Movies, Mom & Me

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  Commentary:  Another classic had-to-have favorite. This movie is so good and so correctly prophetic (and so fucking well done) it still scares the bejesus out of me. I am driven to watch it at least twice a year.
    Does it surprise you to know that Roger Ebert reviewed this movie twice? He did, again, as one of his "Great Movies", linked to the title of this post, and 24 years earlier when he initially saw it on it's first release.
  Update 6/9/2022:  This post was originally published on 8/14/16 but disappeared from public view. I am now reinstating it.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Faye Dunaway	Diana Christensen	Wiliam Holden	Max Schumacher	Peter Finch	Howard Beale	Robert Duvall	Frank Hackett
  Wesley Addy	Nelson Chaney	Ned Beatty	Arthur Jensen	Beatrice Straight	Louise Schumacher	Jordan Charney	Harry Hunter
  Conchata Ferrell	Barbara Schlesinger	Darryl Hickman	Bill Herron	William Prince	Edward Ruddy	Ken Kercheval	Merrill Grant

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1976
    Directed by Sidney Lumet.

Labels: faye-dunaway, journalism, me-favorite1, ned-beatty, political2, prophecy, robert-duvall, satire1

# posted by gail @ 14:15    0 comments    email......this post

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  Commentary:  If this movie isn't the most controversial movie I own, it's very close to the top of that list. Check out the Wikipedia article on it linked below in the usual place and you'll see what I mean. By "controversial", I don't mean "universally panned". There are those who unabashedly love it (I belong in this category), those who four-square despise or dismiss it (think Roger Ebert in the review to which the title of this post is linked), and people who fall at all points in between.
    It's not just the structure of the movie that provokes comment. Everything, including Faye Dunaway's performance (which even she has expressed reservations about), the audacity of basing it on a controversial memoir, the directing, the editing, the choice of material upon which the screenplay was based, even scene placement comes up for comment.
    Well, sorry, everyone, I love, love, love this movie! I've been wanting to own it for awhile, despite the fact that I neglected to include it in Movies I've Seen, Do Not Own but Can't Forget. Ever since I began hankering for it, it's been in my "very pricey" category. Last week I noticed that, while still in that category, the price had dropped by five bucks (it didn't drop, at all, during any of those recent, much ballyhooed sales on certain purchasing sites), so I decided, okay, I'm going for it.
    I received it yesterday. Watched it last night. Rarely have I been so satisfied with a purchase! The movie is so over-the-top that I was surprised to discover that, those scenes and moments I remembered previous to purchase, well, I'd remembered them exactly!
    Truthfully, I'm sorry to read (in the article pegged to the title, above) that Dunaway has reservations not only about her performance, but, as well, the directing of that performance. I am not one of those who loves this movie because it's "campy", as it's been labeled numerous times, although I understand why it is so labeled. By the time this movie was initially released, Joan Crawford had become camp. She was partially responsible for this, considering the movie choices she made later in her life (think Trog and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, the latter of which, in the words of the attached Wikipedia article: "...spawned a succession of horror/thriller films featuring psychotic older women, later dubbed the psycho-biddy subgenre...").
    I don't consider this movie campy. I don't necessarily consider it to be the unvarnished history of Joan Crawford's life, either. It was, after all, based on a book written by an abused and conflicted daughter. But, let's face it, people. Those who lead lives that glitter, especially those who choose those lives, in part, because of the glitter they'll don, well, the "truths" of their lives will always partly distract, as well as attract. That is, in large part, why we, as members of the audience, are hungry to know more about them and doomed to never know the unglittered truth.
    Here's the interesting part: If you own a copy of Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce © 2005 Turner Entertainment Company, check out the documentary profile included as a special feature, Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star. Although there is some information in the movie that is not addressed in the documentary (how she treated her first two children, for instance), nothing in the documentary refutes, or is refuted by, anything in Mommie Dearest. I can attest to this because, immediately after I watched the movie, last night, I was driven to watch the documentary, precisely because I wondered about this. The immediately previous link, by the way, is to a different article about the movie; here is yet another, full of interesting backstory. It looks like no one can get enough of this movie, which is fine with me because I thoroughly enjoyed it, last night, and expect to, again.
    There are a couple of other articles at RogerEbert.com that meditate on the movie, while it was still in production, by Roger Ebert (although it was published after the movie was released and after Ebert's final review of the movie) and many years after it was released, by Angelica Jade Bastien. No matter what your reaction to the movie, they make for intriguing reading, especially the second article.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Faye Dunaway	Joan Crawford	Diana Scarwid	Christina Crawford	Steve Forrest	Gregg Savitt	Howard Da Silva	Louis B. Mayer
  Rutanya Alda	Carol Ann	Harry Goz	Alfred Steele	Michael Edwards	Ted Gilbert	Jocelyn Brando	Barbara Bennett
  Priscilla Pointer	Margaret Lee Chadwick	Xander Berkeley	Christopher Crawford	Belita Moreno	Belinda Rosenberg	Alice Nunn	Helga

  
    Here's the Wikipedia write-up for this movie.
    Release Date: 1981
    Directed by Frank Perry.

Labels: aging, biography2, coming-of-age2, dramaD, faye-dunaway, historical4, period6, popcorn-and-soda6

# posted by gail @ 15:05    0 comments    email......this post

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  Commentary:  I can't believe it's taken me this long, and this movie, in particular, to initiate the label category "spy". Clearly, I have other "spy" movies, the Jason Bourne movies coming most immediately to mind. Didn't occur to me, though, back then, to create a "spy" category. Let's see, I'm thinking Hanna, too, and, well, I'm sure, more.
    In fact, although I have some spy movies, I'm not really a spy movie aficionado. There are, for instance, so many James Bond movies I haven't seen that, frankly, I can't remember the ones I have seen.
    I'm not much of a Robert Redford fan, either. I own some movies in which he stars or is a member of a celebrated ensemble cast (i.e. The Sting), but my curiosity about any movie isn't piqued because he happens to be in it. I think, in fact, that I've seen (and probably own) more movies that he's produced and/or directed than those in which he's acted.
    That being said, I really enjoy this movie. It's my kind of spy movie: You know but you just don't know; you never know; too bad for you; now what're you gonna do?!?
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Robert Redford	Joseph Turner	Faye Dunaway	Kathy Hale	Cliff Robertson	Higgins	Max von Sydow	Joubert
  John Houseman	Wabash	Addison Powell	Leonard Atwood	Walter McGinn	Sam Barber	Tina Chen	Janice Chong

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up for this film.
    Release Date: 1975
    Directed by Sydney Pollack.

Labels: adventure2, detective1, drama2, faye-dunaway, max-von-sydow, political1, robert-redford, spy, suspense1, thriller1

# posted by gail @ 12:42    0 comments    email......this post

• Who's watched:  M & G
• Mentions:  None
• 
  Commentary:  I'm truly surprised I've never mentioned this film in the journal. Since I saw it in the theater I've rented it for both of us to watch. We are both always delighted with it.
    My mother consistently snorts her ironic disapproval during the scenes in which DeMarco talks about women. At one point, the first time she saw it, she rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, brother!" By the end, though, she is always won over. This is one of those movies that makes me wonder which I enjoy more; watching the movie or watching my mother watch the movie.
    It is important to note (as I did in the table below) that Selena, yes, that Selena, appears briefly in this movie. It seems this was her only film appearance. It was noted in her Wikipedia write-up, to which I've linked in the table, below.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Marlon Brando	Dr. Jack Mickler/Don Octavio de Flores	Johnny Depp	John Arnold DeMarco/Don Juan	Faye Dunaway	Marilyn Mickler	Géraldine Pailhas	Doña Ana
  Bob Dishy	Dr. Paul Showalter	Franc Luz	Don Antonio	Rachel Ticotin	Doña Inez	Selena Pérez	Ranchera Singer

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1995
    Directed by Jeremy Leven.

Labels: dramedy2, faye-dunaway, marlon-brando, me-favorite3, popcorn-and-soda5, romance3

# posted by gail @ 02:19    0 comments    email......this post