December 23, 2009
I want to resurrect this blog with an apt entry on silent film femmes since I’ve been silent here for so long now. I’ve always wanted to watch the earliest movies created because – well - what if I die and never watched them? You know? So I went waaaaay back into the vaults and watched “The Arrival of a Train” (1895), “A Trip to the Moon” (1902) and “The Cheat” (1915), amongst other less notable films. (Don’t waste your time on a rarebit fiend – nuf said). All in all, I feel like I’m bearing witness to the technical and whimsical magic of the notion of being able to document movement and it’s kinda fun.
Two silent femmes command the era and I had hoped to compare Lillian Gish to Mary Pickford but I made the mistake of accidentally selecting “The Taming of the Shrew” (1929) to compare to “Birth of a Nation” (1915). Shrew is way out of Nation’s league and a real comparison is impossible for the following reasons:
1. Shrew is a talkie (oops – bad Pickford choice) and Birth is silent
2. Birth is an historical account of the KKK while Shrew is a Shakespearean comedy
3. “Birth of a Nation” is the grandfather of film. I literally set Shrew up to fail.
And so I can’t yet compare these two actresses. However, I can say that I think Shrew is an excellent example of the origins of slapstick and the extension of silent movement into the talkie era. Flamboyant gesticulation and overemphasized double takes actually did make me laugh. I still want to track down Pickford’s “Sparrows” to get a better sense of her talents.
Birth offers so many beautiful subtleties that it’s worth taking the time to watch it – over the course of a few days. One shot stays with me from the film – Elsie (Gish) hops onto a box lying in the yard before pursuing her brothers into the house. No reason. Just a little gesture. Lovely.
February 26, 2008
Ginger Rogers’ fabulous feathered gown complements Astaire’s cheeky character in the over the top Top Hat. As is usually the case with musical comedies, the couple falls in love despite themselves, the plot is tenuous and maddening at best and the sets (in this case Venice, Italy) are but skeletal frames for, what else, the dancing! Emotions exchanged by the tap of toes across the floor and the tenderness with which Fred pulls Ginger out of a triumphant dip are reason enough to watch this film. The dialogue is snippy and waltzes through the screenplay in a way which made me laugh in spite of myself.
Quotable quote:
“You mean to sit there and tell me that that girl slapped your face in front of all those people for nothing?”
“What would you have done? Sold tickets?”
February 16, 2008
“Do you think I did not know her,
Ragged and gnarled and stooped like a wind-bent tree,
Her basket full of combs and pins and laces?
Of course I took her poisoned gifts. I wanted
To feel her hands combing out my hair,
To let her lace me up, to take an apple
From her hand, a smile from her lips,
As when I was a child.”
Delia Sherman ~Snow White to the Prince~
Watching this classic again was like going back to my childhood but this time I noticed that the “happily every after” is, after all, a reference to the afterlife.
February 10, 2008
Billy Wilder strips Marlene Dietrich of much more than her pantsuit leg in A Witness for the Prosecution. Dietrich relinquishes her role as the quintessential femme fatale to reveal a tamer, more vulnerable version of the sexy German vixen. Crisp and smart, Dietrich’s character Mrs. Christine Vole is called to testify as a witness for the prosecution at her husband’s murder trial.
Throughout, Dietrich’s character is seemingly polarized by the significantly less enticing and comedic Miss. Plimsoll the nurse whose function appears to be limited to her failing struggle to deny our hero the Barrister Robarts of his personal vices while he presents his defense. And yet here is the crux of the film – a woman must be either a nuisance or a murderess unless she sacrifice herself for a man’s sins. In contrast, her counterpart can only support a woman’s crime if it fits within his concept of justice – consider Detective Spade’s ultimate decision in Huston’s Maltese Falcon.
Nonetheless, an excellent Sunday afternoon diversion!
Quotable quote: “I am surprised the testament did not leap from her hands…”
