litlover12 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
litlover12) wrote2011-07-17 05:20 pm
litlover12) wrote2011-07-17 05:20 pm
Entry tags:
Recommendations
Just a couple of things I saw lately and have been wanting to recommend.
1) Stage Fright (1950). Recorded this off the TV on a whim; it didn't have any of my favorite stars in it, but it did have Alfred Hitchcock at the helm, so I was interested. It turned out to be fantastic!
This is one of Hitch's British films, so why he hired Jane Wyman as a lead is not quite clear. She was very good as a sweet young drama student masquerading as a maid to solve a murder, but she never even tried for an English accent. Except when she was being a maid and made a valiant effort at Cockney. Maybe her contract specified only one accent per film? As for Marlene Dietrich, I've never been a big fan of hers, but I will say she played the spoiled diva quite well! Although she had to sing what I considered a pretty dumb song -- which I was shocked to find out was written by Cole Porter. I guess even the greats had their off days.
But Alastair Sim as Wyman's father simply walked away with the film. (He's best known for playing Ebenezer Scrooge, but I didn't recognize him here until I saw his name in the credits.) His character was called Commodore Gill, but he hadn't been onscreen five minutes before I mentally dubbed him Awesome Dude. The man was magnificent -- the sort of character where, whenever he's offscreen, you just sit and pine for him until he comes back. He adored his daughter and supported her unceasingly, while at the same time teasing her mercilessly about her tendency toward "melodrama." In his first full scene, he was playing the accordion -- seriously, just randomly standing there in his little beach house, playing the accordion -- and as his daughter told him all about the murder suspect she was trying to help, he played funny snippets on it to go with whatever she was saying. And then he took the accordion to bed with him, like a teddy bear. Awesome.
The story was an excellent one, with strong dialogue and plenty of twists and turns right up to the end. So many, in fact, that even Awesome Dude made a couple of major mistakes. However, this in no way detracted from his awesomeness.
I would put this right up there among my top five Hitchcock films, I think.
2) Cyrano de Bergerac (2007). Since seeing Cyrano onstage, I've made it my mission to see every film version I can find. This one isn't technically a film, though; it's a filmed version of a Broadway play, which ran on PBS some time ago. Kevin Kline made a marvelous Cyrano, but unfortunately, Jennifer Garner overacted as if she were trying to get a Tony, an Emmy, and an Oscar all at once. Why the director let her ham it up like that, I can't imagine.
But the last act . . . oh, the last act. It made the whole thing worthwhile. Garner finally got her act together, pardon the pun, and they both nailed it. There were tears, and they weren't just coming from Cyrano and Roxane -- yours truly contributed quite a few of them. And I can't say I was as sorry as I should have been that Le Bret and Ragueneau never came back after going off to Cyrano's place. I like them both, but let's face it: When you're watching a sublime romantic scene, you don't really enjoy being distracted by chatter about Moliere and so forth. At least, I don't.
I would definitely watch this one again, hamminess and all.
1) Stage Fright (1950). Recorded this off the TV on a whim; it didn't have any of my favorite stars in it, but it did have Alfred Hitchcock at the helm, so I was interested. It turned out to be fantastic!
This is one of Hitch's British films, so why he hired Jane Wyman as a lead is not quite clear. She was very good as a sweet young drama student masquerading as a maid to solve a murder, but she never even tried for an English accent. Except when she was being a maid and made a valiant effort at Cockney. Maybe her contract specified only one accent per film? As for Marlene Dietrich, I've never been a big fan of hers, but I will say she played the spoiled diva quite well! Although she had to sing what I considered a pretty dumb song -- which I was shocked to find out was written by Cole Porter. I guess even the greats had their off days.
But Alastair Sim as Wyman's father simply walked away with the film. (He's best known for playing Ebenezer Scrooge, but I didn't recognize him here until I saw his name in the credits.) His character was called Commodore Gill, but he hadn't been onscreen five minutes before I mentally dubbed him Awesome Dude. The man was magnificent -- the sort of character where, whenever he's offscreen, you just sit and pine for him until he comes back. He adored his daughter and supported her unceasingly, while at the same time teasing her mercilessly about her tendency toward "melodrama." In his first full scene, he was playing the accordion -- seriously, just randomly standing there in his little beach house, playing the accordion -- and as his daughter told him all about the murder suspect she was trying to help, he played funny snippets on it to go with whatever she was saying. And then he took the accordion to bed with him, like a teddy bear. Awesome.
The story was an excellent one, with strong dialogue and plenty of twists and turns right up to the end. So many, in fact, that even Awesome Dude made a couple of major mistakes. However, this in no way detracted from his awesomeness.
I would put this right up there among my top five Hitchcock films, I think.
2) Cyrano de Bergerac (2007). Since seeing Cyrano onstage, I've made it my mission to see every film version I can find. This one isn't technically a film, though; it's a filmed version of a Broadway play, which ran on PBS some time ago. Kevin Kline made a marvelous Cyrano, but unfortunately, Jennifer Garner overacted as if she were trying to get a Tony, an Emmy, and an Oscar all at once. Why the director let her ham it up like that, I can't imagine.
But the last act . . . oh, the last act. It made the whole thing worthwhile. Garner finally got her act together, pardon the pun, and they both nailed it. There were tears, and they weren't just coming from Cyrano and Roxane -- yours truly contributed quite a few of them. And I can't say I was as sorry as I should have been that Le Bret and Ragueneau never came back after going off to Cyrano's place. I like them both, but let's face it: When you're watching a sublime romantic scene, you don't really enjoy being distracted by chatter about Moliere and so forth. At least, I don't.
I would definitely watch this one again, hamminess and all.
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