Patrick Murtha
Practically Family
- Messages
- 651
- Location
- Wisconsin
A quick rundown of recent viewings:
The World of Suzie Wong, Richard Quine, 1960 -- William Holden sure had a thing for East Asia. Six films he made between 1954 and 1962 are set there. This is the second one (after Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, 1955) in which he plays an American in Hong Kong involved in a bi-racial romance. The two films make a fascinating comparison. Both were shot largely on location, in widescreen, and look great; but between 1955 and 1960 films got racier (the love interest is a high-toned Eurasian doctor in 1955, an illiterate Chinese prostitute in 1960), and Holden aged quite a bit (37 to 42, but the hard-drinking and smoking male lifestyle of those days put the years on one visibly). Both movies are definitely worth a look, although I marginally prefer Many-Splendored Thing because Holden is so dashing in it, with a great wardrobe to boot.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947 -- As romantic a film (especially the ending!) as you'll ever want to see, even if the romance is between a spirited young widow and a dead sea captain. Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison are wonderful together. The photography by Charles Lang is terrific, and the music by Bernard Herrmann is widely and correctly considered one of the greatest movie scores ever.
The Secret of Roan Inish, John Sayles, 1994 -- John Sayles's versatility as writer and director -- the sheer range of his subject matter -- is remarkable. One unifying trait, though, is that he loves story-telling and loves to consider the implications of telling stories -- that is what draws two such otherwise disparate Sayles efforts as Limbo and The Secret of Roan Inish together. Roan Inish is an absorbing quasi-fantasy set on the west coast of Ireland involving seals, gulls, a mysterious island, a lost baby, and a plucky girl heroine; one of the rare films that is equally appealing to children and adults.
Thieves' Highway, Jules Dassin, 1949 -- Classic film noir unusually set amid the milieu of the truckers and produce wholesalers of Northern California, which gives it a very specific tang. I am less enamored of Richard Conte as a leading man than as a supporting villain ("Mr. Brown" in The Big Combo, say), but that is a minor subjective knock on a very fine film.
Elephant, Gus Van Sant, 2003 -- Notorious as Van Sant's take on the Columbine massacre, this film (which deservedly won the Palme d'Or and Best Director at Cannes) defies expectations. The carnage only occupies the last 15 minutes of an 80 minute film, and the director cuts away from the violence as often as he shows it. Of course the film is horribly upsetting, but that is because Van Sant and his actors (all improvising) create such an overwhelming sense of life as it is lived that when the violation comes, it is devastating. The "floating" Steadicam following the characters, a technique that takes after Kubrick's The Shining and Van Sant's own earlier Gerry, imparts a feeling of imminence that I find utterly mesmerizing.
The World of Suzie Wong, Richard Quine, 1960 -- William Holden sure had a thing for East Asia. Six films he made between 1954 and 1962 are set there. This is the second one (after Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, 1955) in which he plays an American in Hong Kong involved in a bi-racial romance. The two films make a fascinating comparison. Both were shot largely on location, in widescreen, and look great; but between 1955 and 1960 films got racier (the love interest is a high-toned Eurasian doctor in 1955, an illiterate Chinese prostitute in 1960), and Holden aged quite a bit (37 to 42, but the hard-drinking and smoking male lifestyle of those days put the years on one visibly). Both movies are definitely worth a look, although I marginally prefer Many-Splendored Thing because Holden is so dashing in it, with a great wardrobe to boot.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947 -- As romantic a film (especially the ending!) as you'll ever want to see, even if the romance is between a spirited young widow and a dead sea captain. Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison are wonderful together. The photography by Charles Lang is terrific, and the music by Bernard Herrmann is widely and correctly considered one of the greatest movie scores ever.
The Secret of Roan Inish, John Sayles, 1994 -- John Sayles's versatility as writer and director -- the sheer range of his subject matter -- is remarkable. One unifying trait, though, is that he loves story-telling and loves to consider the implications of telling stories -- that is what draws two such otherwise disparate Sayles efforts as Limbo and The Secret of Roan Inish together. Roan Inish is an absorbing quasi-fantasy set on the west coast of Ireland involving seals, gulls, a mysterious island, a lost baby, and a plucky girl heroine; one of the rare films that is equally appealing to children and adults.
Thieves' Highway, Jules Dassin, 1949 -- Classic film noir unusually set amid the milieu of the truckers and produce wholesalers of Northern California, which gives it a very specific tang. I am less enamored of Richard Conte as a leading man than as a supporting villain ("Mr. Brown" in The Big Combo, say), but that is a minor subjective knock on a very fine film.
Elephant, Gus Van Sant, 2003 -- Notorious as Van Sant's take on the Columbine massacre, this film (which deservedly won the Palme d'Or and Best Director at Cannes) defies expectations. The carnage only occupies the last 15 minutes of an 80 minute film, and the director cuts away from the violence as often as he shows it. Of course the film is horribly upsetting, but that is because Van Sant and his actors (all improvising) create such an overwhelming sense of life as it is lived that when the violation comes, it is devastating. The "floating" Steadicam following the characters, a technique that takes after Kubrick's The Shining and Van Sant's own earlier Gerry, imparts a feeling of imminence that I find utterly mesmerizing.
