#women at work and play

The actor known under the stage name Mademoiselle Mars (1779-1847), a member of one of the oldest theatre companies in the world, the Comédie-Française, seen in “Muscovite” costume in this 1814 portrait by Baron Gérard, a family friend.

Her real name was Anne-François-Hippolyte Salvetat and she chose her stage name after her unmarried mother, actor Madame Mars (Jeanne-Marguerite Salvetat). After debuting on the stage at the age of fourteen, she became one of the era’s favourite actors. She was also a staunch Bonapartist who along with the most distinguished members of the Comédie-Française was selected to give special performances in Dresden (Kingdom of Saxony, now in Germany), one of the theatre-loving Napoleon Bonaparte’s headquarters during the Napoleonic Wars and, that same year, 1813, the site of a major battle victory. She gave her farewell performance in 1841.

joealwyndaily:

first look at Joe as Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol

Vinette Robinson as Mary Cratchit (centre) in the upcoming, three-part adaptation by Stephen Knight (Peaky Blinders,Taboo). Several big names are attached to this one, including Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce.

Robinson comments, “In the books you don’t learn much about [Mary Cratchit] other than she is the wife of Bob and the mother of Tim, but, in this version of the story, Steven has imagined her side of events and how she deals with the strained circumstances that the family is under. First and foremost, she’s a good mum, she’s so resilient, she’s sensitive and she’s tough and she’ll do anything for her family. She has to keep her family safe and has to make some very tough decisions on that front. […] What’s great is that Steven has written two female characters who have agency, Lottie [Charlotte Riley as the Ghost of Christmas Present] and Mary, and done so in a really clever way. They are not passive and very much drive their own stories.”

curtvilescomic:

Finnish government now lead by these heads of parties. Sanna Marin being The new Prime minister

Coalition governments are the norm in Finland but it is noteworthy that, aside from the leaders of the parties that form the new cabinet (December 2019) all being women, four out of the five are millennials. Seasoned insight in all honour, but prudence, common sense, unbiassed judgment, integrity, courage, and compassionate values are not, as we see confirmed all over the world every day, tied to age.

However, while age and gender may be the most visible aspects, these parliamentarians also bring a range of social and cultural backgrounds to the table. For example, the fifth party leader, the Minister of Justice, represents a historical linguistic minority spread over an eclectic voter base (the party has nothing whatsoever to do with Sweden). The leader of the Left Alliance, now the Minister of Education, who received the second-highest number of votes of any candidate in this year’s parliamentary elections and who cites Greta Thunberg as her political role model, comes from that same linguistic minority. And the Prime Minister was raised in a rainbow family, the country’s term for family units consisting of lgbtq parents and their children.

Moreover, they are part of a cabinet in which the majority of ministers are women: twelve out of nineteen.

It’s going to be interesting to watch this strong influx of talented young decisionmakers come together to test institutional routines and bring fresh energy and points of view to government.

wike-wabbits:

Mirjami Kuosmanen in The White Reindeer (Erik Blomberg, 1952)

While Blomberg was the film’s director, the story of the shape-shifting Sámi woman owes its conception to Kuosmanen. The couple (who were married) jointly developed her idea into a screenplay. With outdoor scenes filmed in Finnish Lapland lending realism to a tale of magic gone wrong, The White Reindeer proved an instant domestic and international success. It received a special award (fairy tale) at the Cannes Film Festival of 1953 as well as a shared Golden Globe in 1956 for best foreign film.

If subtitles aren’t your thing you should do fine here as The White Reindeer contains minimal dialogue, its focus being on emotion and action.