James Bond first meets Solitaire while being interrogated by Mr Big in Live And Let Die, the second of the James Bond books after Casino Royale. Originally from Haiti, she was initiated into voodoo while a child and possessed psychic powers.
In fact her only reason for being there while Bond is being questioned is to tell Mr Big whether James Bond is being truthful or not. In additon to being able to tell whether people are being truthful, she is also able to predict the future, and in fact decides to help 007 when she divines that he will rescue her from Mr Big.
Solitaire's is actually named Simone Latrelle, having received her nickname whilst still in Haiti because she avoided the romantic encounters with local men. When Bond returns to his New York hotel he is surprised to receive a message from him the girl; travelling to St Petersburg by train they are lucky to escape with their lives after disembarking early.
In the film the character was played by Jane Seymour and while the film varied considerable from the plot of the book - most of Roger Moore's films were very different from the Bond books - Solitaire remained quite close to the original. However, the reason for her avoiding men was underlined; she would lose her psychic gift unless she remained a virgin, something that was not even hinted at in the book. From that point on she must fake her powers in front of Mr Big.
Although she didn't go to bed with Bond, although the book closes while they are on leave together and it seems a matter of time, the film was quite different. From that point on she must fake her powers in front of Mr Big, who, since he is only employing her because she is psychic, would kill her if he found out.
The truth is she is tricked by Bond. When he offers her a pack of tarot cards she picks Lovers. It is only the audience that see that she has selected the card from a loaded pack; all the cards are the same.
jueves, 28 de abril de 2011
miércoles, 27 de abril de 2011
Casino Royale - the first James Bond book
One of the reasons for the success of Casino Royale - the first of the James Bond books - and indeed, the success of the James Bond books and then the films is the combination of girls, guns, fast cars and exotic locations, all of which combined to produce a mixture that was unlike anything seen before by 1950s readers.
Here was escapism featuring the glamour of the Casino, fine wines accompanying haut cuisine and cold war villains that definitely played outside the rules. While the films made us get used to a huge range of improbably gadgets, the literary James Bond mainly relied on his wits.
In Casino Royale the gadgets are missing completely, although it does cross 007's mind that he might be able to extricate himself from a problematic situation if only he had a hidden weapon, with nothing to save him but his wits or just plain luck; only when these both appear to have deserted him does he wish for a quick death.
Compared with the films that came the following decade, the plot of Casino Royale has a straightforward plot which is easy to follow. With a single location too, it is a far cry from the continent hopping secret agent we are accustomed to today.
And while northern France may not seem particularly exotic a location to a modern reader, Normandy casinos were only for the wealthy in the days before mass tourism, bearing in mind that post war rationing was still in place when the book was published.
Even his relationship with the Bond girl might be unfamiliar. Vesper Lynd is a dark haired beauty who Bond initially finds quite cold. However, Vesper thaws out and James Bond falls in love with her, and gets close to marrying her. It is only at the novel's end that we find out that she wasn't all she appeared to be and rather than helping Bond had actually betrayed him.
You can easily find the Bond books, which are available from Amazon and all good bookstores.
Here was escapism featuring the glamour of the Casino, fine wines accompanying haut cuisine and cold war villains that definitely played outside the rules. While the films made us get used to a huge range of improbably gadgets, the literary James Bond mainly relied on his wits.
In Casino Royale the gadgets are missing completely, although it does cross 007's mind that he might be able to extricate himself from a problematic situation if only he had a hidden weapon, with nothing to save him but his wits or just plain luck; only when these both appear to have deserted him does he wish for a quick death.
Compared with the films that came the following decade, the plot of Casino Royale has a straightforward plot which is easy to follow. With a single location too, it is a far cry from the continent hopping secret agent we are accustomed to today.
And while northern France may not seem particularly exotic a location to a modern reader, Normandy casinos were only for the wealthy in the days before mass tourism, bearing in mind that post war rationing was still in place when the book was published.
Even his relationship with the Bond girl might be unfamiliar. Vesper Lynd is a dark haired beauty who Bond initially finds quite cold. However, Vesper thaws out and James Bond falls in love with her, and gets close to marrying her. It is only at the novel's end that we find out that she wasn't all she appeared to be and rather than helping Bond had actually betrayed him.
You can easily find the Bond books, which are available from Amazon and all good bookstores.
martes, 26 de abril de 2011
The James Bond Books
These days the films have eclipsed the James Bond books in terms of popularity and it is easy to forget that it all began with Ian Fleming.
Fleming used the experience he gained in Naval Intelligence during the Second World War and his flair with words, honed as a newspaperman, to great effect when he sat down at his winter hideaway in Jamaica started to write a spy novel. The first James Bond book was "Casino Royale" and its success in the United Kingdom paved the way for further adventures featuring James Bond.
Having acquired achievement through this first book, Ian Fleming sat down and created, without fail, a fresh James Bond book every year until he died from a heart attack brought on by heavy smoking and drinking at the early age of 56.
Most of the James Bond novels are straightforward adventure novels, but he did vary from the formula on a couple of occasions. The first was with "For Your Eyes Only", which included five short stories. Although three of them encapsulate an entire James Bond adventure in a few pages, two of the stories are quite different in nature and readers at the time, used to a new full-length novel each year, voiced their disapproval. However, it did permit Fleming to extend his thoughts to some extent to notice what else he was able of producing.
After "For Your Eyes Only", Fleming tried another experiment, this time with "The Spy Who Loved Me". Rather than a traditional James Bond adventure, it was told from the point of view of the Bond girl and James Bond hardly appeared at all.
Even though it proved to be not good enough to book lovers of the time, it does at least present somewhat rather dissimilar from the pen of Ian Fleming and he returned to complete novels - only after his death was "Octopussy & The Living Daylights" made available, another volume of short stories. Of those, "The Living Daylights" is particularly effective as a James Bond adventure, and works extremely well.
Fleming used the experience he gained in Naval Intelligence during the Second World War and his flair with words, honed as a newspaperman, to great effect when he sat down at his winter hideaway in Jamaica started to write a spy novel. The first James Bond book was "Casino Royale" and its success in the United Kingdom paved the way for further adventures featuring James Bond.
Having acquired achievement through this first book, Ian Fleming sat down and created, without fail, a fresh James Bond book every year until he died from a heart attack brought on by heavy smoking and drinking at the early age of 56.
Most of the James Bond novels are straightforward adventure novels, but he did vary from the formula on a couple of occasions. The first was with "For Your Eyes Only", which included five short stories. Although three of them encapsulate an entire James Bond adventure in a few pages, two of the stories are quite different in nature and readers at the time, used to a new full-length novel each year, voiced their disapproval. However, it did permit Fleming to extend his thoughts to some extent to notice what else he was able of producing.
After "For Your Eyes Only", Fleming tried another experiment, this time with "The Spy Who Loved Me". Rather than a traditional James Bond adventure, it was told from the point of view of the Bond girl and James Bond hardly appeared at all.
Even though it proved to be not good enough to book lovers of the time, it does at least present somewhat rather dissimilar from the pen of Ian Fleming and he returned to complete novels - only after his death was "Octopussy & The Living Daylights" made available, another volume of short stories. Of those, "The Living Daylights" is particularly effective as a James Bond adventure, and works extremely well.
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