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This ought to be the place to mourn that this isn't
LVI: Son of Rambow (Garth Jennings, 2008)
The combination of working and not working or perhaps the wrong kind of avoiding work meant that none of the four screenings across the weekend suited me. Instead we accentuate the positive and note that two-three years ago the general OCD/depression/overwork/apathy/lack of time would not have allowed this many visits to the cinema, if any.
So we come instead to two films I approached with the sense of having already seen them, one of which was to a large degree Canadian. It's another randomly programmed Monday night double bill at the Carbuncle.
LVI: Jezebel (William Wyler, 1938)
I had the sense that I might have seen this, part of a Bette Davis anniversary touring season, on TV, but I don't think I have. All About Eve, which I've seen on DVD recently, is coming in June, but I'll be in ... York (unless you're a burglar).
The metaphor is presented to us right at the start: Davis rides in on a colt no one else can control. Of course, what she wants, what she really really wants, is for someone to control her.
New Orleans, just before the Civil War and Julie (Davis) is in a off-again, on-again romance with banker Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda). No one can control her, not her aunt, not her guardian and certainly not Dullard, er, Dillard. But people are prepared to fight duels over her honour. Whilst being fitted for a big white dress for a society ball, Julie spots a scarlet dress, and despite advice to the contrary, demands to wear it to the dance. She is ostracised by all those present, and Dillard breaks it off, before disappearing Oop North. She is convinced he'll be back, and he is, as Yellow Fever spreads through the swamps and the city. It won't be as easy as she thought and she'll need all her wiles.
This is a fascinating portrayal of the sort of female power that can only be wielded in films noirs (the femme fatale) and the (Sirkian) melodrama. This is a little early for that, but is melodrama in the second half. Julie refuses to knuckle down to the demands of men or society, and tries to get her own way. This being Hollywood, she has to be punished, of course, and she is, although I think you can argue she redeems herself (at a terrible cost).
The happy slaves are perhaps a little difficult to take 150 years on. Heigho. A cracking screenplay, largely by a young John Huston and direction by veteran William Wyler. Bette Davis and Fay Bainter (Aunt Belle) won Oscars, but the film lost to You Can't Take It with You (Frank Capra, 1938).
LVII: Lars and the Real Girl (Craig Gillespie, 2007)
And this sounds like an eighties comedy starring Andrew McCarthy. Nerd buys male order doll and falls in love with her.
Except we're sorta in Fargo territory - a semi-frozen northern mid-west, home to a community of Scandinavian-Americans and soundtracked by a Carter Burwell soundalike (David Torn). Pathologically shy Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) has moved into his garage when his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and wife Karin (Emily Mortimer) return to the family home after the death of their widowed father. The heavily pregnant Karin is worried about Lars, and is pleased to hear that he has found Bianca, a Brazilian-Danish girlfriend - less pleased to learn that she is a sex doll bought off the internet. They visit their psychologist doctor Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson). She advises them to play along with the delusion until Lars no longer needs it.
Can you say, "transitional object"? Keep an eye out for the blanket.
Yes, there is initial disbelief from the family and ridicule from their peers and fear from the church group, but as everyone agrees to go along with the illusion, Bianca becomes a fixture of the town. What could be a crude sex comedy becomes an utterly absorbing and tragic love story, oscillating between laughter and tears. I wept buckets. The community is beautifully drawn and felt very Canadian (it was filmed in Ontario). Ryan Gosling, one of those eternal next big ---- actors, has never been better, Schnedier signs is a potentially unsympathetic role, and Clarkson steals every scene she's in. But there are no weak links in the casting - every cameo is a joy. An unexpected treat.
Totals: 57 (Cinema: 21; DVD: 34; TV: 2)
LVI: Son of Rambow (Garth Jennings, 2008)
The combination of working and not working or perhaps the wrong kind of avoiding work meant that none of the four screenings across the weekend suited me. Instead we accentuate the positive and note that two-three years ago the general OCD/depression/overwork/apathy/lack of time would not have allowed this many visits to the cinema, if any.
So we come instead to two films I approached with the sense of having already seen them, one of which was to a large degree Canadian. It's another randomly programmed Monday night double bill at the Carbuncle.
LVI: Jezebel (William Wyler, 1938)
I had the sense that I might have seen this, part of a Bette Davis anniversary touring season, on TV, but I don't think I have. All About Eve, which I've seen on DVD recently, is coming in June, but I'll be in ... York (unless you're a burglar).
The metaphor is presented to us right at the start: Davis rides in on a colt no one else can control. Of course, what she wants, what she really really wants, is for someone to control her.
New Orleans, just before the Civil War and Julie (Davis) is in a off-again, on-again romance with banker Preston Dillard (Henry Fonda). No one can control her, not her aunt, not her guardian and certainly not Dullard, er, Dillard. But people are prepared to fight duels over her honour. Whilst being fitted for a big white dress for a society ball, Julie spots a scarlet dress, and despite advice to the contrary, demands to wear it to the dance. She is ostracised by all those present, and Dillard breaks it off, before disappearing Oop North. She is convinced he'll be back, and he is, as Yellow Fever spreads through the swamps and the city. It won't be as easy as she thought and she'll need all her wiles.
This is a fascinating portrayal of the sort of female power that can only be wielded in films noirs (the femme fatale) and the (Sirkian) melodrama. This is a little early for that, but is melodrama in the second half. Julie refuses to knuckle down to the demands of men or society, and tries to get her own way. This being Hollywood, she has to be punished, of course, and she is, although I think you can argue she redeems herself (at a terrible cost).
The happy slaves are perhaps a little difficult to take 150 years on. Heigho. A cracking screenplay, largely by a young John Huston and direction by veteran William Wyler. Bette Davis and Fay Bainter (Aunt Belle) won Oscars, but the film lost to You Can't Take It with You (Frank Capra, 1938).
LVII: Lars and the Real Girl (Craig Gillespie, 2007)
And this sounds like an eighties comedy starring Andrew McCarthy. Nerd buys male order doll and falls in love with her.
Except we're sorta in Fargo territory - a semi-frozen northern mid-west, home to a community of Scandinavian-Americans and soundtracked by a Carter Burwell soundalike (David Torn). Pathologically shy Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) has moved into his garage when his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and wife Karin (Emily Mortimer) return to the family home after the death of their widowed father. The heavily pregnant Karin is worried about Lars, and is pleased to hear that he has found Bianca, a Brazilian-Danish girlfriend - less pleased to learn that she is a sex doll bought off the internet. They visit their psychologist doctor Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson). She advises them to play along with the delusion until Lars no longer needs it.
Can you say, "transitional object"? Keep an eye out for the blanket.
Yes, there is initial disbelief from the family and ridicule from their peers and fear from the church group, but as everyone agrees to go along with the illusion, Bianca becomes a fixture of the town. What could be a crude sex comedy becomes an utterly absorbing and tragic love story, oscillating between laughter and tears. I wept buckets. The community is beautifully drawn and felt very Canadian (it was filmed in Ontario). Ryan Gosling, one of those eternal next big ---- actors, has never been better, Schnedier signs is a potentially unsympathetic role, and Clarkson steals every scene she's in. But there are no weak links in the casting - every cameo is a joy. An unexpected treat.
Totals: 57 (Cinema: 21; DVD: 34; TV: 2)
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