Victorian Strangeness

[ramonmercado]

StaticGirl first posted this on Day Of The Animals thread.

Victorian Strangeness: The pig singing competition

Illustration of a man carrying a pig

There was no sobbing. None of the hopefuls told a weepy backstory. Not a single one boohoo-ed about the journey they'd been on since the contest began.

At the Victorian version of the X Factor, the talent show format was stripped right back to its bare bones. Just six contestants and a stage, each and every man singing his heart out to impress the judges. While carrying a pig.

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[ramonmercado]

The Aeronauts: The story of a famous balloon flight in 1862 which broke flight altitude records and enabled important discoveries about the layers of the atmosphere. i'm afraid the story here is romanticised as two male scientists carried out the ascent but film is the better for thus subterfuge. Amelia Rennes (Felicity Jones) is a balloon pilot who has given up the trade after losing her husband in a tragedy bound flight. James Glaisger (Eddie Remayne) is an astronomer and meteorologist who persuades Amelia to fly once again so that he may prove his theories and break the altitude record. The flight sets off from a fairground, made into a spectacle to raise necessary finance. Amelia is the artiste turning cartwheels to delight the crowd tossing a dog on a parachute out of the balloon basket. Glaisher is very much the staid scientist.

Flashbacks show how Amelia lost her husband and the lead up to the flight. Glaisher's theories are mocked at the Royal Society (stock scene of whiskered elderlry men laughing at young scientist) andhe is refused funding for experiments. Some great aerial scenes tension is maintained throughout, with some shots literally heart-stopping. Also a little dark humour, Glaisher sends off homing pigeons at various stages of the ascent, eventually at too high an altitude a pigeon plummets when he tosses it in the air. A great adventure story directed and co-written by Tom Harper (Wild Rose) who acknowledges the book Falling Upwards by Richard Holmes as an inspiration for the film. 8/10,