--- meant I spent more time outdoors enjoying the scenery and going out and about. I watched Garbo films and other 'classics', plus a couple of recent films this week.
Dinner At Eight (1933) Repeat viewing. Comments on April 7th Blog. 10/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023948/
Queen Christina (1933) I have watched parts of this Garbo film before, but never the whole thing. She is good, but the supporting cast is, in some cases, hammy. The final scene with her hair blowing in the wind at the bow of the ship, is worth seeing if nothing else. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024481/
Anna Karenina (1935) Garbo as another doomed heroine. She is the wife of a top bureaucrat in Russia but is bored and unhappy. She has a flirtation with Count Vronsky (Fredric March) that turns into a full blown affair, and she gives up everything - home, child, position - in order to run away with him. Turns out, as always, Vronsky wants his cake and eat it too. He convinces her to return from Venice and he goes on with his regiment life with the officers, who take him back in with joy. And he decides to go off to the little war in the Balkans. When he tells Anna, he is impatient with her objections. Anna, however, is shunned; her husband will not let her see her son; he will not give her a divorce; only her family receives her at their home. What is she to do? Walk down the tracks into a train. Garbo is good as poor, stupid Anna. March is not charismatic enough for Vronsky. But women do crazy things for men of all types so guess he is believable enough. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026071/
Camille (1936) Garbo's finest performance for my money. She is luminous, playful, soulful and doomed, as the courtesan, Marguerite. And despite the tomatos thrown at Robert Taylor, he is perfect as the young, rich, spoiled Armand, who persues her until they both are undone. Great production values as only MGM, at the top of it's reign in Hollywood, could deliver. The supporting cast of veteran character actors is superb. The party scenes at Marguerites alone are worth more than some whole movies. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028683/
The Painted Veil (2006) Based on a Somerset Maughm book. A Dr./Scientist, Walter Fane (Ed Norton) marries a rich, spoiled girl - Kitty, (Naomi Watts) who is goaded into getting a husband by her family. That's what women were supposed to do in the 1920's. He has told her that he has a post in China in Singapore. While there, at a party, she meets a handsome government official, Charlie Townsend, and starts an affair. Walter discovers them together and accepts a post in the interior of China where there is a cholera outbreak.
This is a film that takes its' time and shows us what is happening without big scenes or over-the-top acting. The scenery of the trek by carried chair, is horrific. Through the green, green countryside, with mists rising all around, hills all around, it is like being swallowed by a green monster. The gradual thaw by Walter; the trying to do something meaningful with her days; and their acceptance of each other as they really are, is quiet and like real life. The final scene back in England is also purposeful and brings the film full circle. I enjoyed my time with the Fanes. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446755/
The Good German (2006) George Clooney is Jake, a military reporter back in war torn Berlin on assignment to cover the Potsdam conference. He is also looking for his former mistress, Lena (Cate Blanchette). Jake is assigned a driver, Tully (Toby Maguire), a guy who will sell his mistress, who just happens to be Lena, for an hour at a time, or anything else he gets his hands on. He is also mean as a junkyard dog. So he ends up dead. And Jake wants to know why and what he can do to get Lena out of Germany because that is all she is interested in.
I did not like these people so by the end, I was just glad to be rid of them all. I give credit to the director for finding old film of Berlin as the bombed out ruin it was in 1945. And the footage of Stalin, Truman and Churchill sitting down to carve up Europe is great and brought back my classes in school in 1945 when we were learning all about how the world would be as the victors. Little did we know. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452624/
The new week and more films are on the table by my chair. With a whole week of nice days with less heat and humidity, may go shopping and sightseeing around the area. Then again, a film or two while I rest is also inviting.
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