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[Why Watch This- Retro Movie Reviews] Tender Mercies (1983)

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Posted by :Lauren Sims On : May 12, 2014
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What a quiet and moving film Tender Mercies (1983) is. It sneaks up on you, you are lulled into the solitary life of Rosa Lee (played by Tess Harper), a young widow who runs a little motel and gas station in the middle of nowhere Texasmotel. The landscape tells you what you need to know, her life is as empty as the fields that surround her run down motel, with only the two lane highway bisecting them. We meet Mac (played by Robert Duvall) as Rosa Lee and her young son, Sonny, do through a loud drunken fight he is having in one of her motel rooms. They stand on their porch and listen to the violence and shudder together, and you realize all you need to know, they are alone, a young mom and her young son, out in this barren landscape. Mac gets knocked out, passes out and eventually awakes alone and broke.

Horton Foote, a playwright who wrote the screenplay, never explains the fight, never tell us who Mac was fighting with, or why they were fighting. Andgarden that’s the point of the movie right there, things happen in life to bring us to people or situations and we don’t know why. Bruce Beresford, the Australian director, paces this film slowly. Mac emerges from his room, broke and strikes a deal with Rosa Lee. He’ll work off what he owes her, she says fine, as long as he doesn’t drink while he’s working. He sticks around, he stops drinking, they fall in love. Most of this happens off screen, Beresford and Foote just give you vignettes as they story progresses. Mac and Rosa Lee marry and you sense they are happy in their quiet life. He proposes to her while they are working in their little garden after he announces to her that he hasn’t taken a drink in two months, something you sense is monumental.

As the film progresses we learn more about Mac’s past. He had been a famous country singer, married to Dixie, another famous singer played by Betty Buckley. They have a daughter he hasn’t seen in eight years. Back then Mac hadn’t been abetty good man, he drank, he beat Dixie and almost killed her once. It becomes clear that this new life, his new peaceful life with the serene Rosa Lee is Mac’s path to redemption. He writes another song, a sweet song that is clearly about Rosa Lee that goes: “If you hold the ladder, I’ll climb to the top.”

That’s what I really liked about this movie. You know that song is about Rosa Lee, but they never tell you it is. You know that Mac is rebuilding his life, that he has transformed from the alcoholic beast he was before to this kind husband and father, but they don’t put lights around it and shove it down your throat. Mac begins talking to his daughter again and sticks his toe back in the business, he records his new song with a young band and it is getting radio play. When they perform it at a small dance hall, you know it’s a good song because everyone gets up and dances, and the smile on Mac’s face as he Texas two-steps Rosa Lee around the dance floor afterward tell you everythingplayingng you need to know.

Duvall is phenomenal, this is the role for which he has his only Oscar. Not only acting, but he sings all the songs and even wrote some of them. The rest of the cast is fantastic too, including Wilfred Brimley (who doesn’t love that guy?) and a very young Ellen Barkin as Mac’s daughter. The film wasn’t received well when it was released but it has been loved by critics since and is on many “Must See” lists.

Finally, at the end something bad happens that threatens to derail Mac’s path. He is back in the garden questioning why do good things happen and why do bad things happen. I’ve failed to mention the deep vein of spirituality that runs through this film. Early in the film, Rosa Lee takes Mac to church with her where she sings in the choir. Eventually he is baptized in that church. And now at the end you know he is talking to God: why am I alive when others are not? Why am I here? Why did I end up drunk and broken in that motel room where I met Rosa Lee and she saved my life? He says to Rosa Lee: “I’ve never trusted happiness.” And she just listens to him and eventually leaves him in the garden. But it’s the little things, I think, that Foote wants us to remember. It’s like knowing you are here but for the grace of God.  In one scene Rosa Lee says to Mac: “I say my prayers for you and when I thank the Lord for his tender mercies, you and Sonny are at the head of the list.” And there you go, be thankful for the tender mercies, because the rest can never be known.

[Why Watch This- Retro Movie Reviews] Notorious 1946

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Posted by :Lauren Sims On : April 27, 2014
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If you are a frequent reader of Why Watch This, or the other title: Retro Movie Reviews, then you know that I love French Films. And The Smiths. Ok, here is something else to know about me, I love Hitchcock movies. In fact, it was the viewing of Strangers on a Train, during my freshman year “History of Film” class at Boston University that started my love affair with film from the 40s, 50s and 60s. And if you haven’t seen Strangers on a Train, go out now and watch it. Watch it and then try and explain to me why in the hell Ted Turner thought he had to go out and colorize all black and white films. I mean really, the scene where Bruno comes to Guy’s house at night and he is hiding in the park is a clinic on the use of light and dark to illustrate, uh you know, light and dark.

saveAnyway, this isn’t about Strangers on a Train, this is about Notorious, 1946, starring our favorites Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. Notorious, probably one of Hitchcock’s best for sure, and the favorite of Robert Osborne (of Turner Classic Movie fame). Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, the daughter of a convicted Nazi. She is recruited by U.S. government spy Devlin, played by Grant to go to Rio and seduce Alex Sebastian, played by Claude Rains, who is believed to be part of a Nazi spy ring in Brazil.

Before Alicia’s assignment begins, in fact before our two leads even know what it is, they fall in love. However, once Devlin finds out she is to seduce Sebastian, the walls go up, and he soon becomes bitter as Alicia not only succeeds in seducing Sebastian, but marries him.  Watching Alicia, it is obvious that she is only participating in this scheme out of guilt for her father’s deeds, and her own difficult feeling regarding her past. At one point she refers to herself as “Mata Hari, she makes love for the papers,” as if becoming this instrument of the U.S. government is what she deserves.

Because Bergman is such an incredible actress, you see the devastation on her face when Devlin doesn’t tell her not to do it. She wants him to tell her not to do it and he wants her to tell him that she won’t. Well, neither get their wish. At each stage, from the initial assignment, to when she tells him that Sebastian has proposed, she wants him to save her, to just break through his pride teaand tell her he loves her and that he won’t stand for it. And he wants to, you can see his anger, frustration, and bitterness at the situation, but it’s pride that keeps him playing along. Until the end, when finally he realizes that the risks that Alicia has taken to get them the information they have and need to stop this group of Nazi spies, have put her in mortal danger. And then he saves her, and boy oh boy is it satisfying. He admits he was a “fat headed guy full of pain,” and look, I don’t know about you, but when Cary Grant says something like that to you while he is saving your life, well, the rest of your life isn’t long enough.

Now, let me warn you, if you are one of those people who has very rigid views and loves to post all sorts of angry things on fightFacebook about rape culture and evil white men, then I fear I must tell you that the beginning of this movie is not kind to our friend Alicia Huberman. There is drunk driving! Gasp! And at one point Cary gets a little physical and manhandles Ms. Huberman, including slapping her face. And let me be very clear, I don’t like that he slaps her, I don’t like it all. But I get over it because this is one of the best directed and acted films ever made and it was 1946 and now its 2014 and if I judged everything through a modern day lens than I would just sit in my living room watching Frozen over and over again. And that would truly be a tragedy.

So despite all this, Notorious is a very romantic movie. In fact, it has one of the longest kissing scenes ever in film. Hitchcock circumvented the codes of the times of only allowing a kiss to last 3 seconds by having them break apart, nuzzle, kiss, nuzzle, talk, kiss, Bergman plays with Grant’s ear. In this scene we learn everything we need to know:

Alicia: “This is a strange love affair…”

Devlin: “…Why…”

Alicia: “Probably because you don’t love me…You haven’t said anything…”

Devlin: “When I don’t love you I’ll tell you…Actions speak louder than words.”

And there you have it, she wants him to love her, she doesn’t think he does because he doesn’t act like he does. She takes part of in mission, puts her life on the line, all the while desperately wanting him to tell her he loves her. It’s heart breaking and wonderful at the same time.

motherBergman is fabulous. And I could go on and on about the rest of the cast. Sebastian’s mother is deliciously evil. The camera movement and shot set up is masterful. But, just go watch it. That’s all. What else do you want? Ok, what Smith’s song does it evoke? Girlfriend in a Coma. Watch it and you’ll know why.

[Why Watch This] Repulsion

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Posted by :Lauren Sims On : April 14, 2014
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I’ve always had mixed feelings about Roman Polanski. And I’m talking strictly about his work. If you want an opinion about his personal life, go read Jezebel. Polanski is responsible for 1 of the movies that is on my personal top 5 movies of all-time list: Chinatown. And yet, he also made Knife in the Water, a movie that is on my personal top 5 movies that seem over-hyped that I totally don’t get. And I was a little deceived by Repulsion. Catherine Deneuve is in it, so I figured it was French, and y’all know by now how I feel about French movies. Because of this, it’s been on my list of movies I’ve wanted to watch for a long time. So, I was home alone this weekend, Eric is away, it’s a lonely Sunday afternoon, I just drank an entire pot of coffee by myself, what the heck, let’s watch Repulsion.

Deneuve plays Carol, a young Belgian girl living in London. Wait—London? They’re speaking English? WTF? Doesn’t Polanski live in Paris? Ok—thank you Wikipedia for proving that I’m a big dumb idiot. Repulsion was made in 1965—before he was even married to Sharon Tate and WAY before he made the mistake of going to that party at Jack Nicholson’s house. So it’s not French, and I’m not going to be able to expound all sorts of theories about connections between Carol’s extreme prudishness and Polanski’s exile from the U.S.

With that out of the way, I settled in and watched the film. Carol’s got probs. Big probs. She glides through life often getting distracted, often staring into space. When we first see her she is at her job at a beauty salon, staring at the hand of the wealthy old woman she is supposed to be performing a manicure for. “Are you asleep?” the woman asks and Carol smiles and tries to recover. Carol moves through the streets of London like a sleepwalker. Colin, played by John Fraser, is a potential suitor who pursues Carol despite her disinterest and ambivalence.

cracksShe lives with her sister Helen who is having an affair with Michael, a married man. Carol lies awake at night listening to them have relations. Michael puts his razor in Carol’s toothbrush cup, which is enough to drive any young girl bonkers, but there are hints that there is more going on behind Carol’s blank eyes. All heck breaks loose when Helen and Michael leave for a trip to Italy and Carol is left alone in the apartment they share. It becomes clear that some bad stuff happened to Carol in her past, and she has nightmares that bleed into her reality. Carol starts deteriorating fast, and I won’t give too much away, but things don’t go well.

Repulsion is the first in Polanski’s “Apartment Trilogy”, a horror series to be followed by Rosemary’s Baby and The Tenant. It is his first English language film and second feature length film after the afore-mentioned Knife in the Water. The apartment Carol and Helen share is almost a character, as it becomes both a sanctuary and a prison for Carol as she relives the horror of her childhood using weapons. Sound and noise also are characters in this film, whether it is the street noise of London as she walks the sidewalks, the constant ticking of the clock in the apartment, or the clanging of the bells from the convent next door.

Repulsion is one of those great black and white movies from the 1960s that is a little slow, but gives you tons to think about. Polanski doesn’t give you a lot of plot, but loads of images and sounds and even smells to let your mind fill in the blanks. When Carol takes the skinned rabbit that her sister was going to cook for dinner but didn’t out of the refrigerator, you are repulsed. She leaves it on the coffee table and you know it’s there, you hear the flies buzzing even though you don’t always see it, and you can smell it, I swear you can. It’s rather remarkable. He never tells us why Carol is the way she is, but he gives us clues, from the way Carol reacts to Michael, to an old family photograph.

Halfway through watching Repulsion this weekend, I started to wonder if maybe I picked the wrong weekend to watch this movie: I’m home alone, there is a lot of ambient noise at our house, I haven’t spoken to anyone but the dog for days.

Time for the Repulsion You’ve Been Home Alone Too Long Test:

  1. Skinned rabbit carcass in a plastic baggie hidden behind the toaster oven? Check
  2. Ironing a dress without plugging in the iron? Check
  3. Staring blankly at the cracks in my plaster walls until it seems like they are getting bigger? Check
  4. Hammering a board across the door so no one can get in? Check

rabbitOk, time to go back to work. When’s Eric coming home?

[Why Watch This] The Long Good Friday

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Posted by :Lauren Sims On : March 31, 2014
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showerYou may have never heard of The Long Good Friday. Maybe you were born in the eighties, maybe you don’t follow British cinema from the late 1970s, maybe you didn’t realize that this was Pierce Brosnan’s first film and also the film that made Bob Hoskins a star. Maybe you didn’t realize that by watching this film, you can finally fulfill your lifelong ambition of watching Bob Hoskins shower for three minutes while awesome synth music is playing. So there you go, you’re welcome.

The Long Good Friday is a period piece extraordinaire. Harold Shand, played by Bob Hoskins is having a really bad couple of days. The London gangster has just returned from a trip to New York where he was trying to partner with the mafia in a real estate development deal that will make his “Corporation” more boat“legit.” He and his wife, played by Helen Mirren, are hosting two American representatives from that group to close the deal and things start going awry. First the car that is driving Harold’s mom to church explodes. Next Harold’s close friend and associate is knifed in a swimming pool locker room (by Pierce Brosnan! this is Pierce Brosnan’s first film! He doesn’t speak!). More bombs go off and Harold has to figure out who’s behind it before the mafia get nervous and backs out of the deal.pierce

The Long Good Friday was written by Barrie Keefe, an investigative reporter who spent a lot of time with London gangsters in the 1970s. In the movie, Harold Shand’s plans to develop the Canary Wharf docklands areas of London in order to get the Olympics to come to London, was inspired by the plans of the Krays. Yes, the Krays, Ronnie Kray and his brother, something or other Kray who terrorized London in the 1970s. And, perhaps more importantly, Ronnie Kray is the subject of Morrissey’s song The Last of the Famous International Playboys. Sing it with me: “The last of the faaaaammmmoooouuus in-ter-na-tional playboys/ the last of the faaaammmmmmoooouuuss…” etc. etc. And yes, all of life and art can somehow be tied back to a song either by The Smiths or Morrissey and if you haven’t figured that out yet go listen to Louder Than Bombs a few times and we’ll go get some hot pot in Koreatown. Hotpot, that’s a thing, right?

phraseAnyway, back to The Long Good Friday. The movie was originally written to be part of a tv series, but then lots of stuff happened and ultimately it ended up being released in theaters under George Harrison’s company Handmade Films. And, as a side note, if you watch the Criterion Collection version and you suddenly get excited by the X rating that shows before the beginning credits, don’t. I think an X rating meant something different in England in 1979, because there is only mild nudity, light violence and absolutely no swearing in this movie. And I can’t guarantee that about the swearing, because I can’t say I understood every word uttered through Mr. Hoskin’s east side London accent. But I suppose the surprising lack of violence, nudity and cussin’ was due to its television origins. I only bring it up because it is considered the forefather of the British gangster film, which I guess is a thing. Like Guy Ritchie, you know that guy that made all those British gangster films, aren’t they known for foul language and extreme violence? I don’t know because I never saw them, but I’m just pointing it out because I think it’s ironic.

This is a great film. Especially if you like 1970s style cinema: long close ups of people’s faces, awesome synth music, plots that are endreally really unnecessarily complex. The IRA is somehow involved, I think, and I’m not just saying that because they’re bombing stuff. But it’s good, so watch it!

[Why Watch This] Hiroshima, Mon Amour

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Posted by :Lauren Sims On : March 14, 2014
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I have always been a fan of French cinema. And, I’m going to be totally honest here, I don’t always understand it. But I feel like my understanding of a French film often has an inverse proportion to the quality/reputation/pretentiousness of the film that I am watching. And I’m ok with that, it’s kind of like why I am also a fan of Opera (with a capital “O”). Sometimes it’s just an impression or an emotion. Narrative, schmarrative, I say.

I was thinking about this all last week because I heard on the radio that Alain Resnais died at the ripe old age of 91. (According to resnaisthe Washington Post, they didn’t reveal a cause of death, which makes me want to quote an Eric joke: “the chute didn’t open.”) Ok, Alain Resnais, I remember you. You’re that guy who directed the stark and devastating Nazi documentary Nuit et Bouillard or Night and Fog that my 11th grade World History teacher showed us while sobbing quietly in the back of the room. You’re also that guy responsible for Hiroshima Mon Amour, perhaps the most memorable of all the movies we watched in my Boston University ultra-pretentious French Cinema class.

And why, you may ask, in a class showing the incomparable Breathless (Goddard), The Lovers (Malle), and Jules et Jim (Truffaut), does this little film by Resnais still bug me all these years later.

When I was twenty I was much more un-ironically pretentious than I am now. I fear my today self would find my twenty year oldelle et lui self to be quite insufferable. And my twenty year old self really wanted to get it, I really really wanted to love this movie. This is the movie that Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater wish they could make. The film is basically a series of conversations over a 3 day period between two lovers, named She (who is French) and Him (who is Japanese), who are essentially breaking up. They debate stuff like memory and failed relationships all drawing parallels to the bombing of Hiroshima, which is shown at the beginning of the film almost as a documentary that is narrated by the two characters.

The script was famously written by a novelist and poet Marguerite Duras and was 16 pages long! Yes, 16 pages for a 90 minute film which means there is a lot of repeated dialogue, all coming back to the theme of memory and hiroshimaforgetfulness.  Sounds great, right? Go rent it now! It’s probably on Netflix. If you’re still skeptical, here’s the most famous line from the film: “You are not endowed with memory.” BOOM!

OK, side note, you can also use Hiroshima Mon Amour to play my favorite game: Line from French Film or Smith’s song lyric? Let’s play (answers below):

  1. “No, I feel nothing”
  2. “I think about life and I think about death and neither one particularly appeals to me”
  3. “Life is very long, when you’re lonely”
  4.  “We’ll probably die without ever seeing each other again”
  5. “You were bored in a way that makes a man want to know a woman”
  6. “He never really looks at me, I give him every opportunity”
  7.  “You’re destroying me, you’re good for me”
  8. “Love is natural and real, but not for you my love, not tonight my love” two shot
  9.  “When you speak, I wonder whether you lie or tell the truth”
  10. “He’s going to kiss me and I’ll be lost”
  11. “No, it’s not like any other love. This one is different- because it’s us”
  12. “I’m feeling very sick and ill today but I’m still fond of you”
  13. “Life is never kind but I know what will make you smile tonight”
  14.  “I was bored before I even began”
  15.  “I loved the taste of blood since I tasted yours”

So there you have it, if you love your poetry a little cryptic and melancholy, run, don’t walk to see this film. And I guess that’s why I’ve always been endowed with the memory of watching it for the first time: powerful images, depressing and intensely dramatic one-liners, sign me up!

 

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Answer Key:

  1. Hiroshima Mon Amour
  2. The Smiths- Nowhere Fast
  3. The Smiths- The Queen is Dead
  4. Hiroshima Mon Amour
  5. Hiroshima Mon Amour
  6. The Smiths- Girl Afraid
  7. Hiroshima Mon Amour
  8. The Smiths- I Know it’s Over
  9. Hiroshima Mon Amour
  10. Hiroshima Mon Amour
  11. The Smiths- Hand in Glove
  12. The Smiths- What Difference Does it Make
  13. The Smiths- I Don’t Owe You Anything
  14.  The Smiths- Shoplifters of the World Unite
  15. Hiroshima Mon Amour
If you scored:
13-15: Let’s have lunch! If you can drag yourself from the deep dark depths of your soul.
10-13: You are but a dabbler in the dark arts of French Cinema and Morrissey. I’m ok with that
5-9: Strictly an amateur. Buy some black eyeliner, a horizontal striped shirt and a beret tout suite!
1-4: Go watch Transformers and listen to Lorde.

[Why Watch This?] Gaslight (1944)

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Posted by :Lauren Sims On : December 30, 2013
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duoLet’s say you were always wondering where the term “Gaslighting” came from. I’m not going to judge, ok, maybe a little bit. But let’s say you were just sitting around on a slow sunday evening, slowly driving your spouse crazy by dimming the lights, and then when she asks: “Did you see the lights just dimmed?” You respond, “No, the lights are the same. You must be craaazzzzyyy.”

There you go, the plot to the 1944 movie Gaslight, preceded by the 1940 movie Gaslight preceded by the 1938 play Gas Light. Paula, played by Ingrid Bergman, is living with her famous opera singer aunt who is killed. When we later see Paula she is in Italy studying opera and having a flirtation with her accompanist Gregory Anton. They marry and move back to her aunt’s townhouse in London.

Charles Boyer plays Gregory and we don’t trust him one bit. Did I mention it’s Victorian London? No, well it is. Stick with me though, you won’t regret it. Soon after moving to London, Gregory suggests that they move all of Alice’s (Paula’s aunt) belongings to the attic. While looking through the things, Paula discovers a letter written to her aunt from Sergius Bower. Gregory reacts violently to her discovery, grabs the letter from her but then quickly recovers his smarmy charm.

lightsThings start to go awry for young Paula. Gregory leaves her alone at night to go to “work,” and she starts hearing funny sounds. The lights (the GAS LIGHTS, get it) dim, because, in case you didn’t know this, when you have gas lights in a house and you turn the gas on in another room the gas dims a little bit in the room you are in. However, no one else witnesses these things, and no one believes her.

Then items start going missing, paintings are taken from the walls and hidden in strange places. Gregory, while at the same time acting sympathetic to Paula’s plight, also uses these strange happenings to convince Paula she is losing her mind. Gregory has a motive, leading back to Alice and Sergius, her belongings, and the attic, to drive Paula insane and commit her to an insane asylum, and get her out of the house.

At the same time we meet Brian Cameron, played by Joseph Cotten. Brian is an American police officer “working” for the Scotland Yard. He spots Paula at the Tower of London and is intrigued. As a boy he had been a great fan of Paula’s aunt, and Paula is a dead ringer for Alice. It inspires him to look into Alice’s murder which brings him closer to the strange goings on at the Anton household.

endGeorge Cukor, the director of this film, has always been known as a great director of women. To prove it, he directed a movie called “The Women” in 1939. In Gaslight, a movie made in the 1940s that takes place in the late 1800’s, the woman character is written with remarkable depth. The transformation of Paula from the meek wife being manipulated by her husband, to a strong woman who triumphs over him is truly something to behold. It is the very reaction of Paula when she discovers the deception and duplicity of Gregory, with the help of Brian, that makes this such a rare and extraordinary film. They let Paula, the victim, take her power back, and Bergman does it in grand Oscar-winning style.

So add to that a really awesome leading man in Cotten’s Brian. He holds your hand through the bad parts because you know that he knows she’s not crazy, and no matter what, he going to save her. And what’s so awesome is that ultimately he helps her but doesn’t save her, she saves hersejclf, and well, there you go, it’s a winner for me.

Let me admit that I’m not a huge fan of costume dramas. The fact that this film was set in Victorian London turned me off for a long time. However, I have to admit that once I finally watched it, I was an instant fan. I even started to wonder what color Joseph Cotten’s hair was in non-black and white. I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that. And, a very young Angela Lansbury is in this film playing the not-very-helpful maid Nancy, which makes you realize how very old Angela Lansbury really is. But it’s neat to see her so young.angie

So, the next time you decide to slowly drive your spouse crazy, “No honey I don’t think the volume is getting quieter on the radio. Maybe something is wrong with your hearing?” Remember it’s called “Gaslighting” and watch this movie to see the origins of it all.