October Film Journal
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Richard Lester, 1966)
The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006)
Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960)
Vernon, Florida (Errol Morris, 1982)
A Letter to Three Wives (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949)
If.... (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)
Jules and Jim* (François Truffaut, 1962)
Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell, 1997)
The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925)
Splendor in the Grass* (Elia Kazan, 1961)
Punch-Drunk Love* (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002)
*repeat viewing
theater
Labels: film journal (2007)
posted by Diane @ 9:02 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
And...Splendor in the Grass?
(It didn't work for me.)
What's this, Russ? You don't go in for overwrought sexual hysteria?
Heh. I'm not crazy for the film or anything. I just wanted to rewatch it because it had been many years. I actually remember really disliking it when I first watched. I enjoyed the acting quite a bit this time, especially Wood. But does the film work as a whole? Nah, not really.
But tell me more.
Yeah, no-- I can really find a lot of things to like about it. Wood's performance, like you mention. The whole theme of how the "good girl" gets punished, and how virtue is easily misconstrued in a society where easy judgments are all anyone has time for.
But it just seems like a Reefer Madness-level treatment of sexuality. The scene where Beatty can't even play a decent game of pickup basketball because he's so sex-starved is beyond words. And I guess it's kind of a delicate subject, but when he goes to the doctor for a remedy and all the doctor can tell him is to find one of "those" kinds of girls. I mean, do human beings really act that way? Sure, I know they act the way the kids' parents act. But the other stuff seems so over the top it could work only as parody.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Oops. That was me above. It's too bad we can't edit here.
Great comments and too funny, Russ—especially regarding Beatty's basketball game. I agree with what you've said. But you're also right in saying there are other things to like about the film.
I just watched Wood in "Rebel Without a Cause," a film in which a taunt that someone is a "chicken" leads to grave consequences.
Wood plays the "bad guy's" girlfriend, but I never bought her as a "bad girl." Once she falls for Jimmy Dean -- a much more sensitive "bad boy" -- the hard edges disappear.
I don't know what this film has to say about HETERO-sexuality, but Sal Mineo's performance is a little creepy. It's taken on the status of a closeted gay thing, and as much as I try to place myself back in the time the film was originally released, it's hard to see how that aspect of the performance could be anything other than intentional. I do wonder, however, if audiences at the time picked up on it as clearly as audiences today do.
Looking over my post, I see how it could be construed as gay=creepy, which was not my intention. What I found creepy was character's mooning obsessiveness. It's not quite stalker territory, but it verges on it.
I need to rewatch that one, Christian. It's been years. Was this a theater screening?
I haven't seen Splendor in the Grass, but wonder if the Warren Beatty basketball scene wasn't paralleled and parodied in Gary Ross's Pleasantville (1998)? When the 1950s-era teenage basketball players discover the pleasures of the flesh (thanks to Reese Witherspoon), they can no longer sink a basket or even control the ball. ("Reefer Madness"-level treatment of sexuality?? Oh man, I've gotta rent this.)
Re: Rebels Without a Cause, didn't Nicholas Ray state that the homoerotic aspect of Mineo's and James Dean's characters was intentional? I recall Mineo or Ray saying in an interview that Dean and Mineo played up their own friendship, and alleged real-life mutual attraction, on screen, and Ray using the Mineo character's quest for a father as a "code" for his closeted homosexuality.
Mark, thanks for the comments. I just want to officially welcome you and say it's great to see you posting here!
Thanks, Diane. I'll try to say something intelligent at least occasionally!
Diane: I saw a big-screen projection of "Rebel" at the Virginia Film Festival, with the screenwriter in attendance.
Mark: You're right, as far as I can tell, but I didn't read the comments about the film in the festival guide until a couple of days ago, several days AFTER I had returned home. The screenwriter didn't mention that aspect of the film, but the film guide noted that Mineo has stated that he played the first ever teenage homosexual in American films, or something like that. I wasn't sure if that was a coy bit of revisionism by the principals involved -- a way of making the film seem more "contemporary" to present-day audiences -- but your speculation leads me to believe otherwise.
The film is quite good in its own way, but I have a hard time taking that sort of melodrama seriously these days. I appreciated the film, but it's not one I plan to watch over and over again. Still, it could've been a whole lot worse.
D, I didn't realize you hadn't seen "The Departed" before. I need to keep better track of your film journals. Consider it an advance new year's resolution.
A friend of mine up here who is woefully behind in film-watching just embarked on a mission to watch "all the classics." Fanny & Alexander is his current favorite, and Wild Strawberries is up next in the queue. Naturally I had to mention my friend Diane...
Well, I'm flattered. :)
Keeping up with my film journal is definitely a worthy New Year's resolution. Your life will be changed! Heh. Seriously, though, add posting here more often to your list o' resolutions because it certainly is nice to see you around these parts.
Diane, you all right? You haven't abandoned us, have you?
No, I'm still here. Are you coming in via a link that's taking you only to this particular blog entry? Scroll to the top of the page and click on the blog title. That should get you to the main page.
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