![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Summer Season: Week 11
Hnngg. One of those weeks where I've been crazy busy and had so much to do that it's all just... blurred together and I'm left with absolutely no sense of accomplishment? I got a dishwasher, at least! That's something concrete I can hang my hat on. And wash it with, if I really wanted to, I guess. Also my mom used my credit card without telling me and I cancelled it because I didn't know wtf the charge was, so now I've got to change over all my automatic payments to the new one, THANKS MA. DON'T YOU BITCH AT ME BECAUSE NETFLIX ISN'T WORKING, THIS ONE'S ON YOU.
Tentatively aiming to do Stratford next year with Colm Feore announced as Richard III, but it'll all hinge on how much money I can sock away while doing shit like buying dishwashers and paying back all the people I owe. It'll be my first vacation since the fire, so I'm weirdly nervous? But I'm also real overdue getting the fuck out of town for a spell, and I've got about five months before tickets go on sale to figure out if I can afford to commit. I really miss Stratford!!!
...also I have a lot more available credit than I did the last time I went, so there's always wiggle room. >_>
ANYWAY, MOVIES!
Craig's Wife (1936): I loved this movie? I loved this movie! I was just here for my QUEEN, Rosalind Russell, and I got this tidily upsetting little drama instead? Harriet's actions manage to be completely understandable and sympathetic without ever trying to pretend that she's remotely in the right? She's the bad guy here! She's really the worst! Her husband loves her so much! She got everything she wanted in the end, when she could have had so much more! But then you have the sideplot with the sad sack best friend character murdering his wife just hovering on the periphery, reminding us exactly why she feels the way she does about men and marriage. She's not right, but she's not entirely wrong, either. I keep thinking back on The Women and how thoroughly this illustrates the difference between having representation in front of the camera and having representation behind the camera as well, and what a massive fucking difference it makes. How have I never heard much about Dorothy Arzner before? SO GOOD.
Christopher Strong (1933): Not as good as Craig's Wife, but solid. I like my infidelity melodramas with no easy answers, and this delivered. Not sure why the dude is the titular character when it's clearly Cynthia's story, but WEVS. I guess he's the link between all the women in the movie? It's a movie about cheating where the women aren't pitted against each other! How fucking novel! Except for the stuff near the end with the daughter finding them out, and even then, she's not WRONG to feel the way she does, so you just end up caring about everyone involved and being sad instead of rooting for anyone in particular! That ending was bonkers, but Katharine Hepburn's SPARKLY METALLIC MOTH COSTUME makes up for it x1000.
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940): Ending my little Arzner triple feature with this fun little thing about complicated female friendships amid the male gaze. My biggest issue with this movie is that Maureen O'Hara comes across as SUCH a lame wet blanket compared to Lucille Ball, she's SO hard to root for, I just want to hang out with Bubbles more than the actual protagonist, even when she's being kinda shitty. Judy gets a little better near the end when she gives her baller speech to all the gross men in the audience before the big catfight climax (META!), but eh. Either way, the fact that neither of them end up with the total scrub of a love interest is the only happy ending any of these movies have had, so I'LL TAKE IT. I guess I stan Dorothy Arzner now, guys!!!!
Damn the Defiant! (1962): Stiff little naval drama that, because I've only ever seen it referred to by its original title (H.M.S. Defiant), I did not realize was edited by my boi Peter Hunt until the credits were rolling! I had a bit of a tough time with this one, if only because starting the movie by showing us how much of the crew was pressed into service made it REALLY hard to give a shit about any of the officers, and made the first three quarters of the movie feel like conflicts between the villains, some of whom happen to be nicer than others. Still, Dirk Bogarde is SO good here as the punk-ass buster of a first officer, just a really compelling to watch shitheel, and once the actual mutiny finally kicks off in the last act it gets pretty intense. Also the constantly rocking camerawork was fun. Cool old-timey costumes and cool old-timey boat fights, overall a good time.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019): I am so, so, SO here for actual horror movies aimed at kids, and would really, really, really like to see more like this. A lot of fun.
The Prisoner (1955): He was kinda overshadowed in Damn the Defiant! so I went looking for more classic Alec Guinness goodness, and this really scratched that itch. HOT CATHOLIC PRIEST ALEC! This is just straight-up anti-communist propaganda, but the two main performances anchoring it are just killer. Think this one might stick with me for a while.
The Scapegoat (1959): DOUBLE THE ALEC, DOUBLE THE FUN. Also fits my ongoing sub-theme of Du Maurier adaptations, so hooray! Anyway, this movie is fucking ridiculous and I quite enjoyed it. Kinda reminded me of a weird reverse My Name is Julia Ross, but not gothic and his life already sucks enough that he just decides to go along with it instead of fighting for long. The middle bit where he's like 'fuck it I guess I'll be this guy for a while' goes on way too long, but the moody voiceovers are excellent throughout, and the split screen doppelganger effects are actually pretty seamless, all things considered. Bette Davis and that rad black sparkly dress and giant hat, man.
Tentatively aiming to do Stratford next year with Colm Feore announced as Richard III, but it'll all hinge on how much money I can sock away while doing shit like buying dishwashers and paying back all the people I owe. It'll be my first vacation since the fire, so I'm weirdly nervous? But I'm also real overdue getting the fuck out of town for a spell, and I've got about five months before tickets go on sale to figure out if I can afford to commit. I really miss Stratford!!!
...also I have a lot more available credit than I did the last time I went, so there's always wiggle room. >_>
ANYWAY, MOVIES!
Craig's Wife (1936): I loved this movie? I loved this movie! I was just here for my QUEEN, Rosalind Russell, and I got this tidily upsetting little drama instead? Harriet's actions manage to be completely understandable and sympathetic without ever trying to pretend that she's remotely in the right? She's the bad guy here! She's really the worst! Her husband loves her so much! She got everything she wanted in the end, when she could have had so much more! But then you have the sideplot with the sad sack best friend character murdering his wife just hovering on the periphery, reminding us exactly why she feels the way she does about men and marriage. She's not right, but she's not entirely wrong, either. I keep thinking back on The Women and how thoroughly this illustrates the difference between having representation in front of the camera and having representation behind the camera as well, and what a massive fucking difference it makes. How have I never heard much about Dorothy Arzner before? SO GOOD.
Christopher Strong (1933): Not as good as Craig's Wife, but solid. I like my infidelity melodramas with no easy answers, and this delivered. Not sure why the dude is the titular character when it's clearly Cynthia's story, but WEVS. I guess he's the link between all the women in the movie? It's a movie about cheating where the women aren't pitted against each other! How fucking novel! Except for the stuff near the end with the daughter finding them out, and even then, she's not WRONG to feel the way she does, so you just end up caring about everyone involved and being sad instead of rooting for anyone in particular! That ending was bonkers, but Katharine Hepburn's SPARKLY METALLIC MOTH COSTUME makes up for it x1000.
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940): Ending my little Arzner triple feature with this fun little thing about complicated female friendships amid the male gaze. My biggest issue with this movie is that Maureen O'Hara comes across as SUCH a lame wet blanket compared to Lucille Ball, she's SO hard to root for, I just want to hang out with Bubbles more than the actual protagonist, even when she's being kinda shitty. Judy gets a little better near the end when she gives her baller speech to all the gross men in the audience before the big catfight climax (META!), but eh. Either way, the fact that neither of them end up with the total scrub of a love interest is the only happy ending any of these movies have had, so I'LL TAKE IT. I guess I stan Dorothy Arzner now, guys!!!!
Damn the Defiant! (1962): Stiff little naval drama that, because I've only ever seen it referred to by its original title (H.M.S. Defiant), I did not realize was edited by my boi Peter Hunt until the credits were rolling! I had a bit of a tough time with this one, if only because starting the movie by showing us how much of the crew was pressed into service made it REALLY hard to give a shit about any of the officers, and made the first three quarters of the movie feel like conflicts between the villains, some of whom happen to be nicer than others. Still, Dirk Bogarde is SO good here as the punk-ass buster of a first officer, just a really compelling to watch shitheel, and once the actual mutiny finally kicks off in the last act it gets pretty intense. Also the constantly rocking camerawork was fun. Cool old-timey costumes and cool old-timey boat fights, overall a good time.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019): I am so, so, SO here for actual horror movies aimed at kids, and would really, really, really like to see more like this. A lot of fun.
The Prisoner (1955): He was kinda overshadowed in Damn the Defiant! so I went looking for more classic Alec Guinness goodness, and this really scratched that itch. HOT CATHOLIC PRIEST ALEC! This is just straight-up anti-communist propaganda, but the two main performances anchoring it are just killer. Think this one might stick with me for a while.
The Scapegoat (1959): DOUBLE THE ALEC, DOUBLE THE FUN. Also fits my ongoing sub-theme of Du Maurier adaptations, so hooray! Anyway, this movie is fucking ridiculous and I quite enjoyed it. Kinda reminded me of a weird reverse My Name is Julia Ross, but not gothic and his life already sucks enough that he just decides to go along with it instead of fighting for long. The middle bit where he's like 'fuck it I guess I'll be this guy for a while' goes on way too long, but the moody voiceovers are excellent throughout, and the split screen doppelganger effects are actually pretty seamless, all things considered. Bette Davis and that rad black sparkly dress and giant hat, man.
no subject
no subject