THE WINSLOW BOY (1999)
Sir Robert Morton: "Oh, you still pursue your feminist activities?"
Catherine Winslow: "Oh yes."
Sir Robert Morton: "Pity. It's a lost cause."
Catherine Winslow: "Oh, do you really think so, Sir Robert? How little you know about women. Good-bye. I doubt that we shall meet again."
Sir Robert Morton: "Oh, do you really think so, Miss Winslow? How little you know about men."
(Jeremy Northam as Sir Robert and Rebecca Pidgeon as Catherine in The Winslow Boy, 1999)
This is a favourite of mine, and I just watched it again yesterday. The Winslow Boy is based on a 1946 play by Terrence Rattigan that was - in turn - based on a real event that took place in 1908. In the story, a family fights to save the honour of their 13-year-old son, expelled from Osborne Naval College for allegedly stealing a postal order.
The David Mamet-directed 1999 film version is intriguing. The cast includes Nigel Hawthorne as Mr. Winslow; Gemma Jones as his wife; Rebecca Pidgeon as their daughter Catherine, a suffragette; and Jeremy Northam as Sir Robert Morton, the brilliant barrister who takes the case.
It may be set in 1908, but this isn't Merchant-Ivory fare. You won't find a single golden-light-bathed moment, and for this I give thanks. What makes this film magical for me, is that there isn't evidence of art direction anywhere. I get the distinct impression that this might be about as real as it gets when it comes to recreating that time period. Nothing is designed to invoke oohs and aahs.
The idea of family is powerful: the relationships between members of the Winslow family are beautifully drawn. You know Mr. Winslow loves and respects his prickly, intelligent daughter, and there are times - no doubt - when, as much as he loves her, he might dislike her. Her mother is a simpler woman and doesn't quite understand the suffragette she spawned. The older brother is a little hapless, the younger one is endearing. Sir Robert is brilliant and enigmatic.
I like Roger Ebert's review and you can read the entire thing here.
As to the business of casting his wife in the role of Catherine, I think David Mamet did a grand job. Her English accent is impeccable and her prickly reserve and lack of people-pleasing skills is pretty refreshing from the regular line-up of Brit-dram fluffballs.
BURN AFTER READING (2008)
"Osbourne Cox? I thought you might be worried... about the security... of your shit."
(Brad Pitt as Chad)
I finally got out to see Burn After Reading last night, the latest Coen brothers film. What a cast: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, Brad Pitt and J.K. Simmons. The cast list alone would imply that we were going to see something with heft, some intellectual weight, but basically this is great slapstick with some thought. It's surprisingly short too, only about 90 minutes. This film marks two occasions: the enrolling of J. K. Simmons (the dad in Juno) as my new secret boyfriend, and the first time I've really enjoyed Brad Pitt in anything, and that includes Fight Club, which I thought was great, but I didn't actively enjoy it in a "woo hoo!" sort of way.
DRACULA (1992)
"I... love you too much to condemn you."
(Gary Oldman as Dracula)
Halloween night we'd planned to see... well, Halloween (1978). I'd never seen it and thought, hell, isn't it supposed to be a horror classic? 10 minutes in I reckoned not, so we switched over to Bram Stoker's Dracula. This film just fascinates me. It's the best of things and the worst of things. Visually it's stunning. Some of the casting is successful, with Gary Oldman in the title role, head and shoulders and fangs above the rest; Keanu Reeves is on the other end of the spectrum, deeply miscast, as he was to be even more magnificently the next year in Much Ado About Nothing (1993).
My romantic self particularly loves the framing backstory of Count Vlad from the 15th century and his tragic love story with Elisabeta. As operatically overwrought as it is, it seems by far the most authentic part of the film. There's a lot of ham elsewhere, including Anthony Hopkins who seemed to be in training for his scenery-chewing turn in Legends of the Fall (1994). (Damn, I forgot how much I loved that film, or rather, loved laughing at it, especially Brad Pitt - him again!. In LOTF he takes off for France to do some fighting in WWI, with his freshly-shampooed and well-layered long hair. My friend F and I were respectful of the sniffles and sobs we heard around us in the movie theatre, but once we got outside... well, we never stopped laughing over it. I think my favourite moment was the old First Nations retainer stomping his way around the dead bodies in the last scene - who the hell cares about spoilers for this one? - with his deadpan voiceover: "I was hungry for scalps but it wasn't my kill." I hope a First-Nations committee got up in arms over that one. SOMEONE had to!)
ROBERTA (1935)
This film potentially has the most over-the-top tagline in history:
A Heart-Load of Maddening Beauties... In Gasping Gowns... A Fortune in Furs... A Ransom in Jewels... In a Song-Studded Romance of Paris in Lovetime!
Blimey! It's also got Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Irene Dunne, and Randolph Scott (surely the most beautiful man in film history?) It boasts a fictional (I hope) musical troupe named the Wabash Indianians (I kid you not) and the first film outing of the song Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.
It's sentimental, heart-warming, stylish and indulgent. If this is what the Great Depression managed to pull out to distract the public from their very real sufferings, I sure hope this current economic crisis we are in can at least create some similarly-enchanting diversions.
5 comments:
As a hardcore john Carpenter partisan, I should quibble with your casual dismissal of HALLOWEEN--but I won't, as it's easily his worst film. (In tepid defense, I should say it does get better as it goes along, and it looked a whole lot better at the time.)
However, you're entirely too kind towards DRACULA--this was the movie that, all by itself, made me realize Francis Coppola was not a filmmaker worth taking seriously. Yeah, Oldman's good, but he's operating in a vacuum. After all, his love across the ages is Winona Ryder, and despite the crush I still carry from HEATHERS, she's absolutely laughable in this, and none of the performers even seem to belong in the same movie. (Except possibly Richard Grant and Tom Waits--an odd pairing that actually works.) Everything good about is cribbed from other movies and...UGH!
But honestly, the whole reason for this (epic-length!) comment was to share your enthusiasm for LEGENDS OF THE FALL, a movie I dearly wish had been intended as a comedy. You mention Brad Pitt's hair, certainly one of the wackiest elements, but for my money, Hopkins takes the cake; when he comes charging out after supposedly suffering a stroke, looking and acting for all the world like Poopdeck Pappy, I lost it and started laughing hysterically. Fortunately, the theater was mostly empty.
Ed: I'm lol... my friend F and I laughed for years over AH railing and hollering and carrying on with his shock of white hair. I think the word "over-wrought" crops up quite often when we remember this film.
Yes, I'm very kind about Dracula, mostly because Gary Oldman just leaves me breathless and because it's so romantic and I just become a big sighing mess over it. So yes, I cut this film a lot of slack.
One day I'll try watching Halloween again, just for shits and giggles. Maybe after a Guinness or two.
Oh, I loved Winslow Boy! It was really well done. I'm not a big Brad Pitt fan either, but I did like him in Spy Games. I liked Robert Redford better tho. I'm not much on horror films, but I did wonder if Bram Stoker's Dracula would be good. I missed it this time, but one of these days I'm going to have to see it.
Burn After Reading = Big Fun! :)
Rosezilla: I'm so glad you liked it, I'm so glad you *saw* it... I've not met many who have. :)
Dave: I concur wholeheartedly with your diagnosis Dr. Dave!
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