LEN: dodalisque reads for Joan Marie

[dodalisque]

OK, JM. What have you got in store for me this month? Nothing from Dune, please.

[Joan Marie]

OK, JM. What have you got in store for me this month? Nothing from Dune, please.

I was thinking maybe of something from "The Da Vinci Code!"

I need a minute, will bring forth something very soon.

[Joan Marie]

OK, JM. What have you got in store for me this month? Nothing from Dune, please.

You know I almost got cast for "Dune," the new one, not the David Lynch one. I'm not a dinosaur. But I do have a question about my acting career and I hope you help because things are really getting tense.

As you can tell, I am an actress. Quite a popular one actually, but I don't want to make you nervous by revealing my identity.

I'm writing you from where I am currently shooting on location in Bulgaria. The film is an historical drama, set in the very early 20th century in Russia. One reason I took the job is because of the director. She is a very respected (but ageing) French actress who is trying her hand as a first time director. I am positively thrilled to be working with her. The project is also fascinating.

I was hired as a replacement though. It is the lead role. It isn't really clear what happened to the other actress, the one I am replacing, and I am beginning to think that I took this job too hastily and should have found out more. My agent played a big part too in convincing me to take this role.

Right away I didn't feel comfortable here on the set. I was welcomed in the usual way that actresses are, lots of flattery etc, but when I was taken to my accommodations I was really shocked. I mean we are in the Bulgarian countryside and what can I expect, but I live in Los Angeles and am used to a certain level of, well, star treatment. I'm sure a lot of people would find this place charming but these heavy dusty tapestries and ancient creaky furniture are just not my cup of tea. It feels so oppressive.

But if that were the only problem, I'd shut up. The thing is, this director is just brutal. I'm not sure she even knows what she is doing but she acts as if she has everything under control. She's very short tempered, especially with me. She allows other actors to improvise things that seem completely non-sensical to me. They sometimes speak and behave in ways that are not even in the period of the film yet she thinks they are great. With me though, she has no patience and no understanding of how I (or any real actor) works. I cannot find my way into this part, into this story or into this group.

It would take too long to describe all the weird things that happen on set and off-set. The other lead "actor" (who I have to have romantic scenes with) has made very unwanted sexual advances toward me explaining he is just trying to "stay in character." This behaviour would never fly in the States. But here no one cares, there is no one to turn to. The crew are rude and unhelpful and even the hotel staff pretend to not speak english but then I hear them speaking it with other people.

Every day it gets worse. I am all alone here. I have no one on my side. My agent isn't able to be here, but he keeps telling me I have to stay or they will ruin me financially for violating the contract, plus it will be terrible for my reputation to walk off a project. I try to stand up for myself but I am no match for that director and everyone seems on her side. I feel like I am starting to go a bit mad.

There is a lot I didn't tell you. Basically, it feels like they are trying to make me miserable but to what end I have no idea. I'm playing an Empress for goodness sake. They should be treating me like royalty!

My question is, do I have the strength to see this project through or should I leave and deal with the damage to my finances and career?

EDIT: Alternatively, maybe you could tell me what will happen if I stay and what will happen if I leave.
It is up to you. I have to go now. my sadistic hair and makeup people are waiting for me.

[dodalisque]

Because you are acting in a costume drama, the deck I chose is The Lenormand Revolution (Roz Foster and Carrie Paris, 2017), which draws its imagery from the 18th century French and American Revolutions. Both revolutions set the poor and underprivileged against oppressive masters.

At first I thought that I would lay down a simple line of 5 cards to answer your question, but then I remembered that actors are always two people - the role they play on stage and the role they play in their own lives - so I selected another line of 5 cards and put it below the first. Experiences and emotions are always crossing back and forth across the barrier between the two selves, so I expect that each 5 card line will have things to say about the other.

Birds (12) / Letter (27) / Path (22) / Anchor (35) / Snake (7)
Ship (3) / Heart (24) / Mountain ( 21) / Lily (30) / Coffin (8)

In the top row I identify the SNAKE to be the famous actress who is directing the movie. The SNAKE very often appears in readings as a jealous woman, but here I think it simply carries the suggestion of cunning. Having the SNAKE as the last card in the line suggests that the SNAKE, the director, is far-seeing and is controlling the whole operation. The chattering, gossiping BIRDS must be your fellow actors in Bulgaria gathered for the filming of the movie. And the LETTER probably refers to the script, though it could also refer to the letter sent to you inviting you to take part in the film. So the top line deals with the movie itself.

Having the SHIP as the first card in the bottom line suggests that these 5 cards refer to your personal, interior life, since the SHIP symbolises your journey from the glamour of Hollywood to backwoods of Bulgaria. The HEART also expresses some of the emotional confusion you are feeling right now while you attempt to come to grips with the disrespectful treatment you seem to be receiving from the rest of the cast and crew.

In the top line, the central PATH card, otherwise known as the CROSSROADS, tells us that in this film the director intends to bring together two disparate traditions or styles or historical periods into conflict. She wants this film to be not just a simple entertaining costume drama, the sort we associate with the banality of Hollywood, but to express powerful emotions that move a contemporary audience.

The first mirrored pair LETTER + ANCHOR tells us that even though the method of improvisation during rehearsals is extremely confusing for you, in fact the script (LETTER) is fixed (ANCHOR), that is, carefully constructed. There seems to be a solid professionalism operating behind the apparent chaos. The outer pair BIRDS + SNAKE suggests that the rudeness of the cast towards you is actually a cunning ruse.

In the bottom line the central card is the MOUNTAIN, which confirms that everything about this production will be challenging for you. You will have to overcome not just tests of your acting skill but inner blocks within your own personality.

You mentioned that one of your fellow actors shocked you by propositioning you sexually, as if you were some sort of common slut, so I was not surprised to see the LILY card show up in this line. This card has an ambiguous status. In some readings it can mean "purity" but just as often it is used to express the opposite idea of "sexuality". HEART + LILY could mean a "pure heart" or it could mean a "heart overcome by lust". Your own attitudes to the relationship between love and sex may be tested. Perhaps the character you play has a more down-to-earth and robust attitude to sexuality than you do.

SHIP + COFFIN tells us that a long journey has ended. The COFFIN need not necessarily be a negative card. The journey represented by the SHIP might refer to an inner restlessness that is finally put to rest (COFFIN). The LILY too is the chosen flower at many funerals and thus often carries the suggestion of peace.

If we combine the two lines as a series of 5 pairs we get:

BIRDS + SHIP = the other actors' rudeness will take you on a personal journey. You are used to being treated like a star in Hollywood, a sort of "Empress" of the acting world, but for this film you are having to learn to be in an environment where you are not treated as a special person. This is humbling, and I can only assume that the Empress you are playing in this movie went through a similar experience. That is, she came from a protected, privileged background but at some point in her life she was thrust into common society and treated as an ordinary person. Perhaps the Empress's courtiers had no respect for her as a person, or perhaps she is forced to leave her palace and hide among common folk who do not give her the sort of special treatment she is used to.

LETTER + HEART = a script that communicates with you emotionally; or it could mean that the director brings a performance out of you that comes directly from your own heart rather than just being words learned from a scrap of paper and then parroted in front of the camera.

PATH + MOUNTAIN = both the character you play and your own emotional life will face hardships, but the two paths will meet at the crossroads of this movie. Since the PATH/CROSSROADS card is about a meeting point, PATH + MOUNTAIN could mean something like "resolution" or "difficulties overcome".

ANCHOR + LILY = the ambiguity about the meaning of the LILY card makes this a difficult pair to assess. Your character of the Empress may have been misrepresented as a promiscuous woman during her lifetime, just as you are by some of the cast. Or it may mean that both you and/or your character suffer from sexual addiction.

SNAKE + COFFIN = the position of this pair at the end of the line tells us that when the movie is over the cunning (SNAKE) of the director will cease (COFFIN). That is, her treacherous quality will be seen to have been a temporary strategy.

If we fan the top line we get the message that:
The reviews (BIRDS) in the newspapers (LETTER) will be unanimous (CROSSROADS + ANCHOR) in their praise of the director (SNAKE).

If we fan the bottom line we get:
The journey (SHIP) of the suffering (MOUNTAIN) heart (HEART) will end in perfect peace (LILY + COFFIN).

I lay down three more cards for confirmation and got:

Mice (23) / Tree (5) / House (4)
Enduring minor annoyances (MICE) will result in greater health (TREE) and security (HOUSE)

I feel rather split in presenting you with this reading because it predicts significant personal suffering for you, but also suggests that this is suffering that you need to experience and that in the long run it will be beneficial to your career and to your own self-understanding. Your manager seems to trust the famous actress who is directing the movie and I think that you should too. The director appears to be experimenting with techniques associated with the acting philosophy known as Method Acting. She is inducing emotions in you that she feels will enrich your performance as the Empress in her movie. I should probably have said nothing in case your conscious understanding of the process interferes with its effectiveness but, fortunately or unfortunately, I need the money.

[Joan Marie]

This is wonderful.

You hit on some very specific and surprising aspects of this. You also missed one by a mile due to the very common reluctance we all have to really attributing bad things to the cards even when the picture they are giving you is plain as day!

Sorry I can't write my whole response to you now, but I will try to do it tomorrow.

Thank you so much for this reading. It really very interesting.

[dodalisque]

You also missed one by a mile due to the very common reluctance we all have to really attributing bad things to the cards even when the picture they are giving you is plain as day!

It was that COFFIN card, wasn't it. I felt that there should have been a gruesome death in there somewhere, strictly on the principle that you tend to like the dramatic and macabre.

[Joan Marie]

It was that COFFIN card, wasn't it. I felt that there should have been a gruesome death in there somewhere, strictly on the principle that you tend to like the dramatic and macabre.

i had not noticed that tendency of mine, but now that you mention it....

[Joan Marie]

Because you are acting in a costume drama, the deck I chose is The Lenormand Revolution (Roz Foster and Carrie Paris, 2017), which draws its imagery from the 18th century French and American Revolutions. Both revolutions set the poor and underprivileged against oppressive masters.

Good choice.

The story I used was episode 3 of the best anthology series in a long time that I think very few people saw. It was called "The Romanoffs" (yes that was the spelling they used.) It got mixed reviews but i thought it was just brilliant.

It was 8 separate stories with the only common thread being there was always something to do with the ill-fated Czarist family. In this episode, called The House of Special Purpose, they went really metta and the film shoot the actress was on (played by the stunning and brilliant Christina Hendricks) was for a TV series about the Romanov family. The evil French Actress/Director (played by the astonishing Isabelle Hubert) was beyond belief.
I am going to re-watch this episode later because there were some lines she delivered that were not to be believed and I'd like to share them.

What's the sound of two red-heads clashing?

In the top row I identify the SNAKE to be the famous actress who is directing the movie. The SNAKE very often appears in readings as a jealous woman, but here I think it simply carries the suggestion of cunning. Having the SNAKE as the last card in the line suggests that the SNAKE, the director, is far-seeing and is controlling the whole operation. The chattering, gossiping BIRDS must be your fellow actors in Bulgaria gathered for the filming of the movie. And the LETTER probably refers to the script, though it could also refer to the letter sent to you inviting you to take part in the film. So the top line deals with the movie itself.

This is spot-on. Even though the director has achieved a lot in her career and has ostensibly "risen" to direct, there is a palpable jealousy from her toward the beautiful young actress everyone is going crazy for. if I recall correctly there are some unfortunate utterances from the younger woman along the lines of "I've admired you since I was a little girl" kind of thing. Goes over big as you can imagine.

The Letter as the script is key. To jump ahead some, it isn't the mistreatment that becomes the final straw for this consummate professional, it's an unconscionable script change where the director suddenly decides to change the end of the story and let the Romanov family escape their fate. This so reminded me of Tarrantino and how in his last 3 films he decided to re-write history.

The director delivers this info as a total afterthought and the actress not only sees it as a terrible idea, but as one that isn't even well thought out. Just an ill-conceived whim.

I also like your reading of the Birds. Yes, everyone is talking and everyone has an opinion.

Having the SHIP as the first card in the bottom line suggests that these 5 cards refer to your personal, interior life, since the SHIP symbolises your journey from the glamour of Hollywood to backwoods of Bulgaria. The HEART also expresses some of the emotional confusion you are feeling right now while you attempt to come to grips with the disrespectful treatment you seem to be receiving from the rest of the cast and crew.

Again, spot-on. Another detail I forgot to mention is the actress's mother had recently passed away. It wasn't made a big deal of but it was clear that she was still grieving and had in part taken this role to distract herself.

In the top line, the central PATH card, otherwise known as the CROSSROADS, tells us that in this film the director intends to bring together two disparate traditions or styles or historical periods into conflict. She wants this film to be not just a simple entertaining costume drama, the sort we associate with the banality of Hollywood, but to express powerful emotions that move a contemporary audience.

This is where you get 5 stars.
Talk about metta, when the creator of this series (Matthew Weiner) was interviewed about it he said exactly this. He did not want to create another stuffy old costume drama. And, if I recall correctly, the director character in this (Huppert) voices the same feeling but her ideas were shot down because even though she was a renowned actress, she was a first time director and her instincts were not trusted to veer so far away from tradition. I have to re-watch to verify this, but the part about the actual creator of the series is accurate. He was also the creator of the series "Mad Men" so he had enough clout to get his way.

The first mirrored pair LETTER + ANCHOR tells us that even though the method of improvisation during rehearsals is extremely confusing for you, in fact the script (LETTER) is fixed (ANCHOR), that is, carefully constructed. There seems to be a solid professionalism operating behind the apparent chaos. The outer pair BIRDS + SNAKE suggests that the rudeness of the cast towards you is actually a cunning ruse.

In the bottom line the central card is the MOUNTAIN, which confirms that everything about this production will be challenging for you. You will have to overcome not just tests of your acting skill but inner blocks within your own personality.

Again, spot on. You realise later that the director was using her formidable acting skills to portray the sadistic director to achieve exactly this ruse.

You mentioned that one of your fellow actors shocked you by propositioning you sexually, as if you were some sort of common slut, so I was not surprised to see the LILY card show up in this line. This card has an ambiguous status. In some readings it can mean "purity" but just as often it is used to express the opposite idea of "sexuality". HEART + LILY could mean a "pure heart" or it could mean a "heart overcome by lust". Your own attitudes to the relationship between love and sex may be tested. Perhaps the character you play has a more down-to-earth and robust attitude to sexuality than you do.

I just read a re-cap of the episode and realised that I had gotten this part a little wrong. My memory smoothed over what had really happened which was SUPER disturbing.
She actually had a little dalliance with the actor who was playing Rasputin. For her it was only that though. A bit of fun and stress relief. But things turned very dark when during the filming of a scene he goes "off-script" and sexually assaults her, for real, on set, and tries to pass it off as "acting." She is completely freaked out and even moreso because despite all the witnesses there on set, no one helps or even empathises with her. It's horrible.
Strange how I remembered it wrong.

EDIT: see my next post. There was something else forgot!

SHIP + COFFIN tells us that a long journey has ended. The COFFIN need not necessarily be a negative card. The journey represented by the SHIP might refer to an inner restlessness that is finally put to rest (COFFIN). The LILY too is the chosen flower at many funerals and thus often carries the suggestion of peace.

Okay, now for the (spoiler-alert) ending.
She gets a knock on her door late in the night and is rousted to the set. She's thrown into a truck and just treated like some kind of prisoner. All the while she's screaming and threatening lawsuits and really going mad. She's thrust into costume and pushed out onto a room where all the rest of the actors playing the Romanov family are all assembled, along with armed soldiers who as she stands there screaming, they open fire and shoot down everyone in the room. She is screaming her head off as blood spills and bodies drop all around her. Finally she too goes down.

The director yells "Cut!"

All the "dead" people stand, covered with blood. From out of the darkness, the crew step in with the director AND her damn Agent. Everyone is laughing and applauding her brilliant performance until....they find she is actually dead...of fright.

It's really super intense. It's so weird how after all that terrible treatment it doesn#t seem hard to believe that they might just kill her. I was actually surprised when everyone stood up.

That's how well they made this. I was all in. So that lily and coffin and ship meant just that.

If we combine the two lines as a series of 5 pairs we get:

BIRDS + SHIP = the other actors' rudeness will take you on a personal journey. You are used to being treated like a star in Hollywood, a sort of "Empress" of the acting world, but for this film you are having to learn to be in an environment where you are not treated as a special person. This is humbling, and I can only assume that the Empress you are playing in this movie went through a similar experience. That is, she came from a protected, privileged background but at some point in her life she was thrust into common society and treated as an ordinary person. Perhaps the Empress's courtiers had no respect for her as a person, or perhaps she is forced to leave her palace and hide among common folk who do not give her the sort of special treatment she is used to.

Much like the fate of the Empress of Russia she played and the Princess Anastasia who was said to have escaped and lived in anonymity giving rise the belief that there are still Romanovs among us. (The basic premise of the entire series.)

LETTER + HEART = a script that communicates with you emotionally; or it could mean that the director brings a performance out of you that comes directly from your own heart rather than just being words learned from a scrap of paper and then parroted in front of the camera.

Again, so accurate. As I mentioned earlier it was the the script change that was the final straw for her. Even being assaulted didn't make her walk off the project. It was the senseless script change that did it. As an actor she could not abide by that. That's when she quit and why it made sense that they were literally dragging her to the set at the end to finish.

PATH + MOUNTAIN = both the character you play and your own emotional life will face hardships, but the two paths will meet at the crossroads of this movie. Since the PATH/CROSSROADS card is about a meeting point, PATH + MOUNTAIN could mean something like "resolution" or "difficulties overcome".

That she took the role in part to help her with her grief is in agreement with this assessment.

ANCHOR + LILY = the ambiguity about the meaning of the LILY card makes this a difficult pair to assess. Your character of the Empress may have been misrepresented as a promiscuous woman during her lifetime, just as you are by some of the cast. Or it may mean that both you and/or your character suffer from sexual addiction.

Or it could also point to the very real situation of the actress Christina Hendricks who is almost unbearably sexy in appearance and is yet a truly gifted actress. That's an understatement. She's really one of the best modern actresses out there but she is so physically imposing that a lot of people are unable to get past that to see how brilliant she really is. There is one scene (if I recall correctly) where they have trouble getting the costume to fit her and you kind of get that she must have to go through that mini-humiliation all the time.

Hendricks also played in Mad Men and I recall one tiny shot of her from the back, sitting on her own bed in her bra rubbing her shoulder where the strap had made a deep mark that she probably had at the end of every day. Just a certain kind of pain, shown in such a small subtle way, over something that is purely sexualised about her. (I loved that show too and will fight anybody over it.)

SNAKE + COFFIN = the position of this pair at the end of the line tells us that when the movie is over the cunning (SNAKE) of the director will cease (COFFIN). That is, her treacherous quality will be seen to have been a temporary strategy.

100% accurate

If we fan the top line we get the message that:
The reviews (BIRDS) in the newspapers (LETTER) will be unanimous (CROSSROADS + ANCHOR) in their praise of the director (SNAKE).

Probably true as long as the story doesn't get out how she got that performance of out of the now deceased actress.
The whole thing about changing the ending of the story was just a lie. It ended just as the Romanov story did, the entire family brutally murdered.

If we fan the bottom line we get:
The journey (SHIP) of the suffering (MOUNTAIN) heart (HEART) will end in perfect peace (LILY + COFFIN).

NOPE! Well unless you mean the peace of death.

I lay down three more cards for confirmation and got:
Mice (23) / Tree (5) / House (4)
Enduring minor annoyances (MICE) will result in greater health (TREE) and security (HOUSE)

You could have read the tree to mean "enduring" or "long lasting" and the Mice as "destruction."
The house where the Romanovs were murdered, and the title of this episode was “The House of Special Purpose”

I feel rather split in presenting you with this reading because it predicts significant personal suffering for you, but also suggests that this is suffering that you need to experience and that in the long run it will be beneficial to your career and to your own self-understanding. Your manager seems to trust the famous actress who is directing the movie and I think that you should too. The director appears to be experimenting with techniques associated with the acting philosophy known as Method Acting. She is inducing emotions in you that she feels will enrich your performance as the Empress in her movie. I should probably have said nothing in case your conscious understanding of the process interferes with its effectiveness but, fortunately or unfortunately, I need the money.

This is accurate. The problem was the evil director went too far. She didn't trust the actresses ability to use her own skills to bring out a performance on her own and subjected her to these weird manipulations and humiliations and deprivations.
She was really a snake, truly treacherous.

You did a wonderful job here my friend.

[Joan Marie]

You mentioned that one of your fellow actors shocked you by propositioning you sexually, as if you were some sort of common slut, so I was not surprised to see the LILY card show up in this line. This card has an ambiguous status. In some readings it can mean "purity" but just as often it is used to express the opposite idea of "sexuality". HEART + LILY could mean a "pure heart" or it could mean a "heart overcome by lust". Your own attitudes to the relationship between love and sex may be tested. Perhaps the character you play has a more down-to-earth and robust attitude to sexuality than you do.

I'm re-watching this now because writing about it really made me want to see it again.

Here is something that I forgot that makes what you wrote (above) perfect.

She has a run-in with the director who is disappointed with her performance. She tells her that playing an empress is more than just wearing a costume and explains what a complex woman Alexandra was, not so beautiful as she but more cunning and powerful.

Then she tells her that she knows she f**cked her leading man, and also the director on her last project because she hides behind sex in order to not give herself fully to the roles she plays. Also that everyone knows and it's boring.

Then she adds "you can't f**K me so you'll have to do your job."

There are so many layers here. She's not so much a "common slut," as she is just emotionally unsophisticated and sexually banal.

It's a deep cut and probably accurate.

[dodalisque]

You are such a good writer, JM. I feel like I have to watch the Romanoffs now. Wonderful how vividly you tied together the reading and the complex plot of that episode. Fantastic feedback. You came up with a great question and the reading worked out better than I could have expected.

How astonishing that the LILY and COFFIN showed up next to each other at the end of that bottom line. Could you imagine two more perfect cards to try to convey that dramatic ending to the story? You know, and we've talked about this before, I had a feeling there was a death at the conclusion and that the client/actress was going to die, but I just couldn't say it out loud. I had even written, "You may become a victim of sexual violence," but then deleted it because I didn't want to seem as though I had been too literal-mined about the LILY + COFFIN combo.

And I actually bent the meaning of the SNAKE to fit the story I had stuck in my head. I talk about the card almost as if it is the FOX. If I had stayed true to the actual meaning of the SNAKE I would have got closer to the truth. I had a suspicion that the age difference between the beautiful famous actress and once-beautiful, once-famous actress turned director would cause friction. ANCHOR + SNAKE maybe suggests deep-seated nastiness, or jealousy that is unshakeable.

The great lesson for me this time is that I need to learn to recognise and trust what my intuition is telling me. Every time I have a thought nagging at me during a reading but push it aside because it's too personal or negative or dramatic or obvious to be true, it always turns out to be true. I think also it's a lesson in how literal and concrete the Lenormand can be compared to the tarot. Over-subtlety can be a bad habit in card reading. Thanks, JM, this was one of the most fun readings for me.