, without being a comedy. She says the casting was what made
it worked, that the mother of Cimoli had previously worked for them in
Legacy, and was “a delight.”
She says there was a line in the script that disappeared, that spelled
out that Danny C. was adopted, but if you look at the mother and the son
together, it’s pretty obvious that he is an adopted child. She says she
thinks Amanda really wants to be a mother. It first comes out in her
relationship with Kenny, and for all her supposed flightiness, she
really has a nurturing side.
Elizabeth G. Says the main thing she remembers about the episode was the
“Wheel of Death” at the end, that she wasn’t particularly well secured,
and she didn’t like it at all. It was the last day of shooting, she’s in
her trailer getting glitter applied all over her face, in her little
circus outfit. There’s a knock on the door and there is Adrian in his
silver sequined jacket on, and she tells him he has to make his hair
more bouffant. “You have to look like Fabio or it’s not going to work!”
she says with a big grin and a laugh.
Donna says that, as written and filmed, there is actually a final
swordfight between Cimoli and some mysterious Immortal whom Donna says
she likes to think was an Elvis impersonator. However, the decision was
made in editing to leave the fight to the imagination.
OUTTAKES: We see the deleted final fight between Cimoli and an Immortal
who, in the Watcher Chronicles, is called Vrej Ratavoussian (occupation:
Elvis impersonator). In the scene, Danny puts up a very brief fight,
then gives up, and says that it doesn’t matter, that he did it, that
he’s the Immortal Cimoli.
Then we see the scene where Danny walks in on Duncan and Amanda in bed
in the barge. Adrian and Elizabeth are teasing each other about getting
out of each other’s light, but then the scene starts and when Elizabeth
does her teasing bit about Duncan “needing more coaxing, and dives under
the covers, Adrian pulls out a long, thin baguette and bops her on the
head with it, the sexual innuendo more than obvious, and she comes out
from under the cover and breaks up.
Then Danny enters, Amanda blows a line, and curses (getting a bleep),
then they do it again, and this time Danny does something that makes AP
and EG laugh, so they do it again, and the actor playing Danny starts to
laugh, setting them all off; then they do it again, and AP and EG are
obviously having some difficulty holding it together, and before Danny
even gets his line out, AP is giggling; so they try again. This time, EG
can’t keep from laughing.
They show them filming the Quickening, with the AP in a circle filled
with low lying fog, explosions going off, lights flashing and AP doing
the usual, rather agonizing Quickening shtick, but the effects are
pretty cool.
AP COMMENTARY (heavily edited): AP says the episode came at the end of
the season and he was a “little punch drunk”. They had a new director
(Yves Lafey) he hadn’t worked with before. He remarked on how lovely the
actress who played Danny’s mother was, and that he got to work with “the
fabulous” Elizabeth Gracen, which was always fun. He later says that
Elizabeth (I think he means Amanda) was always getting him into trouble,
“and I always liked that.” In talking about Elizabeth, Adrian says that
acting nuances were possible when you really get to know the person, and
that happened with Stan and Peter and Jim and Elizabeth.
Adrian says he didn’t think the stunt of Danny’s death worked very well,
and made the opening weak.
He comments on how it was difficult for a new director to come into an
established show, that Lafey didn’t really give the actors a lot of
specific direction, just let them alone. Later he says that the director
was probably intimidated because he had been told to ask Adrian about
things, because Adrian would generally have something to say. He says
frequently did have opinions since had been with the show for a long
time and knew Highlander lore, and the “rules” of what could or couldn’t
be done
He liked the early scenes with Danny because they showed some of the
lighter side of MacLeod. There was no real danger from Danny, so he
wanted to make the scene light, that the previous shows had been very
dark, and he wanted to do something different.
In watching the flashback, Adrian comments that it’s bizarre to have a
swordfight with an actor you just met that morning, and never rehearsed
with. When he sees MacLeod taking de Lafaye’s body away, Adrian
ironically comments about how this was earlier in MacLeod’s career, when
he actually took care of the bodies.
Adrian made a number of comments about the various locations, and how
the authentic locations made such a difference in the look and the sense
of ‘truth’ of Highlander.
In the scene where Amanda vehemently reminds MacLeod about how life
isn’t fair, and how it’s not her job or MacLeod’s job to make it fair,
then Duncan waggles his head at her and says, “I just love it when
you’re angry. It’s great!”, Adrian says that was an ad lib, because it
was fun to go from the very serious to the not-so-serious, and it felt
natural.
When they get to the line about “Houdini being a friend of mine,” Adrian
jokes about that, but then ads that until he got that line, Adrian had
no idea MacLeod ever knew Houdini. Then, at the end, he talks about how
much fun doing that final scene was, and how he and Elizabeth kept
talking to each other during the takes, and that he didn’t know why she
wouldn’t let him throw the knives for real.
THE EPISODE: We begin by meeting Danny Cimoli, a lanky young, man with
curly red hair, in a room full of magic paraphenalia being bugged by his
short, round mama about him not finding a real job. In frustration, she
opens a window and starts throwing all his stuff out. He goes out to the
street to retrieve his stuff and, oops, gets hit by a truck. You guessed
it - he doesn’t die, at least not permanently.
Amanda gets Duncan to the circus, where Amanda has, from time to time,
made a living. She knows the owner, Marco, who offers her a job
performing with them in Moscow, which is “every carnie’s dream.” She
(initially) turns him down, but they attend the show and end up
witnessing the newest headliner, “The Immortal Cimoli” who has someone
shoot him dead, then revives in front of everyone. Duncan and Amanda are
appalled, and Duncan suggests they, “... have a little talk with Mr.
Cimoli.”
Danny doesn’t have a clue, and his first reaction to learning about his
immortality is to think about expanding the act to make his death more
spectacular. (“I’ll be bigger than Houdini!”) A frustrated MacLeod tells
him about the beheading part, but Danny is dubious. When Duncan tries to
teach him, Danny is a poor and reluctant student.
We get a flashback to England, 1795, where Duncan is teaching a young,
newly-Immortal French fop who declares that he was the best swordsman in
Normandy, and Duncan corrects him - that he was the best *mortal*
swordsman. But young Jean-Phillipe de Lafaye is arrogant and
overconfident, and more concerned about chasing women (he had been
stabbed by a jealous husband) than seriously studying swordsmanship.
Back at the inn, while seducing the serving maids, Jean-Phillipe runs
into a tall, lean, ascetic Immortal, Damon Case, and challenges him.
Case tells de Lafaye that, for Immortals, the act of combat is a holy
duty, and he will not fight that day.
Back at the circus, at night, Danny feels another Immortal and, thinking
it is MacLeod, steps out of his trailer - to find Damon Case. Danny
tells Case he already has a teacher, and Case grimly tells him he’s not
a teacher, and that he gains, “...no pleasure for what must be done.” He
says he’s come to take Danny’s head, and he’ll make it quick, that Danny
won’t suffer. Laughing nervously, Danny says he’s using his head at the
moment, and tries to talk him out of it. When it’s obvious that’s not
going to happen, Danny yells out to some passing carnie clowns, drawing
their attention. Case puts his sword away and tells Danny where he’ll
meet him for the fight, at dawn.
At the barge, Amanda and Duncan are in bed, and Duncan is brooding about
Danny (Amanda: “I must be losing my touch!”), while, when questioned,
Amanda reveals she is thinking about going to Moscow with the circus
(Duncan: “I must be losing *my* touch!”). Amanda is busy “coaxing”
Duncan, when Danny intrudes, in a panic about Case’s challenge.
We get more of the flashback, where de Lafaye arrogantly observes that
Case doesn’t drink, doesn’t curse and doesn’t case women and asks what
he *does* do. Case responds that he fights, and that today he is
prepared to do so, and advises De Lafaye to prepare his soul. “Ours is
not a battle for glory or prying eyes,” he tells de Lafaye on the way out.
MacLeod comes looking for Jean-Phillipe and hears he was going out to
fight. Once outside, he hears a Quickening. He finds Jean-Phillipe’s
body and later, while passing a church, feels an Immortal, goes inside
and finds Damon Case praying. When Duncan objects to his killing de
Lafaye, Case tells him, “Our ritual combat is my purpose, my reason for
being, as it is yours.” He says it is ordained by God, and that it is
not something that gives him pleasure or that he does lightly.
Duncan challenges him, but Case tells him to return in the morning,
after he has finished his prayers, and asks Duncan to join him in prayer
“for the soul of your friend,” but Duncan angrily tells him to pray for
his own soul.
Duncan tells Amanda that he never went back, that “Case wasn’t evil.
There was a sense of reverence and decency about the man. He was just
playing the game, following the rules the way he understood them.”
At dawn, Duncan goes to a deserted indoor horse arena, with a large
circular training area in the middle, and finds Case, asking him to have
mercy on Danny. “The mercy you ask for has no place with us,” Case
observes calmly, and asks what Cimoli is to MacLeod.”
“He’s defenseless,... innocent. That’s enough.” He tells Case he doesn’t
want to fight him, but he will if he has to.
Case accepts the challenge, but they are interrupted by the police, and
both of them slip away. Turns out Danny had called the police, and
Duncan tells Danny their fight is not for the police to deal with. Danny
finally tells him he’ll commit to learning to fight, but Duncan tells
him he has to leave, change his name and identity, Danny balks, saying
he had gotten an offer to play Las Vegas. “Danny Cimoli, bigger than
David Copperfield! Can you imagine that?”
“Yeah, Danny Cimoli, the Headless Magician,” Duncan adds wryly, and
tells Danny he’ll make the arrangements about his identity.
Danny starts packing up, but his mother surprises him with a big party
to celebrate the Las Vegas offer. He tries to tell her he’s not going to
Las Vegas, but can’t bring himself to do it. He goes to see MacLeod, but
finds Amanda at the barge. He explains to her that he can’t change his
identity, that he can’t run out on his mother. Amanda explains that if
he exposes himself by being a performer, he will eventually lose his
head. “Maybe if you’d trained, or taken a couple of heads, you’d have a
chance...” she muses, but tells him otherwise he wouldn’t last more than
a week. Later Amanda tells Duncan about it, sympathizing with Danny’s
plight. “Sometimes, immortality sucks,” she sighs.
Then Duncan and Case meet back at the arena. Case asks him why he’s
doing this. “Does it make you feel stronger to protect the weak?”
“Does it make you feel stronger to kill them?”
Case says he feels nothing, that he merely obeys the rules. They face
off ritualistically, and both men are good. It looks like an even match
until Case overreaches and Duncan disarms him, then invites him to walk
away. “Not in ten centuries,” Case says, so Duncan takes his head.
The Quickening is a little bizarre, with smoke coming up out of the
ground as a choir moans liturgically, then the smoke rises enveloping
MacLeod as the lightening flashes. Afterward, he is brooding at the
barge until Amanda tries to distract him as she practices juggling
balls. After she pushes him to talk, he tells her he thinks he made the
wrong decision in challenging and killing Case, that Case wasn’t his enemy.
Amanda reminds him that Case thought just their existence was enough
reason to fight. “Yeah, but I don’t,” MacLeod shrugs unhappily.
They go to the circus, where Amanda talks to the owner about Moscow and
Duncan goes to talk to Danny, who is practicing his act. Danny is
exuberant as he explains a new part of his act, which includes having a
partner from the audience. Duncan looks wary and irritated, but lets
Danny handcuff him. “Now what?” Mac asks, but Danny tells him the trick
is over, and pulls out a sword. He says he can’t run or hide or desert
his mother, so the only answer is to take a head, so he’ll be strong
enough to fight other Immortals, and he’s sorry it has to be Duncan.
He swings, Duncan ducks, and before he can rise, Duncan has his sword at
Danny’s neck. He shows him the handcuffs. “Houdini was a friend of mine,
and you, Danny, are no Houdini,” he growls. He declines to kill Danny
and tells him that Case is dead, that he should go to Vegas, get his
fifteen minutes of fame.
“But you’ll hear about me!” Danny shouts after him as Duncan leaves.
“Everywhere!”
Amanda meets Duncan outside to tell him that she had agreed to go to
Moscow, and since Danny was leaving the show, there was a place for a
new headliner.
We see the Dunes Hotel in Vegas, with “The Immortal Cimoli” on its
showboard, then we see Danny driving into the parking garage. He’s on
the phone with his mother, telling him what a huge success he is, when
he feels another Immortal. He tells her goodbye, and goes to meet his fate.
The final tag is at the circus in Moscow, where the Marco presents “The
Wheel of Death,” starring Duncan and Amanda, dressed in spangles. “I
haven’t thrown a knife in 70 years,” Duncan murmurs over the crowd’s
applause.
“Don’t worry, I’ll heal,” Amanda grins, bowing for the audience. Amanda
is mounted on a spinning wheel while Duncan throws knifes at her, but we
never find out whether he hits the wheel, or Amanda.
MY COMMENTS: I really liked Damon Case. Intense, brooding, driven. Tall,
lean, interesting looking. There was a better story than this for him.
It’s a shame he was caught up in this one.
The best scenes were between Duncan and Amanda as they teased each other
in bed, or when Amanda deliberately tossed her juggling balls at him to
distract him. The flashback had a great look to it, and the young
Jean-Phillipe was well played.
Is there anything deep to contemplate about this episode? I thought
Case’s question to Duncan was interesting: “Does it make you feel
stronger to protect the weak?” I don’t really think that’s what is
motivating Duncan. I think he has always felt a duty to protect those
who could not protect themselves - part of the clan chief
indoctrination, I believe.
I was also interested that Duncan regretted killing Case, and decided he
had made a mistake to do so. He didn’t blame Danny for that, though, and
only really got irritated at Danny when he showed a lack of honor by
trying to handcuff him and take his head.
And Duncan as circus performer? Well, he’d said once before he’d
performed in the circus in “Lady and the Tiger”, and we find out in
“Money No Object” that he really did travel around with the circus (and
with Amanda) in the 1930's.
My really burning question is: Why did they show Duncan in that spangly
jacket instead of tights? Really! Inquiring minds want to know!
MacGeorge
All episode commentaries, at:
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/episodes/indexframeset.htm
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Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 12:20:50 -0400
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Re: Season Four dvd Commentary: The Immortal Cimoli
I relaized I had one other comment to make about this episode, with
regard to the following scene, and the discussion on various lists about
whether the Quickening actually conveys anything until the end of the
final battle (assuming there really is a Prize):
> Amanda explains that if
> he exposes himself by being a performer, he will eventually lose his
> head. “Maybe if you’d trained, or taken a couple of heads, you’d have a
> chance...” she muses, but tells him otherwise he wouldn’t last more than
> a week.
Clearly, Amanda absolutely believes that taking heads enhances an
Immortal's survival ability. In "Lady and the Tiger", she also stepped
in to "steal" the bad guy's Quickening from Duncan, which I assume she
did for the same reason. Given that she's been living with Immortality
and it's consequences for a thousand years, I think I'd take her views
on the topic as gospel.
MacGeorge
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Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 13:31:12 EDT
From: EllnT@aol.com
Subject: AP Interview
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Sort of enlightening... Anyone already see this on TV Guide Online?
Laurie
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but
saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
-Alexander Pope, poet (1688-1744)
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_Click here: TV Guide Online - [Insider]_
(http://www.tvguide.com/news/insider/040811b.asp)
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Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 13:37:33 EDT
From: EllnT@aol.com
Subject: Re: Bond poll
In a message dated 8/5/2004 9:23:58 PM Eastern Standard Time,
mac.westie@verizon.net writes:
And, AP's hair issue looks to be getting worse....
Whoaaaa! Wait!! I missed the part where his hair has issues. What's that
all about?
Details please???
laurie
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but
saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
-Alexander Pope, poet (1688-1744)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 13:44:38 EDT
From: EllnT@aol.com
Subject: Re: Bond poll
In a message dated 8/5/2004 2:02:46 PM Eastern Standard Time,
immortals_incorporated@cox.net writes:
No offense intended but these polls are ridiculous. Adrian's name is there
probably because the last Parade Magazine poll was won by AP after his fans
flooded the site with votes. Doesn't mean that Adrian has the most fans and
certainly doesn't mean that Adrian has a ghost of a chance of being Bond.
You're absolutely right. The producers are not going to be influenced by
the fan base. It's up to them to look for someone younger. I doubt they want
to do a Timothy Dalton run again.
Laurie
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but
saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
-Alexander Pope, poet (1688-1744)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 13:47:26 EDT
From: Degruy@aol.com
Subject: Re: AP Interview
the link that was missing was
_http://www.tvguide.com/news/insider/040811b.asp_ (http://www.tvguide.com/news/insider/040811b.asp)
It was a good short article.
I like the bit about Dr. Who and the James Bond talk coming up again.
Edward deGruy
Student of Humanity
@}----------
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is a big difference.
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 10 Aug 2004 to 11 Aug 2004 (#2004-145)
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