Love Song for Anthony Minghella: Part Un

I love three of the four films I've seen, written and directed by Anthony Minghella. The fourth film was Cold Mountain and it doesn't make the list of "Lovable films." I can't tell you I think it's a "bad" picture, but it just wasn't my type of story, I suppose, and the romance between the main characters didn't really do it for me. At all. I like Nicole Kidman well enough, especially in things like Moulin Rouge, The Others and (I will admit it) Australia. I did Not enjoy Margot at the Wedding, though I thought she acted well in that, in addition. Whoa, tangent.

ANYWAY, The three Lovable Films are: Truly Madly Deeply (1990), The English Patient (1996) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).  All three films feature brilliant actors, marvelous character relationships and writing, and the cinematography is lovely. What can I say? I like my senses to be bathed in luxury. I like things that are beautiful, or set in the past, and when the two combine, I am a goner.

Before I begin I should say that I'm not well-versed in the language of expert film-critique.  I know when something is good, bad or terrible and I am a True Snob to the core, believing my taste to be gourmet, with the slight nod to my general leanings toward things glamorous, period, and pretty.  I accept people whether or not they want to watch an Ingmar Bergman movie with me and I try to accept people even when they like things I secretly enjoy disdaining.  Stepping aside from my rambling, I'm not very good at explaining Why something is good, bad, or terrible, other than a few terse statements about acting, writing, and the "prettiness" factor.  So, my apologies....  

First stop on our journey through Minghellaland: The Talented Mr. Ripley, based on the 1955 novel of the same title by Patricia Highsmith. I haven't read the novel, so am unaware of the differences, however I think this film is charming. Okay, charming in the sense that it is well-made and enjoyable, not in the sense that the end left me feeling romantic and whimsical. The story revolves around a middle-class, twenty-something sociopath named Tom Ripley, who meets a wealthy shipping magnate that assumes Tom is a Princeton man (he is wearing a Princeton jacket when they meet, etc). When the magnate asks if Tom knows his son, Dickie Greenleaf, Tom lies and says he does, leading Mr. Greenleaf to send Tom off to Italy to force his crazy, world-traveling, party-having son to come back to the states. It's the 1950s. We're in gorgeous, sunny Italy with a HUNKY Jude Law and an adorable Gwyneth Paltrow. Tom weasels his way into a friendship with the two and secretly falls in love with Dickie (who wouldn't?).  Everything is happy and beautiful and glamorous and pretty and frothy and sugary and Swell, not forgetting the fabulous jazz music. At this point, I am already in love with the movie, even though I know Tom is a big, fat compulsive liar and this romance will not last.  Watching this film was sort of like watching the first half of the movie, Titanic.  You Know that ship is going to sink, people are going to die and it's going to be ugly, but everything is so decadent and picturesque at first, and you find yourself hoping for the best, though the worst is inevitable.

Another delicious quality of the story: it's a tragedy that puts the viewer on the side of the villain.  I found myself wanting Ripley to escape consequences, to find sanity and reason and to escape his mistakes, even though he was dangerous.  I enjoy stories told from odd perspectives and angles that make the good vs. evil line foggier.  I believe this suspenseful, intriguing film achieves that very well.  Oh and Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman make fun character appearances!   Hoffman is his usual, intellectual louse (is it really bad that I enjoy him?  Because I do) while Blanchett is a socialite with one of those sugary, continental voices.  What more can I ask for in a thriller film?  To make a terribly long, convoluted story shorter: A+ for Mr. Minghella, may the man be resting in peace somewhere, proudly sipping a cappuccino or something. 

ME? Skip class to play dress-up?!?!

BALDERDASH!

.........Okay, okay, okay, you got me. I brought my 1930s Ebay dress to school with me after this weekend and was hanging it up when I couldn't resist trying it on. Then, sensing the emptiness of the apartment, I Also couldn't resist the urge to take silly pictures. It's been aeons since I've done this. Usually the impulse is clouded by other impulses like watching BBC miniseries on Netflix, or (more likely) the apartment is full of girls and I would never be so silly with other people around. Well, maybe under certain circumstances. Oh you know what I mean.

I love this dress so much and have wanted to show it off for a while. Will save it for Wednesday or Friday, I think. Those are the days I don't have a movement class.

I love a man with a big vocabulary.

And what's more, I am still in Love with Stephen Fry.

How to Get Him to Marry You According to Babs...

The fictional, Hollywood, Regency Period England version of Babs, anyway.  Oh, man.  Priceless.  Scarily, hilariously priceless.  Begin at 2:43.  

CAROLE LOMBARD EXPLOSION!!!

My plan was to simply promote the film, No Man of Her Own starring Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. It's a romantic comedy from 1932 and the only film the famous couple acted in together. Clark is at his utmost adorable (of course, he's pretty much always adorable, isn't he?) and the chemistry between the two is delicious, as one might expect. Hollywood's depiction of the nineteen-thirties! Love conquers all the silly fiascoes! A "bad" man becomes "good"! Top hats! Flirting in the library! What more could I ask for? Anyway, my plan became interrupted when I saw all these marvelous photos of Carole Lombard when I was web surfing. Sorry if the photos bore you but I just think they're fascinating. I'm tempted to bob my hair all of the sudden!


Yeah, did I mention how yum Mr. Gable is in this film, yet?

Because he is very yum...

If your daughter works at the library, look out.  She will not be able to say "no."

On the set of It Happened One Night!

Lombard with Robert Montgomery on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Here's a nice little TCM article about No Man of Her Own.

The Perfect Double Feature

Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity

I love it when things just magically work out.  Coming back to school, having to change my schedule around, being ill, sleeping in and missing what I consider to be my most important class?  Not fun.  

However, last night I caught Double Indemnity (1944) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) back to back thanks to my Netflix account and I couldn't have chosen a much better pairing of films.  Let me get this out in the open: I really like Woody Allen movies.  Clearly, not all are created equal and I don't like All of them, but generally speaking, the ones I do like, I Really enjoy.  The characters are clever and witty and odd, and the women have souls and not necessarily clothing that is there solely to comment on the size of their breasts and so forth.  I also like a film noir now and again.  I love the shadows in old black and white films and the glamorous femme fatales.  They're usually sort of melodramatic and cheesy, but fun, and sometimes they happen to be really good movies.

"Shut up, Baby." Mmm, so romantic!!

My two little complaints about Double Indemnity are small and silly. Firstly, Humphrey Bogart and Orson Welles are my favored noir boys.  I'm not much for Glenn Ford and Fred MacMurray sort of leaves me bored.  What can I say?  The charisma of the male star can win or lose me on a film.  Does this make me shallow?  If so, all I can say is: I don't care. Secondly, Barbara Stanwyck should have stayed a brunette.  These opinions entered,  still an enjoyable picture involving a murderous woman, and a man who goes weak for her and makes a lot of bad choices.  Yay!

This film links well with Manhattan Murder Mystery because, no kidding, within about the first twenty minutes, the main characters, Larry and Carol (played by Woody Allen and Diane Keaton) go see Double Indemnity at a movie theatre in New York City.  When the couple returns home to their apartment, they bump into neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. House who live down the hall.  The wife invites them in for coffee.  They are an idyllically sweet, happy, older couple.  Larry and Carol leave and Bam!, the next day, Mrs. House has died of a heart attack.  The perhaps over-imaginative Carol thinks Mr. House acts much too casually about the death of his wife and is convinced that he murdered her.  Larry (who is very much the Woody Allen character he often plays...but of course, this rarely gets old with me) thinks Carol is crazy, until such and such happens.  Throw in Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston, Joy Behar* and that guy who used to play the bad guy on Alias**, and it's a great big, 'Woody Allen likes noir and good jazz and he and Diane are adorable'-Party.***  What's not to love?

*My grandma loves The View.

**Ron Rifkin.  I used to love Alias.

***Pardon my lazy punctuation.