TikiSoo wrote: ↑December 25th, 2023, 5:29 am
CinemaInternational wrote: ↑December 24th, 2023, 5:20 pm
Remember the Night is a personal favorite. It is most likely the most underrated of Christmas films. It is so beautifully handled, and its always great to hear of people watching it and enjoying it.
This movie touched me especially - having had a similar relationship with my parents as Babs' charactor and as an adult discovering how other families are.
CinemaInternational wrote: ↑December 24th, 2023, 5:20 pm
You are very lucky to have had the chance to see so many Broadway musicals, it seems like a very vivid artform, and it endures.
Boy was I jealous reading Bagel (& Swithin) get to see so many live performances on Broadway! For many of us, seeing a Production like that is a dream.
CinemaInternational wrote: ↑December 24th, 2023, 5:20 pm
The Black Cauldron ended up being a crucial film for me. I disliked it the first time, but when I came back to it years later, I absolutely loved it, and my complete reassessment of it gave me the courage to get out of a bad situation in my life.
And that sums it up: Art Helps People.
That's art's function, why it's necessary. Art is the soul expressing itself to others who can see it, grasp it & realize they are not alone.
We ALL feel these emotions and can learn from other's experiences.
CinemaInternational wrote: ↑December 24th, 2023, 5:20 pm
Don't worry about know-it-alls or about "consensus opinion", your own personal cinematic opinions are the ones that matter.
I am so happy for this sanctuary of free film speech! I am stillamazed at how the anonymity of the internet can bring out the worst in people who wouldn't dare behave like that to your face, proving themselves as true cowards.
CinemaInternational wrote: ↑December 24th, 2023, 5:20 pm
Also Holden, no need to feel ashamed about how you feel or felt about the 50s; they are a decade that be slightly misleading at first.
I highly recommend the book THE BAD & THE BEAUTIFUL (ISBN 0-393-04321-5) It's all about Hollywood Films of the 50's and have an extra copy if you can't find one.
As for Remember the Night, one other point must be made: the film's director Mitchell Leisen is a very underrated director, likely in part due to many of his titles being hard to find. But in this one as well as in Hands Across the Table (1935), Easy Living (1937), Midnight (1939), The Lady is Willing and Take a Letter Darling (both 1942), To Each His Own (1946), and The Mating Season (1951), he emerges as a great director of actors, in getting the best parts of the personality of his stars. He should be better known.
I know what you mean. I've never been to Broadway, although it has long intrigued me and I have some books about it. The closest I came to such an experience was due to a theatre here in town that once or twice a year would bring in road companies of some musical. So, that way, I got to see Porgy and Bess and 42nd Street on stage. Might not be Broadway, but it will do nicely. (A few years back, they brought a bona fide Broadway star, Bernadette Peters to town to do an intimate concert. I wish I could have gone but the tickets were far too expensive. If I had met her, I probably would have told her just how great she was in that heartbreaking role in the exceedingly dark and haunting 1981 film Pennies from Heaven. That film definitely wasn't for everyone, or even most people, but her performance is one of the best and most unheralded of the 1980s)
Yes, movies can occasionally help enrich life, the good ones at least. It may sound strange but I was and still am rather a lonely individual, and the stars of movies ended up feeling like old, trusted friends. Catching up with them in another film new to me sometimes felt like catching up with an old friend I hadn't seen in a while....
The internet is a strange thing. Sometimes people do behave badly with anonymity, but sometimes others simply behave badly even when their real name and picture are right there (Facebook is such a risky and occasionally soul-crushing place, and I have found out that I don't have much in common with most of those in my generational peer group. I simply don't have any enthusiasm for nearly all new releases, and many don't seem interested in classics of the past.). This community does stand out for being the kindest on the web. The people here genuinely care for one another, and we look our for one another. (Plus, we don't feel the need to use all these bizarre slang terms and abbreviations that are very cryptic). I am grateful we have it. It helps to make life more comforting, especially after such a rough year.
Thank you for the book reccomendation! I will have to look into it as it sounds wonderful. My favorite movie books were those big coffee table books they did from the late 70s through the mid 80s detailing the films of all the major studios (one for MGM, one for Warner, etc.) It was so great to see the photos and brief writeups of all the films, and they serve as a great reference material that is cozier and more illuminating than a Wikipedia list. They are now all decades out of date, but they are great resources to find out about lesser-known films of the classic era since they are given equal footing to the films every one of us here remember.