Word: backlot
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...Still, perhaps this criticism is unfair, since my favorite part of Shanghai Girls could be considered just such a plausibility-straining coincidence. It finds the narrator, cast as an extra in a Hollywood film, walking around a backlot version of old Shanghai - and noting how little it resembles the city she remembers...
...lessons have been learned. The refreshment stands sell espresso, and you can now have wine or beer with your sit-down (and often tasty) lunch. The attractions at Disney Studios emphasize Europe's contributions to cinema. If you need a park map or want to take the backlot tram tour at Disney Studios, you can choose one of six languages - Dutch, English, French, German, Italian or Spanish...
...faux-backlot feel means that the place looks like the Volvo of theme parks. It's fine on the inside, but boxy and dull outside. No surprise, then, that the Studios are aimed at an older audience than Disneyland. "We're trying to attract a 'new' public with cinema and some-thing a little more pedagogical," says CEO Jay Rasulo. CinéMagique, a clever retrospective of memorable moments from American and European film, does that well. But this is still family vacation terri-tory. Will that Flying Carpet ride, one (admittedly cool) stunt show and a work-shop where...
...from the grain in woven baskets, donning animal costumes for a religious festival, and the ubiquitous grape-stomping. Remarkably enough, the village men and women boast wrinkles, bulges and (best of all) noses--Artifat's denizens look as though they were yanked off a Bruegel canvas, not a studio backlot. Enhanced by excellent costuming and set design, these characters present an unusually rich, as well as credible, glimpse into the past. The two leads both turn in strong, though less than stellar, performances...
...voice, spirit and chest, as Irena. There is a fake anthropological prologue in which Hollywood's tribe of all-purpose primitives is seen tethering its maidens rather uncomfortably close to a black leopard's lair, thus establishing Irena's heritage, lost in the mists of the backlot. And there is Malcolm McDowell, quite persuasively feline, as her brother. In his human form he is something of a tomcat, which, of course, means he keeps turning into a big cat, with unfortunate results for the ladies he stalks. He keeps proposing incest as the only safe and sane...