The Belfield Banter Vol. 2

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BELFIELD BANTER The St. Anne's-Belfield School Student Newsletter

IN THIS ISSUE

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH DR. AUTUMN GRAVES FUN FALL ACTIVITIES TO TRY IN 2020 A POEM BY GARDINER SPENCER ELLIE POWELL ON THE

Faculty Feature: Dr. Graves Tells Welcome, Dr. All Graves!

by Jack Dozier and Ellie Powell The Editors of The Belfield Banter recently had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Autumn Graves, our new Head of School. Thank you to Dr. Graves for her time, and we hope our readers enjoy learning a bit more about her interests.

What’s your favorite book of all time?

Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Suess. It’s a fun book, because it is about persistence, trying something new, and thinking out of the box. I just love how the

2020 REBECCA

sentence structure and the word choices are filled with

ADAPTATION

he is reading it.

joy. My son says that “It feels good in my mouth,” when

What did you want to be when you were in high school?

When I was in High School, I wanted to get into banking and finance. For, oddly, both the right reasons,

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and the wrong reasons. I wanted to work in finance so I could make a lot of money, which would enable me to start a boarding school for inner-city kids where they wouldn’t have to pay tuition. It was a situation where I wanted to make a lot of money, but also work in education, and that was how I thought I could do it. Thankfully, I figured out other ways where I could be involved in education.

What two TV shows would you mash-up to make a new program if you could?

This really stumped me! I wanted to mix a newer show with a show from another time or a remake. When I was growing up, I really loved Laverne and Shirley, which is about these two single women who are living the dream working in a bottling company in the midwest and went on zany adventures. I always thought that seemed so fun. I also really loved, and still do to a certain extent, Seinfeld. If the characters from Seinfeld and the characters from Laverne and Shirley were together, I would envision that they would probably be in New York City, and have lots of antics at the diner.

What three people from history would you invite to a dinner party?

I would pick the Apostle Paul, Thomas Jefferson, Maya Angelou, and if I could have a fourth, Eleanor Roosevelt. I would love to sit them down and get them to debate a few topics and answer a few questions. All of these people, in their own ways, were visionary thinkers and pushed different limits while still figuring out how to stay within some kind of social system. That would be a fun dinner party. I have no idea what I would serve. That would be the thing that would stress me out for weeks.

What makes you most excited about being head of school at STAB? This question is hard, because there are a lot of things that make me excited. Much of it is about the community and about the different experiences and perspectives. I am in the process of interviewing every employee at the school. I have interviewed 85 employees so far and have 130 more to go, and it is so neat hearing everyone’s different stories about how they came to school, and all the different types of jobs that they have had while they have been there. Some people have had the same job for 25 years, but some people have had many different experiences. Hearing about all these different experiences has been so amazing.

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Fun Fall Activities To Try in 2020

by Sonia Kamath With fall coming up, and school back in session, it only makes sense that students, starved of the excitements of a normal year, are ready to get back in the swing of the fall season. That said, with Covid still very much present, we do need to continue trying our hardest to stay as safe as we can for ourselves and those around us. So let’s take a look at some fun safe activities to do with your friends this fall while still continuing to stay healthy and safe!

Number one Go to Carter’s Mountain! They do require a reservation, but apple picking is now officially open, along with a variety of other activities, some of which don’t even require you to leave your car! It’s a great way to get in that feeling of fall nostalgia while still staying safe, and now more than ever, it is so important to support local places like them! If you’re going with friends, either meet them there or try to wear a face covering on the journey to ensure the safety of all parties. Once you get there, it’s an easy and insta worthy way to spend a day or night! Their restaurant is open, along with a gift shop in which the orchard sells all things apple and peach. Doughnuts, ice cream, slushies… it’s all there waiting for you!

Number two.

Carving pumpkins! Perhaps one of the easiest socially distant fall activities, carving pumpkins is a festivity that you can set out to keep the spirit going even after you’re done! Though of course, it is only September, it is never too early to start stacking pumpkins by the doorstep as a nice reminder of what is to come. If you really want to get into it, invite some friends and have a competition! Pick a theme, like scariest, most aesthetically pleasing, or funniest, and get to work. As the air turns over to the crisp, breezy, leaf-blowing air that is easily my favorite fall feature, it is the perfect time to sit outside with some friends and carve away!

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Number three.

Learn to skate or roller blade! During the era of Covid, all things outdoors are the way to go when wanting to hang out with friends, and what better than trying out a new hobby? Learning together or even by yourself is a fun way to start off the season, and an easy way to get in some time outdoors before the air gets too bitter. All you’ll need to do is find a flat stretch of sidewalk, driveway, or road and either a skateboard or skates, and off you go! Of course, the expectation is not that you’ll have it down right away, but rather that everyone will have a chance to laugh off falling over together. Especially right now, any chance we get to make memories with the people we love is a chance we should take, and this is the perfect way to do so safely while also trying something new.

Number four.

Watch a movie under the stars! Invite your friends by snail mail, and let the fun begin! You don’t even need a real projector for this project! In fact, making your own is easier than you’d think. I’ll embed a link here of an instructional video on exactly how to make one yourself! Once you’re done with that, set up a large white sheet, and grab a sweatshirt and some cozy blankets and pillows. You can ask your friends if they can bring their own to stay as safe as possible, and then divide up any snacks into individual servings. Now all you have to do is lie back and watch your movie of choice! So long as you pick a night with no rain on the forecast, the cusp of fall is the perfect time to get in those last outdoor nights.

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September 19, 2020 at 11:50 a.m.

by Gardiner Spencer its a sweet thought that this life is mine i sit and watch through a car window trauma and pain pass as power lines and theres a closet back home in it hangers weighted with goofy looking clothes its like theres only so many ways someone can be what is your favorite color? how do you take your tea? a collage a collection messy

Photograph by Gardiner Spencer

and sweetly endearing

Opinion: Why Rebecca?

by Ellie Powell

Upon learning of Netflix’s plans to remake Rebecca, I immediately looked at the cast list and slammed my forehead against my father’s wooden desk. I began wondering if perhaps someone on Netflix’s promotional materials team was playing a particularly cruel practical joke on me specifically, as this somehow made more sense than casting Armie Hammer as Maxim de Winter.

An all-white Rebecca remake in the year 2020 is utterly baffling to me. A Daphne du Maurier devotee myself, I read the 1938 novel in eighth grade and proceeded to structure an entire independent study and Capstone Thesis Project around generic Gothicism in the arts once I entered high school. Indeed, I first watched Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Rebecca (1940) at the beginning of my sophomore year with my dear friend Emily Gohn. In keeping with the film’s setting, we drank three different types of tea through the film’s two-hour runtime, and I became thoroughly enchanted with how Hitchcock translated the Gothic mood of du Maurier’s novel into a visual medium.

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The film is brilliant even without the novel’s context, stretching motifs of light and darkness throughout its narrative with superb costume design, impressive cinematography, and well-placed shadows in every scene. I cannot fathom a single reason to re-adapt Rebecca beyond the fact that Americans seem to have no patience for black and white films. Yet the monochrome palette of Hithcock’s Rebecca sets the tone for the movie brilliantly, letting its audience know from the first shot of Manderly that Rebecca is not a love story, but rather a mysterious and somber tale of envy and fixation.

While my central gripe with a new adaptation of Rebecca remains that one is utterly unnecessary, Ben Wheatley’s casting decisions lack nuance to the point of sin. Perhaps my grievances regarding Call Me By Your Name (2017) still cloud my judgment, but Armie Hammer looks like an overgrown frat boy who brags about his massive trust fund hourly.

Daphne du Maurier describes his character, Maxim de Winter, as a handsome and wealthy widower who falls in love with a younger woman despite his mysterious past. It truly feels as though Wheatley heard the words “handsome and wealthy,” and just stopped reading there, because Hammer looks about as mysterious and tortured as I do. Caspar Salmon wrote on Twitter that Daniel Day-Lewis would be a far better choice for the role, and while this Tweet was posted in jest, I’m inclined to agree. His age, foreboding spirit, and acting abilities would position him perfectly to bring new life into both the role and the film. In truth, Hammer has been given the impossible task of following up the inimitable Laurence Oliver in his brilliant take on the character in 1940, which seems quite nearly sadistic.

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In addition to Hammer, I find the choice of Lily James entirely unfaithful to the text. For what it’s worth, I think James is a wonderful actress who makes bold choices and comes off as likable.

Nonetheless, I will be immensely surprised if the energy that she has brought to her roles in Mama Mia 2, Yesterday, and Baby Driver translates to the meek Mrs. de Winter, a character so known for her plain sensibilities that she is never even named.

While the casting of this film generally feels like an unmitigated disaster, I am morbidly curious to see what Kristin Scott Thomas plans to do with the role of Mrs. Danvers. Naturally, this is because I can vividly imagine the numerous ways in which Netflix could poorly adapt the infamous scene in which Danvers rifles through Rebecca’s lingerie.

As the film has been marketed as a major motion picture, the most likely choice will be to ignore the queer subtext that feels central to Hitchcock’s adaptation in favor of putting Danvers in a more maternal role, but the possibilities for predatory lesbian stereotyping seem endless, too.

Despite having loved Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women, I remain displeased that Netflix has decided to remake Rebecca. This choice feels misguided and senseless, colored with bad casting choices and futility. Frankly, deciding to remake a film originally directed by Alfred Hitchcock seems a broadly inane and hubristic decision, but if Netflix must, might I suggest Under Capricorn (1949), a film with tremendous potential as a period piece that was simply poorly marketed? The only way that I can see Netflix ameliorating this abominable multi-million dollar decision is by reversing the roles somehow so that Lily James plays a widow whose spouse has died under mysterious circumstances, and Armie Hammer becomes the young ingénu taken under her wing. In any case, be on the lookout for a Rebecca (2020) review in The Belfield Banter once the film is released; perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised.