My friend Maria posted recently about the film Casablanca and one or two of her friends 'fessed up to not having seen the film. It reminded me of another friend who said someone checked out the movie from his branch and told him they had not seen the film. He GUSHED that they were in for a treat. He told me that he wished he could see it for the first time again,and I posted the same sentiment on Maria's page. What a treat.
It made me think, what film would I like to see for the first time? Robin Hood, with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Haviland. What a gorgeous, thrilling film that is. Olivia is at her luminous best- that silver gown she looks like she was sewn into is heavenly. The rumor was she was falling in love (unrequited) with Flynn. It might have just been a rumor put out by the studios. He was a real you-know-what, apparently. Beautiful, but cruel because he knew the power of his beauty.
I was thinking the other day about mediocre films. When you are in one, do you KNOW it? What's that like, knowing you are making a movie that's just meh? I suppose work is work and you learn something from the process, even if the accolades don't come from it. I was thinking about two of my favorite films ( there are more I suppose but for the sake of brevity I will mention only two)
A Walk in the Clouds with Keanu Reeves. It's a beautifully filed if uneven love story about a soldier who comes home from the war to find his wife has taken up with someone else (they married in haste and he wasn't really crushed by it) he takes a job as a traveling salesman and meets a girl going home to her family. She is pregnant and unmarried and does not know how to avoid the scandal. He offers to pretend to be her husband and abandon her, giving her an "out" The lush scenery of the Napa Valley is the star of this film and the photography is lovely. Sweet film.
The Holiday. Pure Rom-Com with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. Fun and sweet and NOT an award winner, but hey. ENTERTAINMENT, nonetheless.
Not every film can be an Oscar nominee and I suspect some are just made to make or lose money for the studios.
What's YOU favorite?
Of the classic films, a screwball comedy called "The Awful Truth" with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. (ca. 1937 or so) Did get a lot of Oscar noms, te director won the award. I love it, and no matter how many times, just laugh and laugh out loud - a couple is divorcing based on a misunderstanding, realize their mistake, and spend the film trying to sabotoge each other's new romances and get each other back - in the last scene! The 50's takes to Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina - I know she didn't win an Oscar for this (but was nominated) but I even like it better. The best of all her early films. Too bad Edith Head LIED about the costumes and own another Oscar, when it was Givenchy who did the clothes. Rumour has it, Hepburn and William Holden - well, adn apparnetly it wasn't just a rumor! Nowadays - hard to say - Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine, but it was so painful, I am not sure I could watch it again. For pure craziness, "Earth Girls are Easy" with Gina Davis and Jeff Goldbloom, the only film they ever made together -
ReplyDeleteOH! AND - of course, Bette Davis in "All About Eve." She was robbed.
Tom