Fandom Name: La Fille du Diable | Devil's Daughter (1946) Where to find the canon: I was lucky enough to watch it as part of a noir series in a theater, but aside from that, I was able to buy the DVD with English subtitles: https://www.moviedetective.net/product_p/lfdd.htm
I found it streaming on archive.org but only in the original French, without English subtitles. What I love about it: Isabelle is so angry and has so much good reason to be. There's so much frustrated potential in her that I'd love to see get unleashed. I also love the complex network of relationships between the characters and the different ways they could have played out.
Fandom Name: Adam's Rib (1949) Where to find the canon: DVD; streaming rental or purchase What I love about it: I love the actors Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, and I love how much the characters Adam and Amanda Bonner love each other. It's such a pleasure to see a movie where a married couple act like they actually enjoy being married to each other (which these two clearly do, apart from, uh, certain disrupting plot events!).
Fandom Name: If I Had a Million (1932) Where to find the canon: Mostly seems to be available on DVD in collections with other things What I love about it: A rich man decides to give his fortune away a million at a time, selecting the recipients randomly from a phone book! It's all the fun of "what would I do if I won the lottery" only played out eight times with eight different characters, and it's so satisfying getting to see (most of) their wishes come true.
Fandom Name: Vivacious Lady (1938) Where to find the canon: DVD What I love about it: Ginger Rogers (in not-a-musical!) and James Stewart! After spending all night out in the city on a date, a couple impulsively decides to marry—but trying to introduce the bride to the man's parents doesn't go well. At one point the new wife and her mother-in-law are on a train back to the city, both fed up with their husbands, and planning to enjoy the city together! Although this does not come to fruition, it was a delightful enough idea that the movie has stuck with me (and provides an excellent possible jumping-off point for fanfic...)
Fandom Name: Together Again (1944) Where to find the canon: DVD What I love about it: Irene Dunne is a joy—but the unexpected fun when I watched this with friends were the indications we saw that perhaps this beautiful small-town lady mayor who's getting encouraged to find love again after the death of her husband? might be into ladies! Maybe she doesn't realize she's into ladies yet? But she kept being interested in other ladies taking their clothes off (an artist's model, a striptease dancer in a nightclub), and the nightclub bathroom attendant got her dress off really fast ("to fix a stain," uh-huh), so it really seemed like she might be into ladies.
I mean, to be clear, this is a 40s movie and this is all subtext and fun interpretation. But it was a fun interpretation to think we might be seeing the bisexual awakening of Anne Crandall :-)
Fandom Name: Gerald Poole and the Pirates - Johannes T. Evans Where to find the canon: This originated as a twitter thread, then was later expanded; the full story is about 40k words and can be read online (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4) or purchased as an ebook. (If you hit the article limit on Medium you can just use a private mode/incognito browser window to read the rest.)
There's a sequel short also available online called Sensory Deprivation (about 3k words). What I love about it: The writing is so funny! And it's so hot (though poor Gerald is awfully deprived, at least through the main story—not so much in the sequel ;-)). Johannes T. Evans always does such a great job with characterization even in a very short space, and here you really get to see all the character work play out at greater length. And I love stories about people who don't fit right anywhere else finding the place and the people they belong with.
Fandom Name: The Henchmen of Zenda - K. J. Charles Where to find the canon: Where ebook or print romance novels are sold! What I love about it: As background, this is a retelling of The Prisoner of Zenda from the point of view of one of the villains. You don't have to read The Prisoner of Zenda first to enjoy or understand it, but if you do you will have a real appreciation for how much better all of the female characters are in K.J. Charles' version! My request features one of them: Rupert of Hentzau's mother, who exists only in one glorious paragraph (which I transcribed in a previous exchange letter here https://ageorwizardry.dreamwidth.org/4201.html) and deserves so much more. "She lived for tales of the life she had never been permitted to have." I love how much she loves life and how fiercely she pursues joy in the much-too-brief period of freedom she gets, and how important it was to her to pass all that on to her son as well.
Fandom Name: The Brothers Sinister Series - Courtney Milan Where to find the canon: Where ebook or print romance novels are sold! As a note, the character I am requesting, Frederica "Freddy" Barton, is a secondary character in this series; she appears in the novella The Governess Affair and the novel The Heiress Effect, and is no longer alive but is still discussed in important ways in The Suffragette Scandal. What I love about it: Frederica "Freddy" Barton: recluse and secret adventure novelist! I love the way Freddy finds to expand her world to the entire globe through her novels, even while she struggles with not being able to step outside her home in her physical life.
Fandom Name: Babette's Feast (1987) Where to find the canon: DVD; streaming rental or purchase What I love about it: In addition to being the most magnificent food porn you ever saw, it's a beautiful movie that always makes me cry with joy by the end.
no subject
Where to find the canon: I was lucky enough to watch it as part of a noir series in a theater, but aside from that, I was able to buy the DVD with English subtitles: https://www.moviedetective.net/product_p/lfdd.htm
At the time, that was the only place I could find it to buy, but I recently found it also available for sale here (I have no personal experience with ordering from this site): https://www.rarefilmsandmore.com/la-fille-du-diable-the-devils-daughter-1946-with-switchable-english-subtitles
I found it streaming on archive.org but only in the original French, without English subtitles.
What I love about it: Isabelle is so angry and has so much good reason to be. There's so much frustrated potential in her that I'd love to see get unleashed. I also love the complex network of relationships between the characters and the different ways they could have played out.
Fandom Name: Adam's Rib (1949)
Where to find the canon: DVD; streaming rental or purchase
What I love about it: I love the actors Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, and I love how much the characters Adam and Amanda Bonner love each other. It's such a pleasure to see a movie where a married couple act like they actually enjoy being married to each other (which these two clearly do, apart from, uh, certain disrupting plot events!).
Fandom Name: If I Had a Million (1932)
Where to find the canon: Mostly seems to be available on DVD in collections with other things
What I love about it: A rich man decides to give his fortune away a million at a time, selecting the recipients randomly from a phone book! It's all the fun of "what would I do if I won the lottery" only played out eight times with eight different characters, and it's so satisfying getting to see (most of) their wishes come true.
Fandom Name: Vivacious Lady (1938)
Where to find the canon: DVD
What I love about it: Ginger Rogers (in not-a-musical!) and James Stewart! After spending all night out in the city on a date, a couple impulsively decides to marry—but trying to introduce the bride to the man's parents doesn't go well. At one point the new wife and her mother-in-law are on a train back to the city, both fed up with their husbands, and planning to enjoy the city together! Although this does not come to fruition, it was a delightful enough idea that the movie has stuck with me (and provides an excellent possible jumping-off point for fanfic...)
Fandom Name: Together Again (1944)
Where to find the canon: DVD
What I love about it: Irene Dunne is a joy—but the unexpected fun when I watched this with friends were the indications we saw that perhaps this beautiful small-town lady mayor who's getting encouraged to find love again after the death of her husband? might be into ladies! Maybe she doesn't realize she's into ladies yet? But she kept being interested in other ladies taking their clothes off (an artist's model, a striptease dancer in a nightclub), and the nightclub bathroom attendant got her dress off really fast ("to fix a stain," uh-huh), so it really seemed like she might be into ladies.
I mean, to be clear, this is a 40s movie and this is all subtext and fun interpretation. But it was a fun interpretation to think we might be seeing the bisexual awakening of Anne Crandall :-)
Fandom Name: Gerald Poole and the Pirates - Johannes T. Evans
Where to find the canon: This originated as a twitter thread, then was later expanded; the full story is about 40k words and can be read online (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4) or purchased as an ebook. (If you hit the article limit on Medium you can just use a private mode/incognito browser window to read the rest.)
There's a sequel short also available online called Sensory Deprivation (about 3k words).
What I love about it: The writing is so funny! And it's so hot (though poor Gerald is awfully deprived, at least through the main story—not so much in the sequel ;-)). Johannes T. Evans always does such a great job with characterization even in a very short space, and here you really get to see all the character work play out at greater length. And I love stories about people who don't fit right anywhere else finding the place and the people they belong with.
Fandom Name: The Henchmen of Zenda - K. J. Charles
Where to find the canon: Where ebook or print romance novels are sold!
What I love about it: As background, this is a retelling of The Prisoner of Zenda from the point of view of one of the villains. You don't have to read The Prisoner of Zenda first to enjoy or understand it, but if you do you will have a real appreciation for how much better all of the female characters are in K.J. Charles' version! My request features one of them: Rupert of Hentzau's mother, who exists only in one glorious paragraph (which I transcribed in a previous exchange letter here https://ageorwizardry.dreamwidth.org/4201.html) and deserves so much more. "She lived for tales of the life she had never been permitted to have." I love how much she loves life and how fiercely she pursues joy in the much-too-brief period of freedom she gets, and how important it was to her to pass all that on to her son as well.
Fandom Name: The Brothers Sinister Series - Courtney Milan
Where to find the canon: Where ebook or print romance novels are sold! As a note, the character I am requesting, Frederica "Freddy" Barton, is a secondary character in this series; she appears in the novella The Governess Affair and the novel The Heiress Effect, and is no longer alive but is still discussed in important ways in The Suffragette Scandal.
What I love about it: Frederica "Freddy" Barton: recluse and secret adventure novelist! I love the way Freddy finds to expand her world to the entire globe through her novels, even while she struggles with not being able to step outside her home in her physical life.
Fandom Name: Babette's Feast (1987)
Where to find the canon: DVD; streaming rental or purchase
What I love about it: In addition to being the most magnificent food porn you ever saw, it's a beautiful movie that always makes me cry with joy by the end.