Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Caught By The Past
Ahhh, the golden years of the Hollywood studio system. I can't imagine ever tiring of it. And so I get diverted almost daily. I confess I am caught in a web of my own making. I am loathe to confess my guily pleasure, but I have committed myself to unfailing honesty where my faults are concerned.
On the mornings when time permits, I often plan to catch up on one or two of the shows I've taped. Obviously I'm hooked on Mad Men, and I'm crazy about Nurse Jackie and The Big C. And I'm still amazed that a show as seductive as The Good Wife exists on broadcast television. But the default channel on my TV is set to TCM, and lately there always seems to be something really good on. Just now it's Bette Davis and Charles Boyer in All This and Heaven Too. Now, that's a title that positively screams "Ladies, bring your hankies!" Of course in 1940 everyone always carried a handkerchief anyway, but never mind about that. Even though I really shouldn't spare the time to watch the rest of the movie, I've had to pause it so I can type. And now I find myself pulled in three directions. I must keep writing, I must attend to countless chores, and I simply must watch the rest of this movie goddammit!! It's Bette and Charles! Who could look away?
It occurs to me that the peak--the best of the best were produced between 1938 and 1942. Plenty of my favorites came before or after, but I think those four years were something amazing. So here I sit, caught in the mid nineteenth century, as told by the mid twentieth, and I can't walk away. Mr. Boyer had a good reputation as a romantic lead, but to me he will always be the villain in Gaslight (1944). Such a delicious role-I must look in to how and why he went against type and took it.
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I think you might be right about one of the peaks of American film being in those years you mentioned - '39 is singled out as a banner year: Wizard of Oz, Gone With The Wind, and some other biggies...bookended by Citizen Kane in 1942 (although maybe it was so great because it defied and redefined Hollywood convention. But for me the Decade of the Movies will always be the 70s - from roughly '68 to '79 when the first round of film-schoolers came in - Lucas, Coppola et. al. It is stunning how many good or great films were made in those years - literally a qualifier for best movie of the year these days would be an average pic back then. The list is endless... Ironically, this is when the studio system buckled to the auteur model, and I think the results were revolutionary. Charles Boyer is a name I know but I couldn't place him in a line up...I think of him as being in my grandparents generation. I've never seen Mad Men, Nurse Jackie, or The Big C, or The Good Wife. But I own a TV, yes I do, and it's not just for PBS (whoever says that is full of crap.) I am underfed when it comes to older movies, but I love It Happened One Night (one of only 3 movies - maybe 4 - to win Oscars for all major categories - Actor, Actress, Film, Director, Screenplay. Guess at the others - don't look it up! I really want to see Buster Keaton in The General, because it's supposed to be in the top 15 or 20 of all time. Have you seen older films from other countries - Rules of the Game, Bunuel, Ozu, Robert Bresson?
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