WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[feaito]

Something similar happens to me with "Design for Living" (1933), another Paramount Precoder. Most critics at the time and later on complained about the film retaining only Noel Coward's title of the source play and zero of its content; I feel that that's Lubitsch merit. He transformed Coward's play and turned it into something new ; an oeuvre of his own; a personal film and a completely successful one if you ask me.

[Robert Regan]

Right, fealto. Again, we're talking about a superior artist "adapting" the work of a usually very adolescent writer. But credit where credit is due: Coward left his smart-aleckyness at home when he mad Brief Encounter.

[JackFavell]

Was Coward really so adolescent, or was everyone trying to be adolescent at that time? a reaction to the trauma of WWI? I think Coward was simply joining in or perhaps mimicking the childishness of his time, re: the bright young things....etc. and there's a place in the world for fun and ridiculousness...even if it is pushing it a bit... in reaction to death and destruction.

I have a lot of interest in how the times make the movies (or plays as the case may be). In other words, the types of movies that are popular during any given era have everything to do with the social and economic situations happening when they are made. Mostly, the Hollywood movies made during really lean or scary periods in history are light, and the movies made during more fulsome or wealthy times are deeper and more dramatic. But of course, this is a generalization and not to be taken too seriously. There are any number of decades that refute my idea completely.

That's a really hard question, Robert, about who might be deserving of a Nobel Prize for film. I think perhaps you are leaning toward or hinting at Borzage...I'm wondering who else would have that humanist world view and a body of work that might qualify? Once I try to list more than a couple of directors, the award sort of seems to lose it's power...it doesn't mean as much if there are a number of candidates. Some of the folks I'm thinking of might have made one or two films that fit the bill, but not a body of work with the proper themes and weight. I don't really have the world cinema outlook or knowledge to even try to answer the question. I can come up with a couple of names, but I don't know that they really work. Eisenstein, Rex Ingram come to mind, and definitely Murnau. There are a few other silent film directors I could name, but again, I am not sure of their whole oeuvre (did I spell that right or did I just say egg in french?). Perhaps Vidor, as he was ending the silent era. And of course, Griffith, but that would be so controversial.

I guess the Nobel Prize means so much, the criteria is so high, that I can't totally reconcile it to the movies.

[Robert Regan]

Wendy, as you frequently do, you have engaged our favorite subject with a broader vision than most of us usually do. Your insights have inspired continued reflections on my part, so that I am not sure how well I will be able to concentrate this morning on the pressing mundanities that are looming, like laundry, taxes, groceries, et al. So, I will delay a response to your stimulating post till this afternoon. In the meantime, stay well. Bob

[JackFavell]

This is what comes of raising such insightful questions and topics Bob! You make my brain work overtime.

[RedRiver]

I was not aware of a less than favorable opinion of Noel Coward. PRIVATE LIVES is quite well written. CAVALCADE makes an awkward movie, but it looks like a good play. His collaborations with David Lean play very well. I can't complain about the man.

[feaito]

Last WE I saw Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven" (1978) and I was amazed by the quality of its cinematography (Néstor Almendros) and impressed by Sam Shepard's performance. A true discovery, thanks to an American pal who bought it from itunes and urged me to see it with him.

[RedRiver]

When this movie came out, I heard about...and heard about it...and heard about it. STILL haven't seen it!

[JackFavell]

Oh Fernando, once again we hit on the same movie... Days of Heaven is one of my favorite films from that year. I am not really a Richard Gere fan, but everyone and everything about the film is perfect. I especially like the voice overs by the young lead, Linda Manz and the cinematography. Whenever I get a longing for my midwestern roots, this is the movie I turn to.

[JackFavell]

kingrat, I'd say there was even one more Noel Coward, the inner man - the sensitive, introspective, sad, and very human observer, which is revealed to me time and time again, whether it be in the background of his comedies, or in his fine but less successful serious works, such as the one acts like the one Brief Encounter is based on, as well as The Vortex and Post Mortem.

[feaito]

Oh Fernando, once again we hit on the same movie... Days of Heaven is one of my favorite films from that year. I am not really a Richard Gere fan, but everyone and everything about the film is perfect. I especially like the voice overs by the young lead, Linda Manz and the cinematography. Whenever I get a longing for my midwestern roots, this is the movie I turn to.

Great minds think alike WEN!!

Richard Gere was not a star when he starred in this film; Wasn't he? And his performance is fine, but not up to Shepard's level of intensity. Brooke Adams is also impressive with that husky voice of hers. I knew her better for her TV roles. Linda Manz's voice overs are superb and so is her performance, but I had difficulty to understand what she was saying due to her rather uneducated accent (did the child actress talk that way or she was trained to speak like that? I wonder...). She reminded me a bit of Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon" The whole film looks like Rembrandt painting set in the teens; truly awesome.

Feaito, I'm glad you got to see DAYS OF HEAVEN, a gorgeous film. If you haven't seen BADLANDS, it is also quite handsomely photographed. A more disturbing film than DAYS OF HEAVEN, but also very fine, and amazing from a first-time director.

Thanks for the recommendation Kingrat!

[JackFavell]

No you are totally right, Richard Gere was not well known when the movie came out. I think his big break was in American Gigolo three years later. At this point he'd played the villain in Looking for Mr. Goodbar and a couple of other roles only. I agree, he's not up to the rest of the cast, however, he's playing someone who is duplicitous, so his performance works perfectly. You don't have to believe him.

Linda Manz was, I believe, from an area where folks talked like that, I'm thinking Appalachia, but I am not sure. There isn't a lot about her to find out, but I seem to recall reading that she was a natural actress, untrained at the time.

[feaito]

Thanks for the further info WEN. Very informative, especially about Manz.