Old movie stuff...
I don't know why, but I went looking for Gone with the Wind MVs on youtube this morning.
I found tons. It's a little weird to see GWTW with modern songs, but nontheless some of the vids are awesome. I love this one especially:
But more than that, it actually reminded me how much I love the movie and the book. I remember first reading the book when I was 12-13 and gulping it down like mad. It was one of the earliest books I read where the heroine and hero were very flawed, not in any way paragons (when I was little, I read classics and Soviet literature, and both lacked in that). It was rather a revelation. And of course I should have figured out my lingering preference for angst and dysfunctional/passionate fictional relationships when I fell so much for Scarlett/Rhett in their totally messed-up glory. I always get boggled when people say they want something like that. It's passionate and awesome to read about, but it's also fucked up beyond words and both of them are damaged individuals. I love reading/watching that stuff but would loathe it in RL.
And the ending? Still drives me crazy. Not crazy enough to read 'Scarlett' though.
And the movie is one of those rare instances where a book I love has been adopted into a movie I love equally. They all look the way I imagined and mmmm...chemistry. Plus, I totally love the scene where Rhett cries over Scarlett. Back then, movie men never ever cried, and especially not hyper-masculine men like Clark Gable's characters. So YUM. (Yes, clearly, I was meant for kdramas, where masculine men weeping is the raison d'etre).
I love classic movies in general, but some of them (like the one I discuss below) have clearly badly dated in its film techniques, story pacing, etc. But I don't think GWTW has (except in its attitude to slave-holding, of course, but as this is the narrative of that particular culture, I can't really object to it any more than I can object to an ancient Roman comedy which has slaves, or an eighteenth-century novel which thinks women are the weaker sex).
Anyway, still being caught in jetlag, I also watched In Old Chicago, a 1937 movie about the 1871 Chicago fire, with a total melodrama story around it. I confess to spending my time thinking it would make an awesome kdrama: it had the nascent 'other girl' and 'other guy' even :)
The story pits two brothers against each other: one is an honest lawyer, Jack (Don Ameche), and another a rogue, Dion (Tyrone Power, much too good-looking to be allowed). Dion starts a super-successful saloon with an 'entertainer' Belle (Alice Faye) and Jack gets elected mayor and decides to clean the city up, which means all of Dion's businesses. Who will prevail? Will Dion reform? Will Belle get that wedding ring she wants? Will I stop ogling Tyrone Power? (The answer to that last one is a clear 'no.')
The movie was a great deal of fun for under two hours. The costumes were great, the soundtrack awesome, and I loved the shady-push/pull relationship between Belle and Dion, who clearly ran a business together, and clearly lived together 'in sin'. It's just as clear, Belle has quite a past and is no blushing virgin when she hooks up with Dion. They liked each other so much because both were hard-headedly and cheerfully 'unvirtuous' and business-oriented, plus very physically compatible. I am amused to note that Dion stalks Belle in the beginning not because out of passion for her hot self but because of passion for a piece of property she has.
Not all is roses with the movie, though. Unlike some other movies from 1930s (GWTW, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town etc), IOC has rather dated in many many many respects, and I am not talking about the fire scenes which are actually pretty good. I admit to cringing at the song 'In Old Virginny,' performed by Belle. I know it's a song appropriate for/popular during the period but if I rolled my eyes any harder, they would fall out (yeah, yeah, faithful old slave is dying to go meet his 'Massa' in heaven. WTF?). More importantly than that, I ended up being on Dion's side and not Jack's which is sort of a huge problem when a movie's message is that Jack s right, Dion is wrong. When they kept talking about vice/virtue and honest womanhood, all I kept thinking are the stuffy Victorian morals I am not keen on at all, and under which Belle is clearly better off having 10 kids and not running a saloon. Ugh. Plus, Dion actually looked like he had fun.
So color me displeased but unsurprised by Dion's last minute change of heart and repentance (was it even that? It's not like he decided Jack was right and saloons were evil. But he would of course pick his brother over saloons, which would burn anyway. He is a rogue not a monster). After all, in a lot of 1930s movies, you either reformed or died. Ditto for Belle's sudden desire to be a virtuous wife and mother. Hmmmm. I find it ironically appropriate the movie ends with Jack burned to a crisp and Belle and Dion all sooty and clutching each other. They seem like suvivors and I bet when they get involved in the rebuilding of Chicago, not everything they will do will be super-virtuous. Thanks God. If this was real, I'd say it's also good they ended when they did because someone is going to knife Dion after the fire is over, for helping Jack. Hmmm...I am analyzing it too much. Just watch it for Tyrone Power's hotness.
I also wonder if there is a whole subgenre of movies about natural disasters reforming saloon keepers who are in love with singers, after their virtuous friend keels over. I mean, there is this, and there is San Francisco, with Clark Gable and Jeanette McDonald (very suited to their roles as a hard-bitten jerk and prim Victorian singer).
I found tons. It's a little weird to see GWTW with modern songs, but nontheless some of the vids are awesome. I love this one especially:
Click to viewBut more than that, it actually reminded me how much I love the movie and the book. I remember first reading the book when I was 12-13 and gulping it down like mad. It was one of the earliest books I read where the heroine and hero were very flawed, not in any way paragons (when I was little, I read classics and Soviet literature, and both lacked in that). It was rather a revelation. And of course I should have figured out my lingering preference for angst and dysfunctional/passionate fictional relationships when I fell so much for Scarlett/Rhett in their totally messed-up glory. I always get boggled when people say they want something like that. It's passionate and awesome to read about, but it's also fucked up beyond words and both of them are damaged individuals. I love reading/watching that stuff but would loathe it in RL.
And the ending? Still drives me crazy. Not crazy enough to read 'Scarlett' though.
And the movie is one of those rare instances where a book I love has been adopted into a movie I love equally. They all look the way I imagined and mmmm...chemistry. Plus, I totally love the scene where Rhett cries over Scarlett. Back then, movie men never ever cried, and especially not hyper-masculine men like Clark Gable's characters. So YUM. (Yes, clearly, I was meant for kdramas, where masculine men weeping is the raison d'etre).
I love classic movies in general, but some of them (like the one I discuss below) have clearly badly dated in its film techniques, story pacing, etc. But I don't think GWTW has (except in its attitude to slave-holding, of course, but as this is the narrative of that particular culture, I can't really object to it any more than I can object to an ancient Roman comedy which has slaves, or an eighteenth-century novel which thinks women are the weaker sex).
Anyway, still being caught in jetlag, I also watched In Old Chicago, a 1937 movie about the 1871 Chicago fire, with a total melodrama story around it. I confess to spending my time thinking it would make an awesome kdrama: it had the nascent 'other girl' and 'other guy' even :)
The story pits two brothers against each other: one is an honest lawyer, Jack (Don Ameche), and another a rogue, Dion (Tyrone Power, much too good-looking to be allowed). Dion starts a super-successful saloon with an 'entertainer' Belle (Alice Faye) and Jack gets elected mayor and decides to clean the city up, which means all of Dion's businesses. Who will prevail? Will Dion reform? Will Belle get that wedding ring she wants? Will I stop ogling Tyrone Power? (The answer to that last one is a clear 'no.')
The movie was a great deal of fun for under two hours. The costumes were great, the soundtrack awesome, and I loved the shady-push/pull relationship between Belle and Dion, who clearly ran a business together, and clearly lived together 'in sin'. It's just as clear, Belle has quite a past and is no blushing virgin when she hooks up with Dion. They liked each other so much because both were hard-headedly and cheerfully 'unvirtuous' and business-oriented, plus very physically compatible. I am amused to note that Dion stalks Belle in the beginning not because out of passion for her hot self but because of passion for a piece of property she has.
Not all is roses with the movie, though. Unlike some other movies from 1930s (GWTW, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town etc), IOC has rather dated in many many many respects, and I am not talking about the fire scenes which are actually pretty good. I admit to cringing at the song 'In Old Virginny,' performed by Belle. I know it's a song appropriate for/popular during the period but if I rolled my eyes any harder, they would fall out (yeah, yeah, faithful old slave is dying to go meet his 'Massa' in heaven. WTF?). More importantly than that, I ended up being on Dion's side and not Jack's which is sort of a huge problem when a movie's message is that Jack s right, Dion is wrong. When they kept talking about vice/virtue and honest womanhood, all I kept thinking are the stuffy Victorian morals I am not keen on at all, and under which Belle is clearly better off having 10 kids and not running a saloon. Ugh. Plus, Dion actually looked like he had fun.
So color me displeased but unsurprised by Dion's last minute change of heart and repentance (was it even that? It's not like he decided Jack was right and saloons were evil. But he would of course pick his brother over saloons, which would burn anyway. He is a rogue not a monster). After all, in a lot of 1930s movies, you either reformed or died. Ditto for Belle's sudden desire to be a virtuous wife and mother. Hmmmm. I find it ironically appropriate the movie ends with Jack burned to a crisp and Belle and Dion all sooty and clutching each other. They seem like suvivors and I bet when they get involved in the rebuilding of Chicago, not everything they will do will be super-virtuous. Thanks God. If this was real, I'd say it's also good they ended when they did because someone is going to knife Dion after the fire is over, for helping Jack. Hmmm...I am analyzing it too much. Just watch it for Tyrone Power's hotness.
I also wonder if there is a whole subgenre of movies about natural disasters reforming saloon keepers who are in love with singers, after their virtuous friend keels over. I mean, there is this, and there is San Francisco, with Clark Gable and Jeanette McDonald (very suited to their roles as a hard-bitten jerk and prim Victorian singer).