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rich and strange - some movies
Apr. 29th, 2008 | 08:31 am
We've been watching so many because we haven't got a TV aerial, but only a couple stick in my mind.
Savage Grace, about the life and death of Barbara Baekeland, based on the oral biography by Natalie Robins and Steven M.L Aronson (which shares enough of the 'secret life of rich people' of Jean Stein's Edie to go as a double bill bookfest). Barbara is a social climber from a no account family who marries in the Bakelite fortune. Her husband is a Jack London throwback who calls himself a writer but never publishes. They have one of those violent, rampaging kind of marriages. Their son, Tony, is fine-boned and precocious. He gets all his mother's love along with her neurosis and ultimately, she 'seduces' him in order to 'cure him of his homosexualty and he stabs her with a kitchen knife. Lurid? The film is by Tom Kalin (Swoon). It glides through glamorous locations. Julianne Moore looks strained but beautiful and you can never quite feel sorry for Eddie Redmayne because he's such a cold fish. And in the end all you can say is that rich people - really rich people - have about as much in common with you or me as early man. I was reminded of Poor Little Rich Girl and Mommie Dearest or Citizen Kane. It wasn't a truly riveting film- I guess because I couldn't empathise with any of the characters. The event at the end was everything and even the incest - while ooky - didn't count because they were so weird anyway. I'm sure the book is much better, more illuminating. But it made me feel okay about the fact that at 36 I still don't live in a house with ducted heating.
Ladies & Gentleman, Mr Leonard Cohen This is from 1965, B& W and full of shots like you might see from John Ford - Leonard Cohen is the solitary hero, the city of Montreal his unforgiving landscape. The film starts with Leonard giving a performance - and he could be a stand up comedian. On the one hand he's dry and urbane. He drops grand eloquent statements without even lowering his eyelashes. But then he has this giggle, and calls to mind the creepy over-sexed hunchback of Terry Southern's Candy. Leonard smokes in beatnicky cafes where women with helmets for hair eye him off. He stays in a three-dollar-a-night hotel and papers the walls with his I-Ching prophecies, while the narrator waxes about Leonard's house in Hydra, the woman who waits for him there. he tells us that 1964 was a good year, Leonard made $17000, but even if he'd made nothing he would still live the same way. Leonard is "deeply concerned with the style of his soul." I love his records, but I'm not sure if he poetry is any better or worse than Rod McKuen's (or John Laws' for that matter). Once upon a time you could be that kind of man...
A Star is Born - of course, the Kris Kristofferson, Barbra Streisand version. I borrowed from the library for the special extras which included Babs doing the commentary. Most commentaries relate directly to what is happening on the screen, but Barbra pretty much just spoke about herself. She produced the film - it sounds like she directed it, really - she showed the cinematographer how to put a halo of light above her head during the performance scenes - seriously. She wanted to save money so used her own wardrobe - she collects vintage clothing - which explains why she looks like Lawrence of Arabia in the adobe scenes. ('I got attacked for wearing that turban.") I love her. There's a bit in the commentary where she says that as a child she was ignored. She would walk in to a room and no one would say anything. She has been making up for it ever since. I know it's unfashionable but I love this film. I think it's exciting and romantic! I love that KK has a triple-barrelled 'rock' name (John Norman Howard) and that his band is called 'Speedway', and I love that Gary Busey is in it, being so 'real'. I must borrow it again so I can hear all about Barbra's vintage pieces in the special extras. Something else - initially Babs wanted Elvis Presley to play John Norman Howard, because he really was fat and washed up at this stage, but the Colonel vetoed it.
Savage Grace, about the life and death of Barbara Baekeland, based on the oral biography by Natalie Robins and Steven M.L Aronson (which shares enough of the 'secret life of rich people' of Jean Stein's Edie to go as a double bill bookfest). Barbara is a social climber from a no account family who marries in the Bakelite fortune. Her husband is a Jack London throwback who calls himself a writer but never publishes. They have one of those violent, rampaging kind of marriages. Their son, Tony, is fine-boned and precocious. He gets all his mother's love along with her neurosis and ultimately, she 'seduces' him in order to 'cure him of his homosexualty and he stabs her with a kitchen knife. Lurid? The film is by Tom Kalin (Swoon). It glides through glamorous locations. Julianne Moore looks strained but beautiful and you can never quite feel sorry for Eddie Redmayne because he's such a cold fish. And in the end all you can say is that rich people - really rich people - have about as much in common with you or me as early man. I was reminded of Poor Little Rich Girl and Mommie Dearest or Citizen Kane. It wasn't a truly riveting film- I guess because I couldn't empathise with any of the characters. The event at the end was everything and even the incest - while ooky - didn't count because they were so weird anyway. I'm sure the book is much better, more illuminating. But it made me feel okay about the fact that at 36 I still don't live in a house with ducted heating.
Ladies & Gentleman, Mr Leonard Cohen This is from 1965, B& W and full of shots like you might see from John Ford - Leonard Cohen is the solitary hero, the city of Montreal his unforgiving landscape. The film starts with Leonard giving a performance - and he could be a stand up comedian. On the one hand he's dry and urbane. He drops grand eloquent statements without even lowering his eyelashes. But then he has this giggle, and calls to mind the creepy over-sexed hunchback of Terry Southern's Candy. Leonard smokes in beatnicky cafes where women with helmets for hair eye him off. He stays in a three-dollar-a-night hotel and papers the walls with his I-Ching prophecies, while the narrator waxes about Leonard's house in Hydra, the woman who waits for him there. he tells us that 1964 was a good year, Leonard made $17000, but even if he'd made nothing he would still live the same way. Leonard is "deeply concerned with the style of his soul." I love his records, but I'm not sure if he poetry is any better or worse than Rod McKuen's (or John Laws' for that matter). Once upon a time you could be that kind of man...
A Star is Born - of course, the Kris Kristofferson, Barbra Streisand version. I borrowed from the library for the special extras which included Babs doing the commentary. Most commentaries relate directly to what is happening on the screen, but Barbra pretty much just spoke about herself. She produced the film - it sounds like she directed it, really - she showed the cinematographer how to put a halo of light above her head during the performance scenes - seriously. She wanted to save money so used her own wardrobe - she collects vintage clothing - which explains why she looks like Lawrence of Arabia in the adobe scenes. ('I got attacked for wearing that turban.") I love her. There's a bit in the commentary where she says that as a child she was ignored. She would walk in to a room and no one would say anything. She has been making up for it ever since. I know it's unfashionable but I love this film. I think it's exciting and romantic! I love that KK has a triple-barrelled 'rock' name (John Norman Howard) and that his band is called 'Speedway', and I love that Gary Busey is in it, being so 'real'. I must borrow it again so I can hear all about Barbra's vintage pieces in the special extras. Something else - initially Babs wanted Elvis Presley to play John Norman Howard, because he really was fat and washed up at this stage, but the Colonel vetoed it.