The hawk was struck...

This post is part of Nathaniel's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series in which the participants must post a single image from a movie he or she deems as the "best shot" for any particular reason.


In honor of Matthew Broderick's birthday, I got to watch Ladyhawke last night for this "Best Shot" series which oddly enough only marks the third live-action film I've seen of Broderick's. In any case, this particular fantasy film felt a bit dated with its trippy transformation sequences and its notorious pop rock operatic score. Many people gives its score grief and rightly so, but as distracting and off-putting as it may be, I still applaud the filmmakers for thinking outside the box. In fact, it all reminded me a bit of the great score of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera which, perhaps not too coincidentally, came out right around the same time.

If you think about it a bit more, with its Italian set pieces and tragic love story of a man and a women forever entwined but never being together, Ladyhawke really does recall some sort of majestic opera complete with a curse, a wolf hunter, and of course a prima donna. That latter honor goes to the glorious Michelle Pfeiffer who we first see as a mysterious figure cloaked in black. Broderick's character, Phillipe Gaston, makes sure to remember and note that her voice was "the dulcet tones of an angel." For me, imagining the movie as an opera helped to make some of its more dated elements feel okay in retrospect.

The shot above is probably my second favorite shot in the film. It just looks like a painting and all of the brown tones and textures highlighted are so pleasing to the eye, not to mention Pfeiffer's beauty itself. My favorite shot of the film comes a bit before the aforementioned scene. It's at a pivotal point where Phillipe is just connecting the dots regarding this mysterious woman upon discovering her naked... in bed... with an arrow piercing her shoulders:


This shot, which also showcases the lovely vulnerability and captivating beauty of Pfeiffer, is just so luscious with all of the fur surrounding her and yet she's looking straight at him as if to say SO WHAT? Of course she does look away a bit just as Philippe asks her, in one of the film's greatest scene, if she's flesh or if she's spirit. She looks at him, though not as directly, and replies as only a diva can "I am sorrow."