This week I watched:
Love Letters (1945) Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton. A wonderful love story, about a veteran of WWII who wrote letters for his buddy to his wife. Just from her picture and the letters he falls deeply in love with her. She thinks her letters are from the soldier she met at a dance and as soon as he comes home, they marry. But he is a drunk and nothing like what his letters led her to believe. He is killed and she loses her memory.
A beautiful film and has one of the most famous songs from films in the title song. It was so popular and so many wrote asking what is was, that words were written and many singers have recorded it over the years. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037885/
Revolutionary Road (2008) Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet. Disappointment, big time. This was touted as a true look at the suburbanite culture that came into being in the USA during the mid to late 1950's. America was incredibly prosperous, anyone who wanted to work, could. Housing was affordable. And the cars were like tanks but with lots of chrome and pretty colors.
The couples in this film are educated and successful, but it isn't enough. April Wheeler had dreams of the stage. Frank is a one of the 'grey flannel suits' that head into the city each morning. For the '50s they are the up-and-comers, but they want to 'find themselves', by running away to Paris. Not a bad dream. but they are forced to wake up.
The interiors, clothes, cars, etc. are spot on. But these are people who are so fortunate that as a woman who was 24 at the time of this film, I thought they were both spoiled rotten. Leo's first outburst at his wife was so over the top and hateful, I never liked him after that scene. Then he goes into the office and starts an affair with a young secretary. And we are supposed to feel anything for this whiner? On top of that, he threatens his wife by yelling she better shape up because she is sounding crazy and he can put her in a place to take care of her. This was a threat to lots of women who tried to break out of the "Stepford" mold and do something besides have babies, cook, clean, and keep on smiling.
The book was written in the early 1960's but this world was nothing like my working class neighborhood. Girls with unwanted pregnancies disappeared for 6 months 'visiting Aunt Mary' or 'working in a big city for a while.' Or they got married (helped along by fathers and big brothers) and had 3, 4 or more kids. Now, some of those young people had reason to feel trapped and be unhappy. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0959337/
Valkyrie (2008) Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branaugh, Tom Wilkerson. The last of 15 plots to kill Hitler, that ended in failure due to so many fluke things going wrong. Nine months after these men were all killed for their part in the plot, the allies won and WWII was over. Interesting story. Very good cast all on their game. Cruise is so watchable, you can't take your eyes off him, even after all these years. The boy air-paying a guitar on top of the coffee table is still a "movie star" writ large! Good film. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0985699/
It is so humid these days, it's like swimming through the air. But since we have had enough rain this summer, everything is very green for this time of year. We usually have a dusty look to all the vegetation by this time of year.
It is so depressing to think we will not get any reform in our health care system. I am down hearted.
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