(no subject)
I saw some movies this weekend I had never seen before! One with 
jinian and one with
shoroko and one with both. None of them were made more recently than fifty years ago.
Double Indemnity: This is the quintessential film noir. I'm reading a book about noir now and it keeps trying to describe it as a movie about a stone-cold murderess and the weak-willed man she leads astray and I don't think that is true. It's a movie about how two people who probably wouldn't have committed murder individually meet at the right time and sort of push each other into committing murder together. Barbara Stanwyck, Bored and Bewigged Femme Fatale Housewife, is doing it because she's miserable in her marriage and would like some money, and Fred MacMurray, Bored Sleazy Insurance Agent, is doing it because he's having some kind of intense personal one-sided competition with Edward G. Robinson, Super Insurance-Fraud Catching Insurance Agent.
Fred MacMurray is way more intense about Edward G. Robinson than he is about Barbara Stanwyck, by the way. I don't necessarily mean that in a romantic way (although I was willing to bet money that at least one Yuletide fic existed and I was right), but then again, the movie literally does end with Fred MacMurray's tragic declaration of love for Edward G. Robinson, so. And, I mean, Edward G. Robinson is pretty adorable in this film. The biggest surprise for me in this movie was that Super Insurance-Fraud Catching Insurance Agent Edward G. Robinson was so adorable. The second biggest surprise was that the movie is (intentionally) hilarious. The dialogue is so good! Also, I want to read a really good making-of book about Double Indemnity and I don't think it exists.
Stella Maris: This is a silent film in which Mary Pickford plays a cheerful paralyzed upper-class orphan with the WORST GUARDIANS EVER.
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Because our niece can't walk, let's keep her happy by not letting anybody tell her about anything depressing! Ever! The only things allowed in Stella Maris' room are bunnies, kittens, puppies, and her hot gentlemanly cousin whom she adores.
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: So I guess I'm not allowed to tell Stella Maris about my alcoholic and abusive wife.
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Absolutely not. Did you not see the list of allowed topics? Kittens. Bunnies. Puppies. THAT'S IT.
STELLA MARIS: I can walk now!
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Wonderful!
BEGGARS, SOLDIERS, SAD PEOPLE: HI STELLA MARIS GUESS WHAT WE EXIST
STELLA MARIS: ...
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: ...
STELLA MARIS: So, everything I know about the world is a lie? Everything I know about the world is a lie. Wonderful. Thank god I have a hot gentlemanly cousin whose honesty I can believe in. Kiss me, hot gentlemanly cousin!
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: ...
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: So, uh, Stella Maris pretty much expects me to propose any second, so I'm thinking it's time I tell her about my wife.
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: ABSOLUTELY NOT. It will break her poor dear little heart if you tell her that you're married. She must NEVER KNOW about your wife.
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: .... then ... should I not come by any more?
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Of course not! It would break her poor dear little heart if you stopped coming. You must NEVER STOP COMING.
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: ... but ...
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Secret wives are no big deal! Come on, man, didn't you ever read Jane Eyre?
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: ....
STELLA MARIS: Gentlemanly cousin, I went to your house to PLAN OUR WEDDING and I met your WIFE and I have LOST MY FAITH IN THE WHOLE WORLD.
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: In retrospect, we should have seen this coming.
So aside from playing Stella Maris, Mary Pickford also plays Unity, a tragic and plucky orphan who gets abused by Gentlemanly Cousin's Evil Wife while Gentlemanly Cousin is off hanging out with Stella Maris. Gentlemanly Cousin adopts her in a fit of guilt, and Unity promptly falls in love with him, which we all know is not going to work out well because a.) she is the Eponine to Stella Maris' Cosette and b.) legally he is her dad and c.) HE STILL HAS AN ACTUAL EVIL WIFE.
This is all melodrama to the max, but we still were not expecting it to end in so much murder. However, Mary Pickford does do an amazing job in the double role, and the cameramen also do an amazing job filming a double role with 1917 technology. Plus there is a genuinely hilarious subplot with a dog!
Touch of Evil: The message of this film noir about a Mexican border cop fighting the corrupt American police force would be a lot more convincing if the noble Mexican border cop was not played by CHARLTON HESTON IN BROWNFACE.
...I thought I had more to say about this movie but I keep just coming back to CHARLTON HESTON.
I feel like reading a better book about film noir than I'm currently reading, if anyone has recs for good books about film noir.
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/381991.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.
jinian and one with
shoroko and one with both. None of them were made more recently than fifty years ago.
Double Indemnity: This is the quintessential film noir. I'm reading a book about noir now and it keeps trying to describe it as a movie about a stone-cold murderess and the weak-willed man she leads astray and I don't think that is true. It's a movie about how two people who probably wouldn't have committed murder individually meet at the right time and sort of push each other into committing murder together. Barbara Stanwyck, Bored and Bewigged Femme Fatale Housewife, is doing it because she's miserable in her marriage and would like some money, and Fred MacMurray, Bored Sleazy Insurance Agent, is doing it because he's having some kind of intense personal one-sided competition with Edward G. Robinson, Super Insurance-Fraud Catching Insurance Agent.
Fred MacMurray is way more intense about Edward G. Robinson than he is about Barbara Stanwyck, by the way. I don't necessarily mean that in a romantic way (although I was willing to bet money that at least one Yuletide fic existed and I was right), but then again, the movie literally does end with Fred MacMurray's tragic declaration of love for Edward G. Robinson, so. And, I mean, Edward G. Robinson is pretty adorable in this film. The biggest surprise for me in this movie was that Super Insurance-Fraud Catching Insurance Agent Edward G. Robinson was so adorable. The second biggest surprise was that the movie is (intentionally) hilarious. The dialogue is so good! Also, I want to read a really good making-of book about Double Indemnity and I don't think it exists.
Stella Maris: This is a silent film in which Mary Pickford plays a cheerful paralyzed upper-class orphan with the WORST GUARDIANS EVER.
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Because our niece can't walk, let's keep her happy by not letting anybody tell her about anything depressing! Ever! The only things allowed in Stella Maris' room are bunnies, kittens, puppies, and her hot gentlemanly cousin whom she adores.
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: So I guess I'm not allowed to tell Stella Maris about my alcoholic and abusive wife.
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Absolutely not. Did you not see the list of allowed topics? Kittens. Bunnies. Puppies. THAT'S IT.
STELLA MARIS: I can walk now!
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Wonderful!
BEGGARS, SOLDIERS, SAD PEOPLE: HI STELLA MARIS GUESS WHAT WE EXIST
STELLA MARIS: ...
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: ...
STELLA MARIS: So, everything I know about the world is a lie? Everything I know about the world is a lie. Wonderful. Thank god I have a hot gentlemanly cousin whose honesty I can believe in. Kiss me, hot gentlemanly cousin!
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: ...
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: So, uh, Stella Maris pretty much expects me to propose any second, so I'm thinking it's time I tell her about my wife.
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: ABSOLUTELY NOT. It will break her poor dear little heart if you tell her that you're married. She must NEVER KNOW about your wife.
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: .... then ... should I not come by any more?
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Of course not! It would break her poor dear little heart if you stopped coming. You must NEVER STOP COMING.
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: ... but ...
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: Secret wives are no big deal! Come on, man, didn't you ever read Jane Eyre?
GENTLEMANLY COUSIN: ....
STELLA MARIS: Gentlemanly cousin, I went to your house to PLAN OUR WEDDING and I met your WIFE and I have LOST MY FAITH IN THE WHOLE WORLD.
STELLA MARIS' GUARDIANS: In retrospect, we should have seen this coming.
So aside from playing Stella Maris, Mary Pickford also plays Unity, a tragic and plucky orphan who gets abused by Gentlemanly Cousin's Evil Wife while Gentlemanly Cousin is off hanging out with Stella Maris. Gentlemanly Cousin adopts her in a fit of guilt, and Unity promptly falls in love with him, which we all know is not going to work out well because a.) she is the Eponine to Stella Maris' Cosette and b.) legally he is her dad and c.) HE STILL HAS AN ACTUAL EVIL WIFE.
This is all melodrama to the max, but we still were not expecting it to end in so much murder. However, Mary Pickford does do an amazing job in the double role, and the cameramen also do an amazing job filming a double role with 1917 technology. Plus there is a genuinely hilarious subplot with a dog!
Touch of Evil: The message of this film noir about a Mexican border cop fighting the corrupt American police force would be a lot more convincing if the noble Mexican border cop was not played by CHARLTON HESTON IN BROWNFACE.
...I thought I had more to say about this movie but I keep just coming back to CHARLTON HESTON.
I feel like reading a better book about film noir than I'm currently reading, if anyone has recs for good books about film noir.
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/381991.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.