One thing I noticed for the few days I was able to spend in London is just how much of a theater town it is. I already knew this, because my childhood summers usually included going to see one show. As I grew up, I checked a lot of classic musicals off of my list: Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago. I also saw some Shakespeare, both at the Globe and in Stratford. But being in London again, everywhere you look there's a poster advertising the latest, greatest show on billboards or a passing bus. And there are plenty of theaters to house them all, around every corner.
Here in Austin, we have just a handful of theaters, including of course the Paramount. Before I left, I caught my final summer classic film, The Birds.
It's interesting when you watch classics like this, because you have to remind yourself that what you've now seen many times over was being done for the first time. When we watch these kinds of movies now, we're coming from a place of awareness and cynicism that audiences just weren't back then. So you end up mentally shouting at the screen, 'Don't go in there!' while the blonde wanders into a situation that should be obviously avoided. You have to appreciate that this is the foundation of what made Buffy the Vampire Slayer so cool, and just enjoy the show.
While others did it for decades after him, no one does it quite as deftly as Hitchcock. Because you still end up with moments, like when the crows gather on a school playground, when you are still totally, uncynically, scared of the birds. I found myself eyeing the pigeons of London very suspiciously, I can tell you.
Unlike the rest of the movies so far this summer, I have seen The Philadelphia Story many, many times before. The first time was over the holiday break during one of my college years. I was so taken with it that when I returned to campus and discovered that the DVD was also in our library, I checked it out and proceeded to watch it at least three times in a row. As in I watched it all the way through and then pressed play again immediately when it was over.
So it's fair to say I love this movie. It's in my top 5 of favorites, and it's the only one on that list that I didn't grow up with.
But there's still something special about seeing it with an audience (other than my family) for the first time. Sitting in my dorm room with a big grin on my face as Jimmy Stewart drunkenly calls out 'Oh, C.K. Dexter Haaaaaaaven!' is one thing, laughing along with a theater full of people is even more fun. Plus, when you have seen a movie so many times that you've memorized the lines, you can tend to only be half-watching it (and half-knitting or surfing the web), so being 'forced' to focus on just the movie is refreshing.
Back to the movie itself. For those who haven't seen it before, I cannot recommend it highly enough. The dialogue is snappy, the characters have depth, and their relationships shift throughout the course of events. Some things don't age well, like the treatment of Seth Lord's 'investment' in the shapely legs of showgirl Tina Mara. It's cringe-inducing to feel that the movie sort of agrees that it's a daughter's fault for not loving her father blindly enough if he cheats. But I do my best to gloss over that intellectually and go with the emotional reconciliations of the end of the film.
Finally, how much do I love this movie? I love it so much that one of my life's goals is to have a pet dachshund (blame that on growing up in Buda, where we have an annual weenie dog parade and race) and name him C.K. Dexter Haven, so that I can mimic Stewart's call in my backyard, as well as Dinah's ecstatic, 'Dexter, oh Dexter you've come back!' when I let him into the house.
Tracy Lord might judge me for my ridiculousness, but I think Dexter would understand.
Every once in a while at school, a class would be replaced with a movie. Usually one with at least a modicum of relevance to the subject of the class. Once, in our Government class, while the teacher presumably caught up on grading tests/papers/worksheets, we were treated to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I'll never forget how all of the girls sighed over Jimmy Stewart. Filibusters and grafts, all of the political lessons were lost on the dreaminess of this classic film star.
That memory popped into my head as I was watching The Heiress at Paramount last week. Because like my fellow students by Stewart way back when, I was totally and utterly distracted by the beauty of one Montgomery Clift.
Who could possibly blame the naive titular heiress for falling in love with him? For the first half of the film, while he woos her despite her comedic awkwardness and her father's suspicions, I knew it was too good to be true, but I kind of just wanted the movie to end right there and pretend that I could also be ridiculously awkward and win the affections of a Clift-lookalike. Except I don't have the equivalent of millions in inheritance coming to me. Hmm, a small hitch.
Olivia de Havilland won an Oscar for her role in this, presumably because the Academy was enthralled by her dramatic portrayal of the spurned young lady, but my favorite part of her performance was as the slightly comedic and highly awkward girl Clift seduces. She was such a great mix of lovely and endearing but completely hopeless. I love the scene when Clift comes to visit and they are left alone in the drawing room. I might not be as gullible as de Havilland's character, but I might be just as awkward in the same room as him.
So I have another classic Hollywood hunk to add to my list of timeless crushes. Although I'm not sure I'll ever be able to trust him...
After Destry Rides Again and Guys and Dolls, I take a nerdy pleasure in the symmetry of The Third Man being the third movie I saw in the summer film series at Paramount. This is one of those movies that I sort of knew that I should see at some point, but had never really gotten around to. They also screened Citizen Kane as the second film in the double feature, but I had to work the next day, so that's still on my list. 'Rosebud...'
I love old movies, and this was no exception. Intrigue, style, setting, some great chase scenes, and a lack of cynicism that you see in movies today after all of the things I've just listed have been done and done again. As Holly Martins bumbles around in his own investigation of the death of his friend, he makes the kinds of mistakes that left me laughing, but I imagine that at the time the results of his ineptitude wouldn't have been quite as expected. There's something refreshing about seeing twists before they became tropes.
I also learned that animals are all on the side of evil:
A parrot bites the protagonist
A cat cuddles with the shadowy figure of Orson Welles
A small dog plays the chihuahua to another villain's Paris Hilton
So, that was the third movie in my personal Paramount series. I was going to see the fourth movie last week, but President Obama made an appearance at the Paramount the next morning, so presumably it was being made threat-proof instead of being filled with people who wanted to see The Red Shoes. I'll just have to see it some other time. Hopefully no heads of state are planning on being there on Thursday, so I'm still safe to go and see The Heiress tomorrow.
Remember when we all watched movies on VHS? And if there were trailers before the feature, we either had to watch them or carefully fast forward through them? I still have, hiding in a closet somewhere, my collection of childhood DVDs. And when I first started it, aside from the many Disney princess movies, that collection was dominated by musicals. There were the double-tape epics 'My Fair Lady' and 'The Sound of Music', as well as the not-quite-child-appropriate 'Grease' and others.
The musicals that I did have were watched many, many times. But they represented just a handful of the entries in that genre, and many remain that I haven't seen yet. 'Guys and Dolls', for example, was not one of the musicals I grew up with. It seemed like a worthy use the second of my ten Flix Tix passes to see it as part of the Paramount Theater Classic Film Series, having already seenDestry Rides Again.
Though I had never seen the movie before, it did feature in the trailers for some of the musicals I did own, so I suppose I have seen the same 5 seconds enough times to match it's total run time. But it was good to see the other 9,000+ seconds and put that well-known 5 seconds in context.
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and I think I need to add it to my DVD collection. Some of the songs are still popping into my head a week later, and I have to say, the Crapshooters Dance was like the Sharks and the Jets rolling dice on the set of 'Metropolis'. Marlon Brando was very...Marlon Brando. His romance with the upstanding citizen Sally Brown is sweet, though it does make me wonder just how many fictional romances are begun as bets. I guess 'She's All That' utilized some classic tropes. Frank Sinatra was fantastic, of course, but I think Vivian Blaine was my favorite as Adelaide.
Stay tuned for something completely different next time, 'The Third Man'. Teaser: Orson Welles doesn't sing any show tunes.
You already know that I love routines. Which can make me kind of a homebody by default, but I feel like this summer I've been a little more willing to venture out and socialize. For example, this past Sunday I went to Gauge for a going-away party for a local yarn dyer who is moving to Colorado. Sure, it consisted mainly of noshing on strawberries, chatting, and knitting, but that's the kind of fun I like to have. I'm not looking for raging keggers. As further evidenced by the fact that I went downtown yesterday, not to drink my way down 6th Street, but to go see 'The Third Man' at Paramount. I'll have a post on that, and 'Guys and Dolls', eventually.
And now, I have an exciting Wednesday planned. After the usual klatch and yoga, dinner plans will shift from Indian at Tarka to a summer salad at Panera so that I can also go and get my hair cut. This may not be riveting to extroverted, popular people, but I've been looking forward to the Strawberry Poppyseed & Chicken Salad since last summer. And I love my stylist. She's super nice and is great with my hair.
I've also been watching most of the World Cup matches. Not really with groups of people physically, but spiritually, emotionally....Twitterly. I'll be holding my breath along with everyone else in tomorrow's match between the US and Germany. I'm rooting for both of them to make it through the group, preferably with a draw or US win, because Germany has a goal difference cushion so I wouldn't have to worry too much about them.
All of these highly-social engagements have given me plenty of opportunity to knit, but not a lot of time to take pretty pictures of it. So I'll have to keep you in suspense a while longer. But I am really enjoying my Twist of Death. Right now it's just knitting and knitting around and around, but the yarn is soft and pretty. I'm toying with the idea of adding beads to the rib at the collar, but I haven't committed to it yet.
Maybe that's a decision for next WIP Wednesday. In the meantime, you can find more at Tami's Amis.
Yesterday I caught some early Judy Garland films on Turner Classic Movies they were playing for her birthday. It's amazing how easily you can be sucked into these old movies. Not just because there are no commercials to break the spell, but because even the ones you've never heard of are just plain fun to watch. Plus, there's usually at least one face that I recognize from some long-lost memory in the corner of my brain.
Like seeing Steve in 'Broadway Melody of 1938' and realizing that that's a younger Jed Clampett from 'The Beverly Hillbillies', known in real life as Buddy Ebsen. Apparently he was also going to be the Tin Man in 'The Wizard of Oz', but he was allergic to the metallic make-up. And then Margaret Hamilton, who did play the Wicked Witch of the West, was in 'Babes in Arms'. Dorothy was just picking up people from all over Judy's roster.
While the early films have some catchy tunes, they can't compete with the decades of ear worm power that 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' has. So that's been stuck in my head. There are definitely worse songs I could be held hostage by. I find myself humming it as I knit my newest work in progress, 198 Licks of the Lollipop. It started like this on Friday morning:
And by yesterday morning, here it was again:
Now it's like a rainbow coming over the horizon instead of a sunrise. I only created the project page yesterday and nearly named it after the rainbow. But since the Knit Picks Chroma colorway is called Lollipop, it makes me think of that classic question: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? Which I could never figure out because I never really licked a Tootsie Pop like that.
It's been a while since I've done a lacy shawl, so it feels good to get back to that, and this is such a quick knit. It's relatively simple, the only thing I notice which would have tripped me up in my earlier crafting days is that this pattern does involve some knit stitches throughout the wrong side, as opposed to most which are just purling straight across apart from the edges. So you just have to be able to recognize a knit from a purl stitch and stop yourself from just purling away like a fool until you get to the end.
What are you working on right now? What's your favorite Judy Garland movie?
It's strange the memories that take hold in the mind, isn't it? Not just which events, but what aspects of it stick. When I was a kid, my best friend and I would go with our parents to the Paramount Theater, for what I think was a season of family-friendly stage shows. After that we would go for dinner across the street. I have some vague memories of sitting in the theater (of course, I remember it as being much bigger than it actually is) and eating dinner (I want to say there was soft serve ice cream), but most of all I remember the drive home. I'm not sure why the clearest mental snapshot I have is of us all in the car, just after exiting the highway and turning off the frontage road. I suppose it's a lot like buying a young child a fancy new toy and having them play with the box.
But still, every time I pass the Paramount, I think of those times and smile. And this summer, I plan on indulging often in nostalgia, both personal and cinematic, because I've bought a Flix Tix pass for their Summer Classic Film series, good for ten admissions over the course of the next few months. And that means it's good for at least ten blog posts about the movies I go to see.
Last week, I bought my booklet of tickets and used the first one to see a classic I hadn't seen before, and hadn't actually heard much about: 'Destry Rides Again'.
I've always been a bigger fan of Western comedies than Western dramas, and this one stars James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich to boot. Pun absolutely intended. I'll pretty much give any movie with Jimmy a try, and this doesn't disappoint. If only there were more cowboys like him roaming around Austin, drinking milk and whittling napkin rings.
The movie is also apparently a heavy influencer of 'Blazing Saddles', a Mel Brooks movie that I've been watching since way before it was age-appropriate, so it was kind of cool to see the seeds of that here. Especially noticing how spot-on Madeline Kahn's version of Marlene Dietrich's version of a saloon showgirl.
This is one of those easy-to-watch classics that I think everyone can enjoy, whether you come into it with a crush on Jimmy Stewart or having no idea who Marlene Dietrich is. A great start to my cinematic summer!
Monday Movie Madness may have fallen by the wayside, but I still find myself wanting to share some cinema time with all of you. Especially because yesterday I went to the movies, and I want to let you all know that if 'The Lunchbox' is in a theater near you, it's worth seeing. But I'm going to start from the beginning.
All in all, it was a very Indian Sunday. As I was doing a little late-morning channel surfing I discovered something rather unusual for American television: a cricket match! I have caught highlights of cricket matches every once in a while as part of SportsCenter's Top 10, and I knew that ESPN had been including matches as part of their online coverage. But this wasn't a highlight, it was a live match on ESPN2. My mom was as pleased as I was surprised. She may not like tea, but in her love of cricket at least she shows her Britishness. We watched Sri Lanka beat India in the T20 by six wickets with 13 balls remaining. Yeah, I only sort of know what that means.
After that we went up North towards the lone theater presenting our desired feature. That meant, of course, that first we would have a lunch of frozen yogurt at Yogurtland. While they didn't have anything particularly Indian, they are doing another round of flavor passports that did include Spanish flan, Geneva chocolate, French black currant tart, and Florida orange sorbet. We could have had some Indian food at Tarka just around the corner, but Mom isn't a big curry person, so we stuck with froyo. We also stopped by Sea of Beads, and I was tempted to pick up some seed beads to add to the final blue edge of my Affection-ite. But in the end I decided that just finishing those final rows is going to take long enough, and I think the striping will be interesting enough without the additional sparkle.
My mom had been wanting to see 'The Lunchbox' since she had heard something about it on the radio. These days, I end up putting more movies on my to-watch list from listening to NPR, and then from seeing the trailers when I go to see those movies, than from commercials on TV or Oscar buzz or things like that. Anyway, we had to wait a few weeks for the film to come to Austin, in the meantime I had found the trailer and concurred with Mom's assessment that this looked like something worth seeking out:
This is one of those movies where it is truly cruel to only have overpriced buttered popcorn available to eat. Even with a stomach full of froyo, I could practically smell the paneer and the aloo gobi. It was so unfair. This movie would be perfectly paired with a dinner party of Indian food, whether attempted at home or brought in from a take-out place.
Just like the layering of flavors in Ila's lunches, the film's story is a perfect blend of emotions. It shows rather than tells, and adds depth to characters in daily details. It's not too schmaltzy, but it's not depressingly cynical, even though Saajan begins the movie that way. I simply cannot spoil the ending, but it similarly balances realism and the kind of optimism that I like to leave a theater with.
If I've whetted your appetite, I hope 'The Lunchbox' might be playing nearby you!
Last year I joined the Kickstarter campaign to bring Veronica Mars back from the mists of cancelled TV time to make a feature film. And a few weeks ago that film made its world premiere right here in Austin at SXSW.
In honor of the movie, I was, to quote Wallace in the premiere, 'just dying' to bake something:
And from that moment on, marshmallows have been associated with this troublesome teenage detective. Somehow, I always forget that part about the Twinkie. Personally, I think Veronica is far too unique to be a Twinkie, though she might have the same capacity for survival. So I made my own marshmallow treat for her.
If I'm honest, she would probably think these were a bit too baby shower pink. I'm sure Logan would have something sarcastic to say about them. But they are such pure sugar-high deliciousness, I still think she would bring them to a stake-out. I know they made the rest of the afternoon better for my coworkers after they ate them at klatch.
And as with most of my favorite recipes, there are so many flavor possibilities. You are limited only by the gelatin aisle of your grocery store. I've seen both cranberry and green apple in stores at various times, I'm thinking I might need to bring those out for fall...
Marshmallow Sandwich Cookies
Makes 22 sandwich cookies
For the marshmallow:
(My original source for the recipe has been lost to the interwebs, but I found the same one at Everyday Nutrition: Homemade Marshmallows. I'm going to go ahead and document it here for posterity.)
1 3 oz packet of Jello*
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
2/3 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons corn syrup (I used light)
Additional sugar or Jello for rolling
* I used Cherry Jello for both the cookies and the marshmallow (and Berry Blue for rolling), but you can use any combination of flavors you like. I have not tried using sugar-free versions.
Directions
The Jello cookies should be baked before starting the marshmallow, to ensure that they are fully cooled before assembly.
In a saucepan over low heat, whisk together the Jello and unflavored gelatin in the boiling water until dissolved.
Stir in sugar and corn syrup.
Transfer mixture to large glass bowl (it needs to be big enough to allow the marshmallow to at least triple in size) and refrigerate until slightly thickened.
Beat the chilled mixture until soft peaks form. You will need an electric mixer for this, and it will take at least ten minutes. For me, it was more like fifteen.
Assemble the cookie sandwiches, dolloping about two tablespoons of marshmallow per sandwich, squishing the cookies together and rolling the edges in sugar or Jello if desired. Allow the marshmallow to set a little before packing, or you can eat them straight away.
There will be leftover marshmallow, feel free to complete the remaining directions for making marshmallows, namely:
Spread evenly into a tray lined with parchment paper. I used my 7 x 9" pan, but only spread the marshmallow over about 3/4s of it, so it was about an inch thick.
Place in fridge to set overnight.
The next day, carefully slice into squares or use a cookie cutter to make fun shapes. Roll in powdered sugar (or more Jello).
It's been a while since I've watched it, but I kind of want to pop the DVD in. It's in my head because tonight at Tarka I decided to take a chance and instead of my beloved Chana Saag I tried Aloo Gobi. Yum.
If I do watch the movie again, I'll definitely be able to knit at the same time, because my Affection-ite Color Affection shawl is the epitome of mindless knitting, and I love it. After I make sure to drop and redo the YO after the first stitch, and then make a stitch, I can just knit knit knit along until a practically the end of the row. By the end of the weekend, I was nearly done with the first block of solid color:
Of course, my cat Spice is always there to help me knit. That's her in my lap, wondering what on Earth I could be doing that's possibly more important than petting her. And why there is an intruder, a.k.a a shawl, invading her personal space. These are the kinds of trials and tribulations that make cat life so hard. No wonder she has to nap so much.
Anyway, no naps for me. Now I have a triple digit stitch count on the shawl, so one row could probably get me through a girls' soccer training montage and then some. And I'm officially striping:
I already know this won't be my last Color Affection. I have yarn to make one for myself, and my mind is spinning with other possible color combinations. One with a variegated yarn, perhaps? And maybe I'll have a Vegetable Vindaloo next week. My life is so wild and crazy.
It almost feels like cheating to have another FO so soon. But then I remember that I've had this on needles for over a year. So it's not exactly a 'quick win', something we always think we've identified at work at the start of the year, then discover that we're still working on it come summer and realize that there is no problem so small that the solution cannot be discussed in a few more meetings.
Before my meeting days, '10 Things I Hate About You' was one of my favorite movies. It was my first introduction to my alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College, and is chock-full of quotable quotes. So when Schmutzerella Yarns dyed a yarn inspired by the movie, I was all in. Along with the yarn, she sent everyone who ordered a skein a little button with the word 'whelmed', as in:
"I know you can be overwhelmed, and I know you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"
"I think you can in Europe."
Indeed. I have that button pinned to one of my early chunky knit hats.
She based the colorway on the scene where Kat and Patrick go paint balling, so the bare yarn looks splattered with primary colors. I love these kinds of crazy variegated yarns, but I'm always struggling with patterns for them. Nothing too lacy, because you won't see all of that hard work. But nothing too plain and boring.
I think my Up for Anything Cami has turned out to be one of the perfect examples of a pattern that handles color while still holding its own:
It kind of looks like I've been rolling around the paint ball field, right? Incidentally, these photos also show off my relatively new hair cut. Right after my birthday I told my stylist that I wanted something short but still kind of ponytail-able, and she got it just right with this asymmetrical cut. We also bonded over having both run the marathon, who knew?
Anyway, I might block the body of the cami just a bit, but I really like it as it is. I'll almost certainly wear it with a tank top underneath, for modesty and warmth. For the most part, this was a simple knit. I had a little trouble finishing the top, you can find some info in my project notes about that. Basically, I used another knitter's modification but needed to do some rewriting in order to make them something I could follow. I've already told you, I like things to be spelled out explicitly, otherwise I cannot be trusted to know that I should do it.
So, now that my cami is done, it's official: I'm ready for spring! And I mean real spring, not a day or two of nice weather and then a sudden chill and then back again. Fully-sprung spring. Full of whelming weather.
Do you know what separates the casual frozen yogurt fan from the true devotee? Winter. Sure, it's all good fun when it's hot outside and a cool treat is a welcome break. But what about when the temperatures drop? When you could keep your bowl of self-serve outside without it melting? Some people probably don't eat frozen yogurt between the months of November and February.
I, on the other hand, was looking forward to combining a trip to the movies with a trip to Yogurtland last weekend. It was a tougher journey than I had expected.
'Philomena' is a British film starring Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan that's gotten a little bit of press and had some advertising push behind it that I've seen. Even so, it's not a movie that you'll necessarily find in every theater.
Thankfully in Austin we have several options for independent, smaller release movies like these. Like Regal Arbor, which just happens to be up in North Austin, near Yogurtland. Why yes, I will use any excuse to get some of their tasty flavors. Unfortunately, there was some kind of electrical issue, and they were closed. So we tried to go to a place across the street, which never gets a fair shot because we like Yogurtland so much. They, though, thought it was too cold to stay open. Okay fine, so it stayed below freezing into the afternoon and overpasses and bridges were a little icy. But I needed froyo!
After a moment of panic, we discovered that Yogertz was located practically next door to the movie theater, so I wouldn't have to settle for buttered popcorn to get me through the movie.
I've fallen off of the 'Froyo files' wagon lately, but I'll just take this opportunity to tell you, Yogertz is pretty good. Very creamy and smooth, with 14 flavors to choose from, and all of the nutritional information is up on little LCD screens for each one instead of just a laminated flavor card. There were two sorbets and two tarts, both of which were really tasty, and even the non-dairy tarts were almost creamy.
So after that yogurt break, back to the movie! It was a really well-done movie. Of course, I expect no less from Dame Judi, patron saint of wonderfulness. It's a very straightforward kind of movie, not to say simple. It's based on a true story, the gist of which you can get from the trailer. There are some twists which could be sensationalized, but they aren't, it remains a very quiet but emotional movie anchored solidly by Dench and Coogan's performances.
It might not make you feel so great about nuns, though.
Would you eat frozen yogurt in freezing weather? Or have you seen any good movies lately? For more Movie Madness each Monday, go to Amaryllis Musings.
I don't think I've ever seen this movie all the way through in one sitting. But I'm fairly certain that, thanks to various marathons over the years that have played it on repeat throughout an entire day, I've seen the whole thing in bits and pieces. Including last Wednesday, when AMC had the strangest combination of marathons for Thanksgiving week. All day Wednesday:
'Gone with the Wind', to make you feel grateful that your Thanksgiving doesn't involve the burning of Atlanta. Then Thursday they had 'The Godfather' 1 and 2, and for Black Friday, a slew of Hitchcock classics.
I found myself tuning into this off and on last week. It's hard not to get sucked into the epicness of the entire production. The sweeping score, the costumes that wouldn't fit through my front door, the outrageous characters, and the famous lines spoken in Southern drawl. I love a good Hollywood classic, and this is definitely one of them. But man, is this thing long. No wonder they save marathons for holidays, otherwise no one has time to sit down long enough anymore to go from credits to credits. But that makes it part of the magic of the holidays, I guess.
As an aside: I just started up another swap on Ravelry, themed around Jane Austen. So as I was watching, I was thinking about how Scarlett's ultimate love is Tara, her home. I think there's a lot to be said for the women of Austen's novels as in love with property as their romantic partners. Even though Austen would tend to make a heroine out of someone like Melanie more than Scarlett, who is so much more of a Thackeray, Becky Sharp type, I think there are some things Jane might recognize.
For the past week or so I seem to have been caught by Turner Classic Movie on a couple of features. Instead of trying to choose between them, I'm just going to share them all with you.
'The Company She Keeps' is basically the story of a woman after she is paroled from prison. She had been 'doing time' for check fraud, the latest in a series of acts of petty crime. Her relationship with her parole officer is…complicated. She kind of steals her boyfriend, then ends up falling in love with him and needing her help in getting to marry him. The parole officer is the kind of saint that you only ever find in movies, generous to a fault. But is her parolee worthy of it?
It's an interesting window into the perception of criminals, particularly female criminals, and rehabilitation.
'Break of Hearts' was originally a radio play with Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, but it was adapted into a feature film with Katharine Hepburn. You know you're watching a classic film rather than a modern one when the celebrity playboy is a conductor. To borrow a phrase from 'Down With Love', he's a 'man's-man-ladie's-man-man-about-town' who can't even be satisfied with the love of Katharine Hepburn, as an unknown composer and fan.
It's not critical stellar, but given that they're playing films 24/7, they can't all be the timeless classics, and it's still enjoyable enough. The cast is also great. To be honest, just seeing a young Katharine Hepburn on the screen was enough to keep me from turning the channel.
I only managed to catch the last 15 minutes or so of 'Ball of Fire', a romantic comedy with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper, but I definitely want to see the rest of it sometime, it was quite sweet. It's about a group of stuffy old professors who enlist the help of a burlesque dancer to catalogue modern slang as part of their accumulation of general knowledge. Again, sweet, and funny.
Plus, one of the ensemble cast of professors has a very distinctive voice: he was the Caterpillar in Disney's 'Alice in Wonderland'. I always love putting the face to the voice, and to compile enough experience with pop culture to recognize people in different roles. Like when Maleficent from 'Sleeping Beauty' popped up in an episode of 'The Twilight Zone'. I love those moments.
Well, that's what I've been watching, how about you? Amaryllis Musings has been enjoying some slightly more current cinema this week.
Forget variety, we all know that salt is the real spice of life. It makes everything taste better, even caramel. And it makes for a fun action flick too.
I caught this on cable for the second time yesterday while waiting for the slate of football games to kick off. I'm not claiming this is a cinematic masterpiece, but it was worth watching twice, and that's pretty good for the shoot 'em up genre.
The trailer tells you all you need to know: Jolie is a CIA agent who may or may not be a Russian spy, raised from a child to bring down the evil American empire from within. After being accused, she doesn't just sit around waiting for counter intelligence to clear her, of course. No, she starts kicking butt and taking names. There are various interesting twists and turns, and Salt's ingenuity is fun to watch as well. I don't care so much how well she can throw a punch, but I do like the tricks she has up her sleeves. It's one of the things I liked about James Bond growing up, the smarts more than the scuffles. And there's enough emotion to give it some weight without getting sappy.
I saw this as part of one of those 'DVD on TV' shows, where along with the movie they transition to and from commercials with little behind the scenes vignettes. The most interesting tidbit I picked up was that this was originally written with a male lead, think Tom Cruise. Watching the movie with that in mind, it makes you realize just how differently we take in certain things depending on the gender of the main character. I won't go into spoilery details, but it gave me the opportunity to think about how I would have seen the movie Evelyn Salt had been Edwin Salt. Personally, I like it this way better.
Do you like action movies? What makes a good one? Amaryllis Musings is reviewing another breed of action movie in her post today, the superhero flick. Check it out.
Since I've been spending every free moment I have trying to add to my NaNoWriMo word count, I was trying to think of movies about writing that I could blog about today. Writers are often praised for having great imaginations, but here's one movie where having an overactive imagination was not such a great thing.
I think I saw 'Atonement' before I read the book, because I saw the movie in theaters when I was in college just before the winter break, and I was still reading the novel after the break when I left for my semester abroad. That's not usually the order I like to do things in, but I had been looking forward to the movie, and one of my friends had actually read several of Ian McEwan's novels as part of her coursework, so I had dessert first, so to speak.
That metaphor is a little problematic in that I also usually like the books more than the movies they are turned into. And this was no exception, though more because the book is fantastic than because I don't like the movie, because I do. The film is beautifully made, with gorgeous costuming and a wonderful score. But there are inner motivations and conflicts that McEwan is able to illustrate with words that Keira Knightley just can't convey with a longing look into a mirror. But I can appreciate what she was trying to evoke once the book told me. And I love James McAvoy.
The bright side of that is that you can watch the movie and know that in reading the book you will get to see inside the characters so much more, and then you can watch the movie again. And even after all that, you'll still be conflicted about the central theme of the story: atonement. Can it be had? I'm not so sure. Without giving too much away, I just don't think that Briony relinquished anything substantial to in order to truly atone. She retained authorship of the story, and used it to play God in too many ways for me to believe that she would accept anyone else's judgement against her.
When I was a kid, I dressed up as a Spice Girl for Halloween. Baby Spice, for those who know what that means. I had my hair in high pigtails, a face full of makeup, and a short blue dress that actually came from the sleepwear section of Target. Add to that my mother's high heeled shoes (no platforms available), and I'm sure that at least half of the people that gave me candy that night thought I was trick or treating as a prostitute. But these are the things you only realize in hindsight.
I don't go trick or treating anymore, and I didn't have any parties or anything to go to, but I decided to dress up a little for Halloween last week anyway. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision, though, so I had to source the costume from what was already in my closet. Thankfully, I have some dramatic 'moments' in my wardrobe that could be combined to create a look. Like a pair of sort of tweedy black shorts with some shiny thread to them and suspender buttons on the front. And a black cardigan covered in sequins. Add some basics, black leggings, black tank top, a pair of black Mary Jane-esque shoes. Then top it off with a feathered headband and black ribbon tied around the neck, and voila! Life is a 'Cabaret', old chum.
I have to admit, though, that I hadn't actually seen the entire movie when I wore the costume. I had seen bits and pieces, but we rented it on iTunes on Saturday and watched it all the way through.
It's so funny, looking back, that I grew up watching musicals as a kid. Because outside of Disney cartoons, and 'The Sound of Music', musicals tend to have some pretty inappropriate subject matter that they're so melodically portraying. I wonder how my child-self would have naively processed everything from the divine decadence of Liza Minnelli's polished finger nails to the Nazis. Well, I guess I already understood those from 'The Sound of Music'. While some of the sexual or political stuff might make it controversial for some people, to me it all adds to the depth of experience. The musical numbers are catchy and fun, but the characters are conflicted, and there's a kind of grotesqueness to the cabaret that the film is clearly playing with, and juxtaposing various elements to interesting effect.
When it comes right down to it, this is a classic. I'm glad I finally got to see it. And while I'm not in a hurry to watch it over and over again to memorize every line like other musicals, I do have some of the songs stuck in my head.
And I don't regret dressing up in its honor. From Spice Girl to Cabaret doll, that's what Halloween is for, right?
Thanks to Amaryllis Musings for starting me on the movie madness meme.
This isn't exactly a review, because I can't tell you how good this objectively was, and I'm not exactly recommending that you pop this into your DVD player any time soon. Think of this week's Madness more as me sharing a movie experience with you. Just for the sake of it.
Every so often, I'll be flipping through the channels and find myself caught up in something on Turner Classic Movies. Aside from showing some very interesting things, they don't have commercials, so there's no 'easy out' to snap me out of the story and move me along to a rerun of 'Castle' or another fascinating real estate adventure with 'House Hunters'.
Speaking of 'House Hunters', the movie I randomly found myself watching last week was sort of related.
'A Place of One's Own' was a 1945 film produced by Gainsborough Pictures, a studio that released a series of melodramatic films that were unrelated, but had the same general tone and employed a recurring cast of actors. From what I can gather, I would say that they were the cinematic equivalent of a beach read: popular escapist fare. Except that instead of being paired with sun and sand, these were vaguely moody distractions from World War Two.
This one is a ghost story, where the haunting is represented entirely by the eerie playing of a piano and the actress' portrayal of possession. It all starts when an older couple buys a house, fulfilling their lifelong dream. There are rumors about the house being haunted, but of course they don't indulge in such silly fancies. Along with them are some servants and a young woman, Annette, who is a companion to the wife. Where has that career path disappeared to? Companion. Only Time Lords seem to get to have one anymore.
Moving swiftly on, Annette proceeds to engage in classic young heroine activities, such as getting engaged to a local doctor. And, of course, just when things appear to be ending happily ever after...cue the eerie piano playing. Annette become possessed by the ghost of a young woman who died under mysterious circumstances and has some unfinished business with a handsome young doctor of her own.
I won't say this was a fascinating film, but it was intriguing. It's always interesting to see pieces of pop culture that aren't the one or two masterpieces. It gives you a different perspective on the people making and taking the culture. Maybe it was because I was about to go to an alumni event for Sarah Lawrence, but I couldn't help but think that these films would be rife with conference paper topics. There's so much going on here having to do with home ownership, which kept me from changing the channel more than wondering what would happen to poor little Annette.
Ah, democracy. It seems to be working out, for the most part, right? Sure, sometimes the government shuts down for more than a week, but overall, this whole concept of representation to go along with our taxation is mostly working out. In the spirit of democracy, I have two things for you.
First, I want to mention that Craftsy has opened their polls on your favorite bloggers in various categories like knitting and baking, two of my favorite things. Check out all of the nominees and vote for your favorites.
Second, I have a recommendation for a classic, democracy feel-good film:
I remember watching 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' in my high school government class. I think we were supposed to be learning about politics and graft, but mostly I remember a lot of my fellow female students noticing how dreamy Jimmy Stewart is. It's one of those self-evident truths that crosses generations.
But aside from that, this is legitimately just a fantastic film. It's a simple story, not in a bad way, but in a universal way. Smith is literally a boy scout, the good guy brought into the moral morass of D.C. unaware of the plots being hatched in the inky shadows of all of those patriotic monuments. His idealism is played for laughs at the start, as the audience knows better than to expect politicians to be sincere. That's even more true today, when cynicism is prized. But I defy even the most sarcastic millennial not to be rooting Smith on by the end, and feeling a little glow of civic pride.
I'm pretty sure that part of the reason the filibuster remains a part of our system is because of the positive associations we have with it because of this movie. Because no one wants to give up on the possibility of Mr. Smith showing up and saving the day with one. So there's your lesson in democracy for today. Watch this movie, vote for your favorite blogs, and then apply these same principles in something that actually matters to you.
Don't forget to check out more movie madness from Amaryllis Musings (hey, I recognize that movie!).
