Bonjour les blogueurs!

As a nice change, I've decided to do a movie review!

I've chosen to review Pleasantville, now I know this movie isn't very old, or all that famous and doesnt star people like Marilyn or Audrey but I thought because it's set in 1958 for the most part, and most of it is in black and white then it would be a good example of how even in modern day things can be made to look like they are straight out of the '50s. 

Pleasantville was made in 1998 by Director J.T Walsh and was releashed by New Line Cinema. Pleasantville stars Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Marley Shelton, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, Don Knotts, Paul Walker and Jane Kaczmarek.

So for the first part of the movie which is set in modern day it's about a brother and a sister, when their mother goes away for the weekend, the brother (Tobey Maguire) and his sister (Reese Witherspoon)  both make plans for the weekend. David (Maguire) decides to spend the weekend watching a marathon of his favourite television program "Pleasantville" And Jennifer (Witherspoon) decides to invite her highschool crush over to watch MTV. David is alot different to Jennifer, he's a bit more of a "geek" if you will, where as Jennifer is a bit more of a rebel. So as they are both getting ready for the night, they both reach for the remote. They argue for a while and try and are both trying to grab it out of the others hands. The next thing, they know is it is flying through the air and hits the floor and breaks. 

Then DING DONG the doorbell rings. Jennifer runs to the door as she believes it might be her date for the evening, she is greeted by an old man in a uniform "Tv repairs!" he states. He walks in and starts to fix the remote, whilst doing this he quizzes David on Pleasantville, amazed at how much David knows, he has him a special remote and then leaves. Once again they two siblings start fighting again, then they both hit the same button on the remote, sending them into the TV and into the tv show Pleasantville. 

As I said before Pleasantville is a tv show set in the '50s and is in complete black and white. It's a very wholesome town, where this is no such thing as swearing, sex, violence etc. When they realise they are stuck in the show, they go along with thinking that if they just played along eventually the tv repair man will return them to the current day. Jennifer becomes "Mary Sue Parker" and David becomes "Bud Parker"

While David wants to keep Pleasantville the exact way it is, Mary Sue decide to shake it up a bit, introducing the teens to sex, and words like "cool" as soon as she starts to change Pleasantville thats when things slowly start to go into colour. The more open minded people get, the more they change and turn technicolour.  Not everyone is changing though, alot of the parents still stuck in their old ways are still black and white. And not only do the colours start changing, the books which used to have blank pages suddenly are filled with words, it rains and there's fire when theyre wasnt any before.

As soon as everything starts changing the elders of the town start to band together, to try and put a stop to it. A new "Pleasantville Code of Conduct" comes into affect. The Code is a list of regulations preventing people from doing an assortment of things, such as using colourful paints. Bud & Bill(the local Soda shop owner) are arrested and charged in court for using the banned colourful paints. Bud gives a speech about everyone changing colours and how you cant fight it, and is it goes on everyone in the courtroom starts to change colour, even the Mayor! Who leaves suddenly after realising he's changed, so the case is thrown out.

 In the end the whole town turns coloured, and the people are introduced  to a whole they've never known. The televisions now display coloured images of places around the world, and Main Street which used to be a circuit to the beginning again now leads to other towns and cities and possibilities. 

Mary Sue chooses to stay behind in neighboring Springfield and get an education, while Bud/David returns home using the remote control. When David arrives home he finds his mother crying in the kitchen, distraught over her life and her failed relationship. She complains to him that her life was not supposed to be this way. David replies, "It's not 'supposed' to be 'anything'."

Now, I really enjoy this movie I think the story line is interesting and the visuals are amazing. If you don't like the look of the story line, you should atleast see it, for the wonderful clothing, hair, make up, cars, houses etc. 

It will give you an idea of what it was like to live in 1958!

Next movie I will review: Viva Las Vegas, Starring Elvis Presley and Ann Margaret

Régalez-vous ...

Miss Brooke Darling

xx