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| Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II in 'The Crown' |
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| Olivia Colman as 'Strawberry' in 'Watership Down' (2018) |
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| A scene from the movie 'The Favourite' |
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| 17 caged rabbits in 'The Favourite' |
I went to see the movie 'The Favourite' at the cinema on Tuesday because of all of the buzz around Olivia Colman's performance and the awards she is starting to reap for her role as Queen Anne.
And having watched the Netflix series 'The Crown' I'm interested to see how Olivia is going to go playing the current Queen of England in the new series coming out this year.
Long Liv the Queen hey?-)
The suburb the cinema I saw the movie in (Victoria Point) was named in a roundabout way after another English monarch also.
I found 'The Favourite' to be overrated, but it was OK for an amusing outing to the cinema.
But what got my attention was the 17 rabbits in the movie that Queen Anne keeps in her bedroom in cages to represent the 17 children the Queen lost in childbirth.
Being an Australian living in the state of Queensland I find it ironic that I could be fined up to $5000 for keeping a rabbit as a pet, because out here in Australia rabbits are huge pests.
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| Starring Olivia Colman |
"European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) were introduced to Australia in the 18th century with the First Fleet and eventually became widespread.
Such wild rabbit populations are a serious mammalian pest and invasive species in Australia causing millions of dollars of damage to crops.
Their spread was enhanced probably through the emergence of strong crossbreeds.
Various methods in the 20th century have been attempted to control the Australian rabbit population.
Conventional methods include shooting rabbits and destroying their warrens, but these had only limited success.
In 1907, a rabbit-proof fence was built in Western Australia in an unsuccessful attempt to contain the rabbits.
The myxoma virus, which causes myxomatosis, was introduced into the rabbit population in the 1950s and had the effect of severely reducing the rabbit population.
However, the survivors have since adapted and partially recovered their previous numbers."
They were bred as food animals, probably in cages.
In the first decades, they do not appear to have been numerous, judging from their absence from archaeological collections of early colonial food remains.
However, by 1827 in Tasmania, a newspaper article noted "...the common rabbit is becoming so numerous throughout the colony, that they are running about on some large estates by thousands."
Olivia Colman's birthday is just four days after the controversial date of January 26th that Australians celebrate the landing of the first fleet in Port Jackson.
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| Worth a read, I think |
Australians love having BBQs on Australia Day, so maybe rabbit should be on the menu as well on that date?-)
Although I'm sure it would be far from 'The Favourite' thing on the menu if it were;-)
And as much as I like celebrating Australia Day, I'm all for a change of date so we can all come together and cerebrate the day, instead of dwelling on the dark past that the date represents for some Aussies.
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| Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman in The Favourite |
That's all folks!!!
Thanks as always for sharing your ruminations from down under, to me in the fresh water, and not necessarily clean water, great lake state of Michigan in the up over I guess . We have bunnies too, I see their tracks in the snow. Coyotes eat them. Tough planet innit? I appreciate your light touch.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with rabbits in Australia is that they don't really have any natural predators to keep their numbers down.
ReplyDeleteSame with cane toads which were introduced into Australia and are now running rampant killing the native wildlife.
And yes it's a tough planet and about to get a lot tougher in the coming years by the looks.
No kidding, hang on. The seemingly small sure can add up. I am not dissing you about rabbit peril, even with natural predators they multiply like, well, rabbits haha. Little bugs bearing fungus and fungi on their own have removed elms and now ashes from the forests and it was quick. Standing dead. How tiny and cute will the next plague present itself ?
DeleteThe next plague is already here ... and it's been swimming around for a long time.
ReplyDeleteAnd now with man's unthinking help in over-fishing and polluting the oceans it's taking over.
Jellyfish.